Last Movie You Watched.

Somerset wrote:

I knew the most famous Wizard of Oz was not the first film adaptation of that Baum book but the only other movie story I was aware existed was that Oz movie with Franco from a few years back when they were trying to kickstart it as an IP “universe.”

I also am aware of the HBO series but I will not make the same mistake George Michael did in that Arrested ep.

was it called Emerald City? that's the only non animated series I can find

No, lame reference on my part to the below 12 sec clip from Arrested Development, Sarai. I was referring to the HBO series Oz which is totally unrelated. It's a prison drama.



But you have just reminded me that there is another tv production, a miniseries from the 00s called Tin Man from the SyFy channel. I vaguely remember promos for it back when it was airing but I don't think I ever saw it.

Unfortunately any attempt is doomed to fail or not be all that popular as the original is just way too damn good. It might be the best movie ever made and certainly one of the most magical.
it all just works to perfection

the Sam Raimi one was enjoyable and I would have watched sequels to that

Westworld - 'hi-tech theme park that turns on us' sci-fi tale that writer/director Michael Crichton clearly liked so much, he would re-use the basic idea for a certain novel called Jurassic Park a couple of decades later. I hear the recent TV adaptation has spent its last couple of seasons going nowhere fast, but at 90 minutes this doesn't hang around in delivering its thrills 'n' chills. With James Brolin, Richard Benjamin and (famously) Yul Brynner as the robot gunslinger.

Futureworld - sequel to Westworld in which investigative newspaper and TV reporters Peter Fonda and Blythe Danner are invited to go to the 'new and improved' resort. Naturally, it's not long before they discover sinister shenanigans are occurring. Reasonably enjoyable, but Brynner's reappearance as the Gunslinger in a dream of Danner's is bizarre (he's not a threat, he's her date!) even for a sci-fi flick.

Crawl - promising swimmer Kaya Scodelario goes to check on her father (Barry Pepper) during a Category 5 hurricane in Florida, and finds him injured in the family home's crawlspace and the house under siege from 'gators, escapees from the local gator farm. As the floodwaters rise, they face drowning and being chomped unless they can figure out how to escape. Fun 'monster' horror that at a brisk 80 minutes, doesn't outstay its welcome.

Brightburn - basically the Superman origin story (craft containing young humanoid alien crashes on Earth in rural America, couple on whose land it happened decide to raise him as heir own) with a horror twist (the kid decides to use his powers for bad instead of good). It's an interesting premise (and there's a fair amount of splattery gore)  but possibly a bit underdeveloped in a flick that maybe could've used another 15 minutes or so runtime. With Elizabeth Banks.

Extreme Prejudice - given that this Western-ish actioner was directed by Walter Hill and it stars Nick Nolte as a Texas Ranger, Powers Boothe as his drug lord ex-buddy and with Michael Ironside, Rip Torn and Clancy Brown also featuring in the cast I expected much alpha-male badassery ... and it's fair to say that I got it.

Maria Conchita Alonso also features as Boothe's past squeeze/Nolte's current one, but with this being an 80s action movie she's pretty much in it to be tit-flashing eye-candy (you might refer to this sort of thing as 'the good old days', I couldn't possibly comment. lol).

Chim chiminey, chim chiminey, chim chim cher-ee....

Soylent Green - my first time watching this slice of dystopian 70s sci-fi (although I already knew about the shocking discovery the lead character makes), in which overpopulation coupled with pollution/climate change has led to mass food shortages. The authorities claim that they are making the titular foodstuff from plankton in order to tackle the problem, but whilst investigating the murder of a figure involved in its production Charlton Heston's copper becomes suspicious and starts 'digging'.

Set in this very year, it's interesting to note how they weren't too far wide of the mark about some things. Also noteworthy for being Edward G Robinson's final film.

SOYLENT has moved from being a guilty pleasure to simply a pleasure for me. I've seen it a lot of times (it was often the second feature with WESTWORLD at local theaters in San Jose and and the marvelous long-gone Garden Cinema in Willow Glen), and I'm so comfortable with it that even the dumb scifi cliches don't bother me anymore ... possibly because they are becoming more and more likely, especially women being afforded second-class status as citizens or 'furniture' for the elite.

The opening montage is just awesome, sometimes I just watch that by itself.

The Mule - Clint Eastwood directed and stars in this unlikely-but-based-on-true-events tale of an elderly horticulturalist who, after his business is ruined by the internet, drifts into drug-smuggling for a Mexican cartel.

Eastwood brings a great deal of grizzled charm to the lead character and there's a solid supporting cast including Bradley Cooper, Dianne Wiest and Laurence Fishburne.

I seem to have felt somewhat of a 'need for speed' this weekend.

Ford v Ferrari - entertaining account of Ford's attempt to appeal more to the 'youth' end of the car-buying market by winning the '66 Le Mans 24-hour endurance race, enlisting ex-race driver Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon) and brilliant but hotheaded Brit driver and mechanic Ken Miles (Christian Bale) to develop and drive the car that will do just that.

Top Gun : Maverick - 2nd viewing, in IMAX this time. Pretty damn spectacular.

Star Trek IV : The Voyage Home - by way of a small tribute to Nichelle Nichols. A fun one, with much 'fish out of water' humour as the Enterprise crew travel to 20th century Earth in order to save it in the 23rd.

Finally saw WHO'LL STOP THE RAIN ... and have to say, it was something of a grind. There were kernels that could have made an awesome flick -- it might even be an influence on QT's TRUE ROMANCE, come to think of it, which I really like, except the smokey look.

Reisz as a director is a mixed bag for me, I didn't much like FRENCH LT'S WOMAN, but I dug his THE GAMBLER with Caan. No question but that he was a helluva cutter, he wrote a really definitive book on film editing that just about every school used to use.

Sleeping Beauty and Maleficent

Prey

This was okay. I appreciate that they at least tried to do something new with the franchise. And Amber Midthunder is a good lead.

It is however guilty of one of my least favorite things in this type of film: the Predator's skill level and degree of "unstoppableness" varies from which opponent is facing off with him. Meaning that we are supposed to believe an alien hunter/warrior that dispatches an aggressive grizzly bear in minutes would struggle against a smaller and much lighter Comanche warrior.

Sarai wrote:

Sleeping Beauty and Maleficent

Those go together like peanut butter n' jelly...

Salomé wrote:

Prey

This was okay. I appreciate that they at least tried to do something new with the franchise. And Amber Midthunder is a good lead.

It is however guilty of one of my least favorite things in this type of film: the Predator's skill level and degree of "unstoppableness" varies from which opponent is facing off with him. Meaning that we are supposed to believe an alien hunter/warrior that dispatches an aggressive grizzly bear in minutes would struggle against a smaller and much lighter Comanche warrior.

I'm also hearing good things, but this really didn't need to be a "series."

The original 'Predator' is perhaps one of the best films of the genre. Obviously people remember the great one-liners, but it was actually very made. Genuinely unsettling and tense.

Everything afterwards (eg. the one with the fella with the schnoz) has been awful.

CJB wrote:

Salomé wrote:

Prey

This was okay. I appreciate that they at least tried to do something new with the franchise. And Amber Midthunder is a good lead.

It is however guilty of one of my least favorite things in this type of film: the Predator's skill level and degree of "unstoppableness" varies from which opponent is facing off with him. Meaning that we are supposed to believe an alien hunter/warrior that dispatches an aggressive grizzly bear in minutes would struggle against a smaller and much lighter Comanche warrior.

I'm also hearing good things, but this really didn't need to be a "series."

The original 'Predator' is perhaps one of the best films of the genre. Obviously people remember the great one-liners, but it was actually very made. Genuinely unsettling and tense.

Everything afterwards (eg. the one with the fella with the schnoz) has been awful.

I was most surprised that even Shane Black wasn't able to make a good sequel.

The original has one of the greatest closing credits scenes of all time too (actually based on Brewster McCloud's ending whilst many mistakenly interpret it as a reference to the ending of The Wild Bunch).

'The Predator' from a few years back was terrible, a total misfire. The one saving grace was that it was a TV screening I watched, so at least I didn't spend money to see it.

I personally have a soft spot for Predator 2. It's nowhere near the quality of the first one but I found the concept of Predator in the city going after gangs fun. Glad to hear Prey is at least a decent film which is a surprise.

Crimes of the Future
David Cronenberg's first sci-fi film since eXistenZ back in 1999. It's definitely Cronenberg returning back to his roots as it's full-on body horror with gruesome surgeries and body modifications galore throughout plus people eating plastics. Viggo Mortensen is solid in the lead and Lea Seydoux is a very good fit for his assistant. Also solid performance from Kristen Stewart who along with Seydoux help give the film an erotic charge reminiscent of Crash at times. The only thing I don't think worked as well in this film was there was a few CGI greenscreen shots which looked kind of lame but overall I'm glad to see Cronenberg back. He's already working on another film from what I've heard and given our current times I'm sure he's probably not going to be short of material for a while.

I have more than a soft spot for Predator 2, I really really like it. I haven't owned it since the laserdisc days, but that is because it always seems to be on some cable or streaming service when I get the itch, which is probably every 18 months or so. I find that, like ALIENS, with P2, I really wish I could have seen other adventures with the gang of characters. I've seen the first one a number of times, but there is something about the last act that practically puts me to sleep, starting with when Arnie muds up. It happens with DEMOLITION MAN as well, even in the theater, so maybe Joel Silver just brings out a somnabulist aspect in me sometimes.

Those are the only PREDATOR films I've gotten through, though I'm going to watch PREY in the next few days.

Gotta figure that putting one to sleep is the polar opposite of what action film-makers intend, lol.

I enjoy the first PREDATOR a lot ... right up to when I suddenly doze!

I actually started DEMOLITION MAN last night, since it is on Hulu right now. Figured watching 1st hour or so would be fine, but actually found myself getting bored by the flurry of ideas and bits, like it was too much to watch them throw everything at the wall w/o waiting to see what would stick.

Actually believe DEMO might be more successful as a TV series than a film (with backstory, less comicbooky, and please nobody like Stallone, who for me rivals Cruise in terms of somebody I don't enjoy watching.)

Interesting cast, Demolition Man - it's not every day you'll catch Nigel Hawthorne and Denis Leary in the same flick, never mind Stallone.

Blue Steel - nothing to do with Derek Zoolander, rather a Kathryn Bigelow cop thriller with Jamie Lee Curtis as a newly-graduated NYPD officer and Ron Silver as the psychotic Wall Street trader who dates and then stalks her, a-murdering as he goes. Low on plausibility but pretty high on everything else, and also starring Clancy Brown.

Raw Deal and Red Heat - sometimes, after quite a few nights of heatwave-related iffy sleep, it's possible that all you'll be bloody well fit for on a Saturday night is watching Ahnult thumping and shooting wrong 'uns for 3-and-a-half hours or so. And so it proved last night.

Thought Raw Deal was totally forgettable outside of "you shewd naht drink and bake."

Red Heat is a gold mine though.