Last Movie you Watched?

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  • edited November 2015 Posts: 12,476
    Lincoln (2012). Great film carried by great performances, particularly Daniel Day-Lewis. I'm surprised it's only at 7.4/10 on IMDB right now. I've seen it many times and always enjoy it.
  • Posts: 157
    The Hunger Games - Mockingjay Part 2.
    2 stars out of 5, in my humble opinion.
  • Lancaster007Lancaster007 Shrublands Health Clinic, England
    Posts: 1,874
    chrisisall wrote: »
    Jurassic World.
    What a piece of crap. It made 3 look like gold. Biggest film of 2015? No wonder we are in the global mess we're in. I fear for humanity....

    Oh dear, glad I didn't see in the cinema then.
  • DaltonCraig007DaltonCraig007 They say, "Evil prevails when good men fail to act." What they ought to say is, "Evil prevails."
    edited November 2015 Posts: 15,718
    Scary to think the director of 'Jurassic World' will direct SW episode 9. After making JP 3 look like gold, will he make Phantom Menace look like gold too?
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy My Secret Lair
    Posts: 13,384
    Not so much a movie but Torchwood: children of earth. Only five one hour
    episodes, which I watched yesterday. ( so a sort of long film). Great Sci-Fi
    Story, very much in the old tradition of Quatermass.
    Sad to say they stopped making Torchwood, Pity as it was a great show.
  • doubleoegodoubleoego #LightWork
    Posts: 11,139
    Byzantium....Gemma Arterton is just so friggin gorgeous.
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    FoxRox wrote: »
    Spielberg's Duel (1971). Can't believe it's only a TV movie - it's really entertaining!

    Dennis Weaver is terrific in it.
  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    Posts: 17,804
    Scary to think the director of 'Jurassic World' will direct SW episode 9. After making JP 3 look like gold, will he make Phantom Menace look like gold too?
    Actually, my problems with it were more story related than with the direction; there's still hope for 9.
  • FoxRox wrote: »
    Lincoln (2012). Great film carried by great performances, particularly Daniel Day-Lewis. I'm surprised it's only at 7.4/10 on IMDB right now. I've seen it many times and always enjoy it.

    Same here. Lincoln is one of my best all-time movie, along with OHMSS and CR.
  • Rossi wrote: »
    The Hunger Games - Mockingjay Part 2.
    2 stars out of 5, in my humble opinion.

    I have to dissagree. 2nd best movie I saw in 2015 right after Specter, of course.
  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    Posts: 24,187
    @JohnBarryFan

    You haven't watched Mad Max Fury Road yet? 2nd best movie I saw in 2015 right after Spectre. ;-)
  • Artemis81Artemis81 In Christmas Land
    Posts: 543
    bondsum wrote: »
    Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2. Possibly the worse movie I've seen this year, possibly even in the last 4 years. Boring. The first hour consists of mostly heart-to-hearts, lengthy exchanges and endless rebel-rousing speaches. One guy was snoring loudly in the seat behind me; it took all my will power to not join him in this coma-induced borefest of a movie. There's only one stand-out set piece involving mutated creatures, oh and an oil-slick. That's it. This doesn't even warrent half a star. It's terrible. It's about as thought provoking as a Christmas cracker proverb.
    Rossi wrote: »
    The Hunger Games - Mockingjay Part 2.
    2 stars out of 5, in my humble opinion.
    Very sad to hear this. Been looking forward to seeing this movie since I've enjoyed the series so far. Hate to see it ending in disappointment. :(
  • MurdockMurdock The minus world
    Posts: 16,351
    Cowboys and Aliens.
    Still enjoy this movie. :D
  • bondjamesbondjames You were expecting someone else?
    Posts: 23,883
    Murdock wrote: »
    Cowboys and Aliens.
    Still enjoy this movie. :D
    Saw it in the theatre. What a strange (or one could say inventive) concept for a film. It works, but I thought DC seemed a little out of place in it with his cowboy hat.
  • MurdockMurdock The minus world
    Posts: 16,351
    bondjames wrote: »
    Murdock wrote: »
    Cowboys and Aliens.
    Still enjoy this movie. :D
    Saw it in the theatre. What a strange (or one could say inventive) concept for a film. It works, but I thought DC seemed a little out of place in it with his cowboy hat.

    All I kept thinking of was James Bond in the old west. Makes me want to see somebody do a Spectre mashup of Craig in Cowboys and Aliens and Waltz in Django. :))
  • bondjamesbondjames You were expecting someone else?
    Posts: 23,883
    Murdock wrote: »
    bondjames wrote: »
    Murdock wrote: »
    Cowboys and Aliens.
    Still enjoy this movie. :D
    Saw it in the theatre. What a strange (or one could say inventive) concept for a film. It works, but I thought DC seemed a little out of place in it with his cowboy hat.

    All I kept thinking of was James Bond in the old west. Makes me want to see somebody do a Spectre mashup of Craig in Cowboys and Aliens and Waltz in Django. :))
    Ha ha. That's true......I bet you someone creative does do something on youtube at some point..
  • MurdockMurdock The minus world
    Posts: 16,351
    bondjames wrote: »
    Murdock wrote: »
    bondjames wrote: »
    Murdock wrote: »
    Cowboys and Aliens.
    Still enjoy this movie. :D
    Saw it in the theatre. What a strange (or one could say inventive) concept for a film. It works, but I thought DC seemed a little out of place in it with his cowboy hat.

    All I kept thinking of was James Bond in the old west. Makes me want to see somebody do a Spectre mashup of Craig in Cowboys and Aliens and Waltz in Django. :))
    Ha ha. That's true......I bet you someone creative does do something on youtube at some point..

    I plan on doing it sometime. :P I just need some good editing software.
  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    edited November 2015 Posts: 17,804
    Return Of The Jedi. The steel book Blu Ray. My first SW BD. I'd always thought this looked a bit murky, even on DVD, but WOW did this disk POP!!! It was really like seeing it for the first time!!!! Big change from the DVD version: the Ewoks blinked occasionally. And it WORKED for me! Happy camper here! =D>
  • Posts: 12,476
    What About Bob? (1991), one of my all-time favorite comedies. Bill Murray is terrific of course, but I think Richard Dreyfuss steals the show; the way he expresses his frustration about Bob is just hysterical. Terrific comedy - recommended to anyone looking for a good laugh.
  • Lancaster007Lancaster007 Shrublands Health Clinic, England
    Posts: 1,874
    chrisisall wrote: »
    Return Of The Jedi. The steel book Blu Ray. My first SW BD. I'd always thought this looked a bit murky, even on DVD, but WOW did this disk POP!!! It was really like seeing it for the first time!!!! Big change from the DVD version: the Ewoks blinked occasionally. And it WORKED for me! Happy camper here! =D>

    Have to say least favourite of the original trilogy - and a glimpse of things to come. Ewoks ffs! And the awful tinkering at the end with putting CH face over the original actor, just hideous!
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    chrisisall wrote: »
    Return Of The Jedi. The steel book Blu Ray. My first SW BD. I'd always thought this looked a bit murky, even on DVD, but WOW did this disk POP!!! It was really like seeing it for the first time!!!! Big change from the DVD version: the Ewoks blinked occasionally. And it WORKED for me! Happy camper here! =D>

    Have to say least favourite of the original trilogy - and a glimpse of things to come. Ewoks ffs! And the awful tinkering at the end with putting CH face over the original actor, just hideous!

    Wow, they really did that? I was pissed when they removed the human Jabba from the first film and replaced him with that monsterworm.
  • Posts: 5,997
    During my latest vacations, I was almost entirely on a japanese trip. Four Godzilla movies, and the first Lady Snowblood. Plus "The Pirates ! in An Adventure with Scientists". So Here goes :

    Mothra Vs. Godzilla : First meeting between two Toho monsters with their own movies. And what a battle that was.

    Godzilla : King of the Monsters : the "Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern are dead" of the Godzilla franchise. Why the distributor felt the need to add an american actor and american-filmed scenes in a movie that stood so brillantly on its own, I'll never know. But most of the time, it works. One can believe that the reporter witnessed the events of the movie. On the other hand, the fact that he happened to be a friend of Serizawa, I find a bit hrd to believe.

    Ghidorah, The Three-Headed Monster: first apperance of the titular dragon, and the best battle between monsters so far.

    Godzilla vs. Monster Zero :Godzilla's victory dance was a jump the shark moment if there ever was one. . Still entertaining, thugh.

    Lady Snowblood : although quite good (and Meiko Kaji gives a performance on a par with her "Female Prisoner Scorpion"), I do prefer the manga, which has a lot more details added to it (and a lot more nudity ;)

    The Pirates : Aardman Studios in great form. Lots to be enjoyed in that movie.

    More recently, watched "The Battle of the Five Armies", in the extended edition, and loved it. Now to find the time to see the six movies back to back....
  • Posts: 12,476
    Paths of Glory (1957). An amazing film, and in my opinion, one of Stanley Kubrick's finest.
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
    FoxRox wrote: »
    Paths of Glory (1957). An amazing film, and in my opinion, one of Stanley Kubrick's finest.

    Agreed. Kirk Douglas finest as well.
  • Lancaster007Lancaster007 Shrublands Health Clinic, England
    Posts: 1,874
    FoxRox wrote: »
    Paths of Glory (1957). An amazing film, and in my opinion, one of Stanley Kubrick's finest.

    Agreed. Kirk Douglas finest as well.

    Double agree. A superb piece of film-making.
  • edited November 2015 Posts: 12,476
    Glad you guys like it as well. I was blown away; expected to enjoy it, but not that much. Kirk Douglas was incredible. All the actors did a great job. The film further solidifies Kubrick among my favorite movie directors.
  • Posts: 582
    The Matrix (1999) - with an audio commentary by two philosophy professors. It was really interesting, and really helped appreciate further the layers of meaning in this classic of modern cinema.
  • Lancaster007Lancaster007 Shrublands Health Clinic, England
    Posts: 1,874
    FoxRox wrote: »
    Glad you guys like it as well. I was blown away; expected to enjoy it, but not that much. Kirk Douglas was incredible. All the actors did a great job. The film further solidifies Kubrick among my favorite movie directors.

    The ending with the german girl (Kubrick's wife I believe) singing, gets me every time.
  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    edited November 2015 Posts: 24,187
    @FoxRox

    Here's a review of the film I posted several years ago. ;-)
    Kubrick would soon after The Killing find himself involved in an even more ambitious project: Paths Of Glory. Returning to Europe's trenches in Wold War I, we follow the French army in their battle against the Germans. Interesting note: we never see even so much as a German soldier. How can you make a decent war film then?

    In terms of war, Kubrick will always bring nuance and contradiction into the game. Fear & Desire hadn't specified who was fighting who, let alone where or when. Paths Of Glory will specify who is fighting who, but will also focus its attention solely on the French. This film is an anti-war film in that it talks about the ridiculous decisions being made by powerful men in castles who toy around with the lives of the men in the trenches as if they were mere pawns in a chess game.

    Higher ranking officers make behind-the-scenes decisions to launch a futile attack against a strategic German point, only to boost up the morale of the folks at home. For they need to be convinced of the boldness and heroism that supposedly still motivates the French army. But when most of the men either refuse to leave the trenches or coward back after only a few steps, the General Staff orders a random execution of a number of men just to set an example. The wise Colonel Dax defends his men when they stand trial against a prejudiced jury.

    The threat doesn't come from behind no man's land. It comes from within. Paths Of Glory is about war, indeed, but more about the war against the fascist forms of warfare that even the 'good guys' resort to, rather than simply about the war against the Germans whom, again, we never even see in this film. (Notable exception, Kubrick's soon to be third wife portrays a German girl at the end of film, who through singing actually melts the hearts of the French soldiers. Again, Kubrick's war films are all about playing with expectations - as will become clear once more in at least two later films.)

    Paths of Glory is a magnificent film and Kubrick knows precisely what to do in order to elicit reactions of revulsion. He plays with contrast by pinballing between the dirt and madness at the front, and the sterility and richness in and around the staff's castle. However, we are soon to learn that the symbolical cleanness of said castle is overshadowed by an even greater severity than what goes on in the trenches. He turns the people who are in charge into the real foes and leaves the German army as nothing but an impenetrable wall. No-one yet dons a helmet with 'born to kill' written on it and wearing a peace badge at the same time, but Paths Of Glory does seem to focus on many of the same war related contradictions as will Full Metal Jacket three decades later.

    Kirk Douglas portrays Dax and does so with fierce energy. He's one of the strongest characters Kubrick will ever have in his films. Other notable appearances include Timothy Carey (from The Killing) and Joe Turkel (credited as Joseph Turkel), who we will see again in The Shining and who is perhaps best known as Dr. Eldon Tyrell in Blade Runner. Not only does Kubrick know how to work with actors, he shoots them in wonderful ways. His famous steady backtracking shots, here notably used as Dax strives through the trenches, add a lot of power to the scene. The film is shot in 1.66 and black and white.

    Paths Of Glory will forever be one of my favourite intelligent (anti-)war films. I was pulled in from the very first moment, by the sheer magnetism of Kubrick's photography alone, and I was never released from its grip. Recommended viewing for all!

    Final score: 9/10

    And here's a film I watched the other day:

    Dracula Untold (2014)

    dracula-untold-movie-poster.jpg

    One of the big ironies involving Dracula is that while some maintain that the original Stoker novel is unfilmable, hardly any book has even been subjected to more adaptations in the past 90+ years than Dracula! In fact, ever since Universal began using elements from the novel - I should say the stage play based on the novel - for films such as Dracula's daughter, Son of Dracula and House of Dracula in the 30s and 40s, it became obvious that Hollywood was going to make Dracula bigger than Stoker had ever intended. Hammer put their own spin on Dracula; so did Paul Morrissey and Andy Warhol. Black Draculas, female Draculas, cartoon Draculas... all sorts of Dracula incarnations came to life. Marvel Comics brought Dracula to the world of Blade, the X-Men, ... DC Comics would allow Batman some alone-time with the fiercest of all vampires. Writers went looking for prequel, sequel and sidequel stories to Stoker's book everywhere, even in the realms of Sci-fi horror in space and straight-up porn.

    One of the more recent angles that filmmakers have begun to explore is the "true" story of Vlad the Impaler, taking us back to the dark ages of the Turks versus whoever rather than to Transylvania. The television production Dark Prince: The True Story of Dracula is one of those attempts at delaying the vampire stuff as long as possible in favour of a more historically correct (?) account of the man who would be Dracula. But do we really want to see that? Besides a few books and essays here and there on the origin of Dracula, what we really know about Vlad the Impaler in connection with Dracula is paper-thin and in fact it is largely believed that Stoker was merely inspired by the man but had no intentions of using the historical Vlad directly as a character. In the end, we want to see the vampire, not the political or military leader.

    Gary Shore's Dracula Untold tries to do a bit of both. While it does start with a young and vital Vlad, the film quickly turns to darker places where Charles Dance as an old vampire gives Vlad an inhuman strength that will allow him to defeat his enemies in a spectacular rage. Traditional elements like silver, garlic and crosses are severely downplayed but overall there's enough vampire lore worked into the story to satisfy the purists.

    Luke Evans isn't exactly the first name that comes to mind if anyone says Dracula, but he's quite serviceable opposite the film's biggest baddie, Dominic Cooper. Unfortunately they do a lot of talking in a film that's barely 90 minutes long. But when the action comes, I find Dracula Untold really paying off. The visuals can't compete with the more expensive blockbusters of the day but the stuff that Vlad does when he's in full 'bats' mode looks rather good. Also, Dracula Untold ends on a rather interesting note. It has been speculated that "some day" we might see a sequel to this film; if so, I hope said sequel picks up where the final scene of the film leaves us, and not in the Middle Ages.

    As a Dracula fan I try to read and watch as much as I can concerning Dracula, knowing very well that a lot of what's available is neither worth the time nor the money. Dracula Untold, in that sense, felt like obligatory homework when I started watching the movie but grew on me in the short hour or so that spans the second and third act. It's far from a splendid movie but it gets a pass from this Dracula fan and that's saying something. ;-) Not sure YOU want to put your teeth into Dracula Untold but the blood is sweet enough, I promise.

    Still, I'd prefer if movies didn't go back to the days of Vlad the Impaler. I find most of that stuff relatively uninteresting to be honest. Coppola did it well in his prologue but at least he kept it a prologue. I prefer to see Dracula as a man from a distant past who tries to infiltrate "modern" society, be it the late eighteen hundreds, present day or even the future. I enjoy Dracula more as a mysterious harbinger of death who has found immortality in ways unknown to us, rather than as a young and vulnerable man who is shown to pick up 'vampirism' from another, more ancient kind. The more we get revealed to us about Dracula's origin, the less awesome he becomes IMO. In fact, I'd rather not see the man behind the fangs but the devil in the man's body. When Gary Oldman's Dracula makes love to Mina in Bram Stoker's Dracula, I love the confusion of romance and a dark satanic crime about to happen. Dracula Untold, by contrast, takes me on the path of a man I must, according to the script, sympathise with - almost to the point where his vampirism is a blessing and not a curse. That very thing might have been original by the way, if it hadn't been for that recent Twilight vampires-can-be-nice BS taking a dump on the vampire genre. So again, Dracula Untold isn't bad but I don't need another one of these stories about Vlad the Impaler turning into Dracula. Much like I don't care about Bruce Wayne if we hardly ever (or never, thank you, Gotham the TV series) get to Batman, I don't really care about a film that keeps Dracula as an almost-there-but-not-yet concept during most of it.
  • Lancaster007Lancaster007 Shrublands Health Clinic, England
    Posts: 1,874
    @DarthDimi - nice reviews. Love a good vampire film myself. Unfortunately caught one of the Twishite films on tv with the ex a while ago. How can a film with vampires and werewolves be so bloody boring?! God I hate everything Twilight! Give me Murnau's Nosferatu anyday!
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