What Movies Are You Watching Lately

[lefty]

Movies I want to watch on my deathbed so I leave with a smile. If I were to expand to 10, Duck Soup would be on that list.

I mean, c'mon.

lefty

 

[Geoffrey Firmin]



Movies I want to watch on my deathbed so I leave with a smile. If I were to expand to 10, Duck Soup would be on that list. I mean, c'mon. lefty

Casablanca, genuflect's in worship. Go West is my favourite Marx Brothers film.

 

[noob in 89]

So do you guys still (ever?) watch movies (or in this instance, maybe films) strictly to expose yourselves to new cultures and new ideas, to grapple with unpleasant truths, to expand your awareness rather than to titillate, etc.?

Just curious. I used to watch lengthy drawn-out foreign films, some in black and white, with this goal. (The dialogue was weighty, the nudity always tasteful). Now I find this to be the sole province of books. Part of this has to do with a return to the movies of my youth. The other is surely a time factor: I watch for escapism now. Reality is for real life; movies bring the fun.

You guys?

 

[The Ernesto]



So do you guys still (ever?) watch movies (or in this instance, maybe films) strictly to expose yourselves to new cultures and new ideas, to grapple with unpleasant truths, to expand your awareness rather than to titillate, etc.?

Just curious. I used to watch lengthy drawn-out foreign films, some in black and white, with this goal. (The dialogue was weighty, the nudity always tasteful). Now I find this to be the sole province of books. Part of this has to do with a return to the movies of my youth. The other is surely a time factor: I watch for escapism now. Reality is for real life; movies bring the fun.

You guys?

Interesting thoughts.

When I was younger I definitely pursued the challenging and arcane to see what was out there and learn what I could from the immense variety of global cinema. It was actually a real pleasure to do that.

Getting older you get trapped by time and other external forces and suddenly you're looking for nuance in the manifestations of Pixar et al. Not such a bad thing sometimes.

Now with a teenager there is the opportunity to revisit some of the classics again, which is great, and I'm hoping we can push the envelop in the second half of the year when he does Film Theory as a high school elective.

 

[Geoffrey Firmin]

noob in 89

The beauty of cinema is that it caters to any emotional frame of mind your in. Over the past few days I binged watched True Detectives season1. Yes I know it's a TV series but Mrs GF and I had a discussion about the cinematic visuals of the show.

When I was 21 the first live in Ms GF was a film nut and she exposed me to a lot of cinema I never knew about Bunuel The Exterminating Angel, The French Newwave, Italian Neo Realism I certainly got a cinematic education. I already knew of Woddy Allen and via him Bergman. Australian cinema hit a purple patch then, Mad Max amongst others and American Noir and Crime cinema from the 1940's to the 1970's The French Connection and Popeye Doyle and Chinatown.

I like escapist CGI blockbusters but most of all I simply enjoy a good story visually presented with elan and style. Cinema is the dominant art form of our times.

 

[Stugotes]

I, for one, avoid CGI fests, because I don't have the time for Escapism like that. When I find the time for a 2-3 hrs movie, I like to be inspired, not just entertained.

But then again, I like Will Ferrell / Rogen comedies, too.

 

[dotcomzzz]

I feel like I used to seek out more art-house type movies when I was in school. Cultural stuff. Inspirational stuff. Stuff with substance. It just sort of came with the territory of being a student I guess. Seems like I mostly watch for entertainment now, which is kind of a bummer. Anyhow...

Caught the live action and immediately went home to view the original, which it's been a while.

The live action is something of an eyegasm. For whatever reason I found myself looking intently at the stuff happening off center screen, more checking out the set details and cgi stuff happening around the action (costumes too, the Major sports a super cool MA-1).

Certainly entertaining but not in the original's ballpark.

 

[Van Veen]

Good month for HBO. Definitely going to watch Cape Fear, The Deer Hunter, Play Misty For Me, and Unforgiven. Already watched Crimson Tide. Probably won't rewatch The Assassination of Jesse James ... and Slumdog Millionaire, though I liked those the first time through.

 

[Van Veen]

I was duped into watching this by a lie:

Do not believe that 91%. This movie is a *************, despite the cast. Can't out-act a bad script. Sam Waterston goes in and out of a ****** southern accent, and I was more convinced by Sean Connery's Russian accent in Red October than George Dzunda's here.

This might be the most unsatisfying ending ever. If I'm going to watch a 90s action-thriller with a convoluted plot, I at least expect some quality ass-kicking and a few decent puns.

 

[SirReveller]

That rating is majority millenials who saw Last King of Scotland and "retrograded". Speaking of Forest Whitaker, this is fantastic

(and if all you can find is the Michael Caine one that's a classic anyway)

 

[Kaplan]

First viewing of these three:

Poster made me think I had read this as a novel 30+ years ago, but I was probably just confusing it with this (which has its own adaptation, which I'd actually seen recently). Pretty standard disaster movie fare, but with a very watchable cast (which I guess is the common way for this kind of movie to try and get us to care about characters that aren't very well developed) - I especially enjoyed Darren McGavin in this.

So this is what you get when the director of Bullitt tries his hand at sci-fi and fantasy. Not as competent as the Star Wars trilogy and not as good looking as Ridley Scott's Legend from around the same time, but it did have its moments and some rather spectacular set designs.

Polanski's take on Macbeth (and with a production credit to Hugh Hefner). This was great.

 

[Kaplan]

Wasn't planning on seeing this after the first two trailers, but the third one convinced me to give it a shot. It's about as good as can be expected, which is to say it's fairly entertaining if also instantly forgettable. There are a couple of weak directorial choices that seem like they could've been easily avoided, potentially improving the movie slightly (redundant montages, unnecessarily uneven characterizations). Trivial observation: In the original (and still superior) 1933 movie, the island was nameless, but it did have a Skull Mountain. Now the whole place's called Skull Island and has a convenient shape to match.

Judging by the post credit scene, we can expect to see more of Kong, Godzilla, Mothra, etc.

 

[dotcomzzz]

Watched Zulu last night. Solid. Thanks for the rec @SirReveller

 

[Piobaire]

This movie always makes me smile:

 

[Van Veen]

Did you watch the original version or the politically correct version?