What was the last movie you saw?

[AE35Unit]

Even though his Holmes is a million miles away from the Holmes in the books, I always loved watching Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes

 

[JunkMonkey]

I have a tin of five or six Sherlock/Rathbone DVDs that I have never gotten around to opening.
Your post reminded me that I vaguely remember enjoying a movie w. Rathbone when I was a kid. Can still remember not liking that Watson.
Nice change from the more current junk that I usually watch. I'll look into it,. Thanks CJ.

Some of the lighting in the early ones is really good. Especially in the scenes outwith the Baker Street set. Real Noir, harsh contrast stuff. Probably helped by the low budgets. Little time, minimal crew and equipment - Whack one big raking light over in the corner, shoot the scene, and move on.... Emulating the sort of atmospheric stuff that Val Lewton was making at RKO .

 

[paranoid marvin]

Rathbone was brilliant as Holmes, second only to Jeremy Brett. I really liked the way that they transitioned the Victorian settings for contemporary ones, and it worked rather well. Yes, Watson was (for most of the time) a bumbling oaf, but it did make for some hilarious conversations (see 'Terror By Night' when he attempts to interrogate a suspect), getting hypnotised or (as in The House of Fear) talking to an owl . They are all enjoyable, and rewatchable even when you know the outcome. Yes, the locations/props/acting vary wildly in quality, but never (for me) detrimental to the enjoyment.

 

[paranoid marvin]

Some of the lighting in the early ones is really good. Especially in the scenes outwith the Baker Street set. Real Noir, harsh contrast stuff. Probably helped by the low budgets. Little time, minimal crew and equipment - Whack one big raking light over in the corner, shoot the scene, and move on.... Emulating the sort of atmospheric stuff that Val Lewton was making at RKO .

Yes, they are very atmospheric, and one of the reasons why I still enjoy them so much. There's something about movies shot in b&w like The Third Man or Night of the Demon that makes them stand out much more than they would have in colour. One thing I really can't stand (and can't understand) is the colourisation of these films which is never done to the betterment of the picture.

 

[paranoid marvin]

Which leads me on nicely to the latest film I've seen The Thing From Another World.

Jam packed with atmosphere, and a great b&w movie. Carpenter's The Thing is obviously a direct comparison, and what the original lacks in budget and effects it more than makes up for in suspense and atmosphere. I wouldn't like to say which is better, because they are both good movies for different reasons. But this movie is definitely one of the better, arguably the best, monster-type sci-fi movie of the 50s and 60s.

 

[JunkMonkey]

One thing I really can't stand (and can't understand) is the colourisation of these films which is never done to the betterment of the picture.

Yep, totally baffles me too. They were lit differently, dressed differently, shot differently. They're almost different media. They didn't accidentally make black and white films. Just as Albrecht Dürer didn't forget to 'colour in' his engravings. (Though I'm sure some idiot has.)

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Yep, totally baffles me too. They were lit differently, dressed differently, shot differently. They're almost different media. They didn't accidentally make black and white films. Just as Albrecht Dürer didn't forget to 'colour in' his engravings. (Though I'm sure some idiot has.)

Your wish is my command.

 

[hitmouse]

The French Dispatch (2021)

Thoroughly enjoyable episodic Wes Anderson movie about an American magazine reporting on France, with Bill Murray as the editir, and a truly astounding blink-and-you-miss-them all-star cast. This is Anderson almost at the point of self-parody. Beautifully shot, funny, highly stylised, with more than a nod to post-war French cinema.

Recommended++

 

[JunkMonkey]

The Skulls (2000) - I was prompted to BUY this (not just watch it but actively go and find a copy and pay money for it) by a terrible review I read in an old copy of Empire Magazine which, among other harsh words, described it as "almost mesmerisingly bad", and "simply the most ferociously stupid movie that Hollywood has disgorged in a long time", with performances that are "of such stupefyingly lumber-like uselessness", and "uniformly dismal".

They weren't wrong.

I must get a grip on my masochistic movie watching urges and stop doing this to myself - but then so do a lot of others; because enough people went to see this shiny turd to make a 2002 sequel (inventively called Skulls 2) look like a good idea.

The Skulls II (Video 2002) ⭐ 4.6 | Thriller

1h 39m | 12

www.imdb.com

OMG! There was a third! A third turd!

The Skulls III (Video 2004) - IMDb

The Skulls III: Directed by J. Miles Dale. With Clare Kramer, Bryce Johnson, Barry Bostwick, Steve Braun. A young college co-ed tries joining the elite, all-male, secret society, the Skulls, and in so doing, she uncovers some unscrupulous methods used by some of the members to get what they want.

www.imdb.com

 

[KGeo777]

Barbarian Queen 1985 -Terrible acting, writing, directing, and yet it has pretty good production design and cinematography. There's also a village crowd scene that surprised me for the number of extras-maybe the filmmakers had a big family. It felt more like a softcore porn movie at times. There's no fantasy, just random nudity and badly-staged sword fight and rapes. I don't mean rapier-type rapes, I mean rape rapes!

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Ladybug Ladybug (1963)

An alarm goes off at an elementary school indicating that a nuclear attack is expected within an hour. Some of the kids are sent home on a bus, others walk home, escorted by teachers. The movie mostly deals with one group of kids and the teacher leading them home. Apparently, the film was inspired by an article about a true incident that took place during the Cuban Missile Crisis, when a false alarm went off at an elementary school. In real life, as far as I can tell, the alarm was discovered before the kids got all the way home. In the movie, they reach their homes, still assuming atomic war is approaching. The film examines their different reactions to the situation. A documentary-like style of film making, beautiful black-and-white cinematography, and remarkably natural performances elevate what could have been a heavy-handed anti-war message.

 

[Judderman]

Uncut Gems (2019). A thriller with some comedy elements about a jewelry seller trying to get his way out of debt through dodgy deals and gambling one step ahead of his debtors.
The film goes at a fast pace and I did enjoy the last half an hour. Though the first hour or so was messy. Really bizarre 80s style music over the top of the first 10 minutes too (I think it is meant to be stressful , which it is). Adam Sandler is quite good in an unusual role for him. I generally will not watch a Comedy if I see he is headlining. The character is not likeable, which is another point that makes it a jarring watch. But fair enough, why do all criminal main characters need to be anti-heros? It does have good critic reviews..
I would say it is a good film, but flawed.

 

[CupofJoe]

Howard the Duck [1986]
Picked it up for £1.25 in my local Tescos!
I was one of the few [fifty, sixty?] people that saw it in a cinema in the UK when it was released.
I remembered it as fun and strange.
The intervening 36 years hasn't changed my opinion.
Don't look for meaning or coherence. It is a lot of fun even if it doesn't know if it was to be a pure comedy or go for the scare.
The special effects are the best the mid-80s and ILM can offer and for the most part, they still look good.
The acting is patchy but all the actors hit their mark and say their lines, even is sometimes you can almost see them stifling a smile at the dialogue. I especially praise Lea Thompson for keeping a straight face. And you get Tim Robbins before he was famous...
So if you want to see how a little duck far from home can save the world...

 

[Randy M.]

Ladybug Ladybug (1963)

An alarm goes off at an elementary school indicating that a nuclear attack is expected within an hour. Some of the kids are sent home on a bus, others walk home, escorted by teachers. The movie mostly deals with one group of kids and the teacher leading them home. Apparently, the film was inspired by an article about a true incident that took place during the Cuban Missile Crisis, when a false alarm went off at an elementary school. In real life, as far as I can tell, the alarm was discovered before the kids got all the way home. In the movie, they reach their homes, still assuming atomic war is approaching. The film examines their different reactions to the situation. A documentary-like style of film making, beautiful black-and-white cinematography, and remarkably natural performances elevate what could have been a heavy-handed anti-war message.

I saw this and commented back in 2017. A really good early '60s movie. Touching and scary in its way.

 

[JunkMonkey]

Howard the Duck [1986]
Picked it up for £1.25 in my local Tescos!
I was one of the few [fifty, sixty?] people that saw it in a cinema in the UK when it was released.
I remembered it as fun and strange.
The intervening 36 years hasn't changed my opinion.
Don't look for meaning or coherence. It is a lot of fun even if it doesn't know if it was to be a pure comedy or go for the scare.
The special effects are the best the mid-80s and ILM can offer and for the most part, they still look good.
The acting is patchy but all the actors hit their mark and say their lines, even is sometimes you can almost see them stifling a smile at the dialogue. I especially praise Lea Thompson for keeping a straight face. And you get Tim Robbins before he was famous...
So if you want to see how a little duck far from home can save the world...

I think I make have been one of the other 50 ( or did I watch it on VHS?) either way I remember liking this more that I was expecting but was disappointed that they had toned down the relationship between Beverley and Howard. Though I can see why they did it. In the comics (which I collected) they were lovers - which was just weird. Transferring that straight to film would have just been horribly creepy. I also remember thinking Leah Thomson had a really nice bum

 

[Toby Frost]

Rogue One: Still a really good film, and the best of the Star Wars films that I've seen. A few things help it greatly: it's not full of Jedi or the Skywalker family, the higher rating allows it to have a slightly more nuanced story, and each part of the film is better than the one before. Very enjoyable.

 

[paranoid marvin]

Rogue One: Still a really good film, and the best of the Star Wars films that I've seen. A few things help it greatly: it's not full of Jedi or the Skywalker family, the higher rating allows it to have a slightly more nuanced story, and each part of the film is better than the one before. Very enjoyable.

The characters are more believable, they are more rounded and are not so clear-cut good or bad as is usually the case in the SW universe. The story is a good and interesting one, the battles spectacular and the humour subtle and funny (especially K-2SO). More and more I'm coming to consider this movie as the best SW film out of all of them. The only thing that lets it down is the planet-hopping and all of the characters and places thrown at you at the beginning of the movie, which to be fair only bewilders on the first watching.

 

[alexvss]

The Forest of Love (2019). A Netflix original from the same movie I watched before (Prisoners of the Ghostland), and almost as crazy and repetitive and unfocused. I did not enjoy this one.

 

[J-Sun]

Rogue One: Still a really good film, and the best of the Star Wars films that I've seen. A few things help it greatly: it's not full of Jedi or the Skywalker family, the higher rating allows it to have a slightly more nuanced story, and each part of the film is better than the one before. Very enjoyable.

The characters are more believable, they are more rounded and are not so clear-cut good or bad as is usually the case in the SW universe. The story is a good and interesting one, the battles spectacular and the humour subtle and funny (especially K-2SO). More and more I'm coming to consider this movie as the best SW film out of all of them. The only thing that lets it down is the planet-hopping and all of the characters and places thrown at you at the beginning of the movie, which to be fair only bewilders on the first watching.

I can't imagine anything topping the original movie for me, but I agree so far as saying that it's definitely better than any of the prequels or any of the others in the latest batch that I've been willing to see. Regardless of comparisons, it's a very good movie taken by itself (though, of course, it gains a lot of resonance from the larger picture of leading into the original).

 

[JunkMonkey]

Star Trek VI: The Scooby-Doo One - when Kirk and the crew (literally) unmask the assassin at the end I really really really wanted him to scowl "And I wudda gotten away with it it too if it wasn't for you meddling starship captains...." A film SO full of holes and random plot rabbits pulled out of characters' arses it barely holds together from one scene to the next - and more grist to my theory that every SF film with a penal colony / prison planet in it is is automatically crap. By being crap. And having a prison planet in it.