What is The Last Movie You Watched?

[maxpower]

Should have won an Oscar for that role.

Absolutely. I cringe every time I watch him go on that sales call, then defeatedly call his wife in the rain afterwards.

Mamet's pens some really terrific stuff - he wrote the script to 'The Verdict' with Paul Newman (won a few Oscars). Actually, I think he 'finalized' the script (as it had passed through several hands prior to him getting it). Still, Mamet leaves his indelible mark all over it.

Since the movie was based on a play that he wrote and directed, it probably didn't stray too far.

[hard4janira]

Absolutely. I cringe every time I watch him go on that sales call, then defeatedly call his wife in the rain afterwards.




Since the movie was based on a play that he wrote and directed, it probably didn't stray too far.

I think you are talking about Glengarry Glen Ross. 'The Verdict' was a novel by Barry Reed first: Several drafts of the screenplay were made: Mamet penned one of the drafts that was chosen by Sidney Lumet as the version he was going to make.

Yes, the sales call is cringe-wothy!

I like the scene were he's trying to convice the office manager (Kevin Spacey) to give him the leads for a cut off the top. Him arguing with Kevin in and out of the car in the rain...classic. That whole damn movie is great.

[maxpower]

I think you are talking about Glengarry Glen Ross. 'The Verdict' was a novel by Barry Reed first: Several drafts of the screenplay were made: Mamet penned one of the drafts that was chosen by Sidney Lumet as the version he was going to make.

Yes, Glengarry. Sorry for the confusion, I wasn't sure which you were referring to. Mamet wrote the play, but I think I am wrong about him directing it.

[Bobby Domino]

Yes, Mysterious Skin, (500) Days of Summer, Inception... I missed Hesher, and I want to see 50/50. He's a terrific actor. I wasn't slighting him by not mentioning him, I just hadn't seen Lukas Haas in anything in quite a while. Come to think of it, he was in Inception also.

I agree on the Lukas Haas mention, I was simply adding J G-L to the mix.

It is slower-paced, and much more of an ensemble piece, but I love Mamet's dialogue. Jack Lemmon is amazing, too.

Yeah, you have to be prepared for a Mamet script, most of the time...

[Prospero]

I re-watched "Habemus Papem" - italian film about a newly elected pope who has a crisis of confidence. Brilliant. Michel Piccoli will certainly pick u a best actor's award.

[Stavros]

I am not a Mamet fan and don't like Glengarry enough to watch it again; maybe when I am older...Carlito's Way, de Palma doesn't do it for me either. Haven't seen the others except Dog Day Afternoon but haven't seen it for years so I might track that down if its in my local shops.

Thoughts on Angels in America... Yes I liked Pacino in that, the stand out role for me was Jeffrey Wright as Belize, one of the best I have seen in recent years. The problem is that Angel...like this is really two plays stuck together and one should be detached from the other...overall it is marred by its own 'epic' pretensions, as a social drama it is moving and powerful, Meryl Streep as a rabbi is superb.

[Stavros]

I switched to Orson Welles for The Lady From Shanghai. I have never liked this film, and not just because Welles plays Michael O'Hara a gay irish dog, with an Irish accent that should carry a health warning. The gay sub-plot/text doesn't work; the lack of chemistry between Welles and Hayworth who divorced shortly after filming, doesn't work; the framing of characters in scenes shot through nets, inside lenses, etc all to underline how 'trapped' they are, doesn't work. The script is poor, and actually so is most of the acting -Welles is either a misguided genius whose films often failed because his methods sent the studios -and the unions- into a rage, or the simple truth is that he only had the one film (Citizen Kane) in him, and everything after that was destined to be an anti-climax. Maybe someone here likes it.

[jerseyboy72]

[fred41]

"The Human Centipede 2"..lol...interesting in a David Lynch "Eraserhead" kind of way...but I can't really recommend it.

[Bobby Domino]

Red Riding: In The Year Of Our Lord 1983 (2009) - third part of the trilogy of a serial killer/pedophile crime drama. More confusing than Part Two and the resolution doesn't satisfy the closure needed for such a complex plot. 6/10

Insidious (2011) - horror movie about a haunted house. Terrible terrible terrible!!!! If you like that paranormal stuff, it might excite you but I'd rather bob for apples 1/10

Mildred Pierce (2011, 5-part HBO miniseries) - an updated chronological non-film-noir version of the original movie starring Kate Winslet as Mildred Pierce & Guy Pierce as Monti Beragon. Adding +3 1/2 more hours, the story invariably takes a more detailed approach to the original movie which as a result dilutes the more infamous & powerful scenes from the original Joan Crawford movie. All characters are expertly-played & cast. Kate Winslet is really astonishing. The set design and all-around production are nothing short of HBO's creative commitment. I've been told that the movie actually follows the novel faithfully which is why I may have made a mistake to comparing it to the 1945 Crawford movie.

Zoo (2007) - documentary about the the real 2005 death of a Washington State man who punctured his colon from having sex with a horse. The film badly and vaguely describes a group of men who would meet at a farm and have regular, and sometimes videotaped, intimate relations with horses. The doc is badly made and details of the story take an excruciatingly long time to surface. There are, however first hand audio accounts in the film. 3/10

The Human Centipede 2 (2011) - this time a psycho successfully puts together 12 people. not nearly as good or shocking as the first one.