# Movies you've seen recently (Part 1) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [September 29, 2014, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906 "2014-09-29T21:53:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 269
**Author:** ![ASL\_v2.0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asl_v2.0/32/3525_2.png) [@ASL\_v2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASL_v2.0)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2022, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/5376 "2022-11-28T20:20:27Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#): > > The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou Easily his worst, I’ll give you that. But personally I enjoy TRT. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2022, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/5377 "2022-11-28T20:25:23Z")
Watched **Top Gun Maverick** the other day. All I really have to say about it is thanks for not casting Shia TheBeef. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2022, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/5378 "2022-11-28T20:46:58Z")
> [@ASL\_v2.0](#): > > But personally I enjoy TRT. Lots of people do 🙂. Love him, hate him, or somewhere in between - regardless Anderson definitely rates as an auteur. His films are all very Andersonian. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2022, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/5379 "2022-11-28T20:57:11Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#): > > > [@Gatopescado](#): > > > > I hope Wes Anderson steps on a rusty nail. > > It’s been discussed before, but I can’t really think of any other director that inspires such a binary reaction in me. Either great interest (Rushmore, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Moonrise Kingdom) or great boredom. > > I don’t want Wes Anderson to step on a rusty nail - I rather admire his singular vision. I just with he’d stop making films like The Royal Tenenbaums or The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, that bore the fuck out of me. I’m on the fence about Wes Anderson, but when he’s good, he can be very good indeed. You forgot to mention _Grand Budapest Hotel_, which I thought was stellar, and hilarious! ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2022, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/5380 "2022-11-28T21:26:11Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUBv.2](#): > > **Martyrs Lane** (I saw it on Shudder) A slow burn ghost story set in rural England, with two young girls as the main characters. I can’t say enough about these young actors’ performances. It’s tense, scary but not in a jump scare / monster way (I think there was one jump scare) and really quite poignant. Highly recommend. Thank you for this. I had Shudder for one week and when I cancelled, they gave me a MONTH free so I will be streaming this soon. > [@tullsterx](#): > > What is this? Jon Hamm as Fletch? _Confess, Fletch_? Is that new? 2022 release, so it is pretty new. I thought it was OK, but not terrific. I do think they should make a sequel with Jon Hamm again, though. He was great, best thing in it. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2022, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/5381 "2022-11-28T21:58:46Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > You forgot to mention _Grand Budapest Hotel_, which I thought was stellar, and hilarious! That’s what started off this conversation. But I’m with you, I loved it. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2022, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/5382 "2022-11-28T22:54:35Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > I’m on the fence about Wes Anderson Watch out for rusty nails! 😁 ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2022, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/5383 "2022-11-28T23:00:49Z")
> [@Typo\_Negative](#): > > [Panic in Year Zero](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056331/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0) Fun to watch Ray Milland, why telling family they have to remain good people following a nuclear attack, immediately become a dick How many other families did he jeopardize when he set up a fire on the highway, just so he could drive across crowded traffic? What a dick indeed. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2022, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/5384 "2022-11-30T01:27:05Z")
_Excessive Force 2: Force on Force_ Stacie Randall kicks and shoots her way through bad guys while out for revenge! She looks damned good and pulls off some tough fights. I wish she’d been a bigger star. It also stars a gentleman by the name of Mandingo Warrior. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2022, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/5385 "2022-11-30T02:38:13Z")
**Flashdance** , the 1983 movie starring Jennifer Beals, with an Oscar for Irene Cara singing the title song, which she helped write. It doesn’t hold up particularly well, although most of the actors seemed to be doing their best. I’ve never heard of most of them, and I’m betting they didn’t have much of a career. ---
**Author:** ![XOldiesJock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/ec9cab/32.png) [@XOldiesJock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XOldiesJock)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2022, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/5386 "2022-11-30T13:16:22Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > _I’ve never heard of most of them, and I’m betting they didn’t have much of a career._ While the two leads, Jennifer Beals and Michael Nouri, never became major stars, both have had long careers as character actors. Looking at their credits on IMDB, it seems both of them found steady work in a lot of straight-to-video movies and appearances on TV shows. There are lots of characters actors who have had longer careers than people we would consider “movie stars.” You’re right, though, about the rest of the cast. Except for Lilia Skala and Cynthia Rhodes, I’ve never heard of the rest of them. That’s odd, considering how big a hit that movie was. Sunny Johnson, who was fourth-billed, died of an aneurism only a year after “Flashdance” came out. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2022, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/5387 "2022-11-30T13:19:45Z")
Yeah, I noted that. Interesting that Roger Ebert panned Flashdance and included it in his top ten worst movies list, while audiences loved it. It wasn’t high art, certainly, but it was entertaining. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2022, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/5388 "2022-11-30T20:48:13Z")
**Logan Lucky**. A pretty funny heist movie, and damned near everyone is in it, from Daniel Craig to Dwight Yokum (!). But I can’t tell if southerners are supposed to be in on the joke. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2022, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/5389 "2022-12-02T15:49:14Z")
Watched the Rifftrax version of **Dinosaurus** , a movie I first saw as a kid when it was brand new. In fact, IIRC, I saw it at a drive-in movie in a thunderstorm. This arguably made it more dramatic at the time. Thoughts: 1. My god, this is an awful film. My uncritical child mind didn’t think so. It thought “Dinosaurs!” . But my wife Pepper Mill voiced exactly that judgment immediately. Perfect MST3K fodder (or Rifftrax fodder) 2. Produced by Jack Harris. Among other things Harris was responsible for every version of **The Blob** – including the glitzy remake and including _Blobermouth_. He also worked himself into all his movies – he’s one of the passengers on the cruise ship at the end. 3. The dinosaurs look much worse than I remember. Bad stop-motion creatures either look like a five-year-old’s plaster of paris creation or they look “cute”. In this case, they look cute:(For another example of “cute”, see **Jack the Giant Killer** , which came of the same year. The dragon at the end is supposed to look fearsome, but it looks more like a flying puppy dog.) 4. stop-motion animation is expensive and time-consuming. THey cut corners by using puppets as much ass possible rather that fullt articulated stop-motion figures. The effects team, by the way, was by Tim Barr, Wah Chang, and Gere Warren, who would go on to form Centaur Productions, which did effects for the TV show _The Outer LImits_. The T. Rex’s roars were made by some really unconvincing mechanical process that the team would later re-use in several episodes of Outer Limits. 5. The dinosaurs are recovered when blasting down in the Caribbean (the film was made in the Virgin Islands), where they were frozen into a state of suspended animation (frozen? In the Caribbean? Just go with it). Also frozen with them was a cave man. Before you get upset about a caveman being frozen with a couple of dinosaurs, note that a caveman with a T. Rex is as improbable as a brontosaur (or other major sauropod) being found with a T. Rex (or a stegosaur and a T. Rex, for you _Fantasia_ fans). T. Rex is 66-68 million years ago. Apatosaurs were 151-152 million years ago (stegosaurs were 145-155 million years ago. Neanderthals were 40,000-800,000 years ago, so he is clearly the Odd Man Out, but you wouldn’t get all three together unless you were deliberately collecting them. Maybe some aliens were collecting specimens over time and lost the case in the Caribbean. 6. The caveman is clearly there because a.) He’s cheaper than an animated model, or even the puppet, b.) cheap comedy relief. He is disappointed in wax fruit, freaks out at the sight of a woman in a beauty mask, smashes a mirror and the only ham radio on the island, and throws a pie at the Bad Guy. They flirt with sexual connotations, but this is basically a kids’ movie, so they shjy away from that pretty quick. More telling is that the caveman gives a stick with raw meat to the woman, expecting her to cook it. Women do all the cooking, right? Proof that this is a 1960 movie. 7. Dell comics, as often happened at the time, did a comic book adaptation. The dinosaurs on the cover of the comic (like those on the movie poster) look scarier and more believable than the ones in the movie 8. Harris reportedly wanted Steve McQueen to star in this, as he had in _The Blob_. McQueen chose instead to make **The Magnificent Seven**. Good career move. 9. The hero (not played by Steve McQueen), Ward Ramsey, went on to an unspectacular career. I see that six of his film appearances were uncredited. 10. At the end of the film, the Hero gets into the excavator to fight it out with the T. Rex, knocking him into the ocean, where he apparently freezes again. (The wording “The End” morphs into a question mark, just like at the end of Harris’ earlier film _The Blob_, suggesting the possibility of a sequel. Only Harris never made a sequel to this one. 11. I’ve long suspected that James Cameron had seen this film, and that the climactic battle inspired the climactic battle between Ripley and the Alien Queen at the end of **Aliens** > **[Dinosaurus | Trailers From Hell](https://trailersfromhell.com/dinosaurus/)** > > Were movie folk blind in 1960? We kids were so dino- crazy, ANY movie about dinosaurs would have cleaned up at the box office. We're told that Jack H. Harris didn't do badly with his third turn at the wickets, despite thunder lizards with a... > **['Aliens' turns 30: An oral history of Power Loader Ripley vs. the Alien Queen](https://ew.com/comic-con/2016/07/18/aliens-anniversary-oral-history/)** > > Aliens 30th anniversary: Oral history of Power Loader Ripley vs. The Alien Queen ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2022, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/5390 "2022-12-02T19:07:44Z")
_All This and Heaven, too_ – part of my process of catching up on mid-20th century classics (or sometimes, “classics”). First, the last movie I mentioned here (_King’s Row_) had a shot of leaves blowing from trees to indicate moving into fall/winter. It was kind of odd, because it looked more like bare branches with glued leaves blowing off, so it stuck in my mind. I’m _sure_ it was the same shot used in the opening of _All This and Heaven Too._ Same studio. Good Bette Davis vehicle. Good child actors – Virginia Weidler (always reliable) and June Lockhart (her first role) – which was important because the kids were a big part of the movie. The worst was the youngest and only boy whose Texas twangy accident didn’t exactly match his supposed role as the son of a Duc. I was more interested in the story behind it than the movie itself. It was based on a book (bought by WB in 1938 for $100k!) written by the great-niece of the Bette Davis character. The incidents in the movie were believed to have added fuel to the French revolutionary fire of 1848. Other than that it was mostly soap opera. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2022, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/5391 "2022-12-03T21:11:52Z")
**Bullet Train** on Netflix: Brad Pitt and others wisecracking their way through Japan whilst murdering each other. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2022, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/5392 "2022-12-03T22:38:02Z")
Saw **The Banshees of Inisherin**. Not really sure how I feel about it. In addition to the stars Brendan Gleeson and Colin Ferrell, it featured Kerry Condon, who played Mike Ehrmantraut’s long-suffering daughter-in-law on **Better Call Saul** (mother of the never-aging Kaylee). She was very good in this (as was the rest of the cast). I had no idea she was Irish. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2022, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/5393 "2022-12-03T22:47:51Z")
I knew she was because she was in _Rome_, and I found out then. She played Octavia? ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2022, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/5394 "2022-12-04T12:05:38Z")
Went to see Violent Night with the family. As long as you don’t go into it expecting King Lear, you may enjoy it. The general plot is Die Hard with the real Santa Claus as John McClain, trying to save a family taken hostage during a Christmas Eve heist. Throw in a couple of Home Alone references, some Bad Santa, plenty of humor and you have a classic for the ages. Ok, not a classic for the ages, but it’s not a bad way to spend a couple of hours. ---
**Author:** ![ASL\_v2.0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asl_v2.0/32/3525_2.png) [@ASL\_v2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASL_v2.0)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2022, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906/5395 "2022-12-04T20:36:08Z")
_The Menu_. It’s _Midsommar_ meets _Pig_ meets _Ready or Not_. The reason to go is for the dark comedy and in-your-face social commentary if you like that sort of thing. I do, and I did like it, but even then I’ll admit it might have lost me had it not been for Ralph Fiennes’ charismatic performance. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906.md?page=268) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-1/699906.md?page=270)