Last Movie You Watched

[Cato]

One of the best movies in our collection:


The Spitfire Grill

A young woman hit by tragedies throughout her childhood and into early adulthood tries to find a new life in a small town in Maine.

It has one of the finest speeches you will hear in any movie: delivered by Will Patton toward the end.


Music by James Horner, with help from Gustav Mahler's Second and Third Symphonies!





Highly recommended!

[Cato]

One of the best movies in our collection:


The Spitfire Grill

A young woman hit by tragedies throughout her childhood and into early adulthood tries to find a new life in a small town in Maine.

It has one of the finest speeches you will hear in any movie: delivered by Will Patton toward the end.


Music by James Horner, with help from Gustav Mahler's Second and Third Symphonies!





Highly recommended!

The actress at the center of the movie is Alison Elliott, who should have gotten a Best Actress award and become better known, but...

[Cato]

A 1935 comedy with Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Edmund Gwenn, and Brian Aherne.




Katharine Hepburn pretends to be a man, Cary Grant has a Cockney accent, and comic chaos ensues most of the time.

A good number of jokes, of course, come from Hepburn's role as a fake man.  Probably in 1935 one would have viewed the movie as giddily edgy. 

There are some good lines:

Hepburn to Cary Grant: "You've got the mind of a pig!"

He: "It's a pig's world!"   

[NumberSix]

Doc (1971)

Stacy Keach plays Doc Holliday, and Faye Dunaway is his love interest. I saw this one mentioned in Tarantino's book amongst other early 70s cynical films. In this one, Wyatt Earp as described by Tarantino is a fascist murderer instead of a hero. I have to agree. He's thoroughly unlikable.

The film is a bit slow moving at times, but it doesn't pull any punches philosophically. Dunaway is a powerhouse actress, and I adore her. But this is not her best work. I don't feel like she and Keach sparkled strongly.

One other thought:

Everything I know about Wyatt Earp comes from Tombstone (well, and John Ford and Henry Fonda). A number of little details in this film made me think that the makers of Tombstone studied it. For instance, the way Morgan Earp says "brother" several times is very similar to the way Bill Paxton says it. And this Wyatt Earp several times knocks down a bad guy using the butt of his pistol, which is something Kurt Russell also does.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Doc (1971)

Stacy Keach plays Doc Holliday, and Faye Dunaway is his love interest. I saw this one mentioned in Tarantino's book amongst other early 70s cynical films. In this one, Wyatt Earp as described by Tarantino is a fascist murderer instead of a hero. I have to agree. He's thoroughly unlikable.

The film is a bit slow moving at times, but it doesn't pull any punches philosophically. Dunaway is a powerhouse actress, and I adore her. But this is not her best work. I don't feel like she and Keach sparkled strongly.

One other thought:

Everything I know about Wyatt Earp comes from Tombstone (well, and John Ford and Henry Fonda). A number of little details in this film made me think that the makers of Tombstone studied it. For instance, the way Morgan Earp says "brother" several times is very similar to the way Bill Paxton says it. And this Wyatt Earp several times knocks down a bad guy using the butt of his pistol, which is something Kurt Russell also does.

I saw the movie when I was a kid, and I was not impressed. I must revisit the movie as Doc Holliday is my favorite hero. Tombstone is a fine movie.

[brewski]

After seeing the "Black and Chrome" version of Mad Max: Fury Road, I think I'm ready to commit to "favorite action movie of all time." (Other contenders: Aliens, Terminator II, The Fugitive, some of the Bond films, and perhaps a few in the Mission: Impossible series.)

I do want to see the color version at some point. But here is the sandstorm sequence from the black-and-white print, which is just a knockout piece of filmmaking.

-Bruce

[DavidW]

After seeing the "Black and Chrome" version of Mad Max: Fury Road, I think I'm ready to commit to "favorite action movie of all time." (Other contenders: Aliens, Terminator II, The Fugitive, some of the Bond films, and perhaps some in the Mission: Impossible series.)

I do want to see the color version at some point. But here is the sandstorm sequence from the black-and-white print, which is just a knockout piece of filmmaking.

-Bruce

"What a day!  What a lovely day!"
"WITNESS!  WITNESS ME!!"
"I live!  I die!  I live again!"

I love that movie.

[DavidW]

I rewatched Robocop.  It was spot on the prediction for Detroit, and not far off for over-commericalization.  I especially liked the ad for a name-brand heart replacement. "And remember, we care."  It is such a funny movie.



I want a car with shitty gas mileage!



I'd buy that for a dollar!

[brewski]

"What a day!  What a lovely day!"
"WITNESS!  WITNESS ME!!"
"I live!  I die!  I live again!"

I love that movie.

(To the quotes)

Just saw it a couple of years ago, late in the game. The previous Mad Max films were (and are) excellent, but this one raised the bar considerably. I remember at the 2016 Oscars, it was nominated for a ton of awards, but Spotlight won Best Picture — haven't seen that one yet. But it's hard for me to imagine a more bravura bit of filmmaking than this one.

-Bruce

[Karl Henning]

I rewatched Robocop.  It was spot on the prediction for Detroit, and not far off for over-commericalization.  I especially liked the ad for a name-brand heart replacement. "And remember, we care."  It is such a funny movie.



I want a car with shitty gas mileage!



I'd buy that for a dollar!

Of all the things which the remake did not refresh, that irreverent sense of humor is what I miss most.

[DavidW]

Of all the things which the remake did not refresh, that irreverent sense of humor is what I miss most.

I forgot there even was a remake!

[Karl Henning]

I forgot there even was a remake!

The best thing to be said about the remake, perhaps, is that they probably paid Michael Keaton and Gary Oldman well.

[DavidW]

I have never seen it (Jaws 4) but by all accounts it is terrible. However, I have seen the house that it built and it is terrific --Michael Caine

[VonStupp]

I forgot there even was a remake!

And two sequels... The third at least brought back Poledouris' theme.
VS

[Karl Henning]

I have never seen it (Jaws 4) but by all accounts it is terrible. However, I have seen the house that it built and it is terrific --Michael Caine

Classic Caine!

[Cato]

Great character actors in this one: Earl Holliman, Strother Martin, Dennis Hopper, John Doucette, George Kennedy, et al.

"She blamed Texas for taking her sons. Texas is a woman, she used to say, a big, wild, beautiful woman. You raise a kid to where he's got some size, and there's Texas whispering in his ear and smiling, saying, "Come and have some fun!."

"We want you to become rich and respectable, so you're going back to college!"

"I don't want to be rich and respectable: I want to be like you!"

[Cato]

Double Feature tonight!  John Wayne Westerns!



Stagecoach, 1939, directed by John Ford.

This movie moved John Wayne out of small studios and "B-movies."

In 1930, he had made an epic 70mm movie called The Big Trail, directed by Raoul Walsh.

Unfortunately, the Depression prevented theaters from investing in the new 70mm technology, and the more expensive tickets in the few theaters able to show the movie kept people away.  The failure of the movie sent John Wayne back to the minors, so to speak.

A similar fate happened to a 65mm movie around the same time with Jean Arthur and Robert Armstrong called Danger Lights, which featured an amazing locomotive tug-of-war.

The Big Trail is available on a restored Blu-Ray, as is Stagecoach.  Danger Lights is only available in a 35mm version, so far unrestored.

[Karl Henning]

One of the best movies in our collection:


The Spitfire Grill

A young woman hit by tragedies throughout her childhood and into early adulthood tries to find a new life in a small town in Maine.

It has one of the finest speeches you will hear in any movie: delivered by Will Patton toward the end.


Music by James Horner, with help from Gustav Mahler's Second and Third Symphonies!





Highly recommended!

To the Library catalogue I go!

TD: last night, Star Wars (1977)  I don't say it's a great movie, especially with Lucas's irrelevant "improvements," but it's still good fun, and if it is not concert music, Jn Williams' score is a  notable asset. He was a professional, so I am unsurprised, but I always marvel at Sir Alec Guinness' dignified delivery of some of the most banal lines of his career.

[Cato]

To the Library catalogue I go!

TD: last night, Star Wars (1977)  I don't say it's a great movie, especially with Lucas's irrelevant "improvements," but it's still good fun, and if it is not concert music, Jn Williams' score is a  notable asset. He was a professional, so I am unsurprised, but I always marvel at Sir Alec Guinness' dignified delivery of some of the most banal lines of his career.

You remind me of an interview with Richard Basehart, when in later middle age he was offered a TV show called Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, which was something less than a classic.

During the off-season he performed in the theater, and was in a production of a Shakespeare play (I think it was King Lear).

The interviewer said that Shakespeare must be very hard to do, after something so simple like Voyage.

Richard Basehart said that the reporter had it backwards:

"No, Shakespeare is easy because the lines are there!"

[LKB]

So the most recent film I've been semi-introduced to ( via a reaction video ) was 1987's Amazon Women on the Moon. Fortunately, my favorite bit has been uploaded:

https://youtu.be/-sTD9gFOcP8?si=dbmLf8TgCvKO_MSJ