Last movie you saw?

[King Postwhore]

Watched The Quiet Man today. It's a law around St. Patrick's Day.

[Cool Chris]

Most of these movies, and in particular SPR, had an overarching story to tell. A story about the war. Realism was important but only insofar as it's details that make the story believable. Platoon was different in that regard. It was about being in the war, and one guy's perspective of living through it. Realism was the story.

That's an analysis I had not considered. Maybe that is why Platoon didn't work with me as well as the others. I cared about the search for Pvt Ryan, and the fate of Col Dax's men. I didn't really care about Elias or Chris or the Platoon. I felt the realism, sure. I just didn't emotionally connect with the story. But maybe that was the point. 

I don't know if I've seen The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, now that I think about it. I was never a big western fan.

[Deadeye21]

Batman Begins. Gonna watch that whole trilogy this week.

[El Barto]

Watched Jack Reacher last night. Not the sort of thing I'm typically into, modern, blue-toned suspense movies, but I like the idea of Reacher as a character. It was distinctly mediocre, but still perfectly entertaining. Didn't like Cruise in it; he's just to fake looking at this point. He can't look old and grizzled and he can't look young and heroic. Just didn't buy him as a 36 year old veteran of 3 wars. And as much as I love Duvall, he just turned into the comedic sidekick. That aside, I thought the plot was very good. I'm a sucker for a good cop investigation, and this one was complex, but not stupidly so with pointless twists and mindfucks. Good story. Moreover, the action sequences were tastefully done. I often times fast forward through car chases nowadays because they're just so fake looking. This one was compelling, though, with the cops chasing him while he's chasing the bad guys, and the sequence going the wrong way through the tunnel was well done. Moreover, the fight sequences were also believable. They didn't rely on super high-speed punches and shaky-cam just to seem chaotic. You could watch them fight and see what they were up to, which is quite unusual nowadays. Seems like they actually got right all of the things I hate about modern movies. Honestly didn't see that coming. So, not great but better than I was expecting.

[King Postwhore]

I'd bet you'd like the TV series on Reacher on Amazon Prime, El Barto.  I know Hef read the books but he said the character was a better representation of the lead character than the 2 movies.

[hefdaddy42]

The Shape of Water

Wow.  Really an incredible film.  Somewhat of a modern-day fairy tale (albeit set in the 60's, I think).  Beautifully shot and wonderfully acted.  Fantastic.

[King Postwhore]

The Shape of Water

Wow.  Really an incredible film.  Somewhat of a modern-day fairy tale (albeit set in the 60's, I think).  Beautifully shot and wonderfully acted.  Fantastic.

I've never been disappointed with a Guillermo del Toro directed film.

[Podaar]

I've never been disappointed with a Guillermo del Toro directed film.

Me too...until I watched Nightmare Alley...

[King Postwhore]

I haven't yet. I'll still check it out.

[Cool Chris]

I'm a sucker for a good cop investigation, and this one was complex, but not stupidly so with pointless twists and mindfucks. Good story. Moreover, the action sequences were tastefully done. I often times fast forward through car chases nowadays because they're just so fake looking. This one was compelling, though, with the cops chasing him while he's chasing the bad guys, and the sequence going the wrong way through the tunnel was well done. Moreover, the fight sequences were also believable. They didn't rely on super high-speed punches and shaky-cam just to seem chaotic. You could watch them fight and see what they were up to, which is quite unusual nowadays. Seems like they actually got right all of the things I hate about modern movies. Honestly didn't see that coming. So, not great but better than I was expecting.

When I saw this film announced I thought the novel it was based on it was an odd choice, as it was toward the bottom of my Reacher book rankings. I thought it did it justice, and was well made for the reasons you mentioned. A good balance of police procedural, action, and intriguing plot. I bet if it was "Generic Action Film" with Tom Cruise, it still would have been popular without the Reacher name. Maybe even more so without people being tied in knots over Cruise in the role.

There was a good discussion in the TV thread about the Amazon series Reacher. I am in the middle of it now and enjoying it.

[jingle.boy]

I'd bet you'd like the TV series on Reacher on Amazon Prime, El Barto.  I know Hef read the books but he said the character was a better representation of the lead character than the 2 movies.

This... I'm loving it much more than the Cruise/movie version - and I've never read the books.

[pg1067]

I watched Death on the Nile over the last couple nights.  Not bad, but not great.  The overacting of the guy who played Poirot was laughable in places.  The logical absurdity of Poirot's "investigation" was even worse.  The "brilliant detective" comes up with a theory and everyone just comes clean and says, "ok...you got me."  Not sure that's from the source material or what.

[Orbert]

That's Agatha Christie for you.  All of her "mysteries" are like that.  Murder on the Orient Express, Death on the Nile, etc.  There's a murder, basically everyone on the boat/train/whatever is a suspect because they all have motives, most have opportunities, and most have alibis that fall apart when the Brilliant Detective Hercule Poirot starts explaining how they're all full of shit.

The guy playing Poirot is famous English British Northern Irish overactor Kenneth Branagh.  He's also brought a number of Shakespeare plays to the screen.  I cut him some slack because his first one, Much Ado About Nothing, introduced the world to Kate Beckinsale, and also because Gilderoy Lockhart was a hoot.

[pg1067]

That's Agatha Christie for you.  All of her "mysteries" are like that.  Murder on the Orient Express, Death on the Nile, etc.  There's a murder, basically everyone on the boat/train/whatever is a suspect because they all have motives, most have opportunities, and most have alibis that fall apart when the Brilliant Detective Hercule Poirot starts explaining how they're all full of shit.

The guy playing Poirot is famous English British Northern Irish overactor Kenneth Branagh.  He's also brought a number of Shakespeare plays to the screen.  I cut him some slack because his first one, Much Ado About Nothing, introduced the world to Kate Beckinsale, and also because Gilderoy Lockhart was a hoot.

I just googled "Kate Beckinsale Much Ado About Nothing."  Holy crap did she improve with age!  My intro to her was Brokedown Palace, but really it was Pearl Harbor.

[El Barto]

That's Agatha Christie for you.  All of her "mysteries" are like that.  Murder on the Orient Express, Death on the Nile, etc.  There's a murder, basically everyone on the boat/train/whatever is a suspect because they all have motives, most have opportunities, and most have alibis that fall apart when the Brilliant Detective Hercule Poirot starts explaining how they're all full of shit.

The guy playing Poirot is famous English British Northern Irish overactor Kenneth Branagh.  He's also brought a number of Shakespeare plays to the screen.  I cut him some slack because his first one, Much Ado About Nothing, introduced the world to Kate Beckinsale, and also because Gilderoy Lockhart was a hoot.

I'm in the group of people who loved his Hamlet. Seemed to be pretty polarizing, but I thought he did a wonderful job. He also made a damn fine Nazi in Conspiracy. I haven't seen enough of his work to know if he's a famed overactor or not. It does seem that some roles lend themselves to overacting, like Hamlet, and others are best suited for subtlty, which he did just fine as Reinhard Heydrich. I wasn't aware he was doing Poirot, it makes sense as a vanity project, but it's not something I'd be the slightest bit interested in.

[Orbert]

That's Agatha Christie for you.  All of her "mysteries" are like that.  Murder on the Orient Express, Death on the Nile, etc.  There's a murder, basically everyone on the boat/train/whatever is a suspect because they all have motives, most have opportunities, and most have alibis that fall apart when the Brilliant Detective Hercule Poirot starts explaining how they're all full of shit.

The guy playing Poirot is famous English British Northern Irish overactor Kenneth Branagh.  He's also brought a number of Shakespeare plays to the screen.  I cut him some slack because his first one, Much Ado About Nothing, introduced the world to Kate Beckinsale, and also because Gilderoy Lockhart was a hoot.

I just googled "Kate Beckinsale Much Ado About Nothing."  Holy crap did she improve with age!  My intro to her was Brokedown Palace, but really it was Pearl Harbor.

I thought she was cute as hell in Much Ado, and I made a point to remember the name.  I've watched her over the years in a lot of different things, but I just Googled, too, and didn't realize how much she'd changed over the years.

I think doing Shakespeare plays for so many years has led to Branagh developing a certain acting style which can easily come across as overacting on film.  On stage, you almost have to overact, because your audience is 100 feet away and you're shouting your lines.  This doesn't translate well to film.  Many, many actors have commented on the difference in acting styles required between film and stage.  But I caught some of Death on the Nile the other night when Mrs. Orbert was watching it, and yeah, it's definitely an acquired taste.

[pg1067]

But I caught some of Death on the Nile the other night when Mrs. Orbert was watching it, and yeah, it's definitely an acquired taste.

I should point out that I've not seen the 1978 adaptation (with what looks to have been an equally (for the time) star-studded cast.  I think the biggest change I'd have made for the new version would be to have Gal Gadot as the scorned lover, rather than the one-dimensional role she played.  Reading through Wikipedia, it seems they made a few other changes to the source material in order to appear more woke.

[hefdaddy42]

I don't give a shit about Agatha Christie, but Kenneth Branaugh is an amazing actor,and director, and writer, and whatever else he does.  In fact, he holds the Oscars record for most nominations in separate categories.  He has been nominated for Best Something in 7 different categories (Actor, Director, Live Action Short Film, Adapted Screenplay, Supporting Actor, Original Screenplay, Picture).

I wouldn't call him an overactor, but he is certainly capable of acting LARGE when the role calls for it, and he is also capable of incredible subtlety when the role calls for it.  He has a lot of range, which most actors no longer do.

And yes, EB, his Hamlet is incredible.

[Cool Chris]

That's Agatha Christie for you.  All of her "mysteries" are like that.  Murder on the Orient Express, Death on the Nile, etc.  There's a murder, basically everyone on the boat/train/whatever is a suspect because they all have motives, most have opportunities, and most have alibis that fall apart when the Brilliant Detective Hercule Poirot starts explaining how they're all full of shit.

This.

....Gilderoy Lockhart was a hoot.

And this. I watched that film recently for the second time, and for the second time, forgot he was playing that role.

[Orbert]

I shouldn't rag on Sir Kenneth, since is really is a talented and highly-acclaimed actor, but so many of the films he's done just aren't my thing.  I actually like Shakespeare, but plays really are a different medium from film, and most films made from Shakespeare plays -- the ones attempting to be faithful to the original source (as opposed to modern adaptations) -- just don't work.  The exaggerated elocution, the pomposity, it all screams "SHAKESPEARE, FUCK YEAH!!" rather than actually seeming like normal people talking.

I think Professor Lockhart was my favorite role of his.

[ZirconBlue]

He also directed and starred in a film every DT fan should know: Dead Again.

[Stadler]

I shouldn't rag on Sir Kenneth, since is really is a talented and highly-acclaimed actor, but so many of the films he's done just aren't my thing.  I actually like Shakespeare, but plays really are a different medium from film, and most films made from Shakespeare plays -- the ones attempting to be faithful to the original source (as opposed to modern adaptations) -- just don't work.  The exaggerated elocution, the pomposity, it all screams "SHAKESPEARE, FUCK YEAH!!" rather than actually seeming like normal people talking.

I think Professor Lockhart was my favorite role of his.

I know what you mean by "Shakespeare, fuck yeah!".  In my head I always hear Al Pacino yelling "I'm acting here.  I'M ACTING HERE!"

[ZirconBlue]

I shouldn't rag on Sir Kenneth, since is really is a talented and highly-acclaimed actor, but so many of the films he's done just aren't my thing.  I actually like Shakespeare, but plays really are a different medium from film, and most films made from Shakespeare plays -- the ones attempting to be faithful to the original source (as opposed to modern adaptations) -- just don't work.  The exaggerated elocution, the pomposity, it all screams "SHAKESPEARE, FUCK YEAH!!" rather than actually seeming like normal people talking.

I think Professor Lockhart was my favorite role of his.

I know what you mean by "Shakespeare, fuck yeah!".  In my head I always hear Al Pacino yelling "I'm acting here.  I'M ACTING HERE!"

Is he doing a Dustin Hoffman impression?

[Cool Chris]

I know what you mean by "Shakespeare, fuck yeah!".  In my head I always hear Al Pacino yelling "I'm acting here.  I'M ACTING HERE!"

Is he doing a Dustin Hoffman impression?

 

[Orbert]

He also directed and starred in a film every DT fan should know: Dead Again.

I forgot to mention this.  Dead Again is one of my favorite films of his.  I haven't seen it in a while, so I don't know how/if it has dated, but at the time I thought it was great.  Cool concept, nice twist, great execution.

[Zantera]

Morbius - Pretty bad unfortunately. At 1.45 long it felt like it had maybe 20 minutes taken out of it with almost every character being underwritten or underused. Bad post-credits scenes that goes against logic set up by these films. Not really much positive to say. I was lukewarm on Morbius as a character before - even as a huge Spider-Man fan I often joke that Morbius is like the #18th coolest Spider-Man villain and it just feels weird that he's getting his own movie and even if this had been better I would still probably have been lukewarm on it.

Fire in the Sky - Heard about this for years since I'm a big X-Files fan and I'm into the alien/abduction stuff. Overall it's a bit spotty with some great acting (Robert Patrick) and some that feels clearly weaker, at parts it feels like a made for TV movie but I enjoyed the overall story. Some loggers come across a UFO that abducts one of them, the rest of the town doesn't believe the story and thinks they are guilty. But THE sequence that really sells the film is the visuals of the guy who is abducted and those ~10 minutes were some of the most frightening and chilling I have seen when it comes to Aliens on film. Gave me a similar feel when I saw Jacob's Ladder which also has some of that imagery that will really get under your skin and stick with you.

[King Postwhore]

Old Henry. If you like westerns,  watch it. Excellent movie. Plus you can't go wrong when Tim Blake Nelson is the lead character.

[hefdaddy42]

I'm glad to see that Morbius is living down to my expectations.

[Stadler]

I shouldn't rag on Sir Kenneth, since is really is a talented and highly-acclaimed actor, but so many of the films he's done just aren't my thing.  I actually like Shakespeare, but plays really are a different medium from film, and most films made from Shakespeare plays -- the ones attempting to be faithful to the original source (as opposed to modern adaptations) -- just don't work.  The exaggerated elocution, the pomposity, it all screams "SHAKESPEARE, FUCK YEAH!!" rather than actually seeming like normal people talking.

I think Professor Lockhart was my favorite role of his.

I know what you mean by "Shakespeare, fuck yeah!".  In my head I always hear Al Pacino yelling "I'm acting here.  I'M ACTING HERE!"

Is he doing a Dustin Hoffman impression?

EXACTLY.  "I'm WALKIN' here!" Exactly.

[pg1067]

He also directed and starred in a film every DT fan should know: Dead Again.

I forgot to mention this.  Dead Again is one of my favorite films of his.  I haven't seen it in a while, so I don't know how/if it has dated, but at the time I thought it was great.  Cool concept, nice twist, great execution.

I'm fairly sure I watched it around the time it came out.  I watched it again about 5-ish years ago.  Not very good.

[El Barto]

I watched There Will be Blood last night. I really enjoyed it from the standpoint of how well done it was. It deserved all of those Oscars. And it goes without saying that DDL is a total badass. At the same time I have no idea what the point actually was. It was an excellent story about a raging, greedy bastard, and if that was all it was trying to be then it did very well. If there's supposed to be some deeper meaning then it totally missed the mark. The typical theme would be that he got filthy stinking rich but went mad doing it. He was already quite the loon, though. He copped to being a greedy, overly competitive bastard early on. There's also the possible religious angle, but that doesn't work because Eli was actually far more fucked up than he was. If the point is simply that he got rich because he's a greedy bastard, that's pretty thin. Doesn't do much for me.

That said, the two high points were him gleefully going through the dog and pony show of his "baptism," and him demeaning Eli at the end of the movie in the exact same way. That was great. Beating him to death in a fit of rage was a bit over the top, even for his crazy ass. He'd been maniacal for the entire film, but he was typically well controlled. His violence up until that point had been largely calculated. Just losing it and beating a man to death for the laughs was odd for the character he'd built up.

[hefdaddy42]

Watched Free Guy with the youngest.  I thought it was fun, but my kid REALLY enjoyed it, because they caught a lot more of the video game references than I did.

[Chino]

I watched the latest Jackass movie last night.   

So much penis.

[hefdaddy42]

Introduced my kid to one of my absolute favorite films, Unforgiven with Clint Eastwood.

They didn't like it as much as I do.  In fact, they seemed a little bored through most of it, until THAT scene, when Munny and the kid are waiting on top of the hill, watching the girl with their money approach, who then tells them about Ned's murder.  You can see Munny's transformation from settled-down would-be family man to cold-blooded killer. 

After that scene, my kid said "Now I get it."

[KevShmev]

Introduced my kid to one of my absolute favorite films, Unforgiven with Clint Eastwood.

They didn't like it as much as I do.  In fact, they seemed a little bored through most of it, until THAT scene, when Munny and the kid are waiting on top of the hill, watching the girl with their money approach, who then tells them about Ned's murder.  You can see Munny's transformation from settled-down would-be family man to cold-blooded killer. 

After that scene, my kid said "Now I get it."

Incredible film, and that scene is one of its best.

"I guess he had it coming."

"We all have it coming, kid."

 

The scene in the jailhouse with Little Bill, English Bob and Mr. Beauchamp is particularly awesome as well. 

"Now all you gotta do is pull the trigger, mister."

Gene Hackman just slayed that role.