What was the last movie you saw?

I have seen that one but forgot it.
Can't remember a thing about it!

BARON BLOOD 1972- I missed the 50th anniversary of its release a couple of weeks ago. I try to keep up with these especially since 1972 was a big year for horror.
Mario Bava was so influential, I had forgotten how much this probably had an influence on the slasher film. The killer makes me think of Freddy Krueger at times. A real castle adds a lot of atmosphere to a film.
 
Got round to watching Shadow of the Vampire again
Mr Cairo said:
If you have not seen it consider watching Shadow of the Vampire with John Malkovitch and William Defoe its based on the idea that the actor playing Orlok was actually a vampire. Pretty cool film.
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Got round to rewatching Shadow of the Vampire again last night and was, sadly, a little disappointed. It looks very thin on a second viewing. That's not to say there is not some good stuff in there. Love the setting and ambience, and the re-enactments are great - John Malkovich and especially Willem Dafoe are really good. Nice to see Udo Kier (for whom I have a lot of time) get to do some proper acting for a change instead of just being Udo Kier getting paid to turn up and be Udo Kier for a bit. Though Carey Elwes (ditto) was wasted in a do-nothing part. But the show was really let down by a script that just doesn't... I don't know... do whatever a script is supposed to do to distract you from really big holes in the story, I guess. For instance, the 'suddenly everyone on the shoot was doing drugs' sequence came out of nowhere and why (apart from some strange misplaced notion of historical accuracy) did the Count's Heligoland sequences HAVE to be shot on the island of Heligoland when all they did when they got there was shoot one scene, on a closed set, inside a building? All his ship sequences had been faked on land or with doubles. Why did he have to get taken to an island to do something that could have been done much more easily on the original location? Just to get a shot of a coffin on the back of an aeroplane? Didn't believe it. Pity.
 
JunkMonkey said:
Got round to watching Shadow of the Vampire again

Got round to rewatching Shadow of the Vampire again last night and was, sadly, a little disappointed. It looks very thin on a second viewing. That's not to say there is not some good stuff in there. Love the setting and ambience, and the re-enactments are great - John Malkovich and especially Willem Dafoe are really good. Nice to see Udo Kier (for whom I have a lot of time) get to do some proper acting for a change instead of just being Udo Kier getting paid to turn up and be Udo Kier for a bit. Though Carey Elwes (ditto) was wasted in a do-nothing part. But the show was really let down by a script that just doesn't... I don't know... do whatever a script is supposed to do to distract you from really big holes in the story, I guess. For instance, the 'suddenly everyone on the shoot was doing drugs' sequence came out of nowhere and why (apart from some strange misplaced notion of historical accuracy) did the Count's Heligoland sequences HAVE to be shot on the island of Heligoland when all they did when they got there was shoot one scene, on a closed set, inside a building? All his ship sequences had been faked on land or with doubles. Why did he have to get taken to an island to do something that could have been done much more easily on the original location? Just to get a shot of a coffin on the back of an aeroplane? Didn't believe it. Pity.
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I suppose like a lot of films you get to spot the plot holes on second viewing I know on my first run through I thought it was mesmerising Defoe was just stunning in the part, I also seem to recall liking it a lot the second time around as well. I think its probably been 10 years or more since my last viewing so I have no doubt that I would probably enjoy it far less now.

Might have to give it a go I figure Netflix will probably have it.

Udo Kier is an unsung genre giant.
 
Garages Sales Mysteries [It doesn't matter which one, there are more than a dozen to choose from]
These are a series of TVM who-done-its. The cast is engaging but plain. No character stands out or is exceptional except the female lead, who seems to be faster and sharper than everyone else around. She also seems to get an incredible amount of freedom to gather information and generally beats the police to the killer.
But what I've noticed [and I've seen too many of these for it to be a good thing- their repetition is somewhat addictive] is that there are always two stories.
There is the who-done-it about some hidden trinket that leads to a mystery [and usually with a death or two along].
But in parallel there is always the life affirming family based tale about how a child or adult is helped by those around them to overcome son crisis or challenge.
It feels like the Studio started making a 1 hour who-done-it and then decided to splice it with a cute family drama to make it a 2 hour movie.
It works but it is strange to watch. You leap from the lead tracking down a killer to a father and son bonding over creating a storage unit.
There is never too much violence as all the deaths happen off screen, and little blood [maybe a discrete drop or two to lead you to the body]. There is also absolutely no swearing [I think one character said "Darn" and was never heard of again] or sex .
At the end they are safe and sound, together as family [and friends] with the killer caught, and a few good deeds done along the way.
 
CupofJoe said:
Garages Sales Mysteries [It doesn't matter which one, there are more than a dozen to choose from]
These are a series of TVM who-done-its. The cast is engaging but plain. No character stands out or is exceptional except the female lead, who seems to be faster and sharper than everyone else around. She also seems to get an incredible amount of freedom to gather information and generally beats the police to the killer.
But what I've noticed [and I've seen too many of these for it to be a good thing- their repetition is somewhat addictive] is that there are always two stories.
There is the who-done-it about some hidden trinket that leads to a mystery [and usually with a death or two along].
But in parallel there is always the life affirming family based tale about how a child or adult is helped by those around them to overcome son crisis or challenge.
It feels like the Studio started making a 1 hour who-done-it and then decided to splice it with a cute family drama to make it a 2 hour movie.
It works but it is strange to watch. You leap from the lead tracking down a killer to a father and son bonding over creating a storage unit.
There is never too much violence as all the deaths happen off screen, and little blood [maybe a discrete drop or two to lead you to the body]. There is also absolutely no swearing [I think one character said "Darn" and was never heard of again] or sex .
At the end they are safe and sound, together as family [and friends] with the killer caught, and a few good deeds done along the way.
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I've watched one or two of the mystery series -- Hallmark or Lifetime channel? -- and they strike me as very 1970s, not even as edgy as The Waltons. There's a bit more sophistication in the story and its telling than in the 1960s, but it's all safe and sanitized. I could see these things being addictive, and maybe especially at the height of the pandemic.
 
Randy M. said:
I've watched one or two of the mystery series -- Hallmark or Lifetime channel? -- and they strike me as very 1970s, not even as edgy as The Waltons. There's a bit more sophistication in the story and its telling than in the 1960s, but it's all safe and sanitized. I could see these things being addictive, and maybe especially at the height of the pandemic.
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I think they were all Hallmark. And yes, there is no edge in any way... Wait One character did go on a speed dating night [but the didn't enjoy it and preferred to find love the old-fashioned way].
That must be it. They are the TV equivalent of Rice Pudding [or other favourite dessert on a chilly night]. Warm comforting and not in any way a challenge. You just enjoy until you are full. And hopefully don't over indulge.
 
NIGHT MOVES (1975) Ex-football player Harry Moseby (Gene Hackman) is a private detective, who takes a case in which he is to find a runaway girl and return her to her mother. However, there is much more to this than just the girl.

I might have missed something, but, I found the ending not answering the main question.
 
COUNTDOWN TO DOOMSDAY - 1966 George Ardisson is a private eye sent to Caracas to find a millionaire's daughter but he gets beat up and framed for murder. As a poor man's Connery he's quite good and the fight scenes are more realistic and intense than most of these poor man Bond movies tend to be.
 
Just come back from Batman: Zodiac Capitol Insurrection and it IS as good as they say. Very good detective noir, plenty of rain, Colin Farrell is incredible. The city looks beautifully gothic. Pattinson makes a fab Batman. Go see it.
 
THE WRONG MAN (1956) Hitchcock's movie about mistaken identity has Henry Fonda's character arrested and sent to jail. I might call this a police procedural, because it follows the poor guy through the process of fingerprinting, etc., and is interesting as such. But, I, as the viewer was rather uneasy because the idea that such a thing could actually happen.

The film even details the search for alibis. When they finally find the address of the one guy, oops, he died last week!

Not a word about suing anybody! I would have been furious, but this character remained calm throughout the ordeal.

Then, after he is bailed-out, his wife goes nuts, & is sent to the insane asylum. Once he is acquitted, his wife is still living in her own little world, as though autistic. The actual perpetrator had only a passing resemblance. I would have sued the people who had identified me into the toilet! His life is destroyed, all the while those people who had identified him as the villain just sail along, without a care. :devilish:

Anyway, I was engrossed in this, though I must say, it was not enjoyable.
 
THE THIRD SECRET 1966- Surprised this film isn't better known considering how neurotic characters are so commonplace now. This story is all about neurotic characters. Stephen Boyd is a tv journalist who becomes unhinged when he hears that his analyst committed suicide. How can he cope with his problems if his doctor couldn't? He investigates the other patients to find who might have killed him and is drawn into their various troubled lives. Pamela Franklin co-stars as the daughter of his analyst. Poignant story about the struggles of mental illness although I am not sure I have ever seen a Hollywood movie that does not depict paranoid schizophrenics as violent murderers, this one included.
If there's a story about a murderer who is mentally ill, they throw in "schizophrenia" at least once.

CURSE OF THE CRIMSON ALTAR 1968 - This movie is not particularly good but I revisit it now and then anyway.
 
Arrival (2016): Good, slow, thoughtful SF drama. Amy Adams is very good as a translator trying to understand the language of visiting aliens.

The Naked Gun (1988): Extremely silly and still very funny police comedy. Leslie Nielsen is great and some of the jokes are truly inspired.

 
Watched the Batman last night and even though I think it could do with a good 20 - 30 minutes of trimming its a pretty decent film, Pattinson just jumped into my best BATMAN spot.
 
Randy M. said:
Funny. I watched this just shy of 1,100 messages ago.

The Curse of the Crimson Altar

Enjoyable folk horror-ish. For the time, it established a pretty good atmosphere.
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The atmosphere--Tigon prided itself on its sets and locations (and nudity) but some of the writing is rather shoddy. The way Boris Karloff announces he always suspected Christopher Lee of being a warlock--the early part of the film does not indicate that.
This is like Horror Hotel mixed with The Haunted Palace. The animal masks are interesting since they show up in some later folk horror stories.
 
CROMWELL (1970) I am not much interested in England's history, but this film satisfied me. Great cast, etc. Because the issue was the limitations of the king's authority, I was expecting some mention of the magna Carta, but there was none.
 
KGeo777 said:
The atmosphere--Tigon prided itself on its sets and locations (and nudity) but some of the writing is rather shoddy. The way Boris Karloff announces he always suspected Christopher Lee of being a warlock--the early part of the film does not indicate that.
This is like Horror Hotel mixed with The Haunted Palace. The animal masks are interesting since they show up in some later folk horror stories.
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No, the early interaction
was too focused on setting Karloff up as a red herring
. (I don't know. Can you spoil a 50+ year movie?)

Anyway, good call on its similarities to Horror Hotel, which I think was better scripted.
 
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Sicario (2015): A well-shot thriller about the bleak and grubby war against a Mexican drug cartel. It's good that this sort of grown-up, intelligent thriller is still made, although it's a bit more predictable than it thinks, and it gets close to being an action movie about a deadly assassin towards the end. Emily Blunt and Daniel Kaluuya are very good as two FBI agents who get drawn into the conspiracy.
 
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