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

[Will 2,215]

Minority Report

 

This is really quite an incredible film. It's probably one of Spielberg's three most emotionally and intellectually engaging films I've seen, along with Empire of the Sun and A.I. (I hesitate to say "best" because that's a much more difficult characterization.)

 

It's oppressive in its darkness (which is kind of the point, it seems), but it's really thought-provoking in all of its incredible philosophical paradoxes, and, most of all, it's emotionally powerful (particularly I'm referring to the Sean scenes, e.g. the pool flashback, which I still can't get over, partly because of the absolutely sublime Williams cue that plays over it - which I recently posted about in the short musical moments thread), although I didn't shed a single tear, unlike in A. I. where I cried the most I ever have for a movie at the end.

 

It can also be utterly terrifying at times (not in a screaming kind of way, but my heart was still pounding quite a while after its conclusion!)

 

I think perhaps because of the pent up emotion and terror after the disgusting eye surgery scene and the gut-wrenching pool flashback (speaking of that - does Spielberg have something with pools haha - there was a haunting pool scene in A.I. as well IIRC), but I laughed pretty hard at the refrigerator scene, where there's the new sandwich right next to a moldy one, but since Cruise's character can't see he picks up the old one and spits it out - then does the same thing with the old and new milk! 

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

I remember there was some controversy at the time at the amount of producers on the film but they did bugger all working on it.

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

The cinematography is really ugly. It's like walking through an alleyway wearing THX optimizer glasses.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

Minority Report is a great thriller but I wouldn't call it much else. It's sprinkled with Spielberg humor throughout which is why I'm kinda baffled that it affected you so much emotionally. And AI is the movie that made you cry the most?! 

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

I agree.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

Movies make people cry? But it's all fake! It's make-believe!

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

Obviously, Will has mommy issues dating back to his childhood.

[A24 4,345]

6 hours ago, Romão said:

 

 

I still prefer The Remains of the Day, 

 

Almost everyone does ... and I can see why. It's easier to understand and to relate to The Remains Of The Day. It speaks directly to the heart. But, in the long run, Howards End is a much more rewarding film. 

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[Quintus 5,399]

Will, take no notice of the patronising movie nerds you encounter online. 

[A24 4,345]

 

21 minutes ago, BloodBoal said:

 

It's Will. He's still pretty much new to cinema and what the medium truly has to offer. The most emotional films he had seen prior to that were the Prequels, Rogue One and LaLaLand.

 

Give him time. As he'll discover older, better films, he'll see the error of his ways and that the films he once considered great were really nothing special (or even pretty average). And wait until he watches Bambi!

 

He's more into sports anyway!

 

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

Youngins are provoked to tears by movies like A.I. because it explicitly pushes all the right buttons through overt, almost juvenile sadness.

 

As you grow older, you learn to appreciate less overt, but no less depressing circumstances presented in films, like Woody Allen's neurosis in Annie Hall, or in The Exorcist when Damien visits his lonely old mother in her dilapidated apartment building, and his next visit to her in the mental ward, which makes you think "oh shit that's going to be me visiting my own old girl in the rat house one day". That thread in the film is contrasted well with Chris' more affluent lifestyle.

 

This stuff doesn't necessarily make you "cry" (shit, really? Like "cry" cry?), but it is an effective wake-up call that can fill a grown man with a sense of dread about who he is and where he's going.

[publicist 4,643]

2 hours ago, Quintus said:

Will, take no notice of the patronising movie nerds you encounter online. 

 

Will, get the Crisco out you are in for a good buggery!

[Disco Stu 15,495]

Minority Report is one of Spielberg's best films.

 

7 hours ago, Alexcremers said:

 

Almost everyone does ... and I can see why. It's easier to understand and to relate to The Remains Of The Day. It speaks directly to the heart. But, in the long run, Howards End is a much more rewarding film. 

 

I feel weird agreeing with you.  I put it down partly to the genius of Forster (although I love Ishiguro's novel as well).

[Naïve Old Fart 9,551]

Perhaps this should go on a different thread, but...A PASSAGE TO INDIA is, imo, the finest novel written, in the English language.

[Jay 37,370]

On 3/31/2017 at 4:24 PM, Disco Stu said:

Doesn't Jason have an unhealthy obsession with her? Somebody here does.

 

 

On 3/31/2017 at 4:28 PM, BloodBoal said:

Yep, that's LeBlanc.

 

Definitely not me; I mean she's obviously hot, but probably wouldn't even make my personal top 5 hottest celebrities and I wouldn't say I obsess over anyone (whatever that even means)

 

 

Quote

That's why it's no surprise he loved the film!

 

 

While I thought Johansson was good in the film, I think a different actress could very likely have been even better.  The lead actor is not why I loved the film, it spoke to me on many levels.

[KK 3,307]

 

The New World

 

There are moments of magic in this film. The opening and closing chapters especially, set to Wagner, really drive home Malick's humanistic views. But boy does this drag in the middle. I don't think Malick knows how to tell a love story. And I'm not sure I really buy Malick's characters and relationship dynamics. As for the music, for all the fuss about the Horner debacle, a lot of his score is actually retained in the film, or at least the parts that best suit Malick's tone. But there are some bits of the mushier Horner stuff in the third act that surprisingly helps keep the film together. Although I will agree that the use of Mozart's 23rd piano concerto felt misguided and terribly overused.

 

Still, I admire parts of it and it has some beautiful imagery (The Revenant clearly takes a lot after this). But it's just too unfocused for greatness.

 

 

 

Knight of Cups

 

What a strange film. Gone is most of his usual sumptuous imagery in favour of a strange cocktail of Go-Pro shots, guerilla film-making, shaky-cam, etc. It's like a modern experimental European indie flick. The themes, and narrative framework is actually right up Malick's alley. And the "odyssey of the wandering soul" sounds like an ideal Malick concept. The tarot card chapters, the pearl story metaphor, etc...it should all work for your usual Malick feature.

 

But it doesn't really. The problem largely lies in the storytelling itself, which doesn't play to Malick's strengths. Malick is a raconteur of mythos and tone poems, and it's those vast Malickian paintings that best communicate his usual existentialist themes. So this weird montage of abstract images, a Christian Bale that just mopes around for 2 hours without saying anything, surrounded by festering non-characters and echoing Biblical passages in the distance, just ends up feeling rather hollow in the end. Cate Blanchett, for the few minutes she's on screen, ends up being the best part of the whole affair.

 

Kudos to him for trying something different. It's a shame it didn't really work.

[Sweeping Strings 2,363]

Kill List - now, here's a good example of why it's better sometimes to only know scant details about a movie before sitting down to watch. Much was made upon the release of this low-budget British thriller (about 2 hitmen contracted to take out 3 people) about how it skewed into unexpected bone-chilling horror in its later stages. Well ... once you know that it's no longer 'unexpected', and the guess I made as to the the nature of said horror early-ish in the movie due to a couple of clues I picked up on turned out to be more or less right. Ah well. 

[Will 2,215]

17 hours ago, BloodBoal said:

 

It's Will. He's still pretty much new to cinema and what the medium truly has to offer. 

 

Yep. It seems I still haven't seen the vast majority of the films you guys talk about here. 

 

Quote

Give him time. As he'll discover older, better films, he'll see the error of his ways and that the films he once considered great were really nothing special (or even pretty average). And wait until he watches Bambi!

 

Hmm, seriously, I think I have watched it, but I can't remember anything about it haha. I was really little I think. 

 

21 hours ago, Selina Kyle said:

Obviously, Will has mommy issues dating back to his childhood.

 

Actually, in all seriousness, I've been lucky enough to have essentially zero family problems during my entire life. 

 

But I am very close to my family.

 

23 hours ago, Koray Savas said:

Minority Report is a great thriller but I wouldn't call it much else. It's sprinkled with Spielberg humor throughout which is why I'm kinda baffled that it affected you so much emotionally. And AI is the movie that made you cry the most?! 

 

As I said above my level of experience in film is not exactly massive ... but I'd wager that perhaps there's something about the parent-child dynamic present to some extent in Empire of the Sun, A.I., and Minority Report that may speak to me personally in a way it doesn't for everyone. Perhaps me being a kid gives me a different perspective that not everyone gets. I dunno.

 

With A.I. the ending did indeed make me cry I think the most ever for a movie, although that could have been due to the fact that I was alone when watching (which is rare) so maybe I just felt like I could let my emotions lose or something? It was also late at night so maybe I was tired. 

 

Again, though, I do wonder if the level of close-ness I have with my family, even though I haven't had any family problems, could have been what led me to find that A.I. ending so moving. Also though I thought the scene was pretty well done, like a fairy tale ending (the narration, etc.) except really bittersweet. 

 

17 hours ago, Alexcremers said:

 

 

He's more into sports anyway!

 

Used to be. Then I replaced it with John Williams. 

[publicist 4,643]

Wait till you watch 'The Notebook'

 

or

Million Dollar Baby

Requiem For a Dream

Chinatown

Life Is Beautiful 

The Green Mile

Toy Story 3

 

 

[BloodBoal 7,538]

Or Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo!

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Great film!

[A24 4,345]

14 hours ago, KK said:

 

The New World

 

There are moments of magic in this film. The opening and closing chapters especially, set to Wagner, really drive home Malick's humanistic views. But boy does this drag in the middle. I don't think Malick knows how to tell a love story. And I'm not sure I really buy Malick's characters and relationship dynamics. As for the music, for all the fuss about the Horner debacle, a lot of his score is actually retained in the film, or at least the parts that best suit Malick's tone. But there are some bits of the mushier Horner stuff in the third act that surprisingly helps keep the film together. Although I will agree that the use of Mozart's 23rd piano concerto felt misguided and terribly overused.

 

Still, I admire parts of it and it has some beautiful imagery (The Revenant clearly takes a lot after this). But it's just too unfocused for greatness.

 

 

Wow! Not a word about the use of Wagner's Das Rheingold? He's responsible for those "moments of magic", you know.

[Romão 2,274]

He mentions Wagner in the first sentence

[A24 4,345]

Ah, good! 

[publicist 4,643]

2 hours ago, BloodBoal said:

Or Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo!

 

I lean towards part deux.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

3 hours ago, Romão said:

He mentions Wagner in the first sentence

 

I'm 100% sure Alex does little more then skim read other peoples posts.

[KK 3,307]

3 hours ago, Alexcremers said:

 

Wow! Not a word about the use of Wagner's Das Rheingold? He's responsible for those "moments of magic", you know.

 

Indeed, as I mentioned above. It bookends the film beautifully.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,551]

What's that, Alex? "I'm sorry, KK"? Really? Well, who'da thought.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

11 hours ago, Will said:

As I said above my level of experience in film is not exactly massive ... but I'd wager that perhaps there's something about the parent-child dynamic present to some extent in Empire of the Sun, A.I., and Minority Report that may speak to me personally in a way it doesn't for everyone. Perhaps me being a kid gives me a different perspective that not everyone gets. I dunno.

 

With A.I. the ending did indeed make me cry I think the most ever for a movie, although that could have been due to the fact that I was alone when watching (which is rare) so maybe I just felt like I could let my emotions lose or something? It was also late at night so maybe I was tired. 

 

Again, though, I do wonder if the level of close-ness I have with my family, even though I haven't had any family problems, could have been what led me to find that A.I. ending so moving. Also though I thought the scene was pretty well done, like a fairy tale ending (the narration, etc.) except really bittersweet. 

 

You haven't seen E.T. yet?

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

He's too old! Too old to see E.T. for the first time!

[A24 4,345]

That's the new generation for ya. This week on TV I've learned that young people don't know what band was responsible for hits like Do, Do, Do, Da Da Da, or Message In A Bottle. Everything passes ...

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

The Police are forgotten Alex, as is Genesis.

 

Time are different now.

[A24 4,345]

Soon new parents will name their child Adolf again. 

[publicist 4,643]

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

BOBBY!

[Wojo 2,453]

1 hour ago, Stefancos said:

The Police are forgotten

 

Not if you're black. 

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Racist!

[Will 2,215]

10 hours ago, Koray Savas said:

 

You haven't seen E.T. yet?

 

Oh, I have, I have, multiple times (including once live to projection). It's never moved me to tears, though, although some scenes are definitely really sweet. Somehow it ends up feeling more celebratory and joyful IMO than haunting/bittersweet, so I consider it a very different film from A.I.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

E.T. practically leaves me weeping uncontrollably.  I think it might be a thing like Inside Out where it's more emotional for the parents than the kids.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

If music makes people cry, I'd hate to think what real life does to them.

[KK 3,307]

Sometimes music draws on something raw and more vulnerable than what life is used to eliciting. It doesn't happen to me often, but with some select pieces, it has happened.

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

Such as "The Death of Marilyn".

[mrbellamy 6,287]

Movies are the only art form that's ever made me cry. I get a heavy heart with music and surges of catharsis and stuff but it's too abstract an experience to actually move me to tears. Same with literature.

[Faleel 5,359]

Music is in movies, so your argument is slightly damaged

[mrbellamy 6,287]

I obviously meant as standalone listening. Music in cinema is almost something else entirely, part of the confluence.

[Quintus 5,399]

4 hours ago, KK said:

Sometimes music draws on something raw and more vulnerable than what life is used to eliciting. It doesn't happen to me often, but with some select pieces, it has happened.

 

Blimey, it happens to be at the drop of a hat. I can be listening to music in the car and suddenly feel something wash over me, it's a really amazing feeling actually. There's all sorts of ways in which I appreciate music. 

 

Quintus - almost completing the Drax 10-piece jigsaw with each new little insight drop he provides. 

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

Taking you a while to finish that!

[Quintus 5,399]

I've had 8 pieces for ages but you kept me waiting a good while for the 9th. You like to play hard to get. 

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

One piece... left. I thought I'd save it for next Christmas. But I'll just use it now. How about a kiss, Santy Claus?