What was the last movie you saw?

TWINS OF EVIL 1971

HANDS OF THE RIPPER 1971

Both released together (in the US at least) 50 years ago this month.
I think they show 70s Hammer could have survived longer--the latter doesn't have Cushing or Lee--Eric Porter is a good lead--and Angharad Rees is so sympathetic and sad--one of the most sad horror film characters--and the ending is depressing and yet operatic.
These were made through Rank and so not using American money and unlike Scars of Dracula and Horror of Frankenstein which felt really cheap--these were better in production values--and story-wise--they are well-written and performed with very memorable scores.
Peter Cushing is a murderer and yet his fanaticism is proven somewhat correct by the arrival of the Karnstein vampires--although it is not explained who is killing the people in the town since Mircalla has not shown up at that point.

Katya Wyeth appears in both films (her most famous role is A Clockwork Orange in a silent nude scene at the very end of the film). She talks in these films.
 

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Future Shock: the Story of 2000AD.
I read 2000AD during its 1980s heyday, and still have the comics in a box in the attic. This is an interesting documentary with decent interviews from all the major names apart from Alan Moore. Good presentation of the historical and cultural context, the internal dynamics, the comic characters, and the legacy.
At the time 2000AD was just a cool comic that my friends and I loved. It was a bit niche, funny, and subversive and was something different back in the days of 3 TV channels and no internet. The documentary makes the point that 2000AD was able to get away with so muchbecause it was sf and people did not take it seriously. There was always a strong satirical subtext eg fascism (Dredd) , bigotry, racism, religion, colonialism (Strontium Dog, Nemesis), and it was lots of fun and very violent.
Recommended.
 
Adam Nevill, maybe? If so, The Ritual is very good folk horror. Banquet for the Damned, his first novel, is a solid ghost/witch story.
 
Future Shock: the Story of 2000AD.
I read 2000AD during its 1980s heyday, and still have the comics in a box in the attic. This is an interesting documentary with decent interviews from all the major names apart from Alan Moore. Good presentation of the historical and cultural context, the internal dynamics, the comic characters, and the legacy.
At the time 2000AD was just a cool comic that my friends and I loved. It was a bit niche, funny, and subversive and was something different back in the days of 3 TV channels and no internet. The documentary makes the point that 2000AD was able to get away with so muchbecause it was sf and people did not take it seriously. There was always a strong satirical subtext eg fascism (Dredd) , bigotry, racism, religion, colonialism (Strontium Dog, Nemesis), and it was lots of fun and very violent.
Recommended.
It's just a great look at this iconic comic. Even if you've never read Dredd, SD, etc but like comics this would be well worth watching.
 
Kate (2020)

A sort-of-remake of the old thriller, DOA, in which an assassin is fatally poisoned and has a day to track down her killer. It's set in Hollywood's idea of Japan (90% Blade Runner, 10% dojo), and is full of shrill pop bands, sushi stands and yakuza men with suits and swords.

Everything, including the big twist, is utterly predictable, but it's entertaining. Mary Elizabeth Winstead is very good as the assassin, Kate, and resembles a young Sigourney Weaver. The fight scenes are well-choreographed but the violence is both very graphic and totally unrealistic, which doesn't work for me. How it got a 15 rating is beyond me, given the sheer carnage. Money, I suppose.
 
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) 3rd in the DOLLARS trilogy. The listing called it the restored version, & at the end, "EXTENDED ENGLISH LANGUAGE VERSION"; yet, the TCM guy made no mention of either; he only talked about Leone & the music score composer. I had to look on the Wiki page to find anything about restored scenes. It was a long time since last I saw it, & I had forgotten most of the details. I had no idea! I assumed that the 'restored' in the title referred to the quality of the films.
 
I prefer the original version. Seems like a lot of padding in the extended version that I didn't miss when I re-watched the original version.

"See you soon, idi..idio."

"Idiots....It's for you."
 
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) 3rd in the DOLLARS trilogy. The listing called it the restored version, & at the end, "EXTENDED ENGLISH LANGUAGE VERSION"; yet, the TCM guy made no mention of either; he only talked about Leone & the music score composer. I had to look on the Wiki page to find anything about restored scenes. It was a long time since last I saw it, & I had forgotten most of the details. I had no idea! I assumed that the 'restored' in the title referred to the quality of the films.
I have the two disc fully restored version with additional footage and the original theatrical release and much prefer the the one I saw as a thirteen year old sitting in a dark theater. I thought the unseen footage would increase the thrill of watching my favorite movie but it didn’t. Not saying it’s bad, just didn’t do anything for me except for maybe where Angel Eyes checked out a Confederate hospital looking for Bill Carson but even then it seemed more of a distraction than an enhancement. I guess you really can’t improve perfection.
 
The Answer - an orphaned office mailman discovers he's an alien human hybrid and the aliens are after him. I'm betting the writer of this watched a LOT of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and is a great fan of Joss Whedon because this script sounds like it is made up entirely from those - "Oh, this isn't spooky!" knowing, ironical funny lines that pepper Whedon's scripts. In his scripts they work. They're the raisins in the cake. They lift the script from time to time. But every line?!l The saving grace of this movie is that the villain alien who has been kidnapping women and impregnating them in a run down shack just outside of town - as low budget aliens tend to do - doesn't get a huge long exposition laden self-justifying speech at the end - (possibly because Whedon hadn't written one that would do.) At just over 80 minutes it still felt long.
The Interceptor - A real WTF? of a film. Dark forces and enlightened beings battle for something in Moscow. Lots of people walk through walls. Cars are exploded. Characters you barely get to know the names of are gunned down and have to have their vital information delivered to our hero via someone else who has to say things like "before whatever his name was was killed he discovered something and we have to do something about it!" and everyone agrees without bothering to tell the audience who they are or what they are agreeing to. I'd worked out that the great spiky tentacle thing that communicated with it's representatives on earth by shooting spiky tentacles through their heads and growling at them was probably the bad guy and the glowing white robed ones who stood around on rooftops and talked enigmatically were the good guys but after that I was totally lost. The film stopped from time to time to have some slow gently (rather lovely) moments where the screen was filled for minutes on end with curved and curly strips of paper and new age ambient music plays for no other reason than to pad out the running time to a 90 minute movie length. Imagine a James Bond / Casshern / Jupiter Ascending / Matrix mashup and then take out any plot that might have held all those elements together.
 
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) 3rd in the DOLLARS trilogy. The listing called it the restored version, & at the end, "EXTENDED ENGLISH LANGUAGE VERSION"; yet, the TCM guy made no mention of either; he only talked about Leone & the music score composer. I had to look on the Wiki page to find anything about restored scenes. It was a long time since last I saw it, & I had forgotten most of the details. I had no idea! I assumed that the 'restored' in the title referred to the quality of the films.
One of my favourite films
 
King of Thieves [2018]
Based on the Hatton Garden robbery of 2015, it is the story of how a group on mainly old men can pull it off. And after that how they can't trust each other. The cast is the very best of British male actors [of a certain age] Michael Caine, Ray Winston and Jim Broadbent to name three. All of them turn in good performances especially Jim Broadbent.
The story is of the Heist and how things fall apart afterwards and is fairly entertaining but never really gets up to speed. The robbery is almost boring, the falling out almost inevitable and the ending predictable. But somehow still watchable.
Probably the bit I liked most was the very end, where clips of the cast from their early roles are used to show the passage of time, such as Caine from Alfie[?], Winston from [Scum] etc. I thought it was a nice touch.
One warning, DO NOT WATCH if bad language offends. These are rough and ready characters and their use of langue reflects that. Frequently and often repeatedly within the same sentence.
 
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Dan In Real Life.

Put it on to kill a couple of hours. I've realised that i have a soft spot for romantic comedy.
 
I've been in love with Juliette Binoche for years, so who could blame Steve for doing the same thing. Yep, not normally my thing, but this one had a touch of class, a good script, and of course the lovely Juliette. Oooo, la la.
 
About Time (2013): a man discovers that he and other men in the family have the ability to travel backwards in time. It was charming.
 

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