What is The Last Movie You Watched?

[Dino Velvet]

Dino I watched Dario Argento's The Bird with Crystal Plumage, his directorial debut in 1970, but it was disappointing, do you rate it? As usual the dubbing was cackhanded and awful.

Sorry you didn't like that one. The Bird is one of my favorite. I like the usual look and colors of his films and enjoyed the way the action was shot. Soundtrack too. Sometimes you gotta be pretty forgiving when watching a whacky Giallo film. The dubbing is always bad. Even in Italian it's dubbed and not well either.

Have you seen Deep Red? If you ever get into more Giallo, check out some Sergio Martino.

Always like this one too.

[RallyCola]

Hey, there were Komodo Dragons in the film . They also had that Wiry Goofy Guy as the villian & you can't forget the DiverShitty involved with the new Money-Penny .

the entire sequence from the conversation in the casino in maccau through the line "what makes you think this is my first time" was crap including using the damn lizard as a step ladder.

i like naomi harris...i'd fuck her sideways...and i really don't care if moneypenny is black...but that they purposefully leave her name out till the end, "oh we have never formally been introduced..." is utter garbage. its their attempt at a plot twist and to avoid the fact that this is ultimately a prequel to establish a Bond devoid of personal feelings for anyone (he has no vested interests anymore after what happens in the chapel), just vengeance and country first, that M has to be a dude and moneypenny has to be a secretary.

moreover, the utter lack of originality and nods to other movies was annoying. ralphy boy was miscast...he can't play such a lightweight character well...its forced and plastic. ben whishaw as an emo quartermaster computer genius was horrid. i'm not saying Q has to be a bumbling idiot, but why did it have to be so cliche...pick a young kid but making him regular...why does he have to be an emo douche? the old gameskeeper that taught bond to shoot, the ubersmart villain that is a kick-assed hacker, because we all know that hacking with super cool undetectable algorithms is sexy and smart...the list of cliches goes on and on. the movie was a clusterfuck of too many ideas, a poorly conceived plot, a divide between a story of a mother and son scorned vs. redemption and finally, what really killed it for me is that judi dench all of a sudden is a fucking action star killing people and making light-bulb IEDs. M isn't supposed to handle a gun and do wet work.

my point is this....this was a bad movie, but even worse as a bond movie. don't believe the marketing lies because the critics that love this movie probably think the flintstones are historically accurate.

[Stavros]

So, Stavros, I ask with a degree of some trepidation - who do you consider to be the best actors currently working in film?

Bogus question I think, as I have no idea who the best film actors are. As far as this parlour game goes, contemporary actors whose work I have enjoyed include Michael Fassbender, Jeffrey Wright, Peter Sarsgard, Mathieu Kassowitz (who also directs), Vincent Cassel and even Brad Pitt whose more recent films have been a major improvement over the earlier works; Jamie Foxx and Edward Norton have also made enjoyable films, and so on. There are a lot of very good actors out there, they don't always make great films, but I think this generation is as good as any previous one. There are actors like David Strathairn who often play in secondary roles but whose ability can be fundamental to the success of the film, so how does one make a list without including such actors? And I assume we are not talking about 'movie stars' whose box office attraction can make or break a film. I enjoy a lot of films which don't require really great acting, so that is another level of appreciation.

[Stavros]

Sorry you didn't like that one. The Bird is one of my favorite. I like the usual look and colors of his films and enjoyed the way the action was shot. Soundtrack too. Sometimes you gotta be pretty forgiving when watching a whacky Giallo film. The dubbing is always bad. Even in Italian it's dubbed and not well either.

Have you seen Deep Red? If you ever get into more Giallo, check out some Sergio Martino.

It was on BBC4 and I think its the first of a short season of Giallo films so there will be another one next week, don't know which. Tenebre is my favourite, for obvious reasons. Although there is a transvestite in Bird, so I wonder if Argento is 'one of us'...?

[robertlouis]

Bogus question I think, as I have no idea who the best film actors are. As far as this parlour game goes, contemporary actors whose work I have enjoyed include Michael Fassbender, Jeffrey Wright, Peter Sarsgard, Mathieu Kassowitz (who also directs), Vincent Cassel and even Brad Pitt whose more recent films have been a major improvement over the earlier works; Jamie Foxx and Edward Norton have also made enjoyable films, and so on. There are a lot of very good actors out there, they don't always make great films, but I think this generation is as good as any previous one. There are actors like David Strathairn who often play in secondary roles but whose ability can be fundamental to the success of the film, so how does one make a list without including such actors? And I assume we are not talking about 'movie stars' whose box office attraction can make or break a film. I enjoy a lot of films which don't require really great acting, so that is another level of appreciation.

I'd heartily endorse each of your choices and could easily add more Frenchmen after Cassel. And you're right, this is not about stars and their ability to "sell" a film: that is entirely to do with pushing a commodity and not about creating art. Strathairn was mesmerising as Ed Murrow in Goodbye and Good Luck. I enjoyed Javier Bardem immensely in The Sea Inside and Philip Seymour Hoffman in The Talented Mr Ripley, but too many actors' choices become a compromise with Hollywood. And Tom Cruise, despite Magnolia, is only good at grinning and running.

[Dino Velvet]

It was on BBC4 and I think its the first of a short season of Giallo films so there will be another one next week, don't know which. Tenebre is my favourite, for obvious reasons. Although there is a transvestite in Bird, so I wonder if Argento is 'one of us'...?

Daughter Asia might be interested in the TS Community.

Tenebre is my #1 Argento too. You much for Suspiria or Inferno? Nightmarish films you just go with the flow. The last of that series, Mother Of Tears, is beyond terrible.

Trauma is one I like that always gets panned. That head removal machine with the fishwire was impressive. Dumb Oliver looking kid with the glasses...

[robertlouis]

It was on BBC4 and I think its the first of a short season of Giallo films so there will be another one next week, don't know which. Tenebre is my favourite, for obvious reasons. Although there is a transvestite in Bird, so I wonder if Argento is 'one of us'...?

I've got it in the can for viewing later. I suspect that BBC4 showed it as a coda to Mark Gatiss's documentary film Horror Europa which I mentioned earlier in the thread.

[Dino Velvet]

I've got it in the can for viewing later. I suspect that BBC4 showed it as a coda to Mark Gatiss's documentary film Horror Europa which I mentioned earlier in the thread.

I have a 3 part documentary of A History of Horror with Mark Gatiss. I'm a junkie for stuff like that.

[Prospero]

Strathairn is also excellent in Lincoln

[Cecil Rhodes]

i wouldn't know much about the Macao scene because i started 40 winking from the time the assassin shot the guy in Shanghai until the helicopters showed up on the deserted island .

the entire sequence from the conversation in the casino in maccau through the line "what makes you think this is my first time" was crap including using the damn lizard as a step ladder.

i like naomi harris...i'd fuck her sideways...and i really don't care if moneypenny is black...but that they purposefully leave her name out till the end, "oh we have never formally been introduced..." is utter garbage. its their attempt at a plot twist and to avoid the fact that this is ultimately a prequel to establish a Bond devoid of personal feelings for anyone (he has no vested interests anymore after what happens in the chapel), just vengeance and country first, that M has to be a dude and moneypenny has to be a secretary.

moreover, the utter lack of originality and nods to other movies was annoying. ralphy boy was miscast...he can't play such a lightweight character well...its forced and plastic. ben whishaw as an emo quartermaster computer genius was horrid. i'm not saying Q has to be a bumbling idiot, but why did it have to be so cliche...pick a young kid but making him regular...why does he have to be an emo douche? the old gameskeeper that taught bond to shoot, the ubersmart villain that is a kick-assed hacker, because we all know that hacking with super cool undetectable algorithms is sexy and smart...the list of cliches goes on and on. the movie was a clusterfuck of too many ideas, a poorly conceived plot, a divide between a story of a mother and son scorned vs. redemption and finally, what really killed it for me is that judi dench all of a sudden is a fucking action star killing people and making light-bulb IEDs. M isn't supposed to handle a gun and do wet work.

my point is this....this was a bad movie, but even worse as a bond movie. don't believe the marketing lies because the critics that love this movie probably think the flintstones are historically accurate.