What was the last movie you saw?

[Toby Frost]

Avatar (2009); i WATCHED this because of having also watched James Cameron's Scifi program; whose 1st episode was about aliens. at over 2.5 hours, it might have become tedious, but did not. I do not suppose there are too many here who have not already seen it, so I will skip the description. I did enjoy it, though found myself looking for ways to scrutinize it.

I agree. I think it's become quite fashionable to hate this film. I don't think it's brilliant but it's not bad at all, either.

 

[The Big Peat]

Avengers: Infinity War. Looking back at other people's comments and wondering if we saw the same film. Marvel are rapidly losing my interest, save for Deadpool.

 

[Amberlen]

I've been tempted to watch that one, too.

It’s kind of a mystery/drama type-not awful

 

[Rodders]

Captain America: The First Avenger.

I watched this on TV again last night. I didn't like it when i first watched it, but with each viewing it gets better and better.

 

[Jeffbert]

Target for Killing (1966) . This seems like my kind of film. I need to find it! Thanks, Victoria Silverwolf!




None But the Brave (1965). Frank Sinatra starred and, I believe, directed the film about U.S. & Japanese soldiers on a tiny & forgotten island that is not even on American's maps. There is just one source of fresh water, & the Japanese control it. When their forces eventually clash, one Japanese Soldier is seriously wounded, & his leg must go. Yet, only the Americans have even a medic. They must not barter water for medic's care. So, a truce is essential, but it is tense. Very good film, but sad ending.

One critique, is that there were no subs for the Japanese dialog.

 

[AstroZon]

Shootout at Medicine Bend (1957) Western staring Randolph Scott, James Craig, Gordon Jones, James Garner, and Angie Dickinson.

I quite enjoyed this movie even though the plot is your basic good guys vs bad guys fare. Western movie staple Randolph Scott is a recently retired US Calvary captain looking for the shady merchant that sold his brother bogus gunpowder (and cost him his life.) James Garner and Gordon Jones are both with him as they too just cashed out of the Army. As they travel to Medicine Bend, every last thing they own is stolen from them while they are bathing in a pond. They befriend a Quaker wagon train and receive Quaker clothing. Randolph Scott realizes that the Quaker garb will allow them to investigate the corrupt frontier town without arousing too much suspicion. He goes about his religious cover by day while stealthing about at night to uncover the truth.

Randolph Scott made a few more westerns and then retired in 1962. Both Angie Dickinson and James Garner would soon find their stars.

 

[AstroZon]

City that Never Sleeps (1953) Gig Young, Mala Powers, William Talman, Edward Arnold

Classic noir with crooked cops, crooked lawyers, femme fatals, plot twists, and plenty of shadowy night sets. Lead actor Gig Young is a cop turned by his desire to leave his wife (and her nagging mother) and his job which he feels he was pressured into taking to uphold his father's wishes. He's out to arrest mob lawyer Edward Arnold's #2 man as Arnold no longer trusts him - and make a quick $5k in the process. But the #2 man is cunning and out maneuvers Gig Young. BTW, the #2 man just happens to be William Talman - the long suffering DA from Perry Mason. And Talman makes a great villain - downright chilling in fact.

A great film noir.

 

[s.d. Ervin]

A QUIET PLACE. As someone who spends a fair amount of mental energy trying to make scenarios feel as plausible as possible, I just have to scratch my head. One pump action shotgun that is obviously not portable in a lootable world? Really?

 

[AstroZon]

Sahara (1943) Humphrey Bogart

Superb war movie with Humphrey Bogart and a cast of first-rate supporting actors including a young Lloyd Bridges. Neither Peter Lorre nor Sydney Greenstreet are in this one, but we do get Dan Duryea and J. Carrol Naish.

The film is mainly about an American tank crew in retreat while being forced into the arid south Libyan desert. They pick up the surviving troops of a stranded British mobile hospital unit, a Royal Sudanese soldier and his Italian POW, and a downed German Luftwaffe pilot. The tank crew and their rescuees are in a constant search for water while trying to stay ahead of German advances. Sahara was filmed in the area around California's Salton Sea and looks remarkably real.

Of note is Italian POW Giuseppe's speech to the German Luftwaffe POW. He summarizes the difference between the Italian's devotion to Mussolini and the German's allegiance to Hitler. J. Carrol Naish received a Best Supporting Actor nomination for this speech.

 

[J Riff]

The 12th Man - 2018... trapped behind Nazi lines, one guy of twelve gets away, but our fanatical Nazi commandant doesn't believe he's dead. He freezes, starves and just keeps going until... the border is in sight, but heavily guarded. Does he make it?
Would be a lousy movie if he didn't, but you never know. **

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Three Sisters (1970)

We finish up the American Film Theatre series with this adaptation of Antov Chekhov's play. My better half claims we saw this twenty years or so ago, but I had no memory of it whatsoever, so it seemed new. No real plot; it's more of a series of character studies done in an impressionistic style as we follow the lives of various people over several years. The three sisters can be simplistically described as Old Maid, Unhappy Wife, and Young Idealist. Lots of crises and disappointments, much philosophical musing over the meaning of life, work, and suffering. Comes across as more as a filmed play than a movie, for the most part.

 

[Jeffbert]

The Narrow Margin (1952)-- I saw this about a year ago, but I usually forget the titles, so, I recorded it when it received the Noir Alley treatment the other day. so, As Muller gave the intro to the film, I soon realized I had seen it, & fast forwarded it to about 10 minutes until its end. Watched it from that point; thoroughly tense film, great example of the genre. But it had the leading man & lady portrayed by actors who were not so well-known. Being RKO, HH liked it, but wanted the scenes re-shot with top-grade actors, R. Mitchum, I believe, though cannot recall the LL he wanted. It ended up gathering dust for a while, before actually being released.

Anyway, a cop is assigned to guard a mob boss' wife as she travels by train to the city where the trial will be. Henchmen are dispatched to dispatch her, & the cop (Charles McGraw) must protect her. As mentioned earlier, this actor was obscure, I cannot even recall seeing his elsewhere. Likewise, the Mobster's wife (Marie Windsor), whose greatest fame is apparently being known as Queen of the Bs (b-movies, not bull****).

 

[Randy M.]

Hey, Jeff.

As I remember him, McGraw was one of those actors that was a B-lister hero for a time but made his living later in TV, moving into character roles. My memory is confirmed by Wikipedia: He appeared in The Night Stalker along with another B-movie noir icon, Ralph Meeker. (The next movie, The Night Strangler, followed that by featuring Scott Brady.)


Randy M.

 

[Cathbad]

Deadpool (2016)

"Missed the second half of this the first time around, but the first half didn't impress me. Just finished watching the second time. Still think the first half is lacking, but the second half makes up for it!

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Rituals (1977)

Short and unfair review: The Canadian Deliverance.

Five doctors are flown into an extremely remote area for six days of outdoor fun. After some time spent in adolescent hi-jinks -- one of them even brings an inflatable sex doll along as a joke -- they find that their boots have been stolen. The one guy with enough brains to have brought along a spare pair of shoes starts on a long walk for help. While he's gone, the others find the head of a freshly killed deer with a snake wrapped around it, the first of a series of bizarre messages left by whoever is stalking them. Thus begins an intense suspense story of survival against an insane killer, an unforgiving wilderness, and the men's own emotional breakdowns. The violence is not very explicit, but extremely unnerving. The actors scream, curse, shriek, and cry a lot, and the whole thing is brutally realistic.

 

[Jeffbert]

A Generation (1955) Young Polish resistance fighters recruited by a very attractive young woman find that fighting Nazis is not as easy or as simple as they expected. One guy steals a semiautomatic pistol, only to realize that he does not know anything about it. When he shows his prize to the others, one notes that the safety is on. The guy did not even know what it was.

I have seen other such films, one being Kanal (1956), which, upon reading <-- this Wikipedia page, is the 2nd film of a trilogy, A Generation , being the 1st. Kanal refers to the storm drains or sewers in which the resistance fighters took refuge.

Both tell the story of the price these people paid for their resistance; which, may be said to be their lives, because the Nazis would eventually eradicate them, given they had the time to do so.

City that Never Sleeps (1953) Gig Young, Mala Powers, William Talman, Edward Arnold

Classic noir with crooked cops, crooked lawyers, femme fatals, plot twists, and plenty of shadowy night sets. Lead actor Gig Young is a cop turned by his desire to leave his wife (and her nagging mother) and his job which he feels he was pressured into taking to uphold his father's wishes. He's out to arrest mob lawyer Edward Arnold's #2 man as Arnold no longer trusts him - and make a quick $5k in the process. But the #2 man is cunning and out maneuvers Gig Young. BTW, the #2 man just happens to be William Talman - the long suffering DA from Perry Mason. And Talman makes a great villain - downright chilling in fact.

A great film noir.

I am near certain that I saw this one; great example of the genre!

Sahara (1943) Humphrey Bogart

Superb war movie with Humphrey Bogart and a cast of first-rate supporting actors including a young Lloyd Bridges. Neither Peter Lorre nor Sydney Greenstreet are in this one, but we do get Dan Duryea and J. Carrol Naish.

The film is mainly about an American tank crew in retreat while being forced into the arid south Libyan desert. They pick up the surviving troops of a stranded British mobile hospital unit, a Royal Sudanese soldier and his Italian POW, and a downed German Luftwaffe pilot. The tank crew and their rescuees are in a constant search for water while trying to stay ahead of German advances. Sahara was filmed in the area around California's Salton Sea and looks remarkably real.

Of note is Italian POW Giuseppe's speech to the German Luftwaffe POW. He summarizes the difference between the Italian's devotion to Mussolini and the German's allegiance to Hitler. J. Carrol Naish received a Best Supporting Actor nomination for this speech.

As far as the drama goes, this one is a winner. Yet, as a WWII tank enthusiast, I must critique. The film takes place in the dunes; which, as I understand it, is death to tanks, as the fuel consumption is very much higher than driving on the hard ground. The tank itself, is about the worst it could be. An M3 (Grant), it was a quick & dirty attempt to build something that could go up against the German tanks, which were designed to fight other tanks. The U.s, British, & French tanks were all designed to support the infantry, not to go against other tanks. So the put a 75mm gun in the upper hull while mounting the 37mm in the turret. only the 75mm had any chance of defeating any German tanks, but its usefulness was limited by its lack of a fully rotating mount. Enough about that.

Hey, Jeff.

As I remember him, McGraw was one of those actors that was a B-lister hero for a time but made his living later in TV, moving into character roles. My memory is confirmed by Wikipedia: He appeared in The Night Stalker along with another B-movie noir icon, Ralph Meeker. (The next movie, The Night Strangler, followed that by featuring Scott Brady.)


Randy M.

Thank, Randy M; yes, it is interesting how Noir actors made the transition to television. Some of the bad guys became Peary Mason or Ironside.

 

[J Riff]

Island Zero 2018 - giant amphibians.. in the ocean no less... eat everything, all the fish and lobsters. Then they start grabbing people from boats and later they go to their houses and sort of ...dissolve people when they touch them, which makes for gore, which this movie has a bunch of for no apparent reason.... but, these amphibians... they are hard to see, like Predator, all glisteny, and hey, the military thinks by golly we better get 'em on our side, since they are as smart as people and highly social etc. ... an 'apex predator' that just shows up in the ocean, where amphibians aren't found, and the island- well nobody comes for a week, the ferry doesn't show up, the phones don't work etcetc. so it looks like the gummint has set up the island to be a sacrificial testing ground for... large amphibians which have super-evolved in the ocean, which nobody has noticed, and - (terminate review)

 

[AlexH]

What We Do in the Shadows (2014) A highly-rated New Zealand zombie-comedy, played as a reality TV show about the zombies' lives. It started quite well and was well-acted, but I was bored for most of the second half. The best zombie-comedy will probably always be Tucker and Dale vs Evil.

También la lluvia (Even the Rain) (2010) A Mexican film set in Bolivia. A director is filming a film about a controversial side of Christopher Columbus. The filming clashes with protests in the nearest city as the government privatise the water supply and threaten the completion of the film, which includes local actors in first-time roles. I enjoyed this one. If I remember rightly, the Bolivian government tried to make it illegal to collect water in buckets in the early 2000s.

Avengers: Infinity War. Looking back at other people's comments and wondering if we saw the same film. Marvel are rapidly losing my interest, save for Deadpool.

I wouldn't say I'm losing interest, but this was my least favourite of the Avengers films.

 

[Sum Dude]

Multiple graffiti documentaries.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Spy in Your Eye (1965)

Italian spy flick, renamed for American audiences from the much duller original title Berlino - Appuntamento per le spie ("Berlin, Appointment for the Spies"). The American title refers to the fact that Dana Andrews, as the head of the Good Guy spies, is missing one eye. He gets an artificial one surgically implanted, but he doesn't know that the Bad Guy spies are using it as a surveillance camera. This bizarre science fiction gimmick plays very little part in the plot, which is a typical thing about the Russians, the Americans, and the Chinese all running around after a young woman, the daughter of an East German scientist, who may or may not know her father's formula for a death ray. Typical spy stuff follows, with nutty things popping up once in a while. For example, one Good Guy spy wears a fake hunchback, which has a knife pop out when he backs up into a Bad Guy. There's a wax figure of Napoleon that stabs people. At the very end of the film, we find out that the daughter has the formula tattooed on her head, under her hair. This wacky stuff holds the attention when the viewer gets bored with car chases and fight scenes. I suspect this was poorly edited for Americans, as it's hard to follow the story's many wanderings. (There's a brief scene of a bunch of bikini-clad Good Girl spies training in martial arts, but they play no role in the plot.) Nice location filming in Europe and the Middle East. The print I watched has completely faded from (I assume) bright color to sepia, which adds an appropriately nostalgic feeling to it.