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


Mr. Breathmask

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2 hours ago, publicist said:

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The Ballad of Cable Hogue

 

Sam Peckinpah, loose and serene here, presents us with an unorthodox, lyrical western dramedy featuring a sublime Jason Robards as a cranky desert drifter, which we follow through the final years of his life after he is is bushwhacked and left to die in the desert. By divine intervention he discovers a mudhole and turns it into a flourishing business (he sells the water to the horse coaches going by). He falls in love with a local whore (Stella Stevens in her best role) and meets a whole lot of colourful characters along the way (including David Warner as a lecher/priest, Strother Martin, L.Q. Jones, Slim Pickens and Kathleen Freeman).

 

What makes this movie, that has its own, rambling rhythm, so affecting is its 'dying west' tinge: as the story unfolds, the uncivilized wild west of old is on the verge of transforming into the industrialized, orderly 20th century US of A - Peckinpah uses the oblige motif of a car supplanting the old carts - and because the movie doesn't push it and Robards accepts with a peaceful grin that he has to make way for the progress to come, it carries a subtle-yet-profound weight at the end.

 

The low comedy is kept in check, and though the cast is wonderful, at two hours the picture could either have lost 20 minutes or used some alternate storyline to become a real classic but it is pretty swell as it is. DP Lucien Ballard gives it a wonderful look - you can't take your eyes off it - and Jerry Goldsmith's score, which was the real reason i watched this again after so many years, totally gets the poetic soul of the thing. Goldsmith wrote the carefree title ballad, practically a character in itself, mixing silliness with lyrical eloquence, and fuels it with some honky-tonk and bluegrass country stuff (for the comedy bits). Peckinpah found a local singer in a watering hole near the set, who contributes one or two pleasing hippie songs that Goldsmith integrates well with his stuff ('The Guest' is a wonderful love scene that gains a lot by the coupled tunes).

 

The movie has easily slipped in my personal western Top 10 (if such a thing would exist) and gets a hearty recommendation.

 

This, From Noon Till Three and A Big Hand for the Little Lady complete my own lazy Sunday afternoon on the telly western trilogy.

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21 hours ago, Chen G. said:

 

What's it like, not liking things? I can't imagine it being fun...

Gladiator is a bad movie. Hoeever you bitch about little things in Titanic

 

Btw 

 

TITANIC >>>>>>gladiator (shitty little overrated film with another shit score from the horrible hanz zimmer.) 

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Hey, I still really like Titanic: I gave it one of the highest grades I can give a film. But when it cut back to old Rose halfway through the film, it just sapped the tension from the movie, and it took the film a while to recover from it.

 

Now, think of what Gladiator did to me. I didn't see it in ages, so I was practically seeing it for the first time, but - here's the thing - I wasn't planning on watching it. I was about to head out as I passed by the TV where I caught a glimpse of it. Not until it ended did I realize that I unwittingly sat down and watched the whole thing. It ensnared me. I couldn't NOT watch it if I tried.

 

A movie that can do that is getting the full rating in my book.

Handily.

 

But than, I like liking movies, as a general philosophy.

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18 minutes ago, KK said:

Gladiator is immensely watchable and entertaining. Zimmer's score does a lot to make that happen.

 

Most of it rest on Crowe's shoulders. It's a very charismatic performance and presence. Any other actor in that role and the movie could colapse on itself

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3 minutes ago, Romão said:

 

Most of it rest on Crowe's shoulders. It's a very charismatic performance and presence. Any other actor in that role and the movie could colapse on itself

 

That is true. He instantly became Scott's go-to actor.

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18 minutes ago, Alexcremers said:

To me the wailing kinda worked against the movie. 

 

Its since become a calling card for anything vaguely Middle-Eastern or Meditteranean, unfortunately, as did the Duduk.

 

But you can't blame the source for the knock-offs. I thought it was more effective than the rest of the score.

 

4 minutes ago, Romão said:

Most of it rest on Crowe's shoulders. It's a very charismatic performance and presence.

 

Yeah, but to be fair to the rest of the cast, they're all on fine form here. Joaquin phoenix is terrifying in this!

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True, all the cast is quite good,  but the movie relies totally on Crowe's performance. It's just not the verbal acting itself, it's a physical presence. It's pure screen charisma. I think Crowe is easily the biggest factor in the movie's sucess.

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It o

7 minutes ago, Alexcremers said:

BTW, isn't it the time of the year that we should say Kingdom Of Heaven (the DC) is better than Gladiator?

 

It could have been, if they had an actor of Crowe's caliber playing the Orlando Bloom role. What I said about Gladiator has its complete opposite in Kindgom of Heaven

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7 hours ago, Chen G. said:

Hey, I still really like Titanic: I gave it one of the highest grades I can give a film. But when it cut back to old Rose halfway through the film, it just sapped the tension from the movie, and it took the film a while to recover from it.

 

Now, think of what Gladiator did to me. I didn't see it in ages, so I was practically seeing it for the first time, but - here's the thing - I wasn't planning on watching it. I was about to head out as I passed by the TV where I caught a glimpse of it. Not until it ended did I realize that I unwittingly sat down and watched the whole thing. It ensnared me. I couldn't NOT watch it if I tried.

 

A movie that can do that is getting the full rating in my book.

Handily.

 

But than, I like liking movies, as a general philosophy.

Your thoughts that I don't like movies is thoroughly asinie. I love movies more than I love film scores. I must be constantly vigil to not become a film horder. I have barely managed that. 

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8 hours ago, JoeinAR said:

Your thoughts that I don't like movies is thoroughly asinie.

 

Oh, come on!

 

I suggested no such thing here.

 

I suggested it in the previous post, but not with any seriousness.

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Rocky (1976)

 

Every bit as uplifting as it was over 40 years ago. The script is wonderful, with moments of real charm and poignancy throughout. Stallone gives the performance of a lifetime. 

 

**** and 1/2 out of *****

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13 hours ago, Romão said:

It could have been, if they had an actor of Crowe's caliber playing the Orlando Bloom role. What I said about Gladiator has its complete opposite in Kindgom of Heaven

 

But what if everything else about KOH is more interesting? I know that I liked Gladiator, cheered for Crowe and all, but I also find it a shallow movie, giving me nothing new in subsequent viewings. Not so with KOH The DC, which seems to get better and better.

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Are you asking if I watch every movie that comes out multiple times? Then the answer is certainly not. But rewatchability becomes the most important factor with the ones I do happen to revisit for some reason. Rewatching movies at different stages in your life can bring new perspectives. 

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14 hours ago, Chen G. said:

 

Oh, come on!

 

I suggested no such thing here.

 

I suggested it in the previous post, but not with any seriousness.

I took it serious since you took the effort to post about it.

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10 hours ago, Alexcremers said:

 

But what if everything else about KOH is more interesting? I know that I liked Gladiator, cheered for Crowe and all, but I also find it a shallow movie, giving me nothing new in subsequent viewings. Not so with KOH The DC, which seems to get better and better.

 

I agree that KOH has a lot more going for it under the surface than Gladiator, and presents a far more interesting story and themes. If it had a lead performance of the caliber of Crowe's in Gladitor, it probably would have been the clear superior movie. As it stands, perhaps not

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One of my favorite podcasts, Blank Check, has been going through the filmography of Tim Burton.  I've caught up with ones I've missed and rewatched my favorites over the winter (and saw Dumbo a couple of weeks ago).  Here's my ranking.

 

Only the top 9 are ones I ever want to see again.  Sadly, his career is now more than half mediocre-to-terrible for me.

 

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I dunno about the order, but that's certainly the same top 9 most people would have of his work I think

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I would say it's a respectable ranking but honestly, most of his later movies either put me to sleep or I never even watched them. Planet of the Apes was the real turning point where I knew something was very wrong.

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But then he still had Big Fish in him.  I love that movie.

 

I probably hate the two stop-motions more than most people.

 

But we can all agree Alice is atrocious and definitely the bottom of the barrel, I hope.

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I like Mars Attacks but Burton's flavor is like a bottle of dried herbs left out in the light. You want flavor, you expect flavor, but its all gone.

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1 minute ago, John said:

Pee-wee’s Big Adventure is such a comfortingly strange film. 

 

And strangely comforting!

 

The bit about singing campfire songs with the hobo makes me laugh harder than anything.

 

JIMMY. CRACK COORN. AND IIII DOOOOON'T CAAAAAARE.

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5 minutes ago, Ghostbusters II said:

You don't love Ed Wood? Batman?

I do not love or even like Ed Wood. If it must be complimented its definitely WIERD

Just now, Disco Stu said:

It's a perfect movie for me.

It has a few wonderful moments but the key word is few. 

 

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2 minutes ago, JoeinAR said:

It has a few wonderful moments but the key word is few. 

 

Pee-wee's Big Adventure is one of my favorite movies and The B-52's are one of my favorite bands.  I just have a thing for bizarre kitsch.

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