What was the last movie you saw?

Serena (2015)

I watched the preview for this on another DVD a few months back, so when I saw it on the library shelf, I grabbed it. It's beautiful to look at, lush in scenery and in costume. But there's something wrong with this movie. It just doesn't go anywhere. The second half slowed down so much that it was an effort to finish it. That and the acting is much too modern in character to be an effective 1930s period piece. Some movies get period acting right: Enigma, A Room with a View, and An Education for example. But Serena never let me escape 2020.
 
HOUSE OF USHER 1960 - Never did one house have so many red candles. "She calls my name. Roderick! Roderick!" The paintings in this film are very interesting and I sometimes spot the artist's work in other films.
Like Marlowe 1969.
marlowepainting.jpg
 
I watched a movie called Jexi.

Adam Levine. A comedy about what can happen when you love your phone more than anything else in your life. It was okay. Funny in places but Her was a much better film.
 
THE MUMMY 1959 --after having finally watched the 1932 version--I think the Hammer one is far superior. I tended to overlook it for rewatching as mummy movies are low on my favorite list but its pretty good overall.

CIRCUS OF FEAR 1966 - Once again Christopher Lee is covered up in this murder mystery which I guess is technically a krimi. Also a rewatch.
 
I haven't been to the cinema since last year. I would have liked to have seen Tenet but I couldn't sit with a mask on for 3 hours. I really want to see Bill and Ted: Face the Music and James Bond: No Time to Die. However, I'm restricted to watching films on TV only.

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Borat2 is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

As a film, I couldn't tell you that Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, is great. It uses the same mockumentary style as the first film, which I have on DVD, but it is not as funny, no longer is it original, and looks like it was made on a lower budget. Isn't that the way with all sequels? I'd give it a 3/5.

As a commentary on American culture, and as a political satire, it is stinging and hits all the high notes. Let's face it, if you have a certain political persuasion then you are not going to like this film, not at all, and if another then you will love it. That it demonstrated by the highly skewed 1 star and 5 star ratings that it is getting on websites like IMDb. So, I'm not going to comment on the politics, but he makes his own beliefs very strongly, and he does it so well that the film has become international news during an American election. The release date was quite obviously intentional.

Some quotes I've read about it are: "Sasha Baron Cohen’s latest Borat film is more a collection of abhorrent and asinine cringiness than acerbic comedy", " As shocking as it is hilarious, as ridiculous as it is insightful", and "an amusingly harebrained scheme, but there’s nothing in this moviefilm that matches the elegant social experiment of the first". There is some truth in all those.

The story is simply a weak way to string together various set pieces. There are an array of cameo appearances, usually without the knowledge of the person in question and usually, but not always, showing them in a poor light. There are several more cameos that were cut out, but are likely to be added back again in the future depending on the US election results. You have to give Cohan credit for his sheer audacity in designing and setting up these set pieces (especially as there can be only one take) and at some points you might even fear for his own safety in doing so. However, I would agree that the film's real star is Maria Bakalova (a 24 year-old Bulgarian actress who plays Cohan's daughter) and also along with all the people saying that she deserves an Oscar for her performance.

It is slightly depressing that this is the only "new" film I've seen in two months though.
 
LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL (1972?) I had an audio cassette of this long ago, & this is my third time watching it. Interesting look at 1950s rock & roll artists not only as they performed in 1972?, but the screen was often spit showing the current and 1950s performances side by side. Also had clips of teachers and other grown-ups vilifying the music, the clothes, etc. Sad that so many founding groups had already been long gone by the 1970s; though the music survives. Seeing Chuck Berry hop across the stage reminded me of a Flintstones episode.
 
The Werewolf (1956) A very different type here, the result of a mad scientist who thinks humanity will soon be extinct. He wants to turn us into other things, and the wolf is the 1st try. Reminds me of Sssssss. So, this guy is driving home from work, crashes, and is bonked on the noggin, & loses his memory. Mad scientist grabs him, and he becomes the ww. But, only transforms when he is threatened. An interesting twist, indeed. It was 16 by 9, so, I am thinking it was cropped top and bottom. The guy's wife & kid come looking for him, another different element. Typical ending, though.
 
Two horror films involving death in quicksand:


FROM HELL IT CAME (1957) I originally intended to merely add a few screen captures, but watched the whole thing, instead. At just under 75 minutes, it was fairly good, despite its silly premise that a tree stump has a heart beat, veins, blood, etc.

So, the Witch doctor (not the one associated with the song sung by the Chipmunks) does not like the Americans coming along and muscling-in on his territory with their modern medicine. There is a plague besides the radioactivity, but the ignorant and superstitious natives know nothing about either. So, they kill the guy who had believed in the scientists, and, his last words were to curse his killers. They sealed him inside a hollowed-out tree stump and buried him upright. After a few days, the stump began emerging from the grave, and eventually was ready to rampage, just needing its roots cut away.

I had forgotten that the scientists who were on the island to measure radioactivity from a nuclear bomb test some 1500 miles away, had uprooted the Tabanga from the place it had emerged. They even injected it with some drug intended to stimulate recovery. No immediate results, so, they decide to return in the morning. By then, the Tabanga had recovered, broken free, wrecked the lab, and gone out for revenge.

Its 1st victim, a native woman, it decided to dispatch her in the quicksand. As I recall, the 1st time I wrote about this film, I noted that she was tossed in, facing away from the solid ground, and turned herself around to face the Terra FIRMA, which is true, but at the 2nd viewing, I noticed that she kicked herself farther away from the edge. :ROFLMAO: This must be the least convincing depiction of quicksand I have ever seen. In fact, the area immediately surrounding her appeared to be muddy water, at best; with the what appears to be rest being chunks of wood painted to resemble earth. It was actually more creepy, before anyone was tossed in, mist rising and the surface rippling.





DEATH CURSE OF TARTU (1966) Virginia Silverwolf has reviewed this and FROM HELL IT CAME, which I forgot to mention above. Anyway, an archaeology professor and about half a dozen students go exploring, and desecrate the burial grounds of some tribe. The ghost-guy arises and turns into various critters to kill the naughty students. Only nature itself call kill him; hence the need for the quicksand. So, after all but 1 girl have been killed, the ghost guy chases her toward the evil man-eating quicksand. It is marked with a skull mounted on a tree branch. There is a fallen tree lying across it, and the girl attempts to cross on the tree, but the ghost-guy begins twisting it, hoping to throw her off. He succeeds! Oh-no! The hero is approaching, but, will he arrive in time? :giggle:


Quicksand is only fun when it is on TV or in movies. Something about buoyancy. As I recall an episode of BATMAN had Adam West calming Burt Ward when both were sinking in the Riddler's QS trap. Not the usual Riddler, but, John Astin, as Frank Gorshin was unavailable.
 
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Tourist Trap 1979 - Some genuine creepy moments like the opening scene and the mannequins with screaming mouths. Sort of a Texas Chainsaw Massacre copycat it nevertheless goes into new territory (and seems to have inspired the 2005 House of Wax to the point that one could consider that an unofficial remake.

Ghost Ship 2002 - The 1990s and 2000s did not offer much in the way of horror films I was interested in checking out-and the ones I did usually were disappointing. In this case a movie I watched a few times in the 2000s but haven't watched in over ten years, the story is good-I am a sucker for nautical horror-I liked Deep Rising and even Virus, I wasn't too crazy about some of the cgi action and rapid modern editing trickery, but after a long absence it still holds up for me or maybe I am just mellowing with age and more forgiving.
 
What Became of Jack and Jill? (1972)

Psychological shocker that manages to be a bleak viewing experience despite mod clothing, groovy rock music, and a plot that makes use of the Generation Gap. Jack (actually Johnny, but whatever) is a young guy with no job who lives with his grandmother and has a plot to inherit her wealth, even if he has to hurry her death along. Jill is his even more sociopathic girlfriend, a Lady Macbeth in miniskirts. Their bizarre plan involves convincing the elderly woman that the imaginary Youth Party is rounding up old folks and taking them away to death camps. (Shades of Wild in the Streets!) They do this by painting DOWN WITH THE OLDIES on a fence, cutting news articles out of the paper, supposedly not to upset Granny with the terrible truth, and so on. The plot moves slowly, so this takes up about an hour of the film. After that, an unexpected codicil to Granny's will keeps the avaricious lovers away from the loot, unless Jack marries somebody other than Jill. Although Jill encourages Jack to chat up a bird, eventually to marry her and then dump her, she's also violently jealous. Things don't work out well. Aside from some weird fantasy sequences -- Jack imagines himself in full Nazi regalia, machinegunning down a line of old folks -- the film has a sense of kitchen sink realism that makes the outrageous aspects of the plot seem perfectly ordinary.
 
THE CHANGELING 1980 - Haven't watched this in ages. The pounding sound was spooky. Interesting to consider this big budget haunted house movie came out before the Shining, although thematically it is similar to The Fog.
 
She Devil (1957)

Film version of Stanley G. Weinbaum's 1935 story "The Adaptive Ultimate." Follows the story fairly closely. Scientist, believing that the cure for all diseases is adaptation, and claiming that fruit flies are the most adaptable of all insects, creates a serum that allows higher animals to heal themselves. (Ignore the bad science.) He uses it to save the life of a dying woman. She is cured miraculously, but the stuff also turns her into a sociopath. Her first crime is hitting a guy on the head with an ashtray and taking his money. She gets away through the simple trick of instantly changing her hair from black to blonde. (A nifty little special effect, done without cutting away, through the use of lights and filters.) Soon she murders a rich guy's wife, marries him, then kills him. (Easy enough; she simply causes their car to get into a huge wreck, then walks away unharmed.) Can the scientist stop this She Devil, even though he's in love with her? (One can speculate that she "adapted" her pheromones to attract him; that makes as much sense as any of the other science stuff in this movie.) It's a reasonably entertaining little low budget sci-fi film.
 
The Searchers (1956) D: John Ford, S: John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter, Ward Bond

Epic John Ford western with John Wayne and Ward Bond (3 drinking buddies) and a young Jeffrey Hunter well before he was Starship Captain Christopher Pike. John Wayne and Jeffrey Hunter pursue Comanche abductors of Jeffrey Hunter's sister / John Wayne's niece. Great movie.
 
KGeo777 said:
THE MUMMY 1959 --after having finally watched the 1932 version--I think the Hammer one is far superior. I tended to overlook it for rewatching as mummy movies are low on my favorite list but its pretty good overall.

CIRCUS OF FEAR 1966 - Once again Christopher Lee is covered up in this murder mystery which I guess is technically a krimi. Also a rewatch.
Click to expand...

The Curse of the Mummy Tomb 1964 is somewhat similar to the the 1959 film but is not a bad film at all.


Children of the Damed 1964 One gets the impression that this a follow up of The Village of the Damned. If so ,it's an excellent follow up.:cool:
 
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MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM (1933) not to be confused with HOUSE OF WAX (1953); the former being essentially a remake of the latter. Ivan Igor (Lionel Atwill) is partner with Joe Worth (Edwin Maxwell), who, worried about the finances, wants to torch the place, & collect the insurance $$. Igor, being the sculptor who made the wax figures, is emotionally attached to them, and resists, but is knocked-out, and loses the use of his hands in the fire. Years later, Igor has built a new wax museum, not in London England, but in New York. Using a rare 2 strip color, this was very well-done, and along with Dr. X, shared both Lionel Atwill as well as the color scheme.

I have yet to re-watch HOUSE OF WAX, but, I believe the most important plot difference, is the female reporter Florence Dempsey's (Glenda Farrell) job figures prominently. Her editor (Frank McHugh) threatens to fire her, if she does not produce an interesting story. Her roommate Charlotte Duncan's (Fay Wray) role is essentially the same, she ends-up under the hot wax faucet.

Ben M-- & his guest gave opening & closing remarks, & such, & despite being shown in October, it was featured not as the expected horror theme, but, rather, as film restoration, instead. Interesting discussion.



THE WICKER MAN (1973) In his before & after comments, Ben M. said that this was Chistopher Lee's favorite role!? When I 1st saw this, I was really taken by surprise by its ending, so, here I will be brief.

Lee is the lord of a remote British island, who is carrying-on with the culture embraced by his grandfather. It is pagan, complete with the sexual themes, such as fruitfulness of both the fields and the body. Young women are dancing around a fire, unencumbered by clothing, which greatly distresses Sgt. Howie (Edward Woodward), who had just arrived to investigate the disappearance of a young girl. The police officer is simply freaking-out, at the culture embraced by the inhabitants of the island, and just as much, perhaps, more so, by the attitude of Lord Summerisle (Christopher Lee) about it. He thought England was a Christian nation; but finding the open display of pagan culture, unbelievable. Which, is even more important, since, I, being American, read somewhere that the nation was considering prosecuting the PYTHONs on blasphemy charges for THE LIFE OF BRYAN. I had no idea! So, the cop's presumption that the paganism was just among very few of the locals, and that Christianity was the norm, was shattered in a brutal realization that everybody was in on it. I cannot find an adequate allegory; perhaps the guy who goes to work on the car he had been driving for years, and finds out the hard way, that his tool do not fit. He has inches, but the car is metric. So his spark plug wrench does not fit, then he tries to tighten some other nut or bolt, etc.


The Devil Rides Out / The Devil's Bride (1968) Supposed to be horror, & I cannot recall my 1st impression of it, but lately, I find myself laughing at it. It is the supernatural element that I find funny. I suppose if this were a novel, & I think it is based on one, my reading and visualizing in my mind would make it more believable.

Mocata (Charles Gray, better known for the role of Blofeld) makes a wonderful Satanist/ leader of Devil worshipers. His piercing gaze hypnotizes his victims, similarly to Dracula's. Duc de Richleau (Christopher Lee) as the hero.

A fun to watch film!
;)


TOY COMMERCIALS (2017) most of these were before my time, but very amusing, anyway. More fun than that series, THE TOYS THAT MADE US!

Most of the boys' toys shot some kind of projectiles, or had roll caps. Kill the enemy! Except for Barbie, most of the girls' toys prepared the for lives of domesticity; cooking & cleaning, & taking care of the baby. Way cute! :giggle: GILBERT toys ran a very long ad for more than a few toys; could not have been an infomercial,no such thing back then.

A very young Billy Mumy, a few years before his appearance in THE TWILIGHT ZONE, is in a war toy ad.
 
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