What Have You Watched Recently?

[Michael Hopcroft]

Sherlock Holmes in The House of Fear, a 1944 secondary feature with Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce. Bruce's Watson is far too much a comic-relief character for my taste. The story involves a group of friends in an old house in Scotland who are being picked off one by one after they all took out large insurance policies naming the members of the group as the beneficiaries. If the story reminds you of Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, that would not be surprising as this was filmed at the peak of Christie's influence on the mystery genre.

 

I also saw an ITV (I think) documentary called Cat Wars, about the polarizing status of cats in England -- loved by many, but considered by others to be a menace to their gardens, local wildlife, and each other. Of particular note in a section where a cat is under siege from the cat of his neighbor, finally driving him out of his own home despite his humans buying him a special cat door that supposedly only he can open (only to find otherwise).

[slikmar]

On 3/27/2019 at 6:06 PM, Michael Hopcroft said:

Sherlock Holmes in The House of Fear, a 1944 secondary feature with Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce. Bruce's Watson is far too much a comic-relief character for my taste. The story involves a group of friends in an old house in Scotland who are being picked off one by one after they all took out large insurance policies naming the members of the group as the beneficiaries. If the story reminds you of Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, that would not be surprising as this was filmed at the peak of Christie's influence on the mystery genre.

 

I also saw an ITV (I think) documentary called Cat Wars, about the polarizing status of cats in England -- loved by many, but considered by others to be a menace to their gardens, local wildlife, and each other. Of particular note in a section where a cat is under siege from the cat of his neighbor, finally driving him out of his own home despite his humans buying him a special cat door that supposedly only he can open (only to find otherwise).

I used to love the Rathbone/Bruce pairing up until I started watching the Brett/Burke/Hardwick series and realized how much, in the books, the point of Watson wasn't to be a buffoon to Holmes, but to be a DOCTOR, therefore very intelligent to show just how much above normal people Holmes, his brother and Moriarty really were. I am glad that most instances now do portray Watson as a very loyal and competent sidekick.

[mikeben]

I am great fan of watching movies. I love to watch movie when I am alone. Just finished the movie 'The Life of PI'

[csyphrett]

The Crawford Watson went back to when Watson shot people and threw punches as well as practicing medicine

CES

[Jagged]

Everyone says, "you have Netflix? You must watch Discovery." 

Meanwhile I am getting sucked into Korean drama like "Korean Odyssey" 

 

Don't judge

 

[death tribble]

Boyhood This is a film that took ten years to make as it traces incidents in the life of a family as seen by the boy in the family. The family are divorced with dad getting the kids for the weekend. To be honest nothing much happens but the music is wonderful. There are no murders and no major incidents i.e. fires or other disasters. The remarkable thing is the two young actors playing brother and sister being available each year for ten years. Also Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette being the parents. Patricia got the Oscar for her portrayal of the mother. This is a film that should be seen once just to see what the fuss was all about.

 

Analyse This Billy Crystal is the psychiatrist and Robert De Niro is the mob boss patient. This is a good comedy as De Niro does not know how to act as a normal patient and Crystal is trying to get married.

 

Under the Skin This is an odd film. Scarlett Johansson drives around Scotland picking up men who she then takes to an odd location where she causes them to be absorbed in a black material. It is Sci Fi but it has to be seen to be believed.

 

Deepwater Horizon This is a film about the disaster with Kurt Russell as one of the chiefs on the rig. It gives a coherent view of what happened and how people were saved from the rig when disaster struck

 

You Were Never Really Here This is another odd little film. Joaquin Phoenix plays a guy who deals with people who traffic children. Usually with a hammer. You don't see graphic violence as the camera will pull back and you might see it from afar as on TV monitors in a brothel which he enters to liberate one victim. Things go wrong when the senator who hired him to return his daughter dies and police come after him. They kill his contacts and murder his mother. He goes after them to rescue the girl. The character is troubled by suicidal thoughts. It is worth a look.

[death tribble]

Catching up

 

Two Way Stretch Peter Sellers is a prisoner due out soon who is offered a job with a perfect alibi. He and his colleagues are in prison so they cannot have committed the crime. The problems begin when their warder retires and a replacement is an old enemy a strict disciplinarian. However he may be wise to the prisoners but he falls foul of the governor. A short fun film.

 

A French Mistress A boys public school employs a new French teacher. This is a young attractive woman which makes the boys very eager to follow her. The headmaster's son who is also the sports master starts dating her. And then the head believes that the girl might be related to him as he spent time with her mother some years before. A nice pleasant comedy.

 

Yield to the Night A woman is on death row in Britain and looks back on what brought her there. It stars Diana Dors who was marketed as a blonde bombshell. She gives a performance that belies her image.

 

The Ghost and Mrs Muir A widow moves to the coast and occupies a house that has scared off others as it is haunted. The ghost appears to her and helps her reside there as he helps her write a book about his life, he was a sea captain. Quite fun.

 

The Night We Dropped a Clanger A hero plans to investigate the V1 by convincing the Germans he is elsewhere. He manages to locate his double an incompetent who then has a week to impersonate the hero after which he will go to Africa. Unfortunately the two men go to the.other's location. A tad dated.

 

Two Headed Spy A German general is in fact a British spy having gone over to the Germans at the start of WW1. Although suspected of being untrustworthy he manages to stay ahead of the Gestapo and keep providing info to his handlers. Worth a look.

[death tribble]

Vikings season 1. This is now been on freeview like Inhumans, Supergirl season 1 and 2, Legends of Tomorrow seasons 1 and 2, Agent Carter seasons 1 and 2 and Flash season 3. Gabriel Bryne is the only well known actor in the cast. It is gory and violent and I like it. George Blagden who played Louis XIV in Versailles here plays a monk captured by Ragnar Lothbrok. Worth getting or seeing.

 

The Magnificent Seven This is the 2016 version with Denzel Washington as the leader of the seven. It is not as good as the original but is passable. It is worth a watch

 

The Paperboy Journalists try to investigate whether a man jailed for the murder of a sheriff was innocent. The film is infamous for Nicole Kidman peeing on a guy who has been stung by jellyfish. John Cusack plays the man imprisoned who is a nasty piece of work and it is a change to see him play someone completely unlikable. Worth a look. But this is adult fair.

 

The Saint: The Fiction Makers This is two episodes of the series which were a double bill. Simon Templer is hired to protect an author and the pair are then abducted by people who have based themselves on the author's spy books. The author is a woman and the abductors mistake her as the author's secretary and Simon as the author. Simon is tasked to rob a vault which is thought to be impregnable. If you like Roger Moore or the Saint, then you will like this.

 

Princess of Mars An American soldier is sent across the universe to a planet called Mars in a different galaxy. he teams up with some of the natives and battles local spiders. He also encounters Dejah Thoris. There was something familiar about her but I did think that they ought to have got someone better looking for the role. I did recognise her, Tracy Lords. Best watched under the influence.

 

Junior Bonner Steve McQueen is a rodeo star who returns home for the 4th of July. This is a Sam Peckinpah film where nothing violent happens. McQueen reconnects with his family over the holiday before leaving again. For a change of pace this is a good film.

 

The Black Rose Tyrone Power is the son of a recently deceased Saxon noble who married a Norman woman and had another child with her. Tyrone sets off with a childhood friend who is an archer and they end up on a caravan to one of the Khans. He also ends up in China. Orson Welles is also in this as the Khan. Worth a look. 

[death tribble]

 

Surprise Package Yul Brynner is exiled to an island off Greece as he is a gambler. Done out of his cash in exchange for his girlfriend he becomes embroiled in trying to steal an exiled King's crown. The King is played by Noel Coward. Quite fun.

 

Crow Hollow A newly married couple move into the family home shared with the husband's three aunts and their maid. The maid is killed while covering for the wife. Don't bother.

 

The Man Between A woman goes to post war Berlin to see her brother and his wife and meets one of the wife's friends who is suspect. This man is played by James Mason and the character goes between East and West Berlin and this is pre the Wall. The East German police want a guy who is getting people out of the East into the West and kidnap the woman in mistake for the wife. Mason must then get her back to the West.

 

The Day Will Dawn A sports reporter is assigned to Norway before the German invasion and comes to help the Admiralty find a U-Boat base.

 

The Night Has Eyes James Mason lives in seclusion as he suffered an injury in the Spanish Civil War and might be psychotic. He is looked after by a maid. Two women teachers looking for a colleague who disappeared in the vicinity the previous year stumble into their house on the Yorkshire Moors during a storm.

 

Millions Like Us A patriotic vehicle as a woman goes to work in a factory and marries an airman.

 

Desert Mice An ENSA troupe (an entertainment group who visit the armed forces) is sent to Africa to entertain the troops having previously performed in France pre-invasion. A forgotten comedy.

[mattingly]

3 hours ago, death tribble said:

Princess of Mars An American soldier is sent across the universe to a planet called Mars in a different galaxy. he teams up with some of the natives and battles local spiders. He also encounters Dejah Thoris. There was something familiar about her but I did think that they ought to have got someone better looking for the role. I did recognise her, Tracy Lords. Best watched under the influence. 

 

I wish the Jon Carter of Mars movie had taken off, so we'd get more of them.

 

[Spence]

35 minutes ago, mattingly said:

 

I wish the Jon Carter of Mars movie had taken off, so we'd get more of them.

 

 

Hmm....

 

I was glad it didn't.  The actors were decent and excepting the tattoos, the green men and the white ape were good too. 

 

But the world.  The horrible airships and the idiotic walking city.  It is another example of not bothering to read the source material.  At least this way there will be a chance for a better version in the future.

[Bazza]

Millions like us is good. And sentimental. 

[csyphrett]

Watched Sherlock Holmes:Game of Shadows. Holmes and Moriarty duel over an early start of the first World War. 

CES

[death tribble]

The problem with Jon Carter and the Princess of Mars film is that Dejah Thoris is supposed to be stunningly attractive and they just get an actress to play the role

[Old Man]

On 3/3/2019 at 9:48 AM, Spence said:

I actually went to a theater and watched a movie, it's been a while. 

 

Alita turned out to be a fun and well made movie even if it did seem to slow in some areas.  I thought it followed the main storyline I remember pretty well. 

 

Now I'll admit I haven't had the big hate on for live action anime/manga adaptations that seem to be fashionable.  I remember the brutal early years in film when fantasy/scifi was relegated to the garbage bin of film and we were subjected to such epics as Battle beyond the stars and Deathstalker.

 

Recent movies such as Bleach, Full Metal Alchemist, Space Battleship Yamato and Ghost in the Shell were not bad.  Certainly no where nearly as bad as some mental midgets have cried, and they deviated from the book/anime no more than other movies have deviated from there source material in the past.  Heck, the Cruise movie Edge of Tomorrow was pretty far afield from the novel I read and there wasn't a major outcry of "the stupid"

 

So hopefully Alita pulls enough that we see more adaptations. 

 

Updated:  It looks like it's taken in over $350 million so far on a budget of $170 million.  Not too bad and hopefully it will lead to more adaptations. 

 

 

 

Alita fails to lose money according to expectations, sequel... not entirely out of the question

[Spence]

7 hours ago, Old Man said:

 

Alita fails to lose money according to expectations, sequel... not entirely out of the question

I'll take that as goid news.  There are a lot of good stories out in manga/anime and I'd like to see more adaptations.  Much more interested than the constant remakes of old movies.

[death tribble]

Inhumans I missed the first episode but I saw the rest. I have been trying to work out what went wrong from my point of view. And I have come to the conclusion that it was because the people in charge decided to nerf the characters. Shaving Medusa's hair, killing Gorgon and giving Karnak a head injury and keeping Triton out for most of the series. Also Black Bolt can do a lot more. But Lockjaw looked adorable. I can understand why the series failed as it was curiously uninvolving.

 

Our World War Three episodes from the First World War  derived from the experiences of people (British soldiers) who actually went through it.

The first episode looks at the first contact between the Royal Fusiliers and the Germans at the town of Mons. The main point of view is that of one of the machine gunners who won the Victoria Cross for his actions in delaying the German's capture of the town. Another was one of the sappers who blew up a bridge.

The second episode looks at members of the Manchester Regiment as they take part in the first day of the Somme and into the rest of the battle. Unusually their experience was better than a lot of others. The main viewpoint looks at a soldier who has to execute another member of the same regiment convicted of desertion in the same battle. He talks with a vicar assigned to the military as he tries to get out of the execution detail.

The third episode looks at members of a tank crew as they take part in the Battle of Amiens.

It is all low key stuff and it was very good, a more personal look at history.

 

La La Land Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone fall in love in Los Angeles. This is an Oscar winning film and I can see why. It is feel good and has songs and dance routines. Enjoyable and worth buying. Unless you hate Gosling, Stone or both.

 

Monuments Men A bunch of non-soldiers try to rescue art from the Nazis as the Second World War draws to a close. Informative and a different look at the war.

 

Railways of the Great War with Michael Portillo This looks at railways and railwaymen during the Great War in five 30 minute bites. Railway men and how they took part; how Belgians spied on the German railway movements and then passed the information to the Allies; railguns; how men and munitions were sent by rail from Britain to the front; one of the worst rail disasters in Britain which affected a regiment; how one man organised the rail system to supply the front; and how a train brought back the Unknown Soldier and Nurse Edith Cavell. I have liked his TV work since he gave up being an MP.

 

Jason Bourne Matt Damon is back and the CIA regrets ever recruiting him. Matt is just good in the role and ha ensured the scripts are effective

 

Mulan (Disney) Finally got to see this on TV and it was simple and effective.

[Pariah]

Sesame Street: Texas Telly and the Golden Triangle of Destiny.

[mattingly]

8 hours ago, death tribble said:

Monuments Men A bunch of non-soldiers try to rescue art from the Nazis as the Second World War draws to a close. Informative and a different look at the war.

 

A good film, and a fantastic cast.

 

[drunkonduty]

Derry Girls on Netflix.

A comedy  series about some 16 year old girls at a Catholic school in Derry in 1992. Very, very funny.

[Pattern Ghost]

Bunch of these. This one's my favorite so far:

 

 

[death tribble]

Look Back in Anger Richard Burton is in the film version of the play. It still has venom sixty years on.

 

Fire Maidens from Outer Space A joint British and American expedition to the 13th moon of Jupiter which turns out to have a colony from Atlantis already there. And a monster with a large human head that is impervious to bullets. This is supposed to be one of the worst films ever made. Watch it and see why.

 

Portrait of Jennie Joseph Cotton is a struggling artist who finds inspiration in a girl who keeps appearing in his life.

 

The Lion has Wings A propaganda piece released in the early days of the war with Ralph Richardson and Merle Oberon. I liked it.

 

Whistle Down the Wind A group of children find a man in a barn out on their property and mistake him for Jesus. This is a period piece which would not work today.

 

Siege of Pinchgut Aldo Ray is a man who is helped to escape from prison and ends up stuck on a small island in Sydney Harbour which the police try to force him out of. However he has an artillery piece pointed at a munitions ship.....

 

San Demetrio London This is based on the true tale of the MV San Demetrio which was shelled by the Admiral Scheer and abandoned by her crew. Some reboarded her after failing to be picked up by other ships and managed to put out fires and get her to safety. The ship was a tanker.

[Michael Hopcroft]

The 1945 film And Then There Were None was the object yesterday. It has perhaps the classic setup for a mystery: ten strangers are lured to a lonely house of an otherwise uninhabited island, where a record is played accusing everyone of either committing direct murder or causing the deaths of others through neglect or ignorance. It seems like a sick practical joke -- until the "guests" start dying. what follows is an exercise in mounting paranoia; as their numbers dwindle, the survivors conclude it has to be one of them, and are trying to balance between trying to find the killer and trying not to be the next victim. As a racist nursery rhyme used in the film illustrates, the responsible party may well have intended to leave nobody alive. (the title of the original printing of Agatha Christie's novel was Ten Little N******, changed to Ten Little Indians in later printings until finally settling on the current title).

 

Agatha Christies may have been capable of creating "puzzles", but what makes stand out among her many contemporaries is her arch observation and gift for satire. She understood that murder was not merely an intellectual exercise; that real passions and emotions were in play. She was particularly ruthless when it came to the idyllic country life that people who lived in cities so envied in the era between the wars and afterward -- Miss Jane Marple was able to observe the full depths of human depravity in her little village of St. Mary Mead.

[death tribble]

Berth 24 This is a documentary about a ship coming into port in Hull (Kingston Upon Hull to be precise) and how it is unloaded and then loaded. This includes the gangs needed to move the cargo and what is required. This is dated as it is post WW2.

 

I Know Where I'm Going A woman travels to a remote Scottish island to marry a rich man having pursued a specific course in her life. She cannot get to the island due to bad weather and becomes caught up with the locals. It is a gentle comedy and stars Petula Clark in an early role before she became known for her singing. It is set as WW2 is coming to a close.

 

Death Goes to School A woman teacher at an all girl's school is discovered dead and the police try to find the killer concentrating on the other teachers. As the victim was thoroughly unpleasant to all and sundry the police have their work cut out. A short film.

 

John Betjamin goes by Train The poet travels in Norfolk and waxes lyrical at the scenery and buildings. A treat at just over 10 minutes.

 

Smokescreen A blazing car goes over a cliff and the insurance people begin a preliminary investigation before a claim is made. No body is recovered and the claim if made is going to be large but is insurance fraud the motive ? An early 60s film.

 

Blackout Maxwell Reed is a recovering engineer currently blind who is taken to the wrong address and stumbles over a dead body. Slugged by the killers and returned to the hospital he recovers his sight and sets out to find out what happened.

 

The Dark Man Maxwell Reed again this time as the bad guy. A killer tries to get hold of the only witness to one of his murders.  

[death tribble]

The Book of Life An animation about a Mexican village, the centre of Mexico which is the centre of the universe. The rulers of the Lands of the Remembered and the Land of the Forgotten make a bet with them potentially swapping places depending on whether a young girl marries one suitor or another

 

A Walk in The Woods. Robert Redford plays author Bill Bryson who set out to walk the Appalachian Trail with an old friend. The film is curiously uninvolving despite the presence of Redfors and Nick Nolte.

 

Sorceror This is a remake of the Wages of Fear.directed by William Fiedkin and starring Roy Schieder. Two trucks have to make it to a remote site in South American carrying unstable nitroglycerine in order to cap an oil well that is on fire. The film starts with four vignettes showing how the truck crews ended up there. One is a Palestinian terrorist who escaped retribution from the Israeli army; another is an assassin; a French company official is about to be brought up on charges of fraud, and the last is one member of a gang who knocked over a mob bank hidden under a church wounding the brother of the mob boss. It is quite tense and like its famous predecessor ends badly for all the crews.

 

Bone Tomahawk Four cowboys set of to find a band of cannibal Indians who have abducted three members of their town, stolen horses from the barn and killed the stable boy. One of those abducted is the wife of one of the pursuers who is recovering from a leg injury. This is a slow burning affair and is very good. Kurt Russell stars.

 

Iron Man 3 Iron Man vs the Mandarin but actually AIM. They nerfed the Mandarin from the comic book version and blew a lot of Tony's stuff up. And that's what I have a problem with. It seemed gratuitous. The saving of a large number of people from Airforce 1 was good and is not what you would typically expect from Iron Man.

 

X-Men Apocalypse The X-Men take on history's first mutant who is suddenly awakened from his slumber by Moria Mctaggart tracking his worshippers. It introduces Cyclops, Storm and Psylocke. It did seem lazy for Magneto and Apocalypse to kill in the same way (the police in Poland and the people trying to apprehend Storm in Egypt). Angel and Havoc both die which is so non-canon. But Quicksilver's saving of the students at the school is very good. Apocalypse's amping up of Magneto's powers really causes lots of destruction which makes gaming this film have very serious consequences. But Apocalypse taking over Professor X is invested with real drama if he gets away with it. I must confess that I am not a big fan of Apocalypse who I feel is overdone in much the same way as Amahl Farouk but the movie showed him as a really major threat