What was the last movie you saw?

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Jestak
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Re: What was the last movie you saw?

Post by Jestak »

The famous "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral," between the Earp Brothers and Doc Holliday, on one side, and the Clantons and McLaurys on the other, has long attracted Western filmmakers. Of them all, none can really hold a candle, as a movie, to John Ford's My Darling Clementine, but I'd definitely put Tombstone, which I watched tonight, in a respectable second place. Directed by George Cosmatos and written by Kevin Jarre, it is a well-made action Western which also does better than any of its competitors at capturing the moral ambiguity of the real-life Earp Brothers--for the first time that I am aware of, Wyatt's common-law wife Mattie Blaylock appears onscreen--and at giving a reasonably accurate reconstruction of the famous gunfight.

The film has a strong cast. Kurt Russell is a solid Wyatt Earp, probably better than anyone in the role since Henry Fonda, while Val Kilmer is a genuinely memorable Doc Holliday and Sam Elliott is a terrific Virgil Earp. Also noteworthy are Powers Boothe as Curly Bill Brocius and Stephen Lang as Ike Clanton, among the Earp adversaries, Dobe Carey as Tombstone Marshal Fred White, and a not-yet-famous Billy Bob Thornton in a brief cameo. It's a visually striking film as well; the main weakness is in the last 30 minutes, where Cosmatos lets the narrative degenerate into a confusing montage of gunfight scenes.
"May the hinges of friendship never rust, nor the wings of love lose a feather"--Scottish blessing
Jestak
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Re: What was the last movie you saw?

Post by Jestak »

Chaos is a good heist film/thriller, weakened at the end by one plot twist too many. Quentin Connors (Jason Statham) is a Seattle detective, under suspension for a shooting in which a hostage died. But when a team of robbers invades a downtown Seattle bank, they won't negotiate with anyone but him, so suddenly he's back on the force--although he gets rookie detective Shane Dekker (Ryan Phillippe) sicced on him as a partner. After the opening fireworks, we get roughly an hour of more or less routine developments, as Connors and Dekker try to track down the leader of the robbers (Wesley Snipes). At about the 70 minute mark, however, we get a twist that seems very shocking and downright ballsy on the part of director/writer Tony Giglio. As I watched, I was thinking to myself "this is terrific, as long as X doesn't happen." Sad to relate, before the end of the film, X does happen, undoing the impact of the earlier twist. Still pretty good, but merely a competent action thriller instead of a truly distinctive one.
"May the hinges of friendship never rust, nor the wings of love lose a feather"--Scottish blessing
funkidiva
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Re: What was the last movie you saw?

Post by funkidiva »

^ Small Soldiers - I like that film. Saw it at the cinema many years ago as a teenager with my younger sister. Its a great family film with action, humour and angst.

Hitman - saw this on TV last night. Plenty of action and guns but I actually enjoyed the film. Granted I have a soft spot for the guy who plays Hitman (thanks to seeing him in Gone in 60 Seconds originally) but it has an interesting plot, is carried out well and has some twists and turns. You just have to look past all the shooting haha.
"And so the lion fell in love with the lamb" "...What shoes had Alice put me in? Stilettos? She'd lost her mind..."
Jestak
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Re: What was the last movie you saw?

Post by Jestak »

Tonight I watched Up in the Air, which makes three good to excellent features in a row for Jason Reitman. Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) has a job that keeps him on the road over 300 days a year--and he loves it. He is sent out to companies all over the US who are too wimpy to tell people they've been laid off. Not only does he love living on the road, he's just met Alex (Vera Farmiga), who has a job that also has her racking up frequent-flyer miles--and they've struck sparks. But there's a threat--not to his job, heaven forbid, but to his belived lifestyle. The new Ivy Leaguer at the home office, Natalie (Anna Kendrick!), has sold the boss on saving money by handling layoffs by videoconferencing. The core, and best part, of the film is when Ryan convinces his boss that Natalie needs to learn what laying people off is really like--and ends up having her sent out on the road with him. Their forced road trip ends at about the 70 minute mark, and that's where the film starts to lose its snap and crackle. Clooney is in his element in this one, and he's predictably very good, Farmiga is likewise very enjoyable, but the breakout star here is Kendrick (who was deservedly nominated for an Oscar and a truckload of other awards). Down the cast you have a pair of performers who I always enjoy seeing, Melanie Lynskey and Sam Elliott.
"May the hinges of friendship never rust, nor the wings of love lose a feather"--Scottish blessing
Jestak
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Re: What was the last movie you saw?

Post by Jestak »

Tonight I watched Jackie Chan's Ging chag goo si/Police Story, an enjoyable action comedy. Ka Kui (Chan) is a Hong Kong cop out to bring down a major drug dealer. When part of the job involves becoming the bodyguard to the dealer's secretary (Brigitte Lin), he may have a tough task on his hands--explaining things to his girlfriend May (Maggie Cheung). While the plot is sketchy and there are some moments that cross the line between comic and ludicrous, there is plenty of high-energy action, culminating in a final showdown that demolishes most of a shopping mall. Great fun.
"May the hinges of friendship never rust, nor the wings of love lose a feather"--Scottish blessing
Jestak
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Re: What was the last movie you saw?

Post by Jestak »

Rear Window is another one of Alfred Hitchcock's best movies--one of his 4 or 5 best, I'd say. L.B. "Jeff" Jeffries (James Stewart) is a photographer, laid up in his apartment with a broken leg, who passes his days gazing out his window at the other apartments across the courtyard. One day, he begins to suspect that the traveling salesman across the way (Raymond Burr) has murdered his wife. Jeff's fashion model girlfriend Lisa Fremont (Grace Kelly at her most seductively gorgeous) is skeptical at first, but then begins to share his suspicions.

One thing that makes this movie so great is that there's so much to watch. Besides the main mystery plot, there's all the little subplots involving Jeff's other neighbors--the composer (Ross Bagdasarian of "Chipmunks" fame) who sits at his piano all the time, the dancer Jeff nicknames Miss Torso, the "fire escape couple" with their little dog, the unhappy Miss Lonelyhearts, and so on. And beyond that there's the complicated relationship between Jeff and Lisa themselves--and all the opportunities to find symbolism related to the two in the rest of the film. And as the icing on the cake you have the wonderful, ever-sarcastic Thelma Ritter as Jeff's nurse, Stella.
"May the hinges of friendship never rust, nor the wings of love lose a feather"--Scottish blessing
Jestak
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Re: What was the last movie you saw?

Post by Jestak »

First Blood isn't a classic movie but it is a culturally important one; it's one of the two films that essentially defined Sylvester Stallone as an actor and made him a major star for over a decade. John Rambo (Stallone) is an ex-Green Beret who drifts into a small Washington town. When he and the local sheriff (Brian Dennehy) rub each other the wrong way, the small town may become the scene of a small war. Only Rambo's ex-CO in Vietnam, Col. Trautman (Richard Crenna), may be able to defuse the situation. The script is clumsy and cliched a lot of the time, but director Ted Kotcheff does know how to tell a story tightly and economically, and to give us action sequences with a realistic feel. Stallone is most effective in the early scenes, when he's mostly silent and stoic; Crenna and Dennehy, although they struggle with the limits of the script, are both fairly solid.
"May the hinges of friendship never rust, nor the wings of love lose a feather"--Scottish blessing
Jestak
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Re: What was the last movie you saw?

Post by Jestak »

I watched Goodfellas tonight--a great one. It's a very gripping portrayal of the life of a real-life mid-level mobster, Henry Hill, played by Ray Liotta. Liotta is terrific, as is the rest of the cast: Lorraine Braco as Karen, Hill's wife, Robert DeNiro and Joe Pesci (who won Best Supporting Actor) as the criminal crew he runs with, and Paul Sorvino as the local mob boss. Samuel L. Jackson and Michael Imperioli appear in small roles. Martin Scorcese, sadly, was passed over for Best Director for this one--it's one of his very best, and probably more accessible to audiences than films like Taxi Driver.
"May the hinges of friendship never rust, nor the wings of love lose a feather"--Scottish blessing
Jestak
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Re: What was the last movie you saw?

Post by Jestak »

One thing the French know how to do, movie-wise, is how to make a terrific crime film. One of the very best is Jules Dassin's Rififi (or "Du rififi chez les hommes"), which came out in 1955. Like the very near contemporary films Bob le Flambeur and Touchez pas au grisbi, it's centered on an aging hood who tries for one last, big score. This time around, it's a jewel heist masterminded by Tony le Stephanois (Jean Servais) All three of these films are terrific, but I find Dassin's the best of the three. Especially notable is the central heist scene, a dialogue and music free sequence lasting nearly 30 tense minutes.
"May the hinges of friendship never rust, nor the wings of love lose a feather"--Scottish blessing
Jestak
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Re: What was the last movie you saw?

Post by Jestak »

Buster Keaton is my favorite of the great silent film comics, and his masterpiece is The General. I've loved this one for a long time and watch it at least once a year. The story is adapted from an actual Civil War episode usually known as the Great Locomotive Chase. Keaton, however, infuses the story with his usual humor and romance, culminating in an action sequence including what is described as the most expensive stunt of the silent film era. A must-see classic.
"May the hinges of friendship never rust, nor the wings of love lose a feather"--Scottish blessing
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