Last movie seen — Page 131

The other day I walked into a coffee shop during an apparently very slow part of the day. As I approach the counter, the very cute and very bored looking barista behind the counter says, "Buy somethin' will ya?" I smile and ask, "Legend of Zelda?" She grins back "Yep". I order my coffee, we flirt a bit, and I leave.

It is awesome because we connected through a silly video game we both used to play as kids. A piece of our past we shared with one another, despite never having met before. If I hadn't gotten the reference, I would have just thought she was playfully pleading with me to buy something because business was slow and she was bored. That is the fun thing about references, they go over the heads of most, but occasionally score you some fun interaction with somebody else who is familiar with the reference.

Things like, "Beam me up Scotty" or "May the force be with you!" are lame as references because everybody, even those with only a vague idea of what Star Trek or Star Wars are about, know what they are references to, and will on occasion use them. And so it is with the internet, suddenly all references start to become like "May the force be with you!" Meaningless. Suddenly everything falls into the gross little category of "meme", tired old jokes that are told again and again and again and again and again and again and again only because someone once thought they were funny, and so therefore must be funny still.

Should we get off your lawn now?

C3PS's story brought a smile to my face.  But then I asked myself, what does this have to do with the last movie he saw?

Read the post above mine, it was in response to Leo's TNG reference to a brilliant episode of TNG along with his admission that he's never even seen a single episode of TNG.

CP3S said:

Read the post above mine, it was in response to Leo's TNG reference to a brilliant episode of TNG along with his admission that he's never even seen a single episode of TNG.

Ahhhhhhhhh.....

darth_ender said:

CP3S said:

Read the post above mine, it was in response to Leo's TNG reference to a brilliant episode of TNG along with his admission that he's never even seen a single episode of TNG.

Ahhhhhhhhh.....

Maybe there will be five lights on the Bluray.

Watched 50/50 yesterday. Overall it's pretty good but I found some parts to drag a bit. 2 balls. Apparently it's based on a true story. 

An American Werewolf in London

The comedic elements in the film felt out of place and didn't mesh well with the horrific elements, the editing was awful, and the story rushed. On the plus side the acting was decent, and there were some genuinely chilling scenes with the werewolves stalking their victims. 4.9/10.

Amadeus (Director's Cut) 10/10

Cimarron 7/10

All About Eve 10/10

Tom Jones 8/10 

I watched Tron: Legacy about a month ago.  I was honestly quite surprised how much I enjoyed it, given the story of the first film.  It wasn't perfect, but the effects were great (especially the youngerfying of Mr. Bridges), and the roles of CLU and Tron were honestly surprisingly interesting, in spite of a lack of emotional attachment to some characters.

00111000 out of 0011000100110000

So I finally talked my wife into renting the original Tron.  It took us three nights of dozing off to get through it. The effects were revolutionary for its time, the concept was interesting, but it looks like they invested all their money into the emerging technology and ran out of funds to hire a scriptwriter.  Still, it's somewhat enjoyable in its own right, and gives important backstory information to the new film.  I'll buy it in a combo pack or at a garage sale.

00110100 out of 0011000100110000

The Help - 2/5 slices of pie. I liked the performances, but I agree with the general criticisms that it simplifies and glosses over the worst aspects of the domestic worker experience during this period in an effort to make the film more "feel good". I want the truth, not a family-friendly version of it.

Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy (2010).

Nice period detail but it does seem to lack something which I can't put my finger on.

It's not that I'm so familiar with Sir Alec's Smiley that I can't stand any other version (It's another adaptation of the book and I really enjoyed the BBC radio versions).

Maybe it's  just that Gary Oldman seems to be playing Edward Fox playing John Major.

%^F Balls.

The Last Emperor 9/10

The Rainbow (1989).

We watched a documentary about lovely but late Ken Russell and before revisiting Women In Love (1969) we decided to watch his adaptation of the first of the two connected Lawrence novels as it was one of the few films of his I hadn't seen yet.

It's actually rather nice.

It's a real shame that after Crimes Of Passion Ken didn't get many chances to make films like this.

Five Paul McGann buttocks and several Amanda Donohoe boobs.

2010 (1984), ok so it's narrative theme of Cold War insanity has dated a little and the year is way off but you need to blame the first film for that.

Visually however the film looks fresh and there are some really good performances there so this is me saying 2010 is a much better film and sequel than Aliens :P

Like Aliens it is a sequel to a landmark piece of cinema which it never stood much of a chance of approaching in greatness and in some ways it undermines the greatness of the earlier film (I always read HAL's insurrection as the monolith influencing his developing consciousness, having him have a White House administered brain fart is a bit twee).

Unlike Aliens it's tone, while lighter, never becomes so frothy that it overwhelms the piece and the film looks much more like the production design cousin of Alien than it's official sequel does (The Leonov resembles Cobb's preferred design for the Nostromo and is photographed and framed with a more style than poor old Sulaco was).

Watching it again gave me some ideas for improvements which I may discuss elsewhere at a later date.

50 Jovian moons.

Next up and continuing our Ken Russell retrospective here at the Chateau was Women In Love (1969).

Much remembered in Argentina for 'the buggery scene' (they cut the nudity from the nude wrestle between Oliver Reed and Alan Bates' characters and made the episode much more explicit than even Lawrence would have dared) it carries the themes of Lawrence's early book (and Russell's later film) The Rainbow rather well.

It's all rather over-wrought but that's more from Lawrence than Russell.

The characters seem to all need a good hose down with cold water, not for the sex, which is rather tame by 21st Century standards but more because of their knotted emotional self and mutual flagellation. 

Russell however didn't flinch from showing them all up for what they are and visually it's astonishing.

My teen crush on Alan Bates has not faded, it's still rare to see male beauty celebrated on screen as much as female beauty but in this film, if anything, it's the fella's the camera lingers more on than the ladies.

But it's landscape that Ken is most in love with.

Be it a golden inferno of a cornfield or the opal palette of frozen mountains the film is a real jewel box.

Four Balls and Eight Nipples.

We carried on with the Ken Russell retrospective last night first with The Music Lovers (1970).

To describe it as an historically shaky Tchaikovsky biopic is a bit like calling Close Encounters Of The Third Kind a film about a trip to Wyoming.

It explodes with energy and colour and writhes and swirls like a ballet dancer.

Richard Chamberlain's career was haunted by soap typecasting, he proves himself in this film capable of a lot more than he got the opportunity to achieve.

Ken's usual troop are on form, Glenda Jackson's character arc moves through the seasons from Spring to Winter, her on screen trials illustrated with amazing production design.

Five Cannon Balls.

Next up was a mood shift into nostalgic lightheartedness with The Boy Friend (1971).

Like The Music Lovers there's more to it than a synopsis can convey. It's a joyful film (probably the only Ken Russell feature you would be comfortable watching with the whole family). The ghost of  Busby Berkeley haunts the film in a Casper sense and it's a very giddy making view.

It's one film I wouldn't mind getting the retrofitted 3D treatment because it is so extremely vibrant and trippy that more of the same could do no harm.

Ken's playful sense of humour is on display here, the cast are on top form too.

Five legs in plaster.

greenpenguino said:

DominicCobb said:

The Last Emperor 9/10

yyyyyeeeeeaaaaaahhh!!!!!

 

Good, innit?

Yeah I thought it was great.

Gigi 8/10

Going My Way 8/10

The Broadway Melody 6/10

Mutiny on the Bounty 9/10

West Side Story 9/10

Titanic 9/10

Points if anyone can guess what the last 13 movies I've seen have in common (I'm not really expecting anyone to answer this).