What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

Trenchfriend · Jun 5, 2020

But I found Stallone awesome in the scenes without his judge-uniform helmet!

In the german synchro, of course. This scenes were so emotional, he plays the very reflective, dissapointed Dredd, as he would have never played another role.

MisterCairo · Jun 5, 2020

Bushman said:
I think he's referring to Deadpool in X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Ah. Have not seen any of those films. No intention of ever doing so.

MisterCairo · Jun 5, 2020

Edward said:
Deadpool is, I agree.... but didn't you see what they did to the character in his first cinematic outing in X Men Origins? Yeesh. I mean, I know they make a lot of changes to these things under the "Yellow Spandex Rule", but taking a character whosedefining characteristic is his potty mouth and making him a mute!? It's like giving Spiderman six limbs, making him look like an overweight, middle-aged man dressed as a fly, and still claiming he's Spiderman.

Thing is I have never seen these films, hence my confusion over the ref you made, my thinking you meant the film.

Julian Shellhammer · Jun 6, 2020

Scarlet Street (1945) with Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett, and Dan Duryea. According to IMDb, it was banned in three cities not too long after its release. Rough stuff, close to the edge of The Code.

(edit) About a week ago, The Lady Takes a Sailor (1949) with Jane Wyman as the head of a products testing empire, Dennis Morgan as an underwater researcher who is more than he seems, and Eve Arden doing the Eve Arden character.

ChazfromCali · Jun 6, 2020

Trenchfriend said:
But I found Stallone awesome in the scenes without his judge-uniform helmet!

In the german synchro, of course. This scenes were so emotional, he plays the very reflective, dissapointed Dredd, as he would have never played another role.

If you want to see Stallone out of character try Copland. In my opinion he can actually act, when he's not playing Sylvester Stallone he does a great job.

Edward · Jun 6, 2020

Zombie_61 said:
And yet, still not Stallone's worst movie.

Very true! Sad, be cause he can act.

Trenchfriend said:
But I found Stallone awesome in the scenes without his judge-uniform helmet!

In the german synchro, of course. This scenes were so emotional, he plays the very reflective, dissapointed Dredd, as he would have never played another role.

If the helmet comes off, it's not Dredd. The end.

ChazfromCali said:
If you want to see Stallone out of character try Copland. In my opinion he can actually act, when he's not playing Sylvester Stallone he does a great job.

Copland as outstanding,on a level with Rocky, or better. The problem for A listers is how they get typecat and then hired to play the a-lister persona, not act..

Fading Fast · Jun 6, 2020

Upperworld from 1934 with Warren William, Mary Astor and Ginger Rogers

Another short (73 minutes), fast Warner Brothers pre-code where William plays a decent-hearted tycoon whose wife (Astor) is too busy with her social-climbing efforts to spend time with him, so he stumbles into an affair (he didn't set out to have one) with body-tight chorus girl Ginger Rogers

As an aside, a Depression Era America seemed, surprisingly, quite concerned with uber-wealthy men whose wives ignore them owing to their social commitments as this theme came up before in A Successful Calamity and The Rich are Always with Us - no jobs, no food, but the real issue for the average American is, are millionaires being ignored by their wives!?

Back to our story, which is a basic rich-man-cheats-on-indifferent-to-him-wife tale until things take a really bad turn as Rogers' former kinda boyfriend wants to blackmail William (Rogers doesn't want to)

This leads to a hotel-room confrontation with bullets flying, two dead bodies and William realizing his entire life just got dynamited in under five minutes

After that, it's exposure by the press, an investigation, courtroom drama and resolution all in about 20 minutes and, if told, would all be spoilers

Tucked into the middle of this is a homily about treating everyone with respect as, in an out-of-character move early on, William belittles a traffic cop ticketing his driver / the revenge-driven cop later becomes the dogged investigator into William's hotel imbroglio - this would have been more effective as a message if William wasn't a really nice guy and the cop a jerk

Warners Brothers had a formula: bang out fast, short movies with lots of story, romance and action; this by-the-numbers version works okay owing to the talents of William and Rogers

Touchofevil · Jun 6, 2020

Anatomy of a Murder on TCM. I have watched it many a time and as such was in and out of the room often enough doing this and that off and on. Eve Arden stands out each time I watch it. It is a good cast and story, but for me, she steals it.

Zombie_61 · Jun 7, 2020

Edward said:
...The problem for A listers is how they get typecat and then hired to play the a-lister persona, not act..

John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone--they're part of a long list of actors who managed to create their own on-screen personas that were/are worth their weight in gold. People didn't/don't go to see their movies because they want to watch great performances, they go because they want to watch Wayne, Eastwood, et al, do what they do best. It's not much of a "problem" when they and the studios are making the kind of money those movies pull in.

belfastboy · Jun 7, 2020

"King of Marvin Gardens". an uneven effort but it sure was fun to watch a young Jack Nicholson work. I don't ever remember him being that young. I think he gave a good performance in a movie that tried too hard to be avant garde and just came off in parts as pretentious and silly. Bruce Dern was great.

ChazfromCali · Jun 7, 2020

Zombie_61 said:
John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone--they're part of a long list of actors who managed to create their own on-screen personas that were/are worth their weight in gold. People didn't/don't go to see their movies because they want to watch great performances, they go because they want to watch Wayne, Eastwood, et al, do what they do best. It's not much of a "problem" when they and the studios are making the kind of money those movies pull in.

Yeah, all those guys have that dilemma.

People love the persona but the actors are sort of damned if they do damned if they don't. Some succeed. Oddly enough I think John Wayne did. At the time there was a huge uproar about the late-era John Wayne film The Cowboys when Bruce Dern, "Oh my Gawd" killed Duke's character. It was symbolic I guess, people didn't like it, vociferously. Vietnam era, etc etc.

Previous to that for Wayne was True Grit which was quite a departure for him. Great movie, great performance. Late career Duke, stretching? Hell yeah!

And then The Shootist. Directed by Ron Howard. For my money Duke's best performance ever. A fantastic movie. A mature movie about the end of an era and the consequences of your life catching up to you. And being OK with it. Not what his core audience expected.

I don't remember when but I saw The Shootist with a different sound track and it made an interesting difference in the gravity of the film. For the better I thought.

Anyway, in my opinion, even The Duke made an effort to break out of his type casting.

BobHufford · Jun 7, 2020

^^^^^ Actually "The Shootist" was directed by Don Siegel (and co-starred Ron Howard), but I'm sure you meant that.

ChazfromCali · Jun 7, 2020

BobHufford said:
^^^^^ Actually "The Shootist" was directed by Don Siegel (and co-starred Ron Howard), but I'm sure you meant that.

Really? Hmm, I wonder where I got that, then?

Well, Great movie!

Zombie_61 · Jun 7, 2020

ChazfromCali said:
...People love the persona but the actors are sort of damned if they do damned if they don't. Some succeed. Oddly enough I think John Wayne did...

Any actor attempting to create a single on-screen persona had better like that character, 'cause if they succeed they're probably going to be stuck playing that character throughout the rest of their career.

ChazfromCali said:
...At the time there was a huge uproar about the late-era John Wayne film The Cowboys when Bruce Dern, "Oh my Gawd" killed Duke's character. It was symbolic I guess, people didn't like it, vociferously. Vietnam era, etc etc...

I remember that. At the time there was still a prevalent "But he's the hero; he can't die" mindset among audiences simply because it rarely happened in movies. Now, hell, sometimes it seems writers and directors can't wait to screw with audiences.

ChazfromCali said:
...And then The Shootist. Directed by Ron Howard. For my money Duke's best performance ever. A fantastic movie. A mature movie about the end of an era and the consequences of your life catching up to you. And being OK with it. Not what his core audience expected...

I am not a John Wayne fan. I don't dislike the man, but I never understood what all the fuss was about. That said, I absolutely agree. It was, arguably, the most honest, natural, and believable performance he ever gave in my opinion.

Worf · Jun 7, 2020

Zombie_61 said:
And yet, still not Stallone's worst movie.

"I AHM DA LAW!!!!!" (Done in my best mumble)

What you don't dig dat fine acting? Mumbles WORST movie is "Cobra", what a stinkin' pile of dreck that was. Thank God I didn't pay to watch that trash! The Dredd remake was much better, amazing all around!

Worf

Worf · Jun 7, 2020

Zombie_61 said:
I am not a John Wayne fan. I don't dislike the man, but I never understood what all the fuss was about. That said, I absolutely agree. It was, arguably, the most honest, natural, and believable performance he ever gave in my opinion.

I believe that there are nuggets in his career that stand out. I believe "Red River" and "In Harms Way" show that.... when given nuanced material and/or reigned in by the director, Wayne could act and emote. And towards the end of his career he did take chances like "The Cowboys" and "The Shootist". He didn't deconstruct the "Cowboy Mystique" as Eastwood did... but he did try and expand his niche in it.

Worf

Zombie_61 · Jun 7, 2020

Worf said:
"I AHM DA LAW!!!!!" (Done in my best mumble)

What you don't dig dat fine acting? Mumbles WORST movie is "Cobra", what a stinkin' pile of dreck that was. Thank God I didn't pay to watch that trash! The Dredd remake was much better, amazing all around!

Worf

If you think Cobra is Stallone's worst movie, it's pretty clear you've never seen Rhinestone, Over the Top, or Oscar. I've heard Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot is truly terrible as well, but I could never bring myself to watch it.

Worf said:
I believe that there are nuggets in his career that stand out. I believe "Red River" and "In Harms Way" show that.... when given nuanced material and/or reigned in by the director, Wayne could act and emote. And towards the end of his career he did take chances like "The Cowboys" and "The Shootist". He didn't deconstruct the "Cowboy Mystique" as Eastwood did... but he did try and expand his niche in it.

Worf

I've never seen In Harms Way, but the other three are probably my favorite John Wayne movies.

Edward Reed · Jun 7, 2020

This one surprised me. Some typical 1940s overacting and a good bit of cocky bravado by Gable but this 1940 flick, that is obviously yet another inspiration for the Indiana Jones franchise, is worth a view. Its a bit deeper than it appears on the surface yet still has the old Gable action adventure charm with a slight twist. Considered controversial in its day, the film was banned in some places, and this had an adverse effect on the box office.

Worf · Jun 8, 2020

Zombie_61 said:
If you think Cobra is Stallone's worst movie, it's pretty clear you've never seen Rhinestone, Over the Top, or Oscar. I've heard Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot is truly terrible as well, but I could never bring myself to watch it.

Sigh... I guess you're right. But I'll never subject myself to anymore of Sly's filmography. I owe it to humanity and my own sanity not to. I'll take your word as our resident "rotten flick expert" that the films you mention are worse than "Cobra". In other words... I surrender.....

Worf

PS for now....

Seb Lucas · Jun 8, 2020

I never cared for the Sly macho-man persona and, as a consequence, don't think I've seen many of his films. However I think Rocky is a terrific movie and I saw Rambo and Judge Dredd - both left me cold - and I don't recall many others. As for Westerns, I love the sheer exuberant artistry of some of the Leone films. But the classic era John Ford films don't hold my attention. I just watched the opening of Once Upon a Time in the West for the 15th time and I found it exhilarating.

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