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


Mr. Breathmask

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I found the plot for the first film quite ok. I just wasn't interested at all in the fantastic beasts. And movie just spent too much time, showing to me these magic creatures, how they behave, how they eat, what they do etc. That was really boring.

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It's not a great movie, but it's like The Godfather when compared to its sequel. CoG was so mind-numbingly terrible, it made me gave up on the whole franchise and not even watch the third flick in theaters - which was a first for Potter-related movies.

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On 13/5/2022 at 5:11 PM, bollemanneke said:

Mulholland drive.

 

A bit weird, but I’m very glad I didn’t turn it off. Laura Elena Harring stood out, but part of me feels like it should have ended with the two women sitting in the theatre. I’m not saying I didn’t like the rest per se, but… I don’t get it. Maybe I’m not supposed to, but I want to. I’m just whispering ‘what the fuck?’ to myself. It’s food for thought all right and I’m going to have to read some analyses, now. Rewatch might be in order too.

The score is surprisingly electronic and the romantic cue is amazing, but should not have been repeated and certainly not twice. I don’t… What…? I’ve just watched something special, I think.

You should watch more Lynch!

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10 hours ago, Chen G. said:

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

 

Umm, I thought this was supposed to be...good? Like, this was the proverbial "good one" followed by a disappointing sequel, which may or may not have caused people to retroactivelly look unfavourably on this film. Right? My memory is that the critical reception at the time of its airing was quite positive. But its...not good; and I'm not saying that in hindsight - this is the first I've laid eyes on this and its...bad? Like, quite bad.

 

I still think the issues do not lie with the direction: they have everything, however, to do with this abysmal screenplay. I don't really care that the title is about Fantastic Beasts and that the film in fact sets-up a Dumbeldore vs. Grindelwald conflict: the film is whatever it is, not what its title may suggest. But is this film really about either of those two subject? Its very hard to make out: even having seen the second film, I had a hard time understanding when Credence would work his way out of being an aside and into this little thing called "the plot" and the same is true of so much of this film.

 

Also, as a prequel of-sorts its incredibly ill-concieved. We typically give prequels a hard time for having been made a long time after production on the previous entry had concluded, but in this case I think there's the opposite issue working against the film: precisely because this came so shortly after Deathly Hallows, Rowling remained still so immersed in her own creation that she didn't accomodate at all for an audience who would be coming to this having not seen Harry Potter. And I'm not talking like a passing acquitance with Philosopher's Stone: one need to be pretty into Potter to make much sense of this at all.

 

Maybe I'm overstating the point due to my sheer surprise: I do think its reasonably well-directed, and performances are quite nice and there's a lot about it that's admirably different to Harry Potter. But the plot is so incredibly difficult to follow and even more difficult to invest in.

 

A bad movie!

The film admits that there's no fucks given about the plot, when it goes on and on and on although the plot has concluded.

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10 hours ago, Chen G. said:

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

 

I give you my word, i saw this years before streaming and i don't have the faintest memory what it's about (apart from the main character having weird facial features and the fat baker guy and that it's somehow set in NY). I do remember the sequel, though, which was a grim mess and just stood out in that 'who greenlights this shit?' kinda way. 

 

I wouldn't mention it if not for JNH, who tried valiantly but lost (though this stuff has its fans here).

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On 13/05/2022 at 11:11 PM, bollemanneke said:

Mulholland drive.

 

A bit weird, but I’m very glad I didn’t turn it off. Laura Elena Harring stood out, but part of me feels like it should have ended with the two women sitting in the theatre. I’m not saying I didn’t like the rest per se, but… I don’t get it. Maybe I’m not supposed to, but I want to. I’m just whispering ‘what the fuck?’ to myself. It’s food for thought all right and I’m going to have to read some analyses, now. Rewatch might be in order too.

The score is surprisingly electronic and the romantic cue is amazing, but should not have been repeated and certainly not twice. I don’t… What…? I’ve just watched something special, I think.

You can probably understand it better, when you know, that

  • the movie was originally planned just to be a pilot for a television show. That is probably why so many characters get introduced which in the end do not really play a role.
  • the first half or two thirds of the movie are just a dream of Naomi Watts character (at the beginning you see, how somebody goes to sleep). And she dreams, how she is everybodies darling and how she is superior to her friend Rita. But she isn't. After she wakes up to the last act, you see how she gets ignored by everyone including Rita. 

This helped me to make at least a bit more sense out of the story.

 

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5 hours ago, Koray Savas said:

You should watch more Lynch!

I'm going to, don't worry.

 

2 hours ago, Brundlefly said:

The film admits that there's no fucks given about the plot, when it goes on and on and on although the plot has concluded.

The plot is straightforward, I think. At least this movie doesn't seem to have been made to be one of five. After 1, they just blatanly tell you they're not going to be bothered giving you anything good until you've paid four more times.

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16 minutes ago, bollemanneke said:

The plot is straightforward, I think.

 

Is it? Watching it, I didn't at all get that this was a straightforward plot about magical beasts that only got "hijacked" by Grindelwald's introduction at the end: instead, all throughout there would be these asides to the Magical Congress or to Credence, with absolutely no explanation until near the very end as to what these have to do with the main plot.

 

The subplots in these kinds of "well-made-play" type stories often get criticised, and - to be fair to that tendency - obviously in any story with multiple storyline threads there's bound to be a weaker link. But usually the different subplots are connected in some way to the main plotline from the start; they don't only start connecting at the end.

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Hmm, I guess that didn't bother me. What still surprises me is that I really loved the Second Salemers subplot in this one, but I then really hated Ezra Miller in 2 and 3. This first entry has the kind of spark that I still associate with the HP universe from my childhood. The second and third one are boring Yates crap.

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5 minutes ago, bollemanneke said:

This first entry has the kind of spark that I still associate with the HP universe from my childhood.

 

That's the other thing, too: this would be all but incomprehensible to an audience who isn't very well-versed in Harry Potter.

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SOMEONE BEHIND THE DOOR ( 1971)

Obscure Charles Bronson flic ( playing against type) made by the French!

 

Don't know if this ever was released in English speaking countries as they never bothered to insert English language letters of correspondence with French ones, which creates continuity problems.

 

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Afraid Of The Dark - 90s British thriller in which blind women in an area of London are being slashed by a man wielding a cut-throat razor. A young boy with his own sight problems investigates, but reality and fantasy begin to merge.  

Decent enough, albeit never really that suspenseful. With James Fox, Fanny Ardant, Paul McGann and David Thewlis.   

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Drag Me To Hell - strikes me that Sam Raimi made this gleefully gross 90 minute tongue-in-cheek horror flick as a 'palate cleanser' after the financially successful but clunky Spider-Man 3.

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Fantastic Four (1994)

 

No one is going to mistake this quickie Corman film for an unseen gem but it is rather charming in its ultra low-budget way. Acting is suspect at times (especially Joseph Culp, who makes Julian McMahon look subtle) but it's rather faithful to the comics story-wise.  And the score by Eric & David Wurst is wonderful, would like to see an official CD release.

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Top Gun - yeah yeah yeah, movie as extended music video or whatever. But when it's this escapist-enjoyable, who damn well cares? Tom Cruise secures his place in the 'firmament', there's a hit soundtrack and the pre-CGI aerial manoeuvres/combat stuff still holds up.

Remo Williams : The Adventure Begins - as the title suggests, an intended franchise that the box-office failure of this put paid to. Christopher Wood's screenplay could do with tightening up, the pace feels a little too leisurely at times for an action flick - perhaps a runtime of around 105 minutes as opposed to 121 would've been better? Still, the action is decent (particularly a setpiece on the under-renovation Statue Of Liberty, with some vertigo-inducing stuntwork) and there's a nicely tongue-in-cheek streak, which is no surprise with Guy 'Goldfinger/Diamonds Are Forever/Live And Let Die/TMWTGG' Hamilton at the helm. 

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The Blood On Satan's Claw - diabolic doings in 16th century England ... well, they had to make their own fun in those days you know. Quite entertaining slice of Seventies folk-horror ... it may interest the Whovians here to know that Second Doctor companion Wendy Padbury and 80s Master Anthony Ainley are in it.  

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Not only that, my eagle-eyed friend, it also has Roberta Tovey, and a young Simon Williams, who was later in REMEMBRANCE OF THE DALEKS, as Group Captain "Chunky" Gilmore (although why he's called "Chunky" I've no idea :lol:)

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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - 2005

 

51CnHeGFx0L._AC_.jpg

 

Well. Better than I remembered. And my kids loved it. Not nearly as clever OR as silly as the radio play / book / TV show. But obviously more expensive.

 

Freeman is good as Arthur (not great, but really good), Rickman is amazing as Marvin, and Bill Nighy is my hero as Slartibartfast.

 

I do remember seeing it in the theater with an audience that had more than your average number of towels. They would start a joke and then leave off the ending. The whole audience acted like they had walked down the stairs in the dark and got to the bottom before they expected.

 

"I'm British. I KNOW how to queue." was by far the best new line in the movie.

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1 hour ago, Tallguy said:

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - 2005

 

51CnHeGFx0L._AC_.jpg

 

Well. Better than I remembered. And my kids loved it. Not nearly as clever OR as silly as the radio play / book / TV show. But obviously more expensive.

 

Freeman is good as Arthur (not great, but really good), Rickman is amazing as Marvin, and Bill Nighy is my hero as Slartibartfast.

 

I do remember seeing it in the theater with an audience that had more than your average number of towels. They would start a joke and then leave off the ending. The whole audience acted like they had walked down the stairs in the dark and got to the bottom before they expected.

 

"I'm British. I KNOW how to queue." was by far the best new line in the movie.

I always thought the movie was pretty great and didn’t smooth out the weirdness too much. Plenty of surreal moments and silliness held together by a pretty great cast. Also a shout out for Joby Talbot’s terrific score which is lots of fun and even has a Mr N Hannon on vocals (Talbot was previously in the Divine Comedy and I think used to do most of the orchestral arrangements before Neil started doing them himself). 

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I've followed TH-H'sGTTG since I heard the first radio series.

I like this film. Tallguy is right; it's not as good as the radio show, but it's an interesting "reinterpretation", and, yes, Tom, Talbot's score is lovely. The Magrathea factory floor music is beautiful.

It's good to see Simon Jones, and the original Marvin, not to mention Douglas Adams, right at the very end.

It would have been nice to have a sequel. I was looking forward to seeing Roostar, Zarniwoop, Hotblack Desiato, the Total Perspective Vortex, the Bistromath, and maybe, even the great prophet Zarquon.

Not a classic, but it is an entertaining ride. 

 

19 hours ago, Tallguy said:

I do remember seeing it in the theater with an audience that had more than your average number of towels. They would start a joke and then leave off the ending. The whole audience acted like they had walked down the stairs in the dark and got to the bottom before they expected.

Down the stairs? To Ursa Minor?!

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On 22/05/2022 at 12:16 PM, Naïve Old Fart said:

Not only that, my eagle-eyed friend, it also has Roberta Tovey, and a young Simon Williams, who was later in REMEMBRANCE OF THE DALEKS, as Group Captain "Chunky" Gilmore (although why he's called "Chunky" I've no idea :lol:)


Aye, although by my reckoning Padbury and Ainley were more 'significant' when it comes to Who and that's why I singled them out for mention. 

Chunky's adventures continued with Big Finish, I believe. Bit of a cracker, Remembrance ... one of McCoy's best.    

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I'm in a marathon of trilogies and sequels.

 

I'm rewatching the Dark Night Trilogy (and still find all the other villains of this trilogy to be more theatrical than the joker, who normally must be the most theatrical of them all, anyway...). I wonder why Batman's suit is always black since the 1989 movie?  I wonder who'll dare to show a Batman in gray, like it is supposed to be.

 

Anyway, I love them more now than when I first watch them at the time of their release.

 

I'm also considereing to watch Attack of the Clones, some Clone Wars episodes and Revenge of the Sith to get into the mood for the Obi-Wan series.

 

Then, I also want to see the Amazing Spider-Man series, with Andrew Garfield playing the guy in the spandex suit, I think I never saw them (and his buns in the suit). I already know that is hard to beat the ones of Tom Hollands! Anyway!

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21 hours ago, Tallguy said:

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - 2005

 

51CnHeGFx0L._AC_.jpg

 

Well. Better than I remembered. And my kids loved it. Not nearly as clever OR as silly as the radio play / book / TV show. But obviously more expensive.

 

Freeman is good as Arthur (not great, but really good), Rickman is amazing as Marvin, and Bill Nighy is my hero as Slartibartfast.

 

I do remember seeing it in the theater with an audience that had more than your average number of towels. They would start a joke and then leave off the ending. The whole audience acted like they had walked down the stairs in the dark and got to the bottom before they expected.

 

"I'm British. I KNOW how to queue." was by far the best new line in the movie.

Sam Rockwell is the highlight for me. Wonderful film. 

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14 minutes ago, Koray Savas said:

Sam Rockwell is the highlight for me. Wonderful film. 

 

I love Rockwell, but I think they sacrificed the bits of Zaphod being actually clever to just make the "President is stupid" joke. It's kind of like in the book how Arthur gets progressively more clueless. It goes from "Normal fellow out of his element" to "This guy is actually really dim." (Of course by the last book you'd be forgiven for thinking Adams hated everyone.)

 

My kids have been singing So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish all weekend and they now both want Journey of the Sorcerer on their phones.

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23 hours ago, Bespin said:

 

I wonder why Batman's suit is always black since the 1989 movie?  I wonder who'll dare to show a Batman in gray, like it is supposed to be.

 

 

Zack Snyder did

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Stagecoach (1939)

 

This movie never gets old for me, even though I can practically recite the dialogue as it plays.

 

I would love for the score to get a modern re-recording, even if it is the product of a committee of 6 composers or however many it was.

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Horror Express - out of all Christopher Lee's movies, the BBC chose this one to mark the great man's centenary? Riiiiight. 

Lee's Victorian-era anthropologist is transporting a frozen humanoid creature he found on the Trans-Siberian Express which naturally 'defrosts', escapes its storage crate and proceeds to wreak havoc on the train ('havoc' being that it is inhabited by some sort of formless extraterrestrial with the power to drain people of their memories and knowledge. I know, what are the odds?!?). 

Also starring Peter Cushing and Telly Savalas, this is a piece of very silly hokum which it was probably a mistake to watch sober.     

 

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2 minutes ago, Sweeping Strings said:

Horror Express - out of all Christopher Lee's movies, the BBC chose this one to mark the great man's centenary? Riiiiight. 

Lee's Victorian-era anthropologist is transporting a frozen humanoid creature he found on the Trans-Siberian Express which naturally 'defrosts', escapes its storage crate and proceeds to wreak havoc ('havoc' being that it is inhabited by some sort of formless extraterrestrial with the power to drain people of their memories and knowledge). 

Also starring Peter Cushing and Telly Savalas, this is a piece of very silly hokum which it was probably a mistake to watch sober.     

 

Most film buffs love this flick.

It's totally original hokum!

You have to avoid taking it too seriously

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It's on the iPlayer, should you feel inclined to give it a go (and indeed if same is available where you are).   

Yes, they're colleagues with a friendly-ish rivalry as opposed to vampire and vampire hunter etc.  

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image.png

 

Drums Along the Mohawk (1939)

 

John Ford had three films released in 1939, and Drums Along the Mohawk will always be the one that isn't a timeless masterpiece (the other two being Stagecoach and Young Mr. Lincoln), but it's still mostly a nice enjoyable movie.  Henry Fonda and Claudette Colbert play a newlywed couple that move to the Adirondack/Catskills frontier of upstate New York at the beginning of the Revolutionary War to start a small farm among a community of mostly German derived settlers.  The community plays its part in the war by fighting native warriors that made a deal with the Loyalists.  Colbert seems out of place in the period setting, she just has too much of the look of a Roaring Twenties/Great Depression era "modern" woman.  Fonda's stoicism that can be so effective in some roles makes him just kinda boring here.  The technicolor location shooting is gorgeous, although if you know even a little about American geography the locations are very obviously Colorado or Utah, not upstate New York.

 

It's a solid 3 out of 5, mostly down to Ford's reliable craft and colorful story telling.

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THE MAN FROM HONG KONG

 

The man who replaced Bruce Lee fights the man who replaced Sean Connery in an Australian film produced by Raymond Chow and revered by Quentin Tarantino.

Do you really need to know more?

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Mr Holland's opus.

 

Pretty good, if a little long. Rowena really didn’t need to be in there, but boy, am I glad I kept watching for that magnificent final scene, which was exactly what I hoped it would be. The first half is definitely the best, however, and I loved Gertrude (both actresses). Wish she could have played his wife.

Now, the score. It’s appropriately excellent. But it’s also surprising because my other encounter with Michael Kamen, Licence To Kill, was anything but spectacular and more like a disappointment bordering on a disaster. Hmm, turns out he was involved in Lethal Weapon, that was better. Also, I will never ever understand how some people don’t have a sense of rhythm, the Beethoven 7-2 sequence was extremely moving, I might just warm up to the Beatles a little as long as they are symphonically orchestrated and although the score badly needs some reverb, Holland’s symphony is absolutely gorgeous. Here’s hoping Kamen finished it and that other composers will eventually take up his very unusual combination of instruments. I loved it so much I was conducting it.

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Taking advantage of the UK's extended Bank Holiday weekend, I nipped down to Dublin for a 2-day break on Thursday morning ... knew if I stayed in Belfast an invitation from Mum to come and watch Platinum Jubilee celebrations on TV would be extended, and although I bear the Royals no real ill will that's not my idea of fun.

So anyway, last night (despite having slept poorly in the guesthouse whilst away) I thought The Abyss (which I recorded from Film 4 a while back) with beer was a good idea (think it was some sort of special edition/director's cut ... the synopsis said 'contains restored footage' and an introduction recorded by Cameron for Film 4 preceded it).

So basically although the tension, action and SFX still seemed more than up to scratch 30+ years on I found myself doing the 'fall asleep, jerk awake, rinse and repeat' thing during it ... I persevered to the end though, 'cause it was a Saturday night after all.

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THE ABYSS is one of my all-time favourite films, and scores. I can't make up my mind which score I like more: THE ABYSS, or CONTACT.

Did it have the complete "Beany breathing underwater" sequence?

Thirty years later, the wave sequence is still gobsmacking.

4K, restored, Dolby Atmos Blu Ray, now!!!!!!

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20 hours ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

THE ABYSS is one of my all-time favourite films, and scores. I can't make up my mind which score I like more: THE ABYSS, or CONTACT.

Did it have the complete "Beany breathing underwater" sequence?

Thirty years later, the wave sequence is still gobsmacking.

4K, restored, Dolby Atmos Blu Ray, now!!!!!!


It may well have had ... as I said, I was not fully attentive during it (although happily, I did manage to catch all of Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio's resuscitation scene - yay for boobies!) 

Note to self - when knackered and intending to watch a movie, choose one with a 90 minutes or less runtime.    

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Once participated in a Q & A with Michael Biehn at a convention here ... asked him if he'd found The Abyss a difficult shoot, as that seemed to be the general consensus. He said not really, although he is quoted on its Wiki entry as being frustrated at being on location for five months and only filming for three to four weeks. 

Haven't seen the docu, but the aforementioned Wiki entry makes clear that both MEM and Ed Harris felt pushed beyond endurance during production. 

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