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What Is The Last Film You Watched? (Older Films)


Mr. Breathmask

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"I am Steve Rogers."

 

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll be writing on a chalkboard "I will not reply with movie quotes ever again" one hundred times.

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The Remains of the Day

 

Watched this classic masterpiece last night because my wife hadn't seen it and Merchant Ivory has been on my mind lately.  She doesn't go for the Merchant Ivory to the degree that I do, but she liked it.  Who can resist two of the finest screen performances ever given by Emma Thompson and Anthony Hopkins?

 

PS The novel is also a masterpiece.  It remains Ishiguro's finest work and he's one of my favorites

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2 minutes ago, Jay said:

How do you translate an unreliable narrator  from a novel to a film?

 

They mostly don't, as it's basically impossible without ridiculous witholding-from-the-audience twists a la Fight Club.  We definitely know Stevens' POV throughout the film, but the film is able to show without spelling it out how his way of looking at the world is not shared by everyone around him.  It sort of cleverly is able to indicate how he would tell the story (which he does in the novel) while also keeping a third person view of the action.  I don't know how to explain it.

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The Lost World: Jurassic Park

 

It's just not very good, is it? The first two acts are an absolute slug, and the movie never really finds its footing. It's a nicely shot film, I'd give it that, and the rampage in San Diego is pretty fun to watch, but overall, it feels very cold and cynical, and sorely lacks the warmth and sense of wonder that made the original Jurassic Park such a classic.

 

** out of *****

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I've probably said this all before, but it's definitely the best of Spielberg, and the worst of Spielberg. His visual prowess and imagination is so keen, he probably likes Koepp's work because Koepp can come up with some really cool setpieces and dramatic scenarios; stuff that makes Spielberg think, "That's gonna be so cool to film." I enjoy so much of the visual storytelling in The Lost World; in addition to trailer scene, there's the long grass scene, and I'be always been very partial to the compy scene (my favorite pairing of music and imagery in the movie).

 

But then characters start talking, with exchanges like "You lookin' for a problem?" "I found you, didn't I?", and then you realized Spielberg filmed a screenplay by a high schooler. 

 

Thankfully, though, Spielberg seems to have moved on to other writers.

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The Lost World is full of setpieces that rival the ones in its predecessor (the trailer attack, the raptors in the grass, the T-rex mainland rampage), but everything surrounding them is pretty much trash.

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What broke it for me was how the entire plot depended on the main characters being clinical retards. I was rooting for the T-Rexes and the evil poachers for the whole time.

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Watched three movies this weekend.

 

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (Lord/Miller).  Saw this in theaters previously, now watched again with me kid.  I had memory of this being very funny, and it held up well.  Haven't seen their Jump Street movies, but I liked this and the LEGO Movie and their show Last Man on Earth.  Makes we wish Lucasfilm would have gone through with using them on SOLO.

 

The Strangers: Prey at Night:  Very different than its predecessor, which we loved.  This one was just pretty good.  Instead of the first's silent dread, this movie changed the scenario to early 80s slasher B-movie feel.  I think it worked.  Kinda half baked characters.  Lots of music, lots of stingers, lots of ominous zooms, some pretty beautiful title work.  A really nice sequence at a pool (underscored by Total Eclipse of the Heart) which ramped the whole thing up to an unexpected level that it then thankfully followed through on until the end.  Won't say more about that because it's definite major spoiler territory.  A pretty good choice for a Friday the 13th watch though.

 

A Wrinkle in Time:  It was just OK.  I had never read the book, so maybe my problems lay with the source material.  It seemed well-cast, and it was beautifully shot and designed.  The three Misses seemed kind of irrelevant to the whole thing, like with the exception of exposition, if they were removed the whole movie could go on pretty much as-is.  The rando boyfriend character didn't really serve much of a purpose, besides giving a blank slate for the more interesting characters to bounce off of when they were briefly separated.  My biggest problem is that the movie kind of lost its path through the emotional story towards the end - the reunion between the daughter and dad (I'm not gonna call it a spoiler because it was in the previews) was pretty affecting, but then dad disappeared and there was a whole bit about the brother and sister and some character self-actualization which never really succeeded in getting me to care.

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The Handmaiden

(Y).  While it's not quite as good as the director's Oldboy (what is though?), it's an enthrallingly told story with handsome production values.  It gets a bit hard to follow at time but it all makes enough sense by the end.  The score is pretty fantastic too, though parts of it were very clearly temped with The Imitation Game (these sections are actually the highlight of the score).  

8/10

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10 minutes ago, Cherry Pie That'll Kill Ya said:

 

Albert Einstein from Tasmania!

 

That movie is probably the strongest instance of when I felt like I should have been laughing, but wasn't. Would you say it's a good paragon of Australian comedy?

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4 hours ago, Jay said:

The two Jump Street movies are hella funny :up:

 

I saw the first, it was surprisingly not awful. Yeah, decent comedy movie. 

 

Stefan doesn't really do comedy stuff. 

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4 minutes ago, Alexcremers said:

Discovery is not even fun bad. Sorry guys ... Your obsession is making you blind (and deaf).

 

Who brought up Discovery?

 

Anyway, I'm huge Trek fan and quit Discovery after 2 episodes.  Just not for me.

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McCoy gets some absolute belters in the original-cast movies, 'Are you out of your Vulcan mind?' and  'That green-blooded son-of-a-bitch, it's his revenge for all those arguments he lost' being 2 of the best.

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Whether you like it or not, Discovery is Star Trek, and so it's better & funnier than anything else (according to the Trekkie constitution).

 

 

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1 minute ago, Sweeping Strings said:

'That green-blooded son-of-a-bitch, it's his revenge for all those arguments he lost'

 

A personal favorite of mine as well.  All of McCoy's prickliness about Spock parking his khatra in McCoy's head is great.

 

Just now, Alexcremers said:

Whether you like it or not, Discovery is Star Trek, and so it's better & funnier than anything else. 

 

 

 

I had no idea it was a such a strict, serious code I had to live by.  Here I've been thinking it was a fun, silly forum meme.

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4 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

 

I had no idea it was a such a strict, serious code I had to live by.  Here I've been thinking it was a fun, silly forum meme.

 

Alex has a deep knowledge of Star Trek. You should abide by his words.

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Is there a tiered system of quality WITHIN Star Trek, or is everything at the same baseline quality, sitting just atop the second best thing (Dana Carvey's "Opportunity Knocks")?

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Generally, I care most about everything TNG era (TNG and its movies, DS9, and Voyager).  I love the original series movies, but don't care much for the actual original TV series.  I can enjoy, but it's not my favorite thing.  Enterprise I never really got into.  The Abrams movies are pretty ok sci-fi lighthearted actioners, but not very Trek so they barely count.

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