What was the last movie you watched?

Eraserhead

Years ago I saw this movie (maybe in college) and thought
it was interesting but when I saw recently it on TV (classic or horror channel, I don't know)
I was impressed with how little I actually remembered. Almost from beginning to
end it is an intense film full of striking images and disturbing situations.

That same day I I saw some clips of Keanu Reeves (Estragon) and Alex Winter (Vladimir)
in a Broadway version of Waiting for Godot and it was difficult not to compare the
two takes on existence, on life, itself.

The world of Godot is a bleak, distant, hopeless, disappointment, and yet the characters,
themselves (and the audience) seem detached from the horrors of life.

The comparison caused me to see Eraserhead as a comparable look at the
horror, anxiety, panic of life without the cerebral detachment.

Not a perfect movie. There were some parts that verged on "silly", but, overall, worth watching.



Not the Reeves, Winter version, but this one is better.
 
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"The Naked Gun" (2025)

Steve Martin learned this lesson when he re-made an Inspector Clouseau film -- you're not likely to achieve the acclaim or popularity of the original, and the critics will roast you. Now it's Liam Neeson's turn -- people who see this film will pine for the Leslie Nielsen original version. Myself included. And having endured Steve Martin's dreadful French accent in his Clouseau film, we have some of Neeson's Irish accent peeking through here as he plays a L.A. cop.
 
ollinger said:
"The Naked Gun" (2025)

Steve Martin learned this lesson when he re-made an Inspector Clouseau film -- you're not likely to achieve the acclaim or popularity of the original, and the critics will roast you. Now it's Liam Neeson's turn -- people who see this film will pine for the Leslie Nielsen original version. Myself included. And having endured Steve Martin's dreadful French accent in his Clouseau film, we have some of Neeson's Irish accent peeking through here as he plays a L.A. cop.
Click to expand...
Speaking of "The Naked Gun" and other related films, I came across this.
 
"Nuremberg" (2025)

Well played by big-name cast (Crowe, Malek, Shannon), dark and frequently painful to watch but we need films like this now and then to remind us of how insidious evil can be. Malek serves the same purpose here as Neeson in "Schindler's List" -- a glib fellow whose life is transformed by what is happening around him.
 
Predator: Badlands.
It was an OK sci-fi action movie but not a Predator movie. I didn't like the Disneyfication of it by including daddy issues, an annoying sidekick(the robot), and a "cute" side-kick for obvious merchandising. There are elements of a good Predator movie in there but it is somewhat ruined by the above.
 
We have "insidious evil" on the front pages of our newspapers, so why do we need reminding?

ollinger said:
"Nuremberg" (2025)

Well played by big-name cast (Crowe, Malek, Shannon), dark and frequently painful to watch but we need films like this now and then to remind us of how insidious evil can be. Malek serves the same purpose here as Neeson in "Schindler's List" -- a glib fellow whose life is transformed by what is happening around him.
Click to expand...
 
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The other day I saw Stalag 17 on a "classics" channel on TV.
It held my interest. There were lots of quirky characters doing funny bits
in-between prisoners being shot, tortured and deprived. Maybe German WWII prison
camps were full of fun and games- just like in this movie. This sort of dichotomy between
the amusing and the sad made the movie watchable, allowing the viewer space to
consider the mystery of who was the snitch/informant divulging secret plan for escape.
to the Germans. The following clip comes at a point when all the various tensions are about to snap.

 
I turned on the TV and Westward the women was on. I commented on it a while back,
but unfortunately had tuned in at the middle point when the wagon train with 150 women
headed to California was experiencing excruciating conditions during their 2,000 mile trip.
Today, I saw the beginning, when the women were signing up for the journey without knowing
the hell that they would soon be experiencing. For that reason alone it is worth seeing twice.
I have never much been into westerns, though there are some good ones out there, and this is one of the best.

 
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Predator: Badlands.
Basically a young predator being led around by 1/2 of a 100lb woman whose legs have a higher body count than the predator.
They massacred my boy. I hate the fact that Disney owns everything.
 
Relay
Whistleblower needing protection and guidence to safeguard and negotiate info with corrupt corporation is aided through instructions given by a relay phone call system that keeps the identity of her helper anonymous. Recommended.
 
Stravinsky (1963)


Found this Canadian made-for-television documentary, where a film crew followed Igor Stravinsky around during a trip to Canada and ship voyage back to Europe, oddly mesmerizing. It was interesting to observe Stravinsky at that stage of life, how people interacted with him, the cultural and material world of the early 1960s, and how gentlemanly Stravinsky was in hinting that it was time for the film crew to go away as their intrusive presence grew tiresome towards the end.
 
Well, I saw a large portion of The Miracle of Morgan's Creek last night
on TV and I think I'm having a difficult time writing about it. It was a film that
made almost no logical sense. Most likely the outrageous, illogic of
the film was intended to make some sort of (satirical?) comment, but
when compared to the turmoil of governmental illogic, lies and crimes of
today it came across (to me anyway) as a bit weak and silly.
And yet I am a fan of surrealist and absurdist films and plays
that do not follow a conventional, logical progression.
A girl, young, "underage" and infatuated with soldiers going off to war
is forbidden by her father (a policeman) from going to a military party.
She talks her friend, Norval Jones into pretending to take her to the movies
while she attends the party. She gets back to Norval around 8:000 a.m. the next
morning with a sort of amnesia of the nights events and how she got married
and became pregnant- and then everything goes haywire.

The rest of the movie is almost impossible to explain. And so then, I won't try.
So, is the movie worth watching? The acting was good, cinematic elements well executed, the
characters sort of amusing, the writing crisp... I squirmed through it, but in the
end found it worthwhile.

 
Sisu:Road to Revenge.
An over the top action movie with a protagonist who doesn't have any dialog but acts well with his eyes and body. Really enjoyable movie that seems like an homage to action of the movies of the 1980's. Really enjoyable.
I really liked the fact that there wasn't "diversity" shoe-horned into the story(looking in your direction Christopher Nolan's Odyssey).
 
Just today on Television I saw Once upon a time in Hollywood.
I also saw it when it first came out in theaters and at that time
thought it was merely OK. It seemed like the same concept as
Inglorious Bastards- basically the creation of a revised "improved upon"
version of messed up history. I was not very impressed.

But seeing it for a second time and not really caring about the "concept"
I was freed-up to watch the individual scenes and I was impressed with the
cinematography, the amazing acting, the attention to details,
the movie within a movie and so many things I can't think of them right now.
So.......a great movie......as long as I ignore the main concept.

 
The Final Reckoning. The last Mission Implausible offering.
Hokey, but Tom Cruise can run really fast! Miss it of you can.
 
Was reading about how Melville's Bob le Flambeur influenced the French New Wave, and decided to watch it again. A very entertaining French noir crime film that influenced the Ocean Eleven films as well as P.T. Anderson's Hard Eight. It was also fun to watch the street scenes of Paris in the 1950s.

RV3IWYk.png


HI2rvCF.png


Melville influenced Godard, who influence a young Tarantino, before Quentin decided he prefers Melville.

Tarantino said: “Melville is the Godard I haven’t grown out of.” Praising the Frenchman’s take on genre, he stated: “I think Melville, along with Sergio Leone, is probably the greatest reconstructionist of genre and really delivering, completely in his own way…”
https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/director-deeply-inspired-quentin-tarantino/
 

Well I don't have much opportunity to see Goddard film, but
I think he may have borrowed an Idea from Jerry Lewis.


I saw this for the first time not long ago and was impressed.
 
Tarantino is an intellectual lightweight, so naturally enough he can't follow Goddard's more innovative movies.

Mike Bulgakov said:
Was reading about how Melville's Bob le Flambeur influenced the French New Wave, and decided to watch it again. A very entertaining French noir crime film that influenced the Ocean Eleven films as well as P.T. Anderson's Hard Eight. It was also fun to watch the street scenes of Paris in the 1950s.

RV3IWYk.png


HI2rvCF.png


Melville influenced Godard, who influence a young Tarantino, before Quentin decided he prefers Melville.

Tarantino said: “Melville is the Godard I haven’t grown out of.” Praising the Frenchman’s take on genre, he stated: “I think Melville, along with Sergio Leone, is probably the greatest reconstructionist of genre and really delivering, completely in his own way…”
https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/director-deeply-inspired-quentin-tarantino/
Click to expand...
 
Bagumbawalla said:

Well I don't have much opportunity to see Goddard film, but
I think he may have borrowed an Idea from Jerry Lewis.


I saw this for the first time not long ago and was impressed.
Click to expand...
This was co-written/directed with Jean-Pierre Gorin. Gorin and Godard collaborated for about a decade. This period was very politicized and Brechtian, and generally not very popular with audiences. Godard and Gorin formed the Dziga Vertov Group (Vertov is most famous for the Soviet film Man With a Movie Camera), and while this was made after the group's dissolution, it is still very much of the group's political orientation.

My guess is that @Bartelby is a fan of the Godard-Gorin collaborations, but many Godard fans say Gorin derailed Godard's career for ten years. Gorin moved to San Diego to become a professor at UCSD in the 1970s, and still lives there. He moved from his Paris '68 Marxism to a very leisurely life in La Jolla. I've had a chance to talk with Gorin on several occasions and like him as a person, but can't say I'm a big fan of his influence on Godard.

Godard visiting Gorin in Del Mar (San Diego) back in the late 1970s, with Wim Wenders, Alice Waters, and many other interesting characters:

HHWyero.png

Bartelby said:
Tarantino is an intellectual lightweight, so naturally enough he can't follow Goddard's more innovative movies.
Click to expand...
Tarantino is actually really sharp. He has a mind-blowing knowledge of film history, and very deep understanding of film theory. He also is very conversant on societal issues. His films are about entertainment and probably more inspired by the cinematic universe than anything else, but that's his muse. He wants to take people on an entertaining two hour ride at the theater.

Quentin did name his production company after a Godard film.


 
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The TV is full of Christmas movies and White Christmas came on while I was puttering around the house.
I have seen it before so I wasn't paying close attention, but for some reason, every so often,
Bing Crosby's face reminded me of Hannibal Lecter. Not sure I can pinpoint one particular scene. It was
more of a cumulative effect.


After White Christmas, Susan Slept Here (Dick Powell and Debbie Reynolds) came on and I was able to
catch the beginning where a 17 year-old street urchin (Reynolds) is more-or-less kidnapped by police and
taken to a 35 year-old Hollywood writer (50 in real life) so he could study her delinquent behavior to use in his next
screenplay. Shortly (the next day?) they run off to Las Vegas and are married. What happens next? Well, I
got busy and haven't finished. I did notice some musical/dance numbers (Gene Kelly inspired?), but nothing
that made any sense. I will force myself to finish- maybe tomorrow.

 
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Haven't seen it yet, but am looking forward to The Wizard of the Kremlin. It's loosely based on Vladislav Surkov's destabilized reality perception control and population management strategy (domestic and foreign), and power dynamics in Putin's Russia. It stars Jude Law, the great Alicia Vikander, and Paul Dano, and is directed by Olivier Assayas.

 
The West is incapable of doing anything credible about Russia or Russian figures. It might be better than Cumberbatch doing Assange but that's a low bar.

Mike Bulgakov said:
Haven't seen it yet, but am looking forward to The Wizard of the Kremlin. It's loosely based on Vladislav Surkov's destabilized reality perception control and population management strategy (domestic and foreign), and power dynamics in Putin's Russia. It stars Jude Law, the great Alicia Vikander, and Paul Dano, and is directed by Olivier Assayas.

Click to expand...
 
Well, just like during Halloween, we are deluged with horror movies and, since Christmas is today,
I have begun to suspect that all these Christmas movies contain that thematic element just
so that they that might get some additional play on TV at least once a year. It's about a guy (Bing Crosby's
character) who starts up an "inn" that is open only about 15 days a year. The dancing and singing
were OK, the rest of the movie made no sense (at all). Below is how AI describes the film-

The plot of the 1942 musical film
Holiday Inn
is generally considered "wafer-thin" and a simple framework on which to hang musical numbers and romantic rivalries, rather than a deeply coherent or realistic story. The narrative has several illogical elements and contrivances that critics and viewers often point out.

Plot Coherence Analysis
  • Implausible Premise: The central premise, an inn that is only open for 15 holidays a year and features elaborate, full-scale dinner shows with little to no rehearsal, is highly impractical and lacks real-world credibility. The logistics of running such an establishment are nonexistent in the film's logic.
  • Character Motivation: The characters' actions are largely driven by the need to create romantic triangles and musical opportunities, rather than believable human behavior. The leading men, Jim Hardy (Bing Crosby) and Ted Hanover (Fred Astaire), repeatedly vie for the same woman (first Lila Dixon, then Linda Mason), and their personal and professional rivalries often lead to contrived situations and misunderstandings.
  • Convenient Timing: Events in the story often happen with a neatness that serves the plot's structure. For instance, Ted conveniently shows up at the inn just as he is jilted by Lila and needs a new dance partner, which jumpstarts the main conflict with Jim over Linda.
  • Thematic over Logic: The film's primary goal was to entertain wartime audiences with Irving Berlin's songs and the star power of Crosby and Astaire, rather than provide a tightly logical narrative. The story takes a backseat to the musical performances, including the debut of the classic "White Christmas".
  • Problematic Scenes: The film also contains elements that are now considered highly offensive and jarring, most notably a performance in blackface for the "Abraham" number on Lincoln's Birthday. The inclusion and plot function of this scene are widely criticized today and further distract from any narrative consistency.
In summary, while the movie delivers on music, dance, and nostalgia, its plot makes little sense if analyzed critically for realism or logical consistency. Most viewers enjoy it as an "enjoyable bit of nonsense" for its entertainment value and musical numbers.


There is another movie that I actually like to watch during the holiday season- The 5000 fingers of Dr T. It's available to watch (free)
on Youtube. No, it is not a great movie classic, but it is a live-action film conceived and written by Dr Seuss with musical numbers
and plenty of quirkiness.

 
Bartelby said:
Many view "The Fellowship of the Ring" as being an anti-fascist allegory.

Yes, the book can be easily viewed as the antifa of its time.
Click to expand...
Or fighting off the Islamic horde. That's what so good about books.
That's why movies that portray the message of the author instead of trying to shoehorn the current political message into the work(like Rings of Power).
 
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