What was the last movie you saw?

[paranoid marvin]

Salem's Lot

Is it a movie? Is it a mini-series? I watched it again for the first time in quite some time, and it's a bit sillier than I remember it being last time around. Some genuinely scary 'shock' moments (featuring the main vampire) which were obviously intended just for that purpose and still are effective. Plus that bit that I think most of us remember with the kid floating/scratching at the bedroom window.

But also quite silly; considering the calibre of movies that James Mason has starred in, this was a bit of a comedown for a very odd performance. I'm not sure if it was intended or not, but his role was quite comedic. Lots of stuff that doesn't really make sense, and an odd choice for David Saul (obviously playing the Stephen-King type author character) for the lead role.

 

[KGeo777]

Salem's Lot



But also quite silly; considering the calibre of movies that James Mason has starred in, this was a bit of a comedown for a very odd performance. I'm not sure if it was intended or not, but his role was quite comedic. Lots of stuff that doesn't really make sense, and an odd choice for David Saul (obviously playing the Stephen-King type author character) for the lead role.

I think Mason is having a lot of fun in it.
I heard his wife played Mrs Glick.

"You'll enjoy Mr Barlow. And he'll enjoy you."

 

[Jeffbert]

NEVER SO FEW (1959) Where has this been, all my life? I never even heard of it until finding it by chance, when flipping through TCM's channel line-up.

So, this is a WWII film, about American & British commandos in SE Asia, engaging in what seems to me, to be unorthodox tactics. Working with them are the local guys, the Kachin. It has very intense scenes, & I would watch it again. A very entertaining WWII film. It ends (not quite) with Captain Tom Reynolds (Frank Sinatra) up to his neck in big trouble with the higher powers, who value the relationship between the USA & Chiang Kai Shek's forces, more than some of their own troops' lives.

Spoiler

Chiang Kai Shek's forces, partially relied upon Warlords' armies, one of which had attacked and massacred American forces that had been in convoy to deliver supplies to Reynolds' camp. The Warlord acting under authority (though abused) of the Kuomintang government. Reynolds & Co., came upon the burned-out vehicles and corpses of American troops while returning from a mission. Determining that the convoy had not been attacked by the Japanese, realized that the Chinese had done it. Crossed the border into China, and snuck into the Warlord's camp. Finding the supplies and dog tags, wallets, personal affects of the massacred troops, Reynolds becomes furious. After a man, thought dead, rises up and kills Reynolds' 2nd in command, Reynolds orders the Warlord's men executed.

A very intense film, loaded with familiar faces!

Yet, I must critique:

Way back in 1959, they had the Navajo Code Talker in a war movie!? Hmm., As I recall, there was a recent film about such men, but here, Sergeant John Danforth (Charles Bronson) has the role in this one. Being responsible for secure communications, this guy should not have been out on an attack, and acting as though he were just a regular soldier. But, what do I know?

In three, count 'em, 3 attacks on jungle outposts, Allied, Japanese, and Chinese warlords, not one of them had posted sentries in the surrounding jungle, and all three were caught off guard.

 

[pogopossum]

When it came out, that perception was around. I remember it feeling like it was Alien-ish. The way they dress and the set design.

They used front projection on that which made the sets seem much bigger and more realistic than using rear projection.

The fact that Outland has a noirish atmosphere doesn't throw it into the same universe as other dark SF.
The plot however throws it into the same sworld as High Noon.

 

[JunkMonkey]

The fact that Outland has a noirish atmosphere doesn't throw it into the same universe as other dark SF.
The plot however throws it into the same sworld as High Noon.

The plot was explicitly lifted from High Noon and is an object lesson in how just lifting a great story from one genre, dressing it up in someone else's SF design trappings, will turn out to be utter trash. So much wrong with that film.

It's the sort of dumb, 'High Concept', simple pitchline idea that producers would buy -

Director: "What if Ridley Scott directed High Noon - in space!"

Producer: We can't afford Ridley Scott.

Director: You can afford me.

Producer: Great! and if it's a hit I'll let you screw up 2001 as well.

 

[KGeo777]

The fact that Outland has a noirish atmosphere doesn't throw it into the same universe as other dark SF.
The plot however throws it into the same sworld as High Noon.

At the time, only ALIEN had that kind of approach to the future. The casual clothing and the particular look of the space station. So it immediately called to mind ALIEN because no other film had done that style. The variety for space stuff was limited to Star Wars, Star Trek, and Saturn 3.

 

[JunkMonkey]

At the time, only ALIEN had that kind of approach to the future. The casual clothing and the particular look of the space station. So it immediately called to mind ALIEN because no other film had done that style. The variety for space stuff was limited to Star Wars, Star Trek, and Saturn 3.

I dunno, Silent Running, Solaris, and Dark Star all had a grungy, lived-in, casual clothing aesthetic. Not as dark as Alien right enough but not 'futuristic' clothing jumpsuits, and gleaming, sterile, monotone, one designer did everything, environments.

 

[KGeo777]

I dunno, Silent Running, Solaris, and Dark Star all had a grungy, lived-in, casual clothing aesthetic. Not as dark as Alien right enough but not 'futuristic' clothing jumpsuits, and gleaming, sterile, monotone, one designer did everything, environments.

In the case of SR and DS, they had no women characters and it wasn't suggesting quite the same routine corporate-owned sort of space travel. That's where ALIEN and Outland has that attitude. That was deliberate--in the case of the others it could have been economics.

 

[KGeo777]

SO SWEET, SO DEAD 1972 - Good giallo starring Farley Granger as a police inspector seeking a murderer who kills unfaithful wives. Early on I guessed who the killer was thanks to a beach scene but it turned out to be a red herring. A couple of suspenseful scenes--one in an elevator and also some comedy involving a mortician. Granger sets up a trap for his killer and it works but with consequences for himself that he didn't anticipate.

 

[Rodders]

And Blade Runner.

Oh wow! I never considered that they could be a shared universe.

 

[Toby Frost]

Actually, on a rewatch, it isn't that much like High Noon. The gimmick of the clock counting down until the villains arrive only comes into Outland in the last quarter or so, although the clock is often visible in other scenes.

The Blade Runner/Alien overlap is, IIRC, suggested by some recent DVD extras on one of the Blade Runner films. Personally, I don't find it very convincing but each to his own. It might not be intended completely seriously, of course. (They do use the same computer screen at one point!)

 

[alexvss]

The Artifice Girl (2022): The story of an AI created to catch child predators, and their relationship with its creator throughout the years.

Great movie. And it’s not only a great science-fiction movie, but also a masterclass on filmmaking, specially on-a-budget, indie filmmaking. Most of it takes place inside a single room through the years, and it keeps you hooked through dialogue only. It’s emotional. The philosophical debate is also very important.

Very recommended.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Fireball Jungle (1968)

Cheap, forgettable race car melodrama. Our villain is a sleazy driver called "Cateye" who works for a crime boss and who deliberately causes fatal crashes. Brother of a dead driver shows up and races under an assumed name to investigate the death. Forget the plot, and enjoy the bizarre, irrelevant scene set in a toilet-themed bar. The chairs are toilets, beer comes from a urinal, the cash register makes a flushing sound. The patrons are odd, too. A woman has eyes painted on her eyelids. Another woman has her face painted in a checkerboard pattern to match her dress. A guy plays the ukulele while singing an old song, a la Tiny Tim, while his black poodle howls.

 

[paranoid marvin]

Actually, on a rewatch, it isn't that much like High Noon. The gimmick of the clock counting down until the villains arrive only comes into Outland in the last quarter or so, although the clock is often visible in other scenes.

The Blade Runner/Alien overlap is, IIRC, suggested by some recent DVD extras on one of the Blade Runner films. Personally, I don't find it very convincing but each to his own. It might not be intended completely seriously, of course. (They do use the same computer screen at one point!)

They all tend to display a dystopian future, where 'the future' be it on land or in space, is not the shiny bright one as seen in the likes of 2001, Star Trek and many science fiction movies of the 30s-60s, but is overcrowded, dominated by corporations who value money above people, and whose ecosystems have been virtually wiped out.

Space is no longer a wonderful place to explore, and spaceships are not shiny, clean and white with lots of colourful, interesting buttons ready to be pushed. It is a place full of danger, but also of dirty, hulking, commercial spacecraft that better resemble oil tankers or cargo ships than the Enterprise. And the crews who inhabit them are bored, uninterested, often ill disciplined individuals who are only interested in getting to their destination, and making sure they get paid.


It's little wonder that the likes of Soylent Green, Outland, Blade Runner, Alien etc seem similar, because they are all largely based on a similar concept.

 

[Foxbat]

In The Heat Of The Night
Just a great movie. A classic example of taking a fairly straightforward plot (whodunnit in this case) and elevating it by giving it three dimensional gravitas.

Nothing more to be said.

 

[Jeffbert]

Sergeant York (1941) I had known of this film for years, but only now have watched it.

It was way too long, in getting to the point at which York becomes a pacifist. Long, but not boring, still it could have been half that length, perhaps if made now, they might have used different technique to show that history. York was not even in the Army until after an entire hour.

Alvin C. York (Gary Cooper) starts as a drunken hillbilly, who is rowdy and the town's troublemaker. Pastor Rosier Pile (Walter Brennan) is preaching a sermon, or trying to, as York is riding around making all kinds of noise, and finally gives up. After a certain man breaks his word on a land deal, York is out for revenge. Then, a lightning strike gives him second thought on the matter. He becomes religious, etc.

So, he is drafted for the 1st World War, & the C.O., has difficulty dissuading him from being a Conscientious Objector, and consenting to kill the enemy.

Very well done, though rather long, at about 2:15.

 

[Droflet]

Air 2023.
A low ranked sneaker company becomes an American icon. The birth of Nike. Great flick, with a top cast.

 

[KGeo777]

DIRTY O'NEIL - 1974 -- Starts off as a silly comedy about a cop (Morgan Paul) who spends more time picking up girls than doing any police work. But then it swerves into a gritty hobbo getting beaten and waitress getting gang raped melodrama before it changes gears again to a comedy after he crushes one of the rapists with a bulldozer. Adding to the strangeness is that the setting is so very 70s (we see a fridge sticker that says "Lick Dick in 72) but the score is various stock tracks from as far back as the 30s. I think almost every woman in the film takes her shirt off with the welcome exception of Kate Murtaugh.

 

[dask]

The Mosquito Coast, based on the novel by Paul Theroux. Harrison Ford stars as a super genius engineer who falls of the grid with his family to build a utopia in the jungles of South America. Some things are too good to be true, even paradise.

 

[Toby Frost]

A Knight's Tale (2001) - a squire pretends to be a nobleman in order to win a jousting tournament. It's wildly (and knowingly) anachronistic, and good fun. Pretty entertaining stuff.