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

[Brónach 1,302]

1 hour ago, GerateWohl said:

You should watch Ran.

 

i saw it ages ago

[Naïve Old Fart 9,719]

It's good. Watch it again.

[Brónach 1,302]

Yes sir!

[Naïve Old Fart 9,719]

You better 

[JNHFan2000 2,981]

The Ten Commandments

I was afraid that this was gonna be difficult to get through, but I ended up really liking it. The only other film I've seen that tells this story is Dreamworks' Prince Of Egypt.

So to discover it in an almost 4 hour epic was very cool.

Charlton Heston, Anne Baxter & Yul Brynner were my favorites.

Bernstein's music is spectacular but I already knew that.

 

 

Ben-Hur

A film of which it's score is one of my favorites of all time and yet I'd never seen it. I loved it.

Another great performance by Heston with a terrific supporting cast and spectacular production design and setpiece.

I was astonished by the chariot race. It was absolutely thrilling. I'm truly in awe of how they were able to pull that of in 1959!

 

I was afraid that I wouldn't like these 2 or that it would be difficult to get through. Partly because I experienced Gone With The Wind as painfully long and these were the same length. And partly due to the fact that I'm not at all religious. I thought it woukd annoy me when films that feature faith so heavily, but I guess when it is done right, I don't mind it as much.

 

 

Next up I'm going to the West...

The Magnificent Seven and after that Tbe Alamo

[Naïve Old Fart 9,719]

There is something else that GONE WITH THE WIND, THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, and BEN-HUR have in common: the theme of slavery.

[JNHFan2000 2,981]

Indeed.

And the latter 2 handled it better in my opinion.

 

And I liked Gone With The Wind better after I had some distance from it. But to me  it wasn't as good as the world claims it to be.

The later films I'm watching I all find better and more enjoyable

[Naïve Old Fart 9,719]

GWTW may not be the greatest film ever made, but it still packs a wallop, on several levels.

[Chen G. 4,032]

I always find myself less on the wavelength of those "soap operas writ large" kind of epics: Gone With the Wind but also stuff like Doctor Zhivago. I guess Titanic, which I quite like, is on the fringes of this genre.

 

When I think of a large-scale historical topic, I think of films where the main characters are directly embroiled in bringing about some event of historical significance: so, TE Lawrence is instrumental to the success (such as it is) of the Arab revolt, William Wallace helps restore freedom to Scotland, etc... Not so with Rhett Butler or Yuri Zhivago.

 

And those sand-and-sandal and biblical era epics from the 1950s...I find that I like them in my head more than I do in practice, if only because they have a tendency to have really stagey-looking blocking. The Ten Commandments is by far the worst offender: so many shots are set up in ways that scream "stageplay"!

[filmmusic 1,896]

38 minutes ago, JNHFan2000 said:

The Ten Commandments

This (or Giant) was robbed of a best picture Oscar from Around the world in 80 days which I watched the other day, and I found boring.

 

* * *

 

 

Now, I watched the 4K disc of this film which was great (the remaster I mean).

This was one of my favorite films in my childhood. Well, it didn't hold up too well for me now.

I learned to appreciate the first film more, and now I like it much better. Plus it has the original Williams score.

This one, in terms of score, was a copy. I wish Thorne had created some original material, or maybe a theme for the villains.

[A24 4,368]

Christopher Reeve is still good in it.

[HunterTech 996]

Honestly, I felt his and Kidder's performances were weaker compared to the first film, which might come down to how much clunkier I find a lot of the rewritten scenes to be (plus presumably not being too thrilled to work with Lester). I certainly want to revisit the Donner cut for that reason, since the tidbits I saw felt better acted.

 

I've grown to appreciate Thorne's work more recently, for as restrained as it is creatively. Especially since it still beats the RDC being such a hatchet job in regards to how it edits the score from the first one. I certainly would love someone to do like some sort of rescore project with it.

[filmmusic 1,896]

 

I haven't seen this in soooo many years, and I just bought the 4k blu-ray!

The score, which is  a masterpiece in my book elevates the film much, not that it isn't good by itself that is.

Great film all around!

But... I still haven't understood (beware spoilers about the plot)

Spoiler

who killed whom!

Who did Beth Kill, if any, and who did Catherine kill, if any..

in the film they say in the end that Beth did the killings (the .38 pistol found in her apartment used on Nilsen, etc. etc. But in the internet they say Catherine did all the killings.

Talk about confusing....

[Jay 37,516]

Beth was innocent, Catherine framed her.  Catherine killed everybody.

[crocodile 8,065]

Watch the Avatar: The Way of Water for the first time since cinema release (on 4K Blu-ray). It was definitely a better movie than the first one. Narratively, pretty standard stuff, as usual for Cameron, but, boy, does he know how to stage a spectacle. There are very few big movies where you can actually feel like you're there.

 

Karol

[filmmusic 1,896]

 

Decent horror sci-fi that I had watched in the theater and remember liking it. So, I got the 4k blu-ray.

Well, I could do without it honestly. Anyway...

Note: I'm not a fan of the opening and ending credits techno music score.

[Marian Schedenig 8,251]

I've seen it a couple of times, but I mainly remember that it starts out extremely promising and becomes more and more mundane the longer it goes on. A disappointment in the end. I prefer Boyle's Sunshine.

[A24 4,368]

The conventional, old-school SFX of Event Horizon were great, the very early CGI not so much. Not a good movie though ... Sunshine almost plays like a remake but I don't like that one either. Then there's Ad Astra which isn't much good either. I really hope they put this old story to rest now.

[filmmusic 1,896]

I remember comparing Event Horizon to Sphere, which I think is much better.

[Marian Schedenig 8,251]

7 hours ago, AC1 said:

The conventional, old-school SFX of Event Horizon were great, the very early CGI not so much. Not a good movie though ... Sunshine almost plays like a remake but I don't like that one either. Then there's Ad Astra which isn't much good either. I really hope they put this old story to rest now.

 

I liked Ad Astra for much of its runtime because I was convinced that some of it wasn't "real" but just what was going on in the protagonists head. But the ending seemed to disprove that and became even weirder and physically absurd, so I don't think I'd much like the first part if I saw it again.

 

Sunshine has the advantage of being made by Danny Boyle, whose general M.O. at the time it was to deconstruct his characters down to their most basic instincts by the end of the film*, so whether you like that concept or not, it's a natural fit for him. And the set pieces feel very tangible.

 

*) One reason why I was interested to see his Bond film before he gave up on that. But in fact I haven't seen any of his films post-Sunshine, so maybe his M.O. has changed completely anyway. (I do have T2 on Blu, had it for years in fact, but I still haven't watched it)

[Brónach 1,302]

Ad Astra is hysterical.

[A24 4,368]

2 hours ago, Marian Schedenig said:

 

 

Sunshine has the advantage of being made by Danny Boyle, whose general M.O. at the time it was to deconstruct his characters down to their most basic instincts by the end of the film*, so whether you like that concept or not, it's a natural fit for him. And the set pieces feel very tangible.

 

 

Strange, nothing about Sunshine felt genuine to me, but rather, let's pretend that we're a crew of a spaceship. Especially the captain/commander was unconvincing, never believed in him for a second. It didn't help that it reminded me of Alien (as did Event Horizon). The sci-fi tone and crew of Alien are like the paragon of tone and space crews to me.

 

2 hours ago, Brónach said:

Ad Astra is hysterical.

 

The only 2 things I remember are the apes (which was kinda creepy, I admit) and the father of Ad Astra kinda copying Sam 'Event Horizon' Neill at the end of the movie.

[Tallguy 3,528]

18 hours ago, filmmusic said:

 

Decent horror sci-fi that I had watched in the theater and remember liking it. So, I got the 4k blu-ray.

Well, I could do without it honestly. Anyway...

Note: I'm not a fan of the opening and ending credits techno music score.

 

Ahhh yes. "Clive Barker's The Black Hole".

[Faleel 5,447]

On 27/07/2023 at 2:53 AM, HunterTech said:

. I certainly would love someone to do like some sort of rescore project with it.

[Marian Schedenig 8,251]

2 hours ago, AC1 said:

Strange, nothing about Sunshine felt genuine to me, but rather, let's pretend that we're a crew of a spaceship. Especially the captain/commander was unconvincing, never believed in him for a second. It didn't help that it reminded me of Alien (as did Event Horizon). The sci-fi tone and crew of Alien are like the paragon of tone and space crews to me.

 

Yes, they do remind me of Alien, and yes, they do feel entirely unrelatable. But then Cillian Murphy's character in general gives off strange, almost sedated vibes, so I always felt that this disconnect is intentional. Mark Strong's insane and seemingly metaphysically augmented character is just as weird. But the way Boyle puts it all together works for me, at least.

[A24 4,368]

 Nailing a good sci-fi tone and space crews are hard to pull off, they don't have to be relatable, I have to believe it. Good ones are 2001: ASO, Alien, Aliens, ...hmm, ... hmm, ... 

 

An absolute bad one would be the one in Prometheus (IMO). 

[bollemanneke 3,367]

The hours.

 

Finally watched it after reading uncountable references to it in academic papers I had to read for my Master’s thesis.

 

The setup is brilliant, but the problem for me was that this movie is full of alarmingly weird people. Or rather, they’re disturbingly crazy until you realise what’s going on with them. The puzzle fell into place too late, though, so up until the end I was thinking ‘what the fuck are you doing now?’ Meryl Streep is the worst (though she’s pretty good). The party, it’s just a party, the party, a party, party. I KNOW, YOU’RE HAVING A PARTY. Then a weird outburst, then a suicide, but then… back to the party. We’re having a party, were having a party. Julianne Moore is brilliant throughout the whole thing. Nicole Kidman’s accent is a bit grating, but she’s great when she’s not whispering in a poetic and tortured voice. Ed Harris is equally brilliant, of course. Didn’t recognise Toni Collette at all and why on earth does Julia hug Laura at the end and why is young Richard so clingy? Is that because he can ‘feel’ she’s planning to leave? And why does the babysitter think it’s quite normal?

 

The score contains a few very good ideas. But then you realise that the rest is unfortunately quite repetitive and that, yet again, they should have asked Philip Glass to just write the sketches and ask a more talented composer to finish the job. I want a cake now. A nice cake. A birthday cake. For my birthday.

 

[Jurassic Shark 12,236]

11 minutes ago, bollemanneke said:

The score contains a few very good ideas. But then you realise that the rest is unfortunately quite repetitive and that, yet again, they should have asked Philip Glass to just write the sketches and ask a more talented composer to finish the job.

 

I can't remember how repetitive the music is in the film, but the OST is great.

[GerateWohl 4,474]

20 minutes ago, bollemanneke said:

The score contains a few very good ideas. But then you realise that the rest is unfortunately quite repetitive

Oh, Phillip Glass wrote something repetetive? What a letdown.

[filmmusic 1,896]

I love The Hours. I hope a blu-ray, or even better a 4K disc is announced soon.

 

Anyway, I just watched:

 

 

My favorite Kong movie. I saw it first in my childhood and it marked me.

I don't understand why people say it's a bad film.

And the Kong himself, is more real than the Jackson's CGI.

My favorite scene is the whole sacrifice scene.

[Edmilson 7,627]

The only Kong I need is the Peter Jackson one. 

[Jurassic Shark 12,236]

5 minutes ago, filmmusic said:

I love The Hours. I hope a blu-ray, or even better a 4K disc is announced soon.

 

I didn't know it's only out on DVD. Wasn't it quite a successful film?

[filmmusic 1,896]

1 minute ago, Jurassic Shark said:

 

I didn't know it's only out on DVD. Wasn't it quite a successful film?

There is an Italian blu-ray that isn't very good and a Japanese one that is better.

Yes, I'm equally surprised that it isn't out yet in USA/UK.

[Tallguy 3,528]

3 hours ago, Edmilson said:

The only Kong I need is the Peter Jackson one. 

 

Well, the original is film 101, but I get you. 

[Sweeping Strings 2,403]

Another Round - Danish comedy-drama starring Mads Mikkelsen about a group of schoolteacher friends who make a pact to spend their workdays in a state of 'controlled inebriation' to study its effect on their lives. There's a bit of an undertow of Scandi melancholy here, but mostly it's a hymn to the joys of .

[JNHFan2000 2,981]

The Magnificent Seven

 

I realised halfway through that I had seen this already. But I could inly remember one scene.

It was a lot of fun. The 7 men playing the 7 are all great and the final battle was thrilling.

 

The Alamo

 

Not everything worked for me, but the raid of The Alamo is very well done. Lot's of extras & great stunts. Maybe a bit too much smoke, it was hard to see sometimes.

John Wayne is always a treat to see and somehow Richard Widmark reminded me of Walton Goggins. Almost in the way that I expected them to be family or Goggins studied him. I thought it was funny.

[Edmilson 7,627]

The French Connection

 

People say this is one of the most thrilling action movies ever made, but for me it had the exact opposite effect: I lost interest 30 minutes in and soon after I had fallen asleep.

 

But I did like the fact that it was filmed in location, so you really feel you're back in 70s NY.

[JTN 2,242]

This is one of my

absolute favorite films of all time. With each viewing it gets better and better and as I grow older I appreciate it more and more. Damon and Williams are amazing in their roles, the screenplay by Affleck and Damon and the directing by Gus Van Sant is outstanding. And Danny Elfman’s score would’ve deserved an Oscar.
GOOD WILL HUNTING is a perfect film.

[filmmusic 1,896]

Love this film and I watch it almost every summer.

And the Goldsmith score of course is top notch!

[Jurassic Shark 12,236]

I refer to some of my neighbours as Klopeks. Only behind their backs, of course.

[filmmusic 1,896]

17 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

I refer to some of my neighbours as Klopeks. Only behind their backs, of course.

Hehe. Why? What do they do?

[Jurassic Shark 12,236]

3 minutes ago, filmmusic said:

Hehe. Why? What do they do?

 

They're annoying and think they own the area.

[JTN 2,242]

5 hours ago, Jurassic Shark said:

 

They're annoying and think they own the area.

The Klopeks live in my neighbourhood as well. Klopeks are everywhere.

5 hours ago, filmmusic said:

Love this film and I watch it almost every summer.

And the Goldsmith score of course is top notch!

Love it. The Patton musical references always make me smile. 

[Tallguy 3,528]

We saw The Haunted Mansion last night. It was certainly a middle of the road OK movie. The problem is that THM is my favorite Disney ride of all time. So I need it to be at least as good as Pirates of the Caribbean. And it's just not.

 

On the plus side there are actually some rather clever call outs and contexts for the ride. One of my favorites is

Spoiler

the inclusion of the Disney World Mansion. Kudos.

 

The score is nice. I've found in cases like this where a composer will grudgingly dole out a reference or two to the music of an original property. Kris Bowers gleefully takes Buddy Baker's theme and runs with it. It is the best part of the film. The setting of the film and the music is great. I don't know if it feels like New Orleans, but it feels like New Orleans Square at Disneyland.

 

The one thing the Eddie Murphy film did that this one misses is the singing busts. And I would dearly have loved some way to include Thurl Ravenscroft and Paul Frees. (If I was making the movie I would have figured out a way to involve Ron Howard.)

 

It's incredible that we now have TWO Haunted Mansion movies. I can't imagine we'll ever get a third. I suppose that's just as well.

[Sweeping Strings 2,403]

Race With The Devil - 70s horror thriller in which 2 vacationing couples stumble across a Satanist ritual sacrifice and are consequently pursued by the acolytes of Ol' Nick. Some of the horror stuff came across as a little hokey nowadays, but there's some decent vehicular mayhem towards the end.

With Peter Fonda, Warren Oates and Loretta Swit.

[JNHFan2000 2,981]

Exodus

 

I wasn't that into the firat 2 hours. It moved to slow and I wasn't too interested tge characters. The last hour was a lot better. The whole prison sequence and the ending escape were really good.

 

King Of Kings

 

Like I said, I'm not religious. This was a very good film I have to say. Some parts moved a bit too slow for me, but other than that I thought it was pretty good.

 

El Cid

 

This one I loved. Great story, setpieces and acting. Sophia Loren was especially great I thought. The scenes on the beach at Valencia were terrific.

 

All 3 films of course have an amazing score. I'm especially into Rozsa's scores. He's maybe my favorite composer from the Golden Age

[Naïve Old Fart 9,719]

On 27/07/2023 at 10:13 PM, filmmusic said:

 

I haven't seen this in soooo many years, and I just bought the 4k blu-ray!

The score, which is  a masterpiece in my book elevates the film much, not that it isn't good by itself that is.

Great film all around!

But... I still haven't understood (beware spoilers about the plot)

  Hide contents

who killed whom!

Who did Beth Kill, if any, and who did Catherine kill, if any..

in the film they say in the end that Beth did the killings (the .38 pistol found in her apartment used on Nilsen, etc. etc. But in the internet they say Catherine did all the killings.

Talk about confusing....

 

On 27/07/2023 at 10:31 PM, Jay said:

Beth was innocent, Catherine framed her.  Catherine killed everybody.

 

Yep. What Jay said.

It's one of the best films of the 90s, and fully deserves all praise thrown at it 

I've posted before and I'll post again; the score is mixed very well. It really plays a vital role in the proceedings, and it uses the rear speakers effectively.

[Sweeping Strings 2,403]

I remember even at the time Basic Instinct caused a furore. Imagine the shitstorm it would face in getting made/released nowadays. 

Stiff Upper Lips - reasonably amusing parody of what I suppose you might call the 'Merchant Ivory genre' with Prunella Scales, Samuel West, Georgina Cates, Sean Pertwee and Peter Ustinov.   

[Naïve Old Fart 9,719]

6 hours ago, Sweeping Strings said:

Imagine the shitstorm it would face in getting made/released nowadays. 

 

It would never get made, especially in pervading state of Hollywood.

 

 

6 hours ago, Sweeping Strings said:

I remember even at the time Basic Instinct caused a furore.

 

You mean because of that shot?

It's important, for the film.

Even before it was completed, BASIC INSTINCT picked up a lot of flack. It was attacked by feminists, and the LGBTQIA2S+ community (or whatever it was called, in 1992). Catherine Tramell has become a bit of a feminist icon. Strange, that.

[JNHFan2000 2,981]

To Kill A Mockingbird

 

Wonderful film.

 

There are small things that don't age well I thought, but overall this was a great film.

 

I love the courtroom scenes and especially Atticus' speech. The performance of both Peck and the actor playing Tom were incredible!

 

I actually knew the ending of the film. I knew Robert Duvall was in it and that hr was the one who saved the kids. But I was surprised at how emotional I got when Scout says: "There he is" and you close in on Duvall's face.

The final few minutes were just so wonderful and sweet.

 

In no small part to Bernstein's score. Which has been a favorite for a long time.