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Which movie did you watch today and how would you rate it?

I think we need to suspend Elixir's membership here at IIDB until he watches both Alien and Aliens (in that order). Its for his own good, and he will thank us later.

Funny thing about Bill Paxton. Both he and James Cameron worked for B movie horror film director Roger Corman in the late '70's, early '80's doing models, special effects, gopher boy stuff, etc. I don't think either one had formal acting, film making education or training. Cameron's previous job to that was as a truck driver. Cameron hired his friend Bill on for a brief role on Terminator (he pulls a switchblade on Arnie and says, "Fuck you, asshole!" when Arnie demands his clothes) and the rest is history.
 
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Session 9

Men get hired to remove asbestos from a long condemned insane asylum. Eventually horror ensues.

This isn't a bad movie. However, it's more interesting to me as an examination of how a lot of little shortcomings can cause what could've been a good film to be not so good.

Story, character development, atmosphere, pace, consistency, etc. This film is on the cusp of getting all of those things right, but falls a little short in all of them. There's lot of potentially interesting story elements that appear to be coming together in order to make a tidy whole, but it just doesn't happen. Each character is unique/not irrelevant, and each has a relevant role to play, but they end up like the frayed end of a shoelace.

In short, everything is there for a good horror-suspense film, but it's poorly assembled.

It might be interesting to film school students on a technical level with respect to something like editing and reshoots, which seems could've made the difference between this movie being really good instead of the disappointing slog it turned out to be.
 
"Leonardo da Vinci"- Ken Burns


 
Tried to watch High Anxiety and it wasn't working for me. Brooks can be hit or miss at times. He has had some dogs out there. He is also responsible for some of the best as well.

That's one of my favorites. I still think about the blowup homage scene.



Found some other goodies.




And there was the phone booth scene :)
 
Lawrence of Arabia - Been wanting to re-watch this. Think this is my third time with the film. Reading more into it, seems like the movie is a bit overly fictional. It is much like the Great White Hope with too much needless fiction, but contains remarkable acting, and cinematography that rarely ever is topped even with all the technology available today. They shot that film at a very small aperture which probably sucked for the actors because that meant they needed it to be brighter (and hotter) to shoot the film. The movie also has one of the best scores, which John Williams lifted appreciable quantities. One of the best films ever made. 4 of 4
 
It's treatment of history is absurd, but Lawrence of Arabia is still one of my favorite films. Everything from the match blowing out to the storming of Aqaba is just perfect; I don't know what a person could do to improve a single scene.
 
As it happens, I was also watching an old Alec Guinness film last night, though he's almost hard to spot under all the prosthetic Jewface as Fagin. Yes, I spotted the 1948 version of Oliver Twist in the streaming recs and thought I would give it a shot. Being much more familiar with the musical, I missed some of emotional insight that comes from having the characters sing their hearts out. Since they sing the way Dickens writes more or less, in a lot of ways I'd say that later version is oddly more faithful to the novel. This version was also greatly curtailed by the Hays morality code, then at its most strictly interpreted phase. Kinda hard to tell Oliver's story with all the illicit pregnancies, prostitutes and murders all happening delicately off screen and out of the script.

That said, I genuinely enjoyed the film. What it lacks in content it makes up for in mood, painting a dreary below the rooftops London in shades of shadow, darkness, and ever present fatal consequences. Nancy's desperate situation, and the lower and middle class characters all straining at the boundaries of their station in an England that wasn't ready to let them go, was all written and well portrayed. Both of the child leads ended up going into directing themselves later on, and I wonder whether working on a stellar Lean/Green production early on helped spark that bug. I can see why this one made the Criterion collection despite its problems and the usual disadvantage of having been popular with the public.

Rating, 7.5 Alec Guinesses out of 10*

*- where 10 in Lawrence of Arabia, and 5 is Brother Sun, Sister Moon
 
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I just watched Roman J. Israel, Esq. (a 2017 American "legal drama") and would give it much less than its 6.5 IMDB score. A typical review says "[Denzel Washington's excellent performance] leaves us with a character you won't soon forget, but you wish that the movie were as haunting as he is." I would give it an even worse review, arguing that the hard-to-portray character is quite forgettable despite Washington's skill.

- - - - - - - - - - -

Regarding some films recently mentioned here:

Lawrence of Arabia would be one of the greatest movies, but the last several scenes drag on. Queen of the Desert tells a (true?) story about Gertrude Bell in the same place and time as Lawrence. Was she Lawrence's superior? Queen of the Desert gets only 5.7 IMDB points; I'd give this and any movie starring Nicole Kidman more points than that. (Apocalypse Now is another great movie where the final scenes let me down.)

OTOH I think the final scenes of Mystic River (which was also mentioned in a different thread) were an outstanding way to close the story.
Mystic River is a great movie, filled with much poignancy.
 
You can reduce the plot of any story to make it sound lame.
Didn't we have a whole thread devoted to that? Wish I could remember the thread title... it might be fun to start it up again.
A lot of entertaining fiction is centered around crimes that seem rather silly. e.g. Murder plots that are overly complex and risky.
Oftentimes we love these stories because of the portrayal of the characters involved, the plot itself becomes somewhat secondary.
 
I just watched Roman J. Israel, Esq. (a 2017 American "legal drama") and would give it much less than its 6.5 IMDB score. A typical review says "[Denzel Washington's excellent performance] leaves us with a character you won't soon forget, but you wish that the movie were as haunting as he is." I would give it an even worse review, arguing that the hard-to-portray character is quite forgettable despite Washington's skill.

- - - - - - - - - - -

Regarding some films recently mentioned here:

Lawrence of Arabia would be one of the greatest movies, but the last several scenes drag on. Queen of the Desert tells a (true?) story about Gertrude Bell in the same place and time as Lawrence. Was she Lawrence's superior? Queen of the Desert gets only 5.7 IMDB points; I'd give this and any movie starring Nicole Kidman more points than that. (Apocalypse Now is another great movie where the final scenes let me down.)

OTOH I think the final scenes of Mystic River (which was also mentioned in a different thread) were an outstanding way to close the story.
Mystic River is a great movie, filled with much poignancy.
Mystic River... oi... I felt that the final scene robbed the movie of any legitimacy. It was good up to that point and then Sean Penn does the ole "Who me" look and Kevin Bacon is "Ohhh... you." and Tim Robbins is all like "WTF?!"
 
I just watched Reptile, a 2023 crime thriller scoring 6.8 at IMDB. I'd give it much less.

I've disliked the movies I've watched lately. Perhaps it's less about the movies than about my personal status. Minor health issues, personal problems and political gloom are sapping my power of concentration and joie de vivre. But at least Rotten Tomatoes agrees with me about this movie:
"Strong work from Benicio del Toro and Alicia Silverstone isn't enough to make up for Reptile's convoluted and ultimately underwhelming story."​

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

OTOH I think the final scenes of Mystic River (which was also mentioned in a different thread) were an outstanding way to close the story.
Mystic River... oi... I felt that the final scene robbed the movie of any legitimacy. It was good up to that point and then Sean Penn does the ole "Who me" look and Kevin Bacon is "Ohhh... you." and Tim Robbins is all like "WTF?!"

(Tim Robbins wasn't in the final scene!) I really don't understand the objection. If you object to a specific lack of realism, my answer is: Many great stories rely on exaggeration, coincidence or unlikely twist. The impossible "letters of transit" in Casablanca come to mind as an impossibility essential to a great story.
 
We are still coping with comedies, so we watched one of our favorites this week, "Best in Show". We've probably seen in at least 20 times and it's still very funny.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0218839/

At the prestigious Mayflower Dog Show, a "documentary film crew" captures the excitement and tension displayed by the eccentric participants in the outrageously hilarious satire Best In Show. This biting send-up exposes the wondrously diverse dog owners who travel from all over America to showcase their four-legged contenders. Mild-mannered salesman Gerry Fleck (Eugene Levy) and his vivacious wife, Cookie (Catherine O'Hara), happily prepare their Norwich Terrier, while shop owner Harlan Pepper (Christopher Guest) hopes his Bloodhound wins top prize. As two upwardly mobile attorneys (Parker Posey and Michael Hitchcock) anxiously ready their neurotic Weimaraner and an ecstatically happy gay couple (Michael McKean and John Michael Higgins) dote on their tiny Shih Tzu, inept commentator Buck Laughlin (Fred Willard) vainly attempts to provide colorful tidbits about each breed.

I've read that a lot of the movie was ad libbed. Regardless, all dog lovers, especially those who love comedic satire must watch this movie, made in 2000. Older movies are the best imo.
 
The Blackcoat's Daughter

Briefly: For Reasons, two girls have to stay at their boarding school once winter break starts. Some sort of demonic presence exists, subtle chaos and horror ensues with respect to the girls, school employees, and families.

The film has mixed reviews. Critics seem to like it for its subtlety, structure, mystery, and themes.

Audience scores are lower though. The first category of these viewers are unsophisticated types who primarily want to see unique kills and gore. Nuance is like rat poison to them. Thus, they can be safely ignored.

The second type though are the ones who feel cheated by bullshit masquerading as subtlety. This is definitely a movie where if you miss a single hint, then nothing makes sense. Even if you get all the hints, it still may not be enough to understand what's happening. I kind of fall into this category, but at the same time recognize that I'm kinda dumb as far as picking up nuance goes, so whatever. OTOH, even upon further review, it doesn't seem realistic for the audience to be able to pick up on all these little things, which are so purposefully obscured (e.g. the most important hint is a visual one that you'd have to stop the movie to see, and even if you did, the actual ability to read the prop is tough). Finally, I think some info is just left out altogether, which seems cheap to me.

Overall, I'd give it a recommend if you like to try and solve mysteries and/or are fine with having to read about the flick after you've watched it.
 
I just watched Stand By Me, a 1986 "coming-of-age drama film." It's a classic but I'd never heard of it. It scores 8.1 IMDB points and deserves at least that many. The focus is on experiences, friendships and sentiment rather than plot or thrills, but I think it's a masterpiece. Watch it!

Although filmed in 1985, the film's setting is decades earlier (when the main characters are 12); the soundtrack features hits from the 50's or early 60's. Wikipedia tells me that the title song, Ben E. King's "Stand By Me," which was #4 on the charts in 1961, was re-released after the film was released and then made it back up to #9.
 
We are still coping with comedies, so we watched one of our favorites this week, "Best in Show". We've probably seen in at least 20 times and it's still very funny.
We loved “Best in Show.” At the time we were in the habit of catching the Westminster Dog Show every year and rooting for any boxers in the Working Dogs group, so the target of the satire was not lost on us.

Christopher Guest, who starred in “This Is Spinal Tap,” was the guiding genius behind “Best in Show,” so yes, much of it was improv. Whoever it was who played the announcer must have had a blast.
 
I just watched Stand By Me, a 1986 "coming-of-age drama film." It's a classic but I'd never heard of it. It scores 8.1 IMDB points and deserves at least that many. The focus is on experiences, friendships and sentiment rather than plot or thrills, but I think it's a masterpiece. Watch it!

Although filmed in 1985, the film's setting is decades earlier (when the main characters are 12); the soundtrack features hits from the 50's or early 60's. Wikipedia tells me that the title song, Ben E. King's "Stand By Me," which was #4 on the charts in 1961, was re-released after the film was released and then made it back up to #9.
Totally agree. Another masterpiece by Rob Reiner and Steven King.
 
Fences 8/10
Pretty good for what it was. Writing and acting were excellent in my opinion. It put me in the mood to rewatch Death of a Salesman, 1985 version. I liked it when I first watched it in 1990. Couldn't make it through it this second time. It's just Dustin Hoffman. He wears on me.
 
OTOH I think the final scenes of Mystic River (which was also mentioned in a different thread) were an outstanding way to close the story.
Mystic River... oi... I felt that the final scene robbed the movie of any legitimacy. It was good up to that point and then Sean Penn does the ole "Who me" look and Kevin Bacon is "Ohhh... you." and Tim Robbins is all like "WTF?!"
(Tim Robbins wasn't in the final scene!) I really don't understand the objection. If you object to a specific lack of realism, my answer is: Many great stories rely on exaggeration, coincidence or unlikely twist. The impossible "letters of transit" in Casablanca come to mind as an impossibility essential to a great story.
*spoilers*

Not realism. Who cares about realism. However, a movie must reside within the bubble it is creating. The main character kills the wrong person (who is also his friend). Shows regret, gets the "Wife pep-talk" cliché, and in the end (like immediately) doesn't seem to care that he needlessly murdered his friend... especially in light that the other main character, a police detective (also friend of the two) knows he killed the guy and is exhibiting bravado over how he presumes the officer will never be able to prove the guilt.

That isn't a realism issue, that is a plot defect. There would have been viable ways for Penn's character to internally resolve how what he did wasn't wrong, and in fact, was still a good thing. He is a criminal, that shouldn't be too hard, but the movie didn't go there. Instead, of himself (the criminal) internally managing and justifying it, we get Eve from the Garden resetting the pins saying 'it doesn't matter'. Somehow turning all of the protagonists into villains or hapless fools or worse yet, pathetic losers (dead guy's wife).

The outside of the bubble ending is why I haven't watched it again... like the latest Batman, despite how good most of the rest was.
 
Vivarium (2019) 7/10
Unique and interesting (to me). I don't want to give too much away. The official description:
"A young couple looking for the perfect home find themselves trapped in a mysterious labyrinth-like neighborhood of identical houses."
Which covers the first half hour.
Posible spoilers:



Based on 'The Midwitch Cuckoos' witch I never read, and 'Children of the Corn' which i'd forgotten.
So I didn't know what to expect.
Focuses mostly on the couple, not the child, or the town.

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(I Forgot-the-title) 4/10
Bruce Willis as a retired CIA operative.
A team from a foreign agency finds out where he is and attacks his retirement village.
An action movie with very little action by Willis.
Willis phones-in his performance.
I've seen several of Willis's recent movies that seem like the humor and life have drained out of Willis.
In another one he plays a small town sherif, who lets the deputy do all the action.
I don't know if it's poor wighting or directing, but if Willis isn't the action star he once was, he should try drama or comedy roles.
We've seen him handle both in the slow parts of his action films.
 
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