What was the last movie you saw?

[JunkMonkey]

I love this film.

I wish I did. It's such an important piece of trash movie history I just wanted it to be so much better.

I got irritated by the uncertain camerawork in some places. The first scene between Shaft and the Harlem boss is full of odd little zooms in and out that just don't seem to make much sense and don't really appear anywhere else in the movie (that I noticed). I got totally distracted by the fact that Rowntree was wearing a radio mic in that scene. (Note to future movie director self: Tight fitting jumpers - even sexy roll necks on hunky bods - are not a good place to try and hide recording equipment.)

Though I did admire the virtuoso way the director managed to make his obviously tiny studio sets look bigger by shooting diagonally across the space into the corner whenever possible. And why did the quality of the film degrade so much in the wide shot of the café where Shaft drinks the espresso? It looks like a second or third generation dupe. Almost as if they'd lost the negative, which is possible I suppose, and had to cut in the workprint. (Which, thinking about it, makes loosing the negative a less likely option. When the lab lost half of a Russ Meyer film - I forget which one, does it matter?they're all pretty interchangeable), they lost it before they developed it and made a dupe.)

And why was Shaft's bed just inside his front door? Is this normal in two storey New York apartments? And why did he have that GODAWFUL painting of a clown over it? I spent far too much of the movie in over-analytical mode asking myself things like that. (It really is a terrible painting.) This is what happens when I watch a really bad film. But this wasn't a really bad film It just didn't give me enough. So I started spotting the cracks.

On the up side the minor gay character was (for the era, and the type of movie) pretty sympathetic and underplayed. The guerilla style shooting on the streets gave it a rough edginess that worked at times - pity they didn't do a Larry Cohen and play out some dramatic scenes on the streets. And the opening theme is still one of my favourite pieces of movie music.

 

[Jeffbert]

THE LADY EVE (1941) A comedy in which frauds who also are cardsharps target a wealthy guy whom they meet on an ocean liner. But the woman falls for the target.

Jean Harrington Barbara Stanwyck and her partner / father 'Colonel' Harrington (Charles Coburn) are con artists who pass themselves as rich and important. They have a card game, in which they deliberately lose to the target, expecting to take him for the bankroll later.

Charles Pike (Henry Fonda) is the target, while Ambrose Murgatroyd (William Demarest) is his father's servant who protects the naïve Charles from his own ignorance. Trouble is, young Charles disregards his suspicions.

Plenty of other supporting actors, too many to mention.

A thoroughly entertaining film!

 

[HareBrain]

And why did he have that GODAWFUL painting of a clown over it?

I haven't seen the film, but it's unlikely to have been worse than one my best friend's mum had when I was a kid. It's one of the enduring mysteries that people (a) paint and (b) buy them.

 

[CupofJoe]

A triple bill of the Shia LaBeouf Transformers films.
Transformers 2007, Revenge of the Fallen 2009, Dark of the Moon 2011 all by Michael Bay.
Big Robots, lots of fighting and not much else. Loud confusing and long. They look great but there is no plot and little acting worth talking about. In most cases the robots were better acted than the human characters.
So while do I watch them? I really don't know. Maybe it is all my brain can take on a Sunday.
The only highpoint for me was seeing Buzz Aldrin.
I have the next two [Age of Extinction 2014 & The Last Knight 2017] recorded and ready to go.
Alas, no longer with Shia LaBeouf.

 

[Randy M.]

A triple bill of the Shia LaBeouf Transformers films.
Transformers 2007, Revenge of the Fallen 2009, Dark of the Moon 2011 all by Michael Bay.
Big Robots, lots of fighting and not much else. Loud confusing and long. They look great but there is no plot and little acting worth talking about. In most cases the robots were better acted than the human characters.
So while do I watch them? I really don't know. Maybe it is all my brain can take on a Sunday.
The only highpoint for me was seeing Buzz Aldrin.
I have the next two [Age of Extinction 2014 & The Last Knight 2017] recorded and ready to go.
Alas, no longer with Shia LaBeouf.

If you haven't seen Bumblebee, you really should. It's like a clinic in how to make a good '80s sf/kids film ala Spielberg (Super 8 is also good at that). Why they haven't included Hailee Steinfeld in the Transformers movie is a bigger mystery to me than why LaBeouf is out.

And, speaking of Spielberg ...

The Fabelmans (2022)

Nicely made autobiographical movie by Steven Spielberg. Sometimes deemed sentimental, it's mostly earned sentiment that doesn't reach for high drama, but is often content with comedy. Paul Dano, Michelle Williams and Gabriel LaBelle all turn in good performances, and Seth Rogen plays a mostly more mature and less annoying Seth Rogen than usual. One bit of casting cracked me up: It takes some nerve to case David Lynch as John Ford.

 

[Parson]

I watched The Lost King last night. (2022) on Prime last night. It's a story about how Richard III's grave was found. I found this a sweet little film. Unpretentious and undersold are two of the best descriptors I can think of. Sally Hawkins gives a terrific performance as Phillipa Langley. It is in no sense a cliff hanger the end is known almost from the beginning even if you have not read any kind of review. I thought it was a breath of fresh air.

Avoid --- Not Recommended --- Flawed --- Okay --- Good --- Recommended --- Shouldn’t be Missed

 

[paranoid marvin]

I watched The Lost King last night. (2022) on Prime last night. It's a story about how Richard III's grave was found. I found this a sweet little film. Unpretentious and undersold are two of the best descriptors I can think of. Sally Hawkins gives a terrific performance as Phillipa Langley. It is in no sense a cliff hanger the end is known almost from the beginning even if you have not read any kind of review. I thought it was a breath of fresh air.

Avoid --- Not Recommended --- Flawed --- Okay --- Good --- Recommended --- Shouldn’t be Missed

This is a brilliant film. It seemed a bit weird at first having RIII in the background, but once you get used to it then you realise that the movie is indispensable without him. Also if you haven't already seen in the documentary 'The King in the Car Park' is well worth checking out.

As regards the finding of Richard, who just happened to be buried under the letter 'R' in a car park, whose body was discovered almost instantly that the dig started and whose DNA was able to be matched to that the last living male who could corroborate it (as I understand it when he dies that last piece of corroborative evidence does with him).

It's hard to suggest that it's a miracle, as Richard himself - whichever view you take of him - clearly was no saint. But the chances of what happened happening are so staggeringly miniscule as to make you wonder if there was some unseen hand, presence, call it what you will, at work here.

 

[REBerg]

Avatar: The Way of Water
A CGI masterpiece!
I enjoyed all 3-plus hours here. It must be even more impressive in 3D.

 

[Toby Frost]

Office Space (1999)

A bored and frustrated office worker rebels against his boss and job. This is quite a hard film to describe, as while the premise is strong, its plot is pretty weak: it's like a set of Dilbert cartoons from when Dilbert was at its best. It's an attack on corporate culture and the bland grimness of working in an open-plan office, slightly surreal at points and full of recognisable caricatures. There's a famous moment where the three heroes work out their rage on an office printer, attacking it like Mafia thugs.

This was better than Mike Judge's later film Idiocracy: it doesn't wear out its premise as much, and hits its targets better. As with a lot of these stories, the weirdos with small parts are perhaps funnier than the leads, although it's well-acted. It never quite decides whether work is a necessary evil or an awful imposition, but that doesn't matter. Good stuff.

 

[Happy Joe]

Just received John wick 4 , And was disappointed; It almost ignores the backstory in favor of fight sequences. (Whatever happened to his mustang)...
Either John Wick is slowing down or I am getting jaded by his fighting.
In spite of being a fan of the first 3 movies I recommend waiting for a massive price reduction before buying the UHD/4k blue-ray; just glad that I didn't waste money, on this one, at the theater...

Like the Harry Potter series the film makers/series "lost the magic" before completion...

... also received the Fire Fly series on blue ray (Oh, how I wish it was in 4k); so the evening was not a total loss!

Enjoy!

 

[hitmouse]

Just received John wick 4 , And was disappointed; It almost ignores the backstory in favor of fight sequences. (Whatever happened to his mustang)...
Either John Wick is slowing down or I am getting jaded by his fighting.
In spite of being a fan of the first 3 movies I recommend waiting for a massive price reduction before buying the UHD/4k blue-ray; just glad that I didn't waste money, on this one, at the theater...

Like the Harry Potter series the film makers/series "lost the magic" before completion...

... also received the Fire Fly series on blue ray (Oh, how I wish it was in 4k); so the evening was not a total loss!

Enjoy!

I thought the later Harry Potter books and films were pretty good.

 

[paranoid marvin]

I thought the later Harry Potter books and films were pretty good.

They were entirely different. I really liked the tone and atmosphere of the first two movies and novels. They were magical. By the time of the later books with the heroes becoming teenagers, the magic got swapped out for more worldly concerns. If it had been Roald Dahl writing the books it would have been defeated at the end of book 1 and we could all have moved on happily.

Sequels, prequels and reboots are the bane of modern literature (and tv and films).

 

[AE35Unit]

Kiss the Girls (1997)
Along Came a Spider (2001)
Two films based on the Alex Cross books by James Patterson .
The second film is the better of the two, and was based on the first book in the series. Kiss the Girls is book 2

 

[JunkMonkey]

Mon Oncle (1958) - The first of Jaques Tati's films to be released in colour, Mon Oncle won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, a Special Prize at the 1958 Cannes Film Festival, and the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Foreign Language Film, receiving more honours than any of Tati's other cinematic works. works. (Wikipedia).

I fell asleep.

 

[KGeo777]

The ending feels rushed in SHAFT--it felt like they had to close it up really quickly.

BATTLE FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES- 1973--released 50 years ago. Not the best but still watchable. Roddy McDowall had another movie out which we will get to tomorrow. Severn Darden in response to being reminded about radioactive contamination: "We may be radiated but at least we're active."

 

[hitmouse]

Mon Oncle (1958) - The first of Jaques Tati's films to be released in colour, Mon Oncle won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, a Special Prize at the 1958 Cannes Film Festival, and the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Foreign Language Film, receiving more honours than any of Tati's other cinematic works. works. (Wikipedia).

I fell asleep.

I love this film, sometimes. One I will return to when I am in a particular frame of mind. The pace is quite unusual. I suspect Wes Anderson was chanelling aspects of this when he made The French Dispatch. I have failed to interest anyone else in this film.

 

[Foxbat]

Shaft (1971) - interesting from a "this is a historically important ground-breaking (niche market / genre generating) movie" point of view but it's pretty thin stuff really.

Agreed. I bought this a couple of years back on DVD. I hadn't watched it for decades and I was quite disappointed when I did. Mediocre at best, but at least it had the best ever theme tune use of wah wah guitar. That movie is 50% responsible for me buying my very first wah wah pedal (the other 50% goes to Thin Lizzy's Brian Robertson).

 

[Cthulhu.Science]

Office Space (1999)

A bored and frustrated office worker rebels against his boss and job. This is quite a hard film to describe, as while the premise is strong, its plot is pretty weak: it's like a set of Dilbert cartoons from when Dilbert was at its best. It's an attack on corporate culture and the bland grimness of working in an open-plan office, slightly surreal at points and full of recognisable caricatures. There's a famous moment where the three heroes work out their rage on an office printer, attacking it like Mafia thugs.

This was better than Mike Judge's later film Idiocracy: it doesn't wear out its premise as much, and hits its targets better. As with a lot of these stories, the weirdos with small parts are perhaps funnier than the leads, although it's well-acted. It never quite decides whether work is a necessary evil or an awful imposition, but that doesn't matter. Good stuff.

I sometimes joke that my job is like this - only not funny.

 

[Cthulhu.Science]

I watched My Dinner with Andre 1981 the other night. Amazing. The entire movie is just two guys sitting in a restaurant having dinner. And except for a couple idiosyncrasies from the early 80s - one character mentions mailing things and checking his phone service for messages - the entire film could be reshot today with the same script and be equally amazing.

 

[Cthulhu.Science]

They were entirely different. I really liked the tone and atmosphere of the first two movies and novels. They were magical. By the time of the later books with the heroes becoming teenagers, the magic got swapped out for more worldly concerns. If it had been Roald Dahl writing the books it would have been defeated at the end of book 1 and we could all have moved on happily.

Sequels, prequels and reboots are the bane of modern literature (and tv and films).

I read the first book and was done. I really disliked the writing itself.

I saw a critique that I thought was quite clever. It nailed down the popularity of the books among tweens succinctly - "What tween doesn't want to fantasize that - "Hey, this isn't my real family, I'm really a superstar wizard waiting to be collected!"