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Author Topic: What Movie Did You Watch This Weekend? The Third.  (Read 428096 times)

Offline Flyboy

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Re: What Movie Did You Watch This Weekend? The Third.
« Reply #2745 on: June 20, 2021, 09:00:05 AM »
I watched The Hangover, Part II last night. Just wanted some simple, no thinking entertainment!  :P :laugh:

Offline B.W.

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Re: What Movie Did You Watch This Weekend? The Third.
« Reply #2746 on: June 20, 2021, 08:28:03 PM »
^^^ More than we the public will ever know.  Unless someone with a set of @@ is willing to take a $$ risk on such smaller "indy" films, they never see the light of day.  There's another script/book I wish Ossana would consider backing / making but perhaps 1 "highly controversial film" a lifetime is enough.  V.




So true.  I feel that the most controversial movies sometimes tend to be the most interesting ones.

Offline B.W.

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Re: What Movie Did You Watch This Weekend? The Third.
« Reply #2747 on: June 20, 2021, 08:32:52 PM »
I watched The Hangover, Part II last night. Just wanted some simple, no thinking entertainment!  :P :laugh:




I've never seen any of the films in "THE HANGOVER" series, they sound like they wouldn't really interest me.  However, there's nothing wrong with movies that provide light entertainment that don't require you to take them seriously.  They can be fun.  Heck, I may not be a teenager, but I think Amy Heckerling's "CLUELESS" (1995) and Tina Fey's "MEAN GIRLS" (2004) are always fun to watch.  They deal with bullying, teenage life, high school, the last clothing fashions, a societal outcast who manages to join the "in" crowd, finding your first love, popularity, being true to yourself etc.; all interesting social themes, but they do it in a thoughtful comedic manner.  Light entertainment can still discuss serious issues- and they can sometimes deal with them in a unique way.

Offline Flyboy

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Re: What Movie Did You Watch This Weekend? The Third.
« Reply #2748 on: June 25, 2021, 10:00:14 AM »
I recorded A Quiet Place and hope to watch it this weekend, in a totally DARK room! Then maybe I'll see the sequel in a real theater here!  ;D

Offline gattaca

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Re: What Movie Did You Watch This Weekend? The Third.
« Reply #2749 on: June 25, 2021, 10:49:31 AM »
^^^^ LOL.. prepare to get "jumpy" (if you've not seen it)... although, since I only saw it once in theaters, it might get me good again.  :)  V.

Offline Flyboy

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Re: What Movie Did You Watch This Weekend? The Third.
« Reply #2750 on: June 26, 2021, 11:36:48 AM »
A Quiet Place was interesting. But those creatures, oh MY! I can't decide whether to see Part II or not.  :o

Offline gattaca

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Re: What Movie Did You Watch This Weekend? The Third.
« Reply #2751 on: June 27, 2021, 03:02:58 AM »
QP1 was unique in it's approach to visual silence being terrorizing. LOL..  had me squirming in my seat, hunched forward at times.... and the nail... oh my.  ;) 

I've not seen QP2 b/c they opened it in theaters only 28 May 21. It goes streaming sometime I think mid-late July 2021.  At this point, I might stream it - mixed.

It's getting good/great reviews mostly on Rotten.

A few more critical reviews reveal, like in RS, the corporate $$ machine has taken over and the story is now lost down the 2, 3, 4, chasm. For me, that really spoils the hope of a good, unique story where Krasinski expands his characters (and monsters) beyond what we saw in QP1.   Feels/Reads much like the "Walking Dead" started out and then just could not stop long after the best parts were played.  (My .02 from reading reviews but NOT seeing the film yet).   

Rotten >  https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/a_quiet_place_2
Ebert's site > https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/a-quiet-place-part-2-movie-review-2021
Guardian > https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/may/18/a-quiet-place-part-ii-review-emily-blunt-horror-is-a-something-to-scream-about
Rolling Stone > https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-reviews/quiet-place-part-2-movie-review-emily-blunt-1170324/

Stay safe, stay alive!  V.

Offline Lyle (Mooska)

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Re: What Movie Did You Watch This Weekend? The Third.
« Reply #2752 on: July 03, 2021, 11:48:30 AM »

--The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex

I saw this once such a long time ago when it had been out on VHS for awhile before being out of print for decades. Recently, a Blu-Ray release has appeared, which I bought recently, to glowing reviews. Not only is it a crackling story between the title characters, but it was filmed in technicolor and it's one of the most gorgeously filmed movies.

You can't take your eyes off Bette Davis and Errol Flynn is at his most appealing. A friend tells me Olivia DeHavilland, who has a supporting role, was not happy about doing this movie, career wise. He said that Jack Warner made her do it because he was mad at how Olivia persuaded Warner's wife to talk to him about letting her out of her contract to do Gone with the Wind that same year. Vincent Price is in this movie, too, and recently I've noticed him in so many films, and films of different types, and he's always quite good in them. I was surprised to also see Nanette Fabray in this movie, which I discovered was her first film. In this one you might overlook her as she isn't the personality we came to know her as over the years. She's also billed here as Nanette Fabares.

Technicolor was very expensive, but in 1938 and 1939 Warner put the money into a few grand movies in Technicolor like this one, Dodge City and the glorious The Adventures of Robin Hood. (All with Errol Flynn!) I guess the expense and the onset of WWII thwarted the production of technicolor films as they became few and far between throughout most of the 1940's, exceptions being mostly the M-G-M musicals. (The 1940's is the only decade where a color film did not win Best Picture, though a handful were nominated.*) I mention all this because it's a real shame that Warner did not film Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) in technicolor. Although I like the film, anytime I've seen it, or scenes from it, I always think this. They did do a colorized version early on in the colorization process, but the early colorized films they did are now noticeably inferior to what they can do now.

*Note: Even the two films that won Best Picture for 1927/28 and 1928/29 had some color effects and/or tinting in them.

I recommend this film very highly.
________

I just have to say that I did a spell check before I posted this entry and the spell check thought I might want to change DeHavilland to Defoliant. LOL!  Olivia DeFoliant!  :laugh:

Offline Lyle (Mooska)

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Re: What Movie Did You Watch This Weekend? The Third.
« Reply #2753 on: July 03, 2021, 12:33:03 PM »

--Cruella

Quite some time ago when I heard they were making an origin story of Cruella DeVil I was intrigued. I have read the book by Dodie Smith and there's somewhat of a backstory of Cruella in it. (In the book Cruella is married and Anita and Roger attend a dinner at Cruella's house.)

When I found out that the movie was going to be more of an origin story of how Cruella became the Cruella of the live action Glenn Close versions, I was much less interested. It sounded dreadful.

Then earlier this year I saw a trailer for it that I absolutely abhorred. Then I saw another trailer that I was again intrigued by. And yet another I did not like. I did know I was going to see it regardless because I've always been fascinated with 101 Dalmatians since the first moment I saw it on Easter Sunday way back in 1961.

I sat down with a bowl of freshly popped popcorn and orange soda and awaited what I was in for.

All through this movie I was resisting it. Resisting what it was because largely I wanted it to be what "I" wanted it to be and it was never going to be that. But all through the movie it kept winning me over here and there so I was conflicted all the way through. (If I watch it again, knowing what it is, I could make a fairer judgment to others about it.)

I give the scene design and art direction an A. The costumes, some of which were brilliant, get an A. The choice of music they have in the movie is obvious, like they had a set playlist of things they wanted to use, but I liked the playlist so I give that an A, but the use of it I give a B-. Both Emma Stone and Emma Thomson I give an A- in their portrayals here. The script has some great moments, but it often veers into odd territory so I give it B. The movie did not feel long to me, though it is too long at 2 hrs. 20 mins. which I grade a C. The movie has an obvious pandering to wokeness, which I grade an F, by casting a black actress as a young Anita, in what is a thankless role the actress doesn't even do justice to, and casting Roger, a smaller role, as an Indian man. I don't know if "all" the time the main three Dalmatians they have in the movie are computer generated, but it is very noticeable that they are in a few scenes, and i give that a D-. I sum this all up in my one viewing with a B-. As much as I was resisting it as I watched, I kept succumbing to it.

One thing I laughed at the most needs an explanation first. On the animated release (DVD & Blu-Ray) they have some extra features and one of them is about how Walt Disney courted the author of the book, Dodie Smith, and talks about the correspondence they wrote to each other throughout the process of making the original film. After Dodie Smith had seen the film Disney asked her what she thought of it. She was mostly complimentary, but she apparently was unhappy that her credit in the title sequence was rather small.

Now I don't know if the credit in the Cruella movie was intentional on the movie creators' part, or not, but while the credit comes on for Dodie Smith, it is stylized and gigantic across the widescreen and all by itself:

Based on the novel
The One Hundred and One Dalmatians
by DODIE SMITH.

That made me laugh. It also made me laugh because this film is hardly based on the novel she wrote.

Before I post this I just looked up what critics are saying about it. Rotten Tomatoes has the critics giving it a positive rating, as of today, of 75%, the consensus being: Cruella can't quite answer the question of why its title character needed an origin story, but this dazzling visual feast is awfully fun to watch whenever its leading ladies lock horns.

The audience score on rotten tomatoes is a whopping 97% :o with their consensus being: With dazzling costumes, a great soundtrack, and a pair of terrific performances from Emma Stone and Emma Thompson, Cruella shows a classic character in an entertaining new light.

That probably is the reason I heard earlier this week they are red lighting a sequel. (I say quit while you are ahead!)


Offline Lyle (Mooska)

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Re: What Movie Did You Watch This Weekend? The Third.
« Reply #2754 on: July 03, 2021, 01:27:51 PM »

--The Out-of-Towners (1970)

I haven't seen this in so long, but whenever I think of it, it is fondly, and for awhile I've wanted to revisit it.

This film stars Jack Lemmon and Sandy Dennis as a small town Ohio couple. Lemmon has a job interview in New York City that could propel him to the top of his profession where they'd be able to live in luxury in NYC and presumably have it made. Lemmon believes the interview is just a formality and that he's a shoe in. They head from their house, saying good-bye to their two kids and a babysitter and are on the way to the airport, with Lemmon telling his wife how perfect their little trip is going to be and the excitement of what's about to happen. Once they are in the air for the short flight to NYC anything and everything that could possibly thwart them happens and doesn't let up throughout the entire film.

The film was written by Neil Simon and directed by Arthur Hiller. The role is a tour de force for Lemmon and Dennis as they try to cope with everything that's thrown at them, with often hilarious results. The film Planes, Trains and Automobiles has a similar premise to this and this film itself was remade in 1999 with Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn. What I like about this film is that the things that happen to the couple in the film they try to deal with in the moment without any feeling sorry for themselves. It allows the film a forward momentum and no moments of feeling sorry for them, which is why I don't like Planes, Trains etc. and why the remake of this film is bad. Steve Martin's reactions to the bad things happening to him are often moments that seem designed for the audience to feel sorry for him. It slows down the movie and it isn't satisfying.

It might surprise current audiences to find that in 1970, New York City was not seen as the greatest place on earth like it's been deemed when times became better for it in the late 80's and when you were supposed to feel huge sympathy for all things NY after 9/11. In 1970 it was bad in NYC and it was in or near bankruptcy by the mid-70's. Movies like Midnight Cowboy (1969) and The Out-of-Towners (1970) would make you want to stay away from there in droves. In fact, The Out-of-Towners could've been called NYC vs. the Kellermans (Lemmon and Dennis' last name in the films). It's why the 1999 remake works even less. NYC wasn't seen as such a threat as it was in 1970.

I do realize that, depending on someone's mood, this film might not strike one very amusing at all when the characters are encountering all their misfortunes, but it's their tenacity, stubbornness and single mindedness throughout to get to their destination and solve each little dilemma along the way that is what makes it admirable and very amusing. (And I always state that comedies are better with an audience or a group.)


Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: What Movie Did You Watch This Weekend? The Third.
« Reply #2755 on: July 03, 2021, 06:50:31 PM »
--The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex

Haven't watched that one years. Not my favorite EF film--maybe because I knew how it ended before I watched it the first time  ;D --but it is a gorgeous film, and I agree, EF was very appealing.

Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: What Movie Did You Watch This Weekend? The Third.
« Reply #2756 on: July 04, 2021, 04:00:15 PM »
--The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex

Lyle, have you ever seen Bette's other outing as Elizabeth I, The Virgin Queen, with Richard Todd as Sir Walter Raleigh--and Joan Collins in the cast!  :o

Offline rmperalta

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Re: What Movie Did You Watch This Weekend? The Third.
« Reply #2757 on: July 04, 2021, 09:30:48 PM »
Started watching Before Sunrise with my BF this weekend (we had to pause though and make dinner for my mom, sister, and my sister's BF). I hope he likes the Before trilogy as much as I do!

Offline Lyle (Mooska)

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Re: What Movie Did You Watch This Weekend? The Third.
« Reply #2758 on: July 05, 2021, 10:09:46 AM »
Lyle, have you ever seen Bette's other outing as Elizabeth I, The Virgin Queen, with Richard Todd as Sir Walter Raleigh--and Joan Collins in the cast!  :o

Yes, I have seen that one. She shaved her head for the part and came to the Oscars like that while filming, causing quite a bit of press.

Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: What Movie Did You Watch This Weekend? The Third.
« Reply #2759 on: July 05, 2021, 10:27:52 AM »
Yes, I have seen that one. She shaved her head for the part and came to the Oscars like that while filming, causing quite a bit of press.

I'm sure she loved every bit of the attention.  ;D