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

I watched that the other day and truly had a grasp on Katherine for the first time. She’s marvelous in that movie.

 

Chuck 2016
True story based on Chuck Wepner, the New Jersey boxer who went 15 rounds with Ali before losing in the 70's. He was the inspiration for Rocky. Stallone is in the picture, played by a younger actor, as he tries to get him a part in Rocky 2 but the guy just can't act. Probably was used for the scene where Rocky keeps flubbing his lines for a commercial in R2. Very well acted by Liev Schreiber, also starring Kate Moss, Ron Pearlman and Niaomi Watts. Doesn't overdo the Jerseyness if you know what I mean. Good but not great, worth it for the acting.

 

If you don’t fall in love with Hepburn watching Holiday, you’re hopeless.

 

I agree about the lack of humanity in TMP in comparison to TOS, and on Shatner playing himself. Not as bad as John Wayne, though, because John Wayne played John Wayne in every movie he appeared in.

I know it's not a popular opinion, but I absolutely despise Wrath of Khan. I recognize its cinematographic value, and I absolutely understand why it's much more popular than TMP. But I can't enjoy it because I hate, hate, hate the Khan character with the heat of a thousand suns. He's utterly despicable and honestly I can't understand why he's so popular. Star Trek Into Darkness is also my least favorite Bad Robot ST movie (and I can't stand Space Seed either).

 

“Anyone care for a few cold cuts before the fun starts?”

Her delivery on that line makes me laugh out loud every time.

 

It's interesting with bad guys... sometimes you can enjoy them, even though they are evil, and sometimes you can't -- they're just repellent to you. It's tricky business.

One of the things I love about Khan is that he has a personality, he's not just "evil for the sake of evil". If anyone out there has never seen WRATH I am going to use the spoilers tag ...

Spoiler

You have probably heard the phrase "consumed by" this or that trait, but Khan truly is consumed by his need for revenge on Kirk. I love that Khan can't resist pursuing Kirk even when he logically should move on, but the scene that gets me every time is when his most loyal lieutenant, who has been trying to urge Khan to move on, is mortally wounded, and Khan - genuinely upset [how rarely we see villains show genuine loyalty to or affection for their comrades or underlings!] - swears to AVENGE him, when the guy has made it clear the whole movie that this is the LAST thing he would want from Khan, that he can see how obsessed and consumed Khan has become. Khan just can't help being Khan.

 

Montalban turned it up to 11.

 

Gone Girl

This is one of those "oh, I heard this was pretty good, I guess I'll watch it" kind of movies. It was pretty good but I wasn't blown away or anything. Tyler Perry was the best part of the movie. Neil Patrick Harris coming in a close second (see what I did there?) and I was honestly not terribly impressed with Rosamund Pike. She was as good as she needed to be for the role but she felt distant and somehow not very engaged...certainly not as diabolical as she could have been. Affleck was just as Affleck in this as in every other movie you've seen him in.

Maybe I'm being a little dismissive and if I were to watch it again perhaps I'd get more out of these characters...but I won't watch it again.

 

Since you put a spoiler tag

Spoiler

In a dropped sub-plot the underling is actually his son

 

I like The Motion Picture more than The Wrath of Khan. TMP is my favorite Trek movie, full stop.

 

HBOMAX has all the Star Trek films so I've been doing a rewatch of the series. TMP is boring as ****. A lot of wasted screen time on shots of the enterprise that just drag on and on. The interesting idea of what Vger really is doesn't come until way late into the picture. The story was re-told in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home and done better. The crew has very little interaction with each other and lacks the chemistry found in the original series plus their uniforms are terrible. Ilia should have had her head shaved after she gets assimilated.

If not for Nicholas Meyer the franchise would have been dead in the water. I will say the score is good and it is does set a new standard for Klingons.

 

When the effects shots looks as great as they do in TMP, I'm happy to let them linger as long as they want to.

 

Confession: I like much of Wrath of Kahn, but I've always thought the ending ("his strategy indicates two-dimensional thinking," etc.) was a bit daft. Oh well.

 

The best thing about TMP is the teleporter malfunction, and the biggest flaw of the franchise ever since is the failure to make frequent and graphic use of that plot device. Every time an actor left the show they should have got the teleporter malfunction treatment. Denise Crosby would have been the next teleporter malfunction or potentially even Kirstie Alley. Saavik meets an unfortunate end in a teleporter malfunction. Then Denise. It should have been a core part of the brand.

 

Certainly better than the 'everyone survives a lightsaber through the torso' dreck that got propped up recently in a different franchise.

 

Remember the Night (1940)

I'm gonna remember the night
I won't give up on my life
I'm a warrior queen
live passionately

Wait, that's Lady Gaga's Marry the Night. This is Remember the Night, another Christmas romance with Barbara Stanwyck, this time paired up with genuinely nice guy Fred MacMurray. Stanwyck is a thief with gets caught stealing just before Christmas. MacMurray is a prosecutor who bails her out and ends up taking her back to his childhood home for Christmas. It's exceedingly sentimental, but a touch of reality and shame (which Stanwyck convincingly sells with just a few shots of barely restrained tears) brings it to life. Exactly what one needs during the Christmas season. You can't touch this, Hallmark. You don't have Barbara Stanwyck.

MacMurray's (impossibly sweet) aunt gives Stanwyck her unworn wedding dress for a barn dance, and of course there's a hint of tragedy in that, but it's so old fashioned that it's also quite funny, with an endless number of layers that the aunt has to help Stanwyck into like a suit of medieval armor, and the dress comes with a giant Daisy Duck bow that's sweet but also absurd. Stanwyck receives it with a sort of embarrassed gratitude that just adds to the humor.

This is the best pic I could find. She even gets the coming down the stairs entrance!



Kiss me!
Beneath the milky twilight


That bow was just killing me. God, I love this ****.

 

At least they didn't cure all of death like the Bandersnatch film.

 

Hearts of the West. A likable little comedic tribute to the Western, this has Jeff Bridges as a charming naif who bumbles his way through the glory days when the West was still within living memory, but its mythologization was well under way.

He plays a Midwestern rube with the delightful name Lewis Tater, circa 1930. He’s obsessed with becoming a writer of pulp Westerns like his hero Zane Grey, and heads out west to visit the university offering a correspondence courses in Western writing. It is, of course, a scam, and he gets jumped by the crooks running it, yet he gets away with their bundle, stumbling through the desert into a film production run by Alan Arkin. He joins up with the cowboy extras, led by Andy Griffith, and falls in love with production assistant Blythe Danner. He becomes a Hollywood cowboy, keeps working at writing, and gets into an adventure when the crooks finally catch up with him.

It’s a look at the glory days that balances loving tribute with a deprecating sense of humor, making for a pleasant little ride that’s just knowing enough to avoid being too earnest a love letter. The plot tries to juggle a few too many balls, but it’s highly likable throughout and anchored by a bunch of winning performances, which carries it through. It’s the sort of charming but modest effort you would have to work not to enjoy.

 

TROLL (2022) - NETFLIX

Okay, I have to say I am 1000% in the "target demographic" for this movie as I am a sucker for anything involving giant monsters on a rampage, but even so, found this to be a very pleasant surprise. In Norway, a construction team blasting a tunnel through a mountain rage ends up releasing....something... that soon proceeds to stomp its way across Norway.

For me, TROLL ended up being much better than it had any reason to be. I say that because a lot of "giant monster movie" tropes are on display here, in terms of character archetypes and situations, and you can kinda/sorta feel the "small budget movie limitations" wanting to come through, and yet the movie still felt fresh and fun. Part of that might be the novelty of the setting (the only other "Scandanavian giant monster movie" that I can recall is REPTILICUS). Overall, found the premise to be fun, the characters to be likable, the creature design to be good, and there are also a few clever twists and turns about what 'the monster' may be and the implications of that. Solidly entertaining and fun (there's that word again!) - an enjoyable diversion, especially if you have an affection for giant monster movies!

PS - Am I the only one who prefers his monsters to be, well, generally monstrous? As amazing as KING KONG is -- and it SO is! -- it is by far my least rewatched monster movie as I always feel bad for the big guy.

 

I also loved Troll.

Anyway, last night I watched Moonwalkers with Ron Perlman, Harry Potter's friend, and Klaus from The Umbrella Academy. It's about a CIA agent who suffers from PTSD-induced hallucinations tasked with going to London to recruit Stanley Kubrick to shoot a fake Apollo moon landing to broadcast to the world in case the actual mission fails. A backup plan to convince the world that the Russians didn't get there before the 'Muricans did. I enjoyed it enough...it requires a metric ****ton of suspension of disbelief just to be able to enjoy the humor in it, but if you can get yourself to that place, it's pretty fun. There's a beautiful bloody beat-down scene set to Rossini's Thieving Magpie that is both beautifully shot and edited and a kind of tribute to A Clockwork Orange. Anyway not off-the-charts brilliant but it was entertaining and I'm glad I watched it.

 

The Batman turned up on streaming so I gave it another go - nah, not for me.
I wouldn't say it's boring but I just can't think of anything to praise in it.

 

The Hidden Fortress
1958

Excellent adventure comedy brilliantly shot by Kurosawa and featuring a great cast and fun story. It was really entertaining and enjoyable to rewatch this after several years.

 

The first time I watched The Hidden Fortress a few years ago I was slightly surprised at how much humor there is in it. But yeah, very good film.