What movies have you seen recently?

[daflyboys]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

The D Train. Well, if you want to see Jack Black in a weird position (ahem), then watch it.... otherwise, it's unfunny garbage.

[DonkeyJote]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

I just watched Looking for a Friend for the end of the World. Absolutely loved it. I love Steve Carell post-office.

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[SPTO]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Watched 3 movies over the last couple days. i'll make this short and sweet:

First Monday in October (1981): Movie based on the play of the same name about the relationship between the ultra liberal Supreme Court Justice (Walter Mathau) and the newly appointed conservative first female Justice. (Jill Clayburgh) The film was supposed to come out later in the year but was fast tracked due to Sandra Day O'Connor's nomination. It's not a BAD film but the story isn't the most cohesive. There's definitely a story thread going on but it is pushed aside for the more interesting dynamics of the feisty relationship between Mathau and Clayburgh. There are two great scenes where they role play testimony in order to get across their thematic points in regards to a couple of cases. Director Ronald Neame thought that Mathau and Clayburgh didn't have great chemistry but I thought they expressed enough of their characters' personalities into their acting.

So not a bad film but it has some decent acting. The only thing I really hated was the rather weak and open ended ending to the film.


Honey, I shrunk the Kids (1989): This was one of those movies I wanted to revisit from back in the day and I can tell you without hesitation that it holds up very well. The relationship between the Szalinski and Thompson kids was perfectly portrayed going from antagonism to working together to get back home after being shrunken down to size. The adventure story of getting back home was stronger than I remembered as you see the budding romance between Amy and Russ grow in an organic way while little Nick has the adventure of a lifetime and Ron learns to be less of an antagonist and someone who cares about others rather than himself. The bond he and the others forges with a baby ant is just wonderful.

The movie had a quirky and fun sense of humor and the SFX hold up very well today. It just goes to show that going completely CGI can ruin the charm of a movie experience. If this was made a decade later it'd be CGI'ed to death.


Silverado (1985): For some reason this was one western i've always avoided. That got rectified last night and i'm glad it did. The Kasdan Brothers wrote and produced (with Lawrence directing) this epic of a film. I gotta say that compared to other westerns in the '80s and '90s it felt very much at home in the genre conventions of the genre that was prevalent in its hey day back in the '50s. There was some updating of things but all in all it felt like something that John Ford or someone of that ilk would do. The film boasted many familiar names of the era and again unlike most films that has that going for it it actually felt very organic and well done. The first half of the film showed the coming together and friendship of the 4 good guys and the 2nd half showed the corruptness and hardships that the 4 have to go through in the town of Silverado with its evil sheriff who's the one time friend of one of our heroes.

An extremely well done western and one you should seek out if you haven't seen it before. The first half of the film can leave you wondering if there's any over arching plot but it all ties itself together as the film goes along.

Highly recommended.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Honey, I shrunk the Kids (1989): This was one of those movies I wanted to revisit from back in the day and I can tell you without hesitation that it holds up very well. The relationship between the Szalinski and Thompson kids was perfectly portrayed going from antagonism to working together to get back home after being shrunken down to size. The adventure story of getting back home was stronger than I remembered as you see the budding romance between Amy and Russ grow in an organic way while little Nick has the adventure of a lifetime and Ron learns to be less of an antagonist and someone who cares about others rather than himself. The bond he and the others forges with a baby ant is just wonderful.

The movie had a quirky and fun sense of humor and the SFX hold up very well today. It just goes to show that going completely CGI can ruin the charm of a movie experience. If this was made a decade later it'd be CGI'ed to death.


Silverado (1985): For some reason this was one western i've always avoided. That got rectified last night and i'm glad it did. The Kasdan Brothers wrote and produced (with Lawrence directing) this epic of a film. I gotta say that compared to other westerns in the '80s and '90s it felt very much at home in the genre conventions of the genre that was prevalent in its hey day back in the '50s. There was some updating of things but all in all it felt like something that John Ford or someone of that ilk would do. The film boasted many familiar names of the era and again unlike most films that has that going for it it actually felt very organic and well done. The first half of the film showed the coming together and friendship of the 4 good guys and the 2nd half showed the corruptness and hardships that the 4 have to go through in the town of Silverado with its evil sheriff who's the one time friend of one of our heroes.

An extremely well done western and one you should seek out if you haven't seen it before. The first half of the film can leave you wondering if there's any over arching plot but it all ties itself together as the film goes along.

Highly recommended.

Get out of my childhood. I ran the hell out of our VHS tapes for both of these. I've been wanting to see Honey, I Shrunk The Kids again for awhile, but am too afraid to ruin that nostalgia I have for it. For some reason the oatmeal cookie and sprinklers is what I remember most. Plus, Amy was pretty hot in that typical, next-door neighbor's older sister way.

I have revisited Silverado and was afraid that 4 year old Chase's nostalgia for this movie was ill-placed, but those worries were laid to rest. Its a fantastic movie with an awesome cast.

[daflyboys]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Never much cared for Silverado. Thought half the cast couldn't pull off the cowboy way.

[dickey1331]

What movies have you seen recently?

Wet Hot American Summer.

Figured I would watch the movie before I watch the Netflix series. It was a strange and funny movie. Filled with a lot of familiar actors.

[redsox4evur]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Wet Hot American Summer.

Figured I would watch the movie before I watch the Netflix series. It was a strange and funny movie. Filled with a lot of familiar actors.

From what I heard the Netflix series is supposed to be set before the movie.

[dickey1331]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

From what I heard the Netflix series is supposed to be set before the movie.

Yeah it's a prequel.

[SPTO]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Mad Love (1935)

Peter Lorre's first American film is fitting for the kind of screen presence he would have for the length of his acting career, very creepy and atmospheric. This horror film isn't very frightening today but the atmosphere certainly lends itself to scaring people back in the day. Here's a summary of the plot:

In Paris, the great surgeon Dr. Gogol (Lorre) falls madly in love with stage actress Yvonne Orlac, (Frances Drake) and his ardor disturbs her quite a bit when he discovers to his horror that she is married to concert pianist Stephen Orlac. (Colin Clive) Shortly thereafter, Stephen's hands are badly crushed in a train accident- beyond the power of standard medicine. Knowing that his hands are his life, Yvonne overcomes her fear and goes to Dr. Gogol, to beg him to help. Gogol decides to surgically graft the hands of executed murderer Rollo (Ed Brophy) onto Stephen Orlac, the surgery is successful but has terrible side-effects...

Indeed Lorre's ardor and demeanor is disturbing. He is bald in this film which brings out his crazy, ultra expressive eyes. The obsession with which he displays for Yvonne is enough to make one leery of him. There's even a whole subplot of how he keeps a wax figure of Yvonne in his home!

A very well done and eerie film that I would recommend to anyone who likes Lorre or is interested in his work.



Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014)

Well I finally got the nerve to watch this and.....It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. That's not to say it's a particularly great film but at the very least it hews closer to the source material than the dreadful Transformers movies. I really think Michael Bay should just stick to producing rather than directing these films because Jonathan Liebesman does a terrific job at making the action set pieces at least watchable. He also does a better job at moving the film along rather than making it feel cringeworthy.

According to IMDB Bay felt that the original script was too dark and brooding so he had a rewrite done which added humor and homages to the Turtles' history. This created somewhat of a cognitive dissonance IMO as Liebesman definitely played up the darker aspects with the dark lighting and the cinematography. So you have these unflinching tough kind of scenes set up and then you'd have the Turtles saying something completely off the wall and stupid. The imagery is so good for the most part that their silliness doesn't ruin the film totally but you can see there's dual purposes fighting against each other here.

That leads me to my biggest complaint, the Ninja Turtles are way too over the top and silly. Even the more down to earth and serious guys like Don and Raph are just too cartoony for my liking. I also didn't like that Splinter seemed too much of a hard *** rather than a stern and caring father figure. There are definitely some storyline things in the film that are just a tad too unrealistic. I'll just give one example: So apparently Splinter and the Turtles DON'T have any kind of past history with ancient Japan and so everything he's passed on to the Turtles came from one, ONE stinkin' book about ninja technique.

Oye vey!

The human actors were alright for the most part but you know you have some problems when Megan Fox is the only one that seems to be giving a 100% convicted performance. Either way, this wasn't bad nor was it great. it didn't make me want to run out the house and go after Michael Bay and his cronies so that's a good thing LOL! I'm just a little fearful that the 2nd film is going to go for more of the humor and be really bright and lighthearted.

[LambertandHam]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Caught Blazzing Saddles on randomly today. Mel Brooks is still a genius .

[daflyboys]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Caught Blazzing Saddles on randomly today. Mel Brooks is still a genius .

It's amazing that Saddles and Young Frankenstein came out in the same year. Outside of those 2 movies, I think Brooks falls off some, depending on the flick. Not that there aren't funny scenes/expressions in his other movies. I think YF has a better ending than BS. I thought Brooks & Reiner had something to do with Steve Martin's "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid" (which I think is genius), but discovered Brooks wasn't involved.


Watched X2 again. Best of the original X-Men trilogy, but you still shake your head over what they didn't do with the likes of Rogue and Iceman.

[burter]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Action Jackson - Saw this movie yesterday. Still a good movie! Carl Weathers was great in this. I really enjoy all of this movie and of course seeing Vanity half nekkid is always a good thing lol. If they ever remake this movie, I think The Rock would be really good in this. Oh and "Why are you looking for Papa Doc?!?"

[bigfnjoe96]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

San Andreas: Meh, the wife of course enjoyed it

Southpaw: We really enjoyed this. Pretty good story of redemption.

We are still here: We both really enjoyed this. A very good movie. Great homage to 80's horror. Won't get into detail as to not spoil anything.

If you enjoyed House of the Devil as I did, you will enjoy this...

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[GOBLUE_08]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Saw Godzilla over the weekend. It was actually really good and engrossing and Id recommend it to anyone.

Godzilla's final attack on the MUTO was the baddest *** thing ever.

Saw it in the theater and everybody went nuts when it happened

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[SPTO]

Re: What movies have you seen recently?

Watched a couple Abbott and Costello movies. Maybe it was my mood but I didn't find them very entertaining.

...Meet Frankenstein (1948) was the more atmospheric of the two with Bud and Lou as shippers who have to ship the coffin of Dracula and a crate with Frankenstein to a warehouse only for those two monsters to escape. Dracula has a scheme set up with Lou's girlfriend to implant his brain into Frankenstein.

Anywho, it's pretty atmospheric and it helps quite a lot that Lugosi, Chaney and the guy who played Frankenstein played it straight while the boys were hamming it up. The best part of the movie for me was the set piece where Lou is reading up on the Dracula legend and the coffin keeps opening and closing etc etc and every time Bud is called over it stops.

All in all the atmosphere and seeing Lugosi as Dracula makes it worth watching.


Meet Doctor Jekkyl and Mr. Hyde (1953) This one completely drops the atmosphere and goes for physical comedy and slapstick. Abbott and Costello work better to me when they're supplementing their verbal interplay with some slapstick but this was more slapstick and less verbal comedy. Boris Karloff plays the heavy here and he does an alright job. The movie is pretty thin on plot but it moves at a better pace than the previous movie. The best sequence to me is when Lou accidentally drinks one of the doctor's potions and turns into walking talking mouse!