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


Mr. Breathmask

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Nah ... as a PG, Ghostbusters isn't exactly a fright-fest and the likes of the Treehouse Of Horror parody of The Shining have diminished its scare-power down the years. That said, superbly-made film.    

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I saw Ghostbusters evening last too! Great fun, and hardly scary, yes. It's one of those October classics that isn't a horror movie, but still holds relevance for this time of year whilst being a wholesome and worthwhile watch. 

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12 hours ago, Alexcremers said:

Not too long ago we all agreed that The Shining was never scary. 

It isn't...at least, not in the traditional way. It works on an almost subliminal level, and that means that it gets under your skin...and under your defences. It's the best kind of scary; the type of scary where you don't realise you're being scared...until later...

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I'm hardly a fan of The Shining, but Nicholson's performance is lengendarily scary. Those shots of him swinging the axe while the camera follows are iconic as fuck. His transformation into a gruesome son of a bitch that wants to kill his family is definitely pulse-raising stuff.

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Sherlock Holmes.

 

I still think the sequel is better, but am very glad that all the supernatural stuff turned out to be a hoax. Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law are a great duo and I even liked Law this time, although Downey’s British accent isn’t always convincing. Rachel McAdams wasn’t as great as I thought she was and Moriarty and Blackwood aren’t the best villains either, but Kelly Reilly was once again great, as was the gypsy woman.

Even though I’m tired of the D minor action music Zimmer often produces, I love the emphasis on the violin in this score. The themes and variations on Big Ben are fantastic and the folk tunes are a real treat.

 

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Are scary and unsettling mutually exclusive or something? And yes, it has bags of atmosphere; Kubrick's film is the epitome of cinematic creeping dread. Anywhere else these qualities would be classed as "scary".

 

Try not watching something umpteen times and instead think back to the very first time you saw it. 

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Horror is very personal: what scares one, won’t affect the other.

 

But I just don’t find The Shining to be scary. Maybe it just needs a rewatch or something, I dunno.

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No.

 

There is a convention in media studies that ranks horror and comedy as the most subjective genres (in that order). Namely, because unlike drama, they are meant to evoke an external physical reaction.

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6 hours ago, Chen G. said:

 

The Shining isn’t scary. It’s got loads of atmosphere, though.

5 hours ago, Chen G. said:

No.

 

There is a convention in media studies that ranks horror and comedy as the most subjective genres (in that order). Namely, because unlike drama, they are meant to evoke an external physical reaction.

 

A reason why so many people don't find The Shining scary is because it can be just as easily viewed as a dark comedy. Jack Nicholson's performance is pretty comical. You don't need to feel scared in order to like this film. Indeed, there's the special atmosphere, but also the entertaining dark comedy aspect, and above all, Kubrick's cinematic mastery. That's why I watch The Shining, never because I wanna feel scared.

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The Sure Thing (1985)

Pleasant little road trip film by Rob Reiner.  Good chemistry between the leads.  A little bit of the Golden Age opposites attract on a journey sort of thing going on here.  Reiner's intimate direction works very well.  A nice watch

3/4

 

Black Beauty (1994)

Elfman's score is the best thing about this rather dull adaptation of the novel.  The voice-over technique gives off Thomas The Tank Engine vibes, making this one feel like a movie for children mostly.  Costumes are nice.  

2.5/4

 

Crimson Tide (1995)

Very solid nuclear submarine movie anchored by impressive turns from Gene Hackman and Denzel Washington.  Mutinies and counter-mutinies abound as the world's fate lies in the two men's hands.  Tarantino brushed up the dialogue on this one, and it shows.  There is a racial undertone to the lead characters' conflict, which is handled with welcome sublity.    

3.5/4

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1f51f9_26a3c0ea3a7e454ab616b7ad39b33413~

 

Australian revenge movie that is a bit too one-dimensional by leaning to much on cruelty (creating easy drama). The Irish and aboriginals are good. The English are evil. Written and directed by Jennifer 'The Badabook' Kent. 5/10

 

 

 

8 minutes ago, SteveMc said:

The Sure Thing (1985)

Pleasant little road trip film by Rob Reiner.  Good chemistry between the leads.  A little bit of the Golden Age opposites attract on a journey sort of thing going on here.  Reiner's intimate direction works very well.  A nice watch

3/4

 

 

An '80s classic!

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13 hours ago, Alexcremers said:

 

A reason why so many people don't find The Shining scary is because it can be just as easily viewed as a dark comedy. Jack Nicholson's performance is pretty comical. You don't need to feel scared in order to like this film. Indeed, there's the special atmosphere, but also the entertaining dark comedy aspect, and above all, Kubrick's cinematic mastery. That's why I watch The Shining, never because I wanna feel scared.


Even the likes of this ... 

65a72fb0c878e2aa7a8bf93b385b6a9a.jpg

His expression MUST be intended as funny, surely? 

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Some of this comes down to if you first saw The Shining when you were a kid or an adult.  It scared the crap out of me when I first saw it age 13, but now I appreciate it more along the lines of how Cremers describes.

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16 hours ago, bollemanneke said:

The only negative thing I can say about it is that some of the people had a weird way of speaking. I don’t mean the made-up language, that was fantastic, I mean the way they said what they said.

 

The thick pommie accents?

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2 hours ago, Disco Stu said:

Some of this comes down to if you first saw The Shining when you were a kid or an adult.  It scared the crap out of me when I first saw it age 13, but now I appreciate it more along the lines of how Cremers describes.

I must have seen it even earlier than that. But I had seen The Exorcist early in childhood as well and that was nothing compared to what The Shining did to me. That shot of the man in the bear mask blowing the butler is forever burned in my brain. As is the bathtub scene. 

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8 hours ago, Alexcremers said:

An '80s classic!

It feels more grounded, less contrived to me than Say Anything.

One effective little thing that stood out was how the main character's daydreams are about the mythic California girl (who turns out to be a bit different than he imagines), but when he has an actual dream, it is about the girl he is traveling with.

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Men In Black ³

 

This was on my backlog of movies for so long, I simply forgot about it until now. It wasn't bad but the series feels like it wants to retire itself, and it wasn't really all that funny either. And I missed Frank the Pug. Why was he not in it?

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Die Another Day

 

I like this one. The second hour is definitely problematic. It's such a front-loaded movie and the first hour is extremely cool. It seems like they ran out of inspiration after that and slapped the rest together for sure.

 

But back to the first hour, I love it. It's so satisfying when Bond is released from prison, escapes the ship and becomes 007 again. He even smokes a cigar. There's a good swordfight, a badass explosive opening scene, a cool Madonna song and various moments of hilarity when Bond could still do humor. Plus, John Cleese as Q, the last time those scenes were also good. Not to mention Arnold's music. I even like Halle Berry. It's a solid hour of Bondian entertainment followed by a less interesting second hour that doesn't really come together.

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I suppose I should watch that film again some day; I saw it in theaters and haven't seen it since.  But I've seen all the other Brosnans more than once and the first three Craigs more than once

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It’s terrible. I like the opening hovercraft chase but that’s about it. It’s the epitome of Bond archetypes that it’s nearly a parody of itself. The main villain has a RACE change. There’s a dude with diamonds stuck in his face. Halle Berry tells a “yo mama” joke.

 

The horror... the horror... :folder:

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I enjoy Die Another Day too, even the hammy second half. Of course, the responses will be sarcastic "Of course you do" comments, meant to imply I'm only pretending to like it because it's contrarian to their 'common wisdom' or something. No! I really do like it!

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They're just bloody spy movies with ridiculous stunts, over the top villains, outrageously beautiful women in the unlikeliest of situations, and far-fetched gadgets. What idiot thought they needed to be so damn serious?

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Flashdance

 

Did all the big name puhdoosahs of the time want a stake in this? Movie looks good but what a boring script. One scene almost gave me a seizure. Ah well, Jennifer Beals is insanely hot and so are her body doubles.

 

 

Footloose

 

A bit more entertaining than Flashdance, with John Lithgow stealing the movie. But still, ehhh so these are the infamous flicks my ex-girlfriends kept raving about? At least now I can say I've seen 'em.

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15 hours ago, Gruesome Son of a Bitch said:

They're just bloody spy movies with ridiculous stunts, over the top villains, outrageously beautiful women in the unlikeliest of situations, and far-fetched gadgets. What idiot thought they needed to be so damn serious?

If you can’t see the quality difference between GoldenEye and Die Another Day, I don’t know what else to say. 

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