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

[Tallguy 3,381]

2 hours ago, crocodile said:

Watched The Godfather Part III a couple of nights before. Decided to go with the new cut. I get what they were trying to do bit this isn't one bit interesting to watch.

 

Karol

 

So... Not much has changed?

 

(I haven't seen III since it was in the theater. I remember like two things about it.)

[Edmilson 7,398]

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

SpaceCamp

I said I'll watch every movie scored by Williams, that's why.

Including Heartbeeps and Jaws 2?

[Jay 37,322]

Of course, what's the point in making exceptions?

[Tallguy 3,381]

4 minutes ago, Jay said:

Of course, what's the point in making exceptions?

 

If you're doing that list for Goldsmith?

[Jay 37,322]

Ooof, I wouldn't want to watch all the flicks Goldsmith scored

But I do want to see all the flicks Williams scored.  I think I have less than 30 to go now

[Raiders of the SoundtrArk 2,429]

20 minutes ago, Edmilson said:

Including Heartbeeps and Jaws 2?

Jaws 2 is okay, I haven't seen Heartbeeps yet, it will probably be the last one I'll check

[Sweeping Strings 2,346]

The Offence - part of Connery's deal to return as Bond for DAF was that 2 films of his choice would be backed by United Artists ... ultimately, the financial failure of this first one would mean the second never got made.

Nonetheless this stage-play adap (directed by Sidney Lumet) is a gripping crime drama, with Connery brilliant as a copper haunted by the awful things he's seen in the line of duty in the last 20 years. When a suspected child molester (Ian Bannen, equally good) is brought in for questioning, a shift in the dynamics between accuser and accused gradually occurs over the course of the interrogation.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,507]

Agreed 100%, Sweep. It's a damn good film. Bannen is superb.

[Sweeping Strings 2,346]

In terms of doing something as different from Bond as possible, Connery chose well. 

[Naïve Old Fart 9,507]

Yeah, and then he goes all-out weird, in an orange diaper, in ZARDOZ - a film that I have a lot of love for.

[Chen G. 3,944]

I watched a few minute of it, realized what I was in for, and saved it for a day where I'm drunk out of my arse with the lads: then it'll at least make for a good lark.

[Edmilson 7,398]

Tomb Raider (2018)

 

Decent, yet not very memorable. I suppose this is "better" than the Angelina Jolie movies from the early 2000s, but those were way more fun .

 

The score sounds like any RCP action score from the past decade.

 

The games that inspired this movie, on the other hand, are pretty good.

[Schilkeman 957]

I've watched a lot of older (and not so older) films recently, so I'll give them all a short review. This is all in the last month or so. Guess I've been in a mood.

 

In the Line of Fire: Very good, going to buy Blu-ray

Marriage Story: the best movie I've seen in a decade

Hail! Caesar: I will own every Cohen Brothers movie. More fun if you know a bit about old Hollywood.

The Lighthouse: Will buy. Willem Dafoe steals the show

Hateful Eight: Hateful, violent, great score by the late Morricone. Prefer original over extended. Will buy

Power of the Dog: Watch if you want to waste two hours of your life.

Escape from Alcatraz: Not great, but worth watching once.

National Treasure 1-2: Straight up love both of these movies. Underrated. Will buy

Taxi Driver: Last score by Hermann? I'm glad I watched it, but I don't know if I'll come back to it.

The Irishman: Like Godfather III, deals with the repercussions of being a terrible person. Great movie. Will buy

Do the Right Thing: A masterpiece. Must buy

Three Musketeers (1993): Saw this twice in the theater as a kid. Still love it. Great score by Michael Kamen. Will buy overly expensive Blu-ray.

There Will Be Blood: "A movie that is easy to call great, but I'm not convinced of its greatness."-Roger Ebert

Midnight in Paris: Not defending Woody Allen, but a very good movie. Will buy secondhand.

The Firm: Very tense. Wilford Brimley is a bad guy? Will buy.

First Knight: Super underrated. Great score. If you can buy an American playing a French knight in Medieval England, it's pretty good.

Arrival: Amy Adams is my favorite actress. Beautiful film. Must buy.

Ronin: Would be better if it had a story, but great action.

The Lost Boys: I get why it was influential. I'd rather re=watch Buffy for teenage vampires.

Dunkirk: A minimalist war film? Nolan might be the most overrated director working today.

Stripes: meh?

Da 5 Bloods: Not a masterpiece. Won't buy

 

[A24 4,327]

11 hours ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

Yeah, and then he goes all-out weird, in an orange diaper, in ZARDOZ - a film that I have a lot of love for.

 

You have to admit that the costume design is terrible in this movie.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,507]

Oh, absolutely, but the cinematography, courtesy of Geoffrey Unsworth, is fantastic. Also, it has a great score.

[Chen G. 3,944]

Meh. I've never liked Boorman's effinity for gauzy visuals in genre films. "Because its not real, you see..."

[Naïve Old Fart 9,507]

Come on, dude, EXCALIBUR looks fucking gorgeous.

[Chen G. 3,944]

Some shots definitely do. But as a blanket solution for the whole movie, the soft focus was WRONG.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,507]

Maybe...but it still looks gorgeous 

[Chen G. 3,944]

Well, Boorman generally has an eye for composition and good visuals...

 

Also, having the Irish countryside at your disposal, not to mention the music of Tristan and Parsifal playing in the background, certainly helps...

[Naïve Old Fart 9,507]

...with a generous offering of Orff, thrown in for good measure.

Trevor Jones' score isn't too shabby, either.

[Chen G. 3,944]

Meh. Carima Burana is a flashier piece, but its got nothing on the prelude of Tristan.

 

Interestingly, Boorman claimed he got the idea for the music when he attended the Jahrhundertring, which I'm willing to buy except that I'm skeptical as to how he would have gotten tickets: Bayreuth sells out years in advance, and this was the goddamn centenary Ring!

[A24 4,327]

13 minutes ago, Chen G. said:

Well, Boorman generally has an eye for composition and good visuals...

 

Also, having the Irish countryside at your disposal certainly helps...

 

I've been to the Irish countryside, everything is taken by sheep and bulls. Still a fantastic country to hike through.

[Jurassic Shark 12,033]

44 minutes ago, Chen G. said:

Some shots definitely do. But as a blanket solution for the whole movie, the soft focus was WRONG.

 

They were ahead of their time, optimizing for Netflix.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,507]

7 hours ago, AC1 said:

 

I've been to the Irish countryside, everything is taken by sheep and bulls. Still a fantastic country to hike through.

Meh. Try the Highlands and Islands.

[Marian Schedenig 8,178]

[bollemanneke 3,338]

Tristan and Isolde. 

 

Here’s the problem. Neither Tristan nor Isolde are likeable. I mean, Isolde is okay, but Tristan? Time flew in the first half and Isolde’s maid grew on me; but then the romantic troubles started, I lost patience and Rufus Sewell unexpectedly emerged as the true star of the movie. My God, he’s great.

Thee quieter and romantic cues could have been written by Thomas Newman, but he sure as hell couldn’t have written the rest. Oh, and I love medieval dance music.

 

[A24 4,327]

Ridley Scott always wanted to make that movie.

[Sweeping Strings 2,346]

The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976) - a curious beast, this. It's a loosely-based-on-fact horror-thriller about a killer who terrorised the town of Texarkana in 1946 that also has moments of misplaced slo-mo and ones of even more misplaced broad comedy that posssibly would've played better in a movie made in the mid-40s as opposed to just set then.

[Jay 37,322]

 

Sunshine Cleaning

 

A very nice little comedy/drama with an absolutely stellar cast (Amy Adams, Emily Blunt, Steve Zahn, Eric Christian Olsen, Mary Lyn Rajskub, Clifton Collins Jr, and Alan Arkin)

 

Adams and Blunt are sisters going through their own set of hard times when they end up forming crime scene cleanup company; Alan Arkin is their father attempting to run his own hustle.  Everyone learns and grows from the situations that develop in the movie.   A nice breezy watch

[Jay 37,322]

 

Lucky Number Slevin

 

Haha, I had never seen this movie and thought it was supposed to be good, but now that I've seen it, it's actually mostly pretty meh.  The cast is stacked - Ben Kingsley and Morgan Freeman are rival mob bosses, Stanley Tucci is the cop trying to take them both down, Bruce Willis is a hitman working for both bosses, and Josh Hartnett (where has he been!?) is an innocent man caught up in everything, with Lucy Liu as his love interest.  It starts interestingly enough, but the movie seems really pleased with its plot twist and doesn't attempt to make much compelling once it's all revealed.  I'm not surprised the director has mostly just done TV work after this.  It was free on Plex, which unfortunately meant it had ad breaks, too, which made the slog even worse

[Jay 37,322]

 

Brightburn

 

I had been mildly intrigued about this movie when it came out, which was advertised as sort of "What if when Superman came to earth, he grew up to be evil instead of good?".  And now that I've seen it, I can say that's basically all that's going on here.  The standins for Superman's Smallville parents are Elizabeth Banks and David Denman (Roy from The Office), who do a good job, as does Matt Jones (Badger from Breaking Bad) and Meredith Hagner (Portia from Search Party) as their brother and sister in law.  Them and some other minor characters are all basically fodder for the kid to kill one by one in increasingly gory ways as he comes to terms with his powers.  I'm not a huge fan of overly graphic kills but fans of that will have a lot to feast on here.  The ending sort of sets up a sequel but 3 years later I don't really see it happening.   There's also cameos from two Suicide Squad / Peacemaker actors (Steve Agee and Jennifer Holland); The film is written by James Gunn's brother and cousin.

 

 

[Sweeping Strings 2,346]

16 hours ago, Jay said:

 

Lucky Number Slevin

 

Haha, I had never seen this movie and thought it was supposed to be good, but now that I've seen it, it's actually mostly pretty meh.  The cast is stacked - Ben Kingsley and Morgan Freeman are rival mob bosses, Stanley Tucci is the cop trying to take them both down, Bruce Willis is a hitman working for both bosses, and Josh Hartnett (where has he been!?) is an innocent man caught up in everything, with Lucy Liu as his love interest.  It starts interestingly enough, but the movie seems really pleased with its plot twist and doesn't attempt to make much compelling once it's all revealed.  I'm not surprised the director has mostly just done TV work after this.  It was free on Plex, which unfortunately meant it had ad breaks, too, which made the slog even worse

Sometimes these 'everybody double-crossing everybody else' crime comedy-thriller things can be deeply irritating. Seem to remember absolutely hating Smokin' Aces, for example. 

[Naïve Old Fart 9,507]

Thanks for the tip, Sweep. I've not seen either film, although LNS is available at my local thrift store, for the princely sum of 25p (oh, the humanity! ). It might be worth it, just to see how bad it actually is. Sometimes, you need some trash, to appreciate the treasure.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

2 hours ago, Sweeping Strings said:

Sometimes these 'everybody double-crossing everybody else' crime comedy-thriller things can be deeply irritating. Seem to remember absolutely hating Smokin' Aces, for example. 

I remember that and Slevin being popular amongst my high school peers. Layer Cake too, though I haven’t seen any of these films.

 

It all feels very Guy Ritchie. 

[Naïve Old Fart 9,507]

LAYER CAKE is worth watching, if only for a ptoto-Bond Daniel Craig.

[Jay 37,322]

Layer Cake is good! 

[Edmilson 7,398]

Insidious (2010)

 

Meh. I've read creepypastas that are, well, creepier than this movie. Some decent jumpscares, but overall very underwhelming.

[Sweeping Strings 2,346]

Yeah, Layer Cake is good ... it's the performance that convinced EON Craig was right for Bond, if memory serves.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,507]

Correctamundo...a word I have never used, and shall never use, again.

[Jurassic Shark 12,033]

Keep my wife's name out your mouth!

[LSH 968]

 

THE GREEN MILE dir. Frank Darabont

 

Doesn't even matter how long it's been since the last viewing... it's always a powerful and emotional ride. I was bawling my eyes out as usual.

 

Crikey, I haven't cried this much in ages. What a beautiful film. Similar to Darabont's other zenith of everything, The Shawshank Redemption, it ticks every box. The cast, the production design, cinematography, music... it's all perfect.

 

Thomas Newman's score is amazing in any context but it's so sewn into the fabric of the film. It's completely haunting... on a level that I can't even describe with words.

 

I'm still drying my face. I'm destroyed. 

[Sweeping Strings 2,346]

The Devil's Doorway - Sixties-set 'found footage' horror about 2 priests investigating an alleged miracle at one of the (now infamous) 'Magdalene Laundries' ... they do, of course, find much more than they bargained for.

Reasonably creepy and at a trim 75 minutes, it doesn't outstay its welcome.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,507]

GoldenEye.

My giddy aunt, this is good stuff. It's not only a good Bond film, it's a damn good film in its own right!

The production design, and cinematography, are both top notch, and it feels like - up until that time - the only Bond film to be properly edited, rather than having one shot placed after another (let's face it; John Grover is not the most dynamic of editors).

The supporting cast (John, Coltrane, Dench, Cumming, Bond, Kitchen, Baker, Karyo) are all great, and the girls are...the girls, and Janssen always did enjoy a good squeeze . Even Bean is decent, as 006.

Campbell's very assured direction, and Rawlings' first-rate editing makes this among the very best of the series.

There are minor quibbles: the sound mix is a little muffled, at times, with sound effects left over from ALIENS, and Meddings' work is obvious, but all-in-all, it's a brilliant comeback.

Brosnan exudes confidence, pitching his portrayal somewhere between Moore's glib humour, and Connery's no-nonsense cold bastard.

And, oh, yes, the score. I know that it doesn't get much love around here, but I absolutely adore it. This is one score that is crying out for a remastered expansion. Easily a top-5 Bond score, for me.

Film: 5/5

Score: 5/5

[Sweeping Strings 2,346]

The issue of Bond's 'relevance' might just be dealt with here more deftly (M's 'relic of the Cold War' dialogue, Bond's faintly amused 'Point taken') than anything similar in the Craig films.      

 

[Sweeping Strings 2,346]

Life Of Brian - annual Easter rewatch. Still a joyfully irreverent comedy masterpiece (and about half the length of those interminable Biblical epics).  

[Marian Schedenig 8,178]

Same.

[Tom Guernsey 2,281]

5 hours ago, Sweeping Strings said:

Life Of Brian - annual Easter rewatch. Still a joyfully irreverent comedy masterpiece (and about half the length of those interminable Biblical epics).  

And, as someone once pointed out, probably more grubbily realistic too (in the sense everyone is dirty and dusty). But yeah great film even if my favourite python movie scene is the Holy Grail discussion about magical swords from watery bints not being a sound basis for a system of government (I may be paraphrasing somewhat but the full length scene is hysterical).

[Marian Schedenig 8,178]

Life of Brian is a film I've seen so many times, and from a rather early age (for the first several years only in German, obviously; and it's a rare case of an actually really good dub - within the possibilities, they did have to change a lot of jokes, obviously), that I'm still finding little bits and pieces that are probably obvious, but "new" to me. I remember only consciously acknowledging that the Pythons all play multiple characters years after first seeing it. This time, I was amused that the crowd that starts following Brian as the Messiah is actually the same that just a scene earlier was objecting to his calling the birds lazy.

 

I had a few friends over for watching it (most of whom had already seen it many times) and set them the additional task of spotting Kenneth Colley and George Harrison.

 

Also, the Bond series obviously has given us a good number of outstanding title songs, but as Bond songs go, Brian still has one of the best.

[crocodile 7,990]

Watched The Ten Commandments over the past couple of evenings. Oh dear, this film really drags, doesn't it? I liked Charlton Heston's charismatic performance but everyone else is quite bad. Elmer's score didn't exactly stick out as much as I'd like but it has certainly a pretty main theme. Overall, I'd say this one didn't age well at all. Anachronisms aside, it just isn't very engaging filmmaking.

 

Having said that, the UHD presentation is quite nice.

 

Karol