The Last Movie You Watched? ver.2.0

The Saloon
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I read the book about the time the mini series was released. It is a fine King novel from the period when he could actually write. I remember he thought himself that it was perhaps a bit too long and should have been called (sh)It instead. Lately he seems to have lost all sense of self-editing which is a shame.

The tv mini series is flawed by major overacting I remember the first and only time I saw it back in the early 90s. That hasn’t stopped med from acquiring the blu-ray release that came out a couple of months ago so a rewatch is bound to happen at some point.

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I prefer the shorter novels. Pet Semetary, the four novellas from Different seasons, especially The Body. Cujo and Misery are also very good. The longer novels are often (way) over-long. But It was okay.

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Today: Vengeance: A Love Story (Martin, 2017)

My thoughts here:

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Poor lost souls, all you people wasting your life on seventeen seasons of Walking Lost Thrones, only to at the end feel dissapointed and betrayed how it ends. :stuck_out_tongue:

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I have just finished the book the other day. Yes, it would probably benefit from being shorter. I have seen the series when it was released, and it is regularly mentioned as the scariest thing we seen as kids among my generation. Off course, some stuff from the book was censored on the screen…

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I like King’s longer novels from 70s up through the mid 90s and then things went haywire. I personally think he lost it around the time he released Rose Madder and Dolores Claiborne. King had always gotten flak for not being able to write realistic female characters and then he sort of wrote those to say: Hey see what I can do and he in my opinion pretty much exposed his own flaws with them. Other people might disagree of course and I haven’t read more than a handful of his novels since then but what I have read has been pretty bad.

Different Seasons is pure gold, I agree. The Body and the movie adaptation are both very well done. I remeber buying Stand By Me on vhs around 1990 or so and it’s today probably one the movies I’ve seen the most times.

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If you saw it as child it’s bound to be scaring. Tim Curry did a fine job as Pennywise. I remeber seeing some 1970s Dr. Who episodes when I can be no more than 6 or 7 and being scared shitless :slight_smile:

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@AvatarDK @Toscano You guys crack me up :smile:

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As long as it is fun to watch it is no problem. The journey is the reward. There was e.g. some wonderful stuff in Lost, and these things are not damaged by the half baked ending.

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Tonight: Sadako vs Kayako (Shiraishi, 2016)

Concluding my little run of Japanese Ring/Grudge movies is this, the mashup movie which fuses the two franchises together.

Purchasing a second-hand VHS player in order to convert some old videotapes, students Yuri and Natsumi inadvertently run afoul of the “cursed videotape” said to bring death via the evil Sadako Yamamura within two days to anybody who watches it. Meanwhile, Suzuka - a young girl living across the street from the accursed Saeki household - thinks she sees a missing schoolchild inside the abandoned house and ventures inside; an act which Ju-on fans are aware will damn her to die at the hand of onryō (vengeful ghosts) Kayako and Toshio Saeki. A psychic tells the girls that there is no known way to lift their respective curses, but if the girls agree to watch the cursed tape inside the cursed house, they might be able to set the murderous demons off against each other in pursuit of the girls’ souls. Sounds like a hell of a f*cking punt to me but, well, why not give it a bash?

I watched a quite horrendous dub of Sadako vs Kayako, in which all of the girls sounded like whiny Californian “Valley Girls” (“Ya knoooow, like, what-everrrrrr”) and all of the guys sounded like Buster Crabbe-era Flash Gordon. But, despite this considerable setback, I didn’t mind this film. It’s structured conventionally like a Ring picture as opposed to being structured in anachronistic vignettes like Ju-on and, also like Ring but not like Ju-on, Sadako vs Kayako is not remotely scary. In fact it’s far more a Ring picture in every sense, with Kayako very much a supporting feature who doesn’t make an appearance in the first hour of the picture; it’s Toshio who does the heavy lifting on the Ju-on front for the most part (the monster v monster main event doesn’t happen until very late on either, for that matter). That doesn’t mean that it follows continuity with the recent Ju-on pictures which also adopt that approach though; the Saeki house - demolished in Ju-on: The Final Curse - is back where it always stood, long derelict this time. Sadako vs Kayako doesn’t adhere to any existing Ring continuity either, reducing the time 'twixt viewing the tape and dying from seven days to just two, and eschewing the concept of passing the curse on altogether (usually, if a person cursed to die can convince someone else to watch the tape, they’ll be freed from the curse at the expense of the person to whom they’ve just shown the tape). So it’s its own beast, but although director Kōji Shiraishi (Noroi: The Curse) might’ve constructed in Sadako vs Kayako the most conventional and least effective Ju-on entry to date in my humble opinion, he’s simultaneously constructed the best Japanese Ring movie in years; maybe since the original.

I’m looking forward to seeing it again soon though with subtitles and with its original Japanese audio.

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A Suggestion: Perhaps it would be handy to have a ‘THE LAST TV SERIES YOU WATCHED’ thread…

At the moment, I’m in the process of working through some of my 70’s gems…tough music, tough guys, blatant sexism, language, and a poke at the then Government…who could ask for anything more?

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I’m loving every blimmin’ ‘Politically Incorbloodyrect’ second of it!

Great TV, when people were not afraid to have an opinion, or to express it…

As for the programmes themselves: ‘Regan and Carter’, ‘Bodie and Doyle’, ‘Alf and Elsie’…say no more…sheer magic!

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‘CROMWELL’ 1970. (Richard Harris, Alec Guiness).

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Quotes from this great film:

“Therefore, put your trust in God - and keep your powder dry!”

“We would as much go back to our homes and our farms as pursue this mockery of a government one more day.”

“You are no more capable of managing the affairs of this nation than you are of running a brothel!”

As Historical epics go, this magnificent film, directed by Ken Hughes, has always been one of my favourites. It engagingly portrays the ‘brother against brother’ conflict of the ‘English Civil War’, (1642-1651), when Oliver Cromwell (excellent portrayed by the late, great Richard Harris), defending the Protestant Church, organises an uprising (albeit grudgingly), against the Monarch, Charles I (Alec Guiness).

The cast, alone, in this film, is exceptional: Charles Gray, Timothy Dalton, Robert Morley, Geoffrey Keen, Dorothy Tutin, Michael Jayston, Nigel Stock, Patrick Wymark, Patrick Magee, Frank Finlay…

Filmed both in England, at Shepperton Studions, Surrey, and at Sierra de Urbasa, Navarra, Spain, it is a great shame that such a slice of history only won one Academy Award, in 1970, for Best Costume Design, by Vittorio Nino Novarese. The exceptional film score, by Frank Cordell, was also nominated, but didn’t win.

And, as for Richard Harris…if ever an actor deserved one…! I think that he was born to play the part of Cromwell. Shamefully, in my opinion, he was passed over, at the Academy Awards.
However, if memory serves me right, the award for ‘Best Actor’ went to yet another magnificent actor, George C. Scott, for his role in ‘Patton’. Ironically, I seem to remember that Scott turned the award down…

Later, in 1971, Richard Harris was awarded ‘Best Actor’ award, at the ‘Moscow International Film Festival’.

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Saw this film in cinema, back in the good ol’ days. I remember that I wasn’t too fond of it then, probably because I didn’t know that much about the historic background. I should watch it again.

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Hopefully, if you do re-watch it, ‘Sherp.’, then I’m hoping that you won’t be disappointed…even if you simply watch it to admire the truly ‘electrifying’ performance of Richard Harris, as ‘Cromwell’.

Richard Harris…a man who lived enjoyed life to the full (same as Oliver Reed), and died a happy man, during the filming of 'Gladiator, if I’m not mistaken (same as Ollie Reed).

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Oliver Reed did indeed die during the production of Gladiator (Scott, 2000), but Richard Harris gave us another couple of years, passing in October 2002. His character in Gladiator - Marcus Aurelius - was murdered by his son Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix).

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Cheers for that, Asa.
It just shows how the old mental ‘film file’ can go a bit awry sometimes. I had it in mind that Richard and Ollie both left us during the filming…
Oh well… Always a pleasure to hear from you, and thank-you for correcting that. :slight_smile:

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Last night: Eagles of Death Metal: Nos Amis (Hanks, 2017)

An upsetting but also uplifting documentary from Colin Hanks looking at Palm Desert band Eagles of Death Metal, the band performing at the Bataclan theatre in Paris during the ISIS attacks on the city in November 2015 in which 130 people were murdered, including 89 in the Bataclan itself. Whether you’re a fan of the band or not (I am; I think they’re one of the best acts of the last twenty years) this is well worth a look.

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Last night: John Wick (Stahelski/Leitch, 2014)

I saw this back when it was released but I only bought it this week; somehow, picking it up just sort-of passed me by. Anyway, I thought it was due a re-watch what with the sequel being released to largely very positive reviews. It’s a very well put-together actioner. Not the smartest or most original film on earth but it doesn’t need to be. And Keanu Reeves is actually a bloody good action movie star.

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Today: Cross of Iron (Peckinpah, 1977)

A good war movie which falls just shy of greatness for me. It’s a terrific film for a Sunday afternoon though, and it features possibly my favourite Coburn performance, too.

Also: National Lampoon’s Vacation (Ramis, 1983)

…simply because it was on the telly, so I started watching it. I thought it was the funniest film in the world when I was a little’un. It’s dated quite badly, alas, but it’s still a good-natured piece even though it falls apart entirely once the Griswolds reach the theme park.

As I write this, sequel European Vacation (Heckerling, 1985) has just begun, but I’m not joining them on that trip. That movie was a disappointing pile of old shitbum IMO.

And some time later: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Leone, 1966)

Currently listening to the Richard Schickel commentary. Entertaining enough for the most part.

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That’s how i watch these National lampoon’s things as well: when they’re on the telly. I usually watch half an hour or so (Chevy is the kind of actor that gets on your nerves after a while). Don’t think I ever watched one A-Z, with the exception of Christmas Vacation, for obvious reasons.