What was the last film you watched?

[darkshadows38]

look up the history of what went behind the making of The Intruder (1962) they shot that in the deep south and they were not welcome by anyone there including the law & yes they were threatened and given a day of when they had to leave they finished before they had to be forced to leave by the law. but had to get one more shot so they snuck back in the middle of the nite to get it done and than left before anyone noticed they were there. i haven't seen it yet but it is on my list of films to watch & according to Corman it's the only film of his that lost money & it's been bothering him ever since because he loves the film so much and considers it his best actually.

i watched Halloween: Resurrection (2002) and yeah it's the worst one of them all well that one and Halloween 6: The curse of Michael Myers (1995) at least the Theatrical cut i have not seen the (2009) sequel or the last 2 films to be fair but i'm going by the ones i've seen thus far.

why did i watch it? good question it's on the small set i own on bluray and i had the audio commentary on and wasn't really watching it but listening to it lol. my rating 3/10 the audio commentary? i'd say 6/10 cause it wasn't that great either

 

[Seaviewer]

Gone Girl (2014)
An unusually constructed film with a non-linear timeline and shifting viewpoints. but at its heart it's an old-fashioned psychological potboiler such as Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray might have made in the forties.

 

[Toni]

To be honest, I wouldn't have a clue.

Oddly enough I've never bothered to find any of his films but now you've given me the inspiration. On that note...

84 CHARING CROSS ROAD (1987)

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If 84 CCR is considered a Christmassy movie then I'll say that this is completely coincidental since I chose it for the lead actors who had starred so magnificently in the other biopic THE ELEPHANT MAN.
"A big love affair" could be a little misleading to those who are looking for something overtly romantic - and spoilers be damned, that scene on the beach with two people running towards each other is not going to happen. Ever. But there is a beach, and Judi Dench in a supporting role.

I would compare 84 CCR to that other transatlantic story LOCAL HERO in terms of being uneventful, wholesome, soothing and also somewhat hypnotizing.
The story of a correspondence also plays out as a correnspondence, interspersed with mentions or showings of historical events, and that gives it a bit of a novelty quality. At least I had never seen something like this before.
As life goes on and the years go by the characters are inevitably confronted with mortality, but the lack of high drama doesn't make it less impactful.
I don't know if Helene Hanff continued her correspondence with any of the people in England or if she visited any members of the Doel family once she finally got there.
One note of criticism: bad fake-typing.

It also made me think of how we, here on tellytalk, have become a similar story to 84 CCR. And I did, indeed, receive some soapy goodness from people who live in foreign countries. And so it has become a Christmassy affair after all.

I also watched this one recently and I loved it. So sweet that Mel Brooks gifted Bancroft the novel copyrights for her birthday. It´s flawlessly played, and everything´s in its place. Hopkins could be so gentle before the "Lambs"... What a couple of great actors.

 

[Willie Oleson]

Oddly enough I've never bothered to find any of his films but now you've given me the inspiration.

...AND JUSTICE FOR ALL (1979)



The blend of straight drama, social commentary, satire and even bits of quirky comedy gives this film a very vibrant rhythm.
The story only deals with black-and-white situations: the idealistic underdog, the merciless villain, the extremely unlucky victims of the judicial bureaucracry - and in that way it almost caricatures the heavy-handed dramas in the "everything wrong with America" film genre.

I had already watched a few clips on youtube and I feared this was going to be one of Al Pacino's most shoutiest performances, now that I've watched the entire film I wish it had been a little shoutier. The final courtroom scene could have been at least 10 minutes longer and more excessive, but perhaps that would have undermind the point of the story.

But anyway, here we have John Forsythe as judge Henry T. Fleming who considers himself an avenging angel rather than a man who serves the law and The People.
For the squeamish Dynasty fans amongst us: this film features some images of our beloved Blake Carrington in "hobby" outfits that even Peter De Vilbis wouldn't wear.
I don't know if the pictures are real or photoshopped but that doesn't matter.
Larry Hagman as JR Ewing was probably the bitchiest soap insulter - and in fact so entertaining that it kinda justifies his villainy - but when John Forsythe plays the villain it's downright diabolical.
There were a few scenes in JUSTICE that reminded me very much of DYNASTY's first season in which Blake's victims (especially Krystle and Steven) didn't even realize they were being preyed on until it was too late. Like a giant snake that slowly and oh-so-quietly wraps itself around its victim's neck.

But of course there's also this

I want an answer, dammit! Is my daughter going to live or not?

Overall, not quite as magnificent as DOG DAY AFTERNOON but maybe that's because the supporting cast is in individual parts of the story rather than in one big mise and scène as we saw it in DOG.
Lee Strasberg is great as the adorable grandfather, Jeffrey Tambor performs a pre-Krystle Carrington "dinner's served!" and Craig T. Nelson's role of prosecutor proves (once again) that being on the right side doesn't necessarily make you a good person (big shades of Cliff Barnes here).

This film is not to be missed by the fans of seventies cinema.

 

[Emelee]

Watched the classic White Christmas tonight. While I enjoyed it, I thought it would have more Christmas in it.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse (2018)

The sequel is due next year, and I'm already mildly looking forward to that.

Yipes. Is it really sixteen months since I watched Into The Spider-Verse? No wonder I felt more than ready for...

Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse (2022)

After the first film, hopes were high for this one. Overall it was a really good film, but I felt it didn't feel as engaging or accessible as the first. I suspect it suffered from being very clearly designed as the middle part of a trilogy, making it less satisfying when watched in isolation. And at risk of sounding like an old fart, I found the soundtrack quite noisy and intrusive at times.

Gripes aside, I applaud the film's design. The aesthetics are amazingly eye-catching and diverse, and this film pushed the boundaries further still with brief visits to, for instance, a Lego universe, what appeared to be the "real" world and even glimpses of previous live-action Spidey films.

The Spot is a choice for a villain that made me raise an eyebrow. I was reading Spider-Man titles at the time he was introduced and still remember picking up the issue with his first appearance from the rack in a particular newsagents. Even at the time he was treated quite light-heartedly as a bit of a "joke" character, not to be taken seriously, and I don't remember him ever seeming a real threat for Spider-Man, so to have this taken to a level where he was a threat to the entire multiverse felt very unexpected.

​

I'm incredibly fond of the original 616 Spider-Woman, Jessica Drew.​

With all the MCU films and spinoffs, it feels quite criminal that Marvel's main Spider-Woman - to the best of my knowledge - has still to appear. Probably her only outing in films other than comics and motion comics has been the 1970s cartoon with Joan Van Ark, which was great fun (and my introduction to the character) but is tonally very different from the brooding, almost gothic Spider-Woman appearing in comics of the time.

When animated superheroes got serious and serialised in the Nineties, it was Julia Carpenter's Spider-Woman who featured. Ironically it kind of happened again here. While it was just a brief silent cameo, we did get a glimpse of a Julia Carpenter Spider-Woman who looked very much like that version when she first appeared (she even features on the poster, right above Jess Drew's afro).

While I'd love for original recipe Jessica to have somehow appeared in this film, I'm glad to say I did like Jess Drew, the alternative universe version who featured quite prominently here. Which is probably just as well since I'd hazard a guess we'll be seeing more of her. The aesthetics and persona feel closer to, say, Misty Knight than Jessica Drew, but given the nature of this film it's not difficult to accept an alternative version that's done well.


​

I enjoyed all the little nods and references to Spider-Man creative team from different eras. Steve Ditko was one of the contacts in Miles's phone address book. A diner that he walked past included Romita in its name. Miles Morales create Brian Michael Bendis's name appeared in both phone log and street furniture.​

Perhaps I wasn't paying close enough attention, but I noticed far fewer of these in this film. There were certainly a hell of a lot of Easter eggs with the various Spider characters who have appeared in the comics and media over the years. They even squeezed in the Bombastic Bag-Man costume (another issue I remember well). I missed this in the actual film, but he, too is on the poster above, to the left of Jess Drew and Julia Carpenter.
​

 

[Willie Oleson]

SALTBURN (2023)



Story-wise I don't think it's possible to put any spoilers in this review. If you've seen trailers or just the first three minutes of this film then you know what you're going to get.
After I had watched the film I wondered how it compares to the fourth season of Carolyn Kepnes' YOU which also takes place in England's high society.
Predictability can also have a good effect on my viewing experiences as I'm less focused on the "what" and more on the "how".
And the "how" in SALTBURN certainly doesn't disappoint.
Rosamund Pike as matriarch Elspeth Catton's character description of family friend Poor Dear Pamela is priceless. If everything else in this film had failed then at least there's still that.
Pamela herself looks like a Nina Hagen-played-by-Helena Bonham Carter (but played by Carey Mulligan) and this underlines the wealthy and very priviliged family's desire to dabble in faux-bohemianism every now and then.

Oliver Quick is the "invisible" blue-collar classmate of Catton heir Felix and of course it doesn't take long before he worms his way into the world of the quasi-casual yet oh-so-snobby aristocrats.
At the same time it's the aristocrats themselves who think they've found a new exotic thing to play with.
To be fair, it's only at the end of the film that it becomes perfectly clear how calculated Oliver had been. Personally I didn't need to know that because the moments of ambiguity work really well in this story, and it's interesting that the most disturbing scene happens in the home of Oliver's family.

I think this film is beautifully shot, very very well acted and also incredibly funny in some unexpected moments.
The film poster looks very modern - a mix of "Babylon" and "Everthing Everywhere All At One".

 

[DallasFanForever]

After the first film, hopes were high for this one. Overall it was a really good film, but I felt it didn't feel as engaging or accessible as the first. I suspect it suffered from being very clearly designed as the middle part of a trilogy, making it less satisfying when watched in isolation.

I have to agree that the first film was more enjoyable, although I also feel that the ending of this one does have me anxiously awaiting the third one.

 

[Richard Channing]

SALTBURN (2023)

View attachment 49920

Story-wise I don't think it's possible to put any spoilers in this review. If you've seen trailers or just the first three minutes of this film then you know what you're going to get.
After I had watched the film I wondered how it compares to the fourth season of Carolyn Kepnes' YOU which also takes place in England's high society.
Predictability can also have a good effect on my viewing experiences as I'm less focused on the "what" and more on the "how".
And the "how" in SALTBURN certainly doesn't disappoint.
Rosamund Pike as matriarch Elspeth Catton's character description of family friend Poor Dear Pamela is priceless. If everything else in this film had failed then at least there's still that.
Pamela herself looks like a Nina Hagen-played-by-Helena Bonham Carter (but played by Carey Mulligan) and this underlines the wealthy and very priviliged family's desire to dabble in faux-bohemianism every now and then.

Oliver Quick is the "invisible" blue-collar classmate of Catton heir Felix and of course it doesn't take long before he worms his way into the world of the quasi-casual yet oh-so-snobby aristocrats.
At the same time it's the aristocrats themselves who think they've found a new exotic thing to play with.
To be fair, it's only at the end of the film that it becomes perfectly clear how calculated Oliver had been. Personally I didn't need to know that because the moments of ambiguity work really well in this story, and it's interesting that the most disturbing scene happens in the home of Oliver's family.

I think this film is beautifully shot, very very well acted and also incredibly funny in some unexpected moments.
The film poster looks very modern - a mix of "Babylon" and "Everthing Everywhere All At One".

Just watched this last night and I must say I can't remember the last time I was so impressed by a modern film, probably cause I don't watch many of them. As you say it's beautifully shot, beautifully lit and has some very impactful imagery (I have never seen anything in a film quite like that grave scene and it will remain etched in my memory!) And the stately home and estate where it's filmed is very impressive. The cast is great and Rosamund Pike is particularly good, and funny, as the frightfully posh mother. I haven't seen anything with Barry Keoghan in it before and he gave a very powerful performance, unsettling as it needed to be, however I perhaps would have liked him to be a bit more charming for me to believe that everyone should be so enamoured with him.
Overall a really good film that I'd highly recommend.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

I also feel that the ending of this one does have me anxiously awaiting the third one.

That's good, and I'm glad you had that positive experience with the ending.

I must confess that ending didn't give me a great sense of excitement about the third one, and I'm quite disappointed about that. I have a quiet anticipation about the third and will certainly watch it, but at the same time I don't feel desperate to know what happens next.

 

[DallasFanForever]

That's good, and I'm glad you had that positive experience with the ending.

I must confess that ending didn't give me a great sense of excitement about the third one, and I'm quite disappointed about that. I have a quiet anticipation about the third and will certainly watch it, but at the same time I don't feel desperate to know what happens next.

Funny because the two people I saw it with said exactly what you just did. I guess maybe the ending of this last one being left so “up in the air” is what appealed to me.

Definitely a much different kind of Spider-Man saga than anything else we’ve seen though. I’m still not even sure what to make of these first two movies to be honest. I know I enjoyed them, yet I keep asking myself why if that makes any sense.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

I guess maybe the ending of this last one being left so “up in the air” is what appealed to me.

I do applaud them for taking a cliffhanger route, which isn't seen a great deal in films these days, since serialisation is the domain of television. For me, I think they didn't go hard enough with it. If they're going to leave it up in the air, I want to be obsessed with the ending in the same way I used to be season finales of my favourite series. I want it to shock or stun me. At the very least, I want it to resonate so that I find myself wondering what happens next, but that hasn't happened yet and I suspect it's not going to as the film already begins to fade in my memory.

Because of the genre and the fact that it's a Marvel character, it's difficult not to compare it with the ending of Infinity War, which sets the bar insurmountably high. As an event, no superhero film is going to come anywhere close to that anytime soon.

Definitely a much different kind of Spider-Man saga than anything else we’ve seen though. I’m still not even sure what to make of these first two movies to be honest. I know I enjoyed them, yet I keep asking myself why if that makes any sense.

I know what you mean. On paper, it's not the kind of Spider-Man film I'd want to watch. Despite the superheroics, powers and colourful villains, the Spidey I love is the friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man, and I usually find alternative realities and massive unexpected team-ups a bit of a turn-off.

I think it worked for me because there was still enough of the small stuff in there to make it feel authentic. Miles being grounded or being late for his father's speech is pure Spider-Man. And all the cameos and other Spider-Men and Women were lovingly done, with every one an Easter egg to fans. I'll definitely be back for the last one in due course to see how it wraps up.

 

[Crimson]

On paper, it's not the kind of Spider-Man film I'd want to watch. Despite the superheroics, powers and colourful villains, the Spidey I love is the friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man, and I usually find alternative realities and massive unexpected team-ups a bit of a turn-off.

I agree with this. Tom Holland is my favorite of the live action Spider-Mans but his version has been too wrapped up in international, interplanetary, or interdimensional stories. At this point, I'd rather just see him stopping a bank robbery.

 

[Willie Oleson]

DEATH WISH (1974)



Found this in an online list of Underrated or Forgotten Gems and apparently it's also considered a cult classic.
I know that "cult classic" doesn't say anything about the quality of the film but they usually have something...something...well, something.

After I had ploughed through the 93 minutes of this film (which felt like 4 hours) I returned to Mother Internet to find out what it was that made this film a cult hit.
No explanations are given but I did learn that Death Wish was originally to be directed by Sidney Lumet, starring Jack Lemmon and Henry Fonda - and then it's easy to imagine what this film could have been.
And perhaps we did get that film in 1993, with Michael Douglas starring in FALLING DOWN.

The problem with the casting in Death Wish is that they want me to forget that Charles Bronson is Charles Bronson, only for a meagrest of meagre plotline allowing Charles Bronson to become Charles Bronson. Except that that also doesn't happen.
So, without the psychological angle that should-have-been, and without the entertaining violence that could-have-been, this film really has nothing to offer.

The dialogue is either bad or badly delivered, by all the actors, but Steven Keats gets the worst parts.
He plays Charles Bronson's son-in-law and he calls Charles Bronson "dad" in almost every line he speaks. I found it massively cringey.

In order to get the point across we see attempted robbery on Charles Bronson's character four times, and always in a seemingly desolated New York but it's a story so don't mind some contrivances if it advances the plot.
There is nothing authentic about any of these muggers or the way they orchestrate their muggery, but since they occasionally do point a gun at Charles Bronson and he just happens to shoot first it kinda looks like self-defence instead of vigilantism.
Maybe I'm supposed to understand that he's posing as an easy target in order to attract muggers in order to kill them (would I consider Charles Bronson an easy target? hm....) and that he can always choose a moment when no other New Yorker is in sight, but this character's state of mind is too blank to read anything into it.

Then the cops find out who's behind the killings of these criminal people - let's try a bit of ZODIAC - and they want him to get away/not get away with it because...it helped...or shouldn't....something.
The chase makes no sense whatsoever and when someone requires information it's usually "not much".
"Not much" can also mean that they know every detail but the film's suspense requires that they won't reveal that information immediately.
What time is it?
-Not much.

Death Wish (and it takes a lot of imagination to figure out how the title applies to this film) fails in every single aspect. It isn't even entertainingly awful therefore it puzzles me why this is considered a Cult Classic.
What do you think?









Not much.

 

[DallasFanForever]

The Iron Claw (2023)

As an admitted fan of professional wrestling growing up I was excited for this one. I had really low expectations going in though. After all, it’s such a tragic story and probably not the kind of movie you want to watch on Christmas Eve. The rave reviews have surprised me considering movies like this usually don’t do very well with the critics.

I already knew the story of the famed Von Erich family. Five of six sons dying before the age of 33 cannot make for a happy ending, especially when three of those deaths were suicides. Nonetheless, it is an amazing story to watch as it unfolds, or perhaps unravels is the better word unfortunately.

This movie was very frustrating to watch. I found myself wanting to scream at the screen many times, wishing these young men would just get away from their overbearing father and seek some much needed help. But unfortunately mental health awareness wasn’t as prominent back then as it is now. This movie is terrific. Quite frankly I’d even see it again. There is definitely a lesson to be learned from it, but leaving a theatre in tears on Christmas Eve sure isn’t fun.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

The Great Escaper (2023)

Most notable for being the last film performances of Glenda Jackson and (so we're told, at least) Michael Caine. And it's a most worthy curtain call. Both are wonderful in this film.

The retirement home where the characters live feels like a real community or extended family, and staff and residents with smaller roles are nicely cast (how surprising to see that one of them was Karen Carpenter tribute act Jackie Clune) Even with so little material it feels we already know them.

The story itself rings bells, so I probably read about the real-life events when it happened a decade ago. It's beautifully told here: funny and heartbreaking. I found the love more painful than the losses, because of its endurance and fragility. It's a little strange seeing Michael Caine in particular looking so old and frail, but he still shines through in it, and the chemistry between the two is very believable. It's easy to imagine they've been together for seventy years.

The flashbacks to WWII are the parts where suspension of disbelief was required, since we know what the actors looked like when they were much younger. For someone who hadn't seen them in projects of earlier decades, it would probably have been easier to buy. All the same, it looks as though the actor playing the young Caine had done his homework in terms of mannerisms and speech patterns (the actress playing young Glenda less so. She looked a little like her in one or two long shots but that's where the similarities ended).

John Standing is terrific, and the French adventures with its haunted veterans from various wars is a must see.

All in all it's a beautiful little film that got me in the heart and in the tear ducts.​

 

[Emelee]

I began watching the long version (5h, instead of 3h) of Fanny and Alexander from 1982.
3,5 hours into it, I am glad I chose the long version. I don't know what I would have cut from it if I had to remove almost half the film.

 

[Willie Oleson]

LOOKING FOR MR. GOODBAR (1977)



It's one of those notoriously unavailable films (never released on DVD save for a bootleg disguised as an Australian release) but thankfully someone has uploaded a homemade video recording - from Dutch television, of all sources.
It's watchable enough if you simply want to know what the film is all about. I honestly can't say if I've seen it before.

A childhood disease, religion and oppressing family values appear to be the roots for Diane Keaton's character's train wreck lifestyle, although her more beloved sister doesn't seem to do much better.
To me, it also looks like a fight for freedom (there's a little bit of feminist activism going on in the background) but without knowing how to give that freedom purpose, and in that regard she's not very different from Tony, played by Richard Gere.
I found it wickedly funny sometimes but I struggled to think of Diane Keaton as the loser type who actually had to make an effort to pick men up, even if that changed once she got the hang of it.

The final scene is brutal and I wonder if it was the inspiration for the final scene in Brian De Palma's BLOW OUT.
All in all, I think GOODBAR is a good but flawed film and I wouldn't mind watching it again in better picture quality. I don't know what the bootleg DVD has to offer.

Oh btw, there's a christmas scene in it and therefore it qualifies for our December Watching.

 

[Seaviewer]

I went to see Mr Goodbar when it came out, having been impressed by Diane Keaton's performance in Annie Hall. This is quite a different film. I remember it being rather harrowing but not much else about it, other than Tuesday Weld played her sister. I wouldn't mind watching it again after all these years to see what I would make of it now.

 

[Seaviewer]

Miracle On 34th Street (1947)
Here's an excellent analysis of the film.