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

[Naïve Old Fart 9,508]

"...needed the money..."? Woj, look who she was married to.

 

 

JAWS2 is to JAWS what DAMIEN is to THE OMEN: a cheekier, sassier, more jolly, and quirkier piece of work...but after listening to it in my car stereo, for about four weeks solid, I can say that it's definitely not better.

[JoeinAR 1,949]

Since she was the wife of Sid Schienberg president of MCA and Universal studio I think Money wasn't an issue.

[Holko 9,499]

18 hours ago, Nick Parker said:

Cool!

I gotta say I wasn't too into it.

Right until Gillian's Vision, at the end of which I shouted "Holy fucking shit!", and the last two tracks which were a nice playoff to it.

I still don't have any drive to get the LLL set but this one track I do love now, with its building madness, mindblowing finale, Duel of the Fates choir on strings, and yet another great finale.

[Sweeping Strings 2,346]

Watched this docu on the iPlayer over the weekend, reckon that several of you (given what sort of forum this is) would find it as interesting as I did - 

 

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Score_(2016_film)

My apologies if (due to what it's about) it has its own thread already somewhere around here.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

Inside Man

 

This is my first Spike Lee movie. Are they mostly like this? Anyhoo, it was funny seeing Clive Owen act like such a tough guy after seeing how wimpy he was in Derailed. Who'd have thunk it that Jodie Foster (playing a pointless character) would have such amazing stems?

[A24 4,327]

47 minutes ago, dougie said:

Inside Man

 

This is my first Spike Lee movie. Are they mostly like this? 

 

Absolutely not. Inside Man is very unlike most Spike Lee movies.

 

 

 

 

 

[Naïve Old Fart 9,508]

It's a fun ride, but Alex is right: it's atypical Lee.

I'd say that DO THE RIGHT THING, MO' BETTER BLUES, JUNGLE FEVER,  MALCOLM X, CLOCKERS, and SUMMER OF SAM, are worth watching.

Be warned: CLOCKERS is a bit like BLUE COLLAR - which is a better film.

[Nick Parker 3,040]

6 hours ago, Holko said:

I gotta say I wasn't too into it.

Right until Gillian's Vision, at the end of which I shouted "Holy fucking shit!", and the last two tracks which were a nice playoff to it.

I still don't have any drive to get the LLL set but this one track I do love now, with its building madness, mindblowing finale, Duel of the Fates choir on strings, and yet another great finale.

 

Thanks for giving it a shot.  What did you think of tracks like "Hester's Theme and the House"?

 

23 minutes ago, Richard said:

MO' BETTER BLUES

 

Such a beautiful film, one of my favorite riffs on the "Red Shoes" themes. I'm waiting for Lee to top it, but I haven't seen Black KKKlansmen.

[Romão 2,274]

I'm a big of Summer of Sam, even with all its excesses

[JoeinAR 1,949]

I wish I could say I think Spike Lee is a great filmmaker.  I cannot.

[Nick Parker 3,040]

2 minutes ago, JoeinAR said:

I wish I could say I think Spite Lee is a great filmmaker.  I cannot.

 

Is that a deliberate misspelling? 

[Sweeping Strings 2,346]

Black KKKlansman had its moments, but they're few and far between. It's mostly a plodding bore.

[JoeinAR 1,949]

Just now, Nick Parker said:

 

Is that a deliberate misspelling? 

No just a happy accident.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

Blackway

 

Icy thriller where you hope Anthony Hopkins devours Ray Liotta's brains again but instead it treads into familiar Wild West revenge shoot 'em up fantasy. Not bad but nothing great.

[Nick Parker 3,040]

5 minutes ago, JoeinAR said:

No just a happy accident.

 

Haha. Out of curiosity, which of his films have you seen?

[Holko 9,499]

For a score evaluation: Thief of Bagdad (1940)

Not expecting that much from it, this adventurous colour fairytale effects flick was pretty fun, and at times, for 1940, outrageously impressive. Having read a form of the 1001 nights and loving somewhat similar flicks such as The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm, I'm sure I would've loved this as a kid.

As for the score? Knowing the Epic Hollywood recording, having heard the 3 samples on Tadlow's Youtube channel, I needed about 5 minutes of the film to cement my need to buy it.

[Faleel 5,342]

Of course, it's by Rozsa.

[JoeinAR 1,949]

2 hours ago, Nick Parker said:

 

Haha. Out of curiosity, which of his films have you seen?

Right Thing She Hate King of Comedy Summer of Sam, 

She gotta have it inside man Miracle of St. Anna( really disappointed) 

Several others. He isn't a bad director, he has a point of view too bad his film eye isn't as distinctive. 

[Nick Parker 3,040]

22 minutes ago, JoeinAR said:

his film eye isn't as distinctive. 

 

Interesting, I always thought that was one of his most admirable traits. He's not afraid to get fun with the camera to drive home a theme, or to experiment.

[Sweeping Strings 2,346]

The Relic - think the last time I saw this 90s 'creature feature' was 20+ years ago on VHS, and I was happy to stumble across it on the iPlayer last night when scheduled TV was shit. Basically a fun romp of a B-movie with a better budget than usual (and some pretty icky gore). Where-are-they-now?-file residentsTom Sizemore and Penelope Ann Miller star, along with Linda Hunt.    

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

The Beverly Hillbillies

 

All good trashy fun. Lea Thompson has a surprising ASMR quality about her when she's pretending to be a French governess.

 

 

Collide

 

Avoid. Awful, awful flick. It's like Anthony Hopkins has gone the way of Bruce Willis.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

44 minutes ago, dougie said:

Lea Thompson has a surprising ASMR quality

 

Be careful of ASMR induced hearing trauma!

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

I always have the volume down to the lowest possible these days. If there's a lot of gunfire, I just mute it.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

Bad Boys I and II

 

I completely missed these until now. The first one is good. The second has its moments but it runs for waaaaay too long, I was nodding off during the final battle. The two main dudes are awesome, especially when the non-Will Smith guy gets sick when he sees corpses and shit.

[Sweeping Strings 2,346]

III is on its way. Guess Martin Lawrence will be glad of the work. 

[Koray Savas 2,251]

Doesn’t seem promising now that Carnahan isn’t directing anymore. It’s been passed on to some debut director duo that hasn’t done anything before. 

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

Weird Science

 

Wow, were computers really that much more advanced in the 80s than they are today? Apple, Google and Microsoft better get their act together! A lot of the usual John Higgins fratboy humour but I didn't mind it so much here compared to Sixteen Candles. That flattop on Bill Paxton, seriously?! I liked the TV show back in the day.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,508]

Why are you such a wanker?

Because I get off, on it!

[SteveMc 2,674]

1 hour ago, dougie said:

A lot of the usual John Higgins fratboy humour

His weakness.  You find less of that in his writing after Weird Science.  

[JoeinAR 1,949]

1 hour ago, dougie said:

Weird Science

 

Wow, were computers really that much more advanced in the 80s than they are today? Apple, Google and Microsoft better get their act together! A lot of the usual John Higgins fratboy humour but I didn't mind it so much here compared to Sixteen Candles. That flattop on Bill Paxton, seriously?! I liked the TV show back in the day.

There was no fratboy humor. These were High School kids. Not college kids.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

"Fratboy" is a word with greater dramatic punch than "high school".

[JoeinAR 1,949]

Ah so you didn't know 

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

I knew. The same as how I knew I misspelled the director's name because when I was a kid watching Home Alone, I'd say it as "Higgins" because I didn't know how to pronounce "Hughes".

[SteveMc 2,674]

Crude as the humor was, Hughes probably had an accurate finger on the pulse of the time, people, and place.   

[JoeinAR 1,949]

He did,  Ferris Bueller your my hero.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

Why did he stop directing after Curly Sue?

[SteveMc 2,674]

4 hours ago, dougie said:

Why did he stop directing after Curly Sue?

He got fed up with the Hollywood system, and wanted his kids to grow up in a place more like where he grew up.  In Planes, Trains, and Automobiles and in Some Kind Of Wonderful I an detect frustrations bubbling to the surface a bit.    

And, maybe he thought he had said all that he needed to say.  He commented once that the people he most admired were those who moved on once they felt they had mastered something.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

I was surprised to just read that he wrote 101 Dalmations, Baby's Day Out, Flubber, Just Visiting and Beethoven (under a pseudonym). I didn't know they were his.

[SteveMc 2,674]

They say he wrote up until the very end, journals, stories, and many screenplays that he simply did not want to produce.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

Reservoir Dogs

 

...I didn't understand any of this. What was this thing about?

[A24 4,327]

Metaphorically, you mean?

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

Pretty much. The ending is really cool, but I'm not much of a fan of movies depicting super-fast-talking lowlife thugs yammering on about... something.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

It was about a robbery gone wrong.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

Yeah something like that. I dunno, is this Tarantino fella much good?

[Glóin the Dark 1,220]

It's all about a girl who digs a guy with a big dick.

[A24 4,327]

Hear it from the master himself:

 

 

 

[Holko 9,499]

Utószezon (Late Season) (1966)

On first watch I concluded this was good but tough, and a bit lost in its indulgent and jarring stylistic choices. Now on the second watch I just connected with it much much more and couldn't stop thinking about it for days.

An old man, after getting a childish prank played on by his friends, returns to the city where he used to work during WWII (my hometown, I recognised every street, further adding to the connection) and through multiple, sometimes overlapping or intercutting flashbacks, we get to know his history and the immense, overpowering guilt he seems over something that may seem insignificant at first glance - this guilt and misery further amplified by a society and friends that simply refuse to give him any kind of closure, or even acknowledge his feelings may have some merit. The film employs a lot of grotesque or absurd techniques to further beat the character down, making you go along and laugh at him a bit, then feel guilty about it afterwards when you learn what it was all about. Though some of the speedups, or freezeframes making a slideshow of the film do get a little jarring and seem pointles at times, I didn't mind them too much this time.

Spoiler

During the war he accidentally, with a simple "if only" blabbered to an old childhood friend, sent his beloved and kind employers to the death camps. In the climax, the man cannot take it anymore and marches to lay his head on the tran tracks - only for the train to turn out to switch to the other pair of rails just before it would reach him.

A tough work definitely, but I really really weirdly liked it this second time.

 

Szindbád (Sindbad) (1971)

Jumping headfirst into the arthouse. Sindbad is a gentry in the second half of the 1800s, coasting through life, travelling constantly from town to city, woman to woman, never really participating in the world, rather observing it. The only two stable points seem to be an ex-lover who falls out of love with him but does develop a stepmotherly relationship with him, and good food. The whole film is in flashback, as Sindbad, dying and out of his mind, goes through flashes and fragmented memories. There is no real narrative to speak of, it's more of an audiovisual poem. It makes extensive use of quick macroshot cutaways, following no real logical links (you often don't have time to make out what it is you're seeing), but painting feelings and mods with them. Sparkling embers, thick cobwebs along a wall corner, a flower blooming, oil drops on the surface of soup, a lock of golden hair, a leaf fallen into snow and frozen. When it's "proper" film, it's also very paintingesquely visualised: favourite standout shots include a redheaded woman walking away in an overgrown cemetery while reddened leaves rain down intensely from the trees, or another woman ice-skating away on a frozen river into the deep fog, or a glorious and legendary sequence of shots featuring bone marrow being extracted and spread on toast.

So how is it? I have no clue what to make of it. I'm not sure anything is meant to be made of it. Does it sound like pretentiously artsy fartsy bullshit? Well, it kinda is somewhat, but there is something that draws me back and I feel I'll eventually give it another watch. Another tough work, I certainly didn't expect what I got from something that was voted to be a crowd favourite by the ordinary populace!

 

Egri Csillagok (Stars of Eger/The Lost Talisman/Eclipse of the Crescent Moon) (1968) (geez, just pick a bloody title and go with it!)

So  there was the siege of the castle of Eger in 1552, where we defended it from the Ottomans. Then a famous historian/minstrel wrote a poetic account of it with an abridged version in 1553. Then Gárdonyi picked it up, did incredibly extensive research and published his novel featuring real historical figures, sometimes fictionalised or peired with a fictional wife for story purposes, in 1901. The accurate descriptions make this 6th grade obligatory reading a nightmare for most students, though everyone agrees one of the most interesting parts is the appendix listing the names and suffered injuries of every defender - yes, that's how thorough it is. So to save those students from having to read through it, here comes the 1968 film adaptation - the country voted in a newspaper about the lead actors, they built a replica of most of the castle in its vintage state to dirty up, shoot in, ignite and blow up, they employed thousands of soldiers as extras, the vast majority of the greatest actors of the time got at least a walk-on role... this was an event, and literally everyone in the country saw it and still continues to see it. The only available copy I knew in my lifetime was a dirty, golden faded print with many many missing frames, and apparently severe pitch issues (possibly to compensate for the frames, but could be a botched transfer). Now it finally got a complete restoration and limited theatrical rerelease for the 50th anniversary - scanned in 4K, stabilised, cleaned up, colour corrected tastefully and faithfully, audio cleaned up as well as slowed and pitched down compared to that old copy - and this week it came out on DVD again, too.

So how is it as a film, having not seen it for years and having not read the book since 6th grade? Not very good  After the intermission, the 1:20 dedicated to the siege is fine and dandy, exciting and spectacular, but the first part, besides successfully establishing the lead cast so they can be our emotional anchor during the siege, is a rushed, sometimes near-incomprehensible mess. It encompasses the leads' childhood with an adventure that kicks a personal vendetta story off, then they are grown up and separated, then everyone is everywhere talking to people about things and the state of Europe, then they go to rescue one of the leads' father from Istanbul, then they rescue the girl from her arranged marriage on the way and there's another, rogue wedding instead, then they are going south through many lands in various disguises, then they do try to free that father with many disguises, but two double-crossings ensue and they flee without him. Cue intermission music. All that in an hour. You have absolutely no sense of time or space, besides from the lengths of the male leads' moustaches, but that stops being a crutch when they start with the disguises, so they just start saying "it's been a year since x event" "now it's been 2 years since that x event".

But goddamn it looks good with all those vibrant colours now, and that siege is worth it all, even if half of its awesomeness is just childhood nostalgia. Score's pretty good at times, too, using that 1553 minstrel ballad in its overture and employing motifs from it for the Hungarian side, also making extensive use of source music, most notably the very memorable, even if almost caricaturistically stereotipycal Turkish war march along with other Turkish motifs.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

19 hours ago, SteveMc said:

He got fed up with the Hollywood system, and wanted his kids to grow up in a place more like where he grew up.  In Planes, Trains, and Automobiles and in Some Kind Of Wonderful I an detect frustrations bubbling to the surface a bit.    

And, maybe he thought he had said all that he needed to say.  He commented once that the people he most admired were those who moved on once they felt they had mastered something.

Chicago?

[SteveMc 2,674]

23 minutes ago, Koray Savas said:

Chicago?

Yes, he moved himself and his family back to Chicagoland.  

[JoeinAR 1,949]

4 hours ago, dougie said:

Yeah something like that. I dunno, is this Tarantino fella much good?

No he is way over praised.