Last Movie You Watched.

I forget about Hagman in that film sometimes. Did quite well in it, yes. "This is where that Nazi bitch lives!"

special mentions to Anthony Quayle and Michael Byrne. It's a funny film, you found yourself hoping that Steiner pulls it off.

Was informed over on JWFan that if I wanted to see a similar story but not played for chuckles so much, I should see Went The Day Well?

Blunt Instrument wrote:

Was informed over on JWFan that if I wanted to see a similar story but not played for chuckles so much, I should see Went The Day Well?  

Pretty much. There's some moments that tickle in that film because of it being 1942 but it has some fantastically dark moments. I had to write a bit about it for a module at uni. Cinema as a source of propaganda in World War II or something. Good little movie though. Ealing.

nb

Erica Ambler wrote:

Pretty Woman

While 'Cinderella is a Whore' is a nice idea it suffers from a basic fallacy: men pay prostitutes to leave not to stay. The background to 'Pretty Woman's progenitor, 'Three Thousand', interests me more; I won't deny Julia Roberts' star quality, but if Jennifer Jason Leigh had played Vivien the film would have been better for me. Not for the world's romantics, though.

I have always felt the same about "Almost Famous". Had the groupie character been played by Sarah Polley instead of Kate Hudson, the movie would have been significantly better (though perhaps not as crowd-pleasing).

n

Envious you got to meet Roy Ward Baker. A firm fan of A Night to Remember and others.

Erica Ambler wrote:

Scars of Dracula

Roy Ward Baker Street is one of my favourite directors. He may have had a virtual brothel named after him, but when I interviewed the Quatermass helmer many years ago he was a complete gentleman.

Nevertheless, this is a terrible film even by Hammer's factory-fodder standards. It still has some interest today, but mainly for former children's TV presenter Jenny Hanley's heaving bosom and Christopher Lee's incandescent torch.

Is the interview available to read anywhere?

Fist of Legend - Jet Li

Love the fight with the Wu Shu Master especially when he pulled back his punches. The one with the General at the end is good too.

His US movies like Romeo Must Die pale in comparison.

Grosse Pointe Blank - delighted to find 20 years on that this funny, pacy and well-acted action-comedy-thriller was as much fun as I remembered.

Blunt Instrument wrote:

Grosse Pointe Blank - delighted to find 20 years on that this funny, pacy and well-acted action-comedy-thriller was as much fun as I remembered.

Best ever use of "Ace of Spades" in a movie as well.

I haven't watched it in ages myself, perhaps it's time for a renewed viewing.

The Last Jedi for a second time ... this time the over-length and Johnson's desire to kick against/twist the SW 'lore' were a sight more noticeable, to the film's detriment. There's still stuff in it I get a kick out of, though.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Great performances aside from Abbie Cornish (who delivers except for the wonkiest accent I've ever heard). Frances McDormand is brilliant and strong contender for Best Actress. Equal parts shocking and hilarious, with a strong dose of pathos. Good to see two Aussie actors in such an acclaimed film.

All The Money In The World
Great film. Little hesitant to see this after being a disappointed with The Counsellor, but Scott delivered. Amazing performance from Plummer, especially considering his short shooting schedule. The film's success is likely to be tarnished again now due to the reported "gender pay gap". 

The Post
I thoroughly enjoyed it, but part of me thinks this is elevated due to the casting of Hanks and Streep in the same film. They are excellent, and I loved the long takes allowing the actors to play and exist in real time. Supreme performances. The first hour just seemed to meander a little compared to the much superior, engrossing second half. Great tease in the final minute too. 

I enjoy journalistic films so I knew I was going to like The Post. Is it All The President's Men? Almost. Spotlight is probably closer.

Plummer is simply the best. Like a boss, in at short notice and gets rave reviews.

BLADE RUNNER 2049

Has been a few since my one and only viewing of the original, but I did like this film quite a bit regardless. The most visually striking piece of cinema in years. The length didn't bother me all that much either.

My one gripe - and I sound like an old codger for saying this - but some dialogue, when coupled with an echoing environment, was almost incomprehensible to me. Feel I'll need to watch it all again with subtitles.

Hilly KCMG wrote:

Plummer is simply the best. Like a boss, in at short notice and gets rave reviews.

Yep. Not to mention hiring a heavily made-up Spacey would have been totally distracting. But Plummer. Phenomenal performance.

Just watched Dunkirk. Style over substance, which makes me believe its Nolan's best looking film to date - of course that's not saying much based on his previous works, but it looked good. Clearly a film about going home and survival, heroism, and probably detachment, given the myriad of long shots and characters we can't get too close to (or know too much about), but so many things just took me out of it - Harry Styles, the boring score, the time jumps, an incomprehensible Tom Hardy... I guess that was the point. I just like other films more. 

At the very least, it should - and I think it deserves - an Oscar for best sound design, and maybe a cinematography nomination too. But on the whole, soulless. 

Oh, and decently choreographed action sequences. Still not right for Bond, though.

I liked Dunkirk, but it certainly did not set out to be your typical narrative film, in that it didn't necessarily attempt to fully develop characters and allow for intimacy between the audience and said characters. It was really all one frenetic sequence of interlinked events.

CJB wrote:

BLADE RUNNER 2049

Has been a few since my one and only viewing of the original, but I did like this film quite a bit regardless. The most visually striking piece of cinema in years. The length didn't bother me all that much either.

My one gripe - and I sound like an old codger for saying this - but some dialogue, when coupled with an echoing environment, was almost incomprehensible to me. Feel I'll need to watch it all again with subtitles.

I forgot to add to my short little appraisal of the film elsewhere in this forum that I thought the first act had a bit too much "exposition through dialogue". Especially in the scenes with Jared Leto and Sylvia Hoeks, IIRC.

100% ridiculous but a great watch, kids can't stop laughing...

FieldsMan wrote:

Hilly KCMG wrote:

Plummer is simply the best. Like a boss, in at short notice and gets rave reviews.

Yep. Not to mention hiring a heavily made-up Spacey would have been totally distracting. But Plummer. Phenomenal performance.

Just watched Dunkirk. Style over substance, which makes me believe its Nolan's best looking film to date - of course that's not saying much based on his previous works, but it looked good. Clearly a film about going home and survival, heroism, and probably detachment, given the myriad of long shots and characters we can't get too close to (or know too much about), but so many things just took me out of it - Harry Styles, the boring score, the time jumps, an incomprehensible Tom Hardy... I guess that was the point. I just like other films more. 

At the very least, it should - and I think it deserves - an Oscar for best sound design, and maybe a cinematography nomination too. But on the whole, soulless. 

Oh, and decently choreographed action sequences. Still not right for Bond, though.

After Bane and the Spitfire pilot, am wondering if Nolan has some sort of odd fixation with obscuring Hardy's dialogue .

Aye, imagine if Nolan directed a James Bond starring Tom Hardy.

"My gnme is Bjond. Gjams Bjond."
"What was that?"
"My gnme is Bjond. Bjond."
"..."

CJB wrote:

I liked Dunkirk, but it certainly did not set out to be your typical narrative film, in that it didn't necessarily attempt to fully develop characters and allow for intimacy between the audience and said characters. It was really all one frenetic sequence of interlinked events.

Yeah, I just don't think it was a very successful experimental film. But, it got rave reviews, so what do I know? 

BI wrote:

After Bane and the Spitfire pilot, am wondering if Nolan has some sort of odd fixation with obscuring Hardy's dialogue 

This wasn't lost on me. And as an aside, he was excellent in Tinker Tailor but ever since he appears to have gone to the Craig school of diction. The Revenant, from memory, featured a mumbling performance like you wouldn't believe. His diction was superb in Tinker Tailor. 

Hilly wrote:

Aye, imagine if Nolan directed a James Bond starring Tom Hardy.

Salome wrote:

"My gnme is Bjond. Gjams Bjond."
"What was that?"
"My gnme is Bjond. Bjond."
"..."

 


Watched Darkest Hour last night. Totally engrossing and Gary Oldman was brilliant. Joe Wright is a truly under-appreciated master director in my eyes. I'm glad I watched this after Dunkirk - this is the context needed to involve the viewer into that film. And of course, Marianelli's score is a beautiful as expected.

I was waiting on a solution, however. Spoilers below.

Sure, Dynamo worked, but wanted to see it play out. As it stands, Churchill wants to fight. He fights hard to fight. Then Calais falls and he decides to concede to negotiation talks. But then he manages to muster the support and he delivers a speech that ensures that London will continue the fight. So while he went through the totally human passage of doubt and regret with this unimaginably unbearable weight on his shoulders, I was waiting to hear the solution. We knew Dynamo was in operation, so perhaps at the very least we should have seen these soldiers rescued instead of being told. And secondly, what the next step was after they had returned from Dunkirk, or what the next offensive was. 

Very much enjoyed Darkest Hour myself, Oldman is indeed terrific under some of the best prosthetic work I've ever seen. Agreed that it makes an ideal companion piece to Dunkirk.

I managed to watch Darkest Hour myself, today

the summer of 1940 has long been of great interest to me historically and I found myself initially focusing on accuracy before easing up. Indeed, of the fifty other people, I was probably the only one under the age of sixty -really was that kind of day. And yet it was my back that lost a battle to the cinema seats, rea-lly. Personally, I think this film did more than Dunkirk did to convey the imperilled nature of the nation in 1940. Yes, there was the Empire, Dominions and faintly the USA but the sense the Germans were damn near invincible (simply, they had such luck when looking at it closely, they really shouldn't have and could've been stopped had the French been better organised and the British had the roll of the dice at places like Arras).
It did about as good as it could conveying the Calais situation which is largely overlooked what with Dunkirk happening that week. If I recall a book on Dunkirk saying, Brig. Nicholson virtually went against what London was suggesting at times to continue the fight anyway (with responses to surrender being met with: ""Surrender? No, I shall not surrender. Tell the Germans that if they want Calais they will have to fight for it"), though I imagine the telegram received from Churchill was that kind of deal-breaker, Nicholson continued as long as he was able to. (I read tonight, he died in a PoW camp in 1943, aged but forty-five).

Oldman's performance is such a power-house, until tonight Albert Finney's was the benchmark I believed but he becomes Churchill much more so (though Finney's is excellent in this regard too). Again shows if anything that Churchill's biggest battle was to prove himself to his Party first, then the nation (and his monarch, the pair ended by the King's death, the firmest of friends. Hence Churchill's tearsome placing of a wreath at Westminster Abbey that simply read 'For Valour'). Though the film ends of course before the moment Britain showed to the world it would fight on no matter what, the shelling of the French fleet at Oran.

Special mention to Ben Mendelsohn as King George, for surely the King's Speech set some kind of level -the fact that everyone and their dog knew about the stutter after that film, that it could've verged on parody consequently. (I do wonder if Halifax had a speech impediment, or it was just the way the actor sounded).
The artistic licence with the Tube sequence is overlooked for how quietly affecting it was. (Curious how one stop east, which would be St. James' Park to Westminster, seems to last as long as four stops but details my boy, details). The end speech clearly did something for when the credits rolled the others in that screen applauded.

I thought to myself at times, thank God there's no love story to subtract from the main thrust of the story and yet, in a way, it has a love story there -Churchill and Clementine, which was as well done as Finney and Vanessa Redgrave did years ago.