Last Movie You Watched

[SonicMan46]

Well, last night continuing w/ comedy films that I own, wife choose the two below:

Notting Hill (1999) - w/ Julia Roberts & Hugh Grant, plus a great ensemble cast - I've always liked this film and the cast, especially Grant's flat mate - ratings good, 7.2/10, IMDB; 83% Rotten Tomatoes - Susan enjoyed (as did I for the 6+ time) - well, if you like the brief recap below and the main actors, and want to see just a fun film, then recommended. 

Miss Congeniality (2000) w/ the cast in the second quote below - NOW, I have a 'thing' for Sandra and the cast is just great!  The film is funny and we enjoyed - ratings mixed - 6.3/10, IMDB, and only 41% Rotten Tomatoes - HOW can that be w/ William Shatner, Candice Bergen and Michael Caine!  NOW, I did enjoy Bullock & Bratt more in the Demolition Man but wife will not watch that one w/ me -    Recommendation up to you - I'll be watching again.  BTW, I have the Part 2 BD - pretty poor IIRC - Dave

Notting Hill is a romantic comedy film directed by Roger Michell. The screenplay was written by Richard Curtis, and the film was produced by Duncan Kenworthy. The film stars Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant, with Rhys Ifans, Emma Chambers, Tim McInnerny, Gina McKee, and Hugh Bonneville in supporting roles. The story is of a romance between a London bookseller (Grant) and a famous American actress (Roberts) who happens to walk into his shop. (Source)

Miss Congeniality is an American comedy film directed by Donald Petrie, written by Marc Lawrence, Katie Ford, and Caryn Lucas, and starring Sandra Bullock, Michael Caine, Benjamin Bratt and Candice Bergen with William Shatner and Ernie Hudson in supporting roles. In the film, the FBI asks tomboy agent Gracie to go undercover as a contestant when a terrorist threatens to bomb the Miss United States pageant. (Source)

 

[Karl Henning]

Last night: His Girl Friday. I don't often watch this, but boy does it lighten my heart!

[Fëanor]

The Gray Man:



This was a very stylish thriller with a reasonable plot that was not too far fetched. There was plenty of action there too for those who want it.

Thought this was enjoyable, even if if it borrowed heavily from a number of other films/tv shows.

It certainly did a lot of borrowing;  I'd say it was essentially just an a formulaic revenge flick.  If there was anything special, it was that it was made worse, IMHO, by the protagonist's willingness to callously torture the victims of his revenge.

[71 dB]

LUX ÆTERNA (Gaspar Noé, 2019) Nordic Blu-ray

A lesser work by this French provocateur and only 51 minutes long. Split screen makes following the chaos intense and difficult. I have to say the vision behind this movie remained unclear to me, Maybe rewatching the thing helps on that front. I can't recommend this unless you are a Gaspar Noé fan. There is a strong consensus that Irréversible, Enter The Void and Climax are his best works (and boy are they good!  0:) )

[SonicMan46]

Saboteur (1942) w/ Robert Cummings, Priscilla Lane, Otto Kruger, Norman Lloyd; Alfred Hitchcock, director - last night we needed a change of pace from the comedies, so I suggested an early Hitch espionage film.  I own the BD below (left) but just saw on Amazon that a 4K has been released - temping but at $20, the blu-ray version looks great - Hitchcock's cameo is described in the second quote - we missed him - drats!  Dave

Los Angeles aircraft worker Barry Kane evades arrest after he is unjustly accused of sabotage. Following leads, he travels across the country to New York City trying to clear his name by exposing a gang of fascist-supporting saboteurs led by apparently respectable Charles Tobin. Along the way, he involves Pat Martin, eventually preventing another major act of sabotage. They finally catch up with Frank Fry, the man who actually committed the act of sabotage at the aircraft factory. (Source)

Hitchcock makes his trademark cameo appearance about an hour into the film (1:04:37), standing at a kiosk in front of Cut Rate Drugs in New York as the saboteurs' car pulls up. (Source)

 

[Karl Henning]

Saboteur (1942) w/ Robert Cummings, Priscilla Lane, Otto Kruger, Norman Lloyd; Alfred Hitchcock, director - last night we needed a change of pace from the comedies, so I suggested an early Hitch espionage film.  I own the BD below (left) but just saw on Amazon that a 4K has been released - temping but at $20, the blu-ray version looks great - Hitchcock's cameo is described in the second quote - we missed him - drats!  Dave

 

Saboteur is brilliant, Dave!

[SonicMan46]

Saboteur is brilliant, Dave!

+1 - Karl - won't do a spoiler but always enjoy the final scene!  Dave

[aligreto]

Hypnotic:





A woman suspects that she has come under the influence of her therapist in a way that makes her very uneasy. She eventually puts certain things together when she starts to research her therapist's background. Inevitably things start to go wrong. This one is a bit of a time waster I am afraid.

[SonicMan46]

Well, we're back to a comedy last night which we both love - film executives tried to get Vardalos to change the family ethnicity to Hispanic or Italian (see link for more):

My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002) w/ Nia Vardalos, John Corbett, Lainie Kazan, Michael Constantine, and others; one Oscar nomination 'Best Original Screenplay' for Vardalos, who did not win.  Dave

My Big Fat Greek Wedding is an independent romantic comedy film directed by Joel Zwick and written by Nia Vardalos, who also stars in the film as Fotoula "Toula" Portokalos, a middle class Greek American woman who falls in love with White Anglo-Saxon Protestant Ian Miller. The film received generally positive reviews from critics and, at the 75th Academy Awards, it was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.

 

[Karl Henning]

Well, we're back to a comedy last night which we both love - film executives tried to get Vardalos to change the family ethnicity to Hispanic or Italian (see link for more):

My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002) w/ Nia Vardalos, John Corbett, Lainie Kazan, Michael Constantine, and others; one Oscar nomination 'Best Original Screenplay' for Vardalos, who did not win.  Dave

 

Great fun!

[Iota]

This really is an exceedingly good, enjoyable and almost deliriously pretty film.
Sparkling wit, both spoken and visual, Miranda Hart and Bill Nighy shine in particular, but are by no means alone. The interplay of music and drama is scintillating, the film opens to the sound of a charming little operatic duet penned by film composer Isobel Waller-Bridge, as Emma selects flowers for a departing governess, it's perfectly suited to the moment, and for the next few minutes it feels as if at any moment the characters might break into song. And many similar moments follow, music seems to run in the blood of the film.
The casting is perfect, as is the acting, and there's an exquisite quality redolent of candied bonbons from Fortnum & Mason to it that's irresistible. A great accomplishment, even more striking for being the feature film debut for director Autumn de Wilde. Much enjoyed.

[SimonNZ]

Hadn't seen this since it first came out. Its a wee gem of a film, and the two leads simply brilliant.

[geralmar]

1958

Psycho threatens to blow up rocket fuel plant.  Low budget, black and white thriller with villain Vic Morrow reminding as a vest pocket Marlon Brando.  Night time cinematography emphasizes noir look.  Nice touch is the ominous, ever present four lights atop four towers blinking slowly in the background of outdoor scenes.  A weak recommendation; but I like the movie.

[VonStupp]

Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)

Nothing will replace the classics status of the 1984 original, but I was surprisingly charmed by this one.

I think it helped Jason Reitman went on a completely different tach than an out and out comedy, instead going towards a Stranger Things family dramedy. Also, this sequel pretends Ghostbusters (2016) doesn't exist.

A nice tribute to Harold Ramis too.

VS

[Karl Henning]

Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)

Nothing will replace the classics status of the 1984 original, but I was surprisingly charmed by this one.

I think it helped Jason Reitman went on a completely different tach than an out and out comedy, instead going towards a Stranger Things family dramedy. Also, this sequel pretends Ghostbusters (2016) doesn't exist.

A nice tribute to Harold Ramis too.

VS

Interesting.

[George]

This was OK.

[geralmar]

2020, Brazil

Any qualities of this mild, illogical horror movie are obscured by the horrendous English dubbing, the worst I've heard since the Toho giant monster movies of the 1950s.  I also question the translations.  Would anyone seriously ask a.nun in full habit, "Do you believe in God?"

[aligreto]

Extraction:





This one is a very hard hitting thriller which involves the rescue of a kidnapped boy. There is quite a lot of violent killing in this one. It was not made as food for the cerebral part of the brain. Enjoyment seems like the incorrect word to use here but I did not switch it off. I suppose that I was invested in it somehow.

[Todd]

Prey, aka, Predator vs. Comanche.  You know who's gonna win this one, come on.  Much like The Force Awakens was a rehashing of Star Wars, so this is a rehashing of Predator.  The current flick very much possesses a politically correct/woke vibe, with not only native peoples the new good guys, but a teenage girl the main hero.  It doesn't matter.  One must drop all pretense of seriousness when watching a movie like this, and if one does that, one is treated to some glorious landscape imagery of Canada in the location shots for this 18th Century world, well-choreographed fights, some sometimes excellent and sometimes awful CGI (the bear scenes are especially bad), and some nasty French dudes as add-on villains/victims, which just feels right.  The use of only native actors to play the tribe is obviously a huge plus, so much so that I wish the movie had relied on the Comanche language rather than English.  Amber Midthunder is fine as the hero, and Dakota Beavers displays no little charisma as her brother, and the one line borrowed directly from the first movie is his: If it bleeds, we can kill it.  A good enough popcorn flick. 

(I find it impossible to believe that the film's title was not influenced by the 2006 video game of the same name that also used Native Americans as the heroes.  It's all good.)

[SonicMan46]

My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 (2016) - streamed last night on HBOMax - short synopsis below, also quote from a few days ago at bottom, when we watched the original BFGW from 2002, so 14 years later w/ a daughter about to go to college - never seen before mainly because the reviews were at best mixed w/ some poor ones (e.g. 27% Rotten Tomatoes; a little better 6/10, iMDB; Amazon, 4.7/5 as expected!).

Added the pic below in the previous quote - the family pic was actually from the second film - Nia Vardalos wrote the script to the sequel - there are many funny moments intermixed w/ some 'slapstick comedy' - I'd probably do 3 1/2*/5* on Amazon - a recommendation only if you LOVED the first one - all of the original characters return (some look similar and others have aged) - note from the quote immediately below that a 3rd film is currently in development, maybe 'enough is enough' unless Vardalos (possibly w/ a co-writer) comes up w/ something fresher?  Dave

ADDENDUM: More on a possible 3rd film HERE - Michael Constantine (the father & 'Windex Man') died a year ago and will be sorely missed if a third film is produced.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 is a 2016 American romantic comedy film directed by Kirk Jones and written by Nia Vardalos. The film stars Vardalos, John Corbett, Lainie Kazan, Michael Constantine, Andrea Martin, Ian Gomez and Elena Kampouris, and is the sequel to the 2002 film My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Filming began in late May 2015 in Toronto. The film was released on March 25, 2016, by Universal Pictures, receiving negative reviews from critics. The film grossed $90.6 million worldwide against a $18 million budget. A third film is currently in development. (Source)

Well, we're back to a comedy last night which we both love - film executives tried to get Vardalos to change the family ethnicity to Hispanic or Italian (see link for more):

My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002) w/ Nia Vardalos, John Corbett, Lainie Kazan, Michael Constantine, and others; one Oscar nomination 'Best Original Screenplay' for Vardalos, who did not win.  Dave