Rate The Last Movie You Saw

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Umpeenth Rewatch...On of the best of the demented man/child comedies that made Sandler a star and millions at the box office. Sandler plays a goofball with serious anger issues who dreams of being a pro hockey payer, but finds himself becoming a championship golfer instead. It's the quintessential Sandler comedy rich with silly comfortable laughs. Ben Stiller is very funny as a sadistic orderly at Happy's Grandma's nursing home and that knock down drag out with the late Bob Barker never gets old. Mention should also be made of one of cinema's best comic villains in the form of Christopher McDonald's Shooter McGavin. 3.5

[Stirchley]

98586

Until I got to the end didn’t realize I’d already seen this movie. Duh.

98587

Thought I had seen this movie, but I hadn’t. Excellent movie.

[Gideon58]

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4

[Allaby]

A Woman Like Eve 1979 Watched on Tubi. Directed by Nouchka van Brakel and starring Monique van de Ven and Maria Schneider. An interesting and well acted drama about a married woman who falls in love with a lesbian. 3.5

[Darth Pazuzu]

My latest home video purchases...

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Destry Rides Again (George Marshall / 1939)
One-Eyed Jacks (Marlon Brando / 1961)
Texas, Adios (Ferdinando Baldi / 1966)
El Topo (Alejandro Jodorowsky / 1970)

My Western kick shows absolutely no sign whatsoever of abating in the immediate future! And here are my four most recent purchases.

First we have one of the greatest comedic Westerns of all time in Destry Rides Again, the film which marked Marlene Dietrich's big box-office comeback as well as James Stewart's very first entry in the genre (although it certainly wouldn't be his last). It also could be regarded to some degree as the prototype for Mel Brooks' much more broadly comedic Blazing Saddles from 1974, but while this 1939 classic certainly is funny it also works on a much more "straight" level.

One-Eyed Jacks, of course, is the only film that Marlon Brando ever directed. A problematic production with a somewhat mixed reputation over the years, it's actually a quite confident and assured piece of filmmaking. An uncredited Sam Peckinpah did the first draft of the screenplay, and the story is actually a sort of precursor to his Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid twelve years later, mainly in that both films are about the bad blood between a young gunslinging outlaw and his older mentor and friend who has "crossed over" and become a lawman. Also, Stanley Kubrick was originally slated to direct the film, ultimately falling out with Brando over the usual creative differences. (This would have been after Paths of Glory in 1957 but before Spartacus which actually came out in 1960.) Funnily enough, this film is kind of like this extremely slender, fragile tether between the Kubrick and Peckinpah filmographies, featuring future Peckinpah faces such as Ben Johnson, Slim Pickens and Katy Jurado, but also featuring Elisha Cook Jr. and Timothy Carey who had featured in previous Kubrick films. (And Pickens himself would turn up in Kubrick's later Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb in 1964.)

I got the Italian Western Texas, Adios as part of a Blu-ray 2-pack of 1966's Django released by Arrow Video. I already got Arrow's 4K UHD version of Django quite some time ago, but as a purely impulse buy I decided to get the 2-disc Blu-ray version anyway, seeing as how the second disc featured Texas, Adios which also starred Franco Nero in the lead role. Actually, there's really nothing much noteworthy here to report. I mean, yeah, it's an okay Italian Western, but it comes across as fairly conventional fare when set alongside the groundbreaking Sergio Corbucci classic it's paired with. Franco Nero plays a Texas sheriff who goes south of the border to track and bring to justice the crime boss responsible for killing his father.

And finally, speaking of groundbreaking... I also got Alejandro Jodorowsky's brilliantly unsettling, violently surrealist acid Western El Topo. Words kind of fail me here, as nothing I can say could truly convey the first-time impression one gets from this wonderfully warped and blood-drenched metaphysically gunslinging spiritual odyssey. You'll either love it or you'll hate it, that's really all one can say...

[Darth Pazuzu]

Meanwhile at the local multiplex...

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https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/2b/Monkey_Man_film.jpg/220px-Monkey_Man_film.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/0/0d/Civil_War_2024_film_poster.jpeg/220px-Civil_War_2024_film_poster.jpeg

APRIL 9, 2024:
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (Adam Wingard / 2024)
The First Omen (Arkasha Stevenson / 2024)

APRIL 16, 2024:
Monkey Man (Dev Patel / 2024)
Civil War (Alex Garland / 2024)

Well! So much to unpack... so little time! But hey, I'll give it a shot...

My little monster mash last Tuesday was nothing much to write about. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is the latest FX bonanza to feature a lot of CG behemoths flailing about and knocking each other into next Tuesday (see what I did there? ;)), ultimately to little or no avail. I wouldn't quite make a claim of this being just a whole lot of sound and fury signifying nothing. But it amounts to a paltry minimum. Just color me very underwhelmed. I'm also sick and tired of seeing all these movies in which monsters or superbeings throw each other about and smash each other into buildings - y'know, big tall edifices of steel and glass in which people live and work in, for God's sake! I mean, does this not enter into the screenwriters' or the director's or the FX wizards' minds - at all?? Or do we just simply shrug it off and regard all those poor smashed-up people as mere collateral damage? Simply just necessary sacrifices to the spectacle? Or am I simply just overreacting like crazy? Well... perhaps. But my dissatisfaction remains regardless. I can trace the very first time I started to feel uneasy about mass destruction as cinematic spectacle to my very first viewing of Roland Emmerich's Independence Day back in 1996. (Before the horrors of September 11, 2001, take note.) Back then, I sort of shrugged off my humanist discontent as being inapplicable to any sort of valid criticism of a summer blockbuster, but later developments - or should I say degenerations - within the creative side of this kind of FX-laden cinematic spectacular filmmaking over the years have borne out those discontents. Hey, that's just how I feel. Deal with it...

The horror prequel The First Omen, on the other hand, was actually halfway decent. At least it was better than the 2006 remake of the 1976 original! But that's not really saying all that much. Of course I was immediately reminded of the recent Immaculate (which I had just seen the week before on April 2), in that both films deal with the diabolically-inspired pregnancy of a nun instigated by fanatical extremist elements within the Catholic Church. Admittedly, that's something of a new and "provocative" wrinkle within the Omen franchise. (I put "provocative" in scare quotes because trying to do or say anything casting the Church in a sinister light has become a rather tired cliché at this point. Not without justification to some extent, but a cliché just the same.) It's also worth noting how much of a '70s Euro-horror vibe has started to creep into the Hollywood satanic-horror genre. I already pointed out the similarities to the work of Argento in my recent review of Immaculate (y'know, the little American lamb abroad in decadent Europe and discovering scary things happening, a la Suspiria or Phenomena). And once it's time for our little infant anti-Christ to finally enter the world, our much put-upon heroine (in this case played by Nell Tiger Free) starts to manifest symptoms that immediately made me think, "No, wait a minute. That can't be, she can't... is she really...? Yes! Holy s***, she is actually channeling Isabelle Adjani in 1981's Possession!" :lol: (BTW, if you've seen that Andrzej Zulawski cult classic, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about!) So ultimately, it comes down to... is The First Omen actually any good? Well... it's not awful, mind you. And it's actually a couple notches above Immaculate. But that's not really saying a heck of a lot overall, is it? So I guess I can rank nun-themed horror movies alongside big glossy Japan-originated monster mash-ups as things which are pretty well played out for me.

Dev Patel's Monkey Man, on the other hand, is really something else! Yes, it's basically one of those one-man army Revenge-O-Matic action thrillers that - just like giant monster mash-ups and diabolically-impregnated nuns - have proliferated like piranha fish over the years. But this one has got a number of interesting wrinkles to it. Set in modern India, it has interesting spiritual and mythological themes, as well as a left-leaning political slant. Our hero (played by Patel) is out to avenge the rape and murder of his mother at the hands of a corrupt chief who has forced out the inhabitants of their village in order to acquire the land for the benefit of corrupt spiritual guru. Many years later, our hero is working as a monkey-masked fighter in a boxing club where is paid to lose.

(To be continued. I am seriously short on time at the moment and have other things to do. Damn it! :( But I will pick up where I left off at some point! Let me just get started on the next review...)

When I first saw the trailer for the new Civil War, my first reaction was, This is a rather cool and timely idea for a film in 2024. My second reaction, on the other hand, was that of, This is something that can quite easily go wrong in so many ways!. Or rather, specifically I was thinking of two ways: 1) The movie could make the mistake of taking cheap shots at the current election-year situation in order to score easy political points. And 2) The movie could make the mistake of being too evasive in the interest of not offending anybody. First of all, I'll just say when I saw Alex Garland credited as writer/director in the trailer I relaxed a little bit, knowing that his were the best possible hands for a movie like this to be in. I hadn't seen any of his earlier directorial efforts, but I was a huge fan of Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later and Sunshine, which I knew he had written, so I had a reason to be optimistic. And Garland quite expertly walked that tightrope and delivered a very moving, disquieting and compelling film with Civil War.

(Once again, I will continue this review at a later date, because I am currently pressed for time...)

[Thief]

EXTRACTION
(2020, Hargrave)

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"You drown not by falling into the river, but by staying submerged in it."



Extraction follows mercenary Tyler Rake (Chris Hemsworth) as he is tasked with rescuing the son of an Indian drug lord who was kidnapped by his rival. However, after a double-cross, Tyler has to handle not only a rival sent by the father of the kid and the military controlled by the main baddie, but also his own inner demons.

When I set out to watch this, I was expecting your typical dumb, action film. However, I was surprised by two things: first, that the action is far from dumb, and the film is full of some really impressive action sequences. The highlight of that is a thrilling, "one shot" take that lasts almost 15 minutes, and includes numerous fights, a car chase, foot chase across multiple buildings and rooftops, another car chase, guns, rifles, knifes, and explosions.

Grade: 3.5


Full review in my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2455291#post2455291)

[GulfportDoc]

98598
Knox Goes Away( 2023)


I’ve been an ardent fan of Michael Keaton’s from Beetlejuice (1988) up through his tour de force performance in Birdman (2014), and have continued to be anxious to see his more recent projects. It’s slowly become apparent that Keaton is one of the premier actors of the past 40 years. Knox Goes Away is a good example of his talent, both as an actor and director.

Keaton plays hit man John Knox who, having recently been diagnosed with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (a fatal brain degenerative disorder), accidentally kills his partner. Also his son has perpetrated a murder of a man who has abused his daughter, and has come to Knox in a panic over what to do. Knox becomes involved in a subterfuge to cover up that murder, then consults with his crime lord employer, Xavier Crane (Al Pacino), and devises a plot to both save his son, and also to split up his estate to his estranged family.

The thing that takes some of the shine away from the picture’s impact is that over the years there have been several movies about hit men who have become impaired in one way or another, leading to their ineffectiveness or worse. Keaton himself had directed an acted in The Merry Gentleman (2008), also in which he played a hit man. So that circumstance adds a feeling of familiarity to the film, which lessens the novelty.

Apart from that, but for a few clashes of logic the script is well written and directed. The stand out is Keaton’s portrayal of Knox as he slowly loses his memory while suffering an occasional hallucination. Keaton has always shined in roles where he is upbeat and high strung. His role here is the antithesis of that, and he is very believable in his portrayal.

Doc’s rating: 7/10

[Deschain]

Yeah Extraction is surprisingly solid. 2 is worth a watch too.

[PHOENIX74]

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By Millennium Media / Campbell Grobman Films / Lionsgate - IMP Awards., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=73983290

Expend4bles - (2023)

I hate really dumping on movies - complaining about plot holes, bad effects, bad performances and the like has a certain sound to it I don't like. But sometimes you come up against movies like Expend4bles - a film that is forcing me to look at the rest of the series in a more critical light. Look - they're bad movies I know, but what I got out of them was simply the fact that we were spending time with so many legendary stars crammed into the same vehicle. The more the merrier - and as such, the first three Expendables movies were well and truly bearable. Take that away, and what do we have? Something that's a little less bearable. Take that away and get ultra-sloppy in all other departments and what do we have? Yes. Expend4bles is absolutely unbearable to watch. It's a monstrous turkey. The next biggest names after Stallone and Statham are 50 Cent and Megan Fox - which to me, in context with what these films were all about, makes no sense at all. Then, there's the real kicker - Stallone's character, Barney Ross, is killed off at the beginning of the movie. So now, instead of a dozen superstars, we have Statham leading while being backed up by 50 Cent, Megan Fox and Dolph Lundgren. To be fair, unheralded action stars such as Iko Uwais and Tony Jaa get a chance to showcase their stuff - but all in all, this doesn't deliver on the nostalgia or star power these films have always relied on.

There's something about Expend4bles that is puzzling. It's budget is listed at being $100 million - but the effects are substandard and cheap. I'm not overstating anything at all when I say that this looks like a $1 million direct to DVD action film - the green screen is palpable, and the explosions along with explosive deaths would be unacceptable in a contemporary video game. Someone (and I'm not naming names) has made off with an absolute fortune here - I mean, what to us would be a life-changing, lottery-winning amount of money has been taken for a lazy few months of work. This movie didn't cost $100 million to make - I think it cost around a tenth of that to make. The rest has been divvied up. Someone has been duped - because this film has only just made up half of that amount at the box office, so those who put the money in will struggle to just make it back again. No Schwarzenegger, No Harrison Ford, No Antonio Banderas (who has been replaced with his character's "son" - only making me wish he was in this), No Jet Li, No Wesley Snipes and hardly any Sylvester Stallone. The action is mediocre, and the story typical for this franchise. They took away the only thing that I was okay with concerning these movies - what's left is an insult to fans.

2/10

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By Lucasfilm / Walt Disney Pictures - https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/indiana-jones-and-the-dial-of-destiny-trailer-unveiled-at-star-wars-celebration/, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=73491192

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny - (2023)

Not great, but Dial of Destiny does offer up the sweet nostalgia of seeing Indiana Jones get up to a bit of excitement in his old age, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge is great as a foil to the famous character. Mads Mikkelsen rises to the occasion as villain Jürgen Voller - somehow working Nazis into the plot again, despite this taking place in 1969. The climax I'm actually really pleased with - it's fantastic, albeit crazy. Everything other than what I've just mentioned - well, it didn't live up to what we might have hoped from another Indiana Jones film. Look, the character is in his 70s, and it doesn't make much sense to even make these films with Harrison Ford portraying Jones. In fact, it's insane - which is why I can't look away. Second watch for me.

6/10

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By May be found at the following website: https://www.cinematerial.com/movies/kuroi-ame-i97694/p/h2z59yzj, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=74489940

Black Rain - (1989)

Simply one of the best films ever made about the atom bomb and Hiroshima - devastating, powerful and extremely sad while at the same time being profound. Reviewed here (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?p=2455350#post2455350), in my watchlist thread.

10/10

[Captain Steel]

Two For The Road (1967)

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Okay, the thing about this movie is it's got a gimmick - it's non-sequential (which makes for some confusion at times).

Unlike the non-sequential device of Pulp Fiction (1994), this one follows the same couple in every scene over the course of a 10 year relationship and marriage.

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So it's unique as a film (although I sometimes found the time changes a bit annoying in trying to figure out what time period we were looking at, but by the end it kind of pulls everything together with a nice sense of cohesion).

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It's a love story. But, although more serious than comedic, it does have a few surprisingly funny moments. It's also very sad in how it shows the burgeoning, true love of a young couple... and how such a love can go through different permutations over time under the stresses of life, career, family, social pressures, etc.

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The performances are enjoyable. Overall, I found this very interesting if a little taxing (it felt like more participation on my part - to try to keep track of or place each scene since it's a sequential jumble - than I'd have to put into a regularly paced movie.) But sometimes having to participate in a movie can be a good thing - it worked for this one.

4

[madiha]

Last movie I saw was Riddle Of Fire, an English movie on top123movies.xyz. "Riddle of Fire" is an intriguing title that sparks curiosity. The name suggests a mystery or adventure, perhaps involving elements of suspense and exploration. Without specific knowledge of the movie's plot or genre, it's difficult to provide further insight, but the title alone hints at an engaging story waiting to be unraveled.

[Torgo]

The Magnificent Ambersons - 4

If any movie makes you wonder "what could have been," it has to be this one. RKO Pictures not only excised over 30% of footage from Welles' cut, but they also lost it. The aftermath ends up being a more than worthy adaptation anyway. A little bit Knives Out and a little bit Cinema Paradiso - well, maybe more former than latter - it's a distinctly American story about what's lost and gained after the march of progress passes by.

RKO dealt a blow to the movie for sure, but they did not take the maverick out of Welles in the process. You definitely see it in how he presents the mini-Xanadu that is the Ambersons' mansion. While the camera glides through it during George's party, you can practically hear your favorite filmmakers taking notes. I also love how he makes the town gossip seem like a Greek chorus. Speaking of George, Tim Holt makes him an icon of toxic privilege if there ever was one. While he would make my list of characters I love to hate, Holt manages to humanize him enough so that when he and progress collide - no pun intended - I managed to eke out some sympathy for him. As much as I enjoy Welles' narration, I would have preferred more showing and less telling of the rise of American industry and the "horseless carriage," but I cannot fault what we do get. There's the reliable Joseph Cotten as automobile man Eugene, the construction footage, etc., but what really hits hard are the indications that nobody knows or cares about anyone's business, i.e., community, anymore. Agnes Moorhead also shines as the most sympathetic Amberson, especially during the wrenching "radiator" scene.

As Charlie Chaplin put it a couple years prior in The Great Dictator, "we have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in." Community indeed becomes less important as industrialization increases and as we're forced to spend more time in our cars, but as this movie also memorably demonstrates, something else goes away that few mourn: the more parasitical members of the 1%. They obviously haven’t completely gone away, but one thing's for sure: they're more likely to have to work for it than they used to. Again, what remains after RKO's cuts deserves its reputation, but the cuts are obvious whether or not you're aware of the movie's history. Aside from that out of place ending, there is more than one time when I felt out of the loop and/or had to rely on headcanon. Other than that, it’s a must-see if you're also fascinated by Welles, especially if you want more on his stance towards those who have their hands on the wheel - no pun intended - beyond Citizen Kane. Regardless, it will at least inform you why Mr. Burns from The Simpsons wore that hat and had such long and curly hair as a child.

[Gideon58]

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2nd Rewatch...Scott Frank's razor sharp screenplay is the real star of this intricate story of Florida mobsters and Hollywood has-beens and wanna be's. This is one of those stories like The Sting, where if you miss five minutes of the film, you will be totally confused, but the undivided attention pays off in spades. Director Barry Sonnenfield works wonders with his perfect cast, several of them playing against type. John Travolta, who began his career playing morons like Vinnie Babarino and Billy Nolan, is undeniably slick paying the smartest character in the movie. Gene Hackman is surprisingly effective playing a desperate and pathetic loser who makes nothing but wrong moves throughout the story. Danny DeVito's arrogant Martin Weir adds a real intelligence to his accustomed smarm and even James Gandolfini brings a real vulnerability to his Hollywood thumb breaker. This movie improves upon each rewatch. 4

[Gideon58]

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3rd Rewatch...Director David Fincher (Fight Club, Se7en) scores another direct bullseye with this chilling psychological drama that could have you talking back at the screen. Ben Affleck plays Nick Dunne, a man who comes home one day and his wife is wife Amy, an heiress and famous writer, is nowhere to be found. Within 24 hours of her disappearance, the police have compiled a case that says Nick murdered Amy, despite having no body and not investigating any other scenarios regarding what happened to Amy. That's what angers me about this story...we know from the opening scene that Nick is innocent, but the police don't even look into any other suspects. Affleck has never been better and Rosemond Park's bone-chilling performance as Amy earned her an Outstanding Lead Actress Oscar nomination. Also loved Kim Dickens as the lead detective on the case, Neil Patrick Harris as a man from Amy's past, Tyler Perry as Nick's attorney, and Missy Pyle as a fictionalized Nancy Grace. The the conclusion of the film does provide some satisfaction, I have to admit that the ambiguity of the ending makes this one of the few films I have ever seen that made me want to re-visit these characters in five years for a sequel. to see where these people are. 4

[Gideon58]

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3.5

[WHITBISSELL!]

Laurie Metcalf was so good in Internal Affairs. "Plus he was rude to me!"

[Gideon58]

Yeah, she was...forgot to mention her in my review.

[mrblond]

An average gangster movie, not to say a mediocre one. Quite amateurish screening of influences by the obviously inmatured brothers.
Jon Polito was the only good thing here. It was hard to finish it, so uninteresting it turned to be. Just skip it and move to something better.
2
40/100
98614

[Darth Pazuzu]

Forgive me for re-posting this review, but I fell short on time at my computer session at the local library yesterday, and I was unable to finish my reviews of Monkey Man and Civil War. Below is a complete review of all the films I've seen at my local movie theater on April 9 and 16, 2024.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/be/Godzilla_x_kong_the_new_empire_poster.jpg/220px-Godzilla_x_kong_the_new_empire_poster.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/70/The_First_Omen_poster.jpg/220px-The_First_Omen_poster.jpg
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/2b/Monkey_Man_film.jpg/220px-Monkey_Man_film.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/0/0d/Civil_War_2024_film_poster.jpeg/220px-Civil_War_2024_film_poster.jpeg

APRIL 9, 2024:
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (Adam Wingard / 2024)
The First Omen (Arkasha Stevenson / 2024)

APRIL 16, 2024:
Monkey Man (Dev Patel / 2024)
Civil War (Alex Garland / 2024)

Well! So much to unpack... so little time! But hey, I'll give it a shot...

My little monster mash last Tuesday was nothing much to write about. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is the latest FX bonanza to feature a lot of CG behemoths flailing about and knocking each other into next Tuesday (see what I did there? ;)), ultimately to little or no avail. I wouldn't quite make a claim of this being just a whole lot of sound and fury signifying nothing. But it amounts to a paltry minimum. Just color me very underwhelmed. I'm also sick and tired of seeing all these movies in which monsters or superbeings throw each other about and smash each other into buildings - y'know, big tall edifices of steel and glass in which people live and work in, for God's sake! I mean, does this not enter into the screenwriters' or the director's or the FX wizards' minds - at all?? Or do we just simply shrug it off and regard all those poor smashed-up people as mere collateral damage? Simply just necessary sacrifices to the spectacle? Or am I simply just overreacting like crazy? Well... perhaps. But my dissatisfaction remains regardless. I can trace the very first time I started to feel uneasy about mass destruction as cinematic spectacle to my very first viewing of Roland Emmerich's Independence Day back in 1996. (Before the horrors of September 11, 2001, take note.) Back then, I sort of shrugged off my humanist discontent as being inapplicable to any sort of valid criticism of a summer blockbuster, but later developments - or should I say degenerations - within the creative side of this kind of FX-laden cinematic spectacular filmmaking over the years have borne out those discontents. Hey, that's just how I feel. Deal with it...

The horror prequel The First Omen, on the other hand, was actually halfway decent. At least it was better than the 2006 remake of the 1976 original! But that's not really saying all that much. Of course I was immediately reminded of the recent Immaculate (which I had just seen the week before on April 2), in that both films deal with the diabolically-inspired pregnancy of a nun instigated by fanatical extremist elements within the Catholic Church. Admittedly, that's something of a new and "provocative" wrinkle within the Omen franchise. (I put "provocative" in scare quotes because trying to do or say anything casting the Church in a sinister light has become a rather tired cliché at this point. Not without justification to some extent, but a cliché just the same.) It's also worth noting how much of a '70s Euro-horror vibe has started to creep into the Hollywood satanic-horror genre. I already pointed out the similarities to the work of Argento in my recent review of Immaculate (y'know, the little American lamb abroad in decadent Europe and discovering scary things happening, a la Suspiria or Phenomena). And once it's time for our little infant anti-Christ to finally enter the world, our much put-upon heroine (in this case played by Nell Tiger Free) starts to manifest symptoms that immediately made me think, "No, wait a minute. That can't be, she can't... is she really...? Yes! Holy s***, she is actually channeling Isabelle Adjani in 1981's Possession!" :lol: (BTW, if you've seen that Andrzej Zulawski cult classic, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about!) So ultimately, it comes down to... is The First Omen actually any good? Well... it's not awful, mind you. And it's actually a couple notches above Immaculate. But that's not really saying a heck of a lot overall, is it? So I guess I can rank nun-themed horror movies alongside big glossy Japan-originated monster mash-ups as things which are pretty well played out for me.

Dev Patel's Monkey Man, on the other hand, is really something else! Yes, it's basically one of those one-man army Revenge-O-Matic action thrillers that - just like giant monster mash-ups and diabolically-impregnated nuns - have proliferated like piranha fish over the years. But this one has got a number of interesting wrinkles to it. Set in modern India, it has interesting spiritual and mythological themes, as well as a left-leaning political slant. Our hero (played by Patel) is out to avenge the rape and murder of his mother at the hands of a corrupt police chief who has forced out the inhabitants of their village in order to acquire the land for the benefit of corrupt spiritual guru. Many years later, our hero is working as a monkey-masked fighter in a boxing club where is paid to lose, and eventually he infiltrates a luxury brothel frequented by the aforementioned police chief. But when his assassination attempt goes awry, he has to fight his way out of the building, getting shot by the police and narrowly escaping death and/or arrest. He is eventually nursed back to health by the priest of a temple belonging to the oft-persecuted transgender community, or hijara. After taking an hallucinogenic drug to confront the trauma of the memory of his mother's death and physically training himself, he resumes his mission of vengeance, fighting not only to avenge his mother but also for the nation's downtrodden and disenfranchised.

Co-produced by Jordan Peele, and with Dev Patel performing double duty as action man hero and director (now that's stamina!), Monkey Man can perhaps be compared with the films of the John Wick franchise for its flamboyantly hyper-kinetic ultraviolence, but it also deals with themes of political corruption, poverty and discrimination. It's definitely the only film I've seen in which towards the end, a group of transgender female warriors (the aforementioned hijara) shows up to aid the outnumbered hero in his time of need and help kick the crap out of a well-trained goon squad! Also, while definitely being a very violent movie, Monkey Man is not exclusively masculinist in its concerns. It has a definite sympathy with the underclass, with women and with social minorities. If that's too "woke" for some people, so be it. But the film can hardly be considered preachy in its execution, and in terms of sheer visceral kick it has few competitors in contemporary action cinema. Y'know, if anything, I felt slightly alienated by the aforementioned John Wick films' violent sequences because they were perhaps a bit too clinical and clean in their execution. (I've only seen the first three on Blu-ray, but then only once. I haven't rewatched them.) On the other hand, Monkey Man's violence, while excessive, is ultimately redeemed by its sense of pain and trauma. In other words, it's messy. But then, so always is the fight for social justice.

When I first saw the trailer for the new Civil War, my first reaction was, This is a rather cool and timely idea for a film in 2024. My second reaction, on the other hand, was that of, This is something that can quite easily go wrong in so many ways!. Or rather, specifically I was thinking of two ways: 1) The movie could make the mistake of taking cheap shots at the current election-year situation in order to score easy political points. And 2) The movie could make the mistake of being too evasive in the interest of not offending anybody. One definite red flag for me was when I learned that the two secessionist states which were fighting against the U.S. government were California and Texas (whose politics are definitely on opposite sides of the spectrum if not necessarily the furthest ends). I hoped for the best from the film, but I was definitely bracing myself for a cop-out of the first order. As it turns out, I needn't have worried. First of all, I'll just say when I saw Alex Garland credited as writer/director in the trailer I relaxed a little bit, knowing that his were the best possible hands for a movie like this to be in. I hadn't seen any of his earlier directorial efforts, but I was a huge fan of Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later and Sunshine, which I knew he had written, so I had a good reason to be optimistic. And Garland quite expertly walked that tightrope and delivered a very moving, disquieting and compelling film with Civil War.

It should be said that although the trailer leads one to expect a big, full-on epic treatment of the theme of civil war in America, the film is actually a lot more intimate than that. The story specifically concerns itself with a trio of journalists and photographers who are traveling cross-country to Washington, D.C., in the hopes of getting an interview or a photograph with the president (Nick Offerman) - now in an unprecedented third term - before the collapse of the government. These media veterans are joined by a young woman with aspirations toward becoming a photographer herself. The relationship with the veteran war photographer Lee (Kirsten Dunst) and the younger woman Jessie (Cailee Spaeny) who idolizes her, is a very interesting one, and more or less provides the emotional backbone of the film. Because the hardened Lee has traveled around the world and seen all manner of horrifying things in the war zones she's covered, and consequently has become emotionally calloused, while the younger Jessie has to initially come to grips with all the terrible things the group comes across in their cross-country journey. There is very much a dynamic here similar to that of Naomie Harris' Selena and Cillian Murphy's Jim in 28 Days Later, in that the hardened older survivor is reluctant to have to take care of and give comfort to the younger character after experiencing the more disturbing and traumatic events. (And the similarities with 28 Days Later certainly don't end there, in my opinion. The distance between civil war and zombie apocalypse - excuse me, rage virus apocalypse - is not that far, at least for Garland.)

Although as I said, the film's preoccupations are more intimate and character-related, the film definitely possesses a sense of the large and the epic. It also doesn't skimp on action. There is a major action sequence at the end which deals with the siege of D.C., and it's definitely a doozy. And the quieter character-based scenes are quite often directly followed by a jump straight into a violent action scene involving loud gunfire. The jump from one to the other can be quite jarring and startling at times, so any viewer of the film would be strongly advised to brace themselves! And while Civil War really isn't terribly on the nose with matters relating to the current political scene, there is a very intense sequence involving a uniformed militia who are responsible for some sort of atrocity and are first shown dumping bodies into a mass grave and covering them with lye, and whose leader (an uncredited Jesse Plemons) threatens our heroes at gunpoint and demands to know what "kind" of Americans they are. (Believe me, this moment plays a lot less cute in the film than it does in the trailer!) The subtle implication is that although right-wing politicians may not have any genuine racist or nationalist beliefs themselves (assuming they believe in anything besides that which gives them the most votes), they implicitly rely on the aid and support of those who do. (BTW, when Plemons and his ultranationalist cohorts get their just desserts - no spoilers, so I won't say how it happens - I swear I haven't jumped out of my seat higher or pumped my fist into the air harder inside a movie theater since Toby Jones shot Marcia Gay Harden in Frank Darabont's 2007 film of Stephen King's The Mist!) Certainly the President in the movie, while certainly not specifically cast in the mould of Donald Trump, seems willing to do or say anything in order to hold onto what remains of his power. In the very first scene, in fact, the President is shown rehearsing and going over the words of a big political speech, mulling over their effectiveness while the camera editorally intercuts with images of violence and bloodshed on the nation's streets outside. The empathetic disconnect between the ambitions of people in power and the consequences of their actions and policies is thus made obvious right from the jump. And ultimately, it's the issue of empathy that Civil War is primarily concerned with, not politics. There's also a great scene where our group stops into an idyllic small town that seemingly hasn't been touched by the conflict. They ask a clerk in a clothing store if she is aware of what's going on in the world outside. She replies that she feels like it would be the best thing to just keep one's head down and not get involved. And although the trailer makes a humorous moment out of this line, making the young woman seem insensitive and clueless, it plays much differently in the actual movie. We actually find ourselves sympathizing with her, probably feeling like, yeah, if the s*** really hit the fan and under similar circumstances, most of us would probably want to keep our heads down and wait for the storm to pass.

Like I said, I won't give any spoilers, but the ending of the movie - although upbeat to a certain extent - is quite disquieting in the extreme. By the end of the film, the young Jessie has definitely gotten into the swing of things and is throwing herself into her role as junior war photographer. And the very last shot of the film is a still image of one of her photographs. In a sense, she has become the older Lee at this point, or at least is well on her way. And that very last image - while representing a victory of sorts - raises a lot of disturbing questions and potentially makes us feel slightly complicit in what's gone on before. Does this represent the ultimate failure of empathy? I'm not sure, but it's definitely not your usual "happy ending." It will certainly linger on in the viewer's mind long after the film has ended, and to me that is the ultimate acid test of any work of cinema that hopes to make a long-term impact.

Good soundtrack, too. Very effective use is made of the music of '70s alt-rock legends Suicide, in particular Rocket U.S.A. and Dream Baby Dream.

Recommendations? Certainly for Monkey Man and definitely for Civil War.

And as far as Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire and The First Omen are concerned? Well... If you absolutely, positively must see every single entry within those franchises, then yeah, sure! But I certainly wouldn't consider them the best of those particular series.

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c9/Scream_VI_poster.jpg
By This poster can be obtained from Paramount Pictures, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=72494555

Scream VI - (2023)

First thoughts on Letterboxd : "Well, I can see that a lot of effort went into this one - and that includes all the contortions, reintroductions, carry-over characters, continued plot strands and new characters. More than story and screenplay however, the action and horror makes the grade. So all-up, this was a perfectly acceptable franchise addition, and I'd expect fans of the series to really enjoy it. I've always been a little on the fence as far as all the Scream sequels go - like I've heard some people say, it's basically Scooby Doo in slasher form. I appreciate effort though, and I'm happy it was as successful as it was." Second thoughts : at least there's a smidge of real horror in it. Imagine being stabbed in the nose - yeesh. It's mostly young blood now, without the return of Neve Campbell and no David Arquette there's only Courteney Cox to carry that original torch, and a few brief moments where Skeet Ulrich gets to play Billy Loomis from the original. Dermot Mulroney is the only other actor I know on a name basis.

6/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c0/Vortex_%282021_film%29_poster.jpg
By IMDb, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=68297635

Vortex - (2021)

The best way to describe Vortex is to say it's basically Gaspar Noé's version of Michael Haneke's Amour. A split screen comes into effect when old characters played by Dario Argento and Françoise Lebrun become psychologically split from each other due to the latter's dementia. This is an especially powerful and haunting film - full review here (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?p=2455606#post2455606), in my watchlist thread.

9/10

[Stirchley]

98632

Based on the true story. Excellent movie. Shot in very harsh conditions, which made it very real.

98633

Realized when I’d finished that I had seen this movie before. Duh. Whatever, I enjoyed it again. One of Clooney’s better movies for sure.

[Gideon58]

An average gangster movie, not to say a mediocre one. Quite amateurish screening of influences by the obviously inmatured brothers.
Jon Polito was the only good thing here. It was hard to finish it, so uninteresting it turned to be. Just skip it and move to something better.
2
40/100
98614

Wow, liked this movie a lot more than you did...a link to my review:

https://www.movieforums.com/reviews/2437901-millers_crossing.html

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BZTFjYmQ2ZTAtNGE4YS00NzMxLWIwZjItMjcyYzdjODRmZWQ1XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTY5Nzc4MDY@._V1_.jpg


1st Rewatch...My vote for the worst movie adaptation of an SNL sketch. The movie does have a small cult following, so I decided to give it another chance, but the same thing bothered me this viewing that bothered me the first time...I just couldn't get past the almost incestuous vibe to the relationship between brothers Steve (Will Ferrell) and Doug (Chris Kattan), an "ick" factor that floats over the whole film. The only real laughs in this film come from Molly Shannon as Steve's horny fiancee and Dan Hedaya as the guys' always angry father. 1.5

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91LzKuokI0L._AC_UF894,1000_QL80_.jpg


4th Rewatch...One of my favorite Denzel performances in one of his most underrated films . Denzel plays a financially strapped factory work whose son needs a heart transplant but the hospital won't put his son on the donor list because he can't pay for the surgery, so John takes a gun to the hospital and takes a disparate group of hostages in the emergency room and threatens to kill them unless his son goes on the donor list. I love the way the story provides a nice balance of people for John's hostages, it's not just sick and injured people...two doctors, an orderly, a security guard are also among the hostages. I especially loved the inclusion of a sexist jerk (Shawn Hatosy, in the performance of his career) who is there with his girlfriend, who has suffered severe injuries courtesy of her boyfriend. I also love that this one of the few films where Denzel doesn't play a doctor or a lawyer or a cop or a civil rights leader. John Q is just a regular guy trying to keep a roof over his family's head who is at the end of his rope. James Kearne's unapologetic screenplay is not only a dead on look at the rising costs of medical treatment but of the human condition, through the media circus that manifests itself from what John is doing. Have never been able to figure out how Denzel didn't get an Oscar nomination for this powerhouse performance, but was nominated for Roman J Israel, Esq. Shout outs to Kymberly Elise as Mrs. John Q, James Woods and Anne Heche as the insensitive hospital administrators, Robert Duvall as the hostage negotiator, and the late Ray Liotta as the chief of police. Appointment viewing for Denzel fans. 4

[Stirchley]

98645

Documentary about the making of the Society of the Snow movie shown above. Very interesting. And arduous.

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNGE5MWJmZWYtN2ZlMi00ZjY1LTlhYTUtMzQ2Y2IxZWQyYTA2XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTUzMTg2ODkz._V1_FMjpg_UX1000_.j pg



3

[Thief]

EXTRACTION 2
(2023, Hargrave)

https://i.imgur.com/SX04ZF3.jpg


"Believe it or not, it's pretty difficult to let someone you care about die. But you fought your way back. You just have to find out why."



Extraction 2 picks up right after the first one, as Tyler Rake (Chris Hemsworth) is rescued barely alive from the aftermath of the previous mission. After months of recovery, he is brought back into the fold to rescue his ex-wife's sister and two children. The catch? She happens to be married to one of the leaders of a dangerous Georgian crime organization, and the family has been forced to live in the prison where he's being held, which is where Rake has to extract them from.

But yeah, the setpieces and action scenes are excellent as well. This includes yet another impressive and thrilling "one shot" that lasts around 20 minutes, and includes numerous fist fights, knife fights, gun fights, a prison riot, a sequence on board of a train, more explosions, and Hemsworth on fire, to name a few. Hearing director Sam Hargrave talk about how little to no CGI they used makes it all more impressive.

Grade: 3.5


Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2455841#post2455841)

[mrblond]

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007)

Directed by Sidney Lumet
Starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke and Albert Finney

I've just learned about this movie. What a cast, directed by Sidney Lumet, wow!
Very good crime thriller. Just one issue - the completely unnecessary porn scene that opens the movie. You can skip it, just start it at 4:00 min. Otherwise, Hoffman at his best here.
4
80/100
98651

[Marco]

Croupier (1998)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d7/Croupier_poster.jpg
A nice low key British thriller. Clive Owen carries the storyline well as the frustrated writer getting info from everyday work at a gambling establishment. The voiceover works to get a better idea of his "angle" and it all hangs together well. A loveable rogue but in above his head. I thing Jack knows that too.
3.5

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/JnxsnBNZ/quasi.jpg
By Searchlight Pictures - Twitter, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=73362430

Quasi - (2023)

Last year I managed to watch all of the films nominated in the MoFo Film Awards that I hadn't seen yet, which is not an easy feat - but since I managed it I had to try it again this year, and with Quasi I'm finally finished. 30 films all-up - made it with just under a week to spare. I feel like I've well and truly caught up with 2023. The worst thing about doing this are the last few films - I always watch the ones I was dying to see anyway first, and by the time I get to the dregs it's the "Worst Film", "Most Disappointing" and "Mixed Bag" categories, which throw up a few that aren't easy to sit through. Quasi was the film I wanted to see the absolute least.

Anyway : Quasi simply isn't very funny. I know that Broken Lizard are usually dependable, and have made a few good comedies (Super Troopers is the one I know and like), but they struggle with this take on The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, which in it's best moments is amusing, but fails to elicit laughter. Good comedy, like any successful artistic endeavour, requires inspired imagination - and for whatever reason this wasn't available either when the script was being written or during moments of improv. That said, I didn't hate it or find it contemptable. Just lacking. Comedy is hard, and exposes you when you're not hitting that mark dead on. Steve Lemme seemed to be doing the right thing with the main character, but simply lacked anything funny to say or do aside from one or two moments when I was genuinely surprised, and even then just a chuckle. The others were all worse than he was. So, what can I say? Not many extras and sparse sets means that there's not much else going on. I've seen my fair share of these laughless comedies over the years.

3/10

[Fabulous]

High Plains Drifter (1973)

3.5

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/hUw44d6NAFd48xSCLkYb6GluXa7.jpg

[SpelingError]

Home From the Hill (1960) ‐ 4.5

This is one of the most interesting breakdowns of toxic masculinity I've seen in a long time. Part of the reason it packs such a punch is how cleverly it tricks you into warming up to Wade. What initially starts off as a silent battle between a married couple to have their son grow up under their influence soon fizzles out once the film fixates more and more on Wade while Hannah is pushed further and further to the sidelines. Seeing how Wade's influence causes Theron's reputation to grow amongst a group of hunters who initially didn't think much of him and how his life is improved from spending time around Rafe leads one to have faith that everything will turn out well and that Theron made the right choice after all. Wade's reputation amongst the town and the first scene though are hard to ignore and, the more hints which pop up (Albert's strong distrust of Theron), the clearer it becomes that the bubble we built up around Wade is about to burst.

Once the inevitable mid‐film reveal comes along, the film turns from really good to excellent due to a couple reasons. First, it fully realizes its critique of masculinity. Being a skilled hunter and the wealthiest person in town, Wade appears to have it all at first glance, but learning about Rafe's familial ties and Wade's cruel rejection of him due to his inability to commit to the consequences of his mistakes makes him seem like a pathetic person deep down who has all kinds of insecurities. Wade's points of "pride" are limited to him being a womanizer and the best hunter in the town. The group of hunters he spends so much time around don't have much to show for themselves either and largely exist somewhat in his shadow.

More significantly though, the second half reveal allows the film to branch out and explore the scope of the people Wade impacted. Because instead of just touching on the jealous husbands out to get revenge, it expands its scope to Wade's immediate family (and even his hunting dogs to an extent, given the boar hunt). The impact Wade has on Theron involves his hesitancy to commit to his relationship with Libby and progress up the social ladder since he'd have to leave Rafe in the dust in the process, who's far less fortunate than him. Their scenes in the final act contain a ton of humanity and the final couple conversations between them are especially powerful since it's clear throughout them that Theron wants Rafe to enjoy the life he initially had little chance of getting. At first, Hannah didn't stick out to me that much, but upon reflection, I was struck by how rough her situation is. Due to her strained relationship with Wade, saving Theron from his influence is all she can hope for, yet she lacks the strength to breach the barrier her husband has built up. Her best effort to fix everything only serves to cause more problems for both Theron and herself. There's also a lot to be said about the sheer contrast between Wade and Rafe. In spite of his lack of wealth and consideration for his well‐being, Rafe has a degree of nobility and genuine compassion that's sorely lacking in Wade. Financially speaking, Rafe lacks everything Wade has, yet is still twice the man he is on almost all levels.

Once the constant framing and reframing of the characters is all said and done, we get a nuanced ending which is hopeful only to some of the characters we rooted for. It's tragic in a sense, yet it gives another character a much better outcome than one might've expected. It's somehow the happiest ending one could expect from this setting.

[skizzerflake]

The Beast
Minus :popcorn::popcorn: (yeah, that's minus two popcorns)

If it had not been so visually interesting and well produced, it would probably get minus four popcorns. I don't feel like writing a plot synopsis for this mess so, from Youtube -

"The year is 2044: artificial intelligence controls all facets of a stoic society as humans routinely “erase” their feelings. Hoping to eliminate pain caused by their past-life romances, Gabrielle (Léa Seydoux) continually falls in love with different incarnations of Louis (George MacKay). Set first in Belle Époque-era Paris Louis is a British man who woos her away from a cold husband, then in early 21st Century Los Angeles, he is a disturbed American bent on delivering violent “retribution.” Will the process allow Gabrielle to fully connect with Louis in the present, or are the two doomed to repeat their previous fates?."

The Beast has lots of interesting elements thrown willy-nilly into a so-called plot line. That fact that so much of it looks so good just made me more restless since it was not like a 1958 creature feature. It was a movie with a budget. It spans 3 different time spans, although it's never entirely clear which one you're in now. AI that you never actually see is doing something to try to remove human emotions (why? I don't know), while Gabrielle falls in love with various incarnations of a guy who, to me at least, had no appeal at all as a character.

Oh well, hype for this is high, delivery, for me at least, is low. The only thing I actually liked was looking at Lea Seydoux.

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTQ5NDI4MDM0Nl5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNDYwODU2NA@@._V1_FMjpg_UX1000_.jpg




1st Rewatch...Cameron Diaz was just on the cusp of being considered an actress of some substance when she made this steaming pile of crap. She plays Elizabeth Halsey, a lazy, arrogant, manipulative, gold digging high school teacher who quits after a year because she's getting married. On her last day of school, she goes home and her fiancee dumps her so she returns to school and decides the answer to all her problems is a boob job and decides to use her students to make it happen. Yes, it's as bad as it sounds and I wouldn't even recommend to hardcore fans of the actress. Somehow, leading men Justin Timberlake and Jason Segel manage to maintain their dignity, but it's films like this one that might have hastened Diaz' premature retirement. 1.5

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/915IszvXtPL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_DpWeblab_.jpg



4.5

[Tugg]

A Haunting in Venice (2023) 3.5
https://paulraylaight.files.wordpress.com/2023/10/a-haunting-in-venice-poster-featured.jpg?w=672&h=372&crop=1
Along Came Polly (2004) 3.5
https://resizing.flixster.com/an2Kxf3dSgad4wF-ECaLAS1KPaE=/fit-in/705x460/v2/https://resizing.flixster.com/-XZAfHZM39UwaGJIFWKAE8fS0ak=/v3/t/assets/35264_ay.jpg
Sleeping Dogs (2024) 2.5
https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/i/69eb83d0-c5e1-4479-9f4d-78065e9a303b/dh83a8u-4990d44d-3cc6-41a3-b421-cf747633786e.png
Immaculate (2024) 3
https://variety.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/MCDIMMA_EC022.jpg?w=1000&h=563&crop=1
Late Night with the Devil (2023-2024) 3.5
https://pyxis.nymag.com/v1/imgs/671/6ae/0b6c4321bb4abf9e59ab750779c1ec9a95-late-night-devil.2x.rsocial.w600.png

[Raven73]

Poor things
6/10
If Mary Shelley had been on acid when she wrote the portion of her book about the bride of Frankenstein...

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f3/Poor_Things_poster.jpg
When they had Alfie sedated, I thought they were going to transplant Godwin's brain into him, rather than the brain of a goat.

[Allaby]

I went and saw the new horror film Abigail today. Abigail is wildly entertaining and bloody good fun. Alisha Weir is fantastic in a delightfully demented and brilliant performance. The rest of the cast are good too. Abigail is my pick for the best horror film of the year so far. I would rank Abigail as the second best film of 2024 (after Dune Part Two). 4

[FilmBuff]

I went and saw the new horror film Abigail today. Abigail is wildly entertaining and bloody good fun. Alisha Weir is fantastic in a delightfully demented and brilliant performance. The rest of the cast are good too. Abigail is my pick for the best horror film of the year so far. I would rank Abigail as the second best film of 2024

I enjoyed it quite a bit, too. I think Melissa Barrera and Kathryn Newton are both terrific in everything they're in. So glad they got to work together.

Sad that Giancarlo Esposito won't be around if they make a sequel... :(

[Guaporense]

The Boondock Saints (1999)

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/1b/The_Boondock_Saints_poster.jpeg

Good. Dont make en like they used to.

4

[crumbsroom]

Good. Dont make en like they used to.


Pretty sure they still make terrible movies.

[Fabulous]

The Ugly American (1963)

3

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/lWkd9Nqz9zxMaJXSiY9E2veHmYk.jpg

[Marco]

The War Zone (1999)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/36/Warzoneposter.jpeg
A really rather depressing film based on a little-known novel about incest and just as important, control. I'll talk about the film in wider terms as there are several scenes that are so hard to get through. The film is shot beautifully around the London family that have moved to the south coast. Mum Dad, Daughter and Son (and baby on the way) they all feel alienation in some way and it's never made clear why they moved. Dads constantly on the phone trying to make unidentified deals and the son has been kicked out of 2 schools so it could be financial. The son starts to suspect improper behaviour but his bond with his big sis and a general taciturn manner sees him try and cease it without rocking the boat...unsuccessfully. It's an amazing work from Tim Roth, deeply disturbing. Ray Winstone has your eyes glued to this, Lara Belmont I'm surprised didn't do a lot more work in film, Freddie Cunliffe (only appearance I think) plays the troubled son perfectly. Not a nice watch or even a rewarding one but a real statement.
No rating.

[Exaladration]

https://dnm.nflximg.net/api/v6/2DuQlx0fM4wd1nzqm5BFBi6ILa8/AAAAQR4tJ_5IsB6QS-CZpBNAdXIEg-W3ixgyin2ej2XiL7uxB0yTD1x1RO5w7hqCVMQDFqMXL9PQLe8indh-8PrD2pEVTNTZ9NHJ1aoEkjEsPjJ9ek8q6fK2IQxhzkG8vZ2UNOeDwUjrRVeku4c7FdV5ERvH.jpg?r=f82

5,5/10

Unnecessarily looooooong movie, with alwaysnyder a boring story!

[Torgo]

Armageddon Time - 4

This refreshingly non-nostalgic coming of age tale reminds us that all Americans may be created equally, but some are more equal than others. In Paul (Repeta), the Jewish aspiring artist who is essentially the young writer/director James Gray, we get a painfully accurate portrait of what it's like when too few authority figures and peers believe in or relate to you. By the same token, the sensation of relief the movie captures when someone like this finds others on their side could not be more authentic. In Anthony Hopkins' grandfather, Aaron, we get the kind of encouragement and advice we all wish we received whether or not we were in Paul's shoes, which wisely favors truth over sentimentality. Speaking of, with a last name like Graff, which Aaron changed from Rabinowitz at Ellis Island (director Gray's actual last name is also Russian Jewish, by the way) - Paul can hide his ethnicity, shame notwithstanding. The same cannot be said of Paul's friend Jonathan (Webb), the lone black kid in his class whose similar lack of support in his dream of going to space also makes him feel hopeless. The friends' attempts to stick it to their oppressors and eke some fun out of their situations are enjoyable for how they mirror Gray's experiences and for how they reference the classic movies that inspired him. There is more than one loving nod to a certain Truffaut movie you are probably thinking about now, for instance. This also means that the moment when dividing lines appear between the friends once Paul switches to a private and even more conformist school define heartbreak. James Gray is a favorite director of mine because his movies seem like analog ones in a digital world, which is also the case here even though it's the first movie he filmed with digital cameras. Shooting in the Queens of his youth helps, as does the strong period accuracy and "lived in" quality of Paul's house and his schools. There's also the A-list talent, which besides the reliable Hopkins features Anne Hathaway's standout work as Paul's concerned mother.

This movie successfully proves that having a generally reviled background and unpopular ambitions might make one an object of derision, but the oppressors have little power against encouragement and a helping hand. It also proves that not everyone is fortunate to have such advantages, sadly. It ends up being a movie that demonstrates why Grey is one of our best active filmmakers and that some things from the '80s are not worth being nostalgic over, especially since we’re still learning how to cope with them today. Speaking of, and hopefully not to spoil it too much, but wait until you discover the benefactors of Paul's new school.

[GulfportDoc]

98676

Coup de chance (2023)

This is Woody Allen’s 50th film, and I’ve seen every one of them. I’d place this picture somewhere in the middle of his films in terms of quality. It’s a bit of an odd sensation watching an Allenesque urban drama while reading subtitles. In that way the movie loses something in translation. There are many of the same interpersonal and emotional interactions between the sexes, and among group members of social gatherings, that we’ve become accustomed to in a Woody Allen big city picture; but not hearing and understanding the dialogue in familiar English takes a little of the fragrance away from the rose.

The story is simple enough. A happily married woman wedded to a wealthy finance manager has a chance run in with a man who she knew when attending high school. He reveals to her that he had a crush on her then that he still carries. She agrees to meet for lunch. She eventually is smitten, and they commence an affair. Her husband begins to suspect his wife’s infidelity, and the story winds along from there, which has a couple of twists and a surprise ending.

This is a very competent picture, but it slightly suffers from its vague sense of familiarity: a meeting, an affair, husband’s involvement, denouement. It’s advertised as a comedy-drama thriller, but with few chuckles --unusual for an Allen screenplay-- it’s really more drama thriller, with the emphasis on drama. Mention must be made of the excellent cinematography by Vittorio Storaro (Apocalypse Now; The Last Emperor). Paris is a classically beautiful city, and Storaro frames some of the scenes as would be portrayed in a fine painting.

I wish Allen would be welcomed back into the U.S. film industry. It’s anyone’s guess how many more movies he has left in him, but surely he best expresses his screenplays in the American idiom.

Doc’s rating: 6/10

[Marco]

Late Night with the Devil (2023)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/cb/Late_Night_with_the_Devil_poster.jpg
I was quite looking forward to this the story of demonic possession and ratings wars. Overall it was nice and atmospheric but a bit stilted. The story is good if a bit predictable and all performances are good. Bizarrely it reminded me of an episode of "Inside Number 9" (UK TV prog made by the Reese Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton, the League of Getlemen chaps) that was based on a family quiz show, very similar vibes/design/direction.
3

[Stirchley]

The War Zone (1999)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/36/Warzoneposter.jpeg
A really rather depressing film based on a little-known novel about incest and just as important, control. I'll talk about the film in wider terms as there are several scenes that are so hard to get through. The film is shot beautifully around the London family that have moved to the south coast. Mum Dad, Daughter and Son (and baby on the way) they all feel alienation in some way and it's never made clear why they moved. Dads constantly on the phone trying to make unidentified deals and the son has been kicked out of 2 schools so it could be financial. The son starts to suspect improper behaviour but his bond with his big sis and a general taciturn manner sees him try and cease it without rocking the boat...unsuccessfully. It's an amazing work from Tim Roth, deeply disturbing. Ray Winstone has your eyes glued to this, Lara Belmont I'm surprised didn't do a lot more work in film, Freddie Cunliffe (only appearance I think) plays the troubled son perfectly. Not a nice watch or even a rewarding one but a real statement.
No rating.

Book & movIe good.

[Stirchley]

98677

Re-watch. Good movie. Eckhart very good as per.

98678

Very early Ken Loach.

98679

Nutty, but I did finish it. Nice to see Brooklyn Prince of the Florida Project now that she’s a teenager. Turning into a very pretty girl & a good actor.

[Gideon58]

98677

Re-watch. Good movie. Eckhart very good as per.

98678

Very early Ken Loach.

98679

Nutty, but I did finish it. Nice to see Brooklyn Prince of the Florida Project now that she’s a teenager. Turning into a very pretty girl & a good actor.

Love, love, love, love Thank You for Smoking....a link to my review:

https://www.movieforums.com/reviews/944452-thank_you_for_smoking.html

[Gideon58]

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5th Rewatch...A classy performance from the always reliable Gene Hackman raises the bar on this feel good sports comedy playing a former football coach given the opportunity to recruit his own scab football team after a fictional team goes on strike, pinning his hopes on a has been quarterback (Keanu Reeves) who left football after a disastrous showing in the '96 Sugar Bowl. I never get tired of watching this movie. 3.5

[Gideon58]

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1st Rewatch...There is some entertainment value in this quirky comedy despite a giant plot hole I still have been unable to reconcile. Duncan Thompson is an English college professor who is obsessed with a rock singer named Tucker Crowe, who walked away from his career 20 years ago for a plethora of reasons. We then learn that Duncan's girlfriend, has been in an online relationship with Tucker for years and has been keeping it a secret from Duncan, but things get complicated when Tucker contacts Annie and lets her know that he is en route to London with one of his several children from his multiple marriages and relationships. The story definitely has a spark of originality but I've never understood why Annie keeps her relationship with Tucker a secret from Duncan. Chris O'Dowd brings a loopy quality to Duncan that is kind of endearing, but the real reason this film is worth a look is the gutsy, Oscar-worthy performance from Ethan Hawke as the burnt out rock and roller now working on being the best parent he possibly can. 3.5

[Gideon58]

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1st Rewatch....Remember when Enimem was the hottest music star on the planet? Well, Hollywood tried to cash in on his success with this moody drama with music which didn't require much from the white rapper except being himself. He plays a Detroit factory named Rabbit whose real dream is to be a rapper, but is sadly surrounded by a posse of losers who drag him down and a real lack of self-esteem, not to mention family issues like his trailer trash mom who is now in a relationship with a guy he went to high school with. The script is cliche-ridden, including the opening rap battle where he actually vomits before he goes onstage (I'm so tired of movie scenes where performers vomit before going onstage) and once he gets onstage, freezes. The screenplay takes too long to show the viewer that the guy does know how to rap. The film does benefit from stylish and uncompromising direction from Oscar winner Curtis Hansen, but it doesn't disguise screenplay deficiencies and the ending is a bit of a cop-out. Kim Basinger is an eye-opener as Rabbit's mom as is Michael Shannon as her boyfriend. The song the star performs during the closing credits, "Lose Yourself" won the Oscar for Best Song. 3

[Gideon58]

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1st Rewatch...Fans of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World will have a head start with this big budget action comedy that is, incredibly based on a true story. Hoagie, Chilly, Callahan, Jerry, and Sable have been playing tag ever since they were children. They are grown up now, but every year during the month of May, they drop whatever they are during and resume the game. This year Hoagie, Chilly, Callahan, and Sable meet on their own to plan a strategy to tag Jerry because in their entire history of tag, they have never been able to tag Jerry, but they think they can do it this year because Jerry is getting married and they know exactly where he's going to be. Throw into the mix Hoagie's wife, who wants to be in the game but no girls are allowed, Jerry's fiancee Susan who has no problem with the game as long as it doesn't disrupt her wedding, and a pretty reporter from the Wall Street Journal wo blows off her interview with Callahan to follow the game. Love the crafting of the screenplay, which provides backstory for these guys in bits and starts without slowing the story at hand. We know Jerry is going to get tagged, but the journey to it makes some beautifully unexpected turns that keep us on the edge of our seats, doubled over with laughter. The cast is packed with stars, but Jake Johnson and Jeremy Renner steal the show as Chilly and Jerry, respectively. 4

[Allaby]

Grummy (2021) Watched on Youtube. Directed by R.H. Norman and Micheline Pitt. Starring Violet McGraw. A young girl escapes from abuse into her imagination. A powerful and haunting short film. Violet McGraw is excellent in a devastating performance. 4.5

[Gideon58]

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3.5

[Allaby]

The Making of a Cheer Team (2021) I watched this on Tubi today. It's an informative and enjoyable short documentary. The cheerleaders are wonderful and charming. I liked seeing their interviews and their routines. 4

[Gideon58]

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1.5

[Fabulous]

Zelig (1983)

4.5

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/oCC3rSccbJV9bxMDRedtqI6pnla.jpg

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/GmJQQYn2/vagabond.jpg
Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17817364

Vagabond - (1985)

Tales of drifters and vagabonds can get depressing at times, but Agnès Varda's 1985 feature delivers a particularly strong and self assured character - Mona (Sandrine Bonnaire) is simply living the life she wants to live, free and unbounded by what society thinks she should be. At times it's a tough existence, but there's usually someone willing to share a drink, a smoke or some food (or some drugs) with Mona and if they have a car, share the journey for a short stretch. Disquietingly, the film starts with the discovery of Mona's dead body, and then Varda herself (as narrator) catches up with various characters and questions them as to the experiences they had with her. As would be expected, this film has some very nice cinematography - capturing the French countryside and dotted towns in all their guises. Bonnaire is enchanting, and troubling in her portrayal - a truly great performance. All-up, a thoughtful, bittersweet tale about one woman's need for individuality and freedom - and our need for each other's guidance and help.

8/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2a/Le_Bonheur_%281965_film%29.jpg
Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=23667366

Le Bonheur - (1965)

Just because you're happy doesn't mean what you're doing is right - in this tale about infidelity and selfishness, there's something extraordinarily dark beneath the pictures of gardens and sweet family picnics. Really affecting French film. Full review here (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?p=2455908#post2455908), in my watchlist thread.

9/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7c/Original_Poster_to_the_1962_Left_Bank_film_Cl%C3%A9o_from_5_to_7.jpg
By Compagnie Commerciale Française Cinématographique (CCFC) - http://movieposters.2038.net/p/Cleo-De-5-A-7.jpg, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=35925562

Cléo from 5 to 7 - (1962)

Two hours in the life of pop singer Cléo Victoire, waiting to see if she has cancer, and two hours in the life of Paris, which is exploding with art and culture - and portents of doom. I fell in love with this film straight away - it's simply everything I love about avant-garde/cinéma vérité filmmaking. Full review here (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?p=2456101#post2456101) in my watchlist thread.

10/10

https://i.postimg.cc/brxp6801/dante.jpg
Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=35925562

Dante's Inferno - (1911)

One of the oldest feature films ever made - this follows Dante's (Salvatore Papa) travails through the 9 circles of Hell ala Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy. Amazing locations and special effects considering when this was made! At times gruesome and surreal, this can get a bit wordy with the intertitles, and archaic with it's doctrine, but is fascinating nonetheless. Full review here (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?p=2456228#post2456228), in my watchlist thread.

7/10

https://i.postimg.cc/d0R30zSH/man.jpg
Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=35925562

Man With a Movie Camera - (1929)

Everything movies can be, can do and can show us - it's in this Soviet extravaganza, along with a look at a day in the life of the average Soviet citizen during the 1920s. Full of dazzling ideas and expression through the language of cinema - a hectic race through everything cinema can be. Full review here (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?p=2456525#post2456525), in my watchlist thread.

9/10

[xSookieStackhouse]

5 i really loved it, some scenes reminds me of my favorite show TRUE BLOOD <3 and loved melissa from scream series and loved katherine newton from marvel and the girl who plays Abigail i knew she was on matilda the musicial and loved matthew goode also
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/bc/Abigail_Official_Poster.jpg

[Allaby]

A Dozen Summers (2015) Watched on Tubi. Directed by Kenton Hall and starring
Scarlet Hall and Hero Hall. A family comedy about two 12 year old sisters who hijack a kids movie to make a movie about themselves. I thought this was cute and enjoyable. Scarlet Hall and Hero Hall are absolutely charming and delightful, giving winning, natural performances. There is some amusing dialogue and clever film references. 3.5

[Gideon58]

Zelig (1983)

4.5

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/oCC3rSccbJV9bxMDRedtqI6pnla.jpg

This film is freaking brilliant.

[Gideon58]

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


1st Rewatch...The creative force behind Black Panther found a way to breathe new life into the Rocky franchise, lifting the Italian Stallion out of the cinematic dump where Rocky V and Rocky Balboa left him. In this film, we meet Adonis Johnson, the illegitimate son of Apollo Creed, who leaves a cushy office job to pursue his passion for fighting, which brings him to Philadelphia and to Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) to train him. This film effectively mines the history of franchise but locks us in the present by not looking past the fact that Rocky's days inside the ring are over, but it's time to pass on what he learned to the son of his deceased best friend. Michael B Jordan became an official movie star with his passionate performance as Adonis and Sylvester Stallone's conflicted Rocky actually earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. 4

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71ZeFpv3dLL._AC_UF894,1000_QL80_.jpg



2nd Rewatch...From the "If You Liked the First One" school filmmaking, Keenan Ivory Wayans brings us another scary movie lampoon that borrows from a lot of different movies. After a perfect lampoon of The Exorcist featuring James Woods, Veronica Cartwright, Andy Richter, and Natasha Lyonne, the primary story finds Cindy (Anna Faris) and the gang spending the weekend in the mansion of a perverted college professor (Tim Curry). The film features nods to films like The Amity Horror, Rebecca, Bell Book and Candle, and a perfect recreation of the big fight scene in the film version of Charlie's Angels, though most of the laughs are courtesy of a parrot with a filthy mouth. Like I said, if you liked the first one...3

[Gideon58]

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Umpteenth Rewatch...The late Rodney Dangerfield had one of his best roles in one of his biggest box office hits playing Thornton Melon, a self-made millionaire who, discouraged by the news that his son, Jason (Keith Gordon) is miserable in college and thinking about dropping out, decides to go to school with him, buying himself entrance into the college as a freshman. This formulaic comedy goes everywhere you expect it to but is so richly entertaining because this guy Thornton Melon is just do damned likable you can't excuse his doing all the wrong things for all the right reasons. This film provides laughs from opening to closing credits and features a lot of familiar faces in the supporting cast. Sally Kellerman is a vivacious leading leading lady and Robert Downey Jr., Burt Young, Ned Beatty, and the late Sam Kinison also pop up along the way. The film also provides us with two of the best comic villians ever in Paxton Whitehead as Professor Barbier and William Zabka as the arrogant swimming champ Chaz. Endless re-watch appeal here. 4

[Marco]

Monkey Man (2024)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2b/Monkey_Man_film.jpg
This is a good solid action/revenger from first time director Dev Patel. The story is good and while some of the violence is realistic (which I prefer, especially during the "boxing" scenes) some is downright silly. Including the old "12 baddies around me but each taking their turn to attack me" schtick. That said, this is enjoyable with a nice message behind it.
3.5

[Marco]

Asphalt City (2023)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d7/Asphalt_city_poster.jpg
Story about a rookie and a veteran Paramedic working in New York. All the social issues of providing care in a city that's degenerating whilst constantly taking flak from their management to avoid lawsuits etc. The performances are good and it reminds me of a cross between Bringing out the Dead and End of Watch. Theres a good depiction of the world-weariness of the veteran knowing that some people cannot be assisted (they will either die or do the exact thing the next night/day) and the commitment of the juniour member trying to get into Med School.
3

[Fabulous]

The Magic Flute (1975)

3

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/tFwdqC1scPPzeN1QLlfjbb2v35u.jpg

[Gideon58]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/34/LaRoyTexasFilmPoster.jpg



3.5

[FilmBuff]

https://hollywoodlife.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/challengers-movie-metro-goldwyn-mayer-embed.jpg

Luca Guadagnino's Challengers
2.5

Luca Guadagnino's Challengers (yes, that really is how the film's title appears on-screen) was one of my most eagerly anticipated movies of 2023 before it got bumped to April of this year.

Maybe all the anticipation simply set me up for disappointment, because while I admire much of the craftsmanship behind the movie, as well as the lead performances, I can't say I'm much more than mildly indifferent about the finished film.

Let's just cut to the chase: I feel that the characters of this movie are way, way less interesting than the actors playing them. I can say without hesitation that I like Zendaya, Josh O'Connor and Mike Faist quite a bit, have enjoyed their past performances, and really look forward to their future film roles.

But this movie just doesn't work if you feel the main characters are a little too self-absorbed and myopic to look at the larger world that's theirs for the taking (if they would only stop looking exclusively at each other). I just couldn't drum up any interest for what they were after, and didn't much care whether they got it or not.

Mind you, I don't think that a sports-related movie has to have a likable character in order to be a compelling film. Scorsese's Raging Bull is one of the most fascinating and hypnotic movies of the 20th century, thanks to a spell-binding performance by Robert DeNiro - but the character of Jake LaMotta couldn't be more off-putting or unlikeable. And yet - the movie worked, because he was such a flawed character that, at some level, you couldn't stop feeling sorry for him, and for all the misery he caused to the people in his life.

By contrast, Luca Guadagnino's Challengers features some very photogenic and attractive lead actors - but they got stuck playing vapid, shallow characters and at some point, I was just kind of glad that they'd all gotten stuck with each other, rather than inflict any misery to any other people in their lives.

Since it's not secret (thanks to the trailers) that this movie involves a romantic triangle, I wish Guadagnino hadn't made such an obvious allegory here - essentially, it amounts to Zendaya's character being the tennis ball that her two suitors keep tossing back and forth, like in a tennis match.

I don't know that I would go so far as to call these characters toxic, but they sure do have a lot of pent-up issues and perhaps a better movie would have involved their efforts to understand themselves better and grow up emotionally, and becoming better human beings.

A better movie with a romantic triangle where the two guys definitely have some serious issues would be Alfonso Cuarón's Y Tu Mama Tambien.

On a side note, this movie is the first to feature the 100th Anniversary logo for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the once-fabled studio that once boasted to have "more stars than there are in heaven". What a shame they couldn't get a better movie to mark that anniversary; but in any case, MGM today is but a pale shadow of the giant movie factory it once was - releasing at least one new movie every week, all year long!

Irving Thalberg and Louis B. Mayer would be rolling in their graves if they saw what MGM stands for today...

[Guaporense]

Pretty sure they still make terrible movies.

I thought Boondock Saints was awesome.

Also they don't make 'em as bad as they used to either:

Battlefield Earth (2000)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/21/Battlefield_earth_poster.jpg

The Room (2003)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e1/TheRoomMovie.jpg

Catwoman (2004)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/04/Catwoman_poster.jpg

Alexander (2004)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/ae/AlexanderPoster.jpg

:cool:

[stillmellow]

https://www.themoviedb.org/t/p/original/75evSbbgmDZGmmkMZfvNHVeR8AM.jpg


Lost Highway


Rewatched many times. Most online interpretations are wrong. What you see in the movie is what happened.


"A"

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/K8V2gCwB/baby-reindeer.jpg
Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=44991396

Baby Reindeer - (2024)

I know, I know - not a movie, but I rarely sneak anything in here that's not a movie. I watched all of Baby Reindeer and it was pretty compulsive viewing. Stalkers can be pretty scary, but I found that Donny Dunn (Richard Gadd) did tend to make his troubles worse by behaving in a manner as erratic as his bunny boiler of a fanatic Martha (Jessica Gunning). To be fair, he did have issues more complex than you'd ever guess when the series starts, and this is one piece of 'drama-based-on-real-life' that adds complexity to both sides of the equation. Both funny and darkly dramatic, I found it refreshingly real-feeling and endlessly surprising - it's full of those "Oh...NO!" moments. If you're ever flicking through stuff on Netflix, unsure of what to watch next, give it a go.

8/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/3b/Citizen_X_%28poster%29.jpg
By May be found at the following website: http://www.moviepostershop.com/citizen-x-movie-poster-1995, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=44991396

Citizen X - (1995)

Another true story - this time it's about the Soviet Union's most notorious serial killer, Andrei Chikatilo (Jeffrey DeMunn), who killed over 50 men, women and children in the most horrifying manner imaginable. The Soviet system denied the existence of serial killers in their worker's paradise, so the alarm was never sounded that there was a maniac running around. This also features Stephen Rea, Donald Sutherland and Max von Sydow as three of Russia's best, hunting for the killer. For what it is - a TV movie - it's pretty good. Full review here (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?p=2456740#post2456740), in my watchlist thread.

6/10

[matt72582]

The Old Oak - 6/10
Ken Loach's (probably) last movie. It could have been great, but it's not enough to be on the side of the angels. Script, acting, directing is very "made-for-school"... "Are you ok?" and all this ... corniness.. Even the "Assad did this to us" without really addressing the underlying issues is not very Ken Loach-like. Not much depth.


https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f8/The_Old_Oak_2023_film_poster.png

[Stirchley]

98718

Good movie from Jordan (I think). Quite a bit lost in translation as per usual. Lead actress very good.

98719

Realized halfway through that I had seen this movie before. (Why do I keep doing this to myself?) It’s a very good movie. Two leads are very good, especially Carrie Coon.

[Deschain]

https://i.postimg.cc/K8V2gCwB/baby-reindeer.jpg
Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=44991396

Baby Reindeer - (2024)

I know, I know - not a movie, but I rarely sneak anything in here that's not a movie. I watched all of Baby Reindeer and it was pretty compulsive viewing. Stalkers can be pretty scary, but I found that Donny Dunn (Richard Gadd) did tend to make his troubles worse by behaving in a manner as erratic as his bunny boiler of a fanatic Martha (Jessica Gunning). To be fair, he did have issues more complex than you'd ever guess when the series starts, and this is one piece of 'drama-based-on-real-life' that adds complexity to both sides of the equation. Both funny and darkly dramatic, I found it refreshingly real-feeling and endlessly surprising - it's full of those "Oh...NO!" moments. If you're ever flicking through stuff on Netflix, unsure of what to watch next, give it a go.

8/10


I been on the fence about watching this, worrying it’s a little too grim and true crime-y but your review is convincing me to give it a shot.

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/514lQ+eWI2L._AC_UF894,1000_QL80_DpWeblab_.jpg



5th Rewatch...An extremely clever screenplay, kinetic direction, an Oscar-worthy music score, and chemistry between the stars that rivals Bogey and Ingrid Bergman combine to make perfect escapist entertainment. This slick and sexy story of two professional contract killers who are married to each other and have no idea they are in the same business provides breezy, if improbable, entertainment. I love that the film opens with them in couples therapy and they're unsure whether they've been married five years or six. This is the film that was the impetus for the media circus known as "Brangelina." The first time I've seen two actors fall in love with each other onscreen. Never tire of this movie. 4

[Stirchley]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/514lQ+eWI2L._AC_UF894,1000_QL80_DpWeblab_.jpg



5th Rewatch...An extremely clever screenplay, kinetic direction, an Oscar-worthy music score, and chemistry between the stars that rivals Bogey and Ingrid Bergman combine to make perfect escapist entertainment. This slick and sexy story of two professional contract killers who are married to each other and have no idea they are in the same business provides breezy, if improbable, entertainment. I love that the film opens with them in couples therapy and they're unsure whether they've been married five years or six. This is the film that was the impetus for the media circus known as "Brangelina." The first time I've seen two actors fall in love with each other onscreen. Never tire of this movie. 4

I have never seen this movie.

[FilmBuff]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BZWE2MjAzZDAtOGQxZC00OTMyLTgzYzAtN2UxMDAyMjFiMWNhXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNTk5Nzg1NjQ@._V1_FMjpg_UX1000_.j pg

Tótem
3.5

A darling of the festival circuit, Lila Avilés' Tótem is now available for streaming on the Criterion Channel.
If you now have, or have ever had, loved ones at home facing a life-threatening medical condition, this movie could be pretty devastating.
With that caveat aside, there's a lot here to enjoy, as this is one of those movies that is mostly told through a child's eyes and has a way of planting a lot of images into your head.
This movie was short-listed for Best International Film at this year's Oscars, and while it didn't get nominated, it would have been a very worthy nominee.

[Stirchley]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BZWE2MjAzZDAtOGQxZC00OTMyLTgzYzAtN2UxMDAyMjFiMWNhXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNTk5Nzg1NjQ@._V1_FMjpg_UX1000_.j pg

Tótem
3.5

A darling of the festival circuit, Lila Avilés' Tótem is now available for streaming on the Criterion Channel.
If you now have, or have ever had, loved ones at home facing a life-threatening medical condition, this movie could be pretty devastating.
With that caveat aside, there's a lot here to enjoy, as this is one of those movies that is mostly told through a child's eyes and has a way of planting a lot of images into your head.
This movie was short-listed for Best International Film at this year's Oscars, and while it didn't get nominated, it would have been a very worthy nominee.

Amazon Prime has it.

[FilmBuff]

Amazon Prime has it.

Yes, you can buy or rent it from Prime Video, but it isn't included with your subscription

https://i.postimg.cc/NffPw7sV/IMG-0942.jpg

[Gideon58]

https://themotionpictures.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/wholesale2.jpg



3.5

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BZjZlOWFjZjQtYTgxMy00MDdhLWFlNDMtYzYwNTMzZGE5YTVkXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTkxNjUyNQ@@._V1_FMjpg_UX1000_.j pg


1st Rewatch...Alex Winter, who played Bill in the Bill & Ted franchise, directed this eye-opening and often moving look at child stars, their motivations, their fears, and struggles navigating in adult Hollywood. There are interviews with a a young Disney channel star who got his first job at age 11 and was dead at the age of 20 and Todd Bridges, who wanted to be in the business and people like Milla Jovovich, Henry Thomas, and Wil Wheaton, who were forced into it, and Mara Wilson, who wasn't forced into it, but grew to hate it. Then there's Evan Rachel Wood, was shoved into the business but learned to love it, but the personal hell that Bridges went through is probably the highlight of the film. We also meet two wanna be child stars named Marc Slater and Demi Singleton. Demi Seems to want stardom more than anything but Marc seems to be going through the motions to please his mother. Winters scores a bullseye here. 4

[Darth Pazuzu]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/22/The_Ministry_of_Ungentlemanly_Warfare_poster.jpg/220px-The_Ministry_of_Ungentlemanly_Warfare_poster.jpg

April 23, 2024

THE MINISTRY OF UNGENTLEMANLY WARFARE (Guy Ritchie / 2024)

A pretty good, pretty decent action flick from Guy Ritchie, who to be perfectly honest I've never been a die-hard fan of, but whose irreverently humorous sensibility is very distinctive and which I do have a modicum of respect for. Anyway, this one's an apparently heavily fictionalized version of Operation Postmaster, a covert spy mission which helped to turn the tide for Britain against the Nazis in World War II. To be perfectly honest, I don't really have much to say about this one. I can say I found it reasonably entertaining. Also, fans of world history and entertainment trivia will be very interested to know that Operation Postmaster was the real-life inspiration for the James Bond novels and subsequent series of films. No surprise there, seeing as how writer Ian Fleming was part of the inner circle, back when he was working for the British Naval Intelligence Division during the war!

In short, not great, but still pretty good...

[Darth Pazuzu]

Meanwhile on the home video front...

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91rsxciukhL._AC_UY218_.jpg https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81gy++uoD2L._AC_UY218_.jpg

Shane (George Stevens / 1953)
The Ballad of Little Jo (Maggie Greenwald / 1993)

Two more Westerns, coincidentally forty years apart...

First up, Shane, the classic from director George Stevens, starring Alan Ladd, Jean Arthur and Van Heflin. I had borrowed this on DVD before, but now I own the Blu-ray, and it is definitely one of the all-time greats. The aspect of the story which really impressed me was the fact that the character Shane is truly a mystery. We don't really know who is, or where he came from. We know he's quick with a gun, we sense a dark past, and we sense that he's trying to turn over a new leaf by working with the Starrett family. We sense that he doesn't want to get involved in any trouble, but trouble arrives anyway in the form of belligerent cattle baron Rufus Ryker (Emile Meyer), his henchmen, and the later arrival of Shane's opposite number, the sinister Jack Wilson (Jack Palance), after which he's forced to rely on the gunslinging talents which he had attempted to forsake. In a way, Alan Ladd's Shane kind of reminds me of the "Superman speech" made by David Carradine as the title character in Kill Bill: Volume 2 (2004). Shane is a former killer, a kind of Western Übermensch, who in working for the Starretts is attempting to be just another guy, a working man. Jack Palance's Wilson, on the other hand, has no such illusions, and in fact harbors a bemused supervillain-like contempt for most of the people around him. One gets the feeling that when Ryker enlists Wilson as a show of force against Van Heflin's Joe Starrett and his fellow homesteaders - whom he refers to as "squatters" - he really has no understanding of just what sort of force he is unleashing. Inevitably, things come to a head and Shane must face down Wilson as well as Ryker and his men.

Next, we have a wonderful little film called The Ballad of Little Jo. I had heard of this movie for a while now, and I decided to make a blind purchase of the Kino Lorber Blu-ray edition. And it really is a very good film, very moving and very elegiac. It's based on an incredible true story which took place in the late 19th century. It deals with Josephine Monaghan (Suzy Amis), a young woman from somewhere in the Eastern U.S. who has an affair with her family's portrait photographer and has a child out of wedlock. Banished by her family in disgrace (the child having been adopted by her sister), she heads out West and finds that a young woman living alone there has precious few options. After narrowly escaping an attempted rape, Josephine decides to cut her hair, scar her face with a razor, and attempt to pass herself off as a man named "Jo," eventually finding work as a shepherd. She eventually falls in love with a Chinese laborer nicknamed "Tinman" (David Chung) who very quickly figures out that "Mr. Jo" is no Mister. Suzy Amis is wonderful in the lead role, and the rest of the cast is equally distinguished. Ian McKellen plays a very volatile and dangerous man named Percy who befriends Jo. Bo Hopkins plays Frank Badger, a none-too-bright but gregarious man who gives Jo the shepherding job. And very early on, the late great René Auberjonois makes an appearance as a slimy traveling salesman named Hollander. Also, there is a beautiful, folky musical score by David Mansfield, mainly centered on acoustic guitar. I was deeply moved by this movie and I love it a great deal. I would heartily recommend it to anyone who hasn't seen it.

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5b/Letscarejessica.jpg
Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17682702

Let's Scare Jessica to Death - (1971)

Here's one I just stumbled upon - a 1971 horror film with a fantastically spooky atmosphere that has an interesting "is she just imagining all of this, or is it real?" premise. Jessica (Zohra Lampert) has recently spent time in an institution because of her nerves, and we immediately begin to distrust what she sees, mainly because she distrusts herself. Was that person in the graveyard real? Is she just hearing that whispering in her head? When an antiques dealer tells her about a bride who drowned and whose body went missing at the house she's just moved into with her husband Duncan (Barton Heyman) and friend Woody (Kevin O'Connor), Jessica starts to wonder if the person they discovered living there (and who they decide to let stay with them) is perhaps a vampire - especially considering she looks identical to a person in an old, old photograph they discover. This film gets you scared about what might be behind every closed door, or around every corner - and the 3rd act is a doozy. There are moments that should probably be iconic, but as it is, I'd never heard of Let's Scare Jessica to Death before. There's a lot to unpack for those who like to look into their films in depth - and for fans I'd highly recommend it. Shoddy film poster if you ask me.

8/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f3/TheWhalePoster.jpg
By https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13833688/, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=72209554

The Whale - (2022)

Second watch - really moving. I can't say that Brendan Fraser didn't deserve his Oscar - but that role had "Oscar please" written all over it. I'm just glad he played it, because I can't imagine many others doing it the justice he did. Fraser has a certain way of earning deep sympathy, despite exasperating us.

8/10

https://i.postimg.cc/13rKgMNb/k.jpg
By Poster published and distributed by Island Alive in association with New Cinema. Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=86342540

Koyaanisqatsi - (1982)

A real snapshot of the entire world and humanity circa 1976 to 1981, with time lapse and slow motion shots of the Earth and humanity - nature and technology - to the music of Philip Glass. Captivating and spectacular. Reviewed here (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?p=2456959#post2456959), in my watchlist thread.

8/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/3f/Tini_zabytykh_predkiv_%281965%2C_Ukrainian_poster_by_Heorhiy_Yakutovych%29.jpg
By National Oleksandr Dovzhenko Film Centre Archives [1], Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=68937596

Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors - (1965)

In the Carpathian mountains a tragic romance becomes legend for the Hutsul people. Beautifully photographed with original cinematography, and full of all the cultural oddities these mountain people gloriously display. Reviewed here (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?p=2457313#post2457313), in my watchlist thread.

9/10

[Stirchley]

98756

Cumbersome title, but an enjoyable movie. Jodie Comer very good.

98757

Needed something mindless after a stressful day. Amusing & nicely done rom-com. I really like Sydney Sweeney.

[Gideon58]

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



3

[FilmBuff]

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/i4AAAOSwLpFl8xir/s-l1600.jpg

The People's Joker
5

With its neon-colored, ultra-low-budget look, bat**** crazy premise and offbeat soundtrack, The People's Joker is a deliciously trippy and at times trashy riff on American pop culture; the movie is being advertised as a "fair use" take on the popular characters from the WB movies - it's almost hard to imagine anything this close to copyright infringement getting a theatrical release.

This also happens to be the most avant-garde American movie in recent memory; it combines a whole gamut of camera trickery - cheap green screen effects, stop-motion animation using action figures and some hilariously low-resolution CG effects - in a way that is as entertaining as anything that could be done on a larger budget, and even more fascinating. In a way, it produces an almost hypnotic effect.

Going too much into plot details might ruin some of the fun and surprises that await the adventurous viewer; the movie isn't happy just to present its own twisted takes on characters from DC Comics, it also skewers some real-life celebrities and nationally-televised comedy shows.

The movie throws out so many wild ideas and offbeat jokes, it may not be possible to catch everything in a single viewing (there were several moments when I badly wished I could have hit the "freeze frame" button).

It may be a bit too soon to tell, but I really wouldn't be surprised if this becomes a huge cult hit and the object of regular midnight showings, much like The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

[FilmBuff]

https://thestreamr.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/boy-kills-world-6.jpg

Boy Kills World
3

I'm not a squeamish person - and I've seen plenty of gruesome stuff IRL - but there's still a part of me that wishes recent action movies hadn't become so overly reliant on over-the-top violence.

It's not that I have any moral qualms about simulated violence; I think each new round of "can-you-top-this?" in every action movie just deadens the senses and makes one almost indifferent to it.

The things that seemed truly appalling in 1971 when A Clockwork Orange shocked audiences around the world seemed positively tame compared to the carnage being doled out in theaters today. It's gotten to where we routinely see people's heads being crushed like cantaloupes and it barely gets a reaction any more.

That small caveat aside, I mostly enjoyed this gonzo action movie, although it also happens to be the second time in the last few months that a killing machine goes on an all-out quest to avenge his dead mother in some exotic fictional city.

This one also happens to borrow a few story twists from the OT trilogy - it wasn't really absolutely necessary, I guess, but it may at least keep things from getting too predictable in the movie's last stretch.

If you're in the mood for hyper-violent action, then this movie is definitely for you!

[skizzerflake]

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

Sasquatch Sunset - I guess you can do worse than this movie, but I'm not quite sure how. So....makeup is good, scenery is good and they do look like Bigfoot, Sasquatch, Abominable Snowman, or whatever you call it. Everything else, however, sucks. If you really want the plot synopsis, it's on Wikipedia. It's dumb, multiplied by 4, the number of characters in the movie. I'll never have those two hours back.

[FilmBuff]

Should I be surprised that Sasquatch Sunset might be too subtle for some folks?

Nope, I guess it shouldn't surprise me in the least. :p

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/0d/Poster_Flesh_%26_Blood.jpg
By http://www.impawards.com/1985/flesh_and_blood_ver2.html, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4443079

Flesh + Blood - (1985)

When Paul Verhoeven first came to the United States he made the massive box office flop Flesh + Blood, which I think was always fated to eventually become a cult classic. First of all let me get this out of the way - I apologize, on behalf of my country, for the charisma-free Tom Burlinson. I don't know who earmarked him for stardom - this was his first U.S. film, after which he quickly faded from the scene. Thank goodness then, that we have the likes of Rutger Hauer, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jack Thompson and Toht himself Ronald Lacey leading the show here. We take a trip back to 1501, with all of the requisite dirt, death, conflict, disease, and superstition. A group of mercenaries led by Martin (Hauer) and a visionary Cardinal (Lacey) form together in a bid to wreak vengeance on the ruler of a city, Arnolfini (Fernando Hilbeck) who duped them. They take Agnes, the virginal daughter of an aristocrat who is betrothed to Arnolfini's son Steven (Burlinson) prisoner, so Steven convinces skilled captain Hawkwood (Thompson) to help free her from the castle they've captured. You better be damn well warned - there's a fair bit of rape in this film - and even non-rape sex scenes have an element of force to them. That said - the way this film wallow's in the mud (both literal and figurative), along with the age's ignorance, cruelty, mysticism and violence fits the setting and time period. The band of mercenaries in it initially do what they do because the hand of fate and God is supposedly guiding them - but greed and self-interest always trumps idealism in the end. An impressive English-language debut, and a cult classic I had to see in the end.

7.5/10

https://i.postimg.cc/ryncWQgv/leave.jpg
By &quot;Copyright 1945 by Twentieth Century–Fox Film Corp.&quot; - Scan via Heritage Auctions. Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=89336631

Leave Her to Heaven - (1945)

Jealous wife Ellen (Gene Tierney) resorts to murder and self-harm when it comes to having husband Richard (Cornel Wilde) to herself. When that doesn't work, she commits the ultimate act of treachery. Tierney is fantastic in this, with her piercing blue eyes brought out by the wonderful use of Technicolor. Also features Vincent Price. Full review here (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?p=2457624#post2457624), in my watchlist thread.

8/10

[skizzerflake]

After seeing Sasquatch Sunset (NOT a favorite at all, a complete train-wreck in my opinion), I had to find one I DO like, arguably the best movie from the classic Universal series, The Bride of Frankenstein, directed by James Whale. This movie is so wonderfully over-the-top and completely melodramatic, not just for 1935, but for just about any year. We have Boris Karloff reprising his classic monster role, Elsa Lanchester as The Bride, not to mention Colin Clive reprising his role as Henry Frankenstein and the inimitable Una O'Connor as Minnie, complete with cockney accent. The blue ray version has a full restoration, probably looking better than it ever did in 1935. The monochrome look of this movie is downright terrific. A new world of Gods and Monsters. It's such a delightfully twisted movie that it's hard to imagine that it ever got made in the Hollywood of 1935, the best of the best.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQqevOVa1FY

[Miss Vicky]

98768

Guilty As Sin (Sidney Lumet, 1993)
Imdb (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107057/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1)

Date Watched: 04/26/2024
Cinema or Home: Home
Reason For Watching: mrblond mentioned it in the Neo Noir Countdown
Rewatch: No.

I saw this mentioned in the Neo Noir Countdown and thought I'd give it a try. Ever since I was a teenager when I saw him in In Pursuit of Honor (a made for TV movie that I love) and the TV series Nash Bridges, I've had a little bit of a soft spot for Don Johnson. So when I saw that he was in this, it caught my interest.

Having said that, I'm used to seeing him play roles where he's charming - and maybe has a bit of a way with the ladies - but is noble overall. Or at least charmingly funny even if his character is evil, like he was as "Big Daddy" in Django Unchained, but this performance is something different. As David Greenhill he is charming, but its a slimy kind of charm that left me feeling uneasy throughout and Johnson is absolutely perfect in the role. I couldn't take my eyes off of him. Rebecca De Mornay and the remainder of the cast were all good or at least serviceable in their roles (though Stephen Lang's perm and enormous mustache are hard to forgive), but for me this was Johnson's movie.

However, beyond his role this movie is riddled with flaws and implausibilities. So much so that it's a little hard to believe that this is from the same director that brought us 12 Angry Men, Serpico, and Dog Day Afternoon. It really demands the viewer to strain their ability to suspend disbelief: A man is assaulted to the point of hospitalization and there seems to be no investigation or police involvement, a surprise witness appears that magically gives Greenhill a very flimsy alibi, and the film culminates in a climax that is so over the top and bloody that I struggled not to laugh at it. Even so, I enjoyed it quite a bit and unashamedly so - though Guilty As Sin probably ought to be filed under "guilty pleasures."

3.5

[xSookieStackhouse]

5 loved it, loved emily blunt shes amazing actress, loved ryan gosling his a good actor and ofcourse loved aaron taylor-johnson he always my favorite on marvel <3. amazing movie i really loved it
https://cdn.eventcinemas.com.au/cdn/resources/movies/17401/images/largeposter.jpg

[stillmellow]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNTJhZDg2ZmQtMTkzOC00NTU4LThkNTItYzkzNzNjMzhjMDMwXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjQwMjk0NjI@._V1_.jpg


Well that sucked. Had a couple chuckles here and there, but completely failed to live up to the potential of its premise. Reminds me of the film Paul in that regard.


"D"

[Allaby]

Challengers (2024) I enjoyed this. Zendaya is very good here and Mike Faist and Josh O'Connor are effective in their roles, although they can't quite match Zendaya. The screenplay is sharp and smart and the way the story is told is interesting. It worked really well for me. A really good use of sound and music too. I would rank this as the 3rd best film of the year so far. Tennis is sexy now! 4

[Marco]

Soylent Green (1973)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/13/Soylent_green.jpg
I had this name in the back of my head but never got round to seeing it. In a dystopian future (past now :)) population rise and global warming coupled with pollution have brought society to it's knees. Only the very rich can afford to live comfortably. But anyway, an intrepid detective (the suitably bewigged Charlton Heston) is sent to investigate the mysterious death of a Soylent Corporation executive. They make the "food" that most of the populous consume. This is not bad for it's time, a good premise and flows along nicely, I think Heston was really miscast though.
2.5

[Dead2009]

Late Night With The Devil: 5 out of 5

[insamyniac]

The Nun (2018)
Annabelle: Creation (2017)
The Nun 2 (2024)
Annabelle (2014)
The Conjuring (2013)

Overall, I'd say for what I watched on horror so far, I find doll-related horror the most creepiest. Plus, The Conjuring is even based on a true story.
I couldn't really watch them without distracting myself on the side, tho. So, I'd give them a pretty high rating. It doesn't look like fake and not everything is immediately scaring me. 10 out of 10/ 5 out of 5. They're fun to watch so far and I plan on continuing the conjuring-verse.

[Marco]

Late Night With The Devil: 5 out of 5

I thought it OK, not scary but also not really biting enough to be a good satire. Fell between 2 stools for me. Decent watch though.

[Fabulous]

Portrait of Jennie (1948)

3.5

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/n9Hbq2PRv3nhbFbLQkgWb7nP8Ck.jpg

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/cd/Terrifier_2_Poster.jpg
By http://www.impawards.com/2022/posters/terrifier_two_xxlg.jpg, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=65727992

Terrifier 2 - (2022)

Okay - as horror fans keep an eye on Art the Clown we see the gradual development of filmmaker Damien Leone, who made a very different film than his original Terrifier when he went to make Terrifier 2. The first was a particularly mindless slasher, and it seemed a shame to have wasted the effective horror by not having anything substantial to back it up. This second film isn't too bad, and incorporates characters this time and doesn't make the mistake (as far as I'm concerned) of trying to think up some half-baked mythology for his monster. He just introduces us to a one-parent family, and sets his massacre-machine going by incorporating the events of the first film into a larger framework. It's not groundbreaking, but everything works really well - I didn't even mind the fact that this was 138 minutes long, which is very strange for a horror film like Terrifier 2. In the end I'm kind of motivated to go back and watch the first film again, which I didn't really like - I'll wait until I see Terrifier 3 before I act on that impulse.

7/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/46/The_Most_Hated_Man_on_the_Internet_poster.jpg
By Unknown - IMP Awards, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=71531910

The Most Hated Man on the Internet - (2022)

A documentary about how Charlotte Laws, an anti-bully campaigner, some investigative journalists and the FBI took on Hunter Moore and his revenge porn website IsAnyoneUp.com. Interesting enough to be worth watching. Full review here (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?p=2457909#post2457909), in my watchlist thread.

6/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/85/OSS_117%2C_Le_Caire_nid_d%27espions_poster.jpg
Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8839127

OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies - (2006)

Very funny spoof of the Connery Bond films along with Jean Bruce's Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath, a.k.a. OSS 117 character. Gets every detail right, taking us back to 1950s/1960s-type spy films. Jean Dujardin is great, and both director Michel Hazanavicius and Dujardin would reunite to bring us The Artist 5 years later. Full review here (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?p=2458103#post2458103), in my watchlist thread.

7/10

https://i.postimg.cc/7P25xLGH/lover-stalker-killer.jpg
Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8839127

Lover, Stalker, Killer - (2024)

This Netflix documentary about a stalker who sends her target over 100,000 messages - some of them particularly frightening - along with burning down homes and keying cars, has some twists that would befit the most unlikely of Hollywood movies. For the twist alone, it was a rewarding watch.

6/10

[Nausicaä]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Oppenheimer_%28film%29.jpg/220px-Oppenheimer_%28film%29.jpg

3

SF = Zzzz





[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

[Gideon58]

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3rd Rewatch...Steve Martin hits the bullseye as the star and screenwriter of this near brilliant black comedy. Martin plays the title character, a schlock movie director whose career is circling the drain when he gets hold of a script that will be a box office smash called "Chubby Rain" and he goes to movie superstar Kit Ramsey (Eddie Murphy) to star. When he refuses, Bowfinger decides to shoot the movie around Ramsey without his knowledge and utilizing a nerdy look-alike named Jiff (also Murphy) for close-ups and dialogue. Martin's razor sharp screenplay is a dead on look at the armpit of Hollywood. providing plenty of laughs and his hand-picked cast is perfection, especially Murphy, who was robbed of a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his hysterically funny dual role. That scene of Jiff trying to cross a California highway cracks me up every time I watch. Also loved Christine Baranski as a flighty method actress unaware they are shooting the film without Kit's knowledge and Terrance Stamp as a New Age Guru who has Kit's ear and is taking as much money from him as he can while he can. Love this movie. 4

[Gideon58]

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1st Rewatch....Hardcore action fans will find this roller coaster ride from the creator of From Dusk Til Dawn. inspired by a fake movie trailer, right up their alley. When Rodriguez and Tarantino teamed up for Grindhouse, Rodrigues created a fake trailer for a movie called Machete starring Danny Trejo that many fans mistook it for a real movie and when they found out it wasn't one, demanded it be made, and Rodriguez obliged with this unapologetically bloody epic about a former mercenary who is on the trail of a pair of crooked drug dealers (Jeff Fahey, Steven Seagal) who are working with a crooked US Senator (Robert De Niro). Rodriguez creates non-stop action with a body count that even outdid the Rambo franchise. Danny Trejo redefines badass as the title character. 3.5

[Gideon58]

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1st Rewatch...Check your brain at the door and there is entertainment value to be gleaned from director Michael Bay. Will Sharp is a financially strapped Gulf War veteran who goes to his brother, a career criminal sociopath named Daniel, for a loan but instead reluctantly agrees to assist his brother in a bank robbery that goes horribly wrong. It's not long before Jake and Will are on the run in an ambulance, with Will driving, a female EMT worker and a wounded LAPD cop as hostages. and $16,000,000. This is such an entertaining movie on the surface and as long as the viewer stays on the surface, that's great, but if you think about anything that happens in this movie for more than 10 seconds, you're going to be like WTF? Bay's skills at mounting a proper action film are all over this and the performances by Jake Gyllenhaal and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Daniel and Will, respectively, are explosive. 3.5

[Stirchley]

Tennis is sexy now! 4

Have you seen the documentary Netflix show “Break Point”? Two seasons in & it’s very good.

[Allaby]

Have you seen the documentary Netflix show “Break Point”? Two seasons in & it’s very good.

No, I haven't. I might check it out.

[Stirchley]

98818

Sweet & very sad. Very prescient too - just look at Gaza & Ukraine, for example.

98819

Good movie. Jeffrey Wright made this movie for me.

98820

Nicely done. Maybe more enjoyable if one is Hispanic & understands more what is going on.

98821

Re-watch of a good movie. Blake Lively very good.

[Gideon58]

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3

[Darth Pazuzu]

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Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks / 1959)
The Magnificent Seven (John Sturges / 1960)
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (John Ford / 1962)
How the West Was Won (Henry Hathaway - John Ford - George Marshall / 1962)
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (George Roy Hill / 1969)
Dances With Wolves (Kevin Costner / 1990)

Quite a haul this last payday!

To sum up, but briefly:

Rio Bravo - A rather unusual but very classy late '50s Western from Howard Hawks, starring John Wayne as a town sheriff, Dean Martin as his alcoholic deputy, Walter Brennan as the older, crusty but lovable other deputy, and Ricky Nelson as the gun-slinging, guitar-playing new recruit. Rounding off the cast is Angie Dickinson as a feisty, independent gambler who becomes the Wayne character's love interest. What makes this movie so unusual is its unhurried pacing and rather laid-back emphasis on character-building. It's like we're as much hanging out with the characters as much as following their adventure. It's certainly not lacking in slam-bang action, however. The final shootout is an absolute doozy.

The Magnificent Seven - Really, what's there left to be said about this one? In many ways, a defining watershed film in the Western genre, the gateway to the '60s and almost a prototype for the Italian "spaghetti" Western (especially with regard to its status as a remake of an Akira Kurosawa samurai film). Yul Brynner leads a cast of up-and-comers including Steve McQueen, James Coburn and Charles Bronson as a group of specialist gunfighters hired out to defend a Mexican village from the bandit Calvera - played by Eli Wallach - and his army.

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance - Late masterpiece from John Ford, tragic and elegiac but still a lot of fun. James Stewart plays the tenderfoot lawyer from the East who heads out West and finds himself in over his head, John Wayne plays the tough rancher who reluctantly takes him under his wing, and a positively volcanic Lee Marvin as the whip-wielding, intemperate title character, one of the scariest of all Western villains! Vera Miles portrays the woman both Wayne and Stewart are in love with, and be on the lookout for Woody Strode, Strother Martin, Lee Van Cleef, Edmond O'Brien and John Carradine in supporting roles.

How the West Was Won - A rather impressive epic spectacular, one of only two narrative feature films made in the three-strip Cinerama format (the other being The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm, also from 1962). It's the tale of three generations of a family of settlers who travel Westward to make a life for themselves. Carroll Baker and Debbie Reynolds portray two sisters whose destinies take them in different directions, James Stewart and Gregory Peck portray the mountain man and professional gambler who become their husbands, George Peppard plays the son of Baker and Stewart who follows in his father's footsteps to fight with the Union Cavalry in the Civil War, work for the railroad and eventually become a U.S. marshal. Along the way we also meet Karl Malden and Agnes Moorehead as the girls' parents, Walter Brennan as the leader of a group of nasty river pirates, John Wayne as General Sherman, Richard Widmark as an ornery, double-dealing railroad boss and Eli Wallach as the leader of a gang of train-robbing outlaws. (Notice how Wallach always seems to excel in that kind of role?) The film is subdivided into five chapters (The Rivers, The Plains, The Civil War, The Railroad and The Outlaws), the 1st, 2nd and 5th of which were directed by Henry Hathaway, the 4th by George Marshall, and the middle section dealing with the Civil War is directed by the great John Ford himself. The movie is very impressive, but feels rather stagey, basically the consequence of the rather ungainly Cinerama cameras, which could not really be moved effectively enough to follow the actors around in dialogue scenes. However, the process really comes rather spectacularly into its own with the action sequences, which include a ride down wild river rapids, an Indian attack and chase sequence, a buffalo stampede, and a gunfight aboard a moving train. I got the special 2-disc edition that contains not only the basic widescreen version of the film, but also a version in the Smilebox format which replicates the curvature of the Cinerama theatrical presentation!

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - What's truly fascinating about this particular film is how unique it remains to this day, despite its obvious influence upon many later movies - Westerns and buddy comedies. Part of that is the uniquely wry and witty sensibility that director George Roy Hill brings to the film, but also Paul Newman and Robert Redford's chemistry in their roles as the titular outlaws. Conrad Hall's cinematography is also distinctive. (On the other hand, I consider the Burt Bacharach score kind of... iffy, to put it kindly.) I don't think there's any other movie - Western or otherwise - that's quite like this one. (BTW, if you want to hear a really cool cover version of Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head, check out the Manic Street Preachers' version. That band seems to have a minor fixation on this film, which actually gets namechecked in their 1996 B-side Sepia.)

Dances With Wolves - I actually saw this one during its first theatrical run, what feels like ages ago, back when I was still in high school! I remember liking it well enough at the time, and felt like it pretty much deserved all the awards and accolades it and its star/director Kevin Costner received. The steelbook Blu-ray edition from Shout! Factory features both the 3-hour+ theatrical version, as well as the almost 4-hour Extended Cut. Upon unwrapping it, I immediately popped in the Extended Cut, which I hadn't seen. I found it engaging enough, and I still enjoyed the story of Lt. John Dunbar and his adventures with the Sioux tribe. Still, the extended version perhaps feels a bit slow. Perhaps later on, I'll reacquaint myself with the original theatrical cut. This movie perhaps falls on the side of Hollywood respectability - some might say too much so - but its success certainly helped keep the Western alive and current during an otherwise dry spell for the genre, and paved the way for much that would follow, in particular Unforgiven in 1992 and Tombstone in 1993.

[Marco]

Child of God (2013)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/99/Child_of_God_poster.jpg
Another laugh-a-minute adaptation of a book by Cormac McCarthy. Scott Haze plays Lester, a man so trodden by his circumstances in Tennessee he becomes debased and ends up living in the hills making his own fun shall we say. The direction is good by James Franco (who also appears). I didn't really know if it was just a nihilistic statement or if the film-maker/writer was trying to draw a parallel between civilised and uncivilised when it comes to the hunt for Lester. Either way, beware, you see a bloke shove a twig up his @rse to clean out his dinner. Not heard much of Franco recently. Legal issues?
3

[Thief]

THE LAST BRUNCH
(2024, Cummings)

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


"Sometimes you don't realize how thirsty you are until it's right in front of you."



The short film follows two couples – Bridge & Kara (Bridge Stuart & Taylor Misiak) and Jamison & Ashley (Dustin Hahn & Julia Bales) – as they meet for brunch at a Peruvian fusion restaurant with Moroccan pots. The meeting results in a series of awkward exchanges, especially between Bridge and Jamison, that might end up revealing what they're really thirsty for.

The Last Brunch is yet another example of that as this awkward get-together keeps escalating each time with crazier, wackier, and more awkward reveals, each of them more hilarious than the previous one. Special props also to the cast for some excellent delivery. Hahn has the showier role and he excels in it, but I really love the subtle touches in Stuart's performance, right down to his final look.

Grade: 4


Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2458253#post2458253)

[TDH1878]

Horror in the High Desert (2021)
2.5

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[Fabulous]

The Woman Next Door (1981)

3.5

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[PHOENIX74]

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By IMP Awards, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=74658478

The Teacher's Lounge - (2023)

This was an absolutely gripping drama involving an out of control psychological conflict between one teacher who just wants to do what's right, a staff member at the school caught stealing, the staff member's child (who is a student in the teacher's class) and the rest of the children. Teaching must be such a hard profession, requiring many different facets of communication, skills and much patience - but losing control of your students, and dealing with highly charged situations make upsets so volatile. Leonie Benesch is brilliant as the teacher, Carla Nowak. This film was nominated for a Best International Feature Film Oscar (I've seen 4/5 of the 2024 nominations now), and really deserved that nomination. I was on the edge of my seat the whole way through - as tense a film as I've seen this year, and it never eases up. Makes for riveting viewing, and much discussion afterwards.

8/10

https://i.postimg.cc/DwNRbd7x/trouble.jpg
By Copyrighted by Paramount Pictures. Artists(s) not known. - http://images.art.com/images/products/large/10134000/10134534.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25318652

The Trouble With Harry - (1955)

Very amusing change of pace for Alfred Hitchcock involving the various attempts by a group of characters to deal with a dead body they think they may have done away with - mistakenly for the most part, constantly burying it and digging it up. It's really sweet and charming actually, and while not up to Hitchcock's usual great standard it's a whole lot of fun regardless. Full review here (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?p=2458286#post2458286), in my watchlist thread.

7/10

[Allaby]

Madame Web (2024) This wasn't that bad. The story and the writing are the weakest parts. I felt Dakota Johnson was miscast. Sydney Sweeney, Isabela Merced, and Celeste O'Connor were fine in their roles, although their characters could have been better developed. Most of the supporting actors were decent. The villain didn't make much of an impact though. This got a lot of hate and really bad reviews, but this isn't even one of the ten worst films of this year. it is totally watchable and has some good moments. 3

[Gideon58]

LOVED The Trouble with Harry...a link to my review:


https://www.movieforums.com/reviews/2209484-the_trouble_with_harry.html

[Gideon58]

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5th Rewatch...This is the antithesis of those semi-raunchy movies featuring the man/child character that Sandler brought to the screen during the 80's and 90's and made him a very wealthy man. Sandler plays Bobby Boucher, the 31 year old waterboy for a fictional college football team who is being ferociously protected by his smothering mother (Oscar winner Kathy Bates) until it is revealed that Bobby contains an inner rage that makes him unstoppable on the football field. Yeah, it's just Happy Gilmore taken off the golf course and placed in a college football stadium, but nobody really noticed and audiences ate it up. Bates is terrific as Mama Boucher, as are Jerry Reed as a rival coach and especially Henry Winkler, in a scene stealing performance as Bobby's coach. 3.5

[Gideon58]

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3rd Rewatch...This movie was actually my first exposure to the charismatic Idris Elba. This slightly syrupy melodrama, written and directed by Tyler Perry, finds Elba playing Monty, an ex-con and divorced single dad who is doing everything right in trying to start his life over so that he can get custody of his three young daughters from his bitchy wife (Tasha Smith) who is living with a drug dealer.. Monty turns to a snooty, romantically-challenged attorney named Julia Rossmore (Gabrielle Union) to get custody of his girls. The story is a little soapy than it needs to be and it suffers from a really unlikable leading lady. Union brings zero likability to Julia and she has no chemistry with Elba, but then again, I have never seen Gabrielle Union create chemistry with anyone, JMO. Elba is SO good though that it's pretty easy to tolerate everything that's wrong with this movie. 3.5

[Gideon58]

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4.5

[FilmBuff]

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Heaven's Gate (Cimino's 2012 revision)
2

OK, there has been a lot of revisionism lately around this title, and I decided to seek out the most recent copy of the movie (which is currently available on the Criterion Channel and other streamers) and see if it's worth it.

To be perfectly blunt, I think this movie still sucks, but does it suck a little bit less now than it did in 1980? The answer is, "possibly", but only because Cimino tinkered with it a little bit around 2012 and brightened up the image considerably, so that what you see when you watch the movie today isn't at all the same as what critics (and a handful of moviegoers) watched back in 1980.

The biggest problem with the movie is that the historic incidents depicted in it actually sound like they could make for a fascinating movie or even a mini-series - but this movie ain't it.

Cimino went out of his way to dedicate long stretches of the movie to things that don't really seem all that important, such as the extended opening sequence set at Harvard, which really hardly has anything to do with the rest of the story at all.

Or the story about the proverbial "prostitute with the heart of gold," about as worn-out a cliche as you will find in any movie, and which in Heaven's Gate has the prostitute (Isabelle Huppert) being torn between the characters played by Kris Kristofferson and Christopher Walken.

I swear, it really feels like Cimino just stuck that in the movie because, I don't know, maybe he just wanted to hire a French actress who would be happy to take her clothes off at the slightest excuse? The whole subplot about the love triangle with the prostitute feels like it takes almost a whole hour of the already insanely long running time.

A better movie might have spent more time telling us the stories of the actual immigrants and the government officials who were involved in the land conflict, which according to the best information I've gathered, actually did happen, but involved only 2 people dying - not hundreds, like Cimino depicts in this movie.

Honestly, if you have nothing better to do with almost 4 hours of your time than watching a pretentious load of manure posturing as a serious movie, then Heaven's Gate might just hit the spot. Otherwise, it still remains as good an example of wretched excess now as it did when if first (and very briefly) showed up in theaters.

[Jeff]

Stella Maris 4/5 -- heart warming Mary Pickford film
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The Indian Tomb 4/5 -- very nice exotic German 2 parter with the magnetic Conrad Veidt
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[matt72582]

The Year of Living Dangerously - 7/10
This movie plays on TCM endlessly, because I've deleted it so many times, since my DVR storage is always hovering at around 90%, but I gave it a chance today, and I didn't turn it off. Good story (Indonesian revolution), but the wrong characters, except the Indonesians. Linda Hunt playing a male dwarf? "I asked her to marry me" - sure you did... But some great lines. "I created you" the usual CIA prototype (ala "Burn"). A few other scenes that were too corny. The end was stretched out for "suspense" but I didn't believe any of their motivations, although I would have been interested in their prime/original motivations, which the movie did not go into.



But to my reading of history, Sukarno was the patriot, and Suharto was a CIA puppet.



https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/0b/Year_of_living_dangerously.jpg

[Marco]

The Beat That My Heart Skipped (2005)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/fd/The_Beat_That_My_Heart_Skipped_poster.jpg
A remake I believe, but this is immaculately played. Romain Duris plays a hard nosed Realtor trying to look after his and his fathers interests. Even through there is no love lost between them. Thomas and his dad are fairly grubby exploiters that are on the edge of, and beyond law. Learning of the piano seems to calm the brutal/confused soul of the manipulative central character. But this has consequences: he is losing the "edge" to be as effective in the day-to-day business that he is effective at but unappreciated for. It's a great performance and deep as I'd expect from the director Audiard.
4

[FilmBuff]

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We Grown Now
4.5

It's a real shame this movie has been virtually ignored by mainstream audiences during its theatrical run, but one can only hope it will eventually find a larger audience, perhaps in streaming, as this is one of those movies that seems likely to gain "classic" status over time.

The story, simply told, involves two young kids growing up in the Cabrini-Green projects in Chicago in the early 90s.

There's two terrific performances by the young leads, but one should also acknowledge the role that Jurnee Smollett has served here, both as executive producer and in a supporting role as the mom of one of the kids.

We need more movies like this!!

[FromBeyond]

Triangle Of Sadness


Finally watched this on Netflix last night after seeing the trailer like a year ago!


So it all plays like a metaphor, a study of rich and poor divide which is what one expected.


I haven't laughed so hard in a movie in a long time but ultimately it failed to meet my high expectations from the trailer. It was alright and worth a watch though.

[Stirchley]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/14/The_Teachers%27_Lounge_poster.jpg
By IMP Awards, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=74658478

The Teacher's Lounge - (2023)

This was an absolutely gripping drama involving an out of control psychological conflict between one teacher who just wants to do what's right, a staff member at the school caught stealing, the staff member's child (who is a student in the teacher's class) and the rest of the children. Teaching must be such a hard profession, requiring many different facets of communication, skills and much patience - but losing control of your students, and dealing with highly charged situations make upsets so volatile. Leonie Benesch is brilliant as the teacher, Carla Nowak. This film was nominated for a Best International Feature Film Oscar (I've seen 4/5 of the 2024 nominations now), and really deserved that nomination. I was on the edge of my seat the whole way through - as tense a film as I've seen this year, and it never eases up. Makes for riveting viewing, and much discussion afterwards.


I loved it.

[Stirchley]

98835

Excellent movie. Loved it. You go girlfriend!

98836

Excellent movie based on true facts. Definitely some parts were lost in translation, but I got most of it.

[Gideon58]

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3.5

[Deschain]

How have I never seen The Long Goodbye before? This movie was kinda ****ing awesome. Robert Altman, John Williams, Henry Gibson, Arnold Schwarzenegger?! The Big Lebowski directly parodies so many little moments from this.

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[Marco]

Death Wish 3 (1985)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d9/Death_wish_three.jpg
Where do you start here. This is Winners last directorial installment in the franchise. It's trying to be hard-edged but just comes across as camp in the extreme. It centres upon an ex military mate of Kersey's that he visits in New York that is living in an area controlled by a gang and there seems to be an ageist thing going on here too. Some good set-pieces but the acting (bar Bronson's) is awful. The scene where the lad is in full grief mode after his wife is abused to death then decides he's Chuck Norris mid tears is unforgettable. Good for a laugh. If this has a bit more scope location-wise and a tighter script it could have worked but Winner is phoning it in here.
2.5

[ScarletLion]

'Love Lies Bleeding' (2024)

I really liked Rose Glass' debut 'Saint Maud'. But this feels like she was elevated into a project that was way too big for her, too early. I thought this was a genuinely terrible film. Not even Kristen Stewart who is pretty tremendous as always, saved it. Or Clint Mansell, who's scores are normally great.....but here is tepid. There are tropes and cliches everywhere

This was a terribly written farce. If this film wasn't A24 with this cast, it would be ridiculed. It's awful.

0.5

https://www.rollingstone.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/loveliesbleeding.jpeg

[Allaby]

Turtles All the Way Down (2024) This just came out today on Max or Crave (depending on your region). It's a romantic drama about a cute teen girl with OCD, her best friend, and the boy she likes, whose wealthy father is missing. Isabela Merced is very good here and I also liked Cree's performance. Felix Mallard fell a little flat and didn't make much of an impact. The subplot about the missing billionaire felt unnecessary and underdeveloped. Overall, there are some effective emotional moments here, thanks to a mostly well written screenplay and the strength of Merced's performance. This is my pick for the 4th best film of the year so far. 4

[Gideon58]

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1st Rewatch...One of Clint Eastwood's most underrated efforts as a director. This film version of the Tony Award winning Broadway musical about the rise and fall of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons is a near perfect examination of the connection between the mob and show business, making it clear from the beginning that the group was originally fronted with mob money. I never saw the show onstage, but my instinct tells me that the show was severely altered for the screen, beefing up the mob elements of the story to give the film greater mass appeal. Despite that, the musical sequences in this film are what really make it roar. Orchestrations, sound, and sound editing bring great care to the musical numbers, giving them their own energy as opposed to just dubbing in original recordings. Especially loved "Sherry", "Walk Like a Man", and "Can't Tale My Eyes off You". John Lloyd Young is allowed to reprise his Tony Award winning role as Frankie Valli and his singing voice is like butter. The real acting honors though go to Vincent Piazza, who you might remember as Lucky Luciano on Boardwalk Empire, as Tommy DeVito, the smarmy and manipulative organizer of the group who allegedly put the group in so much debt that a wiseguy shows up five minutes before the group is to do The Ed Sullivan Show to collect a debt. Loved Erich Bergen as group composer Bob Gaudio, the only member of the group who really stood up to DeVito. Eastwood beautifully recreates 1960's New Jersey in this nostalgic and entertaining movie that got by a lot of people. 4

[Gideon58]

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2nd Rewatch...David O Russell's masterpiece is a blistering and funny look at the relationship that develops between two very broken people. Bradley Cooper plays Pat, who has just spent eight months in a mental institution, after a meltdown he suffered after catching his wife, Nikki, in the shower with another man. With the aid of his mom (Jackie Weaver), Pat gets released against medical advice and has decided on a singular mission to get his ex-wife, Nikki back. Pat meets Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence), a friend of Nikki's sister and asks for her help in getting a letter to Nikki. Tiffany agrees to help Pat if he will be her partner in a dance competition. Russell's sizzling screenplay is the real star here and it is served by a spectacular cast. Jennifer Lawrence won the Oscar for Best Actress for her explosive Tiffany, but in my opinion, it is Cooper's tortured angry Pat that dominates the proceedings. This is the first movie where Cooper displayed serious acting chops in a heartbreaking performance that should have won him the Oscar as well. Shout out to Robert De Niro, whose sensitive turn as Pat's dad earned him a supporting actor nomination. That scene in the diner and Pat and Tiffany's dance at the end of the film linger with you long after the credits roll. This movie gets better with each viewing. 4.5

[Gideon58]

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1st Rewatch...After this watch, this film feels like a serious missed opportunity. A pumped up Joseph Gordon-Levitt (who also wrote and directed the film) plays a serial womanizer who thinks he's God's gift to women and thinks he can treat women anyway he wants to because he goes to church every Sunday and goes to confession being honest about it. This guy also has a serious addiction to porn that he has no control over. He is observed having sex with a woman and when they're done, getting out of bed and going straight to his computer. This film could have been something really special, a bold character study about an addiction that has never really been addressed onscreen with any depth. We get a hint at what this film could have been during the scenes where the guy goes to confession, the strongest scenes in the film, but Levitt's screenplay always backs off just as it seems to approach the subject matter in a way that would benefit him and elicit sympathy from the viewer, which it does not. The central character is a sexual arrogant jerk who it's hard to like. The most likable element of the film is the performance by Oscar winner Julianne Moore as a flighty widow who he gets involved with. 2.5

[Gideon58]

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3.5

[Thief]

ONE FALSE MOVE
(1992, Franklin)

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


"I've been police chief here for, hell, going on six years. I've never even drawn my gun."



This is a film that somehow slipped under my radar back in the day. It is a fairly dark and somber crime thriller. It opens with a chilling scene as we see these three criminals: Ray (Billy Bob Thornton), Pluto (Michael Beach), and Fantasia (Cynda Williams) murder six innocent people. But then it just lets things simmer as they head out to Star City to the inevitable clash with Dixon and the police.

There are numerous positives here. From the way the film draws you in with this story about this charismatic cop that craves to be a hero to Carl Franklin's confident direction and pace as he builds up the tension around this inevitable confrontation. This is helped by solid performances from pretty much everyone involved. Thornton, Beach, Williams. But as is usual in any film he's in, Paxton is the scene stealer as he adds layers to this character, beyond all the enthusiastic "happy pup" hollers he gives now that he feels like a "real cop".

Grade: 3.5


Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2458847#post2458847)

[WHITBISSELL!]

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Teenagers from Outer Space - 14,000 dollars. I don't think that even qualifies as a shoestring budget. But writer/director/editor/producer Tom Graeff persevered. And brought us this z grade scifi offering from 1959. Z as in the overall costs because even though the results are readily apparent onscreen and the acting is about what you'd think it's surprisingly entertaining. Not shockingly entertaining mind you but it doesn't bore you. I didn't check my watch once during it's 86 minute runtime. I did wonder how much time was left but I never checked and that has to count for something. I thought the credits started out on a bit of an odd note with "Tom Graeff presents David Love in" and then the actual title but according to IMDb Graeff made this as a vehicle for his boyfriend Love.

The movie starts out at an observatory where a guy spots a "screw shaped craft." After landing by literally screwing itself into the earth (and maybe smoking a cigarette) the tiny clown car of a ship starts disgorging several of its occupants, none of whom look remotely like teenagers. They're here to scout Earth as a potential home in which to raise their food supply, a Gargon, which looks a lot like a superimposed lobster. They plan on leaving the vicious, man-eating creatures somewhere they can procreate and grow to an enormous size and then return to harvest them safely. One of the spacemen, Derek, is understandably squeamish about this. When his shipmate Thor opens fire with his disintegrator raygun and turns a dog into a pile of bones Derek finds the tags and realizes that Earth is not only populated but that the species is advanced. Being the iconoclast he runs off to find the dead dogs owner while the overachieving Thor blasts away with his raygun. Derek finds the address and makes the acquaintance of Betty Morgan and her grandfather. The rest of the movie involves Thor hunting down Derek while making liberal use of an itchy trigger finger.

Whoever this guy Graeff was he did as commendable a job of cranking out a lowest of budgets scifi movie as anyone could ask. His sweetly naive message of empathy and of belonging may be hard to discern given it's mode of presentation but it still somehow comes through. It's like the little engine that could of 50's schlock scifi.

70/100

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Werewolf in a Girls Dormitory - The title says it all. It's an obviously foreign made affair but attempts to pass itself of as taking place somewhere in the United States. The dialogue is obviously dubbed in with differing characters exhibiting noticeably different rhythms and cadence. It's an Italian production with one participant describing it as a chaotic set with four different languages being spoken. It has sort of a giallo vibe to it and opens with one of the girls at a reformatory school sneaking away to meet her older lover. She's followed and attacked by a snarling creature. The wounds on her body suggest that she was killed by wolves but there's plenty of suspects to choose from. The new science teacher who left his old job under a cloud of scandal, the headmaster and his wife and then there's the caretaker who's sort of a bargain basement Peter Lorre. There's plenty of secrets alluded to as well blackmail and illicit affairs. If you can look past the luridly silly title there is a mystery of sorts to be solved. All taking place within that distinctly European vibe which somehow makes it a bit more palatable. It's still not enough to recommend it although it might serve as a conversation starter if you should name drop the title.

40/100

[WHITBISSELL!]

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The Gorgon - Hammer time. Again. I thought I had seen this one and I kinda sorta had. But it had been so long that I conflated it with another Hammer offering, The Reptile. This particular Hammer however costarred Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee and those three names are as close to a gold standard in the suspense/horror genre as there is. People are dying in the village of Vandorf in 1910 Germany. The authorities and local doctor are engaged in a coverup of sorts. the victims have all been turned to stone which you would think merits a second look. A young artist is found hanged and his death ruled a suicide. He's also blamed for the latest bizarre murder. His grieving father comes into town and starts digging around. When he meets the same fate his other son also travels to Vandorf looking for answers.

Cushing plays Dr. Namaroff, the resident alienist at the local mental asylum. Barbara Shelley plays his assistant Carla and Lee is Professor Karl Meister of Leipzig University. They gift Lee with the role of heroic curmudgeon and he turns in his usual peerless performance. Cushing does the grunt work and Shelley is there as the object of desire/wild card. It's Hammer so it's definitely worth watching.

75/100

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From the Earth to the Moon - Got all confused from the get-go with this one. I thought I had seen it before but turns out I had only watched the first 20 or so minutes. Then I had also mistaken it for First Men in the Moon, an all around superior film. In this one Joseph Cotten and George Sanders play Victor Barbicane and Stuyvesant Nicholl, competing inventors and manufacturers. The Civil War has just ended with Sanders side on the losing end and Cotten has just invented Power X, the most powerful explosive know to man. Sanders is the more religious one and considers the rapacious Barbicane a danger to humanity. They make a bet and when Barbicane's explosive projectile not only disintegrates Nicholl's armor but the entire hill behind it it also inadvertently fuses the armor into a ceramic.

Barbicane, knowing he could never test it on earth, had been toying with the idea of launching an explosive projectile at the moon to show people the true enormity of it's power. But with the danger of re-entering Earth's atmosphere now solved he decides to make it a manned flight and, appealing to the other man's scientific curiosity, talks Nicholl into helping him. Nicholl however, consumed by equal parts jealousy and religious fervor, has his own agenda. The two men, along with Barbicane's assistant and Nicholl's stowaway daughter, succeed in launching themselves at the moon.

This is when the movie veers away from what I thought it would be. The rest of the plot more closely resembled something like Apollo 13 with the four passengers having to deal with Nicholl's attempt at sabotage. RKO studios, which was producing the film, was in the process of going belly up with the once healthy budget for the project having dried up. The script had originally included them landing on the moon but it was scrapped, resulting in a largely static and talky third act. Viewers are left scratching their heads and trying to find some kind of reason to keep caring.

50/100

[WHITBISSELL!]

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The Monster of Piedras Blancas - Serviceable creature feature from 1959 with a lot of recognizable faces. Mostly character actors that fans of shows like Andy Griffith will spot right away. The young heroine didn't look familiar at all but her doe eyed costar also starred in The Giant Gila Monster. There's a lighthouse and a surly sort of a lighthouse keeper with a comely daughter. Then all these decrapitated bodies start turning up. Like most of these types of movies the actual monster of the title doesn't fully materialize until the third reel. His shadow and lower extremities are seen skulking around and he's basically a Creature from the Black Lagoon knockoff. When he finally has his coming out party he kind of resembled one of those half boar/half lizard guards from Jabba the Hutts palace. The budget was low but the acting respectable. Everyone came off as sincere in their efforts and that earns points no matter what the genre.

It was surprisingly explicit for a late 50's movie in showing it's body count. Severed heads not usually being featured for a few years. 71 minutes long and there were some lulls but all in all not bad.

65/100

[Marco]

Flanders (2006)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/94/Flanders_poster.jpg
Back in the day I rented this from our local library - them were the days! A story about gritty existential ennui which seems to haunt Dumont's films. Here, loose friends have fraternity and sexual relationships to a backdrop of dull agricultural work and little ambition. 2 get called away to an un-named middle eastern country to fight, and ultimately see and partake in atrocities. That and their joint "conquest" back home changes their lives forever. This film is not for everyone and can be taciturn. I like Dumont's style (Humanite and La vie de Jesus) and this was a return to form after the frankly laughable Twentynine Palms. I havent watched any of his films since Hors Satan simply as they sound dull. Flanders is good though.
3.5

[FilmBuff]

https://alarmistmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/unsung_payoff.jpg

Unsung Hero
2

Crikey.

The talent being portrayed in this rags-to-riches biopic is unknown to me; however talented they are, however, they probably deserved a better movie than this, which just about follows every beat you know by heart and dutifully checks every cliche in the book.

Having said that, the cast really seems to give it their all and I particularly enjoyed watching Terry O'Quinn back on the big screen again, doing a fairly good Australian accent (not sure if actual Aussie viewers would agree, of course!)



https://www.tvinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/the-fall-guy-770x433.jpg

The Fall Guy. (2024)
2.5

David Leitch has probably failed to live up to the expectations he might once have raised as a director, but he's probably not likely to end up in director's jail - at least for now!

While not the best action director around, found a niche with action movies that are thoroughly mediocre but not totally awful and which somehow still have enough power to attract a decent amount of moviegoers.

His latest film coasts along largely on the charisma of its stars, and the impressive team of stunt performers who, well, finally get to make a movie that's all about their craft... while at the same time suggesting they don't get to hang out with the best people around.

The movie is enough to satisfy very modest expectations, albeit barely... as for fans of the original show....

...they should definitely stick around for the mid-credit scene, which is both excruciatingly painful to watch but also undeniably fascinating. (How on earth did Lee Majors end up looking like THAT? :eek: )

[PHOENIX74]

Having said that, the cast really seems to give it their all and I particularly enjoyed watching Terry O'Quinn back on the big screen again, doing a fairly good Australian accent (not sure if actual Aussie viewers would agree, of course!)


I don't get to hear many that can entirely convince me (I only managed a small sample of O'Quinn's in that film, so I won't judge his too harshly yet.) The one I thought was really exceptional was from Caleb Landry Jones in Nitram - and he had to pull that off in a lead role. I was really impressed with it, and I've been moving around awkwardly in my seat for my entire life watching non-Aussie actors give it a go.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Xde3WA__lQ

[Marco]

Piercing (2018)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/df/Piercing_poster.png
Quirky adaptation of a book where a man meticulously plans the perfect murder. Things do not go as planned though. 2 good performances and a fair amount of jumps. Lashed with black humour this fair zinged past which I didn't expect after reading the blurb. Wasikowska and Christopher Abbott both do great jobs with the latter seeming to specialise in this type of role. A few of the drug-induced scenes are a bit hard to fathom but this is good.
3

[Allaby]

Unfrosted (2024) Featuring a sweet cast, Unfrosted is deliciously silly and goofy goodness. The dialogue is ridiculous and the story is zany fun, frosted with tasty performances, including two of the most surprising and unlikely cameos you could imagine. I laughed and had a good time. Unfrosted may not be cinematically nutritious, but it is a light and enjoyable treat. 4

[Gideon58]

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1st Rewatch...Fans of Terms of Endearment will have a head start on this dark and loopy comedy drama about a woman named Terry (Joan Allen) who is consumed with anger over the fact that her husband left the country with another woman and is taking it out on everyone in her orbit, including her husband's best friend (Kevin Costner), an ex-baseball player who now has his own radio show and her four daughters (Erika Christensen, Keri Russell, Alicia Witt, Evan Rachel Wood). The screenplay by Mike Binder (who also directed) is unapologetic in its political incorrectness and unpredictability and just when you think it's about to wrap itself up in a neat little bow, there's a 11:00 reveal that we never see coming. Joan Allen was totally robbed of an Oscar nomination for her ferocious performance as the angry and unforgiving Terry who just can't get past her husband's betrayal and Costner effectively channels Jack Nicholson in his breezy ex-athlete. Director and writer Binder also wrote a juicy part for himself as Costner's boss who falls for Christensen, a role that reminded me a lot of Flap in Terms of Endearment. Trivia note: Wood's wanna be boyfriend is played by Erika Christensen's real life younger brother. This is explosive, sad, and funny entertainment from beginning to end, thanks primarily to Binder's work behind the camera and the divine Joan Allen in front. 4.5

[Gideon58]

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1st Rewatch...I love Tina and Amy but this movie is just a hot mess. They play Kate and Maura Ellis, sisters who are informed by their parents that they are planning to sell the Florida home they grew up in, so they travel to Florida so that they can throw a wild party to say goodbye to their childhood home and so that Maura can have sex in her childhood bedroom. First of all, Tina and Amy are playing the wrong roles and too much of this film appears improvised, but nothing like the quality of Curb Your Enthusiasm improvisation. The scenes before the party are deadly dull and the actual party starts off OK, but just gets more stupid as it progresses. Most of Tina and Amy's SNL and showbiz pals agreed to appear, mostly in thankless roles, though Maya Rudolph, Ike Barinholtz, and Jon Cena do manage to garner some laughs and I LOVED James Brolin and Dianne Wiest as the girls' parents, but his movie is silly and pointless, made even worse by an almost two-hour running time. James Brolin looks amazing. 2

[Stirchley]

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2nd Rewatch...David O Russell's masterpiece is a blistering and funny look at the relationship that develops between two very broken people. Bradley Cooper plays Pat, who has just spent eight months in a mental institution, after a meltdown he suffered after catching his wife, Nikki, in the shower with another man. With the aid of his mom (Jackie Weaver), Pat gets released against medical advice and has decided on a singular mission to get his ex-wife, Nikki back. Pat meets Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence), a friend of Nikki's sister and asks for her help in getting a letter to Nikki. Tiffany agrees to help Pat if he will be her partner in a dance competition. Russell's sizzling screenplay is the real star here and it is served by a spectacular cast. Jennifer Lawrence won the Oscar for Best Actress for her explosive Tiffany, but in my opinion, it is Cooper's tortured angry Pat that dominates the proceedings. This is the first movie where Cooper displayed serious acting chops in a heartbreaking performance that should have won him the Oscar as well. Shout out to Robert De Niro, whose sensitive turn as Pat's dad earned him a supporting actor nomination. That scene in the diner and Pat and Tiffany's dance at the end of the film linger with you long after the credits roll. This movie gets better with each viewing. 4.5

Love this movie.

I don't get to hear many that can entirely convince me (I only managed a small sample of O'Quinn's in that film, so I won't judge his too harshly yet.) The one I thought was really exceptional was from Caleb Landry Jones in Nitram - and he had to pull that off in a lead role. I was really impressed with it, and I've been moving around awkwardly in my seat for my entire life watching non-Aussie actors give it a go.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Xde3WA__lQ

Landry Jones made this movie.

[Stirchley]

98842

Interesting story line. Good movie once one gets used to Scanlan as a Muslim.

98843

Quirky little British movie about teens on vacation in Europe. A lot of drinking. :eek:

[Marco]

'Love Lies Bleeding' (2024)

I really liked Rose Glass' debut 'Saint Maud'. But this feels like she was elevated into a project that was way too big for her, too early. I thought this was a genuinely terrible film. Not even Kristen Stewart who is pretty tremendous as always, saved it. Or Clint Mansell, who's scores are normally great.....but here is tepid. There are tropes and cliches everywhere

This was a terribly written farce. If this film wasn't A24 with this cast, it would be ridiculed. It's awful.

0.5

https://www.rollingstone.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/loveliesbleeding.jpeg
I agree, it was really poor.

[Gideon58]

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4

[Thief]

SAFE IN HELL
(1931, Wellman)

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


"As long as you behave yourselves here, you are safe from both jail and gallows... safe in hell."



Although not a "popular" film per se, Safe in Hell is one of the most notable Pre-Code films. These were films released between the establishment of the Hays censorship code in 1930 and its enforcement in 1934. These films were notable for pushing the boundaries of what was allowed in Hollywood in terms of nudity, drugs, murder, as well as other themes and topics that were deemed forbidden in films.

Mackaill does a pretty good job in transmitting that confidence and empowerment of her character mixed with the ever-growing despair and defeat that befalls on her. The rest of the island cast also does a good job in showing the immorality and decay of their characters. The portrayals are one-dimensional and might even seem cartoonish, but they do the job that the film asks from them.

Grade: 3.5


Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2461382#post2461382)

[WHITBISSELL!]

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Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man - I had never seen this 1943 Universal monster classic which chronologically takes place 4 years after 1941's The Wolf Man. As it opens two grave robbers break into the Talbot family mausoleum where

Lawrence (Larry) Talbot (Lon Chaney Jr.) was laid to rest after being killed by his father at the end of the original movie. But instead of the expected family heirlooms and valuables they only serve to wake Larry from some sort of suspended animation. It being a full moon and all one of the thieves abandons his friend once Larry starts transforming. He next wakes up in Cardiff, Wales where he is hospitalized and tries to tell his attending physician about his curse. He is written off as mentally unstable of course but the following night he escapes and kills a constable, all of which he remembers and recounts to the doctor. After being disregarded a second time he grows violent and is physically restrained.

The doctor and a police inspector visit the Talbot family crypt where they find a dead grave robber and a missing Larry Talbot corpse. In the meantime he escapes yet again and goes in search of the old gypsy woman form the first movie who's played once again by Maria Ouspenskaya. Since it was her son who first bit him he hopes she can provide him with the way to help him die and end his curse. She tells him of a man who might help and they travel to Vasaria, a fictional country standing in for Germany since any mention of it was considered verboten at the time this was made. The guy turns out to be Dr. Frankenstein who has since died in one of the previous films. He does find his creature entombed in ice underneath the ruins of the family castle. When he is unable to locate the late doctors secret diary he approaches his daughter, the Baroness Elsa Frankenstein.
There were changes made to the film following negative test screenings which sort of muddies the water but it still plays out as one would expect with the two iconic monsters going toe to toe. The setup takes awhile but when it finally goes down it happens fast. The villagers don't even get the chance to assemble the usual flaming-torches-and-pitchforks wielding mob. This might not be near the top as far as classic Universal creature features go but it's a fun watch just the same.

70/100

[Fabulous]

The Boys in the Boat (2023)

3

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/gub9e0qRZWmmzTV77A6T95HELIF.jpg

[xSookieStackhouse]

5 i loved the gore and blood and shooting scenes and loved michelle dockery shes one of my favorite people, loved bill skarsgard he did really good and loved famke janssen shes one of my favorite people aswell and on marvel aswell.
https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/5oEzYfX3UjbP8s5Zu7b5Frgqzth.jpg

[Nausicaä]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/d/d7/Bad_Behaviour_poster.jpg/220px-Bad_Behaviour_poster.jpg

2

SF = Zzz



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

[LChimp]

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Encanto - 2021

Friday night movie with the family. Kids loved it, me and the wife, not so much.

[WHITBISSELL!]

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Kiss of the Vampire (Kiss of Evil) - 1963 Hammer offering that I had never seen nor heard of. It was just dissimilar enough from other Hammer productions to make it memorable while still not being as good.

There's a promising opening with a funeral procession interrupted by the arrival of a lone figure who blesses the grave and then pierces the coffin with a shovel. An unearthly shriek and blood flowing from the staked coffin causes everyone to bolt and run away in terror which I found unintentionally funny. Cue the opening credits followed by a young honeymooning couple, Gerald and Marianne Harcourt, who run out of petrol somewhere in turn of the century Bavaria. They're forced to take shelter in a mostly unoccupied Inn where the troubled owners are quite obviously harboring a dark secret. Obvious to everyone but the unwitting honeymooners. They fall firmly under the clueless travelers trope of most horror movies. A letter comes for them from wealthy area resident Dr. Ravna. He invites them to his chateau for dinner and, with some dubious encouragement from innkeeper Bruno, accept. The couples obliviousness continues unabated as Dr. Ravna pays the young wife an unhealthy amount of attention. He introduces them to his daughter and piano playing son who spellbinds Marianne with his own composition.

You can see how it's going to play out and this was actually meant to be the third of the Hammer Dracula films. But after the usual delays the script had jettisoned the character but retained some of the plot details from the second installment 1960's The Brides of Dracula. There were also parts of the plot from the 1950 thriller Too Long at the Fair. The Harcourts are invited to an opulent party at Ravna's chateau which is the pretense for some cultlike skullduggery. The husband is gaslighted while the wife seemingly disappears. It takes the intervention of the lone figure at the cemetery who turns out to be a Professor Zimmer. He's turned to alcohol to mitigate the pain of having lost his own daughter in much the same fashion.

Director Don Sharp was quoted as saying he'd never seen a horrror movie so he tried going the suspense route which IMO only served to undercut the overall atmosphere that was Hammer's stock in trade. He shouldn't have tampered with a winning formula. It's a well turned out thriller but there's a certain something missing which gave Hammer films an undefined cachet.

70/100

[Fabulous]

Eraser (1996)

2.5

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/sZQow78jqCbJb0TvtvwjK8juXaI.jpg

[John W Constantine]

5 i loved the gore and blood and shooting scenes and loved michelle dockery shes one of my favorite people, loved bill skarsgard he did really good and loved famke janssen shes one of my favorite people aswell and on marvel aswell.
https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/5oEzYfX3UjbP8s5Zu7b5Frgqzth.jpg
You're a lover, not a fighter

[Torgo]

Strawberry Mansion - 4

With all due respect to writers/directors Kentucker Audley and Albert Birney and their imaginations, this isn't far off from what would happen if David Lynch and Wes Anderson collaborated, with perhaps David Cronenberg along for the ride as a consultant. It posits a sadly believable future in which the powers at be have access to one of our last refuges: our dream lives. In our dream taxman hero, Preble (Audley), we have a fitting Winston Smith for our times: a person who values his dream life more than the next guy, but who has resigned himself to working for those who treat them as just another source of revenue. That brings us to his "dream auditee," Bella (Fuller), who seems just as out of place in our current lonely world as she does in the movie's speculative 2030s: someone who wants to share her dreams with someone else. Their resulting adventure is equal parts whimsical, funny and frightening.

If you're also a fan of movies like Pi and Brazil that rely on obscure and/or obsolete technology, this will be right up your alley. From VHS tapes to the hilariously unwieldy wearable tech Audley and Bella use to interact with the dream world, you can cut the ingenuity with a knife. The same could be said of the dream world itself, which has colors, odds, and ends recalling those in Wes Anderson movies, but that have their own personality and are thankfully not too precious. Audley, Fuller and Glowicki as the younger, dream world Bella are endearing, but it's Phillip's Buddy, a frequently occurring, uh...buddy in Preble's dreams who steals the show. Speaking of, as insidious as dream taxes seem, Audley and Birney manage to devise an evil that's much worse.

In a world where the powers that be gain more and more control of the images we feed our eyes, whether it's what we want to see or what we have to sit through, it begs the question if our imaginations can remain pure or produce anything original anymore. At this point, we can at least be thankful that a movie that's not only like this, but also stands up to those powers slipped through the cracks. If my mentions of other filmmakers who likely inspired it are of any indication, as clever as it is, it’s hardly the most original movie ever made. Even so, its timeliness, personality, boldness as well as its delightfully odd sense of humor make up for it. If you need a reminder that there is value in our dreams and in trying to remember them, this movie will provide it. Just don't be surprised if a saxophone-playing frog waiter makes his way into them afterwards.

[Thursday Next]

The Fall Guy (2024)


Pretty much what you expect. Could it have been wittier? Yes. Was it still a moderately amusing popcorn movie? Yes.


3

[GulfportDoc]

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=98852

Godzilla Minus One (2023)

This is a good old fashioned entertaining monster movie. It holds one’s attention from beginning to end. And what’s surprising is that virtually everyone who sees the picture knows what to expect, and eagerly anticipates it, despite there being 36 previous Godzilla films. We know we are going to see a gargantuan monster who causes catastrophic urban damage, and will likely not be completely eradicated in the end.

Much has been made of the picture’s minuscule budget, with reports in the neighborhood of $10-15 Million (easily one-tenth of a similar U.S. picture’s cost). And that is eyebrow raising. But it’s even more impressive that one man, Takashi Yamazaki, wrote, directed, and did the visual effects for the film. And all three were facets were first rate.

What differs from the movies of this type that we’ve become accustomed to is that there is a basic human story, both along with, and undergirding the abundant monster scenes. At the end of 1945 a kamikaze pilot returns his troubled airplane to base on a Japanese island. That night Godzilla surfaces and attacks the island. The pilot is tasked with trying to destroy the monster by use of his airplane’s powerful machine guns, but the pilot freezes up, cannot pull the trigger, and is subsequently knocked unconscious. Only one other soldier survives the attack.

When the pilot returns home, he discovers that his parents and most people he knew were killed in the bombing of Tokyo. There is devastation everywhere. He comes across a new widow with a baby, who he commences to protect and provide for. The carnage he sees, along with his previous experience on the island gives him the incentive to be determined to help destroy the monster. The story develops along those lines which provide the settings for some impressive and frightening monster attacks.

Most of the dialogue, along with the actions of the main characters, seemed emotionally overly exaggerated, which often seems typical in movies featuring Japanese culture. In fact for a moment I thought that the picture might be a spoof, satirizing that aspect of the style. But it’s not. The picture simply seems patterned after 1950’s monster movies, and to good effect.

I kept thinking that the story’s premise was adding insult to injury, given that Japan was beaten to a pulp during WWII. Then I realized that was probably what the title was referring to: nothing, and then some. Japan couldn’t have been lower, then Godzilla showed up and made it even worse!

It was the first Godzilla picture in history to be nominated for, and win, an Oscar for Best Visual Effects, as well as the first non-English language film to win it. So the great special effects will wow you, but you might find yourself fascinated by the side story as well.

Doc’s rating: 7/10

[Fabulous]

Burn! (1969)

3.5

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/3x94y7AQhr9Ceb1uMzav4wyxqme.jpg

[xSookieStackhouse]

You're a lover, not a fighter

huh?

[Fabulous]

Pretty Woman (1990)

3

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[Gideon58]

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1st Rewatch...What if upon completing your education to become a surgeon, you learned that one prerequisite is that for every patient you lose on the operating table, you will lose a member of your own family? That is the disturbing premise of this creepy psychological thriller from director and co-screenwriter Yorgos Lanthimos (Poor Things). The film stars Colin Farrell as Dr. Stephen Murphy, an arrogant and brilliant surgeon who has been secretly maintaining a relationship with a young man named Martin (Barry Keoghan), whose father was in a car accident but Murphy was unable to save his life through surgery. One day, Martin quietly announces to Dr. Murphy that, because of his father's death, the doctor's two children and wife will all die. Before the halfway point of the film and without Maritn laying a hand on them, Murphy's son and daughter are in the hospital and unable to walk. Lanthimos' direction here is a master class in the craft. The look of the film is breathtaking, featuring an antiseptic canvas upon which the story unfolds. I also love the way a large portion of the film is shot from long distances, purposely distancing the viewer from what's happening while piquing curiosity. We're never provided an explanation for what's happening and the ending doesn't draw any conclusions, but we are still riveted up to this point. I don't think Colin Farrell has ever been better as the good doctor and Nicole Kidman offers another of her icy performances as his wife. Barry Keoghan was robbed of a supporting actor nomination for his enigmatic Martin. Not for all tastes and I don't understand a lot of what happens here, but I find it oddly riveting. 4

[Sedai]

Leave Her to Heaven
Stahl, 1945

5

https://www.alternateending.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/yctQYbmF9ZyRTqdbvkDoL09H7jX.jpg

Yikes. Very chilling stuff in this classic color noir. One of the most evil femme fatales ever put to screen. This film at first presents itself as a cheery sort of oil painting come to life, with rich landscapes and likable main characters, only to completely subvert its opening acts with some really nasty stuff. As I watched, I wondered if the film had been nominated for an Academy award for its sumptuous cinematography; turns it it was nominated, and ended up winning the award that year, along with a few others. I watched this in a continuing effort to rectify my noir lists. Superb film.

Little Darlings
Maxwell, 1980

2_5

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Early 80s coming of age flick starring several of the big name teen stars of the time. I recall this film being the subject of many whispered, wide-eyed conversations back when I was in 5th or 6th grade, as all the girls had heard about a film that featured a clandestine contest at a summer camp that had two girls competing with each other to see who could lose their virginity first. I presume this was aimed at a high school audience as a sort of reaction to the years of free love that had kicked off in the late sixties - a sort of cautionary tale for teens.

At the time, I am sure it may have saved a few girls from the heartbreak and embarrassment of giving it up too early to some dumb guy on a dirt bike, but today this thing plays out as a misguided and at times pervy and exploitative exercise with a bizarre blend of tones that don't mix well. In the end, it all ends up as expected with the obligatory moral messaging. The actors are fine, especially McNicol, but this would rank in the bottom tier of coming of age flicks for me.

[Gideon58]

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1st Rewatch...This inventive, imaginative, and often moving comedy drama tackles some familiar cinematic territory with some new storytelling techniques we don't see coming. The "Me" in the title is Greg, a smart and likable high school teenager who has managed to get through the first three years of high school relatively unscathed by becoming mildly acquainted with all of the different high school cliques. His senior year is turned upside down when his mother forces him to spend time with a classmate named Rachel, with whom Greg is barely acquainted, but has now been diagnosed with leukemia. Greg and his BFF Earl also make spoofs of classic movies with titles like "A Box of Lips Now", "Death In Tennis", and "Gross Encounters of the Turd Kind", which motivate a girlfriend of Rachel's to ask Greg to make a movie for her. This movie is stupid with imagination, especially in the creation of Greg and Earl's movies, which are an ingenious combination of live action and clay-mation. Usually movies where a lead character is dying, there are expected scenes that we just expect and none of them happen here. I also like the fact that it's not a love story...Greg and Rachel don't fall in love with each other, they fight for each other. The film also features the best narration for a movie since Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. A richly entertaining movie experience that offers hope and constant surprises. 4.5

[Gideon58]

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2nd Rewatch...Will Ferrell really scores here, playing one of his most likable characters who he really puts through the wringer. Farrell plays Brad Whitaker, a radio executive who works harder than any man on the planet at being the best stepfather he can to his new wife's son and daughter. Just when it looks like Brad might be finally be making some inroads with his stepchildren, their real dad, Dusty (Mark Wahlberg), shows up out of nowhere on a mission to get his family back. with clueless wife, Sarah (Linda Cardellini) not really putting up a fight to stop him. And that's the part of this movie that really pisses me off. They expect the viewer to except that Sarah as no idea what Dusty is doing and by the halfway point, just completely stops supporting Brad and all the work he has put into being a real father figure to her kids. It is fun watching Wahlberg as the genuine villain of the piece, but he gets away with WAY too much before he finally gets what's coming to him. Ferrell shines in the Christmas in April scene and his drunken speech at the basketball game. I also love the scenes of Ferrell and Wahlberg badmouthing each other to the kids via bedtime stories. Though it takes too long to get to the happy ending, there are laughs here and Ferrell and Wahlberg work really well together. 3.5

[Stirchley]

98856

Not sure why Sydney chose this movie. She can do anything.

98857

Re-watch. Good movie though some lost in translation.

[Fabulous]

Lenny (1974)

3.5

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/6zqFDzIKPKyGX1jwYAiJTGvYyXz.jpg

[FilmBuff]

https://media1.okgazette.com/okgazette/imager/u/zoom/12173630/phantom_menace_ferguson_onesheet_withacolyte_v3.jpg?cb=1714122214

Star Wars - Episode I: The Phantom Menace (4DX version)
5

Everyone already knows TPM is back in theaters, for a limited time, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of its release. But few people have commented, apparently, on the disappointing lack of PLF support for this VFX extravaganza.
It's a bit of a disappointment because there's probably a lot of fans who might have enjoyed the opportunity to watch it in IMAX or Dolby Cinema, but for the most part those screens were saved for the box-office disappointment that is The Fall Guy.
The happy exception to this was that TPM is now the first of the original 6 SW movies to have secured a release in the exhilarating 4DX format, the one with the shaking seats, splashes of water, and gusts of air all competing for your attention.
As such, I'm happy to report that the 4DX version of the movie does not disappoint at all. On the contrary, it's one of the most sublime merging of technologies that the new format (all but unheard of in 1999) has allowed... and gives some of us the hope that the rest of the "classic" SW movies will eventually receive the 4DX treatment.
Particularly exciting in the 4DX version is, of course, the podrace sequence - which all but shakes you out of your seat... but, really, nearly every action sequence benefits considerably, and even the opening scroll suddenly feels more exciting.


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Guardiana de Dragones (Dragonkeeper)
3.5

Dragons are, of course, a source of never-ending fascination for animators, and for good reason.
This Spanish-Chinese collaboration, currently receiving a very small release in some U.S. cities, is the kind of movie that should really delight audiences of all ages - but is especially exciting for animation buffs.
As you can imagine, the version that's being shown in American theaters is English-dubbed, and that's just a very small quibble because the animation here is really enchanting, without going so far overboard trying to provide visual "dazzle" in the way that U.S. animation typically does.
What's left is a very solid and touching story, told eloquently, using an exquisite palette, with a marvelous protagonist and a great supporting cast.

https://static1.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/jacob-batalon-in-tarot.jpg
TAROT
3

While it would be unlikely for a generic-sounding title like this to become a critics' darling, it might nonetheless be the best (or the least terrible) of all the studio-released horror movies so far this year.
Don't get me wrong - it's just as predictable and by-the-numbers as the overwhelming majority of horror movies these days. But, given all the genre conventions and limitations, this one at least feels like it's trying to have some fun with it, which sadly couldn't be said of most of its studio-released cinematic brethren.

[cricket]

Lover Stalker Killer

3.5

https://www.comingsoon.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2024/02/MixCollage-09-Feb-2024-04-28-AM-4624.jpg

I saw Phoenix mention this Netflix true crime documentary in this thread. My wife and I always watch shows like 20/20 and 48 Hours so this was right up our alley. We watch so many of these that we can quickly see where they're going but that doesn't hurt our enjoyment at all. This particular story features an especially crazy person and unfortunately some not so uncommon shoddy police work in the beginning. If this is your thing then it's a good watch.

[KeyserCorleone]

Just finished Sleuth and absolutely adored it. A movie about two people only is NOT by cup of tea, but the complexity and sarcasm-turned-demented psycho-game is an incredible thematic exploration of what hiding a murder can do to a person's emotional state. I've only seen two Mankiewicz, but this is my favorite of them.

[stillmellow]

Boy Kills World


Better than I expected. A funny, ultraviolent take on dystopian revenge thrillers, with an amazing physical performance from Skarsgard, and hilarious inner monologue provided by H. Jon Benjamin.


👍

[xSookieStackhouse]

5 amazing horror movie i loved it
https://www.monsterfest.com.au/monsterfest/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/image002-700x1038.jpg

[ScarletLion]

'Blind' (2014)

Ellen Dorrit Petersen plays the character Ingrid, who has lost her sight, is bored, lonely and stays in her apartment listening to music and writing a playful book. Her thoughts on the other people that live in her apartment block play out on screen and they range from paranoid to sexually charged.

I think this film might be brilliant. It blurs the line between reality and fiction in a well used trope about a writer, but does so in such a clever way that the viewer doesn't really understand how it's all connected until about 50 minutes into the film. Well I didn't anyway.

Director Eskil Vogt (The Innocents) wrote Joachim Trier's Oslo trilogy and 'Blind' was his debut film in 2014. It deserves to be far more widely seen.

8.4/10

4

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[Gideon58]

Lenny (1974)

3.5

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/6zqFDzIKPKyGX1jwYAiJTGvYyXz.jpg

Nice to see some love for this movie...I think I liked it a little more than you did...a link to my review:

https://www.movieforums.com/reviews/1365820-lenny.html

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNzQxNTIyODAxMV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwNzQyMDA3OTE@._V1_.jpg


3rd Rewatch...The 2016 Best Picture Winner seems to improve with each rewatch. And the final 20 minutes of this movie are the best final 20 minutes of any movie ever. 4

[Gideon58]

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1st Rewatch...This gritty look at a Florida welfare motel attempts to shed a light on part of our society that we would like to think doesn't really exist; unfortunately, it sugarcoats a lot of issues and overlooks some completely. This second watch revealed this movie to be a real missed opportunity to say some important things. 3

[Gideon58]

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Umpteenth Rewatch...My favorite Adam Sandler movie. This remake of the Gary Cooper classic Mr Deeds Goes to Town has Sandler playing the only living relative of a media billionaire, from whom Deeds has inherited 40 billion dollars. This big budget comedy suffers a bit from an overstuffed screenplay that tries to cover a little too much territory. Sandler's character is sometimes a little too good to be true, but Winona Ryder is one of Sandler's best leading ladies and Peter Gallagher is a perfect mustache-twirling comic villain. John Turturro, Jared Harris, and Conchata Ferrell also make the most of their screentime, but this is Sandler's show and he appears to be having a ball. 3.5

[WHITBISSELL!]

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https://reelreviews.com/images/stories/2016/undyingmonster-lg2.jpg

The Undying Monster - This 1942 suspense/horror thriller sounded interesting and I thought I had heard of it before but it wasn't the film I was thinking of. It borrows heavily (which might be too polite a term to use) from The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Wolfman. The once aristocratic Hammond family has fallen on hard times. That means they still have their ginormous and spooky old seaside mansion complete with a creaky old family retainer and two housemaids. But there's supposedly a family curse that has claimed the lives of past male heirs (I'm surprised the estate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle never took legal action).

One night there's an unearthly howling from the secluded cliffside path near the mansion. Helga Hammond goes out in search of her brother Oliver but not without Walton the butler first warning her about the curse and reciting the actual curse that seems lifted directly from The Wolfman. Her brother and a local nurse have been attacked and his dog torn apart by an unknown wild beast.

Enter Scotland Yard who sends their two best forensic detectives. There are some interesting moments in a "dark old house" sort of vein but there are also distractions like a male lead who recites his dialogue as if he's standing at a radio microphone instead of in front of a movie camera. I also thought the ending came off a bit perfunctory mostly because it lacked a commensurate setup. This was knocked together using elements from two better films and it shows.

40/100

[Gideon58]

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3.5

[WHITBISSELL!]

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Valhalla Rising - I hadn't seen this since it was first out so ... what? 15 years maybe? It really impressed the hell out of me when I first watched it and made me a Nicolas Winding Refn fan. After reading the reviews this time I realized plenty of people weren't as enamored of it as I was. I read the word "pretentious" several times and I get it. Refn has been accused of self consciously artsy leanings. But now that I've familiarized myself with more of his catalogue I can see that this outing was him finding his sea legs. The same people who hated this would probably hate something like his limited series Too Old to Die Young. But to those of us who happen to like his esoteric musings on life and death and inevitability it's a welcome respite from most other mainstream movies.


A one-eyed warrior escapes from his pagan captors and sets out on a journey to the Holy Land with a group of Christian Norsemen. They get lost and somehow end up in what I always assumed was North America. There's an uber-violent first act followed by five other chapters which compose a sort of Heart-of-Darkness journey. Star Mads Mikkelsen doesn't utter a single line of dialogue as the mute warrior One-Eye and there's only 120 or so lines in the entire movie. There are plenty of shots of brooding, eventually penitent individuals. Maybe too many for some people. But if you take it as a whole and sync up with what Refn is saying you'll find it an edifying enough experience.

75/100

[GulfportDoc]

Just finished Sleuth and absolutely adored it. A movie about two people only is NOT by cup of tea, but the complexity and sarcasm-turned-demented psycho-game is an incredible thematic exploration of what hiding a murder can do to a person's emotional state. I've only seen two Mankiewicz, but this is my favorite of them.
I agree. The '72 film is a semi masterpiece with phenomenal acting by Olivier and Caine. Some of it still sticks with me after all those years.

[FilmBuff]

Sleuth (1972) > Sleuth (2007)

[Marco]

https://i.redd.it/vvzb3f6nqfl91.gif
https://oberrated.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/valhalla-rising-3.gif
Valhalla Rising - I hadn't seen this since it was first out so ... what? 15 years maybe? It really impressed the hell out of me when I first watched it and made me a Nicolas Winding Refn fan. After reading the reviews this time I realized plenty of people weren't as enamored of it as I was. I read the word "pretentious" several times and I get it. Refn has been accused of self consciously artsy leanings. But now that I've familiarized myself with more of his catalogue I can see that this outing was him finding his sea legs. The same people who hated this would probably hate something like his limited series Too Old to Die Young. But to those of us who happen to like his esoteric musings on life and death and inevitability it's a welcome respite from most other mainstream movies.


A one-eyed warrior escapes from his pagan captors and sets out on a journey to the Holy Land with a group of Christian Norsemen. They get lost and somehow end up in what I always assumed was North America. There's an uber-violent first act followed by five other chapters which compose a sort of Heart-of-Darkness journey. Star Mads Mikkelsen doesn't utter a single line of dialogue as the mute warrior One-Eye and there's only 120 or so lines in the entire movie. There are plenty of shots of brooding, eventually penitent individuals. Maybe too many for some people. But if you take it as a whole and sync up with what Refn is saying you'll find it an edifying enough experience.

75/100

I quite liked it too, I think there is a lot of symbolic shite in it but if you overlook that and some cruddy (stiff) acting it's a good story. The boat journey is just rubbish though, they set off from Sutherland in a relatively small and poorly equipped vessel and land in the States within a week? The combination of realism and mysticism worked for me but that was just one step too far.

[Torgo]

The Fall Guy - 4

If you miss seeing Shane Black's name in the credits as much as I do, this movie provides the next best thing. Like his best work, this one has a quality whodunit plot and just the right blend of action and laughs. Ryan Gosling proves he is adept at bringing the latter two as much as he does in Black's The Nice Guys. Emily Blunt's film director and former flame isn't exactly a "trademark unwitting partner" you find in his movies, but what's important is that she and Gosling play off of each other so well that she might as well be one, not to mention maintain lots of sweet "will they or won't they" tension. You're probably tired of the Shane Black comparisons at this point, but I'll praise one more thing about this movie that reminds me why I like his work so much and that's grit. If the slick, friction-free and CGI-laden action in the typical blockbuster lately has dulled your interest in this genre, this one will restore it. From all the vehicular destruction to the opening stunt in the title to the clips of the desert sci-fi epic movie within the movie you'll wish was real, it made me realize how much large-scale action I've reacted to with passive indifference in this young century. On top of that, it's at the kind of huge, Christopher Nolan-like scale that makes seeing it in a theater ideal. There's all this and Hannah Waddingham's delightfully smug and over-confident producer and the movie star Aaron Taylor-Johnson plays, an actor I'm normally not a fan of, but I like him here for how he pokes fun at his persona.

Are there producers, directors and movie stars who work as hard as stuntpeople? Sure, but they don't have to put their lives on the line nearly as much, or take...well, I'll just say that if you suspect that there's a double meaning in the title, you may be on to something. If there's anything I didn't love about the movie, it's that it suffers a bit from what other blockbusters suffer from lately and that's bloat. The grand finale in particular, while fun, overstays its welcome. Other than that, I still encourage Shane Black fans or anyone else hungry for quality popcorn entertainment to see it in a theater while they can. Oh, and you may also have been unaware that this was based on a TV series until very recently, but I encourage you to keep watching after the end credits anyway.

[WHITBISSELL!]

I quite liked it too, I think there is a lot of symbolic shite in it but if you overlook that and some cruddy (stiff) acting it's a good story. The boat journey is just rubbish though, they set off from Sutherland in a relatively small and poorly equipped vessel and land in the States within a week? The combination of realism and mysticism worked for me but that was just one step too far.Even if they had landed in Newfoundland they were still becalmed for most of their trip. You also have to explain away them not eating for so long. It's easier to just fall back on the old purgatory trope. There is a lot of talk of sin and expiation.

[LChimp]

https://i0.wp.com/bloody-disgusting.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Thanksgiving_MBV_Poster_3A.jpg?resize=740%2C925&ssl=1

6/10. The acting really hurt this one.

[GulfportDoc]

Lover Stalker Killer

rating_3_5


I saw Phoenix mention this Netflix true crime documentary in this thread. My wife and I always watch shows like 20/20 and 48 Hours so this was right up our alley. We watch so many of these that we can quickly see where they're going but that doesn't hurt our enjoyment at all. This particular story features an especially crazy person and unfortunately some not so uncommon shoddy police work in the beginning. If this is your thing then it's a good watch.
Really appreciate the tip on this one! I must have missed Phoenix's recommendation.

This is one of the most impressive documentaries I've seen in the past several years. It's a complex and almost unbelievable love triangle story that is definitely stranger than fiction!

But beyond the unique and strange tale itself, it's a very well put together documentary that keeps the viewer glued to the screen for every minute to the end. There is a twist that completely sandbagged me.

The direction by Sam Hobkinson is superb, and the very effective music score by Nick Foster perfectly sustains the various moods throughout.

If one likes true crime documentaries, this is one of the best.

[KeyserCorleone]

Really appreciate the tip on this one! I must have missed Phoenix's recommendation.

This is one of the most impressive documentaries I've seen in the past several years. It's a complex and almost unbelievable love triangle story that is definitely stranger than fiction!

But beyond the unique and strange tale itself, it's a very well put together documentary that keeps the viewer glued to the screen for every minute to the end. There is a twist that completely sandbagged me.

The direction by Sam Hobkinson is superb, and the very effective music score by Nick Foster perfectly sustains the various moods throughout.

If one likes true crime documentaries, this is one of the best.

I saw this one, too. I was quite creeped out.

[Ultraviolence]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi.pinimg.com%2F736x%2Ffd%2F7b%2F15%2Ffd7b150d2fa65bf74b5468541a7f5931.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=f222adb69d251ae0a332700780ee2f3e237eaeaa40e29131a801123a3e85ba68&ipo=images
Good movie.
3.5

[Mr Minio]

They do us all a service. Humans need constant reminding that they should not take so many things so seriously. Movies like The Crawling Eye, or The Crawling Hand, or The Slime People certainly rank pretty low on my cinematic scale.

Thanks for the rec. Great film but not as great as Robot Monster!

The Slime People (1963)

https://i.imgur.com/ye5U3l2l.png

Very atmospheric, especially in scenes with the ubiquitous fog. At times, the fog is so thick, you can hardly see a thing. It creates an amazing fuzzy layer on the image. I watched it on my laptop in the middle of the night, the screen some 40 centimeters from my face. At times, I felt as if the mist was cloaking me!

The eponymous slime people look really badass, too. The slime men attacking through the roof windows or one of them coming out of the trash bin was genuinely surprising. The slime man trying to get through the door and one of the protagonists forcing the door to close while the monster was pushing in was genuinely scary. I had this sort of nightmare many times as a child, though the ones trying to enter the flat weren't monsters but robbers in my dream.

https://i.imgur.com/E793WlGl.pnghttps://i.imgur.com/nUzvlKkl.png
A tunnel shot in The Slime People (1963) and Le révélateur (1968)

Most of the bad sides work in the film's favor.

The stilted acting during the romance scene early on was a good thing, as it successfully underscored the awkwardness of the start of something "more" between two people.

There's a wonderful sense of artifice at times. For example, a shot showing the inside of the car is obviously not a real car but a car machine that jerks in a weird, unnatural way. This is one of those moments when something that's badly made/awkward becomes an advantage, as it heightens the sense of artifice and as such, the meta side of the film. We're watching a dream unfold in front of us while realizing this dream is artificial. This requires a higher level of suspension of disbelief and trying to achieve it only puts you into an even higher state of psychotronic hypnosis. I don't see much difference between this and arthouse/avant-garde movies.

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

The monster kidnapping the woman reminded me of Robot Monster! Too bad there was no kinbaku and off-screen rape in the cave this time!

A great example of what you can do with a bunch of people and a fog machine: much more than many contemporary filmmakers can do with multi-million dollars of budget.

I prefer this to any Nolan, Gerwig, Garland, Tarantino, you name it.

4.5

__

And for an album to lull me to sleep, I chose the following raw, ear-piercing children's music blues.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kU4SeJ980ew

[Dead2009]

This Never Happened

Dont see this movie. The trailer essentially shows off the best parts of the movie and inbetween demon girls, it tries to pretend to be something its not.

[LChimp]

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/tjt0Vol2JbIms5Toa9WNchAWcsz.jpg

Slither - (2006)

7.5/10

[Allaby]

Mother of the Bride (2024) I watched this today on Netflix. This is generic and formulaic and is pretty much what you expect. Brooke Shields and Benjamin Bratt do a decent job, although I didn't care for Miranda Cosgrove's performance. The screenplay is mediocre, but the film is mildly amusing in spurts. It's the type of Netflix film you watch once and then forget about. 2.5

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNmViNzZjZTEtODY4MS00Y2U1LWI1NTgtYjk5M2NiMTMxMzY4L2ltYWdlL2ltYWdlXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjU5OTg5NDc@._V1 _.jpg



Umpteenth Rewatch...The number two box office champion of 1977 behind Star Wars, is a brainless and breezy comedy starred the late Burt Reynolds, at the height of his, sexy charm, as a former rodeo star who is offered $80,000 to get a truck filled with 400 cases of Coors beer across state lines for a millionaire's birthday in 28 hours. Throw in a runaway bride (Sally Field) and a redneck sheriff (the late Jackie Gleason) and you have all the ingredients for the comedy smash of 1977 that is as entertaining now as it was then. All the CB radio lingo dates it a bit (whatever happened to CB radios?), but this movie is still all kinds of fun. It was also the genesis of one of the great offscreen Hollywood romances with Burt and Sally Field. 3.5

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMjMwNzM3NzY0M15BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwODMwMjQ1ODE@._V1_.jpg


1st Rewatch...This edgy and compelling melodrama is a look at the relationship that developed between writer Thomas Wolfe and his editor, Max Perkins of Scribner Publishing, who before meeting Wolfe was also behind the publishing of "The Sun Also Rises" and "The Great Gatsby". According to this screenplay, a bizarre triangle develops between Wolfe, Perkins, and Aileen Bernstein, a married theater designer who was keeping Wolfe and was not happy with the time Wolfe was spending with Perkins. More interesting though was the working relationship between Wolfe and Perkins, which found Wolfe agreeing to anything Max suggested, but fighting him on any word that Perkins attempted to edit. The story strains credibility at time, even if we are talking about real life people but director Michael Grandage is to be applauded for first rate production values and the extraordinary performances he gets from his stars. Dominic West and Guy Pearce offer great guest appearances as Ernest Hemingway and F Scott Fitzgerald, respectively and Colin Firth turns in another one of his beautifully understated performances as Max Perkins . Jude Law gives the performance of his career as an unhinged Thomas Wolfe, but the one you walk away from this film remembering is Oscar winner Nicole Kidman in a bone-chilling performance as Mrs Bernstein that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Her performance alone makes this film worth a look. 3.5

[Tycoon]

https://pickvibe-media.s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com/191112/conversions/oOQq2jnGAmA7Ayxo-lg2x-large.jpg

The Monk and the Gun. Good movie, enjoyed it.

7.5/10

[skizzerflake]

Last night, it was an old favorite, the 1980 version of The Fog.....not the later remake. It's John Carpenter at his auteur peak, modest production, only a few actors you've heard of, but it's set in a real place where I've been. "Spivey Point" is the lighthouse at Point Reyes, north of San Francisco, a lonely, windy spot that is perfect for spooks and storms. It has not just one scream queen, but two....Jamie Lee Curtis AND Adrienne Barbaux.

Carpenter wrote and directed the movie, did a bit of acting and composed the minimal background music. It's a perfect movie for the actual place, and the perfect plot line for an isolated lighthouse. Now and again, I need to go back and watch this.

8/10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5m9c0gBgh6c

[Marco]

The Meyerowitz Stories (2017)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/af/The_Meyerowitz_Stories.png
This was a decent watch but I found some of the characterisation somewhat effected. Although I don't mind either of them I found Stiller and Sandler to be irritating and their "meaningful" conversations a bit vapid.
2

[WHITBISSELL!]

https://i.makeagif.com/media/5-16-2016/yOqbPo.gif
https://scifistdotcom.files.wordpress.com/2021/01/1953_phantom_from_space_005-james-seay-rudoplh-anders-ted-cooper-tom-daly.jpg

Phantom from Space - This 1953 barely there scifi was directed by Billy Wilder's older brother W. Lee Wilder and co-written by his son Myles. If those names sound familiar it might be because they were also responsible for Killers from Space with Peter Graves squaring up against a bunch of aliens with ping pong balls glued to their eye sockets. This one makes that one look polished by comparison. A UFO is spotted on radar flying over the Arctic Circle, Alaska and finally lands somewhere in Southern California. There's like 20 or so minutes of exposition involving a FCC investigators trying to track the downed ship. They eventually run across a woman claiming she and her husband and friend have been attacked by someone wearing what looked like a deep sea diving suit. One of them ends up dying which brings the police in. The alien is invisible when he takes the suit off which he does to elude capture. But then he needs to get it back in order to survive in Earth's atmosphere. The suit is also highly radioactive which doesn't stop the assorted scientists and cops from manhandling it. The whole thing is an ideal candidate for the MST3K treatment. Those first 20 or so minutes are enough to discourage a lot of viewers but it eventually eases into second gear. And stays there the rest of the way. Check this out if you're having trouble sleeping.

30/100

[CharlesAoup]

Left Behind: Rise of the Antichrist (D)

Sequel (I think?) to the horrendous Nicolas Cage movie that basically called you an ******* if you weren't a christian. This one isn't quite so abrasive in that specific way, but is insufferable in others.

The Kirk Cameron movie, whatever faults it may have had, stayed on topic as a standalone story focusing on its own actual plot. This movie lays it on 4 foot thick that Kevin Sorbo has issues with the UN, the WEF, the WHO, covid, etc, etc. The way the main character is used as this lone rebel questioning the narrative (including a FAKE SECOND WAVE of vanishings! Get it?) somehow makes the apocalyptic plot seem like a side story.
The whole thing is also given a terrible narration that only serves to emphasize what you're going to see. That's about it. Also Neal Mcdonough doesn't play the antichrist. Shoutout to that dream/hallucination with the dollar store Jesus. That was a choice.
I don't give it an F because it's, as usual, carried by the awesome plot, but I'm gonna read the books one day for the rest of it. I don't have much faith that good movies will be made from the material at this point.

[Allaby]

Daddy Daughter Trip (2022) Watched on Tubi. Rob Schneider co-directed this family comedy and stars alongside his real life daughter. This was pretty cute. Miranda Scarlett Schneider is a better actor than her dad and gives a charming performance. There are some amusing and fun moments. 3

[Stirchley]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMjMwNzM3NzY0M15BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwODMwMjQ1ODE@._V1_.jpg


1st Rewatch...This edgy and compelling melodrama is a look at the relationship that developed between writer Thomas Wolfe and his editor, Max Perkins of Scribner Publishing, who before meeting Wolfe was also behind the publishing of "The Sun Also Rises" and "The Great Gatsby". According to this screenplay, a bizarre triangle develops between Wolfe, Perkins, and Aileen Bernstein, a married theater designer who was keeping Wolfe and was not happy with the time Wolfe was spending with Perkins. More interesting though was the working relationship between Wolfe and Perkins, which found Wolfe agreeing to anything Max suggested, but fighting him on any word that Perkins attempted to edit. The story strains credibility at time, even if we are talking about real life people but director Michael Grandage is to be applauded for first rate production values and the extraordinary performances he gets from his stars. Dominic West and Guy Pearce offer great guest appearances as Ernest Hemingway and F Scott Fitzgerald, respectively and Colin Firth turns in another one of his beautifully understated performances as Max Perkins . Jude Law gives the performance of his career as an unhinged Thomas Wolfe, but the one you walk away from this film remembering is Oscar winner Nicole Kidman in a bone-chilling performance as Mrs Bernstein that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Her performance alone makes this film worth a look. 3.5

Never heard of this movie. In my Q now.

The Meyerowitz Stories (2017)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/af/The_Meyerowitz_Stories.png
This was a decent watch but I found some of the characterisation somewhat effected. Although I don't mind either of them I found Stiller and Sandler to be irritating and their "meaningful" conversations a bit vapid.
2

Not bad, nothing special.

[Stirchley]

98886

Rebecca Hall very good in this confusing story.

98887

Very good movie directed by Steve Buscemi.

[Marco]

Not bad, nothing special.

Could have saved myself some typing, spot on Stirchley.

[Marco]

Bring him to me (2023)

This seemed pretty bargain basement film-making but decent for Barry Pepper's performance alone. It's quite predictable and I found my attention wandering at points.
[2.5]rating[/rating]

[FilmBuff]

https://aftercredits.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/KingdomOfThePlanetOfTheApesPoster.jpg

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
3

It becomes clear once the movie is finished just how much the entire premise is built around a series of pretty remarkable coincidences. I'm also fairly sure that one of the final revelations in the movie is, in fact, a gigantic plot hole.

But those reservations aside, the latest in the ongoing Planet of the Apes series is a fairly entertaining yarn, set roughly 300 years after the last installment, when the original Caesar's legacy has transformed into something like a religion for many apes.

Beware the latest series of TV spots, however, as they are apparently full of spoilers. :eek:

[Ultraviolence]

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fmedia.senscritique.com%2Fmedia%2F000009834189%2Fsource_big%2FTetsuo.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=e4e34df5463b264bcc819415d76b377148e23d51cb25066184482c320e6a886a&ipo=images
First rewatch. Crazy stuff.
4

[Fabulous]

The Whole Nine Yards (2000)

3

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/8k6dGZzXy788rj6DJepl781WlpU.jpg

[FilmBuff]

https://static1.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/i-saw-the-tv-glow-poster.jpeg

I Saw the TV Glow
2.5

I Saw the TV Glow was one of the most anticipated titles of the year for me since its Sundance debut; however I think Jane Schoenbrun's sophomore effort doesn't quite deliver on its artistic ambitions - which certainly indicate a great artistic potential.

I won't go too much into detail about the film's basic premise, which involves an elaborate analogy that, taken at face value, could have made for a reasonably engaging movie.

But the analogy in question is tortuous at best and simplistic at worst. Schoenbrun does a great job building a very unique mood, but imho doesn't know where to go with that.

From what I've read in the trades, A24 wants this to be one of their biggest horror movies of the year; personally I'm not sure that it has enough "horror" elements to even be sold this way. I'll be happy if mainstream audiences ultimately embrace the strange, atmospheric film, but I also won't be surprised if they don't.

[Raven73]

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
8/10.
The continuation of an excellent series.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/cf/Kingdom_of_the_Planet_of_the_Apes_poster.jpg/220px-Kingdom_of_the_Planet_of_the_Apes_poster.jpg

[Marco]

Wake in Fright (1971)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f0/WakeInFrightAd1.jpg
Found a good copy of this Australian film. Young school-teacher breaks up for the Christmas holidays with the intention of seeing his girlfriend in Sydney after working in a provincial (to say the least) school. His connection is "the Yabba" where it all starts go monumentally pear-shaped after gambling himself out of any funds he had for the break. So he ends up in the arse end of nowhere and has to socialise with the rather eccentric locals through necessity. There's not really much more to it than that but it's a good romp.
3.5

[Tugg]

The Fall Guy (2024) 3
https://tlt-events.s3.amazonaws.com/18329/119319/afc130f6f97c9e611af023cb6972e0b6b47251718351a2ae35100fb92edbc63c/9f06e99a-7a14-48a3-9947-37d14e6292b5.jpg
Madame Web (2024) 3
https://theredledger.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/EWKA_Madame_Web4.jpg
Daddy's Home (2015) 3
https://consequence.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/screen-shot-2015-10-22-at-12-32-57-pm.png
Abigail (2024) 4
https://creepycatalog.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/abigail_2024_cast.jpg?w=768

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71EfL7hYqyS._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg


5th Rewatch....Steve Martin and Carl Reiner hit a direct bullseye with this 1982 homage to 1940's film noir which found Martin playing a private eye named Rigby Reardon trying to help a beautiful client (Rachel Ward) get to the bottom of her father's murder. But the hook of this film, through amazing pre-CGI technology, Martin gets to play scenes with Humphrey Bogart, Lana Turner, Ava Gardner, Ray Milland, Bette Davis, Cary Grant, Vincent Price, Charles Laughton, Barbara Stanwyck, Vincent Price and many other stars of classic cinema. Constructing this story not only required state of the art technology, but an intimate knowledge of the films utilized, which screenwriters Martn, Reiner, and George Gipe prove in spades. One of Martin's most underrated films that improves upon rewatch. 4

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTQxNDYzMTg1M15BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwNzk4MDgxMTE@._V1_FMjpg_UX1000_.jpg


4th Rewatch...Another instant comedy classic that just gets better with each performance. Oscar winner Joe Pesci plays a recent Brooklyn law graduate who is sent to the deep south to get his young cousin (Ralph Macchio) and his BFF (Mitchell Warfield) off when they are accused of a murder they didn't commit. With each rewatch, I find a new richness to Pesci's performance. Vinny is not taking this case very seriously when he first arrives, but watching the transition Vinny makes as he realizes how important what he's doing is, is a delight to watch. Marisa Tomei actually won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her brassy performance as Vinny's girlfriend, though I've never been really sure why. Did love Lane Smith as the DA and in a memorable scene stealing performance in his final film role, the late great Fred Wynne as the judge. 4

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BZWYzZjVlMmUtZjNiZS00NWQ1LWIwMDAtZGMzYWNkOWU4NjUyXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTQxNzMzNDI@._V1_FMjpg_UX1000_.j pg


1st Rewwatch...the third and final entry in the original franchise finds Frank Drebin (the late Leslie Nielsen) bored with retirement and unable to conceive a baby with with wife, Jane (Priscilla Presley), coerced out of retirement and sent undercover to a prison to find the terrorists who are planning to detonate a bomb at the Academy Awards. This third entry does provide more winks to other movies like The Untouchables and Thelma and Louise, but if you liked the first two movies, there's no reason you won't enjoy this one. In addition to the regulars in the franchise, this film features a slew of cameos including Raquel Welch, Elliott Gould, Mary Lou Retton, Florence Henderson, Ann B Davis, Pia Zadora, James Earl Jones, Weird Al Yankovic, and Vanna White. This film also provided the one and only attempt at a movie career for the late Anna Nicole Smith as the femme fatale trying to stop Frank. The late Fred Ward also scores channeling James Cagney in White Heat. 3.5

[Allaby]

Adult Adoption (2022) A young woman who has aged out of foster care seeks a parental figure online. Ellie Moon is wonderful in this and the rest of the cast are good too. The film has a quirky charm to it and some beautiful, empathetic moments. 4

[Allaby]

Lilly the Little Fish (2017) Directed by Yassen Grigorov. Watched on Tubi. A family fantasy/fairy tale about a child who changes gender when you look at him/her. This was interesting. The main kids did a good job and I liked the look of the film. It relies too much on narration though and is a little too long. Worth checking out if you like a different type of fairy tale/fantasy film. 3.5

[CharlesAoup]

Under The Skin, 2013 (A+)


It's hard to make out what the entire movie is about, but from a purely sensual point of view, it's just absolutely outstanding. The pool scene is the most messed up thing I've seen in a movie. I never felt like that watching anything ever. I'll be watching this one a couple times again .

[Fabulous]

Pennies from Heaven (1981)

3

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/sjFuX6X7mUIfIykTkwImIeKmrMk.jpg

[skizzerflake]

:popcorn:
Wow....I recall seeing the first one as a revival already, Planet of the Apes, way back when. There's been a bunch of them since then. This one is the 9th. As I recall, when the first one was done, there were no digital FX, so real human actors played apes. Costumes and make up were first rate, plot somewhat less so. It was intended as some sort of metaphor, but was lost on me.

This year's installment appears to be mainly digital. Since they had a human cast member named for each "ape", I assume that they used real actors and digital motion capture...added fur in software renderings. The FX are pretty good, do a good job of supporting a weak plot. As we know, "chimps" are good guys, "gorillas" are big, angry bullies. Humans are just a sideline.

You can do better than this one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kdr5oedn7q8

[Fabulous]

Benny's Video (1992)

3.5

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/AqsF2jW9HmxrbbFmsBsoRv4FxjT.jpg

[Torgo]

Elevator to the Gallows - 5

This fine-tuned Swiss watch of a noir recalls one of my favorite lines from Kicking and Screaming: "how do you make God laugh? Make a plan." Julien Tavernier and lover Florence think they have all the I's dotted and T's crossed - as does everyone in their plan’s trajectory - but there's always just that one little thing, isn't there? Watching our anti-hero #1 learn this lesson firsthand is the most tense plotline to me; after all, it is in the title. This is not just due to its clever machinations, but also Ronet's performance, who makes Tavernier out to be one smug guy for how he assumes nothing bad could ever happen to him. As for the more comical story of interlopers Louis and Veronique, it could be labeled as a B one, but it's anything but. While tempered by his efforts to stick it to the man, Poujouly's Louis ends up being just as annoyingly smug as Julien, perhaps even more due to how petulant he makes him. There's also Bertin's adorable naivety and free-spiritedness, which might as well have set the standard for so many similar female characters of the French New Wave. That most of everyone's collective string of bad luck occurs in the coolest block of Paris with its jazz clubs and cafes makes it all the more enjoyable to watch all of this play out. Speaking of jazz, Miles Davis's score may be the coolest one I've heard in this genre, which also deserves credit for adding the right touch of fatalism.

One of my favorite things about noir is how it lets you show what happens if you followed through on the devil on your shoulder’s advice. Besides succeeding at laying out the consequences, this movie goes further for how it shows that your plan would still occur in the real world, inconveniences and all. For these reasons and for how elegantly it all plays out - without lacking grit or humanity, I might add - it's a noir classic, French or otherwise. Oh, and it has all this and Lino Ventura as the police commissioner, too!

[Fabulous]

The Seventh Continent (1989)

4

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/3IObgnpFux8QhvkAxyoa32TK9PE.jpg

[FilmBuff]

https://media2.leoweekly.com/leoweekly/imager/u/slideshow/16281808/not-another-church-movie

Not Another Church Movie
0.5

If you're given the budget to make a film parody, it sure helps if you can even understand the concept of "parody".
Sadly, nobody seems to have checked if the filmmakers behind Not Another Church Movie had the faintest idea of what a parody is.
Aside from having characters named 'Tylor Pherry' and 'Hoprah Windfall', and a lazy "Madea" knock-off, the movie doesn't even decide what it even is that it's trying to parody.
It's as if the filmmakers just decided to have some unfunny characters, scenes in which those characters say something unfunny, and just keep going until the resulting scenes can be stitched together into a feature.
Oscar-winner Jamie Foxx is sadly stuck with what amounts to an extended cameo as God, while Mickey Rourke plays his counterpart down below.

[Allaby]

What Is A Woman (2020) Watched on Criterion Channel. A 14 minute Norwegian short film about a discussion inside a woman's locker room. This is an intelligent, well written short film with very good performances. I loved the way it was done. It could have easily been longer and gone even more in depth. 4.5

[Fabulous]

Rebecca (1940)

4

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/jKgLVAhoq4fXBs1C9Gjvap93fxd.jpg

[Allaby]

Wonderwell (2023 release) This is an odd one, for a number of reasons. It was filmed in 2016 and was originally going to be released in 2017, but got delayed for years. It was finally released in 2023 and is now on Tubi. It's a blend of family fantasy adventure with coming of age drama, but neither one really works. It's labelled as a family movie on imdb, but isn't really suitable for kids. The dad used the word pornography, the 12 year old mentions sex, there are at least two references to the 12 year old's boobs growing, the 15 year old sister and some other teenage models wear what looks like bra and panties in one scene (although it could have been a bikini, I wasn't sure). None of this is handled very well. The film is muddled and the story isn't clear. There are witches and a magical other side and some kind of a journey to do something. In spite of this film's many flaws and questionable choices, I didn't hate it. Carrie Fisher does a decent job with limited screen time. Kiera Milward is good as the main young girl. The cinematography, costumes, and effects are fairly well done. There is enough positive elements mixed in with the mess to lead me to rate it 3

[skizzerflake]

My movie of the night - It's the Last Voyage of the Demeter. If you've ever read the original book Dracula, you know that this is how it all starts, a nearly deserted ship showing up in a British seaport after an awful storm, carrying boxes full of dirt and a "mad" crew. Nothing ends well for the crew and the boxes are carrying something awful (like Dracula). The Dracula in this movie is much worse and far, far more loathsome than the caped Romanian of so many movies.

This movie is an large expansion of the first chapter of the book and produced and acted very well....very atmospheric. You really do NOT want to be on this cursed ship.

:popcorn::popcorn::popcorn:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCeXJN8E6y0

[cricket]

Rise of the Footsoldier: Vengeance (2023)

3.5

https://www.signature-entertainment.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Footsoldier.jpg

The 6th installment of what is probably my favorite film series. Craig Fairbass returns as real life character Pat Tate, but unfortunately the great Terry Stone is MIA. I believe he's supposed to be back for part 7. This film is not as gritty as the first 2 or as fun as the last 3. It's closer to an American style film but I still enjoyed the heck out of it.

[Mr Minio]

What Is A Woman (2022) Sure tricked me. Expected the Matt Walsh one, especially given the year of release.

[Allaby]

Sure tricked me. Expected the Matt Walsh one, especially given the year of release.

That was a typo. The year of release should say 2020. Have you seen this one?

[LChimp]

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/2E2WTX0TJEflAged6kzErwqX1kt.jpg

Godzilla Minus One - (2023)

Loved it, I would recomment it to anyone!

[Mr Minio]

That was a typo. The year of release should say 2020. Have you seen this one? No, I haven't. It sounds kinky, though.

[crumbsroom]

If you've ever read the original book Dracula, you know that this is how it all starts, a nearly deserted ship showing up in a British seaport after an awful storm


Not how it starts.

[Allaby]

No, I haven't. It sounds kinky, though.

Well, it does have full frontal nudity in the first few minutes. I liked the use of nudity in the film, as it felt natural and had different body types, different ages, male and female.

[Tycoon]

Rebecca (1940)

4

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/jKgLVAhoq4fXBs1C9Gjvap93fxd.jpg

Really like this one, great movie.

[Stirchley]

Really like this one, great movie.

Fantastic movie. Seen it a million times.

[Stirchley]

Under The Skin, 2013 (A+)


It's hard to make out what the entire movie is about, but from a purely sensual point of view, it's just absolutely outstanding. The pool scene is the most messed up thing I've seen in a movie. I never felt like that watching anything ever. I'll be watching this one a couple times again .

Probably my fave Scarlet movie. Seen this several times.

[Stirchley]

Well, it does have full frontal nudity in the first few minutes. I liked the use of nudity in the film, as it felt natural and had different body types, different ages, male and female.

What movie is this?