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I fully intend to, once I get a bit of free time after the holidays!
What was the last movie you saw?
- Thread starter Tabitha
- Start date
I fully intend to, once I get a bit of free time after the holidays!
AE35Unit
]==[]===O °
First watched Poltergeist 2 with my daughter (we watched the first one last week), then we watched the 2015 remake, with Sam Rockwell and Richard Harriss's son. Good but not a patch on the original!
Jeffbert
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Saw both Willard (the original) & Ben during the past 3 weeks. TCM ran them one after the other sometime in October. Cannot say either one made my top 100 list, but I did 'enjoy' them. 
A few years ago, I saw the remake of Willard (starring R. Lee Ermy); tough to compare that with the original with several years between viewing them, but RLE did portray a much nastier version of Willard's boss, as it was R-rated.
A few years ago, I saw the remake of Willard (starring R. Lee Ermy); tough to compare that with the original with several years between viewing them, but RLE did portray a much nastier version of Willard's boss, as it was R-rated.
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Mindhorn. A pretty funny spoof on a 70’s TV detective called back to the isle of Mann to help them crack a serial killer case. Quite amusing throughout, but really funny at the end.
The Rezort. Jurassic Park with Zombies. It was okay.
The Rezort. Jurassic Park with Zombies. It was okay.
Jeffbert
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Hmm, sound like my kind of movies.
Today I watched Strangers on a Train; I had seen it at least once before, though without the NOIR ALLEY guy giving introductory & exit remarks. No less than 10 minutes worth of details about authors, screenwriters, etc. Very worthwhile.
So the effete guy has the tennis player's lighter, intends to plant it as evidence at the scene of the crime, & the only guy who could provide an alibi was drunken at the time, and remembers nothing of the train ride. But there were other people on the train, including the porters, who could serve as alibis. 
Even Hitchcock's films have such plot holes!
Even Hitchcock's films have such plot holes!
HanaBi
Nexus 9.1 For Sale. One Careful Owner
"Vanishing Point" (1971) Rated - "18" (UK)/"R" (USA)
Former motorcycle/stock-car racer Kowalski (Barry Newman) is now a car delivery driver in the American South West. He is asked to deliver a Dodge Challenger to a dealer in San Francisco by Monday morning: a fairly easy task given that he collects the car on Colorado on a Friday night. However, he decides to offer a bet to a friend that he will deliver the car by 3pm Saturday afternoon - a reckless challenge, but given that Kowalski is at some kind of crossroads in his life, and a constant pill-popper, he only seems to find excitement by taking these unnecessary risks in his humdrum life.
Inevitably the police are soon on his trail as he crosses various desert states; but in most cases he puts his former racing driver skills to the fore and escapes arrest.
A local radio station manages to pick up the police radio frequency, and the resident soul DJ offers Kowalski advice on what the police will do next in order to trap the former Vietnam war veteran.
The film bombed on initial release in the USA, but proved far more successful, both commercially and critically in the UK and Europe. Despite a relatively simple story, with an existential ending, the film only really stands out for the beautiful "big country" desert states of Colorado, Utah and Nevada and the pleasure it must be to drive a super-charged car on those long straight road for hundreds of miles with the cops in hot pursuit by bike, car and helicopter. But other than the scenery and a few action sequences there is little to keep one truly absorbed.
3/5
Former motorcycle/stock-car racer Kowalski (Barry Newman) is now a car delivery driver in the American South West. He is asked to deliver a Dodge Challenger to a dealer in San Francisco by Monday morning: a fairly easy task given that he collects the car on Colorado on a Friday night. However, he decides to offer a bet to a friend that he will deliver the car by 3pm Saturday afternoon - a reckless challenge, but given that Kowalski is at some kind of crossroads in his life, and a constant pill-popper, he only seems to find excitement by taking these unnecessary risks in his humdrum life.
Inevitably the police are soon on his trail as he crosses various desert states; but in most cases he puts his former racing driver skills to the fore and escapes arrest.
A local radio station manages to pick up the police radio frequency, and the resident soul DJ offers Kowalski advice on what the police will do next in order to trap the former Vietnam war veteran.
The film bombed on initial release in the USA, but proved far more successful, both commercially and critically in the UK and Europe. Despite a relatively simple story, with an existential ending, the film only really stands out for the beautiful "big country" desert states of Colorado, Utah and Nevada and the pleasure it must be to drive a super-charged car on those long straight road for hundreds of miles with the cops in hot pursuit by bike, car and helicopter. But other than the scenery and a few action sequences there is little to keep one truly absorbed.
3/5
Cast a Deadly Spell (1991) -- TV movie with Fred Ward and Julianne Moore, directed by Martin Campbell (think Casino Royale and try not to think Green Lantern). 1940s private gumshoe Phil Lovecraft won't work magic although nearly everyone else does since the end of World War II. When a magical tome becomes the center of a dispute between Lovecraft's ex-partner and the book's owner, Lovecraft gets pulled into the action as the consequences of owning the book escalate. Entertaining psuedo-film noir, early example of urban fantasy pre-dating Buffy.
The Big Sleep (1946). Howard Hawks directed this adaptation of Raymond Chandler's novel starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. The screenplay by William Faulkner, Leigh Brackett and Jules Furthman is every bit as convoluted as the novel, but in spite of that it's a great old black & white noir movie that you can watch and rewatch and still be entertained. In his letters Chandler liked Bogart as a tough guy, but said when he wrote Philip Marlowe he thought more in terms of Cary Grant. He also disdained the attention to Bacall; he was more impressed by Martha Vickers, who played Bacall's probably insane little sister and was annoyed so much of her performance landed on the editing rooom floor in favor of highlighting Bacall. I agree Vickers is fun to watch in this movie. Hawks was a no-nonsense director with a wise-guy sense of humor, so this film doesn't share all the traits of classic noir.
Wind River (2017) -- starring Jeremy Renner, Elizabeth Olsen and Graham Greene. Excellent but depressing thriller as Renner, a Parks service tracker/hunter, and Olsen, an FBI agent, search snowy expanses of Wyoming (played by Utah) for the killer of a young Native American woman. Gains a lot from the fleshed in background of Renner and his family and the family of the young Native woman.
Hell or High Water (2016) -- starring Chris Pine, Jeff Bridges and Ben Foster. Another good thriller, this in the heat-drenched expanses of West Texas. Two brothers, Pine and Foster, rob banks in order to keep a bank from foreclosing on their mother's ranch. Bridges is the Texas Ranger pursuing them. Really solid acting and a well-written and thought out script that reflects the economic dilemmas in small town America. I think anyone who liked the movie Cold in July or Joe Lansdale's writing (he wrote Cold in July), would find this one of interest.
Randy M.
The Big Sleep (1946). Howard Hawks directed this adaptation of Raymond Chandler's novel starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. The screenplay by William Faulkner, Leigh Brackett and Jules Furthman is every bit as convoluted as the novel, but in spite of that it's a great old black & white noir movie that you can watch and rewatch and still be entertained. In his letters Chandler liked Bogart as a tough guy, but said when he wrote Philip Marlowe he thought more in terms of Cary Grant. He also disdained the attention to Bacall; he was more impressed by Martha Vickers, who played Bacall's probably insane little sister and was annoyed so much of her performance landed on the editing rooom floor in favor of highlighting Bacall. I agree Vickers is fun to watch in this movie. Hawks was a no-nonsense director with a wise-guy sense of humor, so this film doesn't share all the traits of classic noir.
Wind River (2017) -- starring Jeremy Renner, Elizabeth Olsen and Graham Greene. Excellent but depressing thriller as Renner, a Parks service tracker/hunter, and Olsen, an FBI agent, search snowy expanses of Wyoming (played by Utah) for the killer of a young Native American woman. Gains a lot from the fleshed in background of Renner and his family and the family of the young Native woman.
Hell or High Water (2016) -- starring Chris Pine, Jeff Bridges and Ben Foster. Another good thriller, this in the heat-drenched expanses of West Texas. Two brothers, Pine and Foster, rob banks in order to keep a bank from foreclosing on their mother's ranch. Bridges is the Texas Ranger pursuing them. Really solid acting and a well-written and thought out script that reflects the economic dilemmas in small town America. I think anyone who liked the movie Cold in July or Joe Lansdale's writing (he wrote Cold in July), would find this one of interest.
Randy M.
Jeffbert
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There was a part where the driver visits some hippies (I guess) as the woman went around naked.
They must have had to cool that motorcycle seat before the nudist girl sat upon it, as in the desert, it being black, would be rather hot!
I never got much from this film, as I guess it is to cerebral for me.
I am not much for landscapes, was hoping to see more than the girl's bottom, but they hid everything in front behind foreground objects. -------
I enjoy Bogart films, from his early days as a supporting actor, to his leading roles. The Big Sleep is one of very few with Bogart as a good guy in a crime story. Too bad he became prominent so late in life, & died so young!
HanaBi
Nexus 9.1 For Sale. One Careful Owner
There was a part where the driver visits some hippies (I guess) as the woman went around naked.
They must have had to cool that motorcycle seat before the nudist girl sat upon it, as in the desert, it being black, would be rather hot!
I never got much from this film, as I guess it is to cerebral for me.
-------
I remember watching Vanishing Point some 40 years ago at the precocious age of about 13; and the only scene that stood out for me was that girl on the bike. And even then I thought to myself "surely that bike seat is going to be extremely hot?" And also, "For a totally nude woman why doesn't she have a tan?"
But rewatching a couple of days ago I abandoned logic from this film and just enjoyed it for what it is: a road movie. Which reminds me: I might watch "Easy Rider", "Duel" and/or "Two Lane Blacktop" this weekend.
The Girl On The Train
Excrutiatingly slow, predictable and populated with common or garden angst-filled stereotypical characters. This movie makes the prospect of sitting watching the movement of a glacier seem like an extreme sport.
Excrutiatingly slow, predictable and populated with common or garden angst-filled stereotypical characters. This movie makes the prospect of sitting watching the movement of a glacier seem like an extreme sport.
HanaBi
Nexus 9.1 For Sale. One Careful Owner
"Flic Story" (1975 - French) Rated "15" (UK)/ "NR" (USA)
French film icon Alain Delon, dons his trademark trench-coat again, this time as police detective Roger Borniche, and his nine year pursuit of his nemesis and master criminal, Emile Buisson (
Jean-Louis Trintignant) - a paranoid sociopath and cold-blooded killer, who manages to escape from prison and immediately gets back into his old bad ways of robbery with violence.
Based on a true story and set in post-war 1940s France, we see just how brutal and merciless Buisson really is as he and his small gang of robbers hold up restaurants, factories and the odd bank in their pursuit of money, jewellery and gold. If innocent bystanders get in Buisson's way he shoots them in cold blood, showing little or no remorse.
His criminal activities make national headlines in the papers, and the local police chief wants his best man, "supercop" Borniche, on the case, expecting quick results in order to save face from a rabid media, a scared public and an impatient police.
However, despite Borniche's previous achievements in apprehending hoods like Borniche, he soon realises that this particular criminal is extremely intelligent, calculating and supremely indifferent to who he kills, especially people who betray him to the police. As the months and years pass more and more pressure is placed on Borniche to close the case, but Borniche is always one step behind the intellectually superior Buisson.
An excellent crime, thriller, although perhaps 20 odd minutes overlong. Very much a character-driven film, bordering on classic French film-noir. Delon place his role with measured panache, while his adversary
Jean-Louis Trintignant, probably takes the plaudits overall for his chilling portrayal as Buisson.
The direction is a little pedestrian in places, hence why I think it's a little overlong; but the editing is tight when it needs to be, especially during the numerous robberies and nasty killing of victims.
4/5
French film icon Alain Delon, dons his trademark trench-coat again, this time as police detective Roger Borniche, and his nine year pursuit of his nemesis and master criminal, Emile Buisson (
Jean-Louis Trintignant) - a paranoid sociopath and cold-blooded killer, who manages to escape from prison and immediately gets back into his old bad ways of robbery with violence.
Based on a true story and set in post-war 1940s France, we see just how brutal and merciless Buisson really is as he and his small gang of robbers hold up restaurants, factories and the odd bank in their pursuit of money, jewellery and gold. If innocent bystanders get in Buisson's way he shoots them in cold blood, showing little or no remorse.
His criminal activities make national headlines in the papers, and the local police chief wants his best man, "supercop" Borniche, on the case, expecting quick results in order to save face from a rabid media, a scared public and an impatient police.
However, despite Borniche's previous achievements in apprehending hoods like Borniche, he soon realises that this particular criminal is extremely intelligent, calculating and supremely indifferent to who he kills, especially people who betray him to the police. As the months and years pass more and more pressure is placed on Borniche to close the case, but Borniche is always one step behind the intellectually superior Buisson.
An excellent crime, thriller, although perhaps 20 odd minutes overlong. Very much a character-driven film, bordering on classic French film-noir. Delon place his role with measured panache, while his adversary
Jean-Louis Trintignant, probably takes the plaudits overall for his chilling portrayal as Buisson.
The direction is a little pedestrian in places, hence why I think it's a little overlong; but the editing is tight when it needs to be, especially during the numerous robberies and nasty killing of victims.
4/5
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets
Visually spectacular. Characters and plot, not so much.
Visually spectacular. Characters and plot, not so much.
HanaBi
Nexus 9.1 For Sale. One Careful Owner
"Evil Dead II" (1987) Rated "18" (UK) / "R" (USA)
Essentially a reboot of Evil Dead, but without the appalling and unnecessary tree-rape scene, while also playing for laughs rather than straight on horror/gore.
Bruce Campbell was born for the role of Ash: he is so perfect even if his acting range is a little limited. But here he is in his element, especially in a self-deprecating/screwball/totally out there kind of way. Even some of his stunts seem to be completely improvised and without the need of a double.
There's decapitated heads & hands, flying eyeballs, lots and lots of blood and guts galore, but because director Sam Raimi added a great deal of dark humour here, the violence never comes across as overly disturbing or gratuitous (especially compared to the more vicious torture-porn offerings such as "Saw" and "Hostel" etc. )
The sfx are well below par to a contemporary audience, but it all adds to the eclectic chaos of it all.
4.5/5
Essentially a reboot of Evil Dead, but without the appalling and unnecessary tree-rape scene, while also playing for laughs rather than straight on horror/gore.
Bruce Campbell was born for the role of Ash: he is so perfect even if his acting range is a little limited. But here he is in his element, especially in a self-deprecating/screwball/totally out there kind of way. Even some of his stunts seem to be completely improvised and without the need of a double.
There's decapitated heads & hands, flying eyeballs, lots and lots of blood and guts galore, but because director Sam Raimi added a great deal of dark humour here, the violence never comes across as overly disturbing or gratuitous (especially compared to the more vicious torture-porn offerings such as "Saw" and "Hostel" etc. )
The sfx are well below par to a contemporary audience, but it all adds to the eclectic chaos of it all.
4.5/5
Jeffbert
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Evil Dead II: I ought to sue them for basing it on my own life! The poor guy's right hand became demon possessed, & attacks him. He chops it off, it falls on the floor, and crawls to the edge of the tablecloth & begins climbing up, coming to get him. Just like the way my own spastic left hand effed with me! I was both furious and laughing my head off at the same time. That anyone could make a joke out of that.
I saw The Babysitter (2017) a week ago. Very unexpected things happened. 5/5! The less I say, the better.
The poor guy's right hand became demon possessed, & attacks him. He chops it off, it falls on the floor, and crawls to the edge of the tablecloth & begins climbing up, coming to get him. Just like the way my own spastic left hand effed with me! I was both furious and laughing my head off at the same time. That anyone could make a joke out of that. I saw The Babysitter (2017) a week ago. Very unexpected things happened. 5/5! The less I say, the better.
In The Mood For Love In my opinion, Wong Kar Wai's best picture and one of my all-time favourites. I never tire of watching it. It's also the perfect antidote to The Girl On The Train. In In The Mood for Love we have a movie that is slow moving because it needs to be and not because it needs to fill a cinematic time slot. This film uses the time to breathe and show off its beauty. It's like a bird of paradise slowly unfolding its wings. It utilises time to unveil the complexity of the characters and draw the viewer into their world. If movies can be classed as works of art, then this is one of those.
Director and writer of The Girl On The Train take note: this is how a slow movie should be made.
Director and writer of The Girl On The Train take note: this is how a slow movie should be made.
Cathbad
Level 30 Geek Master
I'm not sure of your definition of a slow movie.
When I hear that, I think of a non-stress-filled movie - laid back, like "On Golden Pond".
When I hear that, I think of a non-stress-filled movie - laid back, like "On Golden Pond".
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