What was the last movie you saw?

[Mon0Zer0]

Fantabulosa - Martin Sheen puts in a fantabulous performance as Kenneth Williams in this BBC Biopic, based on Williams' own meticulous diaries. Sometimes he gets the voice spot on - other times not so much. Williams is somewhat of a tragic character, and this covers his close relationship with his mum, Louie, his struggles with his sexuality, his loneliness, narcissism and his rise to fame. It is very much warts and all, and very sad in parts.

Whilst I wouldn't call myself a carry on fan - nowadays I find the ones I've seen again borderline unwatchable - but I do have fond memories of them as a kid - particularly Carry on Screaming. It is interesting to see behind the curtain into William's life, and how he was cheated out of a decent wage.

 

[JunkMonkey]

Prime has just flagged up The Torture Chamber of Dr Sadism which looks like a ripe piece of 1960s Hammer with Vincent Price and a brilliant title. Might save that for the weekend.

You sure about that? The The Torture Chamber of Dr Sadism that I know has Lex Barker and Christopher Lee in not Vincent price and is pretty terrible and German not hammer.

Meanwhile I just finished Annihilation - which was going great guns and had me right up to the 'cardboard stereotype butch lesbian goes bonkers and gets killed' sequence. Whereupon I fell out of the movie and just watched it. Someone, I thought at one point, has read a lot of episodes of the Swamp Thing. Roadside Picnic meets Swamp Thing. I did have a trouble settling into the film once we'd established the ground rules. There's this zone of weird shimmeriness that people enter but don't return from. You can see into this zone of weird shimmeriness. But no radio signals have come out from any of the teams that have gone in. Why, I immediately asked myself, didn't anyone think to have someone standing just outside the zone, someone just inside, someone a bit further in but within sight of the first, and another further still and so on and have them signal each other with semaphore flags or naval signal lights? Took some time for my "we wouldn't have a fecking movie otherwise" filter to fuzz that out of my head.

 

[Toby Frost]

I don't think Annihilation makes a lot of sense when you think about it, and in terms of tone it seemed to be all over the place, but it had some amazing scenes. I wonder if it was trying to do too much, but it deserves credit for at least trying.

 

[JunkMonkey]

I don't think Annihilation makes a lot of sense when you think about it, and in terms of tone it seemed to be all over the place, but it had some amazing scenes. I wonder if it was trying to do too much, but it deserves credit for at least trying.

[SPOILERS AHEAD]

Yup. I guess I was expecting too much as Alex Garland's previous film, Ex_Machina, was utterly brilliant. I also had a "please don't do the 'glowing eyes letting the audience know' thing" moment in the final scene. (And was disappointed.) If I was editing it I would have cut the final two over the shoulder shots with that in and ended with the two of them just standing there - before the clinch - with the "are you still Lena?" unanswered.

 

[Toby Frost]

True, Ex Machina was excellent. Annihilation was a bit of a mess.

 

[Mon0Zer0]

Meanwhile I just finished Annihilation - which was going great guns and had me right up to the 'cardboard stereotype butch lesbian goes bonkers and gets killed' sequence. Whereupon I fell out of the movie and just watched it. Someone, I thought at one point, has read a lot of episodes of the Swamp Thing. Roadside Picnic meets Swamp Thing. I did have a trouble settling into the film once we'd established the ground rules. There's this zone of weird shimmeriness that people enter but don't return from. You can see into this zone of weird shimmeriness. But no radio signals have come out from any of the teams that have gone in. Why, I immediately asked myself, didn't anyone think to have someone standing just outside the zone, someone just inside, someone a bit further in but within sight of the first, and another further still and so on and have them signal each other with semaphore flags or naval signal lights? Took some time for my "we wouldn't have a fecking movie otherwise" filter to fuzz that out of my head.

It definitely worse its influences on its sleeves. I must admit to liking some of the imagery in it, but it wasn't a triumph by any means.

 

[KGeo777]

100,000 Dollars for Lassiter - 1966 More of a comedy than a serious story but it was amusing at times. Many familiar faces from spaghetti westerns appear in it.

 

[hitmouse]

You sure about that? The The Torture Chamber of Dr Sadism that I know has Lex Barker and Christopher Lee in not Vincent price and is pretty terrible and German not hammer.

Yep German and absolutely terrible, like a very bad Hammer ripoff. So clicheed it is amusing. Correct about the players.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Operation Dames (1959)

Given the title, the opening scene with a couple of GIs ogling a curvaceous blonde through binoculars, and the song played over the opening titles ("Girls, Girls, Girls," not to be confused with the Mötley Crüe song of the same name), you'd think this was a military comedy. It actually turns into a serious, albeit extremely low budget, war movie. Some USO entertainers get stuck behind enemy lines in Korea in 1950. They run into some equally trapped soldiers, and the no-nonsense Sergeant has to lead them to safety. Cue tension and romance. Some attempt is made at characterization. Folks get killed when I wasn't expecting it. The cheapness definitely shows -- people talk about "the middle of the night" during scenes that are in bright sunlight -- but it's not the worst film I've ever seen.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Murder by Contract (1958)

A minimal budget is used with great effectiveness in this surprisingly modern crime drama. Future Ben Casey star Vince Edwards stars as a laconic hit man. He gets a contract to kill a witness against a mob boss. The two minor hoodlums who serve as his handlers provide some quirky, low key comedy as the guy spends time touring Los Angeles instead of doing the job. The only time the killer gets upset is when he finds out the target is a woman. Not because he's got a problem with that, but he thinks women are less predictable and therefore harder to kill. His really unusual murder plots go wrong, through no fault of his own, leading to the final attempt. It's a fine little film.

 

[KGeo777]

CHAIN OF EVIDENCE - 1957 An ex-con who was jailed for defending his fiancee` from a hooligan is, upon release, beat up by an acquaintance and suffers amnesia-so he takes a new identity and works for a rich philanthropist whose wife wants to kill him. She sees an opportunity to frame the new worker without a memory. Not bad--very cheap and short and no famous names but it somehow makes it feel more real.

FLASHMAN 1967 is anything but real. It's an Italian Batman spoof and it's pretty bad but there is one amazing FX scene where a silhouette of an invisible man appears in a misty room and considering it was pre-cgi it was pretty cool. I don't know how they did it but it looked good compared with some other invisible effects they do where the wires are clearly visible.

 

[Rodders]

Tau - A surprisingly decent movie well worth watching.

 

[JunkMonkey]

FLASHMAN 1967 is anything but real. It's an Italian Batman spoof and it's pretty bad but there is one amazing FX scene where a silhouette of an invisible man appears in a misty room and considering it was pre-cgi it was pretty cool. I don't know how they did it but it looked good compared with some other invisible effects they do where the wires are clearly visible.

I was pretty amazed that he escaped from Holloway which, from what I understand, is a women's prison and always has been - I guess it was the only piece of stock footage establishing shot of an English prison they could find.

 

[kythe]

Xanadu (1980)

I had heard of this movie periodically, usually in the context of one of the worst things to come out of the 80's.

Olivia Newton-John and Gene Kelly were interesting to watch. The other lead man was bland and forgettable. The story started out ok, but the plot degenerated into a big mess. I still haven't figured out what Xanadu is. A good bit of this movie felt like a dream sequence, or a hallucination. I think they added a cartoon segment of the main characters falling in love to make up for the fact that the actors have no chemistry at all.

Xanadu tried to be a tribute to Gene Kelly's time and also look forward towards the upcoming 80's but it failed at both. Everything about it, from the neon special effects to the styles of clothes, dancing, and roller skates, were exactly a product of its time.

So now I can add this to a list of movies I have seen. That is it.

 

[Jeffbert]

Cloudburst (1951) NOIR ALLEY Brit film in which an ex-SOE guy John Graham (Robert Preston) uses the skills he learned at war, to get revenge on the two people responsible for the death of his wife. He currently works at code breaking, and finds himself on his own trail, when the police ask him for help. ​

 

[KGeo777]

I was pretty amazed that he escaped from Holloway which, from what I understand, is a women's prison and always has been - I guess it was the only piece of stock footage establishing shot of an English prison they could find.

I wondered about them saying the other prisoner--the woman--was in the cell next door. That seemed "off" somehow.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Xanadu (1980)

I had heard of this movie periodically, usually in the context of one of the worst things to come out of the 80's.

Olivia Newton-John and Gene Kelly were interesting to watch. The other lead man was bland and forgettable. The story started out ok, but the plot degenerated into a big mess. I still haven't figured out what Xanadu is. A good bit of this movie felt like a dream sequence, or a hallucination. I think they added a cartoon segment of the main characters falling in love to make up for the fact that the actors have no chemistry at all.

Xanadu tried to be a tribute to Gene Kelly's time and also look forward towards the upcoming 80's but it failed at both. Everything about it, from the neon special effects to the styles of clothes, dancing, and roller skates, were exactly a product of its time.

So now I can add this to a list of movies I have seen. That is it.

I have experienced the trifecta of bad movie musicals of 1980, with Xanadu, The Apple, and Can't Stop the Music. The first is blah, the second is insane, and the third is horrendous.

I think "Xanadu" is just the name of the roller skating place in the film.

 

[Rodders]

I saw a movie called "In The Shadow of The Moon" last night. It started out really well, but for some reason didn't end on the high note that it promised. Don't get me wrong, it was a decent time travel(ish) movie that was quite well acted, but the attempted twist in the ending was just a little flat.

 

[JunkMonkey]

I have experienced the trifecta of bad movie musicals of 1980, with Xanadu, The Apple, and Can't Stop the Music. The first is blah, the second is insane, and the third is horrendous.

I think "Xanadu" is just the name of the roller skating place in the film.

I have copies of, and have watched more than once, both The Apple and Xanadu - Can't Stop the Music ( That's the Village People one?) has eluded me but is on the Must See list. But then I liked the Spice Girls' movie.

Last Night Daughter Number One and I, as part of some masochistic First Manned Mission To Mars Goes Wrong Marathon, watched Rocketship XM in which the first manned (and womanned) rocketship to the moon has technical problems, misses the moon and ends up on Mars instead. Though given that their flight-plan consists of going straight up for 360 miles, doing a 90 degree handbrake turn, then whizzing around Earth for a bit using the Earth's rotation to enable them to build up enough speed to achieve escape velocity - we're not really surprised. ( I don't think that's how a slingshot, which is what the writers were obviously thinking of, works like that, guys!) Unusually, for a film of the period, everyone dies.

 

[Droflet]

I remember seeing this as a kid. Good fun. Except for the unhappy ending.