What's the latest movie you've seen?

[Psy-Fi]

The Silver Streak (1934)

An adventure/drama/love story centered around a streamlined train called "The Silver Streak." The train in the film was actually a diesel-powered streamlined train called "The Pioneer Zephyr" which was the first such train in use at that time in America. The story was a bit ridiculous and the acting was mediocre at best. The train was the real star of the show and the most interesting part of the film.

[Guybrush]

@Psy-Fi Do you find these old flicks on YouTube? You wrote something about it a while ago, but I can't quite remember and don't feel like digging 😄

[Psy-Fi]

@Psy-Fi Do you find these old flicks on YouTube? You wrote something about it a while ago, but I can't quite remember and don't feel like digging 😄

Yes. I watch YouTube on the TV I have in the room where I have my exercise equipment. Just something to have on while I'm working out. Often times I'll stumble across an old movie I haven't seen before and watch it during my daily routine.

[Guybrush]

I saw Almost Famous from.. I think its 2000.



It's a very good movie about a kid who ends up as a rock journalist in the early 70s and joins a band on tour for a while to write an article on them for Rolling Stone Magazine. That's kinda the backdrop, then other things happen.

Kate Hudson plays the groupie Penny Lane who's a bit of a Holly Go-Lightly type in that she's a character that doesn't seem grounded in real life and rather seem to try escaping it. It's her face on the cover.

You got Billy Crudup and Jason Lee playing musicians and an odd casting of Jimmy Fallon as a manager type, a bit of Philip Seymour Hoffman and Frances McDormand doing a great role as our protagonist's (played by Patrick Fugit) mother. Kyle Gass makes an appearance.

Something a little icky here is the age of the groupies vs. the musicians. Having read Pamela DeBarres groupie memoirs, I know this is fairly accurate. They were teens, sometimes like.. 14. In the movie, at least they're 16, but they don't seem to make a fuzz about adult males banging children. Oh well, I guess the year 2000 is a long time ago.

Other than that, I really enjoyed it 🙂

[grindy]

Watched Sleuth (1972). The movie is very well regarded and has Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine. Still I was very disappointed. The plot was pretty lame, it wasn't filmed particularly well and even the acting wasn't that good. It felt overall cheap. I remember seeing it ten years ago or so and being underwhelmed even then but today I just plain didn't like it.

[Guybrush]

Watched Sleuth (1972). The movie is very well regarded and has Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine. Still I was very disappointed. The plot was pretty lame, it wasn't filmed particularly well and even the acting wasn't that good. It felt overall cheap. I remember seeing it ten years ago or so and being underwhelmed even then but today I just plain didn't like it.

Hmm.. I've never seen that one, although I'm curious. I got about 100 other movies on my list, though 😅

[Guybrush]

We wanted to watch killers of the flower moon, but that was like 20 USD to rent or so. Bananas.

So we saw this instead:



It's about a family who happens to go on a vacation just before some sort of societal disaster strikes. I don't wanna give away too much more.

It's entertaining enough, even if some of the characters are pretty unlikable. And there's some weird animal behaviour that I never understood and a tick that definitely didn't look like a tick. The ending wasn't what I wanted, but it was okay.

Seeing this, I was again reminded of how over-represented the upper middle class to the very wealthy are in American movies and TV.

Weirdly enough, executive producers on this are Michelle and Barack Obama.

I give it:



Actually it should probably sit at like 3,25 stars.

[Psy-Fi]

Seeing this, I was again reminded of how over-represented the upper middle class to the very wealthy are in American movies and TV.

Probably because they're usually the ones with the ability to pursue a career making movies and TV shows.

[Psy-Fi]

The Killer That Stalked New York (1950)

B&W film noir flick with a plot which wasn't quite what I was expecting when I saw the title. It has many of the usual elements of a typical film noir story but with an added twist. Mostly shot on location in NYC and similar in plot to 'Panic in the Streets' which was released a few months prior. I've seen 'Panic in the Streets' and I'd give it a slightly higher rating than this film but they're both enjoyable film noir thrillers.

[DJChameleon]

Holidate



This is a cute holiday rom com. When I saw the credits roll and realized it was a McG production. I was like oh yeah that makes sense. It makes sense why King Bach showed up in it as well. McG always looks out for Andrew and casts him in his movies.

[Guybrush]

I like how it looks like she's miles away, lost in thought, while also standing on a narrow ledge on the side of a tall building 😄

We finally finished this old classic, Lawrence of Arabia:



It's about Lawrence, an English officer during WW1 who leads the Arab revolt against the Turks and tries to unite various Arab tribes. As the war goes on, it takes an increasing toll on our poor hero.

It's a very long and hugely ambitious movie, clocking in around 3,5 hours runtime, I believe. It took us 4 evenings to get through it.

The movie is very enjoyable. There are some incredible locations and great scenes and Peter O'Toole is great in the role of Lawrence. Really, he's such a good fit and easy on the eyes. Omar Sharif is also quite good in his role as Sherif Ali, the closest thing Lawrence has to a real friend.

In my opinion, Lawrence of Arabia deserves its classic status.



Also, there seems to be no living female characters in this, so watch it for the bromance and sausage party.

[Psy-Fi]

Violent Saturday (1955)

A crime drama which takes place in a small town in America during the mid 1950's. Various characters are shown going about their daily lives in the town while a "salesman" and two "rookie salesmen" plan a bank heist. The first 2/3 of the film moves rather slowly while the different characters are shown and developed before being brought together by happenstance for the final 1/3 of the film leading up to the robbery.

 

[DJChameleon]

I watched Gremlins 1 and 2 back to back because I have a double DVD with them both on it that I picked up for 5 bucks at Wally World.

Watching these movies hit all the nostalgia factors and got my 'member berries tingling. I think I still prefer the second one over the first one because of all the unique Gremlins that ended up coming out after they were taking chemicals in the lab. My wifey was making fun of the fact that I classified these movies as horror. I still think they are horror, just like comedy horror and it's not as intense as other horror movies.

Gremlins




Gremlins 2: The New Batch

[Guybrush]

I've been thinking about rewatching Gremlins 2 as it's been such a long time since I saw it.. 20 years, easily.

This was our Christmas movie:



Of course it's about the Uruguayan rugby team who ended up in a plane crash in the Andes and had to resort to an unconventional diet.

Not an actual Christmas movie, but there's snow and they're together and sharing important meals etc. so a little Christmasy still.

It's pretty okay, actually. Ethan Hawke plays a role. Illeana Douglas is recognizable and kinda cute in 1993.

I'd give it

[Guybrush]

I saw The Chaser from 2008 yesterday.



It got on my radar from being a generally high regarded south Korean thriller.

I thought it was well made and enjoyed that it wasn't too formulaic, but the plot and its characters wasn't something I found particularly enjoyable. A problem might be I found the protagonist mostly unlikeable 🤔

Still, and sorry for the very slight spoiler, but those who enjoy a gritty serial killer hunt might like this. However, I'd prefer a rewatch of Silence of the Lambs.

If you wanna know more about the plot, I'll summarise in a spoiler tag.

The Chaser

A pimp has whored out his sick prostitute to a serial killer, realizes his mistake and then desperately tries to stop the killer and save his whore. She and her child are the movie's only likeable characters with any significant, though sparse, screen time.

[close]

It's well made, but I rate based on overall enjoyment so this gets:



But I can easily see many if not most enjoying it more.