What Movies Are You Viewing?

Hedda Gabler

Notaro said:

Watched, Five Nights At Freddy's

A down on his luck young man accepts a nightwatch security job at a disused pizzeria, all he has to do is stay awake amd keep.watching the monitors......

This has its moments, it reminded me a bit of the Banana Splits movie from a couple of years back, big animatronic animals gone wild slicing prople up, it waa ok if a tad predictable.



Rewatched, Legend Of The Werewolf...

A small travelling circus find a feral boy living in the forest, apparently raised by wolves.  As he gets older he becomes affected by the full moon.....which causes him to transform into a savage beast....

A classic from Tyburn Films, a mini rival to Hammer. Good cast, good performances, good make up design. This is an often overlooked gem.



Full Movie...

I will try to get this in for the marathon.  I love hammer and amicus but not familiar with this company. 

GNTLGNT

....I kinda wanna watch "Freddy's"....but I'm not a game syncophant-which will leave me outside a number of references.....ah hell...I'll still probably glom onto it one of these days....

BevVincent

We watched A Haunting in Venice, which just appeared on Hulu. An appropriate film for Halloween. I have to confess I was a little disappointed in it, although I'm not sure I can say exactly why. 

Hedda Gabler

BevVincent said:

We watched A Haunting in Venice, which just appeared on Hulu. An appropriate film for Halloween. I have to confess I was a little disappointed in it, although I'm not sure I can say exactly why. 

I also watched this and agree. The settings were gorgeous and interesting. 

Usually Hercule is more sly, calm and controlled. Things unfold slowly, drawing out to his big moment.  I didn’t like Hercule being vulnerable.  It was out of character for him and I had no confidence. Yes. Hercule is human subject to human weaknesses —  but he’s Hercule, dammit! He marches to Hercule foibles. I don’t know, using an old cliché, it was like pulling the mask off the Lone Ranger. 

The characters are usually more interesting. Back stories that are tangled. 

Everyone was so bland. Every little bit of evidence was so boring and obvious. I knew the killer pretty much from the get go and I knew the blackmailer pretty quick. 

I didn’t care about any of these people at all. 

Was the book this bad?

Hedda Gabler

I will say, there was interesting potential between hercule and tina fey’s character.  Not in a romantic way at all, but in a more quiet (not loud) comedic way that could have been great fun to watch.  He has no sense of humor and watching him interact with humor in his stoic way could have been charming. Overdone would have been tedious but just a little more would have been fun. A tolerant grandpa ish figure wondering and a bit baffled and exasperated by this silly creature. 

Hedda Gabler

And I forgot to add, how many times did he run to the bathroom?  That should have been a drinking game.

Cripes. Every time he fled to the bathroom like some purging anorexic, i wanted to garrote myself. 

BevVincent

The book is vastly different -- during the preparations for a Halloween Party, a child announces that she once saw a murder but didn't realize what it was at the time. Later, at the party, the child is drowned in the apple bobbing tub. The story isn't limited to a single setting and takes place over a longer timeframe. 

It's not one of Christie's better efforts. This movie takes only a very few elements from it. I knew who the killer was going to be (although the original victim was different) and who the blackmailer was going to be. There's none of the stuff with the medium.

And I did not care at all for how Branagh ultimately treated Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey), who appears in six novels. He took liberties with the character that nettled me.

Hedda Gabler

BevVincent said:

The book is vastly different -- during the preparations for a Halloween Party, a child announces that she once saw a murder but didn't realize what it was at the time. Later, at the party, the child is drowned in the apple bobbing tub. The story isn't limited to a single setting and takes place over a longer timeframe. 

It's not one of Christie's better efforts. This movie takes only a very few elements from it. I knew who the killer was going to be (although the original victim was different) and who the blackmailer was going to be. There's none of the stuff with the medium.

And I did not care at all for how Branagh ultimately treated Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey), who appears in six novels. He took liberties with the character that nettled me.

I haven’t read enough Agatha to know about Ariadne Oliver. And maybe somewhere in a book Hercule has mental health issues. 

Besides the poisoning that happened here that I do not believe for a minute would have happened to Hercule.  Was he poisoned in the book? 

BevVincent

Nope. It wasn’t necessary to the story of the novel. 

I read all of Christie when I was a teenager. Many of them more than once. 

Hedda Gabler

BevVincent said:

Nope. It wasn’t necessary to the story of the novel. 

I read all of Christie when I was a teenager. Many of them more than once. 

I know you have difficulties picking favorites, but if you were going to pick a couple that are really good, what would you suggest? 

Kurben

Hedda Gabler said:

BevVincent said:

The book is vastly different -- during the preparations for a Halloween Party, a child announces that she once saw a murder but didn't realize what it was at the time. Later, at the party, the child is drowned in the apple bobbing tub. The story isn't limited to a single setting and takes place over a longer timeframe. 

It's not one of Christie's better efforts. This movie takes only a very few elements from it. I knew who the killer was going to be (although the original victim was different) and who the blackmailer was going to be. There's none of the stuff with the medium.

And I did not care at all for how Branagh ultimately treated Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey), who appears in six novels. He took liberties with the character that nettled me.

I haven’t read enough Agatha to know about Ariadne Oliver. And maybe somewhere in a book Hercule has mental health issues. 

Besides the poisoning that happened here that I do not believe for a minute would have happened to Hercule.  Was he poisoned in the book? 

I have read all of Christie, most of them several times. Ariadne Oliver is a kind of ironic self portrait of christie basically (first appearance in Cards On The Table). She is a succesful mysterywriter whose detective is a finn. She never has the lead, believe in intuition and cant stop eating apples. Poirot is not poisoned in Halloween Party as the book is called. My faves of poirot books is mainly from the 30,s: Murder on the Orient Express (1934), Death In The Clouds (1935), Murder In Mesopotamia and Cards On The Table (both 1936), Death On The Nile (1937). Outside of the 30,s we have The Murder Of Sir Roger Ackroyd (1926), The Hollow (1946), Hickory Dickory Dock (1955) annd Cat Among The Pigeons (1959). She wrote i think 36 novels and a few collections about poirot. I often prefer Miss Marple to Poirot just as Agatha Christie did but the publishers wanted poirot and i think thats the main reason that the good ones start to come more seldom after the 30,s. She grow tired of him but was still professional enough to make them, imo, worthwhile reading as mysteries go. There are 2 or three total misses in there. But these are imo the best poirot. There are a few other i like like Evil Under The Sun, After The Funeral and The ABC Murders.

Hedda Gabler

Thanks kurben. If bev weighs in and doubles up on one of your picks, then that’s the one I’ll go for. It can be a marple or Poirot.  I just want one where she is at the top of her game. 

BevVincent

I'll second all of his Poirot picks. I also liked the Tommy and Tuppence books (like N or M?)

Kurben

BevVincent said:

I'll second all of his Poirot picks. I also liked the Tommy and Tuppence books (like N or M?)

Agreed. There is more humour in those than in other Christie i think. N Or M is probably the best of the 4 T and T books. For Marple A Murder Is Announced (1950), The Body In The Library and The Moving Finger (both 1942) and A Pocket full Of Rye (1953) are my faves but They Do It With Mirrors and The Mirror Cracked From Side To Side are really good too. But i dont classify anyone as a dud. The least fave is Bertrams Hotel from (1965). She only wrote 12 Marple Books.

Notaro

I thoroughly enjoyed A Haunting In Venice, I thought it was far better than Death On The Nile, less flashy, more intimate.

FlakeNoir

Notaro said:

I thoroughly enjoyed A Haunting In Venice, I thought it was far better than Death On The Nile, less flashy, more intimate.

I really enjoyed it too. I wasn't clouded by previous stories or films as I haven't had any prior exposure to Hercule, nor very much else from Christie. 
For me it was viewed as a stand-alone, so I was entertained. 

GNTLGNT

...finally caught this one in it's entirety....not to shabby.....

GNTLGNT

...kind of a cool possessed house tale....

Hedda Gabler

Just watched Dirty Mary Crazy Larry for the first time. Obviously after all these years, I had heard enough about the movie where i felt i knew it. Nope. That ending was shocking. I did not see that coming. 

Hedda Gabler

Now i’m watching The French Connection.  Another movie I have not seen but it’s talked about a lot. 

Kurben

Watched Oppenheimer by Christopher Nolan. I'm usually not a big fan of the socalled bio pics but this was ok. Too long as i think most of Nolans movies are but good. And Cillian Murphy does a good job with the title role.

Kurben

Watched Black Hawk Down by Ridley Scott. Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor, Sam Shepard and a young Orlando Bloom. About the Mogadishu raid in Somalia in the 90,s. Its well done and acted but it is always horrible to watch war straight in the eye. So horrible but also a good movie.

FlakeNoir

Kurben said:

Watched Black Hawk Down by Ridley Scott. Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor, Sam Shepard and a young Orlando Bloom. About the Mogadishu raid in Somalia in the 90,s. Its well done and acted but it is always horrible to watch war straight in the eye. So horrible but also a good movie.

Agree with all of this. 

Notaro

My daughter started watching Studio 666 last night so I sat down to watch it again. Still comes across as a fcuked up gore version of an episode of The Monkees tv show, it has some funny moments, Grohl is definitely a natural actor, he has great comedic timing.

GNTLGNT

...caught a couple yesterday....

...CGI movie, not bad (except for the dialog)-but also like trying to play the game but you have no controller.....

...I found this one fascinating......