What is The Last Movie You Watched?

Yes. I am afraid i found "Shame" rather dull - and have never had the courage to watch his film about Bobby Sands.

I recall an installation which i think i saw at Tate Modern of Scottish soldiers in kilts falling over. But it may have involved more than that.

Shame -dull? I can't think of Michael Fassbender ever being dull.

What annoys me at the moment is the distribution of films -I haven't seen Nebraska because it wasn't shown in my town; there is a bias toward London and the bigger cities, which is why I had to go to Birmingham to see 12 Years or wait until the end of the month. There used to be a time when it would take at least 6 months for a major American film to make it to London yet it would open in Paris around the same time as its American premiere. These days London seems to be privileged over other parts of the country, as far as I know, Metro Manila only showed in London even though there are lots of Filipinos who might have wanted to see it who don't live there. I accept that Frozen and the other teen flicks will dominate local cinemas, but there are 6 screens in even my town cinema so I don't get how they can't show a greater diversity of films. In the end it means waiting 6 months or however long it is for these films to come out on DVD, as I don't subscribe to online streaming.

I think the "art house" films really tend to play only in the bigger cities - as the major distributors will concentrate their more commercial films where there are fewer screens. So Cambridge or Oxford get good films because their demographic and having cinemas that cater to the student audience. I'd be surprised if Metro Manila ever plays in smaller towns - or even places lie Liverpool of Birmingham. I went to see a film about the German choreographer Pina Bausch in a suburban cinema in London last year -. it was shown on their smallest screen and we were the only two people there. It is this sort of thing which makes distributors very reluctant to risk anything which won't be sure of getting reasonable houses anywhere other than mass centres of population.

Man of Steel.

the more i see this version, the more i come to adore, cherish and re-respect
the old Christopher Reeves (first 2 films) i didn't see or enjoy the romantic bond and relationship with Amy Adams' Lois Lane as i did with margot kidder. and i thought Man of Steel was much more of action-filled intent with todays's CGI effects. and not near as worked out a character/plot as the original 1978 and 1980 version. i got much into Reeves' Supey character much more than i did with Steel's Henry Cavill. i thought Man os Steel was solid, a good film....but not great. Not a classic.

12 Years A Slave. SPOILER ALERT! Slavery was bad. Zzzzzzzzzzzz

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Prospero

I think the "art house" films really tend to play only in the bigger cities - as the major distributors will concentrate their more commercial films where there are fewer screens. So Cambridge or Oxford get good films because their demographic and having cinemas that cater to the student audience. I'd be surprised if Metro Manila ever plays in smaller towns - or even places lie Liverpool of Birmingham. I went to see a film about the German choreographer Pina Bausch in a suburban cinema in London last year -. it was shown on their smallest screen and we were the only two people there. It is this sort of thing which makes distributors very reluctant to risk anything which won't be sure of getting reasonable houses anywhere other than mass centres of population.

---

I am not sure it is fair to cite a film that is already a few years old and which by definition has limited appeal (but is a wonderful film in spite of that comment). I think in the case of Nebraska there could have been a few evening slots to show it in, they show The Counsellor on one evening this week, for example. I know cinemas in main street have to make money, but as I said there are 6 screens and I can't see the point of showing a teen movie at 8.45 on a Tuesday. I don't expect them to show either the Osage County film or the Dallas Buyers Club unless they get awards. But it has always been like this and I don't see much change coming.

American Hustle

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Stavros

12 Years a Slave (Steve McQueen, 2013)
For some reason this film is not being widely distributed in the UK and as it is not scheduled to play in my town until the end of January I went to Birmingham to see it. I also read the original book before going. Solomon Northup's account, also 12 Years a Slave can be read for free at this link:
http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/northup/northup.html

The book is not too long and can be read in a morning or an afternoon. It is written with considerable verve and confidence by a man who refused to be beaten into submission by slavery, and whose potent sense of justice gives the book an important dimension in the decade before the Civil War. Northup after his captivity often muses on the Constitutional right to 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness' as something denied to Black Americans, yet never loses faith in either constitutional or natural law as his route to freedom. The contradictions between the Constitition and reality are as stark as the fact that Northup prospered among white Americans in the North yet was betrayed by two of them desperate for money, treated harshly by them in slavery yet in time emancipated by them. Similarly, the Christian faith which he professes is also used in the South to justify both slavery itself and violence. Crucially, perhaps, Northup argues that slavery brutalises the slave owners and that the only remedy is abolition.

McQueen is fairly faithful to the book but edits in scenes of a sexual nature that are not in the book; and edits out other characters: he replaces a key figure, Henry Northup, the man who emancipated Solomon's father, with the trader Parker; the black slave who is murdered on the boat heading south in the book dies of smallpox; the proud Black woman Eliza, who, separated from her children slips into despair, dies in the book, but not in the film. Solomon has three children in the book, only two in the film. If anything, there are more beatings and lashings in the book than in the film, and Solomon's attempt to escape is not featured as an event in itself. I would rather have seen more time developing Solomon's character as a free man in Saratoga and filling in the background on his skills as a carpenter and raft-maker; and more time with the pivotal figure Bass (played by Brad Pitt in the film), whose encounters with Solomon are dealt with in more detail in the book. In effect he has one short and one long scene in the film. The figure of Uncle Abram is lost in the film although the scene at his funeral where they sing Roll, Jordan, Roll is one of the most moving in the film, not least because at first Solomon resists joining in. The photography is superb, the acting outstanding and the overall impact of the film is intense and powerful. It is useful to contrast this factually based and serious film about slavery with the meretricious hysterics of Django Unchained. One is a film worthy of attention, the other worthy of the bin.

---

Thank you for the link to the book. I saw the movie and want to see how faithful it was to the book because I was left a little empty because they did not examine him escaping or what happened in the courts afterwards. The man described in the closing credits was not the man portrayed in the movie. Just my 2 cents.

I understand your reaction, Ed. I think the film could have been in three parts: the life as a free man, the life as a slave, and the aftermath of his release which is dealt with in captions before the credits, as all three are compelling narratives. Also the inability to prosecute successfully underlines the limits of freedom that Solomon actually had. But in any film of this sort the editing is where the book becomes transformed into a film and a more faithful film of the book would have been too long -or at, say, 4 hours (same length as the dreadful Gone with the Wind) too long for most audiences these days.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Prospero

I think the "art house" films really tend to play only in the bigger cities - as the major distributors will concentrate their more commercial films where there are fewer screens. So Cambridge or Oxford get good films because their demographic and having cinemas that cater to the student audience. I'd be surprised if Metro Manila ever plays in smaller towns - or even places lie Liverpool of Birmingham. I went to see a film about the German choreographer Pina Bausch in a suburban cinema in London last year -. it was shown on their smallest screen and we were the only two people there. It is this sort of thing which makes distributors very reluctant to risk anything which won't be sure of getting reasonable houses anywhere other than mass centres of population.

---

It was a (minor) criterion in my decision to move to York from Cambridge, where there is an excellent arthouse cinema. The pluses for Cityscreen in York, aside from the opportunity to watch non-mainstream films in a civilised environment at reasonable prices, are a riverside location with terrace, a fine restaurant and bar, and all in a brand-new state of the art building. I've been going there at least once a week.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by robertlouis

It was a (minor) criterion in my decision to move to York from Cambridge, where there is an excellent arthouse cinema. The pluses for Cityscreen in York, aside from the opportunity to watch non-mainstream films in a civilised environment at reasonable prices, are a riverside location with terrace, a fine restaurant and bar, and all in a brand-new state of the art building. I've been going there at least once a week.

---

Interesting. There was a time when the most interesting thing to see in York was a train arriving in the station. It is, I believe, one of the most poetic train stations in the UK.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Stavros

Interesting. There was a time when the most interesting thing to see in York was a train arriving in the station. It is, I believe, one of the most poetic train stations in the UK.

---

You are kidding, aren't you? There's more history and stunning old architecture in York per square metre than in London any day.

And the station is indeed magnificent - genius to design it over a graceful curve. Consider it a gateway to a cornucopia of wonders, the capital of the north.

I caught Ed Wood last night on DirecTV. My favorite Tim Burton film. Very entertaining and the performances so well-done. Thank you, Martin Landau.

I never get tired of seeing Ed Wood.

Oblivion[2013]

Savages[2012] Now THAT is one TWISTED FUCKED-UP movie...
None of the characters(no matter how sympathetic the light) had ANY redeeming qualities...Almost hated until "the Ambush Scene"....
Should be viewed along with Traffic[2000] & The Counselor[2013](preferably as the "meat" in the sandwich) by any dickhead pol/policy maker not in Denver or Olympia as to WHY WE NEED TO LEGALIZE cannabis...my $0.02...

"August:Osage County " Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Ewan Macgregor , Sam Shephard and other notable thespians all acting like crazy in a depressingly theatrical film version of Tracy Letts stage play. All very intense but you don't care about any of the dysfunctional family tearing each other apart. Streep over acts and Julia Roberts actually upstages her. Set in Oklahoma, but most of the action is indoors. Every scene proclaims that this is "a play" and it must have been better on stage. I wouldn't bother.

August: Osage County - Eat Your Fish - The Weinstein Company - YouTube

This clip and the preview I saw in the cinema on Sunday suggests this is a film of people shouting at each other. I am surprised to see the word 'acting' associated with Julia Roberts, that would be a departure from her normal near-comatose imitation of a tailor's dummy, ditto Ewan McGregor, a sure indication the film is not worth seeing. Not sure why anyone would call a man Tracy -I think he is also an actor and was in the latter episodes of Homeland. By the way is it me or do nearly all Americans in films now speak with a southern accent?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Stavros

I am surprised to see the word 'acting' associated with Julia Roberts, that would be a departure from her normal near-comatose imitation of a tailor's dummy

---

Thanks for that. I'm not much for the broad either.

Dino what can you tell me about Shia LaBoef -is it a special way of cooking steak?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Stavros

Dino what can you tell me about Shia LaBoef -is it a special way of cooking steak?

---

Last I heard he roadkill'd himself leaving show biz entirely. Maybe he ran off to become a Shiite.

Shia LaBoef? Isn't he about ready to star in Transformers part 87?

O Brother, Where Art Thou? [2000]

Breakdown with Kurt Russell, JT Walsh

Breakdown Trailer 1997 - YouTube

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by goatman

O Brother, Where Art Thou? [2000]

---

... the soggy-bottom boys ?? :rolleyes:

The Dark Knight

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Stavros

Dino what can you tell me about Shia LaBoef -is it a special way of cooking steak?

---

He turned up in a surprisingly watchable and effective low budget thriller on BBC1 the other night called Disturbia. Mind you, he didn't have to act much, the plotting was sufficiently tight and the direction maintained the tension all the way.

Shia LaBeouf Tweets That He's Leaving Public Life

"The Wolf Of Wall Street". A true story based on the autbiography of the central character, Jordan Belfort, which means the hideous little shit will be deriving a considerable income from this turgid and overlong film which takes absolutely no moral stance on this chronicle of greed, corruption and selfishness. It features very explicit scenes of sex, but is really rather boring. Three hours long. The rise and fall of a man with no morals at all - and presented as a mirror to the ugliness of Wall Street and its milieu. (There is even a knowing reference to "Greed is Good" and Gordon Gekko). The only moment in the film that really suggests director Martin Scorsese acknowledges the wreckage the progress of this latter-day rake has had on the lives of thousands of ordinary people is late in the film, when an FBI man who has been pursuing Belford, is shown in a New York subway train with sad looking people - perhaps the sort of individuals who are victims of Belford and his rancid crew. It does have a very good central performance by Leonardo Di Caprio - vamping it up as Belfort. But this veers far too closely to admiring these people and their ilk who put the rest of us in the shit.

The Wolf of Wall Street Official Trailer - YouTube

Riddick.
Pitch Black in the rain! :shrug

"Her" a new film directed by Spike Jonze in which the central character played by Joaquin Phoenix falls in love with a computer operating system called Samantha The computer's voice is that of Scarlet Johansson - and I can see how any man might fall under her spell. Her voice is terrific. (The whole package is even more so. The one time i was in the same room with her she exuded a quite remarkable animal magnetism). But the has other beautiful women - Amy Adams and Rooney Mara which merely helps highlight the sad central theme - of loneliness, portrayed with bitter sweet humour. It's a clever and very likeable film which also prompts thought about the extent to which artificial intelligence can replicate feelings and become a simulcra of a human.

Jonze is a director of ingenuity but is often wide of the mark. His best previous film was, for me, the wonderfully inventive "Being John Malkovich" but he also directed the dreadful "Where The Wild Things Are" and the disappointing "Adaptation" based, very loosely, on a great book called "The Orchid Thief" by Susan Orlean.

Her - Official Trailer 2 [HD] - YouTube

Finally watched Gatsby, love gorgeous outfits and the atmosphere of the movie! But the book was better :))

Nightmare On Elm Street remake w/Jackie Earle Haley

Very so-so remake not capturing the atmosphere of the original. See it if you're a fan of the NOES series just to have seen it.

Calling this Kool-Aid is an insult to Kool-Aid. Who's this supposed to brainwash?

Tell a Friend - Get Covered | Richard Simmons Dance Off - YouTube

I was recently in Mexico for two weeks. My hotel had about 30 channels. I happened to watch, "The Sting", "The Exorcist", "Highlander", "Philadelphia", and "Halloween".

I just saw Blue Jasmine. I was impressed with it. I like quite a lot of Woody Allen films, but this was one of the best ones I've seen in years. Cate Blanchett made the film. I am not sure whether the movie is Oscar material given the other great films that have come out but I think if Blanchett is nominated (I don't know if she is) she has to be a strong contender for best actress.

The movie was bleak, with few warm moments but it did not come across as overly cynical. It was a very effective character study I think.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by broncofan

I just saw Blue Jasmine. I was impressed with it. I like quite a lot of Woody Allen films, but this was one of the best ones I've seen in years. Cate Blanchett made the film. I am not sure whether the movie is Oscar material given the other great films that have come out but I think if Blanchett is nominated (I don't know if she is) she has to be a strong contender for best actress.

The movie was bleak, with few warm moments but it did not come across as overly cynical. It was a very effective character study I think.

---

I liked this movie a lot and Cate Blanchette's performance in particular. She really seemed to lose herself in the role. She made Jasmine's anguish palpable without being overwrought. Flawed and self-absorbed though she was, I was still able to empathize with her. Dialogue was well-done throughout the movie and - you're right about this - lacked a lot of Woody's usual cynicism. Every scene was impactful and necessary - nothing wasted.

Definitely one of the most satisfying movies I've watched in the past year.

The Nut Job.

Surprisingly it was not a porno.

Good for a few giggles -- :)

Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa - Official Trailer - YouTube

Two films.
"Legally Blonde" - on the face of it a girlie movie (I was persuaded by a genetic blonde of that gender to watch) about a seeminly silly girl from California (Reese Witherspoon) who gets into Harvard Law School in pursuit of her arrogant ex but then proves to be the sharpest cookie in the jar It's actually a rather likeable and charming comedy.

And "Sunshine On Leith" an independent Scottish film about two soldiers who come home from Afghanistan to Edinburgh and their progress as civilians. It is actually a musical, utilising songs by The Proclaimers. It is based on a stage musical of the same name. Frankly its competent but dull - and i gave up half way through.

Sunshine on Leith Official Trailer - In UK Cinemas 4th October - YouTube

watching all of my boxset of sharpe again today while working on website final designs and webcam later ..

Sharpe - Over the Hills and far away - YouTube


Ahhhhhh why cant we go fight the frogs again :) glory days .:jerkoff