Last Movie You Watched? 7.0

The Spy Who Came in From the Cold (1965)

The anti-Bond, or at least one of them during the 60s Bondmania period. One of the few blind purchases I got when it came out, hadn't actually seen it since that one viewing four years ago. I liked it then but now it's definitely one of my favorite spy thrillers with this recent viewing.

It's got one of the finest screenplays ever written. Paul Dehn is a forgotten talent.

"She offered me free love. At the time, that was all I could afford."

I forgot he was involved with the screenplay until the beginning credits displayed his name. Was a nice surprise. Then you have Bernard Lee, though it's too bad he plays a mere store clerk.

I love THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD.

It's one of my favourite films, period. What ever happened to Martin Ritt?

Was gonna say that Burton was almost too perfect in the role. Still he's really great and I love the look on his face when he's on top of the fence looking at Smiley. I'm getting an urge to pop in TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY.

Largo's Shark wrote:

It's one of my favourite films, period. What ever happened to Martin Ritt?

Sally Field.

EDIT: Why is the quote function all of a sudden buggered beyond belief for me? Hmm.

FourDot wrote:

Largo's Shark wrote:

It's one of my favourite films, period. What ever happened to Martin Ritt?

Sally Field.

EDIT: Why is the quote function all of a sudden buggered beyond belief for me? Hmm.

It's working for me.

Fixed it. Make sure you have "Disable BBCode in this post" unchecked before posting.

Ah, I see. Cheers.

Largo's Shark wrote:

What ever happened to Martin Ritt?

I don't know. THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD is beautifully directed.

I can at least say he was putting out good work right up to Sounder, which I think is excellent.

Norma Rae is a dead bore, and Murphy's Romance would be one of the worst things I'd seen if not for the presence of Garner.

Anyone seen Hombre? I feel like trawling through Fredric March's catalogue sometime soon.

I've watched a number of movies. I tried to watch ALIEN, ALIENS, and ALIEN 3 in one go, but I got so bored by ALIENS that I shut it off.

Watched THE GREEN SLIME, which is sorta Scott's ALIEN by way of 60's Trek. A masterpiece of cheese.

Another noteworthy one is THE LAST FRONTER, an Anthony Mann western with Victor Mature. The film itself isn't noteworthy, just the fact that it's the only Mann western that failed to make an impression on me at all.

Largo's Shark wrote:

It's one of my favourite films, period. What ever happened to Martin Ritt?

Think he was too quality to keep working regularly. Caught hie THE FRONT on TV the other night, and even though it ain't great, it IS heartfelt. SPY was right after HUD, I think, and only a few years before MOLLY MAGUIRES (which keeps switching to VERY LONG WAIT every time I put it to the top of my netflix list.)

SPY is pretty close to perfect. We watch it every year (at least) and just love it all over again every time.

Odd thing I read today: Kubrick got introduced to Michael Herr, who helped on FULL METAL, through LeCarre, who was a mutual friend to both. I kind of swoon thinking of a Kubrick/LeCarre collaboration, that it could have been like Kubrick/Clarke.

trevanian wrote:

SPY is pretty close to perfect. We watch it every year (at least) and just love it all over again every time.

Same here. Aside from Bond, it's the closest I've got to movie comfort food.

THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD is far too depressing for me to consider it comfort food. But it is very, very excellent.

This week, my viewing was at the mercy of our houseguests, so we watched a wide variety of films (none of them particularly appropriate to the holiday season): FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE, GATTACA, GANGS OF NEW YORK, THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, and HANNIBAL.

Memphis Belle

far from a classic but not bad considering when it was mad, long after the era of big-epic WWII movies. Could've done with being truer to the original Memphis Belle crew rather than be composites as in Battle of Britain. If anything the film is more a tribute to the bomber crews (albeit American) of WWII rather than the Belle's crew itself. Personally, what makes up for it is the music which serves quite emotionally or at the very least stirringly. CD could've done with Harry Connick Junior's jumped up Danny Boy and the music for when the B-17's assemble.
Still, the film's got John Lithgow, David Staithairn and even Billy Zane...seriously.

Hilly wrote:

Memphis Belle Billy Zane...seriously.

"Hey, I'm on the bomb run here!"

Actually, his admission about doctoring kind of comes off like "I can't swim" in BUTCH, I thought he was pretty damned good in it. Been years since I saw it (had BELLE on laserdics), but it had some really good stuff, the Straiharn part about the letters was really powerful as I recall.

trevanian wrote:

Hilly wrote:

Memphis Belle Billy Zane...seriously.

"Hey, I'm on the bomb run here!"

Actually, his admission about doctoring kind of comes off like "I can't swim" in BUTCH, I thought he was pretty damned good in it. Been years since I saw it (had BELLE on laserdics), but it had some really good stuff, the Straiharn part about the letters was really powerful as I recall.

He was better in it than other stuff for sure but from what I recall recent work is more straight to DVD. The 'with deep regret...' scene is certainly something, the music accompanying the footage -particularly that of a B-17 being strafed.



Acting wise or actor wise, like Modine in this but then I've only seen him in Dark Knight Rises and Hitler: Rise of Evil outside of Belle.

Straithairn reading out the letters is indeed a good scene.

The only good one in it, for my money. Strathairn more often than not brings something to the table, though.

Saw LINCOLN on Thanksgiving with the family. DDL is pretty much the single reason for seeing this movie. He's really incredible as Lincoln, and brings all the right qualities and characteristics to the table. In fact, the performances from the entire cast were all pretty damn great, with Tommy Lee Jones being the stand-out (aside from DDL, obviously). I also appreciated the fact that the movie doesn't hold the audiences hand when it comes to the plot, and expects you to know a little bit about American history and Lincoln in general to really follow what's going on (this is NOT a movie about Lincoln's life, nor is it a historical epic or war drama, so anyone expecting those things will be sorely disappointed).

That being said, the film doesn't really bring any context to the material here, so it's hard to have any real perspective of what's going on or feel any impact of what's happening on-screen. By doing so, I feel like Spielberg alienates his audience, in a way (scenes with Lee and Grant, as well as the death of Lincoln's son and his wife's psychological condition were just begging to be expounded upon). Spielberg's direction is also incredibly restrained, showing very little artistic flair at any point in the film, aside from some fascinating lighting choices.

I can't say that I necessarily liked LINCOLN. But, I will admit that I was rather intrigued by it. Truth be told, I think this would have been much better off as a Spielberg-produced historical mini-series like BAND OF BROTHERS. All things considered, though, I'd recommend the film just to see DDL's performance alone.

dr. stranglove wrote:

That being said, the film doesn't really bring any context to the material here, so it's hard to have any real perspective of what's going on or feel any impact of what's happening on-screen. By doing so, I feel like Spielberg alienates his audience, in a way (scenes with Lee and Grant, as well as the death of Lincoln's son and his wife's psychological condition were just begging to be expounded upon).

That's Tony Kushner, not Steven Spielberg.

Brannigan

of Wayne's cop movies, the lesser to McQ but entertaining in it's own right. Ignoring the idiot assassin in his Jag-E-Type who won't score points for his efforts it has its moments with Wayne, even Attenborough and its London locations. Quite something to see London in its glory being used for the majority of shots with the actors out and about rather than studio bound/backscreen projection stuff. The car chase is the highpoint even if there's geographical oddities, Wayne's flat in Battersea suddenly offers a view of the Albert Memorial.
Attenborough's office scenes are meant to be in New Scotland Yard but clearly overlook County Hall (on the south side of the river over from where NSY is) and from what I remember of my tour guide days last year...it should be St. Thomas' Hospital where they are.
But, wait, yes there's John Vernon who remains awesome for reasons scientists have yet to determine.

Leaving Las Vegas (1995, dir. Mike Figgis)

Had seen that in the late 90s. Liked it again. No sentimentality in the film, but compelling writing and acting (certainly Cage's best performance). Kudos to Figgis for writing, directing and composing the music also.

To follow the theme of the Ritt discussion, what the hell happened to Figgis? Cold Creek Manor, I hear, but I haven't seen it...