Last Movie Watched.... The Xenforo Edition

Discussion in 'Movies, TV and Music' started by Val1, May 4, 2012.

  1. spejic

    spejic Cautionary example

    Mar 1, 1999
    San Rafael, CA
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Yes, I'm not sure why I watched it. Usually the spejic brand is noted for its admiration of critical and popular opinion.

    [​IMG]

    Down Periscope (1996)

    Due to youthful improprieties, it doesn't look like Lt. Commander Thomas Dodge will ever get to captain a US Navy submarine. But one admiral wants to give him a chance, so Dodge is given a WWII era Balao-class sub to simulate a diesel-electric sub attack on a US harbor. But the admiral in charge of the exercise has no love for Dodge, so he crews the vessel with the absolute dregs of the Navy submarine service.

    With a perfect 100% Mediacritic rating and 100% user rating on Rotten Tomatoes, this Palme d'Or and Nobel Peace Prize winner redefined the submarine genre so completely that no submarine movie has been attempted since. As the Dalai Lama said, "Seeing it once will fill you with the knowledge that your life was not lived in vain." I think it's fun and funny and smooth and gentile and hits every beat of its formula on target. I've seen it dozens of times without any hint of tiring of it. But you guys don't really care what I think.
     
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  2. Ismitje

    Ismitje Super Moderator

    Dec 30, 2000
    The Palouse
    Club:
    Real Salt Lake
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Us too. I never skip it if it's on. For whatever reason it's the perfect comfort film for both my wife and I.
     
  3. StiltonFC

    StiltonFC He said to only look up -- Guster

    Mar 18, 2007
    SoCal
    Club:
    Liverpool FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    #5353 StiltonFC, Jul 11, 2016
    Last edited: Jul 11, 2016
    we all count on you to be much more than a cautionary example...

    you can watch all the putrid movies you want, and you can let us know how lousy they are, but i hope you don't do that. life is too short to watch bad movies.

    to wit, i watched the first 7 minutes of 50 First Dates without consulting any critical or popular opinion and i turned off the TV. but Roger Ebert gave it 3 of 4. what should i do?
     
  4. Ismitje

    Ismitje Super Moderator

    Dec 30, 2000
    The Palouse
    Club:
    Real Salt Lake
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    We watched Spy last night, and heartily enjoyed it.

    [​IMG]

    An awful lot of the jokes land, and the script gives a lot of people funny lines/scenes. Statham is hillarious.
     
  5. spejic

    spejic Cautionary example

    Mar 1, 1999
    San Rafael, CA
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    But you don't know they are bad until you watch them. As the world's most existentialist song says, "Only time will tell you if or not if your life has been in vain."
     
  6. StiltonFC

    StiltonFC He said to only look up -- Guster

    Mar 18, 2007
    SoCal
    Club:
    Liverpool FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    in an absolute sense, you're right, of course, but you can be relatively sure that a movie is crap if RT doesn't rate it and the box office is less than the budget...
     
  7. yasik19

    yasik19 Moderator
    Staff Member

    Chelsea
    Ukraine
    Oct 21, 2004
    Daly City
    [​IMG]
    Spotlight - awesome movie.
     
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  8. Dr. Wankler

    Dr. Wankler Member+

    May 2, 2001
    The Electric City
    Club:
    Chicago Fire
    I think it was Werner Herzog (though it may have been Fassbinder) who said this movie makes Das Boot look like a student film made by accounting majors.
     
  9. Belgian guy

    Belgian guy Member+

    Club Brugge
    Belgium
    Aug 19, 2002
    Belgium
    Club:
    Club Brugge KV
    Fiston (2014)
    Dir. Pascal Bourdiaux

    [​IMG]

    A college student who has obsessed over the same girl since primary school approaches a reclusive man who supposedly was the only guy who ever got through to the equally hard-to-get mother of the object of his own desire. The older gentleman reluctantly takes the young man on as his apprentice. As the older man's training and counsel slowly force the student out of his arrested development and into something resembling an active social life, the goal of wooing the girl of his dreams becomes less important than his personal growth, as well as the surrogate father-son bond he develops with his mentor.

    Better than I thought it would be. Loses interest rather quickly in its cross-generational Cyrano de Bergerac tale and instead focuses on the idea of parenthood both in the form of absent father-figures and the mothers left behind to overcompensate. Does not side-step some of the silly excesses of French comedies, but not to the detriment of the entire feature.
     
  10. spejic

    spejic Cautionary example

    Mar 1, 1999
    San Rafael, CA
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    I came across this while looking for links between Arena and 90's sci-fi TV shows.



    Voyage Trekkers (2 seasons, 2011-2013)

    Twenty short videos chronicling the adventures of Captain Sunstrike and the worst spaceship crew in the Galactic Union. I think it will give any Star Trek fan a good laugh.
     
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  11. Belgian guy

    Belgian guy Member+

    Club Brugge
    Belgium
    Aug 19, 2002
    Belgium
    Club:
    Club Brugge KV
    Soldier Blue (1970)
    Dir. Ralph Nelson

    [​IMG]

    After a payroll escort belonging to a cavalry company is attacked by Cheyenne, the only two survivors are a young soldier and a woman who was tagging along to meet her cavalry officer fiancée at the fort the troops were heading to. As the two have to depend on each other for survival, the woman's background as a former white bride to an Indian chief is revealed. The soldier disbelieves and is offended by her stories of extreme violence inflicted on Indian women and children by cavalrymen. In spite of that, his infatuation for the libertine, foul-mouthed woman grows by the day.

    This film roughly falls apart in two distinct sections. The first and second act are mostly one long rom-com style meet-cute between a pair of opposites, in which Candice Bergen plays some sort of proto-manic-pixie-dreamgirl and Peter Strauss plays the slightly naive salt-of-the-earth soldier. The famous third act is a hyper-violent depiction of a massacre (and by far the most famous section of the movie) that is meant both as an allegory for Vietnam war crimes and as a means to pierce through the cavalry mythos that decades of westerns created. The movie's violent treatment of said massacre has been called sensationalized and exploitative and there is definitely something to the latter charge, though not to the point where it cheapens the underlying message. Though I guess that will be down to each person's tolerance and point of view.
     
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  12. Gilma1990

    Gilma1990 Member+

    Jul 30, 2015
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Mike_and_Dave_Need_Wedding_Dates.jpg

    Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates (2016)

    A friend of mine recommended this movie saw I went to the movies to see it. I've seen better Zac Efron movies, but this one was still entertaining. Mike and Dave are two immature 20-something year olds who have a tendency to get out of control at family functions and thus ruin them. In order to prevent further chaos, their parent order them to get wedding dates for their sister's upcoming wedding in Hawaii.

    Mike and Dave place an ad on craigslist and it blows up with thousands of women looking to score dates with them. Eventually they get conned into taking two crazy girls that are even bigger party animals than them. Accordingly, chaos ensues.
     
  13. Gilma1990

    Gilma1990 Member+

    Jul 30, 2015
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    MV5BMjE4NzgzNzEwMl5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwMTMzMDE0NjE@._V1_UY1200_CR90,0,630,1200_AL_.jpg

    Room (2015)

    Room had a pretty high rating on IMDB and the plot summary looked intriguing so I added it to my queue. The movie focuses on a young mother and her adolescent son who are essentially held prisoned in a small shed of a kidnapper's home. The mother tries her best to raise her son in a way that eases the suffering they go through.

    Don't know why but I just couldn't get into this film. Nonetheless, others may find it appealing.
     
  14. Belgian guy

    Belgian guy Member+

    Club Brugge
    Belgium
    Aug 19, 2002
    Belgium
    Club:
    Club Brugge KV
    Day of the Outlaw (1959)
    Dir. André De Toth

    [​IMG]

    A small Wyoming town is enthralled by the escalating conflict between a free grazer and a farmer. The pretense for their disagreement is the fact that the farmer wants to fence off his property, thus harming the cattle herd belonging to the free grazer. In reality, the men are feuding over the farmer's pretty young wife, with whom the free grazer had a short affair. Just as their argument is about to turn bloody, a small band of outlaws descend on the town and quickly disarm all of the townsfolk. The hardened criminals eye the handful of women in the community and the threat of sexual violence is only averted by the iron will and authority of their leader, a former cavalry captain. The people of the town soon learn they are living on borrowed time as the doctor who treated the disgraced officer's gunshot wound informs them that he is a dead man walking.

    I quite liked this. A rather risqué western for its time. Robert Ryan and Burl Ives are both great. The female lead is a pre-Ginger-on-Gilligan's-Island Tina Louise. Very effective black and white photography in the snow-covered plains and mountains. André De Toth livens up an otherwise effective but consciously fringeless style with a couple of nice dolly shots.
     
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  15. Dr. Wankler

    Dr. Wankler Member+

    May 2, 2001
    The Electric City
    Club:
    Chicago Fire
    Also legendary character actor Nehemiah Persoff, who is still alive at 96, and has appeared on our screen this year in shows ranging from Route 66 (in one episode he played Robert Redford's father) as well as Star Trek TNG, and in the movie The Last Temptation of Christ.

    And IMDB says he worked with Miss Louise (herself a guest on Route 66 a couple years before Gilligan's Island) on a GI episode.
     
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  16. spejic

    spejic Cautionary example

    Mar 1, 1999
    San Rafael, CA
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    #5366 spejic, Jul 16, 2016
    Last edited: Jul 16, 2016
    [​IMG]

    Downhill Racer (1969)

    American hot dog Robert Redford is starting to make a name for himself on the world circuit, peaking just before the Winter Olympics.

    A sport movie, but not exactly flattering towards athletes. A stark movie, lean and shallow as a commentary on the people who devote themselves to one simple thing. Redford's character can only connect to family, friends, and lovers on the most basic, naive, and selfish level. And at the peak of his success he sees a reminder that his time there will be short. The best scene is the wordless waiting before the Olympic run, where the US team is in a little shack preparing their skis with loud, terrible grating sounds. The director used a very harsh cut style which I wouldn't forgive in a modern movie but fit in with the 70's style.
     
  17. Gilma1990

    Gilma1990 Member+

    Jul 30, 2015
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    MV5BMTU0NDcxMzczMV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwODkxNTUwODE@._V1_UY1200_CR85,0,630,1200_AL_.jpg

    Triple 9 (2016)

    Seemed like an interesting plot: corrupt cops and Russian mob. Lots of action in this movie but the plot doesn't really hold together. Basically, just a bunch of crooked cops backstabbing each other. The film was disappointing. A lot of good actors wasted here.
     
  18. Gilma1990

    Gilma1990 Member+

    Jul 30, 2015
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Dead_Man_Down_Theatrical_Poster.jpg

    Dead Man Down (2013)

    Having seen and enjoyed many of Colin Farrell's movies, I was expecting to like this one. I didn't. Basically, Farrell plays a gangster who works for a mob that killed his family. The mob thinks Farrell also died, but he survived and carved out a new identity. Accordingly, Farrell bides his time while waiting to exact revenge on the mob. Very violent movie. Decent amount of action. But if I want action, I'd rather watch London has Fallen.
     
  19. Gilma1990

    Gilma1990 Member+

    Jul 30, 2015
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Raiders.jpg

    Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

    Timeless classic. Had the privilege of watching this on blu ray. The picture and sound effects are amazing.

    Henry "Indiana" Jones is an archaeologist who gets hired by the US government to find the lost ark of the covenant before the Nazis do. Jones travels to Nepal to get help from his ex Marion Ravenwood in locating the ark. The Nazis intervene and capture Ravenwood. Jones rescues Ravenwood and locates the ark. Unfortunately, the Nazis capture it from him. All of this leads to thrilling ending.

    Most Indy fans rate this as the best Indiana Jones, but I have to say The Last Crusade edges it out. Still, this is one of the all time greats in movies. Incredible how it looks, given the lack of digital effects.
     
  20. Val1

    Val1 Member+

    Arsenal
    Mar 12, 2004
    MD's Eastern Shore
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    In sentences of a single emoticon: :eek:
     
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  21. spejic

    spejic Cautionary example

    Mar 1, 1999
    San Rafael, CA
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    [​IMG]

    The Americanization of Emily (1964)

    US Navy Lt. Commander Charlie Madison is the very effective "dog robber" (man who handles details and supplies minor luxuries) to Rear Admiral Jessup in London just before D-Day. Among the minor luxuries he was aiming to supply is Emily Barham, driver in the base motor pool. Instead Emily, tired of war heroes, falls for Charlie, an inveterate coward. But the mentally unstable admiral has an mentally unstable plan to further the image of the Navy, and it just might turn Charlie into a hero. A dead one.

    This movie snuck up on me like a ninja. It starts out light and uninteresting, centered around a pedestrian romance. But it turned into a ferocious, smart anti-war film. The writer used his two decade advantage to give the admirals and generals a prescient interest in issues that would be important in the Cold War. While aimed at a 1960's viewer (or someone with a little knowledge of military political history), it's still universal enough to be enjoyed and to be meaningful today. Even the romance turned unconventional and significant. Written by Paddy Chayefski, of spejic-favorite Network fame. This feels very ahead of its time. Or at least unique in its time.

    Probably as close as we will get to an American Blackadder Goes Forth.
     
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  22. Belgian guy

    Belgian guy Member+

    Club Brugge
    Belgium
    Aug 19, 2002
    Belgium
    Club:
    Club Brugge KV
    That is some very strong praise!
     
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  23. Gilma1990

    Gilma1990 Member+

    Jul 30, 2015
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    51V8V36DN2L.jpg

    Derailed (2005)

    Derailed is a crime thriller starring Clive Owen and Jennifer Aniston. Owen plays an unsuspecting business executive who gets charmed by Aniston on the commuter train. After a night of drinking Owen and Aniston go to a hotel where they are robbed at gunpoint. Owen is pistol whipped and Aniston is raped. The attacker obtains Owen's information and blackmails him into giving him $10,000. Owen concedes but the attacker comes back for more money.

    Although the movie is predictable, it was still enjoyable to watch. I was especially impressed with Vincent Cassell's role as the attacker/villain.
     
  24. Gilma1990

    Gilma1990 Member+

    Jul 30, 2015
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    main.jpg

    Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)

    Indy returns in a much darker film than the original Indiana Jones. The film starts out with lots of action in Shanghai China where Indy gets mixed up with some Chinese gangsters. He escapes Shanghai with Willy Scott and his sidekick Short Round. They nearly crash in an airplane above India, but survive. They trek to a poor village that's suffering from droughts and agree to help them retrieve a sacred stone that will restore life to the village.

    As they arrive at the palace they are warmly welcomed, but not everything is as it seems. Indy discovers a horrific cult that sacrifices people and enslaves children. The odds are stacked against Indy, but he succeeded against the Nazis.

    Very good overall film. Not as good as Raiders or the Last Crusade, but better than most contemporary movies churned out today.
     
  25. yossarian

    yossarian Moderator
    Staff Member

    Jun 16, 1999
    Big City Blinking
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Actually, the events in this movie take place before his search for the ark of the covenant. It's technically a prequel.
     
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