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What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

rocketeer

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,605
Location
England
Jason and the Argonauts (1963)
One of the great fantasy adventure stories on film, and CGI just cannot compete with Ray Harryhausen's animation of the Skeleton Warriors.
Without this battle(Skeleton warriors) I doubt War Hammer or any similar fantasy games would exist
 

Doctor Strange

I'll Lock Up
Messages
5,246
Location
Hudson Valley, NY
Seeing that movie in a theater when I was 9 was one of the defining moments of my life! I was already an incipient fan of animation and Greek mythology, and it completely blew my mind...

The script is remarkably adult, Harryhausen's animation is at peak, Bernard Herrmann's score is (as usual) great, the use of real Greco-Roman ruins and a full-size Argo gives it a sense of reality amidst the special effects, and apart from wooden Jason (an American actor all of whose dialog is dubbed to match the mostly English cast) the acting is quite good. I especially like Nigel Green's portrayal of Hercules as a man of ordinary stature that can barely contain his heroic spirit. So much better than the usual bodybuilder-who-can't-act take. One of my all-time faves...

"The gods of Greece are cruel! In time, men will learn to do without them..."
 

Tomasso

Incurably Addicted
Messages
13,719
Location
USA
Gravity

image.jpg
 

Wally_Hood

One Too Many
Messages
1,772
Location
Screwy, bally hooey Hollywood
Jason and the Argonauts (1963)
One of the great fantasy adventure stories on film, and CGI just cannot compete with Ray Harryhausen's animation of the Skeleton Warriors.
Without this battle(Skeleton warriors) I doubt War Hammer or any similar fantasy games would exist

As Dr. Strange posted, seeing this in the theater as a kid sort of set the bar in my thinking for special effects. The monsters and skeletons and what-not seemed more real than the process shots of flying saucers, etc., in other movies.
Sadly, when I tried to show it to my young kids, they were bored within minutes. CGI and near-plotless movies had effected them for the worse.
 

Alex Oviatt

Practically Family
Messages
515
Location
Pasadena, CA
Just saw A Clockwork Orange at the Alex Theater with Malcolm McDowell intaerviewed beforehand by Gary Oldman..... Great fun in a droogyish sort of way.....
 

Doctor Strange

I'll Lock Up
Messages
5,246
Location
Hudson Valley, NY
I watched it too. I agree that it's too long and the plot is needlessly convoluted, and it steals pretty shamelessly from a number of iconic John Ford westerns. It's absurdly overblown in the usual Jerry Bruckheimer manner. But it's not the disaster I expected.

It was a huge financial flop, but part of that goes back to my oft-stated observation that the myth of the American West - which used to be THE story around here, e.g., when every other TV show was a western in the late 50s and early 60s - simply doesn't speak to today's young folks, raised on SF/fantasy/superheroes. (For example: my own kids made me turn off The Magnificent Seven halfway through because it wasn't grabbing them! I also showed them High Noon, Shane, The Searchers, Liberty Valance, Josey Wales... And they didn't like any of them!)

It's quite watchable... if you're in the mood for a Pirate of the Carribean film in old west drag!
 
Messages
12,009
Location
East of Los Angeles
I watched it too. I agree that it's too long and the plot is needlessly convoluted, and it steals pretty shamelessly from a number of iconic John Ford westerns. It's absurdly overblown in the usual Jerry Bruckheimer manner. But it's not the disaster I expected...It's quite watchable... if you're in the mood for a Pirate of the Carribean film in old west drag!
My thoughts exactly. Apparently, in Bruckheimer's world Tonto is related to Captain Jack Sparrow. Still, it could have been worse--as I understand it, early treatments of the script called for Reid and Tonto to be battling werewolves (hence the Lone Ranger's use of silver bullets). :eusa_doh: Speaking of which...

...It was a huge financial flop, but part of that goes back to my oft-stated observation that the myth of the American West - which used to be THE story around here, e.g., when every other TV show was a western in the late 50s and early 60s - simply doesn't speak to today's young folks, raised on SF/fantasy/superheroes...
I don't think this is limited to the American West; it seems any movie set in an era prior to the mid-90s performs poorly among "today's young folks" unless it somehow involves time travel, aliens, vampires, superheroes, or some other form of "supernatural" element. shakeshead
 
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Worf

I'll Lock Up
Messages
5,206
Location
Troy, New York, USA
^^^^ And even that formula doesn't guarantee success. The landscape is littered with failed Harry Potter rip-offs, angst ridden tweener horror romances that never found an audience etc.. So there STILL has to be some substance or kids won't even swallow the hot buttons. It is interesting though...

As for the Lone Ranger. I read a Warren Horror Comic from the 1960's wherein' Werewolves were fighting in the old west. In that Comic The Lone Ranger finished the evil werewolf with his signature calling card. I think that idea would've worked. Hell if Abe Lincoln can slay Vampires and kill Zombies, what's to say this would've been any worse?

Worf
 
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Doctor Strange

I'll Lock Up
Messages
5,246
Location
Hudson Valley, NY
In a World... - an entertaining comedy about the odd, insular world of movie trailer voiceover performers. A triumph for its writer/director/star Lake Bell, and with an interesting cast of mostly comic pros, it deftly mixes workplace comedy and family drama. Recommended.
 

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