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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

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

Discussion in 'Community' started by Violent Violet Menace, Nov 17, 2017.

  1. Count Yubnub

    Count Yubnub Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Oct 1, 2012
    Shadow of a Doubt (dir. Alfred Hitchcock, 1943) 4k disk

    The setup: in a brief prologue, Charlie (Joseph Cotten) is seen in a hotel. The hotel lady tells him that two men were looking for him; he decides to flee.
    Meanwhile, "Charlie" Charlotte (Teresa Wright) is a teenager from Santa Rosa, CA (which isn't too far from where I live). She's bored, and one day she decides to send a telegram to her uncle Charlie, after whom she's named and of whom she's fond, to liven things up. Coincidentally the family receives a telegram from Charlie that same day saying he's coming over for a visit. They pick him up from the train station and everyone is delighted; he's a super nice guy, and he's brought nice presents for everyone. Charlie (the girl) is especially delighted about her uncle's visit; she's always felt they share a special bond; she attributes it to telepathy and the fact they share a name. Gradually, however, she begins to suspect that there might be more about her uncle than meets the eye... What is he hiding? Or is she making it up?

    [​IMG]

    Apparently of all the films Hitchcock made, this one was his favorite. I don't agree, but it's nevertheless a great little thriller with a good sense of suspense and forward momentum. Also very good central performances by Wright and Cotten (and the child actors are pretty fun, too--the little girl is awesome). I'm not sure I've seen Wright in anything else; I recently saw Cotten in The Third Man. I had a good time with it. Recommended if you like Hitchcock and haven't seen this one; but in the unlikely case you're unfamiliar with Hitchcock and want to check out his best stuff, I'd go for something else first. Rating: 4 shadows of a doubt out of 5.
     
    Last edited: Nov 28, 2022
  2. Jar-Jar Binks

    Jar-Jar Binks SWC Late Show With JJB Host star 8 VIP - Game Host

    Registered:
    Nov 17, 2016
    weird the al yankovic story

    probably the best harry potter film yet
     
  3. Kenneth Morgan

    Kenneth Morgan Chosen One star 5

    Registered:
    May 27, 1999
    Have you seen "Pride of the Yankees" or "The Best Years of Our Lives"?
     
  4. Count Yubnub

    Count Yubnub Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Oct 1, 2012
    I haven’t.
     
  5. AndyLGR

    AndyLGR Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    May 1, 2014
    The Parrallax View The 70's really knew how to do conspiracy thrillers didn't it. Warren Beatty is the reporter delving into the mysterious deaths of everyone who was present at the assassination of a senator. He can't run the story as he doesn't know who he can trust but he discovers a link to a Parallax Corporation, a company recruiting assassins around the world. After attempts on his own life he fakes his own death and then joins them hoping to bag a big conspiracy story.

    Never seen this before, Beatty is really good, Parallax are creepy, the paranoia is palpable, some of the shots and locations are striking. The story is bleak, really bleak. Its very much of its time with the score, weird camera angles and cinematography. Thoroughly enjoyed it though.

    Amazing to see people dropping their bag at the entrance to an airport and it being unchecked, people actually paying on the flight for their ticket too.
     
    Last edited: Nov 28, 2022
  6. Jar-Jar Binks

    Jar-Jar Binks SWC Late Show With JJB Host star 8 VIP - Game Host

    Registered:
    Nov 17, 2016
    weird the al yankovic story is a modern day scarface
     
  7. Ahsoka's Tano

    Ahsoka's Tano Force Ghost star 7

    Registered:
    Oct 28, 2014
    I'm not sure that I see the correlation.
     
  8. Kenneth Morgan

    Kenneth Morgan Chosen One star 5

    Registered:
    May 27, 1999
    You should. They're two very good movies.
     
  9. Sarge

    Sarge Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Oct 4, 1998
    I've been meaning to see Best Years of Our Lives again. I saw it once, years ago, but since then I've retired from the air force and I bet I'll react differently to it now.
     
  10. anakinfansince1983

    anakinfansince1983 Skywalker Saga/LFL/YJCC Manager star 10 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Mar 4, 2011
    A Christmas Story Christmas (2022):

    I’m a big fan of the original and tend to avoid sequels with the exception of Star Wars and Back to the Future, but I found this one mostly worthy. Mostly.

    It’s the original with a splash of National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, Little Women and a Hallmark Christmas Movie. And yes, that’s weird, but not too hard to follow when you combine small town people with cheap beer and gross casseroles, with Ralphie coming home from the big city while being declined by publishers when he writes grandiose science fiction stories but lauded when he writes a heartfelt story about his Old Man and how he made Christmas special.

    Nice reenactment of the Schwartz and Flick and Ralphie friendship, and a good redemption story for Scutt Farkus (too bad his kids ended up just like him).

    Ralphie wanting a car radiator for Christmas made a nice parallel to the Old Man wanting a new furnace, just needed more tapestry of obscenity hanging in space somewhere over Lake Michigan.

    The Old Man showing up in spirit at the end was great. Buying all the presents anyone wanted before passing away on December 19.

    All we needed was Randy not being able to put his arms down. But we did get the Major Award Lamp and the bunny costume.

     
  11. DarkGingerJedi

    DarkGingerJedi Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Nov 21, 2012
    Scrooged (1988)

    One of the best Christmas movies and adaptations of A Christmas Carol.
     
  12. Ghost

    Ghost Chosen One star 8

    Registered:
    Oct 13, 2003
    Anybody here use Letterboxd ?
     
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  13. Coruscant

    Coruscant Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Feb 15, 2004
    I do. I know of at least one other person here who does, too.
     
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  14. Havac

    Havac Former Moderator star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 29, 2005
    The Da Vinci Code. This movie, and the book it was based on, was vigorously boycotted by many Christians, especially Catholics, on the grounds that it was blasphemous and quite explicitly anti-Catholic. It’s a fair cop, and the boycotters certainly came out ahead in the deal. The movie probably should have been boycotted by everyone, on the grounds that it sucks ass. It is an offense not only against Christian dogma, but more generally against the audience.

    I can tolerate a dumb treasure-hunt thriller if it’s fun, but this is not only resoundingly stupid, it’s deadly dull. Tom Hanks, one of the most naturally likable men onscreen, is utterly wasted playing a boring, formless drone to whom not even he can bring a scrap of personality. His character is a “symbologist,” which means he gives inane lectures about how one thing looks kinda like another thing, is passingly good at puzzles, and is extremely conversant for no actual reason in made-up conspiracy theories about the Holy Grail that he rattles off randomly as if they’re common knowledge. He has no other actual characteristics except claustrophobia, which I think is an attempt to give him an Indiana Jones-style weakness except that it doesn’t humorously undercut any heroic adventuring skills he has, it just makes him fidgety in elevators and has no point. He spends most of the movie being led around by other people and solving absurd riddles, and absolutely none of it being entertaining in any way.

    The rest of the movie isn’t any better. The plot is stupendously stupid, the sort of incoherent muddle full of incomprehensible left-field solutions to lame riddles characteristic of “smart” characters written by stupid people. None of its butchered conspiracy-theory history feels convincing, in large part because there’s nothing behind it and little sense of meaning, nothing that substantiates it beyond Ian McKellen spinning tales in his estate. Very little that’s actually interesting happens in the film, no notable adventures or action setpieces. Just people talking and very occasionally a pedestrian burst of violence when an albino Paul Bettany shows up to try to kill somebody. And between the boring, murkily dark cinematography and Hanks’s awful haircut, there’s nothing good to look at, no visual razzle-dazzle to a movie about priceless artistic masterpieces, exotic locations, and notional adventure.

    Characters, plot, action, dialogue, visuals, atmosphere, everything this movie can suck at, it does. If you are going to slander a major world religion and multiple actual contemporary organizations to make a potboiler, at least make a good potboiler. This crappy monument to mediocrity wasn’t even worth the time of the people protesting it.
     
  15. CT-867-5309

    CT-867-5309 Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Jan 5, 2011
    I don't care about slandering Christianity, but what they did to Tom Hanks' hair was sacrilegious.
     
  16. AndyLGR

    AndyLGR Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    May 1, 2014
    Da Vinci Code the book was essential reading, a real page tuner. The movie was a massive let down. They did a much better job with Angels and Demons.
     
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  17. Adam of Nuchtern

    Adam of Nuchtern Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Sep 2, 2012
    I do.
     
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  18. Bacon164

    Bacon164 Chosen One star 8

    Registered:
    Mar 22, 2005
    we all do, quietly in our own small spaces, rooms, boxes, and quarters
     
  19. AndyLGR

    AndyLGR Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    May 1, 2014
    Police Academy this must have been a big hit on vhs rentals back in the mid-80's as it was something we hired out often until we got our own home video recorder and taped it off the tv. It must be well over 30 years since I last saw this and then decided to give it another go today. It still has its funny moments that made me chuckle, most of which probably wouldn't make it into a film if it was made today. Amazing how many sequels it spawned.
     
    Last edited: Nov 29, 2022
  20. gezvader28

    gezvader28 Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Mar 22, 2003
    amazing just how many hits Steve Guttenberg had in the 80's , and then ...
     
  21. JEDI-SOLO

    JEDI-SOLO Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Feb 12, 2002
    Just finished JL Synder cut. Far far far better than the ass that hit the big screen.
     
  22. Jar-Jar Binks

    Jar-Jar Binks SWC Late Show With JJB Host star 8 VIP - Game Host

    Registered:
    Nov 17, 2016
    Weird the al Yankovic story

    Just so good
     
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  23. Todd the Jedi

    Todd the Jedi Mod and Loving Tyrant of SWTV, Lit, & Collecting star 6 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Oct 16, 2008
    Yeah, I'm pretty active there, feel free to follow.
     
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  24. PCCViking

    PCCViking Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Jun 12, 2014
    I never thought Blazing Saddles could be made again in today's age, yet Paws of Fury was a kid's version remake of Blazing Saddles. So, perhaps Police Academy could be remade, even if all of the same jokes couldn't be used.
     
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  25. Count Yubnub

    Count Yubnub Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Oct 1, 2012
    I watched Police Academy in the '80s when I was a preteen--it was soooo funny! I tried watching it again about 5 years ago and turned it off. Cringe.

    Humor has a weird way of aging; it ages more rapidly than any other genre, and it tends to not age gracefully. Dated dramas are still relatable when they're well-done. Dated special effects movies are often quaint and interesting; we watch it and say something like "those special effects were really good for their time!". But dated humor is just annoying (do we ever say "those jokes were really funny for their time"?). And it's not just whether jokes are PC or not (though it helps); it's everything, from the types of jokes to the way comedic timing works. I can't quite put my finger on it. Obviously there are some exceptions--Dr Strangelove, Airplane!, and others still mostly work.

    Someone mentioned Some Like it Hot a few posts ago, a classic (and in the BFI top 100!). I thought it was a good movie, but hardly one of the best ever made. But people were rolling in the isles with laughter when it was first released.

    (Speaking of the BFI top 100, they are going to release the next one some time next week.)
     
    Last edited: Nov 29, 2022