Rate The Last Movie You Saw

[Wooley]

There is that (they're conceptually "heavy", for lack of a better word), but I suspect a lot of it is that he's one of a handful of auteurs making movies with the budgets and box office he commands, which naturally attracts the hottest of hot takes. To quote Steven Spielberg from his reaction to the '75 Oscar nominations, "Everybody loves a winner but nobody loves a winner."

I just don't think his movies are all that great.
That's my whole take. I'll see some of his movies if the premise looks interesting, but I don't go in expecting much more than spectacle surrounding something that may or may not be clever and usually culminating in an underwhelming third act.
But that's what I expect so I don't get mad when that's what I keep getting.

[Wooley]

DEAD NAMER!!!

Well, Ellen Page was in that movie. Elliot was not around yet. But I'm not saying the actor, I'm saying the mechanism, an actor whose only role in the film is to be the audience surrogate on whom massive amounts of expository dialogue to explain any complexities that may exist in the story to the audience can be dumped.
Believe me, I'm happy to call people whatever the **** they want.

[Takoma11]

It's 11 o'clock.

You should be in bed.

Instead, yes, you are watching Cookie's Fortune for the hundredth time.

[StuSmallz]

Thanks, I'll check those out. Should I add Marked For Death and Out For Justice to the mix? Those look like they're on par. I agree that his distinct presence and physicality are Seagal's selling points. Like Keanu Reeves, Nicolas Cage and Arnold Schwarzenegger, having those qualities can elevate the material in a way that does not translate to anything on movie critics' checklists, if that makes sense.Don't forget about Under Siege; it's the only "fresh" movie he's ever starred in, after all.

[ThatDarnMKS]

Well, Ellen Page was in that movie. Elliot was not around yet. But I'm not saying the actor, I'm saying the mechanism, an actor whose only role in the film is to be the audience surrogate on whom massive amounts of expository dialogue to explain any complexities that may exist in the story to the audience can be dumped.
Believe me, I'm happy to call people whatever the **** they want.
It's a Nolan film. Time is an illusion.

[jprgs]

The last movie I have watched is "Eli" on Netflix. I will rate it 5/10. I just don't feel the movie. Anyways, if you want to download movies you can try this tool tips/ct-download/download-tv-series-from-streaming/

[xSookieStackhouse]

Soul
5

Their best since Toy Story 3. I should've watched this on Christmas instead of WW84.

loved pixar movies

[Rockatansky]

Thanks, I'll check those out. Should I add Marked For Death and Out For Justice to the mix? Those look like they're on par. I agree that his distinct presence and physicality are Seagal's selling points. Like Keanu Reeves, Nicolas Cage and Arnold Schwarzenegger, having those qualities can elevate the material in a way that does not translate to anything on movie critics' checklists, if that makes sense.
I'll vouch for the below:
Above the Law - Seagal's origin story and probably the best plot, also has Pam Grier and a really interesting family photo
Hard to Kill - you've seen this, William Sadler, Seagal is excited for the Oscars and gives us a lesson in banking, maybe the most well rounded in representing his appeal
Marked for Death - Insane (in a good way), offensive but tries to atone with a really bizarre development 2/3 into the movie, Keith David learns to not be racist
Out for Justice - Seagal at his most streetwise, borderline NC-17 action, unhinged coked-up William Forsythe, there's a puppy

Under Siege - his most well produced, Tommy Lee Jones and Gary Busey, a stripper comes out of a cake, H.W. is in it for like two seconds if I recall correctly
On Deadly Ground - Seagal tries to combine his environmental concerns with his brand of action, ends up insulting Native Americans in the process, R. Lee Ermey talks him up, Michael Caine has a bad dye job and quit movies for like three years after
Executive Decision - if the above movies don't do it for you, this will be pretty cathartic, solid Kurt Russell actioner otherwise

[Torgo]

I'll vouch for the below:
Above the Law - Seagal's origin story and probably the best plot, also has Pam Grier and a really interesting family photo
Hard to Kill - you've seen this, William Sadler, Seagal is excited for the Oscars and gives us a lesson in banking, maybe the most well rounded in representing his appeal
Marked for Death - Insane (in a good way), offensive but tries to atone with a really bizarre development 2/3 into the movie, Keith David learns to not be racist
Out for Justice - Seagal at his most streetwise, borderline NC-17 action, unhinged coked-up William Forsythe, there's a puppy

Under Siege - his most well produced, Tommy Lee Jones and Gary Busey, a stripper comes out of a cake, H.W. is in it for like two seconds if I recall correctly
On Deadly Ground - Seagal tries to combine his environmental concerns with his brand of action, ends up insulting Native Americans in the process, R. Lee Ermey talks him up, Michael Caine has a bad dye job and quit movies for like three years after
Executive Decision - if the above movies don't do it for you, this will be pretty cathartic, solid Kurt Russell actioner otherwiseThanks! I have seen Above the Law, Under Siege (which may be the best Die Hard knockoff) and Executive Decision (a movie in which I'm convinced they killed off Seagal's character early because he got on everybody's nerves).

By the way, I was inspired to take the Seagal plunge thanks to Dad Rock, a series of video essays about '90s action movies you would all like. I had trouble linking to the collection here, so here's the Under Siege one:

https://vimeo.com/227682584

[Rockatansky]

Will give that a peek. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend Seagology by Vern. Highly entertaining and in-depth breakdowns of Seagal's filmography, and includes reviews of his albums and energy drink as well.

[LChimp]

https://www.startattle.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/hunter-hunter-2020-movie-devon-sawa-netflix-amazon-apple-tv-scaled.jpg

What a nice surprise. No big budget, great practical effects, great acting. Good stuff man

[mojofilter]

https://i.redd.it/trt85ly95lv31.jpg
STAR WARS
THE RISE OF SKYWALKER
(2018)

First viewing. A decent end to the last and the lesser trilogy than the original trilogy.
3.5

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/63d7jKclLJWzZJaYZorbGVsDaqa.jpg
ROGUE ONE
A STAR WARS STORY
(2016)

First viewing. Darth Vader returning is the highlight.
3

[Torgo]

Soul
5

Their best since Toy Story 3. I should've watched this on Christmas instead of WW84.Seconded. This is one I'm disappointed I won't get to see in a theater because it is one of the studio's most visually splendid movies.

[martyrofevil]

The Forest of Love (Sono, 2019) - 6/10
Freddy Got Fingered (Green, 2001) - 7/10 (rewatch)
Nimic (Lanthimos, 2019) - 6/10
Cold Meridian (Strickland, 2020) - 5/10
Black Christmas (Clark, 1974) - 9/10 (rewatch)
Gone in 60 Seconds (Halicki, 1974) - 6/10

[Stirchley]

70749

Totally indie. Shades of Persona. The two female leads were exceptionally good.

70750

Australian movie. Aussies are very good actors. Kind of a wacky story. Both female leads exceptionally good, but Noomi Rapace made this movie for me.

[Marco]

Surely there's a Steven Seagull thread to take chats about the tubby real life "martial arts and special forces" specialist elsewhere...seems enough enthusiasm for it?

[CharlesAoup]

Sharktopus vs Whalewolf, 2015 (F)

Definitely the worst shark movie I've seen. Not the lowest poly CGI, but absolutely the ugliest one. Sharktopus moves like an absolute idiot and whalewolf is straight up furry crap. Some scenes make it look like they're spliced on photographs instead of actually being in a scene. Each of them changes from the size of a large shark to the size of a locomotive, roughly.

The editing is also some of the worst I can remember. There's a lot of jokes in the movie, but not a single one of them lands because the timing gets all messed up from the awkward cutting and lack of continuity between shots.

[Takoma11]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fjayruud.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2015%2F01%2FWhiplash.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

Whiplash, 2014

An aspiring drummer at a prestigious music conservatory, Andrew (Miles Teller), lands on the radar of a highly demanding, abusive instructor named Fletcher (JK Simmons). As Fletcher ups his mind games and manipulations, Andrew moves closer and closer to a breaking point.

So . . . did this film actually need to be longer than 30 minutes? I ask this not because there is anything wrong with the film, but because, interestingly enough, it fully gets its point across in the first two scenes between Andrew and Fletcher. Fletcher is a textbook abuser: he rains down derision and deeply personal attacks, alternating them with just enough praise and motivational moments to imply that his actions come from a place of being firm but fair. After all, he's just trying to bring out the best in them.

It's unsurprising that Simmons got so much attention for his performance here: he absolutely nails the mentor/abuser dynamic. Everything about the character is perfect: the casual sexism and homophobia (under the umbrella of just being "truthful"), the trick of turning the students on each other, the thinly-veiled ego-centrism (those tight black T-shirts are an amazing touch). And Teller is a good counter-part, conveying the perfect storm of drive and need that would lead a person to lean in to such abuse and internalize its messages.

Something that gave me a bit of pause about the film was the way that it approaches its central question. The film asks its own question out loud in the third act: is there such a thing as too far? And the film does acknowledge the damage of Fletcher's techniques, whether that's through one of his students committing suicide, or through other students leaving the program. But one thing that the film never shows is the idea that greatness can be achieved by anything other than rigorous, abusive demand. It's true that some people respond to such pressure by rising past their previous limitations, but these methods are not the ONLY way to get there. Yet the film seems to posit it as an all-or-nothing: either dive into the abuse and being pushed violently, or give up your dreams. I can understand why Andrew sees it as a dichotomy this way--and the film is highly subjective--but I wish that the movie itself had given a nod to a third option. There are people at the top of their field who don't seem to have gotten that way because someone beat them into greatness.

This film honestly made me think a lot of the documentary Athlete A, which was about the sexual abuse perpetrated against members of the USA Gymnastics team, but was also about the broader abuse (mental, physical, emotional) of the entire gymnastics program.

Despite having some mixed feelings about the film's message, I did think that the final sequence was incredibly satisfying. It ends on a very powerful note. While the middle third felt redundant at times (oh, look, more insults! More abuse!), it finds a solid footing in the last 20 minutes or so.

From a style point of view, my only complaint was the way that the band sequences were shot. Music is exciting enough on its own, and the frequent zoom into trumpets or saxophones felt too much like someone trying to make music exciting.

It's not a film that I can imagine wanting to watch again, but I enjoyed it and the performances from both Teller and Simmons are worthy of their praise.

3.5

[mark f]

Radium Girls (Lydia Dean Pilcher & Ginny Mohler, 2018) 2.5 6/10
The Twelve Days of Christmas Eve (Martha Coolidge, 2004) 2 5/10
Test Tube Babies (W. Merle Connell, 1948) 1.5- 4/10
Wonder Woman 1984 (Patty Jenkins, 2020) 2.5 6/10
https://am23.mediaite.com/tms/cnt/uploads/2020/12/original-2.gif
Wonder Woman wields the Lasso of Truth at the White House.
The Fifth Cord (Luigi Bazzoni, 1971) 2.5 6/10
The Last Slumber Party (Robert C. Derteno, 1988) 1 3+/10
The Closet (Kim Kwang-bin, 2020) 2.5 6/10
Lupin III: The First (Takashi Yamazaki, 2019) 3 6.5/10
https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/511/729/3f3.gif
Plenty of flamboyant characters, action and animation in this adventure.
Angie: Lost Girls (Julia Verdin, 2020) 2 5/10
Rock My Heart (Hanno Olderdissen, 2018) 2.5 6/10
The Very Excellent Mr. Dundee (Dean Murphy, 2020) 2+ 5/10
Shaun the Sheep: The Farmer's Llamas (Jay Grace, 2015) 3+ 6.5/10
https://media2.giphy.com/media/d2Z4gjbzojS3KQLe/source.gif
Llamas and sheep don't tend to get along, especially since llamas tend to stink up the place.
Deathcember (28 Directors, 2019) 2 5/10
Dreamfactory (Martin Schreier, 2019) 2.5 6/10
Clinical (Alistair Legrand, 2017) 2 5/10
Come to the Stable (Henry Koster, 1949) 3 6.5/10
https://alchetron.com/cdn/Come-to-the-Stable-images-ee36c7f5-410b-420a-8095-4321fc7fb21.jpg
Nuns Celeste Holm and Loretta Young come from Europe with basically nothing to build a children's hospital near the farm of painter Elsa Lanchester.
DNA (Maïwenn, 2020) 2.5 6/10
Once I Was a Beehive (Maclain Nelson, 2015) 2+ 5/10
Death to 2020 (Al Campbell & Alice Mathias, 2020) 3 6.5/10
All the Vermeers in New York (Jon Jost, 1980) 2.5 6/10
https://movingtheriver.files.wordpress.com/2019/03/all-the-vermeers.jpg
While looking at his beloved Vermeer exhibits, insider trader Stephen Lack (no scanning) becomes "friends" with Frenchwoman Emmanuelle Chaulet and her roommate (Grace Phillips).

[Fabulous]

Mean Girls (2004)

3

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/9srF91cNDqIrf2HtyMY4GpCtVms.jpg

[MovieGal]

https://i.redd.it/trt85ly95lv31.jpg
STAR WARS
THE RISE OF SKYWALKER
(2018)

First viewing. A decent end to the last and the lesser trilogy than the original trilogy.
3.5

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/63d7jKclLJWzZJaYZorbGVsDaqa.jpg
ROGUE ONE
A STAR WARS STORY
(2016)

First viewing. Darth Vader returning is the highlight.
3

The rep is for Rogue One. I didnt care for Rise of Skywalker.

[GulfportDoc]

70764
TENET (2020)

Being hesitant and somewhat ambivalent about watching this picture due to mediocre ratings and an unknown star (to me), it was being referenced so often that it became time to view it.

The film was predictably complex, what with time inversion and time travel, but the story was interesting enough in its weave, but yet rather simple in it’s premise: an espionage thriller in which an organization named “Tenet” tries to prevent World War III. The ins and outs of the action and development are too complicated to summarize here, and I’m not sure I understand it completely at any rate.

As a thriller it’s a dilly. And the special effects are impressive once one realizes what they’re portraying on screen. I prefer the effects in Nolan’a Inception, but here the effects are pretty stunning. Nolan’s experience in battlefield camera work served him well in Tenet.

Still, the picture somewhat fizzles. Through it’s imparted confusion there’s a updrafting sense that something is missing from the overall punch of the production. Perhaps there were so many disparate parts that the project didn’t seem to congeal, to hold together.

Part of the problem was the mediocre acting of the lead, John David Washington. I’m not privy to how he was selected for the part, but he does not have enough acting talent or experience to carry such an important role. He would be fine in a straight action movie, but he is unable at this point in his career to express the nuances necessary to pull off a complex part. This is made even more obvious when his character is interacting with some of the better actors, like Robert Pattinson or Michael Caine.

Bless her heart, Elizabeth Debicki is a decent actress, and has had several fine parts. But at 6’2”, why did they have her wear 5” heels? She already has a giraffe like presence, but making her 5” taller, towering over everyone in the cast, is positively burlesque-- almost a satire. When she was sitting, one could focus on her portrayal, her character. Standing, she was a redwood in an orange grove.

The picture cost $200M. It didn’t recoup it’s expense, and reportedly Warner Bros. lost $100M on the deal.
Tenet had the makings of a top film, but as it turned out it’s just an interesting, but off target curio.

Doc’s rating: 5/10

[ThatDarnMKS]

Bless her heart, Elizabeth Debicki is a decent actress, and has had several fine parts. But at 6’2”, why did they have her wear 5” heels? She already has a giraffe like presence, but making her 5” taller, towering over everyone in the cast, is positively burlesque-- almost a satire. When she was sitting, one could focus on her portrayal, her character. Standing, she was a redwood in an orange grove.

This is an exceptionally bad take.

[Thief]

WHITE ZOMBIE (1932)
Any film that starts with W, X, Y, or Z

https://fastly.syfy.com/sites/syfy/files/styles/1200x680/public/2018/01/white_zombie_hero_01.jpg?offset-y=0

The film follows a young couple that meets in Haiti in order to get married. However, a jealous rival that's smitten with the lady seeks for the help of an evil voodoo master (Bela Lugosi) in order to win her.

Chose this film because it was short (barely over an hour), but I thought it was pretty good. I had read a lot of criticism for its acting, but I really didn't think it was much "worse" than any other film from the era. Plus, Lugosi is a treat to watch. In addition, what it might lack in the performance department, it more than makes up with a hell of a creepy atmosphere. I also thought that the direction from Victor Halperin was pretty good, with some creative shots.

Grade: 3.5



EDIT: Because how did I not mention Lugosi??

[Takoma11]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2F3.bp.blogspot.com%2F-LDvR9mOVlaw%2FTsgEZTbbrOI%2FAAAAAAAABzE%2F6Q2ZOlmpyv4%2Fs1600%2Fraging-bull-04.png&f=1&nofb=1

Raging Bull, 1980

Tonight turned into a double bill of abusive dudes ruining lives.

This film is a classic, and rightfully so. The story follows boxer Jake La Motta (Robert De Niro) in his quest for a championship belt, while at the same time his unbridled jealousy and anger issues damage all of his personal relationships, including his relationship with his brother Joey (Joe Pesci) and his wife Vickie (Cathy Moriarty).

De Niro's lead performance is a stand-out, embodying a man who has power and potential, but who constantly sabotages himself and gives in to the worst voices in his head. One of my favorite details was the way that La Motta would just be eating some huge sandwich while supposedly trying to lose weight. The less amusing side of this behavior is his increasingly unhinged jealousy regarding his wife. At first Jake doesn't like her talking to other men in a nightclub, but before long even her kissing a friend goodbye turns into a reason to slap her around and accuse her of cheating.

I also really appreciated the writing and acting (by Pesci) of Jake's brother, Joey. Joey has the clear sight to see Jake's folly and also to see how to leverage Jake's talent. At the same time, Jake is Joey's meal ticket. This means that Joey oscillated back and forth between being a voice of reason and being an enabler. There are times that he defends Vickie and other times that he berates her and encourages Jake to leave her. Joey has to walk a fine line between keeping Jake motivated and focused, but not flying into a rage.

Cathy Moriarty gives a good performance as Vickie, but I didn't feel as if the writing or her scenes with Jake did a good enough job of conveying the apparently deep love that she has for him that keeps her coming back, even after a particularly violent act of abuse. Obviously such relationships exist, but somehow I wasn't convinced of her love. The film has her say it several times, but I didn't entirely buy it. I think that a few more scenes of the two of them would have gone a long way to showing us why she continues to stay enamored of him even after the honeymoon is over.

The style of the film and specifically the way that the boxing scenes were shot is also very powerful. I always have mixed emotions watching boxing scenes--my grandfather was a boxer and our family has always had . . . complex emotions about what it did to him. The boxing scenes in this film are otherworldly and bloody. I loved one specific shot from Jake's point of view in which his opponent is seen against bright lights and the quality of light suddenly shifts. There's also a wonderful claustrophobia to the way that Scorsese films the scenes in the La Motta household--you feel how oppressive it is to live with such a big personality and how it seems as if there are no safe corners.

A compelling biographical sports film anchored with a rightfully-lauded lead performance.

EDIT: I feel like this has probably been covered many times by other reviewers, but you could probably write pages and pages of analysis about the film's portrayal of and Jake's perception of masculinity. Jake's behavior, which he clearly considers being "manly" and authoritative, reads as childish, destructive, and hypocritical (despite his raging jealousy that means his wife can't even look at or talk about another man, Jake has no qualms about putting his hands all over other women). Jake's main point of pride in his "craft" seems to mostly come from his ability to take punches to the face and not fall down.

4.5

[WHITBISSELL!]

EDIT: Because how did I not mention Lugosi??
I thought his character name was the ****. "Murder" Legendre. Sounds like an up and coming rapper.

EDIT: I typed "the t-i-t-s". "I thought his character name was the boobs" doesn't have the same ring to it.

[WHITBISSELL!]

The African Queen - First time watching this and I had it in my head as transpiring differently. I thought it would be your typical (and frankly cliched) love/hate thing but the screenplay surprised me somewhat. Instead of making them or their relationship obnoxious or forced, director and screenwriter John Huston went with two basically lonely people meeting and making the best of a dicey predicament. Katherine Hepburn's Rose Sayer and Humphrey Bogart's Charlie Allnut aren't callow or unreasonable. Neither of them have the usual redemptive arcs that are part of some of these mismatched romances. That's refreshing and makes them easy to root for. With the two main characters (and they're onscreen for most of the film) taken care of, Huston has time to set up some marvelous action sequences. He also takes full advantage of his location filming in the Belgian Congo and it all makes for a wonderfully immersive experience. The digitally restored print I watched has an almost travelogue feel to it too. This is a truly engaging film. 90/100

[Gideon58]

https://lumiere-a.akamaihd.net/v1/images/p_disney_soul_20263_eac955fc.jpeg


4

[Vanillapie]

70767


Black Xmas (1974) 7.7/10

There is soo much that this early slasher was the forerunner for, the phone calls evoke ‘scream’, ‘Halloween’ is present too, among others. I’m very interested to see if there were any other slashers before this that black Xmas took from. Extremely disturbing, from the crying almost surreal voice on the phone, to the POV shots whilst the girls are taking these phone calls. The way the camera is used all round is terrific and underrated for that very reason I feel. An ambiguous movie in how it gives us basically no background or certain motive for killer from quite frankly start to finish.

There were some issues I had with the writing which may seem quite harsh with this being a slasher. However this was made before the influx of 80s slashers so the narrative for these types of movies hadn’t become nonsensical just yet. Still, excellent movie, I’m going to be having a re-watch of the 2006 remake and then last years effort for the first time, both I’m not really looking forward to.

[MovieGal]

https://static.rogerebert.com/uploads/review/primary_image/reviews/vanilla-sky-2001/EB20011214REVIEWS112140304AR.jpg

Vanilla Sky
(2001)
3.25/5

The original Spanish film is still better.

[Jinnistan]

Something that gave me a bit of pause about the film was the way that it approaches its central question. The film asks its own question out loud in the third act: is there such a thing as too far? And the film does acknowledge the damage of Fletcher's techniques, whether that's through one of his students committing suicide, or through other students leaving the program. But one thing that the film never shows is the idea that greatness can be achieved by anything other than rigorous, abusive demand. It's true that some people respond to such pressure by rising past their previous limitations, but these methods are not the ONLY way to get there. Yet the film seems to posit it as an all-or-nothing: either dive into the abuse and being pushed violently, or give up your dreams.
This is why, despite all of the film's technical qualities, I ultimately find it repugnant. Fletcher's proud little grin at the end is a triumph of his sadism. Trash, and likely Dr. Drew's favorite film.

[ThatDarnMKS]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2F3.bp.blogspot.com%2F-LDvR9mOVlaw%2FTsgEZTbbrOI%2FAAAAAAAABzE%2F6Q2ZOlmpyv4%2Fs1600%2Fraging-bull-04.png&f=1&nofb=1

Raging Bull, 1980

Tonight turned into a double bill of abusive dudes ruining lives.

This film is a classic, and rightfully so. The story follows boxer Jake La Motta (Robert De Niro) in his quest for a championship belt, while at the same time his unbridled jealousy and anger issues damage all of his personal relationships, including his relationship with his brother Joey (Joe Pesci) and his wife Vickie (Cathy Moriarty).

De Niro's lead performance is a stand-out, embodying a man who has power and potential, but who constantly sabotages himself and gives in to the worst voices in his head. One of my favorite details was the way that La Motta would just be eating some huge sandwich while supposedly trying to lose weight. The less amusing side of this behavior is his increasingly unhinged jealousy regarding his wife. At first Jake doesn't like her talking to other men in a nightclub, but before long even her kissing a friend goodbye turns into a reason to slap her around and accuse her of cheating.

I also really appreciated the writing and acting (by Pesci) of Jake's brother, Joey. Joey has the clear sight to see Jake's folly and also to see how to leverage Jake's talent. At the same time, Jake is Joey's meal ticket. This means that Joey oscillated back and forth between being a voice of reason and being an enabler. There are times that he defends Vickie and other times that he berates her and encourages Jake to leave her. Joey has to walk a fine line between keeping Jake motivated and focused, but not flying into a rage.

Cathy Moriarty gives a good performance as Vickie, but I didn't feel as if the writing or her scenes with Jake did a good enough job of conveying the apparently deep love that she has for him that keeps her coming back, even after a particularly violent act of abuse. Obviously such relationships exist, but somehow I wasn't convinced of her love. The film has her say it several times, but I didn't entirely buy it. I think that a few more scenes of the two of them would have gone a long way to showing us why she continues to stay enamored of him even after the honeymoon is over.

The style of the film and specifically the way that the boxing scenes were shot is also very powerful. I always have mixed emotions watching boxing scenes--my grandfather was a boxer and our family has always had . . . complex emotions about what it did to him. The boxing scenes in this film are otherworldly and bloody. I loved one specific shot from Jake's point of view in which his opponent is seen against bright lights and the quality of light suddenly shifts. There's also a wonderful claustrophobia to the way that Scorsese films the scenes in the La Motta household--you feel how oppressive it is to live with such a big personality and how it seems as if there are no safe corners.

A compelling biographical sports film anchored with a rightfully-lauded lead performance.

EDIT: I feel like this has probably been covered many times by other reviewers, but you could probably write pages and pages of analysis about the film's portrayal of and Jake's perception of masculinity. Jake's behavior, which he clearly considers being "manly" and authoritative, reads as childish, destructive, and hypocritical (despite his raging jealousy that means his wife can't even look at or talk about another man, Jake has no qualms about putting his hands all over other women). Jake's main point of pride in his "craft" seems to mostly come from his ability to take punches to the face and not fall down.

4.5
First watch, Tak?

I watched it for the second time this year. I went from merely thinking it a great film to thinking it's Scorsese's best. Taxi Driver still holds my heart for favorite but every single frame in RB is cinematic perfection and DeNiro has never been better.

[gbgoodies]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fjayruud.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2015%2F01%2FWhiplash.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

Whiplash, 2014

An aspiring drummer at a prestigious music conservatory, Andrew (Miles Teller), lands on the radar of a highly demanding, abusive instructor named Fletcher (JK Simmons). As Fletcher ups his mind games and manipulations, Andrew moves closer and closer to a breaking point.

So . . . did this film actually need to be longer than 30 minutes? I ask this not because there is anything wrong with the film, but because, interestingly enough, it fully gets its point across in the first two scenes between Andrew and Fletcher. Fletcher is a textbook abuser: he rains down derision and deeply personal attacks, alternating them with just enough praise and motivational moments to imply that his actions come from a place of being firm but fair. After all, he's just trying to bring out the best in them.

It's unsurprising that Simmons got so much attention for his performance here: he absolutely nails the mentor/abuser dynamic. Everything about the character is perfect: the casual sexism and homophobia (under the umbrella of just being "truthful"), the trick of turning the students on each other, the thinly-veiled ego-centrism (those tight black T-shirts are an amazing touch). And Teller is a good counter-part, conveying the perfect storm of drive and need that would lead a person to lean in to such abuse and internalize its messages.

Something that gave me a bit of pause about the film was the way that it approaches its central question. The film asks its own question out loud in the third act: is there such a thing as too far? And the film does acknowledge the damage of Fletcher's techniques, whether that's through one of his students committing suicide, or through other students leaving the program. But one thing that the film never shows is the idea that greatness can be achieved by anything other than rigorous, abusive demand. It's true that some people respond to such pressure by rising past their previous limitations, but these methods are not the ONLY way to get there. Yet the film seems to posit it as an all-or-nothing: either dive into the abuse and being pushed violently, or give up your dreams. I can understand why Andrew sees it as a dichotomy this way--and the film is highly subjective--but I wish that the movie itself had given a nod to a third option. There are people at the top of their field who don't seem to have gotten that way because someone beat them into greatness.

This film honestly made me think a lot of the documentary Athlete A, which was about the sexual abuse perpetrated against members of the USA Gymnastics team, but was also about the broader abuse (mental, physical, emotional) of the entire gymnastics program.

Despite having some mixed feelings about the film's message, I did think that the final sequence was incredibly satisfying. It ends on a very powerful note. While the middle third felt redundant at times (oh, look, more insults! More abuse!), it finds a solid footing in the last 20 minutes or so.

From a style point of view, my only complaint was the way that the band sequences were shot. Music is exciting enough on its own, and the frequent zoom into trumpets or saxophones felt too much like someone trying to make music exciting.

It's not a film that I can imagine wanting to watch again, but I enjoyed it and the performances from both Teller and Simmons are worthy of their praise.

3.5


I haven't seen a lot of recent movies, but Whiplash is one of my favorite recent movies.

[Jinnistan]

The Fabulous Baron Munchausen (1962, dir. Karel Zeman)


https://64.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ma8zc0rjeW1qg39ewo1_500.gif


🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿


My favorite Christmas gift this year.

[Wooley]

WHITE ZOMBIE (1932)
Any film that starts with W, X, Y, or Z

https://fastly.syfy.com/sites/syfy/files/styles/1200x680/public/2018/01/white_zombie_hero_01.jpg?offset-y=0

The film follows a young couple that meets in Haiti in order to get married. However, a jealous rival that's smitten with the lady seeks for the help of an evil voodoo master (Bela Lugosi) in order to win her.

Chose this film because it was short (barely over an hour), but I thought it was pretty good. I had read a lot of criticism for its acting, but I really didn't think it was much "worse" than any other film from the era. Plus, Lugosi is a treat to watch. In addition, what it might lack in the performance department, it more than makes up with a hell of a creepy atmosphere. I also thought that the direction from Victor Halperin was pretty good, with some creative shots.

Grade: 3.5



EDIT: Because how did I not mention Lugosi??

One of my favorites. I had a beautiful write-up of it before Corri went down. Sigh.

[Takoma11]

First watch, Tak?

I watched it for the second time this year. I went from merely thinking it a great film to thinking it's Scorsese's best. Taxi Driver still holds my heart for favorite but every single frame in RB is cinematic perfection and DeNiro has never been better.

Yes. I tend to avoid movies about boxing. I feel as though both this film and The Set Up convey what a damaging culture it can be.

I'm not sure I'd ever want to watch it again. The performances are great and so is the direction . . . but most of that performance is watching a horrible person verbally and physically abuse others.

I haven't seen a lot of recent movies, but Whiplash is one of my favorite recent movies.

I had really mixed feelings about its ultimate message. But at the same time I appreciate just how subjective the film is (ie every scene has Andrew in it). Still, the way that the film sets up "You either burn out bright or you're boring and no one remembers you" seems far too simplistic. Like, we all remember Mr. Rogers, no? And Paul Newman? And Jesse Owens? You can be successful without burning yourself up in a fire of self-destruction.

Then again, Andrew's sense of success seems pretty unhealthy and skewed in several sequences that we see (like the dinner table or the conversation with his girlfriend), so maybe he's unable to have perspective outside of a "full steam ahead" approach to craft.

[Corax]

Thunderbolt and Lightfoot

An action-caper buddy-criminal movie. No point to it really, although there is a little speech at the end which appears to offer a fig-leaf indicating a sense of purpose to the whole affair.

There is a sense in which this is a "car movie"

https://www.streetmusclemag.com/features/car-features/robs-car-movie-review-thunderbolt-and-lightfoot-1974/

and the cars sort of reflect Bridges and Eastwood's descent into the underworld of crime. They start out freewheeling in a gaudy Trans-Am, move on to a more understated Riviera, and then fall into the abyss into a Mad Max-ish Plymouth Fury III and 51 Mercury when they're in the crisis of the third act. Heaven, it seems, is a white convertible Cadillac. The car colors go from white to black to white. The black cars are beat up (missing hub caps and being otherwise distressed) where the white cars that book end the film are pristine and represent the dreams and aspirations of our characters (at least those of Lightfoot).

I am happy to have seen it, but I sense I will forget it rather quickly.

[StuSmallz]

Raging BullI go back and forth between this and Goodfellas for my #1 Scorsese, depending on whether I'm in the mood for the one that's more purely entertaining (the latter), or the one that's more dramatic/emotionally impactful. At any rate, it's at least his #2 film, and certainly my favorite collaboration between Marty & Schrader to boot, so I'm glad you liked it as much as you did, Takoma!

[Thunderbolt]

70778
I was intrigued until the end and the performances were superb. I certainly loved the films closing scene. Strangely, even though this was a 4 star movie for me, I don’t think I could revisit.
4

[xSookieStackhouse]

Seconded. This is one I'm disappointed I won't get to see in a theater because it is one of the studio's most visually splendid movies.

cause of covid right?

[Vanillapie]

https://static.rogerebert.com/uploads/review/primary_image/reviews/vanilla-sky-2001/EB20011214REVIEWS112140304AR.jpg

Vanilla Sky
(2001)
3.25/5

The original Spanish film is still better.

An underrated gem in my humble opinion, my username is kind of In celebration of it after all. I will be viewing the Spanish version soon, I’ll make it my mission.

[LChimp]

https://lumiere-a.akamaihd.net/v1/images/p_thenewmutants_19999_9ae6e819.jpeg

I was expecting it to be bad, but even so I was disapointed. What a mess

[AgrippinaX]

70778
I was intrigued until the end and the performances were superb. I certainly loved the films closing scene. Strangely, even though this was a 4 star movie for me, I don’t think I could revisit.
4

Pretty much the same experience for me. It’s well-crafted but somehow a touch too bittersweet. Remember thinking I hadn’t expected anything so impressive from Witherspoon when I first saw it.

[Thief]

An underrated gem in my humble opinion, my username is kind of In celebration of it after all. I will be viewing the Spanish version soon, I’ll make it my mission.

I'm a huge fan of the original film. However, I'm not sure how much knowing the twist might lessen its impact. There are things that I like about Crowe's version, most notably Diaz' character and the way he integrates music into the film, but I find Amenabar's direction superior in almost every aspect.

[Thief]

One of my favorites. I had a beautiful write-up of it before Corri went down. Sigh.

I remember a lot of back-and-forth about it in Corrie. Didn't get into it since I haven't seen it, but that was part of why I chose it, knowing that some of you liked it.

[Torgo]

cause of covid right?Yeah, I'm not ready to go back into a theater until the vaccine is available to the general public, especially since my state is still a hot spot. Soul is on Disney+, but if your theaters are safe or if it's playing at a drive-in near you, see it there instead.

[Fabulous]

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (1990)

3

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/ks1fjyfEJTuOYSzCNCKx3GWm5yG.jpg

[Iroquois]

Wonder Woman 1984 - 1

I give it 1984 out of 10000

[sawduck]

Trapped in Paradise
6/10

The Ref
7/10

Bad santa
8/10

some great Christmas comedies

[Takoma11]

70778
I was intrigued until the end and the performances were superb. I certainly loved the films closing scene. Strangely, even though this was a 4 star movie for me, I don’t think I could revisit.
4

Did you ever read Strayed's advice column, Dear Sugar? Some of them are incredibly powerful (like "The Black Arc of It (https://therumpus.net/2011/03/dear-sugar-the-rumpus-advice-column-67-the-black-arc-of-it/)).

[Takoma11]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftse4.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DOIP.GYL9b0a6XxNCC4a635C2PAHaE8%26pid%3DApi&f=1

Deadpool 2, 2018

This sequel to the first film finds Deadpool/Wade (Ryan Reynolds) floundering after the loss of someone very close to him. When he stumbles across a young mutant in trouble, Firefist (Julian Dennison), Wade ends up on an extended rescue mission that overlaps with a time traveler from the future (Josh Brolin) and a possible new partner, Domino (Zazie Beetz).

There was a lot to like about this film. Inappropriate irreverence is Reynolds' bread and butter, and his lead performance is fun and assured. I actually went EEEEEeeee! when I saw Dennison show up--I absolutely loved his performance in Hunt for the Wilder People and his comic timing was again on-point. Zazie Beetz was great as Domino (I'm only a casual comics fan, so my frame of reference is just what happened within the film, not how well this film translated things from the comics). The visual choreography showing Domino's powers at play were really neat.

There are lots of funny asides, especially a sequence where Deadpool interviews mutants to recruit them for his own X-Men knockoff squad. The film is a steady churn of wordplay and visual gags, and yet it manages to mostly not overstay its welcome.

As for downsides, well, other people have already covered the fridging that happens to Wade's wife early in the film. Their acerbic relationship is one of the better aspects of the series, and I was not only sorry to see her die, but also that her later appearances in the film are of the cliched, "soft light gentle speaking" variety.. It's not the worst example of the trope, but still a little annoying.

I was also not that psyched to see TJ Miller on screen for so much run time. I've always found something about him really off-putting, and finding out that he's one off these people who seems to have repeatedly basically gotten away with physically assaulting people, will take the time to send a venomous transphobic e-mail to a woman, and, you know, get drunk and waste police time and resources calling a fake bomb threat on a woman he didn't like--it all just adds up to not wanting to look at him. There's also the souring knowledge that poor decision making on the set of the film resulted in the death of a stuntwoman, and that made one of the action sequences a lot less enjoyable.

Overall a fun film for a late night.

3.5

[Darth Wish]

70803
70804
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Resident Evil 1-6, all in two days.
All are enjoyable movies especially if you like the games too.
There are plenty of ideas stolen from other movies in them with The Matrix robbed for ideas on more than one occasion.
The audio on the Blu Ray versions is top notch, when all hell breaks loose you can hear it as well as see it.
The action keeps on coming and so do the undead. 🙂

8/10

[Marco]

Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/ad/Mishima.jpg
Re-watch. This is still a directorial and artistic tour-de-force by Schrader. Fascinating telling of the later life of Yukio Mishima, a Japanese poet, author and play-write whom was extremely pro-Emperor and wanted him returned to his rightful (in Mishima's eyes') position. The man of conflicts comes over well....extremely anti-Western following the 2nd World War but also (as we would see it today) indulgent into a very overbearing fascist ideology.

Blinding film-making by Schrader.
[rating]4.5[/rating

[Vanillapie]

70812


Freaks (1932) 7.3/10

Exploitive? Sure, in places but no way near as bad as I was expecting. The narrative is largely forgettable, let’s face it we’re here to see the deformities for the most part. There were some I found disturbing mainly the family with the sort of misshapen heads. They reminded me of the characters in ‘Abs Odyssey’ game, I’m not taking the mickey In fact I’m not sure if they were really disabled because I know a few of the cast were not it’s just what they reminded me of

Daisy Earles as one of the dwarfs gave a genuinely emotional performance, her unrequited love for her fellow circus star who also happens to be real life brother makes it even more weirder. I did not enjoy the black guy playing the slug type character, I Learned that he has no arms or legs in real life, in his case this was exploitive as it was literally look at this guy laying under the under carriages and here and there offering nothing to the narrative. This is a must see movie regardless and in truth not as disturbing as I thought it might be.

[pahaK]

Da uomo a uomo (1967)
aka Death Rides a Horse
3
A mediocre spaghetti western that's elevated by Lee van Cleef's charisma, Morricone's music, and an excellent setting for the final shootout. Still, my rating may be a tad inflated by my usual standards.

--
Day of the Outlaw (1959)
2.5
I love the snow and harsh winter as a western setting. Unfortunately, there aren't too many of them. The film itself is a little dull, and just can't make the best out of its idea. The great setting probably inflates my rating here as well.

[GulfportDoc]

This is an exceptionally bad take.
Thank God! Up from a sea of multifarious opinions has arisen a true arbiter --a Messiah, if you will-- of approved points of view. With great comfort and relief we now have a new authority from which we can find out if our impressions are the correct ones.

[ThatDarnMKS]

Thank God! Up from a sea of multifarious opinions has arisen a true arbiter --a Messiah, if you will-- of approved points of view. With great comfort and relief we now have a new authority from which we can find out if our impressions are the correct ones.
Don't worry. It's a transparently bad take that anyone could see was rife with misogyny! My being the Arbirer of Truth is beside the fact.

[GulfportDoc]

Don't worry. It's a transparently bad take that anyone could see was rife with misogyny! My being the Arbirer of Truth is beside the fact.
Wait! I like "Arbirer of Truth" even better!:D I think you're pulling my leg, MKS. If not, I'll move along.

[GulfportDoc]

The African Queen - First time watching this and I had it in my head as transpiring differently. I thought it would be your typical (and frankly cliched) love/hate thing but the screenplay surprised me somewhat. Instead of making them or their relationship obnoxious or forced, director and screenwriter John Huston went with two basically lonely people meeting and making the best of a dicey predicament. Katherine Hepburn's Rose Sayer and Humphrey Bogart's Charlie Allnut aren't callow or unreasonable. Neither of them have the usual redemptive arcs that are part of some of these mismatched romances. That's refreshing and makes them easy to root for. With the two main characters (and they're onscreen for most of the film) taken care of, Huston has time to set up some marvelous action sequences. He also takes full advantage of his location filming in the Belgian Congo and it all makes for a wonderfully immersive experience. The digitally restored print I watched has an almost travelogue feel to it too. This is a truly engaging film. 90/100
Enjoyed your comments. I've always loved TAQ, and believe it or not, I saw it in the theater with my mother when if first came out!

A couple of years ago my wife and I were down at Key Largo, where I was thrilled to see the original boat "African Queen" was docked there. It had been repainted and the steam engine repaired. We took a 2 hour ride on the boat-- just the two of us with the captain, and I loved it!

[Torgo]

If wishing for Elizabeth Debicki to flaunt her galant height as if she were Susan Murphy in Monsters Vs. Aliens is wrong, I don't want to be right. Hell, why not make a Brienne of Tarth origin story with her in the lead? Oh, mercy.

[MovieGal]

https://criterionforum.org/img/header/headerphoto2291211.jpg


Institute Benjamenta, or This Dream People Call Human Life
(1996)
3.75/5

[Takoma11]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.austinchronicle.com%2Fbinary%2Fb4a4%2Fthe-mustang.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

The Mustang, 2019

Roman (Matthias Schoenaerts) is serving time in a prison somewhere in the West. In the introductory sequence, a prison psychologist (Connie Britton) tells Roman that he must find something to pursue, a way to take some aspect of control over his life. While he resists her outreach, Roman does end up working outside, mucking for a horse training program. Drawn to a particularly wild mustang, the head of the horse training program (Bruce Dern) pulls him in. With the help of some fellow inmates, especially one named Henry (Jason Mitchell), Roman begins to develop his horse sense and a relationship with the mustang.

This is the kind of film that I knew I'd really like before I even watched it. I'm a fan of the cast, and I enjoy films about the restorative power of working with animals. Specifically this film made me very nostalgic for the horses I used to have.

There are two main stories happening in this film. The first is the process of building trust between Roman and the mustang. The other is about Roman accepting responsibility for his actions and taking ownership over both his part and his present, specifically finding a way to connect with his pregnant daughter who visits him from time to time.

Sometimes I try to write about a movie and I realize that I just want to describe almost every other scene from it. I especially liked a sequence of group therapy using the restorative justice model in which Britton's character asks the men in the room to say how long they have been in prison, followed immediately by how long they think it was between the thought of their crime and committing it. One older man says he has been in jail since he was 14. How long between thinking of his crime and doing it? "Two seconds".

The film's attitude toward the inmates was something that I appreciated. Some of the men are violent, but above all they are human. Especially when they work with the horses, you see the humanity of these people. One of the actors in the film, playing an inmate who helps in the horse program, is an actual former inmate who participated in the real thing. A sequence where he bids farewell to his horse (the horses are trained to be sold to the police or other agencies) is heartbreaking.

Perhaps my only small complaint is that the film takes some real liberties with the process of training a wild horse, especially one as wild as the mustang. If you have never seen the documentary Buck, I highly, highly recommend it. (Watching that film, honest to goodness, made me a better teacher.) There are also some prison/thriller elements that are used to build suspense that seem to resolve rather quickly and in kind of an inexplicable way.

This was moving and heartbreaking and the horses were gorgeous.

4

[MovieGal]

https://sspthinksfilm.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/doomsday-rhona-mitra-5746443-2560-1697.jpg

Doomsday
(2008)
3.75/5

Movies like this tend to hold up no matter how old they are.

As an example, Mad Max is still a great film after all these years.

[ThatDarnMKS]

Wait! I like "Arbirer of Truth" even better!:D I think you're pulling my leg, MKS. If not, I'll move along.
A little leg pulling here, a little truthful disagreement there. The "Arbirer" of Truth is a fickle beast.

[ThatDarnMKS]

https://sspthinksfilm.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/doomsday-rhona-mitra-5746443-2560-1697.jpg

Doomsday
(2008)
3.75/5

Movies like this tend to hold up no matter how old they are.

As an example, Mad Max is still a great film after all these years.
An enjoyable B- movie pastiche murdered by atrocious editing that feels like the editor was paid by the cut.

[AkshayBrills]

The Latest Movie i saw was chichore bollwood one and it was amazing i rate it A

[Takoma11]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.entertainment-focus.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F08%2FABluebirdinmyHeartfeat.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

A Bluebird in My Heart, 2018

Ummmm . . .

So this film follows Danny (Roland Moller), a man who has just been released from prison (though he is under strict parole and wears an ankle monitor) and who is looking to restart his life. Danny ends up living in a motel run by Laurence (Veerle Baetens). Danny forms a reluctant friendship with Laurence, and an even more reluctant friend/father relationship with Laurence's teenage daughter, Clara (Lola Le Lann). Clara's father is in prison, and she quickly gloms on to Danny as a father-surrogate. One night, Clara is raped by a drug dealer she sometimes flirts with for gifts of weed, and against his own better judgement Danny finds himself drawn into seeking revenge.

So why does one watch a film like this? Well, in my case it was the allure of watching a Danish Liam Neeson type be all stoic and shoot bad guys in the face. And to a certain extent the film was satisfying on this level.

So where do things go slightly awry?

I enjoyed the first third of the film, and appreciated the fact that the movie took a solid chunk of time to establish the relationships between Danny, Laurence, and Clara. As a viewer we know that Clara's flirtations with the drug dealer are a bad idea, but we get to see her pain in the absence of her father and her boredom and isolation at the motel, so that she doesn't just come across as a stupid girl making bad choices just because.

But once the sexual assault happens, things get weird. For starters, the scene immediately following her attack, in which Danny finds her, is utterly baffling. Danny's instinct on finding Clara running from her rapist is to scoop her up, take her back to his room, take off her clothes and just wash all of the evidence off of her. Not only does this behavior not make sense, but as Danny averts his eyes the camera most certainly does not and the camera feels leering and intrusive during a long sequence of full nudity of Clara. You know, the rape victim. Danny's decision to immediately cover up Clara's rape is never explained (Clara does say at one point that she doesn't want her mother to find out, but she literally says this after Danny has half-undressed her in the bathtub.) It's a sequence that feels inexplicably exploitative and nonsensical, and feels like a betrayal after the character building of the first third.

From there, Danny gets an opportunity for revenge and he cannot pass it up, which leads to even further complications. The action sequences are overall well done, but they are pretty brief. The final act felt downright messy to me, and the character actions just seemed to get more and more outlandish.

The title of this film is taken from the excellent Bukowski poem, "Bluebird". And yet the film ultimately eschews the inner life of its lead character in favor of actions that are simply scripted to move the plot forward. The actors are all fine in their roles, but they feel less and less human as the film grinds toward the end. Danny's desire to begin a new life; Laurence's conflicted feelings about her husband; Clara's complicated feelings about her father---these are all thrown by the wayside.

Maybe the best thing about this film was that it got me to reread the poem from which it takes its title. there’s a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I’m too tough for him,
I say, stay in there, I’m not going
to let anybody see
you.
there’s a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I pour whiskey on him and inhale
cigarette smoke
and the whores and the bartenders
and the grocery clerks
never know that
he’s
in there.
there’s a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I’m too tough for him,
I say,
stay down, do you want to mess
me up?
you want to screw up the
works?
you want to blow my book sales in
Europe?
there’s a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I’m too clever, I only let him out
at night sometimes
when everybody’s asleep.
I say, I know that you’re there,
so don’t be
sad.
then I put him back,
but he’s singing a little
in there, I haven’t quite let him
die
and we sleep together like
that
with our
secret pact
and it’s nice enough to
make a man
weep, but I don’t
weep, do
you?

2.5

[Wooley]

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1991)

3

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/ks1fjyfEJTuOYSzCNCKx3GWm5yG.jpg
God, I love this movie so much.

[Wooley]

Wonder Woman 1984 - 1

I give it 1984 out of 10000

It really is just a bad film.
The more people I talk to the more agreement I get that it is a bad film. I haven't talked to a single person who saw it who wasn't at least disappointed and at most downright pissed.
I've heard that it's getting some good reviews from some people but I haven't read them and that would be absurd.
I guess there's some way in which a person could like the film but there is no way a person could think it was a good film.

[Wooley]

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Resident Evil 1-6, all in two days.
All are enjoyable movies especially if you like the games too.
There are plenty of ideas stolen from other movies in them with The Matrix robbed for ideas on more than one occasion.
The audio on the Blu Ray versions is top notch, when all hell breaks loose you can hear it as well as see it.
The action keeps on coming and so do the undead. 🙂

8/10

I prefer Ultraviolet.

[Wooley]

https://sspthinksfilm.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/doomsday-rhona-mitra-5746443-2560-1697.jpg

Doomsday
(2008)
3.75/5

Movies like this tend to hold up no matter how old they are.

As an example, Mad Max is still a great film after all these years.

I did like this movie, although it's been about a decade, maybe a little longer.
I didn't love it but I thought it had a lot of verve.
And I did think Rhona Mitra was kickass and have been surprised not to have seen more of her.

[Wooley]

An enjoyable B- movie pastiche murdered by atrocious editing that feels like the editor was paid by the cut.

This may also be true. Though I definitely didn't feel like the murder was complete. But it was distracting, to say the least, at times.

[ThatDarnMKS]

This may also be true. Though I definitely didn't feel like the murder was complete. But it was distracting, to say the least, at times.
I felt similarly until I rewatched it a few years back. Basically every single moment that would've been cool is turned into Liam Neeson jumping over a chain link fence in Taken 3. Unwatchable.

Marshall has a penchant for over-editing but this is the only time I feel he went too far and ruined the thing. Oddly, his worst film, Hellboy, probably has his strongest and most coherent editing of action.

[ThatDarnMKS]

Come and See

5

Harrowing. Haunting. Perfect.

[Thunderbolt]

70823
(2006)
A well acted drama with some amusing one liners.
3.5

[Darth Wish]

I have Ultraviolet too Wooley. :)

A very good movie worth a watch if you are a Jovovich fan and haven't seen it.70824

[ScarletLion]

'The Wild Goose Lake' (2020)

https://studentcard.co.nz/images/Comps/1513-NewTile-TheWild20191204-023706.jpg

Excellent Chinese gangster flick by Diao Yinan. The Neon pinks and yellows in the night scenes combined with absorbing cinematography made the film feel like Bi Gan directing a neo noir inspired by all the best bits of Melville and Refn with a bit of dreamy Wong Kar Wai thrown in too.

The film follows a gangster on the run after a night of stealing motorbikes goes wrong - who then has to evade police and try and make contact with his estranged wife. There are some brutal action scenes with some morbidly fascinating deaths. And although some of the fight sequences have slightly comical moments, the film doesn't stray from being an artful, gritty crime movie that succeeds.

4

[Darth Wish]

The Dark Knight/The Dark Knight Rises

70826

Still the best Batman movies made to date IMHO.

Heath Ledger is truly outstanding as the Joker in the Dark Knight while Tom Hardy as Bane in Rises manages to both make you like and hate him at the same time.
Christian Bale plays Batman superbly seeing off the awful ones of the past (Kilmer and Clooney).
Anne Hathaway makes for a great Selina Kyle adding a classy touch to the role.
Action and angst aplenty in both movies with some great gadgets and excellent support from a stellar cast in both movies including Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine.

9/10 and 8.5/10 respectively.

[Fabulous]

Living in Oblivion (1995)

3.5

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/6CwIvZzTtsHX9LQAySH03Vby5UV.jpg

[xSookieStackhouse]

The Dark Knight/The Dark Knight Rises

70826

Still the best Batman movies made to date IMHO.

Heath Ledger is truly outstanding as the Joker in the Dark Knight while Tom Hardy as Bane in Rises manages to both make you like and hate him at the same time.
Christian Bale plays Batman superbly seeing off the awful ones of the past (Kilmer and Clooney).
Anne Hathaway makes for a great Selina Kyle adding a classy touch to the role.
Action and angst aplenty in both movies with some great gadgets and excellent support from a stellar cast in both movies including Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine.

9/10 and 8.5/10 respectively.

i agree one of my favorite batman movies and heath ledger always gonna be a best joker (rip heath ledger <3 :( )

[mojofilter]

https://www.cinemamontreal.com/images/posters/1000x1500/88/i-m-your-woman-2020-i-movie-poster.jpg
I'M YOUR WOMAN
(2020)

First viewing. Amazon Studios original. A surprisingly really good and well-executed crime thriller, with a tour de force performance by Rachel Brosnahan, who I expect might get some Best Actress award recognition this award season.

3.5

[Takoma11]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fnorealdanger.files.wordpress.com%2F2017%2F10%2Fhagazussa-still.jpg%3Fw%3D1200&f=1&nofb=1

Hagazussa, 2017

A woman and her young daughter, Albrun, live high on a mountainside. Harassed for supposedly being witches, things go rapidly downhill when Albrun's mother comes down with an illness (the plague?) and descends into madness. The final two-thirds of the film follows Albrun as an adult, still living on the mountainside and caring for an infant daughter.

This is a moody, stylish slow-burn. Less a horror film, in my opinion, than a psychological vision of a woman descending into madness accompanied by a few horrifying images.

I struggled with this film, to be honest, and for several reasons.

To begin with, Albrun is truly isolated in her home and in the film. There is, at best, one person who could be considered a secondary character. This means that the arc of the film rests entirely on Albrun's journey. And, by design, that journey only moves in one direction. There is almost no personality given to any of Albrun's tormentors (most of them stay anonymous or even off-screen), so at a certain point you feel as if you're just watching the clock and waiting for the next hit to come. By the time the film gets to what is meant to be the emotional climax, it was hard to keep a straight face. Something that should have been horrifying felt unearned and the end felt like someone who had a good idea for a story but no idea how to bring it to a coherent conclusion.

There was also at times a one-note feeling to the imagery. "How many things can look like a penis or like semen?" seems to have been a driving question. And the problem is not the imagery itself, but more that I could not understand what the film was trying to say with it. Is it meant to be a commentary on Albrun's loneliness and her dearth of positive/consensual physical intimacy? It is meant to say something about her supposed "witchiness"? Albrun endures multiple sexual assaults, and given that almost every male character in the film torments or assaults her in some way, the question of how Albrun regards sex and sexuality could have been an interesting one, but like almost everything else the film holds this at arm's length.

I have to go back to the idea that the film's creators had a concept, but not necessarily a coherent vision. The first third is very strong, but then it all seems to fall apart a bit. Every time an interesting theme seems poised to be developed, the soundtrack drones, there's a close up of Albrun's face, and the scene fades to black. Sex, motherhood, isolation, faith--they're all there, but they're all underbaked.

Worth watching for the strong lead performance, but this is more a demonstration of potential than a satisfying film in its own right.

3

[Vanillapie]

I have Ultraviolet too Wooley. :)

A very good movie worth a watch if you are a Jovovich fan and haven't seen it.70824

I was so excited for this when it was released i just loved resident evil and a soft spot for 2 even with their major faults, I can look over them as a massive fan of the video games. The final scene of Resident evil with Mila looking out onto the destroyed city with the unnerving music beside it was great.

Mila looks super hot but it was just a complete mess and very boring for me, i think the idea was good just executed horribly and from the director of the fantastic equilibrium I was shocked at how bad it was.

[Vanillapie]

70838


Death of a salesman (1985) 8.4

I’ve been fortunate to see a lot of fine actors put on great performances in some of the movies I’ve viewed recently, Dustin Hoffman as the broken, mentally tired and truly vicious man with his straight talking ways was played to absolute perfection. With the limited sets and visuals which was extremely disappointing in a movie of this quality the dialogue and writing has to be on point and it was . I have to mention Harrelson too another incredible performance, although disappointed with Stephen Lang’s character as his brother, the character any kind of depth. Absolutely adore this film, if only there was more money put into the visuals and wasn’t made as a TV movie this would have won Oscars I’m sure.


Knives out (2019) 8.1/10

I don’t like giving to many plot points away with recent movies so won’t get into the narrative to much. I’ll just say the cast are brilliant Ane De Amis stunned me In how good she was can’t wait to see her In the upcoming ‘No time to die’ and Chris Evans casting was on the nose. Relatively unique for a murder mystery especially in its pacing especially through the first act. Vibrant, colourful, visuals, excellent cast and written dialogue among them. There are a few plot contrivances I have issue with and I really don’t think this needs a sequel which I here is coming, a poor sequel can ruin the original in my opinion and I just feel it’s not warranted with this feature.

[matt72582]

Frank Serpico - 8/10
Out of principle, I don't like cops, but this guy had integrity.
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UGOnTs1jbeQJNveGHXF6eVqQummKWvRUKd2v1RUDqVEyICdPF64bDs1w8yBVAggT3y3B0mdvPywAaHsTS8X6yq0XBXTewMXHvXiP LGzdh6Nv1zi7b6bwpaRby+8Yb5zs/w4KzLUOnQzA96syNh/IfHBRSo8Ogz9FIJg2p2HiE+Rhxt/TDAGcp2cphiAutQ6DU25LPkm02A1EI9UQBsScSp4Nly9Sn3FMBVouPCA12YtfcgqIjpjBGWFOvCUNVRmFGBSkHuhddWw1KB6x1OF kXyxpkOKE9+ynw0pFM5khptsEM+nwwCN+0HZrLFFWjTVQzmaim6hKbkAT9opt+9PLEJnuyFJKJdarlraVMRJbSswvPflieY5M5mk CMsKbU6mvw04s1IpcDoWj1ONMm+XNR+8FEUyFYAilEGtV1RAmO70ecacCGSR4Dku90ijT0QxNgdIBiQ3IWU/wCbzw14nwTLCClBD79iJghHsfkG8rdMQB4BkSockSRqIFUAA7wB08h18sdKPZvhxdlL7MNP61fEsLN9jBLbfZ8sIAr/AN2MjLDuKcEmDEwLqsGbWE/HVyGIrMcFy6qWOXpp4njwCbI0SNrkMwHQDmLRdHgORp1KbqVJFSl71RCDLqrSDY2Ox6ybYna1Hh8kxluQWAnUfCIBA9cAGvEOz+U Wk5SgjOCWVNtYZgQBeFhdUA2HhxrU4NlF0K2Xpl3qBBFIAT3fedbqdDfkmOmWGS1OHXLjxgKYpbBKbDTFoLll+fTEFQFLu8nqGXF TUQ0inAU0HE1Y38Q1EdYAvfAB2zHZCjVeoRqpaSoFNIK+4hm4v7wMzeQec4a/7lU++an3lUqFpsHULHiaoDNuQQH4nErm8lk21f8Awy/q8wI8EzUaKREdFUEdNY88O0OR1lXXLaQqQYpx4jUDRH2YQn1GACL4R2Vy6VvFNQQ40uoIsRDCw8/niXbs5lCpAoIGkfV0wsAg78zInniN4NlsqDWNb6OQ9esVDd3KL7iegEahFoOHlJMjK6voxCtOyQVkmJiefPABit2eyGoxTSJMeIi 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

[matt72582]

An Unreasonable Man - 10/10
I don't admire man people, but Ralph Nader is one. I would probably fist fight anyone who bad-mouthed him like the whiny wimp in the beginning of the documentary. Gladly. And I'm not a violent man.


I think much less of Jimmy Carter after he said in some Democratic Party suck-up party to "go away".. Now, Carter is the target of pro-apartheid fanatics.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BS1c5Ei0eIg



https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/16/Unreasonable_man.jpg

[Ultraviolence]

https://www.dreamogram.com/wp-content/uploads/dreamogram-iconisus-key-art-movie-poster-winter-on-fire-1.jpg

4

God bless Ukraine for their patriotism. God bless Ukraine for their freedom.
The world should take notes on how you make a revolution!
This documentary deserved a 7 hours minisseries that go beyond the fight against Viktor Yanukovych and his mercenaries. The war in Donbass should have been showed. Also, the private military groups wasn't covered in this documentary, Pravyy Sektor for example was always a huge stand against the government. Judging by how countries like USA tries to make this privaty armies look, I can undestund why they left them out.

[Darth Wish]

Steve Jobs

70843

Much like The Social Network did with Zuckerberg this film portrays Jobs as an arrogant self obssessed man who knows better than everyone else.
I enjoyed it but it didn't change my view on Apple the company which is all about style over substance and ripping off it's customers as much as it possibly can.
Jobs is shown as a visionary and a man passionately wanting to force his idea of what the world should be on to everybody.
A stellar cast made this a decent movie, as to whether Jobs was as he is portrayed in this is open for debate.
I look forward to seeing how Ashton Kutcher does as Steve Jobs and if Jobs is shown in a different light.

6/10

[SpelingError]

Come and See

5

Harrowing. Haunting. Perfect.

One of us! One of us!

[Wooley]

I felt similarly until I rewatched it a few years back. Basically every single moment that would've been cool is turned into Liam Neeson jumping over a chain link fence in Taken 3. Unwatchable.

Marshall has a penchant for over-editing but this is the only time I feel he went too far and ruined the thing. Oddly, his worst film, Hellboy, probably has his strongest and most coherent editing of action.

Whoa, the hot-take!

(Edit: My bad, I had forgotten that the Neil Marshall Hellboy even existed and thought you were saying that he had been the editor on the 2004 film and ruined it).

But I suspect I kind of agree with you on Doomsday, I remember that I couldn't quite put my finger on why I felt so underwhelmed by a film I should have had major fanboy love for. That must be it. Though, again, it was far from "Unwatchable" for me.

[Wooley]

I was so excited for this when it was released i just loved resident evil and a soft spot for 2 even with their major faults, I can look over them as a massive fan of the video games. The final scene of Resident evil with Mila looking out onto the destroyed city with the unnerving music beside it was great.

Mila looks super hot but it was just a complete mess and very boring for me, i think the idea was good just executed horribly and from the director of the fantastic equilibrium I was shocked at how bad it was.

My take was that it was a bad movie, but once that is accepted, then it's parts can be looked at individually and its parts are pretty cool. A lot of really, really neat ideas in this thing and some really stylish visualization, not to mention a confident performance from Mila (who was very upset about the way the movie went and just chalked it up as a learning experience).
Which is actually better than a few of the RE films I've seen which are pretty much just as bad but with nowhere near the imagination or dazzle that this film had hidden beneath its surface badness.

[Wooley]

70838

Knives out (2019) 8.1/10

I don’t like giving to many plot points away with recent movies so won’t get into the narrative to much. I’ll just say the cast are brilliant Ane De Amis stunned me In how good she was can’t wait to see her In the upcoming ‘No time to die’ and Chris Evans casting was on the nose. Relatively unique for a murder mystery especially in its pacing especially through the first act. Vibrant, colourful, visuals, excellent cast and written dialogue among them. There are a few plot contrivances I have issue with and I really don’t think this needs a sequel which I here is coming, a poor sequel can ruin the original in my opinion and I just feel it’s not warranted with this feature.

My understanding was that the "sequel" would only be one in the way that there are numerous Hercule Poirot or Sherlock Holmes or Miss Marple stories.
It would be a completely new mystery with only Daniel Craig carrying on from Knives Out.

[SpelingError]

Dick Johnson is Dead (2020) - 4

I've seen Johnson's debut film Cameraperson a few times already. When I went into it, I was expecting a solid documentary, but what I wasn't expecting was a thoroughly beautiful and, at times, transcendent experience which later became one of my 10 favorite documentaries of all time. Hearing that she had released a second film definitely piqued my interest. While I'm not sure I connected with it as much as I did with Cameraperson, I still found it really compelling. For one, I found the central premise of joking about your mortality to help you to cope with it relatable. While I haven't joked about my past traumas and fears in the same way, I find that joking about them can actually help me to cope with them. Whether you're referring to staging your fears as the Johnson's did or simply saying a one liner about your traumas and fears to yourself or those around you, this can help you to take control of them. In addition to the central premise of staging elaborate death scenes, other themes of death are baked into the film, including flashbacks of Johnson's late mother, discussions with the stunt actors helping out the Johnson's about their lost loved ones or a high suicide rate amongst stunt actors, and Dick Johnson discussing how two of his past patients (he worked as a psychiatrist) killed themselves. Within these scenes though, sadness doesn't take priority in them so much as the empathy the Johnson's treat these people with when they share their stories and the implication that those people have a good foothold on the subjects they discuss. Due to all of this, Dick Johnson is Dead is a meditation of coming to terms with and being able to face your mortality and past traumas fearlessly and being able to move on from them.

[Vanillapie]

My understanding was that the "sequel" would only be one in the way that there are numerous Hercule Poirot or Sherlock Holmes or Miss Marple stories.
It would be a completely new mystery with only Daniel Craig carrying on from Knives Out.

Oh okay I was kinda thinking that In the Agatha Christie way, if they use a different name then That’s cool.

[ThatDarnMKS]

Whoa, the hot-take!

(Edit: My bad, I had forgotten that the Neil Marshall Hellboy even existed and thought you were saying that he had been the editor on the 2004 film and ruined it).

But I suspect I kind of agree with you on Doomsday, I remember that I couldn't quite put my finger on why I felt so underwhelmed by a film I should have had major fanboy love for. That must be it. Though, again, it was far from "Unwatchable" for me.
Heh. Everyone forgot he directed a Hellboy movie. He even forgot it whilst making it and seemingly only showed up to direct every other scene.

It's one of those things where once I become cognizant of just how atrocious the editing is, it becomes all I can see. It feels more like an Olivier Megaton film, where everything on screen SHOULD be cool but you can't get a sense of it because he wants you to see it from 50 different angles all at once so it feels like having a seizure with a strobe light on.

[CharlesAoup]

Je T'Aime, Je T'Aime (I Love You, I Love You, 1968 (B)

A time travel film by Alain Resnais. The movie tells the story of a man, reminiscent of Mersault from The Stranger, who recently woke up from a coma after a failed suicide attempt. Leaving the hospital, he is met by men from a research institute asking him to be the first human subject for a time travel machine they created. They intend to send him a year in the past for a single minute, but that's not what happens.

It is a very French and very experimental film. The techniques as far as filming each scene are unremarkable, but the movie is cut in a very disjointed, entirely non-linear and repetitive fashion. It's very interesting to watch, as it mimics very well the ways a mind wanders, thinking of the past. He relives moments of his past, generally centering around his relationship with a woman.

It's and interesting movie and an interesting concept, but watching disjointed scenes from the generally mundane life of a man does run a bit long after 90 minutes.At the end, you can barely tell what's a memory and what is just scrambled together, which keeps your interest a bit longer, but it still runs a bit long.

[matt72582]

The Putin Interviews - 7.5/10
I can't stand Stone, and he annoys the hell out of me, but Putin is very fascinating. Unfortunately, millions of Americans have lost their minds and cry about a (alleged) a few bots.. Now when anyone questions anything, they're "Russians". Before you call Putin a murderer, look at your own "leader" and the millions who have died because of their wars or negligence. Gringo.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/57/The-putin-interviews-poster.jpg

[crumbsroom]

The Putin Interviews - 7.5/10
I can't stand Stone, and he annoys the hell out of me, but Putin is very fascinating. Unfortunately, millions of Americans have lost their minds and cry about a (alleged) a few bots.. Now when anyone questions anything, they're "Russians". Before you call Putin a murderer, look at your own "leader" and the millions who have died because of their wars or negligence. Gringo.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/57/The-putin-interviews-poster.jpg




I'm not for touting a leader of any nation at this particular junction in history, but it's a false equivalency to compare the degenerate corruption and democratic ass ****ery of Putin to most. He's a very specifically awful pile of garbage.

[John W Constantine]

an Olivier Megaton film

With a name like that you're just begging not to be taken seriously

[matt72582]

I'm not for touting a leader of any nation at this particular junction in history, but it's a false equivalency to compare the degenerate corruption and democratic ass ****ery of Putin to most. He's a very specifically awful pile of garbage.


George W. Bush lied and killed millions in a war that will never end. Putin is a choirboy compared to our "leaders".

[crumbsroom]

George W. Bush lied and killed millions in a war that will never end. Putin is a choirboy compared to our "leaders".


You can dislike GWB and all of his decisions (I do) without calling Putin a choirboy in any kind of capacity. Because that's silly.



And at least GWB walked away from the presidency after the gig was up. He didn't engage in this shell game power grab Putin has been up to for decades. Or is that what choir boys do?

[matt72582]

You can dislike GWB and all of his decisions (I do) without calling Putin a choirboy in any kind of capacity. Because that's silly.



And at least GWB walked away from the presidency after the gig was up. He didn't engage in this shell game power grab Putin has been up to for decades. Or is that what choir boys do?


I think it's sillier (and very dangerous) to disregard killing MILLIONS of innocent Iraqis. All lies.

[Daniel M]

I think it's sillier (and very dangerous) to disregard killing MILLIONS of innocent Iraqis. All lies.

Proof for this?

As much as I disliked George W Bush and the Iraq War I have to say too: there's a difference between being the leader of a country that has great human rights, allows freedom of speech and expression, gay rights, relative equality for men and women etc... then being an authoritarian leader of a country with very little of any of those rights.

I know which country I would rather live in and who I would rather be my leader.

[crumbsroom]

I think it's sillier (and very dangerous) to disregard killing MILLIONS of innocent Iraqis. All lies.


Um, read the words I write, and not the ones you imagine. Where did I disregard anything? I have nothing but disdain for GWB's presidency or the wars in the middle east that he's ultimately responsible for. I can hold two feelings at once. Easy peazy. And Putin is still remains an enormous piece of ****, regardless.. But let's not worry about that because of ****ing Bush. And because Putin is 'fascinating'. And Oliver Stone dingled his taint.



Whatever. Moving on.

[Jinnistan]

lol



"Say, this lanced lesion omelette sure is better than that boiled possum bouillabaisse."



*falls out of window*

[Rockatansky]

With a name like that you're just begging not to be taken seriously


He's totally a serious artist, that's why he named himself after the bombing of Hiroshima.


https://www.oliviermegaton.com/olivier-megaton-artist-paintings/

[crumbsroom]

lol



"Say, this lanced lesion omelette sure is better than that boiled possum bouillabaisse."



*falls out of window*


I could only hope your more measured political know-how would allow me the opportunity to disengage from this and slink back off into the manhole I crept out of

[matt72582]

I guess we have different values. Personally, I don't care for mass murderers. Obama expanded the wars. But hey, he's got a "D" next to his name, so I'm sure his intentions were good... Hitler was fascinating, too. Maybe that's why there are hundreds of documentaries on the guy.



You started this... I simply rated the last movie I saw. If you don't like my opinions, too bad.


I'm definitely moving on...

[crumbsroom]

I guess we have different values. Personally, I don't care for mass murderers. Obama expanded the wars. But hey, he's got a "D" next to his name, so I'm sure his intentions were good... Hitler was fascinating, too. Maybe that's why there are hundreds of documentaries on the guy.



You started this... I simply rated the last movie I saw. If you don't like my opinions, too bad.


I'm definitely moving on...


Have you ever mistakenly read your own posts and, before you realize it's you, had your eyes roll up into the back of your head so intensely you can feel it in your neck?


It was a new experience for me, so I just wanted to know if I've shared it with anyone. We could have bonded if you'd done it too.



And I'm sorry I responded to the low hanging fruit you deliberately included in your 'review'. Clearly discussion about what you write on an open forum is not what you were looking for. Enjoy the echo chamber, gringo.

[Jinnistan]

I guess we have different values. Personally, I don't care for mass murderers.
And I have a problem with straw men *shrug*


The point being that it's hardly the zero-sum game of awfulness as your review makes it seem. Obama bombs funerals and Putin blows up apartments. If Keith Olbermann made a doc interviewing Obama, and the best a review said was something like, "Hey, at least he was no Putin", I'd think that would be pretty funny too.

[Thief]

https://media.giphy.com/media/3oEjHGZQS3Xvo94aty/giphy.gif

[ThatDarnMKS]

With a name like that you're just begging not to be taken seriously
The best (or worst) part is that he claims he chose the name Megaton after the Hiroshima A-bomb...

Except, that bomb wasn't a Megaton explosion.

Too good.

Or bad.

[mark f]

delete post, wrong thread
You can delete it yourself.

[mark f]

Tenth Avenue Angel (Roy Rowland, 1948) 2.5 5.5/10
Seven Stages to Achieve Eternal Bliss (Vivieno Caldinelli, 2018) 2 5/10
Body (Malgorzata Szumowska, 2015) 2.5 6/10
Remember the Night (Mitchell Leisen, 1940) 3.5 7+/10
https://64.media.tumblr.com/7776f8bb0e72ab0865f487bf4052ad2a/tumblr_nztytjruio1v2do6yo3_500.gifv
Terrific Christmas romance between shoplifter Barbara Stanwyck and assistant D.A. Fred MacMurray.
Slay Belles (SpookyDan Walker, 2018) 2 5/10
Yellow Rose (Diane Paragas, 2019) 2.5 6/10
City of Missing Girls (Elmer Clifton, 1941) 2 5/10
The Apartment (Billy Wilder, 1960) 3.5 7+/10
https://64.media.tumblr.com/3ae0d043bb850e9e4ddc370abb1112ea/tumblr_peaptjSRAU1x0uneyo2_500.gifv
Not yet, Shirley, not yet.
The Last Shift (Andrew Cohn, 2020) 2.5 5.5/10
Bell Book and Candle (Richard Quine, 1958) 3 6.5/10
True to the Game 2 (Jamal Hill, 2020) 1.5 4/10
The African Queen (John Huston, 1951) 3.5 7/10
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3kuyiiO_bMY/XaSd8YoZthI/AAAAAAAAa50/6f1m0sBE_JIFTaG0LSd-g9jquCzsqDCUgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/tumblr_mnwzu2javt1rmrhoio1_500.gif
Katharine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart fibd adventure and romance WWI East Africa.
The Red Badge of Courage (John Huston, 1951) 3 6.5/10
Two Ways Home (Ron Vignone, 2020) 2+ 5/10
The Square Peg (John Paddy Carstairs, 1958) 2.5+ 6/10
The China Syndrome (James Bridges, 1979) 3.5 7/10
https://i.imgur.com/H6dyzJW.gif?noredirect
Nuclear plant floor manager Jack Lemmon may be the only employee who'll admit it's unsafe.
Edward and Caroline (Jacques Becker, 1951) 3- 6.5/10
Kidnapped (William Beaudine, 1948) 2+ 5/10
Flipper (James B. Clark, 1963) 2.5 6/10
Evil Under the Sun (Guy Hamilton, 1982) 3.5 7/10
https://rosiepowell2000.typepad.com/.a/6a00e5500c8a2a8833017c388424ce970b-pi
Everybody's a suspect and everybody has an alibi in another entertaining Hercule Poirot (Peter Ustinov) mystery.

[Captain Spaulding]

I guess we have different values. Personally, I don't care for mass murderers.

Yet you have no problem calling the Unabomber one of your heroes:

Unabomber: In His Own Words - 10/10
All of my heroes seem to be artists, with the exception of Ted Kaczynski and Jimmy Hoffa.
It would be great if he did more interviews and talked a bit about the current societal mess.

[MovieGal]

https://thereelbits.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/pretty-in-pink001.jpg

Pretty In Pink
(1986)
4/5

Pretty In Pink is a favorite film because it's one I can relate to. I graduated in 1985 and I went to a high school that had a mixed variety of social and economical classes.

We had guys who were like Blane, who got along with everyone even though his economic status of his family was higher than most.

We had the a**hole rich guy like Steff, who basically insulted anyone who was below his family's economic and social status.

We had guys and girls who were like Duckie and Andie, they were ones who wore clothing of the more pop and punkish styles. Again, because again of social and economic status, bought from 2nd hand shops but made the clothing styles.

There were girls like Steff's girlfriend, Benny, who were straight-up mean b**ches and girls who were like Jena, Andie's friend, who was rebellious to authority.

Other reasons I enjoy this film;

1. Jon Cryer's comedy
2. Harry Dean Stanton as Andi's father - an amazing actor.
3. Steff's attitude makes me seriously dislike James Spader. I have seen a few of his films but they were film choices by a friend and of course he's in an Avenger's movie as the voice of Ultron.
4. Always been a fan of Andrew McCarty and Molly Ringwald as they are part of the 80s brat pack.
5. Annie Potts, her character of Iona fits her personality. I made a joke before about her playing Sheldon's Memaw on Young Sheldon and compared it to how she was in Pretty In Pink.
6. The film's music - love the 80s songs - OMD's "If You Leave" and Nik Kershaw's "Wouldn't It Be Nice" are songs that are memorable and still played today.

[Wyldesyde19]

https://thereelbits.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/pretty-in-pink001.jpg

Pretty In Pink
(1986)
4/5

Pretty In Pink is a favorite film because it's one I can relate to. I graduated in 1985 and I went to a high school that had a mixed variety of social and economical classes.

We had guys who were like Blane, who got along with everyone even though his economic status of his family was higher than most.

We had the a**hole rich guy like Steff, who basically insulted anyone who was below his family's economic and social status.

We had guys and girls who were like Duckie and Andie, they were ones who wore clothing of the more pop and punkish styles. Again, because again of social and economic status, bought from 2nd hand shops but made the clothing styles.

There were girls like Steff's girlfriend, Benny, who were straight-up mean b**ches and girls who were like Jena, Andie's friend, who was rebellious to authority.

Other reasons I enjoy this film;

1. Jon Cryer's comedy
2. Harry Dean Stanton as Andi's father - an amazing actor.
3. Steff's attitude makes me seriously dislike James Spader. I have seen a few of his films but they were film choices by a friend and of course he's in an Avenger's movie as the voice of Ultron.
4. Always been a fan of Andrew McCarty and Molly Ringwald as they are part of the 80s brat pack.
5. Annie Potts, her character of Iona fits her personality. I made a joke before about her playing Sheldon's Memaw on Young Sheldon and compared it to how she was in Pretty In Pink.
6. The film's music - love the 80s songs - OMD's "If You Leave" and Nik Kershaw's "Wouldn't It Be Nice" are songs that are memorable and still played today.
This makes me wonder what you looked like during your senior year. 🤔

[Citizen Rules]

Pretty In Pink
(1986)
4/5

Pretty In Pink is a favorite film because it's one I can relate to. I graduated in 1985 and I went to a high school that had a mixed variety of social and economical classes.

We had guys who were like Blane, who got along with everyone even though his economic status of his family was higher than most.
I was like Blane, I got along with everyone:) I had friends who were jocks, friends who were brains, friends who were stoners, friends who were called geeks. But I didn't come from a rich family, but I did have a good sense of fashion!

[WHITBISSELL!]

Detour - This 1945 uber noir packs a lot into its 67 minute runtime. Directed by Edgar G. Ulmer and starring Tom Neal and Ann Savage, it's a straightforward enough thriller with Neal playing NYC nightclub pianist Al Roberts. His singer girlfriend Sue (Claudia Drake) decides to leave for LA to pursue her dreams of stardom, leaving Al to do some serious moping when he isn't tickling the ivories. After a drunken customer leaves him a ten dollar tip (which the perpetually lugubrious Al describes as "a piece of paper crawling with germs") he too heads to California to reunite with Sue. Being mostly broke he hitchhikes and gets picked up by sporty gambler Charles Haskell (Edmund MacDonald). After an accident Al decides to assume the identity of the now deceased Haskell. This is when this already darkish noir takes a turn into even darker, surrealistic territory. Al picks up a disheveled lady hitchhiker named Vera (Savage) who he comes to find out is the crazy woman Haskell had mentioned picking up then jettisoning. She puts two and two together and susses out that Al has somehow killed Haskell. He is then forced to give up Haskell's bankroll and drive the increasingly belligerent Vera to Los Angeles.

Ulmer directed this on a minuscule budget of 30,000.00 dollars and frankly it shows. Not to the point where it detracts from the story though. If anything, things like inexplicably sweaty performers and an implausibly fogbound walk on city streets that are plainly camouflaged soundstages add to the gonzo vibe. And even though I did find myself laughing at some of the dialogue and acting choices it was never disparaging. It was more like wonder at the sheer audacity on display. Ulmer also directed one of my favorite old time horror movies, The Black Cat, with Karloff and Lugosi. He’s also responsible for two other unconventional, low budget offerings that I enjoyed, Beyond the Time Barrier and The Man from Planet X. Watch this if you haven’t already. 90/100

[TheUsualSuspect]

The Sound of Metal

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w154/y89kFMNYXNKMdlZjR2yg7nQtcQH.jpg

4

I don't know what I expected from a film like this, but it felt more personal and introspective than I anticipated. There is a calmness to this film, which is ironic because it's about a drug-addicted metal drummer having to deal with the fact that he's losing his hearing. The surprise at the stillness of everything was a welcomed one and it made me appreciate the attention to detail present in the filmmaking style.

Ruben is the drummer for a two-person metal band. The singer is his girlfriend and they travel via RV to different cities to play their music. It's not a glamourous life, but one that suits them. One day Ruben's hearing suddenly diminishes, to the point where he can't even hear someone talking to him face to face. He finds help ina deaf community that teaches people how to live their lives with the loss of their hearing. The one issue is that his girlfriend, Lou, cannot be anywhere near them. She takes a flight back home and Ruben is now stranded and needing to learn how to re-live his life.

There's a film titled It's All Gone Pete Tong, which deals with a DJ who loses his ability to hear. He then learns how to DJ through vibrations by sticking speakers under his feet. The film was a comedy with an underlining sense of earnestness. Sound of Metal has no funny bits to it. The content is serious and handled in that manner. One of the creative aspects infused with the film is that while Ruben is learning sign language, the language is subtitled. It's broken subtitles at first, but as he progresses through, it becomes clearer. The sound design is something to take note of. Multiple times we are thrust into Ruben's world and we hear exactly what he does. Muffled voices, low pinging, stuff that would drive you nuts, stuff that would make you appreciate your ability to hear. Late in the film, Ruben makes a decision that is difficult for him, morally and financially. The results are less than what was expected. It's heartbreaking to see the disappointment on someone's face when they were hoping for something more and got less.

A stellar performance from Riz Ahmed showcasing the frustration it takes on the mind and body. He learned how to sign ASL and play the drums. Small things that sell the performance more.

[Captain Terror]

He’s also responsible for two other unconventional, low budget offerings that I enjoyed, Beyond the Time Barrier and The Man from Planet X.
Watched both of those about a year ago and was pleasantly surprised by both. Good stuff.

[StuSmallz]

Deadpool 2I felt similarly about it, (https://letterboxd.com/stusmallz/film/deadpool-2/) which was a surprise for me (albeit a pleasant one), considering that I felt the original kind of lazily coasted off the basic novelty of having its main character sarcastically break the 4th wall, without having him doing much of anything genuinely clever in the process; 2, on the other hand, put more effort into its jokes, and although it's hardly high art, it still made its way into that Family Guy/Austin Powers guilty pleasure zone of comedy that I enjoy, where it has enough genuinely clever, funny gags to make it enjoyable, despite still being "low-calorie" entertainment on the whole, like in that great skydiving sequence:

https://youtu.be/Uezm6AjHV4E


But yeah, I always found TJ Miller to be obnoxious and unfunny in everything I've seen him in, even before I knew about his problematic personal life; I can't remember if they've announced it or not, but hopefully he won't be returning for 3.

[Darth Wish]

CARS 3

70897

Recorded it on my PVR and finally got round to watching it yesterday.
I'm a fan of Pixar animations as their characters are larger than life types.
Coming up against the new breed of hi tech cars Lightening McQueen has to adapt or retire.
Tow Mater and the rest of the characters make this a very good film, it is colourful and entertaining and will keep kids (both young and old like me) glued to the screen.

8/10

[xSookieStackhouse]

CARS 3

70897

Recorded it on my PVR and finally got round to watching it yesterday.
I'm a fan of Pixar animations as their characters are larger than life types.
Coming up against the new breed of hi tech cars Lightening McQueen has to adapt or retire.
Tow Mater and the rest of the characters make this a very good film, it is colourful and entertaining and will keep kids (both young and old like me) glued to the screen.

8/10

omg thats one of my favorite scenes of the movie lol https://64.media.tumblr.com/b43bba02fce699107a8651378db24125/tumblr_oz7th9LoKH1wzw1hbo4_640.gifv

[Fabulous]

Cape Fear (1962)

3.5

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/v4rCibmdklWP92CZg4DLJggFfYH.jpg

[GulfportDoc]

https://www.dreamogram.com/wp-content/uploads/dreamogram-iconisus-key-art-movie-poster-winter-on-fire-1.jpg

rating_4

God bless Ukraine for their patriotism. God bless Ukraine for their freedom.
The world should take notes on how you make a revolution!
This documentary deserved a 7 hours minisseries that go beyond the fight against Viktor Yanukovych and his mercenaries. The war in Donbass should have been showed. Also, the private military groups wasn't covered in this documentary, Pravyy Sektor for example was always a huge stand against the government. Judging by how countries like USA tries to make this privaty armies look, I can undestund why they left them out.
Thanks for the tip. We watched this last night, and quickly became caught up in this stirring drama of Ukraine ousting Yanukovych and establishing their independence.

It was thrilling and gratifying to see tens of thousands of Ukrainians massing together for 4 months in mostly peaceful protest with demands for liberty, despite putting themselves in danger from Yanukovych's police.

I'm not sure that they haven't jumped from the "fire into the frying pan" by joining the EU. But at least they have more freedom, and EU membership will prevent any future designs that Russia may have to annex Ukraine.

The documentary was well done, and held one's interest from start to finish. Some of the photography was impressive because of how dangerous it was to get recorded. Good stuff.

~Doc

[crumbsroom]

Yet you have no problem calling the Unabomber one of your heroes:


Lol.


I'm weirdly unsurprised.

[SpidermanTrilogy07]

Pixar's Soul 10/10

[Takoma11]

But yeah, I always found TJ Miller to be obnoxious and unfunny in everything I've seen him in, even before I knew about his problematic personal life; I can't remember if they've announced it or not, but hopefully he won't be returning for 3.

I read in the trivia section that the stories about him really broke after this one had been filmed and he won't be back for the future installments.

[Wooley]

George W. Bush lied and killed millions in a war that will never end. Putin is a choirboy compared to our "leaders".

No.

[Thief]

Detour - This 1945 uber noir packs a lot into its 67 minute runtime. Directed by Edgar G. Ulmer and starring Tom Neal and Ann Savage, it's a straightforward enough thriller with Neal playing NYC nightclub pianist Al Roberts. His singer girlfriend Sue (Claudia Drake) decides to leave for LA to pursue her dreams of stardom, leaving Al to do some serious moping when he isn't tickling the ivories. After a drunken customer leaves him a ten dollar tip (which the perpetually lugubrious Al describes as "a piece of paper crawling with germs") he too heads to California to reunite with Sue. Being mostly broke he hitchhikes and gets picked up by sporty gambler Charles Haskell (Edmund MacDonald). After an accident Al decides to assume the identity of the now deceased Haskell. This is when this already darkish noir takes a turn into even darker, surrealistic territory. Al picks up a disheveled lady hitchhiker named Vera (Savage) who he comes to find out is the crazy woman Haskell had mentioned picking up then jettisoning. She puts two and two together and susses out that Al has somehow killed Haskell. He is then forced to give up Haskell's bankroll and drive the increasingly belligerent Vera to Los Angeles.

Ulmer directed this on a minuscule budget of 30,000.00 dollars and frankly it shows. Not to the point where it detracts from the story though. If anything, things like inexplicably sweaty performers and an implausibly fogbound walk on city streets that are plainly camouflaged soundstages add to the gonzo vibe. And even though I did find myself laughing at some of the dialogue and acting choices it was never disparaging. It was more like wonder at the sheer audacity on display. Ulmer also directed one of my favorite old time horror movies, The Black Cat, with Karloff and Lugosi. He’s also responsible for two other unconventional, low budget offerings that I enjoyed, Beyond the Time Barrier and The Man from Planet X. Watch this if you haven’t already. 90/100

Love this film. One of the most iconic noirs out there.

[mark f]

Rate The Last Movie You Saw
No.
Believe it or not, I used to post that to the thread we're in.

[matt72582]

No.


Bye

[matt72582]

Freaks - 6.5/10
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Freaks_%281932%29_original_one-sheet.jpg

[Thief]

EYES WIDE SHUT (1999)
The last film from any deceased director you like

https://theplaylist.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Eyes-Wide-Shut-750x400.jpg

I thought of exploring something new for this category, but being Christmas season and after listening to a podcast on Kubrick films, I thought why not revisit this? The film follows married couple Bill and Alice (Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman) as they struggle with newfound insecurities and the realization that their marriage isn't what they thought.

I've seen Eyes Wide Shut several times before, but it's been a couple of years since I last saw it. I still hold it at #3 on my Kubrick ranking, but this rewatch reminded me of how great it is. I love how Kubrick sets the stage with a searing confession from Alice, only to send Bill in this surreal and sexualized journey. And although a lot of the focus falls on this mysterious secret society, it is actually the "unmasking" of Cruise's character and the drop of that facade that should be the focus.

Kubrick's direction is impeccable, as usual, while the performances from Kidman and Cruise are perfect. I know a lot has been said about Cruise's "coldness", but I think it fits perfectly with the theme of coldness and distance, as well as a certain "dehumanization" (which is one of Kubrick's main themes through his filmography) of married people. Great film and a great swan song from the greatest director ever.

Grade: 4.5

[pahaK]

EYES WIDE SHUT (1932)

A handsome young Tom Cruise back in 1932.

[SpelingError]

That means he's in his 90's then. He looks incredibly young for someone that old.

[pahaK]

That means he's in his 90's then. He looks incredibly young for someone that old.

By that assumption, I'd say it's even more impressive that he was still in single digits in Eyes Wide Shut.

[AgrippinaX]

By that assumption, I'd say it's even more impressive that he was still in single digits in Eyes Wide Shut.

👏

[mark f]

That's left over from Lugosi in White Zombie.

[Thief]

MILLION DOLLAR BABY (2004)
The last Best Picture winner you haven't seen

https://www.thecinemaholic.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/million-dollar-baby.jpg

As I walk down through the last Best Picture winners, this was the first one I hadn't seen. For some reason, I had unconsciously avoided it; maybe I didn't care much about the subject matter of boxing or maybe I was expecting something more Oscar-baity, but the thing I was surprised that it wasn't as much of any of those as I was expecting.

The film follows Maggie (Hillary Swank), an aspiring boxer that seeks the coaching of trainer Frankie Dunn (Clint Eastwood), who is reluctant to take over a girl under his wing. But unsurprisingly, he does take her over and he does develop a bond with her. This is not the first time I've seen a similar premise from Eastwood (old cranky mentor takes over a young protege), but for the most part, it's handled pretty well here. I thought that the biggest reason is because of Swank's spunky performance, which adds a lot of energy and liveliness to everything. Eastwood is his usual growling self, but sells the transition well.

The boxing choreographies are well executed, and the last act shift although abrupt does take the film into more interesting grounds. If anything, I think the portrayal of Maggie's family is too on the nose. Also, Morgan Freeman, who plays Frankie's friend and employee. won an Oscar for his performance but, as much as I like him and as good as his performance is, I really don't see it. But regardless of that, this was a pleasant surprise and worth the watch.

Grade: 3.5

[Thief]

A handsome young Tom Cruise back in 1932.

He hasn't aged a bit. A bit, I tell ya :p

[Torgo]

Well, that begs the question: who would you cast in the 1932 version of Eyes Wide Shut? I'm thinking Henry Fonda and Barbara Stanwyck in the Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman roles. Frederich March could play the Sydney Pollack role.

[Thief]

WE CAN BE HEROES (2020)
A film about children

https://d13ezvd6yrslxm.cloudfront.net/wp/wp-content/images/WCBH_Group-Edit_r.jpg

The film follows a group of kids, the children of the Heroics, that have to follow their parents footstep after an alien invasion ends up capturing them. The film is directed by Robert Rodriguez in a similar vein to his other kid superhero films (Spy Kids and Sharkboy and Lavagirl). Lavagirl's Taylor Dooley even has a supporting performance, alongside Pedro Pascal and Sung Kang, as some of the Heroics.

This one's on my kids. They had seen it a couple of days ago, but asked for it again yesterday, so take that as their endorsement. Just like those other Rodriguez' films, the special effects are very kiddie-oriented, and so is the overall tone. The kids performances are solid, for the most part. Unfortunately, there's not much for an adult to bite at. The plot is extremely simplistic and the resolution feels like a cheat. But if any of you have children, this might be a good choice.

Grade: 3 (I upped this a notch, solely based on my kids' reaction)

[Thief]

LATE SPRING (1949)
A film from Yasujiro Ozu

https://www.theavalon.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/latespring.png

Oh, what a great way to finish the year. I hadn't seen a single Ozu film before, so I sought the advice of #FilmTwitter regarding the three films of his that I had within reach. Both Tokyo Story and this one ended up tied, but decided to go with this cause it came first and it was the first of his so-called Noriko trilogy; and what a surprise it was.

The film follows Noriko (Setsuko Hara), a 27-year old woman that lives and takes care of his widower father Professor Shukichi Somiya (Chishu Ryu). When her aunt pressures her father into marrying her off, a struggle inside her and with her father ensues, raising numerous questions about marriage, age, tradition vs. modernism, as well as the role of women in Japanese society.

I found this film to be utterly beautiful in pretty much every aspect. From the direction to the flawless performances, or the simple way it presents its complex themes. It's the kind of film where you feel like everything has a purpose; every shot, every movement, every single line of dialogue. The chemistry between Hara and Ryu is excellent, and I also found its social ponderings to be much more profound and affecting than other more modern films. Certainly a surprise that makes me look forward to more films from Ozu.

Grade: 5

[Takoma11]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2F2JisO56BIl0%2Fhqdefault.jpg&f=1&nofb=1
(The expression on my own face watching this film)

Universal Soldier 2: Brothers in Arms, 1998

I am a huge fan (both ironically and unironically) of the first Universal Soldier film. I have heard positive things about some of the later entries (like Day of Reckoning, and I figured I might as well work through the series in order.

This film follows immediately on the heels of the first film. The main characters, Luc (Matt Battaglia replacing Jean Claude Van Damme) and Veronica (Chandra West replacing Ally Walker) are determined to hunt down the people responsible for Luc's resurrection. While there, they stumble on a group looking to sell the use of the soldiers to various criminal organizations. They also discover that Luc's brother, Eric (Jeff Wincott) was killed in action years earlier and has been "on ice". Also Gary Busey is, you know, around.

This movie's IMDb score is a lowly 3/10, which is about two points lower than you'd expect, even for a DTV action sequel. But, man, does this film earn it!

To begin with, the movie does the absolute worst thing that any sequel can do: superficially try to recreate moments/imagery from the first film. It all starts with the opening moments of the film: a recreation of the final battle from the first movie, but substituting Battaglia and another actor for Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren. It is painful to watch, even more so when Battaglia delivers Van Damme's parting lines. There are multiple other sequences that are directly lifted from the first film, such as "sexy lady journalist helps cut tracking device out of pantless man's leg" or "flirting while naked man lays in a bath of ice".

Battaglia's robotic acting is not the right kind. He doesn't sound like a robot, he sounds like a man trying to sound like a robot. In the first film, Luc was someone who was robotic but was rediscovering his humanity. In this film, it almost feels like the opposite. And scenes that try to milk humor from "he's a robot!" fall really flat. A sequence where Veronica "introduces" Luc to kissing feels . . . .wrong. Like, abusive? It's the born-sexy-yesterday thing.

The film is a mess, but it's a special kind of mess. It's the kind of movie that plays sincere music as a man tries to revive a dead loved one with a knock knock joke. It's the kind of film that tries to get a laugh from people thinking that two brothers are gay because they hug, and then showing us a gratuitous shot of a woman's butt just in case, for a moment, we forgot they were brothers and/or we were contaminated by the idea of homosexuality. It's the kind of movie where, in a scene where a character is meant to be interrupted, the actor pauses, there is a beat, and then he is "interrupted" by the other actor.

The tone of the whole movie is very bizarre. I read that this film and the third film were produced around the same time in hopes of leading into a series. But with such muddled action sequences and such a dearth of character development, I'm not sure where the story was intended to lead.

I do feel as though Chandra West tried her best with her (poorly written, underdeveloped) role. Everyone else has some 'splaining to do.

1.5

[Torgo]

The Midnight Sky - 2

In Groundhog Day, there's a moment where Phil and Rita build a snowman that doesn't go as well as the first time they built one. Phil tries to liven up the occasion by rolling around on the ground and laughing, but Rita just stares at him in confusion. I felt like Rita during much of The Midnight Sky, a movie that repeatedly attempts emotional transcendence but never quite makes it. Reminiscent of Interstellar and The Martian, George Clooney - who also directed - is Augustine, who is essentially the last man on an environmentally devastated Earth. His last act is to contact and guarantee safe passage home to the Aether, a spaceship whose crew surveyed a potential new home for humanity and that he also happened to design. Augustine becomes a little less lonely when Iris, a young girl, suddenly appears at his arctic base refuge. This may sound like a formula for a slam dunk movie, so why did it leave me cold? First, since it's too reminiscent of the sci-fi movies I mentioned and it does not do enough to differentiate itself from them, its emotions seem counterfeit. Also, speaking of formulas, each moment that is intended to resonate from Augustine bonding with Iris to the asteroid attack on the Aether seems a little too calculated to do so. Regardless, the true culprit may be the movie's bifurcated structure. By switching between the arctic base and the Aether in a way that tries to give equal attention to both locations, we only get the highlight reels of each player, which is not enough to become invested in any of them. This structure is successful in other movies like Falling Down, but that movie really only has to flesh out Michael Douglas and Robert Duvall's characters. This movie not only has the Aether's crew to contend with, but also Augustine, Iris, the young Augustine and his former flame Jean, the latter of whom appear in clunkily-placed flashbacks. To be fair, I did like the special effects, Alexandre Desplat's typically beautiful score and the futuristic yet familiar production design. Despite their efforts, it ends up being a movie that is assembled from too many borrowed parts and with too shaky a foundation to truly satisfy.

[CharlesAoup]

Possession, 1981, 2nd watch (A+)

An opaque story of the disintegarting marriage of a couple in West Germany. I don't fully understand how all the parts fit together, but looking at it a second time, the themes of doubles and replacements become much clearer. I can't exactly tell what the story is trying to say with all of it, and I won't look it up because that's cheating, but there so much to see in this movie.There's so much intensity and energy everywhere. It never stops moving. I'll definitely watch it again.

[SpelingError]

LATE SPRING (1949)
A film from Yasujiro Ozu

https://www.theavalon.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/latespring.png

Oh, what a great way to finish the year. I hadn't seen a single Ozu film before, so I sought the advice of #FilmTwitter regarding the three films of his that I had within reach. Both Tokyo Story and this one ended up tied, but decided to go with this cause it came first and it was the first of his so-called Noriko trilogy; and what a surprise it was.

The film follows Noriko (Setsuko Hara), a 27-year old woman that lives and takes care of his widower father Professor Shukichi Somiya (Chishu Ryu). When her aunt pressures her father into marrying her off, a struggle inside her and with her father ensues, raising numerous questions about marriage, age, tradition vs. modernism, as well as the role of women in Japanese society.

I found this film to be utterly beautiful in pretty much every aspect. From the direction to the flawless performances, or the simple way it presents its complex themes. It's the kind of film where you feel like everything has a purpose; every shot, every movement, every single line of dialogue. The chemistry between Hara and Ryu is excellent, and I also found its social ponderings to be much more profound and affecting than other more modern films. Certainly a surprise that makes me look forward to more films from Ozu.

Grade: 5

👍

That film lands in my all-time top 5. Glad you also loved it!

I was really drawn to the way Late Spring builds upon its themes as it rolls along. Many scenes serve to provide emotional tension between Noriko and Shukichi, each one further hinting that Noriko's preferred life style with her father is coming to an end. Since this feeling kept growing in intensity as the film rolled along with more and more threats to this lifestyle being introduced, this made the ending few scenes (the revelation that Shukichi lied about getting married, Shukichi showing that he preferred living with Noriko after all, and the final shot of the waves) hit as hard as they did, and man, they really hit me hard. Sort of like One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, I sometimes forget how powerful both these films are only to be blown away by them all over again when I rewatch them.

[SpelingError]

Possession, 1981, 2nd watch (A+)

An opaque story of the disintegarting marriage of a couple in West Germany. I don't fully understand how all the parts fit together, but looking at it a second time, the themes of doubles and replacements become much clearer. I can't exactly tell what the story is trying to say with all of it, and I won't look it up because that's cheating, but there so much to see in this movie.There's so much intensity and energy everywhere. It never stops moving. I'll definitely watch it again.

That's been on my watchlist for some time.

[AgrippinaX]

That's been on my watchlist for some time.

Oh, I bloody love that thing. Comes highly recommended.

[SpelingError]

Oh, I bloody love that thing. Comes highly recommended.

Yeah, I heard many great things about it. As for Zulawski, I've only seen Diabel.

[Takoma11]

Possession, 1981, 2nd watch (A+)

An opaque story of the disintegarting marriage of a couple in West Germany. I don't fully understand how all the parts fit together, but looking at it a second time, the themes of doubles and replacements become much clearer. I can't exactly tell what the story is trying to say with all of it, and I won't look it up because that's cheating, but there so much to see in this movie.There's so much intensity and energy everywhere. It never stops moving. I'll definitely watch it again.

I've seen it twice in the theater and I absolutely love it to pieces.

[Thief]

👍

That film lands in my all-time top 5. Glad you also loved it!

I was really drawn to the way Late Spring builds upon its themes as it rolls along. Many scenes serve to provide emotional tension between Noriko and Shukichi, each one further hinting that Noriko's preferred life style with her father is coming to an end. Since this feeling kept growing in intensity as the film rolled along with more and more threats to this lifestyle being introduced, this made the ending few scenes (the revelation that Shukichi lied about getting married, Shukichi showing that he preferred living with Noriko after all, and the final shot of the waves) hit as hard as they did, and man, they really hit me hard. Sort of like One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, I sometimes forget how powerful both these films are only to be blown away by them all over again when I rewatch them.

There is so much to unpack on this film, and yet it feels so simple in the way its presented. I really loved the performance of Hara, particularly how she goes from a vivacious and carefree woman in the first half to a more pensive and reflective person towards the end. That Noh performance she attends with her father is really a turning point for the character as you see her "crumbling" as she realizes her father's intentions.

Or how carefully Ozu puts her between two polar opposites (her aunt and her friend) without it feeling forced or inorganic. The way these both embody both the "traditional" Japanese values and the more progressive, modernist attitude and how she feels drawn to both. It's masterful.

Not to mention those last great conversations with her father. How poignant and real they felt. I could go on and on. It's truly a great film.

[Takoma11]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.slantmagazine.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2017%2F11%2Fichithekiller.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

Ichi the Killer, 2001

When the leader of a criminal gang is gruesomely killed and then disappeared, that leaders right-hand man Kakihara (Tadanobu Asano), a masochist, sets out to find the killer, known only as Ichi (Nao Ohmori). As the two men move inevitably closer and closer, there are multiple other interests/characters that they must content with along the way.

To my mind, this film had three modes of violence: graphic realism, gruesome over-the-top, and gonzo-bizarre. I did not enjoy the first, intermittently enjoyed the second, and wish there had been more of the third.

The film was most enjoyable to me when it pushed a borderline-cartoon level of violence, such as when Kakihara removes the piercings that hold his cheek cuts together, basically unhinges his jaw, and bites the hand of an attacker like some hellish demon snake. That is what I signed up for. Or when Ichi (who becomes sexually aroused by violence) kills someone and a large splatter of blood is followed by three comic splats of ejaculation against the wall.

Unfortunately for me, this was not the dominant mode of the film. There are several sequences of violence/sexual violence that just involve women being repeatedly punched in the face or kicked. There are some interesting moments of transgressive interaction (such as when Ichi kills a woman's attacker/rapist only to tell her "from now on I'll be the one who beats you up!", but after a while these scenes of violence began to muddle together.

And honestly that's how I felt after about the first hour. I was just sort of done. There were a handful of images that I appreciated, but for the most part it felt like the most interesting stuff was in the first half.

I was also a bit underwhelmed by what seemed to be a huge part of the film's thematic heft: namely the idea that Ichi and Kakihara represent the perfect combination of S&M. We see a few sequences of Kakihara's masochism, but by far the thing we see most is Kakihara inflicting pain/torture on other people. So he's a sadist and a masochist? Okay. But then with Ichi, most of his direct actions are very quick killings of people. Pain and death are not the same thing. This dynamic meant that I didn't have much suspense or tension regarding their meeting, because it juts felt as if Ichi would quickly dispatch Kakihara--not at all the supposed extreme pain he was after.

I can see why this film caused a stir. The violence is extreme and unpleasant at times (I muted one of the early torture sequences and didn't fully look at others). Ichi's repeated assertions that women want to be raped honestly felt like shallow provocation. The more the film "developed" Ichi's character, honestly, the less interesting or coherent I found him as a character. Kakihara, who we spend more time with, feels like a more complete character. I also appreciated the design elements of the character--from the facial scarring to his outfits. I particularly liked his (velvet?) suit at the very end that made it look like his body was alive with electricity as he moved in the light.

There's some fun stuff here, but I wish the film had been more streamlined.

3.5

[AgrippinaX]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.slantmagazine.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2017%2F11%2Fichithekiller.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

Ichi the Killer, 2001

When the leader of a criminal gang is gruesomely killed and then disappeared, that leaders right-hand man Kakihara (Tadanobu Asano), a masochist, sets out to find the killer, known only as Ichi (Nao Ohmori). As the two men move inevitably closer and closer, there are multiple other interests/characters that they must content with along the way.

To my mind, this film had three modes of violence: graphic realism, gruesome over-the-top, and gonzo-bizarre. I did not enjoy the first, intermittently enjoyed the second, and wish there had been more of the third.

The film was most enjoyable to me when it pushed a borderline-cartoon level of violence, such as when Kakihara removes the piercings that hold his cheek cuts together, basically unhinges his jaw, and bites the hand of an attacker like some hellish demon snake. That is what I signed up for. Or when Ichi (who becomes sexually aroused by violence) kills someone and a large splatter of blood is followed by three comic splats of ejaculation against the wall.

Unfortunately for me, this was not the dominant mode of the film. There are several sequences of violence/sexual violence that just involve women being repeatedly punched in the face or kicked. There are some interesting moments of transgressive interaction (such as when Ichi kills a woman's attacker/rapist only to tell her "from now on I'll be the one who beats you up!", but after a while these scenes of violence began to muddle together.

And honestly that's how I felt after about the first hour. I was just sort of done. There were a handful of images that I appreciated, but for the most part it felt like the most interesting stuff was in the first half.

I was also a bit underwhelmed by what seemed to be a huge part of the film's thematic heft: namely the idea that Ichi and Kakihara represent the perfect combination of S&M. We see a few sequences of Kakihara's masochism, but by far the thing we see most is Kakihara inflicting pain/torture on other people. So he's a sadist and a masochist? Okay. But then with Ichi, most of his direct actions are very quick killings of people. Pain and death are not the same thing. This dynamic meant that I didn't have much suspense or tension regarding their meeting, because it juts felt as if Ichi would quickly dispatch Kakihara--not at all the supposed extreme pain he was after.

I can see why this film caused a stir. The violence is extreme and unpleasant at times (I muted one of the early torture sequences and didn't fully look at others). Ichi's repeated assertions that women want to be raped honestly felt like shallow provocation. The more the film "developed" Ichi's character, honestly, the less interesting or coherent I found him as a character. Kakihara, who we spend more time with, feels like a more complete character. I also appreciated the design elements of the character--from the facial scarring to his outfits. I particularly liked his (velvet?) suit at the very end that made it look like his body was alive with electricity as he moved in the light.

There's some fun stuff here, but I wish the film had been more streamlined.

3.5

Thanks for this, I’ve been meaning to see the film for ages and this makes me feel bad I still haven’t.

[ThatDarnMKS]

What other Miike have you seen?

I more or less agree with your appreciation of Ichi. I watched it at a time when extreme content held a perverse curiosity but was surprised that outside of the abuse of women (that nipple slice... Woof), it was much more like a splatter comedy than anticipated. I'd say Visitor Q functions in much the same way.

I think Miike works better when his films are operating more seriously, as the tonal dissonance can result in a sum less than its parts.

[Takoma11]

What other Miike have you seen?

I more or less agree with your appreciation of Ichi. I watched it at a time when extreme content held a perverse curiosity but was surprised that outside of the abuse of women (that nipple slice... Woof), it was much more like a splatter comedy than anticipated. I'd say Visitor Q functions in much the same way.

I just wish it had been more like a splatter comedy. The nipple slice is actually a sequence that's more in line with the rest of the film. It's things like a woman (twice!!) just being shown getting punched in the face and raped. Or a woman being hit and kicked while she's curled up on the ground. These scenes don't match the operatic levels of the rest of the violence, and as a result they feel nastier than the rest of the film. The fact that every woman in the film is a prostitute and/or rape victim is kind of blah. The character of Karen has some personality, but there's a weight of sexism over the whole film.

From Miike I've seen:

His segment from Three Extremes (loved it)
His segment from Masters of Horror (hated it)
13 Assassins (liked it)
Blade of the Immortal (loved it)

I was set to watch Gozu in the last few months, but I'm trying to remember what I read that put me off of it. Maybe something with animal cruelty?

[Torgo]

I love Miike. Whenever I'm unsure about what I want to watch, I watch one of his movies since he never disappoints.

Dead or Alive 1 and 2 and Ace Attorney - which may be the only genuinely good movie based on a video game - are also worth seeking out.

[ThatDarnMKS]

I just wish it had been more like a splatter comedy. The nipple slice is actually a sequence that's more in line with the rest of the film. It's things like a woman (twice!!) just being shown getting punched in the face and raped. Or a woman being hit and kicked while she's curled up on the ground. These scenes don't match the operatic levels of the rest of the violence, and as a result they feel nastier than the rest of the film. The fact that every woman in the film is a prostitute and/or rape victim is kind of blah. The character of Karen has some personality, but there's a weight of sexism over the whole film.

From Miike I've seen:

His segment from Three Extremes (loved it)
His segment from Masters of Horror (hated it)
13 Assassins (liked it)
Blade of the Immortal (loved it)

I was set to watch Gozu in the last few months, but I'm trying to remember what I read that put me off of it. Maybe something with animal cruelty?
That's the dissonance I'm referring to. It's splatter comedy one minute than fairly brutal rape/sexual violence and torture the next. The nipple slice stood out to me as out of place as a particular piece of serious cruelty in the midst of heel blades and secret body builders.

Gozu is Miike at his most Lynchian. Both it and Visitor Q have a fascination with lactation that feels equal parts comedic and off putting.

I recently checked out Over Your Dead Body and it sidestepped a bit of the baked in sexism of much of his work (to be fair, Audition also confronts this sexism as much as conforms to it and remains my favorite from him) and I think it may be among his best and least talked about from the dozen or so movies I've seen from him. That one has a bit of that performance merging with real life surrealism that made Black Swan a success in my book and emphasizes it's women characters in a way the other films I've seen from him have not (he relegates them to victims much of the time).

[Takoma11]

That's the dissonance I'm referring to. It's splatter comedy one minute than fairly brutal rape/sexual violence and torture the next. The nipple slice stood out to me as out of place as a particular piece of serious cruelty in the midst of heel blades and secret body builders.

The torture of the prostitute felt roughly on par with what happened to the guy who is tortured in that first extended sequence. (Though I find it VERY interesting that the film brings up penis mutilation at one point and then chickens out on it. Like, seriously? Which makes it sound like I'm pro-penis mutilation, but I was more just intrigued that that was where someone decided to draw a line.) I think that the film's real sexism is seen in the way that women are almost always on one side of the violence. There's some promise when Karen helps rip the guy's face in half--that moment actually felt like a more satisfying "meeting of the minds" than the ultimate showdown between Kakihara and Ichi.

I recently checked out Over Your Dead Body and it sidestepped a bit of the baked in sexism of much of his work (to be fair, Audition also confronts this sexism as much as conforms to it and remains my favorite from him) and I think it may be among his best and least talked about from the dozen or so movies I've seen from him. That one has a bit of that performance merging with real life surrealism that made Black Swan a success in my book and emphasizes it's women characters in a way the other films I've seen from him have not (he relegates them to victims much of the time).

I'll keep it in mind.

[ThatDarnMKS]

The torture of the prostitute felt roughly on par with what happened to the guy who is tortured in that first extended sequence. (Though I find it VERY interesting that the film brings up penis mutilation at one point and then chickens out on it. Like, seriously? Which makes it sound like I'm pro-penis mutilation, but I was more just intrigued that that was where someone decided to draw a line.) I think that the film's real sexism is seen in the way that women are almost always on one side of the violence. There's some promise when Karen helps rip the guy's face in half--that moment actually felt like a more satisfying "meeting of the minds" than the ultimate showdown between Kakihara and Ichi.



I'll keep it in mind.
I get you on that front. It's been a few years since I watched it but I just recall the film being far more cruel to women than to men. Doing a nipple slice while shying away from male genital mutilation may be why I have that impression.

However, given this direction the criticism has taken, I will shift all Miike recommendations to Audition and only Audition.

[Takoma11]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.shockya.com%2Fnews%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2FA-Good-Woman-Is-Hard-to-Find.png&f=1&nofb=1

A Good Woman is Hard to Find, 2019

Nothing like ringing in the new year watching a beleaguered mother fend of a would-be rapist by stabbing him in the eye with a sex toy.

Sarah (Sarah Bolger) is living on the edge. Her husband has been murdered, stabbed out on the common near their home. She is caring for her two children, something that is complicated by the fact that her son, Ben, witnessed his father's death. One day, a man boldly robs a gang of drug dealers and hides in Sarah's house. Deciding that her home provides the perfect cover, the thief, Tito (Andrew Simpson), tells Sarah that he will keep his stash there for a week. As Tito continues to intrude into her home, Sarah begins to learn more about what may have been behind her husband's death. Lurking in the background is a frightening drug lord named Leo Miller (Edward Hogg), and it's clear that he and Sarah are on a collision course.

This was, for me, the perfect late night film. It generates suspense without resorting to exploitative or graphic content, and it manages to strike a wonderfully gory and funny tone in many of its sequences. The film efficiently conveys the many small indignities that Sarah suffers (a woman checking her out at the grocery store is sympathetic to her financial woes, less so the employee who winkingly implies that she is working as a prostitute). Tito is an interesting character and villain--he is both funny and amiable, and at the same time undeniably dangerous. At every moment it's clear why Sarah cannot simply go to the police.

As the film goes on, the action sequences get more and more extreme and they also get funnier. But the work done in the beginning third of the film to get us on Sarah's side really pays off. I laughed incredibly hard at a scene where Sarah army crawls into her children's room to harvest batteries from their toys to revive her dead vibrator. I have to believe it was based on someone's real experience, right down to Sarah trying to find a kitchen knife that's thin enough to double as a tiny screwdriver. By the time the film arrives at its bloody conclusion, I was very satisfied. It's a pretty straightforward narrative, but I was with the main character the whole way.

I don't actually have many specific critiques. This is by no means an original film, and there aren't many surprises in store. But I felt that the movie hit those familiar beats well, and Bolger was an engaging lead.

3.5

[Takoma11]

I get you on that front. It's been a few years since I watched it but I just recall the film being far more cruel to women than to men. Doing a nipple slice while shying away from male genital mutilation may be why I have that impression.

However, given this direction the criticism has taken, I will shift all Miike recommendations to Audition and only Audition.

LOL.

It's the kind of film where it's hard figuring out how to critique the misogyny, because all of the male characters themselves are misogynistic. I think that a lot of the problem is that the female characters are far less quirky (aside from Karen) or well-defined. Many of the male characters had secrets to reveal or aspects of betrayal to their stories, and that just wasn't the case with the women. For example, the sequence where Ichi cuts off the woman's leg and she goes hopping down the hall? That's funny and it fits. But that's the only sequence with a female character that reaches that gory-slapstick vibe. It doesn't help that they are constantly seen having their clothing pulled off or shown dressed in lingerie or whatever.

Still, once the film finished the sequence with the man inside the television I felt it all kind of went downhill.

[ThatDarnMKS]

LOL.

It's the kind of film where it's hard figuring out how to critique the misogyny, because all of the male characters themselves are misogynistic. I think that a lot of the problem is that the female characters are far less quirky (aside from Karen) or well-defined. Many of the male characters had secrets to reveal or aspects of betrayal to their stories, and that just wasn't the case with the women. For example, the sequence where Ichi cuts off the woman's leg and she goes hopping down the hall? That's funny and it fits. But that's the only sequence with a female character that reaches that gory-slapstick vibe. It doesn't help that they are constantly seen having their clothing pulled off or shown dressed in lingerie or whatever.

Still, once the film finished the sequence with the man inside the television I felt it all kind of went downhill.

That was the scene when I felt out of touch with the whole "this is the most ****ED UP MOVIE EVER" conversation as I felt that I probably shouldn't have been giggling uncontrollably at the Grand guignol on display (I had a similar reaction to some necrophilia in Visitor Q).

I view Miike like Lars Von Trier meets Monty Python when he operated in this mode. Woman are frequently and almost gleefully the subject of abuse but you're never meant to empathize with his men. Maybe nihilism about misogynists is a more accurate assessment.

That said, I'll be disappointed if you don't ring in the new year with some Audition.

[Corax]

That said, I'll be disappointed if you don't ring in the new year with some Audition.


Kri-Kri-Kri?

[Takoma11]

That was the scene when I felt out of touch with the whole "this is the most ****ED UP MOVIE EVER" conversation as I felt that I probably shouldn't have been giggling uncontrollably at the Grand guignol on display (I had a similar reaction to some necrophilia in Visitor Q).

I view Miike like Lars Von Trier meets Monty Python when he operated in this mode. Woman are frequently and almost gleefully the subject of abuse but you're never meant to empathize with his men.

I think it's about context. Even that sequence, which I did find funny, was prefaced by:
1) Another graphic rape flashback
2) A female character sexually servicing a male character
3) A male character telling a female character that she wants to be raped.

So it's funny, but the same gender dynamics over and over for two hours got tiring at about the halfway point.

I mean, as a sadist you'd think he'd extend this philosophy (ie people say they don't want to be hurt but really they do) to male characters, but he does not.

That said, I'll be disappointed if you don't ring in the new year with some Audition.

Sorry, I'm currently watching VFW and I might have to cross the midnight line with an episode of Bridgerton. (Bridgerton has not yet featured penis mutilation, and probably will not unless something goes very, VERY wrong in Daphne's courtship with Simon).

[ThatDarnMKS]

I think it's about context. Even that sequence, which I did find funny, was prefaced by:
1) Another graphic rape flashback
2) A female character sexually servicing a male character
3) A male character telling a female character that she wants to be raped.

So it's funny, but the same gender dynamics over and over for two hours got tiring at about the halfway point.

I mean, as a sadist you'd think he'd extend this philosophy (ie people say they don't want to be hurt but really they do) to male characters, but he does not.



Sorry, I'm currently watching VFW and I might have to cross the midnight line with an episode of Bridgerton. ([B]Bridgerton[B] has not yet featured penis mutilation, and probably will not unless something goes very, VERY wrong in Daphne's courtship with Simon).
I will accept Joe Begos splatter discourse in place of Miike discourse if it's predicated on the promise of some Audition discussion.

[ThatDarnMKS]

Kri-Kri-Kri?
Isn't it Kiri Kiri Kiri?

[Corax]

Isn't it Kiri Kiri Kiri?


I'm seeing my acupuncturist tomorrow, I'll ask her.

[skizzerflake]

Tonight, we streamed Soul, an animation, voiced mostly by Jamie Fox and Tina Fey. It's like part animated comedy and part Tibetan Book of the Dead. Joe Gardner is a music teacher, not fulfilled, really wanting to be a "real" musician. Joe is trying out for a gig, accidentally falls down a manhole, presumably killed and shows up what seems like the Motor Vehicle Administration of souls, a long line that leads you back to life to finish things or to "The Great Beyond". Things get pretty weird from here out, to quote Wikipedia - "Joe excitedly hops back to Earth but accidentally brings 22 with him, resulting in 22 entering his body and Joe ending up in the body of a therapy cat. " (22 being another character). I leave it to you to figure all this out.

In spite of the fact that the plot line is seriously contorted and weird, I did enjoy it. The characters are good and the animation (computerized but cartoon style) is amazing. It's set in New York and, while watching it, I found myself thinking that this scene is set at the corner of 7th Avenue and 14th Street and turned out to be right.

IMO, the plot could have been less cluttered with metaphysical junk and confused spirits and still have been somewhat true to the Bardo Thodol inspiration, but, nevertheless, it was completely enjoyable.

:popcorn::popcorn::popcorn::popcorn:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOsLIiBStEs

[The Rodent]

Just flicking through the channels and the 2017 remake of Dirty Dancing is on telly :D

This pile of garbage makes the original look like Citizen Kane.

And Bruce Greenwood playing piano singing... and his voice has been dubbed over by someone who was obviously in their early teens.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1lXoZBdK5Q

Amazingly bad.

[Takoma11]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.flickeringmyth.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2019%2F09%2Fvfw_03web__large.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

VFW, 2019

A young woman, Lizard (Sarah McCormick) steals a HUGE bag of drugs from the head of a nest of junkies, then runs for her life and makes it as far as the VFW building across the street. Holed up there with a group of veterans (Stephen Lang, William Sadler, Fred Williamson, George Wendt, Tom Williamson), the building comes under siege from the junkies and their sadistic leader, Boz (Travis Hammer).

This is a fun little grindhouse-esque flick with plenty of exploding heads and baddies inexplicably armed with chainsaws. The VFW crew are a fun group as they alternate banter among themselves and using improvised weapons to fend off their attackers.

I think that this is the kind of film you either like or you don't. For the most part, I enjoyed it. For a film where the bad guys are essentially zombies, the dialogue really leans into calling any female character a bitch. Okay, movie.

I also had really mixed feelings about the very end in which the main characters decide to take the drugs and sell them to finance rebuilding the bar. So they are going to profit off of selling the same drug that drove Lizard's sister so deep into addiction that she killed herself? The drug that we basically spend the whole film realizing is life-destroying? Yeah, cool. Makes sense.. It's a weird, sour note on which to end what is otherwise a pretty light and fun flick.

Another good film for a late night.

3.5

[Captain Terror]

https://emilioamarosblog.files.wordpress.com/2017/11/2015-07-01-wonder-woman8.jpg?w=950&h=730&crop=1https://64.media.tumblr.com/867223e028145f788250e11324fb7bd7/tumblr_o9vd3patpq1sfp6m8o1_500.gifv

I don't have HBO so I ended the year with Wonder Woman Season 3/Episode 1 which featured some sweet motorcycle stunts and not one but TWO Leif Garretts.
#NoRegrets
5

[Darth Wish]

Deadpool 2

70938

The Super Dooper Cut no less.
Action packed, full of adult humour, loads of explosions and a kid called FireFist, what more could you ask for?
A thoroughly enjoyable movie with Ryan Reynolds making DP the most obnoxious, self obssessed hero in movie world.
His willingness to mock his own career, that of his fellow co stars and other actors from other movies adds to the fun.
Josh Brolin was perfect for the part of Cable, his brooding hard ass attitude countering DP's sarcasm and childishness.

A cracking movie, inventive, funny and non stop.

10/10

[Fabulous]

Sisters (1972)

3

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/ghqsfvSRyJzpLASMtRqV4GTCCvp.jpg

[xSookieStackhouse]

Deadpool 2

70938

The Super Dooper Cut no less.
Action packed, full of adult humour, loads of explosions and a kid callled FireFist, what more could you ask for?
A thoroughly enjoyable movie with Ryan Reynolds making DP the most obnoxious, self obssessed hero in movie world.
His willingness to mock his own career, that of his fellow co stars and other actors from other movies adds to the fun.
Josh Brolin was perfect for the part of Cable, his brooding hard ass attitude countering DP's sarcasm and childishness.

A cracking movie, inventive, funny and non stop.

10/10

hope they still gonna make deadpool 3 D=

[matt72582]

The Children Are Watching Us - 7.5/10
Re-watch.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/44/I_bambini_ci_guardan_film_poster.jpg

[matt72582]

The Collector - 8.5/10
Third time watching this... Always hoping to find movies like this.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/57/The_collector_1965_film_poster.jpg

[matt72582]

The Good Neighbor -5.5/10
I like the theme, I like James Caan, but they ruined a good opportunity on LOUSY acting, and no meat - just a good blueprint. It's so annoying listening to every other character speak - so fake. But, the movie is accessible, decent paced.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/09/The_Good_Neighbor_poster.jpg

[Allaby]

Possessor (2020) 7/10

[John W Constantine]

The Collector - 8.5/10
Third time watching this... Always hoping to find movies like this.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/57/The_collector_1965_film_poster.jpg

Good to hear, I generally like Wyler and I need some more from 1965

[Stirchley]

The Collector - 8.5/10
Third time watching this... Always hoping to find movies like this.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/57/The_collector_1965_film_poster.jpg

Very strange movie.

[matt72582]

Very strange movie.


Strange theme, or strange how the movie was directed, executed, etc.?

[Stirchley]

Strange theme, or strange how the movie was directed, executed, etc.?

Storyline.

[matt72582]

Storyline.


I'm surprised there aren't more like it, since there are many kidnapping/hostage movies.

[Citizen Rules]

70949
Fiend Without a Face (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050393/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1) (1958)


Really surprised to see this B sci-fi monster drive-in movie in The Criterion Collection. The movie wasn't really good of course, and it wasn't fun like a Roger Corman or AIP flick would've been. But the brain creatures were kind of fun in a kitsch way. They 'died' real good! I read that this caused a commotion in British Parliament at the time.

Objective rating rating_2_5
Fun rating rating_3

[gomorra82]

Trees Longe Director: Steve Buscemi.
Steve Buscemis debut feature film. Chloë Sevignys second movie, filmed between Kids (95) and Gummo (97).
Pretty decent cast. Pretty straight forward story. Buscemi spends his time drinking, after losing his job. And the place he spends his time is the bar, Trees Lounge.
70952
7,5

[MovieGal]

The Collector - 8.5/10
Third time watching this... Always hoping to find movies like this.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/57/The_collector_1965_film_poster.jpg

I love this movie!

[matt72582]

I love this movie!


Do you know any others like it

[MovieGal]

Do you know any others like it

Yeah but I would have to think...

[Fabulous]

Another Round (2020)

3.5

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/3El9bWuGsaYwFu2TIksMdjgkPbR.jpg

[MovieGal]

https://i.cdn.turner.com/v5cache/TCM/Images/Dynamic/i452/DeadlyFriend1986_16693_1024x768_09202017021642.jpg

Deadly Friend
(1986)
3/5

[cricket]

Crazy Murder (2014)

2-

https://horrorpills10.altervista.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/crazymurder2.jpg

In NYC, a mentally ill homeless man roams around puking, pooping, playing with it, sexually mutilating himself, and brutally murdering random people he encounters. Occasionally he'll take a break to eat a used bandaid or condom he finds on the sidewalk. It's a sick movie that probably should've been closer to 60 minutes long than 97. A lot of revolting stuff in here.

[Darth Wish]

Avengers Infinity War

70955


I was expecting a lot from this movie what with all the superheroes making an appearance in it.
It was OK but not up to my expectations.
The FX were as good as always.
I think I was disappointed in the script, everything seemed fragmented.
Too much going on so little time spent in any one part of the fight and the actors didn't seem to be at their best in this compared to the other movies in the franchise.
Maybe fatigued from doing so many of these movies in a relatively short period of time?

7/10

[pahaK]

Shadow in the Cloud (2020)
1.5
I like Chloë Grace Moretz, and it's such a shame that she's stuck in garbage like this. She's not the greatest actress alive, but she's OK, and she's clearly trying her best. The script, directing, and music are all dumpster tier and a textbook example of inept filmmaking. IMDb score (4.2 at the time of writing) feels fair, but most of the negative reviews are as stupid as the film (not sure if I can blame these people for not watching this, though).

[MovieGal]

https://media1.tenor.com/images/de2049b5195e545e1e9bb0b91688accf/tenor.gif?itemid=10595691

The People Under The Stairs
(1991)
3/5

[WHITBISSELL!]

After the Thin Man - First of the five sequels to 1934's The Thin Man and it mostly follows the same beats as that one. A good sized cast of characters which equals out to a goodly amount of suspects. The usual playful and winning banter between stars William Powell and the gorgeous Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles. The first had fun juxtaposing ex-cop Nick's lowlife acquaintances with Nora's supposedly genteel family and friends. This has more of that as Mr. and Mrs. Charles head back to San Francisco after visiting NYC. Nora's imperious aunt Katherine asks for Nick's help in tracking down Nora's cousin's missing husband. And like the first film this leads to all kinds of skullduggery and eventually several murders.

I liked this just as much if not more than it's predecessor. The couples easy interplay has been established and the supporting characters are solid so all that's left is to sit back and wait to see how Nick cracks the case. 90/100

[Allaby]

Another Round/Druk (2020) 7/10

[cat_sidhe]

Ooh almost watched that tonight. Going ti give it a go tomorrow.

[Wooley]

70949
Fiend Without a Face (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050393/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1) (1958)


Really surprised to see this B sci-fi monster drive-in movie in The Criterion Collection. The movie wasn't really good of course, and it wasn't fun like a Roger Corman or AIP flick would've been. But the brain creatures were kind of fun in a kitsch way. They 'died' real good! I read that this caused a commotion in British Parliament at the time.

Objective rating rating_2_5
Fun rating rating_3

I love this movie.

[Wooley]

After the Thin Man - Second of the five sequels to 1934's The Thin Man and it mostly follows the same beats as that one. A good sized cast of characters which equals out to a goodly amount of suspects. The usual playful and winning banter between stars William Powell and the gorgeous Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles. The first had fun juxtaposing ex-cop Nick's lowlife acquaintances with Nora's supposedly genteel family and friends. This has more of that as Mr. and Mrs. Charles head back to San Francisco after visiting NYC. Nora's imperious aunt Katherine asks for Nick's help in tracking down Nora's cousin's missing husband. And like the first film this leads to all kinds of skullduggery and eventually several murders.

I liked this just as much if not more than it's predecessor. The couples easy interplay has been established and the supporting characters are solid so all that's left is to sit back and wait to see how Nick cracks the case. 90/100

I agree this was probably as good as and could be better than its predecessor but because the original was my introduction it'll always be my favorite.

[Citizen Rules]

I love this movie.I hadn't ever heard of Fiend Without a Face before. I 'ran into it' while looking for another movie. I love those kind of movies so I said to myself, 'why not watch it!' I'm glad I did.

[Allaby]

Zombi Child (2019) 6/10

[Captain Terror]

http://images.moviepostershop.com/villa-rides-movie-poster-1968-1020209543.jpg

My first watch for the 2021 challenge. Yul Brynner as Pancho Villa. Charles Bronson shoots someone approximately every 90 seconds.

3

[martyrofevil]

The Devil All the Time (Campos, 2020)
Rough start to the year. In line with Three Billboards and Hell or High Water in that it feels like a direct to DVD flick from the mid-late 2000's but with some added modern stink. Just looks bland, feels bland and is at least 40 minutes too long. There's a million characters and every time two characters interact for the first time I was filled with dread because of the implied addition to the runtime and every new plotline is identical to the last. This is why I try to avoid "script-first" films.

3/10

[Wooley]

I hadn't ever heard of Fiend Without a Face before. I 'ran into it' while looking for another movie. I love those kind of movies so I said to myself, 'why not watch it!' I'm glad I did.

I first saw it when I was a child in the late 1970s on Creature Feature on a Sunday. It really stuck with me so I eventually found it and I was actually surprised as an adult that it was much better than I would have thought. I mean, I'm not saying it's a good movie, but it's really not that bad and, as you pointed out, the creatures are pretty awesome.

[Citizen Rules]

I first saw it when I was a child in the late 1970s on Creature Feature on a Sunday. It really stuck with me so I eventually found it and I was actually surprised as an adult that it was much better than I would have thought. I mean, I'm not saying it's a good movie, but it's really not that bad and, as you pointed out, the creatures are pretty awesome.Good old, creature feature movies showings.🙂 I remember being a kid and staying up way too late on Saturday night to watch my local TV station's creature monster movies. Good fun!

I'm going to have to get back into a 50s sci fi creature kick, I love those! Especially the Roger Corman stuff.

[xSookieStackhouse]

Breakin 2 10/10 loved the first one saw it in 2019 so i saw the 2nd it has amazing music and casting and sad one of the cast member died other day D=
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTg4Mjg2MzAyNF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTYwNzE0NDg5._V1_.jpg

[Hey Fredrick]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.filmsite.org%2Fposters%2Fbaddayatbr.jpg&f=1&nofb=1
3.5

Spencer Tracy shows up in a small western town and begins poking the unfriendly and uncooperative locals about a missing Japanese man. Pretty good movie with solid performances from everybody.

[matt72582]

Tony - 5/10
Could have been good. Might be worth watching if you want to see through the eyes of a very socially awkward man.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/27/TONYposter.jpg

[mark f]

The Man Who Walked Alone (Christy Cabanne, 1945) 2.5 6/10
Half Brothers (Luke Greenfield, 2020) 2+ 5/10
Spotlight Scandals (William Beaudine, 1943) 2.5 6/10
Peter and the Farm (Tony Stone, 2016) 3- 6.5/10
https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XdK4kHLO5UA/WMFNqmLAJJI/AAAAAAAABJk/c5Wixtj1TksQdVbXCOfoqxt8HrRmoVUyQCLcB/s1600/peter-and-the-farm-netflix.jpg
Peter Dunning has worked on his farm for nearly 40 years even though it's destroyed his relationships with his family, his livestock and his health.
The Disappearance of My Mother (Beniamino Barrese, 2019) 2.5+ 6/10
All My Life (Marc Meyers, 2020) 2 5/10
The Answer Man (John Hindman, 2009) 2.5 6/10
Countdown to Zero (Lucy Walker, 2010) 3 6.5/10
https://media.npr.org/assets/artslife/movies/2010/07/countdown-to-zero/ahmadinejad_wide-80aa5b02bc50958b028fe9d6c450ba6650eff0b9.jpg
History and current state of nuclear weapons, at least as of 2010.
Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (Jacques Becker, 1954) 2+ 5/10
The Awful Truth (Leo McCarey, 1937) 3 6.5/10
The One You Feed (Drew Harwood, 2020) 1.5 4/10
People Will Talk (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1951) 4- 8/10
https://tonyalehman.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/people-will-talk-3-1.jpeg
Shunderson (Finlay Currie), a smiling skeleton and Dr. Praetorius (Cary Grant). People will talk.
Ray & Liz (Richard Billingham, 2018) 2+ 5/10
I Like Money AKA Mr. Topaze (Peter Sellers, 1961) 2.5 6/10
Toys Are Not for Children (Stanley H. Brasloff, 1972) 2+ 5/10
The Producers (Mel Brooks, 1967) 3.5 7+/10
https://media.giphy.com/media/sF3K3ycxPdGb6/giphy.gif
The cast, the writers, the investors and the producers of a new Broadway show are really weird.
Performance (Donald Cammell & Nicolas Roeg, 1970) 2 5/10
Kirikou and the Men and Women (Michel Ocelot, 2012) 3 6.5/10
getAWAY (Blayne Weaver, 2020) 2 5/10
WolfWalkers (Tomm Moore & Ross Stewart, 2020) 3.5 7+/10
https://64.media.tumblr.com/c9e0fe5545e1a6ba623ea4ac8ff9dfab/9eb73c2b6adc666f-88/s540x810/429681cd27aaf7430c8b21e4bf56905f4ee72d93.gifv
A WolfWalker's life can literally change in an instant - and often too.

[LChimp]

https://marymemary13.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/laputa-castle-in-the-sky-poster.jpg

https://www.shoutfactory.com/s3_images/images/22293/div_96/documents/d96c17r22293/Ponyo_Cover_SB_72dpi.png


Ghibli double feature with my son. Can't go wrong with Ghibli movies

[Marco]

The Field (1990)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c8/Fieldposter.jpg
Impressive rural Irish tale with Richard Harris as "Bull" McCabe....seeing his land taken from him as he tries to leave a legacy. Harris is simply superb in this and is ably helped out by a strong cast with Brenda Fricker, Sean Bean and John Hurt.

4

[Marco]

Tony - 5/10
Could have been good. Might be worth watching if you want to see through the eyes of a very socially awkward man.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/27/TONYposter.jpg

Enjoyed the idea of this more than the craft. Wasn't awful or even bad but just "trundled".

[Citizen Rules]

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=70978
Soldier of Fortune (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048640/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2) (Edward Dmytryk 1955)

I watched this as I'm on a Susan Hayward kick:) She often landed in fun enough to watch movies...She's a bit of a spitfire, which makes her fun to watch too. Solider of Fortune isn't really special, except in that it fits into the subcategory of '1950s travel-log' movies. In the 50s the big Hollywood studios poured money into these films as an attempt to draw audiences back into the movie theater and away from that new-fangled gadget, the television set.

Soldier of Fortune like many of these travel log movies was shot on location, this one is in Hong Kong, at least for the exteriors. Unfortunately the female lead, Susan Hayward refused to travel to Hong Kong as she didn't want to be separated from her kids. So Susan's scenes are all done in Hollywood USA on a set, or with blue screen. The male lead, Clark Gable did travel to Hong Kong and that's him in the photo, in one helluva an impressive house with an amazing view of the harbor below!

The film story itself isn't much to write about and it's all pretty much pot boiler about a missing man who's being held in communist China. The real star here is Hong Kong circa 1950s shown in glorious CinemaScope color.

rating_3

[Wooley]

Breakin 2 10/10 loved the first one saw it in 2019 so i saw the 2nd it has amazing music and casting and sad one of the cast member died other day D=
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTg4Mjg2MzAyNF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTYwNzE0NDg5._V1_.jpg
I saw this in the theater when it was released and I also loved it. Hell, even my mom kinda liked it as she was such a big fan of dance and it was also a pretty innocent movie. Being a white girl from small-town Mississippi, she saw hip-hop culture as scary and threatening until we saw this movie together and it really changed her outlook.

[Wooley]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.filmsite.org%2Fposters%2Fbaddayatbr.jpg&f=1&nofb=1
3.5

Spencer Tracy shows up in a small western town and begins poking the unfriendly and uncooperative locals about a missing Japanese man. Pretty good movie with solid performances from everybody.

I finally saw this a few years ago and I really was impressed with it.
It is the first time I ever liked Spencer Tracy. I know many consider him one of the best film actors of all time but I have never been able to connect with him until that film.

[Wooley]

[CENTER]

The Awful Truth (Leo McCarey, 1937) 3 6.5/10


Ouch.
My No.1 Screwball/Rom-com of all time as well as my favorite Cary Grant movie and my favorite Irene Dunn movie.

[mark f]

I wouldn't worry too much about that - and I know you don't. I've seen it over 10 times, so I do like it. :cool:

[Rockatansky]

I saw this in the theater when it was released and I also loved it. Hell, even my mom kinda liked it as she was such a big fan of dance and it was also a pretty innocent movie. Being a white girl from small-town Mississippi, she saw hip-hop culture as scary and threatening until we saw this movie together and it really changed her outlook.
Yeah, I like these movies unironically.*I think the first one especially has a nice, gritty quality that mixes interestingly with the dance numbers, and is just a fun (if cleaned up) look into a real subculture.*The leads are all really likable as well.*The sequel is definitely campier (there's one scene where there bad guys are watching the kids through a scope where I was worried it was gonna go full Targets; luckily that didn't happen), but I think it deserves better than to have been turned into a meme.*

[Fabulous]

The Fly (1958)

3

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/wpz62HFxCGaMX6jImELAspwqjT1.jpg

[Wooley]

The Fly (1958)

3

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/wpz62HFxCGaMX6jImELAspwqjT1.jpg

I sure do love this movie.
I actually prefer it, slightly, to the Cronenberg remake.
And I really like the Cronenberg remake.

[Hal O. Wiener]

Fender Bender (2016) 👍

The Scream Factory bluray has a really fun Retro VHS version of the film you can watch. Made me like the film even more. A must watch for '80s slasher fans.

[SpelingError]

I sure do love this movie.
I actually prefer it, slightly, to the Cronenberg remake.
And I really like the Cronenberg remake.

I watched the '58 version last October. While I like it quite a lot, I prefer Cronenberg's film by a decent margin.

[Nux]

https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kVPzxY8LMvg/VpDnqOREQ2I/AAAAAAABDx4/SQGTjKIH0WE/s1600/0the_tin_star.png
rating_4

https://movieassetsdigital.sgp1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/thumb/1edd334a6df6239e30932ecc11f4f408b3ad2913
rating_5 rewatch

https://mediamass.net/jdd/public/documents/entries/755.jpg
rating_3

https://www.rowthree.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Rio-Bravo-poster.jpg
rating_4_5 rewatch

[GulfportDoc]

70994
Slim Aarons: The High Life (2016)

If you're a fan of great still photography, you'll find this 68 minute bio-documentary of one of the biggest names in photography during the 20th Century very absorbing.

Slim early on got an inroad to the rich, famous, and movers & shakers, which allowed him the ability to take pictures of these important people-- willingly and candidly. The more great photos he took, the more people wanted him to ply his trade on them, and the more famous he became. They trusted his judgement and his refusal to tattle tale. His motto: "photographing attractive people doing attractive things in attractive places."

The photo above is entitled Poolside Gossip (1970), taken at the Kaufman Desert House in Palm Springs. He took scores of iconic photos, including the famous Kings of Hollywood (1957) which depicted Clark Gable, Van Heflin, Gary Cooper, and Jimmy Stewart positioned at a bar dressed in formal evening wear.

Toward the end of Aaron's career he sold his entire collection to Mark Getty (of Getty Images), so many of his pictures can be viewed there.

Interestingly the character of photographer Jeff Jeffries, played by Jimmy Stewart in Rear Window, was modeled after Aarons, and Jeffries' apartment was rumored to be designed from Aarons'.

Available on Amazon Prime.

Doc's rating: 8/10

[Takoma11]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cinematheque.fr%2Fcache%2Fmedia%2Fprogrammation%2Ffilms%2Fla-dixieme-symphonie-abel-gance%2Fs%2C725-a81f89.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

La Dixieme Symphonie, 1918

This film starts with a bang, literally, as a woman named Eve (Emmy Lynn) murders her lover's sister. That lover, Fred Ryce (Jean Toulout), then blackmails Eve with the threat of revealing her crime. Eve manages to pay off Fred in exchange for her freedom, and years later she is living with a loving husband and daughter, Claire. But when Claire falls for, you guessed it, Fred, Eve must decide what to do about the situation.

This was a unique viewing experience, as the film was available on YouTube but not with subtitles. All of the inter-titles were in their original French. So I watched the film with Google Translate open on my lap, quickly typing in the titles so that I could understand what was happening. Sometimes, as Fred's lines would reveal themselves I would be like "What . . . if . . . I call . . the . . . Courts-----OH WHAT A BASTARD!!".

Anyway, I liked this film overall. Fred is a wonderfully hateable villain. From his manipulations of Eve in the beginning to his underhanded courtship of Claire, it's an awesomely smarmy character. Something that I struggled with a bit was how to feel about Eve. Something I struggled to translate were the handwritten letters shown in the film, so it was unclear to me what Fred said that induced Eve to murder his sister. But aside from that, I was largely sympathetic to Eve. She doesn't want to get caught for her crime, and it pains her to keep a secret from her family.

The film is very impressionistic, and there are some really neat images throughout. When Fred realizes the power that he has over Eve, the film cuts to an image of a hand closing on a small bird. There are little touches like this throughout. The title of the film refers to a symphony that Eve's husband writes about how women are untrue after he comes to believe that Eve is cheating on him. There is a long sequence of him performing this piece and Eve's reaction to watching him.

I did think that the very ending of the film was a little weak. It wants to preserve the "purity" of the characters of Eve and Claire and I almost wish they had concluded the story a different way. I actually liked where the film was going with Claire, who pulls a gun on Fred and declares that she's not going to let him live to take on her father in a duel.

If you speak French you'll probably have an easier time of this than me. My only real complaint with it was that it seemed to move in stops and starts. It begins with such a stark and sordid sequence that some of the later domestic sequences feel a bit slow.

3.5

[edarsenal]

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CFw7IQ6fR1Q/UuPBmF2bDgI/AAAAAAAACmc/oQdcVUIoDJs/s1600/Checkpoint+Charlie+-+The+Spy+Who+Came+in+From+the+Cold+(1965).png

The Spy Who Came In From the Cold (1965) 4

Alec Leamas: What the hell do you think spies are? Moral philosophers measuring everything they do against the word of God or Karl Marx? They're not! They're just a bunch of seedy, squalid bastards like me: little men, drunkards, queers, henpecked husbands, civil servants playing cowboys and Indians to brighten their rotten little lives. Do you think they sit like monks in a cell, balancing right against wrong?

Though technically my second film of the new year, I want to thank Wyldesyde19 for recommending this Cold War spy flick starring Richard Burton.
I DO so love a good spy flick and this definitely fit the bill for me. A tense, taut film that gives nothing away as the twists and the counter-plays take you to the final realization of the bigger game board and who were the real pawns.

Definitely one I'll be rewatching, knowing the outcome so that I may appreciate the chess moves even more so.

[Gideon58]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/23/MoonBluePoster.jpg/220px-MoonBluePoster.jpg


2.5

[Nux]

https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/b4/9f/00679fb4_medium.jpg
rating_5 rewatch

[Takoma11]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2F2.bp.blogspot.com%2F-LBxvVFxu-6k%2FUkjVXTa43uI%2FAAAAAAAAbpw%2FtJU68lqKPNQ%2Fs1600%2FAshes%2BAnd%2BDiamonds%2B(1958)_020.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

Ashes and Diamonds, 1958

While I believe it is true that films can be appreciated even if you don't entirely understand their historical context, there are certainly moments when I watch a movie and can sense that my lack of historical knowledge is keeping me from a deeper level of understanding.

This film is set in Poland at the end of WW2. A group of Polish resistance (also called the Home Party) members lie in wait, preparing to assassinate an important member of the Polish communist party. Their brutal attack, however, only manages to kill two innocent men. When their target is due at a celebratory banquet, the men get another chance at their assassination. But events during the banquet threaten their sense of purpose.

I only have a superficial understanding of the tensions in Poland after the war, specifically the tensions between the Polish resistance and the Russian-backed communist party. But despite this surface-level understanding of the politics at play, the themes of this film come through very strongly. As one character bluntly puts it, "This is when we decide the future of Poland."

The image above is very striking, and the film is filled with others just like it. The lighting and shadows in particular are put to good use. At times the images used---such as a white horse that seemingly emerges from nowhere to stand behind a character--border on surreal. Crisp beams of light stream through windows and doors, and the architecture of the inn that hosts the banquet provides many interesting settings.

But the film also uses events that border on, well, not quite surrealism, but more like the universe testing the main characters. For example, the main resistance fighter that we follow is a man named Maciek. Constantly hiding behind his large sunglasses, Maciek seems like a cool and detached customer, until he comes to the hotel. On throwing open his room's window, he is greeted by a woman's screams. Across the street, through another open window, he listens to the laments of the fiance of one of the men he killed. Awkwardly trying to close the window and lower the shade (neither of which work all that well), it's clear that he is not as good at compartmentalizing as he'd like to think. And once he stumbles into something like love at first sight with a bartender at the hotel, the sunglasses come off.

There is another subplot in the film about a different member of the group, this one is offered a potentially high-ranking job in the government. In the course of the night, these men are given a glimpse of what life might be like without their rebellious actions. They must reckon with what they are giving up by continuing to be a part of the resistance. It's not to say that they no longer believe in their cause, but they must grapple with the cost of it. And not just the cost of not marrying or being wealthy, but the cost of taking life--sometimes innocent lives--and the guilt that follows them.

Wajda is a HUGE blindspot for me. (This might be the first film I've seen from him--eek!). But I really enjoyed it. It is a very somber film, and there is a heaviness that hangs over it. The performances and the style of it are very gripping. There were some conversations that I didn't entirely grasp and a few characters whose alliances I was not entirely clear on (especially distinguishing between the Russians and the members of the Communist party). But despite being a little lost at times, the central storyline and themes were crystal clear.

4.5

[Hal O. Wiener]

Joy Ride 👍

Decent thriller. Some really great scenes.

[Fabulous]

Romancing the Stone (1984)

3

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/fzxqMmnx5g7dN6QE5Ua8kmrwUBW.jpg

[xSookieStackhouse]

I saw this in the theater when it was released and I also loved it. Hell, even my mom kinda liked it as she was such a big fan of dance and it was also a pretty innocent movie. Being a white girl from small-town Mississippi, she saw hip-hop culture as scary and threatening until we saw this movie together and it really changed her outlook.

gosh really hope she watched the first one aswell and hope she listen the soundtrack aswell. that is really cool that shes changed cause the movie as amazing hip hop culture

[Fabulous]

Tender Mercies (1983)

4

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/grGDublEsfiwWq2MmtZSpHx58qN.jpg

[Wooley]

I watched the '58 version last October. While I like it quite a lot, I prefer Cronenberg's film by a decent margin.

To each their own.
I really liked, in the '58 version, how sad the whole thing is, how he transforms but is constantly trying to hide it from his wife because he doesn't want to break her heart. And then when she finds him, instead of running away, she does everything she can to help him. And then, with Vincent Price as his brother, those final sad moments and that brutal last scene.
I really do love what Cronenberg did with the idea, and I love everything about the remake, but the painful humanity of the original just really surprised me, especially for its time.

[Wooley]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2F2.bp.blogspot.com%2F-LBxvVFxu-6k%2FUkjVXTa43uI%2FAAAAAAAAbpw%2FtJU68lqKPNQ%2Fs1600%2FAshes%2BAnd%2BDiamonds%2B(1958)_020.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

Ashes and Diamonds, 1958
Wajda is a HUGE blindspot for me. (This might be the first film I've seen from him--eek!). But I really enjoyed it. It is a very somber film, and there is a heaviness that hangs over it. The performances and the style of it are very gripping. There were some conversations that I didn't entirely grasp and a few characters whose alliances I was not entirely clear on (especially distinguishing between the Russians and the members of the Communist party). But despite being a little lost at times, the central storyline and themes were crystal clear.

4.5

I've had this in my queue for a bit, your reaction makes me want to bump it up a ways.

[Wooley]

Tender Mercies (1983)

4

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/grGDublEsfiwWq2MmtZSpHx58qN.jpg

Mister, were you really Mac Sledge?
DuVall is a master.

[LChimp]

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/714O2retc6L._AC_SL1304_.jpg

Yeah,,, this movie is no bueno. Drags on for too long, main plot is a little confusing, action scenes are kinda meh, the villains are super shallow and even Gadot seems fed up with the whole thing, Yikes

[this_is_the_ girl]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fthefilmstage.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F09%2FIm-Thinking-of-Ending-Things.jpg&f=1&nofb=1
I'm Thinking of Ending Things (2020, Charlie Kaufman)
4.5
Wow, this is probably my favorite 2020 film of those I've yet had the pleasure to see. Such an unsettling, mysterious and intellectually stimulating tour-de-force - kept me glued to the screen from start to finish. Excellent acting by everybody involved. Very Lynchian in its psychological subtext (the meet-the-parents dinner sequence kinda reminded me of Eraserhead, with some Mulholland Drive-like vibes being felt here and there across the film).
Though I wasn't blown away by the ending, it was still very good, and that ballet sequence was very well done.
Fine, fine film.

[Thief]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2F2.bp.blogspot.com%2F-LBxvVFxu-6k%2FUkjVXTa43uI%2FAAAAAAAAbpw%2FtJU68lqKPNQ%2Fs1600%2FAshes%2BAnd%2BDiamonds%2B(1958)_020.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

Ashes and Diamonds, 1958

While I believe it is true that films can be appreciated even if you don't entirely understand their historical context, there are certainly moments when I watch a movie and can sense that my lack of historical knowledge is keeping me from a deeper level of understanding.

This film is set in Poland at the end of WW2. A group of Polish resistance (also called the Home Party) members lie in wait, preparing to assassinate an important member of the Polish communist party. Their brutal attack, however, only manages to kill two innocent men. When their target is due at a celebratory banquet, the men get another chance at their assassination. But events during the banquet threaten their sense of purpose.

I only have a superficial understanding of the tensions in Poland after the war, specifically the tensions between the Polish resistance and the Russian-backed communist party. But despite this surface-level understanding of the politics at play, the themes of this film come through very strongly. As one character bluntly puts it, "This is when we decide the future of Poland."

The image above is very striking, and the film is filled with others just like it. The lighting and shadows in particular are put to good use. At times the images used---such as a white horse that seemingly emerges from nowhere to stand behind a character--border on surreal. Crisp beams of light stream through windows and doors, and the architecture of the inn that hosts the banquet provides many interesting settings.

But the film also uses events that border on, well, not quite surrealism, but more like the universe testing the main characters. For example, the main resistance fighter that we follow is a man named Maciek. Constantly hiding behind his large sunglasses, Maciek seems like a cool and detached customer, until he comes to the hotel. On throwing open his room's window, he is greeted by a woman's screams. Across the street, through another open window, he listens to the laments of the fiance of one of the men he killed. Awkwardly trying to close the window and lower the shade (neither of which work all that well), it's clear that he is not as good at compartmentalizing as he'd like to think. And once he stumbles into something like love at first sight with a bartender at the hotel, the sunglasses come off.

There is another subplot in the film about a different member of the group, this one is offered a potentially high-ranking job in the government. In the course of the night, these men are given a glimpse of what life might be like without their rebellious actions. They must reckon with what they are giving up by continuing to be a part of the resistance. It's not to say that they no longer believe in their cause, but they must grapple with the cost of it. And not just the cost of not marrying or being wealthy, but the cost of taking life--sometimes innocent lives--and the guilt that follows them.

Wajda is a HUGE blindspot for me. (This might be the first film I've seen from him--eek!). But I really enjoyed it. It is a very somber film, and there is a heaviness that hangs over it. The performances and the style of it are very gripping. There were some conversations that I didn't entirely grasp and a few characters whose alliances I was not entirely clear on (especially distinguishing between the Russians and the members of the Communist party). But despite being a little lost at times, the central storyline and themes were crystal clear.

4.5

Base on that image alone, I want to see it

[Thief]

I sure do love this movie.
I actually prefer it, slightly, to the Cronenberg remake.
And I really like the Cronenberg remake.

I'm always torn between these two cause I find the original to be a bit more consistent from start to end, and the ending is creepy as hell, but I find the remake to be more emotionally affecting, even if the middle act drags a bit. I think based on the latter, I give a slight edge to the remake.

EDIT: I found a comparison I wrote about both years ago (click here (https://reelrundown.com/movies/Original-vs-Remake-The-Fly-1958-vs-The-Fly-1986)), but if you ask me now, I'd probably bump the rating on the original a notch.

[Iroquois]

Le Samourai - 4

had to dock points because at no point does he use a katana

[Whammy]

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=71025

I've put off watching this for a while thinking that both Arnold and Linda were too old for me to believe them in a serious action film but as it is now free on Prime, I figured I'd give it a shot. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I actually enjoyed Dark Fate. Only a few complaints; First, I didn't buy Mackenzie Davis as Grace. She is just so long and thin I can't believe her in the role, augmented or not. I think Davis would be more believable in the next awkward teen girl coming-of-age movie. Second, the scene where Sarah Connor meets the Terminator (Arnold) seemed way too forced. I get that she was mad and hurt and whatever but I just didn't believe that she actually felt those things. Maybe Hamilton's acting abilities have suffered through the years but I never believed that she felt anything rather it seemed like Sarah was putting on a show for the others benefit. Last, Dani Reyes fell into her badass leadership role way too fast, there wasn't nearly enough character development for that but I guess we needed more time for the lengthy action sequences. All-in-all, Terminator Dark Fate was a good watch, I liked the new terminator and Arnold's character was great. I enjoyed it despite of my complaints.

rating_4

[SpelingError]

I'm always torn between these two cause I find the original to be a bit more consistent from start to end, and the ending is creepy as hell, but I find the remake to be more emotionally affecting, even if the middle act drags a bit. I think based on the latter, I give a slight edge to the remake.

EDIT: I found a comparison I wrote about both years ago (click here (https://reelrundown.com/movies/Original-vs-Remake-The-Fly-1958-vs-The-Fly-1986)), but if you ask me now, I'd probably bump the rating on the original a notch.

I also found the remake to be more emotionally affecting. I appreciated how Brundle turning into a fly complicated not not only Veronica's relationship with him, but also her relationship with Stathis. Early on, him teasing her acted as a threat to their relationship and she initially tried to avoid him. The more Brundle changed, however, staying with Stathis increasingly became the better option, leading to her confiding in him. I found this to be an interesting shift concerning his character and I liked how they wrote it into the script. It gave an extra degree of emotional power to Brundle's and Veronica's relationship.

With the original, I liked the frame narrative quite a lot, but I also think that what Wooley is describing only occurrs during one stretch of the film. I remember the film taking a while to get past the opening act with them trying to sort out the mystery (I initially liked this act, but found it to drag on subsequent viewings) plus another decently long time to get to the actual "fly" scenes once the flashback segment started, which is, I believe, where the movie officially started. I found that sequence powerful, but a lot of the connective tissue doesn't mean much to me by comparison, save for the creepy web shot at the end.

[SpelingError]

Le Samourai - 4

had to dock points because at no point does he use a katana

That's a 10/10 film for me. Or, 5 to use this forum's rating system.

[Thief]

I also found the remake to be more emotionally affecting. I appreciated how Brundle turning into a fly complicated not not only Veronica's relationship with him, but also her relationship with Stathis. Early on, him teasing her acted as a threat to their relationship and she initially tried to avoid him. The more Brundle changed, however, staying with Stathis increasingly became the better option, leading to her confiding in him. I found this to be an interesting shift concerning his character and I liked how they wrote it into the script. It gave an extra degree of emotional power to Brundle's and Veronica's relationship.


The Stathis' character is another one of my minor quibbles with the remake. I don't think he was handled properly. The script makes an effort to turn him into a "light antagonist" during the first two acts, but in the last act, he's probably the one with the most common sense. They could've had a more balanced character and ultimately a better effect in the end.

With the original, I liked the frame narrative quite a lot, but I also think that what Wooley is describing only occurrs during one stretch of the film. I remember the film taking a while to get past the opening act with them trying to sort out the mystery (I initially liked this act, but found it to drag on subsequent viewings) plus another decently long time to get to the actual "fly" scenes once the flashback segment started, which is, I believe, where the movie officially started. I found that sequence powerful, but a lot of the connective tissue doesn't mean much to me by comparison, save for the creepy web shot at the end.

I think that a lot of it lies in audience's knowing "the twist". The way the film is constructed, we're not meant to know that he's fused with the fly, at least the way that he is. But now, 60+ (60!) years after, everybody knows it, everybody's seen the image of the body with the head of the fly. I think that seeing it without knowing what exactly happened in the laboratory, the slow reveal could've worked way better.

[SpelingError]

The Stathis' character is another one of my minor quibbles with the remake. I don't think he was handled properly. The script makes an effort to turn him into a "light antagonist" during the first two acts, but in the last act, he's probably the one with the most common sense. They could've had a more balanced character and ultimately a better effect in the end.

I hear you, but he personally worked well enough for me. I liked how, once the situation spiraled out of control, Veronica had no choice but to confide in him, making Brundle's and Veronica's relationship more tragic given the impact the fly incident had on their relationship. It also helped to make Brundle's breakdown in the final act all the more believable.

I think that a lot of it lies in audience's knowing "the twist". The way the film is constructed, we're not meant to know that he's fused with the fly, at least the way that he is. But now, 60+ (60!) years after, everybody knows it, everybody's seen the image of the body with the head of the fly. I think that seeing it without knowing what exactly happened in the laboratory, the slow reveal could've worked way better.

Yeah, I think there was definitely an element of mystery with the film when it was first released. I imagine I would've liked the film better if I went in completely blind. I did appreciate the first act somewhat when I first saw it, but when I rewatched the remake, it dragged for me.

[Wooley]

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/714O2retc6L._AC_SL1304_.jpg

Yeah,,, this movie is no bueno. Drags on for too long, main plot is a little confusing, action scenes are kinda meh, the villains are super shallow and even Gadot seems fed up with the whole thing, Yikes

Agreed.
As I've often said (on previous forums and at least once here), I frequently have more to say about bad movies than good ones as I think the bad ones can be almost MORE instructive. And I think I could say a LOT about the ways in which WW84 is bad, many of them having to do with obvious studio interference and WB/DCs inability to relax and let a good script matriculate and not try to cram everything they think focus-groups might want into every movie... but then I thought, "Why would I bother with a throwaway like this?"