What was the last movie you saw?

[Droflet]

The One That Got Away (1957)
Hardy Kruger stars as the only German POW in WW2 to escape capture by the British and return to Germany. Quiet enthralling.

 

[Randy M.]

I’ve never seen Saturn 3.

My wife and I went to the theater to see it when it first came out. You aren't missing much.


To Catch a Thief (1955; dir. Alfred Hitchcock; starring Cary Grant, Grace Kelly)

I hadn't watched this beginning to end in years. Not the best of '50s Hitchcock, but possibly the most charming. In the focus on crime as a central part of Hitch's work, we miss that a few of his movies are very near to romcoms, and this might be the best of those. It also feels like, along with North by Northwest, a template for the early James Bond movies, especially the location shooting -- some beautiful footage along the Riviera -- and the car chase scene.

John Robie, a.k.a. The Cat, is a former jewel thief who retired to France after serving in the Resistance during the war. A series of new thefts puts the police on his tail and he has to find the culprit who is imitating his style. Could it be some of the members of his old Resistance unit?

The age difference between Grant and Kelly seems to put off some contemporary viewers, but for those who can shrug that off, this is Grant at his suavest, still trim, with his background as an acrobat lending an athleticism to his movements that makes him credible as a wall-climbing, roof hopping thief. Note that Jessie Royce Landis who plays Kelly's mother in this later played Grant's mother in North by Northwest; she was only eight years older than Grant.

 

[Jeffbert]

FARGO (1996) The shredder was tiny; a really big one was in TUCKER AND DALE VS. EVIL.

 

[KGeo777]

Rasputin the Mad Monk 1966 - Although a loosely historical film it is influenced by Svengali--there is even a scene that copies one from the 1931 film where Svengali is looking out a window at a sleeping victim. I have yet to see the Conrad Veidt version of Rasputin but Lee is my favorite of the ones I have seen (Tom Baker was very good in a godawful film made a few years after this but Alan Rickman was too restrained-emo in a tv version). This provided Lee with a rare starring role. It feels more like a filmed stage play but I enjoy it and like to revisit it jsut for the old-fashioned performances without any bells or whistles. You have to marvel at the fact that they filmed Dracula-Prince of Darkness at the same time. Talk about efficiency. Hammer films have a tendency to end rather abruptly-and this is an example. It seems to me that an appearance by Vanessa was logical at the end--she would walk in and find her brother there. Her role in the story is left without closure.

The commentary track for this film is funny because Lee keeps talking about history and it is so boring. The other participants in the commentary have little chance to contribute.

 

[Av Demeisen]

Studio 666
"Legendary rock band Foo Fighters move into an Encino mansion steeped in grisly rock and roll history to record their much anticipated 10th album."

 

[Jeffbert]

LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (1962) Because I had seen this once, I wanted to revisit only one scene: the Quicksand scene. I found it rather emotionally intense.

The one guy, who was separated from the other two, because of the sandstorm, is leading his camel, and steps in the wrong spot, the camel also, but was able to step out. The poor guy takes too long to realize he is in trouble, releases his grip on the reins, and calls out for help, already too late. His brother (I assume) runs and Lawrence, realizing there is no way to tell where the QS begins runs after him and tackles him, just a few feet from the sinking guy. L tosses a rope to the guy, who grabs it, but he cannot hold on.

I am certain that buoyancy should keep the guy from going under, unless he had been weighted-down by weapons and equipment. That is, if it is wet QS. If there is some other type naturally occurring in the desert, dry QS, he would have been gone before he knew he was going. Grain elevators can be dry QS, given the grain is very deep, & the object placed atop the grain goes bye-bye very rapidly. Ball pits are dry QS, but obviously not dangerous.

So, anyway, strangely, once the guy was in, up to his armpits, his descent was much more rapid; I think this strange. In fact, at that depth, descent should have been slower.

This is one reason why I prefer to keep to the pavement.

 

[CupofJoe]

LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (1962) Because I had seen this once, I wanted to revisit only one scene: the Quicksand scene. I found it rather emotionally intense.

The one guy, who was separated from the other two, because of the sandstorm, is leading his camel, and steps in the wrong spot, the camel also, but was able to step out. The poor guy takes too long to realize he is in trouble, releases his grip on the reins, and calls out for help, already too late. His brother (I assume) runs and Lawrence, realizing there is no way to tell where the QS begins runs after him and tackles him, just a few feet from the sinking guy. L tosses a rope to the guy, who grabs it, but he cannot hold on.

I am certain that buoyancy should keep the guy from going under, unless he had been weighted-down by weapons and equipment. That is, if it is wet QS. If there is some other type naturally occurring in the desert, dry QS, he would have been gone before he knew he was going. Grain elevators can be dry QS, given the grain is very deep, & the object placed atop the grain goes bye-bye very rapidly. Ball pits are dry QS, but obviously not dangerous.

So, anyway, strangely, once the guy was in, up to his armpits, his descent was much more rapid; I think this strange. In fact, at that depth, descent should have been slower.

This is one reason why I prefer to keep to the pavement.

I was lucky enough to see this in a restored 70mm on a HUGE screen. Then I understood the meaning of the word "Epic"

 

[AE35Unit]

Stargate, the Ark of Truth
A direct to DVD movie conclusion of Stargate SG1

 

[JunkMonkey]

I started to watch Call Girl of Chuthulu last night but luckily, before the opening credits had finished, the few firing neurons left in my brain after a slog of a day fired "Are you f**king serious?" messages at the 'Go To Bed. You Moron' department of my subconscious and I switched it off.

And went to bed.

 

[KGeo777]

The White Spider 1963 - Krimi film. I am going to learn German and Italian by the time I am done watching so many subtitled films. I hate it because I can't concentrate on the faces when I have to read the bottom of the screen.

From Istanbul, Orders to Kill 1965 -- Really bad cheapo spy movie sold to television in the US. So boring. I suppose the last few minutes with a goofy hitman who reminded me of Michael Gough was somewhat diverting for the bad acting but it was so awful I had to fast forward which I rarely do.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Battle in Outer Space (Uchû sai sensô, "The Great Space War," 1959)

Early Japanese space opera. Really nifty miniatures and beautiful color cinematography in support of a juvenile, simplistic plot. In the far off future year of 1965, aliens attack a Japanese space station and do all kinds of havoc on Earth. They are able to reverse gravity, although this power is mysteriously never used again after the opening sequence. (Some bad science here. It seems that gravity is caused by the movement of atoms, so freezing things to absolute zero reverses gravity. There's later silliness about gravity during spaceflight, when one astronaut goes flying around but everybody else moves normally, and we even see small objects resting on tables.) They can also control human minds, and make use of this power to sabotage and destroy one of the two spaceships sent to the Moon to attack the alien base, but they also eventually stop using this ability and just blast cities on Earth. Most of the movie consists of the humans and aliens zapping each other. Nice to look at, if brainless.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

It's a Small World (1950)

Before he became famous for gimmicky horror films, William Castle co-wrote and directed this drama about a midget. It follows his life from finding out about his condition as an adolescent, to leaving home for a carnival, to becoming a successful shoeshine guy, to being talked into becoming part of a pickpocket gang by the film's femme fatale, to finally finding happiness in the circus, singing the title song, and marrying another midget. A real oddity.

 

[KGeo777]

The Carey Treatment 1972 --released 50 years ago yesterday. Who cares right? This movie has quite a pedigree, Blake Edwards, James Coburn, a larger than normal part for James Hong, and yet it just isn't very memorable. Too many scenes that are kind of dead weight. It services, that is about it. Once is enough, and I have seen it twice.
In fact, my mind was wondering to the miscasting thread and wondered how James Coburn would have done if he was Spock.

 

[hitmouse]

Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women (1968). Prime.

This is a very peculiar film. I was expecting something camp and silly along the lines of Cat Women on the Moon or one of those old Zza Zza Gabor movies, but this is not one of those.

Quite distinctive style, odd and sombre mood and pacing. Atmospheric and mildly affecting if you are in the right mood. Basically a (quite good) old-style rocketship movie plus some odd hippy beach stuff.

An expedition to Venus is lost, so a rescue mission is sent out. Venus is a barren misty world with some rather ineffective man eating monsters in rubber godzilla suits, smoke machines, and a lot of beach. On the beach are late 1960s telepathic blond-haired Californian mermaid types (Mamie van Doren and pals) wearing clam shells for modesty. They wonder around and frolic in the sea, and repose on the rocks by the surf, never actually speaking, communicate in voice-over. They sense the earthmen as a threat (the earthmen kill a rubber pterodactyl the ladies worship as a god) and invoke a volcanic eruption and a deluge to kill the earthmen, who blast off in the nick of time. The mermaids and the earthmen never actually meet, but one of the men falls psychically in love with one of the women, and there is an undertone of longing in the narration.

This was so strange that I looked it up. Turns out the spaceship/explorer side of the movie was Russian, and it was spliced to the mermaid shots, which were filmed in California. Explains why the boys never meet the girls and why the rockets have red stars on their fins. A slightly hokey script ties the picture together. The male actors are dubbed, and the main narration is by Peter Bogdanovich.

The early spaceship scenes are well shot, and look like cover pics from some of the higher quality 50s & 60s SF magazines.

Interesting and worth a watch.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

The Game AKA The Cold (1984)

Ultra-cheap would-be horror/thriller. A narrator explains the setup in rhyming couplets! Three millionaires offer some young folks one million bucks to get scared. Hallowe'en-style stuff follows; tons of dry ice fog, fake skeletons, tarantulas, an Alien-style monster head popping out of a bed, etc. There's somebody skulking around in the form of an old horror movie hunchback. A couple of folks get locked in a sauna that gets really cold, one woman gets tied to a chair and forced to play Russian roulette. Folks disappear and seem to have been killed, one of the millionaires get shot by one of the players. Near the end it's all explained as a joke; everybody is fine. Then we get some inexplicable twist endings. The missing folks don't show up, the millionaires get frozen to death, somebody in a pretty decent ghost costume shows up. Then, as the final meaningless twist, the millionaires turn out to be fine. It's a real mess, with poor acting, endless scenes of empty corridors, and, weirdly, Scott Joplin ragtime tunes on the soundtrack. The millionaires have a habit of bursting into song now and then, belting out "Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho, It's Off to Work We Go" and "Jimmy Crack Corn" and "Mad Dogs and Englishmen Go Out in the Noonday Sun."

 

[Randy M.]

Those Who Wish Me Dead (2021; dir. Taylor Sheridan; starring Angelina Jolie, Nicholas Hoult, Jon Bernthal)

If you enjoy Jolie, then that might be reason enough to watch this, though she's much better than the material here. But the movie grossly simplifies a much more complex and intriguing story in the book of the same title by Michael Koryta (who was one of the scriptwriters here), focusing on action -- kid running from assassins in the midst of a huge forest fire -- rather than anything that is actually suspenseful. It's a shame. A film of the story in the book would have been more engaging.

 

[JunkMonkey]

Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women (1968). Prime.

This is a very peculiar film. I was expecting something camp and silly along the lines of Cat Women on the Moon or one of those old Zza Zza Gabor movies, but this is not one of those.

Quite distinctive style, odd and sombre mood and pacing. Atmospheric and mildly affecting if you are in the right mood. Basically a (quite good) old-style rocketship movie plus some odd hippy beach stuff.

An expedition to Venus is lost, so a rescue mission is sent out. Venus is a barren misty world with some rather ineffective man eating monsters in rubber godzilla suits, smoke machines, and a lot of beach. On the beach are late 1960s telepathic blond-haired Californian mermaid types (Mamie van Doren and pals) wearing clam shells for modesty. They wonder around and frolic in the sea, and repose on the rocks by the surf, never actually speaking, communicate in voice-over. They sense the earthmen as a threat (the earthmen kill a rubber pterodactyl the ladies worship as a god) and invoke a volcanic eruption and a deluge to kill the earthmen, who blast off in the nick of time. The mermaids and the earthmen never actually meet, but one of the men falls psychically in love with one of the women, and there is an undertone of longing in the narration.

This was so strange that I looked it up. Turns out the spaceship/explorer side of the movie was Russian, and it was spliced to the mermaid shots, which were filmed in California. Explains why the boys never meet the girls and why the rockets have red stars on their fins. A slightly hokey script ties the picture together. The male actors are dubbed, and the main narration is by Peter Bogdanovich.

The early spaceship scenes are well shot, and look like cover pics from some of the higher quality 50s & 60s SF magazines.

Interesting and worth a watch.

This was Corman's second edit of Planeta Bur. The first, Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet, had (if I remember rightly) a heroic performance from Basil Rathbone reading his script off his scientist character's clipboard. I think I'm also right in saying he sued the production company for not providing him with his lunches as called for in his contract.

The original is

Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[dask]

Hollywood biography of Polish born composer Frédéric Chopin whose rise to prominence in early 19th Century Paris creates tension between his mistress, George Sand, and his love for his homeland. Enjoyable if not quite historically accurate with great music and great Oberon.

 

[Zach777]

Sounds interesting. Is it on Netflix by chance?

The Last Movie I saw was the new Batman movie. One of the best Batman movies in my opinion.

 

[AE35Unit]

Stargate:Continuum 2008, the second direct to DVD series sequel film.