What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

Worf said:

Never seen one minute of "Home Alone". Along with some other "classics" of the cinema.

Worf

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Don't. It's the worst kinf of trite rubbish. Real "family film" stuff.

Harp said:

^Wizard of Oz is the Thanksgiving film in my clan.
We catch the game; eat the Bird; and watch Wizard of Oz...

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In what world could The Wizard of Oz possibly qualify as a Thanksgiving movie? I mean, Thanksgiving is in November, and Tornado Season in Kansas is from April to June.

Harp said:

...A Home Aloner I am most definitely not.
I will vociferously argue against Kevin & krew whenever heresey rears its ugly head...

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Same here. I've seen it one time, during it's opening weekend here in southern California. Apparently, everyone else in the theater loved it because they all walked out still laughing and talking about their favorite moments. My friend and I didn't laugh once, because we've seen every one of those physical gags performed better and funnier by Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, and Charles Chaplin; we left the theater shaking our heads.

Zombie_61 said:

In what world could The Wizard of Oz possibly qualify as a Thanksgiving movie? I mean, Thanksgiving is in November, and Tornado Season in Kansas is from April to June.

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Kansas tornadic season aside CBS showed the film for twenty years on Thanksgiving.

Harp said:

Kansas tornadic season aside CBS showed the film for twenty years on Thanksgiving.

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Damn, and I missed it every time.

MisterCairo said:

You may, just may, be taking the whole is it or is it not a Christmas film, too seriously!

Both films were released in July, 1988 and 1990 respectively.

Whatever the intent, the audience decides, and given my 30th anniversary edition came wrapped, in a decorative tin, and with commemorative Christmas cards, I would say WE have made it a Christmas film, therefore it is one!

Guess I take this seriously too!


*** Plus season 3 of Brooklyn Nine-Nine has a Christmas episode, with Jake's dream come true - a real life Die Hard situation.

In a department store vice Nakatomi Tower, and Canadian criminals vice German ones...

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It's one of those endless internet debates I love (when it's taken in good humour) because there really, truly is no objective, correct answer to it - and we all argue from completely different standpoints about what exactly qualifies as a "Christmas movie". You're absolutely right that insofar as Die Hard can be interpreted as a Christmas movie, the audience have made it so - as confirmed by the special edition you mention being packaged to appeal to that market. That much makes a lot of sense to me, as a long-time veteran of Rocky Horror's fan-world. The July releases amused me when I read about them in retrospect (they're not films I encountered until television; I think #3 is the only one I saw in the cinema - the one with Samuel L Jackson? - and I've not see any of the later ones). I've always struggled with watching Christmas-set stuff out of season, just doesn't 'feel' right. Halloween, even Easter themed stuff, fine any time of year. The only Christmas film I particularly feel comfortable with out of season is The Nightmare Before Christmas, which is also a Halloween film, of course. (Released in the US for Halloween '93, and Christmas '93 in the UK!)

While my head thinks a Christmas film has to have the season as to some extent integral to the plot - Gremlins arguably just straddles that line - emotionally it's certainly the case that all sorts of personal and coincidental associations are the case. My childhood was very much the peak and post-peak of the 'Troubles' era in Northern Ireland, and while my little world was safe and (broadly) untouched by that chaos, it did make my parents very wary of taking us into Belfast with great regularity. Belfast itself always thus had a certain level of glamour(!): especially after the local, one-screen cinema closed down in the early-mid eighties. The Regal, in Larne:



Saw a fair few films there, including my ninth birthday outing to see Return of the Jedi in 1983 - which had to be postponed by a full week because Superman III (which I also saw there) was so popular that they kept it an extra week. It closed originally in 1986, then re-opened as a four screen (per picture, they literally split the old downstairs in two and the balcony into another two, smaller, screens). That shut down in 2001. Between 1986 and 1993, it was full-time bingo (traditionally they showed no films on a Wednesday night when it was Bingo night instead). Last I heard, this 1930s facade still stands, but the auditorium was destroyed by fire.

I well recall my mother - when I was about twelve - trying to encourage me to take more of an interest in sport(!) because she got it into her head that the then death of the cinema meant when I was "older" and "wanted to go out with girls", there'd be no cinema to go to. I'm not quite sure how sport became her notion of a default alternative to the cinema, but... Bless.

My parents took us to Belfast a couple of times a year, rarely outside of once either side of the Summer plus once at Christmas for the cinema. An especial memory was the week after Christmas in 1988, the one time my parents took us to see *two* films in one day - first Willow, and then Who Framed Roger Rabbit? The latter was too 'adult' for their tastes (they had similar reservations about Ghostbusters back in the day, particularly the 'Ray's dream' sequence, which was originally cut from the home video release and television screenings in the UK). We enjoyed it at a more innocent level. I appreciate it far more now, of course, that I 'get' the source material. For that connection with the family outing at that time of year and the relative rarity of it all, those films while not quite 'Christmas films' to me do have a direct seasonal link; similar to Raiders, which I remember seeing on television on Christmas Day 1984 when it was the big 'Christmas Day film', back when there were only four channels in the UK (or three if, like our parents, you had Middle Class aspirations and therefore disapproved of Channel 4 which had arrived in 1983. Dad only tuned our set in to receive it in 1986 so we could watch the American Football - and under sufferance at that).

Perception and association is a funny thing. John Waters talks about this in an interview done for the DVD release of CryBaby some 20 years or so after its original release. In that case, he's talking about how he thought he was making an Elvis-picture parody, but a much younger audience of Johnny Depp fans took it to heart as something quite else, and sincere. Perhaps not unlike those of us too young to have originally been familiar with the inspirations behind Raiders, but who loved it nonetheless. Which brings me back full circle to Die Hard and the importance of how the audience interpret the art and its meaning, relative to the intent of the artist...

Count me also as somebody who has never seen Home Alone (keeping in mind I was already in my 30s when it came out). And I haven't seen Die Hard in decades. Being Jewish, "Christmas movies" aren't a thing for me, though I love the vintage classics - A Christmas Carol, The Nutcracker, It's A Wonderful Life...

I saw Spielberg's new West Side Story last night. As someone who'd memorized the original cast album years before I ever saw the 1961 film adaptation, I was never especially in love with it. Between its dubbed singers, uneasy mix of outdoors dancing and stagey indoor sets, and changes from the Broadway lyrics and moved-to-different-point-in-the-story songs, it never entirely satisfied.

Anyway, this new version - and it definitely has enough changes to be considered a different interpretation - has a lot going for it. The cast is excellent, the recreation of fifties NYC is awesome, the score (played by the NY Philharmonic) has never sounded better, and the new handling of some sequences is clever and spellbinding (Tony and Maria's first meeting at the dance, the rumble, "I Feel Pretty" - which is now sung by Maria and chorus as the overnight cleaning crew at Gimbel's).

Much has been made of how carefully Spielberg and writer Tony Kushner researched fifties NYC Puerto Rican culture to be more accurate and inclusive (and "Anybodys" is no longer presented as a tomboy, but someone of indeterminate gender), and all of that's good. But the two big changes/improvements are:

Much more is made of how the "turf" the Sharks and Jets are fighting over is in the midst of being lost to "slum clearance" in preparation for building Lincoln Center. A lot of the street settings look like the aftermath of bombing. And it goes beyond "Officer Krupke" in pointing out that the Jets are a lost generation - "Your parents were the whites who weren't smart enough to find a way out of this neighborhood." says Lt. Shrank (Corey Stoll).

And the new character of Valentina - Doc's Puerto Rican widow, played by the great Rita Moreno - works much better as a maternal voice of reason with feet on both sides of the conflict. She's also given one of the show's greatest songs, "Somewhere", in place of Tony and Maria. An Oscar nomination is assured.

Anyway, it's very well done, and a must-see if you love West Side Story.

The whole A Nightmare Before Christmas debate rages on in my house twice per year.

It is my eldest daughter's favourite film. She insists it is a Hallowe'en film.

I insist it is a Christmas film.

We watch it both seasons to avoid bloodshed...

Ray's dream sequence is controversial, though it was left in in North America during its theatrical run in 1984 and never to my experience deleted from any video release.

No idea about tv broadcast, but it likely would have been edited out., and easily so.

Part of a deleted scene at an historic park (cut apparently as the "pace" of the film at its point of inclusion was speeding up, and this would have slowed it down), it was decided to leave that "bit" in as a dream of sorts during the montage. Then as now, it strikes me as out of place in a film that, over here at least, was and is watched by children.

We are seeing the new one this weekend. Filmed in Alberta!

Edward said:

It's one of those endless internet debates I love (when it's taken in good humour) because there really, truly is no objective, correct answer to it - and we all argue from completely different standpoints about what exactly qualifies as a "Christmas movie". You're absolutely right that insofar as Die Hard can be interpreted as a Christmas movie, the audience have made it so - as confirmed by the special edition you mention being packaged to appeal to that market. That much makes a lot of sense to me, as a long-time veteran of Rocky Horror's fan-world. The July releases amused me when I read about them in retrospect (they're not films I encountered until television; I think #3 is the only one I saw in the cinema - the one with Samuel L Jackson? - and I've not see any of the later ones). I've always struggled with watching Christmas-set stuff out of season, just doesn't 'feel' right. Halloween, even Easter themed stuff, fine any time of year. The only Christmas film I particularly feel comfortable with out of season is The Nightmare Before Christmas, which is also a Halloween film, of course. (Released in the US for Halloween '93, and Christmas '93 in the UK!)

While my head thinks a Christmas film has to have the season as to some extent integral to the plot - Gremlins arguably just straddles that line - emotionally it's certainly the case that all sorts of personal and coincidental associations are the case. My childhood was very much the peak and post-peak of the 'Troubles' era in Northern Ireland, and while my little world was safe and (broadly) untouched by that chaos, it did make my parents very wary of taking us into Belfast with great regularity. Belfast itself always thus had a certain level of glamour(!): especially after the local, one-screen cinema closed down in the early-mid eighties. The Regal, in Larne:

Saw a fair few films there, including my ninth birthday outing to see Return of the Jedi in 1983 - which had to be postponed by a full week because Superman III (which I also saw there) was so popular that they kept it an extra week. It closed originally in 1986, then re-opened as a four screen (per picture, they literally split the old downstairs in two and the balcony into another two, smaller, screens). That shut down in 2001. Between 1986 and 1993, it was full-time bingo (traditionally they showed no films on a Wednesday night when it was Bingo night instead). Last I heard, this 1930s facade still stands, but the auditorium was destroyed by fire.

I well recall my mother - when I was about twelve - trying to encourage me to take more of an interest in sport(!) because she got it into her head that the then death of the cinema meant when I was "older" and "wanted to go out with girls", there'd be no cinema to go to. I'm not quite sure how sport became her notion of a default alternative to the cinema, but... Bless.

My parents took us to Belfast a couple of times a year, rarely outside of once either side of the Summer plus once at Christmas for the cinema. An especial memory was the week after Christmas in 1988, the one time my parents took us to see *two* films in one day - first Willow, and then Who Framed Roger Rabbit? The latter was too 'adult' for their tastes (they had similar reservations about Ghostbusters back in the day, particularly the 'Ray's dream' sequence, which was originally cut from the home video release and television screenings in the UK). We enjoyed it at a more innocent level. I appreciate it far more now, of course, that I 'get' the source material. For that connection with the family outing at that time of year and the relative rarity of it all, those films while not quite 'Christmas films' to me do have a direct seasonal link; similar to Raiders, which I remember seeing on television on Christmas Day 1984 when it was the big 'Christmas Day film', back when there were only four channels in the UK (or three if, like our parents, you had Middle Class aspirations and therefore disapproved of Channel 4 which had arrived in 1983. Dad only tuned our set in to receive it in 1986 so we could watch the American Football - and under sufferance at that).

Perception and association is a funny thing. John Waters talks about this in an interview done for the DVD release of CryBaby some 20 years or so after its original release. In that case, he's talking about how he thought he was making an Elvis-picture parody, but a much younger audience of Johnny Depp fans took it to heart as something quite else, and sincere. Perhaps not unlike those of us too young to have originally been familiar with the inspirations behind Raiders, but who loved it nonetheless. Which brings me back full circle to Die Hard and the importance of how the audience interpret the art and its meaning, relative to the intent of the artist...

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Doctor Strange said:

Count me also as somebody who has never seen Home Alone (keeping in mind I was already in my 30s when it came out). And I haven't seen Die Hard in decades. Being Jewish, "Christmas movies" aren't a thing for me, though I love the vintage classics - A Christmas Carol, The Nutcracker, It's A Wonderful Life...

I saw Spielberg's new West Side Story last night. As someone who'd memorized the original cast album years before I ever saw the 1961 film adaptation, I was never especially in love with it.

And the new character of Valentina - Doc's Puerto Rican widow, played by the great Rita Moreno - works much better as a maternal voice of reason with feet on both sides of the conflict. She's also given one of the show's greatest songs, "Somewhere", in place of Tony and Maria. An Oscar nomination is assured.

Anyway, it's very well done, and a must-see if you love West Side Story.

Click to expand...

Chicago's southside parish labyrinth encompassed ethnic tribal reservations that once broken out of
opened doors to the far larger world; namely Latinas- girls gorgeous and Catholic, arresting girls whom
added considerable lustre to the mix of Irish, German, Italian, Polish, Czech-Hungarian ladies within parish maze.
West Side Story when shown over NBC for two nights featured a battering ram named Rita Moreno.
Aesthetics cinematography and everything else eclipsed by this lady.
The 'stick to your own kind' line she told Maria was met by a million replies 'baby you are my kind.'
A little too much info tangent but man what a woman.
Rita's beauty struck lightning, its thunder echoed within my heart.

Edward said:

Don't. It's the worst kinf of trite rubbish. Real "family film" stuff.

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Them's fightin' words...

MisterCairo said:

The whole A Nightmare Before Christmas debate rages on in my house twice per year.

It is my eldest daughter's favourite film. She insists it is a Hallowe'en film.

I insist it is a Christmas film.

We watch it both seasons to avoid bloodshed...

Click to expand...

FWIW, some years ago.... 2006... I put together a Jack costume for a friends' cabaret night:



This was Halloween; a year or so later, 2007 or maybe 2008 I revived it for Christmas...



I still want to do the red, Santa version, but the red tails (affordably) eluded me back then...

Ray's dream sequence is controversial, though it was left in in North America during its theatrical run in 1984 and never to my experience deleted from any video release.

No idea about tv broadcast, but it likely would have been edited out., and easily so.

Part of a deleted scene at an historic park (cut apparently as the "pace" of the film at its point of inclusion was speeding up, and this would have slowed it down), it was decided to leave that "bit" in as a dream of sorts during the montage. Then as now, it strikes me as out of place in a film that, over here at least, was and is watched by children.

Click to expand...

I wasn't aware there was a wider scene around it - did that ever surface? (I have the BD somewhere, but no player linked up now, not sure if it's on there...). It does, in retrospect, seem out of place. There are a lot of other 'adult' gags in there which make me now realise why my mother didn't care for it, but they'd otherwise all have gone over a kid's head. At ten, I took it as straight sci-fi - it was only rewatching years later I realised how funny it actually is. In terms of the narrative, it could easily have lost that scene and missed nothing (indeed, seeing the home video / TV edit here back in the day, I don't think if you didn't know it had been cut and hadn't seen the film before you'd be any the wiser). I wouldn't consider myself especially prudish, but from a commercial pov it surprises me it got left in. (though itg would have been a PG in the UK cinema back then, I think).

The "family film" that really surprises me, though, is Grease. Srsly. We did a run at it with the Rocky Horror cast I was in back in 2005, and I had to drop half of my pre-prepared MC routine because over 50% of the audience were underage kids. I love the film, but surely it's far from appropriate for kids of 10 and under? I know they toned it down a lot from the original stage production, but still...

We are seeing the new one this weekend. Filmed in Alberta!

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We're waiting for it on streaming owing to the wife being 'vulnerable', but I hear good things. I was wary when I first saw kids having a big role in the trailer (Hellooooo, Blues Brothers 2000....), but I've heard much good from reliable sources. I liked 2 (less than 1, though) and the 2016 version (not quite as much as 1, but more than 2), so I have hopes for the belated 3...

MisterCairo said:

Them's fightin' words...

View attachment 387848 View attachment 387849 View attachment 387850 View attachment 387851 View attachment 387852

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Ah! I must confess, I didn't recognise the house from the initial postings of these, but I haven't seen the film since my parents took us to see it in the cinema. My strongest memory of it is the creaking of my then two-day old first leather jacket - of which I was obscenely proud at the time!

Someone-anybody seen Kenneth Branagh's Belfast please post comment.

Harp said:

Someone-anybody seen Kenneth Branagh's Belfast please post comment.

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Curious about this too. Likely a pay per view or stream when available.

We are seeing Ghosbusters new one, then the Guillermo del Toro flick in the cinemas soon. Likely the King's Man too, we love the first two Kingsman films.

Check out this background -


https://ghostbusters.fandom.com/wiki/Dream_Ghost

And here is more of the scene, with a break of sorts, start about 45 secs in for about two minutes.

"Ray, you okay in there?"

"Later, man..."

Edward said:

FWIW, some years ago.... 2006... I put together a Jack costume for a friends' cabaret night:

This was Halloween; a year or so later, 2007 or maybe 2008 I revived it for Christmas...

I still want to do the red, Santa version, but the red tails (affordably) eluded me back then...



I wasn't aware there was a wider scene around it - did that ever surface? (I have the BD somewhere, but no player linked up now, not sure if it's on there...). It does, in retrospect, seem out of place. There are a lot of other 'adult' gags in there which make me now realise why my mother didn't care for it, but they'd otherwise all have gone over a kid's head. At ten, I took it as straight sci-fi - it was only rewatching years later I realised how funny it actually is. In terms of the narrative, it could easily have lost that scene and missed nothing (indeed, seeing the home video / TV edit here back in the day, I don't think if you didn't know it had been cut and hadn't seen the film before you'd be any the wiser). I wouldn't consider myself especially prudish, but from a commercial pov it surprises me it got left in. (though itg would have been a PG in the UK cinema back then, I think).

The "family film" that really surprises me, though, is Grease. Srsly. We did a run at it with the Rocky Horror cast I was in back in 2005, and I had to drop half of my pre-prepared MC routine because over 50% of the audience were underage kids. I love the film, but surely it's far from appropriate for kids of 10 and under? I know they toned it down a lot from the original stage production, but still...



We're waiting for it on streaming owing to the wife being 'vulnerable', but I hear good things. I was wary when I first saw kids having a big role in the trailer (Hellooooo, Blues Brothers 2000....), but I've heard much good from reliable sources. I liked 2 (less than 1, though) and the 2016 version (not quite as much as 1, but more than 2), so I have hopes for the belated 3...

Click to expand...

Awesome pics, will share with daughter 1.

May have an alternative to my traditional Darth Maul...

Edward said:

FWIW, some years ago.... 2006... I put together a Jack costume for a friends' cabaret night:

This was Halloween; a year or so later, 2007 or maybe 2008 I revived it for Christmas...

I still want to do the red, Santa version, but the red tails (affordably) eluded me back then...



I wasn't aware there was a wider scene around it - did that ever surface? (I have the BD somewhere, but no player linked up now, not sure if it's on there...). It does, in retrospect, seem out of place. There are a lot of other 'adult' gags in there which make me now realise why my mother didn't care for it, but they'd otherwise all have gone over a kid's head. At ten, I took it as straight sci-fi - it was only rewatching years later I realised how funny it actually is. In terms of the narrative, it could easily have lost that scene and missed nothing (indeed, seeing the home video / TV edit here back in the day, I don't think if you didn't know it had been cut and hadn't seen the film before you'd be any the wiser). I wouldn't consider myself especially prudish, but from a commercial pov it surprises me it got left in. (though itg would have been a PG in the UK cinema back then, I think).

The "family film" that really surprises me, though, is Grease. Srsly. We did a run at it with the Rocky Horror cast I was in back in 2005, and I had to drop half of my pre-prepared MC routine because over 50% of the audience were underage kids. I love the film, but surely it's far from appropriate for kids of 10 and under? I know they toned it down a lot from the original stage production, but still...



We're waiting for it on streaming owing to the wife being 'vulnerable', but I hear good things. I was wary when I first saw kids having a big role in the trailer (Hellooooo, Blues Brothers 2000....), but I've heard much good from reliable sources. I liked 2 (less than 1, though) and the 2016 version (not quite as much as 1, but more than 2), so I have hopes for the belated 3...

Click to expand...

I just re watched the whole Avengers series.

MisterCairo said:

Awesome pics, will share with daughter 1.

May have an alternative to my traditional Darth Maul...

Click to expand...

It was a surprisingly easy costume to put together - though it takes **hours** to paint on all those white lines! I did consider buying a mask for the head, but in the end I felt make-up was a better option for sake of keeping it "organic" and home-made. Plus easier to 'wear' all night.... I'm one of those geeks that can't abide it when people dump half their costume an hour into the event...

Speaking of 'Christmas' movies...although I haven't seen Branagh's Belfast yet I sense this
film has some magic and will become a holiday christened staple.
Belfast featured at the Chicago Film Fest recently and the town buzz is electric.