Last Movie You Watched

[relm1]

Separately, I just need to watch Spaceballs tonight.

One of the cast members in that film is in my astro club!  I've literally seen galaxies through his scope with him late in to the night.

[Karl Henning]

One of the cast members in that film is in my astro club!  I've literally seen galaxies through his scope with him late in to the night.

Fun!

[Brian]

Unfrosted.  The movie has received poor reviews,

It's a New York Times critic's pick! I'm definitely going to keep it in mind for the next stressful work day. Don't want to miss Bill Burr as JFK or Hank Schrader as Khrushchev.

[Cato]

Following our library alphabetically again...

Stagecoach


The interweaving of the characters' stories is excellent, as is the pacing of the movie.


The stunts during the Apache attack are still amazing: Yakima Canutt was a genius at not getting hurt...and in devising ways to do that!

[AnotherSpin]

An Indian hero takes on various villains and the corrupt upper crust of society in the style of John Wick. Directed and starring Dev Patel, who many remember for his starring role in Slumdog Millionaire.

[Karl Henning]

I'll watch pretty much anything involving Patrick Stewart.

And I am mildly ashamed to have forgotten: King Richard in Robin Hood: Men in Tights.

[Todd]

Don't want to miss Bill Burr as JFK or Hank Schrader as Khrushchev.

It was fun to see the two back in the same small screen entertainment again.

[Cato]

David Lynch made a movie 25 years ago - a true story - about an ailing man in his 70's, who uses a riding lawn mower to travel over 300 miles to visit his sick and estranged brother.


The man's name was Alvin Straight, hence the title: The Straight Story.


Amazingly, Disney was behind the movie (Rated G), but then the management choked.  Apparently they had no idea of how to market it, so they decided to not spend much money on it at all!  The poster showed a black silhouette of Richard Farnsworth on the riding mower and not much else!

As a result, the movie languished from lack of advertising: David Lynch fans found it, of course, but apparently not many others.

Nevertheless, it won many awards.

I believe some of the actors were locals, the movie being their only credit (Lynch filmed in the town where Straight lived, and followed the back-road route he took to Wisconsin).  One actress (The Deer Lady) had done stage work in Chicago.

Great Americana score by Angelo Badalamenti!

[Cato]

Yes, there are certain character actors/actresses, who are worth watching, even if the movie/T.V. show is mediocre.

My nominations are (off the top of my head, sort of chronologically)...


Billy Gilbert
Royal Dano
James Hong
Warren Oates
Woody Strode
Dennis Hopper
Billy Bob Thornton
Dennis Haysbert
Steve Zahn
Don Cheadle


Kathleen Howard
Eve Arden
Lillian Gish*
Patricia Collinge
Phyllis Thaxter
Joan Hackett
Jessica Harper
Octavia Spencer
Pamela Adlon



*Lillian Gish was a major star, of course, in silent movies, but in her later years accepted what could be called character roles in sound movies.

Earlier I added Harvey Keitel and Jean Marsh for the above lists: allow me to add the great Harry Dean Stanton and Jack Elam!


Jack Elam was absolutely hair-raising in a Western called Rawhide with Tyrone Power.

And check out Harry Dean Stanton in Paris, Texas.

[Irons]

I would add Lee Marvin. Oozes presence and when the part calls for it (Point Blank) menace.

[SonicMan46]

Wife and I have been watching TV series and viewing lectures from Curiosity University which have been excellent, but last night watched a few movies:

Jeremiah Johnson (1972) - stars and synopsis below; spectacular scenery from Utah - check link for more details on filming locations and critical reception. Highly recommended.

Lonely Are the Brave (1962) - stars and brief summary below - some of Kirk's own favorite films listed HERE with a top mention for this one - I must say that one of my top choices would be Paths of Glory (1957). Again, highly recommended.  Dave

Jeremiah Johnson is a 1972 American Western film directed by Sydney Pollack and starring Robert Redford in the title role and Will Geer as "Bear Claw" Chris Lapp. It is based partly on the life of the legendary mountain man John Jeremiah Johnson, recounted in Raymond Thorp and Robert Bunker's book Crow Killer: The Saga of Liver-Eating Johnson and Vardis Fisher's 1965 novel Mountain Man. The film was shot at various locations in Utah. Basic plot: Mexican War veteran Jeremiah Johnson takes up the life of a mountain man, supporting himself in the Rocky Mountains as a trapper. (Source)

Lonely Are the Brave is a 1962 American black and white Western film adaptation of the Edward Abbey novel The Brave Cowboy directed by David Miller from a screenplay by Dalton Trumbo, and starring Kirk Douglas, Gena Rowlands and Walter Matthau. Douglas plays cowboy Jack Burns, Gena Rowlands portrays his best friend's wife and Walter Matthau appears as a sheriff who sympathizes with Burns but must do his job and chase him down. The picture also features an early score by composer Jerry Goldsmith. Douglas said repeatedly that this was his favorite film of his own work

 

[Karl Henning]

Great Americana score by Angelo Badalamenti!

Nice! I know the name from his work for Twin Peaks, of course.
TD: last night, Robin Hood: Men in Tights. Not the least funny element is the incongruous Godfather parody.

[Karl Henning]

No idea how or why I'd  not seen it before: Mel Brooks' Silent Movie. 

[VonStupp]

No idea how or why I'd  not seen it before: Mel Brooks' Silent Movie.

Great fun!

I am not sure how John Morris ranks as a film composer, but I know he collaborated with many of Mel Brooks' movies. Nothing but smiles as they load into that yellow roadster and the main march jauntily takes off.
VS

[Brian]

Great fun!

I am not sure how John Morris ranks as a film composer, but I know he collaborated with many of Mel Brooks' movies. Nothing but smiles as they load into that yellow roadster and the main march jauntily takes off.
VS

He should rank highly! Arguably Young Frankenstein wouldn't work without that great violin melody.

[Karl Henning]

Great fun!

I am not sure how John Morris ranks as a film composer, but I know he collaborated with many of Mel Brooks' movies. Nothing but smiles as they load into that yellow roadster and the main march jauntily takes off.
VS

Excellent work! I first saw his name in connection with the deliciously quirky Yellowbeard. And, to cement the Marty Feldman connection: The Last Remake of Beau Geste and The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother.

[Cato]

No idea how or why I'd  not seen it before: Mel Brooks' Silent Movie.

Great fun!

I still recall the Burt Reynolds scene as one of the funniest!

[VonStupp]

I still recall the Burt Reynolds scene as one of the funniest!

I forgot about that. My memory usually gravitates to Marcel Marceau. I am overdue for a rewatch.

Of course, Dom DeLuise and Burt Reynolds are always together in my mind (I might add Charles Nelson Reilly too). If not just Cannonball Run, then the TV game show Win, Lose, or Draw where they were all such obviously close friends.
VS

[Karl Henning]

Time for me to exult anew in the dual nature of North by Northwest, equal parts thriller and comedy.

[Cato]

Time for me to exult anew in the dual nature of North by Northwest, equal parts thriller and comedy.

I still recall seeing the poster for this movie in the newspaper, with the skewed north-by-northwest grid over the U.N. building and Cary Grant being chased by a bi-plane!      

"You won't understand what's going on," said my mother, despite my insistence that I would indeed understand it!

I had to wait a few years to be thrilled by it!

Two years later, I was allowed to watch Ben-Hur with my mother!  (At age 9 I understood everything, and I know that wanting to work in Classics was a seed planted by that movie!  The already growing seed of wanting to compose music was further nurtured by Miklos Rozsa's glorious score!)


By chance, we just finished an early movie with Cary Grant: Sylvia Scarlett.

The opening has a scene of silent-movie melodrama with Katharine Hepburn and Edmund Gwenn.  But it soon gets going with more farcical material.


Not as wild and witty as The Philadelphia Story or His Girl Friday, but the movie has its wild and witty moments.

Note that Katharine Hepburn was THE STAR of this movie!