Last Movie You Watched - 2020

[Westy]

Well, I guess that it's on trend at the moment.

Yes, exactly.

 

[Av Demeisen]

I watched Da 5 Bloods, the latest movie directed by Spike Lee - four black Vietnam vets return to recover buried gold bars. On the whole I found it just passable - there were a few thrilling moments that were well done, and some interesting filming techniques (like changes in aspect ratio to match different time eras), but there were also a lot of long ponderous scenes - the 156 minute run time was way too long. I also thought the acting was a bit average in parts, and sometimes the soundtrack just didn't suit at all.

So yeah it has a 92% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but not one I rated that highly.

I also watched it yesterday. It was a bit too long at 150+ minutes, but it was also a film I enjoyed from start to finish, unlike some other Spike Lee films I have seen.

 

[Hobbit]

It was a bit too long at 150+ minutes,

Quite a few reviews saying that here...

 

[Av Demeisen]

I don't think Lee made any wrong choices like in BlacKkKlansman. Da 5 Bloods just could've used some trimming.

 

[Westy]

Da 5 Bloods just could've used some trimming.

That's it. If it was around 1.5 hours long, 2 hours max maybe I would have rated it much higher. I especially found the last half hour dragged.

 

[Hobbit]

Finally sat down to watch the Director's Cut of Midsommar, which at 2 hours and 50 minutes is not for the faint hearted!

I think I enjoyed it. It's a slow-paced build of a movie, looks great, with some nasty icky bits in it.

It really wants to be a modern version of The Wicker Man, and overreaches itself in places, but as Horror movies go, it is one of the best I've seen for a while.

 

[Westy]

but as Horror movies go, it is one of the best I've seen for a while.

Same here. These days I don't go much for horror movies (watched them non stop in the 80's though), but I thought Midsommar was well done.

 

[JunkMonkey]

Last Night Daughter Number One and I finally got round to watching something that has been on the edge of my bad Movie Radar for years. H G Wells' Shape of Things to Come - a 1979 Star Wars band-waggoner (which ended up looking more like a Glen A Larson Buck Rogers in the 25th Century fan film than anything Lucas ever came up with). It starred Jack Palance, Barry Morse (he of Space 1999), and Anne-Marie Martin who went on to marry Michael Crichton and appear in Days of Our Lives. It was written by someone whose previous screen writing credits include episodes of that greatest of all Canadian SF shows, The Starlost, and has nothing to do with the Wells book other than a couple of characters' names. It is DREADFUL! D#1 and I were in stitches the whole time. (To the annoyance of other family members who pointedly shut the living room door on us.) A couple of her riff lines may end up in my comics. "Green Alert! Green Alert! Nothing is happening!"

Not to be confused with The rather beautiful, but ponderous, 1936 British:

or even the 1976 American sexplotation:

Which I didn't know about until a few minutes ago and is now firmly on the list.

 

[Hobbit]

Yikes! That second poster is an eye-opener, isn't it?

I remember the remake of Things to Come because there was an article/advert for it in Starlog Magazine in the 1980s about the same time as the Martian Chronicles with Rock Hudson.

I do like the original - ponderous, speech-ly and so 1930's, but it has some charm.

It was, of course, the movie that Arthur C Clarke recommended that Stanley Kubrick watch when they were writing 2001. Kubrick's response - "Arthur, never recommend a movie to me again!"

And now I want to watch 2010 again..

 

[blailock]

I thought I had reported this, but apparently did not. A week or so ago, I watched Midsommar. I thought it was really good. I was hoping that they wouldn't screw up the ending, and they didn't.

 

[ArthurFrayn]

Spice World: The Spice Girls Movie - I have no shame in admitting that this has been on my Must Watch List for the longest time and I finally found a copy yesterday in a charity shop for a quid.

I watched the Spice Girls Movie on cable way back when, and thought it was fun. I think it's something about having low expectations and being pleasantly surprised. Scarey Spice is allllright...
I too watched The Color From Out of Space. Unpretentious, straight ahead adaptation that works. It's got the good creep factor going on. Worth a watch if one is a Lovecraft fan. So few film adaptations get it right...

 

[JunkMonkey]

Scarey Spice is allllright...

Isn't she just!

 

[Windshadow]

Watched ZARDOZ With some friends while we drank beer and ate popcorn, we were together via FaceTime and were all watching a DVD version at roughly the same start time. Which as the film went on the folks watching in the UK got further out of time sync with what I was seeing... I do wonder why the drift in sync.
They had never seen it before and thought it hilarious. and Zed's costume poised the question How did the director convince SeanConnery to wear it?

 

[Westy]

That's a bit scary, can't believe he went from Bond to this! (well apart from coming back to do Never Say Never Again)

 

[Windshadow]

Whenever ArthurFrayn turns up with his icon it is hard to not think of this film and since I saw it as above last weekend the fun we had watching it and its costuming etc caused me to post.
If you have never seen it it is a cheap download or used DVD

 

[JunkMonkey]

Watched ZARDOZ With some friends while we drank beer and ate popcorn, we were together via FaceTime and were all watching a DVD version at roughly the same start time. Which as the film went on the folks watching in the UK got further out of time sync with what I was seeing... I do wonder why the drift in sync.
They had never seen it before and thought it hilarious. and Zed's costume poised the question How did the director convince SeanConnery to wear it?

Dredging up s**t I used to know 30 years ago when I did film editing:

Our (UK) PAL system TVs run at 25frames per second, US NTSC run at 30fps. Film for cinema release is shot at 24fps (well it was when Zardoz was made) so to make sure the films don't fun too fast on American TVs there's a whole process of adding additional fields to slow the film down slightly. In the UK the difference between 24fps and 25 is negligible (about 4%) so they do a straight frame for frame transfer. This explains why run times on UK VHS (and I presume DVD & Blu-Ray) are always shorter than the cinema times. people think there have been cuts. There hasn't. They're just watching it faster.

 

[ArthurFrayn]

I've had to come to terms with people goofing on Zardoz. So I'm better now. Maybe the costume never bothered me quite as much as others because I came to it after growing up on Marvel comics Killraven. I get the kitsch factor, but it still remains one of my favorite films SF or otherwise. I watch it often...

 

[ArthurFrayn]

BTW, you're question "How did he get Connery...? is a good one. Connery also wears a white wedding gown in the film. I guess at that point he was willing to do anything to break with the Bond thing.
Once he had sucessfully done that, I heard he was a monster dealing with directors...

 

[Windshadow]

It is totally a fun film we all enjoyed it I last saw it 10 or so years ago. if it was a modern film think of how much fun the DVD extras would be

 

[Hobbit]

Must admit that I've not seen it in a L O N G time, but keep meaning to rewatch. I just remember it as 1970s-bonkers. Bit like Excalibur when it came around a few years later - another one I liked and perhaps due a rewatch.