Last Movie You Watched

[greg]

Minority Report

This was a good one.

Actually was curious about this one since the anime Psycho Pass (which is highly regarded) pretty much took this movie's concept of Pre-Crime and made its entire show about that.

[SimonNZ]

As entertainment I suppose this was a fun romp. But as history it was a jaw-dropping whitewash.

[aligreto]

From Paris With Love





A good thriller with a good twist. Travolta was very good in it.

[Karl Henning]

Last night: Reign Over Me.

[Omicron9]

OK, I'm going to come right out and say it:

Sharknado.

So bad it's really entertaining.  There is a series (maybe 5?); I've only seen a couple.  I know they weren't intended to be comedies, but man....

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2724064/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0


Regards,
-09

[George]

Last night: Reign Over Me.

Love that one.

[Karl Henning]

Love that one.

Indeed!

[SimonNZ]

Second viewing. And admired it even more this time than I did the first.

[Christo]

Was lucky to see a handful of extremely fine new movies over the last few months + some Tarkovsky again (the one and only). This one comes close however, wow. The final scene - I couldn't watch without wet eyes - a subtle and hardly concealed homage to Tarkovsky's masterpiecer The Mirror.

Paweł Pawlikowski, Zimna wojna (2019) aka 'Cold War':

[SimonNZ]

Mirror is my favorite Tarkovsky film. In what way is it a homage?

[aligreto]

Yes Man





I am not a huge Carey fan but I did like this one. I found it quite amusing with not too much face pulling.

[Christo]

Mirror is my favorite Tarkovsky film. In what way is it a homage?

Great to learn The Mirror - Serkalo - is your favourite Tarkovsky! It is mine too, saw it again last December after a long interval and was completely convinced again. For me the 'ultimate' movie.
I saw Cold War only half, in between other things to do, but was totally impressed. In the final scene 'the' couple takes a seat somewhere along a foothpath in the fields. A breeze stirring the corn - just as it does in The Mirror, a couple of times even. I was/am totally convinced it is a quotation, homage, whatever. There's more in Cold War that reminds of Tarkovsky, though there's much more dynamic in it and it's certainly not derivative (as are some films by Sokurov - seen him?).

Dot you happen to know all Tarkovsky's films? 

[SimonNZ]

Dot you happen to know all Tarkovsky's films? 

Oh yes. In fact I was lucky enough in the early 90s to see locally a festival of all his films in new 35mm prints, including his film school graduation work The Steamroller And The Violin. I have a blockmounted poster of that festival which is one of the handful of things I'd try to rescue in the event of a fire.

But I'd seen them before that in the days of poorly available and poor quality VHS when my friends and I would take turns buying tapes from a place called Facets in Chicago and then make copies for each of us. My first exposure to Andrei Rublev was a two tape set taken from a source film so bad that it had white-on-white subtitling right throughout and we had no earthly idea what was being said.

I'll try and check out Cold War. Thanks.

[Christo]

Oh yes. In fact I was lucky enough in the early 90s to see locally a festival of all his films in new 35mm prints, including his film school graduation work The Steamroller And The Violin. I have a blockmounted poster of that festival which is one of the handful of things I'd try to rescue in the event of a fire.

But I'd seen them before that in the days of poorly available and poor quality VHS when my friends and I would take turns buying tapes from a place called Facets in Chicago and then make copies for each of us. My first exposure to Andrei Rublev was a two tape set taken from a source film so bad that it had white-on-white subtitling right throughout and we had no earthly idea what was being said.

I'll try and check out Cold War. Thanks.

Definitely. And: great story! Speaking for myself: I saw Offret (The Sacrifice) at its release back in 1986 in my student days, was hooked - and the rest is history. Amsterdam - the Eye Complex - did a complete Tarkovsky festival last autumn and I was able to pick a few. My favourites were, and are, The Mirror and Offret, Stalker and Solaris and Andrei Rublev not far behind, as indeed all.  Yes, saw The Steamroller &c. once too. The only one I only saw once, purely by lack of time, is Nostalghia, which I found a bit of a disappointment then. When in Florence a couple of Summers ago, I walked across Tarkovsky's apartment by chance and decided to give his Italian movie another chance, which will happen in short time. Great to see some love for the master, here! 

[SimonNZ]

Have you read Roadside Picnic - the book which Stalker is adapted from? I finally got around to it last year, and was hugely impressed even though its different to the film in many ways.

I tried reading Tarkovsky's book Sculpting In Time in my 20s and found it very heady stuff, even by his standards. Must give it another go sometime soon.

[aligreto]

Den of Thieves





This is a hard hitting action packed thriller with a bit of a twist. Worth watching.

[Madiel]

Sunshine Cleaning



Any movie starring Amy Adams and Emily Blunt immediately scores points with me.

It's good. Not amazing, but entertaining and well done.

[Christo]

Have you read Roadside Picnic - the book which Stalker is adapted from? I finally got around to it last year, and was hugely impressed even though its different to the film in many ways.

I tried reading Tarkovsky's book Sculpting In Time in my 20s and found it very heady stuff, even by his standards. Must give it another go sometime soon.

Sorry, no, I haven't. Yes, I own and read some in Sculpting in Time, but the essence is there before your very eyes and I don't feel the need to read about it. In other words: Tarkovsky's films are self-evident in my eyes.

What I find even more intriguing: in both The Mirror and Offret everything happens real time, though simultaneously at different moments (even decade in the case of The Mirror). Yet the feeling is very sur-real, caused by the layers he interweaves. I find it superb, 'mysticism' created with no other means than daily realities - and happily devoid of all psychology. 

[Todd]

Joker.  Commodus loses his shit.  Zzzz.

[Christo]

Joker.  Commodus loses his shit.  Zzzz.

Aha, still busy with under age 8 films.