Last movie watched...

[SmallBlueThing]

Nice to see a bit of grudging love for the dear old SNOWBEAST there. Saw it fairly recently and mentioned it in this very thread and, while i cant remember the details, think i felt similarly.

LAUREL & HARDY: GOING BYE BYE! and DO DETECTIVES THINK?

Two shorts, from different periods of the boys' career- one silent, one talky- which have similar set-ups. In the silent 'detectives', they play a couple of london bobbies assigned to protect a judge from the murderous attentions of the escaped lunatic he had previously sentenced to death. Bearing in mind the whitechapel murders were in living memory when this was made (39 years later), some of the gags and imagery are very interesting- and the routine around 'the whitechapel graveyard' is a great bit of physical comedy from stan. The murderer is, i think, played by the same actor who turns up again as an escaped lunatic in 'bye bye'- this time with a grudge against stan and ollie, after stan asked for him to be hanged at his trial. They need to leave (cont)

[judgeblake]

Watched Dragnet tonight - not the cop show thingy from the 40s or whenever - the 80s film featuring a post Ghostbusters Dan Ackroyd and a chirpy youthful Tom Hanks. I have to say, the plot and script for this film was terrible in places - but for the most part the film was funny whether it meant of be or not in places lol I'd say it's due for a remake...but quite how they'd go about it I don't know, and films like The Other Guys have kind of done remakes already.

[SmallBlueThing]

(cont) town fast, so leave a small ad asking for a companion to split the petrol costs... and, obviously get the criminal's moll, just as he escapes and cmes to visit her. She  hides him in a trunk, which then locks, and the boys attempt to free him- with drills, saws and hoses, etc, with bloody hilarious results. At times sidesplittingly funny, 'please excuse me, my ear is full of milk' has become a catchphrase in our house now.

My boys had never seen THE boys, so the idea of this was to introduce them to some of the funniest material ever put on film, with the hope that in years to come the likes of adam sandler and jim carrey will pale in comparison for them. It seems to have worked.

SBT

[Spaceghost]

My boys had never seen THE boys, so the idea of this was to introduce them to some of the funniest material ever put on film, with the hope that in years to come the likes of adam sandler and jim carrey will pale in comparison for them. It seems to have worked.

SBT

Great idea. I plan to do the same when my brother manages to dig out his 'Complete Laurel & Hardy' DVD box set to lend me.

I think it's a real shame that you don't see Laurel and Hardy on TV anymore. I used to look forward to watching L & H or Harold Lloyd after school every day.

[DeFuzzed]

The Dark Knight Rises, 2012.

Watched this again for the final time. Final. I mean it this time. Bigger screen, better sound. Absolutely wonderful. Actually noticed Teal'c this time round, where before my eyes were pinned to JGL.

I am happily anticipating Dredd beating this as my favourite movie of the year, but until then, I'm still on the high of a story well told. It leaves you wanting more and yet quite happy with where it has left you, unlike the 2nd film which left me wide-eyed and wounded.

The story and chemistry between Marion and Tom is lovely, easily seen in a few seconds, and I prefer Bane to Joker, easily. Sacrilege to some, but his story here is so much more than that of a crazy criminal, his motivation, loyalty, bravery - all that, so much more. Also, love Bane's voice. Stands out from the herd alright.

And Bale has such a light touch when he plays Wayne, a real pleasure to watch. I read an interview somewhere where both he and Hardy, at different interviews, talked of wanting to work together again, this time unhampered by masks. Can't wait to see that.

As for JGL, saw the trailer for Looper before TDKR. Looks fantastic. I'm still quite amazed how the tiny, skinny kid from Third Rock has turned into one of the big names in Hollywood.

[judgeblake]

The Dark Knight Rises, 2012.

Watched this again for the final time. Final. I mean it this time. Bigger screen, better sound. Absolutely wonderful. Actually noticed Teal'c this time round, where before my eyes were pinned to JGL.

I am happily anticipating Dredd beating this as my favourite movie of the year, but until then, I'm still on the high of a story well told. It leaves you wanting more and yet quite happy with where it has left you, unlike the 2nd film which left me wide-eyed and wounded.

The story and chemistry between Marion and Tom is lovely, easily seen in a few seconds, and I prefer Bane to Joker, easily. Sacrilege to some, but his story here is so much more than that of a crazy criminal, his motivation, loyalty, bravery - all that, so much more. Also, love Bane's voice. Stands out from the herd alright.

And Bale has such a light touch when he plays Wayne, a real pleasure to watch. I read an interview somewhere where both he and Hardy, at different interviews, talked of wanting to work together again, this time unhampered by masks. Can't wait to see that.

As for JGL, saw the trailer for Looper before TDKR. Looks fantastic. I'm still quite amazed how the tiny, skinny kid from Third Rock has turned into one of the big names in Hollywood.

we'll have to agree to disagree about the story being well told towards the end - as well as the relationship between Tom and Marion.

Nevertheless of course a grand film from the Nolan clan.

[Keef Monkey]

Yeah, I remember sitting down to Brick and thinking "Oh there's that kid from 3rd Rock" and by the end of it thinking he was one of the best actors I'd seen in years. To be fair he was great in 3rd Rock too, so we probably should have seen it coming.

[Richmond Clements]

Yeah, I remember sitting down to Brick and thinking "Oh there's that kid from 3rd Rock" and by the end of it thinking he was one of the best actors I'd seen in years. To be fair he was great in 3rd Rock too, so we probably should have seen it coming.

Heh. Yup, I think we've all had that!!

[DeFuzzed]

Yeah, I remember sitting down to Brick and thinking "Oh there's that kid from 3rd Rock" and by the end of it thinking he was one of the best actors I'd seen in years. To be fair he was great in 3rd Rock too, so we probably should have seen it coming.

Heh. Yup, I think we've all had that!!

Brick was quite an eye opener alright, as was Mysterious Skin and Manic. Keep meaning to hunt down Hesher but haven't got round to it yet.

[SmallBlueThing]

JAWS THE REVENGE

No, we didnt jump jaws 3D, they watched it while i was at work the othenight, thankfully.

What is there to say about the most recent, twenty-five year old, installment of the franchise that hasnt been said already and doesnt rhyme with 'mucking tit, gut shaved guy bike-all pain'? It is indeed fucking shit, but saved by michael caine.

Ellen Brody from the first couple is back, with her grown-up sons- youngest son dies in the opening sequence, so she flees to the bahamas (where great whites dont go). Chief brody has been killed by a heart attack (blamed on the shark) and so ellen becomes obsessed with the mad idea that her family is being supernaturally stalked by demonic sharks... And, guess what? THEY ARE!!

Blah blah blah, duhhhh-duh! Duhhhh-duh! Dum dum dum dum, dum dum dum dum, michael caine, blah blah. In the end, ellen brody goes out for a one-to-one with the fish, the fish eats michael caine, then he escapes, then it eats mario van peebles, then he escapes, then she rams it (cont)

[SmallBlueThing]

(cont) with the splintered sharp bit of the boat... and the cash visibly runs out because the remainder of the film, the big pay-off fishy death, is a bunch of clips from the first film. Fucking cheating cheating cheaty shallow-pocketed bastards.

To be fair, it's better film than 2 and what i remember about 3, with a better script. But, aside from michael caine, it's very dull and the shark is crap.

SBT

[SmallBlueThing]

EIGHT LEGGED FREAKS

Continuing our season of movies designed to keep granny quiet in the evenings, we ran out of giant sharks eating people and moved on to spiders. Actually, there are many more giant shark movies we could have gone for tonight, but a line had to be drawn somewhere, and frankly i couldnt stand another evening of her calling them 'killer whales'. I should, in retrospect, have found a copy of 'orca: killer whale', if only for the comedy value- but a) we dont have it, and b) my memories of it are so strong that i dont want them polluted by actually seeing it again.

Given a choice of 'from beyond the grave' (the cushing one), 'hands of the ripper', 'halloween III' and 'long leggedy beasties' (as its known in our house, in tribute to that family ghostie comedy with richard harris, the name of which i cant remember just now) they all went for the known quantity- except bram who wanted H3, and sulked because he didnt get his way.
So- its been a while since we saw '8LF', and in that (cont)

[SmallBlueThing]

(cont) time its inexplicably improved no end. Yes, the spiders' voices are still annoying, and yes the decision to give spiders voices in the first place as a sop to the large portion of the audience terrified of the things, is an example of everything that is wrong with modern genre cinema. Except this isnt very modern anymore, as demonstrated by some of the cgi being, to my eyes now, a bit rubbish.

But aside from that, it's a good, comforting, familiar, idea done well. If giant spiders terrorising a hick town doesnt raise a smile on your face, we're probably never going to agree on anything, so best not to bother trying.

As always though, the director's short black and white movie 'larger than life', here an extra on the disc, impresses the most. If your interest in giant spiders only runs to giving up ten to fifteen minutes of your time, then track it down on the web (heh). You wont regret it: search 'ellory elkayem larger than life', and prepare to chuckle.

SBT

[Professor Bear]

Gorgo and The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms, both wonderfully schlocky giant monster creature features from the dawn of time, though Beast looks to have more money spent on it than I would have assumed for a b-movie, with some surprisingly high production values for the time even if there's no getting around some dated SFX and clumsy compositing.  As with many b-movies of its type, there's a lot of build-up and then the monster goes on a rampage and then he's stopped by whatever and the movie comes to an abrupt halt.  it's kind of jarring and there's no resolution to some character work, but it was amusing to see the old duffer going on about his upcoming holiday as I was all but shouting "THREE DAYS UNTIL RETIREMENT" at the screen every time he ambled on to offer advice.  Dated, but still very fun.
Gorgo is basically a British Godzilla, right down to a British Steve Martin declaring doom upon the world as he provides a running commentary for The Blitz pt2.  Some decent monster work, particularly after the reveal halfway through when the ever-so-slightly cuddly giant dinosaur on the rampage is shown to be the baby and the real wrecking match hasn't even begun until his twenty-times-bigger mamma shows up, but even then there's some some great suit work with the infant Gorgo stomping around an Irish fishing village while the slack-jawed tree-climbing yokels grapple with the revolutionary idea of fire.  Surprisingly good fun.

[Richmond Clements]

Gorgo is indeed a wonderful movie.