What was the last movie you saw?

[Victoria Silverwolf]

That's quite a double feature. I've seen both. Davis' performance in the first one is truly amazing. The other one is campy, but not quite as goofy as They Saved Hitler's Brain.

 

[Parson]

I almost feel as I shouldn't be posting here as the movie I last saw was not at least decades old.

Yesterday I took my grandsons to see The Grinch. I absolutely loved it. It gave the Grinch a backstory and a reason for his actions and a believable reason for transformation. I also loved it that Cindy Lou Who becomes a full character in an understandable household. The animation is absolutely gorgeous, and is so true to Dr. Zeus' vision it's hard to believe.

It's better than the original, which I thought was very good. It only loses to the original in terms of music. It is miles better than Jim Carrey's never to be panned enough live action.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Mark Forest is Goliath-in-name-only double feature:

Goliath and the Dragon (1960)

American version of an Italian flick in which the hero was actually Hercules. In the dubbed version, he's named Emilius but is always known by the nickname Goliath. The convoluted plot is based loosely on myths of Hercules, so I'll call him that. We start with Hercules completing what seems to be the last of the legendary labors. He has to go into the "cave of horrors" (which appears to be Hades; it's even got Cerberus for Hercules to battle) to retrieve the "blood diamond" for the "god of vengeance." (Thanks, off-screen narrator!) The bad guy (Broderick Crawford, of all people) wants Hercules to be killed by the dragon in the cave so he can invade the land ruled by the demigod. Hercules gets the diamond, after beating up the fire-breathing three-headed dog and a monster that kind of looks like an ape with bat wings. After this, he just wants to lead a peaceful life with his wife and kids. Complications ensue because the young brother of Hercules (his oldest son in the original movie) is in love with a woman who. . . Well, let's just say that the palace intrigue scenes get really complicated, with lots of characters plotting against each other. It all comes down to Hercules battling bad guys, beating up monsters, smashing buildings to bits, and so on. He finally fights the dragon at the very end. (Stop motion animation scenes of the dragon by a young Jim Danforth were added to the original not-very-convincing special effects.) Tons of supernatural stuff happens, from prophecies that must come true, to the sun being blotted out by an angry god, to a centaur who sometimes appears as a faun. It's all goofy low-budget fun.

Goliath and the Sins of Babylon (1963)

This time Mark Forest appears without the beard he wore as Hercules. The character he's playing is really Maciste, who shows up in a zillion Italian sword-and-sandal epics. He shows up in a land conquered by Babylon, who demand thirty beautiful virgins each year as tribute. Along with some other musclemen who pretend to be gladiators, he joins a rebellion against the oppressors. More palace intrigue: The puppet ruler of the conquered land is the son of the king killed in battle with Babylon. He gets to keep the throne until his sister marries and her husband becomes king. The implication is that the new ruler, whoever it is, won't be so friendly to Babylon. By law, the only man who can marry the sister is one who can beat her in a chariot race. The loser forfeits his life. What with one thing and another, Maciste winds up racing against the sister, who is in love with one of the rebels and so has no intention of letting Maciste win. No supernatural elements, but plenty of fighting and better-than-average production values. The chariot race is nicely done, and there's a naval battle which makes use of two full-sized ships instead of models. There's also a midget sidekick around to provide slapstick comedy relief.

 

[Cathbad]

An Adventure in Space and Time (2013)

A wonderfully told tale of the first few years of the Dr. Who series.

David Bradley plays William Hartnell, the very first incarnation of The Doctor. He plays the role so expertly, I had to remind myself that he wasn't W. Hartnell!

Bradley gives us Hartnell's personal side, at a time in his life when things were very good... but life - especially age - was also interfering. He made us love and cry for Hartnell. And along the way, he and the director showed how both Dr. Who and William Hartnell influenced and changed each other.

I can't believe it took me six years to see this movie. My advice? See it - and quick!

 

[Jeffbert]

Two with Bela Lugosi:
The Corpse Vanishes (1947) BL is stealing the corpses of young brides who collapse at the altar, & essentially transfusing their life force or youth, into his aged wife, which temporally restores her youth.

Bowery at Midnight (1942) By day, BL is a university professor, by night, he runs a soup kitchen, whose customers are mainly criminals. He forces them to steal or kill for him. When they outlive their usefulness, he kills them, & buries them in the cellar.

Spoiler

But the doctor who works for him, had secretly revived many of them, and hidden them in a sub basement below the graves in the cellar. How did he hollow-out that area?

The Threat (1949) NOIR ALLEY film. An actor whom I had not heard of, when I wrote a previous review, becomes prominent in this film. Charles McGraw as an escaped criminal, who swore revenge against the cop & the DA who put him in prison. His name was third from the top on the movie poster, but he was the lead character. Tense, & well done!

 

[Randy M.]

The Threat (1949) NOIR ALLEY film. An actor whom I had not heard of, when I wrote a previous review, becomes prominent in this film. Charles McGraw as an escaped criminal, who swore revenge against the cop & the DA who put him in prison. His name was third from the top on the movie poster, but he was the lead character. Tense, & well done!

Agreed. The premise is a little like The Petrified Forest or Key Largo though not as well developed, but McGraw takes it over and you're interested to see what he'll do next.

I recall McGraw vaguely from TV appearances when I was a kid, so finding that for a brief time he had a shot at being a leading man is a bit surprising. It's interesting to me how many poor choices studios in the late '40s into the '60s made when promoting potential male stars (if bland was a cash crop they'd have been multi-billionaires -- yeah, I'm looking at you Farley Granger and Tab Hunter, among others), while a guy that could hold the camera like McGraw was shuttled aside.

Randy M.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Two with Bela Lugosi:
The Corpse Vanishes (1947) BL is stealing the corpses of young brides who collapse at the altar, & essentially transfusing their life force or youth, into his aged wife, which temporally restores her youth.

1942, actually.

My review from almost fourteen years ago:

The Corpse Vanishes - Bela Lugosi Part Four

Short version: Short on plot logic, long on Gothic mood. I always like to see Elizabeth Russell in this kind of role; she manages to be striking and exotic and sinister.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Steve Reeves plays fast and loose with ancient history double feature:

The Last Days of Pompeii (1959)

Reeves is a centurion returning to the doomed city after a successful military campaign. While he's been gone, bandits in black hoods have been invading the homes of the prominent citizens, stealing their riches, killing them, and leaving crosses written on their houses. Of course, this is all a plot by the Bad Guys to blame the persecuted Christian minority for the crimes. Reeves seeks justice for the slaughter of his relatives. Add in a kindhearted thief, the blind Christian slave he loves, her mistress (who acts more like her Best Friend Forever) who is leaning towards adopting the new religion, the BFF's father who is the decent but ineffectual head honcho of the city, his scheming concubine, and the sinister priest of Isis she's working with, and you've got plenty of plot. Stir in lots of soldiers, gladiators, and wild beasts for Reeves to beat up, and you've got plenty of action. Top it all with the destruction of the city at the very end of the film and you've got an epic. The production values are quite good, with gorgeous sets and costumes.

The Giant of Marathon (1959)

Reeves is a farm boy who wins the Olympic Games. Athens awards him the honor of joining an elite military unit that guards the Temple of Athena. This gets him mixed up with a fellow who plans to rule Athens by letting the Persians conquer the city. Reeves falls in love at first sight with the woman betrothed to the villain as a child. The villain tries to win Reeves to his cause by having his mistress use her feminine wiles on him. This has no effect on him, but she falls in love with him. Complications ensue, which lead to Reeves thinking the woman he loves is using him on behalf of the villain. He goes back to his farm. The leader of the elite temple guard brings him back to Athens when the Persians arrive. Reeves journeys to Sparta (defeating the small army of assassins sent by the villain) to win their support in the war with the Persians. The Battle of Marathon follows, with Reeves making the famous run from Marathon to Athens at one point. The romantic entanglements get straightened out, and lots of fighting follows. There's a pretty interesting underwater battle scene with Greek divers attacking Persian ships from below.

 

[J Riff]

Oceans 8 - possibly the least believable heist you will ever see, but it's all good looking women pulling it off, so...
The Predator 2018 - lots shooting, soldiers, two Predators... and 2 stars outa ten, just never gets interesting despite endless cursing and shooting and of course a kid and his video games involved.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Sharply contrasting blaxploitation double feature:

Brotherhood of Death (1976)

Three buddies leave a small North Carolina town to join the military. They learn guerrilla tactics from an officer while in Vietnam (which looks just like North Carolina.) In an oddly irrelevant scene, one of the three obtains some pure heroin and sells it to another soldier who is going to cut it and sell it to users. Mind you, this is one of our heroes. Back in North Carolina, racial violence builds up to the point where the KKK kills a white sheriff (just because he'd rather keep the peace than oppress the local African-American populace) and places the blame on our heroes. Can you predict that this leads to a military-style war on the Klan? Right, but this only happens near the end of the film. The heroes begin by organizing a get-out-the-vote effort to try to get the corrupt, racist politicians out of office. This leads to the Klan burning down a church, and so on. Obviously made on a tiny budget, with little-known actors, the film manages to have a gritty sense of reality which helps to overcome its many technical limitations. Notable for the speech by the head Klansman which seems like a frighteningly believable version of the KKK's philosophy, and for scenes of a real billboard promoting the KKK which stood in North Carolina at the time the film was made.

One Down, Two to Go (1982)

Coming late in the genre, this movie combines the talents of four action superstars: Jim Kelly, Jim Brown, Richard Roundtree, and Fred Williamson, who also wrote and directed. Kelly is the coach for a kickboxing team. Roundtree is his PR man. They find out the opponents tried to fix the fight by putting metal weights in their boxing gloves. Kelly gets shot after beating up some of the bad guy's hoods. The good guys win the match anyway, but don't get the money coming to them. Roundtree contacts Brown and Williamson (who seem to be professional tough guys) to get the cash. Fights, shootings, and explosions follow. Despite the heavy-duty cast, it's standard action fare. The four stars don't spend that much time working together. Slickly filmed on a moderate budget, which may be one of its shortcomings.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

The Trojan Horse (1961)

Steve Reeves is the mighty Trojan warrior Aeneas in this retelling of the Iliad. It begins even more in media res than Homer, with Achilles dragging the body of Hector behind his chariot, having killed the Trojan in revenge for the killing of his beloved friend Patroclus. Aeneas goes with the Trojan King Priam, Hector's father, to claim the body. The Greeks are having athletic games, so this leads to Aeneas battling Ajax, the mightiest Greek warrior, in a no-holds-barred fighting match. Aeneas wins, of course, and the war goes on. As you can see from this brief description of the start of the film, it helps to be familiar with Homer (and maybe also Virgil's Aeneid.) It's a lush production, with impressive sets, costumes, and battles. It's interesting to see lots and lots of characters from the myths of the Trojan War come to life. No supernatural elements, except for the fact that Cassandra makes accurate predictions about the future and only Aeneas believes her. Of note is the fact that there are good and bad folks on both sides. In this version of the story, Helen is a shameless adulteress instead of a captive. Paris is cowardly and treasonous. These two only scheme for themselves. On the Greek side, Achilles is honorable, refusing to join the other Greeks when they break a truce in order to attack the Trojan allies that Aeneas goes off to fetch. Odysseus (called Ulysses here, but I'm going going to go with Homer's version) is a clever and sneaky fellow with no scruples about cheating in order to win the war. Overall, it's quite entertaining.

 

[Jeffbert]

1942? I stand corrected.

Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1965) An unsolved murder from decades ago, leads to an elderly woman clinging to the family home, while construction/destruction crew are there to bulldoze the place flat.

Trelane as the annoying reporter Gotta love those guys who had roles, especially more than one, on Star Trek TOS! I do not think I can say more about it, without spoilers.

The Magician (1926) guy needs virgin's heart blood to create life. Also has hypnotic gaze similar to Dracula's, that makes females helpless.

Dead of Night (1945) 4 or 5 stories tied together with a group of people trying to convince a psychiatrist that their belief in the supernatural cannot be logically refuted. One of these stories The Hearse Driver became the inspiration for The Twilight Zone's episode called "22"; or was it the story that inspired he Hearse Driver? Another one featured a mirror as was also in Beyond the Grave, which I mentioned earlier. Thoroughly entertaining.

Looking at the wiki page for this film, there were other parts that were remade in TTZ episodes. It must have been more than a few years, since I binged that series, else I should have seen the similarities.
-------------------------------------------
Havana Widows (1933) Joan Blondell and Glenda Farrell as showgirls who go to Cuba in hopes of finding a rich American and suing him for sexual things. So, to get the money for travel, they give Herman Brody (Allen Jenkins) a sob story about mother or aunt in the midwest, who needs surgery. Jenkins (who will eventually portray the sole occupant of the old criminals' home in a BATMAN episode) is the bodyguard for the local gangster, and buys the sob story, forges his boss' signature on a $1500 check, believing the girls will repay him in a week. Deacon Jones (Guy Kibbee) is the sucker they hope to photograph in an embarrassing situation, & Frank McHugh as Duffy, the shyster laywer who hopes to sue him. Good show!

Kansas City Princess (1934) Blondell & Farrell, as similarly financially destitute gold-diggers, hoping to escape lives as manicurists. Hugh Herbert as Junior Ashcraft, a millionaire they meet on a cruise to Paris. Dynamite Carson (Robert Armstrong (guy who brought King Kong to the big city)) the gangster who wants to marry Rosie Sturges (Blondell), and has thrust upon her an undesired engagement ring. Unfortunately, one of Dynamite's friends steals the ring, & the girls, fearing his anger, flee.

These are fairly short WB comedies, fitting nicely in 75 minute time slots, with room to spare.

 

[Rodders]

Batman VS. superman.

I kinda liked it.

 

[Vince W]

Mission Impossible: Fallout. The latest instalment in the MI franchise and the best since the first one. It was still a tad overlong in places, but at least it had genuine moments where things felt kind of 'impossible'. If it weren't for the ghastly hamminess of Simon Pegg, this film could have been a real nail-biter. Instead, it's a very good action film with some elements of what made the first film so memorable.

 

[Al Jackson]

Just watched The Ballad of Buster Scruggs for a second time. Have not seen a better western since the 2010 True Grit.
Tho I did like Hell and High Water and The Homesman.
I suppose nobody saw The Homesman?

 

[Al Jackson]

The Trojan Horse (1961)

Steve Reeves is the mighty Trojan warrior Aeneas in this retelling of the Iliad. It begins even more in media res than Homer, with Achilles dragging the body of Hector behind his chariot, having killed the Trojan in revenge for the killing of his beloved friend Patroclus. Aeneas goes with the Trojan King Priam, Hector's father, to claim the body. The Greeks are having athletic games, so this leads to Aeneas battling Ajax, the mightiest Greek warrior, in a no-holds-barred fighting match. Aeneas wins, of course, and the war goes on. As you can see from this brief description of the start of the film, it helps to be familiar with Homer (and maybe also Virgil's Aeneid.) It's a lush production, with impressive sets, costumes, and battles. It's interesting to see lots and lots of characters from the myths of the Trojan War come to life. No supernatural elements, except for the fact that Cassandra makes accurate predictions about the future and only Aeneas believes her. Of note is the fact that there are good and bad folks on both sides. In this version of the story, Helen is a shameless adulteress instead of a captive. Paris is cowardly and treasonous. These two only scheme for themselves. On the Greek side, Achilles is honorable, refusing to join the other Greeks when they break a truce in order to attack the Trojan allies that Aeneas goes off to fetch. Odysseus (called Ulysses here, but I'm going going to go with Homer's version) is a clever and sneaky fellow with no scruples about cheating in order to win the war. Overall, it's quite entertaining.

The Iliad has proven to be hard to make as a movie. Helen of Troy 1956 was serious try , tho alas a bit clumsy.
Wolfgang Petersen's Troy , 2004, was a really good try, but in the end seemed to defeat Petersen …...
The whole narrative of the epic poem is odd it is going to take someone with an extraordinary imagination to make a visual narrative of it.

 

[WarriorMouse]

Just watched The Ballad of Buster Scruggs for a second time. Have not seen a better western since the 2010 True Grit.
Tho I did like Hell and High Water and The Homesman.
I suppose nobody saw The Homesman?

I found the Buster Scruggs story mildly amusing in its absurdity but the following stories were slow, predictable and dull. I switched it off towards the end and watched a rerun of Inspector Lewis instead.

 

[Droflet]

First Man.
The story of Neil Armstrong. Boring.

 

[Rodders]

The Justice League. Entertaining enough, but disappointed that the plot was basically a rehash of The Avengers Assemble.

Wonder Woman. I enjoyed this, but it is a pretty routine origin story.

 

[Cathbad]

First Man.
The story of Neil Armstrong. Boring.

I haven't seen it yet, but this is just what I though seeing the commercials for it. "If these scenes represent the best parts of the movie, it's a boring one!"