What was the last movie you saw?

[Vince W]

I went to see Blade Runner (the Final Cut) and BR2049 double bill at the cinema last night and was really taken aback by how great both these movies are.

That would be a great evening.

 

[J-Sun]

His best, in my opinion.

Yeah, I really like Elephant Man, Blue Velvet, and Lost Highway but would give the nod to Mulholland Drive, too.

Elephant Man is probably the only Lynch film I haven't seen.

The presentation is almost "normal" but it's excellent - if there's something about it that puts you off there's nothing to say, of course, but if you just haven't gotten around to it, move it up in the Pile.

 

[KGeo777]

The Elephant Man is an example where they distort history to crank up the depressive. They make him out to be a total sad sap when in reality I read he was apparently a local celebrity and people treated him much better than the movie suggests. He was making good money too. I cannot stand that line "I am not an animal, I am a human being," because it so melodramatic and inaccurate. There are commemorative plates under bridges there to recognize people who drowned while trying to save horses or dogs. They were not a crowd of barbarians like the movie suggests. The SPCA started there. It's a bizarre line. It's like saying "if I were an animal, it would be ok to abuse me." Even in Shakespeare time they had animal welfare concepts.

"And the poor beetle, that we tread upon,
In corporal sufferance finds a pang as great
As when a giant dies."



I assume David Lynch is not an Englishman? I am not bothering to check so if I am wrong ok..
Isn't it funny that the most barbaric depictions of English folk are by people who are not not from there. A Clockwork Orange for example.
Straw Dogs.
The Wicker Man is not about England proper--so in that case they are putting the barbaric label on the rural (which is also very common in American film--the exception being filmmakers from there--like Charles B Pierce did films about the rural South which was very sympathetic).

 

[JunkMonkey]

The Wicker Man is not about England proper--so in that case they are putting the barbaric label on the rural (which is also very common in American film--the exception being filmmakers from there--like Charles B Pierce did films about the rural South which was very sympathetic).

The Wicker Man is not about England at all. It's about Scotland. Different country entirely.

The only Charles B Pierce film I can recall seeing was Boggy Creek 2 The Legend Continues. It was dreadful .

 

[J-Sun]

The Elephant Man is an example where they distort history to crank up the depressive.

Tone is hard to convey, so I'm not yelling or being sarcastic here, but just substituting words to say that that's an example of distorting the movie to crank up the outrage. First, I don't see it as history, as such, but being inspired by a bit of history to make a movie which, if it veers from the facts, is still okay - the Lynchian moment where things get all swirly sort of indicates this isn't necessarily sober fact. On England, I see it as set there, but intended to comment on humanity in general, both good and bad (people who happened to be English were depicted positively, too). On animals, no matter where and when and no matter what the laws, animals have never been considered on par with humans by humanity at large - you don't get executed for killing an animal (unless it's in the King's Forest and then it's because of the King, not the animal). I mean, we have zoos and circuses and the connotation is that they have animals and "freaks." So that's all it's going for, there.

I will grant, though, that it does have its depressing and pitiful elements and I ordinarily don't go for such things as they tend to get mawkish and hard to watch but this was handled with enough complexity and variations of characters and moods that it worked for me.

 

[KGeo777]

As I said, it is not England proper but it does suggest the rural, the traditional "sinister" countryside. I am not surprised it wasn't made by people from Scotland. lol

Bootleggers by Charles Pierce--it was one of the biggest independent films of the 1970s. It made $ 4 million by 1976--which was a lot of money for a film that probably cost under $200 000.

It's not a caricatured version of the South. It is not a Hollywood movie. They would never have made a movie with that sensibility. And it was very successful.

As for the Elephant Man-it is the actress and doctor who are compassionate to him--not the working class. Don't they present the nurses as kind of clueless? That is so out of touch with reality. lol Nurses are made of iron. They would have seen all kinds of deformities and ailments to deal with.

The mob is presented as threatening.
I think an art work should reflect some truth about life and Nature or it falls into a propaganda or bizarro category--I'd ask--who is this movie aimed at-and what is the point?
But the line "I am not an animal" is so out of touch with the common view at the time.
I don't think I have ever encountered a line like that in Victoria era literature. Nothing that is so blatantly divisive and dualistic.


I think a story can be holistic in approach as well-and they chose not to do that with the Elephant Man even though the real story seems to have had elements that would have favored that approach.
I guess "depression sells" is another Hollywood adage.

 

[JunkMonkey]

Living in Oblivion - Probably not 'The Best Film Ever Made by a Human Being' but certainly one of the best films ever made about the frustrations and difficulties of low budget film production. Another of those films that I rave about to people who stare at me blankly when I mention it. Daughter Number 2 was the latest. She loved it. We'll be yelling "You Hostess Twinky motherf*cker!" at each other for days.

 

[KGeo777]

An unstoppable killing machine stalks a woman through Los Angeles with the cops in pursuit. The Terminator? No--it's Ramrod the psycho pimp. VICE SQUAD 1982 --as it was a Hemdale production like the Terminator, I assume that they suggested doing a sci-fi version of the story with the prostitution angle removed, and James Cameron said sure. Ramrod goes to a gun dealer, he also hijacks a vehicle or two, and gets (nearly) crushed under a machine (a car).
Then again Arnie never sang a song over the start and end credits like Wings Hauser.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

GoldenEye (1995)

My first experience with Pierce Brosnan's version of James Bond. It's certainly full of spectacular (if impossible) stunts and all the other necessary elements. The movie's Bad Girl is a genuinely terrifying monster, perhaps beyond the level of believability, and the Good Girl is a fully developed character. (A case could be made that she is actually the film's protagonist, I think.) Judi Dench is great as the new M, if only briefly seen. (One can't argue with her description of Bond as a "sexist, misogynist dinosaur," one of the movie's hints of self-awareness.)

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)

Brosnan's second outing as Bond. Pretty typical for the series, supplying all the stuff you've come to expect. No Bad Girl, and the minor Good Girl is utterly forgettable, but the major Good Girl is easily Bond's equal, and maybe even a little tougher. (One can imagine this being her story, with him as the Good Boy.) The motorcycle and helicopter chase scene is a highlight. Maybe the most memorable character is Bond's talking car.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

The World is Not Enough (1999)

The third Brosnan Bond. Mixed feelings. Good to see M in an important role. Villain with interesting back story, almost creating some sympathy. One very complex Bond Girl, one very bland Bond Girl. (And it's odd to see a Bad Girl killed during the pre-credit sequence.) Weird chase/combat scenes, with the strange flying skimobile things and the odd helicopter with multiple saw blades. Not sure how I feel yet about John Cleese as Q's replacement; his first scene could have been out of a Monty Python skit.

 

[hitmouse]

As I said, it is not England proper but it does suggest the rural, the traditional "sinister" countryside. I am not surprised it wasn't made by people from Scotland. lol

Bootleggers by Charles Pierce--it was one of the biggest independent films of the 1970s. It made $ 4 million by 1976--which was a lot of money for a film that probably cost under $200 000.

It's not a caricatured version of the South. It is not a Hollywood movie. They would never have made a movie with that sensibility. And it was very successful.

As for the Elephant Man-it is the actress and doctor who are compassionate to him--not the working class. Don't they present the nurses as kind of clueless? That is so out of touch with reality. lol Nurses are made of iron. They would have seen all kinds of deformities and ailments to deal with.

The mob is presented as threatening.
I think an art work should reflect some truth about life and Nature or it falls into a propaganda or bizarro category--I'd ask--who is this movie aimed at-and what is the point?
But the line "I am not an animal" is so out of touch with the common view at the time.
I don't think I have ever encountered a line like that in Victoria era literature. Nothing that is so blatantly divisive and dualistic.


I think a story can be holistic in approach as well-and they chose not to do that with the Elephant Man even though the real story seems to have had elements that would have favored that approach.
I guess "depression sells" is another Hollywood adage.

For reference, it is worth reading The True History of the Elephant Man by Sir Frederick Treves, the surgeon played by Anthony Hopkins, which I think was used as a major source for the film. I haven’t read it for years. The title seems to vary a bit by edition.

 

[Randy M.]

The World is Not Enough (1999)

The third Brosnan Bond. Mixed feelings. Good to see M in an important role. Villain with interesting back story, almost creating some sympathy. One very complex Bond Girl, one very bland Bond Girl. (And it's odd to see a Bad Girl killed during the pre-credit sequence.) Weird chase/combat scenes, with the strange flying skimobile things and the odd helicopter with multiple saw blades. Not sure how I feel yet about John Cleese as Q's replacement; his first scene could have been out of a Monty Python skit.

I'd recommend the Daniel Craig Bond movies, if only Casino Royale. In hindsight, I think the Brosnan Bonds were uneasily experimenting with a tougher version of Bond before actually committing to it -- Cleese's Q was a continuation of the old Bond; Michelle Yeoh showing the kind of toughness I'm sure she has, considering her early career, is a hint of where the movies could go (not that they've exactly followed through with that). This movie in particular ticked me off because the set-up was new to Bond and they didn't follow through on it the way they could have; but with Casino Royale some of that promise was realized.

 

[Rabbit.2309]

Tom and Jerry (2021). Childhood is incomplete without this... Relived my childhood...

 

[paranoid marvin]

Life After Flash

Brilliant movie, for anyone interested in the Flash Gordon movie, comic/sci fi conventions or Hollywood in general.

It was everything I was hoping it would be.

One amazing fact I found out was that Flash's voice was dubbed by another actor!

 

[Randy M.]

Cutter's Way (1981) dir. Ivan Passer; starring Jeff Bridges, John Heard, Lisa Eichhorn

Post-Vietnam, neo-noir. Based on the novel Cutter and Bone by Newton Thornberg, this features Bridges as a Bone, a guy who has never seen a conflict or intimacy he can't run away from; Heard as Cutter, a Vietnam vet who lost an arm, a leg and an eye to the war -- with the implication that other male parts were damaged, too -- and who is surviving mostly on booze and rage; and Eichhorn as Maureen Cutter, the wife who loves Cutter and who Bone covets. Bone witnesses the dumping of a dead body and later thinks he recognizes who did the dumping. What do you do with that knowledge?

Bridges is good, Eichhorn is better, and Heard probably never had another part as juicy as this -- in spite of good actors all around him (or maybe because) he takes over the movie. The movie was shown as part of a July neo-noir series on Turner Cable Movies, hosted by Ben Mankiewicz and Eddie Mueller. apparently the studio made it because Bridges was hot at the time and was set on making it, but spent next to nothing to promote it. Thus, a flop on first release. I think it's developed something of a cult following since, and justifiably so. This is not a feel-good movie and the ending is ambiguous at best, and there's an incitement to action for the "heroes" that has been used too many times in movies and will tick off at least part of today's audience. That said, it's worth watching.


Spiderman: Into the Spider-verse (2018)

Beautifully done animation, interesting story-line, good voice work across the board, this has convinced me that we need, indeed, must have a feature length Spider-Pig movie.

 

[JunkMonkey]

One amazing fact I found out was that Flash's voice was dubbed by another actor!

You mean that wasn't Buster Crabbe's real voice?! You'll be telling me Charles Middleton's beard was a fake next.

 

[KGeo777]

​

According to a 2012 interview in Maxim, Sam J. Jones had disagreements with De Laurentiis of some kind and departed prior to post-production, which resulted in a substantial portion of his dialogue being dubbed by professional voice and dramatic actor, Peter Marinker; but whose identity was long considered unknown, even to Jones.[17] A sequel was proposed, but the departure of Jones effectively ended any such prospects.

 

[Droflet]

No sequel aye? I might have to take up religion.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

I'd recommend the Daniel Craig Bond movies, if only Casino Royale. In hindsight, I think the Brosnan Bonds were uneasily experimenting with a tougher version of Bond before actually committing to it -- Cleese's Q was a continuation of the old Bond; Michelle Yeoh showing the kind of toughness I'm sure she has, considering her early career, is a hint of where the movies could go (not that they've exactly followed through with that). This movie in particular ticked me off because the set-up was new to Bond and they didn't follow through on it the way they could have; but with Casino Royale some of that promise was realized.

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll get around to the Craig series some time or other, as somebody has put all the Bond films on YouTube. (Split into segments less than ten minutes apiece, I suppose to avoid legal problems, but they flow right into each other, so it's quite smooth viewing, and I can put up with the commercials YouTube interrupts it with now and then. It's free, after all.) Anyway:

Die Another Day (2002)

Random thoughts on the last Brosnan Bond:

Holy cow, the title song is horrible, even for Madonna (and her brief appearance in the film ain't much better.)

The first part of the film, with Bond captured and tortured by the North Koreans, give the film a gravitas that is unexpected from the series, although it goes on to be the usual flashy spectacle.

The director has a habit of using slow motion or fast motion for a fraction of a second, which is really annoying.

Another Good Girl who is Bond's equal (or superior.)

A so-so Bad Girl.

Pretty good villain, and I'll admit that I didn't catch on to his real identity until it was revealed.

The invisible car is a bit silly.

Nifty sword fight sequence.