Last Movie You Watched

[DavidW]

Have you heard Gilbert Gottfried's impression of James Mason?

https://www.facebook.com/MMPggacp/videos/amazing-gilbert-gottfried-is-james-masonwatch-sharegilbertpodfried-itunescomgilb/1601531383418165/

I have to watch that movie whatever it is!  You've smashed my pea...

[ritter]

I have to watch that movie whatever it is!  You've smashed my pea...

It's this one:

[Madiel]

The Muppet Movie



Regressing into childhood (after watching the first 3 seasons of the TV show, and inserting this film between seasons 3 and 4 which is when it came out).

It's a lot of fun, with much silliness but also some genuinely good jokes. Including a lot of meta-references. The movie starts with all the Muppets sitting down to watch the movie, and characters read the script to find out what's going on.

The only thing I remembered before rewatching was "turn left at the fork in the road".

[Iota]

There are many great things about this film, but the one that eclipses them all for me each time, is Daniel Day-Lewis' spectacular tour de force as the sociopathic and obsessive lead character. Never has Gore Vidal's 'It is not enough to succeed. Others must fail', been more viscerally portrayed.
Funnily enough I always found the voice DDL uses for the character kind of mesmeric, thought it a brilliant creation, and I read now that he based it on John Huston (keeping it culturally in-house), who apparently had his own rather dark side too. Though it wasn't clear if DDL said this, or somebody else surmised it, though listening to Huston the similarity is eerie. Whatever the case, the results are unforgettable.

[Karl Henning]

Was the Robocop Remake Really That Bad?

[relm1]

The Thing (1982).  This is a great film and very different from the original 1951 film (also great for its time) but the remake is way better and actually not a remake but a reimagining.  There was a prequel from 2011 but wasn't as good as John Carpenter's 1982 film.  I actually love how Carpenter's film starts with a great sense of mystery as the Norwegian's were chasing the dog out of great desperation. The prequel ends here so is a direct link to Carpenter's film.  The script, directing, cast, and acting are all top notch.  Not to mention the special effects that are some of the best practical effects ever done on film. 

The score deserves mentioning.  Ennio Morricone receives screen credit and his music is always moody.  The true story of the music is more complex.  Morricone wrote 20 minutes of the orchestral score without ever seeing the film and gave it to Carpenter to use where he wanted and it was used very brilliantly throughout making it feel more like 30 or 40 minutes of orchestral score since much of it gets reused.  There is no action or horror music, just dark tension.  The action or extreme horror scenes go unscored.  There is also a synth score which was not done by Morricone, probably Carpenter - think drones with a pulse.  There is also some music which to me feels like it's not Morricone nor Carpenter, probably licensed temp score that might be from Dmitri Tiomkin's original.  Tiomkin's 1951 score doesn't have a complete release so hard to know for sure without rewatching that film again.  This is in the exploring the UFO music.  But somehow these major shifts in score don't bother because they are always dark, atmospheric, and slow tempo.  Similar pallets from different composers.

EDIT: it seems Morricone was reluctant to work on this film so quickly did some music that got used but also did synth but that was adapted by Carpenter and  Alan Howarth (frequent collaborator/sound designer) to become the theme heard throughout the film.

[Karl Henning]

The Thing (1982).  This is a great film and very different from the original 1951 film (also great for its time) but the remake is way better and actually not a remake but a reimagining.  There was a prequel from 2011 but wasn't as good as John Carpenter's 1982 film.  I actually love how Carpenter's film starts with a great sense of mystery as the Norwegian's were chasing the dog out of great desperation. The prequel ends here so is a direct link to Carpenter's film.  The script, directing, cast, and acting are all top notch.  Not to mention the special effects that are some of the best practical effects ever done on film. 

The score deserves mentioning.  Ennio Morricone receives screen credit and his music is always moody.  The true story of the music is more complex.  Morricone wrote 20 minutes of the orchestral score without ever seeing the film and gave it to Carpenter to use where he wanted and it was used very brilliantly throughout making it feel more like 30 or 40 minutes of orchestral score since much of it gets reused.  There is no action or horror music, just dark tension.  The action or extreme horror scenes go unscored.  There is also a synth score which was not done by Morricone, probably Carpenter - think drones with a pulse.  There is also some music which to me feels like it's not Morricone nor Carpenter, probably licensed temp score that might be from Dmitri Tiomkin's original.  Tiomkin's 1951 score doesn't have a complete release so hard to know for sure without rewatching that film again.  This is in the exploring the UFO music.  But somehow these major shifts in score don't bother because they are always dark, atmospheric, and slow tempo.  Similar pallets from different composers.

EDIT: it seems Morricone was reluctant to work on this film so quickly did some music that got used but also did synth but that was adapted by Carpenter and  Alan Howarth (frequent collaborator/sound designer) to become the theme heard throughout the film.

Great flick!

[LKB]

Great flick!

Yup. I was watching one of my favorite reactors doing her best to handle it Friday night...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48JvWljE0ng

[Karl Henning]

Yup. I was watching one of my favorite reactors doing her best to handle it Friday night...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48JvWljE0ng

Very brave of her. "Nightmare fuel!"

[Madiel]

I've not actually seen The Thing. I'm mostly aware of it because it inspired one of the best early episodes of The X-Files, called "Ice" (or both were inspired by the same earlier story).

[brewski]

The Thing (1982).  This is a great film and very different from the original 1951 film (also great for its time) but the remake is way better and actually not a remake but a reimagining.  There was a prequel from 2011 but wasn't as good as John Carpenter's 1982 film.  I actually love how Carpenter's film starts with a great sense of mystery as the Norwegian's were chasing the dog out of great desperation. The prequel ends here so is a direct link to Carpenter's film.  The script, directing, cast, and acting are all top notch.  Not to mention the special effects that are some of the best practical effects ever done on film. 

The score deserves mentioning.  Ennio Morricone receives screen credit and his music is always moody.  The true story of the music is more complex.  Morricone wrote 20 minutes of the orchestral score without ever seeing the film and gave it to Carpenter to use where he wanted and it was used very brilliantly throughout making it feel more like 30 or 40 minutes of orchestral score since much of it gets reused.  There is no action or horror music, just dark tension.  The action or extreme horror scenes go unscored.  There is also a synth score which was not done by Morricone, probably Carpenter - think drones with a pulse.  There is also some music which to me feels like it's not Morricone nor Carpenter, probably licensed temp score that might be from Dmitri Tiomkin's original.  Tiomkin's 1951 score doesn't have a complete release so hard to know for sure without rewatching that film again.  This is in the exploring the UFO music.  But somehow these major shifts in score don't bother because they are always dark, atmospheric, and slow tempo.  Similar pallets from different composers.

EDIT: it seems Morricone was reluctant to work on this film so quickly did some music that got used but also did synth but that was adapted by Carpenter and  Alan Howarth (frequent collaborator/sound designer) to become the theme heard throughout the film.

Totally agree, a great one, perhaps Carpenter's best (as a big fan of the original Halloween). The sense of dread is constant, only interrupted by the shocking effects, and when they subside, the tension is still there.

Interesting comments on the score, too, which frankly I had not noticed. (Probably too frightened. )

In any case, quite a creation.

-Bruce

[brewski]

Not in the past, but coming up:

On November 11, Scorsese's Film Foundation is showing Vittorio De Sica's Shoeshine (1946), which the foundation has restored. I've never seen the film, though have seen some of his others, notably The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (1970), which was one of my entry points into "art film."

Free registration here. You can either watch when the film goes live (and chat with others, if desired), or watch on demand any time for 72 hours.

-Bruce

[71 dB]

Insidious: The Red Door (Patrick Wilson, 2023) Nordic Blu-ray

Not the strongest part, but I am a big fan of the franchise and this one "completes" the Lambert family trilogy. Patrick Wilson's directorial debut is decent, but far from James Wan's visual mastery.

[Cato]

It's this one:

Excellent movie!

And speaking of variations on the theme of Sherlock Holmes (which I believe I offered some months ago):

(The hero in the movie is known as "Basil of Baker Street."  His helper is "Dr. Dawson.")

"...One of the great amusements of The Great Mouse Detective is its surprising verisimilitude: in this mouse-sized duplicate universe, it's fun to pick out little references to the Holmesian canon. There are the obvious connections (Basil's penchants for disguises and violin-playing) and the amusing references (Basil's own name, harks to the great Basil Rathbone, who famously played Sherlock Holmes in the 1930s and 40s, as well as to one of the literary Holmes's own aliases; in "The Adventure of Black Peter," we learn that Holmes also goes by "Basil.") There are near-verbatim lines, such as when Basil identifies Dawson's career (which Holmes does in the opening novella, "A Study in Scarlet"). More charming still is that when we overhear Holmes, upstairs, talking to Watson, we actually hear Basil Rathbone's voice; though the film was made after Rathbone's death, it loops a bit of dialogue from a recorded production of "The Red-Headed League" decades earlier)..."

 

See:

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/of-mice-detectives-and-men-in-praise-of-the-great-mouse-detective

[Karl Henning]

Excellent movie!

And speaking of variations on the theme of Sherlock Holmes (which I believe I offered some months ago):




See:

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/of-mice-detectives-and-men-in-praise-of-the-great-mouse-detective

Thanks for the reminder!

[Pohjolas Daughter]

The Muppet Movie



Regressing into childhood (after watching the first 3 seasons of the TV show, and inserting this film between seasons 3 and 4 which is when it came out).

It's a lot of fun, with much silliness but also some genuinely good jokes. Including a lot of meta-references. The movie starts with all the Muppets sitting down to watch the movie, and characters read the script to find out what's going on.

The only thing I remembered before rewatching was "turn left at the fork in the road".

I have a soft spot for the muppets.  I also loved how (on the t.v. show) they would have special human guests (like Bubbles--Beverly Sills).

"Bein' Green"

PD

[Pohjolas Daughter]

I have a soft spot for the muppets.  I also loved how (on the t.v. show) they would have special human guests (like Bubbles--Beverly Sills).

"Bein' Green"

PD

I just ran across this video (re climate changing--probably best to watch it on youtube's link to see the official comments?)

PD

[George]

So good - amazing car chase, amazing shooting scenes, amazing antagonist, and, of course, Cruise is also amazing:

Is this the same character as the TV series Reacher? That show is awesome. 

[vers la flamme]

Rashomon. On a little bit of a samurai flick kick and open to recommendations...

[relm1]

Rashomon. On a little bit of a samurai flick kick and open to recommendations...

I'm no expert but Ran is fantastic!  Also has a great score!