Rate The Last Movie You Saw

[Stirchley]

83505

Re-watch just to see McQueen & MacGraw together.

[Wooley]

Deborah Kerr also received seven nominations and never won.

Stahhp!

[Wooley]

83505

Re-watch just to see McQueen & MacGraw together.

I do like watching Steve McQueen steal another man's wife. ;)

[Wooley]

Deborah Kerr also received seven nominations and never won.

Glenn Close and Peter O'Toole received eight and never won.

Why you be like this?

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71ZknIKLO9L._AC_SX466_.jpg


3.5

[Stirchley]

I do like watching Steve McQueen steal another man's wife. ;)

In her biography, MacGraw clearly states that when she first saw McQueen at a screening of “Bullitt” she knew she would do anything to be with him (in words to that effect as too lazy to get the book from my home library & check).

You could also posit that MacGraw stole another woman’s husband.

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b2/The_Florida_Project.jpg
By Studio and or Graphic Artist - [1], Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=54060084

The Florida Project - (2017)

I had initial disquieting rumblings when I started watching The Florida Project, the first 10 minutes kind of making me apprehensive. I didn't want our attention completely swallowed by the little kids just playing around and enjoying themselves. This didn't feel like a movie. By the end I had been completely won over - our attention remained with the kids, but it was the terrible effect the adults in this film were having on them that created something pretty profound and moving. I'd call that something clever and unique, making this film stand out. Rarely do you get something from such a different perspective. Willem Dafoe I have a lot of respect for in the varying parts he plays - like a man who never wants to get comfortable acting, and always wants to challenge himself some way. I haven't seen any of Sean Baker's films before, but if I go by this one I feel compelled to see quite a few more.

9/10

[mark f]

Three Women (Ernst Lubitsch, 1924) 2.5 5.5/10 70 min
Panic (John Gilling, 1963) 2 5/10
4 for Texas (Robert Aldrich, 1963) 2.5 5.5/10
The French Dispatch (Wes Anderson, 2021) 3.5 7/10
https://64.media.tumblr.com/f5b23cd4788fe4e71eee0aa33cc1dd40/4a41ae6eaa893de1-78/s540x810/748daf5d56094740b48e8dd31eed0507840ad86f.gifv
It's [not really] surprising what people will do to make/stop art or get a newspaper story about it.
The Invisible Menace (John Farrow, 1938) 2 5/10
They Drive by Night (Raoul Walsh, 1940) 2.5 6/10
The Big Punch (Sherry Shourds, 1948) 2+ 5/10
Klaus (Sergio Pablos & Carlos Martínez López, 2019) 3.5 7/10
https://66.media.tumblr.com/fc011da3582f99e2b2d67cf5a96fc0b0/a1dd717fc30d1110-fb/s500x750/b7b3bed317f00a7117771a694892315db848d1ac.gif
Toymaker Klaus and a spoiled rich kid team up to bring a whole village, especially the children, to life.
The War of the Robots (Al Bradly [Alfonso Brescia], 1978) 1 3/10
The Hand of God (Paolo Sorrentino, 2019) 3+ 6.5/10
Dead Asleep (Skye Borgman, 2021) 2.5+ 6/10
Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America (Emily Kunstler & Sarah Kunstler, 2021) 3.5- 7/10
https://d1nslcd7m2225b.cloudfront.net/Pictures/480xany/9/9/0/1342990_whoweare_25046.jpeg
Lawyer Jeffery Robinson provides plenty of historical facts and personal experiences to support the idea that the Confederacy is alive and well and even supported by the U.S. Federal government.
The Wild North (Andrew Marton, 1952) 2.5 6/10
Sauvage / Wild (Camille Vidal-Naquet, 2018) 2 5/10
The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (Mark Robson, 1958) 3- 6.5/10
Rumble (Hamish Grieve, 2021) 2.5+ 6/10
https://media0.giphy.com/media/Y3RnrQD3pQZahVaHuv/giphy.gif?cid=790b761111ffd1bc66dbdb1c3c9a18e13139d6c662670274&rid=giphy.gif&ct=g
Arrogant world champ of Monster Wrestling eventually has to take on the son of a former champ.
Ali in Wonderland (Djouhra Abouda & Alain Bonnamy, 1975) 2.5 6/10
The Ice Follies of 1939 (Reinhold Schünzel, 1939) 2+ 5/10
Fourteen (Dan Sallitt, 2019) 2.5+ 6/10
Voyage of Time: The IMAX Experience (Terrence Malick, 2016) 3.5 7/10
https://ic-cdn.flipboard.com/mubicdn.net/2cd3db8658a8d3ccd86cf37b4a4c62a1cb26b6ea/_medium.jpeg
Spectacular imagery often recalls The Tree of Life.

[Captain Terror]

83523

The Trygon Factor (1966)

This one was fun. Based on an Edgar Wallace story, featuring murders and bank robberies and double crosses and multiple nuns being punched and groovy set designs and a jazzy soundtrack. And our hero is a middle-aged, white-haired detective who inexplicably has beautiful women throwing themselves at him at every turn.

83522

4

[WHITBISSELL!]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b2/The_Florida_Project.jpg
By Studio and or Graphic Artist - [1], Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=54060084

The Florida Project - (2017)

I had initial disquieting rumblings when I started watching The Florida Project, the first 10 minutes kind of making me apprehensive. I didn't want our attention completely swallowed by the little kids just playing around and enjoying themselves. This didn't feel like a movie. By the end I had been completely won over - our attention remained with the kids, but it was the terrible effect the adults in this film were having on them that created something pretty profound and moving. I'd call that something clever and unique, making this film stand out. Rarely do you get something from such a different perspective. Willem Dafoe I have a lot of respect for in the varying parts he plays - like a man who never wants to get comfortable acting, and always wants to challenge himself some way. I haven't seen any of Sean Baker's films before, but if I go by this one I feel compelled to see quite a few more.

9/10
Agreed on all counts. You should check out the trailer for his newest one, Red Rocket. Looks good.

[Fabulous]

Wonder Wheel (2017)

3.5

https://www.themoviedb.org/t/p/original/foz058V9rxNlRjpWTst2rTeinmV.jpg

[Gideon58]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b2/The_Florida_Project.jpg
By Studio and or Graphic Artist - [1], Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=54060084

The Florida Project - (2017)

I had initial disquieting rumblings when I started watching The Florida Project, the first 10 minutes kind of making me apprehensive. I didn't want our attention completely swallowed by the little kids just playing around and enjoying themselves. This didn't feel like a movie. By the end I had been completely won over - our attention remained with the kids, but it was the terrible effect the adults in this film were having on them that created something pretty profound and moving. I'd call that something clever and unique, making this film stand out. Rarely do you get something from such a different perspective. Willem Dafoe I have a lot of respect for in the varying parts he plays - like a man who never wants to get comfortable acting, and always wants to challenge himself some way. I haven't seen any of Sean Baker's films before, but if I go by this one I feel compelled to see quite a few more.

9/10


One of the most underrated films of 2017 and I totally agree with what you said about Willem Dafoe. Did you see him as Van Gogh in At Eternity's Gate...amazing performance.

[Wooley]

In her biography, MacGraw clearly states that when she first saw McQueen at a screening of “Bullitt” she knew she would do anything to be with him (in words to that effect as too lazy to get the book from my home library & check).

You could also posit that MacGraw stole another woman’s husband.

I didn't read her biography but I did read her husband's, producer Robert Evans, and man was he hurt by it. He loved her, he never saw it coming, and he was devastated, at least per his report.

[CharlesAoup]

Exists, 2014 (F)

A found footage movie about bigfoot.

Straight up one of the worst movies I've ever seen. Like, top 2. Every 20 minutes, you feel like an hour has passed. I'm never one to root for the monster, and I don't here because the monster is crazy stupid, but every guy in that movie deserved to die, and the women are only there to scream. The camerawork is edited like garbage, and isn't even entirely found footage. There's a scene where a pig gets in the cabin, and for that total non-event, you get about 15 cuts in 10 seconds.

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMDZmMGY0ZGItNjQyNC00MTFkLTk2NDctMGU1YTZkMzk2YTEwXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTEyMjM2NDc2._V1_FMjpg_UX1000_.j pg

4.5

[GulfportDoc]

Thelma Ritter didn't win an Oscar for Pick Up on South Street...she was nominated but didn't win. Ritter was nominated for seven Oscars, but never won.
Right you are. Donna Reed won it that year for From Here to Eternity.

[ueno_station54]

https://www.cageyfilms.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/el-sur_01.jpg
El sur (1983, Victor Erice)
4

[GulfportDoc]

The Father (2020)

rating_4

https://www.themoviedb.org/t/p/original/5d8xwMJa5HV6vaNaZWj4V78dqzz.jpg
One of the best films of the 21st Century:


The Father

It’s hard to recall in many years ever having been so taken by a film. It’s production brought together heavyweights in each aspect of movie making: writer, director, actors, cinematographer, editor, and composer. Their collaboration resulted in an astonishing and unique portrayal of an old man’s descent into dementia, his daughter’s journey in living with him, and its outcome.

Anthony Hopkins, in one of his greatest performances, introduces us into the mind of a gentleman who does not quite realize that his mind is failing, or what his circumstances are. He shows us every emotion-- sometimes overtly, others with nuance. The story disguises itself by presenting his awareness from several points of view, although the audience does not realize it at first, which introduces a feel of mystery and mild surrealism. Each perception melds together in the end, leading to a moving but sympathetic conclusion.

So too does Olivia Colman --as the daughter-- let out all the stops. Her large limpid eyes express her innermost thoughts, and lead us through sadness, irony, and determination. She is the perfect accompaniment to her father’s befuddlement and confabulation. Olivia Williams shines as a compassionate nurse, and Imogene Poots impresses as an in-home care worker. The veteran Rufus Sewell is believable as the daughter’s mate who tries to convince her to put her father in a home.

Reportedly French writer/director Florian Zeller had Anthony Hopkins directly in mind as Zeller was writing the screenplay-- so much so that he stated that if Hopkins did not accept the role, Zeller would have made the film in the French language. We are grateful that Hopkins accepted. There simply was not a better acting performance that year, and he certainly deserved the Best Actor Oscar win.

The production was instantly absorbing, and drew me in with concentration to the point that when it ended I felt as if I came to. Everything and everybody came together perfectly in this film, and it will be one for the ages.

Rating: 10/10

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/73/Night_Generals.jpg
Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15892064


The Night of the Generals - (1967)

I've been aware of this film for decades, but just lately developed a curiosity about it. It has a very odd confluence of plots - the first being just a regular hunt for a serial killer, the other being the plot to kill Hitler that filmgoers will be familiar with in the film Valkyrie. If you're wondering how the hell those two things can converge, then you're starting to understand my curiosity. The second thing that stands out is the stellar cast, which includes Peter O'Toole, Omar Sharif, Charles Gray, Christopher Plummer, Philippe Noiret and Donald Pleasence. It spans the years 1942 to 1965 and we go from Warsaw to Paris to Hamburg in search of someone killing and mutilating prostitutes who is suspecting of being (and having been) a German general during the Second World War. Major Grau (Omar Sharif) begins his hunt after it's revealed that the first murdered prostitute was actually a German agent.

There's an obvious parallel and problem inherent in hunting down a German General for murder : the fact that these Generals are murdering thousands of people all across Europe, often with barbaric methods, and with the full encouragement of their government. Many characters question why Major Grau is so determined to prosecute someone for one or two murders as opposed to countless others. "Justice" is something sacred to Grau - but what of justice for all of the others? I guess that's the question to ponder with The Night of the Generals - there does seem to be a three-way distinction made with the three General suspects in the film, played by Gray, Pleasence and O'Toole. One is a man of honor, one a man of dishonor and the other an outright murderer. It was an interesting film, and I'm glad I watched it. Although at times I thought it might have originally been in a foreign language (it wasn't - the dubbing was just a tad off) and the acting a bit stilted in a few cases. Still a heck of a story.

7/10

One of the most underrated films of 2017 and I totally agree with what you said about Willem Dafoe. Did you see him as Van Gogh in At Eternity's Gate...amazing performance.

Yes, he was brilliant in At Eternity's Gate - it was a performance which raised him a level higher in my book as an actor, and he'd already been on the up-and-up with me for a long time up to that point. He's forging a rarified place with the real greats.

[ueno_station54]

https://timespacewarps.files.wordpress.com/2020/10/screenshot-200.jpg
Caravaggio (1986, Derek Jarman)
4

[Fabulous]

Hardcore Henry (2015)

3.5

https://www.themoviedb.org/t/p/original/d1c94ACrC4NwiG989bIk2fp4miR.jpg

[Hey Fredrick]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Flh3.ggpht.com%2FZSftBAoMenPMNmRAENBtfUlNELTsXPvFUZrhkbOlrk4u8oLmVA9NgpYYQL1HwwYpDmz N%3Dw400-h600&f=1&nofb=1


Have had this on some kind of watch list for probably close to a decade. Story of a family who REALLY love the city they live in. Was completely unaware of how many iconic songs were going to be in this and they are all great. Wasn't as wrapped up in all the family drama as much as I liked the songs but I still enjoyed it quite a bit. rating_4

[chawhee]

On These Grounds (2021)
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/z2TIkgz1IQ4/sddefault.jpg
4
Terrific documentary about current state of policing in schools. Though it approaches the subject through a specific incident in South Carolina, it ultimately broadens the conversation to how the entire nation needs to learn from this. Both sides of the argument (less or more policing) are presented well, so even if you stand relatively firmly on one side of the debate, you will likely learn something here.

[matt72582]

Louis CK: Sorry - 7.5/10


I refuse to watch a stand-up comedian who masturbates, but I'll make an exception for him.


I just left the "comedy" message board, and I've never seen more pious liars, saying things they don't believe in, because they think they're SUPPOSED to say it.. I've evaluated their comments, and it's ironic how they "change" along with the corporate approved line void of artistic license.


Not a great start (pedophilia), but COVID was good (the one thing that brought us together).. I especially loved the bits about those who write their own movies (Matt Damon in "Good Will Hunting"), death, progressive generation, sex, and a great bit about guilt (seeing a black women over-evaluating bananas... "I could never ask my black friends who come if they want a banana"), and the mentioning a Jew doing the same thing, comparing Jews in America, and then asking, "But in Palestine, they're just killing people left and right"..



Not surprised this isn't on IMDB. Even though it's not great, I hope it makes a billion dollars so the liars die by choking on their crocodile tears.





https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0088/8887/7156/products/sorrydvd_540x.png?v=1639335704

[GulfportDoc]

83557
The Power of the Dog (2021)

If one is familiar with the Biblical quote: “Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog” (Psalm 22:20), or pays attention to the singular pertinent opening voice-over, then the ending twist in The Power of the Dog has been suggested.

Two brothers who own a Montana ranch --Phil (Benedict Cumberbatch), an intense and scruffy bully; and George (Jesse Plemons), the shy, mannered business tender of the ranch-- have a monkey wrench thrown into their well worn relationship when George falls for, and marries the widow Rose Gordon (Kirsten Dunst) who owns a frontier restaurant that is visited by the brothers and ranch hands during a cattle drive. George soon falls for and marries Rose, and brings her and her effeminate son, Peter (Kodi Smit-McPhee) home to the ranch.

Phil immediately resents Rose, and commences to try to ridicule and intimidate her. George is often away on business trips, leaving frequent opportunities for Phil to browbeat Rose. In addition both Phil and the ranch hands taunt Peter’s effeminate manor, activities, and clothes, although Peter seems content to ignore it. As a result of her predicament Rose takes to the bottle, and spends more time sheltered away in her bedroom.

However after awhile Phil suddenly takes an interest in Peter to the extent that he sets about showing him the ways of a cowboy in the manor that Phil learned from his deceased hero, Bronco Henry. Peter does learn to ride and wrangle, and takes some ranch survey trips with Phil. However Rose is suspicious and fearful that Phil has harmful intentions for Peter. Nevertheless her anxiety turns out to be unnecessary as the drama rolls into the final act.

To my taste the production excelled over the story. The facets that struck me most were the set design, costume design, and the cinematography of Ari Wegner. The picture didn’t quite rise to the epic level that the producers likely had in mind. Slow pacing in itself does not enhance nor promote majesty. Outside of the use of sweeping vistas and one scene of a large cattle drive, the picture was too confined to be a broad saga.

In truth the film has a similar atmosphere to There Will Be Blood (2007). There was the same underlying feel of dread and tension which was enhanced by Johnny Greenwood’s unusual musical score, who likewise scored TWBB. Also Phil’s character was reminiscent of Daniel Day-Lewis’ Daniel Plainview in that picture. In fact I’d love to have seen Day-Lewis in Phil’s part. He would have been more consistent and believable portraying a flaky bully who tries to wreck a marriage. Cumberbatch’s previous memorable portrayals of various dandies, homosexuals, tortured scientists, and the like were a negative drag on his believability in this part. He could have used more swagger in this role.

Kirsten Dunst was superb as the wife thrust into the middle of an emotional triangle, who is not able to bear the pressure or to change her situation. That it’s not possible for a teetotalling innkeeper to degenerate into a closet alcoholic in a few week’s time does not detract from Dunst’s excellent portrayal. We can feel her anguish as she’s thrust into an impossible conflict.

Likewise Jesse Plemons provided solid and believable work representing the brother who does not like confrontation, who just wants everything to work out, and who believes that his wife is much stronger than she is. Kodi Smit-McPhee shines as Peter, the delicate son who prefers art and the study of medicine. One of the important focus points in the story, he turns out to be different than we expect.

I haven’t read the 1967 book by Thomas Savage, so it’s unknown how closely screenwriter/director Jane Campion stuck to it. The themes that were featured in the book that were fresh in 1967 are actually somewhat trite in 2021, and seemed relatively familiar. Still, it must have been a complex project to distill a lengthy novel down to a two hour film. Campion chose her home country of New Zealand to represent Montana, which visually served the movie well. Her work doesn’t quite carry the punch of her Oscar winning The Piano (1993), but here her efforts have fashioned a watchable if not memorable film which will surely attract some awards.

Available on Netfilx.

Doc’s rating: 7/10

[Raven73]

Spider-Man: No Way Home
8/10.
I really enjoyed it....not so much intellectually, but emotionally so. This third installment in the franchise is definitely different: it is not as light, fun and quirky as the previous two Home movies... it is as dramatic as Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy. This movie is way over the top. But I think fans of the Home franchise will like No Way Home, and I assume if you're going to see a third movie in the franchise, you'd be a fan. Fans of Dr. Strange (2016) should love this movie.
I totally geeked-out when Andrew Garfield and Toby McGuire showed up! I'm amazed at how well they kept it secret. Thank you, Marvel and Sony!https://i1.wp.com/www.artofvfx.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/spiderman_no_way_home_ver2_xlg.jpg?ssl=1

[Citizen Rules]

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=83558
Dragnet (1954)
Dir: Jack Webb

The first movie to be made from a TV series. I don't really remember the Dragnet TV series except is was always on TV...this movie directed by the star Jack Webb (Sergeant Joe Friday) could be described as a feature length, color version of the TV show...only I believe the TV show had it's own quirks and charms and this was dull. I have nothing else to say as it was dull.
rating_2_5

[ThatDarnMKS]

I’ve watched a few more westerns:

Dances with Wolves: I’d not seen this since childhood and certainly not the 4 hour cut. For such a long movie, it certainly moves along gracefully and is executed with a deft hand behind and in front of the camera. It’s a sweeping epic whose white savior narrative isn’t quite as problematic as I’d been led to believer, given how much of the climax is an inverse of that dynamic. I’d go so far as too say it is both very good but far too long. Only a great film truly earns such a length but it’s still far more economical and effective than most modern TV series, which require at leas twice the time to accomplish half as much.

4/5

Rio Grande: A solid Ford/Wayne collaboration which is elevated by the family dynamic as Wayne plays an absentee military father whose son has been placed under his command. The stunt work is also quality and keeps it worth watching even when the narrative ultimately amounts to the same Cavalry vs. Apache tale Ford would tell many other times.

3.5/5

Chisum: Another Pat Garrett/Billy the Kid reimagining but it forgoes the usual assassination in favor of an earlier story in their lives. It’s pretty to look at, entertaining enough and John Wayne is at that point where he’s phoning it in but as become competent at his character so it still works.

3.5/5

Will Penny: Comes extremely close to being a realistic masterpiece of revisionist western and is likely Heston’s finest hour as a performer. The only reason it doesn’t reach a peak height comes from an unlikely source: the villains played brilliantly by Donald Pleasance and Bruce Dern. They would be utterly fantastic in a classic styled or even spaghetti western, but they feel garishly and comically at odds with the tone and style of the rest of the film.

4/5

Forty Guns: An odd reimagining of Wyatt Earp in Tombstone in which they postulate… What if Wyatt Earp was named Griff and the evil head honcho was actually woman he’d fallen in love with played by Barbara Stanwyck. It’s the kind of flagrant disregard for history that can result with a mess like the Outlaw but it the hands of Samuel Fuller’s sure hand, it becomes movie magic. Virtually every scene is a masterpiece of mise-en-scene, expertly filling the wide frame gorgeous high contrast imagery and gliding camera movement. There’s even an exceptional 3 min long take and close up of eyes that feel like precursors to Leone’s genre defining spaghetti westerns. Fantastic filmmaking elevating a merely decent narrative to pure cinema heights.

4.5/5

El Dorado: Another hangout western in the mold of the superior Rio Bravo, swapping Dean Martin and Ricky Nelson with the admittedly impressive Robert Mitchum and James Caan. It’s got a fun and twisty plot, a lot of vibrant imagery and a bombastic score courtesy of Nelson Riddle (of Lolita and Batman ‘66 fame). Solid genre fare.

4/5

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/76/We_Own_The_Night_poster.jpg
Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12798016

We Own the Night - (2007)

I found plenty to like about We Own the Night despite it garnering mixed reviews when it was released. I sought it out because I wanted to see all of the films James Gray has directed thus far, I loved The Lost City of Z and Ad Astra really won me over in the end - so I've gone back and found a well-acted cop drama/thriller with some really nice set-pieces. It takes place in New York during the 1980s, with Russian gangsters just starting to assert control over the drug trade. Two brothers, one a narcotics officer, the other a nightclub manager are at opposite ends of the spectrum - which causes their police officer father Burt (played by Robert Duvall) the usual grief. The brothers are played by Joaquin Phoenix (Bobby) and Mark Wahlberg (Joe) - Wahlberg having to tone down his usual forceful persona at a certain point, due to a trauma he goes through, and Phoenix undergoing a severe life turn-about due to events in the film. Eva Mendes appears as Bobby's girlfriend.

The film explores duty, (to your family - your friends - or the community) loyalty and bravery. It hits great heights with a terrific rain-swept car chase and shootouts, but it's main focus is it's characters - especially Bobby who undergoes a gradual change from start to end, from black sheep of the family and goof-off to something of a protector and savior. It's his presence we're drawn to and he gives the film most of it's dramatic impact. Eva Mendes really comes to the party as well, in a role that in another's hands might have been more forgettable - she's dynamic and very much alive. There's enough here to classify this as a good film that's worth watching.

The car chase (warning - major spoiler) :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ops4-5PIrTI

7/10

[WHITBISSELL!]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/76/We_Own_The_Night_poster.jpg
Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12798016

We Own the Night - (2007)

I found plenty to like about We Own the Night despite it garnering mixed reviews when it was released. I sought it out because I wanted to see all of the films James Gray has directed thus far, I loved The Lost City of Z and Ad Astra really won me over in the end - so I've gone back and found a well-acted cop drama/thriller with some really nice set-pieces. It takes place in New York during the 1980s, with Russian gangsters just starting to assert control over the drug trade. Two brothers, one a narcotics officer, the other a nightclub manager are at opposite ends of the spectrum - which causes their police officer father Burt (played by Robert Duvall) the usual grief. The brothers are played by Joaquin Phoenix (Bobby) and Mark Wahlberg (Joe) - Wahlberg having to tone down his usual forceful persona at a certain point, due to a trauma he goes through, and Phoenix undergoing a severe life turn-about due to events in the film. Eva Mendes appears as Bobby's girlfriend.

The film explores duty, (to your family - your friends - or the community) loyalty and bravery. It hits great heights with a terrific rain-swept car chase and shootouts, but it's main focus is it's characters - especially Bobby who undergoes a gradual change from start to end, from black sheep of the family and goof-off to something of a protector and savior. It's his presence we're drawn to and he gives the film most of it's dramatic impact. Eva Mendes really comes to the party as well, in a role that in another's hands might have been more forgettable - she's dynamic and very much alive. There's enough here to classify this as a good film that's worth watching.


7/10Really liked this as well. I started it with no great expectations but found myself drawn in. Great performances by Phoenix and Duvall and Wahlberg. This is high on my list of NYC based cop movies.

P.S. I award extra points for any nightclub scene with Heart of Glass playing in the background.

[themarkwilkinson]

I just saw citizen kane for our movie class it was a 10/10 theeen I recently watched spiderman no way home on our nearest theater, another 10/10 for me hehe

[xSookieStackhouse]

I just saw citizen kane for our movie class it was a 10/10 theeen I recently watched spiderman no way home on our nearest theater, another 10/10 for me hehe
hope u watched dr strange 2 trailer after the credits

[Fabulous]

Bad Words (2013)

3.5

https://www.themoviedb.org/t/p/original/8k4RMVFTGQugzNPSnQUYiiuccf9.jpg

[Hey Fredrick]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2F1.bp.blogspot.com%2F-tcQZtH87Chw%2FVqoSFIM-68I%2FAAAAAAAAZpA%2FTtaUU0YIvA8%2Fs1600%2FRope1.jpg&f=1&nofb=1


Kind of have the same feeling I did after finally watching Strangers on a Train...why did I wait so long to watch it? Might have been a case of right type of movie for the mood I was in but I thought this was very good. Two guys kill their classmate, stick him in a trunk then serve refreshments off the trunk at the evening dinner party. It's a shorter movie, dialogue heavy and very play like which is what I was in the mood for. Solid rating_4

[Torgo]

Censor - 4

This is an unsettling little horror movie that explores the nature of the genre. Enid, a lonely Englishwoman who holds the titular profession, is assigned a movie, the fictional Don’t Go Into the Church, that really should have been given to someone else. This is because it reopens an old wound involving her sister, Nina, who has been missing since childhood. It rekindles her desire to find out what happened to her, and the more she searches for her whereabouts and thinks about Church, the more she loses touch with reality.

Setting the movie during the Thatcher years is an apt choice for how the PM's scapegoats for the U.K.'s problems mirror those who do the same for the era’s extreme horror flicks like Don’t Go Into the Church, commonly referred to as "video nasties." It helps that the production design and touches like changing the aspect ratio to one found in such movies captures the '80s so well. The touch-tone phones and boxy TVs are definitely my favorite touches. I also like the many ways the movie asks if horror is to blame for the country's crime wave or if it's merely a reflection of it. The highlight is a subplot involving a murderer whose method of killing resembles one in another movie Enid watched. Speaking of Enid, Niamh Algar does a great job at capturing her understandable coldness and unwillingness to connect with others, but it's Michael Smiley's turn as a sleazy producer who gave my favorite performance. It also goes along with another theme the movie explores for both laughs and cringe: how patriarchal and full of mansplainers the industry is.

Is this movie just a vehicle for a bunch of commentary? Definitely not. It's just as unsettling as it is mind-bending for how it makes you question what's real and what's imaginary as much as Enid does. I've seen several movies about people who makes discoveries in their jobs that throw their lives into chaos from Blow Out to The Final Cut and this one is neither the best nor does anything that novel with the formula. I still highly recommend it, especially if the last season of The Crown didn’t get every last bit of Thatcher hatewatching out of your system.

[matt72582]

Phil Ochs: There But For Fortune - 8/10


Always loved his songs, but he was just as interesting. Only wish there were more interviews of him. I HIGHLY recommend this.



https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/50/Ochs-ThereButForFortune.jpg

[Marco]

The War Below (2021)
https://scontent.fbhx1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/p640x640/243821007_383192526537811_1559733251201273881_n.jpg?_nc_cat=107&ccb=1-5&_nc_sid=e3f864&_nc_ohc=LPvVOPfy-4EAX-3up2M&_nc_ht=scontent.fbhx1-1.fna&oh=00_AT83Bs9ECLu8oEVb9luANkL2WeDysnI1HAOx0l2GGld-oQ&oe=61C66F7F
This is the story about normal guys dragged into duty in the 1st WW to tunnel to the opponents strongholds when the war was looking like a stalemate. It's very effective and the actors all do well, particularly Sam Hazeldine as the "gaffer/chargehand". Had a few glassy eyed moments at this.....

4

[Gideon58]

One of the best films of the 21st Century:


The Father

It’s hard to recall in many years ever having been so taken by a film. It’s production brought together heavyweights in each aspect of movie making: writer, director, actors, cinematographer, editor, and composer. Their collaboration resulted in an astonishing and unique portrayal of an old man’s descent into dementia, his daughter’s journey in living with him, and its outcome.

Anthony Hopkins, in one of his greatest performances, introduces us into the mind of a gentleman who does not quite realize that his mind is failing, or what his circumstances are. He shows us every emotion-- sometimes overtly, others with nuance. The story disguises itself by presenting his awareness from several points of view, although the audience does not realize it at first, which introduces a feel of mystery and mild surrealism. Each perception melds together in the end, leading to a moving but sympathetic conclusion.

So too does Olivia Colman --as the daughter-- let out all the stops. Her large limpid eyes express her innermost thoughts, and lead us through sadness, irony, and determination. She is the perfect accompaniment to her father’s befuddlement and confabulation. Olivia Williams shines as a compassionate nurse, and Imogene Poots impresses as an in-home care worker. The veteran Rufus Sewell is believable as the daughter’s mate who tries to convince her to put her father in a home.

Reportedly French writer/director Florian Zeller had Anthony Hopkins directly in mind as Zeller was writing the screenplay-- so much so that he stated that if Hopkins did not accept the role, Zeller would have made the film in the French language. We are grateful that Hopkins accepted. There simply was not a better acting performance that year, and he certainly deserved the Best Actor Oscar win.

The production was instantly absorbing, and drew me in with concentration to the point that when it ended I felt as if I came to. Everything and everybody came together perfectly in this film, and it will be one for the ages.

Rating: 10/10


Agree with everything you've said here...this film was amazing and so was Hopkins.

[nemo]

The hand of god https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12680684/


It was oke 6.5/10 the half point is cause of a hilarious scene on the boot ...

[Gideon58]

https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/som.jpeg

Umpteenth Re-watch...What can I Say? It was rebroadcast on ABC last night and I couldn't help but watch. I found myself just as enraptured by this film as I was the first time I saw it at the age of seven. Of course, seeing it now, I see a lot more going on here than the magic that is Julie Andrews. Robert Wise's direction is on the money and the Oscar he won for it is richly deserved. Watch the first scene at the captain's dinner table or when the Baroness manipulates Maria into leaving after the party or the scene where the Captain informs the children he's going to marry the governess...there's a solid directorial touch to those scenes. And speaking of the Baroness, I think Eleanor Parker was totally robbed of a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for her icy performance as the Baroness. Parker's performance is perfection...you just want to punch her in the face when she tells Maria she'll make a very fine nun. On the other hand, I think Charmain Carr is dreadful as Leisl, a performance akin to nails on the chalkboard. The film lost a couple of points years later when I learned that the singing voices of Christopher Plummer, Peggy Wood, Anna Lee, and the Von Trapp children were all dubbed (I always thought that was a lot of sound coming out of seven children). The film does still provide solid entertainment and it's no accident that it was the largest grossing musical in box office history until Grease. 4.5

[Allaby]

I saw Spider-Man: No Way Home today. (no spoilers) It was pretty terrific. It was fast paced, fun, and entertaining, with lots of humour and heart. A very satisfying film that delivers. I would say that Spider-Man: No Way Home is the best of all the Spiderman movies and one of the top 10 superpeople movies ever. I would rank it as the 8th best film of the year and rate it a 4.5

[Stirchley]

Umpteenth Re-watch...What can I Say? It was rebroadcast on ABC last night and I couldn't help but watch. I found myself just as enraptured by this film as I was the first time I saw it at the age of seven.

That’s why you have 1958 in your user name. :)

I saw Spider-Man: No Way Home today. (no spoilers) It was pretty terrific. It was fast paced, fun, and entertaining, with lots of humour and heart. A very satisfying film that delivers. I would say that Spider-Man: No Way Home is the best of all the Spiderman movies and one of the top 10 superpeople movies ever. I would rank it as the 8th best film of the year and rate it a 4.5

NY Times had a great article on it today. It just clobbered box office results.

[WHITBISSELL!]

https://64.media.tumblr.com/46626b5fb6fb16a53aa058e0c6b0d9e4/tumblr_ozw4vcAY791qe4ru4o1_540.gifv


https://64.media.tumblr.com/6468f76bbaa5c463154c36737d073c2c/tumblr_ozw4vcAY791qe4ru4o3_540.gifv


https://64.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lj3o0mTZWG1qecvhz.gif

They Drive By Night - This is a 1940 melodrama directed by the legendary Raoul Walsh and starring George Raft and Humphrey Bogart as truck driving brothers Joe and Paul Fabrini. Raft is the actual lead with Bogart in a supporting role. The brothers are trying their hand at being independent truckers after years of working for several companies. They're living hand to mouth though and working dangerously long hours. Numerous creditors are constantly hounding them and threatening to take their rig.

This being a melodrama the plot sets up the notion that it's the kiss of death if you pay off your truck. One of the Fabrini's friends is burned alive after crashing his rig and no sooner does Joe (Raft) pay off the debt on their truck does Paul (Bogart) fall asleep and total it, losing an arm in the process. Enter old friend Ed Carlsen (Alan Hale), former driver and now owner of a successful trucking business. He's married to the dissatisfied and profligate Lana (Ida Lupino), who has the major hots for Joe. She talks her husband into hiring him on and Joe turns out to have a knack for streamlining and modernizing the company.

But since this isn't a Postman Always Rings Twice kind of movie the Joe/Lana illicit romance subplot is not to be. Joe instead has taken up with tough talking waitress Cassie Hartley (Ann Sheridan). This leads to even more melodrama with the obsessed Lana refusing to take no for an answer. Bogart is more or less relegated to the sidelines with his own domestic problems.

It's a succint 95 minutes with Walsh creating a convincing milieu of truck stops and hard driving men and fast talking women with some romantic intrigue thrown in for good measure. It's worth watching for fans of Raft, Lupino, Bogart and Walsh.

80/100

[Citizen Rules]

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=83580
The Brass Bottle (1964) (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057897/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1)

This was a blast! Tony Randal buys an antique brass bottle and when he opens it smoke pours out that then turns into a genie (Burl Ives). Yes this comedy movie did indeed inspire the TV series I Dream of Jeannie and Barbara Eden is even in this movie...but get this, she's not the genie, nor is she a ditzy bubble head. She plays the smart fiancé of Tony Randal who is a ditz. A fun and funny movie.

rating_3_5

[Wooley]

Censor - 4

This is an unsettling little horror movie that explores the nature of the genre. Enid, a lonely Englishwoman who holds the titular profession, is assigned a movie, the fictional Don’t Go Into the Church, that really should have been given to someone else. This is because it reopens an old wound involving her sister, Nina, who has been missing since childhood. It rekindles her desire to find out what happened to her, and the more she searches for her whereabouts and thinks about Church, the more she loses touch with reality.

Setting the movie during the Thatcher years is an apt choice for how the PM's scapegoats for the U.K.'s problems mirror those who do the same for the era’s extreme horror flicks like Don’t Go Into the Church, commonly referred to as "video nasties." It helps that the production design and touches like changing the aspect ratio to one found in such movies captures the '80s so well. The touch-tone phones and boxy TVs are definitely my favorite touches. I also like the many ways the movie asks if horror is to blame for the country's crime wave or if it's merely a reflection of it. The highlight is a subplot involving a murderer whose method of killing resembles one in another movie Enid watched. Speaking of Enid, Niamh Algar does a great job at capturing her understandable coldness and unwillingness to connect with others, but it's Michael Smiley's turn as a sleazy producer who gave my favorite performance. It also goes along with another theme the movie explores for both laughs and cringe: how patriarchal and full of mansplainers the industry is.

Is this movie just a vehicle for a bunch of commentary? Definitely not. It's just as unsettling as it is mind-bending for how it makes you question what's real and what's imaginary as much as Enid does. I've seen several movies about people who makes discoveries in their jobs that throw their lives into chaos from Blow Out to The Final Cut and this one is neither the best nor does anything that novel with the formula. I still highly recommend it, especially if the last season of The Crown didn’t get every last bit of Thatcher hatewatching out of your system.

Color me intrigued.

[Wooley]

https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/som.jpeg

Umpteenth Re-watch...What can I Say? It was rebroadcast on ABC last night and I couldn't help but watch. I found myself just as enraptured by this film as I was the first time I saw it at the age of seven. Of course, seeing it now, I see a lot more going on here than the magic that is Julie Andrews. Robert Wise's direction is on the money and the Oscar he won for it is richly deserved. Watch the first scene at the captain's dinner table or when the Baroness manipulates Maria into leaving after the party or the scene where the Captain informs the children he's going to marry the governess...there's a solid directorial touch to those scenes. And speaking of the Baroness, I think Eleanor Parker was totally robbed of a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for her icy performance as the Baroness. Parker's performance is perfection...you just want to punch her in the face when she tells Maria she'll make a very fine nun. On the other hand, I think Charmain Carr is dreadful as Leisl, a performance akin to nails on the chalkboard. The film lost a couple of points years later when I learned that the singing voices of Christopher Plummer, Peggy Wood, Anna Lee, and the Von Trapp children were all dubbed (I always thought that was a lot of sound coming out of seven children). The film does still provide solid entertainment and it's no accident that it was the largest grossing musical in box office history until Grease. 4.5
I'm gonna have to give this another watch. It has been my least favorite popular musical for my entire adult life (we sure watched the hell out of it when I was a kid). Just the wrong kind of sentiment everywhere for my taste (I overwhelmingly prefer Wise's West Side Story), even the setting is just too bucolic for me. I haven't watched in several years though because, well, I just didn't wanna.
But the court of public opinion says I'm wrong so maybe it's time for me to give it another spin so I'm not missing out on something great.

[James D. Gardiner]

https://i.imgur.com/rJDJZuf.jpg

The Night Fighters (1960)
aka A Terrible Beauty

Directed by Tay Garnett

A somewhat offbeat sort of a story has Robert Mitchum playing an Irishman who casually joins up with the IRA during WW2, the leaders of which exhibit some Nazi sympathies and connections. Relationships with some family and friends are affected by the decision, and after a couple of raids against British forces begins reconsidering the validity of the cause. Mitchum does a good job as you might expect, and a good supporting cast delivers an engaging level of Irish flair and dialogue. Otherwise the film seemed a bit lackluster in parts, certain scenes feeling somewhat empty or incomplete, and probably didn't realise its full potential. Decent viewing nonetheless.

6/10

[mark f]

The Last Son (Tim Sutton, 2021) 2 5/10
Sabotage (Alfred Hitchcock, 1936) 2.5 6/10
An Intrusion (Nicholas Holland, 2021) 2 5/10
Sugar Daddy (Wendy Morgan, 2020) 2.5 6/10
https://64.media.tumblr.com/e78a18f11d384d6b77ce864cc4345f83/fc60a57c929d9f38-1c/s540x810/dd1e46d66f0aaf8c3140405c5927281480875197.gifv
Kelly McCormack has to decide whether to follow her dream of a musical career or date older men for money to make ends meet.
The Robe (Henry Koster, 1953) 3- 6.5/10
Anapeson (Francesco Dongiovanni, 2015) 2.5 6/10
She Paradise (Maya Cozier, 2020) 1.5+ 4.5/10
Timerider: The Adventure of Lyle Swann (William Dear, 1982) 2.5 6/10
https://img.hdbest.net/img/tt0086443.jpg
Riding in the Baja 1000, motorbike rider Fred Ward, unbeknownst to him, gets transported to the Old West by an experiment where he encounters well-accomplished Belinda Bauer.
Swan Song (Benjamin Cleary, 2021) 2.5+ 6/10
Devil's Triangle (Brendan Petrizzo, 2021) 1.5 4/10
India Sweets and Spices (Geeta Malik, 2021) 2.5 6/10
Black Christmas (Bob Clark, 1974) 3 6.5/10
https://c.tenor.com/SpYITNh4aC4AAAAC/black-christmas-1974.gif
Perhaps ultimately absurd, this holiday thriller delivers the horror goods.
Freeland (Mario Furloni & Kate McLean, 2020) 2.5 6/10
Deadlock (Jared Cohn, 2021) 3 5/10
Tropic of Cancer (Joseph Strick, 1970) 2.5 6/10
The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Philip Kaufman, 1988) 3 6.5/10
https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pVpevexa6oU/WJW0Jn-sY4I/AAAAAAABaGQ/DUiQmQKzOmQQ-wrUg2H8phdYFKstVTKRwCLcB/s640/original.gif
Epic about horny brain surgeon Daniel Day-Lewis and his photographer wife Juliette Binoche dealing with what happened in tumultuous 1960s Czechoslovakia and occasionally interacting with extremely-open but non-committal Lena Olin.
L'amour braque AKA Mad Love (Andrzej Zulawski, 1985) 2.5 5.5/10
A Night at the Opera (Sergey Loznitsa, 2020) 2.5 6/10
Bobbikins (Robert Day, 1959) 2.5 5.5/10
The Black Swan (Henry King, 1942) 3.5- 7/10
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/9d/5a/b0/9d5ab020243c7d7affa4f11e5e207364.gif
Fast-paced pirate action, humor and romance where Maureen O'Hara and Tyrone Power battle for supremacy, along with George Sanders' Capt. Billy Leech and Laird Cregar's Capt. Henry Morgan.

[Fabulous]

Annette (2021)

3

https://www.themoviedb.org/t/p/original/lmbXfyXcq8mkAIKqKQOaGE8wOFp.jpg

[WHITBISSELL!]

Color me intrigued.Me too.

[ScarletLion]

'Drive my Car' (2021)

Directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi

https://i.imgur.com/aYHXcnE.gif

Great film. Inspired me, moved me, shocked me. The entire cast is outrageously good. Especially Hidetoshi Nishijima and Toko Miura as the leads.

A stage director has intriguing relationship with his screenwriter wife, some time later he moves to Hiroshima and assembles a cast to direct a stage version of a Chekov play. What we see unfold is a version of his dealing with the marriage. To say anymore would be a spoiler. But I just hope many people see this , which is surely one of the films of 2021.

It's devastatingly beautiful, complex, has a brilliant screenplay and is just a great film.

5

[ScarletLion]

Censor - 4

This is an unsettling little horror movie that explores the nature of the genre. Enid, a lonely Englishwoman who holds the titular profession, is assigned a movie, the fictional Don’t Go Into the Church, that really should have been given to someone else. This is because it reopens an old wound involving her sister, Nina, who has been missing since childhood. It rekindles her desire to find out what happened to her, and the more she searches for her whereabouts and thinks about Church, the more she loses touch with reality.

Setting the movie during the Thatcher years is an apt choice for how the PM's scapegoats for the U.K.'s problems mirror those who do the same for the era’s extreme horror flicks like Don’t Go Into the Church, commonly referred to as "video nasties." It helps that the production design and touches like changing the aspect ratio to one found in such movies captures the '80s so well. The touch-tone phones and boxy TVs are definitely my favorite touches. I also like the many ways the movie asks if horror is to blame for the country's crime wave or if it's merely a reflection of it. The highlight is a subplot involving a murderer whose method of killing resembles one in another movie Enid watched. Speaking of Enid, Niamh Algar does a great job at capturing her understandable coldness and unwillingness to connect with others, but it's Michael Smiley's turn as a sleazy producer who gave my favorite performance. It also goes along with another theme the movie explores for both laughs and cringe: how patriarchal and full of mansplainers the industry is.

Is this movie just a vehicle for a bunch of commentary? Definitely not. It's just as unsettling as it is mind-bending for how it makes you question what's real and what's imaginary as much as Enid does. I've seen several movies about people who makes discoveries in their jobs that throw their lives into chaos from Blow Out to The Final Cut and this one is neither the best nor does anything that novel with the formula. I still highly recommend it, especially if the last season of The Crown didn’t get every last bit of Thatcher hatewatching out of your system.

I enjoyed the premise of the film. But there's a couple of really weak moments and it doesn't really deliver overall.

[Thursday Next]

Films watched while ill with covid...

Single All the Way (2021) 2.5
The Holiday(2006) 2.5
Monster (2003) 3-
Pitch Perfect (2012) 2.5
The Band Wagon (1953) 3
Tokyo Godfathers (2003) 3.5
Zombieland: Double Tap 3-
Noelle (2019) 2.5
The Poseidon Adventure (1972) 4

[matt72582]

The Wife - 7.5/10


I rented this.... finally... If you like "What Happened Was" or "My Dinner With Andre", I think you'd like this. It's definitely worth the $2.99. The movie is audacious and does whatever it wants to do. It features a couple who are both a psychiatrist team, and their patient comes with his wife, and the wife of the home is uptight, doesn't want them over (since they do come over unannounced), while the patient's wife, is not very self-conscious, wants to drink, and "have fun". The husband of the home seems interested in wanting to see "fireworks", and Wallace Shawn's character (the patient) is going through... something. It's awkward, some dark humor.. It's a movie in one location.


Maybe you can see the movie, since I still have 46 hours left.. Down below.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLrtWVBfpGY&t=4535s&pp=sAQB

[Deschain]

Films watched while ill with covid...

Single All the Way (2021) 2.5
The Holiday(2006) 2.5
Monster (2003) 3-
Pitch Perfect (2012) 2.5
The Band Wagon (1953) 3
Tokyo Godfathers (2003) 3.5
Zombieland: Double Tap 3-
Noelle (2019) 2.5
The Poseidon Adventure (1972) 4

Sorry you had covid.
Poseidon Adventure is a childhood favorite.

[Wooley]

Timerider: The Adventure of Lyle Swann (William Dear, 1982) 2.5 6/10
https://img.hdbest.net/img/tt0086443.jpg
Riding in the Baja 1000, motorbike rider Fred Ward, unbeknownst to him, gets transported to the Old West by an experiment where he encounters well-accomplished Belinda Bauer.



One of my old favorites and how I started to become a Peter Coyote fan.

[Torgo]

I enjoyed the premise of the film. But there's a couple of really weak moments and it doesn't really deliver overall.Interesting, what moments did you not like?

[ScarletLion]

Interesting, what moments did you not like?
The bit when Michael Smyley dies was the big one. I thought it looked tacky and almost comical

It's a shame as in some respects the film is a victim of it's premise, it focuses on her life having the low budget horror elements and snuff flicks which she dissects for a living, which is the whole point of the film - and is great but then I also felt that they used it as an excuse for the low production values. Not a bad film by any stretch. Just ok with flaws.

[Gideon58]

https://www.crestsacramento.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/78533.jpg



4

[nemo]

The novice https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11131464/


A girl who is kinda obsessive really gives it everything she got for example having a major in a subject she is not good at just cause she likes the challenge and then she joins the rowing team ...



I liked the hardwork over talent thing they go for here she really has her heart set for it and goes all in to the point of hey maybe a lil bit to far..


Overall i liked it 7.5/10 could i have grated it higher ? sure but the film was lacking something story wise also they dont teach you about the sport would have been nice to go just a lil deeper in that seeing as she is also a novice but all in all i liked it but i dont think it is work everyone though.

[WHITBISSELL!]

https://media3.giphy.com/media/fRnm7CiSWesW1KkVL9/giphy.gif?cid=ecf05e47probwh23h8nu8kgpzzks35avhxg8gx3lpn442m1b&rid=giphy.gif&ct=g

https://media4.giphy.com/media/dcKVVIriErV7CxEsYT/giphy.gif?cid=ecf05e47probwh23h8nu8kgpzzks35avhxg8gx3lpn442m1b&rid=giphy.gif&ct=g

Minari - This is a 2020 indie drama about a Korean family's attempt to adapt and assimilate to a life in rural 1983 Arkansas. The family patriarch Jacob Yi (Steven Yeun) has spent a large part of their savings to purchase several acres of what he thinks is prime farmland. They have moved from Los Angeles where Jacob and his wife Monica (Yeri Han) worked for years in a poultry plant.

Jacob has a dream of growing Korean vegetables for the rapidly expanding Korean population in Arkansas and Texas. Monica is unconvinced of the soundness of her husbands plan and lives in constant fear of ending up destitute in alien surroundings. Their children, Anne (Noel Cho) and David (Alan S. Kim) do their best to blend in but David has a congenital heart defect that precludes him from normal childhood activities and looms large over the family's day-to-day life.

Monica and Jacob find work at a local poultry plant but argue constantly and it's decided to have her mother Soonja (Yuh-Jung Youn) move in with them to help watch over the children. Jacob hires eccentric local man and Korean war veteran Paul (a marvelous Will Patton) to help out but his small farming project suffers numerous setbacks including a well running dry.

The cast is marvelous from top to bottom with Yeun nominated for a Best Actor Oscar and Youn winning one for Best Supporting Actress. I haven't seen any of the other Best Actor nominees but Yeun is just so good in this that I could easily see him picking up an Oscar for his performance. Grandmother Soonja provides most of the humor and a lot of the pathos and it's a well deserved win for Youn.

It's a small and intimate movie in scope as most indies are. A snapshot of a loving and supportive family with the ending left open to individual interpretation. I think most people will be of the opinion that whatever else happens to the Yi family, they'll be facing it together.

90/100

[Corax]

https://www.crestsacramento.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/78533.jpg



rating_4'


But is it a Christmas movie?

[pahaK]

The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
2.5
After the previous disaster of a Bond movie, this probably felt better than it actually was. Still, it's the premiere of megalomaniac villains trying to do good in their own twisted way for the series. Quite firmly in the middle of the pack albeit a poor theme song.

--
Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984)
2.5
Quite a watchable US slasher that has some genuinely funny lines. I think it sadly misses the opportunity to be sleazy and nasty, but it's above average among its peers.

--
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City (2021)
2
A totally pointless reboot of one of the better game movie franchises. It doesn't improve the 2002 movie in any way and feels like a poor horror version of Gotham television series. That is a generous rating too, by the way.

[WHITBISSELL!]

https://gkids.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/unnamed.gif

https://64.media.tumblr.com/73d375838a9f295c45cdd916c7769316/8e146a53786d1bc7-e3/s540x810/809f988c012e61e099b884cc23652085d0ddf152.gifv

Mary and the Witch's Flower - I don't watch a lot of anime. Next to none actually, but I have watched Spirited Away and Porco Rosso from Hayao Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli and loved them both. So who knows? Maybe, just like most genres, really good anime is easy to like. The guy who directed this, Hiromasa Yonebayashi, used to work for Miyazaki at Ghibli but left in 2014 to start his own animation company, Studio Ponoc, in 2015. This is their first release and it's not bad. A little derivative of Miyazaki's work but still a respectable first effort.

It's based on the 1971 book The Little Broomstick by Mary Stewart. The protagonist is a little girl named Mary Smith (Ruby Barnhill), who is staying at her great aunt Charlotte's estate in Northern England. While searching the woods for a lost cat, she stumbles across an exotic flower known as a Fly-By-Night that confers upon the user the powers of a witch for one night. She also finds the little broomstick of the title and it takes her on a hair-raising ride into the clouds where she eventually lands at Endor College for Witches. There she meets head mistress Madam Mumblechook (Kate Winslet) and the college's illustrious chemistry teacher, Dr. Dee (Jim Broadbent). Things aren't as they seem of course and Mary has to face and try to overcome some major obstacles.

It's not a bad sort of kids movie and even though it wouldn't have been my first, second or third choice (watched it with someone else) I still ended up invested in the story and enjoying the movie. Like I said, it did remind me of Ghibli but since Yonebayashi played such a large role in that company it's to be expected. There were parts that also reminded me of the Harry Potter franchise up to and including snippets of the musical score. Not as good as the two Miyazaki features I've seen but still decent.

80/100

[Torgo]

The bit when Michael Smyley dies was the big one. I thought it looked tacky and almost comical

It's a shame as in some respects the film is a victim of it's premise, it focuses on her life having the low budget horror elements and snuff flicks which she dissects for a living, which is the whole point of the film - and is great but then I also felt that they used it as an excuse for the low production values. Not a bad film by any stretch. Just ok with flaws.I can respect that. I think the scene at Smiley's character's house, like the opening scene with her mansplaining coworker, is effective at cringey comic relief for how it pokes fun at how patriarchial the industry is, but yeah, having him die is a tad over the top.

[Allaby]

Just finished watching Being the Ricardos on Prime. Written and directed by Aaron Sorkin, the film stars Nicole Kidman as Lucille Ball. Kidman is great, but the film is a joyless, unfocused mess that falls surprisingly flat. There is too much going on and most of it doesn't work. I didn't like the screenplay and the film is lacking a spark. Kidman carries the film and manages to elevate it somewhat, but even she can't save it. Kidman deserves an Oscar nod, but the film shouldn't get any other nominations,in my opinion. Disappointing, a 2.5 from me.

[Deschain]

Every day a voice in my head tells me I should watch The Road Warrior. And I have to be like, “No, I have things to do, I can’t sit around watching The Road Warrior.” Some days I lose that argument. Today was one of those days. The Road Warrior remains one of the finest films to come out of this era of man and machines.

[Hey Fredrick]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FO2Smf5KXXrE%2Fmovieposter.jpg&f=1&nofb=1


What is this? Four good movies in a row? Haven't been on this good of a run since I banged through all the Police Academy movies on that drunk Tuesday in '92. Both the leads were great, the dog was good and I felt bad for George and Peppy, two likeable people just trying to do their thing amidst all the changes going on around them. My only gripe is the ending which I didn't really like. The dance number was great but what happened next could have been left unsaid. rating_4

[PHOENIX74]

The 2000s Countdown has completely derailed my schedule as I'm continually tempted into watching and rewatching films showing up there...

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d6/Devils_rejects_ver2.jpg
By The poster art can or could be obtained from Liongate., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11441427

The Devil's Rejects - (2005)

I found out too late that this was a sequel to House of 1000 Corpses, and although it's obvious that you don't need to have watched it prior, I feel that I would have gelled more with the vibe of this if I'd been introduced to the characters. I felt a little uncomfortable with the sexually abusive aspects of this film, but the horror elements are effective at times and Sid Haig just has this personable presence that you can't help but love. Apart from him, I loathed nearly all of the characters in this, though I tried to get myself into the crazy spirit of things. Obviously inspired by The Texas Chainsaw Massacre - which it doesn't surpass. An okay horror film.

6/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/60/Punch-Drunk_Love_poster.png
By The poster art can or could be obtained from the distributor., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=51365704

Punch-Drunk Love - (2002)

I had to sit down and really watch Punch-Drunk Love carefully to realise how much I do like it after all. It had slipped in my estimation due to a 2nd watch which was half-hearted and didn't have my full attention. This is the kind of movie with small nuances and expressive faces which doesn't reward non-committed viewing. The character of Barry Egan is perfect for Adam Sandler - who we can believe is a man with hidden angst and violence wrapped in a goofy and eccentric outward persona. Troubled, he nonetheless attracts Emily Watson's Lena which transforms him from a cowardly, shy hands-off kind of person into a more aggressive protector with something worthwhile to fight for at last. The humour comes from the script, but Luis Guzmán and Philip Seymour Hoffman make a significant contribution. A very different kind of film for Paul Thomas Anderson, but one of the highest quality.

9/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4d/Catch_Me_If_You_Can_2002_movie.jpg
By The cover art can or could be obtained from IMP Awards or DreamWorks, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1060623

Catch Me If You Can - (2002)

A 2000s film wrapped in a 1960s veneer based on Frank Abagnale's somewhat dubious autobiography. It's slick, with Steven Spielberg at the helm and long-time collaborator Janusz Kamiński behind the camera. It has a fantastic opening credits sequence, a really attractive jazzy score from John Williams and the advantage of two of cinema's brightest stars : Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks. You'd have to expect quality with that much talent involved, and it is an engaging and fun watch with a con man doing the seemingly impossible and impersonating an airline pilot, doctor and assistant district attorney while being chased by FBI man Hanratty. Good for a watch, and really transforms itself into the 1960s.

7/10

[PHOENIX74]

The cast is marvelous from top to bottom with Yeun nominated for a Best Actor Oscar and Youn winning one for Best Supporting Actress. I haven't seen any of the other Best Actor nominees but Yeun is just so good in this that I could easily see him picking up an Oscar for his performance. Grandmother Soonja provides most of the humor and a lot of the pathos and it's a well deserved win for Youn.

The only other Supporting Actress nominee I've seen for that year is Olivia Colman in The Father, but I agree that Yuh-Jung Youn deserved an Oscar for what she did in Minari - her performance might have been the best thing I took from that film.

[Fabulous]

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

3.5

https://www.themoviedb.org/t/p/original/mXLVA0YL6tcXi6SJSuAh9ONXFj5.jpg

[Yomi]

Outcast (2014)
rating_3

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BODk0MTE3ODg5MV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwNDMwMjEyNDE@._V1_FMjpg_UX300_.jpg

[WHITBISSELL!]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d6/Devils_rejects_ver2.jpg
By The poster art can or could be obtained from Liongate., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11441427

The Devil's Rejects - (2005)

I found out too late that this was a sequel to House of 1000 Corpses, and although it's obvious that you don't need to have watched it prior, I feel that I would have gelled more with the vibe of this if I'd been introduced to the characters. I felt a little uncomfortable with the sexually abusive aspects of this film, but the horror elements are effective at times and Sid Haig just has this personable presence that you can't help but love. Apart from him, I loathed nearly all of the characters in this, though I tried to get myself into the crazy spirit of things. Obviously inspired by The Texas Chainsaw Massacre - which it doesn't surpass. An okay horror film.

6/10Almost an identical take from me. I couldn't understand all the love for this. There were parts I found stomach churning and there was no one worth rooting for. You're right about Haig though. He's a hard guy to dislike for some reason. But that grandiose ending with them being set up as some kind of folk heroes had me mystified.

[ThatDarnMKS]

I think THE DEVIL’S REJECTS works best as a stand alone, given that it is so tonally removed from its predecessor and neglects many of the characters/plot elements that define HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES.

I also think it’s the spiritual sequel to TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE that it deserved but never received.

[ScarletLion]

'The Worst Person in the World' (2021)
Directed by Joachim Trier

https://i.imgur.com/4Zm2gq8.gif

Very interesting film from Joachim Trier. First half is a quirky relationship drama focusing on Julia who seems to be at a crossroads in her life. It injects humour and ditsyness (the lead character even breaks the fourth wall at one point) that wouldn't be out of place in films like Amelie and 500 days of Summer. This surprised me as Trier's previous films have been a little less playful. (This is Trier's final film in his Oslo Trilogy and he is proving to be a very competent filmmaker).

At the 90 minute mark it gets a little more weighty with subplots that are both moving and poignant and starts to feel alot more European, perhaps like a Ruben Ostlund film. Renate Reinsve's performance is key to the power of this film. She is perfect.

In the end it is a character study but also a really interesting take on life choices, family and fate and the point that there are no real right or wrong choices at all. Perhaps, in the end, what will be will be.

4

[xSookieStackhouse]

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

3.5

https://www.themoviedb.org/t/p/original/mXLVA0YL6tcXi6SJSuAh9ONXFj5.jpg

my childhood fav movie <3

[Wooley]

The 2000s Countdown has completely derailed my schedule as I'm continually tempted into watching and rewatching films showing up there...

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d6/Devils_rejects_ver2.jpg
By The poster art can or could be obtained from Liongate., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11441427

The Devil's Rejects - (2005)

I found out too late that this was a sequel to House of 1000 Corpses, and although it's obvious that you don't need to have watched it prior, I feel that I would have gelled more with the vibe of this if I'd been introduced to the characters. I felt a little uncomfortable with the sexually abusive aspects of this film, but the horror elements are effective at times and Sid Haig just has this personable presence that you can't help but love. Apart from him, I loathed nearly all of the characters in this, though I tried to get myself into the crazy spirit of things. Obviously inspired by The Texas Chainsaw Massacre - which it doesn't surpass. An okay horror film.

6/10



I loved House Of 1,000 Corpses and still struggled with this film, though I thought it was "good".
I think if you don't loathe every character in this film, there's something wrong with you.

[Torgo]

Those Who Wish Me Dead - 3

This is a decent thriller starring Angelina Jolie as a Montana smokejumper a.k.a. forest firefighter. She becomes the ward of Finn Little’s character, a teen with damaging information that’s made him the target of professional assassins. It’s a movie that is likely inspired by '90s wilderness-set thrillers like Cliffhanger, which is not a bad thing at all, especially to me since I love a lot of those movies and prefer to see real locations and for conflict and action to be between people rather than each one's CGI alternative. Granted, the fire is CGI, but it's done so well and realistically that I could feel the heat and intensity. The action and suspense are no less intense, the highlight for me being a standoff between Aidan Gillen's hitman and Medina Senghore's sharpshooting wife of the sheriff (Jon Bernthal). They and the rest of the cast are as reliably good as you would expect, my favorite being Jolie, which I admit is mainly because I haven't seen her on screen in ages. I found a lot to like about the movie, but it doesn't really do anything that rises above the "competent to pretty good" range. It's an airplane movie, in other words (although I'm not sure if you should watch it on one with how much fire is in it). Regardless, if you enjoy watching the thrillers of its ilk as much as I do, I doubt you'll be disappointed. Just be prepared to constantly look over your shoulder or be compelled to hide behind a tree the next time you're in a national forest.

[LChimp]

https://br.web.img2.acsta.net/pictures/21/12/02/19/39/5571055.jpg

A few cringe moments, but overall, a good movie experience. Not for everyone though.

[Thief]

CARNAL KNOWLEDGE
(1971, Nichols)

https://i.imgur.com/upofplV.png


Sandy: "You were in love with Gloria.
Jonathan: "I was starting to be in love with her, then she let me feel her up on the first date. Turned me right off."
Sandy: "You kept going with her, though."
Jonathan: "Well, she let me feel her up."



Carnal Knowledge follows these two best friends, Sandy and Jonathan (Art Garfunkel and Jack Nicholson), during three distinct stages of their life: college, several years after, and when they're middle-aged. The focus of each act is how the two interact and engage both with different women in their lives, and with each other.

If there's one thing we can gather from that opening quote, and from watching these two men interact, is that men are pigs. Cause that exchange perfectly encapsulates the contradictory ways these two men feel about women ("I want them to put out, I will even force them to... but if they do, they're sluts"). The two are stuck in a constant quest to prove themselves to each other, while also performing a metaphorical "dick measuring contest".

Grade: 4


Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2264825#post2264825)

[Thursday Next]

Sorry you had covid.
Poseidon Adventure is a childhood favorite.

Thanks, at least I was 'lying on the sofa and watching movies' sick, not 'hooked up to a ventilator' sick.

This was my first watch of The Poseidon Adventure and I enjoyed it a lot. Just real gripping adventure.

[Thursday Next]

Spiderman: No Way Home (2021)

First film at the cinema after coming out of covid isolation!

If you don't like Marvel movies, this is unlikely to convert you. If you do, this is an entertaining addition to the franchise. The script could be sharper and funnier in places, I wanted a *little* more from the ending and I don't quite know how well the whole thing would hold up to a second viewing, but I went into this with fairly low expectations and was definitely entertained. I liked it a lot more than the previous Spiderman which I thought was messy and too reliant on dubious technology. I guess the biggest problem it has is that even a lot of what it does well was done first and better by Into the Spiderverse.

4-

[Stirchley]

CARNAL KNOWLEDGE
(1971, Nichols)

https://i.imgur.com/upofplV.png


A classic of American cinema. So good.

[WHITBISSELL!]

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eF1zJJ3cKCc/Wj-J3FwTA4I/AAAAAAAAstM/RQEQgNox4VY_NJE52p_NvkSL2O4xKZrHwCLcBGAs/s1600/Blast%2Bof%2BSilence.gif

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mNUeyI3SYg4/Wj-DgRxLCPI/AAAAAAAAsrY/Nabn1sgoZr864OAs3OPJZ-VrC1iJdHWLQCLcBGAs/s1600/Blast%2Bof%2BSilence.jpg

Blast of Silence - This 1961 lowest-of-low-budgets character study might well be the noiriest noir that ever noired. And don't get thrown off by the "low budget" tag. Writer/director/star Allen Baron manages to do more with less than any other film I can remember. And we're not talking FX or recognizable stars making surprise appearances. The reported 20,000 budget appears to be mostly used on equipment and whatever salaries Baron found he couldn't avoid. One of which was probably Lionel Stander's fee for doing the second person voiceover narration that runs throughout the film. Having dealt with the technical side of things he was able to put together a surprisingly cohesive and professional looking production. We've all sat through films with a low budget look and feel or vibe and this isn't one of them. The film takes place during the Christmas holidays and there are plenty of shots of our protagonist walking the streets of Manhattan. There are obviously no studio shots and Baron did it all guerilla style with zero permits. He also used plenty of screen test footage that he had filmed earlier in hopes of scaring up some financing.

Frankie Bono (Baron) is a hit man from Cleveland in NYC to kill a mid level mobster named Troiano (Peter Clune). Frankie shadows his target and his bodyguards to find the best place for the hit then goes looking for a pistol and silencer. He visits Big Ralph (Larry Tucker), an old acquaintance that has always made him uncomfortable. Ralph lives in squalor and keeps countless rats in cages as pets and he provides Frankie with an address where he can pick up the gun. It's not till the next day so Bono is forced to wait and fills his time by continuing to scout his target. He runs into childhood friend Petey (Danny Meehan) from his days in an orphanage and he invites the reluctant Frankie to a Christmas party where he spots his old girlfriend Lori (Molly McCarthy). Frankie is a solitary figure by nature and, given his line of work, has never formed any meaningful bonds. But seeing Lori and spending time with her brings up long dormant issues.

This has a relatively short runtime of 77 minutes and Baron makes the most of it. The denouement literally takes place in the midst of a cataclysmic storm. Chosen for it's remoteness and desolate surroundings it was filmed on the northernmost tip of Long Island sound during Hurricane Donna.

There's some fascinating trivia attached to this production. Baron had worked on Errol Flynn's last movie, Cuban Rebel Girls, which was filmed while the actual Cuban Revolution was unfolding. The production ended up having to flee the country and were forced to abandon valuable equipment including cameras. Baron made a deal with the producer for free use of the equipment if he could figure out a way to sneak back into the country and smuggle it back out. He had to use subterfuge because he was a wanted man at the time, having stabbed a local man during an altercation. He had also offered the role of Frankie to a friend from his acting class named Peter Falk. Falk had to turn it down when he found an acting job that actually paid.

This is one of those films that shouldn't exist but was made against all odds. The fact that it's also a surprisingly effective slice of noir adds a touch of serendipity to it.

90/100

[GulfportDoc]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FO2Smf5KXXrE%2Fmovieposter.jpg&f=1&nofb=1


What is this? Four good movies in a row? Haven't been on this good of a run since I banged through all the Police Academy movies on that drunk Tuesday in '92. Both the leads were great, the dog was good and I felt bad for George and Peppy, two likeable people just trying to do their thing amidst all the changes going on around them. My only gripe is the ending which I didn't really like. The dance number was great but what happened next could have been left unsaid. rating_4
Loved that film, and thought it was one of the best of the 21st Century. As in all silents it was nice to watch their actions, interplay and emotions without them speaking about them.

I actually thought that since this film was so great (5 Oscars) that it would spawn a few imitators. But unfortunately, no. Return to Babylon (2013) was a nice try, but it became too comical.

Time for a re-watch for me.

[pahaK]

The Forest of the Lost Souls (2017)
2
A Portuguese attempt to mix thriller and arthouse that largely fails at both. It's shot in decent-looking B&W, and the first half an hour works pretty well, as long as the characters don't talk as the dialogue is terrible. The rest is just a poorly made thriller trying to hide its shortcomings under the arthouse carpet.

[Ultraman BLACK]

Cringe and awful!https://images.fanart.tv/fanart/the-matrix-resurrections-619ca4ab5bd92.jpg
rating_0_5

I have dreamed a dream, but now that dream is gone from me.

[Fabulous]

The Rules of Attraction (2002)

3

https://www.themoviedb.org/t/p/original/pIZcsiZxSWr6wpKBtHYWHSWa83B.jpg

[pahaK]

Cringe and awful!https://images.fanart.tv/fanart/the-matrix-resurrections-619ca4ab5bd92.jpg
rating_0_5

I have dreamed a dream, but now that dream is gone from me.

I'm scared to watch this, but it's Matrix, so I have to :(

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/bb/Free_Fire.png
By The poster art can or could be obtained from the distributor., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=51552764

Free Fire - (2016)

When Michael Cimino ran his nearly-6-hours-long rough cut of Heaven's Gate for studio executives, the climactic battle between ranchers and cattle barons alone ran for approximately 90 minutes. Well, Free Fire doesn't go for 6 hours, but the entire film is one shootout. I remember seeing trailers for this at the cinema a few years ago, and was mildly interested. Hearing about it subsequently, I decided I'd have to check it out one day, and here we are. I watched the film where the entire thing is one long shootout, set off by an arms deal gone wrong. If you sit back and imagine the problems this might cause, you'd be right - there's a reason. The film takes around 20 minutes before the pivotal moment that turns this into a shootout, and this buildup plus the start of the action really had me excited. Characters were interesting, humour spot-on, and everything had a tight flow. Around 30 minutes into the shootout however, and I was sick to death of it. This sorely needed a flashback or something, anything to break up the monotony of pot-shots and yelled insults. The film takes up quite a lot of the slack in it's final 15 minutes or so - but it just couldn't pull off the unusual stunt of having a film take place over the course of the one event.

Parts of this film are great, and looking at the characters I'm reminded of a lot of standout moments - but if I have to rate the film as a whole, it just rates a pass from me.

6/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a7/Happy_Death_Day_poster.png
By The poster art can or could be obtained from Universal Pictures., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=58827951

Happy Death Day - (2017)

Happy Death Day is marketed as a horror film and slasher, but it's a really quite tame in respect to most of those - and trades primarily on it's Groundhog Day premise in connection of college girl Tree (Jessica Rothe) being continually murdered by an unknown assailant. Unfortunately for Tree, it seems there are a number of people who would potentially want to murder her. The filmmakers have so much fun with this you have to wonder why dozens of others haven't attempted to play around with this whole concept. Tree wakes up in a college boy's room at the start of the same day every time she dies, and undertakes the same lonely journey Bill Murray did a few decades ago. Any progress or connection she might make is wiped out every time - making her the sole source of change in a rat's maze with deadly dead-ends. Christopher Landon shows that this younger generation have a trick or two up their sleeve, even though they mainly trade in reinterpretations of previous films. My second time watching this.

7/10

[Deschain]

I wanted to watch The Road Warrior again. But I watched Matrix Resurrections instead. It’s...not great. There’s stuff to like here, especially in the first half but the more it goes on the more my interest waned.

[StuSmallz]

Every day a voice in my head tells me I should watch The Road Warrior. And I have to be like, “No, I have things to do, I can’t sit around watching The Road Warrior.” Some days I lose that argument. Today was one of those days. The Road Warrior remains one of the finest films to come out of this era of man and machines.The Road Warrior is a good one, which is why this post makes me want to repost my old review of it in here, so I'm going to go ahead and do that right now:

https://i.ibb.co/9Vz9c4p/MM2-TRW-albumcover.jpg (https://ibb.co/3MGy4FT)

I remember a time of chaos... ruined dreams... this wasted land. But most of all, I remember the road warrior...

Mad Max was always a series I was aware of growing up, but never one I had much experience with firsthand; I watched the original movie when I was about sixteen, and I remember being kind of unengaged by it at the time, so I just never got interested in seeing the rest of the movies after that. However, having enjoyed Fury Road for the first time in 2016, and being aware of the high praise for the 2nd film, I decided it was finally time to check out The Road Warrior, and I definitely did not regret the decision; a colorfully intense, high octane post-apocalyptic actioner, TRW is a great time, and well deserving of its status as a classic of early 80's Action movies.

Maestro of Max George Miller achieves this by constantly including little details that color in the Aussie-flavored world of the film, as the costumes, props, and actors give their all to bring its characters to larger-than-life, er, life, with the animalistic, boomerang-throwing "Feral Child", Bruce Spence's eccentric, rattlesnake-loving gyro captain, and of course, the barbaric, leather-clad gang of maruders, lead by Vernon Wells's wide eyed, war crazy "Wez", and the muscle bound, Jason Vorhees-mask wearing leader Lord Humongous all adding a ton of personality to the film, and that's just barely scratching the surface of the crazy cast in this movie.

And, while one could argue some of the performances here are a bit too over the top, I find them rather apt for the exaggerated, comic book-ish future of the world, and enjoy the zeal with which certain actors chew the scenery (what little scenery remains in "The Wasteland", that is). Additionally, there's a lot of small happenings that help to spice the film up further, and make you forget about the admittedly simple plot; I mean, how can you not find Lord Humongus's "spokesman" getting all his fingers cut off when he tries to catch a metal boomerang morbidly hilarious? The crazy stuff comes so fast and heavy that you'd need to pause this movie every frame just to catch it all (and even then, you're gonna miss something), but doing so would only slow down the no-nonsense pacing that drives TRW so relentlessly forward.

And the supporting characters serve as a welcome contrast to Mel Gibson's Max, who, after violently losing his family in the first film and going "mad" at the end, now wanders The Wasteland endlessly, only interested in surviving the gangs of roving thugs, and scavenging for what little "guzzoline" he can scrape up, his only remaining sentimental connection lying with his faithful, scrawny little guard dog (who he imaginatively names "Dog"). You could say he's a spin on the classic, strong, silent hero type we've seen so often, but he really isn't all that, er, heroic during Warrior, as he makes zero attempt to rescue a woman he witnesses being assaulted (and displays almost no emotion as he watches), only comes to the aid of the group of under-siege settlers because of the all-you-can-guzzle gas deal they offer him, refuses to respond to any of the hero worship they direct at him, and tries to abandon them to a certain doom as soon as he can.

However, I find Max's cold, self-centered pragmatism to be a refreshingly honest direction for a lead protagonist, and his character here both fits in perfectly with both Miller's savage cinematic world, and serves as a well-motivated continuation of the arc that began in the original film. And, conversely, Max's emotional distancing ends up rendering the moments where shows the barest hints of humanity, like his silent bonding with the Feral Child over the gift of a music box, all the more impactful for their rareness within the film.

Finally, the action within The Road Warrior excels in a gritty, old-school DIY fashion, with every stunt being executed without the sort of CGI trickery that, over the last few decades, has all too often been used as an unnecessary crutch for blockbusters. No, every action scene here was, in one way or another, pulled off for real, as the stuntmen go above and beyond the call of duty, putting life and limb at severe risk in order to fully achieve Miller's vision of violence, and it looks like almost every stunt here came periously close to injuring someone (and indeed, some very serious injuries did occur), as the film's wreckless stunts, sheer sense of momentum, and overall vehicular mayhem all work together to create a thrilling rush within the audience. And, in the aftermath of TRW's unleashing, what was almost an entire subgenre of B-movies from all over the world tried to rip off its particular style, but all of them ended up being left far, FAR behind in The Road Warrior's dust, so forget all about those wannabes, and just bow before this towering warrior of post-apocalyptic action, baby.

Final Score: 8.75

[xSookieStackhouse]

I'm scared to watch this, but it's Matrix, so I have to :(

same here ur not the only one :(

[Ultraman BLACK]

I'm scared to watch this, but it's Matrix, so I have to :(
Go for it! it will make you wonder why you didn't take the blue pill.

[Ultraman BLACK]

https://images.fanart.tv/fanart/dark-city-56b5dcf2b53b3.jpg
rating_4

Perfect dazed atmosphere with exquisite setting. Fresh, even after 23 years.

[Deschain]

The Road Warrior is a good one, which is why this post makes me want to repost my old review of it in here, so I'm going to go ahead and do that right now:

https://i.ibb.co/9Vz9c4p/MM2-TRW-albumcover.jpg (https://ibb.co/3MGy4FT)

I remember a time of chaos... ruined dreams... this wasted land. But most of all, I remember the road warrior...

Mad Max was always a series I was aware of growing up, but never one I had much experience with firsthand; I watched the original movie when I was about sixteen, and I remember being kind of unengaged by it at the time, so I just never got interested in seeing the rest of the movies after that. However, having enjoyed Fury Road for the first time in 2016, and being aware of the high praise for the 2nd film, I decided it was finally time to check out The Road Warrior, and I definitely did not regret the decision; a colorfully intense, high octane post-apocalyptic actioner, TRW is a great time, and well deserving of its status as a classic of early 80's Action movies.

Maestro of Max George Miller achieves this by constantly including little details that color in the Aussie-flavored world of the film, as the costumes, props, and actors give their all to bring its characters to larger-than-life, er, life, with the animalistic, boomerang-throwing "Feral Child", Bruce Spence's eccentric, rattlesnake-loving gyro captain, and of course, the barbaric, leather-clad gang of maruders, lead by Vernon Wells's wide eyed, war crazy "Wez", and the muscle bound, Jason Vorhees-mask wearing leader Lord Humongous all adding a ton of personality to the film, and that's just barely scratching the surface of the crazy cast in this movie.

And, while one could argue some of the performances here are a bit too over the top, I find them rather apt for the exaggerated, comic book-ish future of the world, and enjoy the zeal with which certain actors chew the scenery (what little scenery remains in "The Wasteland", that is). Additionally, there's a lot of small happenings that help to spice the film up further, and make you forget about the admittedly simple plot; I mean, how can you not find Lord Humongus's "spokesman" getting all his fingers cut off when he tries to catch a metal boomerang morbidly hilarious? The crazy stuff comes so fast and heavy that you'd need to pause this movie every frame just to catch it all (and even then, you're gonna miss something), but doing so would only slow down the no-nonsense pacing that drives TRW so relentlessly forward.

And the supporting characters serve as a welcome contrast to Mel Gibson's Max, who, after violently losing his family in the first film and going "mad" at the end, now wanders The Wasteland endlessly, only interested in surviving the gangs of roving thugs, and scavenging for what little "guzzoline" he can scrape up, his only remaining sentimental connection lying with his faithful, scrawny little guard dog (who he imaginatively names "Dog"). You could say he's a spin on the classic, strong, silent hero type we've seen so often, but he really isn't all that, er, heroic during Warrior, as he makes zero attempt to rescue a woman he witnesses being assaulted (and displays almost no emotion as he watches), only comes to the aid of the group of under-siege settlers because of the all-you-can-guzzle gas deal they offer him, refuses to respond to any of the hero worship they direct at him, and tries to abandon them to a certain doom as soon as he can.

However, I find Max's cold, self-centered pragmatism to be a refreshingly honest direction for a lead protagonist, and his character here both fits in perfectly with both Miller's savage cinematic world, and serves as a well-motivated continuation of the arc that began in the original film. And, conversely, Max's emotional distancing ends up rendering the moments where shows the barest hints of humanity, like his silent bonding with the Feral Child over the gift of a music box, all the more impactful for their rareness within the film.

Finally, the action within The Road Warrior excels in a gritty, old-school DIY fashion, with every stunt being executed without the sort of CGI trickery that, over the last few decades, has all too often been used as an unnecessary crutch for blockbusters. No, every action scene here was, in one way or another, pulled off for real, as the stuntmen go above and beyond the call of duty, putting life and limb at severe risk in order to fully achieve Miller's vision of violence, and it looks like almost every stunt here came periously close to injuring someone (and indeed, some very serious injuries did occur), as the film's wreckless stunts, sheer sense of momentum, and overall vehicular mayhem all work together to create a thrilling rush within the audience. And, in the aftermath of TRW's unleashing, what was almost an entire subgenre of B-movies from all over the world tried to rip off its particular style, but all of them ended up being left far, FAR behind in The Road Warrior's dust, so forget all about those wannabes, and just bow before this towering warrior of post-apocalyptic action, baby.

Final Score: 8.75

Great review, Stu. I’m surprised you saw RW after FR. I remember seeing part of RW on TV as a kid and being like “WTF IS THIS?” And seeking out the movie as soon as I could. But yeah the original MM is kinda slow, especially compared to the sequels. I think it does a great job of capturing a society right on the brink of collapse, as opposed to most movies that are all about the post-apocalypse. Have you seen Beyond Thunderdome?

Some of the smaller moments of RW that I love:

Max being all about making deals, with the Gyro Captain to take him to the oil, with Papagallo to get them the rig, etc. It’s what keeps him truly neutral for most of the movie. I love Papagallo’s line, “He fulfilled a contract. He’s an honorable man.” He delivered it with both admiration for a noble deed he doesn’t see much any more and annoyance that he isn’t getting what he wants out of Max. It’s a terrifically delivered line.

Even at the end when he volunteers to drive the rig it’s not out of the goodness of his heart. Max knows it’s his best chance of getting out of there alive. And the set up at the beginning of three cars going one direction to distract the marauders while one car goes in another to try to get away is the same plan at the end with the oil. And all that “hero worship” they heap on Max while asking him to drive the rig. Nobody bothers to tell him he’s the decoy. They’re using him just like he’s using them to get out alive.

[beelzebubble]

I saw Silent Partner a completely Meh! caper film. I kept expecting it to have more of a sense of humor about itself. I mean John Candy and Michael O'Donahue are in it. The music is very Klute like and keeps the atmosphere very Klute like but without a Klute like screenplay.
The best thing about this movie is the beautiful brunette supporting actress who seduces the anti-hero. Her name is Celine Lomez and I couldn't believe that she wasn't a huge star. She had so much charisma. Turns out, though I had never seen her before, she was a popstar in Canada.. I guess she didn't make it in the States because she is a francophone and America already had its sixties and seventies francophone star Genvieve Bujold.


I give it 2 popcorn boxes and I'll add a Hershey with Almonds for Celine Lomez.

[Gideon58]

https://www.pinkvilla.com/imageresize/king_richard_drops_new_trailer_for_2021_release.jpg?width=752&format=webp&t=pvorg



4

[ThatDarnMKS]

THE MATRIX RESURRECTIONS:

While only one Watchowski made this, it’s clear that a solo Lana is every bit as ambitious as their duo was. This is very much in keeping with their post-Matrix output: stylish, ambitious, philosophical, campy and messy. The latter points can often cause the other elements to stumble (and sometimes fall) but I think this one, against all odds and expectations, keeps it’s footing.

Doubling down on the human elements, the emotion and drama of this film almost feel alien after watching the stilted, robotic and verbose sequels, making it feel closer to the original on an emotional level, which is a welcome change.

However, perhaps because of this decision, the action seems to have been put on the back burner and while more than competent, it can’t hold a candle to the previous entries of the franchise. If you watch the Matrix films for their impeccable action rather than their philosophical/existential/sci-fi pastiche, you may end up fairly disappointed.

Another issue is that the film seems to struggle under the weight of its own ambition. The first half cleverly introduces a new world and does so with energy and vigor. This seems to be the movie Lana primarily wanted to make, commenting on her own success with the original trilogy and the state of reboots. However, when the focus shifts to the more traditional Matrix narrative and becomes more focused on the action, it loses something.

As is, when compared to the previous sequels, it’s at least comparable and as a fan of the franchise, it was nice to see Lana come out swinging, not content to simply rehash and make another Matrix film. It’s a modern blockbuster in which most of my trailer based predictions were not only inaccurate, but I wasn’t dissatisfied with the truths provided. That has to count for something.

4/5

[pahaK]

The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf (2021)
1.5
It was suggested to me, that I should watch this before the second season of the series. I guess I'll postpone the series for a while, as this one was so dull and uninspired. I can imagine I'd have liked this in my tweens, though.

--
Black Magic Rites (1973)
aka The Reincarnation of Isabel, Riti, magie nere e segrete orge nel Trecento...
3.5
What complete nonsense, but such fabulous nonsense. A dreamlike journey not so different from Fulci's more obscure offerings, but with witches, vampires, and nudity instead of zombies and grotesque gore. Most of the time I had no idea what's happening, but a fascinating watch nonetheless.

[AndrewLowe]

My Private Own Idaho

[Ultraman BLACK]

https://images.fanart.tv/fanart/tetsuo-the-iron-man-503cd61cd9c03.pnghttps://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BODYxZTIwMWQtZTdiMS00ODRmLThlODEtNjkwNmE1ZTY1ZjM1XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNzc5MjA3OA@@._V1_.jpg
rating_4

Top notch weird cyberpunk body horror.

[ScarletLion]

'C'Mon C'Mon' (2021)
Dir. Mike Mills

https://i.imgur.com/18WJNGR.gif

A truly remarkable performance by Woody Norman as Jesse, a 9 year old who's mother needs to leave him for a while, so his sound recordist uncle Johnny (Joaquin Phoenix) takes care of him. Johnny takes Jesse to New York as he has alot of work on, from there the characters need to find themselves and help each other. All the while, Johnny records groups of youngsters for his next radio documentary project, whos words act as lovely intermissions describing us, them and the state of the world.

This film explores the struggles of our minds, how we connect and cope, how we relate and deal with others, how we make memories and much more. The script is just fantastic - I have no idea how anyone can make a 1 hour 50minute film on such a simple premise that has such depth and emotion. Mike Mills has just created a humdinger of a script.

The cinematography of New York (and of Detroit, New Orleans and Oakland) is reminiscent of Manhattan. The choice to shoot in black and white gives the film a nostalgic feel, like it's someone's diary we are watching play out. Mills' film has many layers as we slowly find out a little about the characters and why they have the personalities they do. There are some things we can change and there are some things we can't.

'Finding a way to find yourself' - the message is clear, the film is great.

4.5

[matt72582]

Cringe and awful!https://images.fanart.tv/fanart/the-matrix-resurrections-619ca4ab5bd92.jpg
rating_0_5

I have dreamed a dream, but now that dream is gone from me.


I kinda had the same feeling for T2 (Trainspotting)... I always thought how cool it would be to modernize it, as they have aged, but because the world has changed so much due to the internet.


The trailer was the only good 2 minutes of that movie.. The rest was absolute garbage. Slow-motion, Spud being some kind of business genius -- no originality. I hope it bombed at the box office.. I've never seen anyone even mention this movie, but I do see people mention "Trainspotting"

[James D. Gardiner]

Blast of Silence

90/100

Hadn't seen this before so checked it out last night. Absolutely cracking noir, very impressive. Same rating from me. Thanks! :up:

[Citizen Rules]

Watch this a few nights ago, pretty forgettable that's why I forgot to post about it:p

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=83735

Lisbon (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049446/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1) (1956)
Dir. Ray Milland

I'd say that's the best screenshot from the film. Not because there's a pretty woman in it, because if that was the case I'd include a screenshot of Maureen O'Hara who costars. That above shot was interesting as in context, the star Ray Milland was walking outside of a villa in Portugal and encounters a local sun bathing beauty with only her big brimmed hat to cover her, modesty. Ray takes notice of her!..Of course when she stands she has a full one piece bathing suit on. But it was a great way to introduce a femme fatale in this would-be drama noir.

Lisbon is second of only four movies directed by Ray Milland who not only stars but produced it. Shot on location in Lisbon the widescreen color film is best for showing of the beauty of that city. Milland himself makes a fairly statically directed film with camera work that's uninspired. The typical interior shot has hardly any background dressing and the camera is just locked down for a two-shot with both actors perpendicular to a long wall. But I guess the camera work matches the ho-hum story.

Claude Rains was the most interesting character here, just think of Casablanca but only now he's in Lisbon. Not Maureen O'Hara or Ray Milland's best work.

rating_2_5

[CringeFest]

WarGames (1983)


8/10



Cool! But could have made more sense.

[Corax]

Matrix 4 =



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+
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+
https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fmedia1.tenor.com%2Fimages%2Ff8371233aa31da17376006a855a21819%2Ftenor.gif%3Fitemid%3 D6016280&f=1&nofb=1


Spider-Man: No Way Home was masterclass in how to do it right. This film is a masterclass in how to do it wrong, a film chasing it's own tail trying to find a reason to exist.

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e6/Logan_Lucky.png
By The poster art can or could be obtained from the distributor., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=54170950

Logan Lucky - (2017)

There's a nice conglomeration of actors who I really enjoyed watching in Logan Lucky. Channing Tatum (who really showed an aptitude for comedy in the Jump Street films,) Adam Driver, Daniel Craig, Dwight Yoakam, Katie Holmes, Seth MacFarlane, Hilary Swank...they kept on popping up at perfect moments, gelling with a clever script. This is Steven Soderbergh's 'Hillbilly Ocean's Eleven' and is looser with adding even more fun to proceedings. This heist involves a NASCAR race instead of casinos, and things really kick up a notch when Tatum's Jimmy Logan and Driver's Clyde Logan recruit Joe Bang (Craig) from a prison with Yoakam as warden. A whole side-plot involves Clyde getting put in prison so they both can escape and then break back in later. This is light entertainment, but has colour and flair to burn, so I enjoyed it very much. It really revels in it's characters, allowing the performers to really let go and create goofy (but smart) Southern caricatures. Glad I finally caught up with it.

7.5/10

[Miss Vicky]

'C'Mon C'Mon' (2021)
Dir. Mike Mills

https://i.imgur.com/18WJNGR.gif

A truly remarkable performance by Woody Norman as Jesse, a 9 year old who's mother needs to leave him for a while, so his sound recordist uncle Johnny (Joaquin Phoenix) takes care of him. Johnny takes Jesse to New York as he has alot of work on, from there the characters need to find themselves and help each other. All the while, Johnny records groups of youngsters for his next radio documentary project, whos words act as lovely intermissions describing us, them and the state of the world.

This film explores the struggles of our minds, how we connect and cope, how we relate and deal with others, how we make memories and much more. The script is just fantastic - I have no idea how anyone can make a 1 hour 50minute film on such a simple premise that has such depth and emotion. Mike Mills has just created a humdinger of a script.

The cinematography of New York (and of Detroit, New Orleans and Oakland) is reminiscent of Manhattan. The choice to shoot in black and white gives the film a nostalgic feel, like it's someone's diary we are watching play out. Mills' film has many layers as we slowly find out a little about the characters and why they have the personalities they do. There are some things we can change and there are some things we can't.

'Finding a way to find yourself' - the message is clear, the film is great.

4.5

I want to see this so bad.

[mark f]

The World of Henry Orient (George Roy Hill, 1964) 3.5 7/10
She Gods of Shark Reef (Roger Corman, 1958) 1.5 4+/10
Young and Willing (Edward H. Griffith, 1943) 2.5 6-/10
I'd Climb the Highest Mountain (Henry King, 1951) 3 6.5/10
https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/images/reviews/279/1401583198_2.png
Preacher William Lundigan and wife Susan Hayward have an adventurous few years c.1910 remote Georgia.
Boxing Day (Aml Ameen, 2021) 2.5 6/10
When Hell Broke Loose (Kenneth G. Crane, 1958) 2 5/10
The President's Lady (Henry Levin, 1953) 3 6.5/10
A Shape of Things to Come (Lisa Malloy & J.P. Sniadecki, 2020) 2.5 5.5/10
https://d1nslcd7m2225b.cloudfront.net/Pictures/480xany/7/7/1/1321771_ashapeofthingstocome_630601.jpg
Survivalist Sundog, on the Tex-Mex border in an unidentified future, alternates his time between violence and hallucinogens.
Berlin, I Love You (13 Directors, 2019) 2+ 5/10
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City (Johannes Roberts, 2021) 2.5 5.5/10
A Royal Scandal (Otto Preminger & Ernst Lubitsch, 1945) 3.5- 7/10
Being the Ricardos (Aaron Sorkin, 2021) 3+ 6.5/10
https://s3.amazonaws.com/static.rogerebert.com/uploads/review/primary_image/reviews/being-the-ricardos-movie-review-2021/homepage_being-the-ricardos-movie-review-2021.jpeg
Solid acting by the four actors playing the four leads in "I Love Lucy" highlights good drama which still seems to be missing a little something.
Kentucky (David Butler, 1938) 2.5 6/10
Desk Set (Walter Lang, 1957) 3 6.5/10
The Matrix Resurrections (Lana Wachowski, 2021) 2.5 6/10
The LCD Soundsystem Holiday Special (Eric Wareheim, 2021) 3- 6.5/10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upgIZDnIuB8
The sitcom surrounding the concert footage is meh, but it's worth a peek to see the recently-reclusive band.
Throw Momma from the Train (Danny DeVito, 1987) 3.5 7/10
Carol for Another Christmas (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1964) 3+ 6.5/10
The Impersonator (Alfred Shaughnessy, 1961) 2.5 5.5+/10
Benedetta (Paul Verhoeven, 2021) 3 6.5/10
https://64.media.tumblr.com/6127edaf19c4799ed2059512d947fe9e/a6202e0bdfd6fbd5-b6/s540x810/63e7a4aff9234a3b28be2b860ed6f1c6dbca0193.gifv
Tale about 17th-century Tuscan nuns (Virginie Efira & Daphne Patakia) is really more about the plague and religious hypocrisy in typical Verhoeven style.

[ueno_station54]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNzM4OTkzMjcxOF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwMTkxMjI1MTI@._V1_.jpg
The Matrix (1999, Lilly & Lana Wachowski)
3.5

[Fabulous]

This Beautiful Fantastic (2016)

2.5

https://www.themoviedb.org/t/p/original/cgi1ljsXm3aAwWHetOgaq695Bi2.jpg

[WHITBISSELL!]

Hadn't seen this before so checked it out last night. Absolutely cracking noir, very impressive. Same rating from me. Thanks! :up:You're very welcome. :highfive:

[TheUsualSuspect]

Spider-Man: No Way Home - 4

The Matrix: Ressurections - 3

[WHITBISSELL!]

https://media3.giphy.com/media/ibe87BFuJg7ayYU8dL/giphy.gif

https://media3.giphy.com/media/ggil7uBJ8EeZeTJ5WP/giphy.gif

The Last Black Man in San Francisco - This has all the earmarks of being a labor of love. It's in the way the scenes are set up and laid out. It's in the easy and plainspoken friendship between the two protagonists Jimmie Fails (Jimmie Fails) and Montgomery Allen (Jonathan Majors). And most of all it's in the endemic allegiance that director Joe Talbot so obviously holds towards the city of San Francisco.

Jimmie works a low paying job as a nurses assistant in an elder care facility. He lives with his best friend Mont and Mont's blind grandfather Grandpa Allen (Danny Glover) and sleeps on the floor of Mont's closet sized bedroom. For the last few months Jimmie has been covertly carrying-out minor maintenance of his former childhood home. Touching up the weathered paintjob and weeding the garden. All to the chagrin of the current residents, an elderly white couple. Jimmie's family had lost the home after being evicted for failure to pay taxes and it's turned into an obsession for him since his return to the city. This is all predicated on his grandfather having built the home himself in the 1940's.

One day on one of their periodic treks to the house they find a moving van and find out that the owner and mother of the current resident has died, leaving her and her sister to fight over ownership. Jimmie and Mont visit realtor Clayton Newsom (Finn Wittrock) who advises them that, since the late owners estate has to be settled in court, it could take years. After confirming that the place is empty Jimmie hits upon the idea of squatting. The friends drop in on Jimmie's paternal aunt Wanda (Tichina Arnold) to salvage the family's furniture and move it back into the now abandoned home.

The cast is on the mark and even though Jimmie Fails is essentially playing himself and the story is partly based on his own experiences he does turn in a relaxed and unaffected performance. But it's Jonathan Majors that really impressed me. I only remember him being in Lovecraft Country and Loki even though he was also in White Boy Rick and Captive State, both of which I've also seen. I think his is the starring performance here since so much of what transpires is filtered through his eyes. The story is sort of dependent on him to serve as both viewer's proxy and as a watchman keeping it thoughtfully grounded.

There are plenty of powerful and cogent moments and it does tackle or at least address issues like systematic marginalization and pernicious machismo (I am loathe to call it "toxic masculinity" since it's already so overused) but when it came time to close out the narrative I thought it lacked something. Emotional engagement maybe? There was just something missing. The closest equivalent I can think of is a microbrewery. An assiduously crafted product targeted towards a specific demographic. And it's this singularity that is not only it's biggest asset but also it's one impediment that keeps it from effectively and decisively resonating.

80/100

[Captain Terror]

Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure (1977)

This one escaped my notice back when I was a kid. (I probably dismissed it as a "girl" movie). The plot bears some resemblance to Toy Story in that a kid's toys come to life when she leaves the room. The pirate from a snow globe abducts the new French porcelain doll and runs away with her, and Ann & Andy set out to rescue her.

So I'll admit that RA&A are likable but bland, and the songs aren't great which is a problem because there's a lot of them. I mean, they're not obnoxious but I don't remember any of them mere hours after having watched it. BUT, the animation is terrific and there's lots of inventive and bizarre stuff going on.

83748
83749

Animation buffs are encouraged to check it out.
4

[Holden Pike]

This one freaked me out more than a bit when I saw it in the theater as a seven-year-old. Though not a fraction as much as Hugo the Hippo did.

[ueno_station54]

https://www.syfy.com/sites/syfy/files/styles/scale--1200/public/2019/06/the-matrix-reloaded-rave-scene.jpg
The Matrix Reloaded (2003, Lilly & Lana Wachowski)
rating_3_5

[EsmagaSapos]

https://media3.giphy.com/media/ibe87BFuJg7ayYU8dL/giphy.gif

https://media3.giphy.com/media/ggil7uBJ8EeZeTJ5WP/giphy.gif

The Last Black Man in San Francisco

This was my favorite film of that year. It's funny because it was actually a true story from the actor's life, they made a short film before this film, you can find it online. I enjoyed the poetry, the friendship, the representation of a different masculinity, the song was OMG, I liked everything about the film.

[Torgo]

The Spine of Night - 4

Fans of Ralph Bakshi - Fire and Ice in particular- are bound to love this delightfully bloody rotoscoped dark fantasy tale. It has more in common with Heavy Metal, however, and not just because of all the hardcore violence and nudity. It's a collection of tales from different eras that are connected by a powerful object: the Bloom, a flower that grants godly abilities like being able to control one's thoughts and raising the dead. Thankfully, homage and nostalgia are not all the movie has going for it. It's much more interested in telling an overarching story about civilization's seemingly never-ending cycle of tyranny and rebellion as well as questioning if it really amounts to anything worthwhile, which it does in a stirring and visceral way. Like the movies that inspired it, this one also attracted a lot of prime voice talent, the highlights being Patton Oswalt's fussy, entitled prince and Richard E. Grant's ancient guardian of the Bloom who, in a beautiful and colorful animated sequence, proves that there are only so many times any one person should bear witness to this cycle. Speaking of the animation, it manages to honor Fire and Ice and the like while having a unique personality. If I could put the overall look and feel into words, I'd say that it's a combination of classic Silver Surfer comics and the Dark Souls video games. What's more, each segment manages to have its own visual identity. Does this movie tell a tale unlike any you've seen in the fantasy genre? Despite a few unexpected moments here and there, not really. Even so, I typically walk away from visually inventive genre flicks like this one thinking about the visuals more than anything else. This one, however, offers just as much to chew on thematically.

[GulfportDoc]

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mNUeyI3SYg4/Wj-DgRxLCPI/AAAAAAAAsrY/Nabn1sgoZr864OAs3OPJZ-VrC1iJdHWLQCLcBGAs/s1600/Blast%2Bof%2BSilence.jpg

Blast of Silence - This 1961 lowest-of-low-budgets character study might well be the noiriest noir that ever noired. And don't get thrown off by the "low budget" tag. Writer/director/star Allen Baron manages to do more with less than any other film I can remember. And we're not talking FX or recognizable stars making surprise appearances. The reported 20,000 budget appears to be mostly used on equipment and whatever salaries Baron found he couldn't avoid. One of which was probably Lionel Stander's fee for doing the second person voiceover narration that runs throughout the film. Having dealt with the technical side of things he was able to put together a surprisingly cohesive and professional looking production. We've all sat through films with a low budget look and feel or vibe and this isn't one of them. The film takes place during the Christmas holidays and there are plenty of shots of our protagonist walking the streets of Manhattan. There are obviously no studio shots and Baron did it all guerilla style with zero permits. He also used plenty of screen test footage that he had filmed earlier in hopes of scaring up some financing.

Frankie Bono (Baron) is a hit man from Cleveland in NYC to kill a mid level mobster named Troiano (Peter Clune). Frankie shadows his target and his bodyguards to find the best place for the hit then goes looking for a pistol and silencer. He visits Big Ralph (Larry Tucker), an old acquaintance that has always made him uncomfortable. Ralph lives in squalor and keeps countless rats in cages as pets and he provides Frankie with an address where he can pick up the gun. It's not till the next day so Bono is forced to wait and fills his time by continuing to scout his target. He runs into childhood friend Petey (Danny Meehan) from his days in an orphanage and he invites the reluctant Frankie to a Christmas party where he spots his old girlfriend Lori (Molly McCarthy). Frankie is a solitary figure by nature and, given his line of work, has never formed any meaningful bonds. But seeing Lori and spending time with her brings up long dormant issues.

This has a relatively short runtime of 77 minutes and Baron makes the most of it. The denouement literally takes place in the midst of a cataclysmic storm. Chosen for it's remoteness and desolate surroundings it was filmed on the northernmost tip of Long Island sound during Hurricane Donna.

There's some fascinating trivia attached to this production. Baron had worked on Errol Flynn's last movie, Cuban Rebel Girls, which was filmed while the actual Cuban Revolution was unfolding. The production ended up having to flee the country and were forced to abandon valuable equipment including cameras. Baron made a deal with the producer for free use of the equipment if he could figure out a way to sneak back into the country and smuggle it back out. He had to use subterfuge because he was a wanted man at the time, having stabbed a local man during an altercation. He had also offered the role of Frankie to a friend from his acting class named Peter Falk. Falk had to turn it down when he found an acting job that actually paid.

This is one of those films that shouldn't exist but was made against all odds. The fact that it's also a surprisingly effective slice of noir adds a touch of serendipity to it.

90/100
Nice review, and a great film! I'm glad that you reviewed it because I'd never seen it, so I fired it up last night. Some of the settings and filming of "Blast" could be put right up there with some of the best noir films, especially the first half of so of the picture.

Director/writer Allen Baron was not a great actor, although the eccentric, cold hit man role did not require a heavyweight. He brought it off beautifully. It's astonishing how he could construct a polished film on a such a micro budget. I note that the producer, Merill Brody, was also the cinematographer! Universal distributed the film, so Baron must have made back many times his budget.

The movie was perfectly enhance by the first rate contemporary jazz sound track by Meyer Kupferman, who was a noted performer, composer, and professor of music during that era and beyond. And the picture would have almost been unimaginable without the atmospheric narration of the gravely voiced Bronx native, Lionel Stander (later of Hart to Hart fame).

I see that it's been re-mastered by the Criterion Collection, so the film quality is superb. Thanks for the recommendation!

[WHITBISSELL!]

Nice review, and a great film! I'm glad that you reviewed it because I'd never seen it, so I fired it up last night. Some of the settings and filming of "Blast" could be put right up there with some of the best noir films, especially the first half of so of the picture.

Director/writer Allen Baron was not a great actor, although the eccentric, cold hit man role did not require a heavyweight. He brought it off beautifully. It's astonishing how he could construct a polished film on a such a micro budget. I note that the producer, Merill Brody, was also the cinematographer! Universal distributed the film, so Baron must have made back many times his budget.

The movie was perfectly enhance by the first rate contemporary jazz sound track by Meyer Kupferman, who was a noted performer, composer, and professor of music during that era and beyond. And the picture would have almost been unimaginable without the atmospheric narration of the gravely voiced Bronx native, Lionel Stander (later of Hart to Hart fame).

I see that it's been re-mastered by the Criterion Collection, so the film quality is superb. Thanks for the recommendation! You're very welcome.👍

[CringeFest]

83764



2.5

Meh, well written dialogue but pretty mediocre in other respects. A conversation movie, you get the feeling that they started in the middle without telling you anything. Not a great story arc but has enough humor and suspense to make it watchable.

[AgrippinaX]

83764



2.5

Meh, well written dialogue but pretty mediocre in other respects. A conversation movie, you get the feeling that they started in the middle without telling you anything. Not a great story arc but has enough humor and suspense to make it watchable.

Shame, looks like I want to see this.

[Deschain]

I watched House of Gucci last night and don’t really have a lot to say about it. It’s pretty good and it feels like a Scorsese movie.

[ueno_station54]

https://static0.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Matrix-Revolutions-Symbolism.jpg?q=50&fit=crop&w=740&h=370&dpr=1.5
The Matrix Revolutions (2003, Lilly & Lana Wachowski)
3.5

[Stirchley]

Shame, looks like I want to see this.

Nothing would make me watch Bugsy

[CringeFest]

https://static0.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Matrix-Revolutions-Symbolism.jpg?q=50&fit=crop&w=740&h=370&dpr=1.5
The Matrix Revolutions (2003, Lilly & Lana Wachowski)
rating_3_5


unfortunately i felt the best matrix movie was the first one, the second best being this, which nobody knows about:



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Animatrix


the hidden benefits of DVD bins! Not a movie but a collection of short films.

[ueno_station54]

unfortunately i felt the best matrix movie was the first one, the second best being this, which nobody knows about:



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Animatrix


the hidden benefits of DVD bins! Not a movie but a collection of short films.
Really? I thought everyone loved The Animatrix.

[ThatDarnMKS]

Maybe it’s an age/regional barrier ala Animatrix. I even went to see Dreamcatcher in theater because it promised to show The Flight of the Osiris before it. It was VERY popular among the teen fellas in my age group hankering for more Matrix when it released.

I feel like, much like the sequels, it’s a mixed bag, with some stories being excellent and other parts just falling short.

[Ultraman BLACK]

https://www.slantmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/greatsilencebr.jpg
rating_5
Brave Murder Day
No ending is more anticlimactic than this and yet it works. Masterclass

[CringeFest]

Really? I thought everyone loved The Animatrix.


i really don't know hun, but i had never heard of it before, and then i'm like "oh, this thing costs $1 and it's clearly matrix related", and i was surprised to know that it was better than matrix 2 and matrix revolution. Revolution wasn't bad, but i think the first one set the bar pretty damn high, one of my favorite movies for sure.


Shame, looks like I want to see this.

In relation to Bugsy, sorry i didn't make this clear the first time:



I gave it a rating_2_5 because there are many redeeming qualities: the music is nice and chill, the whole thing has a Noir feel, the dialogue is fascinating, but there are so many things that are made unclear to the viewer:


Why is Bugsy so sensitive about his name? What the f*ck does Moussalini have to do with any of this? WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE? What's their story?


Bugsy is a mobster film, and the main character is an interesting fellow with his hands in a lot of cookie jars. However, like Paulie and Christophuh discussed in The Sopranos, you need to have a good character arc. Bugsy doesn't have such a great arc.

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BYzg1NmMwOGItNDQ4NS00OTBkLThkMTEtYmZlZGRhYTM0MmZjXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjUzOTY1NTc@._V1_FMjpg_UX1000_.j pg


3.5

[StuSmallz]

Brave Murder DayWhoa; I haven't seen The Great Silence yet, but are you a fan of Katatonia too?

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/ef/Enter_the_dragon.jpg
By May be found at the following website: http://www.movieposterdb.com/poster/301c8ddc, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15449484

Enter the Dragon - (1973)

Okay, now the martial arts aspects of The Man With the Golden Gun, obviously inspired by the popularity of this film, just look terrible. Lamely copied. I was shoring up a title or two on my lists when I saw I was 95/100 on the recent all-time top 100, and that one of my missing titles was this so I decided to finally see it. I want to describe it and my feelings towards it in a succinct few sentences but I won't be able to. Yeah, all of the fighting stuff was top-notch and exciting. I did not know at all that John Saxon was in this. Very 70s - very trendsetting - very calculated and aimed at audiences attracted to exploitation films of the day. I respect it, enjoyed it and mean to see it again.

8/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/27/The_Interview_2014_poster.jpg

The Interview - (2014)

If you're going to fill your film with toilet humour, it had better be good - because it if isn't, you're going to look childish. That's just how I felt Seth Rogen and by extension (even if he was only co-starring, he was the other face of the movie) James Franco looked in this. Franco has an added misfortune for my timing of watching this film - his character is sleazy, and now we know he was just as sleazy in real life at the exact same time. Co-director Evan Goldberg and screenwriter Dan Sterling just insert a constant stream of unfunny antics which focus intently on the human anus and homosexuality to a point where it seems they were fixated on those two things. "Jokes" abound about them, and ad-libbing from Rogan and Franco falls flat. There are a few good moments surrounded by abysmal failure - and overall I did not like The Interview one little bit. The first film that's fallen really flat for me in quite a while.

4/10

[Ultraman BLACK]

Whoa; I haven't seen The Great Silence yet, but are you a fan of Katatonia too?
Yes. I'am. Katatonia is one of my favorite bands. :)

[xSookieStackhouse]

5 loved the music <3
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNjE5NzA4ZDctOTJkZi00NzM0LTkwOTYtMDI4MmNkMzIxODhkXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNjY1MTg4Mzc@._V1_.jpg

[Fabulous]

Krisha (2015)

3.5

https://www.themoviedb.org/t/p/original/zmhNStGN7DIGaFHQ0wERqCULGfy.jpg

[Captain Terror]

This one freaked me out more than a bit when I saw it in the theater as a seven-year-old.
I'm not surprised, it went to some pretty weird places.

[Hey Fredrick]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2F1.bp.blogspot.com%2F_KMYbdNu8FOw%2FS8ttRqBdcbI%2FAAAAAAAABc8%2FyYFfKQW5RNU%2Fw1200-h630-p-k-no-nu%2Fin%2Ba%2Blonely%2Bplace.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

Bogart plays a screenwriter with a bit of a temper. One night he invites the coat rack girl from a restaurant back to his place to describe a book she's read, a book he's supposed to adapt to screen but has no interest in reading. Well, she ends up dead and since she was last seen with Bogart, he is suspect number one. A neighbor comes to Bogart's defense, gets a little closer to him than she should, and as she finds more out about the violent Bogart she begins to doubt her own story. Pretty solid film with very good performances from everybody. Never a dull moment. rating_4

[Iroquois]

Don't Look Up - 1

we live in a society

[Wooley]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a7/Happy_Death_Day_poster.png
By The poster art can or could be obtained from Universal Pictures., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=58827951

Happy Death Day - (2017)

Happy Death Day is marketed as a horror film and slasher, but it's a really quite tame in respect to most of those - and trades primarily on it's Groundhog Day premise in connection of college girl Tree (Jessica Rothe) being continually murdered by an unknown assailant. Unfortunately for Tree, it seems there are a number of people who would potentially want to murder her. The filmmakers have so much fun with this you have to wonder why dozens of others haven't attempted to play around with this whole concept. Tree wakes up in a college boy's room at the start of the same day every time she dies, and undertakes the same lonely journey Bill Murray did a few decades ago. Any progress or connection she might make is wiped out every time - making her the sole source of change in a rat's maze with deadly dead-ends. Christopher Landon shows that this younger generation have a trick or two up their sleeve, even though they mainly trade in reinterpretations of previous films. My second time watching this.

7/10

I liked this movie quite a lot. I was very surprised.

[Deschain]

Don't Look Up - 1

we live in a society
I watched this last night. A couple parts made me laugh but McKay’s smug cynicism is not something I enjoy.

[Wooley]

WarGames (1983)


8/10



Cool! But could have made more sense.

I'm glad you liked it, I've seen it about 200 times, but what didn't make sense?
I've seen it too many times to be able to tell.
Also Barry Corbin is so great in this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0WG0B2JYLQ

[Wooley]

Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure (1977)

This one escaped my notice back when I was a kid. (I probably dismissed it as a "girl" movie). The plot bears some resemblance to Toy Story in that a kid's toys come to life when she leaves the room. The pirate from a snow globe abducts the new French porcelain doll and runs away with her, and Ann & Andy set out to rescue her.

So I'll admit that RA&A are likable but bland, and the songs aren't great which is a problem because there's a lot of them. I mean, they're not obnoxious but I don't remember any of them mere hours after having watched it. BUT, the animation is terrific and there's lots of inventive and bizarre stuff going on.

83748
83749

Animation buffs are encouraged to check it out.
4
I did see this a few times when I was young. It's always been banging around somewhere in the back of my brain but you have just brought it back into the "accessible files" section.

[Wooley]

Shame, looks like I want to see this.

It's pretty slow and not in the good Denis Villeneuve kinda way more in the "we don't really have much of a story to tell" kinda way.

[Wooley]

5 loved the music <3
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNjE5NzA4ZDctOTJkZi00NzM0LTkwOTYtMDI4MmNkMzIxODhkXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNjY1MTg4Mzc@._V1_.jpg

I am actually quite intrigued by this and starting to look forward to it.

[CringeFest]

I'm glad you liked it, I've seen it about 200 times, but what didn't make sense?
I've seen it too many times to be able to tell.
Also Barry Corbin is so great in this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0WG0B2JYLQ


I just didn't see what those little games like chess and tic-tac-toe had to do with the wargame computer system. Also, in real life, apocalyptic catastrophe just starts by firing a single nuclear weapon into a territory, but i thought it was overrall fun and i don't care that much that we are talking about a fake computer system. This is certainly the best hacker movie i've seen. It's kinda hard to do those because a lot of what hackers and programmers do looks quite boring to someone else.

[AgrippinaX]

It's pretty slow and not in the good Denis Villeneuve kinda way more in the "we don't really have much of a story to tell" kinda way.

Right. Ah well.

[Wooley]

I just didn't see what those little games like chess and tic-tac-toe had to do with the wargame computer system. Also, in real life, apocalyptic catastrophe just starts by firing a single nuclear weapon into a territory, but i thought it was overrall fun and i don't care that much that we are talking about a fake computer system. This is certainly the best hacker movie i've seen. It's kinda hard to do those because a lot of what hackers and programmers do looks quite boring to someone else.

The games were put into the defense system to teach it strategy so that its decisions would be more clever than the Russians choices. Obviously in the end, the rub is that the computer can't tell the difference between tic tac toe and the end of the human race. But the futility of playing these games leads it to the conclusion that it is better simply not to play the game. In the 80s, when we were all living in fear of nuclear annihilation all the time, it was a powerful message.
I have to ask about the "IRL apocalyptic catastrophe starts by firing a single nuclear weapon..." part. What do you mean by that? I feel like we haven't seen what full-scale nuclear war between the worlds two biggest super-powers (at the time) looks like and, again, having lived in that time, the way it happens in the film seems like the most credible scenario (not the computer part but the "it's war, fire everything, our losses will be less than theirs" part). That's kinda how we all thought it was gonna go down.

[CringeFest]

The games were put into the defense system to teach it strategy so that its decisions would be more clever than the Russians choices. Obviously in the end, the rub is that the computer can't tell the difference between tic tac toe and the end of the human race. But the futility of playing these games leads it to the conclusion that it is better simply not to play the game. In the 80s, when we were all living in fear of nuclear annihilation all the time, it was a powerful message.
I have to ask about the "IRL apocalyptic catastrophe starts by firing a single nuclear weapon..." part. What do you mean by that? I feel like we haven't seen what full-scale nuclear war between the worlds two biggest super-powers (at the time) looks like and, again, having lived in that time, the way it happens in the film seems like the most credible scenario (not the computer part but the "it's war, fire everything, our losses will be less than theirs" part). That's kinda how we all thought it was gonna go down.


From everything I've read, the reason that nation states tend not to use Nukes in war (there so far have only been two exceptions...) is that if you fire one, then the enemy absolutely will retaliate (unless the victim was very smart and restrained...) if they have a nuke, and that's the basis for militaristic thinking and game theory etc...but as you point out, the thing that felt so unrealistic about the movie was all the simultaneous projections of weapons on those screens, and i was a little confused by what was activated by what while watching the movie past the beginning part with the kid infiltrating the system (even though i don't think that was terribly realistic either, tell me that in the 80's you could stream video archives of the guy who built the war machine hahaha...). I'll definitely watch war games again at some point because it was a good movie.

[CringeFest]

Menace II Society



83796



7/10



I felt very disappointed by the ending of this movie, it felt very abrupt, and throughout the film there were places where there could have been more character development. The film does touch on the truism: "those who live by the sword, die by the sword", but i just felt the ending could have been as good as the first half of the movie...

[GulfportDoc]

83797
Being the Ricardos (2021)


It’s impossible to overstate the massive viewership and the impact that I Love Lucy had in the United States, especially during the initial series that ran from 1951-1957, and then in an extended run of 13 one hour specials each season from 1957-1960. The 1952-53 season alone had an astonishing Nielsen rating of 67.3, which meant that of the households that owned a TV, over 67% of them tuned into I Love Lucy every Monday night from 9-9:30. To put that into perspective, some other more recent popular series had the following ratings at their largest: Cheers- 21.3; Seinfeld- 20.6; NCIS- 13.5; and The Big Bang Theory- 12.8.


It seemed as though EVERYONE watched that show, and most everybody talked about it the following day at school, at the workplace, or over the back yard fence. I personally missed very few of the initial 180 half-hour episodes, and also the subsequent The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show for its three seasons. In addition there were two movies with Lucy & Desi: The Long, Long Trailer, and Forever, Darling.


So it was an exceedingly tall order for writer/director Aaron Sorkin to tackle this subject matter, not the least of which was that few people younger than 65 would have much first hand knowledge of the series, or of the star’s and cast’s involvement and private lives, apart from those who have watched the shows in continuous syndication.

Unfortunately the movie was overly ambitious and a bit scattered. The time period was announced to be recounting one week in the production of the I Love Lucy show and the activity around it. But during that span they inserted too much Lucy-Desi lore and series incidents. They also invented some PC exchanges, evidently as a nod to current fashion. For example they had one of the lady writers complain to Lucy that she was being subservient to Ricky, that it made her too submissive. But Lucy had to explain to her that the show’s premise was based on her ditziness, comic deceitfulness, and her always unsuccessful attempts to be an entertainer like Ricky. Lucy was THE focus on the series, and everything was written to feature her and her antics, although Ethel Mertz was often involved as well.

In the main, the casting could have been a tad better. Javier Bardemas Ricky Ricardo was the standout impression. He looked and acted the part from start to finish. It must have been a real challenge to cast for Lucy. Reportedly Cate Blanchett was originally cast, but eventually dropped out. It’s hard to say if she could have been made up to look more like Lucy than did Nicole Kidman. Kidman did look the part when they had her made up like Lucy in the TV broadcasts portions, and her voice impression was oftentimes reminiscent of Lucy’s voice. But at other times she simply looked and sounded like Nicole Kidman. Nina Arianda was passable as Ethel Mertz, although Vivian Vance was never slender-- always rather dumpy. And J.K. Simmons didn’t look a thing like Fred Mertz, but he managed to be somewhat suggestive of him in the Lucy show portions. His voice and manner were not close.

The opening put me in mind a little of the some of the beginning scenes in Citizen Kane, with aged participants commenting on “how it was”. Actually that worked pretty well. But ironically, despite the fly by mention of some important characteristics of the show, they wasted way too much time on one routine that Lucy wasn’t happy with, insisted on being changed, and the drama surrounding it. There was also too much emphasis on HUAC’s charge that Lucy had been suspected of being a communist. She was not only never a communist, but that entire flap raced by at the time with barely a notice by the public.

Still, it was enjoyable to revisit some of the style and history of the I Love Lucy show. Perhaps if they had not insisted on getting big name actors for some of the important characters, and relaxed out the number of scenes and pacing, they might have had a hit. The true story of not only I Love Lucy, but also Ball’s and Arnaz’s real lives and projects both during and after the series is a major and unique tale of Hollywood success. Although this film was intended as only a snapshot of their story, it had the potential to be much better.

Doc’s rating: 6/10

[Captain Terror]

I watched War Games approximately 400 times as a teenager.

EDIT: Heh, I see Wooley said the same thing in a previous post. This was one of those that I watched whenever it was on, which was seemingly twice daily at least.

[GulfportDoc]

[the caps in the above "Ricardo" review were a formatting issue. They were not intended as emphasis.]

[Rockatansky]

The games were put into the defense system to teach it strategy so that its decisions would be more clever than the Russians choices. Obviously in the end, the rub is that the computer can't tell the difference between tic tac toe and the end of the human race. But the futility of playing these games leads it to the conclusion that it is better simply not to play the game. In the 80s, when we were all living in fear of nuclear annihilation all the time, it was a powerful message.
I have to ask about the "IRL apocalyptic catastrophe starts by firing a single nuclear weapon..." part. What do you mean by that? I feel like we haven't seen what full-scale nuclear war between the worlds two biggest super-powers (at the time) looks like and, again, having lived in that time, the way it happens in the film seems like the most credible scenario (not the computer part but the "it's war, fire everything, our losses will be less than theirs" part). That's kinda how we all thought it was gonna go down.

Plus you get to hang out with Ally Sheedy. Not a bad way to spend the end of the world, IMO.

[GulfportDoc]

[In a Lonely Place]

Bogart plays a screenwriter with a bit of a temper. One night he invites the coat rack girl from a restaurant back to his place to describe a book she's read, a book he's supposed to adapt to screen but has no interest in reading. Well, she ends up dead and since she was last seen with Bogart, he is suspect number one. A neighbor comes to Bogart's defense, gets a little closer to him than she should, and as she finds more out about the violent Bogart she begins to doubt her own story. Pretty solid film with very good performances from everybody. Never a dull moment. rating_4
Oh, Yeah!! I agree. This is one of the best noirs ever made, rivaling Double Indemnity. Probably Bogart's best performance of all. And several of us LOVE Gloria Grahame.

[xSookieStackhouse]

I am actually quite intrigued by this and starting to look forward to it.
its on disney plus just let u know :) its good movie:)

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b6/Unthinkable.jpg
By Source: http://img.listal.com/image/1145248/600full-unthinkable-poster.jpg, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25261183

Unthinkable - (2010)

A very confronting exploration of the whole 'is torture ever justified' question. Steven Younger (now converted Muslim Yusuf Mohammed) has managed to put together three nuclear devices, set to go off in a few days time - yet nobody knows where they are. He allows himself to be captured, and investigators bring in a team which includes military personnel, FBI Agent Helen Brody (Carrie-Anne Moss) and Henry Harold Humphries (Samuel L. Jackson) A Black Ops operator with a special talent - and that talent is torture. To Brody's horror, Humphries tortures Younger in a manner that is certainly extreme, and will stay with the viewer as an enduring memory of this film. It's the escalation of this torture, and constant fights and flare-ups over whether it will work and how morally reprehensible it is, that provide the bulk of the film. This leads up to something I won't give away - but provides the film's title - a manner of torture that's "unthinkable" - and yeah, it is.

This is a thriller, but I'd also consider the "horror" label. Michael Sheen plays Younger - a man who has put himself in the horrible position he's in. He has a difficult point to prove, as does this film.

7.5/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/ab/Night_and_Fog.jpg
By http://staticmass.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/night_1.jpg, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=47479434

Night and Fog - (1956)

I don't think I've ever been as mentally put inside the Holocaust as when I watched this short documentary by Alain Resnais. The shots of deserted, dilapidated concentration camps with overgrown vegetation all around while at the same time flashing back to real images of the horror are of a certain rhythm - as is the lyrical voice-over - that your attention never wavers.

9/10

Foreign Language Countdown films seen : 55/100

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/de/Old_film_poster.jpg
By IMP Awards / 2021 Movie Poster Gallery / Old Poster (#2 of 3), Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=65447757

Old - (2021)

Somewhat typical of M. Night Shyamalan these days, Old manages to be interesting enough to hold my attention and entertains without producing a really fantastic film that will linger for too long. The whole premise of a beach where you age one year every 30 minutes just reeled me in and made this a must-see for me, and the film delivered in a mild way. It's a "catch it when it comes on TV and you've got nothing better to do" film.

6/10

[Takoma11]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fs3-eu-central-1.amazonaws.com%2Fcentaur-wp%2Fcreativereview%2Fprod%2Fcontent%2Fuploads%2F2019%2F06%2Fanima.png&f=1&nofb=1

Anima, 2019

In this extended music video/short film, a man (Thom Yorke) fights against the mundane, repetitive life around him to find connection with a woman (Dejana Roncione) he meets on his commute to work.

I realize that this short film---clocking in at about 15 minutes--will not appeal to everyone. I like Radiohead's music, and I'm into modern dance and highly visual storytelling, and so I thought it was a real treat. Yorke has strong presence in his lead role, and Roncione makes a powerful impression as the woman he falls for.

It's certainly true that the themes explored here are nothing new: the city as a soulless machine through which people move, robot-like, from home to work and back again. The lack of emotional connection. The feeling of trying to fight the tide. But I don't think that work has to be original if it is done well, and this short film is done very well. It looks absolutely stunning, and through the use of simple tricks (wire-work, I believe?) it creates some really memorable set-pieces and dance numbers.

A quick watch well worth checking out.

4

[Nausicaä]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/1c/Free_Guy_2021_Poster.jpg/220px-Free_Guy_2021_Poster.jpg

3

SF = Zzz



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

[Takoma11]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.indiewire.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2021%2F06%2FScreen-Shot-2021-06-10-at-10.01.07-AM.png%3Fw%3D780&f=1&nofb=1

tick tick . . . BOOM!, 2021

Adapted from a one-man autobiographical stage show, this film follows Jonathan Larson (Andrew Garfield) as he struggles to complete his first musical with his 30th birthday impending. Adding pressure to the situation, his long-time girlfriend, Susan (Alexandra Shipp) has had enough of the New York City life and wants to move away. Jonathan's best friend, Michael (Robin de Jesus) is also struggling as the AIDS epidemic claims the lives of their friends.

I thought that this film, directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda, was a lot of fun and really compelling. Larson is best known for having written the hit musical Rent, but this film takes place before that creation. I had just assumed from the basic premise of the film that I'd be watching Larson have an "aha" moment and compose Rent, but instead he's working on an ambitious sci-fi/dystopian tale.

One thing that always bugs me about biographical films is how often you learn that a ton of liberties were taken with real events. What this film wisely does is acknowledge that there may be inaccuracies because it is based on a version of Larson's life as told by the man himself. The film begins by admitting it may be an arm's length from "reality" and it relieves some of the tension around accuracy and allows us to enjoy the more audacious sequences.

Garfield's performance in the lead role was amazing. He manages to show you a person who is both incredibly in tune with what is around him--because observation is what drives his art and he constantly composes songs about everything from his neighbors to the sugar bowl---and at the same time incredibly self-centered to the point that he alienates many of the people closest to him. It's a performance and a portrayal that walks a pretty brilliant line in terms of allowing us to genuinely root for Larson to succeed while at the same time being exasperated at the way he treats his girlfriend.

The supporting cast is also really great. In addition to the actors in the flashback sequences, the stage play sequences feature Garfield supported by Joshua Henry and Vanessa Hudgens who bring a lot of vocal power to the film's songs. There's also a great small role from Bradley Whitford as Broadway legend (and recently passed away) Stephen Sondheim.

Miranda's direction feels very confident and it's an enthusiastic match for the material, which begs for moments that are small juxtaposed with moments that are bombastic. One of my favorite scenes involves a frustrated Larson finally giving up and going to a local gym to swim laps to try to jump start his brain. A song builds from Larson's thoughts, starting with just counting his laps and observations about the slow swimmer in front of him and the pretty girl next to the pool, and then begins to cohere into something really powerful. As Larson sinks into the song, the scene in the pool morphs into something blatantly fantastical.

I wasn't sure if I would be into this film, despite the positive reviews. Within the first ten minutes I was hooked and it really kept me engaged the whole way through. Garfield's performance and the portrayal of someone grappling with the creative process were both so well done.

4

[Fabulous]

Nocturne (2020)

3

https://www.themoviedb.org/t/p/original/x6ZlSpX9k1FF3KeSW53DLGYbcNp.jpg

[Siddon]

https://cdn.thetealmango.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/dont-look-upp.jpg

Don't Look Up (2021)

Adam McKay is normally pretty solid for me, I think The Big Short and Vice are both very solid films. Don't Look Up misses a mark a bit here, the world is coming to an end and people are being stupid about it is a good concept but it doesn't really work out or pay off. Some characters just don't really work while the focus of the film is often scattered.

Ron Perlman, Tyler Perry, Timothee Chalamet, and Hamis Patel are basically one joke characters given far too much screen time. The film also splits it's time between the two heavies Streep and Rylance which leaves the viewer feeling somewhat empty. McKay doesn't seem to know if he's going after corporate America or political America and both are just underserved.

Leo, Cate Blanchett, and Jonah Hill are all really good in this and it elevates the film from a 2 star to a 3 star film for me. Jonah dunking on Jennifer Lawrence is the best part of the film but once again the film doesn't know who the lead is between Leo and Jennifer. It's like watching two films smushed into one and it doesn't really work.

[Deschain]

I watched Nightmare Alley and liked it for the most part. The trailers don’t really give away what it’s about at all and it doesn’t feel like a Del Toro movie to me but I’m not marking it down for either of those things.

[StuSmallz]

Great review, Stu. I’m surprised you saw RW after FR. I remember seeing part of RW on TV as a kid and being like “WTF IS THIS?” And seeking out the movie as soon as I could. But yeah the original MM is kinda slow, especially compared to the sequels. I think it does a great job of capturing a society right on the brink of collapse, as opposed to most movies that are all about the post-apocalypse. Have you seen Beyond Thunderdome?

Some of the smaller moments of RW that I love:

Max being all about making deals, with the Gyro Captain to take him to the oil, with Papagallo to get them the rig, etc. It’s what keeps him truly neutral for most of the movie. I love Papagallo’s line, “He fulfilled a contract. He’s an honorable man.” He delivered it with both admiration for a noble deed he doesn’t see much any more and annoyance that he isn’t getting what he wants out of Max. It’s a terrifically delivered line.

Even at the end when he volunteers to drive the rig it’s not out of the goodness of his heart. Max knows it’s his best chance of getting out of there alive. And the set up at the beginning of three cars going one direction to distract the marauders while one car goes in another to try to get away is the same plan at the end with the oil. And all that “hero worship” they heap on Max while asking him to drive the rig. Nobody bothers to tell him he’s the decoy. They’re using him just like he’s using them to get out alive. Thanks Des! And sorry for the late reply, but I got busy with Christmas stuff. Anyway, the only Mad Max movie I saw as a teen was the original, and it didn't do much for me, and I never heard much about The Road Warrior (in fact, I think I was more aware of Thunderdome, if for nothing else but the gag MST3K made about it in the ep where they riffed Laserblast), so I just never got around to it, and I only went back and checked it out after Fury Road (https://letterboxd.com/stusmallz/film/mad-max-fury-road/) blew up so big online (although I didn't regret watching TRW at all when I did). And yes, I watched Thunderdome four years ago, shortly after I had already watched/rewatched the rest of the series, and it's the weakest of the series so far, but still not a complete waste of time anyway.

At any rate, what strikes me the most about the Mad Max series on the whole is the consistent exploration and evolution of Max as a character from movie to movie, even in the lesser entries; I mean, even though the original suffered a bit from a lack of action, it still did a great job of showing Max's fall from grace as a normal man due to the tragedies he suffers from, setting up The Road Warrior perfectly to have him be an anti-social survivalist loner, who just barely starts to learn how to live with other people again, before Thunderdome shows him as being fully "rehabilitated", although it drops the ball a bit by never really having a truly impressive moment of redemption for him. That's why I really appreciate the way Fury Road reset his character essentially back to where he was at the start of Warrior (and then some), basically being even more anti-social than ever before, like more of a rabid, grunting animal than a man, so that when he finally gives Furiosa his name (and his live-saving blood), it hits really hard, because it's such a stark contrast to where he was at the start of that entry; now that's how you arc a character!

[mark f]

The Nowhere Inn (Bill Benz, 2020) 2.5 6/10
Daddy Long Legs (Jean Negulesco, 1955) 3 6.5/10
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (Allan Dwan, 1938) 2.5 6/10
C'mon C'mon (Mike Mills, 2021) 3- 6.5/10
https://c.tenor.com/FGC0W10_LeIAAAAC/cmon-cmon-mike-mills.gif
Not exactly entertaining but documentary soundman Joaquin Phoenix and his nephew Woody Norman bring enough honesty to make it affecting.
The Hating Game (Peter Hutchings, 2021) 2.5+ 6/10
Snow White and the Three Stooges (Walter Lang [& Frank Tashlin], 1961) 2 5/10
Bright Eyes (David Butler, 1934) 2.5 6/10
Carousel (Henry King, 1956) 3.5 7/10
https://64.media.tumblr.com/dfcd7fc74347b82920c3151f3d9344de/7a5d544bfb3da455-fa/s500x750/842003ff9e07579b3953f8ce08a72a8cf4eab584.gifv
"If I Loved You" sung by Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones.
Gritt (Itonje Søimer Guttormsen, 2021) 2.5+ 6/10
Wolf (Nathalie Biancheri, 2021) 2+ 5/10
Curly Top (Irving Cummings, 1935) 2.5 6/10
Scrooge AKA A Christmas Carol (Brian Desmond Hurst, 1951) 3.5 7/10
https://i.makeagif.com/media/12-16-2015/tmI6o5.gif
Marley's Ghost (Michael Hordern) scares the crap out of Scrooge (Alastair Sim).
Who'll Stop the Rain (Karel Reisz, 1978) 2.5 6/10
Meet Me in St. Louis (Vincente Minnelli, 1944) 3.5+ 7.5/10
The Muppet Christmas Carol (Brian Henson, 1992) 3 6.5/10
A Charlie Brown Christmas (Bill Melendez, 1965) 3.5+ 7.5/10
https://media.giphy.com/media/RbDxrcG2deKnm/giphy.gif
Worrywart Charlie Brown tries to learn the meaning of Christmas and for the most part, he does.
Play It As It Lays (Frank Perry, 1972) 2.5 5.5/10
O. Henry's Full House (5 Directors, 1952) 3 6.5/10
The World of Kanako (Tetsuya Nakashima, 2014) 2.5 6/10
It Happened on Fifth Avenue (Roy Del Ruth, 1947) 3+ 6.5/10
https://64.media.tumblr.com/2214c3ea3e40f8cf15b89c3638e6efe1/d4769d8fbba1499b-da/s540x810/f6ba90a55ecfb57acebf7908a09fa810fb95e13f.gifv
A group of rich and poor people share the holiday season and discover who's the happiest.

[WHITBISSELL!]

https://66.media.tumblr.com/3e0bdaf57950ba7f83095a94dfef9914/tumblr_nzx1siQvO11s2f16eo2_400.gifhttps://64.media.tumblr.com/85f980baba366ff4af96458e31d710fa/tumblr_ngwub4OurG1qdzjx9o7_r1_250.gifvhttps://benjaminalborough.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/smirk.gifhttps://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c90fd14b91449766edf8978/1577225794120-F5W3YA4JOV4KUJT9C547/cainmarley.gif?format=1000w

I had an unplanned marathon of sorts with four different versions of A Christmas Carol. The '38 version with Reginald Owen, the '51 with Alastair Sim, the '84 with George C. Scott and the '99 with Patrick Stewart. I had already seen the '38 and '51 versions some time ago and the '84 last year I think but I rewatched all of them over the last couple of days and finally caught Stewart's performance yesterday.

As far as Scrooge portrayals go Sim still wins out with Stewart's in second place. Owen edges out Scott for third. If you go with the overall experience I still prefer '51 simply because it includes more scenes with Scrooges sister Fan (which never fail to hit me right in the feels) and a slightly deeper dive with regards to his fiance Alice. Patrick Stewart also takes a fine, naturalistic turn in his version.

1938 (Reginald Owen) 75/100
1951 (Alastair Sim) 88/100
1984 (George C. Scott) 75/100
1999 (Patrick Stewart) 85/100

EDIT: Oh and I tried watching the FX version with Guy Pearce and got about halfway through the three and a half hour runtime before I gave up on it. This was right around the time that hunky Scrooge (Pearce) rides up (on camelback no less) to his old school with Ali Baba (Ghost of Christmas Past). Then they go on to reveal that Scrooge was molested by his old headmaster It was that kind of production.

[ueno_station54]

https://www.denofgeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/the-matrix-resurrections-ending-spoilers.jpg?resize=768%2C432
The Matrix Resurrections (Lana Wachowski, 2021)
2.5

[Captain Terror]

I had an unplanned marathon of sorts with four different versions of A Christmas Carol.

I found one this year that I hadn't heard of before. It won the Best Animated Short Oscar in '72, and features Sim (again) as Scrooge, with narration by Michael Redgrave. It's only 28 minutes long which means it has to speed through the plot too quickly, so it's not the best place for a newcomer to experience the story for the first time. But the animation is great and it really leans into the creepy side of the story, so it was up my alley.

https://64.media.tumblr.com/5b944ebba5234a0c5bf0e153c8c8007c/tumblr_p1c930XsFd1sqf5tdo1_400.gifv

http://www.simbasible.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/XOup_R.gif

https://thumbs.gfycat.com/ImmaterialGivingBantamrooster-max-1mb.gif

[ueno_station54]

https://streamondemandathome.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/animatrix4.jpg
The Animatrix (2003, Shinichiro Watanabe, Koji Morimoto, Peter Chung, Andrew R. Jones, Yoshiaki Kawajiri, Takeshi Koike & Mahiro Maeda)
rating_4

This was my first time watching all these movies. Definitive ranking: ani,2,3,1,4

[WHITBISSELL!]

I found one this year that I hadn't heard of before. It won the Best Animated Short Oscar in '72, and features Sim (again) as Scrooge, with narration by Michael Redgrave. It's only 28 minutes long which means it has to speed through the plot too quickly, so it's not the best place for a newcomer to experience the story for the first time. But the animation is great and it really leans into the creepy side of the story, so it was up my alley.

https://64.media.tumblr.com/5b944ebba5234a0c5bf0e153c8c8007c/tumblr_p1c930XsFd1sqf5tdo1_400.gifv

http://www.simbasible.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/XOup_R.gif

https://thumbs.gfycat.com/ImmaterialGivingBantamrooster-max-1mb.gifWhoa. That actually looks pretty intriguing. I did go a bit butt wild on the Christmas Carol front this year but it's such a great story. A lot of the dialogue and story was of course identical but the fun was in comparing the different interpretations and production design. I could always check out another take on it.

[matt72582]

Thelma - 6.5/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a5/Thelma_%282017_film%29.jpg

[Citizen Rules]

Catching up on my Christmas movie watches. Two of my all time favorites:

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=83814
Christmas in Connecticut (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037595/)(1945)
Dir. Peter Godfrey

Starring Barbara Stanwyck and Dennis Morgan, with the riotously funny and ever charming S.Z. Sakall and Sydney Greenstreet rounding out a talented cast! This movie puts a smile on my face for the entire runtime. Quite the intelligently written script that's both clever and funny. Loved the cooking aspect of it and Barbara Stanwyck too.
rating_4





https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=83815
Remember the Night (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032981/) (1940)
Dir. Mitchell Leisen

Four years before Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray steamed up the screen in Double Indemnity, they were charmers with oodles of chemistry in this Christmas drama about redemption. Stanwyck is a petty thief who's going to spend Christmas in jail thanks to a tricky prosecuting attorney, Fred MacMurray. The attorney feels guilty for his actions in court so pays Stanwyck's bail so she could at least have a few days of freedom. We later learn that Stanwyck's life of crime stems from a cold and distant mother who doesn't want a thing to do with her daughter. The story is well written and Stanywck acts up a storm and the ending is very well done and balanced.
rating_4

[Wooley]

https://66.media.tumblr.com/3e0bdaf57950ba7f83095a94dfef9914/tumblr_nzx1siQvO11s2f16eo2_400.gif
EDIT: Oh and I tried watching the FX version with Guy Pearce and got about halfway through the three and a half hour runtime before I gave up on it. This was right around the time that hunky Scrooge (Pearce) rides up (on camelback no less) to his old school with Ali Baba (Ghost of Christmas Past). Then they go on to reveal that Scrooge was molested by his old headmaster It was that kind of production.

Three and a half hour run-time?!!!
What the hell?!!!
I've got the book right in front of me and it is literally just 71 pages long!!!

[WHITBISSELL!]

Three and a half hour run-time?!!!
What the hell?!!!
I've got the book right in front of me and it is literally just 71 pages long!!!It first ran on FX over 3 nights, one hour long each. So FX crammed another half hour of commercials in there. But the padding. Holy crap the padding. Marley doesn't even show up at Scrooge's house until an hour in. The movie opens with some random guy cursing Marley and pissing on his grave. And then ... get this ... it trickles down through the soil, drips on his face and wakes him. He then goes wandering around the spirit world and eventually meets the blacksmith that forged the chain that he's forced to wear. Meanwhile Scrooge and Bob Cratchit are having this somewhat disjointed and prolonged Socratic discussion. I held out as long as I could thinking it had to be going somewhere but finally tapped out.

[Captain Terror]

I did go a bit butt wild on the Christmas Carol front this year but it's such a great story. A lot of the dialogue and story was of course identical but the fun was in comparing the different interpretations and production design.
Yeah a few years ago I watched 6-7 versions of Hunchback of Notre Dame in one month. Lots of repetition but it was the little wrinkles that each one offered that kept it interesting.

[GulfportDoc]

I had an unplanned marathon of sorts with four different versions of A Christmas Carol. The '38 version with Reginald Owen, the '51 with Alastair Sim, the '84 with George C. Scott and the '99 with Patrick Stewart. I had already seen the '38 and '51 versions some time ago and the '84 last year I think but I rewatched all of them over the last couple of days and finally caught Stewart's performance yesterday.

As far as Scrooge portrayals go Sim still wins out with Stewart's in second place. Owen edges out Scott for third. If you go with the overall experience I still prefer '51 simply because it includes more scenes with Scrooges sister Fan (which never fail to hit me right in the feels) and a slightly deeper dive with regards to his fiance Alice. Patrick Stewart also takes a fine, naturalistic turn in his version.

1938 (Reginald Owen) 75/100
1951 (Alastair Sim) 88/100
1984 (George C. Scott) 75/100
1999 (Patrick Stewart) 85/100
...
I agree with you about Alistair Sim. He was a brilliant comedic actor, and one of my favorites along with Terry-Thomas.

If you've never seen The Green Man (1956), it's a riot, with both men at their finest. I think you'd like it. It's a daffy fairly black comedy. One of those great Brit comedies from the 1950s.

[GulfportDoc]

Catching up on my Christmas movie watches. Two of my all time favorites:
Christmas in Connecticut (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037595/)(1945)
Dir. Peter Godfrey

Starring Barbara Stanwyck and Dennis Morgan, with the riotously funny and ever charming S.Z. Sakall and Sydney Greenstreet rounding out a talented cast! This movie puts a smile on my face for the entire runtime. Quite the intelligently written script that's both clever and funny. Loved the cooking aspect of it and Barbara Stanwyck too.
rating_4
Remember the Night (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032981/) (1940)

Dir. Mitchell Leisen

Four years before Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray steamed up the screen in Double Indemnity, they were charmers with oodles of chemistry in this Christmas drama about redemption. Stanwyck is a petty thief who's going to spend Christmas in jail thanks to a tricky prosecuting attorney, Fred MacMurray. The attorney feels guilty for his actions in court so pays Stanwyck's bail so she could at least have a few days of freedom. We later learn that Stanwyck's life of crime stems from a cold and distant mother who doesn't want a thing to do with her daughter. The story is well written and Stanywck acts up a storm and the ending is very well done and balanced.
rating_4


I heartily agree-- both good pictures, with my favorite being "Connecticut". Stanwyck really shows her acting chops at comedy, having already distinguished herself as a top dramatic actress. She might have been the best actress of the '30s/'40s.

[Citizen Rules]

[/left]
[/center]
I heartily agree-- both good pictures, with my favorite being "Connecticut". Stanwyck really shows her acting chops at comedy, having already distinguished herself as a top dramatic actress. She might have been the best actress of the '30s/'40s.She's certainly one of my all time favorite actresses. She could go from comedy to drama, then play a sweet character and then portray a hard as nails femme fatale.

[Citizen Rules]

Two unusual Christmas movies I seen recently.

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=83817
Christmas Holiday (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036711/) (1944)


Deanna Durbin is a prostitute working in a New Orleans brothel. Gene Kelly is her husband who's a compulsive gambler and kills a bookie. Neither sing nor dance. Christmas noir. Worth a look.
rating_3_5



https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=83816
The Great Rupert (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042524/) (1950)

Rupert is a squirrel who can dance thanks to the magic of stop motion and producer George Pal. Yeah that George Pal that made a lot of neat stop motion classics that were ground breaking in their day. I had to rewatch the scenes with Rupert the squirrel doing a Scottish folk dance as it looked so real. Maybe it was! Jimmy Durante heads up this forgotten Christmas themed movie. He plays a down and out, but not hopeless vaudeville performer that talks his way into a cheap, dingy basement apartment for free, where money starts falling from the ceiling (Yes there's a logical reason for the raining dough).
rating_3+

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/11/Sound_of_Metal_poster.jpeg
By IMP Awards, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=65408954

Sound of Metal - (2019)

My long journey through the Best Picture nominated films for this year continues, and it reveals yet another really good film that didn't quite break the 'fantastic' barrier for me. Ruben Stone (Riz Ahmed) is a heavy metal drummer who starts to lose his hearing, doesn't follow doctors advice and before you know it he's deaf. The rest of the film shows how he really fails to come to terms with what has happened to him, makes wrong choices and pays no attention to what people are telling him. He reacts to what happens when he loses his hearing as an addict would to losing a source of drugs - and Ruben is a recovering addict, so I guess that makes sense. It's slow-paced, and really uses sound to put ourselves inside Ruben's head (this won an Oscar for sound - which must have been an easy choice for academy members.) It's the kind of film which sets up a cathartic ending which has an impact. Pretty good - but for me, The Father is the pick of the nominated films I've seen, which is now 6/8, only leaving Mank and The Trial of the Chicago 7 to go.

7/10

[Miss Vicky]

https://www.angelfire.com/music6/walteregan/MoFoPics2/encanto.gif
Encanto

I liked some things about it, but I really hated the songs and there were too damn many of them.

2.5

[xSookieStackhouse]

rating_4_5 cause elizabeth olsen is one of my favorite actress and shes is nominated golden globe awards hope she wins it cause she deserves an award instead always same people. jessica lange is one of my favorite people on american horror story shes a good actress. tom felton is one of my favorite on harry potter :) his a good actor!

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTAxMDY4MDI0NDZeQTJeQWpwZ15BbWU4MDkzOTU5ODAx._V1_FMjpg_UX1000_.jpgrating_4_5 like i said elizabeth olsen is one of my favorite actress and is nominated golden globe :)
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTk5MTA2MzMyN15BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwODA1NTAyMjE@._V1_.jpg

[ScannerDarkly]

7/10 Fun movie also great soundtrack


https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/YZeupLTuY3mZ1BLfOrOU747S6w4lncxdKircwWxe6RWZkVeh4ZEMb1NoihqAjHjtX6PAUZ1XQk6Gf55t9rXX6LOuIY-C8LT76DpdxnRFSRE

[Fabulous]

Birds of Paradise (2021)

3.5

https://www.themoviedb.org/t/p/original/ybSVmsjY5LbuVn3bkPKPe0VLUP4.jpg

[xSookieStackhouse]

https://www.denofgeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/the-matrix-resurrections-ending-spoilers.jpg?resize=768%2C432
The Matrix Resurrections (Lana Wachowski, 2021)
rating_2_5
lucky i havent watched it yet

[this_is_the_ girl]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.blogo.it%2FMBv2AnpJ9IECAKCQs8j_R8zJT08%3D%2F2300x1294%2Fsmart%2Fhttps%3A%2F%2Fw ww.blogo.it%2Fapp%2Fuploads%2Fsites%2F3%2F2021%2F07%2Fmemoria.jpg&f=1&nofb=1
Memoria (2021, Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
5

There were a couple of things about the ending that made me raise an eyebrow just a little bit, but otherwise this is exactly the kind of film I expected from Weerasethakul. If I were to describe it in one word, it would be hypnotic. You literally feel time slow down to a standstill and linger in meditation, with moments that are filled with mysteries that no words can describe — the scene of Jessica's (Tilda Swinton) conversation with Hernán while he's scaling fish is as simple as it is transfixing. It's as pure and diegetic a viewing experience as one can possibly imagine, cathartic and impenetrable at the same time.

[this_is_the_ girl]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fmedia.giphy.com%2Fmedia%2F3otPoTnEzbhNz0dreU%2Fgiphy.gif&f=1&nofb=1
Happy holidays!

[xSookieStackhouse]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fmedia.giphy.com%2Fmedia%2F3otPoTnEzbhNz0dreU%2Fgiphy.gif&f=1&nofb=1
Happy holidays!
gosh loved that gif lol

[chawhee]

Encanto (2021)
https://animesouls.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Encanto-2021-768x356.jpg
4
As others have mentioned, the songs are a bit more abundant than they need to be, but they are good quality. The storyline and characters are great as well, and I expect to rewatch this one with my daughter for years to come.

Rons Gone Wrong (2021)
https://tvovermind.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Rons-Gone-Wrong-Trailer-750x395.jpg
3.5
Fewer songs is a plus, but everything else was a step below Encanto. My daughter lost interest in this one a bit as well. It is a charming film, but the high-tech subject matter didn't translate admirably to a full-length kid's movie for me.

[Hey Fredrick]

Tried my best to do nothing yesterday.
https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fmoviehousememories.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F02%2Fnightmare-alley-1947-halfsheet-300x234.jpg&f=1&nofb=1
Very good film about a carnival barker stealing his co-workers show and taking it to new heights. Of course, there are bound to be problems when you screw over a few people. Add in some powerful Chicago socialites looking for lost souls, a not so ethical shrink, jealous old co-workers and you have one helluva story. Tyrone Power is really good in this and I have never heard of him. rating_4_5

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftse2.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DOIP.56tTDaQ1cRahAHtBeFD5ewAAAA%26pid%3DApi&f=1

Thought it was good but Joan Crawford...she kind of annoyed me every time she was on screen and she's in like every scene. Her entire look was just off for the story being told. rating_3_5

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fimg.myflixer.site%2Fxxrz%2F250x400%2F201%2F1b%2F7c%2F1b7c5738be084f0a1a78207c962e0f 2e%2F1b7c5738be084f0a1a78207c962e0f2e.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

In the future, a new experimental program is using robots to teach kids at a school that is a little out of control with gangs, violence, the usual stuff. The robot teachers and their programmer guy start going a little funny in the head, just a little funny you know, and they start killing the students. It starts with beating but it ramps up quickly. It's up to our hero, a recently released juvenile criminal with a heart of gold to save the day. Co-stars Malcolm McDowell as the principal and Pam Grier, a favorite of mine, as one of the robot teachers. Nothing wrong with this if bad, silly movies are your thing. A little bit of violence but no...a little violence that's all. rating_3_5

[Wooley]

It first ran on FX over 3 nights, one hour long each. So FX crammed another half hour of commercials in there. But the padding. Holy crap the padding. Marley doesn't even show up at Scrooge's house until an hour in. The movie opens with some random guy cursing Marley and pissing on his grave. And then ... get this ... it trickles down through the soil, drips on his face and wakes him. He then goes wandering around the spirit world and eventually meets the blacksmith that forged the chain that he's forced to wear. Meanwhile Scrooge and Bob Cratchit are having this somewhat disjointed and prolonged Socratic discussion. I held out as long as I could thinking it had to be going somewhere but finally tapped out.

What the ****?!

[Wooley]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fimg.myflixer.site%2Fxxrz%2F250x400%2F201%2F1b%2F7c%2F1b7c5738be084f0a1a78207c962e0f 2e%2F1b7c5738be084f0a1a78207c962e0f2e.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

In the future, a new experimental program is using robots to teach kids at a school that is a little out of control with gangs, violence, the usual stuff. The robot teachers and their programmer guy start going a little funny in the head, just a little funny you know, and they start killing the students. It starts with beating but it ramps up quickly. It's up to our hero, a recently released juvenile criminal with a heart of gold to save the day. Co-stars Malcolm McDowell as the principal and Pam Grier, a favorite of mine, as one of the robot teachers. Nothing wrong with this if bad, silly movies are your thing. A little bit of violence but no...a little violence that's all. rating_3_5

Holy ****, I had completely forgotten about this.
This, and things like it, were exactly the sort of thing I watched over and over and over again in my teenage years.

[ueno_station54]

lucky i havent watched it yet
I don't personally consider a 2.5 that bad of a score. Its got some cute moments.

[ueno_station54]

https://images.mubicdn.net/images/film/125768/cache-135621-1639567735/image-w1280.jpg?size=800x
Voyage of Time: An IMAX Documentary (2016, Terence Malick)
rating_2
Having Brad Pitt narrate anything is.... certainly a choice.

[Death Proof]

https://64.media.tumblr.com/879f76c046688b1919c652f65f1e65fa/f3c82ecf797ced26-5e/s540x810/e7e35590d13f3844819acf221997df1c69b4a5be.gifv


Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)


https://www.movieforums.com/images/popcorn/light-popcorn4.png

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMzQ5ZDZhZDItZTNmZi00MWQ0LWJlNDUtZTE4ZWJmODNlM2Y3XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMDA4NzMyOA@@._V1_FMjpg_UX1000_.j pg


4.5

[Marco]

West Side Story (1961)https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0b/West_Side_Story_1961_film_poster.jpg/330px-West_Side_Story_1961_film_poster.jpg

OK a bit hokey now but still a great film I think....think the humour is perfectly done (for a musical) and the story about emigres still stands up.

4.5

[Ultraman BLACK]

https://images.fanart.tv/fanart/blackhat-5465fe4de3be5.jpg
The guy hacks the most advanced software in the world with a Keylogger!

Had a blast with this. Johnny To + Michael Mann. Uncompromised stylish action thriller. Not your average serious movie. All of Mann's trademark are there: Great shootouts, amazing photography, fast romance, etc.

Did I already saied that the guy hacks the most advanced software in the world with a Keylogger?

rating_4

https://images.fanart.tv/fanart/johnny-mnemonic-511910e7ddf48.png
https://madmuseum.org/sites/default/files/styles/5_x_3/public/2019/02/Johnny%20Mnemonic_05_0.jpg?itok=6znluy2w
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yghlrLS1TtA
Halt Sinners!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XSaYzihs6Q
Has the fish?

This movie is a bug. They predict Cyberpunk 2077.


rating_4


Keylogger!

[Torgo]

Land - 3

Robin Wright, who also directed, plays Edee, who ditches Chicago for an isolated cabin in Wyoming after experiencing a tragedy. You'd think after seeing The Station Agent, her ex-husband Sean Penn's movie Into The Wild and the many other movies like these that she would know that's not a long-term solution, is it? Sorry, I couldn't resist. Despite the movie's air of redundancy, I found much to like about it. The cinematography perhaps captures the splendor of Alberta (which stands in for Wyoming) more than it expresses Edee's isolation, but the beauty, the quality of the camerawork and the sense of place it provides are all welcome touches. The movie is also a performance piece for Wright for how well she expresses Edee's grief, desire for solitude and how out of her element she is. Equally impressive is Demian Bechir as Miguel, a neighbor who is fighting his own demons. Again, it's a movie I felt like I had already seen before the entire time I was watching it, and as for Miguel, the character is a tad too perfect for how he shows up at just the right time. I still found parts of it to be moving and believe it may be a salve to anyone in a similar situation. Also, if you, like so many of us, are stuck in your house most of the time, it's not a bad way to experience the great outdoors secondhand.

[Stirchley]

West Side Story (1961)OK a bit hokey now but still a great film I think....think the humour is perfectly done (for a musical) and the story about emigres still stands up.

I’m confused. I thought they were Puerto Ricans?

[Wyldesyde19]

I’m confused. I thought they were Puerto Ricans?

I suspect he meant immigrants, not emigres but still.

[Stirchley]

83846

Quite good at the beginning. But then it morphed into Bourne, unfortunately without Bourne. Made it through, but struggled.

83847

Not bad at all. Well-acted, but not entirely sure I understood fully the plot.

83848

A classic of course. Didn’t realize that the guy who played Clarence the Angel was British. As was the drunken pharmacist Mr. Gower.

83849

Rarely ever do I watch a vintage movie, but this was rather good. Had to wiki everyone in the movie several times to be sure I knew who was who.

[Marco]

Lilya 4-ever (2002)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e7/Lilya_4-ever_poster.jpg
Watched this for the 2nd time today. A supreme piece of storytelling....both tragic and inspiring. Oksana Akinshina is just so fragile yet strong in this sad tale.
4

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BN2Q3Mzc1MzEtY2M3Zi00ZDhkLWE3OWYtZDlkZDRkN2RhYTE0XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTQxNzMzNDI@._V1_.jpg


2.5

[Gideon58]

West Side Story (1961)https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0b/West_Side_Story_1961_film_poster.jpg/330px-West_Side_Story_1961_film_poster.jpg

OK a bit hokey now but still a great film I think....think the humour is perfectly done (for a musical) and the story about emigres still stands up.

4.5

I hope you're planning to see the remake now...you can't fully appreciate the remake without seeing this film first.

[Wooley]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BN2Q3Mzc1MzEtY2M3Zi00ZDhkLWE3OWYtZDlkZDRkN2RhYTE0XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTQxNzMzNDI@._V1_.jpg


2.5

I loved this when I was young but have been hesitant to go back. It's still in my queue.

[Gideon58]

Ritter was great, but the movie was kind of "meh"

[xSookieStackhouse]

I hope you're planning to see the remake now...you can't fully appreciate the remake without seeing this film first.
that what i was gonna say and ur right

[WHITBISSELL!]

What the ****?!I know, right? :shrug:

[WHITBISSELL!]

https://64.media.tumblr.com/75ff772b1e9920940c8141009e983c47/400d14615ae77af5-83/s540x810/ca810a3b93d38a0fb54b05075531f496e9f3079e.gifv

https://64.media.tumblr.com/0dd488c10b04f4a2d3eacb698213fdb0/28f0fbf2a602dba7-11/s540x810/012705c7e5a3c273cedd681f195fa42b13782279.gifv

How to Steal a MIllion - 1966 heist caper directed by William Wyler and starring Peter O'Toole and Audrey Hepburn. Hepburn plays Nicole Bonnet, daughter of famed art collector Charles Bonnet (Hugh Griffith). The Bonnet family have amassed an impressive collection over the years and Charles has made a tidy sum selling off various paintings to other art enthusiasts. The only problem being that they're forgeries that he himself has had a hand in creating. His pride and joy however is a small statue of Benvenuto Cellini's Venus. There was no such statue of course and the piece was sculpted by his father. He's never sold it because any attempts at authentication would reveal it's a fake. He does loan it to a Parisian museum and inadvertently signs a million dollar insurance policy which will of course require scientific testing to certify it's legitimacy. That same night Nicole surprises a burglar in their home trying to make off with a Van Gogh and accidentally shoots him with an antique dueling pistol. Not wanting to draw any attention to her father's collection she lets him go and ends up driving him home to his upscale hotel. Upon finding out from her father of the museum's plans to closely examine the statue she hit's upon a plan to hire the burglar, Simon Dermott, (O'Toole) to steal it before it can be tested.

O'Toole and Hepburn display great chemistry together (admittedly not to the degree she showed with costar Cary Grant in Charade) O'Toole is convincingly charming and witty and Hepburn is ... well she's Audrey Hepburn and that's more than enough. The rest of the cast also does well with their characters. Eli Wallach is also along as an American business tycoon obsessed with owning the statue by any means necessary. While it's not as fun or clever as Stanley Donen's Charade or as adept as Hitchcock's To Catch a Thief it's still breezy and entertaining enough to make it worth your while.

80/100

[Takoma11]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.blogo.it%2FMBv2AnpJ9IECAKCQs8j_R8zJT08%3D%2F2300x1294%2Fsmart%2Fhttps%3A%2F%2Fw ww.blogo.it%2Fapp%2Fuploads%2Fsites%2F3%2F2021%2F07%2Fmemoria.jpg&f=1&nofb=1
Memoria (2021, Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
5

There were a couple of things about the ending that made me raise an eyebrow just a little bit, but otherwise this is exactly the kind of film I expected from Weerasethakul. If I were to describe it in one word, it would be hypnotic. You literally feel time slow down to a standstill and linger in meditation, with moments that are filled with mysteries that no words can describe — the scene of Jessica's (Tilda Swinton) conversation with Hernán while he's scaling fish is as simple as it is transfixing. It's as pure and diegetic a viewing experience as one can possibly imagine, cathartic and impenetrable at the same time.

I am SO EXCITED for this movie. Love the director. Love Swinton. I can't wait.

Lilya 4-ever (2002)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e7/Lilya_4-ever_poster.jpg
Watched this for the 2nd time today. A supreme piece of storytelling....both tragic and inspiring. Oksana Akinshina is just so fragile yet strong in this sad tale.
4

This is one of my all-time favorite movies, and yet it is so upsetting that I've only seen it in full twice.

[WHITBISSELL!]

Tyrone Power is really good in this and I have never heard of him. He's like my favorite pre-60's actor. Witness for the Prosecution and Abandon Ship! (Seven Waves Away in Britain) for starters.

[Corax]

Swan Song

Definitely worth a watch



https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/1d/Swan_Song_%282021_Benjamin_Cleary_film%29.jpg



Wow, an intelligent movie that commits to its premise and doesn't resort to cheap tricks, fluff, or extraneous messaging.



a husband and father who is diagnosed with terminal illness but is given a new solution: to replace himself with a clone.


Sounds cheesy, but this is well done. Our film features a black protagonist and a black family -- people who are culturally black, but not stereotypes. There is suspense and tension and meditation on identity, trust, etc., and I don't want to spoil anything, so I'll just say it is all handled well.

[WHITBISSELL!]

I agree with you about Alistair Sim. He was a brilliant comedic actor, and one of my favorites along with Terry-Thomas.

If you've never seen The Green Man (1956), it's a riot, with both men at their finest. I think you'd like it. It's a daffy fairly black comedy. One of those great Brit comedies from the 1950s.I watched some clips on youtube and it does look right up my alley. The one where Sim is listening to the three ladies playing Hungarian Dance No. 5 in G Minor was hilarious.

[chawhee]

Dont Look Up (2021)
https://free-movies.to/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/dont.look_.up_.2021.netflix.movie_.jpg
3.5
I wanted to rate this lower, but it actually comes together at the end pretty well. The satire is completely over the top in the beginning (even for more my more liberal tastes). The tone never seems to settle or get comfortable, so even the authentic emotional scenes fall a bit flat. However, the cast is excellent, with DiCaprio really delivering here.

[Takoma11]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.top10films.co.uk%2Fimg%2FOdd_Man_Out_1947.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

Odd Man Out, 1947

Johnny McQueen (James Mason), an Irish separatist, participates in a "fundraising" bank robbery in which a man is killed. Johnny himself is shot and injured, and must evade the police as he seeks help for his injury and tries to reunite with his girlfriend, Kathleen (Kathleen Ryan).

This film, directed by Carol Reed, really took me by surprise.

The main impression I had while watching it was that it reminded me in a lot of ways of Cranes Are Flying in the way that it uses its style to capture the subjective experiences of its characters, not being afraid to venture into a fantasy or hallucinatory realm to convey what is happening internally. As the film progresses and Johnny's blood loss and injuries begin to take more of a toll on him, we go from tilted camera angles to full-blown visions, as the bubbles of a spilled beer suddenly contain the faces of those he encountered during the day, or a room full of portraits gather around him like an audience. This is visually audacious, but also incredibly moving, stuff, and it's pulled off with incredible grace.

Mason is a strong lead here, and I liked the way that he portrays a man who is lost in both a literal and emotional sense. Johnny wants to make it home, but the cruel reality of his situation becomes more and more stark as the night wears on. In one sequence, a man begins to tend to Johnny's wounds, but says that he needs to go to a hospital. Another man remarks that it is cruel to heal Johnny just so that he can hang. This man, an artist named Lukey (Robert Newton), insists on painting Johnny's portrait, claiming that preserving Johnny's soul in this moment is more important than tending to his body.

Anyone who has seen The Third Man knows that Reed is a master of making the setting of his film its own character. Just so in this film, as the city transforms into a snowy series of shadowy streets and store-fronts. The city is at once full of safe little nooks and side-alleys, and at the same time there is the sense that nowhere is safe for very long. Johnny must keep moving or perish.

In addition to what I've described above, this film just gave me some very strong feelings. I'm not sure I can fully articulate why I found it so affecting, I can only highly recommend it.

4.5

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/ab/Ida_%282013_film%29.jpg
By Paweł Pawlikowski - http://polishculture.be/ida-by-pawel-pawlikowski-in-belgian-cinemas-from-12-02-2014/, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=42792891

Ida - (2013)

Oh yeah. This one is pretty special. Visually haunting - and with stretches that are quiet and still, Ida is a short lament about loss, guilt and choices in life that define us. A young novitiate and orphan is sent to live with her aunt (the girl's only living relative) for a while before taking her vows. Her aunt happens to be a hard drinker and a women who loves to sleep around. She also happens to be a judge in a tough period of Polish history following World War II. They both trace what happened to the girl's Jewish parents during the Nazi occupation - and what they discover will have a profound impact on them both. I loved how this film looks - not just the black and white cinematography, but the bare stripped back emptiness to everything. Going along with that is the lack of a score this film has, where we go through silent, contemplative stretches interrupted by the music of a jazz band or something else. The performances are powerful - and it all added up to a rare kind of film experience. Parts of it rocked me, others were soothing and as a whole this has the potential to become a real favourite of mine.

9/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e8/The_Last_Duel_poster.jpg
By http://www.impawards.com/2021/last_duel_ver6.html, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=68281500

The Last Duel - (2021)

I'm happy that after all these years Ridley Scott still has something very much worthwhile to offer. Here we have something that's nearly a retake on Rashomon, with three different points of view about an alleged rape in 14th Century France. The result of this will be a fight to the death between a dirty and mangled Jean de Carrouges (Matt Damon) and the more handsome and charming Jacques Le Gris (Adam Driver) who is pretty dismissive of the whole "no means no" theory of consent. The film also gives Killing Eve's Jodie Comer a good theatrical role. The Last Duel really gets into the spirit of creating a believable representation of the 1300s, and presents us with flawed characters living in a world of violence. Scott's best film for a long time, and another good screenplay collaboration between Damon and Ben Affleck, who appears as an insidiously unlikeable Pierre d'Alençon. I enjoyed it a whole lot.

8/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9a/Fail_safe_moviep.jpg
By IMPAwards.com, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7850409

Fail Safe - (1964)

This was excellent - I've been meaning to watch it for a while. Came out the same year as Dr. Strangelove and was delayed due to legal action from Stanley Kubrick who feared if it came out first it would damage the box office potential of his film. So this has gone under the radar so to speak - a more serious look at what might have happened if nuclear weapons were accidentally used, sparking a potential all-out nuclear war. At one point I asked myself, "Hey, was that Dom DeLuise? It couldn't have been..." but it was. He has a cameo, ironically for a silly guy in an ultra-serious scene in a serious film. Anyway, a lot of recognizable faces backing up Henry Fonda as the President and Walter Matthau as a very Dr. Strangelove-type character. Deserves far more recognition than it's gotten so far.

8/10

[Fabulous]

You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (2010)

3

https://www.themoviedb.org/t/p/original/zIKsd5Mq18Jqgnpukw4Qqgp5SM9.jpg

[Captain Steel]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BN2Q3Mzc1MzEtY2M3Zi00ZDhkLWE3OWYtZDlkZDRkN2RhYTE0XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTQxNzMzNDI@._V1_.jpg


2.5

As a kid (and comic book fan) I really liked this movie.
It was kind of my fantasy of becoming a superhero (or at least a costumed crime fighter) put to film.
I even bought it on DVD as an adult... but lent it to a friend and never saw it again! :mad:

[StuSmallz]

I'm kind of in the mood to repost my original review of The Bourne Supremacy here, so I think I'll go ahead and do that (although, since it was one of the first full movie reviews I ever wrote, it may not 100% on par with my more recent writing, I think there's still worthwhile content in it anyway. Plus, I reworked it some, so hopefully that'll help out it some more too):

https://i.ibb.co/c69rQk5/38c9233b10575762abd0218176e6132a.jpg (https://imgbb.com/)

They should've left him alone.

To get this out of the way right off the bad, my reactions to the original Bourne trilogy could be described as being a bit up-and-down; The Bourne Identity was a decent first movie, but it really didn't distinguish itself all that much from the rest of the espionage action pack went, and Ultimatum was a strong "last" entry in the series, but it still didn't feel like Jason had much of anywhere left to go as a character in it. So, all of that leaves The Bourne Supremacy as my current favorite in the trilogy, as I've always felt that series-newcomer Paul Greengrass injected a huge dose of much-needed adrenaline into the franchise with his intense, visceral directorial style, while Tony Gilroy's screenplay brings in a new, unexpected focus on character and pathos, resulting in what I can only describe as one of the best action movies of the new millennium, in my humble opinion.

Picking up two years after the events of Identity, Supremacy opens up with Jason and Marie hiding out in India, with Bourne beginning to recover some of his memories from his time as assassin, with the fragments of an "assignment" he carried out in a Berlin hotel casuing him to suffer from many a sleepless night. However, following a botched CIA exchange that seems to have been sabotaged by Jason himself, and a fellow assassin's subsequent tracking of Bourne to his hiding place, Jason is forced back into action, both to clear his falsely-accused name, and as well to avenge Marie, who tragically payed the ultimate price for daring to fall in love with him.

However, compared to other Action movies, Supremacy really doesn't have all that much, er... ACTION, in it; there's one brutal, drawn-out fight-to-the-death at the halfway point, and one of the best car chases in recent memory during the climax, but besides those, there really aren't any other significant action scenes in the movie. However, Greengrass doesn't need a bunch of mindless violence to keep our interest here, as he utilizes raw storytelling energy to keep the tension piano wire-tight, always keeping the plot moving along in a concise, ruthless fashion, never pausing for breath unless it suits the scene, as he always has something of relevance happening or being set up here for later.

We discover new information only as the characters themselves do, and always see things from their perspective exclusively, which combines with the film's atmosphere of paranoia, intrigue, and conspiracy to make us feel like we ourselves are constantly being hunted, which makes the movie feel like a shark in that it never, ever stops moving, and I couldn't be more thankful for that. But, another major factor that distingushes Supremacy is how unexpectedly personal it is, as unlike in the first film, where Bourne was just a lost, confused amnesiac, he has a much more immediate motivater this time around, after the murder of his girlfriend, Marie.

This is what brings him out of hiding, but her death doesn't just serve as some generic "fridging", but rather, her memory lingers on within Jason, as he remembers how she wanted him to move on from his previous life of death. This is why Bourne only seeks justice for her murder, instead of revenge, and the various ways Bourne struggles to honor Marie's wishes throughout adds a lot, whether it be his refusal to kill the men responsible for her death (although he still brings them to justice in other ways), or finding the time while on the run to track down the orphan of his first victims, so he can tell her he's sorry, and that he now understand what it it feels like to lose someone. However, if that sounds overly sentimental in theory, it doesn't in practice, as Greengrass tackles it with the same level of craft he does everything else, keeping it in balance with all the other elements that he so expertly juggles here. As I said before, The Bourne Supremacy is overall an unusually intelligent, efficient, and focused spy thriller, and, as far as I'm concerned, is one of the best Action films of its decade; "Bourne again" indeed...

Final Score: 9

[xSookieStackhouse]

I'm kind of in the mood to repost my original review of The Bourne Supremacy here, so I think I'll go ahead and do that (although, since it was one of the first full movie reviews I ever wrote, it may not 100% on par with my more recent writing, I think there's still worthwhile content in it anyway. Plus, I reworked it some, so hopefully that'll help out it some more too):

https://i.ibb.co/c69rQk5/38c9233b10575762abd0218176e6132a.jpg (https://imgbb.com/)

They should've left him alone.

To get this out of the way right off the bad, my reactions to the original Bourne trilogy could be described as being a bit up-and-down; The Bourne Identity was a decent first movie, but it really didn't distinguish itself all that much from the rest of the espionage action pack went, and Ultimatum was a strong "last" entry in the series, but it still didn't feel like Jason had much of anywhere left to go as a character in it. So, all of that leaves The Bourne Supremacy as my current favorite in the trilogy, as I've always felt that series-newcomer Paul Greengrass injected a huge dose of much-needed adrenaline into the franchise with his intense, visceral directorial style, while Tony Gilroy's screenplay brings in a new, unexpected focus on character and pathos, resulting in what I can only describe as one of the best action movies of the new millennium, in my humble opinion.

Picking up two years after the events of Identity, Supremacy opens up with Jason and Marie hiding out in India, with Bourne beginning to recover some of his memories from his time as assassin, with the fragments of an "assignment" he carried out in a Berlin hotel casuing him to suffer from many a sleepless night. However, following a botched CIA exchange that seems to have been sabotaged by Jason himself, and a fellow assassin's subsequent tracking of Bourne to his hiding place, Jason is forced back into action, both to clear his falsely-accused name, and as well to avenge Marie, who tragically payed the ultimate price for daring to fall in love with him.

However, compared to other Action movies, Supremacy really doesn't have all that much, er... ACTION, in it; there's one brutal, drawn-out fight-to-the-death at the halfway point, and one of the best car chases in recent memory during the climax, but besides those, there really aren't any other significant action scenes in the movie. However, Greengrass doesn't need a bunch of mindless violence to keep our interest here, as he utilizes raw storytelling energy to keep the tension piano wire-tight, always keeping the plot moving along in a concise, ruthless fashion, never pausing for breath unless it suits the scene, as he always has something of relevance happening or being set up here for later.

We discover new information only as the characters themselves do, and always see things from their perspective exclusively, which combines with the film's atmosphere of paranoia, intrigue, and conspiracy to make us feel like we ourselves are constantly being hunted, which makes the movie feel like a shark in that it never, ever stops moving, and I couldn't be more thankful for that. But, another major factor that distingushes Supremacy is how unexpectedly personal it is, as unlike in the first film, where Bourne was just a lost, confused amnesiac, he has a much more immediate motivater this time around, after the murder of his girlfriend, Marie.

This is what brings him out of hiding, but her death doesn't just serve as some generic "fridging", but rather, her memory lingers on within Jason, as he remembers how she wanted him to move on from his previous life of death. This is why Bourne only seeks justice for her murder, instead of revenge, and the various ways Bourne struggles to honor Marie's wishes throughout adds a lot, whether it be his refusal to kill the men responsible for her death (although he still brings them to justice in other ways), or finding the time while on the run to track down the orphan of his first victims, so he can tell her he's sorry, and that he now understand what it it feels like to lose someone. However, if that sounds overly sentimental in theory, it doesn't in practice, as Greengrass tackles it with the same level of craft he does everything else, keeping it in balance with all the other elements that he so expertly juggles here. As I said before, The Bourne Supremacy is overall an unusually intelligent, efficient, and focused spy thriller, and, as far as I'm concerned, is one of the best Action films of its decade; "Bourne again" indeed...

Final Score: 9

have u watched the bourne legacy it stars with jeremy renner

[Wooley]

Ritter was great, but the movie was kind of "meh"

Also, why does Anne Archer have no pants on the poster? :laugh:

[FromBeyond]

Big Miracle

People coming together to save a family of whales trapped beneath the ice with only a small hole to breath through feels like a hollow victory in the grand scheme of things. The baby slowly dies - how wonderful and it is not known at all if the exhausted parents survived the ordeal but in the movie we get a big cgi driven spectacle of them going free... kind of tiring of these “based on true events” movies when I have a Wikipedia to hand... would’ve been nice to see some real footage of whales and lots more of it. Somehow lacked the heart and feels I was hoping for.

[Marco]

I suspect he meant immigrants, not emigres but still.
Huh? Google I'll grant you: "émigré
a person who has left their own country in order to settle in another, typically for political reasons." Or maybe I'm just talking out of my hat.

[Marco]

I am SO EXCITED for this movie. Love the director. Love Swinton. I can't wait.



This is one of my all-time favorite movies, and yet it is so upsetting that I've only seen it in full twice.

Watched this then "A Hole in my Heart" a few weeks later and just thought "what the actual fk"????

[Marco]

I hope you're planning to see the remake now...you can't fully appreciate the remake without seeing this film first.
Yes, indeed Gideon, I got to play the Bernardo character at school....badly!!!!:)

[Takoma11]

Watched this then "A Hole in my Heart" a few weeks later and just thought "what the actual fk"????

Crumbsroom has warned me away from A Hole in My Heart, so I haven't seen that one. But everything else I've seen from Moodysson (Show Me Love, We are the Best!) I have loved. The latter film in particular is just an awesome explosion of joy.

[Gideon58]

Also, why does Anne Archer have no pants on the poster? :laugh:


I guess because Ritter stays with her after he gets wounded.

[Allaby]

I just finished watching The French Dispatch. I'm a big fan of Wes Anderson and have seen all of his films. For me, The French Dispatch is indisputably his worst film. It has a great cast and a lot of style, but isn't very interesting or entertaining overall. The cinematography, production design, costumes, and score were good though. The story was lacking for me and it dragged on for far too long. This is Anderson's worst screenplay ever, in my opinion. My rating is a 3

[Takoma11]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fs3.birthmoviesdeath.com%2Fimages%2Fmade%2FAbduction_Cover_Image_1050_591_81_s_c1.jp g&f=1&nofb=1

Abduction, 2019

Quinn (Scott Adkins) wakes up in a fountain in Vietnam with no memory of how he got there, only knowing that his daughter has been kidnapped. At the same time, former gangster Connor (Andy On) discovers that his wife has been taken. With the help of doctor Anna (Truong Ngoc Anh), Quinn and Connor begin to unravel a conspiracy that may have supernatural, alien origins.

Generally speaking, I find Scott Adkins to be one of the more consistent sources of B-action entertainment. I even find a few of his films to be a fair slice above just passable action fare. Adkins has really solid athletic ability, and clearly isn't intimidated by working with others at the same level, and his best films find ways to feasibly move him from setpiece to setpiece so that we can enjoy flying kicks and wall-climbing antics.

This movie . . . . um . . . is a little different. I guess that if I had gone into it knowing it was sci-fi I might have had an easier time with it. But instead the overly-complex mythology it tried to build came off as more of an absurd surprise.

The good news is that there are a few pretty decent fight scenes here, though they don't quite feel like they are operating at full speed. There's a bit too much feeling of careful choreography.

But the downside here is that the plot (about time-traveling aliens controlling people with glowing green spiders and also stealing our energy and also stealing our DNA and also trying to open a portal and also warping space-time) is kind of a muddle. Outside of Adkins and On, the acting is super spotty. And for reasons I simply cannot fathom, there is a tacked on really sad ending that makes no sense with the actual plot.

Not the worst B-action, but also not something I can really recommend either.

2.5

[Iroquois]

The Matrix Resurrections - 4

of course the dude with the Escape From L.A. avatar liked it

[doubledenim]

I just finished watching The French Dispatch. I'm a big fan of Wes Anderson and have seen all of his films. For me, The French Dispatch is indisputably his worst film. It has a great cast and a lot of style, but isn't very interesting or entertaining overall. The cinematography, production design, costumes, and score were good though. The story was lacking for me and it dragged on for far too long. This is Anderson's worst screenplay ever, in my opinion. My rating is a 3

It had all the bespoke grandeur of a WA film, but lacked charm and never seemed to find a rhythm.

He’s probably past the point, but I would love for him to make something closer to The Royal Tenebaums or Rushmore again. The diorama stuff is losing it’s charm.

[Takoma11]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fstatic.rogerebert.com%2Fuploads%2Freview%2Fprimary_image%2Freviews%2Fnational-treasure-2004%2Fhero_EB20041118REVIEWS411180308AR.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

National Treasure, 2004

Benjamin Franklin Gates (Nicholas Cage) is a treasure hunter/historian whose family has long passed down a story of a treasure squirreled away by the founding fathers. Financed by the wealthy Ian Howe (Sean Bean), Gates finds a major clue before being betrayed by Howe and left for dead along with sidekick Riley (Justin Bartha). Gates and Riley go in hot pursuit of the treasure, which involves stealing the Declaration of Independence, which puts them on the radar of fellow historian Abigail Chase (Diane Kruger).

You know who is a dang National Treasure? Nicholas Cage. But honestly, the whole cast of this ridiculous, enjoyable film hits exactly the right pitch. Jon Voight as Gates's long suffering father. Harvey Keitel as the government agent hunting Gates and his crew. (At one point Keitel seriously intones "smart fish" as a compliment to Gates for escaping into the water and I have no words for how splendid it is).

This is the kind of live action film for kids that I really don't mind. There are some neat history lessons in there, the action sequences are fun, and the puzzle-solving aspect of it is goofy and enjoyable.

If you watch this film, I think you know exactly what you're getting into. It's hokey fun and at the end of a long week it made for a perfect turn-your-brain-off film.

3.5

[Rockatansky]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fs3.birthmoviesdeath.com%2Fimages%2Fmade%2FAbduction_Cover_Image_1050_591_81_s_c1.jp g&f=1&nofb=1

Abduction, 2019



Have you seen Avengement? That might my favourite thing I've seen him in, and the best showcase of his genuine acting talent.

[Takoma11]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fdiaboliquemagazine.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2014%2F05%2FTheater_of_Blood_01.png&f=1&nofb=1

Theater of Blood, 1973

Edward Lionheart (Vincent Price), a long assumed dead Shakespearean actor, emerges from hiding to take gruesome, Shakespeare-inspired revenge on the circle of theater critics who lambasted his performances for years. Assisted by his equally ruthless and deranged daughter (Diana Rigg) and a gaggle of homeless men and women he's bribed to the cause, Lionheart cuts a swath through the critics.

This is a very silly movie, which of course knows that it is a very silly movie.

I personally am a fan of Vincent Price, and his all-in approach to his roles. There's such an intention to his performances in films like House of Usher or The Pit and the Pendulum, that their campy leanings feel like the only correct approach to the material.

It is fun, though, to see Price having a good time playing an actor who cannot understand why critics refuse to take him seriously. A highlight of many sequences is Lionheart reciting, with impassioned delivery, the writings of the critic he is about to slay. "Laid between the delicately underplayed performances of Miss Lillywhite as Lavinia and Miss Mole as Tamora," he booms, "one is irresistibly reminded of a ham sandwich." Lionheart sweeps around in a cape or under a variety of wigs and prosthetics, refusing to believe that his approach to Shakespeare is anything but correct.

The killings themselves are a mixed bag. Some are very funny, while others are a bit off. Despite the film being very silly, I still had mixed feelings about how often the revenge involved hurting the loved ones or pets of the critics. I was much more a fan of the over-the-top stuff, such as when Lionheart and one of the critics engage in a sword fight while leaping around on trampolines. That is the content I signed up for.

A fun little horror-comedy.

3.5

[Takoma11]

Have you seen Avengement? That might my favourite thing I've seen him in, and the best showcase of his genuine acting talent.

I have not! Thank you for the tip! The title is very silly, so I'd have probably skipped it until some random Friday night.

And it's on (US) Netflix!

I do think that his acting can be pretty good, but he's definitely not someone who's able to do a lot with bad writing.

Accident Man is probably my favorite of his, but I see that I haven't given anything I've seen from him higher than a 3/5. I mean, I'd give that YouTube montage of him a 4.5/5, but that's also only like 5 minutes long.

[Torgo]

Cryptozoo - 3

This is a unique and uniquely animated fantasy set in a world in which humans and cryptids, i.e., creatures like unicorns, gorgons, etc. live side by side. If you're guessing that the U.S. government wants to capture these creatures and leverage their magical powers to subdue the populace's urges to rebel against it, you'd be correct. Luckily, this world has Lauren Grey (Lake Bell), who scouts cryptids so she can keep them safe in the titular facility. Her latest target is a Baku, whose dream-consuming abilities are just what Uncle Sam needs.

Again, the animation as just as distinctive as the movie's premise. Everything looks like it was hand drawn in colored pencil, and thankfully, the most imaginative animation in the movie is found in the cryptids. Besides the Baku, which is as adorable as it is beautiful - think the Forest Spirit in Princess Mononoke, which is one likely inspiration - I also got a kick out of Pliny, a childlike humanoid creature whose face happens to be in his chest. The movie might as well be set in the present day, but not only setting it during the politically tumultuous late '60s, but also mostly in San Francisco is an inspired touch. I also approve of the movie combining multiple genres without coming across as unwieldy and discombobulated as, well, a chimera. It works as a detective tale, an action movie and even as a romance.

Considering how painstaking it looks like the movie took to make as well as how hard its premise was to sell to investors, I've never felt like I've had more nerve when giving a movie a final judgement: it's a good movie, but not quite a great one. While I've praised the aesthetics, there are a few parts that are rough around the edges and I don't think it's just because the animators were trying to apply a human touch. That, and despite being distinctive on the whole, due to how the movie flaunts its likely inspirations from Miyazaki to Jurassic Park, my overall reaction is "you're close, but you're not quite there yet.” It's still one of the strongest three-star movies I've seen in quite a while and I consider it a must-see if you're an animal lover. Oh, and that applies to those who hate fascists as well (which, ideally, is everybody, but I digress).

[Rockatansky]

I have not! Thank you for the tip! The title is very silly, so I'd have probably skipped it until some random Friday night.

And it's on (US) Netflix!

I do think that his acting can be pretty good, but he's definitely not someone who's able to do a lot with bad writing.

Accident Man is probably my favorite of his, but I see that I haven't given anything I've seen from him higher than a 3/5. I mean, I'd give that YouTube montage of him a 4.5/5, but that's also only like 5 minutes long.
I still need to see Accident Man, but between Avengement, Savage Dog and the Debt Collector movies, I do like how his movies with Jesse V. Johnson use him as an actual actor. The Debt Collector movies also pair him with Louis Mandylor, who turns in a really good peformance in the vein of Bruce Willis (back when he cared). Considering I turn to DTV movies purely for their action, these movies have been nice surprises in that respect.

[WHITBISSELL!]

Have you seen Avengement? That might my favourite thing I've seen him in, and the best showcase of his genuine acting talent.Terms of En-Rampagement was his apex. :D

But seriously, I enjoyed the two Debt Collector flicks.

[ueno_station54]

http://static1.squarespace.com/static/5f0953007cb47842c26f3421/t/5f13c34b0bbd2104ee2e8c93/1595130703307/After+Last+Season.jpg?format=1500w
After Last Season (2009, Mark Region)
I appreciate all the bizarre touches (and the film is exclusively made of bizarre touches) but the lack of energy holds it back. Then again this is one of those movies where you wouldn't want to change anything for fear of losing that je ne sais quoi that it has such a tenuous grasp on. I wanted to like it more than I did but its still a fascinating watch.
3

[Takoma11]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fbombreport.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F09%2Fpandorum-2009.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

Pandorum, 2009

Bower (Ben Foster) and Payton (Dennis Quaid) jolt awake from long-term sleep pods aboard a ship in deep space heading for an Earth-like planet to start a new settlement. But the ship seems to be malfunctioning, and the crew who was supposed to wake them for their shift is nowhere to be found. The two part ways with Payton manning a control room and Bower heading for the ship's reactor. Bower must contend with strange, violent creatures who roam the ship, while Payton tries to get straight answers from a young officer (Cam Gigandet) who claims to have had to kill other crew out of self-defense.

There's something so frustrating about a film like this, where something really interesting and fun just gets smushed into mediocrity through almost every choice in the craft of it.

On the positive side, Foster and Quaid both turn in solid performances, with Foster bearing the load of the narrative weight as he navigates the large, hostile ship corridors. The supporting cast is also pretty good, though the writing of those characters is relatively weak.

The film also manages to capture some of the awe and terror of deep space exploration. The name of the film comes from a fictionalized deep space madness, and the legend of a ship called the Pandora on which the captain went crazy and ejected all of the passengers. The sleep containers--which one character refers to as a "metal coffin"--are frightening and effective props.

But, boy, is this a movie that shoots itself in the foot over and over and over. There are about five plot turns in the film (I resist the term "twist" in this case for the most part), and three of them are just so stunningly obvious. As the writing tries to dance around them, it just gets annoying. There are repeated, REPEATED reference to "aliens" and I am not spoiling anything when I say, my man, those are clearly not aliens. And all of this dancing around just means that by the time we land on two pretty compelling non-obvious developments, you are kind of burned out on the movie "surprising" you.

There is some decent action and gore to be found, but some of it starts to feel redundant. This is also a film that plays fast and loose with the abilities (speed, strength) of the creatures, and their capabilities always seem to fit whatever a specific scene needs. There's also very liberal use of that late 2000s helter-skelter editing style--with lots of cutaways and flashes of images--and it is really annoying and distracting.

I liked the movie just fine. Foster really does keep things together in his role despite some pretty unhelpful dialogue. But what a waste of potential!

3.5

[Takoma11]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fstatic.rogerebert.com%2Fuploads%2Freview%2Fprimary_image%2Freviews%2Fmy-heart-cant-beat-unless-you-tell-it-to-movie-review-2021%2Fmy-heart-cant-beat-unless-you-tell-it-to-movie-review-2021.jpeg&f=1&nofb=1

My Heart Can't Beat Unless You Tell It To, 2020

Dwight (Patrick Fugit) and Jessie (Ingrid Sophie Schram) are adult siblings living in a small town with their younger brother, Thomas (Owen Campbell). Thomas is afflicted with some sort of vampire-like disorder, and must subsist on blood sourced by his brother and sister. But as Dwight grows increasingly depressed and conflicted over his actions and Jessie goes about her routines with cold efficiency, it becomes clear that the ecosystem of their strange life cannot be sustained.

I have to admit to being slightly let down by this film, though I think that I may have had expectations for it that weren't quite in line with the film's own objectives.

The performances are all good. Fugit and Schram portray people moving in different directions, emotionally speaking. Fugit's character is growing more restless and agitated, each death taking a bigger and bigger toll on him. On the opposite end of things, Schram has settled into a detached, almost robotic routine, not hesitating even a moment before using pliers to pull a gold tooth out of one of her victims.

This is a very subdued film, which is why my response to it may not have been the most enthusiastic. The real horror is about where different people draw the line about what they'd do for their loved ones. Not only do we see the weight on the siblings who must "harvest" the blood for Thomas, but the weight on Thomas himself who is totally isolated.

Something I struggled with in this film was the degree to which it remains ambiguous on several key points. I don't care so much that we never learn how Thomas came to have his affliction, or how they discovered what he needs to survive. But toward the end of the film there are some key questions whose answers are left off screen and at that point I did tip a bit into frustration.

The movie also doesn't quite seem to know how much it wants to play the story straight and how much it wants to invite some moments of dark comedy. Think Dogtooth but without as steady a tone. There are some good sequences, such as when Jessie seriously considers slaughtering a diner patron----Jessie works as a waitress---who advises her "You should try smiling!". There's another sequence where Thomas manages to lure a local teenager (Judah Bateman, who looks like an adorable baby Ed Sheeran) into the house to try to make friends with him. The tension and humor in both of these sequences is really well balanced, and I wish more of the film had been that way.

Sometimes the label of "horror" can really ding you in terms of what you expect and what you get. I suspect that with a better sense of what the film was after, I would have enjoyed it more.

3.5

[Wooley]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fs3.birthmoviesdeath.com%2Fimages%2Fmade%2FAbduction_Cover_Image_1050_591_81_s_c1.jp g&f=1&nofb=1

Abduction, 2019

Quinn (Scott Adkins) wakes up in a fountain in Vietnam with no memory of how he got there, only knowing that his daughter has been kidnapped. At the same time, former gangster Connor (Andy On) discovers that his wife has been taken. With the help of doctor Anna (Truong Ngoc Anh), Quinn and Connor begin to unravel a conspiracy that may have supernatural, alien origins.

Generally speaking, I find Scott Adkins to be one of the more consistent sources of B-action entertainment. I even find a few of his films to be a fair slice above just passable action fare. Adkins has really solid athletic ability, and clearly isn't intimidated by working with others at the same level, and his best films find ways to feasibly move him from setpiece to setpiece so that we can enjoy flying kicks and wall-climbing antics.

This movie . . . . um . . . is a little different. I guess that if I had gone into it knowing it was sci-fi I might have had an easier time with it. But instead the overly-complex mythology it tried to build came off as more of an absurd surprise.

The good news is that there are a few pretty decent fight scenes here, though they don't quite feel like they are operating at full speed. There's a bit too much feeling of careful choreography.

But the downside here is that the plot (about time-traveling aliens controlling people with glowing green spiders and also stealing our energy and also stealing our DNA and also trying to open a portal and also warping space-time) is kind of a muddle. Outside of Adkins and On, the acting is super spotty. And for reasons I simply cannot fathom, there is a tacked on really sad ending that makes no sense with the actual plot.

Not the worst B-action, but also not something I can really recommend either.

2.5

An honest question... why would you watch this?
I continue to be baffled by people on this forum whom I hold in esteem and who I know like good movies as well as good bad ones and even just finding something good in bad ones, watching contemporary DTV dreck. I just can't fathom it. I just can't see any value at all. Like, if my choices were, re-watch Final Exam, pick lint out of my navel for 90 minutes straight, or watch a contemporary DTV action-flick, I would choose the first two in order and those failing would perhaps go polish the silverware that I don't own instead of the third.
What do you get out of watching these?

[Wooley]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fstatic.rogerebert.com%2Fuploads%2Freview%2Fprimary_image%2Freviews%2Fnational-treasure-2004%2Fhero_EB20041118REVIEWS411180308AR.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

National Treasure, 2004

Benjamin Franklin Gates (Nicholas Cage) is a treasure hunter/historian whose family has long passed down a story of a treasure squirreled away by the founding fathers. Financed by the wealthy Ian Howe (Sean Bean), Gates finds a major clue before being betrayed by Howe and left for dead along with sidekick Riley (Justin Bartha). Gates and Riley go in hot pursuit of the treasure, which involves stealing the Declaration of Independence, which puts them on the radar of fellow historian Abigail Chase (Diane Kruger).

You know who is a dang National Treasure? Nicholas Cage. But honestly, the whole cast of this ridiculous, enjoyable film hits exactly the right pitch. Jon Voight as Gates's long suffering father. Harvey Keitel as the government agent hunting Gates and his crew. (At one point Keitel seriously intones "smart fish" as a compliment to Gates for escaping into the water and I have no words for how splendid it is).

This is the kind of live action film for kids that I really don't mind. There are some neat history lessons in there, the action sequences are fun, and the puzzle-solving aspect of it is goofy and enjoyable.

If you watch this film, I think you know exactly what you're getting into. It's hokey fun and at the end of a long week it made for a perfect turn-your-brain-off film.

3.5

Honestly, I would almost consider watching this (not really but in some parallel dimension) just because you used the word "splendid" to describe a moment of it.

[Takoma11]

An honest question... why would you watch this?
I continue to be baffled by people on this forum whom I hold in esteem and who I know like good movies as well as good bad ones and even just finding something good in bad ones, watching contemporary DTV dreck. I just can't fathom it. I just can't see any value at all. Like, if my choices were, re-watch Final Exam, pick lint out of my navel for 90 minutes straight, or watch a contemporary DTV action-flick, I would choose the first two in order and those failing would perhaps go polish the silverware that I don't own instead of the third.
What do you get out of watching these?

I like watching movies while I grade student work or do planning or whatever, and DTV or B-action is pretty perfect. You just listen to most of it and look up when the punching starts.

I also really do enjoy watching Adkins--I think he's really physically talented and almost dancer-like in his body control and movement. Like Rock says, he's a charismatic actor in the right context.

[Wooley]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fdiaboliquemagazine.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2014%2F05%2FTheater_of_Blood_01.png&f=1&nofb=1

Theater of Blood, 1973

Edward Lionheart (Vincent Price), a long assumed dead Shakespearean actor, emerges from hiding to take gruesome, Shakespeare-inspired revenge on the circle of theater critics who lambasted his performances for years. Assisted by his equally ruthless and deranged daughter (Diana Rigg) and a gaggle of homeless men and women he's bribed to the cause, Lionheart cuts a swath through the critics.

This is a very silly movie, which of course knows that it is a very silly movie.

I personally am a fan of Vincent Price, and his all-in approach to his roles. There's such an intention to his performances in films like House of Usher or The Pit and the Pendulum, that their campy leanings feel like the only correct approach to the material.

It is fun, though, to see Price having a good time playing an actor who cannot understand why critics refuse to take him seriously. A highlight of many sequences is Lionheart reciting, with impassioned delivery, the writings of the critic he is about to slay. "Laid between the delicately underplayed performances of Miss Lillywhite as Lavinia and Miss Mole as Tamora," he booms, "one is irresistibly reminded of a ham sandwich." Lionheart sweeps around in a cape or under a variety of wigs and prosthetics, refusing to believe that his approach to Shakespeare is anything but correct.

The killings themselves are a mixed bag. Some are very funny, while others are a bit off. Despite the film being very silly, I still had mixed feelings about how often the revenge involved hurting the loved ones or pets of the critics. I was much more a fan of the over-the-top stuff, such as when Lionheart and one of the critics engage in a sword fight while leaping around on trampolines. That is the content I signed up for.

A fun little horror-comedy.

3.5

You might try Madhouse, if you haven't already.

[WHITBISSELL!]

Honestly, I would almost consider watching this (not really but in some parallel dimension) just because you used the word "splendid" to describe a moment of it.It's not all that bad. A sort of poor man's Indiana Jones/DaVinci Code. Or you could just wait and watch Uncharted instead which looks like it covers the same ground. That's not a recommendation though. A Marky Mark/Spiderman teamup holds no interest for me.