What I've Been Watching: The Catch-All Film Thread

I watched Saving Private Ryan for the first time today, and I gotta say it was a very powerful experience, and it had my attention the whole way through. Might watch some similar films like Hacksaw Ridge some time in the next week.

All the previous recommendations are good and all, but I suspect you wont have time to watch every WWII classic ever made.

However, the one single movie to make critical comparison with Saving Private Ryan is the all-time classic called The Longest Day (1962), which was the first real attempt to put the Normandy Landings onto film in a truly epic way.

It's a phenomenally all-star affair, with John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Richard Burton, Sean Connery, Roddy McDowall, Robert Mitchum, Leslie Phillips, George Segal, Rod Steiger, Robert Wagner, Richard Todd, and a hundred other people that would have been famous at the time.

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A bit like how Gladiator is a comparison film to Spartacus, Saving Private Ryan is very much a comparison film to The Longest Day:

Scene-The-Longest-Day-Ken-Annakin-Andrew.jpg


So if you only watch one more WWII classic, and you're inspired by SPR, then this is the one I'd be most interested in hearing your thoughts about, especially in a versus regard.
 
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Dunkirk is something special, I can easily recommend it too.

There are classics too, like Battle of Britain (1969), and The Longest Day (1962). Das Boot has already been mentioned, great movie and very atmospheric. I wonder how the series is, I should try.

Yeah, I agree with @bjon045; about Midway.
 
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However, the one single movie to make critical comparison with Saving Private Ryan is the all-time classic called The Longest Day (1962), which was the first real attempt to put the Normandy Landings onto film in a truly epic way.

I actually did see The Longest Day a few years ago with my dad as a way to remember the D-Day Invasion's anniversary (which I just remembered is coming up in 3 days). I remember enjoying it, but I don't remember too much admittedly. Maybe I should watch it again if I have the time, though I rarely watch any films or shows much anymore.
 
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I actually did see The Longest Day a few years ago with my dad as a way to remember the D-Day Invasion's anniversary (which I just remembered is coming up in 3 days). I remember enjoying it, but I don't remember too much admittedly. Maybe I should watch it again if I have the time, though I rarely watch any films or shows much anymore.

Around the year 2000 there was an attempt to recreate the epics of old, but to do so with computer effects rather than expensive location shoots and armies of real life extras. Mainly because the directors of the day had reached their own nostalgia phase and wanted to recreate the legendary films of their youth.

Ridley Scott did Gladiator (2000), famously CGI'ing the vast colosseum crowds compared to Spartacus' hoards of extras. Spielberg did Private Ryan (1998), again using technology to Oscar level effect to create an almost too realistic beach invasion but without the armies of extras that were involved in The Longest Day's properly full beaches. And the less said about Michael Bay's Pearl Harbour (2001) the better, other than it attempted to do the same for From Here To Eternity and Tora Tora Tora. And James Cameron did Titanic (1997), effectively remaking A Night To Remember.

And aside from Pearl Harbour, they all did a really good job of allowing modern audiences to see a genuinely epic movie in the old style but without the inconvenient costs of extras and extreme location shooting, the main reason why we don't see monumental epics any more.

As time passes, however, many people go back to preferring the originals. Not because of any specific bias or just because they're older, but because no matter how well one does the CGI and animated backdrops, there's still nothing quite like seeing it in 'real' mode, if you know what I mean. Just the whole "holy shit, just look at all those people in that weird place!" effect that even the best CGI can't fully replicate without at least some trace uncanny valley.

Private Ryan's first half is a masterpiece regardless because there's no way that scene could have ever been shot like that in the past. It stands as it's own classic, but the rest of the film has inherently less sense of Epic than it's 60s bedfellow, for purely accounting reasons. Though it is well compensated for by the less epic, but equally as strong, human drama.

Dunkirk (1958) versus Dunkirk (2017) is a very similar situation. And it was also nice to see another big director at least try to make a classic epic, limited by the fact that movies can longer afford to be properly epic.
 
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On the topic of WW II films, there is a (largely unknown) television movie called When Trumpets Fade (1998) that's IMHO very good too.
 
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I just had a surprise Thai phase of movie watching. I had no great intention to watch any Thai cinema, I just got a huge dose of random serendipity rolled into 2 consecutive nights of movie watching.

Ong Bak (2003) from a DVD which didn't have the subtitle The Thai Warrior, is an 80s action movie but instead of some muscle bound European/American going through the motions it's new martial arts expert Tony Jaa making his fame-creating debut, a Muay Thai boxer version of martial arts.

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Jaa is Bronsonesque as he plays the straight guy to a 'comedy' sidekick who is more annoying than funny, as per the classic trope. The bad guy is often hilarious, in a good and intended way and the plot is about the right kind of silly as newly qualified monk Jaa leaves his small village for Bangkok in search of the village's stolen god-statue head (which has been stolen by the big bad's henchmen).

Like most films of this genre, when the action is happening it's wonderfully spellbinding and practically 10/10 but when in downtime it's borderline snoozy 4/10. Luckily, this film is about 70% pure action, maybe even 80%, so it's score is an easy 7.5/10.

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And even plot-wise, but godammit, you really want him to get that statue head back, which isn't bad at all for b-move action flick. Jaa would go on to have a very successful career and is expected to be present in The Expendables 4 which has now finished filming and should be out soon.

The following night I decided to give The Beach (2000) a rewatch. Well, I say rewatch but I thought it might have been a 1st watch as it was one of those films I simply couldn't remember if I'd seen when it came out, though I was sure I had.

And, yes, I had seen it before, but couldn't remember much at all. And lo and behold, the beach in question is in Thailand and I'm now watching my 2nd Thai movie in a row.

There's not much I can add to the well worn critical narrative for this movie. It was an enjoyable enough ride. Everything seemed of quality and yet somehow not quite right. Some combination of Dicaprio's casting combined with the oddly unflowing script seemed to prevent any of the emotional beats from landing.

It's a pretty cool paradise utopia gone wrong movie, but one feels there are more interesting examples in the genre. I dunno, it's probably why I forgot most of it and probably told myself not to rewatch it back in 2000. I'm tempted to give it a 6.5/10 but that seems unnecessarily harsh on the great actors and wonderful locations shooting and banging soundtrack. It must be a script thing *shrugs*. I dunno.

the-beach-tilda-swinton-leonardo-dicaprio.jpg
 
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So, I watched Hatching tonight. It's not great, but it's not bad either. It reminded me of Lamb in some ways. It has a similar fairy tale vibe, but it's gorier.
Watched this last night.

At first I thought the acting was way off, but it only took a few minutes to work out that this was on purpose. Then the hatching happened way earlier than I anticipated (about 22 minutes in) and it felt like it became a little too fairy tale.
And then it got quite fucked up. The ending was pretty good, though a little open, was pretty good I thought.
I was expecting the mother to adopt the new version of her child. Even though it didn't show that, it wouldn't have surprised me if that was what happened next. And milquetoast dad would have gone along with it
Overall, a thumbs up. Better than I expected.
 
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Watched "Aristocats" from Disney last last Sunday evening. I'm slowly working myself through some of that back catalogue.

Weird movie, so ... much a mix between different times ... You'll see how cars were started at the beginning of the last century ... And jazz, that came much later ... So, it's kind of a pastiche of different times & cultures ... but funny ...

Watching this movie is like doing some "cultural archaeology" : It reflects old times, was made long after those times, and does transport a few clichés that were evident during that time.
 
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Candyman

Pretty disappointing. I thought Jordan Peele's previous horror flicks were decent if not great, but Candyman is entirely mediocre. It's not the least bit disturbing at any point, and I was surprised at how poor the writing and acting was. You're better off rewatching the original film.
 
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Nude Tuesday - Trailer

 
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This is fast becoming the "what trailers are you keeping an eye on" thread :D
 
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Candyman

Pretty disappointing. I thought Jordan Peele's previous horror flicks were decent if not great, but Candyman is entirely mediocre. It's not the least bit disturbing at any point, and I was surprised at how poor the writing and acting was. You're better off rewatching the original film.
I agree - mediocre is the best description. I was really looking forward to this one, too, and expected it to be good based on Peele's involvement - though I probably shouldn't have, as he was only the (co)writer on this one.
 
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I finally saw The VVitch. Holy shit what an intense movie. And my favorite kind of horror film. No jump-scares, just an unnverving atmosphere and story, some truly horrific ideas and themes, and all done with a subject matter so banal, if you think about it. But the way it was done was mesmerising.

It was shot pretty beautifully. Written and acted masterfully, by the whole cast. Not sure if I would've preferred a more abstract ending, but I liked it even like this. Man, what a movie. No wonder people were raving about it. Next up, I plan on seeing The Lighthouse and finally ending with The Northman.
 
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And I also saw The Lighthouse. Overall, I think I liked The VVitch more. While I didn't really connect with the Lighthouse emotionally, I loved the descent into madness of both characters. And both actors really gave it their all. They obviously went through a lot in the shootings.
 
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I've seen around 1/3 or 1/2 of Northman, and I'm kind of disappointed so far, compared to The VVitch and Lighthouse. It's way more "what-you-would-expect" from a box-office movie. It looks pretty nice, and it's fine, but it's got none of the charm that his previous movies had. So far feels very much like a historically accurate and by-the-book revenge story. Maybe this is the price of an increased budget and wanting a more mainstream audience.

For some reason I also feel a bit burned out, either on movies in general, or maybe just this one. I'll see about finished the second half when I can. But I felt none of this during his first two. Those were pretty compelling.
 
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Yeah, I finished Northman, and while it's pretty good overall and better than most movies set in the norse setting, it's nowhere near as good as The VVitch and The Lighthouse. Aside from the nice portrayal of norse mythologic elements, it was pretty formulaic and by the numbers. But I do apreciate that the guy heading up these movies seems to be pushing for a lot of authenticity and historical accuracy when it comes to the settings he tackles.
 
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I saw the Lighthouse a few months ago, and quite liked it. I know I'll be re-watching it again in the future, I've not seen the VVitch yet, nor Northman.
 
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