Last Movie You Watched? 7.0

The White Tuxedo wrote:

Monkey Business (1952)

I rarely enjoy comedies. I like films that have comedic elements, but I find that straight comedies just don't hold my interest. I did not laugh once during this movie, and I actually found it a chore to sit through. Much like the torture of sitting through YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU last year. Maybe I'm just a jerk.

I like screwball as an idea.

I like Cary Grant and Ginger Rogers' other film as a team better:



I think the WWII era propaganda and intrigue makes it a more intriguing film for me. As for Grant's films directed by Howard Hawks, their best combo IMHO:



One of my favorite films of all time, hence my picking a scene from it for my current avatar.

ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS is among my personal favorites as well. :D I'm a huge fan of Jean Arthur in it. It might even be my favorite Hawks film. Either that or RIO BRAVO.

The Deep (1977)

Pros: Bisset's nipples, proudly displayed under a feeble wet t-shirt during the opening sequence.

Also John Barry. I'm quite proud of the fact that the score fired up, and I had no idea who had scored the film, and I was able to pick it before Barry's credit. Then again I guess it's kinda obvious.

Cons: The rest. ESPECIALLY Nolte's moustache.

Seriously, I think I enjoyed Yates' Cliff Richard vehicle more than this. Underwater is not a desirable or legitimate destination for narrative film, I'm afraid.

I never got through the film.

Suck (2009) written, directed and starring Rob Stefaniuk. Camp, rock n' roll, vampire, horror/comedy from Toronto filmmaker.

Features big rockstars such as Alice Cooper, Iggy Pop, Alex Lifeson of Rush, Henry Rollins, Moby, plus Jessica Pare and Malcom McDowell

The 43 minute making-of feature would be of real interest to aspiring filmmakers. Stefaniuk really had to hustle to pull this thing together.

Good camp-horror fun, with heavy guitars too.



That's Stefaniuk in the middle. He's an actual rock musician too. Pare and the other guy are only pretending to play.

The White Tuxedo wrote:

Last night I watched Donner's SUPERMAN, the theatrical cut. I'll look at the extended one soon as I've not seen it in years. But I enjoyed the movie more than ever. Safe to say it's probably my favorite superhero movie at the moment. It was an extremely enjoyable viewing for me.

This is and probably always will be my favorite superhero movie of all time.

The Man with the Golden Arm

A really good film. Story and characterizations are formidable, Sinatra delivers one more great performance.
The only thing I didn't really get - perhaps because of occasional minor losses of concentration -

Spoiler:

A rather important point, I think.
I'm pretty impressed by the whole film. Premi seems to be a competent director. I should see ANATOMY. (If I've seen it as a kid already, I don't remember anything anymore).

Winchester '73 (1950) and Bend of the River (1952)

'73 is more iconic, but I found BEND more engrossing. Two excellent Westerns, though. After watching some Ford recently I wouldn't say Anthony Mann's films are quite as a rich, but I like that they're lean and mean and tell a good story really well. I like Mann as I like Don Siegel. Straight shooters, with very unpretentious styles.

Manhunter wrote:

I'm pretty impressed by the whole film. Premi seems to be a competent director. I should see ANATOMY. (If I've seen it as a kid already, I don't remember anything anymore).

ANATOMY is great. I usually find courtroom dramas exceedingly tedious (I generally never like to see a courtroom in a film for more than a minute at most), but this was well-written, directed, and acted. Great cast. Jimmy Stewart. Dynamite Lee Remick. Badass George C. Scott.

Preminger's fantastic. Moreso post-Fox. I think I like Advise & Consent even more than Anatomy.

I have been trying to find a recent film to watch on Netflix Instant. Been watching so many older films. I tried watching GLORIOUS 39 on an impulse. Made it 9 minutes in, and it looked like a turd anyway.

My search continues on Instant.

The White Tuxedo wrote:

I tried watching GLORIOUS 39 on an impulse. Made it 9 minutes in, and it looked like a turd anyway.

A wise move, although you did miss an absolute howler of a scene late in the film where a secret is conveyed through film in the most hilariously contrived manner.

I was happy to see Christopher Lee show up for a paycheque. I also liked that he just sat in a chair for his scene. Couldn't be bothered to get up. It's always great to see Lee, but he's no indicator that you're in for a quality film.

Count Dooku.

A digitally-remastered screening of the 1990 Total Recall ... ahh, Ahnult in his ultraviolence-with-one-liners pomp, Sharon Stone and Rachel Ticotin both smokin' hot, and fantastic pre-CGI effects work by Rob Bottin. What more couldja want? :)

Black Sunday

Caught this on TV. What a great film it is! So very well plotted, with understanding for the characters, full of suspense, with admirable old fashioned stunt work that is infinitely superior to today's ugly CGI crapfests. It's got a 6.7 score on IMDb. Just goes to show there are a lot of poor people on the planet. Compare it to how Nolan's batshit faired, it's not funny.
In contrast to MUNICH, the Israel hero here chastizes himself for raising doubts about his own mission. The acting is great, particularly Dern and Shaw. Gogol has a part, too. The novel is more detailed, of course, it reveals more about all of the persons involved on both sides, but the film does everything it does marvelously. I love Frankenheimer. The book is better than HANNIBAL, H. RISING, and even better than SILENCE. I believe RED DRAGON edges it only by a small margin. The final action sequence when the blimp has to be stopped from entering the stadium is fantastic, as is the chase after that terrorist scumbag through the streets and on to the beach. Thrilling sequences, marvelous filmmaking.

Blunt Instrument wrote:

A digitally-remastered screening of the 1990 Total Recall ... ahh, Ahnult in his ultraviolence-with-one-liners pomp, Sharon Stone and Rachel Ticotin both smokin' hot, and fantastic pre-CGI effects work by Rob Bottin. What more couldja want? :)

My all-time favourite Ahnold film. Even better than Terminator. And Sharon Stone and Rachel Ticotin never looked better!

Manhunter wrote:

Black Sunday

Caught this on TV. What a great film it is! So very well plotted, with understanding for the characters, full of suspense, with admirable old fashioned stunt work that is infinitely superior to today's ugly CGI crapfests. It's got a 6.7 score on IMDb. Just goes to show there are a lot of poor people on the planet. Compare it to how Nolan's batshit faired, it's not funny.
In contrast to MUNICH, the Israel hero here chastizes himself for raising doubts about his own mission. The acting is great, particularly Dern and Shaw. Gogol has a part, too. The novel is more detailed, of course, it reveals more about all of the persons involved on both sides, but the film does everything it does marvelously. I love Frankenheimer. The book is better than HANNIBAL, H. RISING, and even better than SILENCE. I believe RED DRAGON edges it only by a small margin. The final action sequence when the blimp has to be stopped from entering the stadium is fantastic, as is the chase after that terrorist scumbag through the streets and on to the beach. Thrilling sequences, marvelous filmmaking.

Love it too, definitely one of my favourite Frankenheimers. Martha Keller was a real babe.

Plus it's got a very powerful score from John Williams.



Way ahead of its time.

The Saint's Vacation

fairly unmemorable adventure with Hugh Sinclair now as Saint. The fights were fairly humourous, sort of sped up-like.

Cloak and Dagger (1984)

Caught this just starting on HBO of all places, so I decided to give it a watch. Hadn't seen it since I was 8 and I remember it being kind of a lame adventure. Yeah, it was. Lots of parts just stretch longer than they should. This should have been a crazy action spectacle that the kid gets mixed up in, like a James Bond film, instead it feels like a low budget TV movie. Also, this must be the most traumatized kid I've ever watched. Mom dies, friends die, he keeps having hallucinations of his toy soldier giving him orders. Maybe it was just a fluke or maybe it was Spielberg being good at directing him in E.T., but he's kind of a lame child actor and I'm not surprised his stardom dropped quickly after this. Oh yeah, and Atari product placement is like crazy here.

The Descendants (2011)

I rather liked it. Nothing earth-shattering, nothing I'd want to see again, but a good movie. Good story, script, cast, acting, the mood was perfectly captured, it looked nice (mainly thanks to the locales). Nothing in it really pissed me off.

Of the 2011 Best Picture nominees I've only seen this and THE HELP, and I thought this was a hundred times better than that crap.

Judy Greer is moving into MILF territory. ALWAYS love to see Judy Greer in anything. Terrific actress, and really hot in an offbeat, character actress sorta way.

Couldn't stand the damn thing.

I thought it was good. Seemed like it wasn't sure which story of the two stories was the main focus.

You mean between Clooney's wife dying and Clooney finding the sumbitch who was screwing his wife? I'd say the main focus is Clooney overall, with these two stories (and the land deal) all tying into it.

It's not a movie I'd watch again, but I enjoyed it.

Largo's Shark wrote:

Love it too, definitely one of my favourite Frankenheimers. Martha Keller was a real babe.

Plus it's got a very powerful score from John Williams.

Way ahead of its time.

The score or the whole film?
I didn't pay particular attention to the score (first viewing), but the bits I heard from the above track sound terrific.
Another great element in the film was the arc

Spoiler:

- the expression on his face when he shoots her is brilliantly hilarious!
I wonder how you can find a terrorist attractive - (but I can't say I disagree ;) ).
In the end, she resembles a sieve.


The Black Dahlia

What's not to like?
I've read people complaining about it being highly camp, but I didn't have that impression. In fact, I found CAIN, and, much more so, SCARFACE and FEMME FATALE to be considerably more camp (UNTOUCHABLES as well). Only in one scene Eckhart deliberately overacts, when that public prosecutor or whatever he is reprimands him in the change room. And also, of course, Fiona Shaw in her scenes, in the first of which she appears to have slightly overexcited nerves, and the last scene revealing her insanity overclearly. But for me it worked. Look at some of the weird, quixotic characters in the Ellroy novels -

Spoiler:

are perfect cinematic representations of them.
It's a pretty complex and demanding film, probably too much so for the masses. It even has some bits where true human emotions get on display, which is very rare in a De Palma film. I just couldn't get myself to find Swank attractive in this movie, but her acting was rather fine.
I'm curious as to how I'll feel on further viewings. The sets, cinematography etc. look pretty impressive. IIRC, pretty good score, too.

The Saint Meets the Tiger

what Sanders lacked in action Sinclair more than made up with his fists of fury in abundance. One-Punch Templar does his job but Sinclair could've done with some more outings there's just not much going on. Jean Gillie was a remarkably striking woman, such a shame she died so young.