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


Mr. Breathmask

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Ah, Serenity (and the preceding Firefly) ... Gina Torres, Jewel Staite, Summer Glau, Morena Baccarin and a recurring role for Christina Hendricks.

It's enough to have a chap needing a lie-down in a darkened room :love2: .

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17 hours ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

SERENITY

Shiny! :)

 

I still say shiny. Fewer people know what it means now than they did back then (which wasn't a lot). Then I got a coworker named Shiny and that made things difficult.

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Kaylee could play, all day, with my turbo boosters! :lol:

SERENITY is - like the show which preceded it - a film with a lot of heart, nifty performances, a witty and sharp script, and something that a recent science fiction trilogy (you all know what I'm talking about) does not have: integrity, and genuine imagination.

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1 hour ago, Jay said:

Were they named after the show?


(Crazy to think people born in 2002 are in the workforce now... I'm old)

 

Nope. Just her name. She'd never heard of the show.

 

54 minutes ago, AC1 said:

 'Imagination' is not what I would say is Serenity's greatest strength. Whedon's got most of his inspiration from Star Wars.

 

Of everything that Whedon borrowed from for Firefly / Serenity and you come up with "Star Wars"? :D

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16 minutes ago, Tallguy said:

Of everything that Whedon borrowed from for Firefly / Serenity and you come up with "Star Wars"? :D

 

Of course, that was his biggest inspiration. He just took the whole 'Western in space' concept a step further.

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3 hours ago, Disco Stu said:

Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula

 

My annual rewatch.  Is Keanu hopelessly miscast?  Obviously yes and the other performances are all over the place.  But every other aspect of the filmmaking is so jaw-dropping that I still say it’s one of Coppola’s finest movies.  There are images here that stay with you forever.  I almost wish I could watch a “silent mix” where dialogue is dialed out but music and SFX remain. I think it would only enhance the movie’s dreamlike surreal tone and of course deepen its connection to its early 20th century influences.

 

Poor Keanu was so bad that Charlie Sheen of all people made fun of him. Winona would have fared far worse without him. And Richard Grant and Bill Campbell are wasted.

 

But yes, it's a visual feast. Even more so since it is self consciously a magic trick! And to this day I adore the fact that they made Bram Stoker himself the "unreliable narrator".

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8 hours ago, Tallguy said:

 

Poor Keanu was so bad that Charlie Sheen of all people made fun of him. Winona would have fared far worse without him. And Richard Grant and Bill Campbell are wasted.

 

But yes, it's a visual feast. Even more so since it is self consciously a magic trick! And to this day I adore the fact that they made Bram Stoker himself the "unreliable narrator".

 

Although a weird realization I had watching the movie last night: I would totally watch a movie that was just a straightforward late Victorian melodrama about a forbidden romance between a prim English school teacher and a seductive Romanian prince, provided it still had the sweeping, aching Kilar love theme of course.  I kinda love the scenes of young Oldman and Winona, I think they work even isolated from all the supernatural elements.

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"I know where the barstard lies. In Carfax Ebby!"

My goodness it's awful, isn't it? Apparently Coppola tried to push Reeves into a "better" performance. Somewhere, there's footage of Oldman grimacing, as if to say "Is this for real?".

Happily, everything else is uniformly excellent.

All things considered it's the best screen version of DRACULA, by a country mile.

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2 minutes ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

All things considered it's the best screen version of DRACULA, by a country mile.

 

It's certainly my favorite.

 

And while Winona has some iffy line readings for sure, overall I think she's actually not bad here, although she was much better playing a somewhat similar kind of character in The Age of Innocence the year after Dracula.

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52 minutes ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

"I know where the barstard lies. In Carfax Ebby!"

 

It's his worst line. Other than that he's merely bad.

 

Come to that (almost 30 year memory here) Ryder calls Van Helsing a bastard and she doesn't fair any better. Don't have young American actors with a thumbless grasp of an English accent say "bastard". Lesson learned!

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Just now, Holko said:

I'm in the group who think even Keanu is a good kind of bad in this.

 

Certainly once the movie became a firm favorite and I'd rewatched it so many times, I've come to enjoy him in the movie in this way.  Similar to how I love to recreate Hayden Christensen's line readings from the prequels.

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Blade Runner 2022: Blackout

 

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Blade Runner 2036: Nexus Dawn

 

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Blade Runner 2048: Nowhere To Run

 

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This three prologue shorts prove how difficult it is to get the Blade Runner look and feel just right so that it looks authentic. Okay, the first one is animated (but the dialogue and voice acting are terrible), but Luke Scott (son of ol' Ridders), who directed the other two shorts, can't seem to nail it.  For the record, I don't think Villeneuve nailed it either, but at least he was smart enough to personalize the look and feel whilst these prologues are trying to copy the original film. 

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The Canal (2014)

 

Tells the story of an archivist who lives near a canal in Ireland which he thinks it's haunted.

 

The premise is interesting, but the movie is terrible. It's a low budget movie but the editing is so amateurish that makes it look like something done by Cinema students.

 

In theory it has everything I like in a horror movie (a slow descent into madness, ghosts that can be real or not, creepy old videos depicting murders that haunt the protagonist) but it lacks a sinister atmosphere. Everything about this movie looks off, like they filmed the rehearsals and released it as the final cut.

 

Don't know how this crap got 75% on RT.

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Now the main reason I watch movies, is for their score.

 

Sleepy is Hollow, The Expanded version is MAJESTIC, so I have to rewatch the movie (I just purchased the DVD). For Glory, it will be a discovery, that's on Netflix!

  • Glory
  • Sleepy Hollow
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On 22/10/2021 at 1:56 AM, Disco Stu said:

Francis Ford Coppola DRACULA

Dennis Vilneuve's DUNE

My annual rewatch.  Is Keanu Timothy Chalomét hopelessly  miscast? Obviously yes and the other performances are all over the place. But every other aspect of the filmmaking is so jaw-dropping that I still say it’s one of Coppola's Vilneuve's finest movies. There are images here that stay with you forever. I almost wish I could watch a “silent mix” where dialogue is dialed out but music and SFX remain. I think it would only enhance the movie’s dreamlike surreal tone and of course deepen its connection to its early 20th century mid-60s influences.

:lol:

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Kingdom Of Heaven

 

kingdom-of-heaven-wallpaper-12.jpg

 

The first part is good mainly because Liam Neeson is always (!) likeable when he plays the role of a mentor. I really don't know how he does that. The second part, when Orlando Bloom settles down in Jerusalem and women throw themselves at his feet, is less interesting. Things get good again during the third part when an impressive and involving huge battle takes place. However, the only time the film truly touches me, is an intimate moment when Ridley Scott uses that classical vocal/choir piece that supposedly is co-written by Hans Zimmer (yeah, right!). Anyway, it's a beautiful moment and it shows what music and images are capable of when both are great. 

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15 minutes ago, AC1 said:

Kingdom Of Heaven

 

kingdom-of-heaven-wallpaper-12.jpg

 

The first part is good mainly because Liam Neeson is always (!) likeable when he plays the role of a mentor. I really don't know how he does that. The second part, when Orlando Bloom settles down in Jerusalem and women throw themselves at his feet, is less interesting. Things get good again during the third part when an impressive and involving huge battle takes place. However, the only time the film truly touches me, is an intimate moment when Ridley Scott uses that classical vocal/choir piece that supposedly is co-written by Hans Zimmer (yeah, right!). Anyway, it's a beautiful moment and it shows what music and images are capable of when both are great. 

 

Did you watch the director's cut?

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Brewster's millions. What a pleasure to see the polka king of the Midwest, was it, in another movie. I was going to write that the beginning felt a bit slow and superficial, but I really had a lot of fun, largely thanks to all the hyperactive shouting, and am also glad the bad guys didn’t receive too much airtime. For some reason, I’ve been getting tired of villains lately. Marilyn was great too, but Angela sounded like a woman from a Hitchcock movie (aka very limited emotions in her voice). And it was great that it just ended in the lawyer’s office and didn’t come with a cheesy romantic closing scene nobody needed. The music is great too. Let’s do business, doing business. TEN MILLION TEN MILLION TEN MILLION!

 

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On 27/10/2021 at 6:18 PM, AC1 said:

the only time the film truly touches me, is an intimate moment when Ridley Scott uses that classical vocal/choir piece that supposedly is co-written by Hans Zimmer (yeah, right!). Anyway, it's a beautiful moment and it shows what music and images are capable of when both are great. 

 

Yeah, I was just talking about this with a friend. The only moments in Kingdom of Heaven that I find truly touching all invariably have to do with Sybila and/or King Baldwin. Especially the moment of the latter's death and the montage accompanied by Cor Meum, but also her discovery of her son's illness; and a couple of cutaways to her while the siege takes place.

 

I also really like Jeremy Irons in this.

 

I have a huge dislike for Marton Csokas as the villain. He's snooty, and not in a good way, and its not like he's intimidating, either. It doesn't work at all. And really, much of the script is very clumsy. Its a very mixed movie - the director's cut does not remove its issues by any means. But ultimately I just find it visually rapturous and a very impressive and evocative piece of filmmaking. The good certainly outweighs the bad.

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8 hours ago, Chen G. said:

I have a huge dislike for Marton Csokas as the villain. He's snooty, and not in a good way, and its not like he's intimidating, either. It doesn't work at all. 

 

The two befriended conspirators didn't work. It wasn't because of the acting but it feels like they don't have a backstory, as if an important part of the movie is still missing, despite it being a lengthy director's cut. We need an Ultimate Cut.

 

8b21479575ace709e446dba8e27bb100--kingdo

 

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Gifted

A feel good movie that warms my heart each time I watch it. Evans is great here (although he's a bit in the shadow of his Captain America but that's fine), Spencer is as always great as the nicest person ever but the true strength of the movie is the child Grace which IMO is the greatest child actor I've seen in a movie since Bale in Empire of the Sun

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Once Upon a Time in the West felt like an alternate reality version of The Good the Bad and the Ugly.

 

I have to admit that it feels SO unique that I have to wonder "Are there dozens of movies just like this and this was just the one that people still remember?"

 

Fonda is remarkable. This is a film I would love to see on the big screen.

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4 hours ago, Tallguy said:

Once Upon a Time in the West felt like an alternate reality version of The Good the Bad and the Ugly.

 

I have to admit that it feels SO unique that I have to wonder "Are there dozens of movies just like this and this was just the one that people still remember?"

 

Actually, there are dozens of films like it!

It's practically an anthology of scenes from Hollywood westerns.

But, you don't need to know that- I certainly didn't- to appreciate it's greatness!

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Star wars 4. I’m re-watching the OT in preparation for the ROTJ live concert later this year. A few random observations:

Is it normal for the first chord of the main title to have such a serious pitch issue? It sounded like someone was adjusting a vinyl!

I prefer this main title version to the concert one. Not the recording, but the notes.

I really liked the first part of the film very much this time until all the fighting began. Wish I could see them all in concert now.

Why did Lucas never insert the imperial march in this movie? He inserted Jaba’s theme in it.

Ben reminds me of an Irish acquaintance I just made.

Why does Ben suddenly tell Luke everything about his father now? Why not when he was younger? Because the movie scene required it?

Was Darth Vader always going to be Luke’s father when it was just going to be one movie? Is Ben sparing Luke here?

Obi-Wan is violent! Amputating that arm in the cantina. Calm down, man. And the patrons hardly react! Twice!

How do the stormtroopers always track them in the beginning?

If the Force is with Obi-Wan, shouldn’t Vader technically call it a day and surrender? Will there ever be a scenario in which the force is with the Empire?

Carrie Fisher sounds really different. Not, you know, at death’s door.

What does Ben mean, ‘I will become more powerful than you could ever imagine if you strike me down?’ He doesn’t do anything after that, just gives Luke a few one-liners.

Lots of little moments were unscored, surprisingly.

Wouldn’t it be awesome if someone inserted the Solo theme in these films?

So if Vader survived, what was the plan for the one—movie scenario? Was he just going to skulk in space forever and not do anything?

 

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2 hours ago, bollemanneke said:

Obi-Wan is violent! Amputating that arm in the cantina. Calm down, man. And the patrons hardly react! Twice!

 

Well, you know, when an bad guy is threatening your life you have to take action. But really if he were really a hero like Han he would have let the fellow get a shot off.

2 hours ago, bollemanneke said:

Why does Ben suddenly tell Luke everything about his father now? Why not when he was younger? Because the movie scene required it?

 

Because he wasn't allowed near Luke. They didn't have much contact.

 

2 hours ago, bollemanneke said:

Why did Lucas never insert the imperial march in this movie? He inserted Jaba’s theme in it.

 

Because he had an unexpected attack of good sense?

 

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9 hours ago, Tallguy said:

Well, you know, when an bad guy is threatening your life you have to take action.

 

In earlier drafts Obi-wan either slices the bad guy in the middle from head to toe, or decapitates him - the latter having actually been filmed but scrapped.

 

It seems at some points Lucas had experimented with making the film slightly "edgier" than what it turned out to be. It was always concieved to be a fairly brisk, lighthearted family film (early press on the then in-the-making film called it a comedy) but Lucas did try to push the envelope here and there a little bit.

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Captain Kronos : Vampire Hunter - amusing little mid-70s Hammer number, admittedly not much in it to frighten a body nowadays. Features a pre-TSWLM Caroline Munro, looking as lovely as ever.

Poltergeist - no wonder debate raged over whether Spielberg had actually directed this as well as producing and co-writing ... it's a very 'him' movie; bits of it put me strongly in mind of Close Encounters, Raiders and E.T. It pulls off the 'terrifying things happening to suburban American family' aspect well (albeit not as intensely as Rosemary's Baby or The Exorcist does ... I'd imagine Tobe Hooper would've been happy enough to 'go there', but Spielberg less so).

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The debate about who directed POLTERGEIST, has been rumbling on, since 1982. It's Hollywood's own "who wrote the Bond theme?" *

Watching it again, I can see the Hooper influence, but, to these ears and eyes at least, the Spielberg influence is far stronger.

Hooper was not involved in any aspect of post (sfx, sound effects, dubbing, music), and Michael Khan edited it. It "flows" like a Spielberg film. Heck, you can even see his arms, in the movie :lol:.

Word is that, in 1981, no director could direct two films at the same time, so Steve brought in Hooper almost as a front. That didn't stop Spielberg taking out an ad. in Variety, in 1982, stating: "...you delivered the goods".

Who directed what? We'll, probably, never know, but that doesn't stop my enjoyment of the film.

 

*

Spoiler

John Barry, of course! :lol:

 

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