What was the last movie you saw?

Southside with you [2016] I don't know to its accuracy but it was a nice little tale of two people [who happen to be Barak Obama and Michelle Robinson] beginning to fall in love.
 
The Missouri Breaks (1976) - Actors Marlon Brando & Jack Nicholson, star in this unique western (I should have seen this long ago). Basically it's about a gang of outlaws trying to keep out of reach of the law, but an infamous psychotic bounty hunter is set after them. An unusual, but good film.

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From Noon Til Three (1976) - Actors Charles Bronson & Jill Ireland, star in this (other unique) western about an outlaw and writer who fall in love and through an odd turn of events, Bronson's character is presumed dead and Jill's character becomes a famous author by creating an embellished true account of her relationship with Bronson. For me, it's one of those movies that you can only watch once, because of how things turn out.
 
The Stepford Wives (1975)

Re-watching this film is like listening to someone telling a good joke whose punchline you already know. It's also rather slow and cumbersome, even for an older film, and takes a long while to unwind to its disturbing conclusion. However, it's surprisingly amusing (especially given the dated 1970s clothes and styling), thanks to Ira Levin's novel and William Goldman's screenplay (both good authors). It moves very skillfully from 1/3 sinister and 2/3 farcical, to outright horror, and ends with a great panning shot from one face to another sort-of-face.

The film makes the smart choice of making both female leads likable and attractive - basically, the sort of people you'd have to be weird to want to dispose of. The subject matter is still extremely relevant (it probably always will be), the satire is powerful, and the scenes of the men's club are increasingly sinister once you know the ending. But did anyone really dress like that?


Nice analysis. I've read the novel and seen the original film (not the made-for-TV sequels or the remake.) It is, perhaps, the only example I know of a science fiction feminist allegory from a male author.
 
From Noon Til Three (1976) - Actors Charles Bronson & Jill Ireland, star in this (other unique) western about an outlaw and writer who fall in love and through an odd turn of events, Bronson's character is presumed dead and Jill's character becomes a famous author by creating an embellished true account of her relationship with Bronson. For me, it's one of those movies that you can only watch once, because of how things turn out.

A very unusual and interesting film, which is more about the myth of the West than the reality.
 
Vampires 1998 - James Woods as Jack, and his team hunt down vampires - goons and masters... and the head master Vampire is back, he needs the Black Cross, he finds it, he beats hell out of everyone, kills off Jack's team, except for Montoya and hooker Katarina. A padre chips in with some info, they magage to take down Varnek or whatever his name was ... Vornak? Something like that - he blows up real good, as do the other vampires that the team manage to shoot
with hooks that are attached to a winch outside on a truck - so that the undeads can be dragged out into the sunlight where they burn and explode. Some vaguely tasteless dialogue, but good exploding vampires.
 
London in the Raw (1964)

Mondo-style documentary, which means that a lot of what we'll see is blatantly faked. Pretends to be salacious, but the vast majority of it is as mild as can be. Wanders all over the place, from legalized off-track betting to belly dancing. Most of it consists of singing at nightclubs and pubs. Includes a few seconds of topless women, most notably at a place where beatniks sketch a semi-nude model while eating cat food. (?) Most shocking scene: A balding guy getting hair implants. (Ouch!) Most enlightening scene: Drug addicts (just actors, of course) waiting for midnight so they can get their prescriptions filled legally at an all-night pharmacy. Lots of jazz, but not a hint that the Beatles are about to take over the world. Five and one-half decades later, it's a fascinating time capsule. At the time, it was probably pretty boring.
 
Nice analysis. I've read the novel and seen the original film (not the made-for-TV sequels or the remake.) It is, perhaps, the only example I know of a science fiction feminist allegory from a male author.

Thanks! I've enjoyed all the Ira Levin books I've read, and William Goldman's Marathon Man is a good book and film (if a frightening, confusing one too). The mockery of the men in The Stepford Wives always strikes me as crude but bitingly accurate. It's pretty horrible to think that something like that might be possible in the next hundred years or so. Stephen King has some interesting things to say about it in Danse Macabre.

Incidentally, it's taken me ages to figure out how they did the pan from the heroine to the robot double at the end of the film. I think the double is someone wearing a mask, which makes it all the more sinister. The dead eyes are genius.
 
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The Stepford Wives (1975)

Re-watching this film is like listening to someone telling a good joke whose punchline you already know. It's also rather slow and cumbersome, even for an older film, and takes a long while to unwind to its disturbing conclusion. However, it's surprisingly amusing (especially given the dated 1970s clothes and styling), thanks to Ira Levin's novel and William Goldman's screenplay (both good authors). It moves very skilfully from 1/3 sinister and 2/3 farcical, to outright horror, and ends with a great panning shot from one face to another sort-of-face.

The film makes the smart choice of making both female leads likable and attractive - basically, the sort of people you'd have to be weird to want to dispose of. The subject matter is still extremely relevant (it probably always will be), the satire is powerful, and the scenes of the men's club are increasingly sinister once you know the ending. But did anyone really dress like that?
I believe that the technology for such android sex slaves is progressing rapidly. a few years ago, the book love sex & robots was published. OMG! I just checked Amazon for that title, & not only is it there, but this has become a serious topic!
"Love Sex & Robots" at Amazon.com
 
Once a month the local art house cinema has a $1 kiddie matinee and last Saturday they showed To Kill A Mockingbird. Okay, the movie is largely about kids growing up in a small Southern town during the depression but I'm not sure it's a kiddie movie. Not complaining, just surprised. Great movie at a great price. Couldn't rent it for that much. Later that night we stayed home and watched North By Northwest. Again, two great movies in the same day. Hope I'm starting a trend.
 
Farmageddon One of the funniest movies I've seen in a long time. Lots of gags and nods to various sci-fi stories and riotous slapstick action that is fun for kids and adults alike. The only question I have is why the hell this wasn't nominated for an Oscar?
 
The Thief (1952)

Ray Milland stars as a physicist working for the US government who uses a miniature camera to take photographs of secret documents and then pass them along to the other side. When an enemy agent carrying a roll of film happens to get killed by a car, the cops find the film and pass it along to the FBI. Milland (and, presumably, other suspects working at the government facility) gets followed by the feds. He tries to escape with the help of the other side.

It's a fairly simple plot, so what's so interesting about this Cold War thriller? Well, there is no dialogue at all, so it's an exercise in storytelling via sound and images. There are some suspenseful sequences, and, because this is a film noir, there's a sultry dame to add sex appeal. Well worth a look.
 
Parasite 2019 Korean - black comedy satire about a poor family and a rich one... the subtitles are funny, it's pretty weird and fun dunno quite why it's called Parasite... but there's a secret basement and other crazy stuff, quite enjoyable.
 
The Lighthouse. Pretty much a two-hander, with Willem Dafoe and R-Patz as lighthouse keepers in 19th century (???) New England island. Lovecraftian undertones. You will never want to drink alcohol again! Thanks to my son Ben who took me to see it
 
Finally caught up with PARASITE and was underwhelmed, possibly due to the hype raising my expectations. I thought it was OK and it had a neat premise, but it was overlong and predictable and I can't for the life of me see why there's been so much fuss about the movie.

In short, a film about unpleasant people doing unpleasant things.
 
Bombshell. I hadn't even known that Roger, CEO of Fox News was such a greasy pig. The kind of reminded me of The Girl staring Tippy Hendren. Glad there was a solid resolution in the end and that Mr. Greasy Pig got what was coming to him.
 
My recent watching, from best to 'worst'. The first two could both be described as "crazy, fun and dark" but were rather different.

Parasite (2019)
A teen from a family struggling to put food on the table gets a job working for a rich family, and the poorer family band together to try and get each other jobs with the rich family. Parasite is a very good film, with a great combination of humour, tension and surprise. It was like a cross between two other South Korean films, 3-Iron (one of my all-time favourite films) and Shoplifters.

Birds of Prey (2020)
Birds of Prey aimed for Deadpool-style I think, but should've been more Joker if they were aiming for the adult audience. It took a while to get going (it's difficult to get behind a morally unambiguous character) but was fun for the second hour or so, especially the visuals.

The Guard (2011)
Irish comedy crime thriller about a confrontational police man who snorts the coke he finds on criminals but teams up with an an uptight FBI agent. Don Cheadle and Brendan Gleeson had good chemistry and The Guard is good fun, in the vein of In Bruges.

Under the Skin (2013)
Scarlett Johansson stars as an emotionally-detached alien kidnapping guys around Scotland. Under the Skin was intriguing to start with, but I was bored for stretches during the second half.

Happy as Lazzaro (2018)
Isolated Italian peasants, including a kind teen the locals make fun of, are exploited by a tobacco baroness. Marked as a fantasy, and I wondered how for the first hour. I was sort of enjoying it but felt it lost its way and could've been half an hour shorter.

Sunset Song (2015)
The life of a young Scottish woman during WWI. The ending was emotional enough, but Sunset Song was another film that seemed too long. One of the main character's 'change' wasn't believable. I couldn't understand the accents at times, so switched on the subtitles. I kid you not (especially the second screen - click for larger):

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Finally caught up with PARASITE and was underwhelmed, possibly due to the hype raising my expectations. I thought it was OK and it had a neat premise, but it was overlong and predictable and I can't for the life of me see why there's been so much fuss about the movie.

In short, a film about unpleasant people doing unpleasant things.
I didn't think so. Family was at the core of both sides (particularly the main protagonist), and I was surprised by what happened a few times. It's not the best South Korean film I've seen, but it's in the next tier. I'm disappointed (not surprised) to see a 6-episode HBO series is planned already. Some things should be left as they are, though the Snowpiercer TV adaptation looks better than the (English-language) film (which was by the same director as Parasite).
 
Farmageddon. The latest offering from Aardman is a wonderful film with nods to many great science fiction creators and franchises. Many laugh out loud moments and as always with Aardman a film suitable for both children and adults. Be sure to pay attention or you'll miss things.
 
Detective Pikachu again. The CGI looks fairly good, the storyline's fairly ropey, there's funny moments. Enjoyable. Plus Togepi is briefly seen and Togepi is cute AF.
 

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