Discuss and Rate the Last Film You Watched

[Johnny Novgorod]

Frankenstein & Bride of Frankenstein

I'm always a bit shocked by how all these classic monster movies are so short, about 70 minutes long most of them. The trick to Frankenstein is that it starts in the thick of the action, with Henry Frankenstein (why not Victor?) and Fritz (why not Igor?) grave-robbing and this close to finishing up the monster. No time to waste. Except for all the bland scenes involving Henry's dad, friend and fiancee. You couldn't ask for a duller trio. I'm not sure why Henry even has a friend in this. I thought they were setting up a stoic, noble counterpart to the unhinged, immoral Frankenstein so the female lead would have a replacement groom by the end, as it was usually the case in 30s gangster flicks, but amazingly Frankenstein survives and marries Elizabeth. But hey, the movie single-handedly comes up with all the iconography associated with Frankenstein (that the book doesn't really dwell into). The creature itself, the laboratory, the hunchback assistant, they called me crazy/it's alive!, the clifftop castle, the angry torch-carrying mob, the burning windmill. Karloff is great, Colin Clive is great.

Bride does the 1980s slasher sequel of retconning the "death" of the monster and setting him on the loose while the survivors mostly sit out the movie, Halloween II style. The creature starts talking here and comes across as more sympathetic; he is given an actual arc too. But if I were paying good money in 1935 to see this I'd feel a bit gypped, as the title Bride shows up in the last 5 minutes of the movie and does nothing but wake up and scream at the monster.

Bride is also in essence a comedy. Young Frankenstein cribbed a lot from here and didn't really need to stretch the parody that far, honestly, especially with the blind man sequence and the ridiculous character of the Irish housekeeper. The sequel also introduces a Dr. Pretorius, who apparently had a castle next to Frankenstein's in the previous movie and was not only working on creating life as well but succeeded amazingly and carries with him jars with actual tiny people in them, including a fucking mermaid. His woe is that he couldn't figure out a way to make them life-sized, which seems to me like missing the forest for the trees.

Anyway.

 

[thebobmaster]

A ★★★ review of Sleeping Beauty (1959)

This rating is misleading for how much I actually enjoyed watching the movie, just to get that out of the way. The plot of the movie follows the birth of Princess Aurora (voiced by Mary Costa). After being cooed over by literally everyone except her betrothed, Prince Phillip (voiced by Bill...

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[hanselthecaretaker]

Frankenstein & Bride of Frankenstein

I'm always a bit shocked by how all these classic monster movies are so short, about 70 minutes long most of them. The trick to Frankenstein is that it starts in the thick of the action, with Henry Frankenstein (why not Victor?) and Fritz (why not Igor?) grave-robbing and this close to finishing up the monster. No time to waste. Except for all the bland scenes involving Henry's dad, friend and fiancee. You couldn't ask for a duller trio. I'm not sure why Henry even has a friend in this. I thought they were setting up a stoic, noble counterpart to the unhinged, immoral Frankenstein so the female lead would have a replacement groom by the end, as it was usually the case in 30s gangster flicks, but amazingly Frankenstein survives and marries Elizabeth. But hey, the movie single-handedly comes up with all the iconography associated with Frankenstein (that the book doesn't really dwell into). The creature itself, the laboratory, the hunchback assistant, they called me crazy/it's alive!, the clifftop castle, the angry torch-carrying mob, the burning windmill. Karloff is great, Colin Clive is great.

Bride does the 1980s slasher sequel of retconning the "death" of the monster and setting him on the loose while the survivors mostly sit out the movie, Halloween II style. The creature starts talking here and comes across as more sympathetic; he is given an actual arc too. But if I were paying good money in 1935 to see this I'd feel a bit gypped, as the title Bride shows up in the last 5 minutes of the movie and does nothing but wake up and scream at the monster.

Bride is also in essence a comedy. Young Frankenstein cribbed a lot from here and didn't really need to stretch the parody that far, honestly, especially with the blind man sequence and the ridiculous character of the Irish housekeeper. The sequel also introduces a Dr. Pretorius, who apparently had a castle next to Frankenstein's in the previous movie and was not only working on creating life as well but succeeded amazingly and carries with him jars with actual tiny people in them, including a fucking mermaid. His woe is that he couldn't figure out a way to make them life-sized, which seems to me like missing the forest for the trees.

Anyway.

Bride of Frankenstein….is that the one where they’re at the castle door and the guy says in awe, “What knockers!” and the chic with him is flatteringly like, “Thank you, doctor.”

Even in my teens I thought that seemed pretty risqué for back in those days. It’s also pretty much the only thing I distinctly remember from it since it was at least 25 years ago.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Bride of Frankenstein….is that the one where they’re at the castle door and the guy says in awe, “What knockers!” and the chic with him is flatteringly like, “Thank you, doctor.”

Even in my teens I thought that seemed pretty risqué for back in those days. It’s also pretty much the only thing I distinctly remember from it since it was at least 25 years ago.

I think that's Young Frankenstein, the Mel Brooks parody from 1974.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

I think that's Young Frankenstein, the Mel Brooks parody from 1974.

If that was also in black and white, you might be right.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

If that was also in black and white, you might be right.

That's the one.

 

[Thaluikhain]

IMHO, the best scene in Frankenstein is when the man carries the drowned child through the village where there is a festival and eveyrone in turn stops merrymaking to look at him as he goes past. Long single shot, simple, but effective.

The sequel also introduces a Dr. Pretorius, who apparently had a castle next to Frankenstein's in the previous movie and was not only working on creating life as well but succeeded amazingly and carries with him jars with actual tiny people in them, including a fucking mermaid. His woe is that he couldn't figure out a way to make them life-sized, which seems to me like missing the forest for the trees.

That part always seemed very weird and out of place to me.

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

Wendell and Wylde
Animated family film by the ppl behind Coraline and Key n Peele, with distinct Tim Burton overtones. Is not bad, if a bit frantic to where it feels like it solves every problem almost instantly after its introduced, so there's no time to dwell or savour any real feeling of threat. All the various parts are respectable vignettes on different topics, but they feel bundled into a run-time that doesn't allow any of them time enough to breathe. Still worth a watch, and no doubt the kids won't care for a slower pace anyway. Cool soundtrack too.

Edit: Wild, not Wylde. Probably had Black Label Society on the brain when typing that, oopsie.

 

[Piscian]

Seconded. Saw it without any trailers or spoilers and don’t regret it. Just now seeing the trailer though, I was surprised by the restraint it showed. As a big horror fan very few movies have me reminding myself “it’s just a movie”, but this did. All the plot holes actually made it easier, and after the big reveal it basically turned into a comedy.

Yeah, at first I was like "This is interesting" then I was like "Oh this is terrifying" and then I was like "This is fucking stupid" and theeen I was like "Oh well this is just wonderful".

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

IMHO, the best scene in Frankenstein is when the man carries the drowned child through the village where there is a festival and eveyrone in turn stops merrymaking to look at him as he goes past. Long single shot, simple, but effective.

Apparently in the original cut the censors made them remove the shot of the monster throwing the girl into the water because they considered it too violent, which led to audiences inferring the girl had been raped by the creature (since he's befriending her last we see them and there's no clear reason why he would kill her). So in trying to make the movie less violent they ended up confusing audiences into thinking it was actually more horrifying than it was. Fortunately the clip was restored sometime later.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Apparently in the original cut the censors made them remove the shot of the monster throwing the girl into the water because they considered it too violent, which led to audiences inferring the girl had been raped by the creature (since he's befriending her last we see them and there's no clear reason why he would kill her). So in trying to make the movie less violent they ended up confusing audiences into thinking it was actually more horrifying than it was. Fortunately the clip was restored sometime later.

Huh, never heard that, but I can definitely see that happening.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Creep 2

Not as scary as the first one, leans more on humor anyway. For horror it faces two problems: 1) we already know what the creep's deal is, so there's none of the tension and ambiguity of dreading if this dude is for real and what is he capable of; 2) the main character doesn't fear him at all (she doesn't buy his story), so why should we? The dude from the first movie was uncomfortable and increasingly terrified in a believable way. The girl here isn't smart enough to suspect she's in any danger. It's like if they stretched the opening scene of Scream into feature length, but Drew Barrymore never realizes she's talking to a serial killer - even though she's told (and shown) repeatedly.

 

[Gamertrek]

"Cabinet of Curiosity"

I do not really like it all. More like a slightly meh compared to "Friday 13th TV series" or "Nightmare on Elm Street TV" but even watching stories concerning Freddy that is over-sexed is way more exciting then this thing. They had this one episode about the woman who used cream, because the television was talking to her, but that parallel another television series about a woman who was talking to a television. I mean seriously I kinda already know all the outcomes without even guessing but the series instead made everything so sad and depressing. It is not even scary, only scary if it was me inside that at all. I am desensitized to media in general. Looking at this was not even an eye opener. Like the stories just stop and leaves you with the obvious guess outcome. No narrator or anything.

Is it watchable? Nope but I was watching in a group setting.

That being said "Outer Limits 1990's" makes me happy but the fact I have seen that infinity times
I prefer not to look anymore. The only bonus is knowing that "District 9" came from this series via the special effects artist.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

Everybody was raving about this movie a few months ago... I didn't really get what's the big deal. Nic Cage has been meme-ing himself for years. There's nothing special going on here. To the movie's credit there's some production value, he's not phoning it in and he makes a great duo with Pedro Pascal, but I wouldn't group this with Mandy and Pig as part of Nic Cage's renaissance or whatever you wanna call it. It's just another prolonged joke about how quirky yet beloved Nic Cage is.

EDIT: Another thing. The movie retcons Nic Cage's career into a bunch of dumb, shlocky 90s/early 00s cult movies. It keeps bringing up Face/Off, The Rock, Gone in 60 Seconds. It never once brings up his actual good character-driven movies, like Adaptation, The Weatherman and Leaving Las Vegas - the movie he actually won an Oscar for. You'd think he'd bring that up in his ceaseless self-pitying. Even though he's ostensibly playing a washed-up version of himself pining for the glory days, the movie pretends his glory days were purely made of glorified shlock. And I suspect this is because this movie can never aspire to be more than that.

 

[thebobmaster]

A ★★★ review of One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961)

This is a decent movie, but not one without its flaws, as I will explain later in this review. The plot of the film follows Pongo (voiced by Rod Taylor) as he first plays matchmaker with his "pet" Roger (voiced by Ben Wright, with Bill Lee providing his singing voice) with a woman named Anita...

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[Baffle]

The New Mutants. It feels like this was being set up as a new series of films, but I'm not sure that would be a good idea at all. Felt quite low-budget given there were actors in it from some other fairly highly rated shows.

 

[Xprimentyl]

Till: Heartbreaking / Great

The story of Emmett Till, a young black child who was kidnapped and murdered for a harmless interaction with a white woman in Mississippi in 1955. His mother would go on to use his death to bring awareness to the plight of black people in America and help incite the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

This film is incredibly well acted; Danielle Deadwyler (portraying Till's mother) puts up the kind of performance that simply hits you in the mouth. But outside of the production quality, it's a gut wrenching movie to watch. The film's director was insistent that no violence be shown, opting for a long shot on the barn where Till was taken while we hear his cries of anguish, but pulled no punches in showing what was ultimately done to this young boy which is the purpose of the whole film. It's extremely disturbing.

I knew the story going in (ALL black people in the US know the story of Emmett Till,) and I really didn't want to watch this movie, but my girlfriend wanted to see it so, I kowtowed. This film made me angry. REALLY angry. REALLY sad. To think there was a time when shit like this happened all the time, and to think it's still goes on today if less overtly. I don't care to spoil the fact that Till's murderers would ultimately get off scot-free and double jeopardy protected them when they SOLD their story and admission of guilt after the trial to fucking Look magazine. I don't care to spoil the fact that the woman who Till ostensibly spoke out of place to is still alive today and never faced any charges. I don't believe in Hell, but were a genie to grant me one wish, it'd be for a Hell for people like those who participated in Till's death.

I recommend the film, but if you've an ounce of empathy or compassion about yourself, be prepared to be angry too.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Dracula (1931)

Not as good as the first two Frankenstein movies... For one, it comes after Nosferatu, and takes a lot of cues from it, but isn't as scary or generally as good. Feels like Murnau figured out a lot of the iconography on his own - and maybe because it's a silent movie the staging feels more dramatic, like we gotta figure out how to convey who this is and what he can do without exhausting a thousand intertitles. Dracula is very talky, and the dialogue feels like is going in circles sometimes. Now Orlok's demise is so poetic and memorable as he fades against the sunlight; Dracula we don't even see as he dies just off screen while Jonathan is distracted looking for Mina.

And as an adaptation of the novel it starts off alright and I'm ok with Renfield taking over Jonathan at the beginning (it works to welding the two halves of the story, and gives us the creepiest shot on the movie: Renfield standing at the bottom of some stairs, looking unhinged at the camera) but the middle part drags a lot. I don't think it's a good idea to have Dracula constantly just hang out and socialize with the other characters. And it felt like a lot of what was supposed to happen in the story either happened off screen or didn't happen at all.



Bela Lugosi is great in the part and gets some amazingly creepy and unnerving closeups. He's up there as Dracula, I just don't think the movie is as good as his performance. Dwight Frye as Renfield is also fantastic. Dude went on to play the 'Igor' character later that year in Frankenstein. He's great as creepy little unhinged characters. And maybe the only actor to be ever be killed by both Dracula and Frankenstein's monster?

 

[thebobmaster]

A ★½ review of The Sword in the Stone (1963)

I really feel bad giving a Disney movie this low of a score, but this is not one I could justify even saying was close to average. The last film released in Walt Disney's lifetime, it was hardly a great way to go out. The film follows the tale of Wart/Arthur (voiced by Rickie Sorensen, Richard...

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[gorfias]

Bride of Frankenstein….is that the one where they’re at the castle door and the guy says in awe, “What knockers!” and the chic with him is flatteringly like, “Thank you, doctor.”

Even in my teens I thought that seemed pretty risqué for back in those days. It’s also pretty much the only thing I distinctly remember from it since it was at least 25 years ago.

40 year old spoilers:

Spoiler

Not the doc screaming at Igor, "Damn your eyes!" to which Marty Feldman replies, "too late".
Chic rolling in the hay?
Lightning and horses shrieking in terror every time the old lady says here name? Or when she dramatically tells the doc this other deceased guy ...was... her ... "Boyfriend!!!"
Gene Hackman as the hermit having a smoke with the monster.

Good movie, good times.