Rate The Last Movie You Saw

[Gideon58]

https://i0.wp.com/cedars.cedarville.edu/wp/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Parasite-scaled.jpg?fit=777%2C1200&ssl=1


2nd Rewatch...this heart-stopping drama about a lower class Asian family going to work for a wealthy Asian family and how a terrible secret eventually tears both families apart was the first foreign language film to win the Oscar for Best Picture and five other awards is a motion picture experience unlike anything I have ever seen. Just like the first two viewings, this third viewing left me paralyzed. 4.5

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BYTViNzMxZjEtZGEwNy00MDNiLWIzNGQtZDY2MjQ1OWViZjFmXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNzkwMjQ5NzM@._V1_.jpg


8th Rewatch...Having watched this film so many times and still finding it wonderfully entertaining, I found myself focusing on little unanswered questions that have nagged at me since my first watch like 1) How did the terminator get the number for The Tech Noir or 2) Why did it take the police so long to get to The tech Noir? or 3) How was the terminator able to get out of that police car and get a hotel room where he had all the tools handy to repair himself? 4) What kind of factory was that where the climax of the film took place? 5) If Sara Conner was the Terminator's only target, why did so many innocent people have to die and most important of all 6) How much did Nike have to pay James Cameron to have Reese wear their kicks in the department store scene? 4

[Gideon58]

https://i0.wp.com/creaturefeatures.tv/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Lizzie-Borden-Ad.jpg?fit=1495%2C1676&ssl=1


5th Rewatch...the late Elizabeth Montgomery earned a seventh Emmy nomination for her bone-chilling performance in this 1975 ABC TV movie playing the legendary alleged ax murderess who was acquitted of murdering her parents in the late 1800's. Montgomery almost buried all images of Samantha Stephens in this chilling blend of fact and speculation which offers its own theory regarding Borden's possible guilt. 4

[Gideon58]

https://kinolorber.com/media_cache/userFiles/uploads/films/mafia-special-edition-aka-jane-austen-s-mafia/full/738329231521.jpg


3

[stillmellow]

Godzilla Minus 1


9 out of 10


This movie took me completely by surprise. It focuses far more on human characters than any other Godzilla movie I've seen, but still has enough action to please the Kaiju fans.

They went a little cheap on the CGI, but more than make up for it with amazing dramatic performances. This is a heavy, emotional movie about PTSD, survivor's guilt, and people realizing that their government isn't going to save them, and that they have to work together to save themselves. It's also a surprisingly effective anti-war movie, simply by showing its real costs.

Not just the best Godzilla movie, but the best Kaiju movie I've ever seen.

[stillmellow]

https://kinolorber.com/media_cache/userFiles/uploads/films/mafia-special-edition-aka-jane-austen-s-mafia/full/738329231521.jpg


3




Yeah, not the best work of anyone involved. But I remember some lines getting me to laugh. It's in the same part of my brain as "Spy Hard" and "Wrongfully Accused".

[FromBeyond]

Sudden Death (1995)


This really marks the end of JCVD's golden era and is probably the movie of his which has aged best.. after this is a steady decline into imminently forgettable fare. It's "Die Hard" with JCVD in an ice hockey stadium is what it is and it's alright.

[FromBeyond]

Leave The World Behind (2023)

If I could go back in time I'd leave this film behind 😴

[FromBeyond]

Eddie The Eagle (2016)


I cried at the end.

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/34/Absolute_beginners_poster.jpg
By UKmovieposters.co.uk, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12506432

Absolute Beginners - (1986)

Talk about interesting failures - I watched Absolute Beginners soon after it's release in '86, being interested in everything David Bowie. I didn't like it all that much - and had never watched it since. You'll hear it mentioned early on in Robert Altman's The Player, when characters played by Paul Hewitt and Fred Ward talk about memorable long shots in cinematic history they recall. Yeah - that shot near the beginning goes on for an eternity and looks to involve a thousand people carefully choreographed, but the cheats are all there. The camera passes by walls, that moment of pure black an obvious cutting point, and camera flashes do the same. Once you see it, you'll understand why it was impossible to capture that in one, genuine take. Even the segments are impressive though. But the movie itself - confusing, uneven and throwing themes around in disjointed ways, is somewhat messy. That unevenness includes the music numbers, which range from great to sub-par. Bowie's title song, "Absolute Beginners", would be a hit for him in Britain and is on another level to the rest of the movie (including his in-movie song "That's Motivation") - although Sade's "Killer Blow" approaches greatness.

I was hoping for a bit more from this second viewing of Absolute Beginners. Bowie's involvement reeks of irony, seeing as one of the themes involves artistic integrity and an artist's need to resist selling out - at the very point in Bowie's career when he was selling out. From there we morph into the real-life 1958 Notting Hill race riots - tied into the plot of the film via unscrupulous property investors and corrupt landlords evicting tenants on the basis of a wave on anti-immigration sentiment post World War II. Main character Colin (Eddie O'Connell) lives in an area which still shows signs of the destruction wrought on Britain, and the whole story is based on a generation untouched by the horrors of that era. O'Connell (seeming like a 1980s answer to Tom Courtenay) was making his debut, and didn't perform well. His career never took off, and I have no idea why he was given such an important role. The movie killed British studio Goldcrest Films. It was meant to be the movie musical of the 1980s, but the title song and that famous long take are the only successes related to it.

Patsy Kensit, David Bowie, James Fox, Sade and Steven Berkoff couldn't save it. Meaning to be different, the weirdness just comes off as plain weird in an unenjoyable way. Colin's family is introduced to us, and patriarch Arthur (Ray Davies) sings a whole song while we take in information that will have absolutely zero bearing on the rest of the film. We just don't see them again. The inverse goes for all of the black characters who only show up in any meaningful way when the race riots start - where were they during this film's first three-quarters? Silly dancing, strange costumes and equally off songs feel like chores to get through. I'm fascinated by this film's failure, which seems to have it's genesis in Julien Temple throwing most of screenwriter Christopher Wicking's ideas into the bin, and adding this flair to the movie - it's a flair that feels meaningless. One of the great films of the 1980s that was never made - Absolute Beginners stands as a testament to screwing up promising projects.

5/10

[Jackie Daytona]

The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976)

Gosh, this movie breaks my heart every time. This poor sad sap of a man just wants everyone to have some fun; he wants to run his seedy-ass burlesque show in peace and keep everyone happy. He doesn't deserve to be menaced by cult legend Timothy Carey and be forced to do mob hits. It's all so grimy and intimate, just one of my all-time favorite noirs. 10/10

[Fabulous]

The Name of the Rose (1986)

3.5

https://www.themoviedb.org/t/p/original/2JB2nJQOBZ7Q9vAtzbha2YsqJbH.jpg

[McConnaughay]

My wife asked me what I wanted for Christmas this year, and I told her I'd like to add more South Korean horror / crime movies to my movie collection. Bless her heart, she bought me the Japanese horror film The Audition. Close enough, haha.

It's an alright film. I remember when I first watched it about a decade or so ago, I was hyped for it, and then, I watched it and was disappointed. It had such high acclaim across the board that my expectations were too high up.

That said, watching it now, I'm fine with it. It still isn't a great film in my opinion, but it's not bad by any means.

[Stirchley]

Good movie. Interesting true-story storyline. Nobody in the movie is a professional actor except Binoche. The woman she interacts with the most is exceptionally believable.

One thing that was super-annoying is that the English subtitles were a beat behind the French dialogue instead of being simultaneous. Not only did it spoil the flow, one never knew who actually spoke if there were more than two people speaking.

[Stirchley]

Very hard to follow if one knew nothing about some of the real-life people depicted in the movie & the scandal they once caused. Portman & Moore both very good as per usual, but nothing would make me watch this movie again.

96620

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BZTUxM2M4N2MtYjUzMi00YzZlLThlZmYtNzRkMmU4MmIzMmQwXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjUyNDk2ODc@._V1_.jpg


1st Rewatch...This tiresome comedy about a recent Yale graduate who joins the Peace Corps to escape a gambling debt did nothing to advance the career of Tom Hanks and didn't do a lot for me either. Even the late great John Candy seems to be phoning it in. 2

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BODk1ZWM4ZjItMjFhZi00MDMxLTgxNmYtODFhNWZlZTkwM2UwXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTQxNzMzNDI@._V1_.jpg


2nd Rewatch...I'd forgotten how funny this movie was. Definitely the funniest of the franchise, I especially loved the car chase with a student driver behind the wheel and the finale at the baseball game with Queen Elizabeth. Ricardo Montalban also makes a perfect moustache-twirling villain. 3.5

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTc1ODM5YjQtMmQzNS00Y2FkLWJhNTgtYTE5ZDY0NjQyNmRjXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTY3ODE5NTY1._V1_FMjpg_UX1000_.j pg


4

[matt72582]

Greatest performance I've ever seen by an actress.


Brando is easily my favorite actor, but I think her performance might be the best ever.



The entire movie is free on YouTube for others who might be interested.


https://youtu.be/y5arx-SIwTs

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d0/Deadcalmposter.jpg
By http://images.celebritymoviearchive.com/members/thumbs/b/[email protected], Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20894800

Dead Calm - (1989)

There's nothing really special about thriller Dead Calm, and it doesn't really have any quirks that resemble the rest of Australian cinema - but I liked it back in the day, and it still stands up because of something of a nicely crafted performance from Billy Zane. He plays the quite crazy character Hughie Warriner, who abandons his schooner (full of murder victims) and rows his rowboat to a yacht belonging to Navy Captain John Ingram (Sam Neill) and his wife Rae (Nicole Kidman) - both grieving their infant son after the boy was killed in a car accident. Hughie takes control after a suspicious John rows to the nutty guy's ship, and as such Rae is alone with someone dangerous and John is stranded on a sinking ship - surrounded by body parts and torsos. It plays out pretty much as you'd expect - but is worth watching to see how we discovered newcomer Zane, and the promise he showed. Nicole Kidman, in her early 20s, didn't have the stature she had now - she's pretty small and vulnerable in appearance. Fine nautical thriller - psychologically tense and fun. (Fair warning - a pet dog is killed.)

7/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/1c/Coming_2_America_release_poster.jpg
By Amazon Studios - Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=66578385

Coming 2 America - (2021)

A couple of sequels came out in the 1980s that really felt strange to me, considering the gulf of time between the original and follow-up. Psycho II came out in 1983, some 23 years after the original (and 3 years after Alfred Hitchcock's death), and then The Color of Money came out in 1986, 25 years after The Hustler. Considering that I hadn't even been born when the originals were showing at the movies, it felt a little weird. Now we have Coming 2 America going further than either of those two examples - a sequel some 33 years after John Landis movie Coming to America came out. I remember going to see Coming to America, which was a lot of fun. Coming 2 America felt so very different. Eddie Murphy doesn't do or say one funny thing - he's too dignified I guess, and leaves a lot of the comedy to the likes of Leslie Jones and Tracy Morgan. Alas, the comedy in this isn't all that funny - at least to me. I got my dose of nostalgia - I have to admit it's cool catching up with characters left dormant for so long - but apart from advancing this modern fairy tale to the next generation, there's not much here worth remembering 3 years later, never mind 33. I'm sticking with the original, and the sequel will be a once-off viewing for me.

5/10

[crumbsroom]

I love the critic quote on that poster of Volunteers above.

"Volunteers reunites Tom Hanks with his old Splash-mate jumbo John Candy"

It simultaneously says nothing positive about the movie, and calls John Candy fat.

And it's on the poster.

Amazing.

[WHITBISSELL!]

The only thing worth remembering about Volunteers is Tom Hanks meeting his wife Rita Wilson on that movie.

And the eating babies thing too if you have to nitpick.

[Yoda]

I love the critic quote on that poster of Volunteers above.

"Volunteers reunites Tom Hanks with his old Splash-mate jumbo John Candy"

It simultaneously says nothing positive about the movie, and calls John Candy fat.

And it's on the poster.

Amazing.
It's always interesting to me to think about acting as a profession, and how it requires (ostensibly) a real self-awareness about what you are and what you are not. If you're John Candy or Chris Farley, you must know, at least on some level, what your schtick is. Farley sure did, presumably because he was a comedian and I'd argue they need the most self-awareness of just about any type of performer.

I think about this every time someone's cast as a supermodel, or the ugly girl, or what have you. Sometimes there's deniability: they can frump you up and maybe the actor can think "well, they had to frizz my hair and make me dress horribly for this role." But maybe not.

Same thing with age, particularly when someone crosses over from, say, being the female lead/love interest to being someone's mom.

[marley]

10

[crumbsroom]

It's always interesting to me to think about acting as a profession, and how it requires (ostensibly) a real self-awareness about what you are and what you are not. If you're John Candy or Chris Farley, you must know, at least on some level, what your schtick is. Farley sure did, presumably because he was a comedian and I'd argue they need the most self-awareness of just about any type of performer.

I think about this every time someone's cast as a supermodel, or the ugly girl, or what have you. Sometimes there's deniability: they can frump you up and maybe the actor can think "well, they had to frizz my hair and make me dress horribly for this role." But maybe not.

Same thing with age, particularly when someone crosses over from, say, being the female lead/love interest to being someone's mom.


I believe I've read, about both Candy and Farley, that while they understood what part of their appeal was (being the loveable fat guy), it both affected them negatively. I believe Farley in particular was filled with a kind of self loathing that his job was to have people, in part, laugh at how he looked.


As self righteous as she can somrtimes come across as, Hannah Gadsby touched on this idea in her Nanette special. At what cost do many comedians turn their pain and insecurities into objects of ridicule. It's a very complicated question to ask, and she definitely reduces it to something decidedly more simple by declaring that it is essential wrong to do this....but it's definitely an interesting topic of discussion.


Are these people taking ownership of the things that hurt them by creating humor and art from it, or are they further living up to the expectations of those who put them down and dehumanize them?


I lean towards the former, but I definitely think it is large portions of both.

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BZDRkOWQ5NGUtYTVmOS00ZjNhLWEwODgtOGI2MmUxNTBkMjU0XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjUzOTY1NTc@._V1_.jpg


1st Rewatch...Steven Spielberg's powerhouse, emotionally charged roller coaster is just as an intense on a second watch. As I was watching though, I discovered a glaring mistake I made on one of my lists. I recently did a list of my favorite film debuts, and I realized I left two of them off of my list and they are both from this movie. First of all, Whoopi Goldberg commanded the screen like she hasn't done since, losing the Best Actress to the sentimental win for Geraldine Page. Her performance as Celie is 50 times better than her over the top comic turn in Ghost. The other, of course, is Oprah Winfrey, creating a cinematic tornado in Sophia who you couldn't turn away from. It still blows my mind that this movie was nominated for eleven Oscars and didn't take home a single award...and Spielberg wasn't even nominated! 4.5

[Fabulous]

Three Thousand Years of Longing (2022)

3

https://www.themoviedb.org/t/p/original/mKyGisiT2ZrfKC9Bb7yK9lO7T8q.jpg

[Darth Pazuzu]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/8b/Silent_Night_2023_poster.jpg/220px-Silent_Night_2023_poster.jpg

DECEMBER 12, 2023

Silent Night (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_Night_(2023_film))

I'm not sure I was absolutely crazy about this movie, but it is John Woo's first U.S. production in about 20 years, so there is something of an event quality to it, and it must certainly be given its due. First of all, let's just say that - once again - the trailer gives no real indication of just what kind of film it's supposed to be promoting. More exactly, we are given no clue as to what makes the film unique and distinctive. (After all, what Quentin Tarantino referred to in his recent book Cinema Speculations as "Revenge-A-Matics" have become rather dime-a-dozen over the years. And BTW, using Beethoven's Ninth Symphony to promote an action flick in a trailer is not the most original idea around!) OK, OK, yeah, we get the idea that it's a high-octane revenge flick set around Christmas time and that there's a guy on the rampage waging a one-man war against gangbangers who killed his son, and it certainly is all that. But what we don't get in the trailer is the fact that - at least for the most part - Silent Night is a silent movie! :lol: I mean, seriously, we could have watched this with the sound turned all the way down and we really wouldn't have missed a thing. (Actually, what's really funny is that when the projectionist hadn't raised the volume level sufficiently for the trailers preceding the film, I was afraid that the movie itself wouldn't have been sufficiently loud. Luckily enough, the volume level was properly loud, but it's not like there would have been any dialogue to lose out on if it hadn't been! :D)

Did anybody else know about this? Or was I the only one that didn't? I guess that's kind of a measure of the extent I go to in order to stay surprised and spoiler-free. My only clue as to what a brand new movie is all about these days comes from what I've seen in the trailer, and that isn't always completely reliable. (Quite honestly, though, it's not really an effort on my part staying spoiler-free. I'm just too lazy or disinclined to keep myself abreast of new developments in cinema. I'm kind of more fixated on the glories of cinema past these days...)

As far as the movie is concerned... What can I say? I was properly entertained up to a point. But it seemed to me that there was a bit of uncertainty as to exactly what the movie's attitude was toward its own story material. (The script is credited to Robert Archer Lynn.) I mean, Joel Kinnaman's performance as the vengeful protagonist Brian Godlock was quite excellent overall, truly devastating and emotionally affecting. But most of the time, just when you think the movie seems about to deconstruct the tropes of the standard-issue Revenge-A-Matic thriller, it's usually walking straight headlong into them. I mean, there's even a training montage! Ultimately, I thought that while Silent Night was certainly a fun viewing experience - and yes, it is good to see John Woo back on U.S. cineplex screens - I was left wanting more. The novelty of having almost no dialogue whatsoever definitely makes it noteworthy, but it's not enough to overcome the feeling that we've all seen this story before.

If you think about it, a movie like Silent Night serves as a good reminder that cinema itself started out as a silent medium. But at the same time, the fact that most of the time you don't even notice this lack of dialogue also serves as a reminder of just how little dialogue tends to matter in this kind of film at all.

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/25/Philomena_poster.jpg
By Movie Emporium, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=40403022

Philomena - (2013)

It does tug at your heartstrings, Philomena - mainstream as it is. Judi Dench embodies the lower class, Irish Philomena Lee. Open with her emotions, lacking intellectual awareness (the nicest way to put it) and searching for her son, who was taken from her by cruel nuns at the Sean Ross Abbey in Roscrea, and then sold into adoption when he was a 3-year-old. During those three years, Philomena was allowed to bond with her boy, and then not even allowed to say goodbye when he was wrenched from her. Steve Coogan plays Martin Sixsmith, ex-journalist and government advisor - he's depressed after losing his job, and searching for something to do when he happens upon this story. The two characters, Philomena and Sixsmith, and their relationship, form the core of the film. Sixsmith is completely cynical, a non-believer, and lacking in manners - he can be snide and nasty, and it's Philomena's calm, forgiving demeanor that saves the pair from what could be an irrevocable break-up at any time in their journey. He's affected by her story, but mostly he's angry at the nuns - with good cause. They...

told Philomena repeatedly over the years that they couldn't find her son, when in fact her son had come to that very place looking for her as he was dying. Thus, they never gave her a chance to say goodbye to him twice over. It's heartbreaking - and would be more so if Philomena wasn't so philosophical about the whole tragic mess.

Two stories in one. Philomena's, and the partnership between her and Sixsmith. It's these true stories alone that almost guarantee the film great interest - but great casting, Coogan's own screenplay and direction from Stephen Frears keep it steady, interesting and at times very funny. I'd seen parts of this before - and it took me too long to watch the whole thing.

8/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/24/Some_kind_of_wonderful_poster.jpg
By Impawards, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12494018

Some Kind of Wonderful - (1987)

John Hughes was riding high having either written the screenplay to or directed a whole generation's worth of great teenage themed movies in the 1980s. Some are now classics, and he wrote this Howard Deutch-directed teen romance between writing/directing Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Planes, Trains and Automobiles. It was a remarkable decade for him, and he'd virtually give up directing after it ended. Some Kind of Wonderful is what it is - a non-comedic departure for Hughes, and seemingly made just for teenagers, but engaging enough to be enjoyable for all ages to watch. Funny thing is, I simply cannot think of Eric Stoltz as anything other than Lance the drug dealer in Pulp Fiction. Anyway, you've got your rich, powerful jerk, the beautiful girl, the worthier girl and Keith Nelson (Stoltz), who is about to learn an early life lesson. Performances are actually top drawer - I can't fault anyone in this.

7/10

[Takoma11]

It's always interesting to me to think about acting as a profession, and how it requires (ostensibly) a real self-awareness about what you are and what you are not. If you're John Candy or Chris Farley, you must know, at least on some level, what your schtick is. Farley sure did, presumably because he was a comedian and I'd argue they need the most self-awareness of just about any type of performer.

I think about this, but mainly when I realize that I've seen the same actor play a child molestor TWICE. Like . . . I wonder what it's like knowing that casting directors are like "Hey, you need a guy who looks like he'd rape a child? I've got a name for you!"

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/25/Philomena_poster.jpg
By Movie Emporium, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=40403022

Philomena - (2013)

It does tug at your heartstrings, Philomena - mainstream as it is. Judi Dench embodies the lower class, Irish Philomena Lee. Open with her emotions, lacking intellectual awareness (the nicest way to put it) and searching for her son, who was taken from her by cruel nuns at the Sean Ross Abbey in Roscrea, and then sold into adoption when he was a 3-year-old. During those three years, Philomena was allowed to bond with her boy, and then not even allowed to say goodbye when he was wrenched from her. Steve Coogan plays Martin Sixsmith, ex-journalist and government advisor - he's depressed after losing his job, and searching for something to do when he happens upon this story. The two characters, Philomena and Sixsmith, and their relationship, form the core of the film. Sixsmith is completely cynical, a non-believer, and lacking in manners - he can be snide and nasty, and it's Philomena's calm, forgiving demeanor that saves the pair from what could be an irrevocable break-up at any time in their journey. He's affected by her story, but mostly he's angry at the nuns - with good cause. They...

told Philomena repeatedly over the years that they couldn't find her son, when in fact her son had come to that very place looking for her as he was dying. Thus, they never gave her a chance to say goodbye to him twice over. It's heartbreaking - and would be more so if Philomena wasn't so philosophical about the whole tragic mess.

Two stories in one. Philomena's, and the partnership between her and Sixsmith. It's these true stories alone that almost guarantee the film great interest - but great casting, Coogan's own screenplay and direction from Stephen Frears keep it steady, interesting and at times very funny. I'd seen parts of this before - and it took me too long to watch the whole thing.

8/10

I found this movie devastating. A friend of mine found out when she was in her early 20s that her mother had been in a Magdelene house back in Ireland (her parents immigrated to the US in the 80s). Then she found out that her mother had TWO BABIES taken from her and adopted (aka sold to "good families"). Over the last ten years she has found her half-siblings and connected with them. So much generational pain.

[Allaby]

Heaven Down Here (2023 tv movie) This was really sweet, lovely, and touching. The acting was quite good and the screenplay was well written. An uplifting and inspiring film. One of the best Hallmark films I have seen (and I have seen quite a few). 4.5

[PHOENIX74]

It's always interesting to me to think about acting as a profession, and how it requires (ostensibly) a real self-awareness about what you are and what you are not. If you're John Candy or Chris Farley, you must know, at least on some level, what your schtick is. Farley sure did, presumably because he was a comedian and I'd argue they need the most self-awareness of just about any type of performer.

I think about this every time someone's cast as a supermodel, or the ugly girl, or what have you. Sometimes there's deniability: they can frump you up and maybe the actor can think "well, they had to frizz my hair and make me dress horribly for this role." But maybe not.

Same thing with age, particularly when someone crosses over from, say, being the female lead/love interest to being someone's mom.

I've always been interested in what happened to Bud Cort post Harold and Maude because he either never had, or else rejected, that self-awareness. He couldn't find a single role for 4 years after his breakthrough - something of an anomaly. He was offered the role of Billy Bibbit in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - a role that would have pretty much put him back amongst big performers again - but he refused, demanding that he be given the role of R.P. McMurphy. If that doesn't show a lack of what you're talking about, I don't know what does. In a conversation with Paul Giamatti years later, before Giamatti was really established, Cort advised him to embrace his whole 'little weird guy' aura, lest he end up like him. I wish we'd seen more of Bud Cort - he's shown up here and there, but he never recovered due to his refusal to accept who he was.

[Fabulous]

Ghost World (2001)

3.5

https://www.themoviedb.org/t/p/original/o7zvlk0HCxRf13Im9ZpZ4okHehr.jpg

[Brody At Amity]

96641

Candy Cane Lane - 1 Star

Eddie Murphy looked bored. A bit like most of the audience I suspect.

[Yoda]

I think about this, but mainly when I realize that I've seen the same actor play a child molestor TWICE. Like . . . I wonder what it's like knowing that casting directors are like "Hey, you need a guy who looks like he'd rape a child? I've got a name for you!"
Oh yeah, there's more or less extreme versions but obviously there's a similar "you just look like a bad guy" thing. Like with Rufus Sewell or Mads Mikkelsen, at least for American audiences. That's probably more fun than looking pervy, whatever that means. I'd have said it means a small mustache and no other facial hair (and slicked hair on your head, I guess?), but the mustache thing has come back in a big way so maybe not now.

Anyway, it's wryly amusing to imagine what all that's like. I have a weird admiration for the actors who just sort of accept and embrace it, even though we can probably never know who most of them are.

[Torgo]

BlackBerry - 4

This is a sometimes funny, sometimes sad and always entertaining dramatization of one of the 2000's classic rise and fall stories. Mike Lazaridis (Baruchel) and Doug Fregin (Johnson, who also directed and co-wrote) of Research in Motion, which began as a small IT company in Waterloo, Canada specializing in modems, had the idea for the phone as early as when Id Software was making waves. Unfortunately, they lacked the business savvy to sell it, not to mention prevent stakeholder U.S. Robotics from ripping then off. Enter Harvard grad Jim Balsillie (Howerton), to whom the duo makes a failed pitch and who later joins RIM as Mike's co-CEO. While Jim provides the much-needed savvy, his questionable methods and...well, other developments - consider how you're likely reading this - do not guarantee longevity.

The Yin and Yang dynamic between the ambitious, big-mouthed Jim and the much more introverted Mike could be the secret of the movie's success. Is Mike that reticent and is Jim really that obnoxious in real life? Doubtful, but the movie does a good job at playing up their dichotomy and in many ways, such as rarely having them be in the same scene during their company's heyday. While Howerton is getting the most attention for playing such a love-to-hate guy and rightly so, Baruchel's more understated work is just as praiseworthy. Besides obsessing over a device of some kind in nearly every scene, he makes his devotion to what he calls the "best phone in the world" apparent. Johnson is just as memorable for how he makes Doug a guy who in his headband and nerdy T-shirts constantly pines for the days when RIM hosted movie nights. There is a big time jump in the middle of the movie, with Doug looking and dressing exactly the same as he did before, which says it all and is as funny as it sounds. Speaking of the good old days, the period accuracy is commendable despite the obviously non-Hollywood budget as is the use of handheld cameras for the authenticity and immediacy they add. That the soundtrack is full of period-accurate and standout needle drops is icing on the cake.

Since this movie's approach is to simply dramatize how it all went down and let the audience pick up the pieces, it's not surprising that each review I've read has different takeaways. It is invaluable as a movie about Canada’s place in the world; specifically, in relation to its neighbor to the south. Would BlackBerry still be a force in mobile communications if they started in or relocated to Silicon Valley? As Paul Stanos (Sommer), a Google engineer who Balsilie headhunts puts it, “I’m not moving to Canada.” What will I remember the most, though, is summed up by the advice Balsillie swears by: "you want to be great, you need to sacrifice. The more painful the sacrifice, the greater you'll be." Sacrifice is all around here: besides Stanos and his home country, Ballsillie, a die-hard Maple Leafs fan, sacrifices his dignity by claiming to hate hockey and letting others mispronounce his last name while making deals, RIM's surviving original employees sacrifice their favorite things about working there if they want to remain, etc. As for Lazaridis, it starts with his friends and ends with something he's spent his whole career trying to avoid. The whole time, there is a lingering question: is it worth it? Regardless of what resonates with you the most, you're bound to be surprised by how much a movie about the development of a mobile phone can make you laugh or even cry. Also, unless you love quoting Wall Street as much as Mike and Doug apparently do, you'll learn that "business movie" is not synonymous with "dull." Oh, and as a bonus, you may even be tempted to scrounge for your Wolfenstein or Doom discs when it's over.

[Torgo]

Canada comes through with one of the best movies of the year!

https://i.imgur.com/UmmnM3m.jpg

[Stirchley]

I think about this, but mainly when I realize that I've seen the same actor play a child molestor TWICE. Like . . . I wonder what it's like knowing that casting directors are like "Hey, you need a guy who looks like he'd rape a child? I've got a name for you!"



I found this movie devastating. A friend of mine found out when she was in her early 20s that her mother had been in a Magdelene house back in Ireland (her parents immigrated to the US in the 80s). Then she found out that her mother had TWO BABIES taken from her and adopted (aka sold to "good families"). Over the last ten years she has found her half-siblings and connected with them. So much generational pain.

The Magdalene laundry movie is fantastic. Seen it several times. More powerful than Philomena.

[Stirchley]

96643

Good movie with an interesting story line. Two leads very good.

[matt72582]

Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession

This documentary was great/tragic really hit me. It was just on TCM.



https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/db/Z_channel.jpg

[Gideon58]

https://movieramblingsblog.files.wordpress.com/2018/08/img_3501.jpg?w=1250


2.5

[Gideon58]

[QUOTE=Torgo;2427703]BlackBerry - 4



I really liked this movie...was hoping Baruchel might get a Globe nomination, but I guess not.+

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTczODI1MTg0Ml5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwMzk3NDYyMQ@@._V1_.jpg

4th Rewatch....An explosive performance by Angelina Jolie, which, IMO, she has never topped that won her Golden Globe, is reason enough to watch this HBO biopic about the self-destructive supermodel who died at the tender age of 26. 4

[FromBeyond]

Munich: The Edge Of War (2021)


A mash up of of historical fact and fiction set against the 1938 Munich agreement where British PM Neville Chamberlain and french PM Daladier give in to Hitler's demands to annex the Sudetenland to the Reich. George Mackay play Chamberlain's secretary who's old Oxford friend, a staunch German anti-nazi, acts as an interpreter on the Nazi side but with a secret mission to provide the Brits with proof of Hitler's ultimate goals. This was pretty tense and I enjoyed it, the guy who plays Hitler was the guy who played Goebbels in "Downfall" and gives a haunting portrayal. Chamberlain is shown in an unusually sympathetic light here and the casting of Jeremy Irons is spot on. I like MacKay too.

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNDc2MzNkMjMtZDY5NC00NmQ0LWI1NjctZjRhNWIzZjc4MGRiXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjkwOTAyMDU@._V1_FMjpg_UX1000_.j pg



4

[GulfportDoc]

...

If you think about it, a movie like Silent Night serves as a good reminder that cinema itself started out as a silent medium. But at the same time, the fact that most of the time you don't even notice this lack of dialogue also serves as a reminder of just how little dialogue tends to matter in this kind of film at all.
Having a crime film with no dialogue puts me in mind of The Thief (1952). Ray Milland never spoke a word.

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2b/Ray_poster.jpg
By May be found at the following website: IMP Awards, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1784991

Ray - (2004)

I knew virtually nothing about Ray Charles before watching this film. I didn't even know which songs were his - and I'm assuming the film got at least that right. So I definitely learned something. I never knew he used heroin during such an extended part of his life - but then again, that fits in with the general stereotype of jazz musicians on the road. He used it to battle the same things most do - crippling anxiety, depression etc. When he was a child he witnessed his brother drown, and gradually lost his eyesight before adulthood. Ray paints him as a hopeless philanderer who tried his best to hide his drug addiction and affairs from his wife. He's kind of leading a double life in that sense - one at home and one on the road. Early in his career his blindness led to him being cheated, and people would take advantage of his reliance on some kind of help - but he was pretty self-sufficient, and became even more so as he became more experienced with the industry as a whole. His songs : "Hit the Road Jack", “Georgia On My Mind”, "Unchain My Heart", "I Can't Stop Loving You" and "Mess Around" - I should have really known they were all Ray Charles songs, but they're a little before my time and outside of my taste. I know now. As a biopic for a musical great it's pretty good. I like it more than Rocketman and Bohemian Rhapsody, and just a little less than Walk the Line as far as 21st Century films of this ilk go. It's increased my affection for Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, which parodies these films so well. I don't know about the Best Actor Oscar so often being awarded to the leads in these films - it's more of an impression than a performance, and I wish it wasn't such an advantage come Academy Award time. It is a good performance from Jamie Foxx though.

7/10

[skizzerflake]

It wasn't my idea, but Wonka. Having not seen any of its predecessors, I went in as a virgin. Yeah, there's lots of chocolate, in fact, so much chocolate and so much mystique about chocolate that I, a chocolate lover, left the movie wanting some french fries. I was lost on this movie, which made about as much sense as nothing. Timothee Chalamet doesn't do much to rescue it. He has little charm. Hugh Grant is some sort of glowing dwarf and Rowan Atkinson brings a Mr Bean-like character to a small role.

Everybody in this movie does their lines right, but the plot doesn't register for me. FX are good, images are good, but nothing about it connected with me. Oh well, that happens some times.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otNh9bTjXWg

[FromBeyond]

Shutter Island


I was being lazy and felt like watching something I know I love. If anything I appreciate it even more now, stunning cinematography, I could've just watched that storm in the woods for 2 hours and been happy, great acting all round, never a dull moment, ultimately a very sad tale about grief and guilt but boy is it an enjoyable ride. That twist still hits even though you know it's coming, love Shutter Island.

[Thursday Next]

Leave the World Behind (2023)


https://variety.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Leave-the-World-Behind-1.jpg?w=1000


Less of a thriller, more of an anxiety movie. A family go on holiday to an isolated house but then become cut off from the world due to... Something. Maybe a war. Maybe something supernatural. Nobody knows, not even the writers.


This had some really nice touches (note the wallpaper) and a couple of thought provoking ideas but it also had unpleasant characters in a house arguing (one of my least favourite subgenres) and a bit of lecturing. It didn't feel finished, like it didn't know where to go. I wasn't expecting everything to be explained neatly but it needed something more.


I did like the very end, though, which had the humour the rest of the film sorely lacked.


3

[Kayden Kross]

I watched Pearl. Partly because Evil Prevails recommened it, partly because I keep seeing Mia Goth's crazy smile pop up in memes. Thought X was just alright (nothing from Ti West has really blown my mind), so I didn't really go into this with high expectations.

I've had kinda a dull year for film, nothing I've watched has really left an impression. But I think Pearl tops the list for the year. The scene with the step sister near the end is easily the best thing I've seen all year. It's hella good.

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/W/MEDIAX_792452-T2/images/I/5194BBRATPL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg


1st Rewatch...This smart and funny homage to gangster flicks and behind the scenes in Hollywood remains as brilliant as it was on its first watch thanks to a flawless screenplay, stylish direction by Barry Sonnenfeld, and a perfect cast led by John Travolta, in one of his most charismatic performances as Chili Palmer and Gene Hackman as the pathetic Harry Zim. Everything works here. 4.5

[skizzerflake]

Leave the World Behind (2023)


https://variety.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Leave-the-World-Behind-1.jpg?w=1000

Less of a thriller, more of an anxiety movie. A family go on holiday to an isolated house but then become cut off from the world due to... Something. Maybe a war. Maybe something supernatural. Nobody knows, not even the writers.

"""but it also had unpleasant characters in a house arguing (one of my least favourite subgenres) and a bit of lecturing."""

I did like the very end, though, which had the humour the rest of the film sorely lacked.
3

Glad I missed that one. One of my least favorite "genres" (if that's a genre), is a bunch of adults locked in a room arguing, bringing up each others' flaws and infidelities, usually accompanied by too much booze.

I just want to yell out to them to all go to their respective bedrooms (movie houses like that always have a lot of bedrooms), shut the "f" up, and wait for the storm to be over.

[Fabulous]

Final Destination (2000)

2

https://www.themoviedb.org/t/p/original/5bAecnmo14qTNeXD0yEOf4BKKEx.jpg

[McConnaughay]

I watched 27 Dresses and The Dead Center. One was my wife's pick, the other was my own. Unfortunately, I didn't particularly care for either of them. I bought a large lot of movies early this year and I am still sifting through all of them. 27 Dresses isn't my kind of movie, and it wasn't a pleasant surprise - it's an overtly manufactured, cliched film that looks like it could be made on an assembly line, whereas The Dead Center simply never captured my attention. It's a pity because it was the film I was mostly interested in from the movie lot (not because I thought it'd be good, but because I thought it looked unique and I hadn't heard of it before). I could see the influences of Invasion of the Body Snatchers and the performances weren't bad, but it never went anywhere interesting for me.

[Takoma11]

I watched 27 Dresses and The Dead Center. One was my wife's pick, the other was my own.

What a double-feature!

I'd probably never go near 27 Dresses.

I watched The Dead Center because of its poster and also because this was before I knew that Shane Carruth was a terrible (talented, but terrible) person.

Here's (https://www.movieforums.com/reviews/2191772-the_dead_center.html) what I wrote about it when I watched it.

[McConnaughay]

What a double-feature!

I'd probably never go near 27 Dresses.

I watched The Dead Center because of its poster and also because this was before I knew that Shane Carruth was a terrible (talented, but terrible) person.

Here's (https://www.movieforums.com/reviews/2191772-the_dead_center.html) what I wrote about it when I watched it.

*Googles*

... Oh, well, damn.

As for 27 Dresses, it is a film I would never normally watch, but I have a wife who loves it. She puts up with a lot of my darker horror movies, so I try to make sure to pivot extremely against my own comfort zone with things like Sweet Home Alabama and, now, 27 Dresses.

I don't hate romantic comedies, per se, but, man, neither Sweet Home Alabama nor 27 Dresses is at all good. The best I can say is that they are energetic and they don't dither around. It makes them bad, but watchable, but they ... are terribly lazy, cliched films.

[Takoma11]

*Googles*

... Oh, well, damn.

It's rendered one of my favorite movies of all time (Upstream Color) basically unwatchable because seeing a person on screen with the person they abused just gives me the squicks.

[McConnaughay]

It's rendered one of my favorite movies of all time (Upstream Color) basically unwatchable because seeing a person on screen with the person they abused just gives me the squicks.

I used to interview a lot of filmmakers. I was lucky enough to interview Robert Englund, Gregory Plotkin, and lesser known names like Josh Stifter, Stephen Cognetti (Hell House LLC.), and a few others.

I made the mistake of interviewing one of the filmmakers I wasn't too familiar with. I watched several of his movies and he was a "bit of a name," not huge but one of his movies was pretty well known. I interview him, and then, a few weeks later, I found out that he and his wife (who starred in the film he is most known for) had split - with his wife leveling some incredibly serious accusations against him.

It was a major yikes moment for me. Especially because I was 'this close' to contacting his wife to participate in the interview as well.

[Nausicaä]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/b7/Chicken_run_dawn_of_the_nugget.jpg/220px-Chicken_run_dawn_of_the_nugget.jpg

3.5

SF = Z


[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]

I used to interview a lot of filmmakers. I was lucky enough to interview Robert Englund, Gregory Plotkin, and lesser known names like Josh Stifter, Stephen Cognetti (Hell House LLC.), and a few others.

That's really neat!

I made the mistake of interviewing one of the filmmakers I wasn't too familiar with. I watched several of his movies and he was a "bit of a name," not huge but one of his movies was pretty well known. I interview him, and then, a few weeks later, I found out that he and his wife (who starred in the film he is most known for) had split - with his wife leveling some incredibly serious accusations against him.

It was a major yikes moment for me. Especially because I was 'this close' to contacting his wife to participate in the interview as well.

That's too bad. As is well-documented, separating the artist from the art is my Achilles heel.

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/38/The_Commitments_poster.png
By IMDb, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=51457253

The Commitments - (1991)

The Commitments soundtrack nearly hit #1 in Australia (both volume 1 and 2) - and that gives me the erroneous view that the film was a massive hit worldwide, but it struggled a bit in the U.S. The soul music it espoused and it's brief domination of the airwaves led to me feeling a little antipathy towards the film in my youth, but I'm going through a phase of giving these films I didn't want to watch back then a fair go. Fair enough, the music is actually great. It's an interesting film, because while many of it's ilk will focus on the newly formed, growing and successful band becoming tighter and tighter, the titular Commitments in this have many of it's members in direct conflict with each other - and this conflict is so red hot every gig they play is considered a miracle if a fight doesn't erupt mid-performance. This tension is what kept me engaged, and overall I thought this kooky film was good without being absolutely great. Nobody really stands out from the huge ensemble gathered here, and that might be one of the reasons why I can't see myself committing to the movie in any promising way - but there's an atmospheric, working-class vibe that I enjoyed all the same. It has a big heart, and if you're a fan of soul then that might just lift it into great territory for you. A mix of Dublin, Wilson Pickett and small-scale conflict.

7/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/90/Collateral_Beauty_poster.png
By The poster art can or could be obtained from the distributor., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=51992862

Collateral Beauty - (2016)

Jeez. Part-way through Collateral Beauty I thought "this is actually really good", and then, by the time it ended, I felt so very differently. Watching this movie is like getting dressed up and getting in a car with your partner, intent on going to a great restaurant and having a good meal only to take a sharp turn before you get there and getting take-out at Burger King. Collateral Beauty is a film that's intent on becoming so magical and sweet that it chokes on the excessive sugar contaminating it's blood-stream, washing away all of the interesting themes and storylines in favour of Hallmark feelgood quotes, guardian angel twists and nonsensical ethereal enchantment. It became a mangled mess, and disappointed me. I thought this was going to be an excellent film about grief, and the story about three friends interfering in the life of a fourth in a morally questionable way with mixed intentions was interesting. There were a lot of moral questions being posed that were interesting. This film deals with them in a not so interesting way : magic. Magic, miracle, angels and the healing ability of magic. My expectations lay crushed, and dead. I tell you - big time studios, production companies and distributors look on us, the general public, as children. Will Smith, Edward Norton, Keira Knightley, Michael Peña, Naomie Harris, Kate Winslet and Helen Mirren all wasted.

4/10

[Fabulous]

Robin and Marian (1976)

3

https://www.themoviedb.org/t/p/original/bxfcPAVT34AeBcqfjUurOaPmZuC.jpg

[stillmellow]

Stalker (1979)


An uneven film, with beauty and deep meaning placed like chocolate chips in a gigantic bowl of plain oatmeal.


There are a ton of gorgeous scenes throughout, but they are mainly to establish the films style and feel, rather than adding anything to the narrative.


It really rebounds in the last half hour, which at first infuriated me, but then it pulled off multiple cinematic stunts to more than make the journey worthwhile.


B+

[matt72582]

Irwin and Fran



https://youtu.be/v80Ahyard24

[chawhee]

Bad Santa (2003)
https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w440_and_h660_face/rfClLIyeHqpMofmrPY8DaLe4z9x.jpg
5
Tis the season...a holiday favorite of mine. RIP Bernie Mac and John Ritter

[Mr Minio]

An uneven film, with beauty and deep meaning placed like chocolate chips in a gigantic bowl of plain oatmeal. Ummm, no? There's nothing plain about Stalker.

There are a ton of gorgeous scenes throughout, but they are mainly to establish the films style and feel, rather than adding anything to the narrative. There's no shot wasted. Every take adds to the narrative. That's the difference between Tarkovsky and the later Slow Cinema movement. I do understand why people would have problems with Tarkvosky, though. Unlike many other directors, he never uses symbols. There's no "X means Y" that you can decipher and say your job's done. Every element is a thing in and of itself, but also a part of a greater whole. Every long take is a statement of sorts, or yet another thing that tells us something about one of the men or the Zone in general.

B+ I'd love to see your TOP 10 movies of all time.

[MovieBuffering]

Serpico - 1973

Pacino was very good. Interesting story based on true events. Felt a little tedious to get through at times though. I just wanted to yell at him to find another career lol. It was good but I don't see myself revisiting it anytime soon.

2.5

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTRo2lQknq-3lL67AEgiQ_LkUNvW_qzfCVSbBBihRzKnwDOZjtV7B5bTs_JLnryNnwhVH8&usqp=CAU

[WHITBISSELL!]

https://www.icegif.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/icegif-573.gif

The Super Mario Bros. Movie - Someone I watched this with summed it up as "cute" and I suppose that's as good a way of nutshelling this as any other. It helps, BTW, if you're any kind of gamer and at all familiar with the Mario bros franchise. I played Mario Kart years and years ago so as it was I maybe only got around 10 to 15% of the references and it wasn't until Rainbow Road that I finally thought, "Oh okay, yeah." I mean I knew the characters. Or most of them. No Princess Daisy. Or Toadette. And I had no idea who Bowser's sorcerer sidekick was. But then the rest was a pleasantly presented blur. No big guffaws were elicited but there were plenty of smiles and moments of appreciation earned for it's amiable storytelling. Judging by it's box office take I guess there are lots more Marios bros fans than I could have imagined. It wasn't as consistently funny or entertaining as the Netflix trailer led me to believe but then I suppose it did it's job.

75/100

https://media4.giphy.com/media/9tZc9Mzo9K0yOYx38U/giphy.gif?cid=ecf05e47b4ygqgemakzc1wjyxkbazdaujjvf8ive7ydwa0vu&ep=v1_gifs_search&rid=giphy.gif&ct=g

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse - It would have been downright difficult to inconceivable to recreate the experience of watching Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse for the first time. And it was of course. The jolt you felt watching it wasn't readily available this time. In it's place was a satisfaction in seeing that the filmmakers held true to course in the universe/multiverse they created. The writing, voice actors and innovative animation style were still front and center but with a well thought out expansion of Miles Morales' life as Spider-Man since the events of S-M:ItS-V. That part of the Spider-Man mythos hasn't changed. It's all about the isolation. The secrets Miles must keep from the people he cares about the most along with the singularity and resulting loneliness. That's what this does so well. They take a protagonist at a specific point in their life where they're at their most vulnerable and feeling out-of-place and just tighten the screws. They pile on burden after burden, leaving you wondering if they'll be able see their way clear. The good ones share things in common. It doesn't really matter if it's Tobey Maguire, Tom Holland or Shameik Moore. A well written protagonist and well constructed narrative arc will always deliver.

90/100

https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/ea914385-70d7-476d-aa3b-37d0c449c464/dgagw5t-b3e879c9-e873-49d7-b6ec-3dbd45c06ead.gif?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQz NzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6 W1t7InBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcL2VhOTE0Mzg1LTcwZDctNDc2ZC1hYTNiLTM3ZDBjNDQ5YzQ2NFwvZGdhZ3c1dC1iM2U4NzljOS1lODcz LTQ5ZDctYjZlYy0zZGJkNDVjMDZlYWQuZ2lmIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmZpbGUuZG93bmxvYWQiXX0.L_7GTFTK U64Hi28jPy7SpNOFhd6Jw2UqrrjcBUtOEmQ


Puss in Boots: The Last Wish - This sequel did not follow through like Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. It did follow the usual schematics. More of the same. Only more so. More characters, more movement and color and derring-do. The selling points were certainly there. Antonio Banderas' gruff and outrageously overblown Latin lover voice-work. The use of nursery rhyme VIP's in unfamiliar and (somewhat) innovative ways. I say somewhat because after all the Shrek movies and the first Puss in Boots it's only natural for the shine to fade away a bit. Salma Hayek is back but it took me awhile to determine it was actually her. She somehow sounded different. Anyway, another thing that was missing was a serviceable third banana. Instead of Zach Galifianakis' Humpty Alexander Dumpty we have the uninspired Perrito voiced by Harvey Guillen. This one involves Puss in Boots in danger of running out his string and looking for a reset button of sorts. Goldilocks and the Three Bears and Little Jack Horner are the other major players. Just like so many other sequels it powers along on the goodwill generated by the original. But as so often happens, it never quite reaches the heights that one did.

65/100

[stillmellow]

Ummm, no? There's nothing plain about Stalker.

There's no shot wasted. Every take adds to the narrative. That's the difference between Tarkovsky and the later Slow Cinema movement. I do understand why people would have problems with Tarkvosky, though. Unlike many other directors, he never uses symbols. There's no "X means Y" that you can decipher and say your job's done. Every element is a thing in and of itself, but also a part of a greater whole. Every long take is a statement of sorts, or yet another thing that tells us something about one of the men or the Zone in general.

I'd love to see your TOP 10 movies of all time.



A lot of the movie may admittedly be going straight over my head. All I can describe is my own experience.


I have a strong feeling your request for my top 10 isn't because you're interested in me as a person. :-)



Top is Inside Out (2015), as the Avatar suggests. I also love:


Persona (1966)
Let the Right One In (2008)
Clue (1985)
High Noon (1952)
Jaws (1975)
Laura (1944)
Spirited Away (2001)
Get Out (2017)

Us (2019)
The Shining (1980)


Yes, I know that's 11 total. I can't choose between Get Out and Us.

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c3/Coach_Carter_poster.JPG
By The poster art can or could be obtained from Paramount Pictures., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1377425

Coach Carter - (2005)

Samuel L. Jackson gets many opportunities to scream and shout in Coach Carter - he plays real-life high school basketball coach Ken Carter, determined to see the kids who play for him study and claim for themselves a better life than jail, unemployment, food stamps and crime. When his team outperforms themselves, going 16-0 up in a season that has all of Richmond cheering, he locks the team out and cancels practice and games when he finds out most of his players are flunking. The town goes ballistic - but Carter is sticking to his guns no matter what. Have I seen around 100 of these films by now? A combination of school and sports, I can't deny that it has more than a few great moments, and carries a heavy 136-minute running time across the finishing line. Channing Tatum debuted in this film as the token white guy, and overall the only criticism I have is that we've seen so many of these films - there aren't many truly original moments. Still, it does what it does well enough to pass with a solid 'B' grade. Based on a true story it's a watchable high school sports film that although being good, still doesn't stand out from the genre as a whole.

7/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8f/Freddie_Mercury_The_Great_Pretender_promo_image.jpeg
By FREDDIE: THE GREAT PRETENDER - brianmay.com archive, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=60150843

Freddie Mercury: The Great Pretender - (2012)

A Freddie Mercury biographical documentary that just is what it is. It has interviews with many of the important people in his life, which is good - and we get a fair few clips of Freddie being interviewed, along with private video clips of him out partying. It lacks focus a little, but is a grade above exploitative rubbish - so it makes the grade.

6/10

[Torgo]

Asteroid City - 4

This movie managed to make me totally okay with revisiting a time I try not to think about too much: the height of the pandemic. Ably employing the "frame within a frame" structure that also worked so well in The Grand Budapest Hotel, Anderson presents it like a documentary for whom Cranston's, well..."Host" is our guide. It's about the titular play, which is the brainchild of playwright Conrad Earp (Norton). The site of a Junior Stargazer convention, the isolated desert city is aptly named because its centerpiece is a giant crater, which is near its other, not-so-subtle landmark, a highway to nowhere. As the various Stargazers and their families arrive, we meet Woodrow (Ryan), whose photographer dad Augie (Schwartzman) has tragic news he's been struggling to share with him and his three daughters. At the convention's stargazing event, something that's even more difficult to explain occurs that not only makes everyone question everything, but they also become prisoners thanks to a government-mandated quarantine. Meanwhile, the Host takes us backstage to meet the players, each of whom do similar reckoning when they're not working.

Despite occurring at that time and place we know Anderson loves so well, mid-century America, he manages to take us right back to 2020 in various ways, with each one making me smile. Consider how the window conversations between Augie and Midge (Johansson), a death-obsessed actress, resemble a certain app, for instance. The movie is not so much about the pandemic, though, as it is what most of us spent too much time doing during it: trying to explain the unexplained. Besides Augie's dilemma and what I dare not spoil, there's what occurs offstage, which makes the on-stage questions all the more interesting. It also wisely explores the unexplained within, exemplified by one Stargazer's zany obsession with putting himself at deadly risk. All of Anderson's regulars, Schwartzman, Johansson and Jeffrey Wright in particular, shine, as do all the newcomers, especially Steve Carell's dutiful yet duplicitous hotel manager and Matt Dillon's world-weary mechanic. I also loved all the classic Western songs and the aesthetic, which I would describe as pastel Fallout.

Do art and science answer all the questions and dull the pain of Asteroid City's characters and their creators? It's not a spoiler for me to answer no, but as the movie so amusingly posits, maybe there's more fulfillment in just pursuing them? While this may be a backhanded compliment because I enjoyed the movie so much, since there are so many players in a relatively short space of less than two hours, I wouldn't complain if it were a bit longer. Doing so would have let some characters be fleshed out a bit more and would have provided breathing room, all of which I think Anderson and team could have done without ditching their storybook style. Other than that, the movie ends up being a delightfully quizzical movie that succeeds in reminding us of the essences of art and science and how they came about in the first place. Oh, and as for the former, it also reminds us that its creators made up of ones and zeroes don't think about such things.

[Stirchley]

96665

Re-watch. Kristen Stewart fan so I do like this strange movie.

96666

Speaking of strange. Two lead actresses really good.

[ScarletLion]

'Smoking Causes Coughing' (2022).

Even for Quentin Dupieux, the master of surreal, this film is batsh*t crazy

Five superpower avengers who release toxic fumes (from cigarette ingredients) to defend against evil giant mutant tortoises are placed in a retreat to improve their teamwork. Once there, the 5 of them, along with a random 6 year old girl and a talking fish share urban myth type horror stories before being asked to save the world from a galactic man-lizard bad guy.

I guess it has something to say about the environment, smoking and toxicity in general but I was too caught up in the mayhem to develop any sense of an analytical mindset.

Insane. And highly enjoyable. I love Quentin Dupieux.

7.3/10

3.5

https://variety.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/ab2e7f96282087d94d6bbd31f3bc07fbe528df8a.jpeg

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTgyNjE1OTc4Ml5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwNjc4MTA3MjI@._V1_FMjpg_UX1000_.jpg



3.5

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91+YLiphskL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg


1st Rewatch...Diane English, the creator of the CBS sitcom Murphy Brown really struck out with this 2008 remake of the 1939 classic, based on a play by Claire Booth Luce. This is the story of a happily married woman named Mary Haines (Meg Ryan) who impulsively divorces her husband when she learns from a manicurist that her husband is having an affair with a Saks perfume countergirl named Crystal Allen(Eva Mendes). The hook of the original play and movie is that no males characters appear onscreen at all, despite it is their actions that drive the story, especially Mary's slimy ex-Stephen. English put a lot of money into this movie, but the story is just hopelessly dated, despite an impressive group of actresses gathered. Ryan and Mendes both seem to be phoning it in, but we also have Annette Bening, Debra Messing, Jada Pinkett Smith, Carrie Fisher, Cloris Leachman, Bette Midler, Joanna Gleason, Debi Mazar, and, of course Candice Bergen. A couple of things I didn't remember from my first watch: Annette Bening is superb as Sylvie, the character that Rosalind Russell played in the original, and the movie seemed about five hours long. 2

[Gideon58]

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/9e/52/df/9e52dfade341327b42cb878a4f812024.jpg


1st Rewatch...the late Joel Schumacher might have been in a little over his head with this expensive film version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Broadway musical about the romance between a virginal young opera singer (Emmy Rossum) and facially disfigured musician (Gerard Butler) who lives below a Paris opera house. It's a faithful rendering of the musical, but Shcumacher's lumbering direction makes the film seem a lot longer than it is. And this is an odd criticism for a musical, but this is probably the only musical I've ever seen where the actors are doing their own singing, but it doesn't look like it. I still love the title song, "All I Ask of You", and "Masquerade". Also loved Minnie Driver, who steals every scene she's in. 3.5

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTQ4MjgwNTMyOV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwMTc1MjI0NDE@._V1_.jpg


1st Rewatch...Amy Shumer made an unimpressive film debit in this laugh-challenged rom-com playing a writer who spends the entire running time pushing away a charming sports doctor (Bill Hader). Oddly enough, the only real laughs in this film come from Jon Cena, Marv Albert, and NBA legend Lebron James. 2.5

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNGY3NzRmMzQtYzljOC00NGZjLTk4NjQtMzc3YzMwOTVjYzE3XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNjc5NjEzNA@@._V1_FMjpg_UX1000_.j pg


1st Rewatch...This 1948 classic not only inspired millionaires of little girls to take ballet class, but also provides limitless entertainment as a flawless mix of melodrama and dance unlike anything seen up to that point. This second watch confirmed for me that the Red Shoes Ballet is the best ballet ever mounted for a movie, the only thing that might rival it is the finale of An American in Paris. This clearly is another film that gets better with each viewing. 5

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81r8cEziNwL._AC_UF894,1000_QL80_.jpg


1st Rewatch...The sizzling, Oscar-nominated performance by Bette Davis in one of her most duplicitous and unlikable characters, makes this movie worth watching all by itself. 4

[Gideon58]

https://pisces.bbystatic.com/image2/BestBuy_US/images/products/548a36a2-41ba-4303-8c14-d5600e637508.jpg;maxHeight=640;maxWidth=550


3.5

[Fabulous]

Bottoms (2023)

4

https://www.themoviedb.org/t/p/original/zRVgJXwSLcymRpGr8Oci38xbtJR.jpg

[PHOENIX74]

Hey everyone - we're getting closer to page 4000

https://i.postimg.cc/BQPjqQjP/boy.jpg
By Studio Ghibli - Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=72486228

The Boy and the Heron - (2023)

As per usual, I was overwhelmed by this Studio Ghibli film before it finished, and it's going to take another go at it to know where I stand. I got my fill of emotionally connecting with the storyline (the film's first third) and just witnessing utter madness take over (the film's last third). I'd heard this might be a bit of a autobiographical film for Hayao Miyazaki - and because of that I thought it might ease up on the weirdness - but it's there in spades, and I enjoy it. I'd have enjoyed this going either way, although I'm often overloaded by the sheer cornucopia of unbridled pedal-to-the-metal animated action, usually involving insane dream creatures. I have to say, I'm glad I got to see one of these in a cinema - thanks Miyazaki for giving me that chance.

7.5/10

https://i.postimg.cc/W41TXTJ1/city.jpg
Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=72486228

When a City Falls - (2011)

Documentary about the 2011 earthquakes that hit the Canterbury region of New Zealand, including the one that wreaked terrible destruction on Christchurch, killing 185 people. Seeing this happen to a city that close to me in a cultural sense is disturbing - but it was interesting to see the extended aftermath, and the way various people deal with the psychological and practical consequences.

6/10

[Thief]

THE HOWLING
(1981, Dante)

https://i.imgur.com/lD0q6xV.png


"We should never try to deny the beast - the animal within us."



The Howling follows White, as she recovers from a dangerous encounter with a serial killer. As part of her recovery, Dr. Waggner sends her and her husband to the "Colony", a country resort where he treats his patients. But things are not what they seem with most of the patients or with the "Colony" overall.

However, the transition from the serial killer/rapist subplot to the whole werewolf cult thing feels a bit awkward. In addition, a couple of relevant characters feel a bit underserved, and the overall motivations of the antagonists doesn't feel as clear as I would've wished. On the other hand, the makeup and special effects of the werewolves are pretty amazing, especially for the time being, and they contribute to build that creepy and scary ambience.

Grade: 3


Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2428408#post2428408)

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/W/MEDIAX_792452-T2/images/I/81YmmB3AtDL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg





4

[Fabulous]

Totally Killer (2023)

3

https://www.themoviedb.org/t/p/original/e2S5LvkxcgRcGULG5ySYmjY2nYo.jpg

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6f/Assignmentposter97.jpg
Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17554326

The Assignment - (1997)

Some movies are okay enough to keep you occupied for a couple of hours, but all in all forgettable in that a year or two later, if you come across them again, you strain and struggle but can't remember much about them. There was a French movie I watched a year or two ago about farmers over there committing suicide - it was a pretty good movie but I can't recall anything specific about it. I probably watch too many movies, and anything memorable has to really force it's way into my long-term memory. I imagine The Assignment is going to drift away from me over time. It's about the hunt for Venezuelan terrorist Carlos the Jackal, who the CIA wants to frame as slipping over to their side so the KGB will kill him for them. Features Donald Sutherland, Ben Kingsley and, heading the bill (playing both the Jackal and Lt. Cmdr. Annibal Ramirez, the man tasked with impersonating him), Aidan Quinn. There are some training sequences that are pretty nifty, and the overall plan goes so awry that I was kept interested - it was good enough to keep me onboard the whole way through. Thinking about it now, it slots in to a ranking that has it comingle with the great bulk of thrillers out there that are serviceable and entertaining, without being classics. Oh - and the overall plot was pretty out there and far fetched. I didn't mind though. There's some well directed and edited action in it too.

6/10

[Fabulous]

Escape Room (2019)

3

https://www.themoviedb.org/t/p/original/kNzbHOO4RdC9GW3X0KtJeVvMcoo.jpg

[Brody At Amity]

⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

https://media-cache.cinematerial.com/p/500x/6peej14g/the-unlikely-pilgrimage-of-harold-fry-british-movie-poster.jpg?v=1675583329

An ideal non-Christmas film for the holiday period. I've written a full review here (https://www.top10films.co.uk/81055-review-jim-broadbent-warms-hearts-in-the-unlikely-pilgrimage-of-harold-fry/).

Jim Broadbent is excellent, his amiable sincerity making sure the film both wins our sympathies and our hearts. A wonderfully tender film about hope and the human spirit.

[chawhee]

Bad Santa 2 (2016)
https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w780/qSlQEFQi3EriGfTimXRWxz98cnS.jpg
4
Rewatch for Christmastime...not as good as the original, but better than the critics' consensus

[Torgo]

Air - 3

Like this year's other big "business movie," BlackBerry, this one also successfully mines compelling drama from a household item, in this case, a shoe. Granted, it's no ordinary shoe since it changed professional sports forever. In 1984, Nike was an underdog in professional basketball, having only a 17% share. Enter scout Sonny Vaccaro (Damon), who devised the idea to put the #3 pick's name on their product. To convince CEO Knight (Affleck, who also directed), Mike and his parents (Davis and Tennon), Sonny must compete with 900 lbs. gorillas Converse and Adidas as well as agent David Falk (Messina), a guy who probably invented quoting Wall Street's Gordon Gekko.

When the montage of '80s media and news footage in the opening sets in, I sighed because I doubt I'm not the only one with '80s nostalgia fatigue. Its affection is primarily for pro sports of this era, though, and if there's any nostalgia, it's more for the '90s and its variety of sturdy little dramas for grownups that this one resembles. There’s also its cast of familiar faces who bloomed in that decade, a highlight being Chris Tucker's surprising turn as VP Howard White. I was even more impressed by Matthew Maher's performance as shoe designer Peter Moore and not just because I'm used to him playing oddballs. Like Affleck's other directing efforts, it's an actor's movie, but that doesn't mean it skimps on period details like the clothes, computers or nuances like Phil Knight's preference for working without shoes. I also applaud the choice to keep Mike in the background for the mystique it gives him and for how it makes the movie about the shoe first as well as all the perfectly timed, tongue-in-cheek needle drops.

All the back and forth that happened behind the scenes during the Air Jordan's conception that this movie reveals will surprise you, as will how it manages to make a multimillion-dollar corporation like Nike the underdog. Again, the shoe is front and center, but I couldn't help but root for them. With that said, it does not quite achieve greatness, mostly because of its paint-by-numbers structure. There are times when it seems like a few word changes could make the movie about any new product. While this familiarity, the needle drops, etc. could means it is going for "eat the rich" satire, it works better as a history lesson because if that's the case, the satire has more bark than bite. If you range from a die-hard NBA fan to one who just casually checks the scores on ESPN, you are still bound to enjoy it. Then again, it's also worth watching if you're simply down for some low-stakes, lazy Sunday entertainment.

[Stirchley]

⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

https://media-cache.cinematerial.com/p/500x/6peej14g/the-unlikely-pilgrimage-of-harold-fry-british-movie-poster.jpg?v=1675583329

An ideal non-Christmas film for the holiday period. I've written a full review here (https://www.top10films.co.uk/81055-review-jim-broadbent-warms-hearts-in-the-unlikely-pilgrimage-of-harold-fry/).

Jim Broadbent is excellent, his amiable sincerity making sure the film both wins our sympathies and our hearts. A wonderfully tender film about hope and the human spirit.

Haven’t heard of this one yet, but it’s in my watchlist now.

[Stirchley]

96696
96697
96698

Three good movies.

[FromBeyond]

Remains Of The Day (1993)


A film I've always been aware in the peripheral I decided to take the plunge. Hopkins plays the ultimate repressed Englishman, the butler of the doltish Lord Darlington..his quite dignity and ever present professional leave little in the way of the man underneath although there are flashes of a man. Add to this the new house housekeeper played by Emma Thompson's who there is a clear chemistry between the two, she fails to break though to Steven's the man who neither stands equally to the high standing and important men he serve or the common man down the pub it's a Impossibly sad tale of a love story with no end or no beginning Add into the this the naive but well meaning Nazi sympathies of Lord Darlington and Steven's unobjection in it but in later life both possess a sense of regret, I am pleased I took the plunge but unlikely one I will revist

[Marco]

Silent Night (2023)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8b/Silent_Night_2023_poster.jpg
Strange offering from John Woo here as Joel Kinnaman plays a man on a revenge mission after his son is killed. The action takes a time to get going so we see the protagonists journey to recovery/bad-assedness. The main dude is mute after the incident that killed his son too so we get lots of facial acting from Kinnaman. All in all, not bad, V.predictable, seems to have been done on the cheap but there are still a few nice moments/set-pieces. I didn't get the Christmas angle at all. Nice ending but I don't really think they thought out what they wanted the film to be.
2.5

[WHITBISSELL!]

#2 on The 10 Most Underrated Horror Movies Recommended by Mike Flanagan list.


https://64.media.tumblr.com/5729807d930a0b530f8d5397c20f6d3f/42f4db7600018d58-8f/s540x810/56bd9edcaa7f6febe3fe40727e909c9aa185bdaf.gifv
http://wagner.edu/hawktalk/files/2015/10/tumblr_nf61tvNywL1r70le6o1_500.gif

The Taking of Deborah Logan - A film crew sets out to shoot a documentary on a woman's nascent struggle against Alzheimers. Sarah Logan (Anne Ramsay) has arranged for Mia Medina (Michelle Ang) and her videographer and sound tech to move into her mother's home. Deborah (Jill Larson) is in danger of losing it to foreclosure and reluctantly agrees in return for some promised remuneration. It isn't long before things start happening that aren't easily explained away.

I liked the first half of the movie which does an effective enough job via all the closed circuit cameras the film crew has set up thoughout the house. Even though it's been used countless times before it still works to bring the creepiness as Deborah is eventually revealed to be more than your typically frail old woman. I thought Larson's performance as Deborah was the main draw. And to a lesser degree Ramsay as her beleaguered and on edge daughter (the actress playing Sarah was driving me nuts trying to place her face until I finally remembered her from A League of Their Own).

Michelle Ang as Mia Medina is shown to be the resolute one mostly because the two guys are apparently there to either state the obvious or pointlessly remind the viewer of the precariousness of the situation. The last few minutes are plagued by shaky camera work, which is the same issue with so many other found footage projects (you'll also have to ignore your brain asking how the hell they're still managing to film all this).

Pretty good first half but it sort of loses it's way a bit in the second half. But there is a seriously creepy WTF!? moment mixed in there. I'm still not sure how I feel about the actual closing shot. You'll find this entertaining enough if you can work your way around the found footage setup.

65/100

[Allaby]

Maestro (2023) Bradley Cooper and Carey Mulligan are both excellent in this well made, beautifully filmed biopic. I would rank it as the 10th best film of the year. 4

[Fabulous]

Cash on Demand (1961)

3.5

https://www.themoviedb.org/t/p/original/miAp3r4Awr1SBloFTzv2sACfID9.jpg

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b0/Romulusmyfatherfilm.jpg
By The poster art can or could be obtained from Dendy Films., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6179690

Romulus, My Father - (2007)

I dragged myself to watch Romulus, My Father and, knowing me, I told myself that I'd probably love it then. In fact I did, which means I must really be in tune with films about abject misery - an outpouring of sympathy and empathetic grief might have seen an influx of endorphins to stimulate my mind. Anyway - more to the point - like they say these days, if you're easily triggered by any depiction of suicide then oh boy - don't watch this movie. I'm not kidding - there is more suicide in this movie than any other I've ever seen, and it's based on the real-life memoirs of philosopher Raimond Gaita, so it bends my mind to imagine that all of these failed attempts and "successes" really happened in his family. Raimond himself is played by a terribly young and little Kodi Smit-McPhee, an immigrant to Australia shortly after the Second World War, from Romania, and brought up by father Romulus (Eric Bana - an Australian playing a non-Australian in an Australian movie.) His mother, Christine (Franka Potente), has left to be with another man, a friend of Romulus called Mitru (Russell Dykstra) - but it's her depression which really becomes the destroyer of everyone's world in Romulus, My Father.

Christine's behaviour is erratic, and it becomes clear later that she suffers from debilitating post-partum depression after having a child (she has one more in the film, a daughter - but had two more in real life.) She stays in touch with young Raimond and Romulus, visiting them on their desolate property. In fact, there's a sense of family between all of the characters. Everyone stays close, but betrayal, abandonment, mental illness and the isolating loneliness of being an immigrant makes for a terribly hard and brutal life - especially in Australia. In the end the challenges Raimond and his family face does make for compelling storytelling in a cinematic package. You want to reach out and help these people. The desolation of country Australia just highlights that sense of having to rely solely on yourself. In the end I thought the movie really held up particularly well, and if you're interested in the immigrant experience, dealing with mental illness, or childhood in these circumstances you might do a lot worse than see this. A really good 21st Century Australian film.

Animal lovers : there's cruelty to chickens at one stage in this movie. I'm sure they weren't badly harmed, but holy hell it's one sickly, scary scene.

8/10

[kgaard]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/W/MEDIAX_792452-T2/images/I/81YmmB3AtDL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg





4

Love this one. I spent a lot of time hanging out with Harvey and Joyce when they would come down to the Dallas Fantasy Fair in the mid-'80s. They were very kind and always interesting to talk to. The movie really does them justice (but I also recommend seeking out copies of the comic; they're a great example of American art).

[Marco]

Bullet (1996)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/1b/Bullet_film.jpg
Mickey Rourke plays a jewish hoodlum just out of the jail and up to his old tricks. Nothing here really that interesting except his nemesis "on da street" is played by Tupak Shakur. There were (unintentional) laugh out loud moments mainly due to the script and the antics of his brother (played by Ted Levine). Ending is balls, a total mess of a film. It was directed by Julien Temple, he should stick to trotting out his old punk retrospectives.
1.5

[Thief]

IT'S THE GREAT PUMPKIN, CHARLIE BROWN
(1966, Melendez)

https://i.imgur.com/3bGgKyg.jpg


"Each year, the Great Pumpkin rises out of the pumpkin patch that he thinks is the most sincere. He's gotta pick this one. He's got to. I don't see how a pumpkin patch can be more sincere than this one. You can look around and there's not a sign of hypocrisy. Nothing but sincerity as far as the eye can see."



It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown it's one of the best representations of that as it follows our group of children through various Halloween related interactions. The most notable one is Linus (Christopher Shea) belief that "the Great Pumpkin" will appear to him to give him toys, but there's also the perennial mishaps of Charlie Brown (Peter Robbins), and Snoopy's imaginary dogfight with the Red Baron!

Grade: 4.5


Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2428822#post2428822)

[Torgo]

They Cloned Tyrone - 4

This funny, strange and insightful sci-fi tale is a fine entry in the subgenre Jordan Peele, Boots Riley and Donald Glover practically invented: surreal takes on African-Americans' place in the U.S. today. Fontaine (Boyega), a drug dealer in predominantly black community the Glen, lives a routine existence, starting each day with saying bye to mom, scratching off a (losing) lottery ticket and greeting the local drunk. This day is different in that it doesn't end so well. After waking up the next day like nothing ever happened, he teams up with pimp Slick Charles (Foxx) and prostitute Yo-Yo (Parris) to investigate. They discover a conspiracy to make life just as routine and indistinct for every Glen resident.

If the plot sounds like ones in other movies you've seen, I don't blame you, but what the movie does with it makes you forget about it pretty quickly. Besides, from the mentions of Hollow Man to the appearance of Kiefer Sutherland, it lampshades its familiarity for good laughs. The way it pulls no punches makes the movie all the better in other ways, especially in how the conspirators control the Glen by hocking stereotypically black products like fried chicken and perm cream. It does this in a way that pokes fun at the stereotypes and at those who perpetuate them. Like Donald Glover does in Atlanta, I like how director Juel Taylor and crew ride a fine line of making the Glen look totally normal at one moment, a surreal world the next - the use of purple helps - and altogether oddly beautiful. I also really enjoyed the performances of our three would-be detectives, especially Boyega's and not just because of the relief that his career is back on track after his unfortunate Star Wars experience.

While specific to the African-American community, this movie succeeds as a funny and pertinent reminder to everyone of how insidious our institutions can be in their attempts to maintain order. Again, your results may vary in how it cribs from other sci-fi classics and there are some leaps in logic here and there. It still stands as one of 2023's best sci-fi movies. Oh, and stick around after the end credits. Unlike some recent end credit sequences, this movie's won't disappoint.

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BZjAyMWFmZWUtMzdlNy00M2FjLTg0NmEtNTM3ZWY3MWMwNDVkXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTkxNjUyNQ@@._V1_FMjpg_UX1000_.j pg


4.5

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMjAwNDA1MTM2MF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwMzg3NDcwMw@@._V1_FMjpg_UX1000_.jpg


1st Rewatch...This heartbreaking and disturbing psychological drama was even more heartbreaking and disturbing upon rewatch. Four time Oscar nominee Saoirse Ronan plays Susie Salmon, a teenage girl who is murdered by a creepy pedophile named George Harvey and then becomes stuck in some sort of bizarre purgatory because she cannot reconcile how she died and that George might actually get away with it. We then watch the possibility of a cosmic connection between Susie and her dad that begins to lead dad toward Susie's killer. This is much more complex and disturbing look at the same issues that come to light in 1990's Ghost, but it's way more disturbing because it makes our heart ache for Susie in a what seems to be a hopeless plight, leading to an ending that doesn't completely satisfy this reviewer. Ronan is enchanting as Susie Salmon and Stanley Tucci's creepy George Harvey earned him his only Oscar nomination to date. Maybe his performance in Boogie Nights might be the only Mark Wahlberg performance that is better than his performance here as Susie's father. Peter Jackson's direction redefines imaginative. 4

[Thief]

THE WHISTLER
(1944, Castle)

https://i.imgur.com/qpybY8A.jpg


"You better take out some more insurance today because... tomorrow may be too late."



The Whistler follows Earl C. Conrad (Richard Dix), a businessman that hires a hitman through a middleman to kill himself, as he hasn't been able to recover from the death of his wife. The twist comes when he realizes later that his wife is alive, but he has no way to contact the hitman to stop the hit since the middleman was killed as well.

This was an interesting watch that I found out about when looking for short film noirs (its runtime is just 60 minutes). The premise is really interesting and Dix is a competent lead. However, the way the hitman behaves really doesn't make much sense as he seems determined in completing the job, but still spins his wheels too much when the time comes for some odd reasons.

Grade: 3


Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2428839#post2428839) and the Noirvember (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2429050#post2429050) thread.

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTlhNmVkZGUtNjdjOC00YWY3LTljZWQtMTY1YWFhNGYwNDQwXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNjc1NTYyMjg@._V1_.jpg


Umpteenth Rewatch...Just like The Terminator, I have watched Brian DePalma's masterpiece so many times that I found myself concentrating on certain aspects of the movie than the movie as a whole, which still remains totally watchable, though this time I found myself concentrating on who I found the story's biggest victim and that for me would be Tommy Ross, played by William Katt, who made his film debut in this movie, along with Amy Irving, Betty Buckley, and Edie McClurg. He initially comes off with just a dash of mean (watch him in that scene near the beginning where he is shot in the front and Carrie is in the background). Then watch how Sue (Irving) manipulates him into asking Carrie to the prom. Tommy really doesn't want to do this, but he does it for Sue, but by the time they arrive at the prom, it really looks like Tommy is developing some genuine feelings for Carrie. I love the amount of screentime that DePalma devotes to Carrie and Tommy getting to know each other at the prom. It not only makes us totally fall in love with Tommy, but our heart begins to break for Carrie, because we watch nasty Norma (PJ Soles) collecting and getting rid of ballots and we hate to see what's coming. I also couldn't help but get caught up in the horrifying Margaret White, brilliantly realized by Piper Laurie, in a performance that earned her a second Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Laurie scares the crap out of me in this movie, no matter how many times I watch it. And just so we're clear, I will NEVER watch the remake...I just can't bring myself to do it. 4.5

[davidlean09]

Lates movie that i watch is open hiemer

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BOGRiNTYzYWYtMDliMy00Y2JhLWFlNGUtZTA3MjI5YzNmOTJmXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTY5Nzc4MDY@._V1_FMjpg_UX1000_.j pg



3

[culliford]

Silent Night, Deadly Night 2 (Lee Harry, 1987)

https://i.imgur.com/mJ5Pwxd.jpg

First time watch. Sitting at 3.9 on imdb, this has to be one of the most underrated movies I've ever seen. I enjoyed the first movie in the series a whole lot, and my only critique of that one was that at times it dragged and lost momentum. This sequel has no pacing problems, is just as well crafted, and trades the drama and suspense for more silly comedy and dials up the exploitation film factor. Hysterical! The only thing that could have been better would be if it told the flashbacks from the first film a bit quicker, since we have already seen that one when we watch this.

rating_4_5

[Nausicaä]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/bc/The_Nun_II_%282023%29.jpg/220px-The_Nun_II_%282023%29.jpg

3

SF = Z


[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

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6a/Lincoln_2012_Teaser_Poster.jpg
By IMP Awards, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=36798953

Lincoln - (2012)

I'm at a stage in my life where I wish I had more time. Much more time. I'll never have enough to read all the books I want to read, see the movies I want to see, and write what I want to write. When I was a kid I used to get bored - a condition that is completely unfamiliar to me now. Anyway - American upheaval in the mid-1800s, and president Abraham Lincoln. I never relished the idea of watching this film, simply because I thought a prerequisite would be a general knowledge about the man. I saw this a number of years ago and it struck me as middling. This time around - as American politics descends into disorder and rebellion - it feels relevant and more accessible. I had a much better time with Lincoln - the freakish abilities of Daniel Day-Lewis, the wonderful period costumes, set decoration, art direction and overall wonderful look of the film - oh, and the stacked cast with the likes of Sally Field, David Strathairn, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, James Spader, Hal Holbrook and Tommy Lee Jones featuring (lets not forget Adam Driver in a role that had him way, waay down in the credits.) I loved the occasional enjoyable small part, played by the likes of Jackie Earle Haley, Tim Blake Nelson and Jared Harris. Doris Kearns Goodwin's story about the battle for the 13th Amendment in Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln seems the perfect context for Lincoln's story as a whole. Steven Spielberg's movie, all up, is hard to fault - even if it took me two watches to finally come around to how excitingly grand the whole enterprise is. There's even excruciating tension (not to mention moments of anger) that rise up within me as I watch congress go about it's shouty, consequential business.

9/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e0/Movie_43_poster.jpg
By Relativity Media - http://img2-1.timeinc.net/ew/i/2012/11/09/Movie-43_510x756.jpg, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=37620345

Movie 43 - (2013)

When you take a beaker and mix "not funny" with "gross and disgusting" it released a deadly noxious gas - and use of that gas on cinema patrons has often been described as a "probable war crime". Oh man - embarrassingly, when I first saw the trailer to Movie 43 back in the day I thought it looked good. What got me, I think, was the unbelievably star-studded cast. There are actors in this that simply don't make sense being there. Anyway, a gross-out "hard core" comedy that's simply not the least bit funny. I'd seen one of the sketches before (the Kate Winslet, Hugh Jackman one) and seen how unfunny and juvenile it was. What else can I say? It's that simple. Somehow, the fact that huge name actors are in this makes it all worse. I liked the "Homeschooled" sketch a bit, and the rest was dull, offensive, and really bad - you can't just throw obscenity into a sketch and hope that alone along with the fact that a major star is in it will make it funny. Doesn't work.

3/10

[Takoma11]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6a/Lincoln_2012_Teaser_Poster.jpg
By IMP Awards, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=36798953

Lincoln - (2012)

I'm at a stage in my life where I wish I had more time. Much more time. I'll never have enough to read all the books I want to read, see the movies I want to see, and write what I want to write. When I was a kid I used to get bored - a condition that is completely unfamiliar to me now. Anyway - American upheaval in the mid-1800s, and president Abraham Lincoln. I never relished the idea of watching this film, simply because I thought a prerequisite would be a general knowledge about the man. I saw this a number of years ago and it struck me as middling. This time around - as American politics descends into disorder and rebellion - it feels relevant and more accessible. I had a much better time with Lincoln - the freakish abilities of Daniel Day-Lewis, the wonderful period costumes, set decoration, art direction and overall wonderful look of the film - oh, and the stacked cast with the likes of Sally Field, David Strathairn, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, James Spader, Hal Holbrook and Tommy Lee Jones featuring (lets not forget Adam Driver in a role that had him way, waay down in the credits.) I loved the occasional enjoyable small part, played by the likes of Jackie Earle Haley, Tim Blake Nelson and Jared Harris. Doris Kearns Goodwin's story about the battle for the 13th Amendment in Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln seems the perfect context for Lincoln's story as a whole. Steven Spielberg's movie, all up, is hard to fault - even if it took me two watches to finally come around to how excitingly grand the whole enterprise is. There's even excruciating tension (not to mention moments of anger) that rise up within me as I watch congress go about it's shouty, consequential business.

9/10

I saw this in the theater with my dad, who grew up near where Lincoln is from, and it's a special memory for me.

I did really like the film, but I struggled with how big-name the whole cast was. Literally there's a part where two soldiers walk by and have a single line of dialogue, and I was like "Oh, hey, it's Lukas Haas and Dane DeHaan!" and the whole film was like that.

[Deschain]

Rebel Moon. A buncha uncharismatic nonsense.

[Fabulous]

My Night at Maud's (1969)

4

https://www.themoviedb.org/t/p/original/5oSKt8BiMqly8SGcTI2u9fLR2GS.jpg

[Stirchley]

Re-watch. Excellent movie though rather more about Diana’s death than the Queen herself. Mirren & Sheen both excellent in their respective rôles.

96729

[WHITBISSELL!]

Silent Night, Deadly Night 2 (Lee Harry, 1987)

https://i.imgur.com/mJ5Pwxd.jpg

rating_4_5I'm intrigued by this picture mostly because of the guy's dead looking doll eyes. But also because he might be one of the very few practicing outdoor chiropractors.

[matt72582]

Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One - 6/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/ba/Stephen_Soderbergh_Presents_Symbiopsychotaxiplasm_Take_One_%282005_poster%29.jpg

[Thief]

Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One - 6/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/ba/Stephen_Soderbergh_Presents_Symbiopsychotaxiplasm_Take_One_%282005_poster%29.jpg

I need to check that one out. One of my guests brought it up on the podcast a couple of months ago and I've been intrigued since.

[Thief]

CLOSER
(2004, Nichols)

https://i.imgur.com/ypnV2ne.jpg


"Everything is a version of something else."



Closer follows two couples, or more specifically, four people: Dan Woolf (Jude Law), an obituary writer and wannabe author; Alice, a former stripper; Anna (Julia Roberts), a photographer; and Larry, a dermatologist, and how their lives and relationships intertwine through the years. Through those interactions, we get a glimpse of their aspirations, frustrations, and prospects of life and love.

In Closer, you get four very different characters committing similar "mistakes" in very different ways, all with very similar results. The way he shows these characters changing, creating versions of themselves to try to adapt to their situations is quite something. This is helped in great way by the excellent performances from all four leads, each of whom carries their character through a rollercoaster of states of mind and emotions.

Grade: 4


Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2429056#post2429056)

[Stirchley]

CLOSER
(2004, Nichols)

https://i.imgur.com/ypnV2ne.jpg




Closer follows two couples, or more specifically, four people: Dan Woolf (Jude Law), an obituary writer and wannabe author; Alice, a former stripper; Anna (Julia Roberts), a photographer; and Larry, a dermatologist, and how their lives and relationships intertwine through the years. Through those interactions, we get a glimpse of their aspirations, frustrations, and prospects of life and love.

In Closer, you get four very different characters committing similar "mistakes" in very different ways, all with very similar results. The way he shows these characters changing, creating versions of themselves to try to adapt to their situations is quite something. This is helped in great way by the excellent performances from all four leads, each of whom carries their character through a rollercoaster of states of mind and emotions.

Grade: 4


Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2429056#post2429056)

Good movie. Don’t forget Clive Owen very good as Larry.

[Marco]

Spetters (1980)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Spetters.jpg
I recall seeing this years ago but this is the uncut version. Well, a young group of motorcyclists (scramblers) hit the big changing point in their lives. To go for it or to attempt to eke out another existence and put the bikes down to hi-jinks. Into the mix is a new girl on the block that upsets the dynamic between our young men. There are a few issues tackled here and very graphic scenes concerning homosexuality and disability. Overall I think it does a good job but with a terrible edit. It swings from youthful exuberance and hubris to almost kitchen sink drama like a mad pendulum. Worth the watch though.
3.5

[pahaK]

Rebel Moon. A buncha uncharismatic nonsense.

Yeah, that was cringe. Did Netflix demand lobotomy when they made a deal with Snyder? I refuse to believe this was written and directed by a fully functional adult. It is an infantile fanfiction defecating on Seven Samurai and an original Star Wars trilogy. 1/5

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/19/Blade_movie.jpg
By Apparent scan found on a 3rd party website by the original uploader User:ARGOU., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1893701

Blade - (1998)

I would have absolutely loved this film as a kid - it makes sure it gets the horror and action right, and although the CGI is particularly dated, want it wants to achieve in that direction is nonetheless cool. Yeah, cool. A very cool action/horror film, and a strong precursor to the MCU, which was still a decade to come. I love that it's not an origin story - here Blade (Wesley Snipes) is already a vampire slayer, with samurai moves and silver stakes. The story is your average one, and not where the film is at it's best. Vampire Deacon Frost (Stephen Dorff) has unearthed an ancient prophecy and ritual that'll turn him into some kind of super vampire, and it's up to Blade to stop him. Along for the ride is Kris Kristofferson, as Blade's buddy Abraham Whistler, and Udo Kier, as vampire elder Gitano Dragonetti - because Udo Kier is in this, I have to follow my Udo Kier rule and give the film an extra point. Udo makes a film that much cooler. Great horror, decent action, all wrapped up in an average comic book movie. I had to see at least this film before the whole Blade saga is rebooted for the MCU in the not so distant future.

7/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/75/Titan_AE_One_Sheet.jpg
By http://www.movieposterdb.com/poster/02e87366, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4407457

Titan A.E. - (2000)

Ehhh. Nah. I found Titan A.E. to be a little dull and derivative. It seems to be aimed at younger audiences anyway, and it's animation stuck in the early "Heavy Metal" 1980s. Aliens destroy Earth and the last of humanity escapes in various space craft. The Titan is lost and must be found by Cale Tucker (voiced by Matt Damon), chased through space by the Drej - aliens made out of pure energy. Part way through, the DVD I was watching this on started skipping, and I didn't care. I wanted it to be over with anyway. The story and movie as a whole never got it's hooks into me - a little too bland and simple.

5/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2d/TriangleOfSadness2022Poster.jpg
By NEON - IMP Awards, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=71522525

Triangle of Sadness - (2022)

Rewatch - and absolutely just as good as the first time around. Triangle of Sadness cemented itself as one of the absolute best films of 2022. Everything it has to say about the wealthy, capitalism, socialism and our current world is so perfectly encapsulated in this film that I'm gleefully gliding through the cinematic excellence. I adore Triangle of Sadness, and I'm probably going to see this film many more times in the future.

9/10

[Holden Pike]

96739
Poor Things

My goodness gracious! The Bride of Frankenstein + 9½ Weeks + Rapunzel + The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie via the unholy love child of Walt Disney & Pier Pasolini.

In other words: more Yorgos Lanthimos hijinks!

Insane, disgusting, glorious, and hysterical. Love it.

GRADE: A

[Fabulous]

The Devil's Advocate (1997)

3.5

https://www.themoviedb.org/t/p/original/bh0wmDor3QWMSE8deX1BlYM6k9a.jpg

[Nausicaä]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/52/Saltburn_Film_Poster.jpg/220px-Saltburn_Film_Poster.jpg

3.5

SF = Z


I predict Jacob Elordi will be cast as the new Bond. In a few scenes I thought he could make a good Bond, he's getting near the 30s age range they apparently want too... :D


[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

[matt72582]

Black Peter - 7/10
Very allegorical and critical of the police-state, but in a simple story, with the family/friend (and generation) variable thrown in. Milos Forman seems to always show scenes where one humiliates himself, and constantly in these awkward moments, but it's very well-done, even if it's hard to watch at the time.



https://youtu.be/xbN0yo34jp4

[Meelis]

Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (2022)

10/10

very funny if like nonsensical humor.

[matt72582]

Die endlose Nacht - 6.5/10
Great foundation, but no relationship development.

https://youtu.be/wk3Gw8jhV4w

[Raven73]

Transformers Rise of the Beasts
I've been tired of this formula since the second movie, but I guess it's my childhood love of this toy that keeps bringing me back to it. It never fails to disappoint.

6/10.
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BZTNiNDA4NmMtNTExNi00YmViLWJkMDAtMDAxNmRjY2I2NDVjXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMDM2NDM2MQ@@._V1_.jpg

[LChimp]

https://mir-s3-cdn-cf.behance.net/project_modules/hd/ab2f6597919567.5ed032ef464c4.jpg

Captain Marvel - (2019)

1st re-watch after the original release. More bumps on the road than I remembered, but still enjoyable. Endgame next

[matt72582]

Passenger - 7.5/10


I thought I'd already seen this movie, so I just let it pass... for years.



https://youtu.be/ngjQidsuMNM

[GulfportDoc]

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=96751

|Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould (1993)

I was a little supercilious going in because the subject of the great Glenn Gould would be easy to mess up. But after the first 2-3 segments I was hooked. The screen play by director Francois Girard and Don McKellar was clever and fascinating. There was just the right balance between dramatizing some of Gould's well know exploits, and interviews between people who knew him well.

I was surprised that they didn't touch on his several year's affair with Cornelia Foss, wife of famed conductor Lukas Foss. That would have been an interesting inclusion.

The recordings of his playing, oftentimes used in the background are stunning, and draw the viewer right into Gould's insights. I particularly enjoyed the use of his recording of the 3rd movement of his Piano Sonata #7, the Precipitato, an extremely difficult piece technically.

It was a shame that he died young, at aged 50, of a stroke possibly brought on by his prescription drug usage. The world is not likely going to see another Glenn Gould.

10/10 from me.

[Nausicaä]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4d/Elemental_final_poster.jpg/220px-Elemental_final_poster.jpg

3

SF = Z


[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

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/08/Hero_poster.jpg
By The poster art can or could be obtained from Beijing New Picture Film Co.EDKO FilmMiramax Films., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10804100

Hero - (2002)

Okay, I have to confess a general antipathy I have to "wuxia" martial arts films (antipathy might be too strong a word - but you get my meaning) - it colors my regard for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and it likewise makes Hero, for me, less than the average high-regarded viewing that it would be for people who enjoy this kind of thing. Not that I didn't see the excellence in it, or enjoy it - I did both, and admire it all the same. I'm not quite sure how much I enjoy seeing people float through the air though - no matter how good you are at martial arts, that's not happening I'm sorry to say. (I'd love to see one of these apex fighters float their way to market in the morning.) Hero is a mix of assassin stuff, and "the king who united warring provinces into the Chinese nation" stuff. What I'm most aware of when I see two super martial arts experts fight is how much they have to concentrate throughout the whole business - I would so become distracted by something. I'd see a gas stove, think about that unpaid gas bill, and before you know it I'd be toast. I wouldn't float in the air - I'd be lucky if I didn't trip over or more likely bang my toe and double over, cursing. Beautiful looking film this - I have to give it that, because it's probably my favourite thing about it. Much lauded one, Hero.

7.5/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/66/Speak_No_Evil_Official_Poster.jpg
By https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14253846/mediaviewer/rm3271360257/?ref_=tt_ov_i, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=71555689

Speak No Evil - (2022)

Rewatch. I contemplated not watching the last 10 minutes of Speak No Evil, knowing what was to come - but I didn't want to be chicken, so I sat there and took it. Familiarity diluted it's power a little, but after it finished I found I once again had a lot to think about - and when a horror movie gives you cause to have an internal, searching, conversation with yourself (or others, if they're watching with you) then it's done it's job. A Danish family of 3 visit new friends in Holland, and these new friends turn out to be ones that test their limits. Would you call out a new friend straight away if you found they were being rude, or if you didn't like their behaviour? Turns out you really should.

7.5/10

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/af/Matahariposter.jpg
Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6977740

Mata Hari - (1931)

Too tired to catch the end of this very melodramatic movie last night (finished this morning) about the downfall of Mata Hari (Greta Garbo) - discovered as a German spy by the French after she falls in love with Russian pilot Lieutenant Alexis Rosanoff (Ramon Novarro). Yes, love was her undoing - but I loved the treacherous shadows that follow her, and Garbo's oh-so-sexy performance as a sultry seductress. It's very '31 this one - mainstream for it's day, but pre-code, and it's unfortunate that all copies available are censored versions. I don't think we're missing all that much though. A scene of pillow talk and revealing costume or two. Starts really slow but picks up more and more leading up to her final goodbyes. Nice cinematography, and good film overall.

7/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6c/Never_Say_Never_Again_%E2%80%93_UK_cinema_poster.jpg
By artist Renato Casaro - Never Say Never Again UK quad poster - impawards.com, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=37430785

Never Say Never Again - (1983)

I've changed my stance on this film. Years ago I really disliked it for lacking any real great action sequences, and having a kind of dull score for a Bond movie (not to mention a lack of Monty Norman's signature tune.) Now it just looks like a sly dig at the series itself, with an obviously too old Connery only half serious and the film itself often making light of his age. "I hope we're going to have some gratuitous sex and violence!" says Q (Bond calls him Algernon in this. Eon even owned the rights to the letter Q?) It's not going to win many awards, but overall the nostalgia associated with Connery being Bond, and the inclusion of Klaus Maria Brandauer, Max von Sydow as Blofeld, Barbara Carrera (her Fatima Blush is a blast) and Kim Basinger elevates it. We even get Mr. Bean dropping in for a scene or two. Nearly everything except the kitchen sink, with jet packs and sharks with friggen' laser beams (okay - very nearly, with tracking devices) attached to them. It's not quite your average Bond film, but a pleasing oddity (loved the deadly video game sequence.) It's starting to win me over after years of being held in low regard.

6/10

[StuSmallz]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/08/Hero_poster.jpg
By The poster art can or could be obtained from Beijing New Picture Film Co.EDKO FilmMiramax Films., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10804100

Hero - (2002)

Okay, I have to confess a general antipathy I have to "wuxia" martial arts films (antipathy might be too strong a word - but you get my meaning) - it colors my regard for Crouching Tiger, Hidden DragonAw, it does?

[chawhee]

Home Alone (1990)
https://images06.kaleidescape.com/transformed/covers/1134x1624s/242/24230509.jpg
3
First time I've watched this in probably 20 years...I was never a huge fan as a kid, but it's fine. Never a classic to me though.

[Guaporense]

Napoleon (2023)

https://sportshub.cbsistatic.com/i/2023/07/10/6a456d63-e125-40e7-a6e0-d7d9b4081114/napoleon-movie-poster.png?auto=webp&width=1200&height=1500&crop=0.8:1,smart

It's better than I expected. Critics and some filmmakers I know hated it, so I was expecting a disaster. It was a solid, well-executed biographical movie. It is higher in quality than most of Ridley Scott's movies except his holy trinity of Alien, Blade Runner, and Gladiator. It is not as good as Gladiator, but I liked it about as much as Kingdom of Heaven: a very good historical movie.

Also, the depiction of battles is pretty nice. Perhaps the best battles in the movies since the battles in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

4

[Fabulous]

The Devil's Own (1997)

3

https://www.themoviedb.org/t/p/original/Bfsoyo6mai2KKhdL5tk85RIB8F.jpg

[matt72582]

Man On The Tracks - 8/10
Very good movie. Man, it's been a long time. But I notice I'm finding them all on YouTube or TCM (not as much). They got rid of their Underground series, which was the best. Tired of noir, and the same saccharine stringed 3-act plays I've seen a thousand times before. Once you've seen 100 noirs, you've probably seen them all.. Anyway, it seemed like there was an undercurrent of political messaging. Something the government might have even endorsed. A bridge between the old guard and the reality, the young people. Kazimierz Opaliński is amazing in this movie, and he makes the movie. I had very little interest in the others as individuals, except their relationship with Orzechowski.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/cd/Czlowiek_na_torze.jpeg

[Stirchley]

96768

Ukraine/Germany movie. This young boy is excellent in his first acting rôle. Interesting storyline.

96769

Excellent ensemble cast. Based on a true story, it’s a very amusing movie. Paul Dano very good as per usual.

[Torgo]

Bottoms - 4

This is a very funny and zany comedy in the same vein as Booksmart. Out and proud lesbians PJ and Josie (Sennott and Edebiri), like that movie's Amy and Molly, are best friends and outcasts at their high school, which prioritizes football above all else. After the principal discovers the accidental violence they did to football star Jeff (Galitzine), who pretty much runs the school, they invent a lie that they're in a self-defense club which they later organize. Their "fight club" takes off and becomes their ticket to improving their confidence and pursuing their crushes much to the football team's chagrin.

Having gone to a high school where the football players seemingly had more privilege than the teachers, this movie succeeds at capturing the anxiety and powerless of being, well...anyone else. It does this hilariously and with a surreal touch such as in a lunchroom rendering of the Creation of Adam with Jeff as Adam. The movie's affection for over-the-top moments like this may be its secret weapon (club member Hazel is a demolitions expert). Also, its treatment of the queer life is tasteful and raunchy at just the right times, and despite being far removed from high school, Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edebiri totally convince as students. I also love Marshawn Lynch's funny turn as a lackadaisical history teacher and later ally to the girls. If the movie has a fault, the story is a tad on the predictable side. It remains one of 2023's funniest comedies and proof that those who would rather not throw a football or shake pom-poms in high school do not deserve to be sidelined, no pun intended. Oh, and the grand finale may be on par with Animal House's.

[Allaby]

Stamped From the Beginning (2023) An ambitious, provocative, challenging and interesting documentary about an important subject. I liked the interviews with the experts and the use of a variety of clips from different sources. There is a lot of material here and I feel they could have gone a little deeper on some of it and actually spread it out over multiple films. I hope it gets an Oscar nomination for best documentary feature. Watched on Netflix. 4

[Allaby]

The Color Purple (2023) Good performances from Fantasia Barrino, Danielle Brooks, and Taraji P. Henson. I really liked the singing and the costumes. Not everything works and it is a little too long, but there are some wonderful moments. 4

[Fabulous]

Rush Hour (1998)

3

https://www.themoviedb.org/t/p/original/4nMEI2ANe3YB22u18xbHXZOLVIy.jpg

[PHOENIX74]

Aw, it does?

Yeah. Every few years I give it another shot, hoping that my 7/10 feelings for it are going to be transformed into 9/10 or 10/10 feelings for it.

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/fd/Endless_Harmony_Cover.jpg
By The Beach Boys - amazon.com, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=38657474

The Beach Boys: Endless Harmony - (1998)

Watching a musical/biographical documentary, I hope for neither a puff piece nor hatchet job, and Endless Harmony was great in that the story came from all the major players in (and associated with) The Beach Boys. I also enjoyed the fact that they were all absolutely frank and honestly introspective. When you add in all the great music that accompanies this story, you have yourself a very enjoyable (albeit long) documentary. This was a simple pleasure to watch, and as I knew very little about the band itself, it was informative.

8/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/58/The_Day_After_Tomorrow_movie.jpg
Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1004000

The Day After Tomorrow - (2004)

If you're bright, curious, well-informed and read a lot, then rocking up to a Roland Emmerich film will have you smarting from the frequent number of times our intelligence is utterly insulted. The Day After Tomorrow is based on a book co-written by Whitley Strieber, making for a noxious combination, but when it's on I tend to watch some of it. You know what they say - "turn your brain off" - it's a disaster film, and the magnitude of these disasters are often global catastrophes. Because hundreds of millions of people are dying, the occasional light-hearted jokey moment feels pretty wrong - but at the same time, this disaster is too large for a movie to grant much feeling of the scale. If you like science, you'll be pretty upset with how ridiculous most parts are - and most of the characters are infuriatingly unlikeable too. One of a slew of huge budget blockbusters that are written appallingly but have super destructive moments that satisfy our child-like "let's smash it!" impulses.

5/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/19/T%C3%A1r_poster.jpg
By Unknown - IMP Awards, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=71615799

Tár - (2022)

Rewatch. Todd Field presents someone at the absolute top in Tár - Lydia Tár (Cate Blanchett) is at the apex of her profession, has an anticipated book being published, is world famous and lives with her partner and adorable child. Intellectually she's well-versed but pretentious, and disregards people who have no immediate worth to her. Field then drops her precipitously - and what a fall it is. I still struggled getting into this film from the get-go, but once it's over I'm very well pleased with it as a whole.

8/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/ef/TalkToMe2022poster.jpg
By A24 - https://bloody-disgusting.com/movie/3757670/talk-to-me-poster-for-a24s-next-horror-movie-trailer-debuts-tomorrow/, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=73515655

Talk to Me - (2022)

Rewatch. My Christmas night viewing spot is usually reserved for something I've particularly enjoyed during the year - and Talk to Me did not disappoint the second time around.

8/10

[Takoma11]

Tár - (2022)

Rewatch. Todd Field presents someone at the absolute top in Tár - Lydia Tár (Cate Blanchett) is at the apex of her profession, has an anticipated book being published, is world famous and lives with her partner and adorable child. Intellectually she's well-versed but pretentious, and disregards people who have no immediate worth to her. Field then drops her precipitously - and what a fall it is. I still struggled getting into this film from the get-go, but once it's over I'm very well pleased with it as a whole.

8/10

I think that having such a cold character at the center of the film makes it hard to grip onto as a viewer at first. But you realize that you're watching a person dig themselves into a hole with lies big and small, and obliviously (or maliciously) pushing boundaries with the people who are her allies. From there you get the suspense of waiting to see when and how it will all crumble around her.

[LChimp]

https://www.shoppingcidadedasflores.com.br/wp-content/uploads/sites/244/2023/11/MUSSUM-CARTAZ.jpg

Mussum O Filmis - (2023)

The life, work and death of a brazilian comedian/musician. His life was a lot more interesting than this movie.

[Jeff]

Nothing Bad Can Happen (2013) disturbing and depressing, loved it 5/5

Before that Kubrick's Barry Lyndon -- BEST movie seen this year

[Thief]

ACT OF VIOLENCE
(1948, Zinnemann)

https://i.imgur.com/9lB3R78.jpg


"Edith, a lot of things happened in the war that you wouldn't understand. Why should you? I don't understand them myself."



Act of Violence follows Joe Parkson (Robert Ryan), a former World War II POW determined to find one of his comrades, Frank Enley (Van Heflin), at all costs. The reason? It's one of those things that happened in the war that nobody understands, not even Joe or Frank; but that's one of the mysteries that this film holds on to for a while.

I think that was my favorite thing about the film; how it manages to contrast and juxtapose these two characters, none of which are entirely free from blame or wrong-doing. For a 1940s film to present the complexity of those things that "happened in the war" and that we can't understand, it is quite something, and I like that the film never fully commits to any side. Neither Joe nor Frank are demonized or idolized, but are rather presented as two damaged individuals.

Grade: 4


Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2429536#post2429536), the Film Noir HoF (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2429539#post2429539), and the Noirvember thread (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2429538#post2429538).

[chawhee]

Triangle of Sadness (2022)
https://www.beyondgaming.be/news/attachments/triangleofsadness-banner-jpg.12972/
3
Quite a movie...satirical messages about the fashion industry and gender roles unfolding in 3 segments (which cause the movie to be a bit longer than it needs to). I actually really enjoyed it with a couple major exceptions...
the puking and vomiting sequences carried on far too long. The ending, albeit thought-provoking, didn't seem to blend well with the theme of the movie. The final scenes with Abigail, Yaya, and Carl ask the audience to make deeper interpretations about what could have happened, which doesn't hold up for a movie of this genre.

[Thief]

THIEVES' HIGHWAY
(1949, Dassin)

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


"Come on, we'll sell the stuff on consignment, I'll give the kid a fair shake. If that's against the law, I guess I'm a crook."



Thieves' Highway follows Nick Garcos (Richard Conte), who returns from World War II to his family in California, only to find that his father, a produce driver, was roughed up by a ruthless dealer called Mike Figlia (Lee J. Cobb). This resulted in Nick's father losing his legs and sets Nick on a path for revenge against Figlia.

Nick is also helped by Ed (Millard Mitchell), another driver that took up Nick father's truck, and Rica (Valentina Cortese), a local that Figlia might or might not be using against Nick. Conte is solid in the lead, but it is Cobb who easily shines as Figlia. His character moves seamlessly from fake amiability to sheer unscrupulousness and opportunism.

Grade: 3


Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2429544#post2429544), the Film Noir HoF (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2429545#post2429545), or the Noirvember thread (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2429546#post2429546).

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTU0MjM3NDE3Nl5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwMjE3MTkzMg@@._V1_.jpg


1st Rewatch...Not as funny as the first film because it basically just rehashes the first film, but it somehow still manages to deliver laughs. 3.5

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91Bbsz8HaXL._AC_UF894,1000_QL80_.jpg


1st Rewatch...This scorching drama about a spinster schoolteacher whose obsession with a new faculty member leads her down a dark path when she learns the new teacher is having an affair with a student. This film mesmerizes thanks to a fantastic, Oscar-nominated screenplay by Patrick Marber, which includes one of my favorite narrations of a film, beautifully realized by Dench, playing one of her most riveting and unlikable characters, a performance of such passion and venom that it earned her an Oscar nomination as did Cate Blanchett's Oscar-nominated performance as the Bohemian art teacher who becomes Dench's obsession. Dench and Blanchett create one memorable scene after another here, especially the scene where Dench learns that Blanchett hasn't ended her affair with the boy. Shout out to Bill Nighy as well as Blanchett's husband. I had forgotten what a powerful film this was. 4.5

[Gideon58]

https://i5.walmartimages.com/asr/5a5b05cb-ce3f-4d0d-9dad-acb6684f9a66.305efcebc6ed302132157e6ba3a0cf00.jpeg?odnHeight=768&odnWidth=768&odnBg=FFFFFF


1st Rewatch...I don't want to spoil this film for those who haven't seen it yet, but upon rewatch I realized there's no way to catch everything on a single watch. I also want to say that this film is my choice for the Oscar for Original Screenplay and though I don't see him winning, I think Ryan Gosling should get a supporting actor nomination. Would also love to see a Best Song nomination for "I'm Just Ken" and though it's a long shot, a supporting actress nomination for America Ferrera would definitely put a smile on my face. 4

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMjM1MDc2OTQ3NV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwNzQ0NjQ1NjE@._V1_.jpg



1st Rewatch...Of the movies I've seen on the subject, I think this is the most compelling, non-documentary centered around the Hollywood blacklisting, told through this look at the career of iconic screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, who won three Oscars for his work but was unable to be at any of the ceremonies because of his arrest and blacklist, one of the few people who was blacklisted who actually admitted to being a communist. Bryan Cranston's Oscar-nomination performance in the title role is a revelation and we get several terrific celebrity impressions supporting the story, especially Helen Mirren as Hedda Hopper, David James Elliott as John Wayne, Michael Stuhlbarg as Edward G Robinson, and especially Dean O'Gorman, uncanny as Kirk Douglas. John Goodman also crushes it as a B movie maker named Frank King. The look of the film is also exquisite. 4

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNzNkOThhMDEtMzBiZS00OWQxLWE0YWItOWIxZjg2MjhhZjU0XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjI4MjA5MzA@._V1_.jpg



4th Rewatch...Michael Keaton is cute as a button on this amusing satire of mob movies, but for some reason, as I watched this time, I couldn't help thinking how much funnier this movie would have been with Mel Brooks in the director chair. 3.5

[honeykid]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTU0MjM3NDE3Nl5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwMjE3MTkzMg@@._V1_.jpg


1st Rewatch...Not as funny as the first film because it basically just rehashes the first film, but it somehow still manages to deliver laughs. 3.5

And Drew being sexy as all hell. :randy::heart:

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/cb/ee/be/cbeebe9266daf904b916114c5e8a154e.png

[Thief]

THE ASPHALT JUNGLE
(1950, Huston)

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


"Suppose we had no police force, good or bad. Suppose we had... just silence. Nobody to listen. Nobody to answer. The battle's finished. The jungle wins. The predatory beasts take over. Think about it."



The Asphalt Jungle follows a group of criminals led by Doc Riedenschneider (Sam Jaffe) as they plan and stage the robbery of a jewel store that could leave them all set for life. To pull it off, he needs a safecracker (Anthony Caruso), a getaway driver (James Whitmore), and a "hooligan" (Sterling Hayden). But in this jungle, the predatory beasts are all over.

This is a film I had been hearing about for a long time, but somehow I hadn't been able to get to it. Now that I finally did, I can see what all the fuss is about. The Asphalt Jungle is a thrilling, sharply written crime film that doesn't pull its punches, which is best exemplified in the nature of its lead character, Dix Handley (Hayden), a 6'4" intimidating thug that's a chronic gambler and essentially a killer.

Grade: 4


Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2429609#post2429609), the Film Noir HoF (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2429610#post2429610), and the Noirvember thread (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2429611#post2429611).

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/W/MEDIAX_792452-T2/images/I/517WTON-wUL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg


2

[Tugg]

The Family Plan (2023) 3
https://tmc.io/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/The-Family-Plan.jpg
Thanksgiving (2023) 3
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRaL9C1mrzNx1eNf7seBv4mveatkdTSnEJxhMxiS0hW61AC1xZ8ynnD7OteBgxrDwzGVII&usqp=CAU
Cobweb (2023) 3.5
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRTbe57FB3KXaWGATFUz4xOCbOq7y-zk0mf1A&usqp=CAU
It's a Wonderful Knife (2023) 3
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS0EptvTjMx0SzRdvBNlAKCxcPdEkpyTKmL-Q&usqp=CAU

[Fabulous]

Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974)

3

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

[WHITBISSELL!]

https://i.makeagif.com/media/12-10-2016/J5iha5.gif
https://static.wixstatic.com/media/51f4b8_e6c1da32d7e44a26a5f86d8e08aabbb6~mv2.gif

Carol for Another Christmas - I found this while perusing the TCM hub on MAX. Never knew it existed but the fact that it was written by Rod Serling and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz grabbed my attention. And once I found out who was in it I figured it was worth a watch. Sterling Hayden plays moneyed industrialist Daniel Grudge and he's embittered by his son Marley's death in WWII. To the point where he is perennially at odds with his college professor nephew Fred (Ben Gazzara). Grudge believes that the United States has no business getting involved in any other countries problems or even fighting in any wars. His rock-ribbed isolationist stance has led him to influence the college's governing board and have one of Fred's colleagues fired. The man's offense is being part of a cultural exchange program with what Grudge considers a "Communist" country, in this case Poland. The C word is never used but given that this was conceived, written, and produced in 1964 it's boxed in. It might also come off as archaic but back in the day it was all about stopping the spread of Communism.

Anyway, this is a Serling script and the 90 minute runtime gives him the luxury of stretching out so it's definitely wordy. Well written of course but verbose. It follows the general outline of A Christmas Carol with three "ghosts" visiting Grudge. The Ghost of Christmas Past is played by Steve Lawrence as a returning doughboy on a troop ship. He, along with most of the other soldiers onboard, is dead. Casualties of the first great war in Europe. He shows Grudge that the collective sacrifice of fallen soldiers (and his son) is a direct result of nations turning their backs on each other. Grudge is a hard get so there's also a side trip to Hiroshima where he witnesses a younger version of himself as a Naval commander along with WAVE Lt. Gibson (Eva Marie Saint) visiting the devastated city.

The second spirit is Christmas Present (Pat Hingle in a compelling performance) and he goes to work on Grudge's dismissive scorn towards the "have-nots" of the world and his "by one's own bootstraps" rationale. The spirit uses facts, figures and statistics to underline to Grudge the actual human toll of the "haves" turning a blind eye to the ongoing suffering of the "have-nots".

I think the movie however really hits it's stride in the third act as The Ghost of Christmas To Come (Robert Shaw) shows Grudge his own bombed out town hall in a post-apocalyptic future. The few remaining survivors drift in and wait expectantly and soon enough a self appointed sovereign and demagogue calling himself Imperial Me (Peter Sellars) is carried in on a palanquin. He's sporting a cowboy hat and six-guns and harangues the crowd on the virtues of unbridled individualism and a "me first" mindset. He goes on to warn them of two other smaller groups of survivors who want to meet and talk over their mutual problems. He exhorts them and tells them that these groups are a threat and need to be dealt with ASAP. And having done that he adds that they should then turn on each other until there is only one "ME", AKA, the perfect society of "I".

Some might see this as a bit heavy handed and rightly so but this was originally meant as the first in a series of television specials commissioned by and serving to promote The United Nations. It's ironic that something that purports to be a condemnation of hidebound thinking is, with the passage of time, shown to be facile in and of itself. It also reveals that what started out with such promise back in the '60's has thoroughly morphed into irrelevance. Still though, this holds genuine value as a curio. The cast is first rate and Serling's earnest attempt at changing the world one television viewer at a time shouldn't be judged by today's misanthropic standards.

75/100

[iluv2viddyfilms]

It's a Wonderful Life: - A

High Anxiety: B-

[Raven73]

Aquaman: the lost kingdom
7/10.
This may be the last kingdom.

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTkxM2FiYjctYjliYy00NjY2LWFmOTEtMWZiYWRjNjA4MGYxXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTUzMTg2ODkz._V1_FMjpg_UX1000_.j pg

[Takoma11]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fawardsradar.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2023%2F06%2Fmaggiemoore-thumb-1682541834584.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=781ad84b2f37b524f6dc77f038a12d1ff118fad8d57ce07ebaed235cd9d252f9&ipo=images

Maggie Moore(s), 2023

Andy Moore (Christopher Denham) is the manager of a failing sandwich franchise, barely staying afloat by buying expired meats and cheeses from local pedophile Tommy T (Derek Basco). But when Andy’s wife, Maggie (Louisa Krouse) finds a phone with child porn that Andy was holding for Tommy, the men hire local tough Kosco (Happy Anderson) to scare her into silence. But when Kosco does much more than scare Maggie, Andy worries that he’ll be the prime suspect. Then he realizes that there’s another Maggie Moore (Mary Holland) in town, and he hatches a horrific plan . . . it’s up to local Sheriff Sanders (Jon Hamm) to piece it all together.

I found this movie offensive. Not, as you might be thinking, because of its treatment of the victims. It’s offensive as a story. It’s joyless and throws an endless number of jaunty musical cues at you in an effort to make you think you’re having a good time. This is a waste of a talented cast and a waste of my time as a viewer.

Embarrassing.

2

[Takoma11]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2F2.bp.blogspot.com%2F-M5qj-7SGeIE%2FVsoYig_-0mI%2FAAAAAAAACio%2FohLrJmfm1KQ%2Fs1600%2F10thvictim3-1600x900-c-default.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=e8cd76b39436477a9ed026938de06e6c8baad8982b0bcc7d99e6f83056df23fb&ipo=images

The 10th Victim, 1965

In a near future, humanity’s bloodlust has been displaced from war to a televised hunt in which Hunters track Victims. Caroline Meredith (Ursula Andress) has survived 9 hunts---alternating being the Hunter and the Victim---and is on the cusp of winning the show. The last obstacle in her path is Marcello Poletti (Marcello Mastroianni), a man who is world-weary and exhausted by the demands of his ex-wife and his mistress. Increasingly intrigued by Marcello’s apparent lack of care for his own life, Caroline uses various rouses to get close to him and soon their mutual attraction complicates the hunt.

Bright, engaging visuals and a constantly twisting plot make this film an easy, fun watch.

4

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4b/Nitram_Poster.jpg
By https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13694628/, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=68297296

Nitram - (2021)

Okay - 28 April 1996, an "I remember where I was and what I was doing" date. My two Aunts were visiting from Canada, and my youngest brother was over. The news was incomprehensible. Aside from some prodigious South Korean in the 1980s, we'd seen the largest mass killing by a shooter in history - and it had happened here, in Australia. It had happened in sleepy Tasmania - where you'd be surprised to hear if one person had been shot and killed. This guy had killed 35, and shot 58. Today, it doesn't feel as extraordinary. I mean - 51 killed by a shooter in Christchurch, New Zealand in 2019 - another idyllic, really nice and friendly place. But at the time, it can't be overemphasized how weird, impossible, shocking and nightmare-inducing this was for the entire country. We've never reeled as a nation as much in my entire lifetime. The headlines the next day were just a picture of the guy with the caption - "This is him" - there was no need to say more than those three words. The Port Arthur massacre changed us. It's taken 25 years - but here's the first film about the unique young man who did this. It was hard for me to watch.

Martin Bryant wasn't your usual man-child. Caleb Landry Jones can't quite match his high-pitched, soft voice (when the police called him during the protracted night-long stand-off on the telephone, they thought they were talking to a lady), but I tell you what - he does a great accent. Although I already knew about everything the movie covers (we were all to learn about this man as the days when by - in detail) it still felt like I was learning a lot while watching it (always with a view as to how it might differ from reality.) There are some things it doesn't cover. Bryant had a girlfriend just before the shooting - a regular, everyday girlfriend. I don't think the relationship lasted too long, but in the movie Bryant is pretty much painted as a recluse. He was a lonely figure, but he knew plenty of people. Also - he probably killed his father. The film paints it as a certain suicide, but there are some details about his father's death that make me pretty sure Bryant had killed him. Of course, he'd already caused Helen's death by pulling on the steering wheel once too often - a joke he loved.

The rest is for people to discover if they haven't seen the film. The yellow Volvo 244 made me shudder when it turned up early in the film, and again when I saw it with a surfboard strapped to the roof. It was interesting to see how his relationship with Helen developed - a kindred, if much kinder, spirit. Great start - showing the real footage of him as a child being interviewed on TV after setting his house on fire, then segueing to adult Bryant setting off fireworks in his back yard. Overall the movie is excellent, with pitch-perfect performances, a mannered, respectful, probing screenplay and great cinematography. The only thing I have to add is that in the years after the massacre a group of conspiracy theorists convinced his mother that Martin hadn't done the killing. She embraced that - such a troubled lady after her son had done that. Judy Davis gives her a hard veneer. Nitram is a haunting, troubling and must-see movie for those who never knew the man who caused Australia so much grief.

9/10

[Jeff]

Lilya 4-Ever -- 5/5 devastating, like Von Trier directing Nights of Cabiria, but in a good way. I think more people need to see these kinds of movies to develop or regain their feelings, to have empathy for others.

[chawhee]

The Creator (2023)
https://static1.moviewebimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/the-creator.jpeg
3
Loved the visuals, but pretty vanilla otherwise. Watch if you love sci-fi or if you haven't seen any sci-fi movie in 10 years, as this brings nothing new to the table. John David Washington continues to be a question mark for me...great in some scenes and below average in others.

[Takoma11]

Lilya 4-Ever -- 5/5 devastating, like Von Trier directing Nights of Cabiria, but in a good way. I think more people need to see these kinds of movies to develop or regain their feelings, to have empathy for others.

I think this movie is pretty fantastic. It also totally reframed the way that I think about how violence (especially violence against young people and especially sexual violence) are portrayed in movies.

[Mr Minio]

I think this movie is pretty fantastic. It also totally reframed the way that I think about how violence (especially violence against young people and especially sexual violence) are portrayed in movies.

Could you elaborate please?

[Marco]

Lilya 4-Ever -- 5/5 devastating, like Von Trier directing Nights of Cabiria, but in a good way. I think more people need to see these kinds of movies to develop or regain their feelings, to have empathy for others.

Lilya 4-Ever knocked the complete stuffing out of me.

[Torgo]

Chevalier - 4

Possibly the best opening scene of 2023, a violin duel between Mozart and our hero, kicks off this classy and smart biopic bound to satisfy history and music buffs. Chevalier (Harrison) is Joseph Bologne, a composer and fencer who lived during the French revolution. Despite his extraordinary talent in both, since he is the product of an affair between a white plantation owner and a Creole slave, his upward mobility is limited. His status does not stop him from staging his opera, pursuing directorship of the Paris opera house or the love of married singer Marie-Josephine (Weaving).

Writer Stefani Robinson is one of the most exciting ones working today, having penned my favorite What We Do in the Shadows episodes, so it was a pleasant surprise that she's just as talented at writing screenplays. As the synopsis indicates and what tends to be the case with biopics in general, there are a lot of threads, but she ties them together in a way that never makes things seem convoluted. It helps that each thread relates to a frustration of living as an undesirable. Kelvin Harrison, Jr. expresses them with grace and subtlety, such as in a scene where he tries to take in stride his recently freed mother's pals saying he looks like a "white boy." There's also the one where he reveals to Marie-Josephine that he's motivated to be the best because when he does, people treat him better. Speaking of her, Samara Weaving is someone else I'll be following. Her chemistry with Harrison is undeniable and their affair is sexy in the best way. It's also a very nice looking and period-accurate movie, with Prague stepping in for Paris, and while I wish there were more musical moments, the ones it does have will make you look up Bologne's on your streaming service of choice (spoiler warning: it is). As for the thread that's the elephant in the room, the French Revolution, its culmination and increasing relevance to Bologne's story is expertly gradual.

This movie successfully expresses how it feels to be treated as little more than a visitor to a world despite deserving to be a master in it and all the frustrations and betrayals therein in a satisfying way. Again, if you are as much of a history and music geek as I am, it also serves as delicious brain candy. This may actually be a complement since I found Bologne's story so interesting, but there re times when it has a "highlight reel" vibe, i.e., not delving deeper than it could. I still very much recommend it, and this is coming from someone who is not a huge lover of biopics.

[hacxx]

Training Day

https://th.bing.com/th/id/R.820c7ab1877dda18340c45527d31a85b?rik=Egu5qRxkfqmyxg&riu=http%3a%2f%2fbttm.co.uk%2fwp-content%2fuploads%2f2016%2f11%2ftraining-day.jpg&ehk=8wz%2fV2J8JQ%2fZ65vGwS2Xe%2bqDRWX%2fdkD2c0nBd3ODuyA%3d&risl=&pid=ImgRaw&r=0

5/5

[Stirchley]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91Bbsz8HaXL._AC_UF894,1000_QL80_.jpg


1st Rewatch...This scorching drama about a spinster schoolteacher whose obsession with a new faculty member leads her down a dark path when she learns the new teacher is having an affair with a student. This film mesmerizes thanks to a fantastic, Oscar-nominated screenplay by Patrick Marber, which includes one of my favorite narrations of a film, beautifully realized by Dench, playing one of her most riveting and unlikable characters, a performance of such passion and venom that it earned her an Oscar nomination as did Cate Blanchett's Oscar-nominated performance as the Bohemian art teacher who becomes Dench's obsession. Dench and Blanchett create one memorable scene after another here, especially the scene where Dench learns that Blanchett hasn't ended her affair with the boy. Shout out to Bill Nighy as well as Blanchett's husband. I had forgotten what a powerful film this was. 4.5

One of my fave movies. Seen it about 3 times.

Training Day

https://th.bing.com/th/id/R.820c7ab1877dda18340c45527d31a85b?rik=Egu5qRxkfqmyxg&riu=http%3a%2f%2fbttm.co.uk%2fwp-content%2fuploads%2f2016%2f11%2ftraining-day.jpg&ehk=8wz%2fV2J8JQ%2fZ65vGwS2Xe%2bqDRWX%2fdkD2c0nBd3ODuyA%3d&risl=&pid=ImgRaw&r=0

5/5

One of my fave movies. Seen it many times. Denzel’s best IMO.

[Stirchley]

Lilya 4-Ever knocked the complete stuffing out of me.

In my watchlist. I think I’ve seen it before.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4b/Nitram_Poster.jpg
By https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13694628/, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=68297296

Nitram - (2021)

Okay - 28 April 1996, an "I remember where I was and what I was doing" date. My two Aunts were visiting from Canada, and my youngest brother was over. The news was incomprehensible. Aside from some prodigious South Korean in the 1980s, we'd seen the largest mass killing by a shooter in history - and it had happened here, in Australia. It had happened in sleepy Tasmania - where you'd be surprised to hear if one person had been shot and killed. This guy had killed 35, and shot 58. Today, it doesn't feel as extraordinary. I mean - 51 killed by a shooter in Christchurch, New Zealand in 2019 - another idyllic, really nice and friendly place. But at the time, it can't be overemphasized how weird, impossible, shocking and nightmare-inducing this was for the entire country. We've never reeled as a nation as much in my entire lifetime. The headlines the next day were just a picture of the guy with the caption - "This is him" - there was no need to say more than those three words. The Port Arthur massacre changed us. It's taken 25 years - but here's the first film about the unique young man who did this. It was hard for me to watch.

Martin Bryant wasn't your usual man-child. Caleb Landry Jones can't quite match his high-pitched, soft voice (when the police called him during the protracted night-long stand-off on the telephone, they thought they were talking to a lady), but I tell you what - he does a great accent. Although I already knew about everything the movie covers (we were all to learn about this man as the days when by - in detail) it still felt like I was learning a lot while watching it (always with a view as to how it might differ from reality.) There are some things it doesn't cover. Bryant had a girlfriend just before the shooting - a regular, everyday girlfriend. I don't think the relationship lasted too long, but in the movie Bryant is pretty much painted as a recluse. He was a lonely figure, but he knew plenty of people. Also - he probably killed his father. The film paints it as a certain suicide, but there are some details about his father's death that make me pretty sure Bryant had killed him. Of course, he'd already caused Helen's death by pulling on the steering wheel once too often - a joke he loved.

The rest is for people to discover if they haven't seen the film. The yellow Volvo 244 made me shudder when it turned up early in the film, and again when I saw it with a surfboard strapped to the roof. It was interesting to see how his relationship with Helen developed - a kindred, if much kinder, spirit. Great start - showing the real footage of him as a child being interviewed on TV after setting his house on fire, then segueing to adult Bryant setting off fireworks in his back yard. Overall the movie is excellent, with pitch-perfect performances, a mannered, respectful, probing screenplay and great cinematography. The only thing I have to add is that in the years after the massacre a group of conspiracy theorists convinced his mother that Martin hadn't done the killing. She embraced that - such a troubled lady after her son had done that. Judy Davis gives her a hard veneer. Nitram is a haunting, troubling and must-see movie for those who never knew the man who caused Australia so much grief.

9/10

In my watchlist. Never heard of this movie or the prior events.

[Stirchley]

Loved this sweet indie movie about Afghan immigrants to America. The lead actor had never acted before & she was very good.

96789

[Thief]

MILDRED PIERCE
(1945, Curtiz)

https://i.imgur.com/yAD0ftf.jpg


"I've done without a lot of things, including happiness sometimes because I wanted her to have everything. Now I'm losing her."



Mildred Pierce (Joan Crawford) is a hard-working woman that is torn between her desire to provide for her spoiled daughter, Veda (Ann Blyth), and her relationship with several men. There is Veda's father, Bert (Bruce Bennett), with whom she splits because of infidelities and economic issues. Then there is Monte (Zachary Scott), the young playboy she meets later that might be in it for her money, or maybe something else.

But putting aside the mystery, what made the film tick for me were the interactions between Mildred and Veda. Crawford is her usual great self, but I was really surprise by how Blyth managed to hold her own against her. Her clashing personalities and attitudes are what make the film feel interesting, and perhaps separate this from other film noir that rely more on mood and atmosphere.

Grade: 4


Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2429760#post2429760) and the Film Noir HoF (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2429761#post2429761).

[Gideon58]

https://i0.wp.com/worleygig.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/fullsizeoutput_6e7e-e1531176977576.jpeg?ssl=1



1st Rewatch...Written and directed by mad genius Bo Burnham, this is the most on target examination of eighth grade growing pains that I have ever seen. This movie brought back all the pain of being 13 years old unlike anything I have ever seen and Elsie Fisher lights up the screen in the title role. 4

[Thief]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2F2.bp.blogspot.com%2F-M5qj-7SGeIE%2FVsoYig_-0mI%2FAAAAAAAACio%2FohLrJmfm1KQ%2Fs1600%2F10thvictim3-1600x900-c-default.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=e8cd76b39436477a9ed026938de06e6c8baad8982b0bcc7d99e6f83056df23fb&ipo=images

The 10th Victim, 1965

In a near future, humanity’s bloodlust has been displaced from war to a televised hunt in which Hunters track Victims. Caroline Meredith (Ursula Andress) has survived 9 hunts---alternating being the Hunter and the Victim---and is on the cusp of winning the show. The last obstacle in her path is Marcello Poletti (Marcello Mastroianni), a man who is world-weary and exhausted by the demands of his ex-wife and his mistress. Increasingly intrigued by Marcello’s apparent lack of care for his own life, Caroline uses various rouses to get close to him and soon their mutual attraction complicates the hunt.

Bright, engaging visuals and a constantly twisting plot make this film an easy, fun watch.

4

Big fan of this one. Glad you liked it.

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BM2NmMDQ1ZWEtNDU4OS00MGIxLWEyMGMtMTM2YmFkYzNhYmMxXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTM1NjM2ODg1._V1_FMjpg_UX1000_.j pg


4

[Fabulous]

The Interpreter (2005)

3.5

https://www.themoviedb.org/t/p/original/lUlbOfPXZdd5XB59tIUVVl0nDpn.jpg

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5b/Pearl_theatricalposter.jpg
By http://www.impawards.com/2022/pearl_ver2.html, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=71716378

Pearl - (2022)

Ti West's X didn't do all that much for me, considering the rave reviews I heard, and that's why it took me a little while to get around to Pearl. Well, going in with few expectations I'm happy to say that I enjoyed Pearl one hell of a lot, and I think it delivered on both fronts - horror and general story-wise. Half-way through, I was kind of surprised to find that West and Mia Goth had held back completely (minus a goose) - and by the fact that I was nonetheless into the whole groove of this movie. The second half delivers on it's murderous promise, and an iconic horror figure is born before our eyes. Will we end up getting too many of these movies? No doubt - but I have a feeling there's still a great third film to be milked from the character. I may as well give X another chance now.

7.5/10

https://i.postimg.cc/fLtStrqG/out-of-the-past.jpg
By William Rose - Scan via Heritage Auctions #86524. Cropped from the original image and retouched by uploader., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=86501658

Out of the Past - (1947)

Rewatch - I saw this for the first time recently, and I was particularly in the mood to see it again. Great classic noir, with a trio of sizzling leads - Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer and Kirk Douglas.

8/10

[Gideon58]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5b/Pearl_theatricalposter.jpg
By http://www.impawards.com/2022/pearl_ver2.html, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=71716378

Pearl - (2022)

Ti West's X didn't do all that much for me, considering the rave reviews I heard, and that's why it took me a little while to get around to Pearl. Well, going in with few expectations I'm happy to say that I enjoyed Pearl one hell of a lot, and I think it delivered on both fronts - horror and general story-wise. Half-way through, I was kind of surprised to find that West and Mia Goth had held back completely (minus a goose) - and by the fact that I was nonetheless into the whole groove of this movie. The second half delivers on it's murderous promise, and an iconic horror figure is born before our eyes. Will we end up getting too many of these movies? No doubt - but I have a feeling there's still a great third film to be milked from the character. I may as well give X another chance now.

7.5/10

https://i.postimg.cc/fLtStrqG/out-of-the-past.jpg
By William Rose - Scan via Heritage Auctions #86524. Cropped from the original image and retouched by uploader., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=86501658

Out of the Past - (1947)

Rewatch - I saw this for the first time recently, and I was particularly in the mood to see it again. Great classic noir, with a trio of sizzling leads - Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer and Kirk Douglas.

8/10

I, too enjoyed Pearl a lot more than X

[Takoma11]

Could you elaborate please?

Sure. Many of the sequences of very upsetting things happening are shot from Lilya's point of view, literally the camera as her POV. This means that the icky stuff is "on screen", but it also means that you aren't repeatedly seeing her body or the sex acts themselves. I thought it was a very effective way of showing the horrors of sexual exploitation while avoiding the film itself feeling exploitative in those scenes.

It got me thinking about what "needs" to be on screen (yes, obviously this is very subjective), and how filmmakers can portray violence/sexual violence/abuse.

[Mr Minio]

Sure. Many of the sequences of very upsetting things happening are shot from Lilya's point of view, literally the camera as her POV. Oh, this isn't new. Remember the see-through floor rape scene in Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion (1972)? Gives the same POV result.

https://i.imgur.com/EAkV0FA.png
https://i.imgur.com/SFEI7Mm.png

[Takoma11]

Oh, this isn't new.

It may not be new, but it was the first time I'd seen violence portrayed in that way. I felt like it gave an inherently more empathetic view to what was happening.

[Fabulous]

Smile (2022)

3

https://www.themoviedb.org/t/p/original/rJUD2cZpQPvpzwTrlt5GlYiilTF.jpg

[ScarletLion]

Lilya 4-Ever -- 5/5 devastating, like Von Trier directing Nights of Cabiria, but in a good way. I think more people need to see these kinds of movies to develop or regain their feelings, to have empathy for others.

One of my favourites.

[ScarletLion]

'Dream Scenario' (2023)

A hapless family man finds his life turned upside down when millions of strangers suddenly start seeing him in their dreams.

Nicolas Cage continues his recent run of good inde films playing a washed up Professor who has to deal with a bizarre occurrence of people dreaming about him. Dream Scenario is a play on the trappings of fame. cancel culture and crippling self doubt. There are both horror elements and plenty of black comedy, the latter of which seem to be a real forte of director Kristoffer Borgli, who gave us 'Sick of Myself' earlier this year. He's a director to watch. This is a thoroughly enjoyable film.

7.6/10

4

https://assets-prd.ignimgs.com/2023/10/05/collage-maker-05-oct-2023-03-02-pm-6674-1696536208430.jpg

[ScarletLion]

Loved this sweet indie movie about Afghan immigrants to America. The lead actor had never acted before & she was very good.

96789

Lovely film this one. Very Jim Jarmusch.

[Marco]

Psychic Killer (1975)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/1c/Psychic_Killer_poster.jpg
Pretty effective low budget thriller about a man wrongly convicted of murder and sent to a pshychiatric hospital. On release after being proven innocent he uses his Astral Projection powers (I know) to even the scores with the people who wronged him and his mother while he was incarcerated. I think this is serious with a bit of tongue in cheek thrown in and it's a good watch unless you take it too seriously. The death of the opera singing lawyer is particularly entertaining :)
3

[Raven73]

Paint
6/10.
It must come close to the most number of subtle sexual innuendos.

I prefer Ryan Reynold's (Deadpool) parody.

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMWFmOTU2ZjctN2VhMS00Yzg4LWIyOGEtMTgwZTdjYTMyZjNkXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMzQwMTY2Nzk@._V1_.jpg

[Thief]

GILDA
(1946, Vidor)

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


"Gilda, are you decent?"



Gilda follows Johnny Farrell (Glenn Ford), a small time gambler that ends up down on his luck in Argentina, which puts him in the path of the titular character (Hayworth) with whom he might have had a past we're not so sure about. To complicate things further, Gilda is now married to Ballin Mundson (George Macready), a shady casino owner that happens to be Johnny's new boss. Will decency prevail among them?

Although Gilda is often labeled as a romantic drama, the truth is that 85% of the film is Farrell and Gilda just taking jabs at each other as they are each filled with seething hatred. The toxicity of this relationship is quite bleak and probably one of my favorite things on the film. What does that say about me? I don't know, but I really loved seeing these two trying to take down each other. The dialogue and the lines were so pointed and sharp that I couldn't help but gasp and laugh at some of them ("Statistics show that there are more women in the world than anything else. Except insects."). Still, the delivery of these is never light, but extremely serious.

Grade: 4.5


Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2429932#post2429932) and the Film Noir HoF (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2429933#post2429933).

[Gideon58]

https://resizing.flixster.com/-XZAfHZM39UwaGJIFWKAE8fS0ak=/v3/t/assets/p10514_p_v8_aa.jpg


1st Rewatch...Richard Lester's breezy direction of what was, for my money, the first feature length music video, makes this movie as fun as it is. Not interested in providing a full story or realism, its only mission was to give the Beatles a chance to play their music on a 40 foot screen. Love the scene where John, Paul, George, Ringo, and Paul's uncle (Wilfred Bambrell) are on a crowded pullman car and the audio for one of their songs begins and as the song progresses, the boys' instruments just start magically appearing in the pullman car, while screaming females appear magically outside the car screaming and drooling. 4

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNDM4NTk0NjktZDJhMi00MmFmLTliMzEtN2RkZDY2OTNiMDgzXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTUzMTg2ODkz._V1_FMjpg_UX1000_.j pg



4

[GulfportDoc]

96797


Double Indemnity (1944)


Of the several James M. Cain novels made into noir films (The Postman Always Rings Twice, Double Indemnity, Mildred Pierce - in order written) Double Indemnity exploded into the movie going consciousness, which both solidified and set the standard in the nascent film noir movement with its use of narrator, femme fatale, chirascuro lighting and set design, and moody tension.

It was directed by the incomparable Billy Wilder, its screenplay by by himself and Raymond Chandler, and was memorably photographed by Joh Seitz The perfect casting starred Fred MacMurray as Walter Neff, Barbara Stanwyck as Phyllis Dietrichson, and Edward G. Robinson as Barton Keyes.


Wilder stepped into what would become a famous mainline style purely from the desire for artistic exposition, and to make a good film. His famous quote: “I never heard that expression film noir when I made Double Indemnity ... I just made pictures I would have liked to see. When I was lucky, it coincided with the taste of the audience. With Double Indemnity, I was lucky.”

Most fans know the story: an insurance salesman mentored by a tough, moralistic, wily claims examiner falls for an enticing woman who later enlists him for a murder plot of her husband in order to collect the life insurance benefit from the company who employs both the salesman and the mentor. “Double Indemnity” refers to a clause is some life insurance policy that results in double payment as the result of an accidental death. Many characterize the story as one of a scheming femme fatale who uses her lover’s emotions against him in order to bring off the crime. And that’s true in part. But the real story is how the salesman tries to outwit his long time mentor, and to pull off the crime while fooling his hero. It’s as much a cat & mouse game as it is a doomed love story-- two men bound together in an intrigue, with only one of them knowing the truth until the end. Curiously the audience is inclined to sympathize with Neff, which is interesting given the matrix of mid-’40s morality.

MacMurray and Stanwyck had worked together 4 years earlier in Remember the Night, a romantic comedy. And now each was the highest paid actor in Hollywood of their respective sexes. Stanwyck didn’t want the role, and had to be coaxed into it, whereas MacMurray --being a light comedy actor-- didn’t believe he could handle the part. He too had to be convinced. Their pairing for DI turned out to be one of the best in film history. And Robinson also wowed audiences with his portrayal. One of his best known scenes was the “method of suicide” monologue, which is one of the most memorable from the era.

Wilder’s direction was masterful, as he reportedly was trying to out-do Alfred Hitchcock in excellence. But it was the pregnant and rough clipped dialogue --chiefly written by the great Raymond Chandler-- that set the mood up on a pedestal, never to be knocked down. Chandler’s hard boiled word interplay was to be a master class in dialogue for future film noir writers. Wilder rewarded Chandler with a cameo, visible 16 minutes into the film, looking up as he sat outside the door of the insurance office reading a newspaper as Neff passed by. That cameo remains as the single instance of Chandler visible on film.

Cinematographer John Seitz brought with him years of experience from a catalogue of fine films to photograph the shadows and set design necessary to this picture. He was to follow it up with other top Wilder films such as The Lost Weekend and Sunset Boulevard. Also at a high level was Miklos Rozsa’s alluring score. He typically set moods by use of leitmotif musical passages representing the main characters, and also for surreptitious meetings between the two principals.

James M. Cain had written the novel on which the film was based, and many of the studios wanted the rights. But when Paramount finally acquired the rights the Hays office objected that the film was too tawdry, and that MacMurray’s character (Walter Neff) hadn’t received a decisive enough demise. Wilder had initially written and filmed an ending at great expense that showed Neff being executed in the gas chamber while his mentor looked on. But yet that ending was thought to be too gruesome by the censors. On reconsideration Wilder realized that the way Neff’s end was shown in the final cut was perfectly proper, given the nature of the two characters’ relationship, so he omitted the gas chamber ending entirely, and we all can be grateful for Wilder’s decision.

DI is one picture on a small list of films which would be difficult to imagine anything added or subtracted. It’s one of those happy convergences that have occurred over the decades that bring just the right people together at just the right time. Double Indemnity is not only arguably the finest example of film noir, but is on its own one of the great films.

Doc's rating: 10/10

[WHITBISSELL!]

#1 and the final entry in the 10 Most Underrated Horror Movies Recommended by Mike Flanagan list.

https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/58e45a52ebbd1a24417fdf93/1582846875452-4KH95FHDGG97W7BRA6Z1/freaks+2019+movie.gif

Freaks - I was expecting another moody psychological thriller and it does indeed start out in claustrophobic fashion with 8 year old Chloe (Lexy Kolker) holed up in a dilapidated house with her father Henry (Emile Hirsch). He constantly drills her on her cover story. Her name is Eleanor and she has a sister and she likes baseball etc. The windows are covered up and the front door has countless locks on it. She's not allowed to look out the windows much less step outside.

Director/Writers Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein seem to be going for a Room like melodrama. It's not that easy a tell though because it's all taken in and largely processed through Chloe's eyes. She does eventually manage to slip away from her father's overly protective and paranoid control and venture outside. That's where she makes the acquaintance of Alan AKA Mr. Snowcone (Bruce Dern), who operates an ice cream truck that's been loitering outside her home. When the admittedly creepy old guy invites her into the back of his truck you genuinely start fretting about where they're taking this. But never fear, it's merely the first step in revealing what's what.
Turns out Alan is actually Chloe's grandfather and that the deceased mother she is constantly pining for is alive and being held prisoner in a secret government facility called Madoc Mountain. At this point the movie feels like it could fit neatly into the X-Men universe. The word mutant or metahuman is never used but there are indeed people with superhuman powers dubbed Abnormals that are hunted down and killed but sometimes imprisoned by the ADF (Abnormal Defense Force). Chloe's mother Mary (Amanda Crew) is one of the most powerful of the Abnormals and Agent Cecilia Ray (Grace Park) of the ADF is hoping they can harness not only her power but that of her offspring as well.This is low budget with a direct to video look to some scenes but the cast is strong and young Lexy Kolker does an admirable job of basically carrying the movie on her little shoulders. There's enough story, interesting characters and visual FX here to make this a worthwhile watch.

80/100

[Thief]

SABATA
(1969, Parolini)

https://i.imgur.com/XUKl948.jpg


Sabata: "I'm on the right side."
Banjo: "Which side is that?"
Sabata: "Not the side against the law."



Sabata follows the titular character (Lee Van Cleef), a lone but skilled gunman as he tries to protect the residents of the small town of Daugherty, Texas from their corrupt leaders. In the process, he sides with several colorful characters, including a Confederate veteran (Pedro Sanchez) and a mysterious drifter called Banjo (William Berger).

What I liked about the film is how evident it is that Van Cleef is having a blast with the role. What possibly separates him from the above two gunslingers is that his portrayal of Sabata is more charismatic and fun. Like them, Sabata's pretty much invincible; he's rough and tough, but he's usually seen smiling and is not above a wisecrack or two.

Grade: 3.5


Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2429998#post2429998)

[Marco]

SABATA
(1969, Parolini)

https://i.imgur.com/XUKl948.jpg




Sabata follows the titular character (Lee Van Cleef), a lone but skilled gunman as he tries to protect the residents of the small town of Daugherty, Texas from their corrupt leaders. In the process, he sides with several colorful characters, including a Confederate veteran (Pedro Sanchez) and a mysterious drifter called Banjo (William Berger).

What I liked about the film is how evident it is that Van Cleef is having a blast with the role. What possibly separates him from the above two gunslingers is that his portrayal of Sabata is more charismatic and fun. Like them, Sabata's pretty much invincible; he's rough and tough, but he's usually seen smiling and is not above a wisecrack or two.

Grade: 3.5


Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2429998#post2429998)

Think I'll need to search this one out, I'm a fan of Lee Van Cleef.

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/pXnzSRJp/king.jpg
Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20132447

The King and the Clown - (2005)

Reviewed on my watchlist thread here (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?p=2430005#post2430005), The King and the Clown is an excellent historical film from South Korea about a troupe of performers who end up playing in front of the king (if he doesn't laugh, they'll be executed) and then becoming embroiled in palace intrigue. Performances, story, costumes, visuals - everything about this film is pitch perfect, and I completely lost myself within it. South Korean director Lee Joon-ik is another to add to the heady list of great Korean filmmakers.

9/10

https://i.postimg.cc/cCjn95zq/trances.jpg
Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20132447

Trances - (1981)

It didn't immediately grab me, but by the time I'd watched this Moroccan documentary about music group "Nass El Ghiwane" and the special features on the DVD it's on I'd grown in appreciation. This is one that absolutely demands another watch down the road. There's a nice pace to it, and I can see why it's admired the way it is.

7/10

[Fabulous]

Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971)

3.5

https://www.themoviedb.org/t/p/original/42oJ54ZSUDArTjUi8TiCYnUN2VU.jpg

[muslihmahjong]

amazing

[Torgo]

Acidman - 3

If you're interested in UFOs like I am, this may disappoint you since despite the plot summary, they're tangential to the story. Instead, it ends up being a decent father/daughter reconciliation drama. Acidman is what the local teenage hooligans call Lloyd (Haden Church), a retired engineer who became a hermit in the Oregon wilderness to spend the rest of his days watching the skies. Without warning, his adult daughter Maggie (Agron), who has been searching for him for a long time, shows up at his doorstep. Did she just want to see how he's been or is something else going on?

There are times when we think we've come to an understanding with ourselves, if you will, but sadly, we still end up doing things we thought we have removed from our systems, a subject this movie explores pretty well. I don't want to say too much about why Maggie put everything aside to find her dad, but it's borne from the same impulse thar brought Lloyd to the middle of nowhere. While I wish the movie did more with its UFO angle, I approve of how it makes Lloyd's search to be about one for a place where things make more sense. Haden Church is convincing as a man who believes the truth is out there and who will not buy any arguments to the contrary, but Agron's performance makes it worth watching most of all. It's the kind of performance you hope the right kind of people watch so that she sticks around for a while, in other words. I also approve of the subtle, blink-and-you'll-miss-it touches that build Maggie and Lloyd's characters such as the titles of Lloyd's UFO recordings of the Maggie's middle school basketball diary.

The movie did make me think of the things about me I wish I could run away from, but when all is said and done, there's not much to it. Am I looking too much into its promise of UFO study and its unusual title? Maybe, but the end result still resembles a dish without its secret ingredient. Plus, it's too reliant on two tropes that I know I am not alone in hating. I still recommend it, especially if you're a Dianna Agron fan. With that said, if you're in the mood for a movie like this, check out 2022's Aftersun first.

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTY3ODk2MDQxMl5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNjk2MjczMg@@._V1_.jpg



1st Rewatch....This documentary follows the almost year long process of casting the 2006 Broadway revival of A Chorus Line remaining endlessly fascinating for those who like to look at the business behind show business. The film not only provides archival footage regarding the original 1975 production but a surprisingly intimate look at the joy and pain of those auditioning for the revival. Highlights for this reviewer were the plight of a talented actress named Rachelle Rak who after her final callback was asked by the director to bring something to her reading from eight months ago that she was unable to remember and the absolutely brilliant reading of the Paul monologue by a young dancer named Jason Tam. 4.5

[Gideon58]

96797


Double Indemnity (1944)


Of the several James M. Cain novels made into noir films (The Postman Always Rings Twice, Double Indemnity, Mildred Pierce - in order written) Double Indemnity exploded into the movie going consciousness, which both solidified and set the standard in the nascent film noir movement with its use of narrator, femme fatale, chirascuro lighting and set design, and moody tension.

It was directed by the incomparable Billy Wilder, its screenplay by by himself and Raymond Chandler, and was memorably photographed by Joh Seitz The perfect casting starred Fred MacMurray as Walter Neff, Barbara Stanwyck as Phyllis Dietrichson, and Edward G. Robinson as Barton Keyes.


Wilder stepped into what would become a famous mainline style purely from the desire for artistic exposition, and to make a good film. His famous quote: “I never heard that expression film noir when I made Double Indemnity ... I just made pictures I would have liked to see. When I was lucky, it coincided with the taste of the audience. With Double Indemnity, I was lucky.”

Most fans know the story: an insurance salesman mentored by a tough, moralistic, wily claims examiner falls for an enticing woman who later enlists him for a murder plot of her husband in order to collect the life insurance benefit from the company who employs both the salesman and the mentor. “Double Indemnity” refers to a clause is some life insurance policy that results in double payment as the result of an accidental death. Many characterize the story as one of a scheming femme fatale who uses her lover’s emotions against him in order to bring off the crime. And that’s true in part. But the real story is how the salesman tries to outwit his long time mentor, and to pull off the crime while fooling his hero. It’s as much a cat & mouse game as it is a doomed love story-- two men bound together in an intrigue, with only one of them knowing the truth until the end. Curiously the audience is inclined to sympathize with Neff, which is interesting given the matrix of mid-’40s morality.

MacMurray and Stanwyck had worked together 4 years earlier in Remember the Night, a romantic comedy. And now each was the highest paid actor in Hollywood of their respective sexes. Stanwyck didn’t want the role, and had to be coaxed into it, whereas MacMurray --being a light comedy actor-- didn’t believe he could handle the part. He too had to be convinced. Their pairing for DI turned out to be one of the best in film history. And Robinson also wowed audiences with his portrayal. One of his best known scenes was the “method of suicide” monologue, which is one of the most memorable from the era.

Wilder’s direction was masterful, as he reportedly was trying to out-do Alfred Hitchcock in excellence. But it was the pregnant and rough clipped dialogue --chiefly written by the great Raymond Chandler-- that set the mood up on a pedestal, never to be knocked down. Chandler’s hard boiled word interplay was to be a master class in dialogue for future film noir writers. Wilder rewarded Chandler with a cameo, visible 16 minutes into the film, looking up as he sat outside the door of the insurance office reading a newspaper as Neff passed by. That cameo remains as the single instance of Chandler visible on film.

Cinematographer John Seitz brought with him years of experience from a catalogue of fine films to photograph the shadows and set design necessary to this picture. He was to follow it up with other top Wilder films such as The Lost Weekend and Sunset Boulevard. Also at a high level was Miklos Rozsa’s alluring score. He typically set moods by use of leitmotif musical passages representing the main characters, and also for surreptitious meetings between the two principals.

James M. Cain had written the novel on which the film was based, and many of the studios wanted the rights. But when Paramount finally acquired the rights the Hays office objected that the film was too tawdry, and that MacMurray’s character (Walter Neff) hadn’t received a decisive enough demise. Wilder had initially written and filmed an ending at great expense that showed Neff being executed in the gas chamber while his mentor looked on. But yet that ending was thought to be too gruesome by the censors. On reconsideration Wilder realized that the way Neff’s end was shown in the final cut was perfectly proper, given the nature of the two characters’ relationship, so he omitted the gas chamber ending entirely, and we all can be grateful for Wilder’s decision.

DI is one picture on a small list of films which would be difficult to imagine anything added or subtracted. It’s one of those happy convergences that have occurred over the decades that bring just the right people together at just the right time. Double Indemnity is not only arguably the finest example of film noir, but is on its own one of the great films.

Doc's rating: 10/10

LOVED this movie...Stanwyck was totally robbed of the Best Actress Oscar

[Stirchley]

Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971)

3.5

https://www.themoviedb.org/t/p/original/42oJ54ZSUDArTjUi8TiCYnUN2VU.jpg

Love this movie.

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BZTdmMTRjNTMtYmUzMy00YmE5LWI1ZDYtNGEyYTRkOTIwMTk1XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjUxODE0MDY@._V1_.jpg



3.5

[FromBeyond]

Meet The Fockers (2004)


Barbara Streisand and a sweaty Dustin Hoffman ruin sex for everybody in purile comedy that provides few cheap chuckles but wear thin quickly. Couldn't finish it.

[GulfportDoc]

[Double Indemnity] LOVED this movie...Stanwyck was totally robbed of the Best Actress Oscar
Yeah, Stanwyck played one of the most cold blooded femme fatales in noir. But MacMurray and E.G. Robinson knocked me out as well. Evidently Robinson was reluctant to take the role because is was used to first billing. But he agreed when he learned that he would make the same dough as the other two: $100,000. Robinson was a helluva technician. I loved his "actuarial table" speech:
https://youtu.be/VV6wbBFmPdo?si=hnuHuNg_UX6w69Ho

[ActionRocks]

Last film I saw was "How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2001)". Hmmm...7/10

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/18/Kind_Hearts_and_Coronets.jpg
Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17818346

Kind Hearts and Coronets - (1949)

Okay - a scene - Louis Mazzini (Dennis Price) - (whose now deceased mother was cruelly shut out of the wealthy D'Ascoyne family) - has decided to kill the lot of them, one by one. He's befriended Young Henry, the photographer (all of the D'Ascoynes are played by Alec Guinness), whose wife is strictly against drinking. Henry keeps bottles of booze in his darkroom, so while Louis is strolling along with Henry and his wife Edith (Valerie Hobson) the young D'Ascoyne makes off to the darkroom on the pretense of developing the photographs he's just taken. We know Louis has set some kind of trap. Louis and Edith sit down and start chatting, and while they talk we hear a distant *boom* - there goes another D'Ascoyne, and when we cut to Edith we see smoke rising over the hedges in the distance behind her. Poor Henry - such an eager young man, cheerful and peppy with his hobby and upper class manners. Yes, this film is all about class distinctions, and more specifically the way Louis knocks all of them off to claim what he sees as his rightful claim to be duke. There's a delightful mix of English manners and ghastly murder which feels very specific to the films made by Ealing Studios (my favourite is still The Ladykillers - one of the best British films of all time.) Every scene has it's own comedic anatomy, with murder as a kind of punchline (such as when the boat that Ascoyne D'Ascoyne and his mistress are in goes over the edge of the falls) - added to by a wry narrated comment by Mazzini ("I was sorry about the girl, but found some relief in the reflection that she had presumably during the weekend already undergone a fate worse than death.") It actually reminded me of some of the films today which really stick it to the obnoxiously wealthy.

8/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6a/Mad_God_poster.jpg
By Tippett Studio - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15090124/mediaviewer/rm3448175617/, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=68641636

Mad God - (2021)

Great stop-motion, surreal, horror film which I reviewed in my watchlist thread here (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?p=2430040#post2430040). I hold it in very high regard.

8/10

[Takoma11]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Ffemmagazine.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F02%2FScreen-Shot-2020-02-28-at-10.33.14-PM.png&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=5b174cd08213a3ad42aed9f44922d43cea623fcf06c4866793e59c3c29bd0201&ipo=images

Knives Out, 2019

Harlan (Christopher Plummer) is the patriarch of a wildly dysfunctional, overly wealthy family. Due to unfortunate circumstances, Harlan dies and his caring medical companion, Marta (Ana de Armas), gets caught up in the investigation. Private detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) must unravel various family secrets and loyalties as Harlan’s death might not be the last.

I have always loved mysteries, and it’s really nice to watch one where the violence is relatively subdued and the themes are there but not overwhelming or heavy. There’s something mellow about this movie, where there’s suspense but in a cozy way.

Just a good time all around.

4

Full review (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2430241#post2430241)

[WorldFilmGeek]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNDYyNzNmODctMzA5NS00ZGNiLWJjM2MtMzVmNzk2MGVhNmYzXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjUyNzM5MDA@._V1_QL75_UX190_CR0, 2,190,281_.jpg
1984 (Diana Ringo, 2023)
4.5
This is a true independent film, combining the Orwell novel with a 1921 Russian novel "We". Kudos has to go to Finnish filmmaker Diana Ringo, who did everything on the film. She funded the film herself, wrote the script, directed, produced, lensed, composed the score, edited, and did the visual effects. She also has the lead female role of I-330 (based on the character of Julia) while Aleksandr Obmanov is great as D-503 (based on the Winston Smith character). Running at almost 2 and a half hours, Ringo is definitely a filmmaker to look out for with her second film (her debut, Quarantine, was released in 2021).

https://worldfilmgeek.files.wordpress.com/2023/09/thewhirlpool-1.jpg
The Whirlpool (Denis Kryuchkov, 2023)
4.5
After making the martial arts action film Russian Raid (released in 2020), Denis Kryuchkov (who also directed) and his wife Olga Loyanich wrote this tale of an unhappily married woman who goes to a weekend retreat with her friends and face her fears with the help of a local shaman (Wolfgang Cerny), who doesn't see the woman as a conquest but becomes the father figure or big brother she never had as she comes to terms with what's in store. Some great twists in the story with an excellent debut performance by lead actor Alena Mitroshina as the unhappily married woman.

[Raven73]

The Flash
4/10.

It's like a parody of a superhero movie.
Unbelievably bad.
It's no wonder they want to reboot the DCU.

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BZWE2ZWE5MDQtMTJlZi00MTVjLTkxOTgtNmNiYjg2NDIxN2NhXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTUzMTg2ODkz._V1_.jpg

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMjBjYjBjNTUtOTg0Ni00Yzk2LTg1NWMtNjI2ODk2YjJmZGU0XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyODE5NzE3OTE@._V1_.jpg


1st Rewatch...this explosive and emotionally charged docudrama still packs a wallop. This is the story of a car thief named Bill O'Neill, who is offered a way out of doing some serious jail time by going undercover with the Black Panthers in order to gather information for the feds on Fred Hampton, the charismatic leader of the panthers who organized the Rainbow Coalition. We watch O'Neill put himself in a very dangerous double agent situation much like Leonardo DiCaprio's character in The Departed and finds himself a pawn in the FBI's plan to have Hampton eliminated. Daniel Kaluuya won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his Fred Hampton and as much he loses himself inside this character and I understand the win, I personally had an issue with a technical aspect of his performance. I thought I had imagined it the first time I watched it but it was there again in this rewatch. I had a real issue with Kaluuya's diction and there are more than one scene where I actually had trouble understanding what he was saying. Personally, I think that Oscar should have gone to Sasha Baron Cohen for The Trial of the Chicago 7, but I think I'm the only one. Lakeith Sanford gives the performance of his career as O'Neill and Jesse Plemmons is rock solid as FBI agent Roy Mitchell. Shout out to an unrecognizable Martin Sheen as J Edgar Hoover as well. This also might be the only film I have ever seen where I found myself talking back to the epilogue. 4

[Prieneus]

Yesterday, I watched the Australian fantasy flick entitled The Portable Door. Well, like the D&D movie (Honor Among Thieves), this one is also a fun fantasy film of this year, I think. Whilst, D&D was darker than this one and its main target audience is probably different, i.e., young adults. The Portable Door could be a great portal for an adolescent, or maybe even a kid to step into the fantastical realms. As a person verging on my middle-ages, I still enjoyed it to a good degree. 7/10

[matt72582]

Tales of Ordinary Madness - 8/10
I heard Pauline Kael mention this movie during an interview, and for some reason, I stopped to type in the few she did mention onto my IMDB watchlist. When I looked this one up, I had to check it, being a fan of Ben Gazzarra, and I was hooked. This movie hit close to home.



https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7c/Tales_of_Ordinary_Madness.jpg

[Gideon58]

https://alisaltrojantribune.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Priscilla.jpg



3.5

[Jeff]

Dead Man's Letters (1986) - 5/5 -- i guess to spread the word more i'll keep using this thread to share my thoughts on the films i've seen, this was an exceptional experience, about the end of civilization due to nuclear bombs, these poor souls are in underground bunkers and so on, very grim subject matter matched with the visual style. I'd want our world leaders to see it, or something like it, just to keep them thinking clearly, we don't want to end up like that, what kind of species are we that we come to where we are right now even, and this film shows that one small step to the end, farewell humanity it says essentially, we were a tragic people, the experiment is over, nice try. Sobering, and cautionary, is it too late, one would like to think we could still salvage something, make advances in science and whatnot. But more and more as time marches forth, pessimism looks like realism.

[Fabulous]

Hair (1979)

3.5

https://www.themoviedb.org/t/p/original/e7cTxDnHGQIozy0Os5r6HauL1Gz.jpg

[Galactic Traveler]

Had the day off so took my girls to see 'Migration' even though they're both older (18 and 16). Was pleasantly surprised. Good, solid movie that's great for the entire family.

3/5

[FromBeyond]

Tracks (2013)


A young lady decides to trek 1,700 miles across the deserts of western Australia with 4 camels and her faithful dog in desire for solitude. With no experience of camels she sets off on her journey and soon becomes known as the "camel lady" in this incredible and moving true story. Mia Wasikowska slays the role and Adam Driver is brill and you'll love camels by the end of this movie and dogs (even more) very nice movie

[skizzerflake]

Tonight, it was The Boys in the Boat - It's a feel-good, true, athletic challenge movie. It's 1936, time for the infamous Berlin Olympics, a showcase for Hitler and the nazis and "aryan" supremacy. A gritty team from the University of Washington (state) enters the 8 man rowing team. They manage to row their way to the top of the American heap, in time to get a serious coach, and serious training, and in time to be sent to Berlin. The sympathetic hero is a guy named Joe Rantz, an impoverished guy, living in a junkyard and abandoned by his family. Will they win against the nazi juggernaut?

I have to admit an eye-rolling attitude toward feel-good sports movies. Nevertheless, this is pretty good. The athletic drama as well as the political drama are compelling and mainly fairly accurate. The FX people did a decent job of recreating the huge athletic venue that could seat 100,000. Minimal run-time is expended on Hitler rants. Thankfully, he's a minor character, mainly appearing in a couple of ceremonies. I had to check to see who wanted work bad enough to play Hitler in this movie. It's a guy named Daniel Philpott. I have to admit that, if my only movie work was to play Hitler, I'd get a job in Burger King instead.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfEA-udzjjQ

[PHOENIX74]

Page 4000! Fitting on the eve of a new year.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/bb/Pollock_imp.jpg
By May be found at the following website: MoviePosterDB.com, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8166775

Pollock - (2000)

The troubled artist - here Jackson Pollock (played by Ed Harris in a passion project of his that he also directed) - often dies young, and leaves behind a retina of people who spend their lives discussing them. Pollock was the kind of artist who splashed paint around without conforming to object or shape, but when you watch his story his method kind of makes sense. In Pollock it's his alcoholism that clearly defines him - an addiction that would kill him in the end. I thought Harris was great here (he lost out on an Oscar to Russell Crowe in Gladiator - and shouldn't have really.) Marcia Gay Harden won a Supporting Actress Oscar for playing his long suffering partner Lee Krasner - who was also an artist. They were poor, and struggled. An interesting biopic about a man who we definitely side with - but when he grabs a booze bottle it eats away at the stores of patience and respect we have for him. Look out for Bud Cort in a small performance as writer/art dealer Howard Putzel - and Amy Madigan, who really kills as Peggy Guggenheim.

7/10

https://i.postimg.cc/vTGykN2d/rose.jpg
By May be found at the following website: https://www.cinematerial.com/movies/bara-no-soretsu-i64068/p/v7geojkw, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=51642094

Funeral Parade of Roses - (1969)

It took me a while to find my way in, but once there I found Toshio Matsumoto's feature debut an absolutely brilliant film. Protagonist Eddie (Pītā) works in an underground gay bar in Tokyo, and we see his life in a nonlinear, experimental film manner that is truly original. Reviewed here (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?p=2430288#post2430288) in my watchlist thread.

10/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/27/Scum1979movieposter.jpeg
By World Northal Corp - The Movie DB, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=56800703

Scum - (1979)

Set in an English borstal, Scum shows us just how institutionally corrupted these places are, and how hopeless everything is for the kids trapped in them. Reviewed here (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?p=2430462#post2430462) in my watchlist thread. Features a really young Ray Winstone.

7/10

[Deschain]

Sanctuary. A thriller about two people in one hotel room locked in power struggle…a very sexy power struggle. This was terrific. The actors are charismatic and play compelling, interesting characters. The single location never gets stale. Charming, funny, intense, sad. It’s on Hulu.

[Fabulous]

Father Goose (1964)

3.5

https://www.themoviedb.org/t/p/original/u4nFMe2L3J1ycLThLJx78kZphHG.jpg

[McConnaughay]

I watched the Empire film From Beyond. It was filmed a year after Re-Animator, has the same director (Stuart Gordon), and the same central cast of Jeffrey Combs and Barbara Crampton. That in mind, I didn't enjoy it very much. I felt like it lacked strong characters and like the high concept didn't payoff in the end. It's still among the better ones in the Full Moon catalogue, but it isn't among my favorites.

[xSookieStackhouse]

1.5 im not a fan of DC because im a MARVEL fan and i dislike DC but love the casting. my support worker loved the movie
https://alldatmatterz.com/uploads/2023/07/WhatsApp%20Image%202023-07-12%20at%206.12.35%20PM_1689165787.jpeg

[Daniel M]

The Holdovers (Alexander Payne, 2023) 3.5

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/62/Holdovers_film_poster.jpg

Very well written and pretty much hit my expectations. Nebraska remains my favourite Payne film but this is one of his better works. A little disappointed that it didn't stick with the group of students staying over Christmas and it just switched to the story about Tully and his family which leant a little too much into familiar predictability but was executed well nonetheless.

[Nausicaä]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/d/d6/A_Haunting_in_Venice_%282023%29_poster.jpg/220px-A_Haunting_in_Venice_%282023%29_poster.jpg

3

SF = Zz



[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

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/24/Possession_film_cover.jpg
By www.tedmills.com, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7798402

Possession - (1981)

I've seen Andrzej Żuławski's L'Amour braque, so I knew this was going to be a wild ride - and it sure was. It actually starts off in a world that could pass for reality, and characters that could also - but as the film goes on everything starts sliding towards pure insanity, and by the end of the film we're in nightmare land. Mark (Sam Neill) comes home to his wife Anna (Isabelle Adjani) and son Bob in West Berlin after being away on some kind of secret spy mission - and finds a woman who no longer loves him. This sends Mark over the edge, and his unbalanced behaviour has a detrimental effect on Anna, who frequently leaves him and Bob - at first going to her lover, but eventually taking up residence in an apartment full of slimy monsters. The movie is more arthouse than horror movie, and if you want to analyze it I'm sure it'll take up the rest of your life. There's almost too much going on - but I really liked it a lot. Fascinating madness. A filmmaker who has freed himself from any narrative restraint there might be. A howl in the night.

9/10

https://i.postimg.cc/XYTzj01b/js.jpg
By http://www.movist.com/movies/viewgallery.asp?mid=484&tp=s&num=1, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1754501

Joint Security Area - (2000)

This was Park Chan-wook's (Oldboy, Decision to Leave) breakthrough film. It takes place on the border between North and South Korea, and is really great both visually and performance-wise. A lot of heart and humanity in this mystery/thriller - my whole review is on my watchlist thread here (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?p=2430608#post2430608).

8/10

[FromBeyond]

The Two Popes (2019)


Even though I'm not a catholic I found this a very engaging portrayal of the meeting between current Pope Benedict XVI and his successor Pope Francis respectively played by Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce as two very different kinds of men. Serious tones here such as the "dirty war" of murders and abductions carried out by the church backed military junta that ruled Argentina from 76 - 83 and how a young "Francis" navigates his way through that dark period, and Benedicts dealings with child sex abuse cases within the church but throughout there are moments of Levity and humour and you can't help but like both Popes as presented here, with predictably fine performance by Hopkins and Pryce. Worth the watch.

"I was making a joke, a German joke - it doesn't have to be funny" - Pope Benedict XVI

[Jeff]

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/SCNJvCYhNlI/maxresdefault.jpg

Film #1 of the year, 4/5 Tense with good drama and punchy argument scenes, there's something about fierce arguments in films that are to me exciting, but in real life i want to be far away from them. Guess i could share that with the therapist if i ever get one.

[Jeff]

https://www.hometheaterforum.com/community/media/2015-dheepan-poster.3980/full

5/5 Stirring tale of Sri Lankan immigrants in France getting mixed up with gangs, violent last act was so satisfying.

[Marco]

The Magnificent Seven (1960)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/87/The_Magnificent_Seven_%281960_poster%29.jpg/330px-The_Magnificent_Seven_%281960_poster%29.jpg
A great rewatch and features a fine ensemble cast. The music and characters drive this film on. Good viewing after a few to many on Hogmanay:)

No rating, you know what you are getting and this sure delivers. Personally James Coburn plays my favourite gunslinger but all the 7 (with Eli Wallach as the baddie), make this a fine film. Remake wasn't bad but Sturgess was really on top of his game here.

[LChimp]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMzY1ZjM2MzgtODUwZi00NWM3LThlYjAtNWJjZGM2ZDY1ODg1XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTQyMTMwOTk0._V1_.jpg

Drunken Master - (1978)

5th re-watch. Thunderfoot is amazing

[Stirchley]

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/SCNJvCYhNlI/maxresdefault.jpg

Film #1 of the year, 4/5 Tense with good drama and punchy argument scenes, there's something about fierce arguments in films that are to me exciting, but in real life i want to be far away from them. Guess i could share that with the therapist if i ever get one.

Terrific movie.

[Stirchley]

96843

Adapted from a brilliant short short story in The New Yorker a few years ago. Movie was very mediocre full of unneeded back story & exposition. Two leads exceptionally good, but it’s a horrid movie.

96844

Not much for Kristen Stewart to do, but she’s very good as Diana. Not much of a movie, but I liked it.

96845

Re-watch of an excellent movie. Matt Damon very good as are his two female co-stars.

[LavidDynch]

No Hard Feelings (2023)


4/10. Disappointing movie. A comedy without comedy, sex scenes without sex.


While it was somewhat entertaining to see Lawrence's cleavage, witnessing her now botched up plastic face was kinda terrifying.


The whole +30 female trying to make a 19 year old have sex and drink was uncomfortable predator-ish. If the genders were swappe, the actors wouldve been cancelled

[Thursday Next]

I can't say that 2023 has been a stellar year for film exactly and this weekend's viewing hasn't done much to change that.


Wonka (2023)

I really like Paul King as a director and this is full of cute and quirky touches but unfortunately not much of a story. It's chocolate box pretty but more of a hollow chocolate egg than a Wonka bar.
3


The Killer (2023)
Fincher is a craftsman but what he crafts can be pretty nasty. Perhaps this film is a kind of metaphor. I'm not really sure what else it is. Tonally uneven, at times it plays like a satirical dark comedy, if someone forgot to put in any actual comedy. If the soundtrack and the tediously banal voiceover were taken out it could have been more interesting, perhaps.
3-


Next Goal Wins (2023)

If you think Taika Waititi couldn't make a worse movie than Thor: Love and Thunder, watch this. Everything about it was so derivative, saccharine and superficial. Worse, it wasn't funny.
2

[Stirchley]

No Hard Feelings (2023)


4/10. Disappointing movie. A comedy without comedy, sex scenes without sex.


While it was somewhat entertaining to see Lawrence's cleavage, witnessing her now botched up plastic face was kinda terrifying.


The whole +30 female trying to make a 19 year old have sex and drink was uncomfortable predator-ish. If the genders were swappe, the actors wouldve been cancelled

Very mediocre movie. Can’t imagine why Lawrence took the part. Or why she frolicked naked on the beach for that matter.

[LavidDynch]

Very mediocre movie. Can’t imagine why Lawrence took the part. Or why she frolicked naked on the beach for that matter.


I don't know, perhaps she wanted to show her body and the results of plastic surgery to the world.

[Allaby]

Rhubarb (1951) Watched on the Criterion Channel. A cat inherits a baseball team. This was cute and enjoyable. Good performance from Orangey the Cat. 4

[stillmellow]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMzY1ZjM2MzgtODUwZi00NWM3LThlYjAtNWJjZGM2ZDY1ODg1XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTQyMTMwOTk0._V1_.jpg

Drunken Master - (1978)

5th re-watch. Thunderfoot is amazing



I love that one! Amazing display of martial arts, and a fun screwball comedy.

[stillmellow]

Wonka (2023)


I was pleasantly surprised. It's an old school family musical comedy, in the spirit of Matilda and such. It was far too sweet to mesh up with Gene Wilder's original genius performance, but I was expecting this update to be terrible, and instead it wound up being pleasant.


The villains really steal the show, and the songs help move the weak plot along. All in all it's a C+. Starting from where I expected, that's not bad.