Last Movie You Watched

[Madiel]

I think Karl's unique problem can only have something to do with a cache that needs clearing. The site is not against full stops as such.

Either that, or some checker is so USED to Karl doing one-liners that it's concluded anything with 2 lines is fake.

[SimonNZ]

And because it was at the Library so that re-watching was easy, I revisited The Dark Knight Rises which back when I first watched the Christopher Nolan trilogy put me off. A combination of it trying to do too much (a very labored "Robin Begins" sub-plot, and what's the point of there being a Robin with Batman out of the picture?) Bane is one of those impossibly omniscient super-villains which brings us back to comic book fantasy in spite of the $multi-million effort to sell us realism And in spite of Bruce Wayne's knees being shit he not only dons the cowl anew, but rebuilds himself in prison and makes his way up out of the pit We've gone from willing suspension of disbelief to complete sedation of reason. Where it's good, it's very good, but I have no patience for the whole enchilada

You put a full stop there instead of the other commas or nothing and it worked. Maybe the issue has passed.

[Karl Henning]

You put a full stop there instead of the other commas or nothing and it worked. Maybe the issue has passed.

I'll try afresh ere long.

[Cato]

I should mention two more things: there is a movie in which Lon Chaney did not use special make-up and simply used his own face.

Tell It To The Marines from 1926.



There is also a silent version of The Unholy Three (1925).

I have never seen it, but a good number of people find it better than the sound version from 1930, despite the absence of Lon Chaney doing various voices.  Tod Browning directed the silent version, so perhaps that is the difference.

Tell It To The Marines is available on YouTube for free:

Bad movies abound and have abounded in the same way that bad books outnumber good or great ones.

But some movies (like some books) are just sooo bad that they become long-lived examples of their genre.

War of the Worlds from this year is apparently a candidate for one of the worst movies ever made in Movie History!

Ryan George offers an hilarious 6-minute description of this travesty.  That he offers no "spoiler alerts" is a huge clue that he suspects that nearly no one will be spending money on this travesty.

Let me just say that, among other things,  you will not believe the technique used to tell the story of War of the Worlds.       

[hopefullytrusting]

Hackers (1995): https://the2shot.wordpress.com/2016/01/01/one-from-the-heart-hackers-1995/ (and, yes, I've seen it well over 100 times)



I sometimes think that this isn't my favorite movie, then I rewatch it and re-remember.

[71 dB]

Hackers (1995): https://the2shot.wordpress.com/2016/01/01/one-from-the-heart-hackers-1995/ (and, yes, I've seen it well over 100 times)



I sometimes think that this isn't my favorite movie, then I rewatch it and re-remember.

I hardly even know this movie exists. I haven't seen it. Is this movie similar to The Net starring Sandra Bullock from the same year? Is the theme about the fears people had when the internet became a thing?

What the hell was cyberpunk movement? I don't remember anything cyberpunk back in the days.

[hopefullytrusting]

I hardly even know this movie exists. I haven't seen it. Is this movie similar to The Net starring Sandra Bullock from the same year? Is the theme about the fears people had when the internet became a thing?

What the hell was cyberpunk movement? I don't remember anything cyberpunk back in the days.

It is not similar to The Net, another film that I love, as The Net tried to be realistic, and for the time, was pretty accurate given the information that we had.

The cyberpunk was a literary-subcultural movement kicked off by the work of William Gibson (Burning Chrome or Neuromancer, depending on your stance), and Hackers was the end of that movement, as it in Hackers that cyberpunk transformed from a subculture into an aesthetic (think Baudrillardian postmodernism, if that analogy makes more sense, or musically, think of a band like Electric Youth, who are part of a cultural movement versus a band like Timecop1983, who are part of the aesthetic).

[71 dB]

The cyberpunk was a literary-subcultural movement kicked off by the work of William Gibson (Burning Chrome or Neuromancer, depending on your stance), and Hackers was the end of that movement, as it in Hackers that cyberpunk transformed from a subculture into an aesthetic (think Baudrillardian postmodernism, if that analogy makes more sense, or musically, think of a band like Electric Youth, who are part of a cultural movement versus a band like Timecop1983, who are part of the aesthetic).

I am not familiar with any of that. Maybe cyberpunk wasn't big in Europe/Finland?

[hopefullytrusting]

I am not familiar with any of that. Maybe cyberpunk wasn't big in Europe/Finland?

Have you heard of Cyberpunk 2077? that was made very close to where you reside.

[71 dB]

Have you heard of Cyberpunk 2077? that was made very close to where you reside.

No, I haven't. 

[DavidW]

No, I haven't. 

Have you seen Blade Runner or Ghost in the Shell?

[JBS]

Have you heard of Cyberpunk 2077? that was made very close to where you reside.

I remember playing one of the original Cyberpunk RPGs with friends back in my youthful days/daze.

[hopefullytrusting]

I remember playing one of the original Cyberpunk RPGs with friends back in my youthful days/daze.

That is what Cyberpunk 2077 took inspiration from.

This is one of the first promos for Cyberpunk 2077 (stars Mike Pondsmith): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYxt7cwDk4E

[hopefullytrusting]

Have you seen Blade Runner or Ghost in the Shell?

Blade Runner is proto-cyberpunk, although, I don't consider Blade Runner cyberpunk at all, as it is too "high-minded," in my opinion (love the film, obviously - greatest monologue ever).

[drogulus]

    I watched the doc on Kim Philby The Spy Who Went Into The Cold. After watching the not entirely fictional docudrama A Spy Among Friends it was good to see interviews with people who knew and worked with Kim.

    I can't decide if Elliot was phenomenally stupid or just being a good soldier for his MI6 bosses. We aren't allowed to know that and never will. Well played, Nicholas. 

[71 dB]

Have you seen Blade Runner or Ghost in the Shell?

Blade Runner I have seen many times. That's a science fiction film for me. I don't even know if cyberpunk is to my liking. I don't seem to be drawn toward it because I now next to nothing about it.

[Iota]

Villeneuve's direction is a kind of poetry, he weaves a spell with images that I find utterly absorbing. Each time I watch it I seem to fall more deeply under its spell. The music is perfect and the business of telling the story is done with unwavering intensity. Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford and Jared Leto all seem to burn the screen with quiet charisma, and the rest of the cast are never less than excellent. Always sorry when it's over, it feels like a dream ending in some ways.

[LKB]

Recently, I've been watching reactions to Final Destination: Bloodlines.

It's not the ideal way to become familiar with a film ( and certainly no substitute for the normal theatrical experience ), but I decided to watch reactions after seeing the trailer because I know next to nothing about the franchise, whereas seemingly everyone who has uploaded reactions has seen all of the previous films in the series.

It is actually surprisingly entertaining, with over-the-top fatalities ( I found myself chortling with glee early on when the world's most maddeningly obnoxious boy receives what I will refer to as, " pianistic justice " ), that manage to be both humorous and cringe-worthy, and apparently there are a number of homages or callbacks to the earlier films.

Here's the opening scene...

[Karl Henning]

I watched a 1968 film of A Midsummer Night's Dream. And if the movie-craft feel noticeably inferior to later Shakespeare on film, against that we have Judi Dench as Titania, Ian Holm as Puck, Helen Mirren as Hermia, Diana Rigg as Helena and David Warner as Lysander.

[ritter]

Yesterday, on TV:



Very well acted by Angelina Jolie, and very chic and glossy artistic direction, but Pablo Larrain's Maria bored me to tears, and I quit watching it after about 45 minutes.

The musical selections are dubios and seem to aimed at the "wider public": in the part I saw, O mio babbino caro from Gianni Schicchi and the Ave Maria from Otello are repeated over and over again, and I cannot think of two arias less associated with Callas (although admittedly she did include the Puccini piece in her ill-fated 1973 comeback tour).

Much style with little substance, I'm afraid...