Last Movie You Watched.

trevanian wrote:

CJB wrote:

Certainly is. Comedic filmmaking peaked in the 80's with all the Zucker/Abrahams/Proft movies IMO.

TOP SECRET! is so funny to me that I almost never need to put the disk in, because I can make myself laugh just recalling any of about 50 or 60 moments or lines or lyrics. Am pretty sure NAKED GUN had a ton of laughs, but the sequel must have diminished my feelings about it, because outside of a GOLDFINGER-looking atom bomb, I didn't find anything funny in 2, and haven't even bothered with the third one.

Oddly enough, the films that I thought were gutbustingly funny and timeless and could merit endless rewatches in the 70s (THE PARTY, RETURN OF THE PINK PANTHER and especially THE PINK PANTHER STRIKES AGAIN, which is practically a Bond movie in scale, all by Blake Edwards) don't register well for me at all anymore.

I guess it is like how certain films are enhanced by having a roomful people erupting in response. Yet I remember seeing PLAY IT AGAIN SAM alone in a nearly empty theater when I was 14 or so and laughing so hard I actually fell into the aisle (the only other time that happened for me was IT'S ALIVE, when cops corner the wrong baby.) Was very disappointed to buy the LP of the film and hear all the jokes ruined by an obnoxious laugh track.

Naked Gun's a panic. Rivals Airplane for being uproarious. But I've never bothered with any of the sequels either. I just assume 90% of sequels are the suck and pay them no never mind.

My parents were wild about A Shot in the Dark and the Pink Panther movies. I tried to find them hilarious, but did not succeed. If I'm in a jolly Scaramanga mood, I'll smirk a few times, and that's about it.

trevanian wrote:

CJB wrote:

Certainly is. Comedic filmmaking peaked in the 80's with all the Zucker/Abrahams/Proft movies IMO.

TOP SECRET! is so funny to me that I almost never need to put the disk in, because I can make myself laugh just recalling any of about 50 or 60 moments or lines or lyrics. Am pretty sure NAKED GUN had a ton of laughs, but the sequel must have diminished my feelings about it, because outside of a GOLDFINGER-looking atom bomb, I didn't find anything funny in 2, and haven't even bothered with the third one.

Oddly enough, the films that I thought were gutbustingly funny and timeless and could merit endless rewatches in the 70s (THE PARTY, RETURN OF THE PINK PANTHER and especially THE PINK PANTHER STRIKES AGAIN, which is practically a Bond movie in scale, all by Blake Edwards) don't register well for me at all anymore.

I guess it is like how certain films are enhanced by having a roomful people erupting in response. Yet I remember seeing PLAY IT AGAIN SAM alone in a nearly empty theater when I was 14 or so and laughing so hard I actually fell into the aisle (the only other time that happened for me was IT'S ALIVE, when cops corner the wrong baby.) Was very disappointed to buy the LP of the film and hear all the jokes ruined by an obnoxious laugh track.

I too love The Party, but it's another one of those films that is now deemed 'problematic'.
Still remember how hard I laughed the first time I saw that opening sequence with the bugle.

Somerset wrote:

I hear that, BI. You might be onto something. Personally I'm unsure whether that's because I'm more inhibited (perhaps via life's stresses/responsibilities)...or if I simply don't make the time and space to laugh as a younger self would. I might just not seek it out as much. But then there's the novelty effect...you can only hear the same jokes so many times.

My favorite humor when I was a kid was definitely the silly stuff. I think the Python sketch I laughed hardest at on first viewing in my teens was the fish slapping dance one.

Michael Palin's most recent travelogue series was in North Korea (yes, you read that correctly) and the Python sketch he chose to show his guide 'the sort of thing I used to do' was the fish-slapping dance.

Wow I will have to look out for that. I'm surprised Kim let him in the country. They must have thought he was there to film an episode of the Communist Quiz Show.

See How They Run - droll, knowing comedy thriller set in Fifties London in which a planned film version of Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap is hindered by the murder of the director. With Sam Rockwell, Saoirse Ronan, Adrien Brody, David Oyelowo and Reece Shearsmith.

Pair of Denzels.

FLIGHT (2012)


Good. Badboy Sully. Gripping all the way through but rewatching more than the first thirty minutes might feel tired on rewatch.

...and...

JOHN Q (2002)


Slightly awkward in a film grammar sort of way and plays out implausibly but nowhere near as bad as its 24% on RT would suggest. Denzel carries it, but Duvall and Liotta round out the credibility. The whole thing is tight enough to kick back to.

Thor: Love and Thunder

Taika Waititi's style has taken just a few years to go from fun and entertaining (Hunt for the Wilderpeople) to dull and groan-inducing.
This film is utterly about Waititi indulging in his own little stylistic obsessions instead of making a compelling Thor film. Ragnarok had Cate Blanchett's star power to paper over a lot of the cracks, but there is no one to save this one.

The Last Blockbuster - charming and unsurprisingly nostalgic docu about the sole surviving Blockbuster Video store.

The Rhythm Section - the comprehensive box-office failure of this presumably means that it will be the first and last non-Bond globetrotting action thriller that EON ever produce. It's actually not bad, with a life-now-in-ruins Blake Lively setting off on a path of vengeance after learning that the aircraft accident that killed her family was in fact due to terrorism.

Jackie Brown - 25th anniversary screening of Tarantino's third flick, an adaptation of Elmore Leonard's Rum Punch. QT dials back his usual schtick a bit (only 4 deaths in a 2-and-a-half hour runtime, none of them particularly bloody or brutal) to deliver a highly entertaining crime caper with a terrific cast (Pam Grier, Samuel L Jackson, Robert De Niro, Robert Forster, Bridget Fonda and Michael Keaton).

Blunt Instrument wrote:

The Last Blockbuster - charming and unsurprisingly nostalgic docu about the sole surviving Blockbuster Video store.

My hometown actually had a video rental store until the covid lockdown sheltered it permanently. I miss it but I got that experience of the movie rental night for a whole decade longer than most.

Blunt Instrument wrote:

Jackie Brown - 25th anniversary screening of Tarantino's third flick, an adaptation of Elmore Leonard's Rum Punch. QT dials back his usual schtick a bit (only 4 deaths in a 2-and-a-half hour runtime, none of them particularly bloody or brutal) to deliver a highly entertaining crime caper with a terrific cast (Pam Grier, Samuel L Jackson, Robert De Niro, Robert Forster, Bridget Fonda and Michael Keaton).

Only ever seen it once but I did like it. Same with Once Upon A Time In Hollywood. Only watched it once but my response was way more even-keeled than typically is the case with his movies.

Of late, I found myself wishing that someone had convinced him that movies don't have to run to 2 hours 45 or whatever, especially when their story's too slight to support it (The Hateful Eight, for example).

If you find that person, send them after everyone else in Hollywood.

Movie ought to be 1 hour 55 minutes tops unless you have a special license.

Terrence Malick has at least temporarily ruined all movies for me. It's just so incredibly beautiful to see it makes me want to look at a screen all the less. It's the first time I've seen a director capture trees that look like trees and grass that looks like grass. How does he know how to film nature the way it looks when you are five years old? It feels like the holy spirit is guiding the cameras.

I definitely liked Badlands and Days of Heaven.

Thin Red Line bored me right to sleep.

Can’t remember if I’ve seen any others.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0478304/

This is probably my favorite but they were all that great to me. I'm not sure I've seen a better director up to this point.

I remember the buzz around Tree of Life when it came out. I don’t know if its critical rep has held up since.

Somerset wrote:

I remember the buzz around Tree of Life when it came out. I don’t know if its critical rep has held up since.

It's crazy how many of his movies are rated a 5 or 6 at best.

The Tree of Life is too good to be called a movie. Just the shots of the trees are more valuable than anything Hollywood could ever put out.
I'm pretty sure it was you in another thread awhile back saying movies often lack a soul this one is pure soul. I can't even remember what it was about.

Wild Strawberries

didn't fully connect with all of it but pure art, total 10

Perilagu Khan wrote:

You tell 'em, CJB.

Arnold "screw your freedoms" Schwarzenegger should be deported back to his birth country.

Sarai wrote:

Perilagu Khan wrote:

You tell 'em, CJB.

Arnold "screw your freedoms" Schwarzenegger should be deported back to his birth country.

If we deported everybody who deserved it, North America would be downright deserted. Hmmm...come to think of it, that doesn't sound half bad.

Sarai wrote:

Perilagu Khan wrote:

You tell 'em, CJB.

Arnold "screw your freedoms" Schwarzenegger should be deported back to his birth country.

Arnold's views became decidedly unsound as the decades passed.

He did the intro for Milton Friedman's series on individual liberty 30 years ago but now wants your freedoms to get their "ass to Mars."

it's not the first time we have heard that from an Austrian

“I met Death today. We are playing chess.”