Last Movie You Watched

[Karl Henning]

a character study [rather] than an Office-style cringe comedy....

Good.

[George]

It's a while since I'd watched Punch-Drunk Love. Kind of a peculiarly uncomfortable romance, yet still in balance charming.

One of my very favorite movies.

[Madiel]

I like PDL but would not disagree with this take. So much about it - the color interludes, the musical score, the forced whimsy of things like the piano - seems intentionally alienating. And then the basic love story is complicated by the Sandler character's obvious anger issues. I feel more like I'm watching a character study than an Office-style cringe comedy, but the stylistic elements are harder to digest for me.

"Forced whimsy" is exactly the phrase I'm looking for in regards to the entire experience.

The whole thing struck me not just as being quirky, but as shouting "LOOK HOW QUIRKY I AM!" and that is what really put me off.

[Brian]

"Forced whimsy" is exactly the phrase I'm looking for in regards to the entire experience.

The whole thing struck me not just as being quirky, but as shouting "LOOK HOW QUIRKY I AM!" and that is what really put me off.

You should definitely avoid the vein of fake-profound 2000-10 era romantic comedies like Garden State, Elizabethtown, and 500 Days of Summer! Basically, go back in time and ask 18-year-old me what I liked, and avoid that   

[Madiel]

You should definitely avoid the vein of fake-profound 2000-10 era romantic comedies like Garden State, Elizabethtown, and 500 Days of Summer! Basically, go back in time and ask 18-year-old me what I liked, and avoid that   

But I really like 500 Days of Summer. I don't mind whimsical. I only mind when it's so forced.

I'm not sure whether I've seen the others.

[Karl Henning]

Last night I wanted to watch Fellini's Otto e mezzo again. Always get more out of it each time.

[Iota]

Cigar-chewing Clint and silky smooth Lee Van Cleef, as unspeakably cool and bad-but-somehow-good guys, shooting even badder guys for money, and exchanging gunfire and wit in equally dazzling measure. Such fun to watch, and in its own way a bit of a masterpiece I think (a couple of ridiculous scenes aside). Probably fifteen years or so since I saw it, but it's all laid out in such a neat series of memorable scenes that it seems more like a couple of months.
Love the fact that Leone got Morricone to write the score before filming started so he could shoot to the music on set, it feels so part of it.

[Karl Henning]

Cigar-chewing Clint and silky smooth Lee Van Cleef, as unspeakably cool and bad-but-somehow-good guys, shooting even badder guys for money, and exchanging gunfire and wit in equally dazzling measure. Such fun to watch, and in its own way a bit of a masterpiece I think (a couple of ridiculous scenes aside). Probably fifteen years or so since I saw it, but it's all laid out in such a neat series of memorable scenes that it seems more like a couple of months.
Love the fact that Leone got Morricone to write the score before filming started so he could shoot to the music on set, it feels so part of it.

A classic!

[Karl Henning]

Watching Quo Vadis with commentary this time. Cute story about Ustinov. Although he later left the movie, John Huston was initially the director, and it was Huston who wanted Ustinov to play Nero. One of the suits confronted Ustinov, "You can't play this role, you're too young!" (Ustinov was 28.) The literate actor retorted, "Don't wait too long, or I'll be too old: Nero was 31."

[drogulus]

Watching Quo Vadis with commentary this time. Cute story about Ustinov. Although he later left the movie, John Huston was initially the director, and it was Huston who wanted Ustinov to play Nero. One of the suits confronted Ustinov, "You can't play this role, you're too young!" (Ustinov was 28.) The literate actor retorted, "Don't wait too long, or I'll be too old: Nero was 31."

     Ustinov was wonderful in Spartacus.

[Karl Henning]

Ustinov was wonderful in Spartacus.

Aye.

[Karl Henning]

On the sentimental side, but very good all the same, I think: Dan Ireland's The Whole Wide World. 

[71 dB]

Oldboy (Park Chan-Wook, 2003)

I expected a somewhat crazy film, but this was five times crazier than my expectations This is clearly a creative and edgy piece of art, but not to my taste completely.

[DavidW]

It has an amazing opening... one of the best I have EVER seen in a movie.  And then I wanted to turn it off, seeing Henry Fonda has a horrible villain!  But I kept watching it and it was amazing.  Never seen it before.

I watched in my little den, 8 feet from my 75 inch tv and it really was a treat!

[Cato]

On the sentimental side, but very good all the same, I think: Dan Ireland's The Whole Wide World.

That is one of our "underground" favorites!

In recent days...

A wild - and at times very funny - satire on Hollywood and on detective movies in general:



(There are other movies with the same title.)


Although claiming to have some historical basis, the movie is more fantasy than history.  Nevertheless, if you ignore that, Clive Owen is always worth watching, and Stellan Skarsgard as a brutal, proto-Nazi Saxon king is excellent!



Oh! And Keira Knightley sometimes looks like she is auditioning for the cast of Braveheart! 

Also in recent days, and not just because of the deliberate musical anachronisms, A Knight's Tale, just a fun movie all the way through!  Hard to believe it is 22 years old already!



Rupert Sewell, an arrogant champion in the above movie, is also the villain in The Illusionist, one of my favorites from the last decade.




Plus, I am thinking of purchasing a Blu-Ray restored version of an early (1930) John Wayne Western called The Big Trail, directed by Raoul Walsh and filmed in a 70 mm, wide-screen process!


Note that the "star" of the movie is Raoul Walsh!   




Has anyone seen this early, wide-screen epic?  Oddly, it did not do well, and so John Wayne, hoping for a big break at age 24 with this movie, was sent back down to the minors for 9 years, until John Ford called him up to the major-leagues with Stagecoach.

[Karl Henning]

Cigar-chewing Clint and silky smooth Lee Van Cleef, as unspeakably cool and bad-but-somehow-good guys, shooting even badder guys for money, and exchanging gunfire and wit in equally dazzling measure. Such fun to watch, and in its own way a bit of a masterpiece I think (a couple of ridiculous scenes aside). Probably fifteen years or so since I saw it, but it's all laid out in such a neat series of memorable scenes that it seems more like a couple of months.
Love the fact that Leone got Morricone to write the score before filming started so he could shoot to the music on set, it feels so part of it.

Time I watched A Fistful of Dollars again. 

[71 dB]

That is one of our "underground" favorites!

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How cool it would be if lack of availability applied to undesired things:

- Covid-19 not available in your country
- High inflation not available in your country
- Stupidity not available in your country'

However as we now, the availability of undesired things are rarely geo-blocked...

[Karl Henning]

Video unavailable
The uploader has not made this video available in your country

How cool it would be if lack of availability applied to undesired things:

- Covid-19 not available in your country
- High inflation not available in your country
- Stupidity not available in your country'

However as we now, the availability of undesired things are rarely geo-blocked...

That's a drag.

[relm1]

My Cousin Vinny (1992) was on tv and it was soooo funny.  Really well made comedy.  I forget how accomplished Joe Pesci was in comedies since to me he's better known in Scorsese films.  There are so many running gags...like Vinny always outsmarting the bully, the judge always inching closer to determining Vinny's identity, Marisa Tomei's constantly asking "Can I help?" and getting pushed aside until it explodes and she and Vinny are no longer on speaking terms where it ends up the ditz she was judged to be was completely unwarranted as she was the expert witness! 

[relm1]

Okay, I got way sidetracked, and couldn't not rewatch this:



Man, everything about this film is a home run - a perfect film - no matter which version you watch. That ending is always great for a good cry.

The only way this film can be improved is to see it Live to Picture with an orchestra playing the soundtrack.  It will blow you away!