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

[JoeinAR 1,949]

The 4k presentations of Temple of Doom, LC and Skulls are beautiful representations of the films. Skulls was much more fun than I remembered. But of the three follow-ups to Raiders Temple fairs best. The score is transcendent. It is so much better than LC or Skulls. It was practically perfect. ToD is the ultimate Indiana Jones films. Its insane. The complaints about the film are among the most stupid. Willie is annoying.So What? If Willy were more like Marion then the complainers would have bitched about that. At least it wasn't another  Corny nazi reboot. 

The opening is without a doubt one of Spielberg's greatest opening of all his films. It has the most emotional ending of all 4 Indy films. The score is grand even epic. Ive said many times it's one of SS's most beautifully shot films. It is easily my favorite Indiana Jones films. I do like them all. While LC and Skulls are much lesser films with weak and weaker stories and impotent villains they have wonderful character moments that shine.

[Jay 37,317]

Right there with you brother, TOD is astoundingly good - film and score 

[JoeinAR 1,949]

Shia Labeouf gave a much better performance than I thought. He is easy to dismiss these days but  he is very good. His reaction towards John Hurt is genuine. i don't know if its acting or simple fan boy love or a combination of both but it works. Regarding LC  the film really comes to life when reaching the Canyon of the Crescent 🌘 canyon. Everything after is pure gold. Well everything except Indy and Elsa. 

I have saved watching Raiders on 4K for Last. 

I shall watch it this weekend. The last time I saw it was 2011 for its 30th Anniversary at the Imax theatre. 

[Jay 37,317]

Nice.  In 2011 I went to a marathon that showed all four IJ films on the big screen, it was a fantastic afternoon

[JoeinAR 1,949]

I bet, and a long one.😜

[Jay 37,317]

 

Gravity

 

My first time seeing this film since I saw it in IMAX 3D when it came out in 2013.  This time, it was via Blu Ray at home.

 

Nothing will ever compare to that initial theatrical experience, but I did enjoy it very much a second time at home.  Bullock and Clooney's acting really sells the stakes and characters well, and Cuaron's directing is fantastic especially in the framing of all the shots and the ebb and flow and the set piece sequenecs.

 

I watched with the "Silent Space" audio track, which removes all of Steven Price's score except for two short stinger cues, and that is far and away the preferred audio mix and the only one I'll watch in the future as well.  Many scenes had a stronger impact without the score distracting or telling me how to feel.

I had a great time with this.

[Raiders of the SoundtrArk 2,429]

Funny to think that this score won many prices when it's preferable to watch the movie without it. Well it's still a good score

[Jay 37,317]

 

Always

 

Watched this about a month ago now for the first time ever; The only Spielberg-directed / Williams-scored film I hadn't seen yet! (I also still have to see The Color Purple)

 

I didn't think it was particularly good, but Holly Hunter and John Goodman were great in it.  Richard Dreyfus felt miscast and the new guy playing the other male lead was kind of a dud (and didn't seem to go on to have a particularly interesting career afterward either).

 

It's interesting to think about it how it fits into Spielberg's career path, with the themes it explores and such than it does an a movie on its own.  It was also great to learn the context for the Williams score, which I can appreciate in a whole new way knowing the story it's written for.  Even when Spielberg disappoints, Williams rarely does.

[Biodome 714]

The theatres have opened up in Norway, so for the past month, I've been able to watch films again, after six months of waiting.

 

The last one I saw was Millennium Actress by Satoshi Kon, a fictional account of a Japanese actress, which is partly based on the real lives of actresses Setsuko Hara and Hideko Takamine. So if you're into classic Japanese cinema, you'll enjoy this film, as it also includes many references to those old films.

 

I really like the filmmaking style of Satoshi Kon. Just like his earlier film Perfect Blue, here he also blurs the line between reality and illusion, creating a work that explores the concepts of identity and obsession, narrating the search for romantic love in an almost surreal way.

 

Unlike Perfect Blue, however, I'd say that Millennium Actress is a fairly fun and funny film to watch. Although it has its sad and emotional moments, it doesn't really go into the dark themes of stalking, violence and suicide, like Perfect Blue does. In Millennium Actress, the male gaze is more positive and more collaborative, which empowers the main woman character.

 

I should also mention that the soundtrack is pretty good. The director had been a long time fan of composer Susumu Hirasawa, and this film marks the first time that they've worked together!

 

[bollemanneke 3,338]

The Interpreter. 

I watched this movie years and years ago  before I even knew who Nicole Kidman was. Don’t ask me how that came about, I don’t know. She’s great, incidentally, as is Sean Penn most of the time. The story does contain some questionable plot points, like Sylvia just finding Kuman-Kuman like that. I mean, there’s got to be more to finding someone than just waiting around at a random bus stop. There are also a little too many characters in the film, or maybe that’s just a problem because some key moments are insanely fast-paced, which is especially a shame at the very end. The dialogue between Penn and Kidman is great, though, and I’m actually surprised how good it was, overall.

The same goes for the score. I wrote it off as a dull JNH score at the time because it wasn’t as good as whatever I was comparing it to. It is indeed not Fantastic Beasts or The Nutcracker, but then again, it can’t be that. It’s mostly very functional, boasts great brass writing and has a fantastic D minor action moment at the end. I still feel conflicted about the use of African chanting when it suits the story, however. Even though I love film scores that tell the stories of their movies, it also somehow feels corny and a little… je ne sais quoi when an African voice starts wailing when we learn about African culture or when the end credits kick in. 
 

[SteveMc 2,674]

On 6/23/2021 at 1:08 PM, Jay said:

 

Always

 

Watched this about a month ago now for the first time ever; The only Spielberg-directed / Williams-scored film I hadn't seen yet! (I also still have to see The Color Purple)

 

I didn't think it was particularly good, but Holly Hunter and John Goodman were great in it.  Richard Dreyfus felt miscast and the new guy playing the other male lead was kind of a dud (and didn't seem to go on to have a particularly interesting career afterward either).

 

It's interesting to think about it how it fits into Spielberg's career path, with the themes it explores and such than it does an a movie on its own.  It was also great to learn the context for the Williams score, which I can appreciate in a whole new way knowing the story it's written for.  Even when Spielberg disappoints, Williams rarely does.

What do you think of the final sequence?  I think it is a pretty great piece of Spielberg direction and visuals, but others seem to find it as flat as the rest of the movie.

[Jay 37,317]

Good question.

 

I think that since the film wasn't quite working for me leading up to that, and because my wife wasn't really that into the film at all (and the experience of watching the film including the person you are watching it with's reaction have a big impact on your own experience, at least I've found that to be the case for myself), meant that by the time we got to the end, I wasn't in a position to be as wowwed by it as I maybe should have.

I will say that revisiting the finale through crumbs' great score restore videos made me appreciate it differently; Which makes sense, as removing elements from a film (in this case the sound effects and dialogue) can lead to appreciating the remaining elements better.

[danbeck 123]

Raiders is for sure the best, but it scared me too much when I saw it as a 7 year old in theaters.

 

ToD was a favorite, I watched it 2 times in theaters and many more on VHS, DVD, Blu Ray... I loved it so much as a 10 year old that it made me buy my first soundtrack LP ever in 1984 and a beautifull photo-story magazine that I regret to this day to have lost. 

 

LC is great but I didn't liked at the time Spielberg and Ford interviews kind of "apologizing" for ToD (which I had loved so much). I find the plot with nazis too much on the safe side to repeat Raiders, but the Conery-Ford relationship is indeed fantastic.  

[JoeinAR 1,949]

It still pisses me off that they apologize for TOD. At the time it came out Ford was receiving high praise for his dominating performance and his physical transformation. Roger Ebert  referred to it as a hidden fortress Bond Film.  Yes its dark but that is the point. 

[bollemanneke 3,338]

Victoria & Abdul. 

My Judi Dench strike is over. She was fantastic in this one. Well, all the actors were. Time really flew. I’m not sure how accurate it all is, though, and I know for a fact Ponsonby died before Victoria (thank you, Wikipedia), but it doesn’t matter. I had a great evening.

The Universal logo sounded really bad and dull. Is it so hard to re-record it? Some of Thomas Newman’s music was outstanding, but then at other times, I wanted him to do more. I need to continue with The Crown. I have been told Oliva Colman plays the queen in later seasons.

[Holko 9,499]

I had the extremely bright idea of making a weekend double feature from Mulholland Dr. and Images. Now I'm not even sure if I'm real anymore but I had a hell of a time.

[Nick1Ø66 4,689]

TOD has grown on me. It's still my least favourite of the three (and only three), Indiana Jones films, but I've come to accept & enjoy it for what it is.

 

What's interesting about these films is just how different Indiana's persona is in each, in some ways subtle and some dramatic. He's definitely not the same person throughout, and there are fundamental differences in his character that can't merely be chalked up to growth (or lack thereof).

 

42 minutes ago, Holko said:

I had the extremely bright idea of making a weekend double feature from Mulholland Dr. and Images. Now I'm not even sure if I'm real anymore but I had a hell of a time.

 

For what it's worth, I've never been entirely certain of your existence either.

[Holko 9,499]

10 hours ago, Nick1066 said:

For what it's worth, I've never been entirely certain of your existence either.

Of course we're all just bugs in Jay's programming.

[Jurassic Shark 12,033]

As we all know, Jay always leaves one typo!

[Sweeping Strings 2,346]

The Producers (1968) - had never seen this before, believe it or not. A hoot, of course ... one can only imagine the cries of 'This is in very poor taste!' back in the day.

Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (Collector's Edition) - I was admittedly a little tired when I put this on, and consequently the scenes reinstated by Spielberg did have the effect of making it feel like it was 'dragging' just a bit. But there's no denying that back-in-the-day Spielberg 'magic' and sense of wonder, the brilliance of Richard Dreyfus and Francois Truffaut and Doug Trumbull's pre-CGI (and still breathtaking) UFO effects, particularly the Mothership.

[Edmilson 7,394]

Minority Report

 

First time I watched this in years. It's a good movie with fine performances and a great score by Williams.

 

However, Kaminski's cinematography is... weird. Almost every scene is lit with a blinding white bright. It's even worse than in War of the Worlds. I had to take some prints out of Netflix to clarify what I'm trying to say:

 

 

 

 

[A24 4,326]

In my book, it's a movie that you can easily watch, but you're not feeling anything. So, in the end, it's not so good.

[Jurassic Shark 12,033]

Perhaps you should try watching the movie instead of reading the book.

[A24 4,326]

Great way of stimulating a discussion, JS.

[Jurassic Shark 12,033]

Let me know when you've watched the movie, and I'll chime in!

[Raiders of the SoundtrArk 2,429]

2 hours ago, Edmilson said:

Minority Report

 

First time I watched this in years. It's a good movie with fine performances and a great score by Williams.

 

However, Kaminski's cinematography is... weird. Almost every scene is lit with a blinding white bright. It's even worse than in War of the Worlds. I had to take some prints out of Netflix to clarify what I'm trying to say:

 

 

 

 

There've been on HBO an open matte version once with the cinematography corrected:

[Edmilson 7,394]

12 minutes ago, May the Force be with You said:

There've been on HBO an open matte version once with the cinematography corrected:

Much better for the eyes, though the sky is still unusually white and bright.

[Chen G. 3,944]

I agree, it looks weird.

 

But then I generally don't like the gauzy look in movies, especially in sci-fi.

[Matt C 452]

Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters

 

The non sequiturs are still funny (as is the hysterical "Let's All Go to the Lobby" spoof), but the length and plotting make it a slog. The show is so much better in the original 10-12 minute segments.

[Tallguy 3,379]

14 hours ago, Edmilson said:

Minority Report

 

First time I watched this in years. It's a good movie with fine performances and a great score by Williams.

 

However, Kaminski's cinematography is... weird. Almost every scene is lit with a blinding white bright. It's even worse than in War of the Worlds.

 

When I think of 2000's Spielberg I think of this kind of look. I haven't seen Munich. But I feel there is a much more affected "stagey" look in the 2000's era that is a contradictory "huge world" "tiny studio" look. It's like he had to choose between Always / Empire of the Sun and Hook and he went with Hook.

 

The ideas are huge but the execution can feel small.

 

We watched Men In Black tonight. I enjoyed it, but I didn't laugh very much. But WOW is Tommy Lee Jones' performance just run through with pain and suffering. Once you stop laughing at him (because he's hilarious) you realize how much of his character is informed by how much he hurts. And he's so good at it.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

He ain’t snarlin’, he’s sneezin’!

[Biodome 714]

I saw A Summer's Tale yesterday, directed in 1996 by Éric Rohmer, a French director known for his youthful romance dramas and a filmmaking style that's well-aligned with the French New Wave, where his career began. He likes simplicity and realism, frequently works with non-professional actors, despises anything that, in his opinion, breaks the fourth wall, such as non-diegetic music, and likes to group his films into thematic cycles. A Summer's Tale is part of a 4-film cycle titled Tales of the Four Seasons (Contes des quatre saisons).

 

In this film, Rohmer also continues to study young characters, despite being more than 70 years old at the time of directing the film. According to Rohmer, he just can't make older characters convincing enough, so he stays with that which he knows best. As is also typical with his other films, the characters in A Summer's Tale are well-educated and intellectual, so the dialogues often delve into broader cultural, academic and philosophical contexts, becoming somewhat "geeky".

 

The film revolves around a newly-graduated mathematician, Gaspard, who spends his summer vacation in a tourist-filled city in Brittany, enjoying his hobby of playing the guitar and writing songs. He is waiting for his girlfriend Lena to return from Spain, but when she fails to arrive for several days, Gaspard gets to know two other girls, an ethnologist Margot, and an adventurous, sea-loving Solene, both of whom become romantically involved with Gaspard. When Lena suddenly returns, he has to figure out how to get out of this messy situation. It doesn't help that Gaspard is indecisive and doesn't like to commit to anything.

 

On the surface, the story is really simple, but the character study is pretty fun to watch, and the French summer sun, the sea and the beaches definitely add a great deal of cinematographic charm.

 

[bollemanneke 3,338]

The favourite. 

I feel like I could write a lot about it, but my notes are contradicting that statement. All the actors are great (I love Olivia Colman). Abigail’s affair is rather annoying, though, and I don’t understand why Sarah is just happy to leave the country at the end.

When the movie opened with my favourite Handel concerto grosso, I thought I was going to be in for something great. I mostly was, but still found the inconsistent and historically inaccurate selection of music a bit irritating as well as the fact that some baroque music was performed on period instruments while other pieces were interpreted more romantically on modern instruments. One cue in in particular just consisted of one single note and both of its usages were utterly inappropriate. I also somehow wanted more music. Oh well, one can’t have everything, I suppose; Now, time to gorge on cake and vomit on the floor.

[JoeinAR 1,949]

On 6/27/2021 at 9:06 AM, Edmilson said:

Minority Report

 

First time I watched this in years. It's a good movie with fine performances and a great score by Williams.

 

However, Kaminski's cinematography is... weird. Almost every scene is lit with a blinding white bright. It's even worse than in War of the Worlds. I had to take some prints out of Netflix to clarify what I'm trying to say:

 

 

 

 

Kaminski is a horrible dp

[Raiders of the SoundtrArk 2,429]

10 hours ago, JoeinAR said:

Kaminski is a horrible dp

He's done some really nice things apart from Minority Report and KOTCS.

Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan, War Horse, A.I., Munich have for exemple beautiful photography.

[crocodile 7,988]

Love it or hate it but at least Spielberg films have a look. 

 

Karol

[Chen G. 3,944]

2 hours ago, May the Force be with You said:

Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan, War Horse, A.I., Munich have for exemple beautiful photography.

 

Dunno if I would call Saving Private Ryan's cinematography "beautiful", per se. It was, after all, intended to look like 1940s documentary footage, only in colour.

 

But your point is well-taken. Fandom has this annoying habit of throwing people under the rails due to one or two botched projects: you make a bad film, therefore you're bad, will always be bad and had always been bad, and your successes have to be explained away in some manner or another.

 

Schindler's List (a film you know I can't bring myself to rewatch) I especially recall as having truly outstanding camerawork.

[Jurassic Shark 12,033]

It's a great film as well.

[Raiders of the SoundtrArk 2,429]

1 hour ago, Chen G. said:

Dunno if I would call Saving Private Ryan's cinematography "beautiful", per se. It was, after all, intended to look like 1940s documentary footage, only in colour.

Well there's some shots that have quite a beautiful shot but I see your point.

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

 

[JoeinAR 1,949]

5 hours ago, May the Force be with You said:

He's done some really nice things apart from Minority Report and KOTCS.

Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan, War Horse, A.I., Munich have for exemple beautiful photography.

No. His fear of color makes him so one note. The world isn't gray/blue. 

Their is nothing remarkable about Munich. He didn't even have the balls to go all out red. If you make a snuff film like Munich the blood should shine.

[Raiders of the SoundtrArk 2,429]

I dunno. I think the grey tone of Munich was quite perfect to show the blurred frontier between justice and pure wrath. I don't think that blood should shine in any realistic movies and especially in those that denouce violence: blood doesn't shine outside of people, it dries in crusts and stains, let the shining effect to Tarantino and John Wick. Anyway I won't develop much more here (the subject of the film is easily too political)

 

[A24 4,326]

I sometimes wonder of Joe really thinks cinematographers are literally scared of colors, as it it has absolutely nothing to do with artistic choices. 

[Chen G. 3,944]

2 hours ago, May the Force be with You said:

I don't think that blood should shine in any realistic movies

 

Indeed. The one thing that can make movie blood look fake is to make it too red.

[bollemanneke 3,338]

Commando. 

 

Well, I haven’t laughed like that in a long time. The women are annoying, but I need to watch more movies in which Schwarzenegger breaks shit. It’s shallow and the Terminator lines annoyed me at first, but then I just sat back and enjoyed the ride. By the way, why hasn’t the PC movement started a campaign to change his name?

The score is insanely satisfying. It’s basically Terminator, but better. Well, no, that theme was awesome too, but I just loved the use of the saxophone. It could all do with some reverb, but I’m so grateful I’ve still got a plethora of James Horner scores to discover. The sound effects are laughable, but the mix is great. I’ll be back!

[Jay 37,317]

 

Midnight Run

 

Hehe, a pretty fun little movie.  Charles Grodin continually annoying De Niro was always fun, and Joey Pants as De Niro's boss was pretty good too.  John Ashton from Beverly Hills Cop was a fun addition to the mix later on, as was Dennis Farina's gangster character (I swear this guy is just ALWAYS great), and was Yaphet Kotto as the FBI agent constantly annoyed at the ineptitude of those around him.

 

The plot doesn't really matter, because the cast and everyone's chemistry was so good, but it was good enough and I cared what would happen.

 

Elfman's score was super interesting!  If I hadn't known he scored it, I don't think I would have been able to guess it was him.  I instantly became curious to hear the OST album and hope some kind of complete edition is possible.  I feel like the labels mentioned it once so hopefully it's not impossible.

 

It's free on Netflix

[Edmilson 7,394]

I watched this one on Netflix a few months ago, it's great! Had no idea DeNiro could be this funny.

[Edmilson 7,394]

Independence Day Ressurgence was on TV today. I had forget how awful that movie was and how forgettable and generic its score is.

 

As they said on the Honest Trailer, this movie was so terrible Will Smith chose to do Suicide Squad instead.

[Bespin 8,480]

I tried to watch 50 shades of Grey (because Eflman wrote the score), I tried two times, completely unable to watch it till the end.

 

ZZZzzz...

[A24 4,326]

The Goldfinch

 

 

Critics hated it, the audience loved it. I'm somewhere in between leaning slightly more towards the critics. The John Irving influence is quite obvious. Sadly, the first half hour was the best and only good part. 

[A24 4,326]

The Tomorrow War (Part 1)

 

 

It's the kind of sci-fi movie that would have gone to Arnold Schwarzenegger if it was made in the '90s.