Last Movie You Watched

[ritter]

Superb!

Buona sera, Karl!

[Cato]

Ray Harryhausen?

No, and the movie is...controversial, let us say:

e.g.

"...film writer and historian Bill Warren commenting, "This would have been an ordinarily bad movie of its type, with a good performance by Jeff Morrow, if the special effects had been industry standard for the time. That, however, is not what happened. The Claw is not just badly rendered, it is hilariously rendered, resembling nothing so much as Warner Bros. cartoon-character Beaky Buzzard. Once seen, you will never forget this awesomely silly creation".[8]

[drogulus]

No, and the movie is...controversial, let us say:

e.g.

    There's no controversy I'm aware of. 

    Morrow is quite good. You'll remember him for his performance in This Island Earth as Exeter.

[Karl Henning]

It's sub-sub-Harryhausen, and all the more magnificent for it. 

I saw that a bunch of Harryhausen is available on Tubi. Maybe this is, too.

[Karl Henning]

It's sub-sub-Harryhausen, and all the more magnificent for it. 

A "trashterpiece?"

[drogulus]

I saw that a bunch of Harryhausen is available on Tubi. Maybe this is, too.

    It's easy to find.

    If I can be briefly serious, many contemporary films are technically sophisticated but lack charm. Is there such a thing as dreary fun? You remember The Giant Claw for more than 60 years, as ridiculous as it is.

A "trashterpiece?"

     Not really. It belongs in a separate unnamed subcategory. A trashterpiece would be something like Scarface or Starship Troopers. These are trashy films that are good. You can defend them on solid grounds. The Giant Claw is wonderfully indefensible.

[Cato]

There's no controversy I'm aware of. 

 

True: I was being ironic!    And if there were a controversy, it would be over how "unspecial" the "special effects" were! 


Recently:





Again it seems like we just saw this movie!  (1997!)

A "small" movie looking at a struggling family: excellent performances all around.

Peter Fonda plays a beekeeper, who is emotionally restrained and trying to keep his dysfunctional family together, along with handling the increasing problems in bee-keeping.

The movie finds the epic in everyday life!

Highly recommended!

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

My Neighbor Totoro.

[NumberSix]

A Family Affair (2024)

The new Netflix romcom starring Joey King and Nicole Kidman (and Zac Efron, whose head seems quite enormous) is what it is. Has its cute moments, some manufactured conflict, and everything working out in the end more or less.

[SimonNZ]

In a documentary film festival currently on saw The Other Side by former BBC correspondent Sean Langan. A rare look at life in occupied east Ukraine and interviews with civilians and pro-Putin forces, gauging how much their views overlap with the Moscow propaganda. He put himself in quite a bit of danger making it.

https://www.journeyman.tv/film/8609/the-other-side

[AnotherSpin]

Again, Hayao Miyazaki's 'Spirited Away'

[relm1]

Edge of Tomorrow (2014) is a fantastic sci-fi action film.  Excellent script and directing and a film I think is much better than Spielberg's War of the Worlds (2005).  Spoilers: The general concept is a military novice/coward is forced to join the front line of a war against vastly superior alien invaders and is quickly killed only to restart the day over again.  It turns out the alien invaders are able to manipulate time and foresee what the humans will do before they do it but through a strange twist of fate, Cruise inherits that ability from the blood of one of the aliens.  I love his characters transformation and how the story thickens and deepens each time it is rebooted.  They must have had to shoot the same scenes dozens of times, but the film had very rich characters (Emily Blunt is great too as the badass commander) and a very satisfying ending.  This is sci-fi action done right.  Not just spectacle and action, but a rich, complex story with a tight script, surprises, and a very terrifying foe.

[SonicMan46]

The African Queen (1951) - cast below and story in the link; about half the film shot in Africa (Uganda & the Congo) and the rest in studio near London, including the water scenes. On the AFI list of 100 best films, this one is #17 (personally I'd put it higher, one of my favorites); up for 4 Oscars (likely fewer because of its late release in December), winner of Best Actor for Bogart. Highly recommended.  Dave 

The African Queen is a 1951 adventure film adapted from the 1935 novel of the same name by C. S. Forester. The film was directed by John Huston and produced by Sam Spiegel and John Woolf. The screenplay was adapted by James Agee, John Huston, et al. It was photographed in Technicolor by Jack Cardiff and has a music score by Allan Gray. The film stars Humphrey Bogart (who won the Academy Award for Best Actor, his only Oscar) and Katharine Hepburn with Robert Morley, Peter Bull, Walter Gotell, Richard Marner and Theodore Bikel. (Source)

 

[Karl Henning]

The Exorcist. 

[NumberSix]

So, just got home from MaXXXine, and I liked it very much. I don't wanna talk about it in much detail, though, until at least Friday night.

I will say that I meant to see "X" before watching this one, but I never got around to it. Would having seen it have helped? Probably here and there. But the only thing you really need to know is that she was the final girl, and that those events took place about six years before.

Also, Mia Goth *sigh* *love*

And good heavens, Liz Debicki's legs go all the way up, don't they?

[AnotherSpin]

So, just got home from MaXXXine, and I liked it very much. I don't wanna talk about it in much detail, though, until at least Friday night.

I will say that I meant to see "X" before watching this one, but I never got around to it. Would having seen it have helped? Probably here and there. But the only thing you really need to know is that she was the final girl, and that those events took place about six years before.

Also, Mia Goth *sigh* *love*

And good heavens, Liz Debicki's legs go all the way up, don't they?

It's hard to say if you should watch X and Pearl before MaXXXine. I've only watched the first two and there is a connection between them. I found Pearl more interesting from two. Mia Goth is something. Did you watch Infinity Pool?

[NumberSix]

It's hard to say if you should watch X and Pearl before MaXXXine. I've only watched the first two and there is a connection between them. I found Pearl more interesting from two. Mia Goth is something. Did you watch Infinity Pool?

I'm think this is the first thing I've seen from her. She's got a pretty unique look, so pretty sure I would remember.

Doing some reading about the previous two films this evening, it looks like it might've actually benefited me more in some ways having not seen the first one.

[SonicMan46]

Red Dust (1932) - only had this on a lousy DVD-R but Apple claimed to be selling an HD version so took a chance - the detail is excellent (some artifacts) so likely rescanned to high definition - synopsis and cast below; takes place in French Indochina on a rubber plantation - filmed nearly completely on MGM backlots (some used in the Tarzan films of the era).

Mogambo (1953) - remake with Gable + a new cast of ladies - story changed to Africa and directed by John Ford with filming done on location in various parts of the Dark Continent - Dave

Red Dust is a 1932 American pre-Code romantic drama film directed by Victor Fleming, and starring Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, and Mary Astor. Red Dust is the second of six movies Gable and Harlow made together. More than 20 years later, Gable starred in a remake, Mogambo (1953), with Ava Gardner starring in a variation on the role Harlow played and Grace Kelly playing a part similar to one portrayed by Astor in Red Dust. (Source)

   

[DavidW]

So, just got home from MaXXXine, and I liked it very much. I don't wanna talk about it in much detail, though, until at least Friday night.

I was looking forward to that, good to know it is out and is good!  I will go and watch it.  Just not today, I don't like driving on holidays.  I'm going to hunker down.

[DavidW]

It's hard to say if you should watch X and Pearl before MaXXXine. I've only watched the first two and there is a connection between them. I found Pearl more interesting from two. Mia Goth is something. Did you watch Infinity Pool?

I loved Pearl.  Also Infinity Pool.  X was good, but I don't think as good as those two.