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Spoilers What Movie Are You Watching?
- Thread starter Huntn
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Just finished The Cabin In The Woods. Actually pretty dam good if you ask me. I love the real-world twist on the horror movies that it presented.
And then last night, for about the 20th time, I watched Battle Los Angeles. Pure kick ass.
And then last night, for about the 20th time, I watched Battle Los Angeles. Pure kick ass.
The Battle of Los Angeles was on TV recently. It's actually a strong contender for the worst movie ever made so don't get it confused with Battle: Los Angeles
.Some pretty humorous reviews of the movie.
imdb 2.1
Long time, no see Plutonius! Watched a couple episodes of the Fireflies series you recommended, and actually kind of liked it. Thank's for that. Does really remind me upon some anime/cartoonish stuff like Cowboy Bebop. But I'm not totally sold to the cast up to now..the lead always reminds me upon Michael of Arrested Development....only with his tounge in cheek. But maybe that'll grow on me. Really good stories though.
And Shrink, I saw The Strange Door the other day - but haven't been too fond of it. Kind of disappointed since Laughton and Karloff in the same movie should have been a keeper. Unfortunately the lead and his love interest weren't interesting. Plus the story wasn't that great either in my opinion.
Watched The Town with and by Affleck (who was talked about earlier in this thread). So-so movie, but a remarkable performance by Jeremy Renner, despite his generic character. And it's actually quite funny to see Affleck playing someone who has accidentally to impersonate someone else - there his clumsy acting looks like it was brought to perfection.
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Just watched "The Leopard Man". One of the three Val Lewton/Jaques Tourneur collaborations ("The Cat People" and "I Walk With A Zombie" are the other two).
Val Lewton's use of off screen terror (leaving it to the audience), and his use of light/shadow is legendary. Tourneur's ability to maximize Lewton's signature style is tremendous. Tourneur directed one of the 2 or 3 greatest film noir..."Out Of The Past".
Marvelous movie, reminiscent of "The Cat People", but not quite as spooky. Good films, all three of the Lewton/Tourneur films are must see if for no reason but to see what magic can be done with black and white, and chiaroscuro.
Val Lewton's use of off screen terror (leaving it to the audience), and his use of light/shadow is legendary. Tourneur's ability to maximize Lewton's signature style is tremendous. Tourneur directed one of the 2 or 3 greatest film noir..."Out Of The Past".
Marvelous movie, reminiscent of "The Cat People", but not quite as spooky. Good films, all three of the Lewton/Tourneur films are must see if for no reason but to see what magic can be done with black and white, and chiaroscuro.
Out of the past being one of my favorites too...Angel Face being the other, not so famous one. And I never heard of The Leopard Man, so thank's a lot for mentioning it as the other two Lewton/Tourneurs are very precious.
Maybe you overlooked it, I mentioned it some posts before, but I'd be interested in what you think about The Strange Next Door.
The Strange Next Door is not ringing a bell. I checked the Stranger Next Door, and The Strange Door in IMBd...and I don't remember seeing either.
The Strange Next Door is not ringing a bell. I checked the Stranger Next Door, and The Strange Door in IMBd...and I don't remember seeing either.
My bad! With Karloff and Charles Laughton. I'm pretty sure you've seen it. It reminded me a bit on The Tower of London though; a lot of potential, but got lost somehow. Have you seen it? If not, it's nevertheless worth watching, especially for you I'd guess.
My bad! With Karloff and Charles Laughton. I'm pretty sure you've seen it. It reminded me a bit on The Tower of London though; a lot of potential, but got lost somehow. Have you seen it? If not, it's nevertheless worth watching, especially for you I'd guess.
If I saw it, I'm not remembering it.
Recently saw a bunch of Hammer Studios mysteries, not the horror series. All black and white, and very well done. Also saw the first version of The Maltese Falcon, the name of which I forget, made in 1931. It was fascinating seeing other actors playing the roles that are so famous from the 1941 version. It wasn't near as good as the John Huston version, but interesting to see.
Also, speaking of John Huston, I just saw The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre again...for the umpteenth time. Such an incredible film. Bogart and Walter Huston are stupendous.
And speaking of Walter Huston, he was in a most remarkable film called "Dodsworth". If you haven't seen it, it is an absolute essential.
Agreed! Came across the Treasures of the Sierra Madre by pure accident and it made a huge impact on me. Awesome movie, and even more so as I'm not that keen on Bogart in general. Splendid! And I've never heard of 'Dodsworth'....noted!
re: Strange Door, if you're a Laughton 'fan', I'd strongly recommend that movie to you. He's just a genius and pleasure to watch, but Karloff's role just receives rather little screen time.
I do like Laughton. Saw "Witness For The Prosecution" today. Dietrich was her usual awful, hammy, scenery chewing self. Laughton, and his wife, Elsa Lanchester, were wonderful. Generally I'm not a big Hitchcock fan, but this was pretty good.
Yes, he did make some OK films, particularly his early UK stuff. Yes, Psycho was good, and so were a few others. But most, IMO, were superficial, glossy, not thrilling tripe. Andre de Toth ,a director, said of him..."His early work showed promise. But then he became fat, physically and intellectually...". I know it's unpopular, but I agree. I saw "Shadow Of A Doubt", a lesser known Hitchcock film today...it's pretty good. But his big famous films (e.g. North By Northwest, The Birds) are bloated, superficial, and uninteresting to me.
OK, I know I'm a bad person...
Just emptied off the PVR this weekend... Lots of political films on tv this past week... The American President, Blue State (hilarious cheap Breckin Meyer flick), and All the President's Men... Also watched Lord of War this weekend.
The Battle of Los Angeles was on TV recently. It's actually a strong contender for the worst movie ever made so don't get it confused with Battle: Los Angeles
Some pretty humorous reviews of the movie.
That's the SyFy edition right? Nothing on that channel is any good.
That's the SyFy edition right? Nothing on that channel is any good.
It is the SyFi edition and it's considered to be much worse then their usual poor offerings.
The last movie I finished watching was Khabardar, a comedy film from India, specifically the Marathi movie industry. The YouTube version was subtitled in English, so I could follow the plot. (I would much rather watch a movie in its original language with subtitles rather than an overdub.)
After seeing it, I can say one thing for sure: Nirmiti Sawant is India's answer to Melissa McCarthy.
After seeing it, I can say one thing for sure: Nirmiti Sawant is India's answer to Melissa McCarthy.
I do like Laughton. Saw "Witness For The Prosecution" today. Dietrich was her usual awful, hammy, scenery chewing self. Laughton, and his wife, Elsa Lanchester, were wonderful. Generally I'm not a big Hitchcock fan, but this was pretty good.
Yes, he did make some OK films, particularly his early UK stuff. Yes, Psycho was good, and so were a few others. But most, IMO, were superficial, glossy, not thrilling tripe. Andre de Toth ,a director, said of him..."His early work showed promise. But then he became fat, physically and intellectually...". I know it's unpopular, but I agree. I saw "Shadow Of A Doubt", a lesser known Hitchcock film today...it's pretty good. But his big famous films (e.g. North By Northwest, The Birds) are bloated, superficial, and uninteresting to me.
OK, I know I'm a bad person...
I tend to agree. I find a lot of them somehow repetetive and 'self indulgend', but love to watch The 39 Steps and especially Torn Curtain every other day. While Torn Curtain is even considered one of the lesser good entries of Alfred. Well, I disagree but am biased on the whole Berlin scenario so that might play into that - I also found Newman pretty good as well as this agent I forgot the name of. You know, the one in the oven....also the colors in this movie are brilliant imho, reminding me on Antonioni.
Haven't seen Dial M for Murder, Vertigo and The Rear Window for more than a decade now, though. Back then, as a young chap, I used to think they're brilliant. But back then, I didn't think about much either.
Agree so much with you; I'm not a huge fan of Bogart (but just love 'Casablanca', and a few others).
I do like Laughton. Saw "Witness For The Prosecution" today. Dietrich was her usual awful, hammy, scenery chewing self. Laughton, and his wife, Elsa Lanchester, were wonderful. Generally I'm not a big Hitchcock fan, but this was pretty good.
Yes, he did make some OK films, particularly his early UK stuff. Yes, Psycho was good, and so were a few others. But most, IMO, were superficial, glossy, not thrilling tripe. Andre de Toth ,a director, said of him..."His early work showed promise. But then he became fat, physically and intellectually...". I know it's unpopular, but I agree. I saw "Shadow Of A Doubt", a lesser known Hitchcock film today...it's pretty good. But his big famous films (e.g. North By Northwest, The Birds) are bloated, superficial, and uninteresting to me.
OK, I know I'm a bad person...
Again, I agree so much with you; I've long thought Hitchcock over-rated, though clever in his use of suspense and I deeply dislike the nasty misogynistic undertone of much of his work. Actually, there is a nastiness underlying much of his work, hardly any humanity and no heart, just the thrill of putting his characters through stressful situations as though they were laboratory rats, and observing them to see how they'll cope.
Gosh. I'm amazed (and impressed) at how much our preferences coincide on these matters.
Ah, but I loved 'Witness For The Prosecution' - I really wanted to become a lawyer after that movie. And Charles Laughton and Elsa Lancaster are both superb, classy, actors.
Food for thought, and thinking about it you're quite right with the misogynistic undertone - even strongly present in Torn Curtain I've to admit - the 39 Steps does it much better regarding that department. And it's quite funny how we agree on Hitchcock being overrated. I think he's like these inflating Miro paintings everybody seems to have on their wall - nothing against Miro - but it gets tedious and frankly, there is much better stuff around. Or like Gaudi (although that is a nasty comparison, since I used to ridicule his 'architecture'). But not every 'mainstream' artist has to lose the magic > see Mozart, there is something missing.
Since you're also fond of Laughton, scepticalscribe, did you see The Island of The Lost Souls then? Incredible movie, with a very nice cameo by Lugosi, where Laughton excells once more. Seminal movie imho.
Watching Casino Royale (2006), one of the better Bond movies imo. Grittier and less reliant on gimmicks and glib one-liners. And Daniel Craig is my favourite Bond, for much the same reasons. 3.5 stars.
The other day I saw (most of) Land of the Lost. Didn't know anything about so I was pleasantly surprised. Sure it was kind of cheesy, but fun and had some laugh-out-loud moments. And I enjoyed the sci-fi theme and silly ET costumes! 3 stars.
Also have to mention some weeks back now saw Looper at the cinema.. Great movie. Definitely worth seeing. Dripping atmosphere, good acting, novel premise, well executed. Don't want to spoil anything for those who've not seen it though, so I'm just going to go out on a limb and give it a 4 (that's a high score for me!).
The other day I saw (most of) Land of the Lost. Didn't know anything about so I was pleasantly surprised. Sure it was kind of cheesy, but fun and had some laugh-out-loud moments. And I enjoyed the sci-fi theme and silly ET costumes! 3 stars.
Also have to mention some weeks back now saw Looper at the cinema.. Great movie. Definitely worth seeing. Dripping atmosphere, good acting, novel premise, well executed. Don't want to spoil anything for those who've not seen it though, so I'm just going to go out on a limb and give it a 4 (that's a high score for me!).
Ah, Mozart, I love - sheer magic, and utter exquisite perfection (close your eyes and listen - every note is just perfectly placed)....
No, I have not seen The Island of the Lost Souls, but must make a point of keeping an eye out for it. Sounds very interesting. Laughton just dominates the screen - even in a small scene, he is compelling.
On Humphrey Bogart, though I'm not a huge fan, I must say that I also loved 'The Maltese Falcon' - that was one of those movies where every scene did exactly what it was supposed to do, and every part was perfectly cast. And, the lighting, and cinematography.....ah, superb.
Having watched quite a few Hitchcock movies, I think that his subliminal capacity for what I actually think is cruelty (unredeemed by compassion, or any real sense of humanity), along with his persistent misogynistic attitudes is what I realised I really disliked about his movies. In essence, they leave a bad taste in my mouth.
So Shrink and twietee, yet again, to my great pleasure, our perspectives concur. I'd go further than 'fat, physically and intellectually'; that doesn't bother me, it is the subliminal nastiness and barely disguised cruelty that I came to dislike once I recognised it for what it was.
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I agree on The Maltese Falcon, although I don't quite understand why it's often said to be the master piece of noir. But since you like it, I'd recommend The Big Sleep to you, if you haven't seen it already. I personally would rate that one even slightly higher than The Maltese Falcon, but that would be talking about nuances.
And yes, please look out for the Island of Lost Souls! And for The Night of the Hunter also. (I know, this thread is rather demanding
)