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

[Sweeping Strings 2,365]

The Inglorious Bastards - not the Tarantino flick, rather an Italian-made 70s WW2 actioner in which a bunch of US soldiers in France who have been sentenced to death for various misdemeanours escape on the way to the prison camp where the sentence is to be carried out and head for neutral Switzerland, only to wind up becoming part of a plan to destroy a train carrying a prototype of the V2 rocket.

Fun Saturday night watch, with a streak of Dirty Dozen/M*A*S*H cynicism to it. Starring Bo Svenson, Fred Williamson and Ian Bannen.

[crocodile 8,020]

Watched Conan the Barbarian for the very first time on the new Arrow UHD set. Really enjoyed this. Whatever clunkiness there might be, whether that's acting or music performance, it actually works very well for this movie. It makes it feel like something from an very old age. I was amazed just how much attention is given to music, making it feel like a silent film for big stretches of time. There is an isolated score track included but you hardly need it as Poledouris' contributions are at the very forefront almost all the time. It's also refreshing to watch something as cinematic. There's hardly any unnecessary dialogue and most of it is carried by cinematography and music. Really cool.

 

Karol

[Andy 4,147]

16 hours ago, Sweeping Strings said:

The Inglorious Bastards - not the Tarantino flick, rather an Italian-made 70s WW2 actioner in which a bunch of US soldiers in France who have been sentenced to death for various misdemeanours escape on the way to the prison camp where the sentence is to be carried out and head for neutral Switzerland, only to wind up becoming part of a plan to destroy a train carrying a prototype of the V2 rocket.

Fun Saturday night watch, with a streak of Dirty Dozen/M*A*S*H cynicism to it. Starring Bo Svenson, Fred Williamson and Ian Bannen.

Yeah, that’s a fun one!

 

Cutthroat Island

First time watch for me.  What didn’t audiences like about this?  This was everything I wanted it to be.  The 90s were very good for action movies.  Before digital stunts and digital hyper camera movements.  The pyrotechnics and stunts are top notch. The performances are just fine.  My wife chuckled at some of the hokey dialogue and romance while Modine removes a bullet from Geena Davis. I told her, “It’s Cutthroat Island. What do you want?”

 

Unpopular opinion: I still haven’t fully warmed to Debney’s score.  It is without relent.  I did have to volume down the remote a few times.  The score is the gold standard for bombastic.  I would’ve liked some nuance and subtlety where the scenes would’ve allowed.  It’s propulsive though, I’ll give him that. 

 

The movie gave me everything I wanted to see in a throwback pirate movie.  Cannons blazing, sword fights, pirate treasure, swashbuckling rope swings, double crossing, and old Hollywood romance.   This movie looked expensive, and was a feast for the eyes.   The production design felt real, the visuals felt earned. 
 

Sure, the characters were a bit thin. 
 

I was too busy enjoying the monkey to care. 

[Jurassic Shark 12,097]

37 minutes ago, Andy said:

17 hours ago, Sweeping Strings said:

The Inglorious Bastards - not the Tarantino flick, rather an Italian-made 70s WW2 actioner in which a bunch of US soldiers in France who have been sentenced to death for various misdemeanours escape on the way to the prison camp where the sentence is to be carried out and head for neutral Switzerland, only to wind up becoming part of a plan to destroy a train carrying a prototype of the V2 rocket.

Fun Saturday night watch, with a streak of Dirty Dozen/M*A*S*H cynicism to it. Starring Bo Svenson, Fred Williamson and Ian Bannen.

Expand  

Yeah, that’s a fun one!

 

Cutthroat Island

First time watch for me.  What didn’t audiences like about this?  This was everything I wanted it to be.  The 90s were very good for action movies.  Before digital stunts and digital hyper camera movements.  The pyrotechnics and stunts are top notch. The performances are just fine.  My wife chuckled at some of the hokey dialogue and romance while Modine removes a bullet from Geena Davis. I told her, “It’s Cutthroat Island. What do you want?”

 

Unpopular opinion: I still haven’t fully warmed to Debney’s score.  It is without relent.  I did have to volume down the remote a few times.  The score is the gold standard for bombastic.  I would’ve liked some nuance and subtlety where the scenes would’ve allowed.  It’s propulsive though, I’ll give him that. 

 

Agreed. 

 

[Naïve Old Fart 9,556]

18 hours ago, crocodile said:

There is an isolated score track included but you hardly need it...

 

How DARE you!

 

 

3 hours ago, Andy said:

It is without relent.

 

You mean it's "relentless".

[Sweeping Strings 2,365]

4 hours ago, Andy said:

I was too busy enjoying the monkey to care. 

If that's a euphemism ... TMI, dude!  

[Tallguy 3,402]

8 hours ago, Andy said:

First time watch for me.  What didn’t audiences like about this?  

 

I hated it. But I haven't seen it since 1995. Maybe the things that made it seem ridiculously self indulgent in '95 will, with nearly 30 years of far worse cinematic indulgences to compare it with, seem charmingly quaint and old fashioned.

 

My expectations were high as it seemed like the kind of niche film aimed right at me that nobody else was going to like. And then I didn't like it. So very sad.

[Marian Schedenig 8,212]

17 hours ago, Andy said:

Cutthroat Island

First time watch for me.  What didn’t audiences like about this?

 

Everything. Well, Geena Davis and Matthew Modine are good, and the score is as great as an overblown, non-stop action pastiche can possibly be. But everything else about it is awful, and gets worse as the film goes on. It's one of those select films that I know to be crap, but still get an itch every few years to watch again, only to complain afterwards that I shouldn't have wasted my time because I already knew it to be horrible. I even bough the Blu-ray because of that, and will hopefully never watch it a second time. (Lynch's Dune is another of those, but at least that one's an utterly *fascinating* trainwreck).

 

Polanski's Pirates remains the last good pirate film to date (and that can drag horribly as it goes on… but at least its heart is in the right place, and when it's good it's great fun).

[Faleel 5,365]

*Muppets Treasure Island

[Andy 4,147]

Could it be argued that Waterworld is a pirate film?  I missed that one until recently too, and my review is almost identical to that of Cutthroat Island - that it was an unfairly maligned, fun, if imperfect, charming actioner.  
 

It seemed in the mid 90s that Hollywood columnists had a fetish for building up negative doom hype about overbudget event movies. And it sort of worked to drive audiences away, until Titanic came and put a stop to it. 

[Naïve Old Fart 9,556]

LA DOLCE VITA.

It's a bit like Bergman, but with occasional laughs.

[Brundlefly 2,385]

I love Fellini and I love that one especially! I may even prefer it over 8 1/2.

[Sweeping Strings 2,365]

The Night House - supernatural psychological horror with Rebecca Hall as Beth who loses her husband to suicide, leaving her alone in the lakeside house that he built for them. When some incidents lead her to suspect that he's haunting the house, she starts investigating and discovers that he had dark 'urges' that may be connected to an incident in her past ...   

A fairly creepy and unsettling flick, with an excellent performance by Hall. 

[Naïve Old Fart 9,556]

THE MUMMY (2017)

What the chuffin' 'eck was that?!

I'll tell you what it wasn't:

Funny ✓

Thrilling ✓

Exciting ✓

Well made ✓

Interesting ✓

Gruesome ✓

Ghoulish ✓

Good✓

Worth watching ✓

 

I don't expect much from a Summer blockbuster movie, anymore, especially one with Scientology's finest.

Ed Byrne said it best, on MTW: "Tom Cruise! Explosions! A flash of boob! That'll do ya", but I was hoping for more than this.

Everything on screen, I had - literally - seen before, just done so much better.

I pity the poor souls that shelled out to see this at the cinema. I'm glad that I only paid 25p for it, at my local thrift store - and I still feel ripped off!

It must be the only film in cinema history to end a franchise before it had even begun 

[filmmusic 1,843]

 

As I was watching I thought to myself:

Wow, Bridges should have been nominated for an Oscar. He plays the alien wonderfully.

And after finishing the movie, I saw that he was indeed!  

Not a great movie (I prefer other Carpenter movies), but a classic.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,556]

"Shit".

 

"As much as I hate to stoop to symbolism, Major..." (blows smoke in face).

 

A great cast, a nifty score, by Jack Nitzsche, and some astonishing miniature work, by ILM.

[bollemanneke 3,352]

Green hornet, halfway. Here we go again, Seth Rogen playing a guy you hate after an hour, pfff. Wonder what Beethoven recording they used.

[crocodile 8,020]

Watched Paths of Glory the other night. What a fantastic movie this is, think it's one of Kubrick's best actually. It has all the hallmarks of his signature style but told in a brisk, fat-free, efficient way. A true screwball tragedy.

 

Karol

[filmmusic 1,843]

I am not sure what's exactly wrong with this movie.

I love biblical epics (Easter is coming here in Greece in half a month, it's my favorite period of the year for watching favorite religious films) but I slept in some bits ().

[GerateWohl 4,385]

On 12/04/2024 at 1:02 PM, filmmusic said:

 

As I was watching I thought to myself:

Wow, Bridges should have been nominated for an Oscar. He plays the alien wonderfully.

And after finishing the movie, I saw that he was indeed!  

Not a great movie (I prefer other Carpenter movies), but a classic.

At least another movie, that allowed Karen Allen to shine.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,556]

1 hour ago, GerateWohl said:

At least another movie, that allowed Karen Allen to shine.

 

Have you seen UNTIL SEPTEMBER, and THE PERFECT STORM?

She's good, in both.

[filmmusic 1,843]

 

I hadn't seen that for over 10, maybe 15 years and I finally decided to buy the blu-ray.

Masterpiece and a masterful score that gave me a couple of hair-raising moments!

[Andy 4,147]

Wow I haven’t seen Starman since I was a kid. Need to watch that again or turn in my John Carpenter fan card. 

[Tallguy 3,402]

29 minutes ago, Andy said:

Wow I haven’t seen Starman since I was a kid. Need to watch that again or turn in my John Carpenter fan card. 

 

Did any other Carpenter films get a best actor nom?

[Andy 4,147]

None of which I’m aware.  I can’t imagine any of his other films having a lead performer merit an Academy nomination. 
 

But Roddy Piper deserved it for They Live. 

[Nick1Ø66 4,725]

8 hours ago, filmmusic said:

 

I hadn't seen that for over 10, maybe 15 years and I finally decided to buy the blu-ray.

Masterpiece and a masterful score that gave me a couple of hair-raising moments!

 

Phenomenal film.

 

Not only does Hollywood not make films like this any more, I've pretty much resigned myself that they never will again.

[crocodile 8,020]

Conan the Destroyer. Yeah, it is a "bad" sequel. One of those goofy 80s fantasy movies. But it was nowhere near as terrible as I was expecting.

 

Karol

[Nick1Ø66 4,725]

18 hours ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

 

Have you seen UNTIL SEPTEMBER, and THE PERFECT STORM?

She's good, in both.

Er…Karen Allen in The Perfect Storm? 

[crocodile 8,020]

The Abyss on the new 4K disc. Can't tell you how it compares in terms of look because I've never seen it before. Very enjoyable movie, very impressive technically. It's probably bit less than sum of it parts as it feels like some better Cameron films but it certainly does not stop me from enjoying myself tremendously.

 

Karol

[filmmusic 1,843]

8 minutes ago, crocodile said:

The Abyss on the new 4K disc. Can't tell you how it compares in terms of look because I've never seen it before. Very enjoyable movie, very impressive technically. It's probably bit less than sum of it parts as it feels like some better Cameron films but it certainly does not stop me from enjoying myself tremendously.

 

Karol

What cut did you watch?

[Andy 4,147]

7 hours ago, crocodile said:

Conan the Destroyer. Yeah, it is a "bad" sequel. One of those goofy 80s fantasy movies. But it was nowhere near as terrible as I was expecting.

 

Karol

Conan The Destroyer is terrific fun with great stunts, Arnold at his physical peak, plenty of sorcery to go with the sword, and yeah a smashing good score.  It’s a little more playful and sometimes easier to watch than the original. I love it. 

[Nick1Ø66 4,725]

4 hours ago, crocodile said:

 

The Abyss on the new 4K disc.

 

Featuring another excellent performance by Karen Allen!

[crocodile 8,020]

5 hours ago, filmmusic said:

What cut did you watch?

It was the longer cut. I wasn't sure which one to see so went with this one. Did I make a mistake?

 

Karol

[Naïve Old Fart 9,556]

5 minutes ago, crocodile said:

It was the longer cut. I wasn't sure which one to see so went with this one. Did I make a mistake?

 

It's THE ABYSS, so... no 

Both cuts are great, but the extended cut (the one with the waves) changes the emphasis of the ending.

I happily watch either cut.

[Faleel 5,365]

8 hours ago, Nick1Ø66 said:

Er…Karen Allen in The Perfect Storm? 

What are you saying?

[filmmusic 1,843]

1 hour ago, crocodile said:

It was the longer cut. I wasn't sure which one to see so went with this one. Did I make a mistake?

 

Karol

Well, I always watch the theatrical cut first, to see what the audiences experienced at the time of release.

Although, not having the whole wave thing plot in the end, I was left with questions in the end. I mean I felt "this is it?"

[Loert 2,515]

Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975). Watched it for the second time. The first time I saw it was around 7 years ago, when I understood very little of the story, though the film did leave an impression on me (particularly the haunting ascent music). So I was hoping to understand some more this time round...with little luck. There's a subtle discontinuity about the whole film that makes it very dream-like. The sudden shifts in location, the deep sense that something is not right...from that point of view it's very well done. But other than that I still struggle to make heads or tails of it. Maybe that's the point. I feel like I need to visit a Freud or a Jung and ask them what the film means.

[filmmusic 1,843]

11 minutes ago, Loert said:

But other than that I still struggle to make heads or tails of it. Maybe that's the point. I feel like I need to visit a Freud or a Jung and ask them what the film means.

See here, Excised final chapter:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picnic_at_Hanging_Rock_(novel)

[Loert 2,515]

15 minutes ago, filmmusic said:

See here, Excised final chapter:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picnic_at_Hanging_Rock_(novel)

 

Oh believe me, I've read all the wikipedia pages and I'm still confused!

 

Spoiler

While watching, my interpretation was that it's fundamentally a conflict between an artificial setting (the school) and the natural world, that conflict being symbolized by the "rift" in time and space, as well as the parents withdrawing their girls from the school and the subsequent suicides. Then I found out from reading around that one of the major themes is the colonisation of Australian land, which makes sense. I think the whole thing about the girls turning into crabs is almost incidental, almost like the author just decided to come up with the craziest explanation in order to drive home that there actually is no explanation that makes sense.

 

[crocodile 8,020]

Watched this last night. It was really great, beautifully directed and quite gripping. Blanchett was magnificent. Might be her best performance actually.

 

 

Karol

[Sweeping Strings 2,365]

The Lost City - comedy adventure starring Sandra Bullock, Channing Tatum, Daniel Radcliffe and Brad Pitt with shades of Romancing The Stone. When romantic adventure novelist Bullock is kidnapped by billionaire Radcliffe because he's convinced (having included it in one of her books) that she can help him locate the 'Crown Of Fire' artifact, her regular cover model Tatum mounts a rescue mission with the the help of ex-Navy SEAL 'extractor' Pitt (a hilarious, scene-stealing turn). 

Some distractions (Sandy's Botox is very noticeable at times and a subplot with her literary agent also attempting to find her probably could've been excised to no great loss) aside, a nicely fun escapist watch.     

[Marian Schedenig 8,212]

14 hours ago, crocodile said:

Watched this last night. It was really great, beautifully directed and quite gripping. Blanchett was magnificent. Might be her best performance actually.

 

I finally watched this a while ago after looking forward to it for a long time. I must say I didn't know what to think of it once it was over (and still don't). Blanchett's performance was very strong, but probably not among my favourites of hers, subjectively.

[Chen G. 3,954]

Its a pretty nice film. Blanchett is excellent, and its always great to see Julian Glover in a movie! I also really, really like Nina Hoss in it!

 

The musicological mumbo-jumbo that the film sometimes traffics in can be a little much, though.

[Marian Schedenig 8,212]

3 minutes ago, Chen G. said:

The musicological mumbo-jumbo that the film sometimes traffics in can be a little much, though.

 

I felt it walked the fine line between authenticity and random name/technical term dropping very wobblily. But yes, always nice to see Glover.

[Chen G. 3,954]

3 minutes ago, Marian Schedenig said:

I felt it walked the fine line between authenticity and random name/technical term dropping very wobblily.

 

Oh, I don't mean that it wasn't legit, so much as that had this "rapid-fire gobbledygook" feeling to it all.

 

The Wagnerian in me would have liked more Wagner excerpts (I think there was a solo from Tannhauser at one point). Would have been nicely in keeping with a film somewhat about controversy and cancel culture...

[Marian Schedenig 8,212]

13 minutes ago, Chen G. said:

Oh, I don't mean that it wasn't legit, so much as that had this "rapid-fire gobbledygook" feeling to it all.

 

Much of it seemed believable, or even familiar. And then other parts felt like someone overshot by a dozen namedrops and ended up cliched instead of authentic (possibly without being aware of it). But then I don't think I fully grasped the film, so my perception may be off.

[Chen G. 3,954]

Yeah.

 

I seem to remember Doug Adams found it somewhat objectionable.

 

This doesn't focus on the musicological lingo in the film but does focus on the dexterity of Blanchett's piano playing in the film:

 

 

[crocodile 8,020]

I thought the whole thing was meant to feel a bit out of touch and pretentious, just like the main character. Whether the musicological side of it is accurate or not I feel is beside the point.

 

Karol

[Marian Schedenig 8,212]

Marin Alsop didn't like it:

Quote

In an interview with The Sunday Times, conductor Marin Alsop shared her dislike of the film, calling it "anti-woman", saying "I was offended: I was offended as a woman, I was offended as a conductor, I was offended as a lesbian. To have an opportunity to portray a woman in that role and to make her an abuser – for me that was heartbreaking."[59] In response, Blanchett told BBC Radio 4, the film was a "meditation on power, and power is genderless", and that while her character shares similarities with Alsop, it is a complete work of fiction.[60]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tár

 

I didn't think it was "anti-woman". Comments have been made that making the lead character male would have been a cliche, and perhaps there's some truth to that - but is it really cliche just because it's so often the truth? I don't think the film suggests a specific connection between Tár being a female, or a lesbian, and her abuse of power. But given the still heavily male dominated field and the similarities between Alsop and the film's character, it's not really surprising that she takes it somewhat personal.

 

1 hour ago, crocodile said:

I thought the whole thing was meant to feel a bit out of touch and pretentious, just like the main character.

 

Interesting point.

[Schilkeman 964]

I haven't seen it, but in the trailers and clips  I've seen, there's just too much artifice in her conducting for me to buy into it. This is a classic case of knowing too much about the subject. It's why I loathe Whiplash with a passion. It's a me problem, but I know I would spend the whole movie going "that's not how you do that," "that term isn't right, and no world-class conductor would make that mistake," etc. 

 

But seriously, Whiplash sucks.