Rate The Last Movie You Saw

I've always given DreamWorks Animation credit for being at least slightly more sophisticated than Illumination, which sounds like a half-hearted compliment - and perhaps it is.

But, if nothing else, DreamWorks deserves a bit of credit for shrewdly repositioning their popular franchise to feature more characters voiced by Asian-American actors - something that is long overdue, since this is a franchise that takes place in ancient China and is full of old-fashioned "eastern" motifs.

Among the newcomers to the franchise are Akwafina, Ke Huy Quan, Ronny Chieng and Viola Davis. The "Furious Five" characters have been put in storage for now, but they haven't been killed off, so they might return in future installments.

The story isn't anything particularly new or fresh - if anything, it borrows rather heavily from some story beats that were recently used in SMNWH and Secret Invasion - but at least it's snappy and full of knowing winks at the grown-ups in the audience. The running time is a brisk 85 minutes sans credits, which feels about right for this type of material.

Gideon, for some reason your images are not posting. Unless it's just my computer.

American Fiction (2023) Rewatch. This is fantastic, funny, and brilliantly written. Jeffrey Wright is excellent here. One of the best films of last year.

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974)

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[ J ] - [ S ] - [ F ]

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Once Upon a Time in China III - (1993)

My last go-around with these movies - the Once Upon a Time in China series mixes traditional martial arts film and storytelling with commercial elements such as humour and lengthy, ultra-fast action sequences. Jet Li was just making a name for himself after struggling a bit in his home country and the United States - and these films were a part of his growing appeal in Asia and beyond. Considering that this is the third film in three years, I'm surprised they aren't all that formulaic - each one has it's distinct identity, with this one focusing on the use of Chinese martial arts as an exercise of the mind, and not a mode of combat. Wong Fei-hung (Li) even frowns upon it being used as the basis for competitions - but when a tyrannical overlord goes to extreme measures to win the title of "Lion Dance King" he'll be forced to unleash his incredible fighting skills. The foreigners this time are Russians, and once again they're meddling in Chinese affairs in a nefarious way. This wasn't too bad - Chiu Tin-bak (Chiu Chin) makes for a fun villain and his henchman "Clubfoot" Kwai Geuk-chat (Hung Yan-yan) has an interesting arc.

6/10


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Paradise : Love - (2012)

Middle-aged, overweight Austrian lady Teresa (Margarethe Tiesel) goes on a "sex holiday" to Kenya in this heartbreaking first film in Ulrich Seidl's Paradise trilogy. Recommended. Review here, on my watchlist thread.

8/10

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Dune: Part Two (2024)

SF = Zzz


[Snooze Factor Ratings]:
Z = didn't nod off at all
Zz = nearly nodded off but managed to stay alert
Zzz = nodded off and missed some of the film but went back to watch what I missed
Zzzz = nodded off and missed some of the film but went back to watch what I missed but nodded off again at the same point and therefore needed to go back a number of times before I got through it...
Zzzzz = nodded off and missed some or the rest of the film but was not interested enough to go back over it

The Skeleton Twins (2014)

American Fiction (2023)


I read enough positive reviews to finally give in to seeing this one, because I thought the trailer looked awful. There are two really good movies here (one satire and one drama), but blending them into the same film didn't work perfectly for me.

The acting was excellent, and the movie is rather clever. However, some of it felt a little misplaced or even forced.

Despite not getting nominated for an Oscar, the documentary Joan Baez: I Am Noise is a delight to watch, especially if you're already a fan of her music.
I didn't know much about her personal life, and I wasn't expecting the documentary to be as open as it is about Baez's struggle with mental health issues and some (possible) parental abuse.
In regard to addressing the mental health struggle of a very famous artist, it follows on the path of the recent Selena Gomez doc., although of course it must be seen in a very different light since Baez grew up in the 50s and 60s and this type of thing used to carry a much greater stigma then.

We tried watching Exodus, so dull we couldn't finish it, so no rating from us.
Good musical score.

Same score I gave it... Glad you saw it. Great actress.

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Lawrence of Arabia - 5/10
I will never watch this again. I didn't care about the length. It was the lack of a coherent script. Beating around the bush. The only thing worse are the reviews.

I just have two questions for you:

• What exactly seemed "incoherent" to you about this script?
• What would be your idea of a "coherent" script?

Their intentions, motivations...the simple things, what was happening. Beating around the bush (like I just said)

Troll.

Imaginary (2024) This was okay. I thought DeWanda Wise, Taegen Burns, and Pyper Braun were fine and did what they could with the material. The screenplay was mediocre and the film could have been better if they leaned more into the horror elements. Imaginary is alright and mildly entertaining, although not particularly memorable or distinctive.

On the Yard (1979)

Gritty prison drama from the story by Malcolm Braly...the story is more about redemption from a inhumane (overcrowded) and punishing (getting shanked for owing a few packs of cigarettes). The new governor means to put an end to the collusion between guards and prisoners. This is realistic with a great performance from John Heard, also features Richard Bright as a semi-central character and the standout is Thomas.G.Waites as chilli. Its not perfect or even great but it is good. JAmes Remar and Uncle Junior also feature

It may have the subtlety of a sledgehammer and be as sophisticated as (and have the same depth as) a crayon drawing, but this movie still more than held my interest over almost 2-1/2 hours with the story of "America's first saint".

I don't know how closely it follow the actual facts of Cabrini's story - this is the kind of movie where you all but expect a bit of actual mustache-twirling by the bad guys, but it sort of gets the main idea across.

The cast includes some not-bad turns by David Morse and John Lithgow; Cristiana Dell'Anna does a fairly good job here as the title character despite the screenplay's obvious limitations.