Last Movie You Watched? 7.0

j7wild wrote:

Jack Wade wrote:

j7wild wrote:

Airport '77 (1977)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075648/

Not as good as Airport and Airport 1975 but it's still a good 70s disaster movie, a genre which they no longer make!

3/5

Hmm. Wonder why.

Actually one can say that recent movies like 2012, The Day After Tomorrow, The Road, Book of Eli, Armageddon, Dante's Peak, Volcano, Deep Impact, Independence Day, Cloverfield, Virus, Contagion, 28 Days Later, Skyline, The Darkest Hour, etc etc can also be considered Disaster genre films.

You don't say?

THE CORE was the best disaster movie of recent memory.

The Way to the Stars

slightly more truer to Bomber Command than other films, more akin to Dambusters if not better. Story of a RAF field that goes from 1940 to 1944, following its personnel and local population. When the Americans join the war it's all change and there's the usual culture clash but it doesn't last long. John Mills on usual fine form as indeed was Douglass Montgomery as the USAAF squadron leader, Johnny.
Familar faces being David Tomlinson long before Mary Poppins/Bedknobs and Herbie, Anthony Dawson a little why before Dr No, good ol' Stanley Holloway, Basil Radford and all too briefly, Trevor Howard. Classic picture, moving in parts.

Largo's Shark wrote:

THE CORE was the best disaster movie of recent memory.

The movie my wife calls, "Tucci cashes the check."

The White Tuxedo wrote:

There's a twist on Kafka. A guy wakes up to find he's a midget.

You could probably get him to make that movie. I'll call Lynch, he's been wanting to do Metamorphosis.

Piggyback it on WATERMELON MAN and have him wake up an african-american midget. Put Dinklage in Olivier-Othello-style chocolate donut makeup and see if he could overcome it all.

Has Lynch ever said that? I was wondering if he had given up filmmaking.

CJB wrote:

I'd like to know why they don't make 70's pornos anymore.

Forget the movies, why don't they play music like that anymore?

j7wild wrote:

The Concorde... Airport '79 (1979)

There was talk about an Airport '82 but after Airport '79 flopped, plans for it were scrapped.

Thank the maker!

1.5/5

Larry Cohen (IT'S ALIVE, THE STUFF, GOD TOLD ME TO) was hired to write AIRPORT: UFO and I think he did this just before CONCORDE deplaned at the box office. A friend of mine read it in 1985 and told me it was pretty good, but then again he also thought ENEMY MINE was the best movie ever made for quite awhile.

The Yakuza (1974)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073918/

A forgotten, under-rated, crime classic about a subject that is still little known in the Western World: the Yakuza, the Japanese organized crime syndicates.

This is a movie about a Man's honour, friendships, debts and obligations.

If you haven't seen this movie, you need to.

4.75/5

AIRPORT UFO would have been a riot I'm sure. I think they wanted Barbara Stanwyck.

As for why anyone would take those movies seriously after AIRPLANE? Well, I take them with a pinch of salt and find them a lot more fun, amusing, and actually funny than AIRPLANE. Unintentionally funny, of course.

As for the disaster genre, I don't know if I see the more recent ones becoming as amusing to watch in, say, the 2030's. The films now don't have the offbeat cast of great character actors like George Kennedy and Borgnine. And they don't have the fun scores of some of the 70's films, like TOWERING INFERNO or AIRPORT. And the CGI will probably age badly. I await the day when the Star Wars Prequels will look like THE LAST STARFIGHTER. I believe that day will be Tuesday.

The Tall T (1957)

Excellent, excellent bare bones little western. Loved just about everything about it. Scott and Boone face off well.

Maureen O'Sullivan (didn't realize she was Mia Farrow's mother) reminds me of Crista Flanagan for odd reason in this movie. Just sayin'.

It was just j7's comment that he was able to watch an Airport movie as an adult and take it seriously enough to find it suspenseful that i found a ... little odd.

Expendables 2 - well, you know where you are with this sort of thing. Shootin' 'n' explodey fun daftness, with an in-jokey script ... I mean Van-Damme's character's surname is 'Vilain', for God's sake.

Oh and the longer Skyfall trailer was before it. Which was nice :) .

The White Tuxedo wrote:

I await the day when the Star Wars Prequels will look like THE LAST STARFIGHTER. I believe that day will be Tuesday.

I imagine Captain Harriman would agree with you.

When I was 14, I wrote a 30 page treatment for a space disaster film I called SPACEPORT 2020 (not screamingly original, granted.) Within a few years, I was flabbergasted to find out Disney spent some of my teen years trying to get the same kind of thing off the ground without success, and wound up abandoning in favor of a different kind of disaster - THE BLACK HOLE. If anybody has the BH issue of CFQ, it goes into that stuff in detail. I just remember that THE LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE director John Hough was involved at one point (possibly during or after the switch
from disaster in orbit to space exploration adventure), but then he jumped ship to do BRASS TARGET.

j7wild wrote:

Airport (1970)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065377/

I can't believe this movie grossed $100 Million!!

Jacqueline Bisset is the hottest flight attendant I'd ever seen in my entire life!!

She can join me on the Mile High Club anytime

4/5



Airport 1975 (1974)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071110/

I remember watching this in the movie theater when I was 9 and it kept me on the edge of my seat.

Now, almost 40 years later, it's still an exciting movie.

4/5



Airport '77 (1977)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075648/

Not as good as Airport and Airport 1975 but it's still a good 70s disaster movie, a genre which they no longer make!

3/5



The Concorde... Airport '79 (1979)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078740/

Oh! They should had stopped at '77!!

What were they thinking?

The only good thing about this movie is seeing Sylvia Kristel, whose Emmanuelle and Private Lesson movies were a big part of my puberty!

There was talk about an Airport '82 but after Airport '79 flopped, plans for it were scrapped.

Thank the maker!

1.5/5

Airports 1-3 were a top notch trio of suspense films. Airport IV not so much. But thanks for tipping these films again. I wouldn't mind revisiting them.

The closest I've come to revisiting the sequels was seeing clips of Airport '75 in some Incredible Hulk episode. Almost as entertaining as '75.

I think AIRPORT is a well-made studio movie that is simply near impossible to take as serious drama anymore. But it is a good movie. It's sorta like PLANET OF THE APES. It's actually a great SF movie, but I can't help but chuckle at the same time because of how lively Heston is. That sort of thing is sorely lacking in both the SF and disaster genres now, and is why I doubt that few of the movies made today in either are going to have that same kind of entertainment value in 30 years.

Been going through Minnelli's films recently - I have access to all of them except I DOOD IT, STORY OF THREE LOVES, and COURTSHIP OF EDDIE'S FATHER, so I'm just doing them chronologically and rewatching those I've already seen. Finished the 1940s just now with MADAME BOVARY, and the most striking thing about doing this is seeing how well Minnelli deals with black and white. For a filmmaker I usually associate with colour (and very vibrant, well designed colour at that), BOVARY is stunning to look at, and not just for the virtuoso camera movement (the waltz with Jones and Jourdan is simply unparalleled). It doesn't stand alone either in its monochrome splendour - the park sequence about half an hour into THE CLOCK is similarly beautiful, and the atmospheric confrontation between Mitchum and Taylor in UNDERCURRENT really elevates that picture beyond the slightly unengaging (and overlong) piece it otherwise would be. Anyway I'm not going to say much about a lot of these films, so I'll just chime in with my thoughts on those I've a) already seen and b) loved the last time I saw them.

THE PIRATE

Held up very well and remains my favourite musical. I honestly cannot see anybody not enjoying this film. It flows so well, and it's so delightful from moment to moment. The production design is entirely beyond reproach, Cole Porter's songs play well and fit the story neatly, and every performer brings his or her best. Gene Kelly in particular is incredibly likable and charismatic, and provides the film with its best few seconds when he steals a woman's cigarette, takes it into his mouth, kisses her, and then blows smoke over her face, during the magnificent Niña number. A playful and irresistable musical take on the swashbuckler.

Here's an attempt at a ranking so far. I'll also include tentative rankings for films I've seen recently before starting this marathon (in italics):

SOME CAME RUNNING
THE PIRATE
TEA AND SYMPATHY
THE COBWEB
GIGI
MEET ME IN ST LOUIS
YOLANDA AND THE THIEF
THE CLOCK
CABIN IN THE SKY
MADAME BOVARY
ZIEGFELD FOLLIES
FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE
UNDERCURRENT

The Fury (1978, dir. Brian De Palma)

Good old-fashioned De Palma. Would like to have known what Cassavetes' plans were for the boy, some more specifics, but all in all it's enjoyable, if not great. Good operatic ending, nice effects and visuals.

CARRIE
BLOW OUT
OBSESSION
CARLITO'S WAY
MISSION TO MARS
PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE
THE FURY
THE BLACK DAHLIA
RAISING CAIN
SISTERS
FEMME FATALE
THE UNTOUCHABLES
SCARFACE
MISSION IMPOSSIBLE
CASUALTIES OF WAR

It's getting harder to rank them.


Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (1958, dir. Louis Malle)

Well thought-out crime film with focus on tragical incidents and complications. A great atmospheric score by Miles (for lack of a better description).


Malèna (2000, dir. Giuseppe Tornatore)

Drama with nice humour throughout. First I thought it was a bit unimaginative, but it gets better. The Bellucci nudity is well worth the viewing.


Confidences trop intimes (2004, dir. Patrice Leconte)

Not bad, does have its qualities.

HJackson wrote:

Been going through Minnelli's films recently

I loved AN AMERICAN IN PARIS, especially the dance sequence near the end.

I enjoyed SOME CAME RUNNING.

GIGI was hell for me to get through.

I wanna see THE BAND WAGON for some reason.

tiffanywint wrote:

j7wild wrote:

Airport (1970)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065377/

I can't believe this movie grossed $100 Million!!

Jacqueline Bisset is the hottest flight attendant I'd ever seen in my entire life!!

She can join me on the Mile High Club anytime

4/5



Airport 1975 (1974)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071110/

I remember watching this in the movie theater when I was 9 and it kept me on the edge of my seat.

Now, almost 40 years later, it's still an exciting movie.

4/5



Airport '77 (1977)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075648/

Not as good as Airport and Airport 1975 but it's still a good 70s disaster movie, a genre which they no longer make!

3/5



The Concorde... Airport '79 (1979)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078740/

Oh! They should had stopped at '77!!

What were they thinking?

The only good thing about this movie is seeing Sylvia Kristel, whose Emmanuelle and Private Lesson movies were a big part of my puberty!

There was talk about an Airport '82 but after Airport '79 flopped, plans for it were scrapped.

Thank the maker!

1.5/5

Airports 1-3 were a top notch trio of suspense films. Airport IV not so much. But thanks for tipping these films again. I wouldn't mind revisiting them.

Airport '77 is probably my favorite of the group. It seemed the least campy and the most suspenseful. Airport's fun as a time capsule of the era when flying was seen as something glamourous and exciting for the average consumer, not to mention the easy way just anyone can board an airplane(especially Helen Hayes' stowaway character. Airplane! has made it impossible to watch Airport '75 with a straight face although it's pretty campy fun. '79 is unwatchably bad. It's definitely a "what were they thinking?" type of movie, especially with Charo's cameo as a passenger trying to take her dog aboard.

By the way, I want to go on the record and say Karen Black (as the stewardess in Airport '75 who had to fly the 747) was hot back then!

I also watched 3 others of her movies lately: Burnt Offering, Capricorn One, and The Outfit.

Saw Mazursky's TEMPEST tonight. Had wondered about it for decades, intrigued by a 'making of' book I found around 1985 or so.

Film meanders something fierce, but has a few moments. If not for Cassavettes, who I always find captivating, I would have skipped to the end for the vfx. Molly Ringwald's first feature, not that it matters, and I think Sam Robards' as well (not that he has ever mattered.)

The effects, by the now-infamous Bran Ferren, are a mix of very good and occasionally laughable, but it was as much the physical effects as the visual ones that impressed in terms of boat getting tipped over and such.

Didn't realize Susan Sarandon had her HUNGER hair already for this film.

Made me want to watch FORBIDDEN PLANET again.

The Betrayed (2008)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1074191/

Interesting little thriller starring Melissa George with a few twists along the way.

Well worth a look if you never seen this or heard of this.

4/5

The White Tuxedo wrote:

I loved AN AMERICAN IN PARIS, especially the dance sequence near the end.

I was lukewarm the first time I saw it. Just finished it again and liked it better. I like the characters, and how they interact on a moment by moment basis, but I can't really bring myself to care about how the story unfolds. The thing is beautiful and the music is, of course, fantastic. The climactic sequence is sublime.

The White Tuxedo wrote:

GIGI was hell for me to get through.

I wasn't keen the first time. Loved it when I saw it a week ago though. Everything is so beautifully designed (especially the red apartment) and I'm a sucker for Louis Jourdan. I also quite like the sort of restrained, static nature of a lot of the numbers - usually staged sat in a chair or pacing around a room, rather than tap dancing and acrobatics, and it makes a nice change of pace.

Croupier (1998, dir. Mike Hodges)

Surprisingly good, with a focus on strong and interesting characters, and a story that illustrates the pitfalls and dark sides of the profession in a realistic and quite compelling manner.

Manhunter wrote:

Croupier (1998, dir. Mike Hodges)

Surprisingly good, with a focus on strong and interesting characters, and a story that illustrates the pitfalls and dark sides of the profession in a realistic and quite compelling manner.

"Hold on tightly, let go lightly." One of my life's mottos.