What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[scottsdad]

Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)

Took Scott to see it last night. Strangely at the cinema, just one trailer and no ads, so started fairly promptly. Straight into it. 

Scott was convinced ahead of time that he had seen TMP. I wasn't so sure - when had I ever wanted to watch this with him? 15 minutes in and he realised he had never seen it, and this was the first time. Poor lad. 

This film gets me the same way every time. The first 20 minutes are a bit exciting: the gang getting back together, the new look Enterprise, the Big Unknown Threat Heading for Earth. And then, nothing happens. And it keeps happening for the next 2 hours. 

Overall I am glad I saw it on the big screen. Having only seen the special effects on TV before, this was a bit of a treat. But SFX alone cannot make up for the fact that the film is just so very slow. Half of it at least must be the ship being pulled into V'Ger, passing endless special effects. 

Having been to the cinema quite a bit lately, and seen how poor attendances were (me and the kids were the only people at a showing of the Minions movie), the big surprise for me was how busy it was. This showing was about half full for a movie known to be really bad; and the Saturday showing of the Wrath of Khan I will see next week is sold out. If I were the boss of Cineworld, I'd be looking at that and showing all kinds of favourites again. Get the original Star Wars trilogy on, Back to the Future, Gremlins, Jurassic Park, Titanic (for the ladies) and so on. There is a market for seeing these old movies on the big screen. 

Finally, as we were leaving I saw one boy (a teenager) walking out ahead of me wearing a Star Trek uniform. Good on him. 

[BFTD]

23 hours ago, scottsdad said:

@BFTD - when are you going?

Not sure - my mum's the real Trekker in the family, and she's not been well, so I'm hoping to take her along for Khan. Might have to put it off until the last showing.

We were about half full in Stirling for The Motion Picture, which was better than the showing of Nope we went to. The Alien(s) double-bill was about the same too; there's definite interest in seeing the classics again. I'm still annoyed at missing Predator on the big screen when the lockdown travel restrictions were in place.

[Fullerene]

8 hours ago, scottsdad said:

Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)

Took Scott to see it last night. Strangely at the cinema, just one trailer and no ads, so started fairly promptly. Straight into it. 

Scott was convinced ahead of time that he had seen TMP. I wasn't so sure - when had I ever wanted to watch this with him? 15 minutes in and he realised he had never seen it, and this was the first time. Poor lad. 

This film gets me the same way every time. The first 20 minutes are a bit exciting: the gang getting back together, the new look Enterprise, the Big Unknown Threat Heading for Earth. And then, nothing happens. And it keeps happening for the next 2 hours. 

It is also known as "Star Trek - the Slow Motion Picture".  The book "Set Phasers to Stun" says the first five minutes is the best part of the film.

 

[BFTD]

51 minutes ago, Fullerene said:

It is also known as "Star Trek - the Slow Motion Picture".  The book "Set Phasers to Stun" says the first five minutes is the best part of the film.

Weirdly, it starts with a three minute slow zoom through a starfield, set to a gentle mix of the score. Just white dots on a black background. Eventually it fades out, the Paramount logo kicks in, followed by the opening credits. Do you think the book was including that part?

My son's face was a picture. "Does this go on much longer?"  

Edit: Kevin Smith's opinion was pretty accurate:

 

Edited August 25, 2022 by BFTD

[HailHailHayley]

The Witch on Netflix. Struggled to get past the fact that the dad was Finchy from The Office.

[Fullerene]

4 hours ago, BFTD said:

Weirdly, it starts with a three minute slow zoom through a starfield, set to a gentle mix of the score. Just white dots on a black background. Eventually it fades out, the Paramount logo kicks in, followed by the opening credits. Do you think the book was including that part?

My son's face was a picture. "Does this go on much longer?"  

Edit: Kevin Smith's opinion was pretty accurate:

 

When Star Trek started on the television, science fiction was regarded as "not for adults".  The original series was in competition with the like of "Lost in Space".  Yes it had crap episodes but that was in contrast to other shows where almost every episode was crap (e.g. Lost in Space, Time Tunnel  and Land of the Giants).

Then along comes Star Wars.  I definitely prefer Star Trek but Star Wars allowed science fiction to be taken seriously.  Hence, somebody decided to re-awaken Star Trek. 

The Motion Picture did everything wrong that Star Wars did wrong - hey special effects, irrelevant storyline etc.  Wrath of Khan got it back on course.  End of story.

[Hedgecutter]

Doctor Sleep

Utterly shite name for a film that almost put me off watching it at all, but rather enjoyed the first two hours. (takes elements from The Shining and makes the film its own). After that, the whole section at the Overlook just seemed a bit rubbish, falling into the "remember this from the first film?" nostalgia trap that several new films have fallen into (cf. the latest Ghostbusters)

It would seem that I've developed a crush on a dark-haired Rebecca Ferguson, who I'd never known the existence of until watching this last night.

[Mark Connolly]

10 hours ago, Hedgecutter said:

Doctor Sleep

Utterly shite name for a film that almost put me off watching it at all, but rather enjoyed the first two hours. (takes elements from The Shining and makes the film its own). After that, the whole section at the Overlook just seemed a bit rubbish, falling into the "remember this from the first film?" nostalgia trap that several new films have fallen into (cf. the latest Ghostbusters)

It would seem that I've developed a crush on a dark-haired Rebecca Ferguson, who I'd never known the existence of until watching this last night.

Rebecca Ferguson is outstanding. Highly recommend Mission:Impossible - Rogue Nation.

Anyway, just watched T2:Judgement Day again. Still tremendous, but I had forgotten just how good Robert Patrick was as the T1000

[Hedgecutter]

Just seen Prey, which may as well have been called 'Dances With Predator'.

Native Americans trying to take out Predator with tomahawks / bows and arrows.  Quite enjoyable.

[HailHailHayley]

Fracture on Netflix. Ryan Gosling looked 20 years younger than he does now. Anthony Hopkins looked exactly the same. 

[Scotty Tunbridge]

Beast - idris Elba and his terrible accent fight a lion. 3/10.

[MSU]

094 Beast -- I get that it's a monster flick and that it's basically Idris Elba Punches a Lion, but the lion must have been inspired by the shark in Jaws The Revenge because this dude is out for revenge against the Elba and his family. There's a lot of it shot with the camera over and behind Elba's shoulder making it feel like a video game and not helping blend the CGI environment. Remarkably stupid, not fun, and if he's dead, David Attenborough will be rolling in his grave. 2/10

095 The Florida Project (#56 in the A24 series) Sean Baker has a real eye for capturing authenticity, perhaps no better than here where the misery of a neverending cycle of poverty is offset against the bliss of being six years old and spending summer getting into trouble with your friends. The movie plays out in an area of Orlando that's a few miles away from Disney but for these characters it might as well be a few light years. The contrast between the lives of the folks at the Magic Castle Motel and the tourist of the Magic Kingdom wouldn't be starker. Life below or near the poverty line is no fantasy and Baker presents their reality as it comes with little in the way of judgment. It's bleak stuff for the most part but Willem Dafoe, Brooklynn Prince, and Bria Vinaite are all astonishingly good. 9/10

096 Friday the 13th -- Got chatting to a friend about these movies the other day so decided to go through the series and break up the A24 stuff for a bit. I'd forgotten how boring an awful lot of it is. Establishing shots go on far too long. Scenes, for example, of what should be frantic setting up of a barrier on a door are shot in a more relaxed manner. All of this contributes to a pacing issue where all the kills are squeezed into the first hour and then the denouement is stretched out over the final 30 minutes. Still a slasher movie, it's more a whodunnit as we don't know who the killer is until the final act but unfortunately, the reveal of it being Mrs Voorhees, the mother of the dead boy from 1957, makes absolutely no sense either from a logistical point of view -- she assumes her son has been dead for two decades but he's somehow survived in the wilderness alone and they've never made contact -- or a practical one -- there's no way this wee woman in her pristine wooly sweater is throwing anyone through a window. 5/10

097 The Killing of a Sacred Deer (#57 in the A24 series) Yorgos Lanthimos writes and directs this (sort of) retelling of a Greek tragedy that can best be described as intentionally weird. Colin Farrel plays Steven, a cardiologist who becomes oddly close to Martin, the son of a patient who died during an operation. From buying the kid presents to inviting him to dinner with his wife and two kids, Steven seems to allow Martin to ingratiate himself more and more with his family until matters take a turn for the worst when Steven's son loses the power of his legs and begins to refuse food. Throughout the movie, all the characters deliver their lines with a very stale precision and will frequently take a conversation in an unexpected direction, such as Martin asking Steven's daughter if she is on her period or describing his own underarm hair. It's unsettling and obviously deliberate, which makes you wonder why Lanthimos has insisted on taking it in that direction. The tone created certainly keeps the characters at arm's length which perhaps forces the viewer to focus more on the situation and keep emotion away from assumptions and decisions. Maybe that's the point. Could easily have turned this off it I hadn't been in the mood for it, but I ended up really enjoying it. 8/10

098 Friday the 13th Part II -- The movie opens with Alice, the survivor from the original, having a nightmare as she handily dreams a recap of the first movie and then we witness her swift dispatch as Jason manages to track her down somehow, stow a severed head in her fridge for some reason, and then introduce an ice pick to her temple. Twelve minutes in and we've added even more confusion to what is already a baffling mythos. Despite the fact that it's largely a cookie-cutter remake of the original, this first sequel is a better affair. The pacing has been sorted out, there are a few genuine jumps in here, and there's a moment near the end when this movie's Final Girl is holding a door closed with all her might when she realizes there's an open window right behind her that demonstrated that the makers know about tension after all. There are more boobs and even a bit of floof to keep the dads happy in between all the senseless killing. 6/10

099 Friday the 13th Part III -- The year was 1982 and the number of dimensions was 3. This was the first Friday the 13th movie I ever saw so I'm happy to skim over some of its shortcomings in favor of nostalgia and through that lens, it stands up pretty well. Jason isn't dead (shocker) and we have another bunch of teenaged holidaymakers up for a bit of horny fun camping near a place where several massacres have taken place within living memory. It's interesting to note that, of course, Jason gains his now famous hockey mask in this movie, but what I'd forgotten was the mask was originally practical-joker Shelly's, who used it in a hilarious stunt where he scared a lone woman sitting on the edge of a dock at night by donning a wetsuit and a harpoon gun and slipping on the mask. How a hockey mask helps its wearer breathe underwater is anyone's guess but I wonder how close we came to Jason Voorhees's standard garb being a scuba facemask and oxygen tanks. In other words, not even the mask makes sense in this franchise. Anyway, it's in 3D and it was the 80s so that means actors sticking clothes poles, yoyos, joints, eyeballs etc into the camera at every possible opportunity. I can't imagine this was Avatar levels of 3D forty years ago, and today in 2D it all looks a bit shit. But it's cheesy and it seems in keeping with a script that gives the impression that everyone is in on the joke here. In fact, this whole movie for the most part feels like a giant wink at its audience. The kills obviously take advantage of the new technology so at least feel a bit more fresh and inventive. 6/10

100 Friday the 13th The Final Chapter -- Remarkably, through almost 50 summers on this planet, I'd never seen The Final Chapter. This adds a certain something to the equation that is reminiscent at least of surprise at some of the events and kills. This time, the group of horny teens have moved into a lakeside house next door to Trish Jarvis and her younger perverted brother Tommy, and we also have the introduction of a potentially mythos-busting relative of one of Jason's previous victims out for revenge. Despite its reliance on familiar tropes (morgue worker eating while examining dead bodies) and stupid decisions (female going skinny dipping alone at night when the person she was expecting to meet wasn't there) and downright WTF moments (worst time for a haircut in a horror movie ever) it manages to work pretty well and is the high watermark so far. 7/10

101 Samaritan -- In a superhero universe, masked vigilante hero, Samaritan, and his equally masked brother and nemesis, erm, Nemesis, have an epic fight in a blazing warehouse because of reasons and in the aftermath, he is thought to have died. Twenty years later, 13 year old Sam has cause to believe that his reclusive neighbor, Mr Smith, is in fact the legend himself. Stallone at 70+ still has a warm place in my heart and he puts in a decent, energetic shift here, while Javon Walton as Sam is great.  The CGI is pretty poor throughout but it's not bad enough to be amusing or seem deliberate so it always jars and distracts, and it gets a wee bit too gimmicky when it begins to reveal all its secrets, but it's just over 90 minutes long, the story is followable with a little attention, and it doesn't end with half an hour of things blowing up, so it has quite a lot in its favor. 6/10

[SweeperDee]

Interstellar never fails to amaze me or move me to tears.

[pozbaird]

9 minutes ago, SweeperDee said:

Interstellar never fails to amaze me or move me to tears.

I’m like that with the movie ‘A.I. Artificial Intelligence’. Just love that film.

[SweeperDee]

I’m like that with the movie ‘A.I. Artificial Intelligence’. Just love that film.

The music, the story of man’s place as caretakers of Earth, and Father/Daughter dynamic and the overall “there is hope of humans” message is what gets me with interstellar.

[pozbaird]

3 minutes ago, SweeperDee said:

The music, the story of man’s place as caretakers of Earth, and Father/Daughter dynamic and the overall “there is hope of humans” message is what gets me with interstellar.

I like Interstellar, but the sound on the Blu Ray is rubbish - the dialogue is muffled and too quiet. I’ve played around with all the sound settings imaginable on my TV and sound system, but to no avail.

A.I. gets me every time. Haley Joel Osment’s finest hour.

[SweeperDee]

I like Interstellar, but the sound on the Blu Ray is rubbish - the dialogue is muffled and too quiet. I’ve played around with all the sound settings imaginable on my TV and sound system, but to no avail.
A.I. gets me every time. Haley Joel Osment’s finest hour.

What, really? I’ve always found it was too loud in places but perfect the rest. Nolan has previous for buggering about his audio though so might be some technical thing that can affect it.

Absolutely agree; it’s a definite GOAT of a film I’d say.

[N5 Spur]

The Man With The Iron Heart - iPlayer

Reinhard Heydrich was the main architect and planner of Hitler's Final Solution, the extermination of the Jewish race from Europe. The film covers Heydrich's time and assassination in Prague (in the main) where he was SS Acting Protector of Bohemia and Moravia (which to a degree was what is now Czechia and Slovakia), as well the the Czech Resistance planning of the assassination, who were trained in the UK.

Brutal, at times moving and utterly compelling in its drama - 8/10.


footnote - I knew a fair bit of Heydrich from the planning of the Final Solution. The film Conspiracy starring Kenneth Branagh, Stanley Tucci and Colin Firth covers the extraordinary 90 minute meeting and the way the SS 'coerced' other German administrative departments into accepting the plan (which the SS had already set in place). If you are ever in Berlin, a short out of town visit to Wannsee is highly recommended as this was the location of the Final Solution meeting - a beautiful lake-front mansion, where it's hard to imagine planning such an atrocity in such a stunning location.

[pozbaird]

7 hours ago, SweeperDee said:

What, really? I’ve always found it was too loud in places but perfect the rest. Nolan has previous for buggering about his audio though so might be some technical thing that can affect it.

Absolutely agree; it’s a definite GOAT of a film I’d say.

Yeah, it’s a great film. ‘Contact’ is another brilliant film in that ballpark, also featuring Matthew McConaughey. 

[Arch Stanton]

Horrible Boses.

Jennifer Aniston.