Amph What was the last movie you saw? (Ver. 2)

Wait, hold up.

AG is a pleasant enough film with a lot of fun 50's nostalgia vibes but let's not get crazy here and start labeling stuff masterpieces.

Reminds me of my great friend who calls Tom Petty a genius. Now I meself like Tom's music quite a lot, but if you call him a musical genius, you've pretty much opened the damn floodgates, know what I mean Vern?

I think Beethoven was a genius though.

Look. He wrote incredible music while suffering from the most insanity inducing loud sounds drowning out all of his higher frequencies etc, it's a complicated story, but he wasn't actually deaf, it was way worse than deafness. It was slowly encroaching, progressively worse noise.

Tom Petty playing A C D E F G and their relative minors in various combinations for 40 years does not make him a genius. He's a great artist though.

Same with American Graffiti.

 

Well you’re not going to get anywhere with an appeal against Tom Petty, either.

 

Captain Marvel

Once again, I under if Captain Marvel played a role in ending the Kree-Nova War prior to the events of Guardians of the Galaxy.

 

I mean, I don't know what I'd change about American Graffiti to make it better and that seems like a fair definition of a masterpiece to me. It has somewhat humble ambitions perhaps, but, you know what, no, it really doesn't even have small ambitions; it's trying to capture the specific feel of an entire generation in the span of a single night and also capture the timeless emotion of youth on the cusp of change. And it does it. It does both of those things. Hell, I guess it is a masterpiece. Yeah, it is! It totally is. Thanks, @Dagobahsystem I wasn't sure if I'd call American Graffiti a masterpiece or not, but you've convinced me!

 

I just watched this last night. It was better than I remember!

 

No, I won’t back down.

You can stand me up at the gates of hell, but I won’t back down.

 

Temporary Resurrection of Sandwiches

 

Turd Rotting On Screen.

 

Toot root oot soot

I wonder when they’ll make Episode 9.

 

Release the Trevorrow Cut!

 

The French Lieutenant’s Woman. Harold Pinter’s script tackles the source novel’s postmodern commentary on the conventions of the Victorian-era romance by staging the story as a film within a film. Jeremy Irons and Meryl Streep play actors who carry on an affair mirroring that of their characters, an enigmatic woman with a ruined reputation and the engaged man who ruins himself with love for her. It’s a very interesting take on the material, but the framing story is only fitfully successful, since we see far, far more of the Victorian narrative than of the frame, and those characters are much more complex and intriguing than our conventionally dallying actors. Streep gets to play a character who is continually revealing further layers, calling into question who she really is (I am inclined to agree with the doctor who declares that she has “fallen in love with being a victim of fate”). Irons is excellent as a man first intrigued by this pitiful figure, then increasingly drawn in until he is consumed with passion. Aside from the weakness in the structure, it’s an extremely well-made movie, and even that doesn’t detract from its insightful commentary on Victorian romance.

 

Well, thankfully, I'm not trying to get anywhere.

@Rogue1-and-a-half
AG is an ok film, not a masterpiece.

 

That's a great song.
I love it.

Never knew y'all thought Petty was a genius. Sorry I brought it up.

If Tom Petty is a genius then Axl Rose and Chris Cornell must be actual deities to you blokes.
And Prince or MJ or Stevie or Miles is God himself.

Lennon must be like Buddha.

That is if you think Petty was a true genius.

Hard to talk parameters with personal taste, but if y'all say Tom Petty is a genius then so is Elvis and Madonna and Mick Jagger then.
And Paula Abdul is a really talented genius level choreographer.

David Bowie must seem like the entire galaxy comprised in one soul then.

And I Won't Back Down. No I Won't Back Down!

*sings and plays the actual song meself*

 

The Shakiest Gun in the West. Don Knotts is basically playing Barney Fife in a Western, but Knotts sticking to what he’s good at is a fine recipe for comedy. He’s an outstanding comedic performer, and he’s good fun here as a nervous, silly dentist who goes out west and ends up, through great contrivance, unknowingly married to a beautiful bandit who’s working for a pardon by going undercover in his wagon train to find out who’s smuggling guns to the Indians. It’s fun to see Knotts paired up with a much more capable woman, especially when he gets a reputation as a gunslinger thanks to her shooting and gets all puffed up. The setpieces the film bounces through are mostly quite funny, though the finale with Knotts in drag in the Indian camp is dated to say the least, and not all that comedically strong, either. Knotts is in fine form, though, and the film is good for plenty of laughs.

 

Have you seen "The Paleface", the Bob Hope/Jane Russell movie this is based on? Or its even funnier sequel "Son of Paleface"?

 

Classic.

And further campy Don Knotts Old West hilarity...The Apple Dumpling Gang, and The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again. Don Knotts, Disney-style. + Tim Conway. Can't miss!

Corny and Light...but that is Don Knotts.

Win.

 

The Nun’s Story. An excellent, stately film that tells its story with a sensitive, delicate hand, this is a really impressive film. Audrey Hepburn plays a nun who, over the course of her career, slowly struggles with the discipline demanded of her, in a very real and subtle way, not a grandiose, showy, Hollywood sort of rebellion. Hepburn perfectly portrays the noble purity (has any star ever been purer than Hepburn?), self-doubt, and steely will of her character, who struggles with her vows precisely because she takes them seriously. It’s an extremely well-crafted, lovely movie that every Christian should be able to relate to, but which handles issues that should speak to anybody.

 

The Blue Yonder (1985)
Disney movie about a little boy who uses a time machine to travel back to 1927 in order to prevent his grandfather from getting killed trying to be the first to fly across the Atlantic (in a 1944 Stearman biplane which wouldn't make it a tenth of the way, although it was dressed up with a belly tank for extended range so it might have made it an eighth of the way). All in all, it was pretty bland.

Legendary aerobatic pilot Art Scholl did the flying, which was by far the best part of the movie, even if Art was highly overqualified for the basic aviating in the film. He died a year later when he couldn't recover from a flat spin, filming for the crash scene in Top Gun. The movie camera on his plane affected its balance and aerodynamics, making it unstable and impossible to get out of the spin. If you've noticed that the credits of Top Gun say "This film is dedicated to the memory of Art Scholl.", now you know who he was and why he earned the dedication. He also flew for The Right Stuff, The Great Waldo Pepper, Blue Thunder, Iron Eagle, The A-Team, CHiPs, and many others. Honestly, I still resent Top Gun for getting him killed.

 

Earwig and The Witch (2021)
The newest film released by Studio Ghibli, now in select theaters and HBO Max. A baby is dropped at orphanage by a woman who was being chased on the road. The little girl grows up to be one who's somewhat manipulative with her peers, while knowing nothing of her past. One day a strange couple visit the orphanage and decide to adopt her. The blue-haired woman is a witch, and things get crazy from here on. It's a nice family film with not much substance to it. I can't say it compares to the classic films of Studio Ghibli, but nonetheless it makes it's mark. There are some very subtle Easter Eggs referencing past films from the Studio if you pay close attention. I won't spoil anything; but I was kind of disappointed with the ending.

 

Batman
1989 Tim Burton

I was really appreciating how well the production design has held up over the years. Gotham looks epic. And Elfman's pensive score is a real treat. And I love that Prince wrote the soundtrack.

The main cast is great, but I was really appreciating the performances by the side characters on this viewing like Jack Pallance as Grissom, Jerry Hall as Alicia , Billy Dee Williams as Dent, Michael Gough as Alfred, Pat Hingle as Gordon, and William Hootkins as Eckhart among others.

What a talented group that worked on this film.

 

That moment when Jack Nicholson imitates Jack Palance doing the "number one guy" line is one of the greatest moments in acting history.

 

A Place in the Sun. A quality drama in the classic style, this features Montgomery Clift as the poor relation of wealthy businessman who gets a job in the family factory and dates coworker Shelley Winters. But when he rises in the company and starts to mingle a little in society, he falls for rich girl Elizabeth Taylor. This is quite understandable, since it’s Elizabeth Taylor, but it creates complications when he has to disentangle himself from his dual loyalties. Clift, Winters, and Taylor are all fantastic, especially Clift in the psychologically intense role of an ambitious striver who finds himself trapped in a noir-style nightmare. It’s a well-put-together picture, as you’d expect from George Stevens, that builds and builds.

 

I remember liking that film when I was in high school. It helped sorta inspire a script I wound up writing.