The Last Movie You Watched? ver.2.0

The Saloon
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‘Psycho 2’, ‘Psycho 3’, and ‘Psycho 4 - the Beginning’.

Having watched the original Hitchcock classic, ‘Psycho’, last year, I decided to watch the sequels, during a ‘Slasher’ week-end.

It was great to see Anthony Perkins back in the role, as I’ve always regarded the original film as my favourite Hitchcock; and it is - without doubt - the role that Perkins was born to play.
And…as for the iconic opening ‘Psycho’ theme, by the late, great, Bernard Herrmann…enough said…

Ranking the films:

  1. Psycho
  2. Psycho 2
  3. Psycho 3
  4. Psycho 4

The scene for scene remake of ‘Psycho’, made in 1998, and starring Vince Vaughan, doesn’t really bear mentioning…

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‘HEAVY METAL’ (1981, animated)

Having long been a fan of that great animator, Ralph Bakshi (‘Wizards’; ‘Fire and Ice’; ‘Lord of the Rings’), I decided to watch ‘Heavy Metal’, for the first time, last night.

Many of you will - I’ve no doubt - be very familiar with this film, as it appears to have quite a long-standing Cult following.

It is based on an adult fantasy magazine “Heavy Metal”, and contains lots of animated nudity, sex scenes, gore, and general mayhem. It was a film which - according to the documentary on my bluray - was extremely popular at Midnight showings, usually by people who were ‘high’ on whatever substance tickled their nostrils.

The story revolves around a mysterious green orb - ‘the sum of all evil’; and contains several fantasy-filled stories, whereby the film-makers transport you to different worlds, and different times. I loved it!

The film soundtrack was composed by the legendary Elmer Bernstein; and, as the film title suggests, the score is accompanied by excellent tracks sung with gusto by ‘Blue Oyster Cult’; ‘Black Sabbath’; ‘Sammy Hagar’ etc.
Anyone who likes both fantasy, differing styles of animation, and Heavy Metal music, should have a ball with this film

Among the voice artists for the film are John Candy, Eugene Levy, and John Vernon (who played the ‘Mayor’ in the original 1971 ‘Dirty Harry’ film).
One of the writers for ‘Heavy Metal’ is Dan O’Bannon, of ‘Alien’ fame.

All in all, ‘Heavy Metal’ is a worthy addition to my ‘Fantasy’ collection of films, and one which I will be returning to for a few viewings.

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I saw it in cinema, in Paris, must have been in '84, when I did a summer course at the Sorbonne
I don’t know if i was high, but I remember it was quite a bizarre experience. And yes, it was a late night showing

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Bølgen (The Wave - 2015, Ror Uthaug)

A Norwegian disaster movie, of course set in a fjord. The story is based on an actual disaster, a rockslide tsunami incident from 1934 (it’s mentioned in the beginning of the movie) in which an entire village was washed away and over 40 people were killed. The fjord in which the disaster took place, is now overlooked by a group of experts, but for more than 80 years nothing has happened, so everybody’s sleeping on both ears … except for one geologist who’s having premonitions about the imminent cataclysm …

The whole affair is formuliac: there’s the impending doom, the worried geologist running around warning people, the family members who are separated by the events and re-united at the end, but the film nevertheless manages to create some edge-of-your-seat tension and drama. It was made on an incredibly tight budget of $6,5 million but does what far more expensive productions fail to do: combine the personal drama with the devastating powers of nature. It also manages to avoid most sentimental pitfalls (not all).

The Wave was filmed in The Geirangerford, which is indeed under constant watch because of possible rockslides that would cause a tsunami and wash away the villages at the mouth of the fjord (only one is shown in the movie). Every situation shown in the movie, is said to be realistic in the sense that it would happen in the case of a rockslide. Like in the movie, people would only have 10 minutes to reach higher grounds after the alarm went off. The actors were trained by professional divers for the underwater scenes and performed their own stunts.

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I must admit to being slightly envious, that you saw it on the ‘Big Screen’…it must have been mind-blowing!

To watch it in a darkened cinema…I can’t even begin to imagine!

Personally, I watched it on a 46 inch TV, with Surround, and was greatly impressed…both by the graphics, and the music.

As I said in my initial post, if you are a ‘heavy metal’ afficienado, then your dreams are fulfilled. I am not a particular fan of ‘heavy metal’…but…I enjoyed this!
I particularly loved the end music, ‘Working in a Coal Mine’, by Divo’.

This was SO Ralph Bakshi, that - for many years - I have thought that it was.

I was confusing it with Bakshi’s ‘Heavy Traffic’.

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Well, it was a so-called cinema du quartier, a smaller cinema in the Quartier Latin, and the screen was not so enormous. I also remember that the sound left something to desire, many people were complaining about it

I should watch the movie again after so many years

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Try watching it again, ‘Scherp’…wonderful experience…!

All the very best…

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Lethal Weapon - bit of a trip down memory lane as hadn’t seen it for a few years. Now it reminds me of the Simpsons episode Beyond Blunderdome

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Stage Fright (1987)

As part of the on-going ‘slasher’ saga, I watched this little gem, the other night.

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If you would like to see an upstart theatre producer, who rants and raves at his cast members, get his come-uppance, then this film is definitely for you.
Unfortunately, most of the cast members, also, get their ‘just desserts’!

However…it was wonderful to see a killer knocking off the prey, whilst wearing an over-sized owl-head…no kidding!

It was interesting to note that one of the credited screen-writers is George Eastman, aka the towering Luigi Montefiori, of Spaghetti Western fame…

Having said all that, the question is…are the ‘kills’ any good? As slasher films go, the ‘bloody’ quota is relatively high.
I won’t give anything away, but simply to say that a pickaxe, chainsaw, and every DIY man’s friend - a drill - is thrown into the gore-mobile.

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Yesterday: Doctor Strange (Derrickson, 2016)

The fourteenth entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe brought to us this time by horror director Scott Derrickson (Hellraiser: Inferno, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, Sinister), Doctor Strange introduces us to Doctor Stephen Strange (played by Benedict Cumberbatch in broadly the same way in which he plays Sherlock, if Sherlock was doing an impression of Tony “Iron Man” Stark) and presents us with an origin story which sees the arrogant, once-brilliant but now mutilated former neurosurgeon transformed into The Sorcerer Supreme.

An adequate story is elevated somewhat by a strong cast (Cumberbatch is joined by Chiwetel Ejiofor, Mads Mikkelsen, Benjamin Bratt and Tilda Swinton among others), some slightly better defined antagonists than is usual for the MCU, and some dazzlingly psychedelic Inception-style special effects. I was hoping it would be an absolute belter of a movie but, alas, it’s not (quite); it was a good start for the character though and I’m confident of better to come as The Avengers change guard and (I’m guessing) Doctor Strange eventually assumes Iron Man’s position within the group.

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When I was a toddler, surrounded by all of my now defunct ‘Marvel’ mags, ‘Doctor Strange’ was not one of my favourites.
For some reason, I was more of a ‘Captain America’, ‘Thor’, ‘Fantastic Four’, ‘Dare-Devil’ and ‘Spiderman’ afficienado.
Having said all that, I’m looking forward to the film adaption of ‘Dr. Strange’; although I can’t see it particularly rocking my boat…

By the way…every time I see Benedict Cumberbitch (batch) on screen, I automatically remember his very beautiful mum, the actress, Wanda Ventham.

For those of us, in our declining/inclining years, Wanda Ventham was a regular in the Gerry Anderson TV series, ‘UFO’, which has just been released, in a beautiful DVD cleaned-up format by ‘Network’.

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Yesterday: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Yates, 2016)

I’m mentioning this purely in the spirit of my commitment to logging all of the films I see this year. I don’t like the Harry Potter franchise and I didn’t like this at all; even @MazzyStar and my son didn’t care for it either and they’re both big Potter fans.

So what’s it about? I dunno. Stephen Hawking prats around waving his wand (oo-er, missus!) at a bunch of hobbits in Sherlock Holmes-land, I think. I kind-of lost the will to live shortly after the opening credits.

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It’s Chinese New Year so celebrated by making a nice pork and veggie stur fry with noodles for me and the wife and settled down to watch a bit of Shaw Brothers. Ti Lung in Opium and the Kung Fu Master (or Lightning Fists of Shaolin if you prefer)

Happy year of the Rooster!

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[quote=“Phil_H, post:155, topic:3996”]
It’s Chinese New Year so… settled down to watch a bit of Shaw Brothers.[/quote]

That’s a pretty good idea, right there.

EDIT: Started to watch The Five Deadly Venoms (Cheh, 1978) but it was clear the family weren’t into it so I’ve abandoned it. F*ck’s sake. :rage:

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The Girl on the Train (2016)-Tate Taylor

Just finished watching “Emily Blunt” in this boring and disappointing film. I would have enjoyed the film if it was ‘thrilling/suspenseful’ and not start in a slow-pace like it did…the ending was also a bit contrived. The only good thing I got from this was ‘Emily’s’ performance as a drunken voyeur.

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My Missus fell asleep about 20 minutes in. Never mind, at least she tried.

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DURHAM COUNTY, Season One (2007)

Not a movie but A Canadian TV-series in the thriller genre, recommended by a former colleague, who - like I did - used to review crime thrillers. He told me: “If you’re tired of watching superficial crime thrillers and want scripts with more substance and fleshed-out characters, try this one!”
Well, I did.

Hugh Dillon (some might know him from another series, Flashpoint, and Wiki tells me he also had a short-lived career as a rock artist) is a Toronto based homocide detective who returns to the suburban area, Durban County, where he was born. He wants to start over again after his partner was shot and his wife diagnosed with cancer. He has two estranged daughters, a girl wearing masks to hide her feelings, plus a blossoming teenager. In Durban County he is also re-united with a old school friend who became his arch enemy after a fatal car accident and is now the main suspect in a murder case.

Durham County is a well-made crime drama, beautifully filmed, with well-drawn characters; the mise-en-scene with hydro towers overlooking the scenery as creatures from a different world creates a strong sense of alienation. And still I was a little underwhelmed. One of the problems is that this first season tells its story in six parts of each 40-45 minutes, resulting in a total running-time of 255 minutes, which is far too long for a story that could’ve easily been told in half of the time. It all feels needlessly drawn out now, and what’s worse: because it takes so much time you start noticing plot holes that you wouldn’t have noticed otherwise.

Hugh Dillon and Justin Louis Ferreira are quite good as the arch enemies, but their characters are rather unappealing (Dillon’s homocide detective is a special prick). On the other hand Laurence Leboeuf and Greyson Holt and very good as the detective’s teenage daughter and the suspect’s teenage son who feel attracted to each other.

Note: homo-cide, is of course homi-cide, a mistake I always make. Freudian or not freudian, that’s the question

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“Get a sweet thing on the side, home cooking, homicide …” :sunglasses:

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That’s of course a problem of nearly every TV series. Often I don’t have the feeling that they told more in 10 hours than a movie does in 2.

Still some are great fun.

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True of course, and this one is fun, or at least very watchable, but perhaps I was a bit too critical because the series came with this recommendation. I’ve seen far worse, occasionally the narrative comes to a halt, more or less, after a few episodes and only picks up in the ‘season’s finale’ (to create a cliffhanger)