What film did you watch last night?

[MarquisMatsugae]

Easy Rider (1969)...Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Jack Nicholson a film of its time but still has some relevance today, still an enjoyable film but the graveyard bit does drag on a bit.....been such a long time since i last watch it i couldn't really remember most of it...still a cool film 7/10

Saw it in 98 when my then neighbour handed it in,telling me it was a classic.
I thought the whole film dragged in tbh,and in no way a classic.
I suppose if you are slouched on a sofa,puffin' the cheeba,it's a masterpiece.

 

[MarquisMatsugae]

its a 1969 road movie about 2 people seeking an alternative american dream and how society wasn't ready or didn't approve and their experiences as they rode to New Orleans, I'm not sure what people expect to age well...
Karen Black was playing a prostitute, who then has a bad LSD trip, in the end Hopper treats her like a prostitute.
Jack Nicholson was the only one with any decent dialogue, most of the film is two people riding bikes so not that difficult to act the rest off the screen...
the film in my opinion was a hit for the middle americans who wanted but couldn't be free in the land of the free due to the restraints placed on them by society and family etc plus the US were at the height of the Vietnam war...and who doesn't love the idea of traveling anywhere without the everyday hassles of life..
but to me they missed the point, Easy Rider isn't a film promoting an alternative lifestyle, they showed the hippie commune as a failed experiment, the two experienced constant harassment culminating in Nicholsons death, the film starts off with a cocaine deal which showed that even an alternative lifestyle needed funding, the bad LSD trip, etc etc etc.....
the only thing which appealed to me was the riding the bikes on the open road...

That's a good breakdown of the film @User .
And the drug references are pretty much the primary reason I didn't like it,but that was the norm back then.
So watching it in the nineties it seemed a bit too "right on man" for me.
It was never going to age gracefully as you say.It would appeal to the hash heads of today I suppose.
It was also very slow.

 

[Deleted member 23692]

Sucker Punch - Zak Snyder's superbly mind boggling fantasy.

Visually stunning with an interesting soundtrack, but after watching it (this being the 4th or 5th time now) I've still absolutely no idea what's happening.
Dragons, samurai, robot soldiers and steam driven zombie nazis... what more could you ask for?

6/10 (purely because I really want to like this film)

 

[swee'pea99]

Lone Survivor. Cowboys 'n injuns for the new millenium. Quite well done, qua movie - undeniable visceral impact, and a genuine Saving Private Ryan-esque feel of 'this must be something like what it's actually like', as metal smashes bodies. Interesting to see the comments on IMDb - quite a few 1/10s from people alienated and angered by the simplistic gung-hoism, and absurd depiction of 'our boys' barely registering AK-47 hits which, as one puts it, in reality 'tear off limbs'. Still, I quite enjoyed it, as a movie, and using 'enjoyed' in a somewhat odd sense.

 

[Profpointy]

its a 1969 road movie about 2 people seeking an alternative american dream and how society wasn't ready or didn't approve and their experiences as they rode to New Orleans, I'm not sure what people expect to age well...
Karen Black was playing a prostitute, who then has a bad LSD trip, in the end Hopper treats her like a prostitute.
Jack Nicholson was the only one with any decent dialogue, most of the film is two people riding bikes so not that difficult to act the rest off the screen...
the film in my opinion was a hit for the middle americans who wanted but couldn't be free in the land of the free due to the restraints placed on them by society and family etc plus the US were at the height of the Vietnam war...and who doesn't love the idea of traveling anywhere without the everyday hassles of life..
but to me they missed the point, Easy Rider isn't a film promoting an alternative lifestyle, they showed the hippie commune as a failed experiment, the two experienced constant harassment culminating in Nicholsons death and ultimately their own, the film starts off with a cocaine deal which showed that even an alternative lifestyle needed funding, the bad LSD trip, etc etc etc.....
the only thing which appealed to me was the riding the bikes on the open road...

As a (somewhat) similar film, worth looking out for Two Lane Blacktop, which is my all-time favourite movie.
The plot such as it is involves a race across country between the owners of a souped up drag racing car - they are in the credits as "driver" and mechanic" and Warren Oates as a bullshitting character who owns a modern GTO (he's in the credits as "GTO""), The only other character is billed as "girl". It's not really about the race, which peters out anyway, but about the road, or the journey. The whole script could be written on the back of a fag packet, and I could probably recite most of it. Every scene, every word is compelling and perfect, and I must have seen it a dozen times.

Word of warning, others have stated it's the most boring film ever. Obviously I disagree, but theirs is not a wholly stupid view.

 

[Starchivore]

I watched this film, "Hector", about a homeless guy in Scotland looking to reconnect with some of his family.

I thought it was great- very convincingly acted, avoided melodrama (and isn't as sentimental/mawkish as the below poster's slogan makes it sound).

I highly recommend it. If you have Netflix you can get it on that.

 

[MarquisMatsugae]

That looks very good @Starchivore ,I'll check it out

 

[dellzeqq]

It's a long time since I saw first it, and it was already pretty old then. To me, it didn't stand the test of time. The casual misogyny (shocked to see Karen Black treated so dismissedly), the unearned tragedy of the ending, the way Jack Nicholson acted the rest of the cast off the screen. The film is famous for the studios not understanding why it was a hit, and thus underwriting some terrible films by Dennis Hopper et al. As generation Xer, seeing it for the first time in the oughties, I also don't know why it was a hit.

Great soundtrack, big skies, motorbikes. What more do you need?

Oh - and the general theme might be a lament for times lost, for an America in which, conveniently, there was sufficient space for white men to write hymns to their own individuality.

 

[RoubaixCube]

I watched a 1951 movie called 'The Steel Helmet'



The 'fakeness' of it all is a little funny to watch especially this scene here.



bushes and trees were more or less just props with a little dry ice for that fog effect.

I also re-watched Ice Cold In Alex for a laugh.

With all that said -- Men In War (1957) is a much better movie then Steel Helmet. Only 6 years difference between them but the quality of recording came such a long long way.

 

[dellzeqq]

oh - Two Lane Blacktop. Brilliant. If Ingmar Bergman did dragster movies, this would be it. And if I ever do another bike club it will be drag racing down Lonesome Lane at two in the morning.

 

[AndyRM]

That looks very good @Starchivore ,I'll check it out

It's excellent, but then everything Peter Mullan does is! A seriously good actor and an all round good chap.

 

[MarquisMatsugae]

It's excellent, but then everything Peter Mullan does is! A seriously good actor and an all round good chap.

Agreed on that one

 

[MontyVeda]

Sucker Punch - Zak Snyder's superbly mind boggling fantasy.

Visually stunning with an interesting soundtrack, but after watching it (this being the 4th or 5th time now) I've still absolutely no idea what's happening.
Dragons, samurai, robot soldiers and steam driven zombie nazis... what more could you ask for?

6/10 (purely because I really want to like this film)

The set pieces are excellent, the sh!t that holds them together is dire, and the less said about the ending the better. I'm sure there's a few fifteen year old Emo types that consider it the most profound film ever made, but they're simply naive. Ultimately, it's sh!t film with a few good bits.

However it's probably better than Roadgames (1981), starring Stacey Keach and Jamie Lee Curtis. This could have been a decent film if the writers had bothered to play to the plot's strong points (trucker trying to protect hitcher from serial killer unwittingly puts himself in the frame). I think every episode of Scooby Doo had a better ending than this turd.

 

[jefmcg]

I'm not sure what people expect to age well...

I'm not trying to be judgemental about a film older than most of the men I've slept with, but I took this ....

still a cool film 7/10

as you saying it has aged well. OK, if you don't think it has aged well, then we are on the same page.

To be honest, I don't remember the film in detail - it hasn't stuck with me - but I remember my reaction to it. The misogyny isn't from the cast, it's deep in the DNA of the film. It's so totally dismissive of any woman, that it felt to me the freedoms portrayed in it are for men only. And I can happily watch a western where the only woman is Angie Dickinson playing the bar owner, without feeling as excluded as I did watching Easy Rider.

To be honest, I think this film is only accessible to a certain group of people who saw it at certain time in their lives. I read A Catcher in the Rye for the first time as a forty-something woman, and while I thought was a fine novel I have no idea why John Hinkley jnr was carrying it with him when he shot Ronald Reagan. I can never know what that book reads like to a 17 year old white man-boy, and I can never experience Easy Rider as a white 20-something man.

 

[John the Monkey]

Ip Man 3 (Netflix)
If you consider plot to be important, then Master Ip is drawn reluctantly into the biffing of a great many baddies, who for reasons I could never quite fathom, have something against his son's school.

The real joy of this though, are the fights, which are beautifully choreographed, and satisfyingly weighty. I didn't enjoy the story elements as much as those of the first two films (both also available on Netflix) but the set pieces are as good if not better. Donnie Yen is excellent once more in the title role, skilfully seeing off ne'erdowells while wearing the sort of put upon expression one wears when presented with a poor school report by one of your offspring, or knowing that you have to clear your guttering that weekend.

10/10, would whoop as the baddies get their comeuppance again.