What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[Wee-Bey]

Arnie would have made a decent Bane. 

[scottsdad]

There was a rumour ahead of it coming out that Patrick Stewart was going to be Mr Freeze. Then it came out and it was Arnie...

[MSU]

I always hated how the poster was contrived to give Arnie top-billing. The guy playing Batman should always be at the top of the bill. 

[scottsdad]

1 minute ago, MSU said:

I always hated how the poster was contrived to give Arnie top-billing. The guy playing Batman should always be at the top of the bill. 

Jack Nicholson's name was first on the 1989 movie.

[MSU]

37 minutes ago, scottsdad said:

Jack Nicholson's name was first on the 1989 movie.

I hated that too. For the same reason.

[Detournement]

@Frankie S

https://www.avclub.com/nicolas-winding-refn-amazon-buried-too-old-to-die-young-1849970496

Quote

 

“Well, they took all my marketing money away because they were afraid that the show would reflect badly on Amazon,” Refn tells Vulture. “They told me that directly. They were so shocked by it. I was like, ‘What’s so shocking?’ They said, ‘It’s going to make us look bad.’ And I said, ‘But I don’t think anyone’s going to look at you at all.’”

“Certain parts of Hollywood are so self-absorbed that they think they’re at the center of the universe,” Refn continues. “The rule of fear is very dangerous. Amazon released the show, but they said, ‘We will bury you.’ And so they did. However, you can’t bury a diamond.”

 

I would love to know how much it cost to make, how many people have watched it all and what happened when they showed the Amazon execs what they had made.

He says Netflix are still talking to him which is good news. He's the only person working in TV who seems to understand the potential of making shows for high quality wide screen TVs. Everything else looks like shit in comparison.

[JustOneCornetto]

(05) Lourdes (2009) – DVD

An interesting wee film about a wheelchair bound French girl, Christine, played really well by Sylvie Testud, who is on a pilgrimage to Lourdes. She doesn’t really have a lot of faith and sees this as a bit of holiday and a way of getting out of the house. The experience all seems very touristy and you see how various people react in different ways especially when Christine is able to start walking, an apparent ‘miracle’, before she has to go before the medical experts to declare it a miracle or not. Very understated film but quite an enjoyable watch.  6.5/10

(06) The Pale Blue Eye (2022) – Netflix

Christian Bale plays a detective in 1830 who is hired to investigate the suspicious death of a cadet at West Point. He enlists the help of young cadet, Edgar Allan Poe, who is not really how I imagined he would be but his character did grow on me as the film went on. It’s over 2 hours long and feel it could have been edited down by about 20 minutes to make it a bit tighter but saying that it is very moody and atmospheric with a good twist in the final act.  7/10

(07) The Counterfeiters (2007) – DVD

Based on a true story about Operation Bernhard, the largest counterfeiting operation in history, carried out by the Nazis in WWII. The film focuses on Salomon ‘Sally’ Sarowitsch, the king of counterfeiters who is sent to a concentration camp but his skills are soon noticed and he is forced to help in forging millions of dollars and pounds. He is conflicted as to whether help prolong the war or put his life in danger and finds other Jews in his team of forgers are not all on his side. Very good film.  7.5/10

Edited January 13, 2023 by JustOneCornetto

[Detournement]

Something I learned on my recent Lolita deep dive is that Edgar Allan Poe married his 13 year old cousin when he was 27.

 

[Squalor Vic]

Midnight Special (2016)

Been on my watch list since it came out. Jeff Nichols' follow up to the excellent Mud, is weird and challenging sci-fi that doesn't spoon feed you the answers all the time, letting you piece together what's going on as it goes. Dropping you right into what feels like the middle of a story, it rattles along as a road trip thriller, with Michael Shannon and Joel Edgerton on the lam with a boy with special 'gifts' that have attracted the attention of not just the authorities but a religious cult too. A cracking support cast featuring Adam Driver, Kirsten Dunst and a whole load of 'that guy' actors you'll recognise carry it and not one of them is missing a beat with great performances across the board (Michael Shannon always leaves me a bit cold though it has to be said)

Definite hints of Speilbergy energy, though more Close Encounters than E.T. it takes in faith, parenthood, destiny and has an ending which is both strange and emotional. A must for sci-fi fans who like things a bit more thoughtful 

[Guest]

On 09/01/2023 at 23:28, Scotty Tunbridge said:

Agree on the couple of shouts for Till was a great film if maybe a wee bit too long. I genuinely genuinely did not know this was a true story until the recap bit at the end, I thought it was a more intense/dramatic to kill a mockingbird style story until the end. The bit with the dead boy was absolutely harrowing (suppose that’s what they were aiming for). After doing my own reading about the real life situation it’s scary how accurate the film is.

Wild the woman that lied in court and basically got the boy killed is still alive and kicking living a normal life, hope she has had nightmares every night of her life.

Saw it last Monday, followed by a repeat documentary last night on the PBS channel on Freeview. It's sickening how descendants of some of the key figures involved mirror the attitudes of their forebears - the son of the local sherrif defends his father's ridiculous theories of the time, all these years later, when the two murderers had already admitted it four years after the event.   

If you look on Google maps you'll see some of the memorial signs even now are riddled with bullet holes, the one outside the ruined Bryant Store has been removed after vandalism. And even after burial the poor lad couldn't rest in peace, as the cemetery where he's buried was later mired in scandal and neglect.  I'm just glad the story has been brought back into the headlines. 

Edited January 13, 2023 by IncomingExile

[Miguel Sanchez]

2 hours ago, Detournement said:

Something I learned on my recent Lolita deep dive is that Edgar Allan Poe married his 13 year old cousin when he was 27.

 

Did you google "famous people who were nonces"?

[Shandon Par]

The Pale Blue Eye, Netflix

An experiment into exactly how much money it takes for mighty actors such as Tim Spall, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Christian Bale to appear in a pile of pish.

Could have been okay if it ended at 90 minutes but the extra half hour tacked on to the end broke my patience.

[the aggressive beggar]

On 13/01/2023 at 00:09, Frankie S said:

Too Old to Die Young is, along with Twin Peaks: The Return, one of my favourite ever TV shows. Almost no-one has seen it (it’s buried deep on Amazon Prime, and the streaming service did nothing to promote it) and some of those who started it, gave up early (it’s one of the most extreme examples of ‘slow TV’ ever made). It’s certainly worth sticking with it, as it unfurls at its own pace, leisurely but deadly, like a King cobra. Episode 5 ‘The Fool’ is probably the nastiest, darkest TV episode I’ve ever seen, and the slow motion car chase where the protagonist (played by Miles Teller) chases a pair of depraved pornographers, accompanied by the soundtrack of Barry Manilow’s ‘Mandy’ is a moment of unexpected genius. It’s a needle drop that just shouldn’t work, but it does, beautifully. Cliff Martinez’s pulsing electronic score for TOtDY is as sleek and effective as his scores for ‘Drive’ and ‘Only God Forgives’, and overall it’s an amazingly assured exercise in long-form TV. I’d love to see a second series, but, sadly, it’s never going to happen. Looking forward to immersing myself in Copenhagen Cowboy in due course though.

Thanks for the recommendation, watched the first two episodes last night.  Incredible TV and a travesty that Amazon didn't scream about it from the rooftops.

That tiger scene in ep 1 though..... 

Edited January 14, 2023 by the aggressive beggar

[Detournement]

12 hours ago, Miguel Sanchez said:

Did you google "famous people who were nonces"?

It's mentioned in a round about way in the book. Nabokov also seems to be saying that JM Barrie and Lewis Carroll were nonces which is well known but maybe also AA Milne and RL Stevenston. 

[Detournement]

2 hours ago, the aggressive beggar said:

Thanks for the recommendation, watched the first two episodes last night.  Incredible TV and a travesty that Amazon didn't scream about it from the rooftops.

That tiger scene in ep 1 though..... 

It gets a lot weirder than that. 

[the aggressive beggar]

1 hour ago, Detournement said:

It gets a lot weirder than that. 

Good stuff, gonna get another couple watched tonight.

[Wee-Bey]

Finished off the Trilogy with Pusher III. Hard to choose a favourite from the three, but would maybe go 2,3,1. Also watched Nitram, which was pretty good. Some great performances especially Caleb Jones who seems born to play weirdos.

[MSU]

007 The Double -- Richard Ayoade's adaptation of Dostoevsky's novella is as much of a nightmarish panic attack of a movie as you'd probably expect, accentuated by a sharp script delivered at some pace. Jesse Eisenberg, in two roles as Simon James and James Simon, is about as good as I've ever seen him, aided by Wallace Shawn, Tim Key, Mia Wasikowska, Chris Morris, and Sally Hawkins amongst others. Simon James is an anonymous office drone, ignored by his boss, struggling to connect with his beautiful neighbour, when new employee James Simon appears. No one notices that he's Simon's double and he appears to be Simon's opposite and gradually takes over his life. It's a great script, hilarious and terrifying, but loses its traction a bit towards the end. 8/10

008 Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa -- Seeing Tim Key in The Double reminded me it's been a few years since I last watched Alpha Papa. This version of Partridge takes a little getting used to as the Gibbons brothers write him in a slightly different direction, but I still find this more hit than miss and includes many moments that are still generating laughs at (at least) the fifth time of asking. 8/10

009 Native Son (#81 in the A24 series) -- It's been a while since I've seen a movie that was chugging along quite nicely and then SOMETHING HAPPENS and the SOMETHING THAT HAPPENS jars so much that it rips me out of the movie and it doesn't really matter what it tries to do after that, the cause is lost. I had high hopes for this given Ashton Sanders' last A24 outing was in Moonlight. Here he plays Bigger Thomas, a poor, young, black man who finds himself with a decision to either become a chauffeur for a wealthy family or join his friends in a robbery. Following this decision comes another decision and this one is so monumentally stupid that it killed my interest, leaving this as a disjointed, unsatisfying, and frustrating experience. 4/10

010 Plane -- From its title to its trailer to its final execution, Plane has a definite feel of f**k it, that'll do. January was made for movies like Plane. Gerard Butler stars as Brodie Torrance, a good Scottish pilot with a good Scottish name, flying a plane out of South-East Asia in a bid to get to Hawaii or California -- it's unclear -- to spend New Year with his daughter who may or may not be estranged, this is also unclear. Flying through a severe storm and with a dangerous prisoner among the dozen or so passengers, he's forced to make a crash landing on a jungle island where a militia of separatists is keen to take them all hostage. It's a fairly ridiculous plot that's played seriously for the most part, but the hybrid of Lost, Rambo, and a straight-faced Airplane does manage to provide something that could easily be mistaken for entertainment. Everyone is operating well within themselves here and it all feels pretty rushed. Characters are only developed insofar as they start the movie in one location and finish it in another. The project feels so rushed like it was still taking off its shoes to go through metaphorical security while its final boarding call was getting tetchy on the tannoy. 5/10

Edited January 15, 2023 by MSU

[Detournement]

White Noise (2022) 

A shite and fairly pointless adaptation of the Delillo novel. It's probably a better watch if you've not read the book. Why anyone thought it was a good idea for Noah Baumbach to direct this is beyond me.

It ends with a completely forgettable new LCD Soundsytem song is unintentionally the only part of the film that channels the book. 

 

[Flybhoy]

Brooklyn (2015)

Interesting and heart warming tale of a teenage girl emigrating from Ireland to New York in the 1950's and, after a family tragedy finding herself having to decide on old or modern life to commit to and on which side of the pond,thoroughly enjoyed it 

8/10