What Movie Did You Just Watch

[Avaitor]

So after reading the original pulp novel, I decided to rewatch The Big Sleep last night.

I enjoyed it more than I did last time, but I'm still not sold on the movie. I think the problem with it is that it's a Disneyfied version of the original novel, and it seems like Howard Hawks missed a couple of details from it. Granted the original book was also pretty damn confusing (even the author, Raymond Chandler, doesn't know who kiled Owen Taylor), but it gets even more convulted at the end. You can blame that on the film having two different screenwriters making different parts of the screenplay separately with no contact from each other.

That said, Bogie IS Philip Marlowe, and despite the problems I have with the film, I wish they made more Chandler adaptations of Bogart playing Marlowe. Sadly different studios and production staffs had access to different Chandler stories so that obviously wasn't possible. On top of that, the movie was made in the first place as a vehicle for Bogart and Bacall, and making sequels with other women would have ruined that, unless they hired Lauren to play some of them as well, which would just be weird.

I have Murder, My Sweet, another Chandler adaptation, from Netflix. I'm going to watch that soon as well.

Also, while editing my Netflix queue per request of my Maiden voyage, I'm adding Children of the Damned (as well as the original Village of the Damned) and Damien: Omen II to my queue. Here's hoping that they don't suck.

[Commode]

"You will order the princess to marry me!"

"I...will order...the princess to- but you're so old!"

Good stuff.  Now onto It's Kind of a Funny Story.

[Avaitor]

Good stuff.  Now onto It's Kind of a Funny Story.

Good call.

Everyone needs to see this scene.

[Commode]

Just watched the movie Empire Records today.  It's not a great film by any means, but it's still a lot of fun, and it features some pretty good 90s tunes to boot.  Also, it's kind of funny to see the kid who played Slater, a total stoner, in Dazed and Confused play a vastly different role in this film.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Despite my love of 90s culture, music, and movies that feature both, I have yet to see this one. I should rectify that soon.

Clueless was 110% even better because the Mighty Mighty Bosstones were in it.

[Avaitor]

Watched The Day the Earth Stood Still earlier. The original, not the Keanu Reeves remake.

I can't believe I haven't seen this before. It's like a feature-length Twilight Zone episode. Really good, and not even as dated as I was expecting.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Well, I'd argue that certain aspects of the film are dated, and it does come off as a bit too preachy at times. But on the whole its a true classic, and yes it does have that Twilight Zone sort of vibe to it, but it does actually predate TZ, and in fact if I'm not mistaken I recall reading somewhere that Rod Sterling himself drew some inspiration from this film in creating TZ as well as other classic science-fiction films, as well as some old horror movies as well.

[Avaitor]

Well of course parts of it are dated. All of the little kid's dialogue sounds like the type you would hear on sitcoms from that era, but I thought the movie was a little fresher than I was expecting.

And yeah, I know that it predates TZ, but it feels like it's predecessor. I was expecting Rod Sterling to come out a few times during the film. That's a good thing.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I just saw The Social Network. I thought it was OK. I wasn't really a fan of the hyper-active speaking monologues, though, in that its one of those films where the actors seem to think that just talking a lot and speaking really fast will make them seem intelligent (well, I suppose that it DOES give off that illusion to a lot of people). It was still an enjoyable flick for what it was, but its yet another one of those films that I feel people overrate if only because, well....I guess to be fair, its because there just wasn't much competition last year. I have yet to see a single 2010 film which I consider to be truly great and memorable. I'm sure there must be some great films from last year, but if they are they must be more obscure, independent titles that I didn't hear about, since none of the big releases really impressed me all that much.

[Dr. Insomniac]

I wasn't really a fan of the hyper-active speaking monologues, though, in that its one of those films where the actors seem to think that just talking a lot and speaking really fast will make them seem intelligent (well, I suppose that it DOES give off that illusion to a lot of people).

No, it's because Aaron Sorkin scripts are so thick, that it basically requires the actors to talk twice as fast in order to make sure the movie doesn't go for too long.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Ah! So then its the writer's fault! Well, I suppose I should probably give the actors more credit for being able to talk so fast without sounding incredibly ridiculous doing it. It didn't really make me buy them as intelligent figures based on their performances, but I did at least find their performances to be relatively believable, for the most part.

[Angus]

Saw Skyline on the plane. It's some mix of Cloverfield and Independence Day but without the A-list actors and replace shaky camera with telescope. Ugh, don't know if that was worth wasting the hours instead of reading. Actually I skipped the first half of the movie since that was mostly dialogue and they did a decent  opening scene followed by a completely pointless "X hours earlier" storyline.

I also saw Tangled. That's good another time around.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Been watching Brick. While the dialogue's a tad awkward, it's a pretty good throwback to the noir genre.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Dirty Harry was just watched, am now watching Magnum Force. 

[Avaitor]

Eastwood, nice.

I have Witness for the Prosecution sitting here from Netflix, but I haven't got around to watching it yet. One of the few big Wilder flicks I still haven't seen, but getting the time to sit down and watch it is hard. I'll try to soon, though.