What was the last movie you saw?

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that. Lots of stuff get lost across the Atlantic.
 
On Inigo Montoya's famous phrase [and I agree, he's also fantastic in Homeland], 'My name is Inigo Montoya...' etc, that was actually written down in Homeland on a pad of scribbled notes that Claire Danes held in series 2 or 3.

It's also what Ben Barnes kept repeating to himself to get his Spanish accent when he played Prince Caspian. :) BB fact there for you.

I've just watched The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. An animated Japanese sci-fi romance. Slow starter but it picked up. Great animation. Sweet story.
 
Am I the first to admit it? Netflix is now streaming The Interview. So I couldn't resist, although I probably should have. Totally gross and stupid with an extra helping of potty humor. Although it did have its (very few) moments. Yet any movie that makes Seth Rogen's character appear more intelligent than James Franco's is doomed from the start.:cautious:
 
Am I the first to admit it? Netflix is now streaming The Interview. Oops. Sorry for the double post.
 
Off topic, but a variant of taking the piss that I myself have used on the odd occasion is 'taking the michael', a (middle class!) version of the more common 'taking the mickey'.

Honest, MC. :)

see here:

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/344000.html

In the article it states that 'taking the piss' appears to be first reported in the UK in the 1930s, so yes it should not officially be in period stuff!
 
I had "taking the mick" in Shuttered but had to change it to piss, because the editors didn't understand it.
 
I've just watched The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. An animated Japanese sci-fi romance. Slow starter but it picked up. Great animation. Sweet story.

Happy happenstance! I just bought a copy of this thinking it looked interesting - it was next to the Studio Ghibli films in the shop and a third of the price - glad to know my instincts aren't entirely failing.

Last film I watched: Paranorman (2012). I fell asleep.

"Take the piss" has, according to Google, been around since the 1950's -
https://books.google.com/ngrams/gra...ing=3&share=&direct_url=t1;,take the piss;,c0

As the Google tool searches books and written records and, given the post Victorian decorum that governed the book publishing world for the first half of the century, I would venture to say it was around in spoken English for a while before it got into print.
 
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Am I the first to admit it? Netflix is now streaming The Interview.

Hurrah! One taken for the team. :D :p

Totally gross and stupid with an extra helping of potty humor. Although it did have its (very few) moments. Yet any movie that makes Seth Rogen's character appear more intelligent than James Franco's is doomed from the start.:cautious:

To say I generally can't stand Seth Rogen's films (whether they're with Franco, written by Apatow, co-written by Goldberg, or starring members of their little group), I found The Interview to be the least bad of them all. Lots of stupidity, but the basic story was actually fairly good (any other duo, with any other sense of humour, and you could get a pretty decent 90-minute spy comedy out of it), and Kim Jong Un's character was surprisingly well-developed.

I think the funniest thing about The Interview, for me, is that North Korea kicked up a massive fuss about, and tried to ban, a film in which their evil ruler happens to be the character that can be sympathised with most.

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Seeing as I'm here - the last film I saw was in the cinema a couple of weeks ago: Birdman. The script is a bit generic, but the acting was great, the filming sublime, and the package as a whole is phenomenal.
 
Happy happenstance! I just bought a copy of this thinking it looked interesting - it was next to the Studio Ghibli films in the shop and a third of the price - glad to know my instincts aren't entirely failing.

Let me know what you thought of it. I was a little bored in places but was gripped by the end.
 
We tried to watch Beautiful Creatures cause it was on Netflix and made it half way through...arg
 
Taking the piss out of someone comes from the fact that young men tend to wake up with an erection, which was called a morning glory in England.(A morning wood I think you say in the States)
It was also called being piss proud. Once you urinate the morning glory tends to subside.
Thus taking the piss out of someone was to take away someone's false pride.
Talking about piss was considered rude, so they came up with taking the mictuations out of someone which then became taking the mickey.
(See also that famous poetic couplet:
.....Thy micturations are to me
as plurdled gamblelblotchits on a lurged bee...)

When I was a boy it was even common to say, 'Oi! Are you extracting the urine?' (generally pronouncing the end of urine like wine rather than wean.)

But just to keep to the topic, I haven't seen any films in ages, except The battle of the five armies and I've already spoken of that elsewhere. :)
 
Saw Birdman over the weekend. The long take shooting method is well used throughout the film. I believe it's Michael Keaton's best role, at least that I've seen him in. Ed Norton is also terrific, as well as Emma Stone, Zach Galifianakis, and Naomi Watts. Interweaving the fantasy sequences of Keaton's character, Riggan Thomson, in his Birdman persona were done to great effect. At first, you think he has some powers, possibly, but aren't sure if he's imagining it or not. There's a couple scenes that seem to show he's imagining that he has those powers. Then the end, is, well, you should see it for yourself.

The story is Birdman's attempt to redeem his career by adapting, directing and starring in a play based on a Raymond Carver short story. The chaos leading up to the opening night is chronicled in a continuous shooting style that really makes the movie flow from one scene to the next in a way I don't recall seeing in any other film. I would definitely recommend this movie to anyone.
 
The Gambler (1997)

Alternates between Fyodor Dostoyevsky dictating The Gambler to a stenographer (later his wife) in less than a month in order to get out of a crippling publishing contract with scenes from the novel itself. I imagine this would be extremely confusing to anyone not familiar with the author's life and work. Notable for featuring the recently deceased Luise Rainer in her last role, six decades after winning her Oscars.

Fire Monsters Against the Son of Hercules (1962)

No fire monsters; no son of Hercules. The original Italian title (Maciste contro i mostri "Maciste against the monsters") is a bit more accurate. This is one of the countless adventures of strongman Maciste, and there are some monsters. These show up at random moments, kind of like the wandering monsters in Dungeons and Dragons, and don't have much to do with the main plot. We seem to be in the Ice Age, and this is kind of like a peplum version of One Million Years B.C.. (I guess the monsters are supposed to be dinosaurs.) A tribe of peaceful sun-worshippers wanders away from the ice and finds a place to live. This land is claimed by violent moon-worshippers who live underground (but who apparently come up now and then to hunt and get fresh water.) The sun people are attacked and their women held prisoner, due to be sacrificed to the moon goddess. Maciste shows up out of nowhere and helps the sun people. There's also another tribe, said to be cannibals, who show up to help the moon people near the end of the movie, but they don't do much but serve as cannon fodder. Lots of fighting, two ritual dance sequences, and a romantic interest for our hero. Pretty typical for the genre.
 
Absolution (1978)

Powerful suspense drama with a screenplay by noted playwright Anthony Shaffer (author of Sleuth). The story takes place at a Catholic boys' school in England. Richard Burton stars as a teacher of Religion and Latin, a cold disciplinarian of a priest, but also a man of profound faith. The plot involves two of his students. One is handsome and clever, and Burton treats him as the teacher's pet, hoping he will become a priest. The other is poorly groomed, wears thick glasses and a leg brace, and has an annoying lack of social skills. The golden boy befriends a long-haired, bearded, motorcycle-riding, banjo-playing ne'er-do-well who doesn't mind stealing food from the school when he's hungry. This fellow proves to be a bad influence on the lad. He convinces him to play a practical joke on the priest by confessing to a terrible sin that never took place. Of course, the priest cannot reveal anything of what he hears in the confessional. Things take a more sinister turn from there.

Absolution starts very slowly, and is more of an excellently acted psychological drama than a thriller for most of its running time. Near the end, however, expect plot twists and a touch of genuine horror, both physical and spiritual.
 
John Wick

A slick, straightforward action flick that doesn't strain itself to be the biggest, baddest action flick, has brilliant fight scenes, no slow-mo (hurrah!), and a great performance from Keanu Reeves.

It's like the recent Dredd film - something you watch for entertainment, not for thinking.
 

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