What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[Doctor Damage]

Hi, it is absolutely amazing what was being done in film (talkies) between 1930 and 1934 (after which, the code started to be enforced / followed): Woman had careers, people had sex out of wedlock - and abortions, adoptions - relationships were complex and far-from always male dominated, criminals were not all bad and did not always end up in jail, cops and doctors were not always right and homosexuality was alluded to pretty clearly. All in all, the films showed life as it is - unconventional, with warts, bumps, diversity, struggles, atypical successes and failures - again, life. Once 1934 passed, so did most of this with only indirect references to these themes occasionally popping up.

The two things I take out of it is that life / humans and their struggles are eternal and that the movies would have been much more reflective of that and real society post-1934 except for the code.

I think it's getting worse all the time, at least in mass media and entertainment. Sure, some of the stuff you mentioned is seen or shown today, but it's usually contained within contrived storylines or carefully contrived situations, making it easy for less many people to imagine that the human experience is compartmentalized and not free-flowing and flexible, and ever-changing. It's also become "art" stuff that everyone knows going in, for example with Brokeback Mountain everyone knew "this movie is about homosexuality."

 

[Fading Fast]

I think it's getting worse all the time, at least in mass media and entertainment. Sure, some of the stuff you mentioned is seen or shown today, but it's usually contained within contrived storylines or carefully contrived situations, making it easy for less many people to imagine that the human experience is compartmentalized and not free-flowing and flexible, and ever-changing. It's also become "art" stuff that everyone knows going in, for example with Brokeback Mountain everyone knew "this movie is about homosexuality."

I agree, in particular, that most movies have become contrived - even the ones that aspire to be more thoughtfully reflective of the human experience. You are spot on that most seem to telegraph their "message" or "artistic value" in a pre-packaged or iterative way.

I have found that TV is doing a better job of capturing the human experience. Once one accepts that TV is going to exaggerate and - to be fair and like all good art - highlight the parts of life that capture its essential qualities (thus, more crucial moments, moral dilemmas, life-changing events will be packed into an hour, than happens in real life sometimes in years), then I find real art in TV shows like "Mad Men," "Hell on Wheels," "Boardwalk Empire," "Downton Abbey," "Homeland" and "Orange is the New Black."

Are these shows perfect - no, but at their best, they reflect the human drama writ small in interpersonal relationships and writ large in moral dilemmas and conflicting values that we all experience in our own lives. I see more pre-code antecedents in "Hell on Wheels," "Downton Abbey" (mainly, season one) and "Orange is the New Black," than in almost any modern movie.

 

[Worf]

I finished "Sharknado".... First time in my life I've felt that a funds used to make a movie would've been better used for humanitarian relief somewhere. I felt dirty just watching it knowing full well that the sequels are already in the pipeline.

Worf

 

[Fading Fast]

I finished "Sharknado".... First time in my life I've felt that a funds used to make a movie would've been better used for humanitarian relief somewhere. I felt dirty just watching it knowing full well that the sequels are already in the pipeline.

Worf

Had they even just burned the money in a big bonfire it would have been a better use of it. It was so stunningly bad, that my girlfriend and I sat through it all and, to this day, are not sure why. There was an element of not being able to take your eyes off the disaster that was both the movie and Tara Reid.

 

[Wally_Hood]

Last week Youngest Teen Hood and I saw How to Train Your Dragon 2. Amazing CGI, especially in subtle expressions in some of the character's faces.
Today, finished Moonlight Murder (1936) with Chester Morris and Madge Evans. Whodunit set partly in the Hollywood Bowl, with dashes of opera. Very interesting shots of the Bowl crowd applauding a performance, obviously an actuality cut in with the studio shots. From the era when police officers wore Sam Browne belts.

 

[Zombie_61]

I finished "Sharknado"...I felt dirty just watching it knowing full well that the sequels are already in the pipeline...

You got it in just under the wire. Sharknado 2 premieres July 30th. :eusa_doh:

 

[jamespowers]

I finished "Sharknado".... First time in my life I've felt that a funds used to make a movie would've been better used for humanitarian relief somewhere. I felt dirty just watching it knowing full well that the sequels are already in the pipeline.

Worf

Yes but I felt the same way about Deep Space 9.

 

[jamespowers]

You got it in just under the wire. Sharknado 2 premieres July 30th. :eusa_doh:

7 more days! Yeah! :clap:

 

[Zombie_61]

7 more days! Yeah! :clap:

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to channel surfing...

 

[jamespowers]

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to channel surfing...

Stay away from surfing in the Sharknado.

 

[Wally_Hood]

From 1933 the WWI submarine action story, Hell Below, with Robert Montgomery, Walter Huston, Madge Evans, and in a semi-prominent part, Jimmy Durante. The sequences in the disabled sub were particularly effective.

 

[Gregg Axley]

Stay away from surfing in the Sharknado.

Or from the docks during a bright sunny day.
Bad CGI can attack without warning, even when people in the background don't notice it happening.

Worf, when the Rifftrax version comes out on video I'll let you know.
They only had 2 showings for it in the theaters, the 15th was the second one.
Next month they are doing Godzilla (1998) version in the theaters, again for 2 nights only.

 

[Stearmen]

Yes but I felt the same way about Deep Space 9.

[video=youtube;sRSMshdQ0Pk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRSMshdQ0Pk[/video]

 

[Zombie_61]

...Next month they are doing Godzilla (1998)...

I'm not sure even Rifftrax can save that turkey.

 

[Worf]

Yes but I felt the same way about Deep Space 9.

Away Philistine!!!!

You've been convicted of heresy and blasphemy (in absentia)... don't push yer luck friend!!!

Worf

 

[EmergencyIan]

Bullitt (1968)


Pretty darn good! (I've seen it once before)

- Ian

 

[cw3pa]

Had a little Film Noir action here the last couple of days. "Pitfall" (1948) with Dick Powell, Lizabeth Scott, Jane Wyatt and Raymond Burr as the heavy.
Yesterday; "He Walked by Night" (1948) with Richard Basehart and a very thin Jack Webb. The Los Angeles storm drain system played a major roll. (kept waiting for giant ants to appear).
"Sweet Smell of Success" (1957) with Bert Lancaster and a very unctuous Tony Curtis. Finally, "Dead Reckoning" (1947) with Humphery Bogart and Lizabeth Scott.

 

[jamespowers]

Away Philistine!!!!

You've been convicted of heresy and blasphemy (in absentia)... don't push yer luck friend!!!

Worf

:rofl:
Is that like:
http://youtu.be/qfResyFrqlM

 

[Fading Fast]

Bullitt (1968)


Pretty darn good! (I've seen it once before)

- Ian

Stylistically - clothes, cars, lighting, background architecture and mood - an impressive and of-the-time defining movie (even more than "The Great Escape" this is the movie I think of when I think of Steve McQueen), in addition, to being, as you said, a pretty darn good one. And did I mention, I want his Mustang.

 

[Fading Fast]

Had a little Film Noir action here the last couple of days. "Pitfall" (1948) with Dick Powell, Lizabeth Scott, Jane Wyatt and Raymond Burr as the heavy.
Yesterday; "He Walked by Night" (1948) with Richard Basehart and a very thin Jack Webb. The Los Angeles storm drain system played a major roll. (kept waiting for giant ants to appear).
"Sweet Smell of Success" (1957) with Bert Lancaster and a very unctuous Tony Curtis. Finally, "Dead Reckoning" (1947) with Humphery Bogart and Lizabeth Scott.

The "Sweet Smell of Success" might be an under-appreciated classic as I doubt one in fifty non-film buffs know about it, but for my money, a top 25 overall and a top five in its category (whatever that exactly would be). And Lizabeth Scott is at her best in "Dead Reckoning" in what was, unfortunately, an uneven career overall.