What was the last movie you saw?

Deepwater Horizon
Tragedy, once again, brought to you by the corporate bottom line. It really is all about the money.

Black Panther. Finally got around to seeing this one, and I must say it wasn't worth the wait. Much of it was boring in places and there was never any real sense of danger or urgency because everyone was too powerful. All it really made me want to do is watch Ant-Man again.

Deadpool 2 - really good fun but verged on a little too silly for me. It's very funny but I struggled to find any sense of jeapordy because of it. That said I'm well up for it again.

The Ox Bow Incident (1943) Henry Fonda & Henry (Harry) Morgan as cowboys who become involved with a posse/lynch mob thirsting for the blood of cattle rustlers & murderers. Yet, upon catching the suspects, they are among the 7 who are against lynching them. So, anyway, the deputy who lacks the authority to deputize a posse, does so anyway. I am not too interested in Westerns, but this one was very good, even by my standards. So, the sheriff is out of town when the posse is formed, and somebody goes to fetch him, but
The lynch mob is laughing & joking about the hanging, tormenting the poor victims, one of whom, failing to persuade them to grant him a fair trial, begs to write a farewell letter to his wife. Very intense film!


BTW, Morgan played the murderer in one of those Noir films I mentioned earlier.

Crime Wave (1954) Noir Alley treatment very much appreciated. An ex-con Steve Lacey (Gene Nelson) is rudely awakened by an old associate, who informs him that Dr. Hessler will soon arrive to fix him up, but he soon dies. The Dr., now a veterinarian, arrives, just as the patient dies, grabs the money out of his pocket and leaves. The ex con now has a dead guy in his living room, a wife insisting he call the cops, & the cops themselves at his front door. After a grueling interrogation, he is released, only to have the other two ex-associates awaiting him when he goes home. The boss, 'Doc' Penny played by Ted de Corsia, whom the Noir Alley guy Muller said was in several other films, at least one of which I saw, just did not resonate, either his face or voice (Cannot recall Gene Nelson, either). The 2nd guy was Charles Bronson while known as Buchinski, his next film has him portray Vincent Price's mute henchman. So the 'Doc' has one more whiz-bang job planned, one he insists cannot fail. He wants Lacey to drive the getaway car. Needless to say, Lacey has gone straight, and wants nothing to do with these guys.

The cop, is Sterling Hayden, and he is both imposing and threatening; Muller said that the director deprived him of cigarettes (he used a pack / day) to make his character more intense. Great example of the genre. Too bad bu DVR burped at 10:10 this morning! Lost about 3 minutes of this film while it rebooted.

The Perfume of the Woman in Black (1974)

With a title like that (taken from a completely unrelated locked room mystery novel by Gaston Leroux), you'd expect a giallo. There's a touch of that to this Italian shocker, but it's much more of a portrait of madness, in the tradition of Repulsion. A woman has hallucinations of her dead mother and of herself as a little girl. Other odd things happen. It's all moody, ambiguous, and sedate until about the last fifteen minutes, which feature sudden violence. Then, during the last three minutes or so, we get an extremely gruesome scene, which completely changes everything we've seen. The film is absolutely gorgeous, particularly in its use of color. There's a fine musical score, too.

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
I persuaded my grandson to watch this with me yesterday. After saying that he liked it, he asked "How old is this movie?" His reason for asking? "I saw a really bad green screen."
Everyone's a critic.

Caged (1950) a WIP (Women in prison) film; & in fact, THE WIP. As I had seen it a few years ago, I FFWed to the end once it reached a really heartbreaking point, in which the woman played by Eleanor Parker, learns that she is 2 months pregnant, & will not be eligible for parole for 10 months. Muller's discussion before & after the film really enlightened me about this genre. I had no idea! Good show, TCM & Eddie Muller; not to mention the film itself.

Independence Day: Resurgence.

Crikey this was a bad film. I sometimes wonder how these big blockbuster movies don't get called out for being bad at the script readings.

I finally managed to watch The Lego Movie, and it was well worth the wait. The last half hour changes everything, and it's not often I come away from a film saying "Did not see that coming". On the downside, I now have Everything is Awesome stuck in my head.

Ghost in the Shell.

Not a bad movies, but I did find the casting a little weird. Would’ve preferred Japanese actors in the leads.

The Thing. Finally got around to watching the stunning 4k restoration by Arrow on Blu-ray. The film NEVER gets old. It's just spell binding. The practical effects are jaw dropping still. Can you tell I'm a fan.

Ready Player One

It is interesting how different it was from the book in even gross and yet fundamentally still the same.

Right after seeing it I would have said it was as good as the book but after more distance I say, "No quite, but good."

Jeffbert said:

Caged (1950) a WIP (Women in prison) film; & in fact, THE WIP. As I had seen it a few years ago, I FFWed to the end once it reached a really heartbreaking point, in which the woman played by Eleanor Parker, learns that she is 2 months pregnant, & will not be eligible for parole for 10 months. Muller's discussion before & after the film really enlightened me about this genre. I had no idea! Good show, TCM & Eddie Muller; not to mention the film itself.

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Eleanor Parker was an extraordinary actress of the time, never stereotyped and able to play a very wide variety of roles. She does an amazing transformation from innocent to hard-boiled in Caged. (I also wasn't expecting a mainstream American film from 1950 to use the phrase "common prostitute" about one of the other inmates.) After this less than glamorous role, it's hard to believe that the same woman plays the stunningly beautiful and sexy love interest in Scaramouche. Then, we see her versatility in the psychological drama Lizzie (based on the novel The Bird's Nest by Shirley Jackson) as a woman with three personalities. (This was before The Three Faces of Eve.)

Somebody please point me in the direction one of her movies is playing.

Edit.

Dick Tracy (1990)

Enjoyable transformation of the comic strip into film. The primary colors and the grotesque villains capture the look of the original. It even made a kid actor and Madonna tolerable. Of the many big names in the cast, I particularly liked Dustin Hoffman as Mumbles.

I saw Dick Tracy (1990) when it was in the theaters, & yes, the characters were very much like their comic strip versions, at least, in physical appearance. I recall reading the strip for many years, though, & the violence was way over the top, even for a PG-13 film. I also had more than a few McDonalds 32 oz cups. What I want to see is the Mr. Magoo / Dick Tracy crossover! Anyway, Dick Tracy has been in feature length movies, & serials. As far as this 1990 version goes, with Tracy out of action, the other cop are as helpless as newborn babies. But, it was fun, anyway!


Deadline U.S.A. (1952) I have never seen this one before!! Bogart is the editor of a big-city newspaper (anyone remember these?) that is about to be sold to the owner of the competing paper, & terminated. There is a gangster that Ben Mankiewicz & his guest identify with Joseph McCarthy. He also tries to shut down an expose on himself and a woman's corpse found in nothing but a mink coat. Very different from Five Star Final (1931), in which Edward G. Robinson plays the editor, who also has trouble with the new owner. Oh, & so does While The City Sleeps (1956),
though it also involves TV News, as I recall.

In Deadline, the founder had died a few years ago, leaving his wife and 2 daughters the newspaper. The youngest has just now come of age, and the 2 girls outvote their mother, deciding to sell to the competition. Bogart and the mother vainly try to convince the girls to keep the paper, and its 1500 employees, arguing for their benefit, etc., but nope. So, during the last few days, Bogart tries to build a story or a series of new items that will show the newspaper's civic good, or some such thing. If he can expose the gangster, he thinks that the paper will survive, somehow. Very well done, indeed!

The Rezort. It's a zombie movie on Netflix. I quite liked it. The premise is basically Jurassic Park with zombies. Quite a fun idea and it's not badly made either.

The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) Jimmy Stewart, Doris Day

Just watched this for about the fifth or sixth time. Stewart's character becomes the unwilling recipient of a dangerous and highly important message from a man murdered.

This movie has something most movies have lacked for the last two or three decades: Great Acting! Jimmy Stewart proves (yet again) that he was one of the greatest actors of all times! Doris Day proves that some blonds really can act! Even the child actor playing Day's son did a fine job.

Mystery? Thriller? Call it what you want, this movie is superb from beginning to end! And Hitchcock teaches the world how to show suspense on the big screen (too bad most directors refused to learn).

Has there ever been a better duo than Hitchcock and Stewart? Throw in Day, and you have a movie that will remain on most critic's Best All Time lists forever!

Hound of the Baskervilles (2000)

I only slightly recall hearing about this remake in 2000, and having zero interest because - after all, who could possibly top Rathbone's 1939 performance??

Thirty seconds into the movie, I realized how stupid I'd been 18 years ago.

First there was Matt Fewer, an excellent pick for the part of Sherlock Holmes. Then there was the production, which stayed true to the standards set by the 1939 version - only in color. The feel was right, the look, and the acting, all spot-on!

No, it still doesn't beat Rathbone's version, but it was still a fine remake!