What was the last movie you saw?

[Droflet]

Yep, couldn't agree more. Saw it when I was a kid and it's stayed with me.

 

[2DaveWixon]

Back in the 70s and 80s, when we only had about 3 or 4 terrestrial TV channels to choose from here in the UK, it was usually traditional for one of the broadcasters to show a perennial favourite on Christmas Day. Sometimes it would be a James Bond premier, or something a little more family-orientated like "Mary Poppins". But quite often "Spartacus" and/or "The Great Escape" would be on one of the channels because both films were classics and had wide appeal back then.

For what I suspect were similar reasons, in those same days we could count on seeing The Robe and Ben Hur every Easter weekend.

 

[JunkMonkey]

The Wages of Fear is great. I watched it again earlier this year. The book it is based on is pretty terrific too.

 

[Ronald T.]

Mulholland Drive (what a confusing movie!)

I actually liked Mulholland Drive. But I think it's partly due to the fact that I really enjoy Naomi Watts' fine acting ability, and also because I found Laura Harring extremely beautiful and quite an accomplished and rounded actress, as well.

But mostly, I absolutely love Rebekah Del Rio's a Capella version of Roy Orbison's song, "Crying". Her facial expressions and delivery, as well as her beautiful voice, bring me to tears every time I hear her sing that song. I know...I'm an emotional sap.

But that's what I look for in movies and the books I read...well defined and believably deep emotion. Mulholland Drive gave me those things.

As I've said before, give me characters I can care about, give me honest emotion, and give my a complex story worth seeing, and I'm yours.

Action and special effects do little for me if there is no character development. And I have no use for movies or books without at least one or two characters I can like and care about. That's why I felt I had wasted my time when I watched the movie "Pulp Fiction". Who cared if they all died?

Give me a character worth rooting for, add sufficient emotion, and I'm sold.

 

[JunkMonkey]

I actually liked Mulholland Drive. But I think it's partly due to the fact that I really enjoy Naomi Watts' fine acting ability, and also because I found Laura Harring extremely beautiful and quite an accomplished and rounded actress, as well.

[Resists temptation to make joke about parts of Laura Harring being more nicely rounded than others because it would be sexist and demeaning and we are above such things*.]

Cracking movie though. To my mind it's Lynch's best.



*There is a posh Greek name for this "having your cake and eating it" rhetorical technique but I can't remember what it is. If anyone knows please tell me.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Apparently this has several variant terms, but the article I found about it calls it "apophasis":

Apophasis - Wikipedia

You mean the kind of thing like "I will not bring up the fact that my opponent is a liar" and the like, right?

 

[JunkMonkey]

Thank you! That's it:

When apophasis is taken to its extreme, prolepsis occurs, and the speaker provides full details, stating or drawing attention to something in the very act of pretending to pass it over: "I will not stoop to mentioning the occasion last winter when our esteemed opponent was found asleep in an alleyway with an empty bottle of vodka still pressed to his lips."

I searched all over the place but couldn't find it.

 

[J-Sun]

Cracking movie though. To my mind it's Lynch's best.

That's a tough call for me to make because of Elephant Man and Blue Velvet and all but it may well be. Certainly good; certainly right at the top.

 

[J Riff]

Animated cheklist continues, w/ Yellowbird, and Treasure Planet, not top-end Disney, but watchable. But, I just now found a huge raft o' movies. I mean about 150 discs. I took 30 or so and a guy from the same coffeeshop here, well him and his GF grabbed the rest. Lots of Jamaican comedies, called 'plays' on the cover. Lots of classics and hey Paul Blart Mall Cop, do I really need two copies of that? No, but; Cassi Davis in Aunt Bam's Place, yes mon.*

 

[Alex The G and T]

The Hateful Eight. The title led me to believe that it might be a Western, themed along the lines of The Magnificent Seven. But... It's Quentin Tarrantino.

It does start out feeling like a reasonable facsimile of a normal Oater. Bounty Hunters, and their charges (some dead and one alive) cast together under uncertain circumstances by an impending Blizzard in Wyoming.

Early on, it plays more as a suspense-thriller. Lots of uncertainty about who's who and what are their motives.

They hole up, to ride out the storm, in a roadhouse. The proprietors of the Stage Stop are missing. The current occupants are shady. Suspicions arise over who is the Good Guys, and Who is the Bad Guys.

We forget that this is Quentin Tarrantino.

When the Coffee gets poisoned and people start vomiting blood and dying, Samuel Jackson throws down and lines up the entire crew against the wall at gun point. He goes into an eloquent, logical denouement over who might have had the opportunity and motive to be the Black Hats; worthy of an Agatha Christie puzzler.

Suddenly, the Quentin Tarrantino hits the fan. Twisty-turny, and gory. Great Stuff.

 

[Steve S]

Watched The Babadook at the weekend. I was so impressed: beautifully made and acted, and really frightening. I've been thinking about it a lot since I saw it, which is a sure sign a film has made a big impression on me. Everything about it worked, from the production design, the intense, powerful acting and an intelligent script. I actually found it very touching and I truly cared about the characters. The themes of (repressed) grief and guilt were perfectly and originally handled.

I could write reams and reams about The Babadook, but I'll settle on saying I cannot recommend this film enough - although after watching it, expect to worry about every night-time creak your house makes...

 

[HanaBi]

Koyaanisqatsi - Wikipedia

Fascinating 1982 documentary with outstanding ground-breaking photography for its time.

Essentially a non-narrative journey/adventure juxtaposing the slow, natural, uncomplicated natural world, with the man-made, crazy un-natural world in which we inhabit, exploit, disfigure, pollute and generally bugger about with!

A perfect Philip Glass score sits nicely alongside the stunning photography presented between city-life and the open mountain ranges of the Americas.

A little dated perhaps, but the the underline theme still remains

4/5

 

[J Riff]

Hated the 8, who cares who poisoned the bloody coffee and just nevermind, I watched uhh, Monster House... where the house, the whole house... is the monster. The title was a giveaway but no projectile vomit in this house please. )

 

[JunkMonkey]

Bad Land: Road To Fury (aka Young Ones) - slow-paced, visually-pleasing, piece of low-key SF. In a slightly underworked-out future water is scarce and a family of farmers struggle to survive. There's a murder, guilt, and revenge. All a bit Shakespearean but all done very slowly with lots of 'naturalistic' mumbling, and with a robot mule to supply plot points. Actually the robot mule was very well done and probably the thing that I will best remember from this movie. I especially liked the fact that this piece of farm machinery that plays a pivotal role in the plot wasn't given any kind of personality. It's just a machine.

 

[HanaBi]

"Alien"

Awesome from start to finish. Still better than Aliens. And still scares the hell out of me even after many repeat viewings!


5/5

 

[J Riff]

ell it was... what was it... last night... errrm... oh yes, Dead Birds. It was non-memorable, I think, but kinda scary.

 

[J Riff]

Oh wait... I watched Fantastic Planet and was shocked. How in Gord's name did I miss this all these years? Animated SF of the 70s... well go have a look, it's really good, and different.

 

[HanaBi]

The Italian Job - Wikipedia

The original and best (forget the appalling 2003 reboot!)

One of Michael Caine's best performances in this comedy-crime caper set in Italy and very much showing off the British Mini car, a familiar symbol during the "Swinging 60s"

A film full of memorable quotes, with perhaps the best being "You're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!"

And of course it has a cliff-hanging ending to beat all cliff-hanging endings, literally!

4/5

 

[Starbeast]

Midnight Special (2016)

Not a bad little sci-fi drama about an unusual child.

Rocketman (1997)

One of my favorite comedies, about a nerd who goes to Mars. I love it.

 

[Rodders]

The Comedians Guide to Survival

It stars The Inbetweeners James Buckley and wasn't actually that funny. I thought James Put in a good turn as the down trodden comedian.