logo Sign In

Last movie seen — Page 509

Author
Time

TV’s Frink said:

Mike O said:

TV’s Frink said:

I like Rogue One better every time I see it.

Maybe if like the rest of the Disney Ourvre, it didn’t constantly remind me of the OOT I can never see again, I might be more receptive to it. I’ll revisit it one of these days.

Please stop saying that. You know perfectly well you can watch the OOT thanks to Harmy.

Oh, on a side note, can a Blu-ray player play back 720/24p without scaling it up to 1080/60p?

“What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one.”

Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death

Author
Time

Mike O said:

TV’s Frink said:

Mike O said:

TV’s Frink said:

I like Rogue One better every time I see it.

Maybe if like the rest of the Disney Ourvre, it didn’t constantly remind me of the OOT I can never see again, I might be more receptive to it. I’ll revisit it one of these days.

Please stop saying that. You know perfectly well you can watch the OOT thanks to Harmy.

Oh, on a side note, can a Blu-ray player play back 720/24p without scaling it up to 1080/60p?

Every one I’ve put a disc made from Harmy’s MKV files into has upscaled it from 720p24 to 1080p24. So it upscales, but doesn’t fuck with the framerate.

Author
Time

As long as the frame rate stays fine I wouldn’t think upscaling it would be an issue.

Author
Time

Bright
7/10

Not perfect, but it’s quite enjoyable.

Author
Time

Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)

Holy shit!

Author
Time

You’re going to have to be slightly more specific, given that people who have loved it and hated it both have said that.

Author
Time

I think I liked it.

Author
Time

The only thing I didn’t like was the excessive humor.

Excessive being the key word. Most of it actually was funny, but I just felt it went overboard and broke tone sometimes. Same with TFA. A very light fan edit would fix it for me.

Author
Time

Excessive humor? I didn’t think TLJ was very funny.

Author
Time

There were a TON of jokes. Most worked in and of themselves but I just felt there was too many.

Author
Time

Lolita (1962)
7/10
I think it’s one of Kubrick’s more interesting pictures because of how much he had to change the story to appease the censors, and how strangely it has traces of “Hollywood Golden age sixties.” I think that it’s not one of his best films, but I do think it’s a very enjoyable film to watch and has a whole deal of humor and black comedy.

https://www.instagram.com/servanov_/

Author
Time
 (Edited)

Taken- Many action fans have really taken (ahem) to this Luc Besson violence-fest, but I found its xenophobic violence dull and outdated. At least some of Besson’s other vehicles had some gonzo Hong Kong chops to lighten them up. This tale of an ultra-badass who goes Europe to kill a series of evil sex traffickers who’ve kidnapped his virginal daughter (“The French are amazing in bed!”) would play like a DTV vehicle if it weren’t for the higher production values and Liam Neeson’s excellent acting and steely presence, but that’s not enough to elevate it. I just thought once we got out of the 90s, we were done with this kind of thing. And for a Frenchman, Besson doesn’t do the tourist board any favors. Maybe I finally am growing up.

Unknown- Joel Silver, king of action flicks from the golden age, produces another Liam Neeson action vehicle from director Jaume Collet-Serra. It’s twisty plot based upon a novel feels like a pulp paperback airplane reader, but that’s not a terrible thing. Serra’s direction is very glossy and brisk, and there’s a certain fun in watching the admittedly nonsensical plot unfold as the twists and turns a revealed amid the occasional shootouts, car chases, and watching Liam Neeson beat everybody up.

Non-Stop- A rehash of the above with Neeson, Serra, and Silver, Neeson as air marshal solving a sort of locked room mystery up in the clouds. Frankly more interesting doing the Agatha Christie shtick than when it goes into action fireworks in its third act. Though it isn’t based on a novel, this too feels very much like a trashy paperback with a few plot twists. Decent fun while it lasts, though it doesn’t hold up to a lot scrutiny. Shot on Fuji 35mm though. Yay! Celluloid! Enjoy it while it lasts.

The War Wagon- Formulaic but fun Western starring the Duke and Kirk Douglas leading a team trying to heist an armored covered wagon. The kind of high-concept star-powered action-fest which would still be made today, but would be way more bombastic and full of CG. I probably shouldn’t be giving them ideas, but it’s the kind of premise they’d try to use if they were making a western today. Hopefully no one will try to remake it. As it is, it’s lightweight fun which has the sense to be nice and lean. Burt Kennedy’s direction is brisk and fun if unremarkable, the stars do their star stuff, and the title creation is a nifty piece of movie machinery. Entertaining, albeit mostly forgettable.

The Last Boy Scout- Buddy movie shoot’em up from the MTV-era dream-team of Shane Black, Bruce Willis, Joel Silver, and Tony Scott, set against the backdrop of pro football. Trashy, brainless, sarcastic misogynistic, glossy, loud, violent, profane, crass, funny, and action-packed but clumsily cut, it’s a fun relic from a bygone era of the macho action flick’s golden age. Wayans and Willis have fair chemistry, Black’s uncountable one-liners are often funny, and Scott’s flash-and-trash direction points forward toward the even more incomprehensible post-narrative hell of people like Michael Bay. From fans of the era who grew up then, such as I, it’s a fun trip down memory lane, albeit dated as hell after only 15 years. Apparently Black was paid a then-unprecedented amount for the script and it restored Willis’ star status after taking a bad hit in the maligned Hudson Hawk. Not the blockbuster they hoped it’d be, but it became a surprise hit on the then nascent home-video market on VHS. It’s definitely the kind of thing that’d show up panned-and-scanned on cable back in the 1990s. Ah, those were the days.

The Sound of Music- Robert Wise’s classic adaptation of Rogers and Hammerstein’s final collaboration. Waaaaaaaaaaayyyyy too long, but lots of fun. Earnest (some might say cheesy), and shot on gorgeous Todd-AO 70mm with Wise’s precise camera-work and beautiful compositions, and a nice eye for grandeur and the extraordinary detail and color 70mm brings. Andrews and Plummer make a fun and hugely engaging pair, the kids aren’t annoying, and the cinematography never ceases to fill up the eyes, though the film’s thriller-esque detour in its final acting into a tale of escaping Nazi-occupied territory is an odd turn. Good musical numbers have made the film a sing-along cult favorite, and the exuberance is pretty hard to resist.

The Day the Earth Stood Still- Robert Wise’s 1950s sci-fi classic about a spaceman and super-robot who come to warn against nuclear power. A bit dated and didactic (some might say the message is a little crypto-fascist), but also iconic, beautifully shot, and lots of fun. Performances are solid all around, and though some FX are dated, others have held up surprisingly well. Wise’s clean compositions and some gorgeous B&W cinematography make the film a visual treat, while the narrative is nice and tight-remember when an SFX sci-fi film was 90 minutes? Still pretty damn good.

Planet of the Apes- Franklin J. Schaffner’s sci-fi classic about an astronaut who crash-lands on a planet of intelligent apes where humans are mute animals. Certainly dated in places, but time has been surprisingly kind to it in many respects, and the avalanche of franchising merchandise tend overshadow what was an interesting sci-fi film with a fascinating “what-if” premise. Wilson and Serling’s witty screenplay is full of classic lines, and the film’s sucker-punch ending is still one of the finest ever.

Beneath the Planet of the Apes- Even more pulpy sci-fi sequel which leans a bit on Star Trek about a new faction of mutant psychic humans who worship a cobalt bomb capable of destroying the planet (subtle). No necessarily bad, but a comedown after the previous film. Still, Paul Dehn set in motion a big mythology here, and some of the images remain effectively spooky.

Escape from the Planet of the Apes- A fish-out-of-water tale similar to Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home about the apes on modern-day Earth. Much more lighthearted, with some more humorous and campy satire, though some of the darker underpinnings work surprisingly well.

Conquest of the Planet of the Apes- Extremely dark fourth installment in the saga about the apes, tired of being brutalized, choosing to fight back. A thinly veiled allegory for the Watts riots, director Thompson’s grim vision is highly effective and disturbing.

Battle for the Planet of the Apes- I don’t know if it’s because they dumped screenwriter Paul Dehn, Fox slashed the budget to ribbons, or what, but the final installment is decidedly disappointing. Connecting the dots of the franchise mythology with disappointing laziness, it drops the ball after the fantastic last movie, and is tonally inconsistent. Still some fun post-apocalyptic imagery.

Tai-Chi Master- Classic wire-fu from Hong Kong’s golden age with the once-in-lifetime pairing of Jet Li Lian-Jie and Michelle Yeoh Choo-Kheng. They disappointingly never throw down, but both get to engage in some great fisticuffs courtesy of director and choreographer par excellence Yuen Woo Ping, who stages every set piece with great clarity and skill and bone-crunching power. The storyline involves a pair of Shaolin monks, one of whom takes a darker path as an evil warlord and forces Li to become the people’s defender and develop the titular martial art. Occasional slips into slapstick are irritating but handled well and Yuen shows that there’s more to him as a director than just his choreography, and movie was actually shot in mainland China and boasts impressive production values. Dragon Dynasty’s DVD has the picture uncut and in wisescreen, and interesting Logan commentary, and what appear to be decent subtitles, but the so-called “mono” is a crappy 5.1 downmix. Outside of the hard-to-find Tai Seng VHS and maybe some LD releases, no mono to be found. This fandom sucks.

Fong Sai Yuk- After seeing Corey Yuen Kwai’s terrific action choreography in so many mediocre international movies, seeing him actually direct a movie on his home ground in his element is wonderful. A broad, scattershot, occasionally messy but always exciting blend of drama, slapstick comedy, political intrigue, and electrifying action sequences, with Jet Li Lian-Jie as a Cantonese folk hero who winds up battling injustice as part of a secret cult. Beautiful cinematography, action sequences you have see to believe, funny comedy set pieces, and great performances. Those who think Li is too serious should definitely check out his comedic chops here, Josephine Siao Fong-Fong, a longtime industry veteran, is an absolutely delight, and Vincent Zhao Wen-Zhuo is a terrific villain who’s a great physical match for Li. Hong Kong cinema at is absolutely scintillating best. Dragon Dynasty’s DVD is yet another hack job, the censored US cut with a mono Cantonese track spliced over it, and a disappointing transfer. Still probably preferable to the non-anamorphic HK release with a new 5.1 mix full of horrible new FX. Sigh. I hate this fandom. Maybe I spoke French, the HK Video version would be good, but even then you get forced subtitles. FML.

Gladiator- Ridley Scott’s revival sword-and-sandal epic, saw a DCP of this as part of the “classics series” at my local AMC, sandwiched between The Ten Commandments the week before (My ass…so numb…) and Ben-Hur later. Anyway, time has a funny way of putting things into their proper place. The battle scenes, though impressive, would be well-eclipsed by LOTR the following year. Still, some are exciting. I rather like Crowe’s steely presence as the lead character, Oliver Reed’s final performance is good, and Connie Neilsen is very sultry. Scott brings his customary visual flair to the film, and he remains adept at world-building and many stunning, technically impressive, logistically complicated shots. That being said, unfortunately, all of his considerable directorial talent is in the service of a screenplay that’s at best silly and at worst kind of moronic. Riddled with cliches (Seriously? The emperor is going to go toe-to-toe with a military master in the arena? Really?), bad dialogue which signposts things that the audience already knows (“Why are you armed?” “I’m terribly vexed!”), and hilarious historical inaccuracies (Maximus must be good! He does what the “good” emperor says, is a substance farmer, and has a beautiful wife and sun surround by golden wheat, and dies Christ-like for the good Rome! If this isn’t out-and-out fascist, well, it’s certainly ridiculously simplistic.). It’s half Cecil B. DeMille, half George Lucas, tons and tons and tons of grand excess which it thinks is exciting (and probably was in 2000), loaded with spectacle, some of which looks good, some of which is dated. I have a certain soft spot for the old-style adventure it peddles and it’s certainly fun in places, but it’s really uneven and time hasn’t been too kind to it. Incidentally, whether it’s the fault of Scott, Phoenix, or the screenwriter, I don’t know, but his whiny, effeminate character is one of the least effective villains ever-a sniveling idiot with daddy issues who’s every action seems to happen solely because the screenplay says so. It tries to pay lip service to actual political intrigue, but the simplified needs of a blockbuster action movie make that impossible. In the end, you’re left with a classic Hollywood film-raw spectacle, some of it good-looking, married to a stupid screenplay and story. Still, kind of fun, but has a classic identity crisis-it’s a glorified B-movie with pretensions and grandeur that make it think it’s smarter than it is. Though at least unlike The Ten Commandments, it actually ended before I’d lost all feeling in my lower body.

“What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one.”

Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death

Author
Time

Liam Neeson beats people up is it’s own genre now. 😉

Forum Moderator

Where were you in '77?

Author
Time

Star Wars: Rogue One

Third time watching it, but due to technical problems with the first two viewings it feels like my first watch. I loved it. Had a very consistent tone and the humor was well balanced. I didn’t like it as much as TFA or TLJ because they had an emotional resonance to them that this doesn’t, but this one has less flaws than they do to me.

8 out of 10. Loses one star for being a little longer than it needed to be; As much as I enjoyed the film I was looking forward to it ending by about the last 20 minutes. Loses another star for cgi Tarkin. Looked okay, but not great and instead of being subtle and showing only what was necessary they blatantly showed it off and called attention to it, and it was just short of passing.

Author
Time

CGI Tarkin was so distracting that I couldn’t take a single second that he was on screen seriously. They either should’ve recast him or had a different character. They absolutely will do this with Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford a decade or two down the line.

The Person in Question

Author
Time

It’s only CGI if you know it’s CGI. The people I saw R1 with who were not familiar with Peter Cushing bought it completely.

Forum Moderator

Where were you in '77?

Author
Time
 (Edited)

I’m going to be completely honest, and it’ll make me sound conspiratorial and a little crazy, but I actually don’t believe anyone that says they “completely” bought the CGI Tarkin. I’ll buy that they didn’t think it was CGI since the idea of using computer animation to insert a deceased actor into a film and give the model a prominent role is still pretty insane to most people, but there’s no way that they didn’t have a thought in the back of their head along the lines of, “This looks weird.”

EDIT: I’m going to make a thread about this in General Star Wars Discussion.

The Person in Question

Author
Time

SilverWook said:

Liam Neeson beats people up is it’s own genre now. 😉

And a somewhat fun genre sometimes 😉. Hats off to the man for reinventing himself as an action hero in his 60s. Never thought anyone would ever do that.

“What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one.”

Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death

Author
Time

moviefreakedmind said:

CGI Tarkin was so distracting that I couldn’t take a single second that he was on screen seriously. They either should’ve recast him or had a different character. They absolutely will do this with Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford a decade or two down the line.

I found CGI Tarkin to be a lot better in the cinema - than watching it at home on blu ray, and the opposite for Leia in R1. Hang on, did I? Was it the other way around? Sounds like a good excuse to go watch R1 again 😃

As some people have likely mentioned about watching R1, the people I associate with who don’t know who Peter Cushing was don’t seem to have realised or voiced concerns that it looked off or was CGI at all. A couple expressed surprised he was still alive as he’s been ‘around for ages’ (though they are not Hammer / Star Wars fans).

The Leia scene they did notice - likely because of they are more aware of Carrie/Leia, as well as the promo material releases of how they’d acheived it.

I thought a reflection shot of Leia in the ‘windscreen’ of the ship’s bridge saying the word ‘Hope’, and then have the camera shot swing around to show her face fully may have been pulled it all off a better (just my two penneth) - yet I still think it was done quite well.
 

A viewing of some of the R1 threads on here (and likely elsewhere) should conjure us up with the stolen data tapes provide some more info/insight.

A little patience goes a long way on this old-school Rebel base. If you are having issues finding what you are looking for, these will be of some help…

Welcome to the OriginalTrilogy.com | Introduce yourself in here | Useful info within : About : Help : Site Rules : Fan Project Rules : Announcements
How do I do this?’ on the OriginalTrilogy.com; some info & answers + FAQs - includes info on how to search for projects and threads on the OT•com

A Project Index for Star Wars Preservations (Harmy’s Despecialized & 4K77/80/83 etc) : A Project Index for Star Wars Fan Edits (adywan & Hal 9000 etc)

… and take your time to look around this site before posting - to get a feel for this place. Don’t just lazily make yet another thread asking for projects.

Author
Time
 (Edited)

TV’s Frink said:

greenpenguino said:

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

I liked it a lot 😛

TV’s Frink said:

I always thought you were smart, glad to see I was right.

:p
Mark’s Down On Your Syntax said:

greenpenguino said:

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

I liked it a lot 😛

Yes. Yes to you liking it and yes to you returning to the forum.

Thanks guys!! Glad to be back!

<span style=“font-weight: bold;”>The Most Handsomest Guy on OT.com</span>

Author
Time

MST3K, but movies rated on their own merits.

Space Mutiny - 1.5/5

Overdrawn at the Memory Bank - 0.5/5

.