What Was the Last Movie You Watched?

ChiroDoc said:
I appreciate reading all the reports of movies that people have recently watched, but I would like it even more if people would say the reasons they liked a movie, or in some cases disliked it. Saying "I really liked X movie" doesn't really give an indication of what you thought was good about it. What did you like about it? The story, the direction, the cinematography, the acting, the production design? It would be helpful if generally a mention would be a little more descriptive about what impressed the viewer. Cheers!
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This is right, but sometimes I like a movie for emotional reasons, without thinking of acting, cinematography or something else. For this case it is difficult to explain to other people why I like it. Another reason for me is, that I am very busy since some months and this is going on. I'd need too much time for a detailed explanation.

And then the topic of the movies isn't important enough to me. There are much more important topics, e.g. on peace and war (Middle East or Ukraine/Russia). But even there are people who have valid reasons for one or the other side and they write them in detail. Yet I have never seen, that somebody has changed the mind after reading it. Most people stick to their opinion.

In a forum only dealing with movies and for film reviewers it would make sense.
 
MaidMarian said:
I just treated myself to a subscription to the Criterion channel.
I watched a 2022 Japanese movie today called Plan 75.

In a dystopian future, Japan’s government launches Plan 75, a program to encourage the elderly to terminate their own lives to relieve it’s rapidly aging population’s social and economic burdens.😮
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There is a Japanese film with the same topic from 1983 "The Ballad of Narayama". But it plays in the 19th century in a remote village.

The Ballad of Narayama (1983 film) - Wikipedia

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084390/

Trailer:

 

Oof! "Prototype" (2022).

Cheap British sci-fi, production values at least better than Dr. Who. Frightening, mainly due to its warped storyline. I can't figure it out. It feels like a radical feminist wet dream. Male characters are all monsters or incredibly weak. Female characters in traditional roles are portrayed as pitiful. And then there are those androids!
 
Paladin1950 said:
I saw it on Broadway with Anthony Perkins playing the lead character.
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I never knew that was a Broadway show! Presumably not a musical...

Oops - Just realized you were referring to "Equus", not "Logan's Run" - I was trying to figure out how LR would be on B'way or what part Anthony Perkins would have played, given his age when LR came around. 🤣
 
StarSong said:
I never knew that was a Broadway show! Presumably not a musical...

Oops - Just realized you were referring to "Equus", not "Logan's Run" - I was trying to figure out how LR would be on B'way or what part Anthony Perkins would have played, given his age when LR came around. 🤣
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Dr. Frank N. Furter or Tim Curry? Just this morning I was singing a long to the song "Science fiction, double feature, Dr. X will build a creature, see androids fighting ......"
 
We have just had a long weekend here, so I watched the movie "New York, New York" with Liza Minnelli and Robert De Nero. He played an egotistical Saxaphone player and she a naive singer, who meet on VJ Day and embark upon a strained and rocky romance. Loved the music and singing. Previews said: Abandon your expectations of an ordinary plot and you'll end up humming the title song. Minnelli tears into the title
song and it's a wowser. It had such a sad ending though.

For those that love the old-time musicals, I highly recommend "Deep in My Heart". My favourite. It stars Jose Ferrer as the composer Sigmund Romberg. The music and dancing are fantastic, and you'll see many famous singers and dancers. One of my favourite scenes is Gene Kelly dancing with his brother Fred Kelly.
 
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MaidMarian said:
I watched “The Last Picture Show”. I’ve seen it several times and love it.
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Oh, I do too. In fact it's one of my all time favorite films. It was a perfectly done small picture, with stunning performances-- chiefly by the great Cloris Leachman as a depressed middle-aged housewife; and by Ben Johnson as the small town's wise and philosophical businessman. They both won Best Supporting Actor/Actress Academy Awards. But everyone excelled in this one.

The great Robert Surtees provided moody and revealing black & white cinematography. IMO it's one of Peter Bogdanovich's finest directing accomplishments. The first rate screenplay was by Larry McMurtry (Terms of Endearment) The story is a prime small town story telling about the sad disintegration of the heart of a small Texas community.

It came out in 1971, when I was on tour with an American band in London. I eagerly saw it at a lovely London movie house, but it made me so homesick that I wanted to leave the tour and take the first flight home!...:(
 
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Wolfs (2024)

Despite the presence of two mega stars (Brad Pitt and George Clooney), this production is surprisingly empty. This may be one of those stories whose premise sounded good on paper, but burdened with its rather bland screenplay, it mostly fails to deliver the goods.

Two independent “fixers” are called, each by separate employers, to cover up an apparent death in a fancy Manhattan hotel suite after a female D.A. has an impulsive tryst with a younger man who she picked up in the hotel’s bar. The young man, while horsing around, falls off the bed and hits his head on a glass covered table.

The fixers have both been hired by different important people to make the problem go away. Each one is used to working solo (“lone wolves”), so they resent and resist each other until their employers demand that they work together. That they steadfastly resent each other during the time they work together and complain about it is the central gag used over and over… and over again. The gag gets old pretty quickly.

The lack of humorous dialogue is the chief culprit in the movie. If one is going to write a hare-brained action comedy, it follows that there needs to be off-beat and quirky comedy dialogue, ala the Coens or Wes Anderson. Writer/director John Watts should certainly be aware of this. Perhaps his experience in directing Spider Man films and other MCU projects did not provide him with experience in comedy writing. It’s always been my contention that directors ought not direct their own scripts because they tend to not have enough distance from the stories. There are exceptions of course.

A word about the acting. Although Pitt and Clooney have turned in many fine performances over the years, this film will not be remembered as chief examples of their abilities. Clooney was slightly more engaged than was Pitt, but both seemed like they were more or less walking through their parts. There again, some of that was the flattish dialogue. Pitt made 4 pictures for 2024, Clooney 2. Maybe they were simply tired…..

Doc’s rating: 5/10
 
Want a funny take on a campy '50s-style horror film for this Halloween season?

This one just dropped a bit ago, free on YouTube:

RiffTrax Live: Giant Spider Invasion (Full FREE Movie)


Even better than the older take on this movie by MST3K decades back. This one is done in front of a live audience of fans.

Includes a creepy short featuring puppets.
 
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On TCM tonight. They said that director Charles Barton claimed that the actors playing the monsters: Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney Jr., & Glenn Strange, were real nice and friendly actors to work with. He claimed that the real monsters were Abbott and Costello. I read their biography years ago. Lou Costello was not always a nice person.
bud and lou.jpg
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein - Wikipedia
 
ChiroDoc said:
View attachment 372995

Wolfs (2024)

Despite the presence of two mega stars (Brad Pitt and George Clooney), this production is surprisingly empty. This may be one of those stories whose premise sounded good on paper, but burdened with its rather bland screenplay, it mostly fails to deliver the goods.

Two independent “fixers” are called, each by separate employers, to cover up an apparent death in a fancy Manhattan hotel suite after a female D.A. has an impulsive tryst with a younger man who she picked up in the hotel’s bar. The young man, while horsing around, falls off the bed and hits his head on a glass covered table.

The fixers have both been hired by different important people to make the problem go away. Each one is used to working solo (“lone wolves”), so they resent and resist each other until their employers demand that they work together. That they steadfastly resent each other during the time they work together and complain about it is the central gag used over and over… and over again. The gag gets old pretty quickly.

The lack of humorous dialogue is the chief culprit in the movie. If one is going to write a hare-brained action comedy, it follows that there needs to be off-beat and quirky comedy dialogue, ala the Coens or Wes Anderson. Writer/director John Watts should certainly be aware of this. Perhaps his experience in directing Spider Man films and other MCU projects did not provide him with experience in comedy writing. It’s always been my contention that directors ought not direct their own scripts because they tend to not have enough distance from the stories. There are exceptions of course.

A word about the acting. Although Pitt and Clooney have turned in many fine performances over the years, this film will not be remembered as chief examples of their abilities. Clooney was slightly more engaged than was Pitt, but both seemed like they were more or less walking through their parts. There again, some of that was the flattish dialogue. Pitt made 4 pictures for 2024, Clooney 2. Maybe they were simply tired…..

Doc’s rating: 5/10
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Thanks for the review - I was hoping this would be up to the Ocean's 11 & 13 standards, but apparently not.
 
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