What was the last movie you saw?

My Way (2011). Based on the “real” life story of a Korean national who fought for the Japanese, the Soviets and the Nazis.

The movie has great war scenes--namely one for each army the protagonist got conscripted--and features the friendship between him and a Japanese soldier who grew up with him during the occupation.


A good takeaway from this movie would be how similar these three armies were in terms of fanaticism. The officers are all the same. It passes this message very well. I wasn’t too convinced about the friendship between the Korean and the Japanese though.

And I must say: what a spectacular life story. He’s the unluckiest guy ever. It’s even weirder than the Japanese guy who got nuked in Hiroshima, moved to Nagasaki, got nuked again, and survived (this story is shown in the 2011 documentary Twice Bombed). I mean, what are the odds?

It’s so weird that some claim he never existed. There’s a picture of him… allegedly. There’s actually no proof of his existence, only stories.

Great stories anyway. I recommend both the movie and the reading of his biography.
 
Ten Nights in a Bar-Room (1931)

Based on the highly popular and influential anti-booze novel and play of the same name from the middle of the 19th century, filmed multiple times as a silent. This early talkie was thus already old-fashioned at the time. Anyway, the plot follows the degradation of the father of a little girl with a serious illness as he goes from "just one drink" to full-time drunk, losing everything. In an hour, it also has time for a couple of songs ("Sweet Adeline" and "My Wild Irish Rose"), some comedy relief, the little girl getting hit in the head with a glass thrown in the bar, a big fistfight, and the bar-room burning to the ground. Temperance propaganda at its most melodramatic.
 
Toby Frost said:
I agree. The villain is awful. 2049 has got a ponderous, slightly dull feel that the original doesn't (and is about twice as long). I felt the same thing about Dune, so I wonder if it is Villeneuve's direction.
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Agree, though I like both films.
I recently rewatched Dune and I was much more impressed the second time around.
 
Napoleon. I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would given the mixed reviews. Great performances - including Rupert Everett's terrific cameo as Wellington - and the battle scenes were stunning.

Not sure if below is a spoiler, but just in case...


My only criticism was that the film felt like a 10 hour mini-series condensed into less than 3 hours and I would have liked to have seen much more detail of the period between the revolution and Boney being crowned Emperor. I'm looking forward to a much longer version.
 
Nightbeast (1982)

Another ultra-low budget science fiction horror movie from Maryland-based auteur Don Dohler. Alien spaceship crashes on Earth, monstrous being inside zaps people with a ray gun or tears them to pieces with its claws. That's all that happens, really, although there are a couple of completely irrelevant subplots. Unlike other Don Dohler films I've seen, this one earns an R rating with a ton of gore and a touch of female nudity. Not a great film.
 
Rewatches:

The Cynic, The Rat, The Fist 1977
Rebels in Canada 1965
Zeppelin 1971


The Body Stealers 1969 -- A film I had not encountered before--for good reason. It sucked. However, it had a known cast: George Sanders, Maurice Evans, Patrick Allen, Hillary Dwyer (who, despite having the main actress part is not listed in the end credits!) and Neil Connery. So that's the kid brother eh? Sometimes I could see the resemblance, but other times he reminded me of the guy who played Brudah in the Yorga films.
 
Theatre of Death (1967)

Pretty much a British giallo. Christopher Lee is the writer/director/producer of a Paris theatre (to use the same spelling as the title) obviously based on the Grand Guignol. He verbally abuses his actors, and even uses hypnosis on one young actress. In what seems at first to be an unrelated plot, an unseen somebody is killing folks with a triangular blade and leaving the bodies drained of blood. Whodunit? In proper giallo style, the motive involves a dark secret from childhood.

Lee dominates the film whenever he's on screen, particularly making fine use of his voice.

Too bad he disappears halfway through the film.

You have to accept that Paris is populated entirely by British people, that hypnosis is much more powerful than it is in real life, and that it's possible for the killer to remove so much blood from the bodies of the victims. (This isn't a vampire movie.) Not a classic, but a decent chiller.
 
Victoria Silverwolf said:
You have to accept that Paris is populated entirely by British people, that hypnosis is much more powerful than it is in real life, and that it's possible for the killer to remove so much blood from the bodies of the victims. (This isn't a vampire movie.) Not a classic, but a decent chiller.
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The rest of the world has been watching films for decades where various parts of the world (all through the ages) were populated entirely by Americans...

Cue John Wayne as Genghis Khan screen left etc.
 
Gaslight (1940) Pretty decent British pyschological thriller but probably more famous now for the term 'Gaslighting'.

I've had this double sided Region 1 DVD for many years and just today realised that the American 1944 version is on the other side. Normally a two sided DVD from around twenty odd years ago would have widescreen one side and pan & scan the other so I never bothered to check what was there and just assumed it was pan & scan.

The US version has Ingrid Bergman and an 18 year old Angela Lansbury so I'll to watch and compare the two some time.
 
HareBrain said:
2/3 of Blade Runner 2049. Stunning visuals and direction (though this was somewhat lost on the small screen) otherwise meh. Several crucial tech elements were so unlikely I couldn't suspend disbelief, and the main bad guy had clearly just taken a course in Screen Villain Evil, which taught him to spout his whole deranged philosophy to his underling the first time the camera is on him, even though they've known each other for years.
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If ever there was a movie that didn't require a sequel, this was it.
 
Bull

Quite violent British gangster revenge story. This is not in any way Get Carter, but it it was strangely compelling. A twisty ending that almost made me go back to watch it again, but as the movie gives you flashbacks this wasn't necessary (and I'm not sure that I would have done anyway).

Is it a good movie? No. Although the ending does boost its overall score. And much better than many movies of its kind.
 
I am still watching Double Down (2005) which I started a few days ago. I'm an hour in and have only got 30 or so minutes to go. I haven't done this for a long time but I am watching it sequence by sequence (though 'unrelated shot or scene by unrelated shot or scene' would be a better description.) and analysing the hell out of it as I go. I have pages and pages of notes. I'm having a lot of fun. There is so much wrong with this film. it's unbelievable.
 
I am ZoZo
Bunch of teenagers decide to have fun with a Ouija board for Halloween.
Utter pile of dog doo, that looked like it was filmed on a phone.
And I wish in these films they would say it right. Its Weeja board not weejee board!
 
Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone (1983)

Starship blows up. Three women escape in a lifeboat and wind up on a desert planet. Our scruffy Han Solo-style hero hears their SOS and goes after them for the reward, with the help of his sexy female robot.

First big mistake by the film makers. The robot is, by far, the most interesting character in the movie, and she is "killed" twenty minutes in. Oh, well.

Hero runs into a local waif (Molly Ringwald!) who can lead him to the women, who have been captured by our villain, a barely human cyborg dictator named Overdog.

Second big mistake. As charming as she may have been later, Ringwald is really, really annoying here. Her high-pitched whining drove me up the wall.

A bunch of random action sequences follow. (What's with the aquatic tribe of hostile Amazons?) It all leads up to the big battle with Overdog and his minions.

Many of the sets and vehicles and such are very cool. The briefly seen spaceships are imaginative and weird-looking, inside and out. There's a big thing that's half train (it runs on rails) and half ship (it has big sails.)

Overall, trashy comic book fun, despite a messy plot.
 
Victoria Silverwolf said:
Theatre of Death (1967)



Lee dominates the film whenever he's on screen, particularly making fine use of his voice.
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He has a pretty good line in this one:


"If you find the outside world is too tough there is always the asylum. And if that fails, the river!"



I watched SECRETS OF CHINATOWN 1935 --wow a Canadian-made movie shot just across the water. They even show a map of Vancouver a couple of times. It was rather pedestrian and I assume it was a "quota quickie" because there was only one other movie mentioned by the production company. The actor who portrayed the shop owner--he could have done a decent authentic Charlie Chan. It looked to me like he had the right personality and acting ability for it.
 
Victoria Silverwolf said:
Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone (1983)

Starship blows up. Three women escape in a lifeboat and wind up on a desert planet. Our scruffy Han Solo-style hero hears their SOS and goes after them for the reward, with the help of his sexy female robot.

First big mistake by the film makers. The robot is, by far, the most interesting character in the movie, and she is "killed" twenty minutes in. Oh, well.

Hero runs into a local waif (Molly Ringwald!) who can lead him to the women, who have been captured by our villain, a barely human cyborg dictator named Overdog.

Second big mistake. As charming as she may have been later, Ringwald is really, really annoying here. Her high-pitched whining drove me up the wall.

A bunch of random action sequences follow. (What's with the aquatic tribe of hostile Amazons?) It all leads up to the big battle with Overdog and his minions.

Many of the sets and vehicles and such are very cool. The briefly seen spaceships are imaginative and weird-looking, inside and out. There's a big thing that's half train (it runs on rails) and half ship (it has big sails.)

Overall, trashy comic book fun, despite a messy plot.
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This is likely one of those films whose cover photo was better than the film itself. So many times, so many disappointments. RIP VHS rental stores.
 
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