Last Movie You Watched - 2020

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Ib Melchior (the writer director) is one of those guys whose works needs rediscovered.
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Since David Hewitt cowrote the Time Travellers, the same material is given another crack in 1967, with Hewitt in the director's chair. What's churned out is one of the best worst movies of all time! A wonderful thing...

Journey To The Center of Time
 
ArthurFrayn said:
Since David Hewitt cowrote the Time Travellers, the same material is given another crack in 1967, with Hewitt in the director's chair. What's churned out is one of the best worst movies of all time! A wonderful thing...

Journey To The Center of Time
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Isn't it just! but that door at the back of the time machine is pretty groovy. I remember thinking the first time I watched it 'more effort and ingenuity went into making that door than into the rest of the movie put together'.
 
Rewatched The Last Samurai.

Slightly forgotten how much I liked this movie - cheesy, yes, but gorgeous visuals, epic (and very gory!) battle scenes and a glorious Hans Zimmer soundtrack to match. The script is not quite as winceworthy as I suspected it might be on a rewatch, the plusses far outweigh the minuses.

I'm now trying to think of what other movie I would put in an epic movie triple bill. Gladiator... Last Samurai and ...?

Must now try and find my Bluray of Ran.... :D
 
Ooh... Ronin's great. Saw that one again recently.

Throne of Blood - great choice, Atramentous. And I haven't seen it properly. I did think Seven Samurai...

But I'm thinking of something epic in scale, fairly recent. Gladiator's 2000, Last Samurai's 2003 (I think). I've covered Roman culture, Japanese culture... and want something still epic but different. Still thinking, but I appreciate the suggestions...
 
The Godfather or Once Upon A Time In America? Braveheart? The Wind That Shakes the Barley? I guess it all depends what you mean by "epic" really, what the criteria are. Is it about warriors, conflict, sweeping sagas, family bloodlines.....
 
Hobbit said:
Rewatched The Last Samurai.

Slightly forgotten how much I liked this movie - cheesy, yes, but gorgeous visuals, epic (and very gory!) battle scenes and a glorious Hans Zimmer soundtrack to match. The script is not quite as winceworthy as I suspected it might be on a rewatch, the plusses far outweigh the minuses.

I'm now trying to think of what other movie I would put in an epic movie triple bill. Gladiator... Last Samurai and ...?

Must now try and find my Bluray of Ran.... :D
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Do you have a high fever, Hobbit? Trying to put the contemptible The Last Samurai next to Ran or Kagemusha? (Have you seen that last one?)
 
Well, I was thinking "entertainment for the masses". Samurai is more like Gladiator than Ran, despite the Asian setting, in my opinion, and I am thinking similar movies that would go together. Still thinking!

Kagemusha I saw way back in the 80's, I think. Might be worth a rewatch. If I remember right, it was a movie that only got an American release because Ford Coppola and Lucas backed it?

There would be a subtitled triple bill just there: Seven Samurai, Ran, and either Kagemusha or Throne of Blood....
 
Hobbit said:
Kagemusha I saw way back in the 80's, I think. Might be worth a rewatch. If I remember right, it was a movie that only got an American release because Ford Coppola and Lucas backed it?
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Yes, Coppola and Lucas backed the film financially. On the Criterion DVD there was an interview with both men wherein they speculate out loud that these two late Kurosawa films don't rise to the heights of his earlier black and white films. What a nerve that clown Lucas has given all the total dreck he had released in the Star Wars franchise by then and given that Coppola hadn't made a decent film since Apocalypse Now in the 70s!

Personally, I like Kagemusha and especially Ran even better than Kurosawa's black and white samurai films.

I have a copy of the European blu-ray of Ran (in the orange hardbook), though the Criterion blu-ray is even better looking. Correction. There is no Criterion blu-ray. The improved 2016 Ran blu-ray (4K transfer) is also by Studio Canal. The Criterion blu-ray of Kagemusha looks also very handsome.

I remember The Last Samurai was an insult to anyone with more than a handful of brain cells.
 
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Av Demeisen said:
I remember The Last Samurai was an insult to anyone with more than a handful of brain cells.
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I accept that it was cheesy, but I thought it looks great and the battle scenes were excellent - no CGI as far as I could tell in the battle scenes. And whilst there's the usual issue of cultural appropriation, I liked the use of Japanese actors in a Hollywood movie.

The plot was predictable, but as a Saturday night popcorn movie, I liked it, in the same way I like Gladiator - no historical relevance in either really. Didn't have to think too much, just look at the pretty pictures!
 
Cultural appropriation is a mostly bullshit term. And this is not about a white man wearing traditional Japanese clothing for Halloween. ;)

Historically, The Last Samurai is so f-ed up, your eyes should no longer be in their sockets from the continuous rolling. And then there is the general Hollywood dumbness as a cherry on the turd.

I am just glad it has been 17 years since I last saw it.
 
I thought of this the other day, Windy - Richard Chamberlain, yes? - and was wondering how it held up. Didn't know it was available on Bluray. Will need to look it up...
 
Yes Richard Chamberlain, he was very good in it and he had been a bit type cast as a careing Doctor, careing parent, etc and the role was something of a breakout for him it was said at the time but I struggle to recall what he did as a major role after this... I do recall the novel was the Summer beach book of 1975 it was a real doorstop of a tome... very good for keeping your towel from blowing away when you were in the surf.... in truth I can’t recall the book on its yet I know I read it... the miniseries has totally replaced it in memory... it is worth seeking out though... I really enjoyed the whole thing the first episode does a superb job of setting up the series and effectively pulls you in for the duration.
 
Windshadow said:
I watched the early 80s miniseries Shogun based on the Novel by James Clavell, this was from a period when the networks were tossing big bucks at bestseller novels and it shows. The blue ray version is a stunner and I throughly enjoyed it watch just one episode a day the way it was intended and not trying to binge it

en.wikipedia.org

Shōgun (1980 miniseries) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
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Love the book but have never watched this, might have to check it out...
 
I watched Ran last night. It had been years since I'd last seen it. The new 4K restoration from the 2016 blu-ray (1080p) looked quite stunning. It was already past midnight, so I only watched to the halfway point.
 
Bumped into the film of Terry Pratchett's Going Postal last night, streaming on Amazon. No idea whatsoever why I hadn't seen it before. Separated into two parts, but it really is a movie.
Vastly entertaining adventure and farce. High production values. Maintains the spirit of Pratchett with an excellent cast and special effects. Shows that Sir T was involved in the production. He even has a cameo in it.
Also recommend films of Hogfather and The Colour of Magic. Same production company and quality - although I slightly preferred this one.
Would provide a link, but every one I found was heavy with spoilers.
 
On the advice of younger Hobbit, watched Upgrade. (2018). Not particularly deep but was better than many similar movies. Sort've like The Six Million Dollar Man revamped for contemporary generation.

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