Last Movie You Watched

[Todd]

With ads for John Wick 4 popping up when I browse, I realized that I had not even seen the ASPCA's favorite action flick since it came out almost a decade ago.  I rectified the matter.  Neo goes around killing baddies in a cartoonish shoot 'em up with the most headshots I've seen outside online gaming.  I think there's a plot of sorts, some actors say some lines, and all the women are gorgeous, but it's ultimately all about gratuitous violence.  It's good enough for what it is.  Maybe I watch one of the sequels if I get bored enough.

[George]

RE: John Wick - I'm looking forward to the prequel TV series, The Continental.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6486762/


Also looking forward to the Wick spin off, starring Ana De Armas, which takes place between Wick 3 and Wick 4:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7181546/?ref_=tt_mv_close

[Todd]

RE: John Wick - I'm looking forward to the prequel TV series, The Continental.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6486762/

Mel Gibson in a TV series, huh?  I guess Arnold and Stallone and even Harrison Ford have migrated to the small screen, so why not?  They really need to bring back the woman who played the bartender in the first movie. 

[Cato]

I've reached the top and had to stop and that's what's been botherin' me. You've obliquely led me to revisit Jungle Book.

I have fond memories of this, even as I realize that I've only watched it for the first time today. As a boy, I had a record with "Bare Necessities," "I Wanna Be Like You" (which in hindsight must have been my entrée to scat) and quite a bit of dialogue. I think the feature wonderful and fun. I don't expect that as a boy I picked up at all on the vulture quartet being a reference to the Beatles. A day or two before I actually watched it, I read a review on the Interwebs (I don't recall where) which found pedantic fault with it. I'll pause a bit to let the idea of a "Disney-enthusiast pedant" cure a spell, and I'll smile at the thought of myself (not exactly an enthusiast at my age) watching it with greater tolerance than the reviewer.

Phil Harris (Bare Necessities) and Louie Prima (I Wanna Be Like You)!!!

"Rap" is nothing new at all: if you know of "Scat Singers" or performers using a quasi-Sprechgesang like Phil Harris, then you realize that the only thing new about "rap" is the use of obscene epithets. 

I still recall finding my mother's 1930's/1940's collection of 78's: I especially found That's What I Like About the South by Phil Harris to be a fun song.*

The original performance was from 1937: here is one from the '40's.

And from The Jungle Book:

For those who do not know Louie Prima:

And from The Jungle Book:

* We had just bought a used, yet still fairly new monaural record player from the 1950's, so her 78's did quite well on it.  We did not have a stereo until the mid-1960's.  I was using the new stereo one July afternoon to hear Schoenberg's String Quartet #3, when after a few minutes my mother stormed into the living room and said:  "Turn that crap off!  It's too hot for that stuff!"    

[Karl Henning]

Phil Harris (Bare Necessities) and Louie Prima (I Wanna Be Like You)!!!

"Rap" is nothing new at all: if you know of "Scat Singers" or performers using a quasi-Sprechgesang like Phil Harris, then you realize that the only thing new about "rap" is the use of obscene epithets. 

I still recall finding my mother's 1930's/1940's collection of 78's: I especially found That's What I Like About the South by Phil Harris to be a fun song.*

The original performance was from 1937: here is one from the '40's.

And from The Jungle Book:

For those who do not know Louie Prima:

And from The Jungle Book:

* We had just bought a used, yet still fairly new monaural record player from the 1950's, so her 78's did quite well on it.  We did not have a stereo until the mid-1960's.  I was using the new stereo one July afternoon to hear Schoenberg's String Quartet #3, when after a few minutes my mother stormed into the living room and said:  "Turn that crap off!  It's too hot for that stuff!"   

Louie Prima's band jammed on "I Wanna Be Like You" and Uncle Walt's sound boys got it all on tape, but U.W. had them tame it down for use in the feature. And yet, the dancing and antics of the band while wailing away inspired the animators in their prep for choreographing the scene.

[LKB]

I have fond memories of this, even as I realize that I've only watched it for the first time today. As a boy, I had a record with "Bare Necessities," "I Wanna Be Like You" (which in hindsight must have been my entrée to scat) and quite a bit of dialogue. I think the feature wonderful and fun. I don't expect that as a boy I picked up at all on the vulture quartet being a reference to the Beatles. A day or two before I actually watched it, I read a review on the Interwebs (I don't recall where) which found pedantic fault with it. I'll pause a bit to let the idea of a "Disney-enthusiast pedant" cure a spell, and I'll smile at the thought of myself (not exactly an enthusiast at my age) watching it with greater tolerance than the reviewer.

I'm fairly certain l had the same recording. Prima & company's contribution was probably the first piece of music l ever heard which, though in a minor key, didn't seem sad or " serious ".

It was around this same time that l was introduced to orchestral music via Tchaikovsky's Overture 1812. I'm afraid that l subsequently ignored all things Disney ( save the original Fantasia ) for a very long time...   

[Cato]

"Rap" is nothing new at all: if you know of "Scat Singers" or performers using a quasi-Sprechgesang like Phil Harris, then you realize that the only thing new about "rap" is the use of obscene epithets. 

I should tangentially mention, in this context of pop Sprechgesang, a style which I call The Rex Harrison* School of Fine Singing, where the notes really do not matter!

* Rex Harrison - I have read - was a fairly terrible person, which might explain his 6 marriages...and his affinity for this song!   

[Karl Henning]

Phil Harris (Bare Necessities) and Louie Prima (I Wanna Be Like You)!!!

"Rap" is nothing new at all: if you know of "Scat Singers" or performers using a quasi-Sprechgesang like Phil Harris, then you realize that the only thing new about "rap" is the use of obscene epithets. 

I still recall finding my mother's 1930's/1940's collection of 78's: I especially found That's What I Like About the South by Phil Harris to be a fun song.*

The original performance was from 1937: here is one from the '40's.

For those who do not know Louie Prima:

Great fun!

[JBS]

I should tangentially mention, in this context of pop Sprechgesang, a style which I call The Rex Harrison* School of Fine Singing, where the notes really do not matter!

* Rex Harrison - I have read - was a fairly terrible person, which might explain his 6 marriages...and his affinity for this song!   

I've read that Harrison was known to be unable to sing, and therefore the songs for the character of Higgins (he was the original performer in the Broadway musical) were written to accommodate this deficiency.


As for the film

George Cukor directed the 1964 film adaptation, with Harrison returning in the role of Higgins. The casting of Audrey Hepburn as Eliza created controversy among theatregoers, both because Andrews was regarded perfect in the part, and Hepburn's singing voice was dubbed (by Marni Nixon). Jack L. Warner, the head of Warner Bros., wanted "a star with a great deal of name recognition", but since Andrews did not have any film experience, he deemed success more likely with a movie star.[92] (Andrews went on to star in Mary Poppins that same year for which she won both the Academy Award and the Golden Globe for Best Actress.) Lerner in particular disliked the film version of the musical, thinking it did not live up to the standards of Moss Hart's original direction. He was also unhappy with the casting of Hepburn as Eliza Doolittle and that the film was shot in its entirety at the Warner Bros. studio rather than, as he would have preferred, in London.[93] Despite the controversy, My Fair Lady was considered a major critical and box-office success, and won eight Oscars, including Best Picture of the Year, Best Actor for Rex Harrison, and Best Director for George Cukor.

[From Wikipedia's article about the stage version]

[Karl Henning]

My Fair Lady was considered a major critical and box-office success, and won eight Oscars, including Best Picture of the Year, Best Actor for Rex Harrison, and Best Director for George Cukor.

Tangentially, although I have some darker/weightier titles in the queue, tonight I want something on the lighter side, So I'm going to rewatch George Cukor's The Philadelphia Story.

[Cato]

Tangentially, although I have some darker/weightier titles in the queue, tonight I want something on the lighter side, So I'm going to rewatch George Cukor's The Philadelphia Story.

"C.K. Dexter HAVEN!!!"   

[brewski]

After seeing The Banshees of Inisherin (great), I had one more Martin McDonagh film to check out, Seven Psychopaths (2012). Christopher Walken might have been my favorite in a fascinating cast that includes Colin Farrell, Sam Rockwell, and perhaps most surprising...Tom Waits.

Warning: not for the squeamish. Hilarious, in McDonagh's typical quirky way, but quite bloody. (But quite hilarious.)

Trailer:

-Bruce

[Karl Henning]

After seeing The Banshees of Inisherin (great), I had one more Martin McDonagh film to check out, Seven Psychopaths (2012). Christopher Walken might have been my favorite in a fascinating cast that includes Colin Farrell, Sam Rockwell, and perhaps most surprising...Tom Waits.

Warning: not for the squeamish. Hilarious, in McDonagh's typical quirky way, but quite bloody. (But quite hilarious.)

Trailer:

-Bruce

Love it!

[Madiel]

For fun, I googled "Disney animated features ranked," and found this.

You realise, now, I'm going to have watch all of these on Disney Plus? Seeing as how that's the only paid streaming service I already have.

I've resisted until there was ranking involved, though I intend to go chronologically. I couldn't actually tell you for certain for many of the old classics whether I've actually seen them in full. I have a fair idea from The Little Mermaid onwards as to which ones I've seen and which I haven't... only most of the ones I've seen are ones that would be worth revisiting anyway.

Weirdly, though, the version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs available on Disney Plus is formatted for the old squarer television screens. Surely that's not the original format. EDIT: Actually it probably is, this is the sort of ratio used back in 1937. Widescreen wasn't popular yet. The things you learn.

[Todd]

If you're gonna watch a shoot 'em up like John Wick, why not watch Shoot 'Em Up?  The movie is an over-the-top farce, complete with gratuitous violence and awful one-liners.  Only a couple years after making the great Children of Men, Clive Owen is the hero, who again delivers a baby on screen, munches on and kills people with carrots, hooks up with Monica Bellucci, and avoids bad guy Paul Giamatti, all while unraveling a plot involving a presidential candidate.  It's so bad it's good, turned bad, turned good again.  The movie was made about seven years before John Wick, and watching it so soon after the franchise flick, it looks like it served as a template for the later movie. 

[Cato]

You realise, now, I'm going to have watch all of these on Disney Plus? Seeing as how that's the only paid streaming service I already have.

I have recommended it before, but the movie which started the comeback of Disney animation in the late 1980's was The Great Mouse Detective with Vincent Price at his best doing the voice of Professor Rattigan!

[pjme]

"Mon crime", François Ozon's latest film.
I enjoyed it a lot: it is a light and frothy , sweetly funny, elegant reworking of a 1934 comedy by Georges Berr and Louis Verneuil. 
Actually, it did feel like an evening out in Art Déco Paris, "les années folles" - "théâtre de boulevard".  Boulevard du Temple
Opulent costumes and sets. I enjoyed Isabelle Huppert's (well timed) overacting as Odette Chaumette...

Teaser

[Karl Henning]

Tangentially, although I have some darker/weightier titles in the queue, tonight I want something on the lighter side, So I'm going to rewatch George Cukor's The Philadelphia Story.

Didn't watch the feature itself, as I was drawn into the Supplements rabbithole.

[SimonNZ]

Picked up a copy of a book called Gladiator: Film and History edited by Martin Winkler, a collection of academic essays, taking this film as a jumping off point for talking about film depictions of the ancient world, the uses of source material, etc.

And greatly enjoyed this rewatch in preparation for the reading.

[Karl Henning]

So I'm going to rewatch George Cukor's The Philadelphia Story.

Maybe something was amiss with the DVD I checked out from the library back then... for while I remember watching this (12 years ago?) There was quite a bit in the last 25 minutes which it seemed I'd never seen. Dang! This is fun!