What have you watched recently?

[Jedi_Master_Guyute]

"Halloween II"- (this is for the unrated director's cut): I liked Rob Zombie's original as it brought a new idea to the table, but this sequel is just awful. I don't get why everybody in Zombie's world is awful and deplorable while his environment is always dirty and dingy. The plot was all over the place and i really think that Zombie believes the more gore he puts into a film, the more "shocking" it will be. Lastly, the ending........pretty much kind of a rip off from "Halloween 4." Just pure crap. Rating- * out of ****

[Darth Metalmute]

I watched the first episodes of Monty Pythons Flying Circus and Star Trek on Netflix. Maybe someone can help me. Does Monty Python ever get, oh I don't know, funny? I typically laugh at everything yet did nothing but maybe chuckle once. If it doesn't get funny, I'm going to just delete it instead of wrenching through 44 more episodes.

I saw The Even Stevens Movie. How did Shia Lebeouf get out of the typical Disney for life contract? And what ever happened to Christy Carlson Romano? She had a good singing voice, and was pretty enough, but Disney didn't exploit her like they do most of their talent. Maybe the Lohan debacle cost more than Lindsey a decent career.

[Ji'dai]

With the help of the son he never knew he had (Shia LaBeouf), archaeologist Henry Jones, Jr. (Harrison Ford) is betrayed by a turncoat (Ray Winstone) and matches wits with a Communist Russian agent (Cate Blanchett) and her commando unit in a race to return a fabled crystal skull to a legendary lost city, enabling the inter-dimensional beings entombed there to return to their place of origin in the watchable 2008 fantasy adventure film Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Having become a fan of 50's science fiction films in the past few years, I've come to appreciate this latest Indiana Jones installment a little more.

[Mr. JabbaJohnL]

I watched Notorious last night (the Hitchcock one, not the Biggie one ). I had wanted to see it since I heard that The Clone Wars episode "Senate Spy" had essentially the same plot, which was true, so it was fun to see where they got their inspiration from (aka what they ripped off ). It was also a good movie in its own right, of course.

[OC47150]

Our Man Flint (1966). James Coburn is 60s ZOWIE secret agent Derek Flint recruited to save the world. Hey, if it weren't for Derek Flint, we wouldn't have Austin Powers.

[Slicker]

I watched Gamer. It was rather horrible. I reminded me of Death Race (which I liked) but without cars...and without anything good about it...except for some boobies. I like boobies.

[Tycho]

I watched The Battle of Britain.

A lot of the combat footage from The Battle of Yavin (1st Death Star) mimics this film almost exactly. I wonder if George Lucas had this movie on his mind.

The outnumbered English flew Spitfires against the Nazi Stukas (spelling) in a duel over the English Channel, with the Brits goals being to defend their radar installations and protect London.

Desperate for pilots, the English enlisted Czechs, Poles, Canadians, and Americans into their squadrons.

Over 4 years they shot down the Germans at the rate of 4 of theirs for every 1 RAF pilot lost.

The duel in the sky is pretty impressive to watch even if the film is somewhat dated and has that 1960's feel to it, with 1950's archetype characters.

[Ji'dai]

I watched The Battle of Britain.

A lot of the combat footage from The Battle of Yavin (1st Death Star) mimics this film almost exactly. I wonder if George Lucas had this movie on his mind.

When Lucas returned from shooting principle photography in England he found that ILM had spent tons of money trying to do the special effects shots for the Battle of Yavin and nearly all of them were crap. He had to take control and used archival footage of aerial combat from WWII to show ILM what he wanted. It's all in that fantastic A&E documentary "Empire of Dreams" that was included with the '04 DVD release.

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A Jewish concentration camp survivor-turned Nazi hunter (Laurence Olivier) discovers a plot by Dr. Josef Mengele (Gregory Peck) to assassinate 94 men worldwide - all of whom have identical sons with more than a passing resemblance to Adolf Hitler - in the 1978 thriller The Boys from Brazil. Steve Guttenberg plays an amateur Nazi-hunter who first learns of Mengele’s plans and Denholm Elliott (Marcus Brody in Raiders of the Lost Ark) plays a Reuters newsman.

A NASA flight chief (Gregory Peck) reluctantly launches a risky rescue mission to retrieve three stranded astronauts in orbit before they run out of oxygen in the watchable 1969 sci-fi thriller Marooned. Richard Crenna and Gene Hackman play two of the stranded astronauts. This film, directed by John Sturges, was released just four months before the ill-fated Apollo 13 lunar mission.

[Mr. JabbaJohnL]

I saw Stop Making Sense, the Talking Heads concert film, last night. It was pretty incredible. I was surprised, though, that David Byrne only wore the famous big suit for one song before taking off the jacket. Since it's become so iconic, I was expecting to see it more. Either way, it was great.

[Slicker]

I watched The Battle of Britain.

A lot of the combat footage from The Battle of Yavin (1st Death Star) mimics this film almost exactly. I wonder if George Lucas had this movie on his mind.

The outnumbered English flew Spitfires against the Nazi Stukas (spelling) in a duel over the English Channel, with the Brits goals being to defend their radar installations and protect London.

Desperate for pilots, the English enlisted Czechs, Poles, Canadians, and Americans into their squadrons.

Over 4 years they shot down the Germans at the rate of 4 of theirs for every 1 RAF pilot lost.

The duel in the sky is pretty impressive to watch even if the film is somewhat dated and has that 1960's feel to it, with 1950's archetype characters.

The Battle of Britain lasted 4 years?!?!?!

The 4:1 ratio is typical of early history. Most revised histories put the numbers on an almost parallel ground or give the British a slight advantage in the ratio. Much like most everything in the war the Germans came within literally days of "winning" the battle. Much like just a week or so more and they would've gotten Moscow and if they'd started the drive for Stalingrad earlier they would've captured. Thankfully the Germans were always late. Perhaps it was the daylight savings...