- Awards
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What was the last film you watched?
- Thread starter Spells & Karma
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- Awards
- 53
Operation Mincemeat (2022)
I'm not usually a fan of war films and this one didn't change my opinion but it's still was an interesting watch. Based on a true story of how the allies wanted to invade Scilly so they created a fake story of how the were going to invade Greece to throw Hitler off the scent of what they were really attempting to do. They planted fake papers on a corpse and dropped the body into the sea with the expectation that it would wash up on the shore of a beach in Spain and eventually the papers would be read by the German military. There's a lot of British stiff upper lip, social niceties and people puffing away on cigarettes while doing their work which at times seemed to give the film a touch of authenticity and at other times seemed just to be playing up to stereotypes for the sake of it. It's a fascinating story but not especially gripping.
I'm not usually a fan of war films and this one didn't change my opinion but it's still was an interesting watch. Based on a true story of how the allies wanted to invade Scilly so they created a fake story of how the were going to invade Greece to throw Hitler off the scent of what they were really attempting to do. They planted fake papers on a corpse and dropped the body into the sea with the expectation that it would wash up on the shore of a beach in Spain and eventually the papers would be read by the German military. There's a lot of British stiff upper lip, social niceties and people puffing away on cigarettes while doing their work which at times seemed to give the film a touch of authenticity and at other times seemed just to be playing up to stereotypes for the sake of it. It's a fascinating story but not especially gripping.
- Awards
- 44
I hadn't heard of this one and I think I'd probably quite like it. If nothing else, Penelope Wilton is a big selling point for me.
- Awards
- 53
I've not seen her in many films although she often pops up on TV. Her role is big but it's significant.
I subsequently learnt that a previous film had been made in 1956 based on the same story and called The Man Who Never Was which I think is a far more interesting title. I plan to watch it at some point in the near future if I can get a copy of it.
- Awards
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I'm fairly sure I've seen her in supporting roles in a number of British films, but I forget what. Probably something featuring Celia Imrie, Judi Dench or Olivia Colman.
On TV I did really like her role in Ever Decreasing Circles, and she was great - of course - in that TV adaption of The Norman Conquests.
Could be interesting to see how they compare. I hope you manage to track down a copy.
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The only film I had previously seen her in was the big screen adaptation of Downton Abbey but because I wasn't particularly a fan of the TV series I didn't really rate that film very highly.
I saw the TV version of The Norman Conquests a couple of years ago and it's an absolute delight. I had forgotten she was in it until I read your post.
- Awards
- 53
The Man Who Never Was (1956)
It's been fascinating watching this film so soon after watching Operation Mincemeat (2022) which tells the same story and it's been interesting comparing the creative choices made by the film makers.
The film was based on a covert plot to deceive the German army during World War II and when The Man Who Never Was was made, some of the information about events hadn't been declassified so the film makers had to make up the missing information. An example of this was where they got a dead body from to use as part of the deception. In this older film, they use the body of a man who died of pneumonia and they persuade his father to give them the body out of patriotism to serve King and country whereas in Operation Mincemeat they use the body of a vagrant who died from a drug overdose.
In many ways I prefer the original film which tells the story in a much more straightforward way with fewer superfluous subplots. There was also less of the stereotypical stiff upper lip and old fashioned sensibilities than appears in the newer film.
The Man Who Never Was is also a bit of a Who's Who of classic British cinema with Michael Horden, Laurence Naismith, Richard Wattis, Joan Hickson and Allan Cuthbertson, amongst other appearing in the cast. Peter Sellars also provided the voice of Winston Churchill.
It's a great little war which doesn't show any scenes of warfare, battles and violence.
It's been fascinating watching this film so soon after watching Operation Mincemeat (2022) which tells the same story and it's been interesting comparing the creative choices made by the film makers.
The film was based on a covert plot to deceive the German army during World War II and when The Man Who Never Was was made, some of the information about events hadn't been declassified so the film makers had to make up the missing information. An example of this was where they got a dead body from to use as part of the deception. In this older film, they use the body of a man who died of pneumonia and they persuade his father to give them the body out of patriotism to serve King and country whereas in Operation Mincemeat they use the body of a vagrant who died from a drug overdose.
In many ways I prefer the original film which tells the story in a much more straightforward way with fewer superfluous subplots. There was also less of the stereotypical stiff upper lip and old fashioned sensibilities than appears in the newer film.
The Man Who Never Was is also a bit of a Who's Who of classic British cinema with Michael Horden, Laurence Naismith, Richard Wattis, Joan Hickson and Allan Cuthbertson, amongst other appearing in the cast. Peter Sellars also provided the voice of Winston Churchill.
It's a great little war which doesn't show any scenes of warfare, battles and violence.
- Awards
- 53
Mae West (1982)
During lockdown I watched the Mae West film Sextette (awful but fascinating) and read a biography about Cary Grant who was given his big break in films by Mae West so when I heard this film existed I was keen tosee it to find out more about this actress. However, I was disappointed as this is a very superficial biopic that didn't really allow you to find out much about the woman who by most accounts was as outrageous in real life as she was in her films.
During lockdown I watched the Mae West film Sextette (awful but fascinating) and read a biography about Cary Grant who was given his big break in films by Mae West so when I heard this film existed I was keen tosee it to find out more about this actress. However, I was disappointed as this is a very superficial biopic that didn't really allow you to find out much about the woman who by most accounts was as outrageous in real life as she was in her films.
- Awards
- 27
Let's start with the good part: a nice shot of James Norton's naked bum.
The movie is a curious mix of storylines that are supposed to build up to something simultaneously, and I guess in a way it does.
It has the narcissistic and adulterous husband and bulimiac wife moving from the city to a more agricultural part of New York. The town itself turns out to be a blend of local rednecks, rich bohemians and the college society so, yeah, big fat shades of The Affair.
They don't show much of the locals except for the slutty, cynical cowgirl with the nice personality and the long-haired, broody redneck stud.
All of this screams "my cup of tea!" and indeed, it was enough to create an interesting sexy thriller or drama.
The other part of the movie is a haunted house and theological metaphors in paintings, séances and a cult following, the Talented Mr. Ripley and The Shining .
Even with a two hours running time it's impossible to pull it all off convincingly or satisfactory, although it appears to be none of these things.
A movie review quotes a part of an interview with the movie directors, saying that it is essentially a MeToo movie. It doesn't mention if the director's approach echoes the sentiment of the novelist and I couldn't bother to verify any of it.
But since I take stories at face value and I'm too gullible to suspect anything I didn't really get that message. And to be honest, I still don't. Ironic, isn't it.
So, I guess this means men are damned and women suffer from bulimia. Yeah, that part of the character is never explored, it's just a Bulimian Rhapsody because, why not?
This is a very, very bad movie with lots of "like, seriously?" dialogue but I didn't hate watching it.
- Awards
- 8
The original top gun!
- Awards
- 53
Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022)
It hard to describe what this film is and the poster above probably explains it better that I can with words. It's a mix of so many different elements creating a totally unique cinematic experience that I can imagine people will either love or hate it or maybe do both at different times during the film. It a bit like a superhero film without a superhero, an action film in which a lot of the action is about paying a tax bill, a science fiction film about running a laundromat and a comedy that doesn't have a particularly funny setting. It's a melange of genres like nothing I've seen before.
The story is about Evelyn (Michelle Yeoh) who runs a laundromat and is generally discontent with her life. She is audited by the tax authorities when she is visited by a version of her husband from a different multiverse which is created by the choices we make in life and in her other choices she is all the things she wanted to be like a great singer or a great chef. She is also told she can jump between the different multiverses and she is key to saving all humankind. The film is confusing and half the time I didn't have a clue what was going on but that didn't really matter. It is fast, intense, visually stunning and funny. I really liked it without fully understanding why.
It hard to describe what this film is and the poster above probably explains it better that I can with words. It's a mix of so many different elements creating a totally unique cinematic experience that I can imagine people will either love or hate it or maybe do both at different times during the film. It a bit like a superhero film without a superhero, an action film in which a lot of the action is about paying a tax bill, a science fiction film about running a laundromat and a comedy that doesn't have a particularly funny setting. It's a melange of genres like nothing I've seen before.
The story is about Evelyn (Michelle Yeoh) who runs a laundromat and is generally discontent with her life. She is audited by the tax authorities when she is visited by a version of her husband from a different multiverse which is created by the choices we make in life and in her other choices she is all the things she wanted to be like a great singer or a great chef. She is also told she can jump between the different multiverses and she is key to saving all humankind. The film is confusing and half the time I didn't have a clue what was going on but that didn't really matter. It is fast, intense, visually stunning and funny. I really liked it without fully understanding why.
- Awards
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- Awards
- 53
I think it's the kind of film you have to watch twice to fully understand what's going on. So much was being thrown at the viewer and at a relentless pace that it was difficult to grasp everything that was going on but the frantic pace was part of why it was so visually appealing.
- Awards
- 27
Then at least it lives up to its title.
I find it all very intriguing, to say the least.
You don't need to know to first film because this is a different version. Instead of the cloning process, the "Revenge" wives are being fixed by means of an injection, a brainwashing hair dryer (!) and medication.
It is very much a TV movie but from an era when TV movies were fun, it doesn't pretend to be more than that.
Conclusion: men were evil long before MeToo.
The other one:
From a modern point of view I'd say it takes forever to get the story going, and when it does it feels kinda rushed.
But maybe that's not exactly what's going here. I think the narrative of many old movies just had a completely different vibe, as if they were meant to be eventful rather than being good or well-paced.
The countess is fun, she's such a nasty old hag, but I didn't get the plot twist that happened in the last 3 minutes.
The sets are awesome and I was a little spooked by a mirror scene because it seemed to enlarge the girl's reflection and, well, that's not what I expected to see.
The mirror is not relevant to the story btw.
- Awards
- 21
It does sound like something that I would enjoy. Michelle Yeoh was good in Star Trek: Discovery, too. I hear she's getting her own spin-off now.
- Awards
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She is great in this. In some scenes there were echoes of her role in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and another scene reminded me of something from Crazy Rich Asians. She is a really versatile actress who has been great in everything I've seen her in.
- Awards
- 44
I rectified this last night with...
The Love Bug (1969)
^ They've misspelt their own lead actress's name. The sacrilege!
It's many years since I've watched any of the Herbie films (I think I've seen them all at some point, but I could be mistaken). I know I've seen The Love Bug a couple of times, though it's probably well over three decades since my last viewing. I was curious how it would hold up.
I won't lie - it took a while for me to warm to the film. The opening credits with stock car pile up after stock car pile up seemed to go on forever and felt altogether too sporty to appeal to me (I've never been a fan of watching motor racing). There was also an interruption an hour into the film - we had one of our semi-regular power cuts and while power was resumed quickly, the broadband in the area was out for an hour or so before being restored. That interrupted the flow a bit.
It struck me that this had more than a touch of the Wacky Races to it. With Tomlinson's Peter Thorndyke as Dick Dastardly, naturally. Upon looking, the cartoon had begun just the previous year and was itself based on an earlier film The Great Race. I don't know if there is any connection, since I seem to remember that films featuring various vehicle races were very much in vogue at this time.
I had wondered how the Beetle was chosen as the main car. Minis and Fiat 500s are cuter, after all. But then the Mini itself was immortalised on film this very same year with The Italian Job. And I suppose both the Mini and the Fiat 500 were just too darned small to easily fit three adults and film them. All the same, it's ironic that that Disney, with its wholesome, all-American image should adopt the brainchild of one Adolf Hitler as the adorable star of its film. Apparently, VW didn't want the marketing anyway and refused the use of their logo (barring a couple of glimpses on pedals and a key). While Herbie is never referred to as a "Volkswagen" or a "Beetle" within the film, VW hadn't trademarked the informal nickname "Bug" at the time, hence the name.
The film did win me over, just as Herbie did Jim. There's a charm to the obvious fakery, such as the very dated rear projection used to show characters driving round San Francisco (Alcatraz even makes a cameo at one point).
My favourite aspect of the whole film was the way the gorgeous matte backdrops were combined with real life. The set for Jim's house-cum-workshop was very atmospheric indeed and I couldn't get enough of it. It looked great by day and night. At one point (leading up to Herbie's suicide attempt) there's a gorgeous matte of the Golden Gate Bridge, complete with flashing lights atop. And there were smoky effects to bring the matting to life, with characters disappearing into the haze like ghosts. It all felt quite magical.
Casting was fine. I'm sure I've seen Dean Jones in other things (he has a couple of Murder, She Wrotes to his credit among other things) but he's not an actor I'd look at and know his name. He was solid enough here. Weirdly, I kept seeing a younger Don Murray, but I don't know if that was influenced by Michele Lee. Michele is as charming as ever here, and probably very in-demand at this time with this film being post-How To Succeed and pre-Seesaw.
On paper, I really shouldn't like Buddy Hackett doing his loveable sidekick thing with all the gurning, but actually I found him quite endearing and found I couldn't take my eyes off him if he was in a shot with other actors. David Tomlinson was great, playing his usual Disney role of the wily, underhanded, entitled, snobby businessman. Again, it's been seen before, but he does it so well his was the performance I enjoyed most as the man I loved to hate.
George Bruns's music is as lovely as ever. He did one of my favourite Disney scores: Sleeping Beauty (albeit with some help from one Pyotr Tchaikovsky). He gives Herbie a really nice, appropriately cheeky-sounding theme, with rasping sounds that evoke the famous tippetty-tap sound of the Beetle's engine. And the South American flavour accidentally foreshadowed the main assembly point for the Beetle for the last twenty five years or so of its life.
- Awards
- 53
I rectified this last night with...
The Love Bug (1969)
^ They've misspelt their own lead actress's name. The sacrilege!
It's many years since I've watched any of the Herbie films (I think I've seen them all at some point, but I could be mistaken). I know I've seen The Love Bug a couple of times, though it's probably well over three decades since my last viewing. I was curious how it would hold up.
I won't lie - it took a while for me to warm to the film. The opening credits with stock car pile up after stock car pile up seemed to go on forever and felt altogether too sporty to appeal to me (I've never been a fan of watching motor racing). There was also an interruption an hour into the film - we had one of our semi-regular power cuts and while power was resumed quickly, the broadband in the area was out for an hour or so before being restored. That interrupted the flow a bit.
It struck me that this had more than a touch of the Wacky Races to it. With Tomlinson's Peter Thorndyke as Dick Dastardly, naturally. Upon looking, the cartoon had begun just the previous year and was itself based on an earlier film The Great Race. I don't know if there is any connection, since I seem to remember that films featuring various vehicle races were very much in vogue at this time.
I had wondered how the Beetle was chosen as the main car. Minis and Fiat 500s are cuter, after all. But then the Mini itself was immortalised on film this very same year with The Italian Job. And I suppose both the Mini and the Fiat 500 were just too darned small to easily fit three adults and film them. All the same, it's ironic that that Disney, with its wholesome, all-American image should adopt the brainchild of one Adolf Hitler as the adorable star of its film. Apparently, VW didn't want the marketing anyway and refused the use of their logo (barring a couple of glimpses on pedals and a key). While Herbie is never referred to as a "Volkswagen" or a "Beetle" within the film, VW hadn't trademarked the informal nickname "Bug" at the time, hence the name.
The film did win me over, just as Herbie did Jim. There's a charm to the obvious fakery, such as the very dated rear projection used to show characters driving round San Francisco (Alcatraz even makes a cameo at one point).
My favourite aspect of the whole film was the way the gorgeous matte backdrops were combined with real life. The set for Jim's house-cum-workshop was very atmospheric indeed and I couldn't get enough of it. It looked great by day and night. At one point (leading up to Herbie's suicide attempt) there's a gorgeous matte of the Golden Gate Bridge, complete with flashing lights atop. And there were smoky effects to bring the matting to life, with characters disappearing into the haze like ghosts. It all felt quite magical.
Casting was fine. I'm sure I've seen Dean Jones in other things (he has a couple of Murder, She Wrotes to his credit among other things) but he's not an actor I'd look at and know his name. He was solid enough here. Weirdly, I kept seeing a younger Don Murray, but I don't know if that was influenced by Michele Lee. Michele is as charming as ever here, and probably very in-demand at this time with this film being post-How To Succeed and pre-Seesaw.
On paper, I really shouldn't like Buddy Hackett doing his loveable sidekick thing with all the gurning, but actually I found him quite endearing and found I couldn't take my eyes off him if he was in a shot with other actors. David Tomlinson was great, playing his usual Disney role of the wily, underhanded, entitled, snobby businessman. Again, it's been seen before, but he does it so well his was the performance I enjoyed most as the man I loved to hate.
George Bruns's music is as lovely as ever. He did one of my favourite Disney scores: Sleeping Beauty (albeit with some help from one Pyotr Tchaikovsky). He gives Herbie a really nice, appropriately cheeky-sounding theme, with rasping sounds that evoke the famous tippetty-tap sound of the Beetle's engine. And the South American flavour accidentally foreshadowed the main assembly point for the Beetle for the last twenty five years or so of its life.
The film isn't Shakespeare but it has a certain charm which I still find endearing after all these years. The sequel Herbie Rides Again is my favourite of the Herbie films and the first one I saw. When I eventually got around to seeing The Love Bug I realised that there was no continuity between the 2 films other than Herbie appearing in them both.
About 10 years ago I went to a film festival in London and they had various famous cars from films on display including Herbie but also the Batmobile the 1960s Batman The Movie, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, James Bond's Aston Martin and the DeLorean from Back To The Future. Although I'm a fan of all those films (especially Batman) I was most keen to be photographed beside Herbie.
- Awards
- 44
I caught up with this one last night...
Herbie Rides Again (1974)
Well, as @Angela Channing said, there's very little to connect this story to the previous one. It's dropped into dialogue that Herbie being a former famous racing car whose owner went to Europe to race big cars, and Herbie even has some "flashbacks" featuring second unit footage of Herbie racing with no identifiable occupants. The main concession to link this with The Love Bug is that Helen Hayes's character is said to be the aunt of Tennessee Steinmetz from the first film. They even share a surname.
With all-new characters, I was thinking this might be another "origin" type film where characters take a while to become aware of Herbie's autonomy, but that wasn't really the case. Mrs Steinmetz has had the full handover, of course. Nicole is in the know as well and just as open-minded as Mrs Steinmetz. Willoughby doesn't know at first but actually comes round to Mrs Steinmetz's way of thinking pretty thinking. There's a plot to get on with, don't you know?
And it's a good plot. What I liked about this - and what makes it more easy to digest than the first film - is that it's fun, more relatable and less specific than the first. The idea of a big evil developer wanting to remove the final householder from their home on land they are waiting to transform into an ugly skyscraper is kind of a classic. Yes, it's been done many times (indeed, Disney/Pixar would successfully recycle this premise as the basis for Up! three and a half decades later), but this is because it works so well.
Best of all (for me at least) is that this plot moves Herbie away from the Wacky Races thing (which was fun, but it's been done and doesn't need a retread) and into more prosaic situations. Well, almost. If the film has a failing it's that sometimes it feels as though it's trying a little too hard. In The Love Bug, Herbie was the only magical element. This time round, Mrs Steinmetz also has an autonomous orchestrion and an autonomous cable car, which makes Herbie himself feel a bit less special.
With this in mind, I really should have disliked the final act which saw Herbie surrounded by numerous autonomous Beetles he'd rallied (it certainly flies in the face of the first film's philosophy that "A million come off the production line perfectly ordinary, but one is special" philosophy), but the fact is that I so enjoyed the sight of so many vintage Beetles of various colours all together that I loved it. Incidentally, I wonder if all the Beetles were supplied by VW themselves this time round, since they were clearly more on board with the Herbie Rides Again than the original*. The sequel saw Herbie sporting his VW badges, and the brand was even mentioned in the classic line "Why would a shark be following a Volkswagen?"
The scene in question saw Herbie - apparently waterproof - turning briefly into a submarine like Bond's DB5 and saw one of the sillier moments with the surfer having a conversation with the occupants before falling off his board. But the film that actually jumped the shark for me saw Herbie riding up the cables that suspend the Golden Gate Bridge.
For most of the silliness I could remind myself that this is a fantasy film for kids, but the combination of outrageous situation and hokey effects were too much for me. And the situation was made worse when Herbie then reversed back down the cables at the men pursuing them up the struts as if they were out for an afternoon ramble.
However, this is one small grumble in a film that was, as I said, very easy to digest.
Casting was good. Stefanie Powers was very charismatic and on a shallow note she looked stunning in that red air hostess uniform. She made a great - and hilarious -first impression by punching out her leading man as she says hello (he works for the enemy). She then goes on to hit him in the face with a boiled lobster, knocking him into the ocean, on learning he's the enemy's nephew. She's very engaging. Even more so - dare I say - than Michele Lee was in The Love Bug.
As an antagonist, I really wasn't sure about Keenan Wynn at first, but once he got warmed up with his bellowing (and he did a lot of bellowing) he was great. He doesn't feel as "cinematic" to me as David Tomlinson (if that makes any sense), but he's great fun and certainly very sporting when it comes to his character's comeuppance.
Ken Berry isn't a familiar name to me, though his filmography suggests I've seen him in small roles in TV series. He, too, was great here. He makes a really nice romantic lead, having an everyman quality that makes him feel accessible and relatable as well as extremely likeable.
Helen Hayes brings a touch of class to things. She's wonderful, and her theatrical background comes across strongly with the way she commands the screen, often by doing very little. The little choices she makes and the looks she gives make her absolutely magnetic. There's a terrific moment where she's ticking off a warehouse guard for trying to nab her (as she breaks in). The dialogue is fairly ordinary, but there's a kind of darkness about her in that moment that really makes me get a sense of her character's genuine anger and outrage that reminded me as a viewer that underneath the comic scenario was the injustice that her personal possessions have been stolen.
One unsung returnee was George Bruns who did another terrific score. As mentioned in The Love Bug, my favourite of his is Sleeping Beauty, so you can imagine how my ears pricked up when he used a sting very reminiscent of Maleficent's Anger from that film. It's first heard when the model of Hawk Plaza is lifted up to reveal a tiny model of Mrs Steinmetz's firehouse underneath, and it can be heard again once or twice later in the film. It's great to have him back and was another thing that helped tie this to the original.
All in all - and despite its cartoony flaws - I think I enjoyed this at least as much as The Love Bug. Perhaps a little more!
*After writing this, I took a peek around and found this:
That sounds like my idea of heaven. I quite like cars in general, and combining that with films would be a treat. Visiting various car museums over the years I've seen a number of famous ones included in various exhibitions (various Bond vehicles, Mr Bean's Mini, the Ford Anglia from Harry Potter, etc) but Herbie is still on my bucket list.
- Awards
- 53
Herbie Rides Again (1974)
Even though I have such an enduring affection for this film, I've only watched it twice: the first time when I was around 5 and then again about 30 years later. When I watched it as an adult, I was surprised how much I still enjoyed it. Yes, it's a bit silly and it's a bit far fetched but if you just accept it for what it is, it's difficult not to be taken in by the warmth and comedy of it all.
I've often wondered whether this film was originally conceived as a direct sequel to The Love Bug because Stephanie Powers and Ken Berry are both physically very similar to Michelle Lee and Dean Jones so I can imagine the parts being written for the original actors but maybe they weren't available so the roles were recast and they changed the scripts to explain the new characters.
Totally! Yes, it's a family film so you can't expect too much nuance or intricate subplots but it's a really accessible story told in a straightforward and really entertaining way.
That's really interesting because I didn't see it that way. I saw Herbie as being unique and having the power to bring the other beetles "to life". As a child that, scene when all the other beetles unite to help Herbie was so enthralling that it made the film for me. I even didn't mind the Golden Gate Bridge nonsense (even as an adult) because by this stage I decided to just go with what everything they threw at the audience and not do my usual questioning the credibility of what I was watching.
The casting was spot on. Stephanie Powers and Ken Berry made for a great double act, charming and engaging and played off each other well. Helen Hayes in the 1970s seemed to corner the market for playing loveable old granny roles and she did it so well. I completely agree with you about how she can covey so much by doing very little, just a glance, a facial expression or a change in the tone of her voice was often all she needed. Keenan Wynn was great as the villain, I think this is the only comedy role I can remember seeing him in and he really should have worked in that genre more because he wrung every drop of comedy out of the lines and situations he was given while still remaining believable as his character.
I agree. What I particularly like about the score was how the Herbie theme was not just reserved for the titles but dropped into it at select stages during the film while being careful not to overuse this idea. It's a technique that John Williams uses regularly, for example in Superman and Star Wars (it's not often those films are compared with Herbie!)
Reading your thoughts on the film makes me want to watch it again, I'm long overdue a third viewing so I'll put that right soon.