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


Mr. Breathmask

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5 minutes ago, Stefancos said:

I havent seen most of Fincher's films. He's not a director I follow much. I was just surprised by the distinction you seem to make.

Franklin Schaffner was a hired gun on Nicholas and Alexandra and it shows.  

It's like changing coaches just before the Super Bowl or Champions League final.  

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1 minute ago, Stefancos said:

I did like that one. Pity it underperformed.

 

Yea, we watched it again this weekend and I still loved it.  Shame Fincher never got to make his sequels.  Wikipedia says they finished the script but Sony wouldn't fund it.

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59 minutes ago, Jay said:

 

 

I don't think it's fare to rank Alien3 against all the others because he was a hired gun hired late on that one, while for all the others he was in charge from pre-production to the end

 

Indeed. When Fincher was hired, the film was already well into pre-production, but he still had some say in it. However, Fincher has disowned the movie because of too much studio meddling and crazy deadlines. To me, it's Fincher's worst movie. I can't find one thing that I like about it and I have watched it many times hoping I would find the right angle.

 

A movie that has slightly grown on me is Alien Resurrection. At first I hated it just like Alien 3, but the last time I watched it (Blu-ray Trilogy box) I looked at it as a Metal Hurlant comic (which it actually is), and now I can appreciate it better. Watching something from the right perspective can do wonders sometimes.

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31 minutes ago, Jay said:

LOL.  I'm not going to argue with you Stefan.  If you want to post your rankings of his films and include Alien 3 on it, go for it.

You can't because he got you on Jaws. 

From another point of view JW was the hired gun in Home Alone and created a 5 star acore

JHN was the hired gun on KK. Brian Tyler the hired gun on Timeline. Of course I chose 3 successful ones.

 

You are correct about him being contrary though!😄

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It's (obviously) not just that he was a hired gun, that's shorthand for explaining the situation you both already know but are choosing to ignore to both be contrarian.

 

For Alien 3, he was hired after there was already a script, a cast, and sets.  He got to choose blocking, shot composition, aesthetics, a general feel, but that's it.  He even walked away from post production.  It's a Fox executive assembled hodge-podge movie that he collected a check to direct for them.


For all his other movies, he worked with the screenwriter to shape it the way he wanted.  He was in charge of approving all the sets.  He was in charge of approving all the casting.  He hired the composers and other post production team members he wanted to work with.  All his other films are his vision on the screen.


Alien3 was none of that.  He didn't work with the scriptwriter, the sets and casting were all locked in before he came on board.


You both know this and wanted to be annoying and have me spell it out today.  Congratulations, you won.

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17 minutes ago, JoeinAR said:

You are correct about him being contrary though!😄

 

I am NOT contrary!

 

6 minutes ago, Jay said:

It's (obviously) not just that he was a hired gun, that's shorthand for explaining the situation you both already know but are choosing to ignore to both be contrarian.

 

For Alien 3, he was hired after there was already a script, a cast, and sets.  He got to choose blocking, shot composition, aesthetics, a general feel, but that's it.  He even walked away from post production.  It's a Fox executive assembled hodge-podge movie that he collected a check to direct for them.


For all his other movies, he worked with the screenwriter to shape it the way he wanted.  He was in charge of approving all the sets.  He was in charge of approving all the casting.  He hired the composers and other post production team members he wanted to work with.  All his other films are his vision on the screen.


Alien3 was none of that.  He didn't work with the scriptwriter, the sets and casting were all locked in before he came on board.


You both know this and wanted to be annoying and have me spell it out today.  Congratulations, you won.

 

Jason, honestly. I didnt need to have this explained to me. I wasnt looking to bait you or anyone else, and had actually moved on till Joe brought it back up for you.

 

Blame either yourself or Joe. I don't care enough about Fincher to give a damn whether he just directed something or wrote it.

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I think it's true for many if not most movies. Not every director has complete artistic control from A to Z. A famous example would be Spartacus. However, not many disown their movies (which doesn't seem to be an issue for Jay).

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2 minutes ago, Alexcremers said:

I think it's true for many if not most movies. Not every director has complete control from A to Z. However, not many disown their movies (which doesn't seem an issue for Jay)

 

Most auteur directors nowadays seem to insist of writing the scripts too. Nolan writes his own scripts even though he's not really that good a writer. 

Cameron would probably have made better movies if he was using other people's scripts.  

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1 minute ago, dougie said:

It's a wonder it didn't receive an Alan Smithee credit.

 

I think he disowned sometime later, when it was too late to bring in the brilliant Alan Smithee.

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6 minutes ago, Stefancos said:

 

Most auteur directors nowadays seem to insist of writing the scripts too.

 

That's what I miss about Spielberg. He wrote several of his early movies.

 

3 minutes ago, Stefancos said:

He disowned it after it received bad reviews and the audience hated it?

 

 

 

Quite possibly.

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1 minute ago, Alexcremers said:

That's what I miss about Spielberg. He wrote several of his early movies.

 

Spielberg's only full writing credits are for CE3K and A.I. Artificial Intelligence.

 

Of course he has "story" credits for Sugarland Express, Poltergeist, and The Goonies.

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15 minutes ago, Stefancos said:

Most auteur directors nowadays seem to insist of writing the scripts too.

 

Yeah, there's been an explosion of writer-directors (and producers) over the last decade or two. In earlier times, that combination was not quite so common. They're two very different fields of occuption.

 

But it certainly gives the director another level of artistic control. It also means that a screenplay can be written with the framing and camera movements already conceptualized: I'm thinking of Peter Jackson and Edgar Wright scripts especially.

 

There are many wierd combinations: Clint Eastwood also composes his own films; James Cameron used to be the editor on his movies; Cuaron recently acted as his own cinematographer, etcetra.

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2 minutes ago, Jay said:

 

Spielberg only writing credits are for CE3K and A.I. Artificial Intelligence.

 

And The Sugarland Express, which he co-wrote.

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4 minutes ago, Jay said:

Disney let Rian Johnson write and direct Episode 8 and look what happened!

 

It all goes to show that, at the end of the day, all this talk of "hired guns" and "auteurs" is secondary to the question of whether or not one likes the final product.

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4 minutes ago, Alexcremers said:

And The Sugarland Express, which he co-wrote.

 

I mentioned Sugarland Express, in my post that you quoted.

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Just now, Jay said:

 

Like what?

 

Like Kathy Bates showing up, Kate Winslet buying a Cunard line ticket to travel by ship to France with Leo, her expectation that'll he'll find his artistic side if they go to live in Paris, Kate having sex with her neighbour in the car, Kate seeks a career in acting but fails at it (Rose too had a stint at acting but we're to assume she had some success at it), etc.

 

The movie is a cynical inversion of Titanic and it felt very self aware of this.

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5 minutes ago, dougie said:

 

Like Kathy Bates showing up, Kate Winslet buying a Cunard line ticket to travel by ship to France with Leo, her expectation that'll he'll find his artistic side if they go to live in Paris, Kate having sex with her neighbour in the car, Kate seeks a career in acting but fails at it (Rose too had a stint at acting but we're to assume she had some success at it), etc.

 

The movie is a cynical inversion of Titanic and it felt very self aware of this.

 

None of that sounds like intentional homages to Titanic, just coincidences.

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2 hours ago, dougie said:

 

Like Kathy Bates showing up, Kate Winslet buying a Cunard line ticket to travel by ship to France with Leo, her expectation that'll he'll find his artistic side if they go to live in Paris, Kate having sex with her neighbour in the car, Kate seeks a career in acting but fails at it (Rose too had a stint at acting but we're to assume she had some success at it), etc.

 

The movie is a cynical inversion of Titanic and it felt very self aware of this.

 

Plans, hopes and dreams that most likely derive from the 1961 novel. 

 

1 hour ago, Jay said:

I've never seen the film, just going by what you said

 

You should!

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Just now, Richard said:

Fincher has more genuine talent in his ass, than that interloper Nolan has, in his entire body.

No

 

He needs to do music video nothing else.

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5 hours ago, JoeinAR said:

Beloeve it or not there are people who think Sezen is better than Lambs. 

I know; I'm one of them.

SOTL is one of the most unintentionally hilarious films that I've ever seen. Its not scary, it's not threatening, it's not creepy, it's not disturbing. It's just bloody funny.

 

 

 

1 minute ago, JoeinAR said:

No

Yes.

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Just now, Richard said:

I know; I'm one of them.

SOTL is one of the most unintentionally hilarious films that I've ever seen. Its not scary, it's not threatening, it's not creepy, it's not disturbing. It's just bloody funny.

It is film perfection se7en is a hair above trash.

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12 minutes ago, Richard said:

Fincher has more genuine talent in his ass, than that interloper Nolan has, in his entire body.

 

Two different directors altogether but I do enjoy the movies of Fincher (way) more. 

 

So Fincher's working on World War Z 2? Hmmm, doesn't sound like him, but that might actually be a good thing. In any case, it won't be hard to beat the first one.

 

9 minutes ago, Richard said:

I know; I'm one of them.

 

 

Me too. 😲

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4 hours ago, Koray Savas said:

I don’t think there’s any confirmation for the World War Z sequel. It was rumored awhile back that Brad Pitt got him involved but that production stalled and he moved on to Strangers. 

What is Strangers? The adaptation of the novel or what?

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55 minutes ago, JoeinAR said:

What is Strangers? The adaptation of the novel or what?

He was supposedly going to team up with Affleck and Gillian Flynn again to remake Strangers On A Train. 

 

This was announced right after Gone Girl though so who knows what state it’s in nearly 4 years later. 

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The Eyes of My Mother

 

This would be one hell of a disturbing short film but as a feature film (and only 76 minutes long), it just seems to drag on. There are some good bits here, but it doesn't have that slow burn good thrillers do (and the acting is iffy in places). And while the choice to shoot in black-and-white is a neat stylistic touch, the digital cameras used are too crisp and sterile. It just doesn't look quite right.

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The Breakfast Club (1985)

 

John Hughes was both an adman and an auteur.    This is a movie built upon apparent cliches.  The characters, the situation, the themes of angst and rebellion, and the ending can seem, at first glance, to be just your standard regular teen movie material, designed to draw a teen audience in and have them leave happy.  But Hughes probes beneath the surface of these things.  This is a film about teens being isolated from their elders, isolated from each other, and isolated from themselves.  Hughes answers why he thinks this happens, but does so with nuance and vitality.  

He doesn't preach, he makes you pay attention for the answers.  Watching for the first time a couple weeks back, I was struck by this serious undercurrent.

Technically, the film has its strengths and weaknesses.  Of course, the script is brilliant.  The editing is crisp.  The staging and sets have that iconic factor to them.  There are continuity errors and a couple of rather questionable scenes, but overall Hughes proved himself to be quite competent as a director, especially as a director of actors.  The performances, all around, are absolutely stellar.  Much nuance. 4/4

 

CONT'D 

 

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