What was the last movie you watched?

[Mike Bulgakov]

I didn't actually "watch" this movie, but while scanning through the channels I came across Dirty Harry
and the "Well, do you feel lucky, punk" scene. It made no sense because the gun was not that close to the
criminal, and it seemed that Harry could have just kicked it away- a meaningless dramatic scene.
What actually caught my attention was the ugliness of the cars in the movie (1971). They were long,
rectangular, clunky, unresponsive, barge-like behemoths. I can't remember anything else I saw.

Coincidentally, within the last week I watched a documentary about John Milius, who wrote an uncredited draft of the screenplay,

and watched another film directed by Don Siegel, The Lineup, also set in San Francisco. It's a decent, mostly mundane police procedural, but I enjoyed it for the all the San Francisco location shots, and the final car chase winding up on the under-construction Embarcadero Freeway, which was torn down after the 1989 earthquake.

Studios are very aware of the cultural zeitgeist and try to tap into a mood. Films can make big bucks as a cathartic release, and Dirty Harry played into the the same anxiety and backlash that Pat Buchanan weaponized as a political strategist in the late 1960s/early 70s. It was very divisive for this reason, with many critics like Roger Ebert criticizing the film's message.

I mentioned another film directed by Don Siegel in this thread around a year ago, The Killers, based on a Hemingway story and mainly notable as Ronald Reagan's last film.

 

[Midaso240]

Not technically the last I saw, but a few days ago I saw Challengers in the cinema, opened here a week before it's due to have it's United States release for some reason. Really enjoyed it, to cut a long story short I think it's the best tennis movie ever made assuming all-time classics like Strangers On A Train and Annie Hall that only have a very minor tennis component aren't included in that list.

 

[Sudacafan]

A documental of the loss of the ARA San Juan on Netflix.
I was very pissed off because of what I learned.

 

[Bagumbawalla]

It has been a rough couple months and I was in the mood for something light.
On the "old movie" channel I saw Made For Each Other- with Carole Lombard and James Stewart.
It seemed perfect. How could I miss.

Fifteen minutes into the film I was wondering if Youtube had a tutorial on wrist-slitting.
A newly married couple with all the hopes and dream in the world suffers every kind of
frustration, hardship and unfairness almost from the start.

The movie came out (1939) during the Great Depression. It was as if they were trying to make the audience
forget their own troubles by showing them that at least their lives were better than this couple's.

A bit of a synopsis I copied from somewhere-
John Mason is a young attorney in New York City and a milquetoast. He has been doing his job well, and he has a chance of being made a partner in his law firm, especially if he marries Eunice, the daughter of his employer, Judge Doolittle. However, John meets Jane during a business trip, and they fall in love and marry immediately. Eunice eventually marries another lawyer in the firm, Carter. John's impertinent mother is disappointed with his choice, and an important trial forces him to cancel the honeymoon. He wins the case, but by that time Judge Doolittle has chosen John's kowtowing yes-man coworker Carter as the new partner.

Jane encourages John to demand a raise and a promotion, but with finances tightened by the Depression, Doolittle requires that all employees accept pay cuts. After Jane has a baby, John becomes discouraged by his unpaid bills, and his mother, who lives with them in their small apartment, is destroying their marriage.

On New Year's Eve, 1938–39, the baby is rushed to the hospital with pneumonia. The baby will die within hours unless a serum is delivered by plane from Salt Lake City. Doolittle agrees to provide funding to deliver the serum, but with a storm raging, and with a wife and children to consider, the pilot refuses to fly...

Video clip-

 

[MICHELUZZO]

 

[NoleFam]

I watched Dune 2 last night. Best movie I've seen in a while.

Silence!

 

[Mike Bulgakov]

“Three Poplars in Plyushchikha” is a 1967 Russian popular classic about the unexplored romance between a rural married woman on a business trip to Moscow and a lonely cab driver. Director Tatyana Lioznova conveys time and the dreamscape of the rural woman's mind, as well as the rhythm of 1966/67 Moscow streets, in a lyrical fashion that made the film very engaging. It was shot in B&W, but was colorized in 2011 for Russian television. I watched the colorized version on Amazon Prime, but would recommend the B&W version, as much of the mood and use of shadows in the original were nullified by the colorizing process.

Wiki Trivia: The car in which Sasha drives Nyura is GAZ M21 Volga which belongs to Mosfilm and was used for many of the studio's pictures. It is currently on display at the Mosfilm museum.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Poplars_in_Plyushchikha

A toy model of Sasha's taxi was sold.

A

 

[naturalexponent]

Oppenheimer

 

[Bagumbawalla]

The other day, while looking for Don't Look Now to watch for free, I came across Bringing Up Baby- With Katharine Hepburn
and Cary Grant- directed by Howard Hawks. It took my mind off not finding that other movie.

It's hard to say if the acting was any good. I became embarrassed for the actors who had to say ridiculous things and, basically, act like idiots.
Imagine a movie where every character was a Marx Brother, saying idiotic things. It would be a bit much.

Additionally, Susan's character varied throughout the film. At first she was absent-minded, self-centered, entitled, dismissive and unconcerned with the problems
of others, then later (when she decides she is in love with David for no good reason), she becomes manipulative and controlling. Then, in the jail scene, she
invents a new persona and, like a magician, escapes- outfoxing everyone there.

All the while, I kept wondering what the Susan part might have been like if it had been acted by Carol Lombard who was so much more adept at
treading that fine line between simple and genius.

The movie had its funny moments. I laughed out loud during the dinner table scene with Charles Ruggles and Mary Robson.

Overall, the movie was well crafted and well thought out as the scenes smoothly evolved from one lunacy to another, like
dominos, to the inevitable conclusion.

 

[Bhagi Katbamna]

Stargate:
In which Kurt Russell utters the immortal line: "Give my regards to King Tut," a-hole(except he says the word).

 

[ollinger]

"Knox Goes Away" (2024)

Michael Keaton directs, and stars, as a guy with a PhD in literature, another PhD in history, so of course he works as.......a contract killer. Other twists and turns ensue, and the whole thing feels a little preposterous, with some marginal performances by some of the secondary players.