What was the last movie you saw?

[j. d. worthington]

Another couple of older horror/sf films:

The Invisible Man's Revenge (1944) which, despite some quite good moments and good comic acting by some of the secondary players, was not at all well thought-out nor executed... though the look is also quite good. Carradine does well, though isn't given enough to really shine; and Gale Sondergaard is simply wasted in the part she was given. Also, unlike its predecessors, you simply cannot sympathize with the main character here at all. Whereas Rains' Griffin, though quite the homicidal maniac, nonetheless has a grandeur to him which one can admire, here you have a rather cheap character with no redeeming qualities whatsoever... which rather saps the dynamism of the entire thing. Pity, as it had such potential....

The Crawling Eye (aka The Trollenberg Terror; 1958) -- another odd mix which has some rather good performances, a genuine tension in places, and then falls apart quite badly. The menace of the (American) title doesn't help, either. Still, I think this film deserves better than it usually gets, as there is an intriguing story, the aforementioned good performances (a few are really very good), and the ability to achieve suspense and eeriness at times despite all odds; but still definitely a "B" picture (Janet Munro, at least, deserved better).

[Connavar]

The Hidden Fortress - another quality Kurosawa,Mifune film. They show how a timeless a film from the 50s can be.

Not the best by Kurosawa but it was good in that it was more social,satire of a story. The two greedy farmers chasing gold the whole film was hilarious.

[Mouse]

Saw 27 Dresses and then something with Drew Barrymore doing an awful accent, think it was called Ever After. Maybe. Both were on TV. Both hideously depressing.

[Boneman]

Just saw Dagenham Girls - the trailers lied... the film was ten times better than they made out! If the lead female doesn't win a Bafta, I'd be very surprised

[Moonbat]

Watched The Magician last night. An Australian film, very low budget, but doesn't detract from the film. Pretty impressive film considering the low amount of actors and cost. Started a little slowly, but the main character 'Ray' was brilliant and it had some very amusing points in it. Shot in a mocumentary style it follows Ray, a hitman as he goes round sorting out a few people. Films like this really inspire me to write an achievable screenplay. Only 83 mins.

[AE35Unit]

Four Lions, a sort of funny film about bumbling muslim terrorists in Britain.

[mosaix]

Saw The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo last night.

I was a little apprehensive as I'd enjoyed the trilogy immensely. I really enojoyed the film. It stayed close to the original plot line with a couple of sub-plots removed or truncated. This isn't surprising as the book is long and complex and would have been difficult to incorporate in its entirety.

The film is dubbed into English but its so well done that, after five minutes or so, I forgot all about it.

[Moonbat]

The film is dubbed into English

The version I watched wasn't. Nor was the Girl who played with fire. It's subtitles all the way for me

[Happy Joe]

Splice; generic, medium budget, misguided genetic scientists make monster, monster goes bad, monster kills scientist, monster dies, movie.
Rating; pretty bad, the fast forward button got a real workout trying to find something on this DVD with entertainment value, a waste of time and rental money.

Enjoy!

[Connavar]

Originally Posted by mosaix

Saw The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo last night.

I was a little apprehensive as I'd enjoyed the trilogy immensely. I really enojoyed the film. It stayed close to the original plot line with a couple of sub-plots removed or truncated. This isn't surprising as the book is long and complex and would have been difficult to incorporate in its entirety.

The film is dubbed into English but its so well done that, after five minutes or so, I forgot all about it.

Hehe i thought only some Americans watched dubbed European films

The remake is being shot here in our city,they have cut off many of the main streets for a freaking remake. Fans like you are not even waiting for it.

You should have watched the real film, why watch a Swedish film without the swedes.....

[ravenus]

Twins of Evil
Entertaining Hammer horror where vampirism meets witch-burning. The title is a bit misleading since only one of the twins is disposed to evil. Old standard Peter Cushing stars as a Christ-loving witch-hunter with a yen for torching suspected women. Atmospheric and engrossing in most part. Since this was one of the latter Hammer films we see more gore than in their classics, even a naked boob (or two).
Apparently this was part of what is called the Karnstein Trilogy. Would it be worth my while to check out the other films?

Pumping Iron
...or how Arnold Schwarzenegger won Mr. Olympia for the 6th time in a row. This was a reasonably fun docu-drama. Apparently a fair amount of the quotes and events in this film were scripted to pump Arnold up, so one can't say how much is real, but it was decent entertainment and a nice look at the club of dedicated bodybuilders. Lou 'Incredible Hulk' Ferrigno, Franco Colombu and the amateur Mike Katz come off as really nice dudes.

[ravenus]

I saw Moon, which was predictable and implausible, and should have been way less than feature film length. But it had its decent parts with Sam Rockwell and Kevin Spacey's performances. Plus it looks damn good for a $5 million movie.

[j. d. worthington]

The last couple of films I have seen are (again) re-viewings:

Ken Russell's Gothi (1986), which remains a favorite for reasons too complex to to into here, save that I am fascinated with that get-together at the Villa Diodati, the actual set of tales which inspired its outcome, and of course those literary things which emerged from the rather broad mixture of discussions and experiences related to it... all of which are addressed in one form or another (with indications of an unusual amount of actual research!) within the film. I will say, however, that, though I know most people prefer his Lair of the White Worm, and I will agree that that is a more accessible film, I think Gothic is much the finer performance....

And The Devil Rides Out (aka The Devil's Bride; 1968), one of the relatively few Hammer films where Christopher Lee gets the chance to be a "good guy" for a change. As an atheist, I am less than struck with horror at the idea of "devil worship" and all it implies, but I think they handled several things rather well here, and the film does manage some very good tension and an eerie atmosphere at several points. The ending falls flat, but the sort of resolution it has makes that pretty much inevitable. I haven't read Wheatley's novel in so long I really can't recall how closely the film follows it (though the screenplay was written by Richard Matheson), but it definitely has its good points....

[clovis-man]

It's October and time for creature features. Watched Dracula's Daughter (1936) and Son of Dracula (1943) from The Legacy Collection.

As slow paced as it is, the older film has an economical quality to it that prevents the plot from meandering and has a satisfying ending. Despite his Bing Crosby-like voice, Otto Kruger makes a fine hero. And Gloria Holden overcomes a somewhat matronly appearance to be an effective, albeit unwilling lady vampire. The newer film suffers from having cast Lon Chaney Jr. as Dracula. He's much too twitchy and snarky to be effective in the role and that was matched by the wooden portrayal of the girl inexplicably under his spell as played by Louise Allbritton.

[AE35Unit]

Originally Posted by j. d. worthington

Ken Russell's Gothi (1986), which remains a favorite for reasons too complex to to into here, save that I am fascinated with that get-together at the Villa Diodati, .

That name rings a bell-is there a link with Frankenstein there?