What was the last movie you saw?

1917

Brilliant cinematography and well acted. There were parts of the story that made little sense and some plot holes, but overall a good movie.
 
Another "Great Adaptation" that was not adapted from anything:

Love Affair (1939)

Three handkerchief weepie in which a couple (Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer) meet on an ocean liner, fall in love, and agree to meet six months later at the top of the Empire State Building. Just about to get there, Dunne gets hit by a car and winds up in a wheelchair. She decides to avoid letting Boyer know about the accident and just remove herself from his life. Eventually, Love Conquers All. I guess it's considered a classic love story, but I thought it was sappy, and I found Dunne's decision to give up Boyer foolish. Maria Ouspenskaya steals the picture as Boyer's grandmother.
 
Rogue One (2015)

A satisfyingly tough Star Wars film. It jettisons most of the mystical Jedi stuff and the jolly space adventure in favour of a war movie in space - much to its benefit, I think. The first half is a bit uneven at points, but the second half is really good and the last set-piece is great. None of the actors are amazing but everyone is decent, and the ending is surprisingly moving. I find the heroine's father's involvement in the Death Star much more involving than the usual dark/light side subplot. Also nice to see a modern SF film where there are some people with my accent who aren't idiots or Nazis!
 
Toby Frost said:
Rogue One (2015)

A satisfyingly tough Star Wars film. It jettisons most of the mystical Jedi stuff and the jolly space adventure in favour of a war movie in space - much to its benefit, I think. The first half is a bit uneven at points, but the second half is really good and the last set-piece is great. None of the actors are amazing but everyone is decent, and the ending is surprisingly moving. I find the heroine's father's involvement in the Death Star much more involving than the usual dark/light side subplot. Also nice to see a modern SF film where there are some people with my accent who aren't idiots or Nazis!
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I agree. There are times when I considered it to be the best SW film. Tbh in today's day and age , and considering the 'quality' of the prequels and sequels this movie was a bolt out of the blue. Genuinely funny humour; whoever did the personality for K-2SO deserves applauding. I agree the beginning is a little confusing (and unecessary with all the planet hopping, but once it gets going, it really gets going, and the battle with the Star Destroyers is one of the most memorable from the series.
 
Unbreakable.

Watched this quite some time ago, and Iobviously wasn't paying much attention asI thought it was an okay flick.I then watched Splt recently (a VERY different film) , and before watched the final movie of the trilogy Glass, I thought I would go back and watch the original to refresh my memory.

What a very good actor Bruce Willis can be , and what an excellent storyteller M Night Shyamalan can be. Even though I had a vague recollection of the original movie, I was hooked from start to finish. I love my superhero movies, and this is in the top 5 movies. But if you don't like superhero movies, don't be put off, this is closer to Joker than it is to the DC universe.
 
Another "Great Adaptation":

Arch of Triumph (1984)

Made for British television version of the novel of the same name by Erich Maria Remarque, best known for All Quiet on the Western Front. The setting is Paris in 1939. Anthony Hopkins is a German doctor who fled his native land after being tortured by a Nazi interrogator. While working in France under an assumed Czech name, he rescues a singer/actress (Lesley-Anne Down) from suicide, leading to romance. Meanwhile, the man who tortured him (Donald Pleasance) shows up in Paris. It's a very bleak story; war is on the horizon, and neither the love story nor the revenge story works out well. Not bad at all.
 
Zach Synder's Justice League [2021]
A much darker take on the story.
Weighing in at four hours, this is no quick watch. So find a comfy seat!
First of all, I was surprised by how different it was from the theatrical version. It feels that almost every scene is new or re-edited in some way. The colour palette is radically different, far more muted, suiting the darker tone.
For me, this new version is more coherent and keeps a more even tone. It expands the scope of the film a great deal, which could prove interesting if allowed to go forward.
My only issue is that the end of the film lingers. It sets up new characters, cameos, and a possible new timeline but it does seem to be a succession of "and then..." moments. And at least one of them I could have done without.
 
paranoid marvin said:
I agree. There are times when I considered it to be the best SW film. Tbh in today's day and age , and considering the 'quality' of the prequels and sequels this movie was a bolt out of the blue. Genuinely funny humour; whoever did the personality for K-2SO deserves applauding. I agree the beginning is a little confusing (and unecessary with all the planet hopping, but once it gets going, it really gets going, and the battle with the Star Destroyers is one of the most memorable from the series.
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I think it's up there with The Empire Strikes Back for me. K-2SO is voiced by Alan Tudyk, who was Wash in Firefly. The humour is quite dry, but it definitely works, and it all feels a bit more grown-up than most of the other films.
 
Ella es Christina - from time to time I wander round Amazon Prime following rabbits till I find I have no idea where I am and find myself presented with a selection of movies I have never heard of. Last night I ended up at this slight, black and white tale of female friendship from Chile. The only name I recognised on the titles was Salma Heyak as executive producer.

It has no viewer reviews on the IMDb - and I don't think I can think of anything constructive or useful enough to say about the film to make it worth doing. (Though it is tempting. It's a long time since I was the first to write up a movie there.)
 
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THE DAY MARS INVADED EARTH 1963 -- Slow burner sci-fi horror story-surprise ending.

DR. GOLDFOOT AND THE BIKINI MACHINE 1965 - Very silly spy spoof.
 
Edit - wait this isn't the reading thread....

Ahem er the last movie I saw was; gah I can't remember! Which perhaps means as well as a map so I don't get lost on Chrons, I also need to watch a film!
 
KGeo777 said:
THE DAY MARS INVADED EARTH 1963 -- Slow burner sci-fi horror story-surprise ending.
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Yeah I liked that one. The weird unease I felt watching helped by the fact that it was only about 90% of the way through it I remembered where I had seen the location before. Lynch shot Eraserhead in the same building.

My last film was Santa Clause Conquers the Martians but I was helped through the agony by Joel and the bots.
 
Finishing up "Great Adaptations":

Scandal Sheet (1985)

Made-for-TV movie starring Burt Lancaster as the head of a sleazy tabloid newspaper who manipulates a freelance writer into working for his rag through money, the rental of a fabulous home in California, etc. His real motivation is the fact that she's a close friend with a movie star married to a recovering alcoholic actor, and he wants to get the inside story, no matter who gets hurt. Lancaster is fine, as usual, and the story is a dark, powerful one, in which virtue does not triumph and otherwise good people do very bad things.

A Hazard of Hearts (1987)

Long before she was Tim Burton's muse, a very young Helena Bonham Carter starred as the baby-faced heroine of this made-for-TV version of a Barbara Cartland novel. Carter's father stupidly loses everything he owns in a simple dice game, so offers his daughter's hand in marriage in one final bet. He loses to the film's black-hearted villain, then kills himself. The film's hero wagers a huge sum of money against the villain to free her from a hateful marriage, then takes her into his gigantic mansion. This Regency Romance then turns into a Gothic Romance, as we meet the hero's wicked mother (Diana Rigg) who has a Dark Secret involving secret passages, a character assumed dead who is really alive, and so forth. It's a lushly produced, nicely acted story with no surprises at all in a simple tale of Good and Evil, so I guess it succeeds in what it sets out to do.
 
SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL GUNFIGHTER 1971 -- Follow up to 1969's "Sheriff" - this is not quite as funny/clever but does have some good laughs. In North America it was released 50 years ago--this very day, if you didn't want to see that you could check out Escape From The Planet of Apes which premiered too.
 
Jeffbert said:
:devilish: I found a film on PRIME with this title [CITY BENEATH THE SEA], but it was made in the '50s and was about deep sea divers. :devilish: Maybe I will check NF.
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I found out there was also an 11 min short of the story--with a different cast. That was intended to sell it as a tv series replacement for Star Trek. Made in 1969. I had the film confused with another one--Captain Nemo and the Underwater City. There's also the 1965 Vincent Price movie City Under the Sea.
 
We were going through some more average rated horrors. Found some more good/decent ones that I wouldn't have watched based on reviews alone.

Visions (2015) with Isla Fisher. A pregnant lady having visions. She thinks there are ghosts. While other thinks it is related to her prior psychological issues. Pretty good, despite the reviews

The Evil Down The Street (2019). This one was very B-movie in terms of the acting level. But the main characters were entertaining. There is a demon possession here, and the female lead changes into a very sexual character. Her husband is a bit of a clutz. But we really wanted to see what happened and quite enjoyed it.

Whisper (2007) - Enjoyed this one, about a boy that is kidnapped by 4 part-time criminals looking for a payoff. But the boy is more than he first seems. Another one that may make you jump.

Danika (2006) - Another one with a lady having visions. Questions if they are ghosts. This one was ok, but the payoff not really worth some confusing parts.

Fragile - with Calista Flockhart. Set in a hospital that only has a few child patients left. It is being closed down. Turns out there is a rather unpleasant ghost around. So so.

Return to Sender .This one is more of a thriller than horror, and more famous actors -
Very good film, which typically for a film starring Rosamund Pike has a twist.
 
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