What Movies Have You Watched Recently?

[Blarg]

See him in In a Lonely Place. I loved his performance there.

Maltese Falcon is a great one. Prime noir themes, especially his turning away the woman at the end.

[John Cole]

I agree; that little joke gets more and more hilarious with each repetition.

And Jack Benny as the "great, great Polish actor Joseph Tura" is splendid. I love the look on his face when Robert Stack gets up to leave in the middle of Hamlet's most famous speech.

Now that you're working your way through Lubitsch, I also recommend Prseton Sturges--all of them--if you haven't seen many yet.

John

[diebitter]

I'm also working through a box set of Val Lewton films - Val Lewton is a producer who worked for RKO after the studio was nearly bankrupted by 'Citizen Kane', and helped revive its fortune. I've watched Cat People and Curse of the Cat People, and The 7th Victim so far. These are great little movies, with some good commentaries. A really cool DVD set.

[diebitter]

street trash

yah, I remember this fondly from the 1980's. It's a comedy-horror about derelicts who live in a car scrapyard, and their shennanegins. The big weird twist is a local booze-shop is selling some whisky for a buck a bottle, but when you drink it, you melt...

I watched it again, and it wasn't as good as I remembered. It looked cheap (filmstock not great I think), it wasn't edited well, but it had some good art direction, jokes and special effects buried in there that made it passable. Also, whoever cast it had a great eye for characterful faces, and the minor character derelicts were really interesting to look at. There was also a pretty funny interaction between a mobster and a busboy who accidentally let the mobster's girlfriend get raped and murdered. (There is an unpleasant though striking scene where a gang of filthy derelicts drag a naked young woman out of a car and run off in the night with her).

Not bad overall, but better as a memory than a reality.

[SoloAJ]

Watched Grindhouse last night in the theatres.

I expected to be off put by the lewdness and absurd disgusting nature of it. I have been on a kick recently where I have no idea why half the gory horror films made succeed. They're all the same and have nothing to offer it seems compared to some of the old goodies.

ANyhow, both films were pretty good. I didn't know what to expect from either. I enjoyed Planet Terror mostly because I like zombie movies and it had a lot of similarity to those. It definitely had an "old" feel to it, even in the nature of the film. Some of the scenes just seemed like they HAD to be out of a 70s trash film.

Death Proof was the better made film of the two in my opinion. I'm not sure I necessarily liked it more, but it was pretty good. One scene I liked in particular is a restaurant scene where there is a 5-10 minute conversation done all in one take with a rotating camera (outside looking in).

I would recommend this movie to those with even moderate interest as a theatre sell. And I would recommend it to anyone interested in just seeing how something different can be done. I personally hadn't seen anything like it (the cheesiness, the breaks for fake previews). All splendid.

It was okay overall. I think I gave it an 8. It would have been a 7 as a normal set, but for the aesthetic novelty of it, I bumped it up one.

[diebitter]

ohm thanks for that! I wanna see it, but we'll have to wait a while here in the UK I think.

[Anycall]

if u enjoyed "The Departed," this is the original movie. although i also liked the hollywood version of this movie, the original version has much more depth in terms of the plot, characters, backstory, etc. i still remember being shocked by the unexpected ending which left me a bitter taste in my mouth. i dl and watched this movie again last week. very cool movie.

p.s. if u watch this on dvd, there are 2 different endings. the original ending and another "morally correct" one that was approved by the chinese gov. so make sure to watch the original one.

p.s.2 this movie is the 1st part of infernal affairs trilogy. if u watch and enjoy the 1st one. i recommend to watch at least the 2nd part. similar to "Godfather" trilogy, the first 2 rock and the 3rd one kinda sucks(IMO)


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[SoloAJ]

DB,

Based on the crazy people exploding in the sunlight thread, I think you would really really enjoy Planet Terror. Death Proof isn't anything like those cheap movies (really...sort of is I guess).

But you'll enjoy Planet Terror a lot if you see it at some point I think.


And good watch anycall. Great movie. Way better storyline than The Departed.

[katyseagull]

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Just saw The Player this past weekend. Finally, a Robert Altman film I can rave about. I really liked this one a lot! (Wow, didn't realize it was made in 1992. Thought it was more recent.)

What do you guys think of it? The other Altman films I’ve watched (M*A*S*H, Prairie Companion, and The Company) have left me hugely disappointed. (the Company, uggh [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img])

The Player takes a look at the Hollywood movie-making industry, in particular the elite set of people who decide which movies actually get made. The story follows the life of cocky executive Griffin Mill, the VP in charge of selecting scripts for his studio and rejecting a huge majority of the ones that come across his desk.

I think just about all of us are curious how this industry works and what it would take to get a script through the door and into production. Pretty cool idea for a film. I especially liked the scenes where writers are trying to pitch their ideas to him in 25 words or less. Just really fun to watch. Even though the cast is huge the movie doesn’t trade star power for quality.

It’s rare that I love a movie from its opening scene. But this one had me hooked from the start. It opens on the studio lots, watching through the blinds of a window as Griffin Mill (Tim Robbins) sits in his office hearing writers pitch their concepts to him. What a job.

How he keeps a straight face as the two women talk up their idea for a TV star that goes to Africa and becomes worshipped by a tribe of little people is beyond me. lol, they act so serious as they explain the concept.

[ QUOTE ]
"Kind of like The Gods Must be Crazy except the Coke bottle is now an actress," he suggests. One of the writers counters, "That’s exactly right. Sort of like Out of Africa meets Pretty Woman. So Goldie has to decide if she wants to be a TV star or save the tribe of little people.”


[/ QUOTE ]

the writing is smart and quick.


I had always heard that Altman was a brilliant director. I never understood why until I watched this movie. The Player is fast paced and rich in characters (nice casting of Whoopi Goldberg and Lyle Lovett as the two skeptical detectives). I don’t think I was ever bored. Tim Robbins is great as the calculating Griffin Mill. What an awesome performance. The Player works on so many levels – as a suspense film, black comedy, even an "almost documentary" - and it actually delivers. This is the one I should have picked for the DVD club.


“Suspense, laughter, violence, hope, heart, nudity, sex, happy endings. Mainly happy endings." - Griffin Mill

[Enrique]

Yes, great film.
I like how you mentioned the opening scene. That opening scene is famous. He doesn't cut the scene for a long time (more than 10 minutes). People compare it to be as good as Touch of Evil's opening scene.

The movie was funny, entertaining and very good, not much more can anyone ask out of a movie.