What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[Touchofevil]

Thunderheart
Entertaining movie.
It has been some time since I last saw it, but definitely
worthy of another viewing. Makes me want to read some
Hillerman.

 

[BobHufford]

Thunderheart
Entertaining movie.
It has been some time since I last saw it, but definitely
worthy of another viewing. Makes me want to read some
Hillerman.

This is my wife's favorite film. See it hundreds of times (or so it seems).

 

[Doctor Strange]

Spider-Man: Homecoming. Better than I expected, really entertaining and clever.

 

[Fading Fast]

"Their Finest" 2016

The story of a female secretary who becomes a screenwriter for the Ministry of Propaganda in WWII England on its morale-boosting movie about Dunkirk. It's all handled in a light, almost tongue-in-cheek manner, with, at times, the pacing and vibe of a '40s Broadway musical without the songs.

What works in order of importance in this enjoyable little movie is

• The period recreation is incredible - a romanticized view of WWII London where every detail is beautiful time-travel / Fedora Lounge eye candy
  • The clothes, furniture, architecture, cars, radios and scenery are all '40s gorgeous and rich in texture - so much so that the movie would be enjoyable with the sound off

• The acting of Bill Nighy (playing a pompous actor that could have become camp but was brilliantly nuanced in the hands of this pro), Gemma Arterton, Sam Claflin and Helen McCrory (killing it as the agent that corrals Nighy's character)

• The story: nothing particularly new here - small-minded bureaucrats, too-high-minded writers and all but cliched love triangles - but it holds together enough that it, combined with the above two bullets, makes for an enjoyable escapist movie

 

[Doctor Strange]

Theatrically: Spider-Man: Homecoming. Better than expected, lots of fun. A solid addition to the MCU.

Cable: Hacksaw Ridge. Also better than expected, with a fine performance by ex-Spider-Man Andrew Garfield. Good direction by Mel Gibson, who only slightly indulges his usual agony/pain/suffering/destruction fixation beyond what's needed.

 

[Bushman]

Theatrically: War for the Planet of the Apes. Definitely a great ending to a fantastic trilogy. I liked it a lot. The war scene at the beginning, in particular, was spine tingling. As the critics have said, you unbelievably root against your own species as the Apes are caught in the web of a religious fanatic Army colonel played by Woody Harrelson. Wars serves as the climactic chapter warning of revenge in a trilogy that strongly used themes of man's hubris in the face of science and nature. Thematically, I believe even Michael Crichton would have been proud to have called this trilogy one of the strongest science fiction trilogies in cinema.

Movie rental: Hidden Figures. Wow, this was a fantastic period piece, but the history buff in me is probably a bit biased. I loved the original photographs in the credits, and the way the film itself was riddled with original footage from the period. The characters are endearing, and you truly feel for their plight as they struggle as African American women in the 1960s south.

 

[Touchofevil]

This is my wife's favorite film. See it hundreds of times (or so it seems).

It is worth a viewing or few, but I am sure that six or seven times would be more than enough for me.

 

[Fading Fast]

"The Legend of Tarzan" 2016

• I discovered the '30s Tarzan movies as a kid in the early '70s watching them on Sunday afternoon TV - they were fun, escapist movies set in an exotic local with incredible animals and a quasi superhero at the center of some story about right and wrong (Ivory traders, saving Jane, etc.) where you quickly knew whom to root for (Tarzan - always on the side of good) and you just went along for the ride

• This new movie is a 2016 version of that formula (with an annoying twitch to show piety to every modern Hollywood liberal proclivity) - exotic, fun, good vs. evil, quasi-superhero, amazing animals, etc. - taken that way, it was enjoyable escapism (perfect for a Sunday) and nothing more

"Shadow of the Thin Man" 1941

• It's style over substance, but so much style and fun banter - Powell and Loy coruscate off each other at least as much as Hepburn and Tracey - that it works in a comfortable way

 

[Benzadmiral]

Theatrically: War for the Planet of the Apes. Definitely a great ending to a fantastic trilogy. I liked it a lot. The war scene at the beginning, in particular, was spine tingling. As the critics have said, you unbelievably root against your own species as the Apes are caught in the web of a religious fanatic Army colonel played by Woody Harrelson. Wars serves as the climactic chapter warning of revenge in a trilogy that strongly used themes of man's hubris in the face of science and nature. Thematically, I believe even Michael Crichton would have been proud to have called this trilogy one of the strongest science fiction trilogies in cinema. . . .

Went to see it in the theater yesterday. Much as I love the original Rod Serling adaptation of Pierre Boulle's novel ("Get your hands off me, you damned dirty ape!"), these three are much more developed and create their world better. Woody Harrelson as the Colonel -- well, I'll never think of him only as Woody the sweet, none-too-bright bartender on Cheers any more. And Caesar . . .



SPOILER


SPACE
















. . . comes off at the end as rather a Moses-like figure. (I do wonder how the remaining apes, who seem to be about the intelligence level of Homo erectus, are going to get along without him.)

 

[Touchofevil]

Sunshine Cleaning
Very good acting.
Sweet story
Definitely worth watching.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Excellent film, though I found Emily Blunt and Amy Adams (as much as I love both of them) just a little hard to accept as sisters. But that's my own problem, not the film's.

Miss Sloane... A heavy Washington lobbyist drama with Jessica Chastain and a great supporting cast (Mark Strong, Michael Stuhlbarg, Alison Pill, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, John Lithgow, Sam Waterston). Very twisty and confusing, it doesn't entirely make sense, but Chastain's fierce performance holds it together.

 

[Fading Fast]

"Nobody Lives Forever" 1946 staring John Garfield, Geraldine Fitzgerald and Walter Brennan

• A solid, early post-war film noir

• Feels like an antecedent to "Reservoir Dogs" and "Pulp Fiction" as the criminals view crime as a life-long career and discuss it amongst themselves casually like other co-workers in any field do (bet Tarantino saw this one before he wrote those movies)

• I'm never sure if Garfield is a really good actor or simply such a presence and force of personality that it just works

• Great Fedora Lounge eye candy throughout with old diners and new Art Deco everywhere

• (Spoiler alert) If Garfield was allowed to live, get the girl and (in theory) have a good life, then Mitchum should have been given the same fate in "Out of the Past" based on whatever crazy scale the morality of the code weighed these things (always bugged me that, after all he went through, Mitchum was killed at the end - glad Garfield was given a better outcome in this one)

 

[Edward]

Spider-Man: Homecoming - wonderful; at once it makes bold changes (not least to the usual whitewashing of NYC in the Marvel universe!), and yet stays truer to the feel of the source material than any of the previous screen outings for Spidey. Plus a long overdue nod to the ultimate NYC band, the Ramones (especially after Sam Raimi's 2002 version made the colossal misstep of allowing the bloated Aerosmith to inflict on us their cover of the classic Spider-Man song, rather than going with the Ramones' already-recorded definitive version from c. 1995).

Despicable Me III - tremendous fun.

 

[HanauMan]

I watched an old favorite film again, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. It is a dreamy film with some good acting and the martial arts scenes are pure fantasy but fun. I have always admired the little hat that Jen (Zhang Ziyi) wears in the restaurant scene. The bamboo forest scene is also great visually. I also like the parts of the film set in the Gobi desert. As a teenager I read all about Roy Chapman Andrews' adventures there in the 1920s. Of course, the Chinese language version is the one to watch, not the dubbed version.

 

[green papaya]

Where The Sidewalk Ends (1950) Film Noir

A police detective's violent nature keeps him from being a good cop.

 

[Fading Fast]

"The Late George Apley" 1947

• Decent little movie about an early 20th Century Boston Brahmin forced to face changing social norms as his late-teenage children forge their own love lives that do not conform to family tradition and expectations

• Ronald Coleman overacts a bit as the patriarch but Edna Best offset him with a wonderfully understated performance as his ameliorating wife

• There's nothing fantastic in the movie - most plot twists are predictable and too easy - but there are worst way to spend an hour and forty minutes

"Heaven Help Us" 1985

• Set at a Catholic high school in '65, it tells the not-original story of too-much school discipline (and some priests who are sadistic) clashing with some rebellious or just "I've had enough" boys

• With stars Andrew McCarthy and Mary Stuart Masterson it has an '80s feel, but is better than the weaker "high school" movies that seem to be the metier of that time period
  • McCarty and Masterson basically acted their way through the '80s with one thing: a disaffected, soulful look appearing to be sparked by wisdom beyond their years and not a James Dean style mad-at-the-world angst

• The local diner (hangout) and the amusement park are pure Fedora Lounge eye candy

 

[Doctor Strange]

I watched most of the 1992 version of Howard's End, which I hadn't seen in twenty-ish years and don't really remember. I did this partly to prepare for the forthcoming miniseries adaptation with Hayley Atwell:

http://www.indiewire.com/2017/07/howards-end-photos-kenneth-lonergan-hayley-atwell-starz-1201861287/

My recollection of the Merchant Ivory film was that it was beautiful, smart, especially well-acted, and interesting. Well, I guess we've come a long way in period piece literary adaptations, because I found it dragged-out and slow moving, with good - not great - performances and somewhat clunky, telegraphed storytelling. I mean, it's still an excellent film, but it didn't play as well as I expected.

So now I'm especially curious how the new version will play for me; it's got an excellent writer doing the adaptation - Kenneth Lonergan (writer/director of You Can Count On Me and Manchester By The Sea) - and of course, I'm besotted with Atwell!

 

[MisterCairo]

Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang, with Robert Downey Jr. and Val Kilmer.

My sister had never seen it. My goodness what a great and fun film this is!

 

[HanauMan]

I have to say that I enjoyed the film Howard's End.

The book, by E.M. Forster, is dated but in my twenties I really identified so much with the character Leonard Bast. Like him, I lived in a small two roomed apartment and had an unfulfilling job. Like Bast, I tried to educate and better myself. I didn't like the Wilcoxes but was sympathetic to the Schlegels, especially to the sister Margaret and the brother Tibby. I loved their German Romanticism. Of course Bast dies in the end, brought down by cold German steel, wielded by Wilcox, and then crushed by the literature and culture that he had so desperately searched for. Granted, the film isn't as good as say Maurice or A Room With a View, but it is still a fine movie experience.

 

[Doctor Strange]

All I said was that I was surprised that I didn't enjoy it as much as I recalled from an earlier viewing. It's a fine film and a good adaptation of the novel. It just didn't grab me like many of the other Merchant Ivory films do. (I mean, I think Hopkins and Thompson give more interesting and moving performances in MI's next film, The Remains of the Day.)