Last Movie You Watched.

I consider CHINA SYNDROME and MISSING to be one of the great one-two acting punches ever. Lemmon's subtlety and continuity of performance, especially in the latter, had my mouth hanging open by the 2nd time I saw it in the theater.

His last scene in CHINA always 'got me' so well that I actually used my super-8 camera to film it off the TV set, then used my projector to play it back while I was acting a scene to trigger me emotionally. (as a zero-budget filmmaker, I wound up acting in nearly all of my stuff, but have to admit the tricks I used to get a performance out of myself were pretty unorthodox -- sometimes I would play a scene while looking at a mirror next to the camera, so I would know how to get my eye to glint just right, using every technical aspect rather than any actual minimal acting talent -- and it worked!)

Lemmon gave an acting clinic, no doubt about it. Won Best Actor, I believe. Certainly deserved it.

THE FLASH

I was hoping I would enjoy this. Turns out I loved it. When I first saw Miller as The Flash in the JL movie, I was underwhelmed, but he is actually a very capable actor and does well here. Cool that he gets his own movie, and it is one of the better ones from DC. Lots of both fun and drama, and the score is awesome. Love the choir work. There are several "surprise appearances" here as well, a treat for the fans, it is not just Michael Keaton, who has one of the major parts. The whole thing is really well made.

CJB wrote:

Some cracker writing in Conan and an outstanding soundtrack to boot.

Full disclosure - a combination of some nights of patchy sleep last week due to hot weather, being a man of a certain age, beer and the thing feeling like it was going nowhere fast meant I nodded off before the end. Eh ... I got the gist, as far as I'm concerned.

Blunt Instrument wrote:

CJB wrote:

Some cracker writing in Conan and an outstanding soundtrack to boot.

Full disclosure - a combination of some nights of patchy sleep last week due to hot weather, being a man of a certain age, beer and the thing feeling like it was going nowhere fast meant I nodded off before the end. Eh ... I got the gist, as far as I'm concerned.  

Bloody 'ell.

Don't tell me you missed this piece of pure poetry:

I remember loving Conan back in the 80s, but seeing it again some years ago was underwhelming.

Phantom Commander wrote:

I remember loving Conan back in the 80s, but seeing it again some years ago was underwhelming.

It's a pretty regular re-view for me. There's some flab on it, but that is true of the inferior (but still fun) sequel as well. I don't know that Conan really needed the Jim Jones kind of villain, but since I've never read the comics or the novels, I don't speak from any knowledge. Most importantly, Basil's score, which was enough here for me to watch IRON EAGLE years later, and that turned out to be even better (his score, not the movie, though I get a kick out of that too, so long as I skip over most of the first hour.)

trevanian wrote:

Phantom Commander wrote:

I remember loving Conan back in the 80s, but seeing it again some years ago was underwhelming.

It's a pretty regular re-view for me. There's some flab on it, but that is true of the inferior (but still fun) sequel as well. I don't know that Conan really needed the Jim Jones kind of villain, but since I've never read the comics or the novels, I don't speak from any knowledge. Most importantly, Basil's score, which was enough here for me to watch IRON EAGLE years later, and that turned out to be even better (his score, not the movie, though I get a kick out of that too, so long as I skip over most of the first hour.)

The score still holds up for me.
One thing that amazes me, is that Arnold was the best they could get?

I read that Conan The Destroyer is a good half-hour shorter and has a more humourous tone and toned-down violence.

Well, the first 2 sound good anyway. lol.

Blunt Instrument wrote:

I read that Conan The Destroyer is a good half-hour shorter  and has a more humourous tone and toned-down violence.

Well, the first 2 sound good anyway. lol.  

Grace Jones is amazingly entertaining and effective (Making Wilt the Stilt seem awfully stilted), to the point that she is a total letdown in the Bond film by comparison. I also really like Tracy Walter in just about everything, same for Mako.

The 2nd one is supposed to be more like the source material, so I'm guessing that means juvenile ... but shoot, I like 'juvenile SF' from Heinlein and Silverberg, and trek probably fits into that too.

Phantom Commander wrote:

trevanian wrote:

Phantom Commander wrote:

I remember loving Conan back in the 80s, but seeing it again some years ago was underwhelming.

It's a pretty regular re-view for me. There's some flab on it, but that is true of the inferior (but still fun) sequel as well. I don't know that Conan really needed the Jim Jones kind of villain, but since I've never read the comics or the novels, I don't speak from any knowledge. Most importantly, Basil's score, which was enough here for me to watch IRON EAGLE years later, and that turned out to be even better (his score, not the movie, though I get a kick out of that too, so long as I skip over most of the first hour.)

The score still holds up for me.
One thing that amazes me, is that Arnold was the best they could get?

Going by what I remember of the CINEFANTASTIQUE articles, Arnold was the only person ever considered for the role. I mean, were they going to have Kirk Douglas as Conan? (perhaps Milius was thinking along Peter Hunt lines here, going with the notion that good editing could create a performance beyond Arnie's native talent.

What I found interesting is that Milius had him slim down considerably for the role, probably to cut down on the 'freakish' aspect, whereas in the sequel they kept him half-naked most of the time and Fleischer had him muscle it all back up again.

Ferris Bueller's Day Off - classic 80s John Hughes comedy about the titular high-school kid (Matthew Broderick) wangling himself, his girlfriend (Mia Sara) and his neurotic best buddy Cameron (Alan Ruck) ... you've guessed it, the day off. Highlights include hilarious turns from Jeffrey Jones and Jennifer Grey (Ferris' uptight school dean and snarky sister respectively), one of cinema's snarliest guard dogs and the 'Twist And Shout' bit.

Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny - thankfully a much better last hurrah for everybody's favourite hat-wearing, whip-cracking, tomb-raiding, Nazi-punching archaeologist than Crystal Skull. Perhaps a little overlong but for the most part, tremendous fun.

How was the Phoebe Waldorf-Birmingham character?

Happy to see a good reaction. I am going, but not sure when. It has been the number one movie here during the weekend.

CJB wrote:

How was the Phoebe Waldorf-Birmingham character?

Mostly fine. Kinda reminiscent of Karen Allen in Raiders.

Mission : Impossible - imminent release of the 7th movie has me in the mood to rewatch some of the earlier flicks. More of a 'spy thriller with occasional setpieces' (those being the opening mission-gone-wrong in Prague, the Langley high-security computer vault 'heist' and the climactic train/'copter action) than a full-on action blockbuster, this nonetheless does enough to set up the franchise pretty neatly.

Interesting to note that this had a 'McGuffin' of a list of deep-cover agents on a computer disc/hard drive falling into the wrong hands a good 16 years before the Bond franchise did (Skyfall).

Blunt Instrument wrote:

Mission : Impossible - imminent release of the 7th movie has me in the mood to rewatch some of the earlier flicks. More of a 'spy thriller with occasional setpieces' (those being the opening mission-gone-wrong in Prague, the Langley high-security computer vault 'heist' and the climactic train/'copter action) than a full-on action blockbuster, this nonetheless does enough to set up the franchise pretty neatly.

Interesting to note that this had a 'McGuffin' of a list of deep-cover agents on a computer disc/hard drive falling into the wrong hands a good 16 years before the Bond franchise did (Skyfall).        

Not a fan of the earliest installments. Except for the second, these films got progressively better, and I have enjoyed the last few, especially FALLOUT.

Homicide (1991)--A very intense police procedural written and directed by David Mamet. In a sense, it is a basic cops-murderers-detectives film, but it is also made more interesting by the presence of a shadowy Zionist organization, and questions of Jewish identity, loyalty and masculinity. There is also a negro race element that was almost as prominent back then as it is now.

Definitely worth seeing.

Phantom Commander wrote:

Blunt Instrument wrote:

Mission : Impossible - imminent release of the 7th movie has me in the mood to rewatch some of the earlier flicks. More of a 'spy thriller with occasional setpieces' (those being the opening mission-gone-wrong in Prague, the Langley high-security computer vault 'heist' and the climactic train/'copter action) than a full-on action blockbuster, this nonetheless does enough to set up the franchise pretty neatly.

Interesting to note that this had a 'McGuffin' of a list of deep-cover agents on a computer disc/hard drive falling into the wrong hands a good 16 years before the Bond franchise did (Skyfall).        

Not a fan of the earliest installments. Except for the second, these films got progressively better, and I have enjoyed the last few, especially FALLOUT.

Only really liked the first one. Saw the second because I was supposed to do an article on it till Cruise decided 'no vfx coverage till the following year.' Skipped the third, endured the fourth, and I watched about 15min of one with Rebecca Ferguson that seemed like it was in MATRIX land (the Woo was like that too, with spring-loaded sand and impossible collisions that would have killed everybody instantly.)

I really don't get the appeal of these things, or Cruise. But again, the first one was pretty solid.

Mission : Impossible 3 - Hunt and the team try to prevent arms dealer Owen Davian selling a bioweapon to the highest bidder in this third instalment. Philip Seymour Hoffman gives good villain ... there's SOMETHING about him; a quality that suggests that in real life as well he may not necessarily have been a very nice guy.

Best action sequence is probably the mid-point bridge attack.

SHAZAM! FURY OF THE GODS
It has its moments, but I much prefer the first one.
Minor observation: Wolf Blitzer appears for what must be the 100th time in a movie, confirming yet again that he is nothing but an actor in a world of fiction.

Blitzer is like the new Howard K. Smith, in that Smith was the only network anchor who seemed to be permitted to appear as himself in fictional programming everywhere in the 80s.

trevanian wrote:

Blitzer is like the new Howard K. Smith, in that Smith was the only network anchor who seemed to be permitted to appear as himself in fictional programming everywhere in the 80s.  

Not familiar with the name, but looking up his picture on the net, I do recognize that face.

THE MEG
This was well made, and I was entertained.Originality is however completely absent. It contains countless cliches and tropes seen over and over in other films. Including fat people dying. That said, the sequel also looks fun: