Movies: Last Movie You Watched and Rate It | Part#: Some High Number +4

[ORRFForever]

He kinda looks a bit like Woody Harrelson there, with the hair. Funny scene, but I missed it originally because we turned Annie Hall off pretty early, thought it was boring plus I'm kinda allergic to films where they break the 4th wall, I think they can do that on stage put on screen it never really works in my opinion.

In the day, it was cutting edge and a million films have stolen from its originality but, I agree, it did not age well. Manhattan, on the other hand, aged wonderfully.

 

[ItsFineImFine]

Captain Marvel (2019...wait this was only last year? Not 2018? Holy shit) - 7.5/10

There's some issues with the acting (Brie Larson's annoying smirk), some cliches, but it's got the pacing/tension/action down extremely well like most Marvel films seem to these days. I just saw the turd that was Dark Phoenix and like I said earlier, some of the other recent superhero films make you appreciate Marvel ones more. The opening and ending of this film are probably the best parts, it loses a punch on re-watch though as it relies heavily on a twist.

 

[ProstheticConscience]

The Silence

with Stanley Tucci (who I always confuse with the guy who played Artie in the Sopranos), and other people

Caving expedition breaks open a long sealed-over cave and releases massive numbers of ugly, pale CGI bat critters with no eyes but mouths like blenders. Huge swarms quickly skeletonize the unfortunate spelunkers, rise into the skies, and start munching their way through all available fauna. What were they eating for millions of years penned up underground? Shut up! Meanwhile, a recently deaf teenage girl is dealing with high school drama...until the night when the US starts being eaten by these bat things, called "vesps". And no, really, shut up. They may not have eyes but home in on sound. Teen girl's dad (Tucci) bundles up her, mom, little bro, big loud dog, mother in-law who smokes and has a bag full of drugs and asthma inhalers, and his large, charismatic best friend who has a Range Rover and also some guns. Off they go to the safety of the countryside...or do they?! We meet a little old lady with a shotgun, some cultists who really shouldn't be descending into apocalyptic cultism after only a few weeks of vesping, and several convenient burdens. Also intermittent net service.

I think this might have been a Netflix original. Basically, it's a remake of The Quiet Place, only much stupider. The deaf teen girl can have and understand hushed conversations when the plot requires, the dumbest possible decisions are always the ones the cast will pick, and people forget that critters that can't see and only home in on sound are actually pretty vulnerable. Anyone have a wood chipper? They have one, use it, and quickly forget about it. Great movie to watch if you're trying to see how many times you can roll your eyes in an hour and a half.

On Netflix. With all the other crap.

Don't tell anyone you watched this movie, and I won't either.

 

[Mr Jiggyfly]

I always thought he was terrific across from Sean Penn in At Close Range...

Ya he was good in that and Deer Hunter.

But it’s hard today for me not to see him as the guy in Balls of Fury.

He’s a pretty good actor, but I just see him as a weird, quirky actor these days, even when I watch some of his old roles he did so well in.

 

[The Crypto Guy]

I am Legend

Can’t believe i never saw this. Finally saw it tonight and thought it was fantastic.

9/10

 

[ORRFForever]

I am Legend

Can’t believe i never saw this. Finally saw it tonight and thought it was fantastic.

9/10

Did you try the book? IIRC, the ending was changed in a BIG way.

 

[ORRFForever]

Secony Jazz 2.0 (The Sequel) (2020) :

Secony Jazz 2.0 is not a movie but it deserves a short tribute - and I have no where else to put it.

Anyone who buys running shoes will tell you it is a pain in the a**. You spend good money only to have the eyes pop, the inside fray, or the damn thing gives you blisters every time you put them on. I've had pairs that didn't last a month.

Then, every so often, you find a pair from God !!!

I've put close to 4,000 km on my current pair. They are even starting to turn green because I also use them to cut the grass. Yet, they have NEVER given me a blister or caused an injury. Not one!!!!

Sadly, I have to put them down. The eyes finally gave and there is a hole in the toe. They're beyond ugly but I don't care. I LOVE them and I know I will NEVER find another pair like them. They are my soul mate.

Thank you, my friend. I will miss you every day.

10/10

 

[Osprey]

Did you try the book? IIRC, the ending was changed in a BIG way.

IIRC, it changed much more than just the ending, like the location and everything about the "vampires." I haven't seen it in a long time, but I read the novel only a few months ago and t was nothing like what I remembered about that movie. Easily the closest adaptation is 1962's The Last Man on Earth, with Vincent Price. You might not expect so, because the title is different, but that's practically the novel on film, right down to the ending. 1971's The Omega Man, with Charlton Heston, isn't as faithful, but still more recognizable than I remember the 2007 movie being. It's interesting because it feels like film adaptations tend to get progressively more faithful, but it's been the reverse with this novel, probably because it's a relatively simple and cerebral story and modern attempts try to up the epicness and excitement.

 

[ORRFForever]

IIRC, it changed much more than just the ending. I haven't seen it in a long time, but I read the novel only a few months ago and the two didn't seem to have many similarities at all. Easily the closest adaptation is 1962's The Last Man on Earth, with Vincent Price. You might not expect so, because the title is different, but that's practically the novel on film, right down to the ending. 1971's The Omega Man, with Charlton Heston, isn't as faithful, but still more recognizable than I remember the 2009 movie being. It's interesting because it seems like adaptations tend to get progressively more faithful, but it's been the reverse with this novel, probably because it's a relatively simple and cerebral story and modern attempts try to up the epicness and action.

Wasn't the last part of the book from the zombie's perspective?

 

[Osprey]

Wasn't the last part of the book from the zombie's perspective?

The novel remains from Neville's perspective from beginning to end, but he does learn a bit about their perspective in the end, which is probably what you're referring to.

Spoiler

He's captured by a bunch of infected who haven't become full vampires and they tell him that they fear him because uninfected humans, if they were allowed to re-populate, would eventually hunt down and exterminate their kind out of a similar fear of them.

 

[ORRFForever]

The novel remains from Neville's perspective from beginning to end, but he does learn a bit about their perspective in the end, which is probably what you're referring to.

Spoiler

He's captured by a bunch of infected who haven't become full vampires and they tell him that they fear him because uninfected humans, if they were allowed to re-populate, would eventually hunt down and exterminate their kind out of a similar fear of them.

Yes - it's been so long. Thanks!

 

[kihei]

In the day, it was cutting edge and a million films have stolen from its originality but, I agree, it did not age well. Manhattan, on the other hand, aged wonderfully.

Manhattan is his best film. But I wouldn't say it has aged wonderfully. Partly this is a result of factors that one tries to isolate when judging a work of art, but knowing what we now know, some of these factors about Allen are hard to ignore. At the time the film was made, that age split of 17, a young 17 at that, and 43 seems a little queasy-making in retrospect. Should it? In a perfect world, no, maybe. But it certainly colours my reaction to the film now.

 

[ProstheticConscience]

The I Am Legend movie completely defeats the point of the story. It completely defeats the point of the title of the story.

Spoiler

In the book, Robert Neville is the sole survivor after a plague of vampires (which he is somehow immune to) has wiped out almost all the human population. Every day, he goes out into the ruins of the city (I think it's LA or SF, might not have been mentioned) to find and slay the vampires, who go into a coma during the day. He finds them, stakes them, drags them out into the sun and kills them. Every night, they come and bang on the boarded-up doors and windows of his house to try and get in to kill him, and he drinks himself unconscious. This goes on for years, decades. He eventually starts going to the library to learn about doing research into curing the vampire disease, although more out of boredom than anything else. It's never mentioned what his former occupation was, but the guy he used to carpool with is the head vampire who leads the night assaults...but he can never find him during the day. As he's going through the town wiping out as many as he can find, he thinks he's slaying monsters or at the very least, putting suffering plague victims out of their misery. He doesn't think they're sentient...but the twist is they are. The ones who have survived are the new strain of humanity that will carry the species forward. He hasn't been battling monsters, he's been wiping out whole families and bloodlines by the thousands, and never once felt bad or questioned what he was doing. Eventually they manage to capture him and take him to the vampire city, and as he looks out from his tower jail cell at all the vampires and waits for his execution, the final passage is something like: " As the vampire was myth of the human, so now the human is the myth of the vampire. I was the monster that haunted the daylight. I am the thing of stories that mothers will tell their children to scare them. I am legend." Neville = Devil. Get it?

 

[ORRFForever]

Manhattan is his best film. But I wouldn't say it has aged wonderfully. Partly this is a result of factors that one tries to isolate when judging a work of art, but knowing what we now know, some of these factors about Allen are hard to ignore. At the time the film was made, that age split of 17, a young 17 at that, and 43 seems a little queasy-making in retrospect. Should it? In a perfect world, no, maybe. But it certainly colours my reaction to the film now.

That's fair. You make a good point.

 

[Tasty Biscuits]

The I Am Legend movie completely defeats the point of the story. It completely defeats the point of the title of the story.

Well, that's only 100x better than what happens in the movie.

 

[ProstheticConscience]

Well, that's only 100x better than what happens in the movie.

Right? They did try to have an ending similar to the book but they chickened out and cut it after early screenings didn't get the buzz they wanted.

Richard Matheson, the author of the original, was also was of the main writers for the old Twilight Zone episodes, and was a big fan of the twist ending. Good horror writer.

 

[OzzyFan]

The I Am Legend movie completely defeats the point of the story. It completely defeats the point of the title of the story.

Spoiler

In the book, Robert Neville is the sole survivor after a plague of vampires (which he is somehow immune to) has wiped out almost all the human population. Every day, he goes out into the ruins of the city (I think it's LA or SF, might not have been mentioned) to find and slay the vampires, who go into a coma during the day. He finds them, stakes them, drags them out into the sun and kills them. Every night, they come and bang on the boarded-up doors and windows of his house to try and get in to kill him, and he drinks himself unconscious. This goes on for years, decades. He eventually starts going to the library to learn about doing research into curing the vampire disease, although more out of boredom than anything else. It's never mentioned what his former occupation was, but the guy he used to carpool with is the head vampire who leads the night assaults...but he can never find him during the day. As he's going through the town wiping out as many as he can find, he thinks he's slaying monsters or at the very least, putting suffering plague victims out of their misery. He doesn't think they're sentient...but the twist is they are. The ones who have survived are the new strain of humanity that will carry the species forward. He hasn't been battling monsters, he's been wiping out whole families and bloodlines by the thousands, and never once felt bad or questioned what he was doing. Eventually they manage to capture him and take him to the vampire city, and as he looks out from his tower jail cell at all the vampires and waits for his execution, the final passage is something like: " As the vampire was myth of the human, so now the human is the myth of the vampire. I was the monster that haunted the daylight. I am the thing of stories that mothers will tell their children to scare them. I am legend." Neville = Devil. Get it?

Wow, what an awesome horror novel plot. Holy moly I Am Legend was hollywood-ized pretty deeply. I'm surprised to see that he wrote a bunch of original Twilight Zone episodes, including the most famous (Nightmare at 20,000 feet).

 

[kihei]

Animal Crackers (1930) Directed by Victor Heerman 7A

I don't know if people these days are familiar with the Marx Brothers. If you like highly inventive, zany humour, you should be because not until Monty Python did anybody do it as well as these guys, Groucho, Harpo and Chico Marx (a fourth Marx brother, Zeppo, occasionally made an appearance, but he was just along for the ride). Animal Crackers is the second of thirteen movies that they made, and it is among their best work though not right at the top (A Day at the Races; A Night at the Opera; and my favourite Duck Soup). Still the movie is a delight even if not every rapid-fire gag works. Groucho plays Captain Spaulding, a famous explorer just returned from Africa to much fanfare. He is being feted by a rich society dowager (Margaret Dumont, often the foil in Marx Brother movies) in her home. The plot involves a thrice-over stolen painting, and not much else. But the plot provides more than enough room for Groucho and company to unleash their own special brand of lunacy, which involves visual gags and a dizzying number of puns, some of them brilliantly funny. Par for the course, actually, as Marx Brothers scripts are just excuses to let the Brothers go bonkers. Groucho leads the way with verbal humour, silent Harpo provides a different brand of laughs with his physical humour (and the inevitable harp solo), and Chico adds yet another distinct comic personality to the mix (and some hilarious piano playing). Not everybody is into this sort of comedy, I'm aware, but I find it irresistible. I love verbal humour and nobody does it better than quick-witted Groucho. Here's an example: “One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas, I’ll never know....Then, we tried to remove the tusks … but they were embedded so firmly, we couldn’t budge them. Of course, in Alabama the Tusk-a-loosa. But that’s entirely irrelephant to what I was talking about.” Be forewarned, though, the filming of Animal Crackers is not sophisticated. Director Victor Heerman still hadn't adjusted to sound and seems unfamiliar with the advances in editing that many great silent film directors had already made. As a result, he shoots the action like it is a theatrical play most of the time, with the actors looking like they are addressing a theatre audience. You can practically see a proscenium arch around the sets. It is not enough to spoil the fun, but it makes Animal Crackers seem even more dated than it need be.

available for a short time on MUBI

 

[Tkachuk4MVP]

Manhattan is his best film. But I wouldn't say it has aged wonderfully. Partly this is a result of factors that one tries to isolate when judging a work of art, but knowing what we now know, some of these factors about Allen are hard to ignore. At the time the film was made, that age split of 17, a young 17 at that, and 43 seems a little queasy-making in retrospect. Should it? In a perfect world, no, maybe. But it certainly colours my reaction to the film now.

Yeah, I know film is subjective but I don't know how anyone can say Manhattan has "aged wonderfully" in light of that central relationship. I saw the film for the first time several years ago and thought it was pretty mediocre, almost like a lesser version of other Allen films cobbled together. It's not as fun or as witty as Annie Hall, and it's not as insightful as something like Crimes and Misdemeanors or Hannah and Her Sisters. Isaac is also one of the most unlikable versions of that Allen character IMO and he has almost no chemistry with Hemingway, so it's difficult to stay invested in that romance.

 

[ORRFForever]

Yeah, I know film is subjective but I don't know how anyone can say Manhattan has "aged wonderfully" in light of that central relationship. I saw the film for the first time several years ago and thought it was pretty mediocre, almost like a lesser version of other Allen films cobbled together. It's not as fun or as witty as Annie Hall, and it's not as insightful as something like Crimes and Misdemeanors or Hannah and Her Sisters. Isaac is also one of the most unlikable versions of that Allen character IMO and he has almost no chemistry with Hemingway, so it's difficult to stay invested in that romance.

Wow. I love Manhattan. Always have.

 

[KallioWeHardlyKnewYe]

Been out of the loop for a bit, but still watching movies. Here’s a rundown.

Winter Kills. 70s paranoid conspiracy thriller-comedy (same novel writer as The Manchurian Candidate). I don’t think it works but it’s definitely interesting. John Huston in particular is bonkers. Thinly veiled JFK parallel. So thin it’s translucent. Slight recommendation if any of these words are in your normal interests.

Evils of the Night and Firecracker. Did a double-header of 80s crap. (Thanks for the tip on the former @Violenza Domestica). Sci-fi horror with the first. Lady kung-fu with the second (the heroine’s clothing is not very well made). Good quality garbage. I wouldn’t want to spoil any surprises.

Rocketman. Not good. BUT I hate most biopics, especially musician ones (Walk the Line, Ray, Bohemian Rhapsody). This one at least has the good sense to just steer fully into jukebox musical mode. The subjects aren’t actually that compelling. All anyone really wants is the music, the ability to say “OOOOH, I like this song” and the adjoining weird kick of seeing famous people basically karaoke. This at least just shuts up and plays the hits while not spending too much time patting itself on the back.

The Lady from Shanghai. A fun enough twisty noir, but the court-bound third part is a drag and Welles’ Irish brogue kinda drove me nuts. Hayworth and Everette Sloan are great though and the hall of mirrors finale earns its place in film history.

Under the Sun of Satan. The atmosphere is thick and memorable. Heavy Catholic guilt and religious questioning yarns never resonate with me much though so I feel a tad out of step with its good reputation.

California Split. Early Altman gambling tale. A pair of likable lowlifes spend time bouncing from bet to bet. Elliot Gould is aces and I even tolerated George Segal, who I tend to not care much for. The opening is a great slice of vintage Altman. And the rest of the movie keeps up. Maybe not his top tier, but solidly in the second.

The Vast of Night. A rare recent flick made its way into my viewing. A tight little lo-fi sci-fi flick. Heavy on talk and character and mystery. I was on its frequency though for the most part and liked the two main performances. Curious to see more from all involved.

Celine and Julie Go Boating. This has been on my want list for a while. A slew of directors I like have cited it as a favorite or influence. I finally watched it and man ... I was disappointed. It might be me more than it. I had to break it up into two sittings rather than watching straight through. I only have a passing Alice in Wonderland knowledge so many of the allusions likely skipped past me. I found it kinda tedious. Wasn’t charmed by the parts that I think were meant to be charming.

Invasion USA. Christmas terrorism years before Die Hard. Chuck Norris vs. off-brand Rutger Hauer. A plot that if you squint isn’t irrelevant today. Names may change. It’s ridiculous trash. I’m not sure Norris is capable of saying more than two lines of dialogue in a row.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Wow. I love Manhattan. Always have.

I don't agree that it's Woody's best film (to me Zelig, easy, Stardust Memories second), but I too love Manhattan.

 

[ORRFForever]

I don't agree that it's Woody's best film (to me Zelig, easy, Stardust Memories second), but I too love Manhattan.

The opening to Stardust Memories is beyond perfect...

 

[ProstheticConscience]

I don't agree that it's Woody's best film (to me Zelig, easy, Stardust Memories second), but I too love Manhattan.

Sleeper's always been my personal favourite.

 

[Tkachuk4MVP]

Wow. I love Manhattan. Always have.

Fair enough! That’s why we have these types of threads, no right or wrong opinions in here.