# Movies you've seen recently (Part 2) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [August 27, 2024, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-2/1006288 "2024-08-27T05:10:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 274
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2026, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-2/1006288/5464 "2026-05-02T22:13:43Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > The Spanish Prisoner is also a good Hitchcock-Notmadeby-Hitchcock film. The best, though, will always be _Jaws_. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2026, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-2/1006288/5465 "2026-05-02T22:19:43Z")
Honorable mention goes to **Witness for the Prosecution**. ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2026, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-2/1006288/5466 "2026-05-02T22:44:15Z")
**The Fly** (1986) This showed last night as part of the Chicago Critics Film Festival, one of my friends from growing up is now a film critic and member of the Chicago Film Critics Association, had reached out to me to let me know that he was hosting the movie. I brought my 18-year-old son, who is a fan of the body horror genre and who also once yelled out at the end of a screening of _Labyrinth_ “Big Trouble in Little China is awesome!” (It makes sense in context). I really enjoyed watching the movie again – I hadn’t seen it in more than 20 years, and I thought the story held up well. The actors in it (Jeff Goldblum, Geena Davis, and John Getz) all did a good job though they did seem fairly dry at the start of the movie. The movie is also fairly funny, something I didn’t remember, and I even jumped at a couple jump scares even though I knew they were coming. The effects are good and Brundle’s deterioration into a fly monster is gruesome and fun. The vomiting was still super gross (spoiler!). Probably the only knock is that the final monster puppet really doesn’t look as good as everything preceding it, but that’s a minor quibble I think. My teen definitely loved it and said that it’s one of his top 3 movies (right behind _The Truman Show_ and _Scooby-Doo! And Kiss: Rock and Roll Mystery_. He is now a Cronenberg fan. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2026, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-2/1006288/5467 "2026-05-02T22:45:55Z")
I still remember the line, “Be afraid. Be very afraid.” ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2026, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-2/1006288/5468 "2026-05-02T22:46:29Z")
There were a lot of cheers in the audience when Davis said that line. ---
**Author:** ![dirtball](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dirtball/32/18772_2.png) [@dirtball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dirtball)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2026, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-2/1006288/5469 "2026-05-03T01:09:42Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > > [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > > > The best Hitchcock film not actually directed by Hitch. A couple minor plotholes, but it holds up great. And Audrey and Cary have good chemistry, despite him being old enough to be her father. Hey, that’s how they made movies back then. > > The Spanish Prisoner is also a good Hitchcock-Notmadeby-Hitchcock film. I’ve always felt that **Marathon Man** was a strong entry in this category as well. ---
**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:** [May 3, 2026, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-2/1006288/5470 "2026-05-03T01:50:33Z")
> [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](#): > > My teen definitely loved it and said that it’s one of his top 3 movies (right behind _The Truman Show_ and _Scooby-Doo! And Kiss: Rock and Roll Mystery_. He is now a Cronenberg fan. What a cool kid! ---
**Author:** ![iamatractorboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iamatractorboy/32/21261_2.png) [@iamatractorboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamatractorboy)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2026, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-2/1006288/5471 "2026-05-03T06:08:11Z")
> [@dirtball](#): > > > [@Mahaloth](#): > > > > > [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > > > > > The best Hitchcock film not actually directed by Hitch. A couple minor plotholes, but it holds up great. And Audrey and Cary have good chemistry, despite him being old enough to be her father. Hey, that’s how they made movies back then. > > > > The Spanish Prisoner is also a good Hitchcock-Notmadeby-Hitchcock film. > > I’ve always felt that **Marathon Man** was a strong entry in this category as well. I’ve not seen it in years, but surely _The Man Who Wasn’t There_ is another great not-Hitchcock. It even has a title suitable for it. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2026, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-2/1006288/5472 "2026-05-04T02:13:26Z")
**Devil Wears Prada 2** A pretty movie about pretty people wearing pretty clothes in pretty places. A fun date movie. Possibly lesser than the original, but since it’s been 20 years since I’ve seen the original, it didn’t matter to me. ---
**Author:** ![bmasters1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b5e925/32.png) [@bmasters1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bmasters1)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2026, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-2/1006288/5473 "2026-05-04T10:41:10Z")
_The Luckiest Man In America_ on Hulu (2024 picture, released in 2025, about the _Press Your Luck_ incident from 1984 on CBS wherein one Paul Michael Larson of Lebanon, OH, BKA Michael Larson [known as an ice cream truck man and AC repairman], played by Paul Walter Hauser, went out to Television City in Hollywood and got on _Press Your Luck_ w/Peter Tomarken [Tomarken played quite well by Walton Goggins, IMO], and took the Tiffany Network for $110,237 by some quite questionable and unorthodox means [like waiting for the spinner light to light up to certain squares on the board, and stopping it at those areas, and even celebrating the moment he got what he got, instead of waiting for the moment to register, and then reacting]). The picture is a pretty darn good one in its just over hour-and-a-half, but it has two faults that detract somewhat: one, that it took liberties with the events of that fateful day in game show history (of course, practically all biopics and docudramas take liberties), and two, that it had its fair share of cursing, like many modern pictures (one notable part being when Larson hit his one and only Whammy of that match; he cursed quietly, unlike how Jim Hess would do in real-life on the show in 1985 [nonetheless, he was admonished to keep it clean, as _PYL_ was a daily game show on CBS, and the people who saw it then daily would not have been expecting that language]). One really good thing about it, however, is that there is practically no violence (outside of Bill Carruthers [David Strathairn] smashing a plate with the Whammy on the floor of the control room in anger; that moment was it on that score). Still, _The Luckiest Man In America_ is a fine biopic/docudrama, far better than others of its kind, and I think you’ll enjoy it like I did. ---
**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:** [May 4, 2026, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-2/1006288/5474 "2026-05-04T10:50:22Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > _Charade_ with Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn. Also Walter Matthau, George Kennedy and James Coburn. Special sceening in the theater. > > The best Hitchcock film not actually directed by Hitch. A couple minor plotholes, but it holds up great. And Audrey and Cary have good chemistry, despite him being old enough to be her father. Hey, that’s how they made movies back then. **Charade** is one of my all-time favorites. But I think that **Mirage** (written by Peter Stone, who also wrote _Charade_) has a better claim on the title of “Best Hitchcock movie not directed by Hitchcock”. But Charade is more like “happy” Hitchcock (as in _North by Northwest_), while Mirage is more typical dark, paranoiac Hitchcock. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2026, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-2/1006288/5475 "2026-05-04T11:46:46Z")
**The Mechanic** 2011 Jason Statham, Ben Foster, Donald Sutherland Paramount+ It’s jarring to see Sutherland still working in 2011. I don’t know if the wheelchair is a prop or something Donald needed at 75. He continued working a heavy schedule of films and tv until passing in 2024. This film is a remake of the Charles Bronson film. A aging assassin trains his apprentice. Is he a successor or replacement for the older character? Pretty good. It’s more violent than Statham’s later films. I liked _The Mechanic_ better than the sequel (Mechanic: Resurrection) that’s on Peacock. Rating 6 out of 10 ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2026, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-2/1006288/5476 "2026-05-04T12:38:00Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > It’s jarring to see Sutherland still working in 2011. I don’t know if the wheelchair is a prop or something Donald needed at 75. He was walking around just fine in the Hunger Games movies, which came out after that. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2026, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-2/1006288/5477 "2026-05-04T12:51:05Z")
I’m glad to hear he was using a prop in The Mechanic. Donald looked good and very alert in that 2011 film. ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2026, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-2/1006288/5478 "2026-05-04T12:51:23Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > What a cool kid! He is, thanks! I’ve been exposing him to a steady stream of cult films, offbeat comedies, and some cinematic oddities over the years (as well as the mainstream stuff like Star Wars, Marvel movies, etc. etc.) and he loves them. He even showed _Repo Man_ and _Suburbia_ to his friends after watching the movies with me. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2026, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-2/1006288/5479 "2026-05-04T14:36:34Z")
My family made me binge watch The Hunger Games, I had only seen one before and I wasn’t sure which. Meh. **Catching Fire** may be my favorite, light and campy, like YA fiction should be. The more serious it gets the weaker the entire universe feels. YA books are written for YA minds and while they can handle heavy topics they’re handled in a cartoonish way, which is fine for the audience of YOUNG ADULTS. By the end film it was like seeing a herd of grown men in line for rides at Disney World, two worlds colliding in a bizarre and dark way. ---
**Author:** ![Scoobysnax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c4cdca/32.png) [@Scoobysnax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scoobysnax)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2026, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-2/1006288/5480 "2026-05-04T17:37:54Z")
If you want some weird sci-fi body horror, have you shown him Cronenberg’s eXistenZ? ---
**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:** [May 4, 2026, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-2/1006288/5481 "2026-05-04T18:04:26Z")
I never found that one to be all that good. He is very hit and miss, to be honest. I found the Crimes of the Future movie from 2022 mostly boring with about one or two moments of strangeness that made it briefly interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2026, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-2/1006288/5482 "2026-05-04T20:00:56Z")
His most recent film **The Shrouds** is even worse. Just incredibly dull and boring. There are a few moments of something interesting, and then it ends. Likely because it was originally supposed to be TV series. ---
**Author:** ![Smid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/838e76/32.png) [@Smid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smid)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2026, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-2/1006288/5483 "2026-05-04T23:26:36Z")
Cronenberg, Spielberg, Kubrick, Lynch and Lucas, all overrated directors as far as I’m concerned (though probably not Lucas that much, really only one of his films is). Little of Cronenbergs is good, IMHO, Spielberg has long since stopped being good, Kubrick did one great movie, Lynch, well, marmite, I can see how people like him but not me, and Lucas, well, probably a shit director with the top spot on “basic” film fans list. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-2/1006288.md?page=273) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-2/1006288.md?page=275)