What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[1mach1]

TCM my friend... the ONLY channel I'd pay good money for....

Worf

Well said! :eusa_clap

 

[Worf]

"Heros For Sale" - A pre-code film from Vitaphone about a WWI vet who for his heroics on the battlefield winds up wounded, semi-crippled and with a morphine monkey on his back. Even if I didn't read the year of the film I'd a figured it was pre-code. Junkies, prostitutes, clip joints, gangsters... you name it... this flick had it.

Worf

 

[Worf]

After my cable bill jumped by $15 last month, I call Time Warner and had a very polite, but very, very firm "we are going to cut the cord unless you get our bill down without taking away things we want" conversation. When he said, what do you absolutely need (this was the second person I spoke with who, it was clear, was tasked with cutting deals to save accounts), I told him (1) high sped internet as I work from home, (2) HBO (my girlfriend watches "Game of Thrones" and "True Blood" and we either keep HBO or the cable TV goes or my life become unpleasant) and (3) TCM.

He spent, no exaggeration, ten minutes bringing up things on his computer (I could hear the keys being hit) and asking me specific questions about channels and services. He made several offers to give me more stuff at the "new" price, I told him two things had to happen on this call, the price has to come down and I can't loose the "absolutes." After more typing and questioning, he basically cut my bill to five dollars less than my old price, took away some channels I didn't even know existed (I think he did this to save face, as if to say, we didn't really just cut your bill) and left me with high speed internet, HBO, TCM and most everything else.

Like you, TCM is the only one I'd pay for and HBO for the girlfriend.

Well played sir.... Well played indeed!!!! I'd be MUCH happier in a world with "a la carte" pricing for cable but it'll NEVER happen long as we keep paying through the nose. I'm waiting for FIOS in my neighborhood so I can call Time Warner and tell em to "go swing" for once in my life.

Worf

 

[31 Model A]

Cinderella Man .........

 

[1mach1]

Dr. No

 

[DesertDan]

"Making Indiana Jones" This is the documentary covering the making of all 3 movies in the box set (IJ4 came out much later).

 

[Touchofevil]

Dr. No

Yes!

That is a good one.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Dr. No has become my favorite James Bond film over the years... because it's a taut, low-budget, more realistically-based story. I like all the Connery films, but Dr. No appeals precisely because it's smaller scale, less absurd, and doesn't have the same redundant, formulaic plotting of most later Bond films.

 

[Gregg Axley]

Racing Scene with James Garner.
Excellent documentary from 1969 of James Garner's racing hobby.
It also includes some great in car footage. :eusa_clap

 

[Fading Fast]

Dr. No has become my favorite James Bond film over the years... because it's a taut, low-budget, more realistically-based story. I like all the Connery films, but Dr. No appeals precisely because it's smaller scale, less absurd, and doesn't have the same redundant, formulaic plotting of most later Bond films.

I would say the same for "From Russia With Love," and less so, but still somewhat with "Goldfinger." After that, they all became action-adventure, formulaic event films. Some of them are still great fun, but for me, the first three are the best and the only ones that feel a bit real and not formulaic.

 

[Doctor Strange]

I totally agree. From Russia With Love was long my favorite, and is still number two. I like many of the other Bond films (even a couple of the silly Roger Moores), but most are so similar as to be essentially interchangeable.

I did like Casino Royale and Skyfall (though Quantum of Silence left zero impression), which dropped most of the formula... but Daniel Craig - while unquestionably a fine actor - will just never be Bond for me!

 

[Fading Fast]

I totally agree. From Russia With Love was long my favorite, and is still number two. I like many of the other Bond films (even a couple of the silly Roger Moores), but most are so similar as to be essentially interchangeable.

I did like Casino Royale and Skyfall (though Quantum of Silence left zero impression), which dropped most of the formula... but Daniel Craig - while unquestionably a fine actor - will just never be Bond for me!

We obviously have similar taste, as I thought the new "Casino Royala" was very well done and harkened back to the original movies / novels and, to a lesser extent, I can say the same for "Skyfall," but "Quantum of Silence" seemed like a mess to me.

And early Sean Connery will always be the only Bond - the right amount of not-too-good looking, snark, menace, intelligence, physical presence and insouciance. They got it right with him in those first two (maybe three) Bond films. I can enjoy the other actors and movies to a lesser extent at times, but none of them are Bond.

 

[Zombie_61]

...I did like Casino Royale and Skyfall (though Quantum of Silence left zero impression), which dropped most of the formula... but Daniel Craig - while unquestionably a fine actor - will just never be Bond for me!

I have the same opinion of the three Bond movies starring Craig, but in my opinion he's the only actor to play the character who even came close to Connery (who set the standard).

George Lazenby wasn't horrible, but his "charisma" felt forced. I never thought Roger Moore had the demeanor or the physicality to believably portray the "tough guy" aspects of Bond, but to be fair I do think he got saddled with some of the worst scripts in movie history. I thought Timothy Dalton was quite good, but didn't think he had the charisma to pull off the "dashing playboy" aspects of bond. And I thought Pierce Brosnan was better than Moore in the role but, again, I never bought him as a "tough guy".

Which brings us to Daniel Craig. He's clearly able to handle the physical aspects of the role. He might not be good looking in the classic consensus, but his personality makes up for that. So, all things considered, he's more believable in the role than any of the actors after Connery. Of course, that's just my opinion; I could be wrong.

 

[Renault]

Fort Apache (1948)

God bless John Ford!

 

[Worf]

Fort Apache (1948)

God bless John Ford!

Yes indeed.

"Well if you saw em... they weren't Apaches!"

"They out number us 4 to 1... do we talk or fight?"
"You seem easily impressed by numbers Captain." (Oh bruther!)

Worf

 

[Renault]

"Boys, we have a man's work ahead of us this day!"

 

[Fading Fast]

1932's "Age of Consent" (TCM has been running a bunch of pre-code movies on Friday night that are now starting to back up on my DRV): SPOILER ALERT (please don't read on if you don't want to learn the plot), which is

College boy and girl meet, fall in love / lust, think they have to wait to get married before having sex so they contemplate waiting or quitting school and getting married immediately. After another frustrating evening of not having sex, boy says good night to girl, goes back to local soda shop and walks a cute young waitress home where she actively seduces him with alcohol - they have sex, her father finds out, she is under age (not something obvious) and the boy is offered the choice of marrying the waitress or going to jail. I'll leave the rest for those who want to watch it.

What caught my attention is that this was a pre-code that openly discussed pre-marital sex (no shock there), but showed that values were still very different then. We (maybe just me) tend to think that pre-code movies show how much we really haven't changed because they have so much sex, family problems, women working and running things in them that they feel very modern versus the movies made after the code started to be enforced.

But this movie highlighted for me how even the pre-code world was very different from what we have today. Pre-maritial sex is all but a given and no one is going to give up going to college to have sex today (although, you might go to college to have it). Fathers aren't going to force boys to marry their daughters because they had sex with them. The pre-code world acknowledges the realities of the human condition - not living up to our ideals, sex, alcohol, physical violence, women succeeding in business, etc. - which feels very modern, but the over-riding moral ideal of society - sex in marriage only / people taking responsibility for their action (like when the boy agrees to marry the waitress) - feels very dated.

 

[Smithy]

The Iron Giant - my daughter loves it, and I'm rather partial to it too.

 

[DharmaBum]

"The Wind That Shakes The Barley". Watched it a second time last evening. I'm a really big fan of the dialogue presented in this movie. It seems genuine and unrehearsed in my opinion.

 

[Doctor Strange]

The Monuments Men... Interesting story, gorgeous production, excellent cast. But it was shockingly old-fashioned: it played exactly like an all-star WWII film from the sixties. This isn't the first time that Clooney as director has used old-school methods (e.g., Good Night and Good Luck in fifties-TV b/w, constructing The Ides of March like a paranoid political thriller of the seventies), but I found it strangely retro and clichéd. (E.g., the only members of the team who are killed are the two non-Americans!)

Still, definitely worth a look if you're interested in WWII.