Last Movie You Watched? 6.0

I've tried watching BREATHLESS a few times and I can't get through it. :|

All That Heaven Allows (1955)

I just think it's great moviemaking. And I love overblown melodrama.

Forgot to post a few recent viewings:

Batman (1989)

Maybe the first time I truly enjoyed this since I was a kid. There's still some heavy flaws and shit but it's got a nice groove and for the first time I truly appreciated Elfman's music, or whatever he was ripping off.

Purple Rain (1984)

God knows what compelled me to watch this. I think I might throw it into the category of guilty pleasures because I had fun with some of this, particularly with any scene featuring Morris Day, who I wish was the leading star because Prince can't act for shit.

Batman Returns (1992)

For a long time I ranked this above the 1989 flick, now I'm just gonna have to switch it. This movie is all over the place. Some great stuff with Catwoman, I love the whole look and feel, but then I find every scene with the Penguin to be a chore, I just can't sympathize with him. At least Michelle Pfeiffer was around to balance things.

Maybe the Prince soundtrack for Batman led to you to seek out Purple Rain, MP. Don't remember much about it myself, apart from a chick with a fine rack going topless :*e*: .

The Dark Knight Rises - really, really enjoyed it; an epic, thrilling conclusion to Nolan's Batman trilogy. Only slight criticism would be that Bane's dialogue really can't be clearly made out at times.

Nah, it was actually a coincidence, it was next up on my Netflix Queue. Still, kind of funny it came up right when I'm running my Batathon.

Christine (1983)

It's a lemon, but a marginally entertaining one. This could have been CARRIE ON WHEELS, but the story doesn't work. The main character of Arnie should go from nerd to psycho asshole, but we don't see it happen. In one scene he's a nerd, but then he just shows up in a later scene fully transformed into a psycho asshole. And Alexandra Paul is in love with him. Frankly, that's harder to believe than a sentient car. We never see him win her over with his new psycho asshole abilities. It's like the movie is missing an entire act.

Blunt Instrument wrote:

Maybe the Prince soundtrack for Batman led to you to seek out Purple Rain, MP. Don't remember much about it myself, apart from a chick with a fine rack going topless :*e*: .

The Dark Knight Rises - really, really enjoyed it; an epic, thrilling conclusion to Nolan's Batman trilogy. Only slight criticism would be that Bane's dialogue really can't be clearly made out at times.

Couldn't take the Bane voice seriously at first never mind clear. Should've been dubbed by James Earl Jones.

Batman Forever (1995)

Always enjoyed it as a kid, these days I like it only a tad less than RETURNS. Best parts are when it focuses on Bruce Wayne's backstory, it's probably the only film of the four flicks that actually gave him sort of an arc. Beyond that... I snooze at the villain scenes. Riddler and Two-Face aren't working for me.

I've said it before, but Tommy Lee Jones sorta has the comic relief role even though he's paired with Jim Carrey. Two-Face is obviously the less important villain, and he just pops up out of nowhere when they need an action scene. He's nothing more than a gimmick, which is a shame.

And for the 100th time, I'd love to have seen Alec Baldwin as Harvey Dent/Two-Face in 1995, channeling some GLENGARRY.

I was pretty excited as a kid when I learned Two-Face would be in it and I assumed he was the main villain, especially since he got top billing over Jim Carrey. Watching TAS I was really looking forward to seeing Two-Face on the big screen, even though I was bummed Burton and Keaton were not returning.

Oh, and I should have noted: Nicole Kidman, GAWD. I had a huge crush when I first saw her in that flick. Whatever flaws the four Bat films had, Batman always got the hottest women.

Though Uma Thurman does nothing for me. Never has. What a waste for the part of Poison Ivy. Maybe Rose McGowan would have been good. I'm trying to think of others.

Across 110th Street (1972)

A solid early 70's crime flick.

The White Tuxedo wrote:

Though Uma Thurman does nothing for me. Never has. What a waste for the part of Poison Ivy. Maybe Rose McGowan would have been good. I'm trying to think of others.

She slipped my mind when I posted that. Actually I find her attractive, but not in BATMAN & ROBIN.

The Dark Knight Rises

A dull pretentious confused meandering soulless mess of a film. Christopher Nolan strikes again. This film was much like I always suspected TDK would have been like minus Heath Ledger-- nearly empty. Having thought about it for a bit I realized that Nolan has never provided us with any real reason to care about any of the characters or settings in any of these films. There are no shots or scenes that draw us in, that make us care about or identify with Gotham or any of its citizens. Because of this I had no emotional buy in, so that during all this talk talk talk about the state of Gotham and its citizens I couldn't care less. More importantly (and tragically), this also made it impossible for me to get emotionally invested in Wayne/Batman's struggles and reactions to the situations he's placed in. Nolan just assumes that by default we'll care about Gotham, or Dent, or Batman's sacrifices. I couldn't make myself care, but why should I-- it's the writer/director's job to do that. During most of this movie's tedious length I kept wondering why he didn't bugger off with Catwoman. In fact, the only joy I got of this movie was when Catwoman was on screen. Damn, she was sexy, and the only character in the film I felt the slightest bit sympathetic for. She needs her own film by a director who isn't a robot.

Deliverance

I had expected something different, a film relying more on shock effects and a huge bunch of crazy blood-thirsty hillbillies (like in modern horror films). But Boorman offers something very different from that. The violence and scenes of abuse are short, but all the more intense and realistic. The film not only shows expertly filmed action scenes - towners struggling with the forces of nature -, an important issue is the moral ambiguity of the towners' behaviour and their qualms about it. After all, they could not have been sure whether the two attacking 'hillbillies' would have really murdered Bobby and Ed. Also, I believe, they did not know for certain whether Drew was actually shot by the surviving attacker.
The moral and psychological implications of all the incidents and actions are very well thought-out and presented. The cinematography is excellent, as is most of the acting. The guitar and banjo playing scene is another highlight that builds up tension and mystery and adds to the then beginning creepy atmosphere. The last shot of the stream water leaves it open whether the river will reveal the secrets concerning the actual incidents during the towners' stay. An adventure tale that also inspires lingering concerns and affections within the viewer.

Drax wrote:

The Dark Knight Rises

A dull pretentious confused meandering soulless mess of a film. Christopher Nolan strikes again. This film was much like I always suspected TDK would have been like minus Heath Ledger-- nearly empty. Having thought about it for a bit I realized that Nolan has never provided us with any real reason to care about any of the characters or settings in any of these films. There are no shots or scenes that draw us in, that make us care about or identify with Gotham or any of its citizens. Because of this I had no emotional buy in, so that during all this talk talk talk about the state of Gotham and its citizens I couldn't care less. More importantly (and tragically), this also made it impossible for me to get emotionally invested in Wayne/Batman's struggles and reactions to the situations he's placed in. Nolan just assumes that by default we'll care about Gotham, or Dent, or Batman's sacrifices. I couldn't make myself care, but why should I-- it's the writer/director's job to do that. During most of this movie's tedious length I kept wondering why he didn't bugger off with Catwoman. In fact, the only joy I got of this movie was when Catwoman was on screen. Damn, she was sexy, and the only character in the film I felt the slightest bit sympathetic for. She needs her own film by a director who isn't a robot.

I think the Batman reboot in 2015 needs an entirely new creative team and no involvement at all from Nolan. As for Nolan being a robot, I referred to him as an asexual icicle.

Though I did enjoy TDKR more than the first two.

Chimes At Midnight
I'd long thought Braveheart a movie which raised the bar and set a new standard for massed battle sequences, I was wrong, Awesome Wells had already been there and done that in 1965
Wells technique is masterful, putting the battle sequences of the mega budget Hollywood epics like Spartacus and co to shame, his battle of Shrewsbury manages to be both epic and intimate, with close ups and clever editing which pull the viewer right in the midst of the brutal slaughter
From Braveheart and Gladiator, to Private Ryan and Lord of ther Rings, massed action 101 starts here

Manhunter wrote:

Deliverance

I had expected something different, a film relying more on shock effects and a huge bunch of crazy blood-thirsty hillbillies (like in modern horror films). But Boorman offers something very different from that. The violence and scenes of abuse are short, but all the more intense and realistic. The film not only shows expertly filmed action scenes - towners struggling with the forces of nature -, an important issue is the moral ambiguity of the towners' behaviour and their qualms about it. After all, they could not have been sure whether the two attacking 'hillbillies' would have really murdered Bobby and Ed. Also, I believe, they did not know for certain whether Drew was actually shot by the surviving attacker.
The moral and psychological implications of all the incidents and actions are very well thought-out and presented. The cinematography is excellent, as is most of the acting. The guitar and banjo playing scene is another highlight that builds up tension and mystery and adds to the then beginning creepy atmosphere. The last shot of the stream water leaves it open whether the river will reveal the secrets concerning the actual incidents during the towners' stay. An adventure tale that also inspires lingering concerns and affections within the viewer.

I remember watching this on re release in a cinema, you could have cut the air with a knife when the hill billies tied Jon Voight to the tree
when Burt Reynolds popped up with his bow and released an arrow, spontaneous cheering broke out around the theatre

Seve wrote:

Chimes At Midnight
I'd long thought Braveheart a movie which raised the bar and set a new standard for massed battle sequences, I was wrong, Awesome Wells had already been there and done that in 1965
Wells technique is masterful, putting the battle sequences of the mega budget Hollywood epics like Spartacus and co to shame, his battle of Shrewsbury manages to be both epic and intimate, with close ups and clever editing which pull the viewer right in the midst of the brutal slaughter
From Braveheart and Gladiator, to Private Ryan and Lord of ther Rings, massed action 101 starts here

I soooooooooooooooo wanna see that.

It's my favourite film of all time.

Drax wrote:

....when Catwoman was on screen. Damn, she was sexy, and the only character in the film I felt the slightest bit sympathetic for. She needs her own film by a director who isn't a robot.

Yes, give her her own franchise. Let the Bat be the guest star.

I found Marion Cotillard the sexiest woman in the film.

Batman & Robin (1997)

Fun to watch for how bad it is, other times I'm just bored out of my skull.

Darkman (1990)

Now this was fun! Raimi's first stab at a superhero flick, starring Liam Neeson no less. I hadn't seen this since I was a kid and what always stuck in my head was the amusement park scene and the ending where he changes into Bruce Campbell. It's not perfect, some of this is dodgy (besides the bluescreen effects) but overall I found this to be a fun old school comic book flick.

Makeshift Python wrote:

Batman & Robin (1997)

Fun to watch for how bad it is, other times I'm just bored out of my skull.

Darkman (1990)

Now this was fun! Raimi's first stab at a superhero flick, starring Liam Neeson no less. I hadn't seen this since I was a kid and what always stuck in my head was the amusement park scene and the ending where he changes into Bruce Campbell. It's not perfect, some of this is dodgy (besides the bluescreen effects) but overall I found this to be a fun old school comic book flick.

I'd thoroughly recommend watching Batman & Robin with the rifftrax (from www.rifftrax.com) parts are quite hilarious.

Always enjoyed Darkman Raimi's quirks and Neesom's boundless conviction are a good mix.

Raising Cain

This has it all, the elements of the cheapest of B-movie psycho-thrillers: the split-personality killer, the trauma inflicted on him by his father - a ridiculous trash film impersonation of a to-the-bones evil father-figure, at the same time a mad scientist, all with ludicrously fake foreign accent. It has the same non-working approach that CASUALTIES had, presenting an (in the case of CAIN: pulpy and hardly credible) dramatic story in an unpleasantly semi-satirical way. It's not a full-fledged satire (if you want to see how that works you will have to look at FEARLESS VAMPIRE KILLERS or SCREAM), nor is it a straight psychological horror thriller. I don't see a reason why De Palma doesn't take his material seriously - I don't buy at all into that allegedly superior satirical approach in making such a movie - PSYCHO showed how a film can be straight and tense in spite of its pulpy content.
De Palma once again unashamedly rips off PSYCHO and other Hitchcock and also Argento stuff. His expansion on the "dump-corpse-within-car-in-lake" scene from PSYCHO is particularly silly, but also nastily thrilling and entertaining, like other bits from CAIN and also CASUALTIES and FEMME FATALE. The ending is highly unoriginal, and Lithgow's self-parodying facial expression is silly as hell, but De Palma often gets the cheap thrills out of these moments.
There are scenes like the one with Dante's wife in the hospital - perhaps my favourite in the movie - that are pleasantly shocking and disturbing, or the scene when Carter (or whoever) spots his wife on the "baby-TV", with her looking like a bog body. His escape scene from the interrogation room and the police station is a very poor man's Lecter escape scene. But, it all is still nastily entertaining, it's just a poor approach not knowing whether to be a thriller or a spoof. The plot is tricky and complex, but there is next to no psychological value and credibility to it. I could go on stating how the fake spoofing doesn't work, and what better treatment such a dramatically charged story would deserve - PEEPING TOM, anyone? - but I'll leave it at saying that this is yet another 'neither-here-nor-there' De Palma "movie".

I take RAISING CAIN as a black-comedy.. Highly camp and theatrical, but with a hard edge.

Quote :

and what better treatment such a dramatically charged story would deserve - PEEPING TOM, anyone?

But PEEDING TOM's premise was nowhere near as ludicrous as this. This is not the kind of material that can handle being taken too seriously. It needs to be tongue-in-cheek in order to work.

The Saint in New York

the first Saint adventure on film and a far cry really from the Roger Moore adventures -so far the only incarnation of the Saint I have seen fully. Louis Hayward has a certain charm as Templar but on the whole it lacks something. Perhaps what it lacks is Roger Moore or the Saint theme every time someone goes "Aren't you Simon Templar?"
BBC have showed a fair number this week, most feature George Sanders so should be a blast.