Last Movie You Watched

[Karl Henning]

Last night, I watched The Silence of the Lambs with the commentary track.  Normally, I should not have said that I needed to watch it again so soon . . . but the blu-ray disc had come in, and I felt like celebrating.  An excellent and informative commentary.


I also watched (from the other blu-ray disc in yesterday's parcel) the 20-minute "Plate of Shrimp" documentary extra for Repo Man.  Alex Cox sent 18-year-old Olivia Barash to . . . Flying Saucer conventions, which sound like borderline child abuse.  That underground of Flying Saucer conventions is a weird, weird scene, judging by the glimpse afforded by Dave Ossman in his Flying Saucer Murder Case.

[aligreto]

Queen of the Desert





A story about a rather fascinating woman.

[Cato]

Hard to believe that the movie is now 60 years old!



It also has the best musical score for a Western ever composed, courtesy of Jerome Moross.

[SonicMan46]

Hard to believe that the movie is now 60 years old!

   

It also has the best musical score for a Western ever composed, courtesy of Jerome Moross.

One of my favorite westerns w/ excellent performances all around, and Burl Ives winning an Oscar!  The film score was nominated for Best Dramatic musical score but was beat out by THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA (Dimitri Tiomkin).  Dave

[Karl Henning]

Goldarnit, youse guys, are ye gonna make me watch another western?!!  0:)

[Cato]

One of my favorite westerns w/ excellent performances all around, and Burl Ives winning an Oscar!  The film score was nominated for Best Dramatic musical score but was beat out by THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA (Dimitri Tiomkin).  Dave

Incomprehensible!

Goldarnit, youse guys, are ye gonna make me watch another western?!!  0:)

Saddle up, Pilgrim, and get your guns ready!

[SonicMan46]

Goldarnit, youse guys, are ye gonna make me watch another western?!!  0:)

Karl - a MUST in my mind - own the BD which replaced my DVD - if you stream from Amazon, just 3 or 4 bucks (SD vs. HD) - enjoy -   Dave

[Madiel]

Currently watching The Thief and the Cobbler ("Recobbled Cut", Mark 4)

https://www.youtube.com/v/yZibUpH-AME

I heard about this on a podcast episode and it was sufficiently fascinating to check out. An unfinished animation masterpiece, worked on for 30 years before a butchered version was released, then repaired as much as possible by admirers. Along the way, considerable chunks of the ideas were appropriated for Aladdin.

I can't quite decide what it is. The animation is astoundingly fluid at times, unnervingly so, because it was drawn as a genuine 24 frames per second which is almost unheard of. And certain elements of it are witty and clever (the way the Thief is constantly accompanied by flies for example). But it's also frankly bizarre. I can make allowances for the relatively small segments that are only pencil or storyboarded, but the way the characters move and behave is so downright odd a lot of the time that I find it all a bit too unsettling to say "oh yes, this is a masterpiece". Animation does give you the ability to be non-realistic but I find this just a bit too strange.

Maybe I've just been spoiled by a couple of decades of computer animation and forget what the hand-drawn stuff could be like.

[Karl Henning]

Mostly (perhaps) for Jeffrey . . . at last I watched (about the first 40 minutes of) Excalibur last night; had not seen any of it since going to the cinema decades ago.  To rush to the conclusion:  I enjoyed it, and will go back to watch the whole.  That first time, long ago, I doubt that I did the movie much fairness.  The strongest memory from of old, was the Carmina burana charge . . . and likely, my soul was so busy rolling its figurative eyes, that I was unable to mark what was happening on screen.  There are a dozen details which (my trip, and not any "fault" of the movie, I am now sure) got in my way.  As a Yank, I have no business opining so, but Arthur felt odd to me.  And I suppose I wanted Merlin to be a kind of Gandalf (partly, I suppose, how I 'processed' the character in the Mary Stewart books).  Yesterday, though, I found I simply enjoyed the quirky touches of the Merlin realization, and I was content to leave Arthur be.  I need to return the DVD to the library, so I shall need to check it out again to finish.

[Daverz]

Annihilation

[asin] B079ZSSHP2[/asin]

Very good.  But one could wile a way a pleasant few hours listing all the stories and novels that it steals from (Conrad, the Strugatsky brothers, Tarkovsky, and Gene Wolfe are sources that come to mind).  Well, steal from the best if you are going to steal.

[Cato]

Karl - a MUST in my mind - own the BD which replaced my DVD - if you stream from Amazon, just 3 or 4 bucks (SD vs. HD) - enjoy -   Dave

Amen!   0:)   The Blu-Ray has a restored print, and the color is very sharp!

Recently we revisited...



Fun stuff...especially the Scottish accents!   

[TheGSMoeller]

Annihilation

[asin] B079ZSSHP2[/asin]

Very good.  But one could wile a way a pleasant few hours listing all the stories and novels that it steals from (Conrad, the Strugatsky brothers, Tarkovsky, and Gene Wolfe are sources that come to mind).  Well, steal from the best if you are going to steal.

I loved Annihilation. And there is a podcast called The Next Picture Show that... "is a biweekly roundtable examining how classic films inspire and inform modern movies. Hosted and produced by the former editorial team of The Dissolve – Genevieve Koski, Keith Phipps, Tasha Robinson and Scott Tobias – episodes take a deep dive into a classic film and its legacy in part one, then compare and contrast it with a modern successor in part two."
In a recent episode they compare Annihilation with Tarkovsky's Stalker.

[Madiel]

I hadn't heard of Annihilation, and looking it up on Wikipedia tells me why. It didn't get a cinema release in most places, they sent it to Netflix instead.

[TheGSMoeller]

I hadn't heard of Annihilation, and looking it up on Wikipedia tells me why. It didn't get a cinema release in most places, they sent it to Netflix instead.

I noticed that. Annihilation wasn't a huge box office success, not necessarily a failure either as the budget was quite low. But I would guess that marketing a film like this is difficult, and finding the right audience is even more difficult.


TD: Ant-Man and The Wasp
I grew up a Marvel fan so naturally I see all of their films. As is with the first Ant-Man, this sequel is fun. It doesn't take itself too seriously and also doesn't include a must-rule-the-universe type villain. And of course the true critic is my son, if he had a good time seeing it, then so did I.

[Karl Henning]

Tom Jones (1963) w/ Albert Finney, Hugh Griffith, Susannah York, and many others - a new arrival and DVD replacement - the Criterion restoration is superb, as expected (5* AV ratings HERE) - Finney and York look so good at that time (I was still in high school) - nominated for 10 Oscars and winner of 4, including Best Picture (see below).  Dave

You piqued my curiosity but good, so here I am, watching.

Do you have an opinion about the theatrical release VS. director's cut, Dave?

[Karl Henning]

Karl - a MUST in my mind - own the BD which replaced my DVD - if you stream from Amazon, just 3 or 4 bucks (SD vs. HD) - enjoy -   Dave

Amen!   0:)   The Blu-Ray has a restored print, and the color is very sharp!

All right! I still have a balance on my B&N gift card....

[Draško]

At the Cinematheque. Haven't seen it on big screen before but it looks expectedly breathtaking. The locusts/fire sequence quite terrifying and apocalyptic.   

[anothername]

[listener]

IT'S THE OLD ARMY GAME (1926)
W.C. Fields. Louise Brooks     directed by Eddie Sutherland
Beautiful b&w transfer on BluRay of Fields' first starring film introduces several routines he would use again, differently, in his sound films.  Louise Brooks is a scene-stealer.
Much more information could have been included in the commentary which notes the differences in the sound remakes of  the reused material: some locations and the sourcing of the title cards for example

[asin]B079BJTVB4[/asin]

[SonicMan46]

You piqued my curiosity but good, so here I am, watching.

Do you have an opinion about the theatrical release VS. director's cut, Dave?

Hi Karl - I watched just the 'Theatrical Release' and some of the special features - cannot comment personally on the 'Director's Cut' but their timing is about the same - a couple of short comments below from HERE - take a look at the link, might be more?  I enjoyed the movie after all of these years and the Criterion AV restoration is superb (as expected), but not sure how often I'll be watching?  Dave

*Criterion's release of Tom Jones contains two versions of the film: The original award-winning 1963 Theatrical Version, which is approximately 129 minutes long, and the 1989 Director's Cut of the film created by Richardson and editor Robert Lambert, which is approximately 122 minutes long. Both versions have been recently restored in 4K.

There are two standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray release: English LPCM 1.0 (Theatrical Version) and English LPCM 2.0 (Director's Cut). Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature (available for both versions of the film).