What film did you watch last night?

[Leaway2]

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.

I used to love watching these kind of films. Often on BBC2 on Sunday night. Two lane blacktop, Electra glide in blue, Vanishing point et al. They don't seem to be on the main channel anymore.

 

[Profpointy]

I used to love watching these kind of films. Often on BBC2 on Sunday night. Two lane blacktop, Electra glide in blue, Vanishing point et al. They don't seem to be on the main channel anymore.

I reckon I watched the very same season of films as a teenager in about '78 or thereabouts. Certainly Electra Glide in Blue was oart of that Bbc2 season and may well have been when I first saw blacktop. Not seen Vanishing Point, though I am aware of it.

I have seen Easy Rider, but didn't quite appeal to me that much, though not to knock it. @jefmcg anove makes some good points which as a bloke I hadn't appreciated, but rather agree with now they're pointed out. Still a valid film reflecting the mores of the time, and that freedom may have only been there for some

 

[Leaway2]

I reckon I watched the very same season of films as a teenager in about '78 or thereabouts. Certainly Electra Glide in Blue was oart of that Bbc2 season and may well have been when I first saw blacktop. Not seen Vanishing Point, though I am aware of it.

I have seen Easy Rider, but didn't quite appeal to me that much, though not to knock it. @jefmcg anove makes some good points which as a bloke I hadn't appreciated, but rather agree with now they're pointed out. Still a valid film reflecting the mores of the time, and that freedom may have only been there for some

I don't think I have ever watched easy rider. I'll check it out tonight.

 

[mustang1]

Margin Call.

But then I realised I've already seen it.

 

[Leaway2]

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.

Easy rider.

I don't get the misogyny. There are very few women in the film, but then film is about 2 men on motor cycles heading to New Orleans. Karen Black and Toni Basil are barely in the film (no pun intended) and when they are it appears most of it was done when director Hopper was high as a kite (the graveyard scene).
Great scenery. Great sound track. A film of its time? probably like the wild west cowboy films, it never really happened except for a few.

 

[swee'pea99]

Big. Absolutely your definitive high concept movie. ('It's about a boy who makes a wish at a fairground machine to become a grown up, and wakes up in the morning to find out that he has.') A simple idea, brilliantly executed. Tom Hanks is in his element. Great script, well punctuated with cracking one-liners ("I'm your best friend - what's more important than that?"), and even manages to cock an engaging, amusing and ultimately effective snook at the prevailing ('80s) work/money/success ethos. If you don't find yourself smiling at the trampoline scene, check for a pulse. I enjoyed it when I first saw it, and I enjoyed it again - and more than I would've expected. Eight-and-a-half out of ten.

 

[MarquisMatsugae]

Best go check my pulse then .
But it is a nice little film

 

[Starchivore]

[QUOTE 4456805, member: 259"]That sounded interesting until I saw it had Dave Allen in it![/QUOTE]

Did you mean Keith Allen? He's not a major character- I promise.

 

[Tin Pot]

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

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.

Hmm, I'm also generation X but this was a recurring film through my childhood md and teens.

I don't reject your accusation of mysogeny at all. It might be considered a deliberate and accurate reflection of society.

Catcher in the rye didn't take me either, but for some it resonates with a sense that they and/or other people are faking their lives.

Easy Rider is still a great movie, it shows the contrasts of the emerging subculture that is now self-evident everywhere, from the previous mono culture where every man has cropped hair, wears a tie and is pressured from birth to never question anything and particularly not authority.

Plus it just has some silliness and cool trippy bits that certain kinds of people like.

Of course, just IMO.

 

[AndyRM]

Faster - 6/10

Action, revenge and forgiveness tale. Entertaining enough but the revenge element is ludicrously easy and there's no big showdown which is a bit of an odd one for this genre. Still, not bad for a film recorded on a whim because Clint Mansell did the soundtrack.

 

[threebikesmcginty]

Gone Girl, surprisingly good!

 

[Tin Pot]

Cockneys vs Zombies

I'd like to say it's brilliant, but.

That girl off east enders whose sister turned out be 'er muvva, the bird off the original Avengers, assorted cast that were probably on Minder or The Bill at some point - how could it go wrong?

Let's just say they needed a director like Guy Ritchie to pull it off. Brick Top has sunk too low...

 

[mustang1]

Cheap Thrills.

There's a part in there that nearly made me vomit, not because it was rubbish (well it's not really good but not too bad) but because what one of those thrills was.

 

[AndyRM]

Blood Ties - 6/10

Pretty good, if a little predictable film of two brothers on the opposite side of the law in 70s New York. Looks and feels very authentic but is let down by some poor writing and a whole lot of clichés.

Oddly, the director, Guillaume Canet, starred in the original French version (Les Lignes du Sang); not sure I can think of that having happened before.

 

[AndyRM]

Taking of Pelham 123 - 3/10

Tony Scott made some absolutely cracking action films. This was not one of them, and I think it's particularly rubbish because the original was so good.

John Travolta is so bad he's good, which is a redeeming feature. The weird, choppy slo-mo definitely isn't.