What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[MisterCairo]

A Jason Statham throwaway bit of violent fun on Netflix called Parker. JoLo was in it was well.

 

[PeterGunnLives]

A Jason Statham throwaway bit of violent fun on Netflix called Parker. JoLo was in it was well.

It's an adaptation of Donald E. Westlake (aka Richard Stark)'s 1962 novel The Hunter, the first in the Parker series.

I like the 1967 movie adaptation Point Blank starring Lee Marvin as Walker (I don't know why the character was renamed). I didn't watch the one with Statham as the amount of violence, etc. is beyond my personal preference, and besides, I feel that the character should be kept in the sixties.

 

[Benzadmiral]

It's an adaptation of Donald E. Westlake (aka Richard Stark)'s 1962 novel The Hunter, the first in the Parker series.

I like the 1967 movie adaptation Point Blank starring Lee Marvin as Walker (I don't know why the character was renamed). I didn't watch the one with Statham as the amount of violence, etc. is beyond my personal preference, and besides, I feel that the character should be kept in the sixties.

I still picture Marvin as Parker, even though I only saw the movie last year but read the books in the Eighties.

 

[Dirk Wainscotting]

Last night I watched The Woman in the Window (Ed G Robinson and Joan Bennett). I last watched it about 25 years ago and I couldn't remember a jot. Which is good because the ending is a marvellous surprise.

Joan Bennett wears a really nice evening gown about halfway through. She's pretty ravishing all the way through. I'd rather forgotten how good Edward G Robinson is.

 

[Julian Shellhammer]

Wings of the Navy (1939) George Brent, Olivia DeHavilland, John Payne, and tons of recognizable faces. Navy flier brothers, one a seasoned vet and the other just out of Annapolis and starting flight school. Lots of footage of Naval aviation, especially some shots of the PBYs. As Lizzie Maine could probably confirm, it had the feel of a show of American air power to certain foreign entities, interspersed with a romance only conceivable in a screenwriter's mind...

 

[MisterCairo]

It's an adaptation of Donald E. Westlake (aka Richard Stark)'s 1962 novel The Hunter, the first in the Parker series.

I like the 1967 movie adaptation Point Blank starring Lee Marvin as Walker (I don't know why the character was renamed). I didn't watch the one with Statham as the amount of violence, etc. is beyond my personal preference, and besides, I feel that the character should be kept in the sixties.

I had no idea it was either a book series or a re-make of a movie.

This version was what it was, enjoyable for an evening and never to be watched again, but I will check out the Lee Marvin one, because, well, it's got Lee Marvin!

 

[Fading Fast]

Last night I watched The Woman in the Window (Ed G Robinson and Joan Bennett). I last watched it about 25 years ago and I couldn't remember a jot. Which is good because the ending is a marvellous surprise.

Joan Bennett wears a really nice evening gown about halfway through. She's pretty ravishing all the way through. I'd rather forgotten how good Edward G Robinson is.

Robinson became one of my favorite actors when I started to notice, not how good he was - always knew that - but how insanely good he was. What set me off was awhile back when I saw "Key Largo" where he played an almost psychotic gangster quickly followed by "Double Indemnity" where he played a mild-mannered claims adjuster on the surface, but really a man with deep insight into humans that he masked with an almost bumbling surface personality.

That showed incredible range and he was completely believable - natural - in both roles. Recently, I saw him in "Larceny Inc." a throw-away movie except for Robinson - his acting prowess / his force of personality is enough to keep you engaged in this fluff of a movie. I could go on, but, IMHO, he is one of the great acting talents of the Golden Era. And he did it all with a short, misshapen body and a frog-like face - his talent just powered through.

 

[Doctor Strange]

The latest Woody Allen film, Cafe Society. Beautifully shot, great production design, okay performances (especially Jesse Eisenberg, who tamps his usual schtick WAY down)... but I found it sad and worthless. Cobbled together from ideas Woody's done better in earlier films (e.g, the protagonist's gangster brother - see Crimes and Misdemeanors) and a central plot element lifted from The Apartment (though if you're gonna steal, why not steal from the best?), the film is typically sloppily written. That's the problem with most of his recent films, though this one's a half-step up from the embarrassingly bad Irrational Man and Magic in the Moonlight. Far too much of the story is carried by narrator-telling vs. action-showing (aka screenwriting mistake #1), and Woody's narration itself is sadly slow and monotone - he's trying for his old verbal verve, but it's not there. I have been a big fan of his films for forty-five years, and I keep hoping he's got another great film in him - but this one isn't it.

I also watched a bizarre little relationship drama, The One I Love with Elisabeth Moss and Mark Duplass. It starts out with their marriage in trouble, and their couples counselor (Ted Danson) sends them to an estate retreat that's had "excellent" results with other couples. Once there, some weird things happen, and they soon discover that there are mysterious dopplegangers of both of them in the guest cottage, though they can only interact two at a time as a male/female couple. What they learn from these other versions - who have personality differences from the "originals" - and whether we're talking science fiction, magic, or a Scooby Doo plot with imposters, plays out confusingly. Not really recommended, though Moss is typically excellent playing two different versions of the same person.

 

[Otter]

Had an afternoon off yesterday so we got some nibbles and watched Moana (enjoyable escapism) and Bridge of Spies. Superb, Mark Rylance deserved his Oscar for that performance.

 

[belfastboy]

Watched "The Discovery" on Netflix last night.....a tick short of 5 stars so took a chance. I want those two hours of my life back! What drek! Jason Segal has the emotional range of a stick. Redford mailed his performance in after reading a primer on now to play a Mad Scientist. Rooney Mara was worth watching but that was about it. 1 star would have been more appropriate.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Don't go by Netflix ratings, those ratings are useless. I don't trust the general public to determine if a film is good or bad: most of them don't have any aesthetics, they only know what they "like"... And what they like is often dreck!

Just this week, Netflix is moving from using multi-star ratings to just thumbs-up or thumbs-down. So they will be even more useless!

 

[belfastboy]

Don't go by Netflix ratings, those ratings are useless. I don't trust the general public to determine if a film is good or bad: most of them don't have any aesthetics, they only know what they "like"... And what they like is often dreck!

Just this week, Netflix is moving from using multi-star ratings to just thumbs-up or thumbs-down. So they will be even more useless!

We always joke that when we see a movie with a 5 star rating it was probably just one vote and it was probably the director's mother!
We began watching a Belgian TV series, "The Break" it began with a 3.5 star rating. Then half way through it dropped to a 1.5 then last night noticed it had fallen to a .5 rating. I had never witnessed such a drop over a short period of time. I usually take the time to check IMDB as I tend to agree more closely with their ratings. But if the movie stars someone I like or a director I admire will take a flyer on lower rated product. I agree that thumbs up or down system at Netflix is bringing in will be a useless tool. It will be either IMDB or fly by the seat of our pants.

 

[Harp]

To Walk Invisible: The Bronte Sisters.

I was fortunate enough to go to the Bronte Parsonage Museum back in 1995 and walk the moors. It's a beautiful place to ponder and reflect. It's so sad, though, that their lives were cut so short due to illness. I wonder what other great literary masterpieces they would have given us?

I need to see this.
Caught a glimpse of an article the other day about Jane Austen and her possibly having been poisoned (arsenic).

 

[Fading Fast]

Don't go by Netflix ratings, those ratings are useless. I don't trust the general public to determine if a film is good or bad: most of them don't have any aesthetics, they only know what they "like"... And what they like is often dreck!

Just this week, Netflix is moving from using multi-star ratings to just thumbs-up or thumbs-down. So they will be even more useless!

I know there is something nefarious going on with that change as it seemed to go from a not very helpful/accurate system to a useless one.

 

[PeterGunnLives]

I try not to go too much with ratings either from professional critics or the general public, as neither one aligns with my particular tastes. If I like something, I like it for my own reasons.

 

[Fading Fast]

I try not to go too much with ratings either from professional critics or the general public, as neither one aligns with my particular tastes. If I like something, I like it for my own reasons.

Inquiring minds want to know - have you watch "The Fountainhead" yet?

 

[PeterGunnLives]

Inquiring minds want to know - have you watch "The Fountainhead" yet?

I started, but I've only gotten a few minutes in.

 

[Fading Fast]

I started, but I've only gotten a few minutes in.

It's a stylized dialogue which takes a bit of adjustment - but once you get used to it, it works and, again, oh, the architecture! Enjoy.

The book is better, but the movie has the architectural visual appeal.

 

[Fading Fast]

"One for the Book" a Ronald Reagan, Eleanor Parker, Eve Arden 1947 movie originally titled "The Voice of the Turtle" (both titles are terrible ones).

Overall, a decent movie that works on a small level as the story is good, not great and the acting is good, not great - and it has a sweet feel to it. But kicking it up for us today is some very good time travel, in particular, to a small, classic pre-war NYC apartment with casement windows, cool old-school kitchen appliances and a step-down living room with a wood-burning fireplace (additionally, the pharmacy and delicatessen scenes are pure Fedora Lounge eye candy).

Reagan plays a WWII sergeant on a weekend leave in NYC whose kinda girlfriend played by Eve Arden ditches him for what she sees as a better date opportunity which drops Reagan on Arden's friend played by Eleanor Parker (she is a stunningly beautiful woman even with the goofy wig they had her wearing here). Arden's character - and the movie overall - implies a lot of not-acceptable-to-the-code sex is going or has gone on, in particular, with Eve Arden's character. It's pretty stark for the time - winks, nods and strong innuendo leave little doubt. For us today, it's nice to see that life wasn't that different back then.

And Arden, well cast as a "fast and loose" woman, who almost always plays women from modest backgrounds with an edge - which can come across as street smart and strong, as she does in "Mildred Pierce" or as brassy and annoying as it does here - can act. Reagan, does a competent job, but as always, it's clear he's not a tier-one leading man. He doesn't have the complete comfort and naturalness of a Tracy or Bogart, the lift-off-the-screen looks of a Grant or Peck or the full-force personality of a Cagney or Robinson - he's good, not great and he just can't fully carry the male lead as he needs to here.

That said, it all works well enough with Parker's super-cute ingenue-ness drawing you in while its silly story uses one weak reason after another to keep Reagan and Parker together long enough over the weekend for them to begin to fall in love which also makes the initially happy-to-be-free-of-Reagan Arden jealous. But this movie is not about conflict, it's about charm and likability and it does those things well.

Movies like this are one of TCM's strength. Sure, the "big" movies, the "Casablanca's" are important, but it is these all-but-unknown, little, fun escapist movies which capture the feel and vibe their period that make TCM pure joy.

 

[Doctor Strange]

The Man Who Wasn't There - the only Coen Bros. film I hadn't already seen, because it somehow had never shown up on my cable/etc. for 15 years.

I liked but didn't love it. But I really enjoyed seeing Roger Deakins' gorgeous film-noir b/w cinematography, and great work by Coen acting stalwarts Jon Polito, Tony Sholoub, Michael Badalucco, Frances McDormand, etc... and Billy Bob Thornton. Not top-flight Coens, but solid.