Last movie you saw?

[BigWoof31]

I'll admit it, I watched the Synder cut last week. It's 4.5 hours long and I split it into a Friday and Saturday evening viewing.
It is significantly better than the original JL, but still leaves a lot of questions to be answered. I don't know if the DCCU is dead, but it need clear direction moving forward.

There were many new pieces introduced that raised the following "Spoiler Free" questions:

1). Are we ever going to get another Green Lantern movie? A good one?
2). A new character reveled themselves in the middle of the movie and then in a post credit scene but served no other purpose. WHHHYYYYY?
3). It's entirely likely we'll get Aquaman 2 before we get the first Flash movie.

 

[LordJeffBuck]

Tonight on TCM, 8:00 PM Eastern time.....

• The Mask of Dimitrios (1944). Director: Jean Negulesco. Cast: Peter Lorre; Sidney Greenstreet; Zachary Scott; Faye Emerson; Victor Francen; Kurt Katch.

A writer of detective stories (Lorre) on holiday in Istanbul has a chance meeting with the local head of the secret police, Colonel Haki (Katch), who tells him about an infamous criminal named Dimitrios Makropoulos (Scott) whose body was recently discovered washed up on the shore of the Bosporus. Lorre is naturally intrigued to hear the story of a mobster who could be a character in one of his own novels. After Haki piques his interest, Lorre decides to follow Dimitrios's criminal path through Europe, first to Athens, then Sofia, Geneva, and finally Paris. Along the way he meets with Dimitrios' former lover (Emerson), a former antagonist (Francen), and a former colleague (Greenstreet), and learns from them how Dimitrios progressed from lowly street thug to blackmailer, assassin, spy, and smuggler; and finally discovers how Dimitrios met his end. This is one of the better film noir, with an interesting story (told primarily in flashback), exotic sets (all done in studio), and an excellent cast (especially Scott in his film debut; only Lorre seems a bit out of place as the hero of the film). Adapted from rom Eric Ambler's novel A Coffin for Dimitrios (a good read in its own right). If you have any interest in film noir, then watch this movie.​

 

[charlohiottean]

2). A new character reveled themselves in the middle of the movie and then in a post credit scene but served no other purpose. WHHHYYYYY?

It helps to remember that that 4.5 hour movie was to be part one of two. Said character might be helpful facing Darkseid himself in the thrilling 6 hour conclusion.

 

[exhawg]

It helps to remember that that 4.5 hour movie was to be part one of two. Said character might be helpful facing Darkseid himself in the thrilling 6 hour conclusion.

I think Snyder added in everything he had filmed regardless of fit. There was a better movie in there than Whedon or Snyder put together. WB probably screwed this up by demanding Snyder make a 2 hour movie. It would be like telling the Russo's to make Infinity War and Endgame 2 hours each. I think Justice League could have been a good 3 hour movie. I was a little surprised when I thought the movie was over and saw there was still 30 minutes left. Maybe we can give all the film to the Russo's and have Justice League: The Russo Cut. I think the Snyder Cut was better than Dawn of Justice, but Snyder really shit the bed with that one. I don't know if the DC characters are just too super compared to Marvel so it makes it hard to make movies. Batman is really the only character that they've had much luck with. Man of Steel was ok, but all the others have been meh.

 

[LovelandBuckeye]

I'll admit it, I watched the Synder cut last week. It's 4.5 hours long and I split it into a Friday and Saturday evening viewing.
It is significantly better than the original JL, but still leaves a lot of questions to be answered. I don't know if the DCCU is dead, but it need clear direction moving forward.

There were many new pieces introduced that raised the following "Spoiler Free" questions:

1). Are we ever going to get another Green Lantern movie? A good one?
2). A new character reveled themselves in the middle of the movie and then in a post credit scene but served no other purpose. WHHHYYYYY?
3). It's entirely likely we'll get Aquaman 2 before we get the first Flash movie.

Finally, someone talking about real classic movies and not just these Kubrick or Casablanca trash. OK, Boomer.

 

[LordJeffBuck]

While last week's Noir Alley entry (The Third Man) was borderline noir, this week's (Pépé le Moko) is not noir at all, although it clearly is a precursor to film noir in many important ways:

• Pépé le Moko (1937). Director: Julien Duvivier. Cast: Jean Gabin; Lucas Gridoux; Mireille Balin.

Pépé le Moko (Gabin) is a French criminal hiding out in Algiers, where he rules the underworld of the city's notorious Casbah. The Algerian police, led by the sly but practical Inspector Slimane (Gridoux), don't dare enter the lawless jungle of the Casbah, and Pépé doesn't dare leave its friendly confines. This stalemate continues until Pépé meets the Parisienne beauty Gaby (Balin), who is slumming in the Casbah with her rich pals. Will love finally compel Pépé to make a wrong move? Justly famous for its cult of the antihero as well as a precursor to film noir (stylized sets, harsh lightning, deep shadows, unusual camera angles, grotesque secondary characters, casual brutality, and overriding sense of doom and despair). Remade by Hollywood as Algiers (1938), with John Cromwell directing and starring Charles Boyer (Pépé), Joseph Calleia (Slimane), and Hedy Lamarr (Gaby); not bad as remakes go, but the original is far superior.​

 

[LordJeffBuck]

I watched The Quiller Memorandum last night in memoriam of George Segal, who died earlier this week....

• The Quiller Memorandum (1966). Director: Michael Anderson. Cast: George Segal; Alec Guinness; Max von Sydow; Senta Berger; George Sanders.

Quiller (Segal) is a secret agent working for the United States or Great Britain or some group of good guys. After years in the field in faraway places, Quiller has become cynical bordering on sardonic. His latest assignment takes him to West Berlin, where he is supposed to gather information on a Neo-Nazi organization that is somehow powerful enough to threaten the peace and security of the Western World yet insignificant enough to be almost completely unknown to the Western intelligence agencies. Quiller meets his handler (Guinness) inside Hitler's mammoth Olympic Stadium, now vacant except for a few tourists, which highlights the empty threat of the Neo-Nazis. A short time after accepting his assignment, Quiller meets with another agent who hands him a "dossier" on the Neo-Nazis – in reality just a newspaper article, a brochure for a bowling alley, and a ticket to a natatorium – that was compiled by his predecessor. You can see why Quiller has such a cynical attitude toward his job.

Armed with nothing more than a few worthless scraps of paper, Quiller loudly bumbles his way across Berlin until the Neo-Nazis finally notice him. The bad guys drug Quiller, kidnap him, take him to their secret hideaway (appropriately located in a bombed-out mansion), and pump him full of truth serum. Quiller doesn't crack. When Quiller proves to be of no further use, the Neo-Nazis dump him in the river. Quiller doesn't die. The Neo-Nazis search Quiller's hotel room; they find nothing. They plant a bomb in Quiller's car; he discovers it. Quiller eventually makes his way back to his own headquarters and reports the location of the Neo-Nazis' hideout to his handler. The Neo-Nazis are all arrested and the threat (if there ever was one) is over and Quiller (if he wants to be) is a hero. So on to the next assignment in some other distant corner of the world....

The Quiller Memorandum (based on the novel by Adam Hall) cashed in on the Cold War spy craze of the 1960s, but it is not fantastic and fanciful like the James Bond franchise; nor dreary and political like The Spy Who Came in from the Cold; nor a spoof like Our Man Flint. This movie stresses the dull reality of espionage – no guns, no gadgets, no fast cars, no girls in bikinis, just good old-fashioned legwork done by a workingman, with the spy as nothing more than a gumshoe tracking down enemy agents who are as much anonymous faces in the crowd as a cheating spouse or an embezzling employee or a bail jumper. Only Oktober (von Sydow), the leader of the Neo-Nazis, who is too tall, too blonde, and too urbane, has any hint of the Bond villain in him.

Whatever you think of Segal's portrayal of Quiller (is it brilliantly underplayed or simply mechanical or somewhere in between), this film provides an excellent opportunity to witness two of the greats of world cinema – the Brit Guinness and the Swede von Sydow – although the leaders of the opposing factions (unfortunately) don't share any screen time together. The great George Sanders has a small role as a London-based desk jockey who cares more about the quality of the pheasant at his club than the fate of his agents in the field. The beautiful Senta Berger is Quiller's love interest and the face of the New Germany.​

 

[charlohiottean]

I watched The Quiller Memorandum last night in memoriam of George Segal, who died earlier this week....

• The Quiller Memorandum (1966). Director: Michael Anderson. Cast: George Segal; Alec Guinness; Max von Sydow; Senta Berger; George Sanders.

Quiller (Segal) is a secret agent working for the United States or Great Britain or some group of good guys. After years in the field in faraway places, Quiller has become cynical bordering on sardonic. His latest assignment takes him to West Berlin, where he is supposed to gather information on a Neo-Nazi organization that is somehow powerful enough to threaten the peace and security of the Western World yet insignificant enough to be almost completely unknown to the Western intelligence agencies. Quiller meets his handler (Guinness) inside Hitler's mammoth Olympic Stadium, now vacant except for a few tourists, which highlights the empty threat of the Neo-Nazis. A short time after accepting his assignment, Quiller meets with another agent who hands him a "dossier" on the Neo-Nazis – in reality just a newspaper article, a brochure for a bowling alley, and a ticket to a natatorium – that was compiled by his predecessor. You can see why Quiller has such a cynical attitude toward his job.

Armed with nothing more than a few worthless scraps of paper, Quiller loudly bumbles his way across Berlin until the Neo-Nazis finally notice him. The bad guys drug Quiller, kidnap him, take him to their secret hideaway (appropriately located in a bombed-out mansion), and pump him full of truth serum. Quiller doesn't crack. When Quiller proves to be of no further use, the Neo-Nazis dump him in the river. Quiller doesn't die. The Neo-Nazis search Quiller's hotel room; they find nothing. They plant a bomb in Quiller's car; he discovers it. Quiller eventually makes his way back to his own headquarters and reports the location of the Neo-Nazis' hideout to his handler. The Neo-Nazis are all arrested and the threat (if there ever was one) is over and Quiller (if he wants to be) is a hero. So on to the next assignment in some other distant corner of the world....

The Quiller Memorandum (based on the novel by Adam Hall) cashed in on the Cold War spy craze of the 1960s, but it is not fantastic and fanciful like the James Bond franchise; nor dreary and political like The Spy Who Came in from the Cold; nor a spoof like Our Man Flint. This movie stresses the dull reality of espionage – no guns, no gadgets, no fast cars, no girls in bikinis, just good old-fashioned legwork done by a workingman, with the spy as nothing more than a gumshoe tracking down enemy agents who are as much anonymous faces in the crowd as a cheating spouse or an embezzling employee or a bail jumper. Only Oktober (von Sydow), the leader of the Neo-Nazis, who is too tall, too blonde, and too urbane, has any hint of the Bond villain in him.

Whatever you think of Segal's portrayal of Quiller (is it brilliantly underplayed or simply mechanical or somewhere in between), this film provides an excellent opportunity to witness two of the greats of world cinema – the Brit Guinness and the Swede von Sydow – although the leaders of the opposing factions (unfortunately) don't share any screen time together. The great George Sanders has a small role as a London-based desk jockey who cares more about the quality of the pheasant at his club than the fate of his agents in the field. The beautiful Senta Berger is Quiller's love interest and the face of the New Germany.​

I think I got more out of reading your review than I would get from watching the movie.

 

[LordJeffBuck]

I realize that the timing won't work for most of you, but today at 10:30 AM Eastern, Turner Classic Movies is playing one of the best that Hollywood has to offer....

• It Happened One Night (1934). Director: Frank Capra. Cast: Clark Gable; Claudette Colbert; Walter Connolly; Jameson Thomas; Roscoe Karns.

A rich heiress, Ellie Andrews (Colbert), elopes with fortune hunter King Westley (Thomas), but her father (Connolly) tries to break up the couple by stashing her away on his yacht in Florida until he can buy off Westley and annul the marriage. The strong-willed Ellie is having none of it – she jumps overboard, swims ashore, and heads back to her beau. On a Greyhound bus bound for New York City, she runs into an enterprising newspaper reporter, Peter Warne (Gable), who knows that he's got the scoop of his lifetime. Warne agrees to help Ellie reunite with Westley so long as she gives him an exclusive on her story. With the deal sealed, the pair begin their long journey north, encountering numerous setbacks along the way – a bus accident, hitchhiking travails, a road bandit, a lecherous fellow passenger (Karns), and the Walls of Jericho. And of course, despite their natural antipathy, Ellie and Warne begin to fall in love, which jeopardizes both her marriage and his scoop. Can the two reluctant lovers somehow find happiness together, or will this turn tragic fast? (Hint: This is a Hollywood movie made during the height of the Depression, and absolutely no one wanted to suffer through a doomed love affair.).​

This is the result of Hollywood getting everything just right, and the film became the first to sweep all five major Oscars – Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, and Adapted Screenplay. Sure, it's all light fluff in the end, just another romantic comedy with the typical bantering and bickering, and mood swings and misunderstandings, and the improbable but obligatory happy ending. But this movie is so charming and endearing that even a horrible old cynic like me can't help but enjoy it.​

 

[LordJeffBuck]

Tomorrow at 6:00 PM Eastern, Turner Classic Movies is presenting Key Largo, the most famous of the Bogie-Bacall films (it was name checked in that stupid song, remember?) and one of the better films noir....

• Key Largo (1948). Director: John Huston. Cast: Humphrey Bogart; Lauren Bacall; Edward G. Robinson; Claire Trevor; Lionel Barrymore; Marc Lawrence; Thomas Gomez; Harry Lewis; Dan Seymour; William Haade.

Major Frank McCloud (Bogart) visits Nora Temple (Bacall), the widow of one of his G.I. pals, at the hotel owned by her wheelchair-bound father-in-law (Barrymore) in Key Largo, Florida. The hotel is officially closed to the public because it's hurricane season, but some rich businessmen from Milwaukee have rented it out as a base for their deep-sea fishing activities. Sure thing, Ace. The alleged businessmen are in fact old-school mobster Johnny Rocco (Robinson) and his gang of hoodlums – Gomez, Lewis, Seymour, and Haade, all of whom have appropriately hoodlum names (Curly, Toots, Angel, and Ralphie, respectively); also along for the ride is Rocco's alcoholic moll, former nightclub singer Gaye Dawn (Trevor), who seems more like a Stockholm syndrome hostage than a love interest. Rocco is down in Florida to do a shady deal with another mobster (Lawrence, also with an appropriately hoodlum name, Ziggy), and as soon as his business is complete he plans to leave the country by the boat that he sailed in on. There's just one little problem – a hurricane arrives at just the wrong time and sinks Rocco's boat. Undeterred by this setback, Rocco steals one of Temples' boats and orders McCloud to pilot it to Cuba. McCloud, who has been cautious bordering on cowardly throughout this entire affair, agrees to do it because, well, he doesn't really have a choice in the matter (and the movie can't end with the hero shot full of lead and the gangsters sailing off into the sunrise with a pile of loot). Just before McCloud leaves on his soon to be fateful journey, Dawn slips him a loaded gun so that he can do the right thing and rid the world (or at least her) of Johnny Rocco. The climatic shootout on the high seas is the highlight of the movie, and proves once again that despite his ugly mug and his noticeable lisp Humphrey Bogart was a bona fide silver screen hero.​

For some people, this is the definitive Bogart-Bacall pairing (there are only four to choose from), but The Big Sleep is a better movie all around and Bogie and Bacall have much better (and sexier) chemistry in that film. Claire Trevor won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role as the boozy floozy, but Robinson steals the show as an aging reiteration of his sociopathic gangster Rico Bandello from Little Caesar (1931). (Little Caesar is playing on TCM Thursday at 10:00 PM Eastern).​

 

[BB73]

I realize that the timing won't work for most of you, but today at 10:30 AM Eastern, Turner Classic Movies is playing one of the best that Hollywood has to offer....

• It Happened One Night (1934). Director: Frank Capra. Cast: Clark Gable; Claudette Colbert; Walter Connolly; Jameson Thomas; Roscoe Karns.

A rich heiress, Ellie Andrews (Colbert), elopes with fortune hunter King Westley (Thomas), but her father (Connolly) tries to break up the couple by stashing her away on his yacht in Florida until he can buy off Westley and annul the marriage. The strong-willed Ellie is having none of it – she jumps overboard, swims ashore, and heads back to her beau. On a Greyhound bus bound for New York City, she runs into an enterprising newspaper reporter, Peter Warne (Gable), who knows that he's got the scoop of his lifetime. Warne agrees to help Ellie reunite with Westley so long as she gives him an exclusive on her story. With the deal sealed, the pair begin their long journey north, encountering numerous setbacks along the way – a bus accident, hitchhiking travails, a road bandit, a lecherous fellow passenger (Karns), and the Walls of Jericho. And of course, despite their natural antipathy, Ellie and Warne begin to fall in love, which jeopardizes both her marriage and his scoop. Can the two reluctant lovers somehow find happiness together, or will this turn tragic fast? (Hint: This is a Hollywood movie made during the height of the Depression, and absolutely no one wanted to suffer through a doomed love affair.).​

This is the result of Hollywood getting everything just right, and the film became the first to sweep all five major Oscars – Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, and Adapted Screenplay. Sure, it's all light fluff in the end, just another romantic comedy with the typical bantering and bickering, and mood swings and misunderstandings, and the improbable but obligatory happy ending. But this movie is so charming and endearing that even a horrible old cynic like me can't help but enjoy it.​

One can go several years without seeing this movie, and still vividly recall the classic scenes involving hitchhiking and the Walls of Jericho. The movie was made a few months prior to the implementation of the Hollywood Production Code, or Hays Code, which imposed Puritanical limitations on filmmakers.

 

[Taosman]

The latest string of "super hero" movies are un-watchable. TVs "Mandalorian" and "Discovery" are much better. . But I blame Netflix for my lack of tolerance for lengthy movies other than "classics". I'd rather watch another "Godzilla" re-make for entertainment/distraction. Which begs the question;

What was the "future classic" you have seen lately?

How about...

"The Revenant" 2015 2hrs 36minutes
A frontiersman(DeCaprio) on a fur trading expedition in the 1820s fights for survival after being mauled by a bear and left for dead by members of his own hunting team.

 

[BayBuck]

Okay @Taosman, how about this one:
One of the handful of movies to received a 100% score on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer (fwiw) is Leave No Trace, about a dad with PTSD and his daughter who live off the grid in the woods near Portland. I could have easily name-checked the younger Ben Foster in the Worst Actor thread (just remembering him in Panic Room is still like nails on chalkboard), but this is an awesomely understated performance by him and by his daughter, played by Thomasin McKenzie. Their father-daughter relationship is one of the most powerful I've ever seen in a film. This is a subdued, very quiet movie, but it moves along fairly quickly and isn't as much of a downer as you might expect.

 

[Fungo Squiggly]

Someone in the household of two that wasn't me suggested Thunder Force on Netflix. "Melissa McCarthy and Jason Bateman are both funny" was the logic. Good god. Don't watch that movie. It's fucking awful.

 

[BayBuck]

I also watched a pair of quirky 2011 comedies with fun ensemble casts, both of which included the lovely Rashida Jones: The Big Year (just came to Disney+) and Our Idiot Brother (on Netflix). Apparently the former (which I watched with my daughter who is really into birds) was Steve Martin's last live-action movie to date, and it also includes some of his banjo music on its really good soundtrack; and a hippie-ish Paul Rudd is likeable as always in the latter. Couple of nice feel-good flicks.