Last Movie You Watched

[Karl Henning]

I actually started re-reading Lotr a little while ago and I agree with this post of yours wholeheartedly. While your overall feelings may be more positive I have never liked Lotr movies by Jackson, especially scenes with Frodo, Sam and Gollum. Also taking The Eye of Sauron literally annoys me and shows marked superficial reading of The book.

The Two Towers. Yes, I'll continue through to the end of the trilogy even though I know that the gratuitous departures from Tolkien accelerate and grow more odious. One of the greatest offenses IMO is making Gandalf's healing of Théoden King into a cod exorcism as if Saruman had been a demon possessing him. Makes me want to throw something at the screen.

[JBS]

Interesting you both say that, because my memory of Reds is that its the one time Nicholson dialed it back, wasn't just being his usual self. Last time I saw it I thought it his best work, largely for that reason.

Think of Nicholson in Chinatown or The Last Detail. and not Nicholson in The Shining.

[Karl Henning]

Think of Nicholson in Chinatown or The Last Detail. and not Nicholson in The Shining.

Love Chinatown.

[Karl Henning]

Two of my feel-good movies I've recently returned to: The Birdcage and Grosse Pointe Blank. Curiously, Hank Azaria is in both.

[Karl Henning]

The Two Towers. Yes, I'll continue through to the end of the trilogy even though I know that the gratuitous departures from Tolkien accelerate and grow more odious. One of the greatest offenses IMO is making Gandalf's healing of Théoden King into a cod exorcism as if Saruman had been a demon possessing him. Makes me want to throw something at the screen.

One line which distills how little the screenwriters understood the heart of Tolkien's book: Orlando Bloom's Legolas apologizing to Aragorn: "I was wrong to despair." Tolkien's Legolas does not despair. Separately, of the many objectionable departures from Tolkien's Middle Earth, Elrond's supposedly having an elven host to send in reinforcement of Helm's Deep is one of the grossest. The Two Towers is a tough watch, for me. It's reminding me why I discarded the DVDs I first bought.

[DavidW]

Tolkien's Legolas does not despair.

That just makes his character boring.  This is probably a generational thing but I think that character depth is not a strength of Tolkien.  If everyone just possessed a calm sense of stoicism it would be a pretty dull film unless you're a Vulcan.

Movies are not books.  When I decide if an adaptation is good I usually just look for just broad consistency with the plot and themes.  Just IMO.  They have to be their own creations.  I think a valid criticism is that Jackson has favored action far more than the books do which makes it tonally different.

But giving a character feelings and motivation sounds good to me.  I'll just leave this here:

Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
--Kurt Vonnegut

[DavidW]

I was rewatching Leaving Las Vegas, and what a difference age makes.  I feel now like it is was overwhelmingly depressing, it was such a hard watch for me because it is so brutal and real.

[Karl Henning]

That just makes his character boring.  This is probably a generational thing but I think that character depth is not a strength of Tolkien.

I get that the screenwriters really went to town making characters interesting, but they lean awfully hard into inventing characters who do not exist in the source, "emo Aragorn" being my chief complaint. I find Tolkien's Aragorn of sufficient depth and interest. As a general matter, I like their efforts to bring the Arwen/Aragorn relationship out from the background. I also accept their foregrounding the difficult father/daughter dynamic between Elrond and Arwen, although they come close to textual transgression there. I'll disagree that we need that line to keep Legolas from being boring. And I find Frodo/Sam of sufficient interest in the source that we don't need the invention of Gollum breaking them up. I'm not ecstatic about Faramir dragging the hobbits to Osgiliath, but I'll concede that it's cinematically better than keeping strictly to the text. Was it necessary to make Faramir more "interesting? A matter of taste, I suppose. I think the most interesting aspect there (though again, it's not Tolkien's Faramir) was Faramir's intent to send the ring to his father, an interesting mix of ingratiation with his dad and warcraft.

[Karl Henning]

Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
--Kurt Vonnegut

All the members of the Fellowship do have motivation.

[Karl Henning]

At last, All That Money Can Buy, or The Devil and Daniel Webster. Score by Bernard Herrmann, and Walter Huston as Mr Scratch.

[drogulus]

I do not speak French, and the version I own does not have subtitles, yet, I was still moved by the powerful performance of the main character and the tragedy of her existence, especially with the interactions with her mother and the true desperation you see when she is forced to confront the ethical dilemma of honor and survival. A striking film. A beautiful film. Rosetta (1999).

    I don't know which edition you have, but these are from Criterion.

    https://dl.subdl.com/subtitle/687810-1909948.zip

     These might fit a European source.

     https://dl.subdl.com/subtitle/687823-6867.zip

[VonStupp]

The Karate Kid (1984)
Ralph Macchio, Pat Morita, Elisabeth Shue
William Zabka, Martin Kove

My wife and daughters competed in a karate tournament this weekend, so I thought I would show them the original Karate Kid afterwards. The competition sequence is remarkably accurate to what I saw, minus the theatrics and the tune You're the Best by Joe Esposito.

Martin Kove gets precious little screen time, but what a memorable baddie! Before practice, I always remind my daughters 'No mercy for the weak!'!
VS

[Madiel]

I am in the middle of watching the Korean film "Decision to Leave". A Korean policeman investigating a man's death becomes obsessed with the much younger Chinese widow.

It's very quirky, but somehow that is intriguing me rather than annoying me. One of the most striking things is people appearing in scenes together when they're actually in different places, but one is observing or thinking about the other.

[Cato]

More of a documentary but what a watch:

FREE SOLO (2018)



"From award-winning documentary filmmaker E. Chai Vasarhelyi ("MERU") and world-renowned photographer and mountaineer Jimmy Chin comes National Geographic Documentary Film's FREE SOLO, a stunning, intimate and unflinching portrait of the free soloist climber Alex Honnold, as he prepares to achieve his lifelong dream: climbing the face of the world's most famous rock ... the 3,000ft El Capitan in Yosemite National Park ... without a rope.

Celebrated as one of the greatest athletic feats of any kind, Honnold's climb set the ultimate standard: perfection or death."




If, like me you struggle at the top of a three step-ladder, this will be a harrowing and mesmerizing watch in equal measures. Our watch was strewn with "Hell Nooooos...." , just way more sweary    The climber's relationships with his girlfriend, the filming crew and fellow climbers while training and preparing this feat add an incredible layer to this documentary.

A great petrified recommendation   

We were in Yosemite last week and gazed upon El Capitan from various standpoints: yes, climbing it was an amazing and incomprehensible feat!

No movies to report upon, as we have had no opportunity to watch anything during our national-parks tour.

However, I did catch a Pitch Meeting which I had missed!

Apparently the anti-geniuses at Disney want to keep Ryan George in business!

Concerning another dreary "superhero"...a commentary on the sad state of movie-making and the lack of creativity in Hollywood!

[Madiel]

I am in the middle of watching the Korean film "Decision to Leave". A Korean policeman investigating a man's death becomes obsessed with the much younger Chinese widow.

It's very quirky, but somehow that is intriguing me rather than annoying me. One of the most striking things is people appearing in scenes together when they're actually in different places, but one is observing or thinking about the other.

The second half did not disappoint.



Reminiscent of the classic film noir in terms of the plot, some nice twists, occasionally VERY funny (I had no idea I could laugh so hard at turtles), and definitely directed with visual flair (won Best Director at Cannes). Admittedly I broke the film roughly in half for personal reasons, but I think it was well-paced throughout. Well worth a watch.

[Cato]

Today we revisited for the first time in probably 60 years:





An absolutely exhausting movie, especially the "eat-with-a-spoon" scene in the dining room, filmed with few cuts.

I wondered how Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke did this several times a week on Broadway!

Directed by Arthur Penn, the shots with the camera on the floor and on the ground outside the house had stuck in my mind for decades, along with Anne Bancroft at times imitating Burt Lancaster's speech patterns (e.g. listen to the scene where she explains to the parents why she needs complete control over Helen).

Yes, it is a classic and highly recommended!  Laurence Rosenthal's score, at times reminiscent of Bernard Herrmann's style, is to be mentioned as subtle and effective, although many scenes have no music.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Watched "The Mountain Between Us" with Kate Winslet and Idris Elba.  Enjoyed it.  You can pretty much get what happens at least early on by the cover photo of the DVD.

PD

[SonicMan46]

Today we revisited for the first time in probably 60 years:





An absolutely exhausting movie, especially the "eat-with-a-spoon" scene in the dining room, filmed with few cuts.

I wondered how Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke did this several times a week on Broadway!

Directed by Arthur Penn, the shots with the camera on the floor and on the ground outside the house had stuck in my mind for decades, along with Anne Bancroft at times imitating Burt Lancaster's speech patterns (e.g. listen to the scene where she explains to the parents why she needs complete control over Helen).

Yes, it is a classic and highly recommended!  Laurence Rosenthal's score, at times reminiscent of Bernard Herrmann's style, is to be mentioned as subtle and effective, although many scenes have no music.

About 10 years ago we did a trip to Tennessee/Northern Alabama - first stayed in Florence (birthplace of WC Handy - visited his 'museum house'), and did day trips to the Shiloh Battlefield, FAME studio in Muscle Shoals, Helen Keller's house in Tuscumbia (pic below from an iPad Forums travelogue I left there - LINK, if interested), and the Alabama Music Hall of Fame - ended up back in Nashville for 3 days.  Dave

[SonicMan46]

We're on a trip to West Virginia meeting our son and DIL staying north of Beckley near the New River Gorge Bridge (below) nearly 900 ft down to the river!  They live in Indianapolis so since COVID we've met at rental cabins in nearby states - he always brings his Apple TV so we've been watching typically action and/or Sci-Fi films - the last two nights (brief reviews/links below):

Mission Impossible - Did Reckoning (Part One) (2023) w/ Cruise and MANY others; the 7th film in the series since 1996 (Cruise aging about 30 years between the two movies) - the specials were great but the film was about a half hour too long for me; however, on Rotten Tomatoes (RT), 96% from the critics and 94% audience.  I've stopped watching these MIs since numbers 3 or 4, BUT if a fan, then recommended.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021) - 32 year follow-up w/ new younger characters and return of the stars from the previous films, including the deceased Harold Ramis as a 'ghostly' character at the end finale. Entertaining with great specials, as expected - just 64% on RT from the critics but more liked by the audience, 94% - I do own the first Ghostbusters (1984) so worth a watch for fans.  Dave

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is a 2023 American spy action film directed by Christopher McQuarrie from a screenplay he co-wrote with Erik Jendresen. It is the sequel to Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018) and the seventh installment in the Mission: Impossible film series. It stars Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt, alongside an ensemble cast. In the film, Hunt and his IMF team face off against "the Entity", a powerful rogue AI. (Source)

Ghostbusters: Afterlife is a 2021 American supernatural comedy film directed by Jason Reitman from a screenplay he co-wrote with Gil Kenan. It is the sequel to Ghostbusters (1984) and Ghostbusters II (1989), and the fourth film in the Ghostbusters franchise. The film stars Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, Mckenna Grace, and Paul Rudd, alongside Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts, and Sigourney Weaver. Set 32 years after the events of Ghostbusters II, it follows a single mother and her children who move to an Oklahoma farm they inherited from her estranged father Egon Spengler, a member of the original Ghostbusters. (Source)

 

[Karl Henning]

Today we revisited for the first time in probably 60 years:





An absolutely exhausting movie, especially the "eat-with-a-spoon" scene in the dining room, filmed with few cuts.

I wondered how Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke did this several times a week on Broadway!

Directed by Arthur Penn, the shots with the camera on the floor and on the ground outside the house had stuck in my mind for decades, along with Anne Bancroft at times imitating Burt Lancaster's speech patterns (e.g. listen to the scene where she explains to the parents why she needs complete control over Helen).

Yes, it is a classic and highly recommended!  Laurence Rosenthal's score, at times reminiscent of Bernard Herrmann's style, is to be mentioned as subtle and effective, although many scenes have no music.

I remember a "field trip" from school to see the play. Probably my first experience of theatre. I do remember being riveted.