Last Movie You Watched - 2020

Wanted to watch some old SF, inspired by my book review this week. In the end I ended up with Fantastic Voyage (1966) on Bluray, with the wonderful Donald Pleasance. (Local hero done good!) Still looks pretty good for its age, and despite the scientific implausibility, still in places made me hold my breath!

They don't make them like they used to. :)

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Admit it - you just watched it for Raquel Welsh in PVC ;)


Tonight at JunkMonkey Mansions: The Handmaiden - A rewatch and not as wonderful as I remember but then I have just read the book it was 'inspired by' very recently and I was very conscious of the way the film wandered well away from (and simplified) the complicated, revelation-filled latter third of the novel. First time I saw the film it had been ages since I read the book and the finer detail had gone from my memory; this time I was aware of so much that was missing. I know things have to be condensed and skipped and reshaped when adapting from one medium to another but some of the short cuts and changes here took the gloss off it for me. Still a damn fine piece of film making though.
 
JunkMonkey said:
Admit it - you just watched it for Raquel Welsh in PVC
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Ha ha! No: but I can see how that could have been used as a selling point! I'm just in the mood for old SF movies.

Yesterday I watched This Island Earth

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and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (the movie with Walter Pidgeon, not the TV series), both on Bluray.

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Both have scrubbed up pretty well. Both plots are not particularly strong (but I expected this this!)

Walter as Commander Nelson (on the left) the commander of the submarine Seaview always makes me think that this is how Robert A Heinlein would have been...
 
This Island Earth had a plot? Aliens kidnap some scientists... and then bring them back? but you're right, it LOOKS great.
 
JunkMonkey said:
This Island Earth had a plot? Aliens kidnap some scientists... and then bring them back? but you're right, it LOOKS great.
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Must admit I has forgotten how ruthless the aliens were: killing humans and scientists along the way! It was also interesting that the aliens were pretty much destroyed by the end of the movie. It could be that they were actually the bad guys and the attacking aliens (who destroyed them and their planet) were the good guys, something I hadn't thought about before.
 
It also has Jeff Morrow in it. He's not much to look at but I do find his voice strangely sexy. Christ! he even managed to make The Giant Claw almost watchable - him and the drop dead gorgeous Mara Corday
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JunkMonkey said:
He's not much to look at but I do find his voice strangely sexy.
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I did notice how much he fitted the hero template: and a definite hero-voice! :D I did wonder what had happened to him.

The Giant Claw has yet to pass my way (luckily!)
 
He died on set in a helicopter accident during the filming of The Twilight Zone movie.

The Giant Claw is something else.
 
Tonight daughter Number One and I watched Cat Women on the Moon which was even more ludicrous than I remembered but watching it with her we had the most ridiculous fun. She's very good at the MST3K type one liners.
And I'd never noticed before the sheer ludicrous suggestiveness of the line delivered by one of the seductive cat women to her venal male victim. She wants the low-down on how his space ship operates; he wants the gold she say lies in abundance not far from where they are sitting. " "I'll make a bargain with you," she says. "You take me to your rocket ship; I'll show you the cave of gold!" - pure Freudian smut that's what it is. Filth!
 
By Gum you're right! I have been suffering that misapprehension for years! Thank you.
 
JunkMonkey said:
I have been suffering that misapprehension for years!
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I find it happens a lot myself. :)

OK. Continuing my "I must watch old movies again for the millionth time" theme, I will watch two of my old favourites today:

Village of the Damned (1960)
and
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

Not a day to feel paranoid, I guess! :D

And to cheer Junk Monkey up, here's Raquel Welch in Fantastic Voyage:

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Youtube being the bizarre treasure trove of randomness that it is, recently put something of interest in my Recommended Viewings: Classic Buster Keaton films. I had somehow avoided ever seeing any of his works before, (I think I'd assumed he was a second-rate Charlie Chaplin and consequently never had much interest in seeing any of his films. Why I ever would have thought that, I don't know.)

Watched One Week, and COPS. Thouroughly enjoyed both, and I think I'll be watching the entirety of his filmography in due time.

In a day and age of cinema fakery, it's refreshing to go back in time and watch the pioneers of film do everything the hard way. The dedication Keaton had to the craft was impressive, to say the least.
 
norm said:
I had somehow avoided ever seeing any of his works before, (I think I'd assumed he was a second-rate Charlie Chaplin
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Buster Keaton is fairly forgotten these days and vastly underrated. :)
 
norm said:
Youtube being the bizarre treasure trove of randomness that it is, recently put something of interest in my Recommended Viewings: Classic Buster Keaton films. I had somehow avoided ever seeing any of his works before, (I think I'd assumed he was a second-rate Charlie Chaplin and consequently never had much interest in seeing any of his films. Why I ever would have thought that, I don't know.)
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Blank Incomprehension.

In the hypothetical game of "What would you save from the fire of the last copies of..." I don't think I could ever pull out anything by Charlie Chaplin if there was ANYthing by Buster Keaton in there.

One Week, Steamboat Bill Jr., Our Hospitality, The General, and Sherlock Jr. are MUST see movies.
 
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
Yup. Still surprised how good Kevin McCarthy is. Holds up fairly well, but I guess social media would kill this one dead these days. How would this work with Facebook/Snapchat? :)

Village of the Damned (1960)
Still creeps me out. It's the low-key British responses that makes this one chilly. Lots of cliches, all done with clipped British accents. And a lot of monologue. But it still works, dammit.
 
Hobbit said:
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
Yup. Still surprised how good Kevin McCarthy is. Holds up fairly well, but I guess social media would kill this one dead these days. How would this work with Facebook/Snapchat? :)
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Invasion of the Body Snatchers (the book) has been filmed four times now. I've not seen the third one but No.s One and Two are Brilliant - Number Two in my opinion is a sequel rather than a remake as Kevin McCarthy appears early on in the second still screaming his "You're next You're next!" line. Number Four with Nichole Kidman is just crap.

It's one of those films that should be made every 15 years so future psychologists and historians have a benchmark against which to chart social anxieties of the times.
 
I watched Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey - some funny parts, but fairly average overall.
 
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I watched Monos., a Colombian film that follows a group of teenage guerillas in the wild charged with looking after a hostage. It's a Lord of the Flies meets Apocalypse Now mash up; visually arresting and unsettling at times, but well made and thought provoking. I thought the ending was a bit too open though.
 
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