What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[Doctor Strange]

I watched Star Trek: Nemesis, which has the distinction of being the only (pre-Abramsvese) Star Trek film I don't know cold backwards and forwards. I saw it in a theater just once with my kids back in 2002, and it's never shown up on any cable system I've had until now.

Wow, it's considerably worse than I recall. Too long, too much action at the expense of character, really bad science, and important characters like Worf, Dr. Crusher, and even Riker disappear for long stretches of the film. It's more inept than Insurrection, which was already pretty weak. The TNG features really did need to end at that point if this was the best they could do.

(Also: Tom Hardy weighed like a hundred pounds less then! And Dina Meyer's Romulan commander - who in my memory was a standout character - only has a total of around six lines.)

 

[LizzieMaine]

A similar situation in a lot of movies made in the '30s and '40s (and some before and after those decades as well) has always bothered me. A man and woman meet, encounter each other again a time or two either through happenstance or by design, and even though they hardly know each other suddenly they're madly in love. I find it annoying and it often takes away from the believability of the overall story. I know movies are only entertainment and the stories within often take place in a form of alternate reality, but my disbelief can be suspended only so far.

That all comes from the alternate world of stage musical comedy:

ACT I

Chorus number to establish the setting

Scenes establishing either the male or female Lead(depending on the show) and their sworn independence.

Song summing up and emphasizing the above scene

Brief introduction of Comedy Relief as foil for lead, in turn leading into introduction of Love Interest.

Lead and Love Interest meet, hate each other immediately.

Song establishing mutual dislike but with undertone of romance brewing

External Force -- family, ex, job, etc. -- objects to romance.

Comedy Relief figures out situation, determines to bring the couple together

Love Interest ponders inevitablity of it all, with yearning ballad establishing feelings.

Couple meets again, sparks fly, first kiss, followed by duet on upbeat romantic number with dance chorus

INTERMISSION. Smoking in the lobby only, please.

ACT II

External Force constructs situation -- a party, a vacation, an ocean cruise, a job transfer, whatever -- designed to keep couple apart. Chorus number summing up story so far.

Love Interest, with help of comedy relief, insinuates self into constructed situation -- poses as staff, stows away, etc.

Lead is thrown into compromising situation, causing Love Interest to misinterpret and storm off. Lead performs heartfelt ballad declaring feelings.

Comedy Relief seeks out Love Interest, explains the situation in a comic dance specialty. Love Interest perks up.

External Force learns of situation, attempts one last time to interfere, Lead declares true affections, joins with Love Interest in triumphant romantic duet leading into --

Finale featuring reprise of all songs with bits by chorus and all cast members. Final scene finds couple united, Comedy Relief embarassed, and External Force defeated.

CURTAIN.

Repeat that formula ad infinitum and you have classic Golden Era Musical Comedy. Audiences didn't expect the situations to be real -- it had more in common with opera and operetta than with today's naturalistic theatre. Everything was a deliberate stylization, and part of the fun was seeing how any given new show might tweak the formula while retaining the basic structure.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I watched Star Trek: Nemesis, which has the distinction of being the only (pre-Abramsvese) Star Trek film I don't know cold backwards and forwards. I saw it in a theater just once with my kids back in 2002, and it's never shown up on any cable system I've had until now.

Wow, it's considerably worse than I recall. Too long, too much action at the expense of character, really bad science, and important characters like Worf, Dr. Crusher, and even Riker disappear for long stretches of the film. It's more inept than Insurrection, which was already pretty weak. The TNG features really did need to end at that point if this was the best they could do.

(Also: Tom Hardy weighed like a hundred pounds less then! And Dina Meyer's Romulan commander - who in my memory was a standout character - only has a total of around six lines.)

Few franchises fell off as fast as the TNG films. The only really good picture in the series was "First Contact," which stands out as a gem floating in a nebula of dross. If ever there was a sign that Trek had spread itself too thin, it was these movies. And it's unfortunate, because they essentially killed any chance of ever seeing any more of the 24th Century Federation, a time and place where are there are still a lot of good stories that could be told instead of endless lame reboots and prequels of the Kirk era.

 

[Formeruser012523]

Caught a little piece of "Top Hat" last night, specifically the "Isn't It A Lovely Day" number, in which Ginger gives as good as she gets in the dance. One of the best songs in a year full of best songs, and I'm not even a particular fan of Irving Berlin. And if you want to talk about creepy, Erik Rhodes.

ALso, if Fred Astaire were alive and in his prime today, he'd be the top choice to play Prince Namor the Sub-Mariner in a Marvel blockbuster.

(Addendum: D'oh! You beat me to it while I was writing this post, Lizzie.)

Wow, you're right! Especially the way Namor was drawn in the in the golden age, with that triangular head.

View attachment 121628 View attachment 121629

Jack Kirby bulked him up and de-triangularized his head when the character was reintroduced in the sixties.

View attachment 121630

And let it be said: Namor was essentially the template for the appearance of Mr. Spock.

I love those Fred and Ginger movies, but the plots are exhausting and distracting. I prefer Swing Time to the others, not just because it's got some of the greatest songs and dances (and supporting cast)… but because they don't spend most of the film running around "hating" each other and misunderstanding everything quite so much.

Oh, man, what did I do? I'm still laughing at Lizzie's post. I don't see Fred bulking up to be male objectified in a Marvel film like Hemsworth was in Ragnargok. Ugh. (There was no shirtless scene in the script. The director pressured him to take his off by calling him a piece of meat.) It was an awful movie.

Bojangles. No.

I get the escapism aspect of the Astaire/Rogers films. If someone could afford to go to the movies it was pretty great, I imagine.​

 

[Doctor Strange]

Lizzie, you're right, of course. I only didn't bother pointing out that First Contact was the one actually really good TNG film simply because I think it's pretty common knowledge!

 

[LizzieMaine]

We showed "First Contact" to a sold-out house with Jonathan Frakes in attendance, and it was one of the most enjoyable shows we've ever had. Good old Number One made a few stops at the bar, and was in a pretty loose mood for the post-film Q&A. When he dismissed Picard as a "tea sipping imperialist," he brought down the house.

 

[Fading Fast]

...I get the escapism aspect of the Astaire/Rogers films. If someone could afford to go to the movies it was pretty great, I imagine.

Having had only a few original thoughts in the past 53 years, I've noted several times here how many Depression Era movies were set amongst the upper class - way more than just the Astaire-Rogers films - with their luxurious homes, big cars, fancy clothes, opulent restaurants and general wealth at a time of abject poverty for so many.

To me, this shows, as you note, people wanted escapism. My grandmother, who lost almost everything in the Depression, loved movies and told me she went whenever she could back then. I never asked her this - as she died when I was still just a kid - but I wonder if part of why she loved the movies is that she enjoyed seeing a world she could only dream about / escape to for a few hours before returning to her very tough life.

Also, since studios made (and make) movies to make money, the plethora of these movies about the swells speaks to their popularity during the Depression - people suffering from great privation clearly enjoyed seeing movies about people not only not suffering, but living very well-to-do lives.

For us today, these movies about the rich are a great time capsule into that very narrow slice of the country that still had money (and lots of it) in the Depression. And heck, just like they did in their time, they are fun escapism to an opulent world for a few hours.

 

[Fading Fast]

We showed "First Contact" to a sold-out house with Jonathan Frakes in attendance, and it was one of the most enjoyable shows we've ever had. Good old Number One made a few stops at the bar, and was in a pretty loose mood for the post-film Q&A. When he dismissed Picard as a "tea sipping imperialist," he brought down the house.

I'm a big Star Trek fan with the exception that I can't stand "The Next Generation," but that is a great moment and quote - glad you had that experience.

 

[Formeruser012523]

Having had only a few original thoughts in the past 53 years, I've noted several times here how many Depression Era movies were set amongst the upper class - way more than just the Astaire-Rogers films - with their luxurious homes, big cars, fancy clothes, opulent restaurants and general wealth at a time of abject poverty for so many.

To me, this shows, as you note, people wanted escapism. My grandmother, who lost almost everything in the Depression, loved movies and told me she went whenever she could back then. I never asked her this - as she died when I was still just a kid - but I wonder if part of why she loved the movies is that she enjoyed seeing a world she could only dream about / escape to for a few hours before returning to her very tough life.

Also, since studios made (and make) movies to make money, the plethora of these movies about the swells speaks to their popularity during the Depression - people suffering from great privation clearly enjoyed seeing movies about people not only not suffering, but living very well-to-do lives.

For us today, these movies about the rich are a great time capsule into that very narrow slice of the country that still had money (and lots of it) in the Depression. And heck, just like they did in their time, they are fun escapism to an opulent world for a few hours.

My grandmother passed in '06 (was born in 1920). I never got the chance to talk to her about such things. Knew she was more a fan of westerns than anything. She and her many sisters and brothers grew up on a farm. I heard stories of how she would pick cotton and how my great-grand parents would sometimes take people in to help them out.

I do recall a time I went to her apartment and heard "The Continental" playing on her record player, but never said anything or asked her about it. Oh well.

 

[Fading Fast]

My grandmother passed in '06 (was born in 1920). I never got the chance to talk to her about such things. Knew she was more a fan of westerns than anything. She and her many sisters and brothers grew up on a farm. I heard stories of how she would pick cotton and how my great-grand parents would sometimes take people in to help them out.

I do recall a time I went to her apartment and heard "The Continental" playing on her record player, but never said anything or asked her about it. Oh well.

Good stuff ⇧. My grandmother seemed to like almost every type of movie as that's what she took me to - and they were adult movies that she chose, not kid movies for me (I was there for company for her) - but thinking back, I believe she liked gangster movies and (oddly) musicals the best. I would love to hop in a time machine and ask her a lot of questions about her life that I can think of now that would never have occurred to the seven-year-old me. As you said, oh well.

 

[Formeruser012523]

Good stuff ⇧. My grandmother seemed to like almost every type of movie as that's what she took me to - and they were adult movies that she chose, not kid movies for me (I was there for company for her) - but thinking back, I believe she liked gangster movies and (oddly) musicals the best. I would love to hop in a time machine and ask her a lot of questions about her life that I can think of now that would never have occurred to the seven-year-old me. As you said, oh well.

That was my other grandmother. I remember her taking my sister and I to see the original Ghostbusters. She sat behind me (I'm the youngest). When Slimer showed up, she covered my eyes. Like that was scary? She would pretty much let me watch movies I was far too young to be watching. Like Howard the Duck, but it gave me a good hearty laugh at the end of Guardians of the Galaxy.

 

[Fading Fast]

That was my other grandmother. I remember her taking my sister and I to see the original Ghostbusters. She sat behind me (I'm the youngest). When Slimer showed up, she covered my eyes. Like that was scary? She would pretty much let me watch movies I was far too young to be watching. Like Howard the Duck, but it gave me a good hearty laugh at the end of Guardians of the Galaxy.

Our grandmothers were cut from the same cloth. She took me to see "The Valachi Papers" when I was 8 sans any attempt to cover my eyes. Her stated view (and my dad's for that matter - her son) was that life is hard and brutal, let him learn that early. My mom - just being honest - was cowed by the two of them (they both scared me too) and never said anything, but I could see the slightly off look in her eyes when I told her what I saw with "grandma" that afternoon.

 

[Formeruser012523]

My Nanny (my Dad's mom, she's been gone now 11 years) let me watch so much on my own. Watched a lot of animal documentaries where the critter's were brutally eating each other. Saw the original Planet of the Apes. Unedited. Lots of man buns in that one. I was a child. She laughed when I tried to hide my face in couch cushions. Then there was Enemy Mine. Just remember that one being the first PG-13 movie I ever saw at her place, and how weird it was. Something about a pregnant male alien? Or something?

Yeah, she never cared what was on the tv.

 

[LizzieMaine]

It's funny, I don't remember my grandparents ever going to a movie, or ever even talking about movies. They had been very fond of radio, and came to enjoy television -- god help him, my grandfather, even as a diminished elderly man who seemed to get smaller every day, couldn't wait for "Three's Company" to come on -- but movies, nope, not even when their son was running a theatre.

My grandmother's all-time favorite television show, other than the Red Sox, was "Tic Tac Dough," and she'd yell at the contestants whenever they blew a question. She'd have loved the Internet.

There was very little family moveigoing with my mother -- if we wanted to see somethjing she'd drop us off and leave us at the theatre, and maybe remember to come back and get us. Otherwise we'd ride home with my uncle. There was one afternoon when I was about five, she wanted me out of the house and took me and my cousin and dumped us at the theatre, where we ended up watching a strange caper comedy called "Hot Millions," which I found very unsettling and still remember in vivid detail.

One of our few family outings was to see "Airport '75" the night Nixon resigned, and then we came home just in time to see the speech. I still don't know why we went to the movies that night.

 

[3fingers]

It's funny, I don't remember my grandparents ever going to a movie, or ever even talking about movies.

My grandfather had gone to movies with my mother and aunt when they were young, but never returned. He would occasionally say that we should go to see a "picture show" but unfortunately we never did. He loved watching television though. All In The Family was a favorite. My grandmother had no interest in any of it.

 

[Zombie_61]

My grandparents were long gone before I entered the picture. And I can't recall ever going to see a movie in a theater with my parents. Dad was always working, either at his job or around the house, and the few times I can remember him taking the time to watch television it was a golf tournament, USC vs. UCLA football (a friendly rivalry between dad and my older brother), or the occasional Super Bowl. Otherwise, his preferred form of recreation was listening to the baseball games on the radio in the garage. And mom preferred to stay home and watch television. Nope, not a lot of family outings when I was growing up.

But I can remember the first movie I saw in a theater: Bonnie and Clyde (1967) starring Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty. I have no idea who I went with, but it was probably one of my babysitters because I was only six years old. Heck of an introduction to cinema, and it's still one of my favorite movies.

 

[Worf]

Few franchises fell off as fast as the TNG films. The only really good picture in the series was "First Contact," which stands out as a gem floating in a nebula of dross. If ever there was a sign that Trek had spread itself too thin, it was these movies. And it's unfortunate, because they essentially killed any chance of ever seeing any more of the 24th Century Federation, a time and place where are there are still a lot of good stories that could be told instead of endless lame reboots and prequels of the Kirk era.

If I had "Bill Gates money" I'd force some studio to make a film based on the DS9 continuum. I'd like the prophets to send Sisko back from "the sunken place" to face some otherworldly threat to both the Alpha and Gamma quadrants. Mostly an excuse to get the band back together. Never happen I'm sure... everyone's too long in the tooth now.. but a man can hope... dream... beg.

Worf

 

[Worf]

Funny.... I don't think my Dad (way older than my mom he died at age 91 or 93 depending on which birth certificate you used when he died he had several with different ages AND names) ever saw a movie in a theatre. Mom went with us kids several times and even by herself at least once... in an attempt to get away from us heathens. Dad did love television. I as the living remote control was tasked with finding him a "shoot em up" on a nightly basis. Westerns, gangster films... didn't matter long as there was copious amounts of gunplay. The only series he ever followed was "The Fugitive". Like Fred Sanford he had to used multiple sets of glasses to see by the end but he always found a way.

Worf

 

[Fading Fast]

Funny.... I don't think my Dad (way older than my mom he died at age 91 or 93 depending on which birth certificate you used when he died he had several with different ages AND names) ever saw a movie in a theatre. Mom went with us kids several times and even by herself at least once... in an attempt to get away from us heathens. Dad did love television. I as the living remote control was tasked with finding him a "shoot em up" on a nightly basis. Westerns, gangster films... didn't matter long as there was copious amounts of gunplay. The only series he ever followed was "The Fugitive". Like Fred Sanford he had to used multiple sets of glasses to see by the end but he always found a way.

Worf

Like your dad's, my grandmother's (she, too, loved "The Fugitive") age (but not name) changed depending on what document you referenced which was still a step up from my great grandfather who had no documentation as to his date of brith (our best guess, early 1870s).

Like you, I served as the living remote (nice turn of phrase my friend) growing up - and learned early not to complain a bit about it. It was hell when two sporting events the old man was interested in were on at the same time. Quite frequently, I'd pull a kitchen chair into the den and just set next to the TV on those days.

 

[Formeruser012523]

Living remote. I did that often for my Dad. He pretended to be holding one and click it at me. Even moved the "rabbit ears" around or put tin foil on them for both of my parents when I was a kid. Knew how to work the console tv better than they did. Why am I talking about this in here?