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

[KK 3,307]

3 hours ago, publicist said:

It's also called drama, it's not like filmmakers have an obligation to portray boring suburbs without tension or conflict just because.

 

This. Like, duh. Don't know why this needed to be spelled out.

[Quintus 5,399]

It's Crash all over again! 

[publicist 4,643]

 

It Happened in Broad Daylight: even after all the years since i accidentally saw this as a youngster, this sometimes expressionist 1958 chiller with Gerd Fröbe playing a child murderer made me feel queasy watching it again. It was this role that brought Fröbe to the attention of Mssrs. Saltzman and Broccoli for Goldfinger and for good reason.

 

The story concerns a police detective having doubts about the guilt of the obvious suspect in the murder of an eight year old girl, who decides to investigate the case on his own. The carefully placed scenes of children in danger will make your skin crawl. Sean Penn later re-did this story, written by swiss author Friedrich Duerrenmatt, with Jack Nicholson as 'The Pledge' with a more philosophical edge, though it has no real impact if you haven't seen this b/w version before it.

 

At the same time, Hammer did a similar story called 'Never Take Candy from a Stranger', with equally frightening scenes in the woods. I probably don't want to know what was the *inspiration* for both stories.

[LSH 968]

TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY - JAMES CAMERON

 

A textbook - and I mean TEXTBOOK - example of how to make an action film. 

 

Almost 30 years on, and at least 25 since my first viewing, this film holds up in so many departments  - and that's even before we talk about the the visual effects.

 

The way that Cameron uses his camera in this film is fucking stunning; it's so slick. Yes, this film was the most expensive at the time (he's good at doing that) but you can really see where the money went; the Cyberdyne building set-piece which takes up a bulk of the third act is one of the finest pieces of cinema I've ever seen.

 

It might seem a 'throw everything but the kitchen sink' kind of production but it fucking works. Cameron made it big this time. And it works. Fucking works.

 

It's probably the most expansive action film ever made - in terms of locations and logistics - and apart from the T1000 it's all real and practical.   

 

I absolutely LOVE this film.

 

I'm drunk .

 

This.... is still one of the most terrifying images that I remember as a child:

 

 

[bruce marshall 1,315]

20 hours ago, The Big Man said:

 

I meant like Revolutionary Road or Pleasantville or whichever. Made by anti-suburb freaks who fled to Hollyweird and never shrugged off that chip on their shoulders.

You obviously never lived in one of those horrible postwar subdivisions!

 

[A24 4,326]

16 hours ago, Koray Savas said:

 

But that's David Lynch and he's not a suburbs guy.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,507]

2 hours ago, bruce marshall said:

You obviously never lived in one of those horrible postwar subdivisions!

 

...in the high school halls, in the shopping malls. Conform, or be cast out.

In the basement bars, in the backs of cars. Be cool, or be cast out.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

1 hour ago, AC1 said:

 

But that's David Lynch and he's not a suburbs guy.

 

I reckon he's not one for dense urbanisation either, as demonstrated by its hellish portrayal in Eraserhead.

[A24 4,326]

 

He's a small town guy. That's where the crazies live.

[Sweeping Strings 2,346]

Scrooged - 'tis the season, and all that. Festive funtimes aplenty as Bill Murray's heartless TV channel CEO is shown the error of his ways by various spooks. 

Creepier and more caustic than the Muppet version of A Christmas Carol, and therefore preferable. IMHO. 

[Quintus 5,399]

Is it actually funny though? I've been meaning to give it a watch one Christmas. 

[publicist 4,643]

It is, though there clearly is a calculated 80's commercial feel about it. What remains is - for this kind of fare - a surprisingly nasty edge and performers have a free reign and are enjoying themselves.

[Quintus 5,399]

Right, that's the weekend movie sorted then, cheers you two. 

[Sweeping Strings 2,346]

My pleasure!

 
Pegg 'n' Frost sci-fi comedy double-bill last night ... Paul followed by The World's End, accompanied by some Menabrea and Krombacher.

A blast of a way to spend an evening.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

King Kong '05

 

This movie was longer than my doodle! And why? All the other ones told the same story, only shorter. Maybe lay off the slow-mo shots during moments of deep emotive significance. Oy. And even Kong looks wrong. Sure, he's a giant ape, but he's meant to be a distinct ape, not just an oversized silverback gorilla. I dunno. But I do rather like this shot for some reason, just nicely produced bits like this here and there.

 

[Disco Stu 15,495]

King Kong: It's a fascinating bloated misjudged mess with moments of brilliance.

 

The Hobbit trilogy: It's a fascinating bloated misjudged mess with moments of brilliance.

[Quintus 5,399]

King Kong is way better than The Hobbit. 

[Chen G. 3,944]

1 hour ago, The Big Man said:

This movie was longer than my doodle! And why? All the other ones told the same story, only shorter.

 

Says Jackson:

 

Quote

We were in LA and I switched the channels and it [King Kong] was on, and I just watched a little  bit of it, then I watched a bit more... I wanted to recut that film so badly; it should have been half an hour shorter. [...] I actually sent Universal a note, "If you ever want to do a 20th anniversary version, DVD or Blu-ray, then I'll give you a shorter cut." - Ian Nathan, Anything You Can Imagine: Peter Jackson and the Making of Middle Earth (HarperCollins: 2018), p. 793.

 

He also said this in his Exeter lecture.

[bruce marshall 1,315]

2 hours ago, The Big Man said:

King Kong '05

 

This movie was longer than my doodle! And why? All the other ones told the same story, only shorter. Maybe lay off the slow-mo shots during moments of deep emotive significance. Oy. And even Kong looks wrong. Sure, he's a giant ape, but he's meant to be a distinct ape, not just an oversized silverback gorilla. I dunno. But I do rather like this shot for some reason, just nicely produced bits like this here and there.

 

Jessica Lange did it first!

[Marian Schedenig 8,176]

1 hour ago, Chen G. said:

Says Jackson:

He also said this in his Exeter lecture.

 

Let's hope he watched the Hobbit trilogy someday. We may yet get a proper 2 film version.

 

I like Kong. It may be bloated and overlong, but I disagree that the first act is too long and irrelevant - and everything that drags later on was also too long in the 33 original. The extended version is unnecessary though - you can have either a triceratops or a bug cave, but both are too much.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,507]

Lumpy getting killed still creeps me out.

[Chen G. 3,944]

2 minutes ago, Marian Schedenig said:

Let's hope he watched the Hobbit trilogy someday. We may yet get a proper 2 film version.

 

He obviously watched it for the remaster. Seems he is fine with the volume of those films. A quest to reclaim one's homeland invites scale in a way that an adventure with a giant ape does not.

 

The 2-film version sounds much inferior to the three film version, I don't think there's much arguing about that.

[Marian Schedenig 8,176]

4 minutes ago, Chen G. said:

The 2-film version sounds much inferior to the three film version, I don't think there's much arguing about that.

 

There was a very believable theory before the 3rd film came out that the original 2 film plan was a solid adventure film and was just watered down with stuff added in afterwards to make it a trilogy. That made sense to me, until the third film came out, which was just too much of a overblown Bruckheimer/Bay spectacle to make it likely that it could be cut down to anything tolerable. I haven't followed any background info on it since, but most people were complaining about the expansion of two films into three long before I'd given up hope for a decent finale myself.

[Quintus 5,399]

Jackson gets "too close" to his films during their making, and it negatively affects his judgment too much. Anyone who saw King Kong back in the day knew it was too long, but it took 15 years of disengagement for Jackson to see it. 

[Chen G. 3,944]

10 minutes ago, Marian Schedenig said:

There was a very believable theory before the 3rd film came out that the original 2 film plan was a solid adventure film and was just watered down with stuff added in afterwards to make it a trilogy.

 

Believable, but quite simply not true.

 

Almost everything you see in the trilogy was shot for the two-film version. The additions made after the decision to go to a trilogy was made were not unsubstantial, but also not very big.

[Holko 9,499]

27 minutes ago, Marian Schedenig said:

That made sense to me, until the third film came out, which was just too much of a overblown Bruckheimer/Bay spectacle to make it likely that it could be cut down to anything tolerable. I haven't followed any background info on it since, but most people were complaining about the expansion of two films into three long before I'd given up hope for a decent finale myself.

IIRC they didn't shoot anything of substance for the Battle in the main production block before they moved to 3 films from 2 because PJ had no clue what to do.

[publicist 4,643]

Awful, awful stuff.

 

À propos (good) stuff: The Right Stuff for me today...

 

 

 

[Quintus 5,399]

I did see a behind scenes clip of PJ on the set of The Hobbit not too long ago, I forget where, maybe Facebook or somewhere. But it made me feel quite bad on the fella for being so down on him for the state of the movies. The production crew (interviewees) were basically saying how exhausted with it all Jackson was and that he was really struggling to shape something half decent out of the development mess left in the wake of™ del Toro's departure from the project well into the preproduction phase. I mean, Jackson is visibly destroyed in the video, like he was on the brink. I felt sorry for him. 

[publicist 4,643]

Pain is temporary, film is forever! (sadly shite films too)

[Tallguy 3,379]

I can't stand anything I've seen from Jackson. Except Kong. Even then I think "Wow, this is self indulgent." But durned if I'd know what to cut.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

3 hours ago, publicist said:

Pain is temporary

 

Not if it's chronic!

[KK 3,307]

7 hours ago, Quintus said:

I did see a behind scenes clip of PJ on the set of The Hobbit not too long ago, I forget where, maybe Facebook or somewhere. But it made me feel quite bad on the fella for being so down on him for the state of the movies. The production crew (interviewees) were basically saying how exhausted with it all Jackson was and that he was really struggling to shape something half decent out of the development mess left in the wake of™ del Toro's departure from the project well into the preproduction phase. I mean, Jackson is visibly destroyed in the video, like he was on the brink. I felt sorry for him. 

 

Indeed. I think he knew he was doomed the moment he took over from Del Toro. I think there's a reason he was deliberately avoiding the director's chair for as long as he could. 

 

I haven't seen Kong in a long time, but I maintain it's a good adventure epic that just needs some proper trimming.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

Some effects shots could use a polish. Others are parts of scenes that could be axed.

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

Peter Jackzzzzzzzzzzzon

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

Used to be a cigarette brand 

[A24 4,326]

9 hours ago, Tallguy said:

 Even then I think "Wow, this is self indulgent." 

 

Isn't that normal? Directors tend to make movies the way they see them. That's why you have Peter Jackson movies, Spielberg movies, Paul Thomas Anderson movies, Paul W.S. Anderson movies, et cetera.

 

[Naïve Old Fart 9,507]

11 hours ago, publicist said:

Awful, awful stuff.

 

À propos (good) stuff: The Right Stuff for me today...

 

 

 

Among the finest films ever made. EVER. Got that?

[bollemanneke 3,338]

Love Actually.

 

Another classic we finally managed to watch. The amount of great actors is incredible, but I somehow feel Alan Rickman didn’t belong in it, even though he was of course as great as always. Speaking of great, Emma Thompson! Keira Knightley and Colin Firth are very good too and Bill Nighy is so versatile. I will say, though, that some of it was too unrealistic for me: Rickman buying the necklace, Sam’s infatuation and Firth marrying someone he could hardly communicate with, but I do understand why it’s such a big hit, I loved how everything came together and I’ll probably re-watch it at some point.

 

As usual, Craig Armstrong’s score has a few lovely cues, but the majority of them left me wanting for more. The source music is amazing.

 

[Marian Schedenig 8,176]

19 minutes ago, bollemanneke said:

Another classic we finally managed to watch. The amount of great actors is incredible, but I somehow feel Alan Rickman didn’t belong in it, even though he was of course as great as always.

 

Rickman was the King of Christmas movies. Of course he belongs in it!

 

19 minutes ago, bollemanneke said:

but I do understand why it’s such a big hit, I loved how everything came together and I’ll probably re-watch it at some point.

 

It's one of those that are nice enough when you first see them, but actually get more enjoyable the better you know them. It's become an annual Christmas fixture for me, and not just me - one of the local English theatres also has at least one screening each December (except this year, for obvious reasons).

[bollemanneke 3,338]

It is my first ever Alan Rickman Christmas movie.

[Marian Schedenig 8,176]

15 minutes ago, bollemanneke said:

It is my first ever Alan Rickman Christmas movie.

 

To me every Potter movie qualifies (they came out in late Novembers, and most of them have a Christmas moment in it). And of course Die Hard.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

Die Hard? Christmas?

[bollemanneke 3,338]

I'm not sure if I think HP are Christmas movies. Maybe 1-4 and Beasts 1.

[Marian Schedenig 8,176]

25 minutes ago, bollemanneke said:

I'm not sure if I think HP are Christmas movies. Maybe 1-4 and Beasts 1.

 

The first one definitely. And I know I'm not the only one who just generally associates them with Christmas, because that's when I saw them at the theatre. (You could even make a point for the LOTRs and several SW films to be somewhat Christmassy in that regard, although because they don't contain any Christmas scenes themselves, the association dwindles over the years)

[Romão 2,274]

The Alan Rickman/Emma Thompson does gives us the two best scenes in the movie, IMHO. The scene when he is buying the necklace from Rowan Atkinson and her scene crying in the bedroom

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

I didn't get to see Love Actually until a few years ago and aside from a few well made scenes like the gift wrapping bit with Mr Bean, I still couldn't work out what the fuss was all about. Masses are easy to please, I guess?

[Marian Schedenig 8,176]

39 minutes ago, Romão said:

The Alan Rickman/Emma Thompson does gives us the two best scenes in the movie, IMHO. The scene when he is buying the necklace from Rowan Atkinson and her scene crying in the bedroom

 

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

I just started Walt Disney's Classic Home Alone on Disney Plus.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

That was a Disney milestone.

[Tallguy 3,379]

5 hours ago, The Big Man said:

Die Hard? Christmas?

Of course it is. Even if I was on the fence, listen to the score. It's got more Christmas music in it than White Christmas!

 

I accept this simply as a fact. There are some who are quite passionate about it. Die Hard is a Christmas movie.