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


Mr. Breathmask

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POTC 3.

 

I still like the humour and the actors, minus Orlando Bloom, and still dislike the fantasy element. Also, if your movie has a running time of two and a half hours and you insist on giving every character six different agendas, can’t you at least give them a bit of time to explain some of these agendas to the audience? I already had to use subtitles to be able to understand Sao Feng and Calypso, so I wasn’t really ecstatic about having to consult Wikipedia for a plot summary as well. I only really enjoyed the second half, but once that gets underway, it’s easier to forgive and forget the first half. Did Jack ever know Tia Dalma was Calypso, though, and why didn’t Will’s story get a better ending? Oh, why am I even wondering about such things? These movies are clearly just good business (something Beckett should never have said before dying).

There’s no doubt that this is the best Pirates score. A lot of it is still in D minor, but Zimmer composed incredible themes for this entry and even uses trumpets and woodwinds. I love the ethnic instruments and the action-packed finale has to be one of the most outstanding climaxes I’ve ever heard. Hoist the colours!

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Definitely best Pirates score. What stood out to me last time I watched them is how in 2 but especially 3, the arc of every main character seems to be to devolve into unlikeable selfish immoral assholes - or just timejump to being one already.

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Weren't there rumours that Pirates 3 started shooting without a finished script? Would certainly explain the 'unrevealed character agendas' thing that bollemaneke mentioned, and also something that I found weird (just as it seems Sao Feng has been set up as a major character, he gets killed).  

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I've read about comedies that left 'room' for the actors to improvise. You can spot those bits, they're the ones where the actors clearly had much more fun doing them than we are watching them.  

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The Hundred Foot Journey (2014)

A feel good venture that employs cuisine as a medium to teach viewers that we can do wonderful things when we set differences aside and work together. Light on it's feet and generally cheery, it's not a particularly crafty movie, even though there's nothing conceptually wrong with it per se.

 

** out of ****

 

Bad Times at the El Royale (2018)

For all the threads El Royale's plot attempts to weave in a semi-intricate fashion, there's a lack of resolution and direction in the goings on of this layered thriller. If there's one thing I can appreciate, it's the visual parameters. It's cleanly shot and embraces a number of bright neons and glows of all sorts. In a way that feels misconstrued, El Royale has an element of spirituality, one that often references the Catholic faith, that eventually turns pseudo-religious in the sadistic finale. There's a lot of off-putting stuff, a lot that doesn't add up, at least not in a way that makes the run-time worthwhile, and a lot that begs the question, why? A vain effort to conjure up a murder-filled drama that tries to maintain interest solely by quick violent thrills and fancy plot-building.

 

** out of ****

 

The Big Short (2015)

Perhaps this would've been a good intro to Vice for me, at least in terms of coming to terms with McKay's style. The thing here though is that it's so much more appropriate in the case of The Big Short. It's not a political drama- it revolves around stock and trade, and despite the efforts to explain a number of financial terms, the viewer is ultimately kept interested by the flair of the quick cuts and the big stars. Some scenes are shot like they're out of The Office or something, with constant zooms and that handheld edge. Considering how detrimental the financial crisis of 2008 was, this a genuinely fun and likable take. I really didn't care about the lengths to which McKay went on the side of humour and drama, because this was a story where I was willing to let anything go (yes, even the scene where Margot Robbie explained subprime mortgages from the comfort of her bathtub). Thanks @Disco Stu for bringing this up, as I probably would've forgotten that I had yet to see this.

 

**** out of ****

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Lake Placid

 

It's a generic B-movie, still miles away better from the SyFy DTV sequels. For some reason, the freaking creator of "Ally McBeal" and "The Practice" wrote this (did he have a mortgage payment on a house he owed?). It's as predictable as they come, albeit blessed with a convincing animatronic crocodile via Stan Winston Studios and a decent cast.

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The Shadow - fun, pacy action-adventure based on the 30s pulp hero, whose influence on the likes of Batman is apparent. Alec Baldwin is suitably dark 'n' dashing in the title role and as alter-ego Lamont Cranston, John Lone grandstands as Genghis Khan's last living ancestor with an eeeevil plot, Penelope Anne Miller makes for a suitably easy-on-the-eye love interest, Ian McKellen adds class as her father and Tim Curry hams it up as a comic villain. Stirring Jerry Goldsmith score, too.    

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Godzilla: King of the Monsters 

 

Upon closer scrutiny, this has one hell of a hokey script, but it's efficient enough to get the action going. And I feel that this was a highly divisive film because it knew its audience, which happens to be a very small one unfortunately - consequently everyone else either hated it or simply didn't get it. But I admire its defiance of all things so-called "four quadrant" and served us kaiju devotees everything we ever wanted in a Hollywood blockbuster update of a Godzilla flick. For whatever it lacks in quotability of the 1998 flick, it makes up for by being a worthy film adaptation of the 1990s Trendmasters action figure line and the 1988 NES game - this was definitely not what Gareth Edwards envisioned in his indie-flick-with-monsters snore! It's like the real fans finally got their shit together and took ownership. That's how you do it!

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A shot in the dark.

 

Not bad. I liked George Sanders, but the watch troubles should have been cut.

Parts of the score were interesting, especially the opening sequence and the romantic cues, but the more creepy music didn’t work for me at all.

 

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Match Point. It took me longer than it should have to realise the film is a total piss take of the insulated English upper class and the perception of their absolute inability to see or understand 'real' people in their midst, and how the snobs can be taken advantage of, to, by the end of the story, an absurd degree. 

 

It was alright, but nothing special (outside of it feeling like no other Allen movie); the lead character was camp AF and I kept thinking he was going to end up being bummed by the brother-in-law or something, it made quite intense dialogue scenes quite funny at times, but I don't think it was intentional. 

 

I enjoyed the movie overall, but it was very silly. 

 

Scarlett was the highlight. Jesus Christ those lips of hers. 

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On 9/12/2019 at 1:29 PM, bollemanneke said:

A shot in the dark.

 

Not bad. I liked George Sanders, but the watch troubles should have been cut.

Parts of the score were interesting, especially the opening sequence and the romantic cues, but the more creepy music didn’t work for me at all.

 

 

On 9/12/2019 at 11:43 PM, Koray Savas said:

Sellers was truly one-of-a-kind. Strikes Again is one of my favorite comedies.

 

 

The scene where the assassin tries to take out Clouseau during his date watching the flamenco dancers is both really masterfully done in suspense, and later when botched sets up amazing comedic moments, with that "creepy music" transforming from a sign for fear into a comedic signal. It's masterful. 

 

Shot in the Dark is my favorite, a nice halfway point between the witty repartee of the original Pink Panther and the hella whack goofiness of the later ones like Pink Panther Strikes Again.

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Yeah, it was a reg Woody Allen thing before he decided to start going exotic. Note that a lot of his following movies were located abroad (to which i count 'Blue Jasmine's San Francisco setting).

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4 hours ago, publicist said:

The first one was incredibly boring (save for a few of the Sellers scenes). 'A Shot in the Dark' is the real deal.

 

This! I had already seen a few of the others and couldnt believe how dull Pink Panther was.

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7 hours ago, publicist said:

The first one was incredibly boring (save for a few of the Sellers scenes). 'A Shot in the Dark' is the real deal.

 

3 hours ago, Stefancos said:

 

This! I had already seen a few of the others and couldnt believe how dull Pink Panther was.

 

 

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Honestly the original's not a favorite of mine either. I remember liking the opening, feeling like a leftover Peter Gunn episode with big goons scored by muted brass, that sort of thing, but I have such little recollection of the rest  of the movie.

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Tried 'It' on Netflix again. 'It''s not for me. I love the production values and scenery, but whenever there's a scare or a monster moment - for the lack of a better word - the movie turns loud and gaudy, as if the filmmakers don't trust their (mostly) great actors and the fabled King story. I'm not going to lecture seasoned filmmakers about the use of silence but it works great in other genre classics. Too bad, because once you turn the volume down, the whole thing plays much better.

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1 hour ago, publicist said:

Tried 'It' on Netflix again. 'It''s not for me. I love the production values and scenery, but whenever there's a scare or a monster moment - for the lack of a better word - the movie turns loud and gaudy, as if the filmmakers don't trust their (mostly) great actors and the fabled King story. I'm not going to lecture seasoned filmmakers about the use of silence but it works great in other genre classics. Too bad, because once you turn the volume down, the whole thing plays much better.

 

I can't even watch these shit-ya-pants jump scare horror flicks anymore because the sudden noises upset my tinnitus.

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I would think so!

36 minutes ago, Borodin said:

Quite a fair film with notable moments which continually grow on you.

 

It's not just fair. Leave it to Disney to treat Jules Verne with the proper reverence.

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Daybreakers - fairly enjoyable action-horror set in 2019 (ha!) in which vampires have taken over and are imprisoning the human race and draining them of blood to ensure a steady supply. With Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe and Sam Neill.

Hobo With A Shotgun - splattery 'grindhouse' tribute shoot-em-up in which Rutger Hauer is the titular hobo who, after arriving in a town and finding it in the grip of a criminal scumbag and his sons, teams up with a 'tart with a heart' and sets about cleaning up the place. Deliberately OTT funtimes.

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Men in Black International

 

I like the idea of turning this series into a Mission: Impossible-like espionage franchise (with a few Bourne elements) with aliens, and I like the actors too. But this movie is very poorly written and directed, with a pretty bad pacing and a predictable story. It's the type of movie that you put on TV at night and a few minutes later you're already taking a nice nap on the couch. Elfman's score is pretty bland too.

 

It's a shame, it could have been so much funnier.

 

2/5

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Men in Black was just a fun late 90s sci-fi comedy popcorn flick. Aside from the ride at Universal Studios, I haven't enjoyed anything they've done with the franchise since. 

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