What was the last movie you watched?

[wurwolf]

Tron Legacy.
Really liked the music too, which surprised the hell out of me. It worked brilliantly in the movie.

Daft Punk did the music for Tron. I am generally not one for EDM, but I really love Daft Punk. I haven't seen the movie but I think they show up for a cameo at one point.

I watched some documentaries -

Machete Maidens Unleashed - By the guy who did the also excellent Not Quite Hollywood, this film documentary looks at the films made in the Philippines by the burgeoning exploitation film producers of the 60s and 70s.  It interviews almost everyone involved with that time, and get some great stuff from Joe Dante, Sid Haig, and John Landis.  It's maybe not quite as illuminating as Not Quite Hollywood, but it's still a lot of fun.

APGIL and I watched Machete Maidens Unleashed. You're right, it was a lot of fun. John Landis was great in it. 

Had he much experience with any of the films they showed while growing up?

I don't know if he did, so he'd have to answer that himself. He only lived the first three years of his life in the Philippines, then five years in Nigeria and the rest of his life has been in the United States. So whatever familiarity he had with the genre was likely here in the States, where he learned to love all sorts of Asian martial arts and B movie goodness. Any experience he had is likely on par with yours, I think.

I had zero familiarity with the genre and I still loved Machete Maidens Unleashed. It's a really well put together doc.

[mrbasehart]

It is.  The guy's next documentary is about Cannon films, which should also be really interesting, considering some of the nutjobs they had in charge.

[lassieface]

Just saw Zero Dark Thirty. Very solid. Very intense. Thought Jessica Chastain did a really good job. I liked seeing Chris Pratt and John Barrowman in really serious roles, and am definitely impressed with CKatheryn Bigelow. Side note: she's 61 years old!

[Edward J Grug III]

Argo.

1) Ben Affleck's films would be better if he didn't cast himself in them.

2) I found it very 'cold,' and it kind of reminded me of Good Night and Good Luck, which also didn't really work for me, in that it was just hitting certain points and the characters were very superficially developed. Plot driven instead of character driven.

3) Then you read up on it afterwards and most of the plot points were either invented or at least fabricated.

Hmmm. Not a difficult watch at all, but not really a movie I really liked.

[a pretty girl is like]

I watched some documentaries -

Machete Maidens Unleashed - By the guy who did the also excellent Not Quite Hollywood, this film documentary looks at the films made in the Philippines by the burgeoning exploitation film producers of the 60s and 70s.  It interviews almost everyone involved with that time, and get some great stuff from Joe Dante, Sid Haig, and John Landis.  It's maybe not quite as illuminating as Not Quite Hollywood, but it's still a lot of fun.

American Grindhouse - A slightly larger view of the exploitation genre as a whole, this looks at the very beginnings of grindhouse cinema, from its silent days, to the VD films of the 30s and 40s, the nudie-cuties of the 60s until the porn era in the 70s.  Again, it has some great interviews (Joe Dante and John Landis appear in this one too) and there's a lot of films I hadn't heard of that I'll be looking forward to enduring in the future.

Popatopolis - A documentary that follows exploitation director Jim Wynorski as he films his latest movie, Witches of Breastwick, over the course of three days.  It's also a mini-retrospective of his career with interviews of his family and long-time collaborators.  It's great.  Wynorski is a fun character to follow, and there are fantastic interviews with some of the women who's acted in his movies.  The stuff on set is really good too, as Wynorski's irascibility on set makes for real highlights.  Would be a great companion piece to American Movie

APGIL and I watched Machete Maidens Unleashed. You're right, it was a lot of fun. John Landis was great in it. 

Had he much experience with any of the films they showed while growing up?

Any experience I had, I would chalk up to growing up in New York City.  Lots of decent places to rent videos and watch movies.  Captain Video was one place I remember.  Also before they became network affiliates, WWOR and WPIX showed awesome b-movies all the time.  Sometimes in 3-D even.

[MartyS (Gromit)]

Also before they became network affiliates, WWOR and WPIX showed awesome b-movies all the time.  Sometimes in 3-D even.

Yeah, even out past New Haven we could get the NYC channels, combination of the antenna being on top of the World Trade Center and our house being on a hill.  Channels 9 and 11 were favorites of mine growing up because of all the movies they would show.  I don't remember any other channels showing stuff like Godzilla and Gamera.

[Kete]

A Glimpse Something Something Charles Swan
Didn't like it.  I was looking forward to some Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzman antics to take screen time away from Charlie Sheen, and it didn't happen.  Charlie Sheen is just too unpleasant.  It wasn't worth it.

[Starman!]

-Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Theatrical Version). It has slow pacing, but overall it's good and the effects are still amazing.

-Mulholland Dr.. I don't use the word brilliant too often, but this movie is brilliant. The fact that I actually understood it makes me feel smart too (though personally, I don't think it's that hard to understand). One of Lynch's best.

[Johnny Unusual]

Tron Legacy.
Really liked the music too, which surprised the hell out of me. It worked brilliantly in the movie.

Daft Punk did the music for Tron. I am generally not one for EDM, but I really love Daft Punk. I haven't seen the movie but I think they show up for a cameo at one point.

Yeah, it's a really, really kickin' soundtrack for a so/so movie.  The movie starts out really fun, but it definitely weakens when it tries to shoehorn some mythology in it.  "We need to unite the tribes."  There was a line of dialogue that did not come up again.  Did you REALLY want this to be a Pirates style franchise where things got pointlessly confusing.  Because that's what you seem to want to do.  One thing I kind of wished they pushed more of is the idea of all actions is like a part of a big game.  Yeah, they are in a big video game and all, so it's not like they are shying away from it, but I felt it could have seemed like the whole war could have seemed more like a game.  But then, it did have a lot of weaknesses.  Despite that, fun but a little disposable.

[Starman!]

I loved Tron: Legacy

[Gunflyer]

Watched Airport tonight. I think it holds up surprisingly well after what? 43 years? What surprised me is that it was nominated for best picture. Have you ever heard of a disaster movie ever being nominated for best picture? There was a moment or two that were specifically poked fun at in Airplane II: The Sequel!, specifically the "No one has to know about your problem! No one has to know that you're impotent!". You know what? Speaking of... Airplane II: The Sequel gets a really bad rap. To be honest, I think in some ways, Airplane 2 is better than the original.

Oh yeah, getting back to Airport. The story starts off kinda slow, but I'll tell you it's always a hoot watching George Kennedy on screen. Whether it's Naked gun, every single one of the airport movies, the Eiger Sanction... etc... he's a hell of a compelling actor.

[anais.butterfly]

I watched a little known, obscure film entitled Gone with the Wind. I liked some aspects of it. It was a beautiful, very well made movie. But as far as the characters of Scarlett and Rhett Butler... I just didn't like either of them, like at all. Scarlett drove me nuts with her constant whining, her "woe is me" behavior throughout the bulk of the film, and I couldn't see much humanity in the character of Rhett. I frankly just have a hard time watching a film when I can't really relate to any of the characters at all. I don't really understand them at all. I admit you could chalk that up to a failing on the part of my generation not being very well-cultured or something. I liked the film, oh most assuredly... but I just cannot picture myself ever watching it again.

I completely disagree. First of all, Scarlett is pretty whiny, but so are A LOT of people....and to call her whiny after she had her home and lifestyle destroyed...what should she do? The fact that she picks herself up and comes back as the head of the household shows how amazingly strong she is. Scarlett is a little girl thrown into roles she was not prepared for. It is amazing that despite being whiny and spoiled in the first place, she rises up instead of crumpling like a twig under the pressure.

And I adore Rhett Butler. He might be a jackass, but he has no reservations about it. He was smart enough to see that the Southern ideal was a joke and impossible to remain once the war started, then he used the North to make his money.

Scarlett: But you are a blockade runner.
Rhett Butler: For profit, and profit only.
Scarlett: Are you tryin' to tell me you don't believe in the cause?
Rhett Butler: I believe in Rhett Butler, he's the only cause I know.

I LOVE IT!

[Tripe]

The fact that she picks herself up and comes back as the head of the household shows how amazingly strong she is. Scarlett is a little girl thrown into roles she was not prepared for. It is amazing that despite being whiny and spoiled in the first place, she rises up instead of crumpling like a twig under the pressure.

And I adore Rhett Butler. He might be a jackass, but he has no reservations about it. He was smart enough to see that the Southern ideal was a joke and impossible to remain once the war started, then he used the North to make his money.

Scarlett: But you are a blockade runner.
Rhett Butler: For profit, and profit only.
Scarlett: Are you tryin' to tell me you don't believe in the cause?
Rhett Butler: I believe in Rhett Butler, he's the only cause I know.

The characters aren't badly drawn but they're hardly unique to the genre of romance fiction.

[Starman!]

The Room. On Blu-Ray.

[anais.butterfly]

The fact that she picks herself up and comes back as the head of the household shows how amazingly strong she is. Scarlett is a little girl thrown into roles she was not prepared for. It is amazing that despite being whiny and spoiled in the first place, she rises up instead of crumpling like a twig under the pressure.

And I adore Rhett Butler. He might be a jackass, but he has no reservations about it. He was smart enough to see that the Southern ideal was a joke and impossible to remain once the war started, then he used the North to make his money.

Scarlett: But you are a blockade runner.
Rhett Butler: For profit, and profit only.
Scarlett: Are you tryin' to tell me you don't believe in the cause?
Rhett Butler: I believe in Rhett Butler, he's the only cause I know.

The characters aren't badly drawn but they're hardly unique to the genre of romance fiction.

Good thing I don't read romance fiction