Last Movie You Watched

[listener]

JUDGE!
A major advertising festival is held each year to determine the best television commercial in the world. A rookie ad man at a big advertising company named Otan is selected as a judge on the festival jury. Meanwhile, a coworker also named Ota (although the Japanese characters are slightly different) poses as his wife so that he can attend an open party which is held nightly. Knowing that he'll get fired if his company doesn't win the Grand Prix, he's forced to resort to a variety of desperate tactics.
Moderately amusing, but comedy feel is compromised by some sluggish tempos.   Voicing of American characters is a throwback to the old dubbed European films of the fifties.

[Bogey]

Meh.  This one has held up only at a so-so level.  The first one I enjoyed watching again and will come back to it.  The sequel will be rarely revisited.

[Bogey]

Agreed .. as I picked up this one and the original picture for dirt cheap on a whim last year. I have to say .. that both haven't aged well at all.
But honestly, I'm finding this applies to the vast majority of movies ever made  ..

The first one has almost a "Ray Harryhausen" feel about it.  That is, they were pulling off painstaking effects that few were at the time, on a minimum budget.  That I applaud.  It has a retro look and feel that I enjoyed also. Seemed to capture that time decently. 

[SonicMan46]

She doesn't look like Kirk Douglas either.

OK Ken, since you're so enamored w/ Kirk Douglas, I've put together a 'photo menagerie' of the actor just for you, which is suitable for framing - Dave

[Bogey]

OK Ken, since you're so enamored w/ Kirk Douglas, I've put together a 'photo menagerie' of the actor just for you, which is suitable for framing - Dave

One of THE GREATS!

[Wanderer]

A few I just keep forgetting to post about:
[asin]B00PT3AUYO[/asin]
Whiplash. Loved the performance of Simmons. Worth it for that alone (and I think he hits it with facial expressions in certain scenes), and hope he wins the Oscar. I loved how the movie ends, but don't want to give it away in case someone hasn't seen it yet. I could watch the last 10 minutes or so over and over (In fact, I did). Music is excellent.

I finally got the time and watched Whiplash today and while I knew this was right up my alley, I did not expect to like it so much. Time flew and I wouldn't mind if the film was even an hour longer. Gripping performances, inspired directing and, of course, terrific music.
After the music-making of the last 10 minutes, I couldn't help but think that Pollini might have had that kind of sound (and rhythm) in mind when he hammered the Boulez Second Sonata.

[Drasko]

[SonicMan46]

Tonight, Susan & I are going to watch the Oscars, since we've seen all but one of the films nominated for 'Best Picture' - planning a snack dinner in the den w/ some smoke fish (trout & salmon), shrimp, a few other goodies + a bottle of bubbly!

BUT, last night a couple of more BD replacements:

Full Metal Jacket (1987) w/ Matthew Modine, Adam Baldwin, Vincent D'Onofrio, et al; Stanley Kubrick, director - restoration excellent, 4.5/5* video & 3.8/5* audio (Source) - ratings, 4.4/5*, Amazon; 8.3/10, IMDB - I'd have to go along w/ those ratings!

Jerry Maquire (1996) w/ Tom Cruise, Cuba Gooding Jr., Renee Zellweger, & Jonathan Lipnicki, as Ray! - another excellent restoration, 4.5/5* video & 3.5/5* audio (Source); ratings,  7.3/10, IMDB;  4.3/5*, Amazon - enjoy this film tremendously - up for a number of Oscars w/ a win by Cuba Gooding, Jr. for Best Supporting Actor.  Dave

 

[Brian]

I saw 26 movies this year!

Here is my personal ranking:
26. The Imitation Game
25. The Theory of Everything
24. Big Eyes
23. Muppets Most Wanted
22. Chef
21. Guardians of the Galaxy
20. Gone Girl
19. Nightcrawler
18. The Interview
17. Ida
16. Lego Movie
15. Snowpiercer
14. The Homesman
13. Still Alice
12. The Immigrant
11. Birdman (!)

Top ten revealed later. My reviews of #s 11-26!

[Karl Henning]

I've not watched Snowpiercer; I'm living it 

[mc ukrneal]

I saw 26 movies this year!

Here is my personal ranking:
26. The Imitation Game
25. The Theory of Everything
24. Big Eyes
23. Muppets Most Wanted
22. Chef
21. Guardians of the Galaxy
20. Gone Girl
19. Nightcrawler
18. The Interview
17. Ida
16. Lego Movie
15. Snowpiercer
14. The Homesman
13. Still Alice
12. The Immigrant
11. Birdman (!)

Top ten revealed later. My reviews of #s 11-26!

I've seen two movies on this list - Guardians of the Galaxy and Lego Movie. Lego would go last on any movie list for the last year or two. It was a huge disappointment. Guardians was the opposite - was expecting crap and enjoyed it for the fluff it is.

EDIT: One of my biggest beefs with Lego is that it was a Superhero movie masquarading as a Lego movie.

I am gonna guess Whiplash is up there - Simmons was amazing. One of the remarkable things about his performance - his facial expressions, which were surprisingly good when there were stretches of no speaking. His presence was felt even when he wasn't on the screen - a great role, acted to perfection. He totally deserved the Oscar.

[Karl Henning]

Parenthetically:  The stars you think have acting Oscars — but have never actually won

[mc ukrneal]

Parenthetically:  The stars you think have acting Oscars — but have never actually won

I guess they need to update the list for Moore now!

Cary Grant not winning one was just a travesty, but then Hollywood has always poopooed comedic roles.

[North Star]

Polish cinematographer Ryszard Lenczewski (Ida) interviewed at LensCulture. 14 of his photographs are displayed, too.

[SonicMan46]

I've seen two movies on this list - Guardians of the Galaxy and Lego Movie. Lego would go last on any movie list for the last year or two. It was a huge disappointment. Guardians was the opposite - was expecting crap and enjoyed it for the fluff it is.

EDIT: One of my biggest beefs with Lego is that it was a Superhero movie masquarading as a Lego movie.

I am gonna guess Whiplash is up there - Simmons was amazing. One of the remarkable things about his performance - his facial expressions, which were surprisingly good when there were stretches of no speaking. His presence was felt even when he wasn't on the screen - a great role, acted to perfection. He totally deserved the Oscar.

Hi Neal - Susan & I have not seen as many films as Brian this last year, but of the ones that overlap, my ordering would be much different (especially for the last two) - will look forward to this top 10!  As to the Lego film, the reviews were so positive that even Susan attended - we almost walked out but stayed to the 'bitter end' - now, I'm a BIG fan of animated films (just bought the Blu-ray of Dumbo - ) - I enjoyed the Guardians of the Galaxy, too.  Dave

[Jaakko Keskinen]

Full metal jacket is certainly an awesome movie. It is also notable for the fact that R. Lee Ermey persuaded the control freak Kubrick to allow him to improvise pretty much every line that comes out of his mouth during the movie. And Kubrick liked it.

For a movie full of awesome black humor, that blanket party scene still horrifies me.

Btw, consensus seems to be that no-one remembers the second half of the movie, when they're actually in 'Nam. I think it is severely underrated although I still think the first half is significantly better.

[Wakefield]

... now, I'm a BIG fan of animated films (just bought the Blu-ray of Dumbo - ) - I enjoyed the Guardians of the Galaxy, too.  Dave

I liked both of them; but if I had to choose, I would choose "Lego"... you know, everything is awesome. 

[Abuelo Igor]

I'm starting to form the view, after much reflection and absorption of cinema in that last 2-3 years, that this whole art-form is rather silly & limited. [/font]

An awesome amount of time, more than enough to reach such a definitive conclusión. My, my, 120 years of trying for nothing.

[listener]

KILLERS FIVE (1969)
In this movie from classic period of Shaw Brothers, we have a group of evil bandits that terrorize the land from their invincible mountain castle. The high commanding official decides to put a stop to this and commands one of his officers to gather a group of Kung Fu masters and put an end to the terror. But everything is not that simple and straight-forward, as we quite soon learn when the plot thickens.
Deception, double-cross, and lot of action all in 81 minutes.   Obligatory fight in a tea house is about to start

[Bogey]

I saw 26 movies this year!

Here is my personal ranking:
26. The Imitation Game
25. The Theory of Everything
24. Big Eyes
23. Muppets Most Wanted
22. Chef
21. Guardians of the Galaxy
20. Gone Girl
19. Nightcrawler
18. The Interview
17. Ida
16. Lego Movie
15. Snowpiercer
14. The Homesman
13. Still Alice
12. The Immigrant
11. Birdman (!)

Top ten revealed later. My reviews of #s 11-26!

Hey Brian, here is my portion of our annual Oscar reviews for the Best Movie category that we send out to friends each year right before the ceremonies.  My wife and so also done, but I'll just throw you mine.



Once again, the Academy has thrown me eight films some of which were decent, others dreadful, and a couple that were forgettable.  In any case, none will have a second viewing from me (mayyyybe Whiplash).  The only films that I ended up buying from 2014 were Guardians of the Galaxy and Maleficent.  Guardians was like Star Wars meets Indiana Jones.  In short, it was fun, something the Academy seems opposed to.  Heck, I would even rate The Lego Movie over most of these nominees.   



The Good

Whiplash: J. K. Simmons makes this film, though the over the top acting goes a bit too far at points.  What hurt the picture is never developing the lead character played by Miles Teller.  In fact, he just seems to serve most of the film as a sounding board for Simmons.

American Sniper: Incredible story for sure.  However, as for the film, I found it just "good".  Clint Eastwood does an excellent job of unfolding a story, but his style is monochromatic and usually lacks something. 

Selma: With regard to Selma, I thought it was very well done and why David Oyelowo did not get nominated is a head scratcher.   The movie did have a very slow pace.  However, this may have been something that added to the film and gave it a closer feel for the day to day and background work Dr. King and his supporters had to put in.

The Bad

Birdman: My friend found a site where the director pointed out that the meaning of this film was that life is an illusion.  You have to be kidding me.

Boyhood:  I liked this review from Amazon that Greg posted here:

Boy who takes pictures, goes to college and grows a mustache.  There, I just saved you three hours.

Grand Budapest Hotel: I thought the look was interesting, but the directing seemed lazy.  Using explicit scenes to develop the main character is never a good idea and the film lost me early on

And The Meh

The Imitation Game: Probably should have developed the supporting cast more so and spent less film footage watching cogs in a machine churn.  I'm sure all their stories were more interesting than the incessant whirring.

The Theory of Everything: I am still waiting for the main character to actually answer the question posed at the end of the film.  ;-)