Last Movie You Watched? the 8th

Trilogy Time.

STAR WARS

Watching it so many times has robbed my feeling of kid-like joy of STAR WARS. It's still entertaining, but essentially a wiz band adventure reel. Which was probably what George was shooting for, but we can never really tell what he initially intended these days.

THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK

Everyone's finest hour for the Star Wars franchise. It's predecessor implied high stakes, but it never really came across as such. TESB showed just how screwed everyone would be if our heroes screwed up. Is it any coincidence that George had the least involvement in this film than any other?

RETURN OF THE JEDI

A return to those wiz bang adventure roots, now with extra comedy relief and children fodder. Still solid and dramatic at times, especially with Vader and Luke's multiple confrontations. Almost as if someone took the first two films and threw them in a blender.

For the first time in a while, I watched all three in their Lucas approved Special Editions. Which really isn't as bad as everyone makes it out to be. 90% of the films are the same and thus the enjoyment of the Original Trilogy is largely untouched. Indeed, some changes actually improve the films. The real crime is preventing the release of the unaltered films and actively erasing them from history, which pisses me right the fuck off. If Disney has any brains and full control of the Lucasfilm archive, they'd release an Archival Edition Blu-Ray once the 3D remasterings are complete (say, 2015 to tie in with the new film) which would include ALL versions of the films and their soundtracks.

In short, the Special Editions is part George fucking around with CGI in preparation for the Prequels and part revenge on Marcia divorcing him if the internets are to be believed. Then again, if George hadn't thought of a theatrical rerelease for the 20th anniversary, STAR WARS and it's sequels might have been lost forever. The negatives had degraded that badly, apparently.

From what I understand the sequels were in fine condition, it's only the first film that degraded pretty badly before the restoration project (before that turned into "hey, let's add CGI") because of the film stock that was used. I think JAWS had the same problem too, along with other 70s films. I don't doubt Disney will release truly restored versions of the original trilogy. Heck, I'd like to see the theatrical cut of the pod race on quality above letterbox VHS.

I thought all films had faded by 1995 when they pulled them out of storage for the restoration. Maybe I'm thinking of release prints, then.

Speaking of which, someone has a Technicolor print of the original release version of STAR WARS, which is likely the best quality source available of the films now. I wonder if someone will ever have the skill and guts to transfer it themselves.

Tubes wrote:

I thought all films had faded by 1995 when they pulled them out of storage for the restoration. Maybe I'm thinking of release prints, then.

The other two films got remastered, it was just the first film that needed serious work done. http://secrethistoryofstarwars.com/savingstarwars.html Long read, but it's very detailed on what they had to go through.

Quote :

Speaking of which, someone has a Technicolor print of the original release version of STAR WARS, which is likely the best quality source available of the films now. I wonder if someone will ever have the skill and guts to transfer it themselves.

If only Criterion could get their hands on that.

I like the whiz bang adventure feel of Star Wars.

-----

De Palmathon...

Wise Guys (1986)

What the hell, Brian?

That was torture.

Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters.

Well, I'm glad it was Cheap Arse Tuesday! :|

You didn't like a movie starring Gemma Arterton? Jesus, it must be monstrously bad.

She and Famke Jansenn were the only reasons why I went. I didn't think it was going to be good, but every cliche was thrown in, no sense of danger or suspense and contrived plot and character development.

Still, she is in leather pants. :)

j7wild wrote:

Manhunter wrote:

The Killing (1956, dir. Stanley Kubrick)

(Could be I got the cut version,)

I have the Criterion edition in my collection.

The full movie is 85 min long.

How long is yours?

It runs for 81 minutes, but it's PAL running time. The same version I have would probably be 84 minutes long on a Blu Ray, so I still don't know how much is missing (if anything at all); could be half a minute or one minute. It's just the shooting in the apartment. Is there a full version of that scene somewhere on the internet?


L'affaire Dominici (1973, dir. Claude Bernard-Aubert)

Film about a true-life killing and ensuing trial in France in the early 50s. Jean Gabin is in it. The real murderer has never been found, but the father of a (supposedly incestuous) family was convicted (a very old man played by Gabin). It's an ironic, humorous film in spite of the gruesome murder (of an English family camping in rural France). It's an interesting film, particularly since all of it very much happened like they are portrayed here. (or at least the incidents were fairly close). As in almost every French film, Depardieu has a role.


Ne le dis à personne (2006, dir. Guillaume Canet)

Decent film far from the Hollywood crime film trash. It's not fully believable, nor does it bring anything new to the table, but it's handled/directed fairly well (but not in the highest class of crime/drama filmmaking). It avoids kitsch in the last scenes (a reunion of lovers) by making a good musical choice. It's okay for a one-time view on TV, but I wouldn't like to revisit it. Still, decent compared to most of the yank stuff. WITH OR WITHOUT YOU graces an otherwise mediocre scene.
(It happened to be a French Night thanks to two TV channels (it wasn't an official "French TV Night" on one single channel)).

This guy uploaded it in 8 parts here:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpq510QJhUnOp8ahPf1deOg?feature=watch

the apartment shoot out is in part 8:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBsbQCEcQEY

EDIT: I just watched part 8 and I see what you are talking about now.

I will check my copy when I get home.

UNKNOWN (2011, directed by Jaume Collet-Serra). Solid entertainment.

My copy of The Killing has the same shoot out scene.

I've watched this movie twice and it never occurred to me that the shoot out scene is edited.

There is nothing on IMDB about it and no IMDB users have posted a thread about it.

The wrath of Khan was on the telly I put it on while I was doing something else but gradually forgot about the something else. What a great movie.

P2

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0804516/

It sucks!

The only reason I am even giving it a 2/5 is because of:

Anna Karenina (Joe Wright)

Simply fantastic! Aside from the great acting and script, the direction deserves the most praise for its bravery and choices that paid off! Filming most of the action inside a theatre is genius for what the narrative deals with. And hence, the much deserved Oscar nominated sets, costume and score all compliment the theatrics of the time period and thematically, the exploration into superficiality, social etiquette and truthfulness.

However, somewhere in the middle, it lost a little steam, but it picked up again after a short while. On first viewing, a 4/5.

j7wild wrote:

My copy of The Killing has the same shoot out scene.

I've watched this movie twice and it never occurred to me that the shoot out scene is edited.

There is nothing on IMDB about it and no IMDB users have posted a thread about it.

Thanks for your efforts, I don't think anything is missing from my copy of the film. I had read on amazon (not US) some guys complaining about that shootout being missing from the DVD, giving it 1 star because of that. They write that no shot is seen/heard in their version. Sounds idiotic to me, since the scene is so harmless. If there is a different version around, it's only in the country where I live.


Forty Guns (1957, dir. Samuel Fuller)

I was wondering why this film is so short. Was Fuller forced to cut it that way by the studio? Or did he do it purposefully? I didn't think it served the film in a good way. Particularly the sharp contrast between the discovery of a suicide and the following overly jolly bath tub scene didn't sit well with me. I am not sure what Fuller wants to say with this. The film is pretty rich in themes and characters, it could have been more epic. (I've read the studio forced Fuller to change the ending, in which the marshal originally shoots his lover in order to be able to kill a criminal, her brother).
Still, apart from these bits, it is an excellent film. I need to rewatch it, because it isn't fully understandable on first viewing. A greatly shot and directed tale of the declining old West. I wish I could say more about the characters and the story, but I need to rewatch and reconsider it. A scene in which a tornado rages is horribly well done, both in terms of writing in the context of the whole film, and also regarding special effects (considering it's a film from '57).
A lot more needs to be said, hopefully on a future day.


My Blueberry Nights (2007, dir. Wong Kar Wai)

I've yet to see a really good film about relationships between lovers. The style is partially good, but it deserves a much better content. Some of the acting is good in individual scenes, but the writing limits the actors severely, as it seems. The figurative stuff is rather poor, too, especially the central blueberry analogy. :roll: The film has some good moments, but most of it is uninteresting and fake. I can't believe this was made by the guy who made IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE. 2046 was also far superior (but I will have to watch it again soon, since I was really tired when I saw it for the first time). Only the music is great in this film, it deserves to be used in a much better movie.
PS: 50 years between the films I saw recently!

Well, in my copy you see the 2 people shoot at each other (guy with the shotgun and another guy with a handgun with striped tie) and all the other people in the apartment who a seconds ago were standing with their hands up, were piled up on top of each other on the sofa dead.

But we didn't see them get shot.

Also a minute ago the guy with a shotgun had a partner with a handgun (white tie), he walks off screen to investigate and he is never shown being shot nor did he comes back into the scene.

The Train (1964)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059825/

I've been watching almost nothing but WW2 films the past two weeks.

It's fun to watch Nazis and Imperial Japaneses get killed.

4.5/5

Love THE TRAIN.

Die Hard (1988)

Not sure what could be said that already hasn't. Just a really well made action-thriller all around...

Die Hard 2: Die Harder (1990)

It's kind of like going from GOLDENEYE to TOMORROW NEVER DIES, more specifically the former has a competent action director (Campbell/McTiernan) and then the next guy is some hack (Spottiswoode/Harlin). It just feels pedestrian and cheap, like this would have been your average Steven Seagal direct to video but instead it has Bruce Willis as the star. Do I enjoy the flick? Marginally, I guess. It makes great background noise I guess. Willis really carries it and even though the villain is rather bland I do like William Sadler, and his nude tai chi introduction is outrageous.

The White Tuxedo wrote:

Love THE TRAIN.

In IMDB Trivia, they said the French Resistance didn't get so elaborate.

They just had the train keep circling Paris until the Allies arrived.

Straw Dogs (1971,dir. Sam Peckinpah)

A film that carefully develops characters and the relationships between them. The causes and consequences of acts of violence by common people are made palpable. There are troubles in the main characters' relation (I mean the Sumner couple), marital problems and perhaps sexual ones, and character flaws in both that are rather only alluded to. It starts right at the beginning with the presentation of Amy and her hard nipples that can be seen under her sweater, to the reference of the way she had begged on her knees for sex in the past.
There is a lot to think about, good characterisation and themes of sex and violence running throughout the film. The final line also suggests that David doesn't have a home anymore. The acts of rape and violence are very well portrayed, it isn't a film trying to appeal to the audience by cheap use of shock and horror, but rather is intelligent and psychologically credible and coherent, therefore a positively disturbing and emotionally stirring film (so, the opposite of SKYFOUL in many ways).
Saying the ending of SF was quoting STRAW DOGS is utterly insulting STRAW DOGS. STRAW DOGS is the polar opposite of SF in terms of quality filmmaking.

SOMEWHERE (2010, directed by Sofia Coppola). In many ways a looser, more free-floating and more improvisational - and more melancholy - retread of LOST IN TRANSLATION, recycling a few incidents from Coppola's 2003 masterpiece (a hotel room massage that descends into farce, awkward press conferences and foreign TV interviews, and so on, not to mention an awful lot of mooning around in a hotel patronised by the rich and famous) while treading the same sociological and emotional turf. Elle Fanning gives a good performance, although Stephen Dorff is (alas) no Bill Murray, and SOMEWHERE has none of the poetry and little of the poignancy of TRANSLATION - indeed, for much of the time this film seems to exist solely to prove the thesis that the life of a celebrity can be mundane and soul-eroding, which surely can't be news to anyone. That said, SOMEWHERE still manages to be fairly absorbing fare (if - and it's a big "if" - one is willing to tune into Coppola's wavelength), with some well-crafted and amusing scenes as well as fine cinematography by Harris Savides.

Just Cause (1995)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113501/

Weak story but a strong acting by Connery, Fishburne, Ed Harris and Underwood with a supporting cast composed of Capshaw, Beatty and Travanti saves the movie.

Scarlett Johansson also stars in this as Connery's 10 year old daughter.

3.5/5

The Possession (2012)



Supposedly based on a true case which happened over the course of 29 days..I've never heard about evil spirits being contained in a box according to jewish religious practices...and I'm curious about the real events which inspired this story.