Last Movie You Watched

[Ken B]

Your quotations are apt.
Part of the problem I have with the Ron Paul crowd is that they want, more than anything else it seems, for good men to do nothing.

[Cato]

Tonight though, I'll watch THE 5,000 FINGERS OF DR. T, not a perfect film but a favourite.
Produced by Stanley Kramer, directed by Roy Rowland, starring Peter Lind Hayes, Mary Healy,Hans Conried  and Tommy Rettig (more famous for Lassie).  It is truly weird.

An all-around favorite, although some say it is an attack on classical music as "effete" and "snobbish," I would think it is rather an attack on the effete snobs who ruin the music for everyone else!  The Dungeon Symphony is not to be missed! 

Score by Frederick (Friedrich) Hollander (Hollaender).

[TheGSMoeller]

Werner Herzog has a new film, Queen of the Desert. This film gets the new style of trailer treatment, which I find very silly and unfitting for a Herzog film, even tries to create action from slow camel riding shots . But I'm intrigued by anyway...

https://www.youtube.com/v/tJ0xy9euq24 

[Jaakko Keskinen]

@ North Star: It is easy to say in a modern, safe, democratic welfare state that "I would have done differently had I lived in Third Reich", but unfortunately, in a real situation, in a state led by mad genocidal dictator, not everyone has the courage to do so.

[Cato]

Including the seven-minute cartoon Lava, one of the best movies of the year, and maybe of the decade:



Amazing that the movie somewhat subtly tells the parents in the audience that wanting or demanding constant happiness for one's child is simply wrong, that sadness and other negative emotions are legitimate and necessary and must not be avoided.

When cartoons are the best films Hollywood is producing, you know that in one sense things are not going too well for the regular movies!

[North Star]

@ North Star: It is easy to say in a modern, safe, democratic welfare state that "I would have done differently had I lived in Third Reich", but unfortunately, in a real situation, in a state led by mad genocidal dictator, not everyone has the courage to do so.

Wiesel was in Auschwitz & Niemöller in Dachau.

[Florestan]

@ North Star: It is easy to say in a modern, safe, democratic welfare state that "I would have done differently had I lived in Third Reich", but unfortunately, in a real situation, in a state led by mad genocidal dictator, not everyone has the courage to do so.

As someone who has actually lived in a totalitarian state, I can certainly testify for that: when telling the truth and acting accordingly becomes a matter of life and death (not only yours, but also that of your loved ones), one can take it or leave it --- unless one is made of the stuff saints and heroes are made of, but then I ask anyone here to raise his right hand if he feels up to the task!

[Jaakko Keskinen]

Wiesel was in Auschwitz & Niemöller in Dachau.

I didn't deny that there are people who are gallant enough to fight back and risk everything, including the lives of person him/herself and his/her loved ones. But, lamentably, that doesn't include all of us. Doing nothing while these horrifying crimes against humanity happened is base, but also humane. There are persons prepared to make a difference but amount of those decreases considerably when placed in danger of losing your freedom, or life.

[Todd]

Mr Turner.  A long, slow, and more than occasionally boring depiction of the last 25 years or so of JMW Turner's life.  I know nothing of Turner's bio, so I have no idea if Timothy Spall's acting accurately represents what the man was like, but it is a committed performance.  When Turner has his photograph taken, his fascination mixed with dread is well captured.  The movie has several masterful scenes that depict the real life, or attempted recreations of the real life, events that inspired several of Turner's paintings, and these scenes are visually sumptuous.  A better editor may have yielded a better movie, though. 

[Bogey]

One of the more interesting noirs I've watched.  If you have seen it, you know what I mean based on what was in the box.  Like all Criterion releases I own this one is also impressive in its presentation.  And be sure to enjoy the credits as they roll by your backwards.



(Believe it or not, the above is a young Cloris Leachman.)

[North Star]

I didn't deny that there are people who are gallant enough to fight back and risk everything, including the lives of person him/herself and his/her loved ones. But, lamentably, that doesn't include all of us. Doing nothing while these horrifying crimes against humanity happened is base, but also humane. There are persons prepared to make a difference but amount of those decreases considerably when placed in danger of losing your freedom, or life.

You must mean human, and not humane. Doing nothing while that sort of atrocities are committed is monstrous, certainly not humane.
As to your last sentence, it would lead to a strange situation where the resistance to a Nazi regime will be less significant than that to e.g. a social democrat one.

[Drasko]

.[asin]B001725YZG[/asin]

[Karl Henning]

Last night, again: Die Hard With a Vengeance


The one thing that nags me (and some may say, there is more that ought to nags me, where others wonder just what my problem may be) has to do with the puzzles.  The as-yet-anonymous villain plays games with McClane (and Zeus), and it is clear how they solve (e.g.) "How many went to St Ives?" and "What is 21 from 42?"  So it's the water jugs which nag me.  They don't clearly explain, but they play the scene as if they figured it out.  (Or maybe I am being dull;  it happens.)  There are two jugs, one 3-gallon, the other 5-gallon, and they have to seat a jug holding exactly 4 gallons on the scale.  They talk hurriedly and vaguely about shifting water from one jug to the other;  but I still don't get it.  Nearest I can figure it out, seems inelegant to me, and was not quite played out in the scene:


A.  Fill the 5-gallon jug.
B.  From the water in the 5-gallon jug, fill the 3-gallon jug;  2 gallons remains in the 5-gallon jug.
C.  Empty the 3-gallon jug.
D.  Pour the 2 gallons back into the 3-gallon jug;  mark the level.
E.  Pour two gallons, twice, from the 3-gallon jug into the 5-gallon jug.

Is that right?

[Drasko]

A.  Fill the 5-gallon jug.
B.  From the water in the 5-gallon jug, fill the 3-gallon jug;  2 gallons remains in the 5-gallon jug.
C.  Empty the 3-gallon jug.
D.  Pour the 2 gallons back into the 3-gallon jug;  mark the level.
E.  Pour two gallons, twice, from the 3-gallon jug into the 5-gallon jug.

E. Fill the 5-gallon jug.
F. Fill up the 3-gallon jug (already hilding 2 gallons) from the 5-gallon jug and 4 gallons would be left in the 5-gallon jug

[Karl Henning]

E. Fill the 5-gallon jug.
F. Fill up the 3-gallon jug (already hilding 2 gallons) from the 5-gallon jug and 4 gallons would be left in the 5-gallon jug

Thanks;  I was sure I was missing something, and in fact I was failing to visualize what the actors were breathlessly (befitting the scene) explaining.

I should have been no use in that scene 

[TheGSMoeller]

Last night, again: Die Hard With a Vengeance

A.  Fill the 5-gallon jug.
B.  From the water in the 5-gallon jug, fill the 3-gallon jug;  2 gallons remains in the 5-gallon jug.
C.  Empty the 3-gallon jug.
D.  Pour the 2 gallons back into the 3-gallon jug;  mark the level.
E.  Pour two gallons, twice, from the 3-gallon jug into the 5-gallon jug.

Is that right?

E. Fill the 5-gallon jug.
F. Fill up the 3-gallon jug (already hilding 2 gallons) from the 5-gallon jug and 4 gallons would be left in the 5-gallon jug

That's too much to think about. When's the next explosion in the movie? 

[TheGSMoeller]

Including the seven-minute cartoon Lava, one of the best movies of the year, and maybe of the decade:



Amazing that the movie somewhat subtly tells the parents in the audience that wanting or demanding constant happiness for one's child is simply wrong, that sadness and other negative emotions are legitimate and necessary and must not be avoided.

When cartoons are the best films Hollywood is producing, you know that in one sense things are not going too well for the regular movies!

Completely agree, Cato. I saw this with my wife and 6 year old son, we all loved it, even if in different ways. I moved from Texas to NJ when I was 11 or 12, right during middle school. It was tough for both me and my brother, so there was that element of being taken out of a comfort zone and into unfamiliar territory, similar to what is explored in the film.
I applaud Pixar for making a film that caters to both young and old. I know many animated films receive that type of praise, but Inside Out is unique. Adults just don't enjoy this film, they understand it, they sympathize with the characters, because many of us have been through it. I think this film is destined to become a classic.
Also, how great was Bing Bong? "Take her to the Moon." 

[Mirror Image]

Watched this classic last night:

[Karl Henning]

That's too much to think about. When's the next explosion in the movie? 

Over-thinking things, yet without reaching the correct result:  it's what I do! 

[Jaakko Keskinen]

You must mean human, and not humane. Doing nothing while that sort of atrocities are committed is monstrous, certainly not humane.
As to your last sentence, it would lead to a strange situation where the resistance to a Nazi regime will be less significant than that to e.g. a social democrat one.

I can admit that I would have not had the courage to resist, had I lived under Hitler's regime. I wouldn't have been proud of it, but at least I admit it. If that really makes me as bad or worse in your eyes than those who actually committed those crimes, well, that can't be helped. Personally, I think actually  committing genocide and not being bold enough to do something about it in fear of death cannot even be compared to each other. The former is one of the greatest atrocities one can imagine, the latter is merely... weak.