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


Mr. Breathmask
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Just watched E.T (theatrical version). What a fantastic film. After all these years, I still cried. The biggest issue I have with it is not a big issue at all...during the departure scene, the car pulls up with Drew Barrymore, mom, and Keys, and Barrymore is at Michael's side in a second. Michael takes at least 30 seconds to say his goodbye, and then all the sudden it shows mom and Keys rushing up. If Barrymore got there in a few seconds, why'd it take the other two half a minute to get there? I'd understand if they were cautious and afraid at first, but clearly they weren't since when they do show up, they're running.

Also, somebody should really take out the guns during the chase scene. It's a kids' movie for God's sake! ;)

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If you are into it perhaps. Today I don't think it's that good anymore. I like movies to grow with me. E.T. feels like visiting a friend you knew from your childhood but the reunion feels weird because he's mentally and emotionally still the same person as when you last saw him. Frack, he still plays with his Playmobil toys.

Alex

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If you are into it perhaps. Today I don't think it's that good anymore. I like movies to grow with me. E.T. feels like visiting a friend you knew from your childhood but the reunion feels weird because he's mentally and emotionally still the same person as when you last saw him. Frack, he still plays with his Playmobil toys.

Alex

Best movie of the 80's. Not Blade Runner, not Raging Bull!

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Children is a good word when talking about E.T. That's why I've outgrown the film and not, let's say, Blade Runner or A Space Odyssey. I still like the film but my last visit was not nearly as good as the ones from many years ago.

No, but he has children. Can you imagine?

- Daddy, can we watch E.T.?

- Shut up! You're gonna watch Blade Runner, and you're gonna like it, or you'll go to bed!

I'm sorry that this the image you have of me. My son has never seen BR. Heck, in the last 10 years or so, I only saw it one time, when the FC played in the theater. A wonder experience to see it one a very big screen and in fabulous quality.

Alex

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Indeed, Steef. My first sci-fi movies were the original Planet Of The Ape series, The Omega Man (the original I Am Legend, kids), The Ultimate Warrior, The War Of The Worlds, The Andromeda Strain, Soylent Green (how I loved that movie back then!), Westworld (another favorite during that time - It's Terminator and Jurassic Park at the same time), Rollerball, ...

Sadly, all these movies have dated badly in my view. The Sci-Fi genre is very subjective to the dating process, isn't it?

Alex

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In the unlikely event that I ever find myself watching ET and feeling I've outgrown it; the finale coda, both visually and musically, will instantly reaffirm my love for it.

Movies don't get much more cinematic than ET: The Extra Terrestrial. The childlike wonderment is merely a happy coincidence in it's overall magnificence.

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Watchmen: The Directors Cut

Alan Moore's brilliant vision of flawed and all to human super hero's brilliant envisioned by Zach Snyder.

The Director's Cut is an improvement because it has more character beats. The complex relationship between certain of the characters is fleshed out more. Making Dr. Manhattan's decision to return to Earth more satisfying.

This film is like Batman Begins for grown-ups. It takes the ridiculous conventions of the genre, and treats them like they are really happening. But it thankfully goes far beyond the very restrictive narrative that almost any superhero movie follows.

The basically simple story of an unexpected murder of an ageing superhero, set against the backdrop of an 1980's, Nixon governed USA, on the brink of nuclear destruction could have been told in a very straight forward way. Thankfully the film flashed forward and backwards all the time. It involves characters who for not a single moment do not seem to handle out of some sense of personal need, and who are all in a way interesting, distinctive and captivating.

In a uniformly well cast and acted film it is strange that the 2 most memorable performances are by the actors who's faces are concealed throughout most it.

Jacky Earle Haley spend most of the movie with his face obscured by a sackcloth with some CGI on it. Yet with his voice, his mannerisms he creates a complete character, which you sympathize with to some extend, while knowing full well that Rorschach is a deranged psychopath.

Billy Crudrup does not even gets to have his own body displayed in most of the film. His physical presence being hidden under a blue CGI character. The strange thing is that that hardly seems to hinder his performance. Like Haley, much of it is done with the voice.

The script stays very close to the comic throughout most of it. Some critics strangely criticized this. I never feel when watching this film that this somehow feels wrong. that there are parts in it that should have been changed, made more "movie-like", and anyway wasn't V for Vendetta bashed because it deviated to much from the comic?

Much of the depth and symbolism in this movie is straight from the book, so should be credited to Moore rather then Snyder, but there are some breathtaking aspects that I will credit to him.

The opening credits, a montage of Superhero's through the decades set to a Bob Dylon song is perfect, sheer cinematic perfection.

The decision to not lean too heavily on the colorscheme of the comics (garish secondary colors, green, pinks etc. In the 80's they might have looked cool, but not now) The depth of the camerawork, the detail in the sets. Even a simple scene like Rorschach walking through a seedy NY street is a visual delight).

There is a lot of slo-mo in this film. It feels rather natural for some reason. Not so showy as in 300. Maybe because this film feels far more natural somehow.

On Blu-ray, this is a really spectacular looking film.

Most of the music in the film are songs from the 60's, 70's and 80's. Augmented with some Philip Glass in a superbly effective origin story for Doctor Manhattan.

The score by Tyler Bates is effective, but doesn't really make much of an impact.

I've not been the world's greatest fan of superhero or comic book films. I enjoy some of them. But they are build on very archetypical, and ultimately clichéd foundations. In that way they are like westerns. Another genre ultimately unloved by me.

Watchmen transcends is rather low rent genre though. By commenting upon it, by being more complex then it, by exposing it's tired conventions and then leaving us with moral questions about the characters actions (were Veidt's actions more destructive and self-deluding then Rorschach's in the end? )

Most people will probably consider Nolan's Batman trilogy as the pinnacle of the genre.

How wrong they all are!

**** out of ****

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Oh, by the way, I watched Blade Runner workprint last night. A curious experience, as Vangelis' music is absent. Never been fan of the score, but I have to admit it's a major cornerstone of the film. it's weird for it not to be there. The whole film feels more like Richard Donner's cut of Superman II. Incomplete. Curious, but I won't be revisiting it.

Karol

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Watchmen: The Directors Cut

Agreed with everything.

I have no interest in the work print.

Me neither. I never saw it. For me 'the workprint' is the same like those rehearsals of versions of songs in an unfinished state and that haven't been 'mixed' yet. You know, the ones record label Rhino loves to put on remastered CDs of classic rock albums to give the fans bonus material. I don't care for that. I want the finished and final product. I want to experience and re-experience the magic when everything falls together.

I have to admit it's a major cornerstone of the film.

I used to say Vangelis' score is the soul of the movie. I don't think I would've been such a fan of the movie if it had a classic orchestral score. It's also the only score that I prefer not to listen to without seeing the images it was written for. The power of Blade Runner lies in the emotion that pours out of its sights AND sounds. It's part of the design.

Alex

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War Horse.

And, as a big Spielberg fan, I must say, I felt exactly the same as waking up

in a bathtub full of ice cubes, with a big scar on your side, and one kidney

removed.

But the year isn't over yet, for veteran film makers. Hold on tight, it's getting

hairy: Pull your socks up when "Prometheus" comes out in June! I've seen

a rough cut, and as far as I can tell, I can promise you:

Sir Ridley is going to fuck us all, big time.

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Taken

A xenophobic, angstridden, and violent cautionary tale which looks like it was written during the hight of the Bush-era.

Foreign countries that are not the USA are dangerous, and young atractive girl that visit them will be kidnappen and sold into prostitution within a day.

Thank goodness there is a former CIA agent (the once discriminate Liam Neeson) who will get those girls back, and kill as many non- Americans as he can. And this hero does so without any permission from any of the morally and religiously bankrupt governments and law enforcement agencies that are not the USA or CIA.

This is the most fascist film since the original Dirty Harry.

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I think you've read too much into it...

Taken is one of the dumbest action movies of the past twenty years, and it's absolutely badass because of it!

I'm always amused whenever I think back to how the critics bashed it upon release. Stupid people.

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I think you've read too much into it...

Taken is one of the dumbest action movies of the past twenty years, and it's absolutely badass because of it!

I'm always amused whenever I think back to how the critics bashed it upon release. Stupid people.

Oh wait, should I have asked permission to post a review you don't agree with?

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It was a fun romp, but pretty forgettable. What I found amusing was the trailer for Missing, which is basically Taken, except this time the son is kidnapped and the mom hunts him down.

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I think you've read too much into it...

Taken is one of the dumbest action movies of the past twenty years, and it's absolutely badass because of it!

I'm always amused whenever I think back to how the critics bashed it upon release. Stupid people.

Oh wait, should I have asked permission to post a review you don't agree with?

Also, Liam Neeson is Irish.

No, you're fine. That only applies to re-reviews. Just try to keep that in mind, thanks.

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Indeed, Steef. My first sci-fi movies were the original Planet Of The Ape series, The Omega Man (the original I Am Legend, kids), The Ultimate Warrior, The War Of The Worlds, The Andromeda Strain, Soylent Green (how I loved that movie back then!), Westworld (another favorite during that time - It's Terminator and Jurassic Park at the same time), Rollerball, ...

Sadly, all these movies have dated badly in my view. The Sci-Fi genre is very subjective to the dating process, isn't it?

Alex

Wrong, that would be Vincent Price's Last Man on Earth.

no it isn't sad that movies date.

War of the Worlds happens in the 50's perhaps someone should remove all the 50's conventions and make it look like the 21st century.

As a half empty kind of person you cannot find the joy associated with these older films. Jeez Casablanca hasn't aged well, nor has King Kong, Gone With the Wind sure looks old, boy don't you hate that dated look of Miracle on 34th Street, I mean really an X-ray machine shouldn't be that large, and you call that a football helmet. And since when did the post office use bags, I'm pretty sure they now use those vinyl or plastic style trays. And Hell at least in Omega Man the vampires don't glitter. That's one thing that dating has an advantage over.

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I had the joy of learing to love movies from watching the great black and white horror and scifi films of the 30's, 40's and 50's.

they are my love, my joy, my passion.

Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, The Invisible Man(simply one of the most amazing films of all time).

King Kong, The Wolf Man, The Mummy, yes even Dracula as dry and brittle as it has always been.

The Day the Earth Stood Still, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Incredible Shrinking Man, This Island Earth, War of the Worlds, When Worlds Collide and The Thing From Another World, Yes they are all "B" films but that doesn't change the fact that they are more than they were meant to be. They have withstood the test of time, They have defied their times and conventions.

Others that have a soft spot in my heart....The Monolith Monsters, Them, Beast from 20000 Fathoms, 20 Million Miles From Earth, The Leech Woman, Tarantula, The Deadly Mantis, I fondly enjoy each of these films just as I do a Jaws, or Star Wars, ET, Titanic, or Harry Potter.

as for the most recent film I watched, Captain America and the Help, both enjoyable films.

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They have withstood the test of time, They have defied their times and conventions.

People laugh with them now. When I say old most sci-fi feels dated, I'm not talking about the look. In cinema, sci-fi before before 2001 was at its most silly. The sci-fi of the '50s and '60s in literature was way more mature.

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I don't, several of the films he mentions are actually wonderful.

When I was very young I would love to see "old" adventure films on TV. I loved swashbucklers. I also got introduced to Spielberg and several 80's stuff. And then something happened when I played the DVD of Shichinin no samurai without having no prior expectations of it whatsoever and I started to love films.

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They have withstood the test of time, They have defied their times and conventions.

People laugh with them now. When I say old most sci-fi feels dated, I'm not talking about the look.

the people that laugh are idiots, they are vapid and not worth being around.
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They have withstood the test of time, They have defied their times and conventions.

People laugh with them now. When I say old most sci-fi feels dated, I'm not talking about the look.

the people that laugh are idiots, they are vapid and not worth being around.

A man like you must love Darabont's The Mist ... but you hate it, don't you?

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Alex, you'll never figure me out.

I think Darabont did a fine job with the mist. His evil, twisted ending is a far cry from King's ending of hope.

So Alex what does a person such as yourself think about a film from 1933 called the Invisible Man, do you laugh at it or with it?

How about Starship Troopers? Laugh at or with? do you feel the Python-esk nod nod wink wink?

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I loved King's ending to the book. Just because

the name of the town is Hope..

doesn't mean

they got there. So it could've ended badly.

I also loved the ending to the movie.

What huge balls that must've took.

And what a complete downer.

Could've down without the obnoxious choice Isham had to use that annoying wailing piece for the end. That brought unintentional laughter.

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My David loved the ending, saved the film for him, my sister Rene'e hated the ending and it ruined the film for her.

I prefer the black and white version best.

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I have to watch it in B&W, I have heard several good things about it. I know Darabont has mentioned that it is his preference, because it is much more reminiscent of the monster movies from the past.

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