Last Movie you Watched?

The White Tuxedo wrote:

00Twelve wrote:

Can't believe I've gone almost 30 years not seeing this, but finally had the lovely privilege of seeing



Dude. That was an amazing scifi horror experience, and hovers not far below ALIEN for me in that genre. Really got into the paranoid implications of what it might mean for one's close friend to either be their friend, or a thing that's going to eat them when their back is turned. Also, Diabetus-fightin', Quaker Oats-eatin', insurance-sellin' Wilford Brimley is just a badass in this movie. I hate that I never saw it earlier; it's gonna be a near-future Bluray purchase, guaranteed.

Love it. Some great lines, too. Creepiest main ever theme to me.

Have you seen the 1978 remake of INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS? If you like ALIEN and THE THING, see that one too.

if you like The Thing, Alien and Body Snatchers, you should see the original film that ALIEN was based on

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051786/

Gravity's Silhouette wrote:

[The film was stolen by Hauer, Hannah and Young.

I thought Edward James Olmos, William Sanderson and Joanna Cassidy were terrific as well. Best performance of the lot was by Vangelis. One of the best scores I've ever heard.

Erica Ambler wrote:

Gravity's Silhouette wrote:

[The film was stolen by Hauer, Hannah and Young.

I thought Edward James Olmos, William Sanderson and Joanna Cassidy were terrific as well. Best performance of the lot was by Vangelis. One of the best scores I've ever heard.

Definitely agree with you about Vengelis. Sanderson and Cassidy were good, though Cassidy's role was much smaller than Sanderson's. Olmos was okay, but I'd rate James Hong higher than Olmos. Overall there were some very good performances, and probably the best performances for people like Hannah and Young.

VALHALLA RISING (2009)
directed by Nicolas Winding Refn

Ugh. I wanted to like this film. I really did. Maybe I'm completely off (wouldn't be the first time), but I took the film as some sort of existential commentary on Christianity, and how the Christians (wrongly?) drove off the pagans. But, the pacing was so excruciatingly slow and the editing so non-sensical that it was tough for me to get anything out of this film. Refn did a great job of capturing the landscapes with some beautiful photography, and if his only goal was to create atmosphere, imagery, and a completely vague story, then I guess he succeeded. I just couldn't get over how disinterested I was with the whole thing.

Maybe I'll come to appreciate the film the more I mull it over or if I ever see it again, but for now, I just don't see much there. Two words I barely ever use to describe a movie are "slow" and "boring". To me, this film is simply that: slow and boring.

5/10

VALHALLA RISING is a terrible film, and yup, "slow and boring" about sums it up.

It reminded me of AGORA. Another film with muddleheaded religious ideas, and distortion of history. I remember Harms linked a great blog post taking it down.

The Challenge (1982) featuring one of my favourite craggy stars, Scott Glenn. Good stuff if you love samurai shit.

The whole thing is up on youtube since it's never been offiicially released on DVD or Blu-Ray.

Gravity's Silhouette wrote:

Erica Ambler wrote:

Gravity's Silhouette wrote:

[The film was stolen by Hauer, Hannah and Young.

I thought Edward James Olmos, William Sanderson and Joanna Cassidy were terrific as well. Best performance of the lot was by Vangelis. One of the best scores I've ever heard.

Definitely agree with you about Vengelis. Sanderson and Cassidy were good, though Cassidy's role was much smaller than Sanderson's. Olmos was okay, but I'd rate James Hong higher than Olmos. Overall there were some very good performances, and probably the best performances for people like Hannah and Young.

I like Turkel, and his glasses.

Mrs Aural Sects wrote:

The Challenge (1982) featuring one of my favourite craggy stars, Scott Glenn. Good stuff if you love samurai shit.

The whole thing is up on youtube since it's never been offiicially released on DVD or Blu-Ray.

On the BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS commentary, John Sayles mentions working on THE CHALLENGE, something I didn't remember. I saw CHALLENGE in the mid 80s a couple times and really seriously loved the movie, it was a total out of left field surprise. Think I'll take a gander at this.

THE EXORCIST (1973)
directed by William Friedkin

Widely considered the best horror movie of all time, and for good reason. But not only is it a great horror movie, it's just a great movie all around. From a technical standpoint, everything really works. The lighting is moody and effective, sound mixing is great, excellent make-up, and I love how the sets become gradually gloomier as the demon slowly takes over Regan. Performances are all excellent, with Jason Miller being the stand-out. von Sydow is only in a handful of scenes, but his presence at the end of the film really puts things over the top. Cinematic brilliance, he is. The duo of von Sydow and Miller make that final exorcism scene absolutely riveting.

The great thing about THE EXORCIST is how multi-dimensional the scares are. Yes, they're effective on a surface level of "Regan is stabbing her vagina with a crucifix" and "Regan is levitating out of the bed" stuff. But once you get past that surface, you can flip things around and see just how terrifying this is from another angle. I also found it interesting how Friedkin makes the medical examinations just as spine-tingling as the demonic stuff. Damn, I hope I can sleep tonight.

"Fuck her in the ass, you motherfucking cock-sucker! Your mother sucks cocks in hell!"
9.5/10

dr. strangelove's Halloween Movie Marathon
1. The Exorcist
2. Repulsion

I think if the movie has one problem, it's losing von Sydow so early.

I'm serious, the moment when Karras does his little stunt made me laugh hysterically the first time I saw it.

SALESMAN (1968)

One of the best documentaries I've ever seen. Does a great job of showing the manipulator becoming the manipulated. Can't help but to feel sorry for Paul Brennan at the end of the film, as he's quite a defeated man.

The White Ribbon

I hadn't planned to watch it again so soon, but it was on TV, so I happily enjoyed it once more.
It was funny to hear the narrating school teacher in the beginning say that a lot of questions concerning the events were still unanswered years later, probably precisely the questions I had at the end of my first viewing. :D
It seems my first suspicion about the pastor's children was right. The first time it was hard to tell which child belonged to which parent(s). This time, almost everything was understandable, and the clues the film gives are sufficient to form an opinion, but nothing is really answered, so there is still plenty of leeway to make you invest your thoughts into it.
Excellent writing and direction, and a whole lot of great natural acting, most notably by Lothar, Benesch, and perhaps Klaußner.

From the three Haneke films I've seen so far, definitely the best (which isn't a critique of the others in the slightest).
A convincing study of the effects of a certain kind of education and abuse. A film of rare brilliance.

Must be me, but I found The Exorcist over-hyped and disappointing. Yeah, sure, it's scary but not really in a good way. It just seemed all so... I dunno.... predictable.

I've never understood why Friedkin get so much credit either. He seems an obnoxious little twerp. Von Sydow didn't think much of him, I hear.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)

I couldn't tell you what the hell the film was about, but I enjoyed it. It felt like an actual movie of it's own, as opposed to an amusement park ride put on the screen like the first two.

Honestly, I don't know what the plot was beyond some killer is gonna git Harry Potter.

I liked the style of the film. Nicely directed. And good cast additions in Gary Oldman and Emma Thompson. I'm not sure what I think of Gambon as Dumbledore yet. I felt he lacked the gravitas in this film that Harris brought to the role, as much a fan as I am of Gambon. He just felt like another faculty member, where Harris looked like he's been around a long time and actually knows magic.

Smashing good score by Williams.

Harrypalooza

1. HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN
2. HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS
3. HARRY POTTER AND THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE

Gambon's eccentric Dumbledore grew on me and I felt there was a stronger chemistry between him and Radcliffe.

Yeah, I think POA is probably the most well-rounded movie in the franchise. I love the backwards time-traveling scene towards the end. Great fun.

...and, the music that plays when Harry rides the Griffin animal thing (?) is money.

Makeshift Python wrote:

Gambon's eccentric Dumbledore grew on me and I felt there was a stronger chemistry between him and Radcliffe.

Eccentric is the word I was thinking of too. Harris was magisterial. It's like trading Yoda for Qui-Gon Jinn.

Gambon's Dumbledore generally gets stronger as the films go on. He's at his wackiest in GOBLET OF FIRE and his best in HALF-BLOOD PRINCE.

The White Tuxedo wrote:

And good cast additions in Gary Oldman and Emma Thompson.

I'd add David Thewlis as another good addition.

I have to confess Azkaban is my least favourite of the Potters, I think many years enjoying Dr Who made the time loop plot less than inspiring and although I love all the cast additions their lack of screentime makes them more superficial than others introduced before or since. I agree the themepark feel of the earlier movies is a welcome change but an additional casualty is a loss of that sense of wonder and this early in their wizardly education is dissapointing...fortunately that seems to return to one degree or another in latter films.

Priest (2010) Paul Bettany, Maggie Q, Karl Urban, Christopher Plummer and a thick slice of ham.

I hadn't high expectations for this film, which perhaps allowed it to be a little less painful than might otherwise have been the case. At the very least it places Vampires back as the stuff of monsters/nightmares and not some laboured illusions to teen angst.There's a raft of people doing sub 'Clint Eastwood/Batman' voices to convey menace ( I assume) which becomes amusing after a while and, for all his sins, Bettany delivers just enough conviction to make you forgive him this one last time - sadly the rest of the film is weighted by cliches, derivative styling and formulaic exposition. If you are tempted to watch, friends and alcohol will make it much more digestable.

Every Potter flick having that obligatory moment of a doe eyed Harry being AMAZED at magic stuff (wow the small tent is large inside like a TARDIS, wow hidden apartment complex, wow magical penis enlargement) got very old for me.

BLOW-UP. One of those films that is not so much watched as experienced, Antonioni's bizarre, unsettling, haunting masterpiece seems less a murder mystery than a ghost story without any supernatural elements. Its style is simultaneously documentary-like (it's certainly a remarkable visual record of London in the swinging sixties, and the story seems almost to unfold in real time) and dreamlike (it's also febrile and erotically charged).

I know of no other film quite like it, although its influence is apparent in the work of Coppola (THE CONVERSATION) and Roeg, to name but two directors. It doesn't have a script that bears much scrutiny, mind you (one wonders why David Hemmings doesn't simply go to the cops), but then again that's hardly the point - this is a film concerned primarily with atmosphere and feeling, and in that regard Antonioni knocks it outta the park, helped enormously by a terrific performance by Hemmings, who's given less dialogue than just about any other leading man since the advent of sound (in addition to which, he's often onscreen alone) yet manages to convey a remarkable amount of characterisation and emotion.

Marred only by a "threesome" scene that's dull and distasteful rather than arousing, and in any case seems tacked on as a ruse to boost box office, BLOW-UP is an extraordinary and compelling piece of work.

Funnily enough, my mum's in BLOW UP. She one of the redheads dancing to The Yardbirds..