What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[Zombie_61]

Sully (2016), Clint Eastwood's biopic about the National Transportation Safety Board investigation into the water landing of US Airways flight 1549 in the Hudson River on January 15, 2009, by Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullivan (Tom Hanks) and his copilot Jeff Skiles (Aaron Eckhart) after both engines were rendered inoperable by "bird strike". The members of the NTSB are portrayed as being somewhat inexperienced and/or incompetent at times as if their duty was to prove Captain Sullivan was at fault rather than simply determine how the events unfolded, but otherwise it's not a bad movie, if a bit by-the-numbers.

Live by Night (2016). Ben Affleck wrote, produced, directed, and starred in this movie, and as such it comes across as what it is--an expensive pet project. The story--low-level gangsters trying to work their way up the food chain by distributing illegal substances (alcohol, in this case)--has been told before. It's set in the mid- to late-1920s, but with a few changes could just as easily have been set in almost any part of the 20th century. It's not the worst movie I've ever seen, but there's nothing special about it.

 

[Seb Lucas]

OK, so I saw my first mockumentary today, A Mighty Wind. I had never heard the term till my 30-something daughter enlightened me. I'm not sure I'm totally on board with the genre, or maybe this particular movie was a difficult introduction. It sounds like there may be some that i'll better appreciate. They're not satire and they're not a spoof, and they're not necessarily comedy. They seem just real enough to hook you, but then you realize that somethings not quite right. I'm trying to associate with something I'm familiar with... MASH? Catch22? Any suggestions?

A Mighty Wind is a pretty vicious and funny satire or take down of folk culture. Pretty nasty if you're a folky. I laughed a bit during this and I generally don't enjoy comedy films. I preferred Best in Show their take down of dog shows.

 

[Fading Fast]

"Star Trek Beyond" 2016

• A big, silly mess of a plot, way too much unbelievable stuff going on in the action scenes, way too many near-death experiences and nothing you really care about

• It takes a little effort to follow the plot and even that was asking too much for what you got in return

• This is why I stopped watching action-adventure movies, they are all basically the same and all boring

• The few redeeming features are the crew's personal interaction, but even these seemed manipulative (i.e., planed to trigger your emotions)

• Despite it all, Chris Pine, IMHO, is an excellent Kirk 2.0 (not his fault the material is so weak)

• Like the Bond Franchise ("Casino Royale" the notable exception), these old franchises are just money making simulacrums of what they originally were - maybe that's not anyone's fault as it is really, really hard to stay fresh, creative and original for decades within the same construct (and when everyone has already copied your original good ideas)

 

[Fading Fast]

"Chesterfield" 2016

• WWII story of a group of young French women who marry American soldiers in France and then are "prepared" by the US military for life as "American wives" back in the States

• Nice to see a fresh niche story as I didn't know the US military did this

• The movie picked up as the wives go to America and - as expected - the marriages and adjustment to America run the gamut from really good to really bad

• The movie focuses on one woman whose husband dies right at the end of the war and, thus, doesn't get to go officially, but is drawn to America (helped along by her painfully neglectful parents and hostile French community), so she pays her own fare and goes over anyway to stay with an "American bride" she met during the prep program

• Nothing exceptional here (and the streaming version from Amazon I saw had a crazy blur when the camera moved rapidly that was unenjoyable), but the novelty of the story and the wonderful period details - sets, clothes, cars, architecture are all Fedora Lounge fun

• I think Worf and AmateisGal would enjoy it - Lizzie, I could see the one doing okay at your theater

 

[Benzadmiral]

. . .

Live by Night (2016). Ben Affleck wrote, produced, directed, and starred in this movie, and as such it comes across as what it is--an expensive pet project. The story--low-level gangsters trying to work their way up the food chain by distributing illegal substances (alcohol, in this case)--has been told before. It's set in the mid- to late-1920s, but with a few changes could just as easily have been set in almost any part of the 20th century. It's not the worst movie I've ever seen, but there's nothing special about it.

Affleck's been developing into a good director: see Gone, Baby, Gone and The Town. Ben did co-write the screenplay for those, but they were both based on someone else's novel. GBG was particularly good (possibly because he doesn't appear in it) -- somehow Affleck managed to display the story just as I pictured it in my head while reading the novel! Perhaps, with Live by Night, he spread himself too thin by handling so many chores at once.

 

[MisterCairo]

Hocus Pocus, as part of hour Hallowe'en parade. We really enjoy this one, with a really young Thora Birch and Sarah Jessica Parker (not quite as young...). Bette Midler really hams it up!

 

[Bushman]

I caught a late night showing of "Nosferatu" on TCM last night. It was my first time seeing the movie, and I've always wanted to. The tone of classic Gothic horror was very spooky and the dreaded Count Orlick has to be one of the more ghoulish vampires to ever grace the silver screen.

 

[Benzadmiral]

The 1941 classic The Wolf Man, with Lon Chaney Jr. as the ancestor to Richard Kimble the Fugitive, Larry Talbot. Larry's not on the run here, but you can imagine him later, drifting from place to place and trying to keep his identity a secret while he seeks a cure for his werewolfery. Despite being a little short -- it runs only about 1 hr. 15 minutes, and might benefit from a small subplot -- the film is very well done, with Claude Rains as Larry's father Sir John, Bela Lugosi as the gypsy werewolf who's responsible for Larry's turning, and Maria Ouspenskaya as the Old Gypsy Woman. ("The way you walk is thorny, through no fault of your own. . . .")

Harlan Ellison, the famous (or infamous?) prose and TV writer, published a novelette in the '70s called "Adrift Just Off the Isles of Langerhans." Its main character, though he's never named, is clearly Lawrence Talbot; among other clues, he has the mantra of the Old Gypsy Woman pasted on his bathroom mirror. So the film has hardly been forgotten.

 

[BlueTrain]

I think it's interesting how he (Chaney) plays the same character in other movies, not the least being the Abbot & Costello movie. But the original Wolfman movie seems older by five or ten years. At least a few old movies that I can think (but can't name)--talkies all, seem much, much older than when they were made, by 40 or 50 years. At least to me they do.

 

[Zombie_61]

I caught a late night showing of "Nosferatu" on TCM last night. It was my first time seeing the movie, and I've always wanted to. The tone of classic Gothic horror was very spooky and the dreaded Count Orlick has to be one of the more ghoulish vampires to ever grace the silver screen.

Nosferatu is one of my favorite "vampire" movies to this day; it's a far better movie in my opinion than Universal's awkward, stiff, and slow-moving Dracula (1931).

The 1941 classic The Wolf Man, with Lon Chaney Jr. as the ancestor to Richard Kimble the Fugitive, Larry Talbot. Larry's not on the run here, but you can imagine him later, drifting from place to place and trying to keep his identity a secret while he seeks a cure for his werewolfery. Despite being a little short -- it runs only about 1 hr. 15 minutes, and might benefit from a small subplot -- the film is very well done, with Claude Rains as Larry's father Sir John, Bela Lugosi as the gypsy werewolf who's responsible for Larry's turning, and Maria Ouspenskaya as the Old Gypsy Woman. ("The way you walk is thorny, through no fault of your own. . . .")...

One of the things I appreciate about The Wolf Man is that there aren't any subplots. Every scene in the movie moves the plot along to some degree, so there's no wasted footage. I think more modern movies would be better received by audiences if filmmakers would learn to do the same thing.

I think it's interesting how he (Chaney) plays the same character in other movies, not the least being the Abbot & Costello movie. But the original Wolfman movie seems older by five or ten years. At least a few old movies that I can think (but can't name)--talkies all, seem much, much older than when they were made, by 40 or 50 years. At least to me they do.

Say what you will about Lon Chaney Jr.'s acting abilities, but his portrayal of Lawrence Talbot in the various movies is consistent even when the stories aren't. And a bit of trivia--Lon Chaney Jr. was the only actor to portray Lawrence Talbot on the silver screen until Universal released The Wolfman in 2010 with Benicio Del Toro in the role. 69 years isn't a bad run.

With regards to the movie seeming "older by five or ten years", I've read it was supposed to be a "throwback" to Universal's previous successes Dracula and Frankenstein, both of which had been released ten years earlier. I've also read Universal had originally planned for The Wolf Man to be a vehicle for Boris Karloff, but I haven't yet learned why that didn't happen.

 

[BlueTrain]

The way Chaney played Wolfman in different movies the same way was my point. In fact, he was supposedly rather proud that the character was "his," although he was certainly in other movies. In most of the Abbott & Costello movies, Costello was usually the only comic character anyway, everyone else playing serious parts, sort of.

As far as the movie seeming older, that comment is based on only my memory, not having seen Wolfman for decades. I've never seem Nosferatu. There was a more recent version of Dracula, if memory serves, filmed overseas, that had loads of creepiness, I thought. Don't remember the name, though. I seem to remember a scene with a lot of rats running loose on a city square.

 

[Fading Fast]

"Craig's Wife" 1936 starring Rosalind Russell and John Boles

• Russell channels her inner Joan Crawford (quite effectively, she scared me) to deliver a chilling performance as a cold, materialistic, manipulative and incapable-of-love woman who marries, not for love, but for money, specifically, money to buy and maintain a beautiful home

• John Boles shines as the very decent, but unaware-of-his-wife's-true-nature-until-very-late husband, but once he gets wise, his response is the highlight of the movie - he take his wife apart verbally in a very controlled but powerful deboning of Russell

• 1930s six-degrees-of-separation champion Billie Burke does a nice job as the neighbor who highlights the oddness of Russell, but I'll never hear her voice without thinking of Glinda the good witch from "The Wizard of Oz"

• A solid movie of the week, worth seeing when it pops up again

 

[belfastboy]

OK, so I saw my first mockumentary today, A Mighty Wind. I had never heard the term till my 30-something daughter enlightened me. I'm not sure I'm totally on board with the genre, or maybe this particular movie was a difficult introduction. It sounds like there may be some that i'll better appreciate. They're not satire and they're not a spoof, and they're not necessarily comedy. They seem just real enough to hook you, but then you realize that somethings not quite right. I'm trying to associate with something I'm familiar with... MASH? Catch22? Any suggestions?

It truly is a genre unto itself.......Chris Guess is the master and if you watch his entire works you will see the genius. Minimal script, much improve of dialogue and many of the same performers in each of the movies. I happen to love his work.

 

[belfastboy]

Watched "The Chase" with Brando, Reford, EGMarshall, Robert Duvall in a non Duvall role and J Fonda et al. As a non classic movie fan I am finding more and more that I enjoy, this being one of them. But then I am a sucker for Brando.

 

[scottyrocks]

The way Chaney played Wolfman in different movies the same way was my point. In fact, he was supposedly rather proud that the character was "his," although he was certainly in other movies. In most of the Abbott & Costello movies, Costello was usually the only comic character anyway, everyone else playing serious parts, sort of.

As far as the movie seeming older, that comment is based on only my memory, not having seen Wolfman for decades. I've never seem Nosferatu. There was a more recent version of Dracula, if memory serves, filmed overseas, that had loads of creepiness, I thought. Don't remember the name, though. I seem to remember a scene with a lot of rats running loose on a city square.

Could this be Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)? Great movie.

 

[Bugguy]

It truly is a genre unto itself.......Chris Guess is the master and if you watch his entire works you will see the genius. Minimal script, much improve of dialogue and many of the same performers in each of the movies. I happen to love his work.

I plan to watch more of his works. As you suggest, I've heard they get better.

 

[belfastboy]

I plan to watch more of his works. As you suggest, I've heard they get better.

I am a fan so have a strong bias and found them all brilliant. "Waiting for Guffman" and "Best in Show" are hilarious.

 

[scottyrocks]

Yesterday afternoon was a Keaton mini film fest on TCM. I really enjoyed The Cameraman (1928).

 

[LizzieMaine]

"Porky's Double Trouble," a wonderful black-and-white Looney Tune from 1937 directed by the brilliant and gifted Frank Tashlin. This is a perfect little gem of a cartoon, which also manages to succinctly capture every ridiculous cliche of 1930s crime melodrama moviemaking -- the fast cuts, the montage effects, the seedy plot, the hardboiled characters. Even the narrator is bona fide -- he's none other than Charles Frederick Lindsley, who narrates, without a trace of snark, in exactly the same cast-iron style he used on the "Calling All Cars" radio program. Should have won an Oscar that year as best short, but then as now the Academy has absolutely no sense of humor.

 

[belfastboy]

Watched "American Honey" on Netflix. It has been on my watch list for a long time now but resisted the near 3 hour running time. I loved it. Andrea Arnold the Brit director/writer uses largely non professional actors in a cinema verite style that really works. The female lead was picked off a beach in Florida and is her first time acting....she is a marvel.
I am now going to seek out more of Arnold's work.