What's the latest movie you've seen?

[Guybrush]

Hot Cars (1956)

A married man with a sick child, gets fired from his job as a used car salesman because his boss thinks he's too honest. Another used car dealer quickly offers him a job which ends up testing his honesty to the breaking point. 

Kinda reminds me of a friend I have who worked in telemarketing way back. He found that if he adopted this kinda mentally challenged personae and voice, he sold more junk, due to the added sympathy or pity-factor.

So, uh, that telemarketing gig tested his honesty to the breaking point.

[Psy-Fi]

Invasion of the Saucer Men (1957)

B&W sci-fi/horror/comedy about a spaceship that lands in a wooded area of a small American town. Martians leave the ship and one of them is accidentally run down by a teenage couple driving down a back road. Disbelief, confusion, and comedy ensue. The special effects were mediocre and crudely done for the most part but the acting and directing was good and the writing was entertaining enough to make me laugh out loud a few times.

[Trollheart]

Cell. Oh my god it was bad. Based on a Stephen King book, it had some pretty decent potential, but they went for the lowest common denominator. The idea is that for some reason (never, in typical King fashion, explained) a signal comes through every cell phone which turns anyone who hears it into a screaming, murdering, homicidal maniac. Perhaps, as Vivienne once observed similarly in The Young Ones, it's actually a cure for not being a screaming, murdering, homicidal maniac. Anyhoo, our hero (played, if you can call it that, by John Cusack, of all people, who decides to literally phone it in, making the biggest pun of the movie) has been lucky enough that his phone battery died, so he didn't, and now he's on the run from most of the population of Boston, I think though don't care, teaming up for some reason with Samuel L. Jackson, who surely expected this was going to be better than he was promised? Anyway it all goes into 28 Days Later or fill in your favourite zombie movie territory, and ends as badly as you might expect.

I'll give it this: the opening scene in the airport when the cell signal is sent is bitchin', but after that you quickly cease to care, and are in danger of being transformed yourself into a less screaming, murdering, homicidal version of the main zombie (called "phoners", how long did that take to come up with?) cast, just wishing someone would eat your brain so you wouldn't have to suffer anymore. Oh yeah: they don't eat brains, or at least, I didn't see any doing so.

Given that King helped write the screenplay, I don't see how he can be absolved of any blame, unlike the complete half-inching of his story "The Lawnmower Man" for that movie, which could not have been further from the original, and I think over which he sued. This time there's nowhere to hide: he wrote it, he allowed it to come to life and did  NOT, when he saw what he had created, stamp on it till it was dead. For shame, Mr. K! Avoid at all costs.

[grindy]

It's already been a few weeks actually but watched Grand Hotel Budapest. I've seen it before and remember enjoying it, but didn't like it at all this time. It felt as fake and hollow as a Tim Burton movie and is similarly transparently aimed at people who consider themselves quirky and weird but are mostly lame and tedious.

[Guybrush]

It's already been a few weeks actually but watched Grand Hotel Budapest. I've seen it before and remember enjoying it, but didn't like it at all this time. It felt as fake and hollow as a Tim Burton movie and is similarly transparently aimed at people who consider themselves quirky and weird but are mostly lame and tedious.

I like it, but I understand the criticism. It was perhaps the tipping point where Wes became too much Anderson. Some of the humanity of his stories can get lost in it, I think.

We already talked about it, but I love Life Aquatic and also adored Rushmore, although that one I haven't seen in 15-20 years or so.

[grindy]

I like it, but I understand the criticism. It was perhaps the tipping point where Wes became too much Anderson. Some of the humanity of his stories can get lost in it, I think.

We already talked about it, but I love Life Aquatic and also adored Rushmore, although that one I haven't seen in 15-20 years or so.

My negative reaction surprised myself. The first time I found it quite clever and well done and I usually don't mind the absence of deep emotions.
Haven't seen the two movies you mentioned but I have seen some other movies of his and generally liked them. Looks like I just changed.

[Marie Monday]

Yeah I feel the same way about GBH and I've always been a bit puzzled about the good reviews. I like some Wes Anderson films (especially Moonrise Kingdom) but there's got to be some substance with the style imo, otherwise it gets dull

[Janszoon]

I like it, but I understand the criticism. It was perhaps the tipping point where Wes became too much Anderson. Some of the humanity of his stories can get lost in it, I think.

We already talked about it, but I love Life Aquatic and also adored Rushmore, although that one I haven't seen in 15-20 years or so.

I loved Wes Anderson's earlier movies, but he's become such a visual stylist at this point that his movies don't do much for me. The French Dispatch was really the tipping point for me. It's visually impressive but I just did not give a shit about anything that was happening.

[Psy-Fi]

Manhattan Tower (1932)

The working day of several people inside a Manhattan commercial tower are revealed and connected to each other through various events which happen throughout the 9 to 5 daily grind. Some humor, some drama, some sex, a villain, and a surprise darkly humorous ending.

[Hope]

I saw Dune Part II last weekend at the theater. I give it 3 stars. The first part was more interesting in my book. To be fair the entire second movie takes place in the desert. Lots of sand and loud noises. I'm getting old.

[Guybrush]

I liked Dune part 2 😊 the visuals were perfect, the sound design was an experience. I'm not quite sure I wanna watch it again because I feel it might drag a bit in the small screen, but I was entertained throughout watching it in the cinema.

It's a for me!

Cons: Chani and Paul seem like such a boring couple. Especially Paul and his humourless demeanor.

[Trollheart]

One good, one bad/not finished. Watched "Once Upon a Texas Train", quirky and funny little western starring Willie Nelson as a just-released-from-jail-after-20-years train robber, determined to pull the last big job before retiring. A little cliche (I was reminded of "Going in Style" to some degree) but it doesn't take itself too seriously and is pretty enormous fun. One of the guys riding a mule and the other a bicyle tells you the kind of thing it's aiming for, and more or less achieves. Very enjoyable.

On the other hand, attempted to watch "Smokey and the Bandit 3" - what the hell? No Burt Reynolds? No Sally Field? Not even that guy whose dog rides in the truck with him? No, all about the sheriff retiring and yet ANOTHER challenge race. Endured about 20 minutes of it, checked Wiki which said it was savaged by the critics and is considered the worst of the three movies, and hit delete. Yee, but no haw!

[Psy-Fi]

Beginning of the End (1957)

Low-budget sci-fi/horror flick about hungry, gigantic, mutant locusts with a taste for human flesh. The locusts grow to enormous proportions after eating plants which were created in an experimental agricultural lab which was using radiation to grow vegetables and fruits into oversized specimens. This one sort of falls into the "so bad it's good" category, but it was just so genuinely bad overall that I couldn't rate it any higher than 2 stars. The poster for the movie gets a solid 5/5 stars from me, though.

[Guybrush]

Yes, great poster!

And kinda weird how the locusts, after growing large, seem to have swapped their insect mouthparts (the trophi) for mammalian style mouths with pointy teeth.

[Janszoon]

Yes, great poster!

And kinda weird how the locusts, after growing large, seem to have swapped their insect mouthparts (the trophi) for mammalian style mouths with pointy teeth.

That's how evolution works obviously.