What was the last movie you saw?

Devotion (2022): A biographical war film about a friendship between two naval officers during the Korean War. As inspiring as it was heartbreaking. It wasn't my first choice, but I wound up liking it.
 
DIABOLICALLY YOURS 1967 - Alain Delon wakes up after a car wreck with amnesia but when Senta Berger says she is his wife, he doesn't protest. That is until he arrives back at his fancy estate and narrowly avoids a series of fatal accidents. And then he discovers a tape recorder under his pillow telling him to commit suicide. He begins to get a picture that he's not wanted. Familiar territory for these kinds of stories but with a slow pace (the most speedy part of the story is the credits where you see a car racing along a road).
 
The Outfit

I do like Mark Rylance as an actor, or at least I enjoy the films he acts in. This is a great little movie for the first 90%; however the last 10 minutes really sends this film somewhere else. Perhaps the director/scriptwriter thought it was a great twist, but it turned what was a believable, interesting movie about a tailor for a group of gangsters, into one that was a bit silly and quite far fetched. It has a perfectly good ending that really doesn't need the extra bit adding on.
 
All Quiet on the Western Front. A Netflix remake of the acclaimed German novel of the same name, which has been adapted twice before. A youngster dreaming of being a war hero joins the army with his classmates in WW1. They were told they would reach Paris in two weeks, but we all know that the Great War was a four-year stalemate, and hell on Earth for the soldiers.

This is a true anti-war movie. There are no heroes. In war, you are thrown in a meat grinder and may survive by sheer luck only. On that, it deviates from most American and British war movies (they were the winning side after all).

There’s a contrast between the Front and the operations room. The front is disgusting, wet and cold, and the soldiers eat the same food everyday. Whereas, in the backstage, the officers eat luxurious, colorful food (while complaining about it), and brag about ideals of honor.

When the peace treaty was signed, the winning side decided, on a whim, that the armistice would take place on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. In the movie, the Germans launch a desperate suicide attack in the last minutes of battle. That didn’t happen. Not in the book, nor in real life. But it makes a lot of sense as a creative choice.
 
alexvss said:
All Quiet on the Western Front. A Netflix remake of the acclaimed German novel of the same name, which has been adapted twice before. A youngster dreaming of being a war hero joins the army with his classmates in WW1. They were told they would reach Paris in two weeks, but we all know that the Great War was a four-year stalemate, and hell on Earth for the soldiers.

This is a true anti-war movie. There are no heroes. In war, you are thrown in a meat grinder and may survive by sheer luck only. On that, it deviates from most American and British war movies (they were the winning side after all).

There’s a contrast between the Front and the operations room. The front is disgusting, wet and cold, and the soldiers eat the same food everyday. Whereas, in the backstage, the officers eat luxurious, colorful food (while complaining about it), and brag about ideals of honor.

When the peace treaty was signed, the winning side decided, on a whim, that the armistice would take place on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. In the movie, the Germans launch a desperate suicide attack in the last minutes of battle. That didn’t happen. Not in the book, nor in real life. But it makes a lot of sense as a creative choice.
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A stark and brilliant movie. Took some liberties with the book but I thought it worked really well.
 
The new adaptation of All Quiet on the Western Front looked very banal, and I think it's because it focused more on presenting the war straight-up rather than doing it through the eyes of the protagonists. That's why the earlier adaptations are much better, as they allowed for very good character development, especially when a lot more time is given to show their lives as students and as trainees.
 
paeng said:
The new adaptation of All Quiet on the Western Front looked very banal, and I think it's because it focused more on presenting the war straight-up rather than doing it through the eyes of the protagonists. That's why the earlier adaptations are much better, as they allowed for very good character development, especially when a lot more time is given to show their lives as students and as trainees.
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Yeah I missed a good ol' training sequence, a good ol' drill sergeant and a good ol' first-time lover left behind. But the director chose to show the peace negotiations to make the contrasting images, and when you make a choice you say no to all other options. He couldn't just do the same thing the other adaptations did.
 
Blood From the Mummy's Tomb (1971) - I spent a lot of this movie admiring the way the costume designers and lighting guys got as much production value out of Valerie Leon's breasts as possible.

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The rest of it was pretty ho-hum Hammer nonsense.
 
alexvss said:
Yeah I missed a good ol' training sequence, a good ol' drill sergeant and a good ol' first-time lover left behind. But the director chose to show the peace negotiations to make the contrasting images, and when you make a choice you say no to all other options. He couldn't just do the same thing the other adaptations did.
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I think the purpose of showing characters' background is to ensure character development and make viewers more sympathetic to protagonists. That's why the story's not so much about the war but about Paul, and how he is affected by it.

Instead, the film focuses on contrasting images of the war, with Paul and others used as props. In that case, they could have just made a regular war movie or even documentary without adapting the novel.
 
Bonnie and Clyde (1967) My Dad took me to see all of the action movies at the theater, so I saw this when it came out and I was 10 years old. Haven't seen much of it since.

We caught the whole thing on TV, this afternoon. It was like watching it for the first time. Great Flick and there were some surprises.

Had to get to googlin' on it to clear up some astonishments. Of course it's well remembered as an oscar winner for Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway; but there's some other characters who pop in unsuspected. Clyde's brother, that really young guy who looks significantly like Gene Hackman, is. (with an oscar nomination for it)

A much recognizable character actor from all of the TV shows of the era, usually playing the part of a well-meaning but demented oddball...with the round face, cleft chin and creepy eyes (Had to google his name,) Michael J Pollard, got an oscar nod, as well.

And... Are you kidding me? Can that really be? Gene Wilder's movie debut. Knowing what we know now, it's really tough to see Gene Wilder as a dramatic actor and he is so Gene Wilder, in voice and cadence and delivery. To be fair, his character, as a hostage enjoying a bit of Stockholm syndrome, trends a bit towards the comic-relief; but it is sooo Young Frankenstein.

IMDB says that it was a taboo breaking Hollywood mile stone; blatantly reporting that an unmarried couple are having sex. Nothing graphic, of course, but ... no ifs and or butts. And, further, reports that it contains the bloodiest death scene in Cinematic History.

A classic by any terms and, of course, mostly a true story.
 
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TARGET EAGLE 1982 has Max Von Sydow as a spymaster called the Ogre behind his back, Chuck Connors as a spy who gets stabbed in the back to get him out of the movie, George Peppard (as a heroin smuggler who has an appropriate I don't give a F attitude), Maud Adams as a karate expert.
Best thing about it is the catchy ABBA-lite title song:

 
Alex The G and T said:
Bonnie and Clyde (1967) My Dad took me to see all of the action movies at the theater, so I saw this when it came out and I was 10 years old. Haven't seen much of it since.

We caught the whole thing on TV, this afternoon. It was like watching it for the first time. Great Flick and there were some surprises.

Had to get to googlin' on it to clear up some astonishments. Of course it's well remembered as an oscar winner for Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway; but there's some other characters who pop in unsuspected. Clyde's brother, that really young guy who looks significantly like Gene Hackman, is. (with an oscar nomination for it)

A much recognizable character actor from all of the TV shows of the era, usually playing the part of a well-meaning but demented oddball...with the round face, cleft chin and creepy eyes (Had to google his name,) Michael J Pollard, got an oscar nod, as well.

And... Are you kidding me? Can that really be? Gene Wilder's movie debut. Knowing what we know now, it's really tough to see Gene Wilder as a dramatic actor and he is so Gene Wilder, in voice and cadence and delivery. To be fair, his character, as a hostage enjoying a bit of Stockholm syndrome, trends a bit towards the comic-relief; but it is sooo Young Frankenstein.

IMDB says that it was a taboo breaking Hollywood mile stone; blatantly reporting that an unmarried couple are having sex. Nothing graphic, of course, but ... no ifs and or butts. And, further, reports that it contains the bloodiest death scene in Cinematic History.

A classic by any terms and, of course, mostly a true story.
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If you liked this movie, you should check out 'The Highwaymen', a Netflix movie which tells the story from the law enforcement side. It really was actually a very entertaining movie starring Kevin Costner and the as-always brilliant Woody Harrelson.
 
The Spy Who Came In From The Cold

An extremely gritty, thoroughly believable spy drama set in the Cold War. Stunningly filmed in B&W with a marvellous performance by Richard Burton on top for. This is the antithesis of James Bond, even the more believable Harry Palmer/Michael Caine. In the world of international espionage, there are no morals, there are no 'good' or 'bad' sides, and nothing is what it seems.
 
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