Last Movie You Watched

[Bogey]

Ultimately, unnecessary.

I will not give it another second thought.  Thanks.

[George]

It can be gotten for dirt cheap .. you may like it, who knows. Don't go by what others say.

Including that message?

[Karl Henning]

Well, as my wife pointed out, technically a Christmas movie

Gold Star to Mrs Bogey!

Thread Duty:

Yesterday, an exquisitely charming David Lean / Noël Coward movie from 1945, Blithe Spirit.

[Moonfish]

I'm looking into seeing these again .. I've only seen the theatrical versions. Are these extended versions very different or are they essentially cut the same?

Beyond the tons of extras (making of etc) the extended editions have about 30 minutes of extra footage (for each film). All seamlessly integrated into the films. I only watch the theatrical in the theater since these extended versions are the way to go in case you are a fan of these films. Wonderful work!

[North Star]

Well, as my wife pointed out, technically a Christmas movie

It's broadcast over here yearly during the season, and it's definitely a Christmas movie to me.

[Karl Henning]

http://www.youtube.com/v/wODZ6gRHsF8

[Jaakko Keskinen]

I still like Die hard with vengeance slightly more. It's something about those Gruber brothers that easily puts 3 and 1 over second one. Fourth one, I haven't seen. Fifth one... wait, there's a fifth one? Boy I've read that it was pure crap.

[Karl Henning]

I thought the fourth quite good. I'm steering clear of the fifth.

[North Star]

I still like Die hard with vengeance slightly more. It's something about those Gruber brothers that easily puts 3 and 1 over second one. Fourth one, I haven't seen. Fifth one... wait, there's a fifth one? Boy I've read that it was pure crap.

Having Samuel L. Jackson and Jeremy Irons in the third one and Alan Rickman in the first one makes it bloody obvious that they're going to be the best ones. 

I thought the fourth quite good. I'm steering clear of the fifth.

+1

[Jaakko Keskinen]

Having Samuel L. Jackson and Jeremy Irons in the third one and Alan Rickman in the first one makes it bloody obvious that they're going to be the best ones. 

Touché. I like the second one too, though.

And I like that random finland reference in first one and use of Finlandia in second.

[North Star]

Touché. I like the second one too, though.

I like it, too.

And I like that random [F]inland reference in first one and use of Finlandia in second.

I forget what it was in the first one. Usually when there's alcohol in a Harlin movie, it's Finlandia vodka. 

[Jaakko Keskinen]

I like it, too.
I forget what it was in the first one. Usually when there's alcohol in a Harlin movie, it's Finlandia vodka. 

The first one jokes about the Stockholm syndrome, by calling it Helsinki Syndrome.

[Todd]

Nymphomaniac Volume 1.  Prior to this, the only Lars von Trier film I had watched was Antichrist, which while "shocking", or something trying to be shocking, was not good.  Mr von Trier has done it again!  Here, Charlotte Gainsbourg is the sex fiend in question, relating her naughty exploits to Stellan Skarsgard, playing a non-creepy perv – unless you count a middle-aged man sitting through lurid tales from a beaten female stranger as normal behavior.  The flashback scenes include one borderline inappropriate scene with very young girls, and lots of lascivious action sure to upset bourgeois viewers.  My goodness, there's even a simulated but meant to look very real (ie, porn-like) scene of a middle-aged man being fellated on a train by a barely legal girl.  Gosh!  The big problem with the movie, aside from its too-obvious nature, is that it is incredibly boring, and the dialog is often terrible.  And as much as I enjoy watching footage of beautiful, naked young women – and Stacy Martin, playing the younger Charlotte Gainsbourg character, is certainly a beautiful young woman, and definitely the best thing in the film – even that couldn't hold my interest.  Something that didn't help matters was von Trier's use of music, specifically classical music, and even more specifically DSCH's Waltz No 2, which is obviously used as an homage to Kubrick and Eyes Wide Shut, but ultimately serves to illustrate the vast gulf in quality between a truly great filmmaker's second tier work and this film.  It is certainly possible that I am a sexually repressed, bourgeois fuddy-duddy, and therefore incapable of appreciating the genius of von Trier's work, but it is also possible that this movie is just not good.  I guess the nicest thing I can say about the movie is that it is split into two volumes; I know to skip the second one.

[North Star]

The first one jokes about the Stockholm syndrome, by calling it Helsinki Syndrome.

Oh yes, now it comes back to me.

[kishnevi]

Read Todd's post about Nymphomaniac and then stumbled over this

http://www.bostonherald.com/entertainment/movies/movie_news/2014/11/lars_von_trier_doesnt_know_if_he_can_make_more_films_now

[Wanderer]

Nymphomaniac Volume 1.  Prior to this, the only Lars von Trier film I had watched was Antichrist...

Todd, I suggest you watch Dancer in the Dark at some point. I think it's the best thing von Trier has done (by a long shot), with a formidable Björk in the title role.

[Moonfish]

Read Todd's post about Nymphomaniac and then stumbled over this

http://www.bostonherald.com/entertainment/movies/movie_news/2014/11/lars_von_trier_doesnt_know_if_he_can_make_more_films_now

Bizarre! So von Trier is essentially stating that drugs are a requirement for his creativity? 

[Bogey]

From 1956:



One of the Duke's most memorable roles and I believe what he considered his best role ever.  Absolute gorgeous cinematography and the direction of John Ford is first rate. 

[Bogey]

Great blu ray. Those VistaVision technicolor pictures always seem to look so pristine & vibrant despite their age.

Scorcese on the extras raved about the look.  I believe he said something to the fact that it was the best looking format that one could have ever seen in the theaters.

[Todd]

Joe.  Nicolas Cage does some actual acting again, here playing an ex-con interacting with other dregs of society.  The plot is a bit melodramatic, and all the unpleasantness that occurs in such a short span of time seems a bit implausible.  The film has a gritty, realistic look and feel, no doubt helped by the extensive use of non-actors.  Gary Poulter, the rather unpleasant and menacing father to the boy in the film, plays a desperate, homeless drunk well, because that's what he was in real life - and he apparently died on the streets only a few months after filming.  (A brilliant and brave artistic decision by the director, or low-paid exploitation: you be the judge.)  A good film, but hardly a great one, but perhaps Cage can get back to serious business again.