Last Movie You Watched

[milk]

Just watching "Billy Connolly's Big Send Off." I suppose you already know what song they sing:

[listener]

another in the Columbia film noir 2 pack
PUSHOVER
dir. Richard Quine,   introducing Kim Novak with Fred MacMurray
nice sharp B&W transfer, an unusual music credit card, the conductor larger than the composer!  Maybe some of those cues really are by Max Steiner.

[TheGSMoeller]

Summer Wars
Directed by Mamoru Hosoda

A tech thriller merged with a family dramedy with bright and colorful visuals and an excellent script. Not what I was expecting, with more humorous and poignant moments concerning relationships and consequences. In the end, it's a completely satisfying anime that enters many genres but never loses focus. A very good film.
I attached the trailer for those interested, it's the English version trailer but I highly recommend the original Japanese language version of the film, as always.



http://www.youtube.com/v/IsLwVoZqEjk

[ibanezmonster]

Summer Wars
Directed by Mamoru Hosoda

A tech thriller merged with a family dramedy with bright and colorful visuals and an excellent script. Not what I was expecting, with more humorous and poignant moments concerning relationships and consequences. In the end, it's a completely satisfying anime that enters many genres but never loses focus. A very good film.
I attached the trailer for those interested, it's the English version trailer but I highly recommend the original Japanese language version of the film, as always.

I personally found it underwhelming and thought it had too many cliches, but interesting to see what you liked about it.

[TheGSMoeller]

I personally found it underwhelming and thought it had too many cliches, but interesting to see what you liked about it.

It did have it share of cliches, Greg, absolutely. But I think what initially impressed me was the smaller scale of the settings (more time spent at Natsuki's grandmother's estate rather than in OZ ) and how the entire family gradually became affected by the problem in OZ and eventually assisted in the solution, with the latter having some humorous results. The whole chord of the plot did take me some what by surprise since I was going into it mostly blind, but found myself entertained by its direction and characters.

Have you seen Hosada's most recent feature Wolf Children?

[Ken B]

The Wolf of Wall Street

It has some funny parts. Not nearly enough of them.

[Octave]

The Wolf of Wall Street

It has some funny parts. Not nearly enough of them.

It stinks on ice!  I appreciated him offering up Leo flipping off the speaker phone (i.e. us), just so we'd not make any mistake about how to feel about the protagonist.  It pains me to see the Green Priest treading water like this, though I did find the yacht fiasco kind of funny....it one-upped the Cocaine Panic montage from GOODFELLAS.
Maybe WWS will become a cult/maudit gem?  Maybe in 80 years it will look like DeMille.  There were some compositions that had me flashing back to CLEOPATRA. 
I usually do not care for DiCaprio but I kind of liked him here in spite of the style and material, ditto DJANGO UNCHAINED.  I think I dig his 'gonzo'.

Re: ACT OF KILLING:

It just looks so disturbing and hard to watch. Of course it looks very compelling also. I feel I should find out. But, again, it's hard for me to get myself to do it. Was it difficult to sit through?

It did not contain a lot (or really any, iirc) "graphic" violence or a laundry list of detailed tortures etc.  I thought the disturbing quality of the film would lie in the subjects' remorselessness, or in the kitsch re-enactments as a way of living out Hollywood fantasies, of using those "universal" (sic) Hollywood dreams to articulate their crimes in a way that made them tolerable, mythical, glamorous.  I didn't really find any of that....mostly I was disturbed by what seemed to be the film's courting some easy laughs and easy judgment on the part of an "enlightened" audience.  I could almost hear First World audience snickering playing through my head like canned laughter, but the rugpulling never seemed to come.  In this sense a number of the film's sequences came off as cheap.  I'm overstating it, though...I didn't hate the picture or think it was necessarily this calculated or easygoing.   I did not see the masterpiece. 
FYI the one I saw was two hours, but there's a longer version of ~160 minutes that's supposed to be noticeably different from the chopped version.

One nasty bit of "reality" (?) that popped up at least twice was children breaking down into hysterical tears after being enlisted (bullied?) into some of the re-enactments.  That was disturbing to me, but not just in a cheap-pity way.  It's like only the children could touch the repressed material of that culture's repressed (even though directly invoked, even re-enacted) history.  They had fun playing the re-enactment game until they were overcome by panic and despair.  The adults seemed indulgent/confused by this.

Something more cheerful, and tinged with nostalgia for me:


THE WORK OF MICHEL GONDRY (Palm Pictures / Directors Label, dvd, 2003)
Music videos 1988-2003, shortfilms and miscellany.

I don't care much for most of this music anymore, but that "floor show" video for Daft Punk's "Around the World" is really great.  I watched it three times and could not stop smiling.

[Bogey]

Which version did you watch, James?  And your thoughts.

[milk]

I watched the entirety of DEADWOOD in a pretty short of amount of time just recently, and I agree it was excellent and addictive.  My enthusiasm led me to leap directly into JOHN FROM CINCINNATI, which I did not like much at all; though one DVD 'making of' extra showing Milch interpreting the metaphysics to his cast on location, was funny and kind of fascinating....it seems he never stopped being a professor in a certain mold.  (Also, maybe a bit fried from his many years of excess.)  If one of the DEADWOOD extras discs contains stuff like that, I'd be keen to watch it.
The outsized characters and calisthenic swearing were what put me off when it was first out on disc several years ago; I am very glad I went back to it and pushed through those episodes again.  (The grotesques are certainly what I love about it this time, along with the dialogue; maybe not quite so much the swearing.)
I am still thinking about watching LUCK and maybe even NYPD BLUE, which I've never seen.
(from an old NEW YORKER profile when DW was still on TV)

Interesting to see the quote. Yeah, Deadwood is a great show about the forming of a community. I'm not sure what I think of Luck. I might need to look at it again. I didn't love the first time.

[Todd]

Godzilla.  This movie has some accomplished actors in it.  It has a plot.  It has dialogue.  But really, who sees a Godzilla movie for anything other than a giant lizard stomping around, wreaking havoc, and causing bankruptcy of reinsurers?  That's what I want to see, and the movie delivers; the big battle scenes caused me to smile.  Good fun, though the film could have been trimmed a bit, I suppose.

[TheGSMoeller]

Godzilla.  This movie has some accomplished actors in it.  It has a plot.  It has dialogue.  But really, who sees a Godzilla movie for anything other than a giant lizard stomping around, wreaking havoc, and causing bankruptcy of reinsurers?  That's what I want to see, and the movie delivers; the big battle scenes caused me to smile.  Good fun, though the film could have been trimmed a bit, I suppose.

I enjoyed it. Yes, the film's main star is Godzilla, but I applaud the build up to the final showdown, creating tension for 90 mins and leaving enough mystery to still be interested in what the monster is capable of. And quite impressive in 3D, the filmmakers left out all the glitter and glam of 3D and utilized it to enhance the scale of size and destruction. There were a few issues with script but all were swept away by the visuals, and the exclusion of any humor was a huge plus (see 1998 Godzilla for that crap).

[SonicMan46]

Away in the mountains for 3 nights - in our usual Blowing Rock rental condo @ the Chetola Resort - Wi-Fi in the condo + DVD players w/ a nice moderate sized HDTV - brought along an eclectic mixture of films - ladies choice - watch the 3 below:

Little Women a favorite childhood book of the wife and the 1994 version is quite good, although I prefer the earlier one from the '30s w/ Hepburn et al. 

Sideways (2004) - hard to believe this film is 10 years old - still makes me laugh!

Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil (1997) - boy, another film that was made longer ago than I thought!  Susan & I have been to the Savannah area (Hilton Head Island, SC just north about 40 minutes) many times and the atmosphere is caught wonderfully by director Clint Eastwood - film has received some mixed reviews over the years, but I still enjoy.  Dave

   

[Bogey]

I'm a sucker for Monster Movies like this .. definitely on my 'to see' list.

Ditto!  Have the original on blu and hope they can capture some of that '54 lightning!

[Bogey]

Re-constructed version. Good release ..  if you like the film.

I have Double Indemnity lined up for tonight.

Be sure to catch some of the extras as well.

[Karl Henning]

Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil (1997) - boy, another film that was made longer ago than I thought!  Susan & I have been to the Savannah area (Hilton Head Island, SC just north about 40 minutes) many times and the atmosphere is caught wonderfully by director Clint Eastwood - film has received some mixed reviews over the years, but I still enjoy.  Dave

Thanks for reminding me that I need to watch this one, Dave!

Recently:  Christine, which was better (as a movie) than I expected;  and a re-watch, Men in Black II.  A postmaster in Truro, Mass., eh?

[Cato]

In recent days: the ancestor of the TV show Green Acres:

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One of the biggest movies of the 1940's!  Some funny bits hold up quite well.  Green Acres takes the premise into surreality.

And..

[asin]B00AEBB932[/asin]

No reason to gild this classic!  Watch it, if you have never seen it.

And I understand the Blu-Ray is marvelous!  We are not yet in the Blu-ray universe (...maybe this summer).

[SonicMan46]

Thanks for reminding me that I need to watch this one, Dave!

Hi Karl - have you seen the Midnight... film yet?  If not, then a recommendation - now I'm prejudiced having been to Savannah often - if you've not been there, may stimulate a trip?  Dave

[ibanezmonster]

Have you seen Hosada's most recent feature Wolf Children?

Ugghhh... yes. I watched it because it was extremely highly rated on MAL, but this is just not my type of movie. The point of watching an anime series or movie for me is to escape from reality, but that movie reminded me too much of it.

[SonicMan46]

Well, some recent DVD replacements w/ BDs  - quite a variety:

The Apartment (1960) w/ Jack Lemmon & Shirley MacLaine; Billy Wilder, director - the theme is dated but the restoration to blu-ray is excellent w/ high quality BW video and improved audio - review HERE - still, a powerful movie and Shirley & Jack are excellent together - at least worth a watch.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002) - seems like yesterday that I first saw this film, and still love it!  I'm in a 'mixed' marriage (Jewish-Christian), now 40+ years, but still relate to the themes & scenes in this film - will continue to watch - if not sure, try a rental and decide?

Amistad (1997) - based on a true story - again an excellent Blu-ray transformation (review HERE) - if interested in pre-Civil War slavery issues, then a MUST watch - Dave

   

[Bogey]

Enjoyed all three of those, Dave and bought the first.