The Official Last Movie You Saw Thread (Part 2)

[TrueblueCATfan]

Got to the theater late yesterday so we had to see another movie.....saw Almost Christmas with Danny Glover...really cute movie

[Joneslab]

De Palma.

Rolling Stone reviewed a record by the band the Jayhawks a few years back by saying something like, "The Jayhawks aren't a great band, but it sounds like they have the best record collection in the world." I've always felt that way about Brian De Palma, i.e. that he isn't a tremendous filmmaker but he understands his influences--Hitch**************** most notably--better than any modern filmmaker.

What De Palma was was a superior technician. He went to Columbia and studied physics, and you can tell in the way he frames shots. Nobody maybe in recent filmmaking had a better eye than him. He could shoot a movie like some sort of wizard. This documentary gets into how he did some of this stuff and more. It's basically an Erroll Morris-esque doc where De Palma just ticks off every film he's made and many of his influences. He made some major busts that nearly ruined his career (The Bonfire of the Vanities) and some cinematic touchstones that are still quoted today (Scarface), but the most interesting parts of this are when he talks about the actors he didn't care for, the way the studios tried to sabotage him at nearly every turn, and how he came up with some of the legendary techniques that made his name, like the split screen so expertly used in Carrie.

If you enjoy movies, this is a must-watch. It's one of the best documentaries on film I've ever seen and riveting from start to finish. If you have an Amazon Prime account you can watch it free.

[Joneslab]

^ One of the more interesting tidbits from this movie, by the way, is how much Michael J. Fox hated Sean Penn.

During the filming of Casualties of War Penn antagonized Fox to the point where Fox basically wanted to murder him by the end of shooting. De Palma doesn't come right out and say this, but he definitely hints at it: Sean Penn is a colossal a-hole of the first order.

[George]

You mentioned Scarface; gonna go ahead and say that I think it's one of the most overrated films of all-time.

[Joneslab]

You mentioned Scarface; gonna go ahead and say that I think it's one of the most overrated films of all-time.

There were all kinds of problems making it. They wanted to shoot it in Miami but the Cubans ran them out, so they ended up shooting in LA. Pacino wasn't the easiest to work with and at one point he picked up a prop gun with a scalding barrel and badly injured himself. De Palma basically had to shoot most of the movie without him while he recovered.

The movies that De Palma seems proudest of were Dressed to Kill and The Untouchables, neither of which I've seen.

[KCKUKFan]

There were all kinds of problems making it. They wanted to shoot it in Miami but the Cubans ran them out, so they ended up shooting in LA. Pacino wasn't the easiest to work with and at one point he picked up a prop gun with a scalding barrel and badly injured himself. De Palma basically had to shoot most of the movie without him while he recovered.

The movies that De Palma seems proudest of were Dressed to Kill and The Untouchables, neither of which I've seen.

Watch "The Untouchables" right away. Fantastic movie. As for DePalma's oeuvre, it's hit or miss, but there's no doubt that he's a wonderfully skilled technician.

Gotta disagree with Downes here -- "Scarface" is not just a good movie, it's a great one. It's not the movie's fault that every wannabe gangsta rapper turned it into a cliche. It's over-the-top, ridiculous, overlong, and dated, but all of those flaws make it what it is -- just a purely entertaining adrenaline rush and one that I think deserves it's reputation. Awesome flick.

The early John Travolta/DePalma flick "Blow Out" is a very underrated film, and one that I think film lovers should check out.

As for the DePalma I have seen, here's how I would break it down:

The Good: "Sisters," "Obsession," "Phantom Of The Paradise," "Dressed To Kill," "Blow Out," "Scarface," "Casualties Of War," "The Untouchables," "Carlito's Way," "Mission: Impossible"

The Bad (and when it's bad, it's BAD): "Redacted," "The Black Dahlia," "Mission To Mars," "Snake Eyes," "Raising Cain," "The Bonfire Of The Vanities," "Body Double"

And Sean Penn being a colossal asshole shouldn't really come as a surprise to anybody.

[KevinHall]

There were all kinds of problems making it. They wanted to shoot it in Miami but the Cubans ran them out, so they ended up shooting in LA. Pacino wasn't the easiest to work with and at one point he picked up a prop gun with a scalding barrel and badly injured himself. De Palma basically had to shoot most of the movie without him while he recovered.

The movies that De Palma seems proudest of were Dressed to Kill and The Untouchables, neither of which I've seen.

Dressed to Kill is very good. It was out when I was in high school. Us guys liked it because of well........uh....... Angie Dickenson and Nancy Allen. Michael Caine was the male lead and I'm not sure I have ever seen him do anything badly.

[George]

Watch "The Untouchables" right away. Fantastic movie. As for DePalma's oeuvre, it's hit or miss, but there's no doubt that he's a wonderfully skilled technician.

Gotta disagree with Downes here -- "Scarface" is not just a good movie, it's a great one. It's not the movie's fault that every wannabe gangsta rapper turned it into a cliche. It's over-the-top, ridiculous, overlong, and dated, but all of those flaws make it what it is -- just a purely entertaining adrenaline rush and one that I think deserves it's reputation. Awesome flick.

The early John Travolta/DePalma flick "Blow Out" is a very underrated film, and one that I think film lovers should check out.

As for the DePalma I have seen, here's how I would break it down:

The Good: "Sisters," "Obsession," "Phantom Of The Paradise," "Dressed To Kill," "Blow Out," "Scarface," "Casualties Of War," "The Untouchables," "Carlito's Way," "Mission: Impossible"

The Bad (and when it's bad, it's BAD): "Redacted," "The Black Dahlia," "Mission To Mars," "Snake Eyes," "Raising Cain," "The Bonfire Of The Vanities," "Body Double"

And Sean Penn being a colossal asshole shouldn't really come as a surprise to anybody.

My biggest problem with Scarface is that I hate Pacino's character so, so much. And it isn't one of those "love to hate" kind of things - it's that the character doesn't have a single redeeming quality and it's difficult to understand why his story deserved to be told in the first place. That, to me, severely damages the effectiveness of the film.

The guy is just a pure piece of garbage undeserving of any of the love and praise that's been heaped on him over the years.

[KCKUKFan]

My biggest problem with Scarface is that I hate Pacino's character so, so much. And it isn't one of those "love to hate" kind of things - it's that the character doesn't have a single redeeming quality and it's difficult to understand why his story deserved to be told in the first place. That, to me, severely damages the effectiveness of the film.

The guy is just a pure piece of garbage undeserving of any of the love and praise that's been heaped on him over the years.

I'm not really sure the movie is asking you to root for him. Quite the opposite. The movie makes clear that he's a piece of irredeemable shit and even takes delight in his downfall.

The fact that he's been immortalized as a hero by a generation of gangsta rappers and adolescent white boys doesn't change what the movie is really about.

A bad person doing bad things who meets a bad end. Tale as old as time.

If we're making this argument, I can't say that Walter White had many redeeming qualities in "Breaking Bad." He was always a small, self-involved asshole, even at the very beginning. The only difference is that he wasn't a murderer or a criminal kingpin. As great as it was on nearly every level, "Breaking Bad" failed because it ultimately gave Walter White everything he wanted/needed, even though his character died. The final episode was essentially a checkdown of all the ways we can let Walt win before he meets his end. "Scarface" wasn't nearly as kind to Tony Montana. He lost everything -- his best friend, his sister, his mother, his business, his wife -- before he got his spine blown out the front of his belly.

[Blue Heaven]

Watch The Untouchables as soon as you can. As far as Scarface goes, I remember watching that as a kid and the scene where the guy gets chainsawed in the tub freaked me out. My parents let me watch just about anything. They are doing a remake of Scarface. Antone Fuqua of Training Day fame is directing. No word on who will play Tony Montana.

[KCKUKFan]

Watch The Untouchables as soon as you can. As far as Scarface goes, I remember watching that as a kid and the scene where the guy gets chainsawed in the tub freaked me out. My parents let me watch just about anything. They are doing a remake of Scarface. Antone Fuqua of Training Day fame is directing. No word on who will play Tony Montana.

If it's Antoine Fuqua, it'll probably be Denzel Washington.

[Joneslab]

If we're making this argument, I can't say that Walter White had many redeeming qualities in "Breaking Bad." He was always a small, self-involved asshole, even at the very beginning.

I disagree that he was at the beginning. At the beginning he was desperate. And his desperation was a purely American desperation: too broke to pay for medical bills that he believed his family would be saddled with.

It was only later that the power corrupted him. Early on he was trying to figure out how to save his family. If that show had just been about a guy who comes up with a plan to cook drugs for money it wouldn't have been the same show. That White needed to do that made all the difference.

[KCKUKFan]

I disagree that he was at the beginning. At the beginning he was desperate. And his desperation was a purely American desperation: too broke to pay for medical bills that he believed his family would be saddled with.

It was only later that the power corrupted him. Early on he was trying to figure out how to save his family. If that show had just been about a guy who comes up with a plan to cook drugs for money it wouldn't have been the same show. That White needed to do that made all the difference.

Disagree.

Flashbacks with Gretchen and Elliott indicate that Walt was ALWAYS the self-involved, jealous, prideful jerk that always felt he was owed something.

Cancer and "desperation" was just a justification for the anger, rage and "little man syndrome" that had bubbling just underneath the surface his entire adult life.

Walter White did not become Heisenberg. He always thought he was smarter, better and more powerful than he really was. The fact the show let him get so many victories in the very end is one of the few flaws of the series, in my estimation. He deserved to be left with NOTHING, dying alone in that New Hampshire cabin. That would've been a more satisfying ending, to me.

[Joneslab]

Flashbacks with Gretchen and Elliott indicate that Walt was ALWAYS the self-involved, jealous, prideful jerk that always felt he was owed something.

I don't put the Gretchen and Elliott stuff on the level of what came after.

That whole subplot felt normal to me. Not self-involved but just the way anybody would feel were they in WW's situation. A high school teacher who'd lost a chance to be a millionaire? Who saw his first love marry his rival?

All that may have been petty...but it wasn't diabolical.

What happened later in the show was straight corruption-of-soul. Which I always took to be Breaking Bad's theme.

[KCKUKFan]

I don't put the Gretchen and Elliott stuff on the level of what came after.

Obviously, it wasn't on the same level, but it was certainly a percursor to the narrative that followed. Those scenes were not there for the hell of it -- they were there to show the audience just what kind of a man Walter White always was.