What was the last movie you saw?

Near Dark was very good, if I remember rightly, but John Carpenter's Vampires, despite a decent opening, was pretty cheesy.
 
I just cannot deal with all that text! Sorry, but a synopsis should be no more than a few short paragraphs, at most! I guess if I visited this topic more often-- but tough! Many of these descriptions are just way too long! Every detail is unnecessary. Should start with a synopsis; if more is your style, then write more in additional paragraphs. :unsure:




THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN (1971) A satellite returns to earth, and with it, comes a deadly microscopic life form, contact with it causes blood to become powder. Only two residents of a small town survived contact with it, but why? So, the govt. goes into action, well-prepared for such an occurrence. In a well-isolated multi-level underground facility, scientists go about examining the alien microbe, while the physician attempts to discover why these two people, one, an infant, the other, a drunk, are still alive. Anticipating that contamination might occur, the site is equipped with a nuclear bomb; this is the heart of the drama in the end.

After this time watching it, I was very aware that the whole WILDFIRE thing was a search for alien lifeforms that could be weaponized. I surely noticed this in earlier viewings, but now, it hit home; especially after the remake of THE BLOB!
 
Jeffbert said:
I just cannot deal with all that text! Sorry, but a synopsis should be no more than a few short paragraphs, at most! I guess if I visited this topic more often-- but tough! Many of these descriptions are just way too long! Every detail is unnecessary. Should start with a synopsis; if more is your style, then write more in additional paragraphs. :unsure:




THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN (1971) A satellite returns to earth, and with it, comes a deadly microscopic life form, contact with it causes blood to become powder. Only two residents of a small town survived contact with it, but why? So, the govt. goes into action, well-prepared for such an occurrence. In a well-isolated multi-level underground facility, scientists go about examining the alien microbe, while the physician attempts to discover why these two people, one, an infant, the other, a drunk, are still alive. Anticipating that contamination might occur, the site is equipped with a nuclear bomb; this is the heart of the drama in the end.
Click to expand...
Brilliant film! The book by Michael Crichton is good too
 
AGENT Z55-DESPERATE MISSION 1966 -- About standard for these eurospy films. Watchable but not very memorable except a somewhat larger role for Milton Reid---he gets whipped in the face with chains and isn't hurt-- a real tough guy.
Unfortunately he isn't so tough that he can withstand a blowtorch to the face but who could?
A cute armadillo makes an appearance for no good reason except perhaps to be this movie's answer to the Blofeld's white cat.
 
Army of Thieves: this was a surprising little gem. I only watched it because I'm a sucker for zombie movies and it was presented as a prequel to Army of the Dead. It wasn't like Army of the Dead at all; it was better. The main actor (Matthias Schweighöfer), who also directs, plays his role perfectly and you really feel for him. The ending felt a little forced seeing as it had to lead into Army of the Dead, but other than that it was great. I actually think it is a better made movie than Army of the Dead. Follow Dieter as he lives out his dream of cracking a series of legendary bank vaults.

Red Notice: Dwayne Johnson plays the Rock, Gal Gadot plays Wonder Woman and Ryan Reynolds plays Deadpool. What more could you ask for? Well, either better editing or a longer movie, perhaps? They play their characters well and the movie rolls along, but there was just something missing for me as these three characters face off against each other as they try to steal a set of precious jewels around the world.

Eternals: too many characters fight for screen time while also trying to defeat Ultron powerful Deviants arising for some nefarious reason across the world. Meanwhile, the Avengers are nowhere to be seen. It must be nice for the B-team to tag in and do the work once in a while. It's a long film and typically Marvel, entertaining but lacking due to sparse time given to all but a few of the team.
 
Jeffbert said:
I just cannot deal with all that text! Sorry, but a synopsis should be no more than a few short paragraphs, at most! I guess if I visited this topic more often-- but tough! Many of these descriptions are just way too long! Every detail is unnecessary. Should start with a synopsis; if more is your style, then write more in additional paragraphs. :unsure:
Click to expand...
Skim.

Randy
(Just trying to keep it short. :ROFLMAO:)
 
Jeffbert said:
THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN (1971) A satellite returns to earth, and with it, comes a deadly microscopic life form, contact with it causes blood to become powder. Only two residents of a small town survived contact with it, but why? So, the govt. goes into action, well-prepared for such an occurrence. In a well-isolated multi-level underground facility, scientists go about examining the alien microbe, while the physician attempts to discover why these two people, one, an infant, the other, a drunk, are still alive. Anticipating that contamination might occur, the site is equipped with a nuclear bomb; this is the heart of the drama in the end.

After this time watching it, I was very aware that the whole WILDFIRE thing was a search for alien lifeforms that could be weaponized. I surely noticed this in earlier viewings, but now, it hit home; especially after the remake of THE BLOB!
Click to expand...

There was a much later mini-series made out of the book, as I recall, wasn't as good as this film. Which maybe shouldn't be surprising since this was directed by Robert Wise, who also directed The Day the Earth Stood Still. The choice of actors was inspired -- no big stars, just really solid character actors. Really, a good movie.
 
Randy M. said:
There was a much later mini-series made out of the book, as I recall, wasn't as good as this film. Which maybe shouldn't be surprising since this was directed by Robert Wise, who also directed The Day the Earth Stood Still. The choice of actors was inspired -- no big stars, just really solid character actors. Really, a good movie.
Click to expand...
I didn't know there was a series.
I could see it done as a modern netflix series mind
 
Red Notice - Indiana Jones meets James Bond meets generic heist movie. A deeply derivative bit of fluff from The Rock, Gal Gadot and Ryan Reynolds. I wonder how long Ryan Reynolds schtick can last because I feel it's sort of wearing off. Entertaining enough Saturday afternoon fare but don't expect anything particularly exciting.
 
John Carpenter's Vampires did have vampires that were more of the old-fashioned kind. They were ghoulish and that was refreshing but I wish they abandoned the cross--first vampire-exorcism mumbo-jumbo. It would have been more fun to have them going around after vampire sin different locations. In fact, it is so close to BLADE with the plot--even a cast member from Blade is also in Vampires.


THREE SERGEANTS OF FORT BENGAL 1964 - Reportedly Richard Harrison's favorite movie--he and a couple of disgraced soldiers are sent on a mission to defend a fort. It turns into a poor man's ZULU in the last act. But it has some humor and at 1:30 doesn't wear out its welcome even in a rewatch like this was.
 
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Eragon --- 2006 (Amazon Prime called it: The European extended version -- whatever that means) .... this was the most enjoyable Fantasy movie I've ever experienced. I loved the dragon most of all. Eragon was a typically flawed and believable human. It has a lot of the "quest" story attributes, but on the whole I wouldn't call it a quest movie. It's much more like growing into your predestined role. This movie makes me view more positively coming "Fantasy" movies.

I remember when this movie came out. I found the trailers to be slightly enticing, but the first shock in watching the movie was that Eragon was NOT the name of the dragon.
 
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Ghostbusters: Afterlife. (No Spoilers)

Bit of a mixed bag. It's a very odd movie, parts of it work very well, particularly the earlier parts.

The good: likeable, smart characters. Fun dialogue, great cinematography. The overall concept was solid. The CG at the end, particularly one bit, was excellent and I'm not quite sure if it was CG or cleverly edited footage. Some of the character work was very endearing.

Bill Murray was a delight and he actually seemed to be enjoying it.

They captured the look of the original. The horror atmosphere, too.

The setting of a rust belt town is such a great, thematic rejoinder to the Reagan-era parable about working joes* building a business in the big city. We're seeing the afterlife of the 80's away from the big apple in the mid-west, directly compared with the fall out of the events of the first movie. I absolutely loved this angle as it seemed to be in a direct conversation with the original 2 movies and had something of-the-moment to say. Sadly, this wasn't developed or worked into the overall shape of the movie as it was in the first, it seemed to be abandoned in favour of spectacle and fan service.

* they were academics, but they're kicked out of academia to go into business as exterminators. The biggest enemy in the movie, possibly more than Gozer is government...

The mixed: Throw backs to the original were good, but it felt too fan servicey - particularly (and its no spoiler as it's in the trailer) - the stay puft marshmallow men, which were more like something from Gremlins.

The editing and the soundtrack didn't work for me - even the bits from the original Bernstein score (which I love) seemed oddly out of place. The score sometimes seemed removed from the emotional intentions of the scene. They overused the cues from the original, and the new music they added was a little too generic.

The rhythm of the editing and the choices of cuts were really off - usually I wouldn't notice this, but it threw me out of the movie.

I think this may have been a narrative problem. The first half of the movie was well done, but slow. It felt more like this should have been a Stranger Things style show rather than a movie and I think the editing and soundtrack problems emerge from that. Compared to the plot of the original which was very tight, this feels flabby.

The Bad: The second half of the movie loses its way. It spends so long setting up characters and relationships then stuffs the rest of the movie in as quick as possible. And, worst of all, if you take all the good bits it does out, it's just a remake of parts of the original.

I wasn't keen on the deus ex-machina, you could see it coming a mile off.

Two bits were particularly crap and I couldn't believe they were in the movie. Like something from scary movie, and not in an amusing way.

For a film called Ghostbusters, there was not a lot of Ghostbusters in it. I'd have liked them to play a bigger role - even if they were still secondary characters.

Overall, okay-ish. Should have been a Netflix series and spent more time nailing the story and the editing. Little bit of manipulative towards the end. In parts better than the second movie, particularly the feel and ideas, but still think 2 is better overall.
 
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GOLDEN SHERIFF 1966 -- A spaghetti western with no stars--and very generic in plot but I have to admit that despite a really cheap opening credits sequence with not so memorable song--and thinking I was in for a total dud--it actually picked up and wasn't bad by the end. The story involves a crooked lawman who recruits a criminal to steal a gold shipment for him--and it gets stolen from them by a tavern's barmaid and then stolen from her by Mexican bandits.
We get a glimpse of the sheriff's personality when at the start--he has to clean up a town run by outlaws--and he rides in sprawled on the back of a horse--he plays dead so he can get the drop on them.
It's not one I would likely rewatch but good enough as a time waster.
 
Ahhh; much better! Perhaps the shorter paragraphs made the difference!


POLTERGEIST (1982) A family living in a new housing development encounter supernatural phenomena after a construction crew begins digging to make an in-ground pool in their back yard. Truly frightening, and beyond that, as these phenomena go from merely interesting to frightening to dangerous.

Somebody had obviously been watching THE TWILIGHT ZONE! I counted no fewer than three, count 'em, 3 TTZ stories whose main elements were there.
  1. LITTLE GIRL LOST . Just like this TTZ story, the boy suggests tying a rope around him & he will go in and return with his sister.
  2. What's in the Box. with William Demearest & Joan Blondell, in which there is nothing on the screen but noise, but WD sees & hears something very different.
  3. Death Ship & several others have people who failed to realize they were already dead.

More than a few cartoons I have seen had people reaching out of video screens, etc. Even reaching out of telephone receivers to bash Dick Dastardly over the head.
 
There was a court case over Poltergeist. A screenwriter (son of Eleanor Parker) said he sent a screenplay to Spielberg's office and elements of it turned up in the film. The court case was going to have Ray Bradbury as an expert witness on ghost stories for the plaintiff and Richard Matheson on the defense but they settled out of court. Spielberg never put his name on a screenplay again. His producers were blamed for the borrowing of the concepts (the clown and the tree attack).

There was a tv movie made around that time which was pulled from showing because it had a child being sucked into a tv--I dont know if they filmed it and shelved it or it was cancelled because they didn't want to take an idea that was going to be used in the feature film.
 
Superman II - The Richard Donner cut

Many years since I've seen this film, so I'm not sure what's been added/removed from the original. Most of the movie I remember, so it can't have changed too much. Surprisingly still enjoyable all these years later, and helps to remind me why Christopher Reeve is - and probably always will be - the definitive Man of Steel.
 
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