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

[Quintus 5,544]

I like III, it completes the proper trilogy. But as a kid I remember being distraught and confused when it was suddenly Lana, instead of Lois.

[Lady Dimitrescu 9,300]

It's also a full-on, proper Richard Lester movie where he was allowed to make it his own vision. The Help!-style humour might not be for everyone, but it was always a barrel of laughs at my house.

[Schilkeman 1,387]

The proper trilogy is I, II, and Returns.

[Mr. Hooper 4,195]

7 hours ago, Lady Dimitrescu said:

It's also a full-on, proper Richard Lester movie where he was allowed to make it his own vision. The Help!-style humour might not be for everyone, but it was always a barrel of laughs at my house.

As an example of this, the comedic domino effect intro scene was fun, I thought.

[Quintus 5,544]

5 hours ago, Schilkeman said:

The proper trilogy is I, II, and Returns.

 

I'm trying to work out which casting was worst: Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane, or Bella Ramsey as Ellie.

[Jamie Dutton 7,714]

Returns is reboot with references to the original movies that never felt right. It's also very boring and drab. Kevin Spacey is good though, but he's the only one having fun. It sort of set the tone for the dark and disturbing serious realistic and relatable Superman era we've been stuck in.

 

"I hate my life."

[Tallguy 5,032]

1 hour ago, Mr. Hooper said:

As an example of this, the comedic domino effect intro scene was fun, I thought.

 

It certainly set the tone for the film.

[Yavar Moradi 3,294]

On 03/02/2025 at 6:40 AM, Tallguy said:

I like The Dark Knight Rises better than The Dark Knight.

 

I honestly can't understand this...

 

On 03/02/2025 at 6:40 AM, Tallguy said:

Oh, and the best Batman film is obviously Mask of the Phantasm.

 

...but on this we can readily agree. The best Batman movie, by far... and it's still not even as good as the incredible TV series which spawned it!

 

 

39 minutes ago, Jamie Dutton said:

Kevin Spacey is good though, but he's the only one having fun.

 

 

 

The two of them were definitely the best part of the movie. Brandon Routh did an impressive job with what he had to work with, IMO... and I'd still take Superman Returns over any of the Zack Snyder treatment of the character. (Nothing against Henry Cavill, who I really like as an actor.)

 

Yavar

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,634]

7 minutes ago, Yavar Moradi said:

 

I honestly can't understand this...

 

Its a nice mixture of elements from Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. Its well shot, well acted and has a few really impressive action sequences.

[Edmilson 9,772]

Returns is as entertaining as watching the paint dry. Give me Cavill/Snyder any day over that garbage.

[Jamie Dutton 7,714]

Either way you lose!

[Edmilson 9,772]

11 minutes ago, Yavar Moradi said:

I honestly can't understand this...

 

Me neither.

 

11 minutes ago, Yavar Moradi said:

...but on this we can readily agree. The best Batman movie, by far... and it's still not even as good as the incredible TV series which spawned it!

 

The whole Batman TAS and the movies that it spawned are the best adaptations of Batman to the screens.

[Yavar Moradi 3,294]

5 minutes ago, #SnowyVernalSpringsEternal said:

Its a nice mixture of elements from Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. Its well shot, well acted and has a few really impressive action sequences.

 

I guess I agree on your second sentence, and yet the whole film very much ends up as less than the sum of its parts, and it honestly completely falls apart for me. It's got a poor story and a poor script, something the first two films did much better. Both of them felt more cohesive.

 

IMO the best/least badly-executed element of TDKR is Anne Hathaway's Catwoman... and she's not at all integral to the plot of the movie!

 

Yavar

[Edmilson 9,772]

21 minutes ago, Jamie Dutton said:

Either way you lose!

I honestly don't think the Snyder movies are THAT bad. They have many problems but overall I don't hate them as much as half the internet does. Plus Cavill is good in the role. MoS and ZSJL are quite decent actually.

 

BvS is the worst of the bunch, if only because its premise was already flawed to begin with as I said yersterday. Starting your Justice League Cinematic Universe with an older, almost retirement age Batman, who is also a raging and violent maniac, was a really dumb choice.

 

The Frank Miller comic might be a classic but it was a really poor choice of inspiration for this specific movie. Especially when there are plenty of Batman/Superman comics where they don't trust each other initially but ultimately work together to solve a problem, beginning their friendship that would also be the dawn of the Justice League.

[Tallguy 5,032]

1 hour ago, Yavar Moradi said:

On 03/02/2025 at 8:40 AM, Tallguy said:

I like The Dark Knight Rises better than The Dark Knight.

 

I honestly can't understand this...

 

Good question. (Kind of a question?) I enjoy Nolan, I like his film making, I like his take on Batman. Something about The Dark Knight rubs me the wrong way, even though most of it is clearly an astonishing movie. (Really, that opening bank robbery is one of the greatest scenes in all of cinema.) TDKR has most of the same ups (for me) and since it's going off in a fairly new direction and is far more it's own thing than any other Batman movie (for good or ill) I don't have as many complaints about it.

 

57 minutes ago, Yavar Moradi said:

IMO the best/least badly-executed element of TDKR is Anne Hathaway's Catwoman... and she's not at all integral to the plot of the movie!

 

Both of these things are true.

 

Superman: I loved Returns when it came out. (I love II when it came out as well. I don't anymore.) There are parts of it that are still the BEST Superman we have ever seen. It's Donner's Superman only I really DO believe a man can fly. I just watched the spaceship rescue a while back and it absolutely blows me away. But the whole Lois and Their Kid plot kills it for me. It was weird and irritating when I first saw it and now it just blows up the whole movie. But wow, when he lifts the freaking island of Kryptonite into the air with the Williams music pounding it's the best Superman thing ever.

 

I love Man of Steel. It's the best movie with Supeman even if it's not the best Superman movie. But it's a damn good Superman movie. And I adore Cavil. And Adams. And Crowe! AND COSTNER! ("Did they hurt you?" "You know they can't." "That's not what I meant.") Yes, the tornado is stupid.

 

But BvS just loses it. It's not terrible as such. It's just such a shaggy dog story that kinda doesn't go anywhere. I don't buy it. It wants to ask some interesting questions. (Bruce Wayne is the fans! He sees this horrible destruction of Metropolis and rather than being grateful to Superman for everything he stopped, he BLAMES SUPERMAN. "Superman should have led Zod away! It's Superman's fault that Zod is there!" Screw you people!) But it just rambles around and unlike almost every other super hero film, it STOPS being fun when all of the capes show up.

 

I watch Man of Steel a couple of times a year. I've seen Snyder's JL a few times (that's a big lift). I haven't been able to bring myself to watch BvS more than once.

[Davis 3,724]

Zack Snyder has directed one of the best comic book adaptations of all time. 

 

 

12 minutes ago, Tallguy said:

I love Man of Steel. It's the best movie with Supeman even if it's not the best Superman movie. But it's a damn good Superman movie. And I adore Cavil. And Adams. And Crowe! AND COSTNER! ("Did they hurt you?" "You know they can't." "That's not what I meant.") Yes, the tornado is stupid.

The tornado scene is not just stupid, it's STUPID. If you were Clark, the strongest, fastest, invulnerable person, wouldn't you save your Dad even if that meant revealing your powers and people finding out who or what you are? Absolutely! Superman saves people, at all costs, that's who he is, and most importantly he saves his own father. The fact that he doesn't is wrong on every possible level, not just on a comic book level. Hell, I would've run into the tornado to save my father even in real life. Because you do that for your loved ones. 

Henry Cavill was a good Superman, I give him that. But Adams was too old to be his love interest. She is 9 years older than Cavill, and it shows. She is a sexy woman, no doubt about that, but Diane Lane had more chemistry with Cavill than Adams. Do you know who would've been a good Lois Lane? Gal Gadot. 

[Edmilson 9,772]

Yep. Watchmen is his best movie, followed by Dawn of the Dead (which was written by James Gunn - years later and both of them did Superman movies lol).

[Yavar Moradi 3,294]

Yeah I like Snyder's Watchmen much better than anything he did afterwards. I don't think Superman was a character he should have been given.

 

Yavar

[Jamie Dutton 7,714]

I have no problem with Batman killing people because otherwise the city gets taken over by Bane and the Joker, it just didn't make any sense for him to want to kill Superman.

[Tallguy 5,032]

9 minutes ago, Davis said:

If you were Clark, the strongest, fastest, invulnerable person, wouldn't you save your Dad even if that meant revelaing your powers and people finding out who or what you are? Absolutely. Superman saves people, at every cost, that's who he is, most importantly his own father. The fact that he doesn't is simply wrong on every possible level, not just on a comic book level. Hell, I would've run into the tornado to save my father even in real life. Because you do that for your loved ones. 

That's not my complaint, actually. They wanted to write the scene where Clark respects his father so much that he lets him die. Absolutely spot on. (Letting the school bus full of kids drown? Less spot on.) It's just that I don't buy that he has to do that. I think he can save Jonathan without blowing his secret. The way it's shown in the movie.

 

Now if it was down to Jonathan OR the school bus full of kids, and JK says "Schoolbus, son" THEN I buy it.

 

I'm not a fan of Watchmen. It's so intent on recreating panels from the comic (which it does very well) that it really doesn't tell the story. I have read the comic book. Many times. And when I watched Watchmen I realized that I had no idea what the mystery in the movie was or when they solved it. Watchmen is a whodunnit wrapped around world building. And Snyder only did the world building. I don't care if there is a giant space squid or not.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,634]

35 minutes ago, Jamie Dutton said:

it just didn't make any sense for him to want to kill Superman

 

The Batfleck hated immigrants!

[Jamie Dutton 7,714]

Superman is more of a refugee.

[Davis 3,724]

1 hour ago, Tallguy said:

They wanted to write the scene where Clark respects his father so much that he lets him die.

Uh... what? I mean... really. What? 

 

1 hour ago, Tallguy said:

 It's just that I don't buy that he has to do that. I think he can save Jonathan without blowing his secret.

You think? He is just as fast as The Flash. He is "faster than a locomotive". He can outrun a bullet. OF COURSE he can save his father without blowing his secret. But the point is that his goddamn secret doesn't matter at all. At that situation all that matters is that he can save his father. Nothing else is of importance. His secret is NOWHERE NEAR as important as saving his father. Or the kids in the bus. Or anyone. Only a psychopath would not save his dad just to keep his secret safe. A normal person would completely ignore his father's wish in that situation if he knew he could absolutely save him, and he wouldn't even have to reveal his true identity. But if he would, that still wouldn't matter. Creating this absurd moral dilemma for the film makes Clark a psychopath, not a hero.

1 hour ago, Tallguy said:

Now if it was down to Jonathan OR the school bus full of kids, and JK says "Schoolbus, son" THEN I buy it.

Again, he can run and move faster than sound. Saving his dad and the kids at the same time is easy as pie to him. He wouldn't even have to make a choice. 

[Tallguy 5,032]

13 minutes ago, Davis said:

Uh... what? I mean... really. What? 

They wanted to write the scene where Clark respects his father so much that he lets him die because that was Jonathan's wish.

 

If we're going to play the "he's so fast he can fly around the world in an instant" card (which younger Clark Kent in Man of Steel certainly didn't know he could do - think of the same age Clark Kent who WALKED to the North Pole) then the end of Superman (1978) makes no sense. Why didn't he just grab both missiles AND Lex Luthor and be done with it? (One of two How it Should Have Ended that I think are actually funny addresses this very thing.)

 

17 minutes ago, Davis said:

Only a psychopath would not save his dad just to keep his secret safe.

It depends on how many other people his secret is going to get killed. For instance: If Clark hadn't turned on the Kryptonian ship and just kept to his day to day life then most of Metropolis wouldn't have been destroyed. Clark's other life had a price, it just wasn't exactly the one that Jonathan thought that it had.

 

Like I said, they could have written a compelling version of "Clark has to let Jonathan go for reasons his Dad thinks are best", but the tornado isn't it. Stupid dog, anyway.

[Davis 3,724]

OK, let me rephrase it for you. If it was you in that situation, would you let your father die if you knew you could easily save him, just because he asked you not to?

 

10 hours ago, Tallguy said:

then the end of Superman (1978) makes no sense. Why didn't he just grab both missiles AND Lex Luthor and be done with it?

That’s also stupid. But that doesn’t make MoS any less stupid.

[Romão 2,360]

Speaking of Batman movies, The Batman is such a weird beast for me. It doesn't do anything particularly wrong, theoretically all the elements are in place, it is spectacularly shot (Greig Fraser does incredible work here), but I find the whole thing to be utterly forgettable. For better or worse, I don't find anything memorable about it, apart from that opening Batman sequence, which is probably the sequence that best encapsulates Batman since The Animated Series intro:

 

 

It's like the perfect Batman trailer.

 

But apart from that and the incredible cinematography, I just find forgettable. Which is a worse sin, in my view, that being campy or silly

[Sweeping Strings 2,747]

Given his parents being gunned down in front of him I get why there'd be a bit of 'darkness' when it comes to Bats, although it's possible to lean too far into it (The Batman just looked like 3 hours of utter gloom to me, so I'm not interested). 

On the other hand, Superman is an alien who can fly and shoot heat rays from his eyes so 'darkness' when it comes to him just seems a bit wrong to me (didn't like Man Of Steel, so didn't bother with Cavill's further appearances as Supes).    

[Tallguy 5,032]

3 hours ago, Davis said:

OK, let me rephrase it for you. If it was you in that situation, would you let your father die if you knew you could easily save him, just because he asked you not to?

If it was like MOST of what we had been talking about since I was ten? Depends on if I agreed with him. (Some things I agree with him on a lot. Some of them I don't.) I have never been in a situation with my dad where I had a decision to make that could literally re-write human history.

 

 

3 hours ago, Davis said:

That’s also stupid. But that doesn’t make MoS any less stupid.

But it's consistently stupid. And I gather that Superman is a rather well-thought of film. (I think I can probably find someone not too many posts back saying it's the best superhero film ever, if not the only good superhero film.)

[Schilkeman 1,387]

2 hours ago, Tallguy said:

I think I can probably find someone not too many posts back saying it's the best superhero film ever

[Lady Dimitrescu 9,300]

[Lady Dimitrescu 9,300]

[filmmusic 2,447]

On 06/02/2025 at 4:34 PM, Lady Dimitrescu said:

 

53 minutes ago, Lady Dimitrescu said:

 

Two of my favorite romantic period dramas! Excellent choices!

Still waiting for a 4k of Dangerous Liaisons...

[Lady Dimitrescu 9,300]

Best bit in DL was when Uma lost her modesty in one brief bedroom scene. Omg what a beauty!

[filmmusic 2,447]

36 minutes ago, Lady Dimitrescu said:

Best bit in DL was when Uma lost her modesty in one brief bedroom scene. Omg what a beauty!

My only "complaint" about Dangerous Laisons is that I'd prefer a more handsome actor to play Valmont.

[Tom Guernsey 2,978]

21 minutes ago, filmmusic said:

My only "complaint" about Dangerous Laisons is that I'd prefer a more handsome actor to play Valmont.

Jonathan Bailey... who should clearly be in everything.

 

Blade Runner (2007 "final cut" version). Somehow I've only seen Blade Runner once or twice so don't have the reverence for it many have. Having said that, it's obviously an astonishing piece of work that treads the fine line between being really quite weird and artsy, but also quite plausible and grounded. Apparently it has around only 90 FX shots (excluding a handful of invisible digital touch-ups made for the 2007 version I am reliably informed) but you'd swear it was more because the sense of place is so engrossing. You can tell that Douglas Trumbull did CE3K in the way the flying vehicles are lit and the (realistic/real!) lens flare. Model effects for surface/flying vehicles are vastly more difficult to make realistic than spaceships in space as we know what a plane looks like but haven't yet experienced flying round the Enterprise with Scotty in a shuttle (on my bucket list but I'm not hopeful...).

[CT-7567 121]

 

Excellent movie, plus REALLY catchy and great score, I can´t get the motifs out of my head

[bollemanneke 3,814]

Aliens. Bill Paxton is great. Did he survive now or not? Ah, bishop…

 

This is the score Horner and Cameron fought over? Hardly anything remarkable going on here.

 

[Jay 41,208]

Most of the best bits of the score were dropped from the final dub of the film and you can only hear on the albums released.

[Lady Dimitrescu 9,300]

7 hours ago, filmmusic said:

My only "complaint" about Dangerous Laisons is that I'd prefer a more handsome actor to play Valmont.

 

https://moviechat.org/tt0094947/Dangerous-Liaisons/58c76af593cef4080d74db64/John-Malkovich-unlikely-heartthrob

 

[Schilkeman 1,387]

4 hours ago, bollemanneke said:

Hardly anything remarkable going on here.

My exact review of Aliens the movie. 

[Davis 3,724]

On 6/2/2025 at 3:34 PM, Lady Dimitrescu said:

 

18 hours ago, Lady Dimitrescu said:

Two of my all time favorite films. Michelle Pfeiffer is simply amazing in them. I don’t think you can get more romantic than The Age of Innocence. 

[Lady Dimitrescu 9,300]

I'm amazed TAOI has gotten away with a G rating in Australia for 30+ years. The Australian OFLC must have only made a superficial viewing of the film, since it features no violence, swearing, or sex scenes – but a strong theme of sexual repression permeates the film throughout, in addition to some other adult stuff going on, which would warrant at least a PG rating, but nup, went right over their heads.

[Davis 3,724]

It’s all done in a very subtle, sensual and tasteful manner. Men and women nowadays don’t know how to act  with each other. There are hardly any true gentlemen and ladies left.

[Lady Dimitrescu 9,300]

But isn't that the point of the movie, that stiff, high-society pearl clutching fops forbade Newland and Ellen from expressing their true animalistic attraction to one another and consequently, they missed out on having a life together? And he was doomed to being locked into a miserable marriage to May because she wished to avoid being tarred with the same brush as Ellen because she committed the cardinal sin of being divorced? Sounds like friggin hell.

[Lady Dimitrescu 9,300]

When will we see Zoe Sultana in skimpy assassin outfits again? It's been friggin 14 years...

[Naïve Old Fart 11,016]

1 hour ago, Lady Dimitrescu said:

... Zoe Sultana...

[Davis 3,724]

7 hours ago, Lady Dimitrescu said:

But isn't that the point of the movie, that stiff, high-society pearl clutching fops

Yet the two most decent people in this hypocrite high society were Ellen Olenska and Newland Archer. And let's not judge May too harshly, either, because in the end Archer found out that May knew about his affair with Ellen, but never made a scandal, and she even gave Newland a choice to reconsider or even call off their engagement. But Ellen told Archer to endure as she too had to, to not bring shame to their families. It's a very complex and complicated story, how that world operated, it's very hard for us in the 21st century to understand the dynamics of that era. I recommend reading Edith Wharton's novel, if you haven't, it's great too. 

[bollemanneke 3,814]

Singin’ in the rain, finally. Better than I thought and the sound isn’t too bad either, though that Broadway Melody is way too long. Time to look into the album situation.

[Lady Dimitrescu 9,300]

8 hours ago, Davis said:

Yet the two most decent people in this hypocrite high society were Ellen Olenska and Newland Archer. And let's not judge May too harshly, either, because in the end Archer found out that May knew about his affair with Ellen, but never made a scandal, and she even gave Newland a choice to reconsider or even call off their engagement. But Ellen told Archer to endure as she too had to, to not bring shame to their families. It's a very complex and complicated story, how that world operated, it's very hard for us in the 21st century to understand the dynamics of that era. I recommend reading Edith Wharton's novel, if you haven't, it's great too. 

 

May was a sneaky little thing. Ohh noo, I can't let you go... unless I go too, but my doctor might not let me....

[filmmusic 2,447]

 

Nice Don Bluth animation film (I prefer An American Tail though) which is elevated much by the masterful Goldsmith score!