Last Film You Watched

[Ian]

Saw Return of the Living Dead again last night. Wow, what a great movie. A quarter of a century old now (!) and still a wonderful mix of laughs and scares. A genuine cult comedy horror classic.

"BRAINS!"

[sydney]

The Fugitive is very good.

I'm amused by syd's comment of "although it is 16 years old", mind. You know, FA's only 5 years off of that!

I think it's quite funny afterwards too. The thingy is that I don't see FÅ as a movie that ages... The topic will always stay very actual and of all times.

Last weekend I saw another awesome Swedish movie in the cinema... Män som hatar Kvinnor or Men that hate women. I am thinking of putting this movie in my top 10 list... yes, another Swedish movie in my top 10.

[snaps]

check out this thread: http://showmelove.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=958. Feel free to add comments/ reviews.

[Ian]

Saw Robocop again last night. Classic 80s sci-fi action. Great cast, too. As some wag on YouTube put it, "So that's what Red Forman got up to after the 70s!"

[bruno]

I've just seen Miracle at St Anna by Spike Lee

lame, lame movie

[fish]

I've just seen Miracle at St Anna by Spike Lee

lame, lame movie

I was put off seeing it by reports that Spike seemed too intent on making it about the race issue rather than dealing with it as a wartime drama. Is that the way you saw it too, or was it just poor storytelling?

[fish]

Saw the movie "High Art" with Ally Sheedy and Radha Mitchell.

Syd (Mitchell) is a new asst. editor of a photographic art magazine, Lucy is a semi retired photographer who lives in the appartment upstairs. Leaky bathtub, cracked ceiling, they meet.

A very good, gritty drama, exceptionally well crafted characters all the way down the cast list and very well acted.

In my view the only thing that keeps this from being a "great" movie is in the last 15 or 20 minutes when we really need more insight into Lucy's actions. There have to be deep reasons from her past to make her do what she does.

Very good, but could have been great.

[Ian]

You do like your lesbian movies, don't you, fishy?

Saw School of Rock again last night. Great fun.

[fish]

You do like your lesbian movies, don't you, fishy?

I do have to confess that I actually think women are the most beautiful creatures on the planet. Not just physically but in the tenderness they're capable of showing in intimate moments, something male actors, writers and directors rarely achieve. So without wishing to appear defensive, yeah, I do enjoy the emotional beauty of the genre. I guess I'm just a teary eyed romantic at heart.

[Ian]

I'm only teasing. I've seen High Art, too! (I'm not really a fan of these 'depressing' lesbian movies though. Life's depressed enough without watching something depressing as well! )

I am not a romantic. I am a bitter, jaded, hardened cynic. Granted, I still have a ridiculous 18-year crush on someone I've never met and never will, to whom I recently dedicated an MV set to Whitney Huston's "I Will Always Love You" which had me welling up when I played it back, but that does not make me a romantic. Just a weirdo idiot.

[fish]

... Just a weirdo idiot.

Different words, same emotion I think.

[bruno]

I've just seen Miracle at St Anna by Spike Lee

lame, lame movie

I was put off seeing it by reports that Spike seemed too intent on making it about the race issue rather than dealing with it as a wartime drama. Is that the way you saw it too, or was it just poor storytelling?

Too much of a race issue? Yes, but USA army really behaved badly with black soldiers as far as I know. They were treated worst than european colonial troops, in some respects.

Poor storytelling? also true.
This film was too many stories (black soldiers, the USA army, the italian common people, the partisans, the "regular" germans, the SS) pasted together with no harmony. I hated the little child for his exceptional bad acting, and a good half of the italian actors were no better (no guilt on Spike Lee here, most italian actors just suck). The thing about the miracle is lame, too.

Miracle at StAnna is wrongly offending the partisans, too: Ok they were no angels, they were feared and hated by no small part of italian people because, after they ambushed german troops or fascist officials, terrible vengeance fell on common folks (with the famous 10:1 deaths retaliation rate). This is a difficult truth, rarely spoken about here in Italy, but the film doesnt tell this truth, it speaks about a traitor partisan who helps the germans, IMHO quite a rare thing, and sure not happening at St Anna. So the St Anna folks (of today) who wanted the film banned were right in my opinion. By the way massacre at St Anna was a random act of killing by retreating SS troops.

As for Renata, the italiag girl with the husband missing somewhere in Russia, which f***s with a black soldier: in a small community of that time a married woman could not flirt openly with foreign soldiers, black or not. Italian cities were a different story, with lots of famished women throwing themselves at the victors, black, white or brown they could be (and then repenting some years after when everyone pointed fingers at them, not a pleasant thing in catholic Italy), but in a small village Renata's behaviour would just make an outcast of her from the start.

Spike Lee said he's more mature in this movie, and that he could not have made something similar 10 years ago. He manages too see matters from many different point de vue, this is true. Just think about his old movie"Do the right thing" were the right thing was burning the italian pizza bakery, for sure this director has evolved a lot, my compliments.
Ok, I don't love him. I wanted to watch Miracle at StAnna anyway because it's a rare thing someone from outside to give a damn about the war (and the civil war!) here in Italy (but the film was financed in part by italian television). Sadly, this thing sucks. It tanked at box office in the USA, some hinted at movie theaters refusing to show it, but there's no conspiration here, it just sucks.

[fish]

..................it just sucks.

That's a pretty comprehensive review of the film.
I'm not a great fan of war movies but occasionally one gets made which looks at the effects on people in a more true and sensitive manner, rather than just another "action" flick trying to avoid reality.
With all the flaws you've pointed out you've made me glad I missed it.

[bruno]

I'm not a great fan of war movies but occasionally one gets made which looks at the effects on people in a more true and sensitive manner, rather than just another "action" flick trying to avoid reality.

I suggest you see The Thin Red Line by Malick, then...

[Ian]

... Just a weirdo idiot.

Different words, same emotion I think.

LOL Very true!