Rate The Last Movie You Saw [Archive] - Page 335

Darth Pazuzu

09-06-24, 01:52 PM

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The Shooting (Monte Hellman / 1966)
Ride in the Whirlwind (Monte Hellman / 1966)

A pair of low-budget Westerns, made back-to-back in 1966, presented in a very nice single-disc Blu-ray package from the good folks at Criterion! Both of them were directed by Monte Hellman and financed and co-produced (uncredited) by Roger Corman. The first film, The Shooting, stars the late, great Warren Oates, while the second one, Ride in the Whirlwind, stars Cameron Mitchell. Jack Nicholson (pre-stardom) and Millie Perkins (post-Anne Frank) co-star in both of them, and Nicholson even wrote the screenplay for the second one. Both of them are gritty, minimalist chase films across unforgivingly desolate desert landscapes (shot in Kanab, Utah), and both have a bit of an existentialist streak. Categorically speaking, these two films often get fixed with the "psychedelic Western" or "acid Western" tag, but I don't think there's anything overtly trippy or weird or surreal about them. I would consider them more to be slightly more experimental, somewhat more "Europeanized" descendants of the '50s Westerns of, say, Anthony Mann or Budd Boetticher. (Hellman and Nicholson were both very much into the work of Michelangelo Antonioni at the time.) As Westerns, they definitely stand out from the more mainstream Hollywood Westerns of the '60s and from the post-Sergio Leone Italian "spaghetti Westerns" whose production was seriously ramping up at the same time. I suppose the presence of Warren Oates in the lead role of The Shooting makes them a bit more contemporaneous with (or a precursor of) the work of Sam Peckinpah. Definitely recommended for fans of the more "left-field" end of the Western spectrum.

Gideon58

09-06-24, 01:56 PM

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Umpteenth Rewatch...This 1983 Best Picture nominee is still as fresh, funny, and heartbreaking as it was 40 years ago. A man named Alex Marshall commits suicide and seven of his friends from college are reunited for his funeral: Harold (Kevin Kline), the owner of a shoe company, Harold's wife, Sarah (Glenn Close), a doctor, Sam Weber (Tom Berenger) an actor with his own TV show, Meg (Mary Kay Place), a workaholic attorney who wants to have a baby, Michael (Jeff Goldblum), a writer for PEOPLE magazine, Karen (JoBeth Williams), a very unhappy housewife, and Nick (William Hurt), a drug dealer. Throw into the mix Chloe (Meg Tilly), Alex's girlfriend of four months, who found his body and you have the ingredients for one of the richest film experiences ever, where primary credit has to go to director and screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan. I love that he threw Chloe in there, to give us a glimpse of Alex's life at the end. Love that dinner table scene where Nick makes a joke about how Alex would reply to the subject and Chloe is the only one who laughs, one of my favorite moments in the film. But the real stroke of genius was that Kasdan originally cast Kevin Costner as Alex and included flashback scenes in the story, but at the last minute, decided to delete all the Alex scenes, giving the character an air of mystery that is so effective. Kasdan crafted one of cinema's most quotable screenplays ever, carefully guarded over by his direction. Close received the second of three consecutive Best Supporting Actress nominations for her performance, but the entire cast works at the same level. The film also sports one of the greatest song scores in cinema. 5

Gideon58

09-06-24, 02:06 PM

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1st Rewatch...This often deeply moving family drama and 2020 Best Picture nominee probably didn't get the attention it deserved due to its release so closely following 2019 Best Picture winner Parasite. This is the story of a Korean American family, led by the passionate patriarch Jacob, who has moved his family from California to Arkansas after purchasing a small parcel of land upon which he plans to build his own farm. Instead of the fish out of water kind of story we expect with a Korean family starting a new life in Arkansas, we learn the family is already being pulled apart because it appears that Jacob's wife, Rachel, didn't want to make this move. We don't know if Jacob did this despite his wife's objections or her unhappiness developed after their arrival in Arkansas, but that question, among others, keeps this drama on boil, not to mention the concern focused on Rachel's often insensitive mother who moves in with them and their young son, David, who has a heart condition. Lee Isaac Chung received double Oscar nominations for his direction and screenplay, Steven Yeun was nominated for Best Actor for his extraordinary work as Jacob and Youn Yuh-jung won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her sassy Grandma. A moving family drama that rarely goes where we think it's going to go. 4.5

Gideon58

09-06-24, 02:12 PM

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1st Rewatch...This raunchy and overlong comedy is definitely the kind of movie that Adam Sandler haters point to to document why they hate him. Sandler plays Donnie Berger who, when he was in the 8th grade, had an affair with a teacher and got her pregnant, sending her to jail for 30 years and making him a media sensation. Now as an adult, Donnie is broke and owes the IRS $43,000. and decides to seek out his now grown son, Todd (Andy Samberg) for help, right before Todd's wedding. Sandler and Samberg are both funny, but the laughs aren't as consistent as they should be and the movie feels like it's five hours long. 2.5

iluv2viddyfilms

09-06-24, 02:14 PM

Stalker (1979, Tarkovsky) - A+

Darth Pazuzu

09-06-24, 02:23 PM

Stalker (1979, Tarkovsky) - A+

I honestly didn't like that movie as much as I liked 1972's Solaris.

To be perfectly, brutally honest, I find Tarkovsky a bit of a chore to sit through. His sense of pacing makes people like Kubrick and Visconti seem like Michael Bay in comparison. No mean feat there...

Stirchley

09-06-24, 02:54 PM

Darth Pazuzu

09-06-24, 03:53 PM

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September 3, 2024

AFRAID (Chris Weitz / 2024)
BLINK TWICE (Zoë Kravitz / 2024)

Quite an interesting double-bill, this one!

First off, Afraid is the latest in a long line of thrillers about the dangers posed by computer technology, robots and/or artificial intelligence. This one is a weird mixture of the obvious and the subtle. First off, the dialogue is very on-the-nose and really overdoes the thematic signposting. But it's also got its share of subtle and intelligent pleasures. The idea of an AI entity as a kind of overprotective surrogate "helicopter" parent is certainly an amusing one, but one that turns deadly serious when the teenage daughter is slut-shamed online by her jerky ex-boyfriend. The slo-mo execution of the scene where the daughter has to face her peers at school after AIA (the entity's name) sets her record straight online is really quite deftly handled, the daughter slowly walking towards the other kids, worrying about their ambivalent and possibly judgmental faces, then being warmly and sympathetically embraced while the other kids are finding about the actions of the ex-boyfriend from AIA on their phones, including the ex who's got this expression on his face like "Oh my God, I am so f****ed!" (And if you're guessing that this guy will be made to check out of the story early by AIA, you're not wrong.) And I must say, the movie makes rather astute points about human behavior and how so much of what motivates our actions involves some form of blackmail or coercion, which creepy, meddlesome little AIA manages to tap into with frightening ease. Sooooooo... overall, I'd have to say it's not the greatest thriller about the dangers of AI, but certainly not the worst. (I have to say that it kind of reminds me of The Matrix Revolutions in that it ends not with the AI's destruction but in a kind of détente or rapprochement, since technological evolution and growth is inevitable and omnipresent anyway.)

Now, Blink Twice was a whole 'nother kettle of fish entirely. I really dug this one. The directorial debut of actress Zoë Kravitz (daughter of rock singer Lenny), this is one of those movies that actually really makes a person grateful for: A) not being rich, or B) not having any rich friends. A very potent mixture of social satire, comedy of manners, and out-and-out revenge horror thriller, I felt a great deal of pleasure in not having any idea what was coming next and getting a great deal of bloody satisfaction out of what did come. A total, full-on, brutally savage takedown of modern-day Cinderella romantic fantasies about being swept off one's feet by a handsome stranger and spirited off to some private getaway, Blink Twice actually has a great deal to say about gender relations, male entitlement, rape culture, forgiveness, forgetting, and the extent to which people are willing to both put themselves in dangerous situations and tolerate so many things which they may in theory find completely unacceptable. (It's rather fortuitous that I saw this in a theater on the same day as the admittedly lesser Afraid, since both films are very much concerned - albeit in different ways - with the more coercive factors which tend to govern human behavior.) Our story deals with a young working woman named Frida (Naomi Ackie), who along with her friend Jess (Alia Shawkat) get invited to the private island of a handsome young billionaire tech mogul named Slater King (Channing Tatum), who's recently resigned from the position of company CEO under a cloud and after making a profuse public apology for unspecified offenses. Once they arrive at the island resort, they're met by King's friends (including a guy with a missing finger played by Christian Slater) and by several other female guests, among them King's assistant Stacy (Geena Davis) who confiscates everybody's phones and a reality TV star named Sarah (Adria Arjona). For several days, a great deal of carefree partying, swimming, gourmet eating, drinking, drugging and playfully inane conversation takes place. But not all is well. First of all, Frida is confronted by a mysterious maid (María Elena Olivares) who seems to know her. Secondly, during one night of partying, Jess is bitten by a snake. Its venom is non-lethal, but then Jess starts experiencing misgivings and fear about the whole experience and expresses a strong desire to go home. As events play out over the course of this island visit, the movie's editing gradually becomes more and more fragmented and seemingly random, suggestive of incomplete memory or possible blackout states. But Frida's memories become jarred and jostled after the maid gives her a drink which turns out to be...

To tell more would be unfair, and I think at this point an educated, intelligent person could probably give a reasonably good guess as to what's really going on and what the true purpose of the island is. We do live in the age of Jeffrey Epstein and of seemingly compulsorily bad behavior on the part of society's well-to-do. If I have one reservation about Blink Twice, it's regarding the movie's final scene, which sort of takes us out of the realm of the realistic thriller and into the realm of satirical sex-war parable. It feels perhaps unduly, inappropriately comedic after everything we've seen happen in the rest of the movie. This humorous ending - albeit blackly so - feels almost too lightweight for a movie concerned with such real-world stakes. But I must admit that this is my only reservation. I wouldn't even call it overly negative so much as reflecting a minor inconsistency in tone.

I remember waaaaaaayyy back in the early '90s, I once read a book about the band Nirvana and the alternative-rock scene, and its author made a rather bold claim. For her, the runaway success of Nirvana's Nevermind album was evidence that Republican candidate George Bush (Sr.) would not win the 1992 presidential election and would ultimately lose to Bill Clinton. (Supremely ironic given Clinton's own bad behavior and alleged improprieties.) OK, you might find a statement like that to be a spurious correlation at best. But I think there's a grain of truth to the idea that our tastes in music and movies, at any one given time, are sort of a barometer the helps assess where the public's attitudes and mindset are at. As the credits rolled on Blink Twice and the lights went up, I had this really strange - albeit pleasant - feeling in my gut, which told me that if Blink Twice proved to be a big enough hit at the box office, that would be proof that Donald Trump would ultimately lose the 2024 election and that Kamala Harris would win! Yeah, sure, call BS on that one if you wish - and I don't wish to outright offend anybody else whose politcal beliefs happen to differ from mine - and it's perfectly possible that I could be dead wrong. Like I said, it's just a weird feeling... ;)

Allaby

09-06-24, 04:06 PM

Fear of a Black Hat (1993) A comedy/musical mockumentary similar to A Mighty Wind or This is Spinal Tap, except focused on 90s hip hip. The film focuses on N.W.H. (N****z With Hats), a controversial hip hop group consisting of Ice Cold, Tone-Def & Tasty Taste . Songs include F**k the Security Guards, Booty Juice, and Come Pet The P.U.S.S.Y. This was hilarious. The performances are entertaining and the songs are actually good. Watched on Tubi. 4

Mr Minio

09-06-24, 04:30 PM

To be perfectly, brutally honest, I find Tarkovsky a bit of a chore to sit through. His sense of pacing makes people like Kubrick and Visconti seem like Michael Bay in comparison. No mean feat there... I do agree his films tend to be too fast-paced.

LeBoyWondeur

09-06-24, 05:59 PM

Chariots Of Fire (1981)

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This being a sports period drama made in the early 1980s makes it look like a classic within a classic.
It's a situational story and rather restraint in the personal motives of the main characters.
Personally I think it managed to make the sport look wholesome and handsome, and I cheered for the strength of the runners regardless of whose victory it was going to be.
I like the famous Vangelis tune (like everybody else does) but I was afraid they would play it at every opportunity - thankfully that doesn't happen.
Somehow I thought there was going to be a scene with the men running on the beach in the nude but I guess that was another film about The Olympics.

8/10

TONGO

09-06-24, 06:05 PM

The Holdovers 4 out of 5.

Allaby

09-06-24, 06:48 PM

Gabi, Between Ages 8 and 13 (2021) Directed by Engeli Broberg, this interesting and beautiful documentary focuses on Gabi between the ages of 8-13. Gabi doesn't completely identify with traditional ideas of being a girl or a boy. The film explores questions of Gender from Gabi's perspective and avoids giving easy answers and never comes across as preachy or manipulative. Highly recommended for anyone interested in gender and identity. Watched on Tubi. 4.5

ApexPredator

09-06-24, 09:26 PM

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Had a few sharp moments and it's nice to see Leslie Nielsen as a Texas politician, but it'll disappoint if you were expecting Dr. Strangelove or Network. 2

Captain Steel

09-06-24, 11:45 PM

Not With My Wife, You Don't! (1966)

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Another film from this era that I never heard of.

Kind of weird in a lot of ways. It's a comedy about a love triangle between 2 Air Force buddies who both fall in love with the same nurse. One marries her, but sparks are still there for the other man.

Most of the time it seems a pretty mainstream comedy, but in a few various moments it veers into almost Airplane! (1980) - level silliness.

It's those tangents that make you start to wonder what kind of film is this? Romantic comedy, mainstream comedy, military comedy, suggestive comedy or stupid-zany-weird comedy?

It's a little bit of all of those, yet never really reaches beyond providing a few chuckles.

It's fascinating how the studios always seemed to be trying to find a partner for Tony Curtis. Teaming him up with George C. Scott was among the most offbeat of those pairings yet.

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Virna Lisi (whom I was unfamiliar with) is captivating.

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The movie has a few very engaging sequences, yet overall, combining the plot, pacing and performances, it felt like a bit of a chore to sit through (but worth watching if you're into the 60's nostalgia).

2

PHOENIX74

09-07-24, 01:53 AM

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Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1835112

Jerry Maguire - (1996)

You have to let yourself go sometimes, and not be too cynical - Jerry Maguire is based on a variety of different experiences, and a desire to shake free of cynicism and embrace the real and the human beings we interact with when we do our jobs. They can easily become just statistics. Tom Cruise has a remarkable ability to project an image of normalcy - nobody else would have been able to withstand who he really is, and in Jerry Maguire he plays the title character - in career freefall after a moment of self-disgust born from his own cynical trajectory, and in doing so inspires co-worker Dorothy Boyd (Renée Zellweger) and client Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding Jr.) to stick with him through repeated failures, mess-ups, self-doubt and bad luck. He's an agent - to high paid sports stars, and goes through the kind of awakening you get when you realise how unhealthy a purely cynical life really is. Amazing performances all-round here, and it came so, so close to getting a higher score - I loved the glimpses of real vulnerability we see throughout regarding Maguire, and his evolution from dog eat dog businessman to friend, husband and believer.

7/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7d/Arrebato_poster.jpg
By http://photos8.flickr.com/8496730_7b14f6472b.jpg, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=13294572

Arrebato - (1979)

Our relationship with the screen, and via that connective tissue the camera, is a complex one when it comes to the human mind and recorded images - and swirling through all of that, becoming part of the puzzle in Arrebato, is the constant presence of drug use and addiction. This film reached into my subconscious and worked it's way into my dreams. Full review here (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?p=2485667#post2485667), in my watchlist thread.

8/10

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By Derived from a digital capture (photo/scan) of the VHS or DVD Cover (creator of this digital version is irrelevant as the copyright in all equivalent images is still held by the same party). Copyright held by the film company or the artist. Claimed as fair use regardless., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=29592945

Sherman's March - (1985)

Oh the irony of looking forward to watching Sherman's March because you're interested in Civil War history - not that this documentary isn't more fulfilling and humanistic by being famously sidetracked by one man and his personal crisis of confidence. I love that Ross McElwee was drawn to the living and colourful - full review here (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?p=2485963#post2485963), in my watchlist thread.

9/10

chawhee

09-07-24, 09:32 AM

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/ea/Jerry_Maguire_movie_poster.jpg
Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1835112

Jerry Maguire - (1996)

...Amazing performances all-round here, and it came so, so close to getting a higher score - I loved the glimpses of real vulnerability we see throughout regarding Maguire, and his evolution from dog eat dog businessman to friend, husband and believer.

7/10

I was hoping someone would post a quick review on this after I watched it for the first time last week. I gave it a 6/10, because that evolution you mentioned just felt so rushed and shallow to me (despite the movie being pretty lengthy).

Mr Minio

09-07-24, 09:44 AM

Demonlover (2002)
dir. Olivier Assayas

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DEMONLOVER teeters on the precipice of greatness, largely attributable to its evocative Y2K aesthetics. The interplay of reflections in glass and the tactile allure of film grain imbue the work with a meticulously orchestrated yet ostensibly chaotic visual panache. This aesthetic, while compelling, constitutes the film’s primary offering. Regrettably, it lacks a substantive exploration of spatial dynamics, a deficiency symptomatic of its epoch. Barring the esoteric arthouse exceptions, films of this era succumb to a frenetic pace that precludes contemplative analysis, with auteurs like Johnnie To being notable outliers.

The transition from 2D anime to 3D animation within the film metaphorically signifies the end of one era and the advent of another. The kitsch aesthetic of 3D, inferior to its 2D predecessor, mirrors the film’s superficial moralizing and facile interrogatives. One might argue that 3D’s proximity to reality parallels the contemporary penchant for rendering brutal fantasies with verisimilitude, as opposed to the discernible artifice of 2D, which facilitates a clearer demarcation between reality and fantasy.

A principal critique of DEMONLOVER lies in its narrative, which intermittently subsumes the stylistic elements, occasionally corrupting them with superfluous inquiries better suited to sociological discourse than cinematic critique. The film is replete with banal, anachronistic musings on sexuality, pornography, domination, and power - concerns emblematic of millennial anxieties manifesting as an inescapable nightmare. Yet, this nightmare lacks the requisite surrealism or terror to be truly effective.

If the film purports to comment on desensitization to sexual violence (a premise I find dubious), it fails, as reliance on shock value invariably alienates a segment of the audience. While one might contend that the film’s depiction of desensitized characters serves as a meta-commentary, I reject the notion that cinema should engage in such didacticism. The purported horror and disturbance pale in comparison to the visceral dread evoked by characters like Frank in BLUE VELVET, who, despite his limitations, exudes an inextricable sense of menace.

Ultimately, the film’s conclusion undermines its potential. Whether interpreted as a didactic denouement or a B-movie wink to mainstream audiences, it detracts from the film’s gravitas. Assayas’ stylistic ambitions would be better served by emulating the alienation found in Hisayasu Sato’s finest works or the profound existentialism of superior Tech Noirs. Unfortunately, Assayas’ attempt to cater to a broad audience results in a diluted experience that satisfies no one but himself. This self-indulgence, while perhaps befitting an auteur, renders the film’s serious inquiries misguided, trivial, or outright absurd. Transcendence is nowhere to be found.

Nonetheless, I afford Assayas a degree of leniency. The torment of losing Maggie Cheung could indeed drive one to the brink of insanity.

3/10 (Passable)

Mr Minio

09-07-24, 11:48 AM

Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987)
dir. John Hughes

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The last from Yoda's Top 10 I still hadn't seen.

A mediocre, unfunny American road movie buddy comedy on friendship and then the last 10 (5?) minutes happen that are great and elevate the whole thing a little bit. The moment Steve Martin (and the viewer at the same time) realizes Candy's wife is dead is almost moving; the confirmation from Candy after Martin returns to him is almost unnecessary - this would've worked much better without that blatant confirmation, as the moment before was so good at making it obvious without stating it verbatim! When they both enter the house, we're supposed to be happy because there's the wife and kids that Martin finally got back to after such a long, annoying journey. And yes, it kinda works, but it's mostly in seeing his wife who has a weird, almost holy aura of hearth and home around her. The takeaway of the film is IMO that even if something is frustrating and insufferable, you can still get something positive out of it (like a good friend).

I like the takeaway and the message, but as is also the case with another Steve Martin film with a nice message that I'm not a fan of (PARENTHOOD), while I think the "what the film talks about" is good, the "how it does it" just isn't, or to be a little bit more lenient, the how just isn't anything special. Somebody like Yoji Yamada could improve the how in both, making them masterpieces, but lesser directors like Ron Howard or John Hughes just don't have that in them. Yet another proof that just a good message isn't enough to make a good film. You also need to make it good cinematically. I don't know, like Wellman in FRISCO JENNY, for example. That being said, PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES isn't a bad film or anything. Just a watchable film I don't care about, with merely the last 5 minutes constituting something I'm not indifferent to.

2/10 (Tolerable)

Marco

09-07-24, 12:07 PM

Jawbone (2017)
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An impressive low key film about an ex youth champion boxer that has fallen on hard times due to isolation and alcohol abuse. The death of his mother leaves him rudderless and homeless so he decides that he'll approach his old boxing club trainers (superbly played by Ray Winstone and Michael Smiley) to ask for the umpteenth chance to redeem himself. And he does. Johnny Harris is exceptional in this and portrays the haunted Jimmy so believably.

4

Allaby

09-07-24, 12:23 PM

Onyx the Fortuitous and the Talisman of Souls (2023) Andrew Bowser's performance is the worst thing about this. I found his voice and mannerisms too over the top and annoying. The other actors were decent. This isn't funny though and it goes on for far too long. They could have easily cut 30 minutes out of this. There were a couple fun moments though, but not enough to justify the length. 2.5

Gideon58

09-07-24, 12:50 PM

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2nd Rewatch...My second favorite Melissa McCarthy movie, behind Spy, under the direction of her hubby Ben Falcone, McCarthy chews the scenery as Michelle Darnell, a female version of Donald Trump who gets arrested for insider trading and loses everything. Upon her release, she invades the life of her former assistant (Kristen Bell) and her pre-teen daughter and decides to claw her way back to the top by selling her assistants homemade brownies like girl scout cookies. Falcone, Bell, and just about everyone else involved in this project just gets out of McCarthy's way as she tears through this story like tissue paper making it so much funnier than it really is. The only actor McCarthy doesn't blow off the screen is the always brilliant Peter Dinklage as her business rival and former lover. You gotta love that girl on girl rumble shot in slo-mo. 3.5

Gideon58

09-07-24, 12:55 PM

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Umpteenth Rewatch....This somewhat cheesy popcorn movie about aliens invading our planet remains somewhat watchable after all these years. For 1996, some of the visual effects are decent, but I still think some the casting is kind of strange. Bill Pullman as the POTUS? Judd Hirsch as Jeff Goldblum's father? And clearly, Will Smith's role was written for someone else because the name of his character is Stephen Hiller. There are maybe five black men on the entire planet named Stephen. Randy Quaid is fun as a crop duster who believes he was sexually molested by aliens a decade before the movie started. There's something oddly riveting about this movie that, if I'm channel surfing and run into it, I will watch. 3

Gideon58

09-07-24, 01:01 PM

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1st Rewatch...This blah romantic drama completely redefines the phrase "hopelessly dated." The 2006 film stars Sanaa Lathan as Kenya McQueen, a corporate accountant who falls in love with Brian (Simon Baker), the contractor that she hired to re-do her patio/garden and the problems that arise because she's black and he's white. I don't know, interracial romance is such a non-issue these days that it's hard to take this movie seriously, it feels so forced and affected. There's a scene at a party at Kenya's house where one of her friends actually says "the white guy is nice." Seriously? The last time this issue was addressed onscreen that I recall was Guess Who with the late Bernie Mac and Ashton Kutcher, but that was a comedy. It's a suitable issue to center a comedy around, but not a drama. Alfre Woodard is fun as Kenya's racist mother though. 2

Robert the List

09-07-24, 04:10 PM

Mr Minio has only just watched planes, trains and automobiles.

im not sure if it was this fact that made me laugh, or the fact that he marked it "2/10 passable".

Mr Minio

09-07-24, 04:39 PM

im not sure if it was this fact that made me laugh, or the fact that he marked it "2/10 passable". Nobody's seen everything. I still haven't seen some of the more mainstream classics like The Truman Show or The Day of the Jackal, for example. And say hello to my new rating system. :cool:

Citizen Rules

09-07-24, 05:11 PM

@Mr Minio (http://www.movieforums.com/community/member.php?u=72801) has only just watched planes, trains and automobiles.

im not sure if it was this fact that made me laugh, or the fact that he marked it "2/10 passable".Why is that funny? I only seen The Godfather & The Wizard of Oz just a few years ago. One has to select what they watch, I haven't seen a single thing on your top 10 profile yet;)

Robert the List

09-07-24, 06:10 PM

Why is that funny? I only seen The Godfather & The Wizard of Oz just a few years ago. One has to select what they watch, I haven't seen a single thing on your top 10 profile yet;)
You have!

Pyscho
Blade Runner
Bridge on the River Kwai

I still think it's funny he hadn't seen it. :laugh:

Citizen Rules

09-07-24, 07:16 PM

You have!

Pyscho
Blade Runner
Bridge on the River Kwai

I still think it's funny he hadn't seen it. :laugh:Those are all solid!

Fabulous

09-07-24, 09:18 PM

My Own Private Idaho (1991)

3.5

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/stSaFz5CtMXwIj3r4MDjqxqWRot.jpg

Takoma11

09-07-24, 10:29 PM

I don't know, interracial romance is such a non-issue these days that it's hard to take this movie seriously, it feels so forced and affected.

I have multiple neighbors who frequently vocalize their displeasure with the fact that there's a woman on our street who is dating "a colored guy". Another neighbor has a grandson who is mixed race, and I would get banned for typing out what he calls that child. So, sadly, it's not a non-issue in many places. I do think it's largely been normalized in popular media, which is maybe why it feels odd seeing it as the central conflict of a Hollywood movie.

But subject matter of the film aside, I watched it around when it came out (I saw a trailer for it in front of another movie I was seeing at the theater) and was really taken with what I saw. Lathan in particular really seemed to sparkle, and I was fond of the rest of the cast. But then the movie itself was pretty underwhelming. It just lacked moxie.

FilmBuff

09-07-24, 10:55 PM

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/lN5frH57tZ1HNb73cXbq1xqX0L9.jpg

Hoard
4.5

Watching this movie - particularly watching it in the theater - is a bewitching experience.

It marks the feature directing debut of Luna Carmoon, and the feature acting debut of English-Spanish actor Saura Lightfoot-Leon in the main role. I really look forward to whatever they do next.

There's something slightly macabre - but very relatable - to the story of a young girl brought up by a hoarding mom and separated from her at an early age; as a teenage, she embarks on a sort of affair with a foster sibling.

It's the kind of story that doesn't rely so much on mere plot devices as much as it does at evoking a certain kind of feeling, a moodiness, a state of mind. And that's the part where the movie really excels (the performances are also all top-notch).

If you want something that's definitely offbeat and unforgettable, check out Hoard.

https://static1.colliderimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/beetlejuice-beetlejuice-michael-keaton.jpeg

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice 2024 AD (IMAX)
2

I had hoped a 2nd viewing of the new Tim Burton film would make me either appreciate it a bit more or confirm that my initial reaction just wasn't a fluke.

Spoiler alert: it wasn't!

This is, unfortunately, a movie that absolutely falls flat on a repeat viewing, with the comedy being barely funny and way too many ideas and characters thrown into the mix for no good reason.

What makes that particularly disappointing is that I still really, really like nearly all of the lead actors here, and it IS kind of nice to see them on the big screen (particularly Winona, who hadn't appeared on the big screen for quite a while).

And yet the strangest thing is feeling that Keaton's performance somehow doesn't quite feel the same as his first turn as Betelgeuse. It's odd, but this one feels more like watching Christopher Lloyd doing an impression of Michael Keaton as Betelgeuse. Go figure!

All the same, it seems like this one will be kind of a big hit for WB, so it shouldn't be surprised anyone if a 3rd movie is announced soon. You can also bet your bottom dollar it will be called Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.

PHOENIX74

09-07-24, 11:06 PM

https://i.postimg.cc/SxvnL6W1/milat.jpg
Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3498671

Catching Milat - (2015)

When Wolf Creek came out in 2005 it was very easy for all Australians to see that the character John Jarratt was playing - Mick Taylor - was Ivan Milat. As hard as it is for serial killers in this day and age to abduct and murder without being caught, Australia's sheer size and the habit backpackers have of hitching rides makes it easy for tourists to disappear without a trace. We'll never know how many young men and women Ivan Milat picked up, tortured, murdered and dumped out there (at least 16), but the NSW police got him for seven - enough to put him away for life. Malcolm Kennard makes him look pretty crazy (I think it's the eyes), but it does a pretty good job of giving us an impression of the very ocker Milat family - gun loving, and rough. The police procedural segment of this ruffled a few feathers because it basically has one detective pick up on all the clues - but that's just the way these things roll. You can't make a drama with each new find, idea and action pushed forward by someone new the audience doesn't know. It's functional and interesting - compelling in a way most TV productions tend to be. Ivan Milat had been known to pick up foreign hitch-hikers, tie them up and rape them - and a British guy who escaped ended up being the catalyst for his eventual rise up the charts to a person of interest. When the police came knocking, they found a whole treasure trove of items he'd taken from his victims. Not the wisest course of action if you're a serial killer who wants to avoid prosecution - stealing everything from your victims. When he became determined for the High Court of Australia to re-hear his case on appeal, he tried to send the court one of his fingers, which he cut off with a plastic knife. I'm sure that made more sense in this man's mind at the time, but personally, I doubt that's how criminal appeals work.

Anyway, watching this really drives home the point that there's nothing more terrifying than being abducted by a malicious, cruel serial killer when you're hundreds and hundreds of miles from any semblance of human habitation - alone, and without much hope. Especially, I'm guessing, if you're in a country foreign to you. Years after the nation digested Milat, and also dealt with a few other cases of backpacker hitchhikers being abducted and going missing, Wolf Creek came out, with Mick Taylor modelled on Ivan himself.

6/10

https://i.postimg.cc/xC9tvVGP/ivan.jpg

pahaK

09-08-24, 01:57 AM

And say hello to my new rating system. :cool:

Did you mean to say "trolling system"?

MovieBuffering

09-08-24, 02:42 AM

The Maltese Falcon - 1941

Was in Atlanta two weekends ago. Ran around there alot in college was staying near the last video rental store in Atlanta I believe. Lots of cool stuff but had some for sale. Picked up blu ray of Out Of Sight (one of my faves didn't have it on blu ray), Do The Right Thing (hole in my filmography) and this flick was on blu ray.

Been wanting to give it a gander for awhile. Trying to catch up on some old Humphrey Bogart. It was a fine flick. Bogart doing Bogart things. I could see this being really innovative and exciting in 1941 as one of the first really good noir films. You can see the inspiration many films after it have taken from it. I did enjoy it, I just think I've been spoiled with watching films like it that improved upon it's formula, after all it is 80 plus years old. It's a very cool little film but I don't have much expectation I will be revisiting it anytime soon.

3

https://www.classichollywoodcentral.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/The-Maltese-Falcon.jpg

MovieBuffering

09-08-24, 02:50 AM

Mr Minio

09-08-24, 04:49 AM

Did you mean to say "trolling system"?

Just a sincere, strict one.

Robert the List

09-08-24, 06:07 AM

Those are all solid!
Plus also you've seen The Terrorizers.

Robert the List

09-08-24, 06:14 AM

The Terrorizers (1986) 9.6

Fabulous

09-08-24, 09:05 AM

The Grey Fox (1982)

4

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/h2YQt24pKVwDwsJv0M3V31VpylR.jpg

Raven73

09-08-24, 09:07 AM

Godzilla x Kong the New Empire
4/10.
Just when you thought this monster franchise couldn't get any worse.
It was like watching a bad made-for-TV animated movie. It was so bad, I ended up shutting it off about half way through.
Please stop making movies like this. Instead of putting the "x" between their names, put the x though both of them.
And stop making Godzilla glow Barbie pink.
Hopefully this empire had a short reign.

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BY2QwOGE2NGQtMWQwNi00M2IzLThlNWItYWMzNGQ5YWNiZDA4XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNTE1NjY5Mg@@._V1_QL75_UX190_CR0, 2,190,281_.jpg

chawhee

09-08-24, 11:23 AM

Migration (2023)
https://www.tvinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/migration-770x433.jpg
3
Another outdoor movie night with my daughter, and this is a rewatch from originally seeing it in theaters. My rating remains the same, as everything is just okay here. I did think the visuals are top-notch (who wouldn't want to fly through the clouds or amongst the canopy in Jamaica). However, it suffers from a lot of loud, anxious sequences that turn me off sometimes, similar to how The Bad Guys did in 2022.

Torgo

09-08-24, 12:07 PM

Love Lies Bleeding - 2

This neo-noir really wants you to believe it's edgy and controversial. Where to begin? There's a torrid and graphic lesbian love affair, HGH injections, plenty of smoking, an abusive brother-in-law, Ed Harris as a skulleted gun range manager with a fondness for stag beetles, etc. All these flourishes may have had the intended effect twenty years ago, but today, they come across as trying too hard. What's more, this supposedly tangy yet actually plain frosting is on top of equally plain cake. In other words, the movie does not do anything novel with its genre tropes. As for the climactic moment that may have brought this movie to your attention, as much as I'd love to say it's actually edgy, it seems like a cop out more than anything else.

Despite being disappointed overall, there are things in the movie worth appreciating. I like the atmospheric presentation, and the late '80s period touches are accurate and without being too kitschy. The performances are also uniformly strong, especially Ed Harris for how he knows what kind of movie he is in, for how he chews the scenery and...other things just enough. I can see what Rose Glass and company were going for in making you wonder how much you would sacrifice if you found that exact person you were seeking, but due to all its missteps, it doesn't quite pay it off. With this movie and the equally middling Drive-Away Dolls, lesbian stories deserve better in 2024, which is a shame given how many great ones there have been in recent years (Booksmart, Bottoms, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, et al).

matt72582

09-08-24, 12:26 PM

THE SIN
(1965, Barakat)

The Sin follows Aziza (Faten Hamama), a poor woman that has to work in the fields under harsh conditions. When her husband falls ill and is unable to work as well, the pressure to sustain the family falls solely in Aziza. After being raped by a guard and ending up pregnant, she is faced with some harsh decisions. Does she reveal what happened sacrificing both her dignity and her family's means of survival, or does she carry on risking shame and punishment in the future?

As I was browsing for films from Egypt, this often came up as one of the most well-regarded films from the country. Considering the time and place it was made, it's understandable the impact it probably had. Even in more progressive societies nowadays, there are still films that shy away from addressing issues like rape, unwanted pregnancies, abortion, and suicide, or its religious/spiritual implications. So to have this come out from a Muslim country, back in 1965, is quite something.

Grade: rating_3

Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2483945#post2483945)

I highly recommend the following Egyptian movies:

-Chitchat on the Nile
-Cairo '30
-Cairo Station
-M Empire

matt72582

09-08-24, 12:35 PM

https://auctions.c.yimg.jp/images.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/image/dr000/auc0307/users/12079f8669f42bbef9c1b5dc43dcefbf5a8d96c1/i-img787x1200-1658046946yttlo0292842.jpg

刺青
rating_4

刺青 (Irezumi) is over 50 years old, and still a knockout.

In what might essentially be described as Japanese noir, Ayako Wakao plays one heck of a femme fatale, a deadly geisha whose destiny appears to be cast as soon as she's forced to have a freaky giant spider tattooed on her back.

A simple summary of the plot mechanics wouldn't quite do the movie justice, as much of the pleasure it offers stems not from knowing what happens, but watching it happen bit by bit.

Ayako Wakao is reportedly still alive (she'd be about 90 now) and one simply has to wonder what amazing stories she might have to tell about the making of this movie.

Hi. I want to recommend this movie to a friend, but she avoids Erotica categories. Is there a lot of nudity?

Mr Minio

09-08-24, 12:47 PM

Is there a lot of nudity? No.

Thief

09-08-24, 01:02 PM

I highly recommend the following Egyptian movies:

-Chitchat on the Nile
-Cairo '30
-Cairo Station
-M Empire

Thanks! I'll write them down.

EDIT: Chichat on the Nile also titled Adrift on the Nile (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0356117/)? 1971 movie?

FilmBuff

09-08-24, 01:10 PM

Hi. I want to recommend this movie to a friend, but she avoids Erotica categories. Is there a lot of nudity?

No, it is almost devoid of all nudity unless you count her bare back (because she has to show her tattoo)

matt72582

09-08-24, 01:10 PM

Thanks! I'll write them down.

EDIT: Chichat on the Nile also titled Adrift on the Nile (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0356117/)? 1971 movie?

That's it!

Enjoy!

Marco

09-08-24, 07:21 PM

Love Lies Bleeding - 2

This neo-noir really wants you to believe it's edgy and controversial. Where to begin? There's a torrid and graphic lesbian love affair, HGH injections, plenty of smoking, an abusive brother-in-law, Ed Harris as a skulleted gun range manager with a fondness for stag beetles, etc. All these flourishes may have had the intended effect twenty years ago, but today, they come across as trying too hard. What's more, this supposedly tangy yet actually plain frosting is on top of equally plain cake. In other words, the movie does not do anything novel with its genre tropes. As for the climactic moment that may have brought this movie to your attention, as much as I'd love to say it's actually edgy, it seems like a cop out more than anything else.

Despite being disappointed overall, there are things in the movie worth appreciating. I like the atmospheric presentation, and the late '80s period touches are accurate and without being too kitschy. The performances are also uniformly strong, especially Ed Harris for how he knows what kind of movie he is in, for how he chews the scenery and...other things just enough. I can see where Rose Glass and company were going in making you wonder how much you would sacrifice if you found that exact person you were looking for, but due to all its missteps, it doesn't quite pay it off. With this movie and the equally middling Drive-Away Dolls, lesbian stories deserve better in 2024, which is a shame given how many great ones there have been in recent years (Booksmart, Bottoms, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, et al).
I thought it was laughably bad, the training scenes/posing in front of mirrors a nadir in an already ill-thought out film.

Robert the List

09-08-24, 07:25 PM

Dust in the Wind (1986) 8.25
Some of it was lovely. I got a bit bored. Can't really remember anything that happened.
It had an anti-ending (as in there wasn't one).
It had a super cool mechanical printing machine.

Marco

09-08-24, 07:31 PM

FilmBuff

09-08-24, 08:47 PM

https://chinesedrama.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/afgsdgsdgsdgsdgsgsdgsdggdsgsdg.jpg

负负得正
4

负负得正 - distributed in the US under the title Land of Broken Hearts - is a positively charming romantic comedy with a touch of sci-fi/fantasy, and probably the most charming Chinese movie so far this year.

At its heart, it's the old "boy meets girl/boy loses girl/boy gets girl back" plot - with one or more significant twists. And here's where, to avoid spoiling anything, I'll just say that the movie may or may not have a sci-fi/fantasy angle, or maybe something that just looks like it.

It is at times very surrealist and has some touches of magical realism, including an animated sequence (which I don't recall seeing in any Chinese movie, ever!). There's a few things that might have been left to the imagination... but it's definitely nice to see the movie has a soft spot for cats!

As one of the characters in the movie might say, "meow, meow, meow!"

Takoma11

09-08-24, 09:11 PM

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fm.media-amazon.com%2Fimages%2FM%2FMV5BODQ3MjYxNDUtMWMwYy00Y2VkLThhNGItZTVmYzA0Y2ZmNjJkXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyOTc5MD I5NjE%40._V1_.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=27997615ffb03f1b5e34ea526154dd440831e29a3f01b6c6ae7a9dd66db99f2d&ipo=images

After Blue, 2021

At some indeterminate point in the future, teenager Roxy (Paula Luna) lives with her hairdresser mother Zora (Elina Lowensohn) on a planet called After Blue where all of the citizens are women. When Roxy comes across a strange woman buried up to the neck on the beach she naively helps her escape, only to discover that she has freed notorious outlaw Kate Bush (Agata Buzek). Their community exiles Roxy and Zora, declaring that they can only return once they have killed Kate Bush.

While it overstays its welcome by about 30 minutes, the intriguing visuals and interwoven sexiness keep you engaged.

3.5

FULL REVIEW (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2486347#post2486347)

SpelingError

09-08-24, 09:57 PM

Double Down (2007) - 4

I feel I'd need to watch more from Breen to be confident on why I enjoyed this so much, but whatever Breen was going for here, I found it fascinating. Of course, the acting is atrocious, the narration is beyond overbearing, the nudity is awkward, the plot is nonsensical, etc. However, the further I got into the film, the more intrigued I was by whatever it was doing. Again, I'm sure people who've seen more from Breen will be able to explain his strengths better, but one thing I noticed was how the runtime felt nonexistent. Given how much introductory narration filled the first third and given how not much happened throughout that section, it felt like a prolonged first minute. When I checked how far in I was and saw it was over 25 minutes, I remember feeling a mix of emotions to that discovery. No movie I've seen moves like this. I also found Breen's character completely baffling. The narration portrays him as a genius who seems to have invented every single thing imaginable, has ties to all kinds of governments and higher-ups, and he might've cured cancer. On the other hand, he has a cliché tragic backstory, has frequent hallucinations and regularly wakes up on the road next to his car, he's a hacker who plans to take control of Las Vegas, and has a tuna addiction. Just...wow! How exactly am I supposed to even read this character? Breen clearly doesn't intend for this to be comedic and reveals all these details with a straight face, so am I supposed to like or dislike his character? I genuinely have no idea. The entire film just seems so inexplicable in its merits I have to be impressed. I had little interest in watching anything from Breen prior to watching this, but I'm now eager to check out some more of his filmography.

FilmBuff

09-08-24, 10:13 PM

https://cdn.posteritati.com/posters/000/000/069/845/the-night-they-raided-minskys-md-web.jpg

The Night They Raided Minsky's
2.5

This movie probably seemed a lot funnier when it was brand new in 1968, highlighting the quick ascend of a young director named William Friedkin.

The events in the film are reportedly a fictional account of the invention of the striptease at Minsky's Burlesque in 1925; the place was very real, but the events in the movie are completely made-up.

If nothing else, at least the movie has a very interesting cast that includes Jason Robards, Britt Ekland, Joseph Wiseman, Denholm Elliott, Elliott Gould and Bert Lahr.

It's also a little bit sad to realize that, other than Britt Ekland, all of the lead actors here are long gone.... :(

*Sky*

09-08-24, 10:34 PM

The Big Sleep (1946) - Howard Hawks: 6/10

PHOENIX74

09-09-24, 01:17 AM

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/3d/The_Wind_That_Shakes_the_Barley_poster.jpg
Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6791712

The Wind That Shakes the Barley - (2006)

Watching The Wind That Shakes the Barley makes me realise that I haven't seen all that many films which really take a deep dive into the Irish experience of their War of Independence and Civil War in the early 20th Century - and perhaps not many have been made because it seems such a sad, despairing story. Cillian Murphy leads a cast of Irish talent in this movie that won Ken Loach one of his two Palme d'Ors (the other being 2016 film I, Daniel Blake.) It's a very uncompromising movie with a lot of emotional fallout - Murphy's character, Damien O'Donovan, forgoes medical school when the call to arms becomes impossible to ignore, and must see his friends tortured while he personally is called upon to execute young men he knows and was once friends with. This is steeped with all kinds of loss, whether that be the loss of what could otherwise have been a free life, a loss of innocence, a loss of possible love and happiness, a loss of loved ones, dignity, friends, security and peace. It's a strangely muted war film, with soft Irish poetry whispered every time friends have a chance to rest and share their thoughts with each other. I've never seen conflict as poignantly captured on film, detailing the start of a tragic century for the Island nation.

8/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/38/The-Killer-1989-Poster.jpg
By The poster art can or could be obtained from the distributor., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27438556

The Killer - (1989)

Watching The Killer is a kind of heavy experience, because it's a painful reminder of how action films in the late 1980s were so, so much better than the action films of today. There's a wonderfully perfect mix of the familiar with the exotic, and that makes the film all the more inviting right from the get-go. It's silly, a load of fun, way, way over the top and as far as violent action goes pure poetry. Full review here (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?p=2486393#post2486393), in my watchlist thread.

9/10

Fabulous

09-09-24, 04:32 AM

High Fidelity (2000)

3.5

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/1pjOrzAqlQPifZkRi5h1zlO1VJ2.jpg

exiler96

09-09-24, 05:33 AM

Nomad (1982) - Two (or three) parallel young love stories, told in a New Wave style; it's a Hong Kong film but recalls the French... scenes cutting before you could catch a break and you're thrown in a scene without an immediately recognizable relation to the previous one, overwhelming locations and a variety of music choices (and camera angles) make Nomad the kind of movie that keeps one on their toes.

My one other Patrick Tam film (Love Massacre) scared the crap out of me so I was awaiting something deeply strange and alienating this time again but while at times, the tone and especially the last 7 minutes get jaw-dropping weird, I'm surprised at how much I liked the characters in this one and how many times I chuckled; at an unreal meet-cute, the apartment pollution bit when two of our love birds wanted to have "good clean fun" as a poster on the wall suggests, the love-making in the public bus that follows... all in all, I hadn't seen anything quite like this one. Maybe WkW, but he came after this... 8/10

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMGFjM2E1NjAtNTY2Ni00ODNjLWJhY2MtMTViODY5ZTZkNzUzXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjUyNDk2ODc@._V1_.jpg

Mr Minio

09-09-24, 06:28 AM

I had little interest in watching anything from Breen prior to watching this, but I'm now eager to check out some more of his filmography. Breen is one of today's most important American directors. Maybe THE most important. The transformation of his Messianic auteur figure from a self-inserted troubled genius in a Malick-derivative (but BEFORE that kind of Malick) milieu to an Inland Empire-like hero and anti-hero in one flesh (in a meta sense; two persons in one body disguised as simply playing identical twins) also saw him warming up to the kind of CGI prevalent in inept African no-fi outsider art.

He's a true auteur in the sense that he just does his thing and doesn't care about the 'rational' criticism that is fiendishly easy to use to dismiss his work. I think his films are some of the most entertaining and artistically intriguing works in US cinema of the last 30 years, and it's a rarity an oeuvre is both these things at the same time.

And all this doesn't stop him from calling books boring in every single review on his Letterboxd account.

LChimp

09-09-24, 08:13 AM

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/dTu6P12ElKThOae2VPY0hbkUCVnVVLw0rW4LJEbzsze1uFzWKAaNT8O3lGN-x7kWTY0Sh_CP5w9I_G3Tw9Hp0Vv5x4Z9dnTT3cI

Longlegs - (2024)

Not nearly as scary as people are saying. It's a good movie, but the hype is totally unjustified. 7/10

Stirchley

09-09-24, 12:23 PM

100847

Very strange, but good movie. Two leads are excellent.

Gideon58

09-09-24, 12:50 PM

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71AJAe5kOFL._AC_UF894,1000_QL80_.jpg

1st Rewatch...This silly and confusing Bond spoof is pretty much for hardcore fans of the stars. Cameron Diaz plays June Havens, a garage mechanic flying home for her sister's wedding who ends up on a plane with Roy Miller (Tom Cruise), a disgraced CIA agent who everyone on the plane tries to murder, plunging him and June into a world-wide road trip pursuing two sets of bad guys. Directed James Mangold (Ford Vs Ferrari, Walk the Line) mounts some viable action sequences, but the story is all over the place and the movie seems to go on forever. Didn't notice this the first time, but Cruise's character is named Miller and Diaz' character is named Havens, so I have no idea where the title of the movie comes from. 2.5

Gideon58

09-09-24, 12:54 PM

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNzg5NTYzNDI4OF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwOTQxMTMyNA@@._V1_.jpg

1st Rewatch...The 1963 instant comedy classic that made Peter Sellers a star, after 20 years in the business. Sellers still brings the funny as the bumbling Inspector Clouseau who is trailing a jewel thief known as the Phantom (David Niven), completely clueless that his wife (Capucine) is working with him. Sellers proves to be a master of physical comedy here, able to get laughs out of the simplest things, even just taking off a bathrobe. Blake Edwards proves to be a master behind the camera, producing a film so funny that it produced seven sequels, an animated television, a remake with Steve Martin and a sequel to that film. 3.5

Gideon58

09-09-24, 01:05 PM

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BODMwMDY2YzUtNGFiNS00NDA1LWI4YzMtYzVmM2RlZTk3NGVlXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTQxNzMzNDI@._V1_.jpg

2nd Rewatch...Six years after their smash hit Dumb and Dumber, Jim Carrey and the Farrelly brothers reunited for this crude, raunchy, but very funny comedy that starred Carrey as Charlie Baileygates. a trooper for the Rhode Island State Police, who has allowed people to treat him like a doormat for his entire life, who finally snaps and develops an alternate personality named Hank, who doesn't take any of the crap that Charlie does, which complicates Charlie's mission to transport and protect a woman on the run (Oscar winner Renee Zellweger). It takes a minute to get going, but this one really delivers the laughs, thanks primarily to Carrey, who creates two very distinct character in Charlie and Hank that are both entertaining in their own way. Carrey and Zellweger also have a solid supporting cast behind them including Oscar winner Chris Cooper, Robert Forster, Richard Jenkins, Anthony Anderson, and Tony Cox. Appointment viewing for Carrey fans. 3.5

Gideon58

09-09-24, 01:15 PM

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

1st Rewatch...A rich performance by the late Robin Williams playing a character who starts out extremely sympathetic and does a complete 180 is at the crux of this black comedy written and directed by Bobcat Goldwait. Williams plays Lance, an unpopular poetry teacher who really wants to be a writer, who teaches at the same school that his son, Kyle attends. Kyle is a sex-obsessed, obnoxious jerk who treats his father, and just about everyone else in his orbit, like dirt. One night, Lance discovers that Kyle has died in a very embarrassing way so he decides to cover it up, which includes an elaborate suicide note berating everyone for being mean to Kyle. Somehow the suicide note hits the internet and makes Kyle and his father media celebrities. Flattered by the attention he's getting, Lance decides to take it a step further and composes a fake journal for Kyle, garnering his creepy son even further fame. This story makes me very uncomfortable, it reminds me of the Broadway musical Dear Evan Hansen, but Williams does make it worth checking out. Goldwait's screenplay is unapologetic. 3.5

Daniel M

09-09-24, 01:41 PM

https://s3.amazonaws.com/nightjarprod/content/uploads/sites/249/2023/08/16135238/2iW3pSihBIhXjnBQmUJ0mAiZbB5-scaled.jpg

To Live and Die in L.A. (1985) 4

Thief

09-09-24, 02:14 PM

PERFECT DAYS
(2023, Wenders)

https://i.imgur.com/5EGiBmN.jpeg

"Next time is next time. Now is now."

Perfect Days follows Hirayama (Kōji Yakusho), a humble man that works cleaning public toilets in Tokyo. When he's not working, he spends his time through a daily routine that includes listening music on his cassette tapes, reading, looking at trees and photographing them. The above quote seems to be his mantra, as he remains unfazed by what tomorrow might bring, but rather focused on the little pleasures that today might give him.

This is my first Wim Wenders film, a notable blindspot in my movie-watching journey, and I couldn't be more pleased with it. The way he delineates Hirayama's daily routine is great and Yakusho's performance is, for lack of a better word, perfect. Wenders then goes on to contrast Hirayama's way of living with characters like his co-worker, his niece, and his sister, among others, all while patiently revealing little tidbits of his past.

Grade: 4

Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2486521#post2486521)

Gideon58

09-09-24, 04:51 PM

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8b/Bad_Boys_Ride_or_Die_%282024%29_poster.jpg

3

Thief

09-09-24, 05:44 PM

LUCA
(2021, Casarosa)

https://i.imgur.com/Cqtw2YB.jpeg

"You know, we underdogs have to look out for each other, right?"

Set in a small town in 1950s Italy, Luca follows the titular character (Jacob Tremblay), a sea creature, who meets Alberto (Jack Dylan Grazer), a fellow sea creature who lives alone. After discovering that he changes to human form when he's on land, the two set out to enjoy the summer, which will include exploring the nearby town of Portorosso. It is there that they meet Giulia (Emma Berman) and end up as the "underdogs" in a triathlon competition with the local bully.

This was a watch with the kids. I think they had seen it before, but it was a first-time watch for me, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. There is a charming simplicity to its story of friendship and acceptance that I enjoyed. The relationship between the three friends, especially Luca and Alberto, is well built, and it's fun to see them as "underdogs" looking out for each other. I think that aspect is the most important of the film.

Grade: 3

Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2486615#post2486615)

Robert the List

09-09-24, 07:20 PM

Cafe Lumiere (2003) 9
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GulfportDoc

09-09-24, 08:05 PM

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Reagan (2024)

Writing an entertaining but accurate screenplay for a biographical film is a tricky proposition. The facts of the subject’s life are generally well known, so the challenge is to patch together many of the individual’s career highlights while making the presentation interesting and entertaining. The Aviator (2024) is one such successful picture that comes to mind.

Once the framework and highlights are selected, it is then up to the screenwriter, the director, and the production designer to come up with the makings of an appealing film. In addition, if the actors are keenly selected for their pertinent talents, then that is a winning combination.

In the case of Reagan the casting was first rate: Dennis Quaid was the perfect choice to portray Ronald Reagan. Quaid avoided attempting a direct impersonation, but his voice, reasonably similar looks to Reagan, and his ability to capture Reagan’s mannerisms made the character come alive. So too was Penelope Ann Miller well chosen to portray Nancy Reagan. At times she perfectly evoked her real life character. Even Dan Lauria as Reagan’s combatant and friend, feisty Speaker of the House Tip O’neill, was perfectly summoned up. One of the acting highlights is veteran Jon Voight in his portrayal of fictional retired KGB agent Viktor Petrovich. Voight’s is a nuanced performance, and his role provides the skeleton upon which the story is told.
The Petrovich character is a compendium of various KGB agents who had been assigned to study Reagan’s activities and policies from the time Reagan was president of the Screen Actors Guild, on through his terms as President. The screenplay by Howard Kausner is based upon Paul Kengor’s 2006 book, The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism. Not having read the book, it presumably fully lays out Reagan’s rise as a serious ideologue and anti-communist following World War II. The film takes us from Reagan’s childhood, his acting career, marriages, SAG presidency (1947-1952 & 1959-1960), California Governor (1967-1975), two terms as U.S. President (1981-1989), and his remaining days at the Reagan Ranch in Santa Barbara, California stricken with Alzheimer’s disease which led to his death in 2004. It covers famous highlights from his speeches, such as his winning debate comment regarding Walter Mondale, “I am not going to exploit for political purposes my opponent's youth and inexperience", to his demand to the Soviet Union General Secretary while speaking at the Berlin Wall, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” The movie opens with the assassination attempt of 1981, not long after taking office.

So while Reagan’s true history provides more than enough material for a compelling film, it is the choice of screen writer and director that somewhat diminishes the finished project. Director Sean McNamara and screen writer Howard Kausner are both undistinguished talents. McNamara has worked chiefly in the pre-teen market, whereas Kausner has few highlights in his career. By comparison the aforementioned The Aviator had the writer & director team of Martin Scorsese and John Logan-- both seasoned film makers with many credits to their names.

It’s fair to say that Reagan has a built in fan base of individuals in their mid-fifties and up, who fondly recall President Reagan’s terms in office. He enjoyed a wide popularity irrespective of political affiliation due to his affability, traditional heartland values, and strength of character. Still, with an audience approval rating of 98% the movie has likely charmed many of a younger audience.|

So if you are not familiar with Ronald Reagan, or even if you are, the picture relates a fair recounting of his actions, and also of an era that was much simpler than our modern times.

Doc’s rating: 7/10

GulfportDoc

09-09-24, 08:18 PM

https://www.movieforums.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=100783

Trap (2024)

Oh boy. Despite mediocre reviews I was expecting Trap to be an entertaining picture based chiefly on the reputation of director M. Night Shyamalan (Split; Glass). But alas it was a real turkey. It gradually became poor enough that I began to wonder if it was a spoof. But it wasn't.

A man named Cooper (Josh Hartnett) and his daughter attend an arena rock concert. We soon learn that the entire venue has become surrounded by police, having heard that the contemporary serial killer, "The Butcher" is in the building. They let the viewer know pretty quick that it is Cooper who is The Butcher, so the rest of the film features how they try to catch him, his evasion, and a hint at a sequel.

Right off the bat one of the problems is that we are not shown why or how Cooper has become The Butcher. There are no flashbacks of his evil deeds. Hitchcock once said that whatever is not shown to the audience is completely lost on them. That's the case here.

Of course the other problem is that the story is utterly unbelievable. Add to that the poor dialogue, and one finds oneself sitting there wondering why one is watching the movie. There is some decent acting, but with the silly dialogue, the actors have tall orders to sound convincing.

If you're a big Shyamalan fan then you might get something out of this one. But if not, you were warned...

Doc's rating: 3/10

exiler96

09-10-24, 04:28 AM

Rouge (1987) - A tragic romance; commenting on the rigidness of traditional family (and social) rakings while crossing time to tell of an unforgettable ghost story (they seem to be Stanley Kwan's thing; look also Center Stage)... The score is pretty great and Anita Mui as Fleur is simply captivating... 8/10.

https://media.newyorker.com/photos/634844391d3863c3fae805f8/master/w_1280%2Cc_limit/221024_r41207.jpg

PHOENIX74

09-10-24, 07:23 AM

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/ba/Beetlejuice_Beetlejuice_poster.jpg
By http://www.impawards.com/2024/beetlejuice_beetlejuice_ver11.html, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=75976584

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice - (2024)

Here it is finally! Surprisingly, I didn't completely hate Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, which I was really fearing all the more after a terribly wobbly and unfunny first half - but somehow Burton or something or someone really switches into gear and salvages what could have been a lot worse. It really feels like this has had 30 minutes or so cut out of it for pacing reasons, which on the one hand worked fine, but on the other left me feeling like I'd been short-changed considering what modern belated sequels usually deliver. It's sane 104 minutes adds to the feel that this film's sensibilities and tone make it a sequel that feels like it could have been made in 1989, and I'm sure nobody would have questioned anything if it had of been made back then. Soul train? Only filmmakers in their mid-60s could think such dated inventiveness deserves so much attention and repeated call-backs. Talking about too much attention - when certain jokes flop, it doesn't help to sustain the joke for a long period of time, making us shift uncomfortably in our seat, praying the film can continue some time in the near future. Sad to see Monica Bellucci and Willem Dafoe wasted in roles that promised so much more. All that said though, Keaton has enough charisma to bring this old classic character back to life (that line in the original : I've seen the EXORCIST ABOUT A HUNDRED AND SIXTY-SEVEN TIMES, AND IT KEEPS GETTING FUNNIER EVERY SINGLE TIME I SEE IT... - that's one of my favourites.) What amazed me was that some of the jokes really worked, and that there was so much more energy in this than I expected - nobody is embarrassed to be here, and although some narrative twists really don't work, it mostly fits together surprisingly neatly. I was actually enjoying myself at times - almost had to pinch myself to be sure that was really happening. A mixed bag to be sure - the very definition of a mixed bag - but it wasn't awful by a long shot (just awful at times.) Overall, it's worth seeing if you feel the urge to do so, like I did.

Winona Ryder - I didn't think that was a really great performance, but I hope the audience loves you regardless and you do okay.

6/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/ca/Godland_poster.jpg
By https://neweuropefilmsales.com/featurefilms/, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=71834776

Godland - (2022)

Godland doesn't totally rely on it's stunning photography - it has a lot more going for it - but that is one aspect that really sets it apart. I found it ironic that Iceland should have so few witnesses to it's splendour and magnificence, but I guess that's one of the reasons it's kept that beauty intact up until now. It's as if the God that Lucas (Elliott Crosset Hove) believes in made that place for those who can appreciate what it takes to survive it and still have faith this all means something. Full review here (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?p=2486765#post2486765), in my watchlist thread.

8/10

Thief

09-10-24, 10:31 AM

TREMORS
(1990, Underwood)

https://i.imgur.com/IjRq6zW.jpeg

"That's how they git you. They're under the g-oddamned ground!"

Set in the small desert town of Perfection, Tremors follows Val (Kevin Bacon) and Earl (Fred Ward), two friends working odd jobs that are trying to get out of town to find something better. That is until the town starts being attacked by three giant creatures from under the g-oddamned ground. It's up to Val and Earl, along with geologist Rhonda (Finn Carter), to stop the monsters while trying to save the people of Perfection.

This is a film I've seen dozens of times since I was a kid. It was a constant staple on TV, so I was very familiar with it. However, it has been a good while since I last saw it, so I decided to travel to Perfection once again, and what a fun trip it was. Tremors manages to strike such a great balance between action, adventure, thrills, and humor that not many films succeed at.

Grade: 4

Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2486804#post2486804)

Robert the List

09-10-24, 11:06 AM

Rebels of the Neon God (1992) 9.5
Tsai Ming Liang debuts with a masterpiece
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Thief

09-10-24, 02:33 PM

PINOCCHIO
(2022, Del Toro & Gustafson)

https://i.imgur.com/VJC59x0.jpeg

"You did bring me joy. Terrible, terrible joy."

Based on the popular novel and set in Italy at the beginning of the 20th Century, Pinocchio follows the adventures of the titular character (Gregory Mann), a wooden puppet created by Geppetto (David Bradley) after the loss of his real-life son in a World War I bombing raid. Through the movie, Pinocchio embarks in a journey which includes a stint in a circus, time at a military youth camp, performing for Mussolini, and ending up in the belly of the terrible Dogfish.

That dark tone permeates the whole film. Pinnochio is still charming and naïve, but he's also reckless and careless as he keeps on finding ways to die and come back again. The "ghost" of Carlo is constantly hanging above the choices of Geppetto and Pinocchio, along with the impending doom of war upon them. As interesting as those layers might be, I do think the film hits a few bumps as it tries to juggle the struggles of Geppetto and Pinocchio with both the stories of the circus and the military youth camp.

Grade: 4

Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2486870#post2486870)

Marco

09-10-24, 02:36 PM

Tigerland (2000)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/be/Tigerlandmp.jpg
This is a decent and watch-able outing for Collin Farrell, playing the rebelious Bozz that has been conscripted to go to fight in Vietnam. He tries all sorts of antics to point out the futility of the titular training camp and is openly hostile to his seniors (as they are to him). Joel Schumacher's film is pretty blunt and the story of Bozz is interesting but otherwise it is just a run of the mill drama. The ending is unsatisfying also.
2.5

Thief

09-10-24, 05:44 PM

SPONTANEOUS
(2020, Duffield)

https://i.imgur.com/M3mHZtr.jpeg

"You're, like, the best thing to come out of spontaneous combustions for me."

What would you do if all of your friends started to literally blow up in front of you one by one? What if you're the next one? That is the premise of this unique film. Blending aspects of romcom, coming-of-age, dark humor, and horror, Spontaneous focuses mainly on Mara and Dylan (Katherine Langford and Charlie Plummer), two teenagers at Covington High that are thrust into the unexpected situation described above.

I was trying to complete one of the categories of my challenge that asked for a romantic film; a good Internet friend recommended this, and imagine my surprise when instead of a romantic film, I found a really powerful exploration of trauma and grief through the eyes of these two lovestruck teenagers. It's always refreshing when you stumble upon a filmmaker that can walk that fine line between genres, and Duffield here does an acrobat job, walking between romance, comedy, drama, and horror, without it feeling like an overstuffed mess.

Grade: 4.5

Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2486918#post2486918)

Daniel M

09-10-24, 06:25 PM

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8c/Body_Double_poster.jpg

Body Double (Brian De Palma, 1984) 4

Fabulous

09-10-24, 08:53 PM

Sixteen Candles (1984)

3

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/6hgpBRaa1mWIrDGvkkf8BIusTZ4.jpg

KeyserCorleone

09-10-24, 09:43 PM

The Cremator - rating_5

I typically begin short reviews with statements like this: what the unholy hell. Like, I enjoy psychological films, but I have never seen one so consistently disturbing throughout. And it's all done through the eyes of one character! Excellent psychoanalysis and excellent filmmaking. This is EASILY a prime example of a film that doesn't need development from everyone else. Top 100, and I finally found a 100/100 for 1969.

Thief

09-10-24, 10:57 PM

WEREWOLF BY NIGHT
(2022, Giacchino)

https://i.imgur.com/TdTLZKi.jpeg

"Any hunting that I do is done by a part of me that is not me... and that's not the part you're with right now."

Werewolf by Night follows Jack Russell (Gael García Bernal), part of a secret group of monster hunters gathering to win a mysterious gem by defeating a powerful monster. The twist? Russell is a werewolf himself, but will he be able to control that part of him if it comes to that?

But aside from its ties to any bigger universe, this was a pretty interesting experiment. Director Michael Giacchino and cinematographer Zoë White wisely use black and white cinematography and a unique directing style, which gives the film a look reminiscent to the Universal Monster films.

Grade: 3

Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2487016#post2487016)

Thief

09-10-24, 11:38 PM

CIAO ALBERTO
(2021, Harris)

https://i.imgur.com/qurD4lq.jpeg

"I can't do it. I'm not good at this. I'm not good at being your... employee."

After watching Luca with the kids, I decided to check out this short. Ciao Alberto follows the attempts of Alberto (Jack Dylan Grazer) to win the approval of Giulia's father, Massimo (Marco Barricelli), with whom he lives now. This relationship is one of the subplots I admired from the original film, so I appreciated the opportunity to revisit it and focus on it.

Grade: 3.5

Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2487024#post2487024)

Thief

09-10-24, 11:59 PM

DUG'S SPECIAL MISSION
(2009, Del Carmen)

https://i.imgur.com/EmWYW50.jpeg

"Oh boy! My pack is giving me a special mission!"

Set concurrently during the events of Up, Dug's Special Mission follows the titular dog (Bob Peterson) as he tries to track the mysterious bird, Kevin! When he fails, the other dogs try to assign him random tasks to keep him occupied, only to have them backfire on them.

Grade: 3

Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2487026#post2487026)

Stirchley

09-11-24, 12:20 PM

Strange very good movie from Austria. Lead actress really good.

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Thief

09-11-24, 12:35 PM

BEETLEJUICE
(1988, Burton)

https://i.imgur.com/qkvm4oY.jpeg

"Ah. Well... I attended Juilliard... I'm a graduate of the Harvard business school. I travel quite extensively. I lived through the Black Plague and had a pretty good time during that. I've seen The Exorcist about a hundred and sixty-seven times, and it keeps getting funnier every single time I see it!... Not to mention the fact that you're talking to a dead guy!... Now what do you think?? You think I'm qualified?"

Beetlejuice follows Adam and Barbara Maitland (Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis), a young couple that tragically end up dead and stuck in their country home. When an eccentric family from New York try to move in, they are determined to get them out, even if it means hiring the titular character (Michael Keaton) with the above credentials. But, do you think he's qualified?

This is a film I've seen lots of times since it came out. I still wouldn't consider myself a hardcore fan, but I've always enjoyed its odd and quirky approach. Which is why we decided to give this one a shot with the kids, and see how well they liked it. As far as I'm concerned, I've always thought the film makes some great use of set design, production values, makeup and costume.

Grade: 3

Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2487129#post2487129)

Deschain

09-11-24, 01:05 PM

How did the kids like it, Thief?

Thief

09-11-24, 01:30 PM

A QUIET PLACE: DAY ONE
(2024, Sarnoski)

https://i.imgur.com/4D79hml.jpeg

"This place is s-hit. This place smells like s-hit. Betsy's voice sounds like s-hit. Cancer is s-hit."

Set about a year before the events of A Quiet Place, Day One follows Samira (Lupita Nyong'o), a terminally ill woman trying to survive the first days of the alien invasion in New York City. She is joined in her survival journey by Eric (Joseph Quinn), an English young man that came to study law ("It's the one thing I was supposed to do"), but who will end up doing much more.

As the invasion starts and the aliens are unleashed, Sam is determined to get to Patsy's pizzeria to get one last slice of their pizza. Something that we find out later has a deeper meaning to her than just good pizza. It is quite rare and remarkable to get not only a horror film, but a horror prequel, that rely so much on emotional character development instead of plot, and yet here we are.

Grade: 4

Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2487147#post2487147)

Thief

09-11-24, 01:34 PM

How did the kids like it, Thief?

They liked it well enough. I think the younger one asked to rewatch it the next day, or so my wife told me. Overall, my appreciation is that it's on that mid-tier for them, which means films they enjoy but they don't necessarily ask to revisit over and over, or keep talking about over and over.

FilmBuff

09-11-24, 01:34 PM

https://dwnjscqilqpcr.cloudfront.net/uploads/2024/01/The-Greatest-Of-All-Time-768x1151.jpg

The Greatest of All Time
3

This is pretty much everything you'd expect from a modern-day Indian action flick: it's a 3-hour-long (with intermission) soap opera with plenty of heartfelt moments, very broad comedy, and a few musical numbers here and there.

Vijay, who is 50, has a dual role that has him playing both father and son; there must be some serious de-aging VFX or great makeup being used, because it didn't take much suspension of disbelief to accept him playing a 24-year-old kid.

This is already the highest-grossing Tamil film of 2024, so it's definitely a big hit back in India, while the Indian diaspora in the U.S. seemed to be very excited to be able to watch this in IMAX.

Oh, there's a touching tribute to the late Vijayakanth, which was reportedly made using Artificial Intelligence. He is definitely missed!

Thief

09-11-24, 05:18 PM

CHOPPING MALL
(1986, Wynorski)

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

"I guess I'm just not used to being chased around a mall in the middle of the night by killer robots."

Chopping Mall gives you just that. A bunch of horny teenagers being chased around a mall in the middle of the night by killer robots. The film starts with the presentation of the new security system to the mall public, which includes three robots programmed to stop criminals. After that, it introduces us to the cast of teenagers; four couples, that decide to stay at the mall for an impromptu party, only to end up terrorized by the robots.

Now, don't come to the film expecting great performances or character development, cause you won't get it. Pretty much all the teenagers are one-dimensional characters and half of them are a$$holes. None of the boys really stand out, except for Mike (John Terlesky) as the most a$$hole-y and Ferdy (Tony O'Dell) as the least a$$hole-y. As for the girls, Allison (Kelli Maroney) is the geeky, "virgin-like" one, which gives you a hint of how the plot will progress.

Grade: 2.5

Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2487220#post2487220)

Fabulous

09-12-24, 04:17 AM

Wake Island (1942)

3.5

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/g9kAFh9Xp05fQsbv12MbeQGBpxS.jpg

Daniel M

09-12-24, 04:18 AM

https://dci832c741skk.cloudfront.net/assets/files/51484/dune-2-review.800x600.jpg

Dune: Part Two (Denis Villeneuve, 2024) 3

Similar thoughts to the first one, from a technical perspective it's impressive insomuch that everything we see looks incredible detailed and realistic, but the downside of that is that the end result is quite dull and sterile. Lots of brown, lots of gray, lots of actors who are normally entertaining just doing normal stuff (Walken)... Lynch's version is much better in my honest opinion.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e5/Rebel_Ridge_film_poster.jpg

Rebel Ridge (Jeremy Saulnier, 2024) 3

First hour is great, then it drags a bit and gets a bit repetitive. Saulnier knows how to direct though, his blocking, frame compositions, editing... it's all very good. I hope he does well from this and we see more from him.

PHOENIX74

09-12-24, 06:06 AM

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d6/Poto2.jpg
By http://www.impawards.com/2004/phantom_of_the_opera.html, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6743253

The Phantom of the Opera - (2004)

This is the second (and probably the last) time I give Joel Schumacher's Phantom a go. "Looks so good, but fits so strange" as No Doubt might say - I'm not all that familiar with the stage version, so I'm not sure if it has been adapted really poorly, or if the whole shebang just leaves me cold. I like the music though - and when you're backed up by music like that it almost feels like it'd be more difficult to make a bad movie than a good one. I don't like the casting here - but there's simply an uncanny feeling that something is off, and it's really hard to state unequivocally what's spoiling the recipe. The direction, the acting, the way the story is presented, a combination or all of the above - I'm waiting for the next stab at it, which might never actually come considering the way Cats turned out. Maybe I should just catch the show.

5/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/03/Palm_Trees_and_Power_Lines.jpg
By http://www.impawards.com/2023/palm_trees_and_power_lines_ver2.html, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=69893616

Palm Trees and Power Lines - (2022)

For all those thinking about how they'd feel watching this film, you'll experience a lot of anger, nausea, discomfort and sadness. Full review here (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?p=2487032#post2487032), in my watchlist thread.

7/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a4/The-eyes-of-my-mother-movie-poster-md.jpg
By May be found at the following website: https://www.cinematerial.com/movies/the-eyes-of-my-mother-i5225338/p/r91l0kjy, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=55747691

The Eyes of My Mother - (2016)

The Eyes of My Mother doesn't want to shock you, despite being an at-times grisly horror movie - it wants you to feel empathy and think about grief. I spent a moment or two thinking about grief and the infinite ways it can manifest itself. Not a bad effect for a movie to have. Full review here (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?p=2487315#post2487315), in my watchlist thread.

7/10

Fabulous

09-12-24, 06:37 AM

North Dallas Forty (1979)

3

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/8m4dh4E4PzqnndK6Gv5LdvWGbLv.jpg

exiler96

09-12-24, 08:28 AM

Boat People (1982) - Ann Hui's devastating drama following a Japenese photojournalist who learns about the inhumane conditions in communist Vietnam working "zones". Formally simple (compared to other Hong Kong classics I've seen) and pretty straightforward about its intentions - which continues to anger the most left-leaning among us - but it's a harrowing experience nevertheless; and sadly familiar to any citizen who has seen poverty, goverment cover-ups and gunning down of a population. 8.5/10

https://s3.amazonaws.com/criterion-production/janus_stills/5547-/30455id_040%20copy_0000_Boat_announce_2%20copy_w1600.jpg

Gideon58

09-12-24, 01:11 PM

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BZmI5YzM1MjItMzFmNy00NGFkLThlMDUtZjZmYTZkM2QxMjU3XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNzkwMjQ5NzM@._V1_.jpg

1st Rewatch....The Cohen Brothers put themselves on the map with this stylish nail biter whose beauty lies in its simplicity and the fact that the only ones who are privy to everything that happens here are the viewers. 4

Gideon58

09-12-24, 01:17 PM

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

5th Rewatch...The bloom has worn of this cinematic rose a bit since, as I was watching it, it occurred to me that people don't hitchhike anymore, but this is still a cautionary tale for picking up anybody on the side of the road with their thumb out. Rutger Hauer is bone-chilling. 4

Torgo

09-12-24, 01:18 PM

Savage Streets - 3

You may already know that '80s cinema has plenty of cheese, but did you know it has lots of sleaze as well? Some movies combine the two, with this prime example of the teen vigilante subgenre doing just that. I'm a fan of movies that also function as time capsules, and this one achieves this in front of and behind the camera. Getting to see Hollywood Boulevard from this era in all its glory is a treat, as is the soundtrack with exactly the kind of AOR bangers I hoped it would have from start to finish. While Linda Blair was famously trashed for her performance as lead Satin and revenger Brenda, I think her work dovetails with the tone Steinman and company were trying to achieve. As for her target, Jake, Robert Dryer (R.I.P.) might as well have been born to play the role because he makes him out to be as terrifying as he looks. John Vernon also deserves credit for riding a fine line of being dignified and making his X-rated dialogue get under your skin. Speaking of, I confess to watching an edit that heavily chops up the material that besides Blair's performance made the movie an object of derision amongst critics. If you're interested in the 90-minute edit and come up empty in your search, I would not feel bad because with this one’s dialogue and violence, especially in a scene at a bridge, it cuts plenty deep as it is.

This movie does a pretty good job at putting that Margaret Atwood quote about men being afraid of women laughing at them and women being afraid of men killing them - or worse - into motion. It may be foolish to complain about things like taste, subtlety and nuance in movies like this one, but it could use more. Class of 1984 is equally exploitative, but since it has more of these things and where it matters, it is superior. If you're in the mood for something like this and you haven't seen Class of 1984, watch it first. If you have, this one will still check your boxes, but do not expect any extra credit (pardon the pun since they're in high school). It is also just as likely to make you want to take a shower afterwards.

Gideon58

09-12-24, 01:23 PM

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1st Rewatch... Nancy Meyers, the creative force behind films like Private Benjamin, Baby Boom, and the Steve Martin Father of the Bride movies, helms this charming romantic comedy that stars Oscar winner Meryl Streep as Jane Adler, a divorced businesswoman who reunites with her ex-husband, Jake (Alec Baldwin) at her son's graduation ceremony in New York and actually has sex with him, despite the fact that he is remarried to an ice queen with a son who is pressuring him into a having a baby. Jane returns and begins a relationship with Adam (Steve Martin), the contractor remodeling her house, but Jake has decided he wants Jane back. I've mentioned before that I love whenever Meryl gets to lighten up and she seems to really be enjoying herself here, creating viable chemistry with both of her leading men. 3.5

Gideon58

09-12-24, 01:29 PM

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Umpteenth Rewatch...Regular followers of my thread know that this film features my favorite Nicole Kidman performance Aided by meticulous direction from Gus Van Sant and a razor sharp screenplay by Buck Henry, this sizzling black comedy is a re-imagining of the Pamela Smart story finds Kidman playing a budding Barbara Walters who feels her dullard husband (Matt Dillon) is getting in the way of her career ambitions so she manipulates a couple of dumb ass high school students into murdering the guy. This is Van Sant, Henry, and especially Kidman at the top of their respective games, not to mention a couple of future Oscar winners named Joaquin Phoenix and Casey Affleck. 4

Gideon58

09-12-24, 01:35 PM

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1st Rewatch...I have to say it, Cate Blanchett should have won her third Oscar for her extraordinary performance in this pretentious and long-winded look at the life of a female composer and orchestra conductor who is preparing for the release of a book she has written and becoming the first woman to conduct the German Philharmonic orchestra when some moves in her personal life begin to derail everything. Blanchett does make this film worth a look, despite its severe overlength, which really hurts it. And I hate to say it, I have nothing against Michelle Yeoh and understand her Oscar win, but was she really better than Blanchett? 3.5

Gideon58

09-12-24, 02:15 PM

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1st Rewatch...Chris Rock really missed the boat here with his remake of the 1978 Warren Beatty film Heaven Can Wait which finds Rock playing a standup comic who gets hit by a truck and sent to heaven where he is told he was prematurely taken and is given the option to occupy the body of a recently murdered millionaire. It's not so much that the remake is a bad idea, but the fact that Rock and his character are black and the dead millionaire is white makes the story racist, offensive, and non-sensical. 1.5

Thief

09-12-24, 04:03 PM

THE HUDSUCKER PROXY
(1994, Coen)

https://i.imgur.com/7IAjplp.jpeg

"I used to think you were a swell guy. Well, to be honest, I thought you were an imbecile. But then I figured out you *were* a swell guy... A little slow, maybe, but a swell guy. Well, maybe you're not so slow, But you're not so swell either. And it looks like you're an imbecile after all!"

Set in 1950s New York City, The Hudsucker Proxy follows Norville Barnes (Tim Robbins), a young and naïve business school graduate from Indiana. When the president of Hudsucker Industries unexpectedly commits suicide, board member Sidney J. Mussburger (Paul Newman) decides to install Norville as a "puppet president" in order to "inspire panic in the stockholder" to devaluate stocks.

There is a certain playfulness to how things unfold on The Hudsucker Proxy, where even something as serious as a suicide is played lightly without feeling disrespectful. There is also a certain simplicity to its story of a man seen as a "jerk" or "imbecile" rising to the top and still succeeding against all odds. This simplicity extends to Norville's plan. Seeing him walk around showing this crumpled piece of paper with a circle drawn in it – "you know, for the kids!" – was enough to make me laugh.

Grade: 3.5

Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2487434#post2487434)

Thief

09-12-24, 04:15 PM

THE ROCKETEER
(1991, Johnston)

https://i.imgur.com/ImfTIok.jpeg

Cliff: "Jenny, prepare yourself for a shock: I'm the Rocketeer."
Jenny: "The Rocke-who?"

Set in 1938, The Rocketeer follows Cliff Secord (Bill Campbell), a stunt pilot that stumbles upon a prototype jet pack that was stolen from Howard Hughes (Terry O'Quinn). In search for it are the FBI, a local crime gang, and a group of Nazi sympathizers. With the help of his mechanic friend (Alan Arkin), Secord assumes the identity of the Rocketeer to protect the jet pack. Meanwhile, he also struggles to keep his relationship with aspiring actress Jenny (Jennifer Connelly) afloat, as she is wooed by movie star Neville Sinclair (Timothy Dalton).

The first time I saw The Rocketeer was probably 20 or so years ago, but I've always held it close to my heart. What it lacks in star-power and budget, it makes up for in fun and charm. The film doesn't feel as pretentious or overtly serious as some recent comic films, but instead, is enjoyable, adventurous, and breezy. Campbell manages to strike a perfect balance between heroic will and charming naivete, while Dalton is perfect as the hammy Sinclair. Finally, Connelly makes the most of a somewhat underwritten role, while Arkin is solid as Secord's friend.

Grade: 4

Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2487442#post2487442)

Gideon58

09-12-24, 04:17 PM

Darth Pazuzu

09-12-24, 08:04 PM

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Cheyenne Autumn (John Ford / 1964)
Bone Tomahawk (S. Craig Zahler / 2015)
Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1 (Kevin Costner / 2024)

Three Westerns... but extremely different in tone and style. Interestingly enough, the connecting thread here is none other than Wyatt Earp. Cheyenne Autumn features what amounts to a special guest-star appearance from James Stewart as the famous marshal (with Arthur Kennedy playing Doc Holliday), and the other two movies star actors who have played him.

Cheyenne Autumn has the distinction of being John Ford's final Western (and next-to-last feature film overall), and it's quite the elegiac, melancholy farewell to the genre. It's the tale of the last surviving members of the Cheyenne tribe, who decide to make a 1,500-mile journey from their reservation to their former homeland after being ignored by the U.S. government. It stars Richard Widmark as a sympathetic Union cavalry captain named Thomas Archer, who is charged with the unpleasant task of preventing the Cheyenne's return; Carroll Baker as Deborah, a Quaker woman who is engaged to Archer but nonetheless feels compelled to accompany the Cheyenne and provide aid; Karl Malden as the hidebound, by-the-book Fort Robinson commander Henry W. Wessells Jr., whose inflexibility ultimately leads to tragedy; Ricardo Montalban and Gilbert Roland as Cheyenne tribal leaders Little Wolf and Dull Knife, respectively; Sal Mineo and Patrick Wayne as the two young trigger-happy hotheads on either side of the conflict; Edward G. Robinson as the Secretary of the Interior; and Dolores del Río as the Mineo character's mother (mysteriously not given any other name other than "Spanish Woman" :lol:) Interestingly enough, the screenplay was written by James R. Webb, who also wrote the screenplay for How the West Was Won two years earlier (and whose Civil War segment was directed by Ford). That film was basically a celebration of the American pioneer spirit, almost an apologia for the ideal of Manifest Destiny (albeit a sometimes critically barbed one), but Cheyenne Autumn almost feels like the necessary counter-balance to the earlier film, dealing as it does with the Native Americans who have been killed, abused and displaced as a result of U.S. government policy. I think both films would make for a very interesting double bill, and they both complement each other nicely. Not only do both films share the same writer, but four of the same actors: Richard Widmark, Carroll Baker, James Stewart and Karl Malden. I don't necessarily think the movie ranks among Ford's all-time best, and in particular I think the whole Dodge City sequence (with the aforementioned performances by Stewart and Kennedy) is really out of place (although I understand the purpose it serves as a kind of satirical interjection to lighten the mood a little). But I still think it's a worthwhile film, and I would still recommend it for anyone interested in Westerns or just in the overall cinematic oeuvre of John Ford.

I had read really good things about Bone Tomahawk over the years, but I've only just seen it now. And I have to say I'm extremely impressed. Perhaps the ultimate horror / Western hybrid film, dealing as it does with a fearsome tribe of inbred Native Troglodytes who kidnapped the town doctor Samantha O'Dwyer (Lili Simmons) and a sheriff's deputy named Nick. Sheriff Franklin Hunt (Kurt Russell) leads a group of men, including Samantha's injured husband Arthur (Patrick Wilson), on a rescue mission to find them. I suppose that, broadly speaking, you could say that this movie is a cross between John Ford and George A. Romero, but I think perhaps "Howard Hawks meets Wes Craven" might be a better descriptive. I'm very much reminded of Hawks' approach to the Western genre, with its well-rounded, well-written supporting characters and dialogue, as well its ensemble approach, and I'm also very much reminded of something like Craven's original The Hills Have Eyes (1977), with its tale of a family's desperate struggle for survival against a tribe of cannibals living in the mountains of Nevada.

And just this week, the first chapter of Kevin Costner's Horizon saga came out on DVD, Blu-ray and 4K UHD. I actually got the special 4K + Blu-ray combo pack in a steelbook package sold by Walmart. Alas, it doesn't have any bonus features (:(), but I'm just very happy to own the movie, bare bones and all. I've actually seen Chapter 1 twice in its theatrical run, and I'm keen to support Costner's gradually unfolding dream project in any way I can. I was incredibly disappointed in its lackluster reception at the box office (although at my local theater it attracted a pretty big crowd, even at the second showing I caught), and I sincerely hope that Costner can actually complete his saga and find some effective way of promoting the later chapters better and bringing it to those who would be interested in seeing it. One thing's for sure, whenever the next chapters of Horizon come out, I'll be at the theater on opening day. (Fingers crossed...) :D

Allaby

09-12-24, 08:26 PM

Takoma11

09-12-24, 08:29 PM

Speak No Evil (2024) This is a significant improvement over the original 2022 film. It's more entertaining, more satisfying, and more believable. James McAvoy is wonderfully menacing here and Mackenzie Davis is quite good too. Alix West Lefler and Dan Hough provide strong supporting performances. For me, this is director James Watkins's best film. 4

That's interesting. I thought that the trailer made it look almost comically terrible, and McAvoy's performance in particularly looked very scenery-chewing.

Allaby

09-12-24, 08:32 PM

That's interesting. I thought that the trailer made it look almost comically terrible, and McAvoy's performance in particularly looked very scenery-chewing.

I didn't like the trailers for it, but the end result was entertaining and effective. McAvoy does a good job walking the line between villainous and scenery chewing and it worked for me.

FilmBuff

09-12-24, 10:28 PM

https://www.scifinow.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Speak-No-Evil-Poster.jpg

Speak No Evil (2024)
3

I generally don't have a very high opinion of most American remakes of films from other countries; most of them aren't necessary and they seldom capture what made the original so special in the first place.
Having come in with lowered expectations, I did find James Watkins's version of Speak No Evil to be thoroughly watchable, with better-than-average turns from James McAvoy and Mackenzie Davis - they're both great in almost everything, so it would be hard not to enjoy a film in which they both crank it up and go to town with it.
I'm not going to compare this to Gæsterne as that would be unfair; the majority of people watching the remake probably have never even heard of the Danish movie on which it is based.
One thing to keep in mind is that this is definitely very much a slow-burn movie for most of its running time, so if you're expecting things to start going sideways fairly soon, you might be a bit disappointed.
With that in mind, I think the film earns its running time, as ultimately it feels like you've really spent some time in an environment that you can see would almost be a place you feel you could relax in... but with something you can't quite name maybe causing you to stop and wonder.

exiler96

09-12-24, 10:41 PM

I had read really good things about Bone Tomahawk over the years, but I've only just seen it now. And I have to say I'm extremely impressed. Perhaps the ultimate horror / Western hybrid film, dealing as it does with a fearsome tribe of inbred Native Troglodytes who kidnapped the town doctor Samantha O'Dwyer (Lili Simmons) and a sheriff's deputy named Nick. Sheriff Franklin Hunt (Kurt Russell) leads a group of men, including Samantha's injured husband Arthur (Patrick Wilson), on a rescue mission to find them. I suppose that, broadly speaking, you could say that this movie is a cross between John Ford and George A. Romero, but I think perhaps "Howard Hawks meets Wes Craven" might be a better descriptive. I'm very much reminded of Hawks' approach to the Western genre, with its well-rounded, well-written supporting characters and dialogue, as well its ensemble approach, and I'm also very much reminded of something like Craven's original The Hills Have Eyes (1977), with its tale of a family's desperate struggle for survival against a tribe of cannibals living in the mountains of Nevada.

Now that you mention Hawks, I find Richard Jenkins' turn here very much like what a Walter Brennan would've given today.

FilmBuff

09-12-24, 10:55 PM

https://pics.filmaffinity.com/el_candidato_honesto-356331369-large.jpg

El Candidato Honesto
0.5

Here's an honest statement: I can't recall the last time I saw a "comedy" as completely unfunny as El Candidato Honesto, a Mexican movie now being shown in some US theaters.
Why this was released to theaters at all, here or in Mexico, is a deeply puzzling question that perhaps nobody could ever accurately answer. With presidential elections this year in both countries, perhaps it was seen as an easy cash grab?
According to the end credits, this is a remake of the Brazilian movie O Candidato Honesto, which to the best of my knowledge never played in the US and does not appear to be streaming anywhere.
That film, apparently, was loosely inspired by Liar Liar. So, if you watch that movie, you'll probably see something far funnier than this uninspired mess, which somehow not only looks consistently ugly, it also manages to make Mexico City look like a thoroughly uninteresting place - which it definitely is not.

FilmBuff

09-12-24, 11:04 PM

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Merchant Ivory
4.5

Merchant Ivory is an absolute knockout, and an absolute must-see for anyone who has ever enjoyed the Merchant Ivory films.
Were it not for the fact that Made in England was released around the same time, this would easily have been the best documentary about legendary filmmaking teams released in 2024.
But both documentaries are great in their own unique way; and this one benefits from the incredible amount of interviews (both new and archival) with the protagonists and most of the people who worked with them over the years.
I knew next to nothing about Merchant and Ivory for most of the time when I was enjoying their films; the fact that they were a couple for most of their careers simply wasn't something most moviegoers talked about.
Other things that I absolutely didn't know about their filmmaking team include the fact that James Ivory grew up on the West Coast (and went to college in Oregon) and that their frequent collaborator Ruth Prawer Jhabvala was a German-born émigré.
The documentary is just filled with even more astounding information about the couple and their film company, and makes it easy to see why this really has to be considered one of the most formidable filmmaking teams of all time.

Gideon58

09-12-24, 11:42 PM

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3

PHOENIX74

09-13-24, 02:49 AM

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f0/Vision_Quest_%281985_film%29_poster.jpg
By The poster art can or could be obtained from Warner Bros.., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1620148

Vision Quest - (1985)

This movie is called Crazy For You in Australia, but imagine my surprise when "Vision Quest" came up in the opening credits. We normally change the title in the actual credits when a movie is retitled, but I guess nobody could be buggered to do it this time around. The reason for the change was that Madonna's chart topping "Crazy For You" had hit big by then, and it sold the movie a little better. Madonna herself is in this very formulaic coming-of-age sports movie, or at least, she sings in a nightclub - her first appearance in a film as Madonna and not Louise Ciccone. Forest Whitaker also has a small part, but pretty much exists in the background (his character's name is "Balldozer".) Great soundtrack - but oh boy, do they decide to go with all of the cheesy clichés with gusto here. The speech from the coach, the friend living with an abusive dad, the love interest (Linda Fiorentino) who wrestling high school student Louden Swain (a young Matthew Modine) thinks is going out with his teacher, prompting him to go nuts, whereupon Linda gives him a bloodied nose that threatens to derail his make-or-break wrestling match. Will he win, or will this film go against every other sports film in movie history? There's lots of pinning and grunting and flipping - Ronny Cox plays the dad, and while I can't fault much, this is pretty bland. I now have "Crazy For You" going around and around and around in my head - I can't stop it.

6/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5b/She_Dies_Tomorrow_poster.jpeg
By IMP Awards, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=64490473

She Dies Tomorrow - (2020)

We live in a world that functions the way it does because we put the thought of the inevitability of our death aside, and distracting ourselves from that reality is the only way we move forward and exist as constructive members of society. That in itself is an interesting topic to base a film around, and so as a concept I really liked Amy Seimetz's movie a lot. Full review here (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?p=2487615#post2487615), in my watchlist thread.

7/10

Gideon58

09-13-24, 05:43 AM

https://www.beetlejuicemovie.com/images/share.jpg

3.5

Fabulous

09-13-24, 05:52 AM

The Lair of the White Worm (1988)

3

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/eeBXjRQikfiIlagI0EWTAE1ymLr.jpg

Gideon58

09-13-24, 05:56 AM

Thief

09-13-24, 11:29 AM

PAPRIKA
(2006, Kon)

https://i.imgur.com/dqMEYV6.png

"Science is nothing but a piece of trash before a profound dream."

Paprika follows different groups that are trying to bridge that gap between dreams and science. There's the scientists that developed a device – the DC Mini – that allows them to actually view other people's dreams, to a mysterious "terrorist" that has stolen one of these to somehow become all-powerful. Somewhere in between, there's the titular character, Paprika, a dream alter-ego of scientist Atsuko Chiba (Megumi Hayashibara) who has been using the DC Mini "off the grid" to help some patients.

This was a recommendation from an online friend and my first film from Satoshi Kon. I've never considered myself an anime guy, but I decided to give it a shot. The film has many of the trademarks I usually associate with anime, but it is also a very unique premise that is also executed in a unique way. Paprika moves at a pace that makes you feel like the characters of the film, as if you were catching up on everything. As the manifestations of these dreams keep growing, the story becomes more weird and bizarre and it's interesting to try to figure out what's going on.

Grade: 3.5

Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2487689#post2487689)

doubledenim

09-13-24, 12:17 PM

The Lair of the White Worm (1988)

3

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/eeBXjRQikfiIlagI0EWTAE1ymLr.jpg

All-time great VHS box on the wall at a family-owned video store.

doubledenim

09-13-24, 12:21 PM

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Umpteenth Rewatch....Rewatched rhe theatrical version of this on You Tube tonight and noticed a major addition to the original film. The film originally opened with photographs of Cosby's five children, including his late son Ennis, in silence, but the version I watched tonight, the photographs were underscored by a very funny song sung by Cosby himself. For those of you who are still able to separate the man from the artist, there is still a lot of funny stuff here that still makes me laugh out loud. 4

We didn’t have cable growing up. Even if we did, we wouldn’t have had HBO. But a guy my dad worked with did and he would record HBO. This is how I saw Making the Grade 🥳 and this.

It stands side-by-side with Delirious as the best standup special I’ve ever seen. Both problematic in their own way, but also legendary.

Thief

09-13-24, 01:25 PM

TWISTERS
(2024, Chung)

https://i.imgur.com/1Ligqg2.jpeg

"You don't face your fears, you ride 'em."

Set in the same universe but barely referencing the original, Twisters follows Oklahoma native Kate (Daisy Edgar-Jones), a young tornado chaser and aspiring meteorologist with "a gift" to predict storms and tornadoes. When tragedy strikes her team during an intense tornado, she relocates to New York City to work for NOAA. That is until her friend and former colleague Javi (Anthony Ramos) lures her back to her hometown to help him with his new storm chasing company.

Overall, Twisters does what most sequels do; go bigger, as the title implies. This doesn't always equate to quality, but that doesn't mean that Twisters is not without its strengths. First of all, I found it interesting how the film puts our hero into what is essentially Cary Elwes team in the original. Javi is definitely not a bad guy, but his company follows the stereotypical "evil corporate" trope full of nameless/faceless drones. All while they look down at Tyler Owens (Glen Powell) ragtag team of colorful tornado chasers, which is pretty much a proxy of Helen Hunt's team.

Grade: 2.5

Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2487748#post2487748)

WHITBISSELL!

09-13-24, 03:40 PM

Vision Quest - (1985)

This movie is called Crazy For You in Australia, but imagine my surprise when "Vision Quest" came up in the opening credits. We normally change the title in the actual credits when a movie is retitled, but I guess nobody could be buggered to do it this time around. The reason for the change was that Madonna's chart topping "Crazy For You" had hit big by then, and it sold the movie a little better. ...

... I now have "Crazy For You" going around and around and around in my head - I can't stop it.

6/10I never associated Madonna's song with this movie. It was always this one ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9hWqa4xxZY

Takoma11

09-13-24, 08:28 PM

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.windmillfilm.com%2Fhere%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2019%2F09%2F27-Jessica_Still_Press_Copyright_Ecce-films-%25E2%2580%2593-ARTE-France-Cin%25C3%25A9ma-%25E2%2580%2593-2018.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=3bc7d5d9773f90453247f7c7a7a4ad7e0554bf61a131436e8096c29b53be38f1&ipo=images

Jessica Forever, 2018

In an undefined near future, male orphans are violently hunted down and killed by a government controlled army of drones. Coming to their rescue is Jessica (Aomi Muyock), the leader of a group of abandoned young men. Constantly on the run, Jessica and her crew attempt to create space for the young men to overcome their trauma and integrate into society.

An outlandish premise and a handful of stunning visual moments don’t quite give this sci-fi drama the emotional resonance it seems to be chasing.

3.5

FULL REVIEW (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2487852#post2487852)

FilmBuff

09-13-24, 10:29 PM

https://images.flickdirect.com/movies/the-killers-game/the-killers-game-poster.jpg

The Killer's Game
1

Imagine a hitman movie so atrocious, it manages to make Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard seem like Citizen Kane.

Yes, the new Dave Bautista movie is, unfortunately, just as dumb (or if you can imagine it, even dumber) than the trailers made it seem.

It's a movie so bad, that it somehow makes you appreciate the relative sophistication of the usual yahoo action fare that Netflix cranks out with the regularity of a Swiss clock.

The movie also criminally wastes the talent of very charismatic performers like Pom Klementieff and Sofia Boutella, as well as Oscar-winner Ben Kingsley.

(How sad is it that the movie serves as an unofficial reunion for 3 of the most appealing cast members of the MCU?)

Don't be surprised if this one gets several Razzie nominations - although it is of course just as likely that the movie will soon be completely forgotten.

PHOENIX74

09-13-24, 11:39 PM

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e5/Rebel_Ridge_film_poster.jpg
By http://www.impawards.com/2024/rebel_ridge_ver2_xlg.html, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=77565550

Rebel Ridge - (2024)

One of the big issues that attracted me to Rebel Ridge was the whole "civil forfeiture" thing, which is a good idea in principle but so open to corruption (and indeed, encourages corruption) that it inevitably authors it's own horror stories. That gets a little lost in the way Rebel Ridge progresses into something of a conventionally structured thriller, but I like that the idea is there. Aaron Pierre is new to me - I've seen Old, but I can't quite place him in that movie - his eyes convey the inner strength and determination he has to project, and are piercing. Don Johnson has found new life for himself as a crooked, corrupt and overconfident police chief - the best role I've seen him in during this latest incarnation of his career. AnnaSophia Robb is given a lot to do in this, and isn't sidelined by her two costars. It's a really solid, satisfying, engaging thriller - and people who are about to go postal should watch carefully, because Terry Richmond (Pierre) unleashes his righteous fury in ways that are ingenious for the way they uphold strict moral standards all the while. It flew by, considering it's lengthy running time.

7/10

Siddon

09-14-24, 12:32 AM

[quote=FilmBuff;2487883]https://images.flickdirect.com/movies/the-killers-game/the-killers-game-poster.jpg

The Killer's Game

My god...what did they do to Batista's (and Terry Crews) face.

Thief

09-14-24, 01:29 AM

PULGASARI
(1985, Shin)

https://i.imgur.com/uEQMY0N.png

"Everyone, as long as Pulgasari is with us, our victory is assured!"

Set in feudal Korea, Pulgasari follows the titular creature, a Godzilla-like kaiju created by an imprisoned blacksmith and brought to life by his daughter, Ami (Chang Son Hui), creating a bond with her. Pulgasari then becomes an ally of the rebels against the region's oppressive ruler. Although the premise might not sound overly special, it is the story behind the production of the film what sets it apart.

Pulgasari's director, Shin Sang-ok, had been kidnapped along with his wife, by North Korea's "Supreme Leader" Kim Jong Il. An avid cinephile himself, Kim wanted the filmmaking couple to make propaganda films for the nation. Pulgasari ended up being Shin's last film for the ruler, before he escaped in 1986. As a result, Kim removed his name from the credits and the film was banned for several years.

Grade: 3

Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2487922#post2487922)

MovieBuffering

09-14-24, 02:44 AM

A Simple Plan - 1998

Never heard of this flick. Slipped through the cracks on me...I know most 90s films, especially with decently famous actors. The premise of the movie was excellent, very provocative. It wavered back and forth from being a good flick to a silly one. It straddled it quite impressively to me.

I guess Billy Bob Thorton and his buddy in the movie did ok. I think his buddy in the movie was a little heavy handed in his delivery. Not an ounce of a redeeming quality in him. Billy Bob's character wasn't very consistent to me. He was suppose to be slow I think but then he would have moments he would figure things out before Paxton. I could feel him acting a bit in some scenes then others he was great. I think the problem was his character just didn't feel consistent to me.

The film is super intriguing because you sort of ask yourself what would you do if you found a bag of money? Anyways the ending was a really good scene up to a point and then I ended up laughing, it was sort of pointless lol. Very cool premise and super provocative but I felt a little shaky in the execution of the plot. Possibly why it didn't quite endure like most 90s films. Movie felt like a streaky shooter in basketball...would make like 8 baskets in a row then go ice cold. I'll be a little harsh but could improve on a repeat watch.

2.5

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Sedai

09-14-24, 09:40 AM

Am I Racist?
Folk, 2024

3_5

https://variety.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Screenshot-2024-07-22-at-6.30.14%E2%80%AFPM-copy.jpg?w=1000&h=667&crop=1

In short: The film was HILARIOUS. Walsh is fantastic at deadpan.

I had no plans to see this, but my brother in law ended up having tickets he couldn't use due to his band getting an unexpected gig as as a fill-in at a local place a few towns over.

My expectations were that I would meet my friend, we would walk into the theater, have our pick of the best seats, afterward enjoying the film with the other 4 people in attendance, with the possibility of a full half of those people walking out in the first 20 minutes. This is a film put out by The Daily Wire, and I live in Massachusetts.

We walked in during previews and the place was over 2/3 full. No one walked out and there was applause after the film. People were roaring with laughter, including my friend and myself.

Funny shit, and totally worth the ticket.

exiler96

09-14-24, 09:56 AM

Yol (1982) - Turkish drama following a few men on leave from prison by getting into their personal lives and ways in which they're facing oppresseion from either their family or society at large while maintaining stoic looks from outside.

The structure is of the kind that is always attractive and while I need to watch it again for some clarifications here and there, this kinda broke me... its realism recalled neo-realism (a certain character's crying at the end reminded me of the ending to Bicycle Thieves) and it's cinematography was captivating (those shots in the dark)... Look up the director Yilmaz Güney and how he directed this, from prison no less... legend material. 8/10.

https://harvardfilmarchive.org/public/upload/events/medium_wide/5cf0338ab4101.jpg

FilmBuff

09-14-24, 10:11 AM

https://img.cnmhstng.com/images/2024/Am_I_Racist185.jpg

Am I Racist?
0

Imagine someone trying to rip-off the Borat movie, but without being the least bit funny.

That's what watching this movie feels like, the audience I watched it with just sat there dumbfounded and didn't find anything about it remotely funny (except for how pathetic it is to take advantage of well-meaning people by setting up interviews under completely false pretenses).

One can only imagine that the people who were duped by the filmmakers had already granted permission for the interviews to be used before finding out that the person doing the interviewing wasn't the least bit serious about anything.

The only good thing that will come out from all of this is that people will hopefully not be duped again by the same filmmaking team.

A dreadful experience, for sure.

Thief

09-14-24, 12:11 PM

Am I Racist?
Folk, 2024

3_5

In short: The film was HILARIOUS. Walsh is fantastic at deadpan.

We walked in during previews and the place was over 2/3 full. No one walked out and there was applause after the film. People were roaring with laughter, including my friend and myself.

Funny shit, and totally worth the ticket.

Am I Racist?
0

Imagine someone trying to rip-off the Borat movie, but without being the least bit funny.

That's what watching this movie feels like, the audience I watched it with just sat there dumbfounded and didn't find anything about it remotely funny (except for how pathetic it is to take advantage of well-meaning people by setting up interviews under completely false pretenses).

A dreadful experience, for sure.

This is what I pay Internet for :applause:

LeBoyWondeur

09-14-24, 01:55 PM

Speak No Evil (2022)

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/66/Speak_No_Evil_Official_Poster.jpg

If you watch this as a Survival Horror then this story isn't going to make much sense, and I find it very hard to believe that the filmmaker wasn't aware of that.
So I figured, perhaps I wasn't meant to be taken at face value.

It has an underlying tone of submissiveness especially from the Danish husband's point of view because he's feeling trapped in a well-organised but unsatisfying life of keeping up appearances.
His incapacity or unwillingness to act like the man he wants to be makes the excesses of tragedy and cruelty that unfold more effective from a metaphorical point of view - and then the motives of the Dutch couple (which are never explained anyway) don't seem very important in the grand scheme of things.
"Why are you doing this?"
"Because you let me".

But then again, it's also possible that I'm giving this screenplay way too much credit and maybe it's a very stupid movie after all.
I guess I'll never know....and that's why this film is un-rateable.

Mr Minio

09-14-24, 02:34 PM

Am I Racist?
.

First What Is a Woman?, then Am I Racist?. The next one in the Question Trilogy is bound to be Am I a Racist Woman?.

Daniel M

09-14-24, 05:06 PM

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (Sidney Lumet, 2007) 3

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Good performances, competently made, but despite the shifting narrative structure the whole thing is pretty straightforward. Very dark and depressing, does a good job of capturing dread and the feeling of hopelessness.

Ghost World (Terry Zwigoff, 2001) 2

https://merrygoroundmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Ghost-World.jpeg

Strangely I feel quite similar about this. Competent all round, good performances, but a little too dark and depressing. I felt pretty hopeless and depressed watching this, maybe even more so than BTDKYD. Life is sad and cruel, the world can be a difficult place to live in. We all have to lose our innocence when we grow up.

FilmBuff

09-14-24, 08:52 PM

https://www.rogerebert.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Poster-2-1382x2048.jpg

Look Into My Eyes
3

Are psychics real?

Well, they are real in the sense that they definitely exist and that some people believe in what they claim to do.

There is, of course, no scientific proof - as far as I know - that something real and measurable is happening when people claim to use psychic powers to communicate with what can't be seen (or even with living animals).

But this documentary by Lana Wilson - whose other recent subjects include Taylor Swift and Brooke Shields - doesn't really seem interested in whether or not science can prove or disprove anything in regards to psychics.

The documentary seems to be much more interested in what drives the desire for certain kinds of connection - the need to have a "connection" with a lost one, or a pet that obviously can't speak, etc. - and what someone can evidently do to make that person feel that connection (whether it's just some kind of grift or a genuine gift is left up to the viewer).

I am, of course, skeptical about anything that can't be scientifically proven, so I can't say I exactly believe in what psychics claim to be able to do. But I can definitely believe - because the documentary offers plenty of evidence - that there is a real human need for the things they claim to be able to provide, and that very real need is something that lies very deep inside some people; feeling that they have achieved the "connection" can seemingly bring about great relief.

This is definitely - by far - the better of two documentaries that I've watched this weekend; this one concerns folks who, whether or not they are able to do what they say they do, have a genuine gift for making those who come to them feel better; the other one was about a cruel and heartless grifter who cons innocent, well-meaning people in order to, well, just in order to profit off of them.

You don't have to be a psychic to know which one I feel is the morally repugnant one.

LChimp

09-14-24, 10:29 PM

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71dScHBvL-L._AC_SL1000_.jpg

Superman The Movie (Extended version) - (Richard Donner, 1978)

First time seeing it with my 16 year old son. A lot of additional scenes compared to the theatrical version, which is the one I'm used to. Most of these scenes are silly, but there a few quite interesting ones. 11/10

PHOENIX74

09-14-24, 11:41 PM

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/ab/Bread-and-tulips-poster.jpg
By May be found at the following website: http://www.movieposterdb.com/poster/e5b5fd4c, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=34444825

Bread and Tulips - (2000)

If you're a housewife, your husband constantly berates you, your kids find it an inconvenience to constantly have to ignore you and you work like a slave for these people - then this is your fantasy movie. I mean, it would be nice to find yourself suddenly living in Venice, starting a new career as a florist, finding new and interesting best friends and starting a love affair with Bruno Ganz. This is what happens to Rosalba Barletta (Licia Maglietta) when a tour bus with her family on it leaves her stranded in Greece, and her supposed loved ones don't even notice right away. She decides to make her own way home, but on the way detours to Venice (she's never been) and that's where she meets new people, gets a new job and starts a new life - while in the meantime her husband, Mimmo (Antonio Catania) hires a private investigator, Costantino (Giuseppe Battiston), to try and track her down. Every so often I'll watch a movie that I don't see myself as the target audience for - that's the case here, and I don't think I was ever going to love Break and Tulips regardless of how good the performances in it were, or the fact that it won 9 David di Donatello awards (and 5 Nastro d'Argento awards.) Licia Maglietta was a huge surprise though - I wish I could see more of her. Ganz, as depressed Icelandic landlord/restauranteur Fernando made it worth my while as well. Sounds like this was the movie of the year in Italy during 2000, but for me it pretty much hit the region I'd call "average". It was okay.

6/10

Takoma11

09-14-24, 11:56 PM

PHOENIX74

09-15-24, 12:07 AM

I saw this in the theater when it first came out and just thought it was really sweet. Nothing super special, but fun and cute. It was definitely a crowd-pleaser in the theater.

It hit that exact spot for me, where I didn't dislike it, didn't love it - it had plenty of nice moments, and that kind of fantasy vibe to it. Go to Venice, start your dream job, meet interesting new people who you gel with immediately and become your de facto family. I've yet to see Venice - but it's more than a drive for me.

SpelingError

09-15-24, 12:20 AM

Costa Rican Summer (2010) - 1

The filmmakers certainly intended for this to be a critique of the objectification of the female body, but I'd argue they didn't handle these points with a deft hand and lacked the maturity to go all the way on it. The portrayal of the unhinged characters is handled so obnoxiously, the nudity feels so exploitative and forced (to cut the film some slack, the men are sexualized a bit as well), and the dreamlike score whenever Pamela Anderson appeared onscreen made me check out entirely. While we're not asked to approve of the characters' behaviors, given the over-the-top direction of these elements, the intentions of the film weren't always clear. Whenever a film is critiquing nudity/sexuality, there's a thin line as to how much of that subject it can depict and how it portrays it before its commentary becomes muddled. The more it shows and the more emphasis it places on such, the more its points get diluted and the more it seems like depicting the "titillating" content is all the film wants to do. While I've encountered worse cases over the years (e.g. Cuties), this film still felt shallow. As for the rest of the film, it has the standard flaws I've seen in other terrible films, like bad acting, poorly-written dialogue, an overbearing and obnoxious score, poor cinematography, and an uninspired story. Of course, it's not like this is the only poorly made film out there which is disposable entertainment, but I think the reason this film bugged me so much was because it was pretending to be something else. At least Jurassic Shark and Meet the Spartans weren't trying to do this. I will grant that the second half is a slight improvement over the first half since it's more toned down, but not by much. Overall, this is horrendously bad on almost all levels and whatever undercurrents of quality are sprinkled in were ultimately overshadowed.

Takoma11

09-15-24, 12:49 AM

It hit that exact spot for me, where I didn't dislike it, didn't love it - it had plenty of nice moments, and that kind of fantasy vibe to it. Go to Venice, start your dream job, meet interesting new people who you gel with immediately and become your de facto family. I've yet to see Venice - but it's more than a drive for me.

Honestly, now that I know a lot more women who have children, it makes a lot more sense to me why this one struck a chord with so many people. The dual exhaustion of either having everyone (other adults included!) clamoring for your attention and then being ignored/disregarded when you're not in the act of serving someone else . . . yeah, oops I found a dream life where I'm appreciated makes a lot more sense as a fantasy.

Fabulous

09-15-24, 03:56 AM

Boyz n the Hood (1991)

3.5

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/ojzo9tMl8ZLrQgdGApZJFLuS331.jpg

chawhee

09-15-24, 10:55 AM

Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011)
https://mediamikes.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/crazy-stupid-love-movie-poster-02-thumb.jpg
3
An average rom-com that I hope would elevate to being above-average given the cast. Gosling doesn't seem to hit the right notes for a character more suited for someone like Ryan Reynolds. The script follows mostly predictable paths, but it does veer off wildly once or twice which were the funniest and best parts for me.

exiler96

09-15-24, 11:02 AM

Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011)
https://mediamikes.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/crazy-stupid-love-movie-poster-02-thumb.jpg
3

I know the bar isn't high but this is one of my favorite rom-coms of the last 20 years. The cast do lovely work and I lose it everytime I get to the bit you posted with that picture :lol:

FilmBuff

09-15-24, 11:30 AM

https://www.austinfilm.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Simone-Barbes-poster-779x1024.jpg

Simone Barbès ou la Vertu
2.5

Marie-Claude Treilhou's directing debut isn't overly concerned with conventional narrative tropes, it seem perfectly happy to just observe Simone Barbès (Ingrid Bourgoin) as she goes through a regular workday.

And what does Simone do? She is an usher at an XXX theater in Paris - and this movie makes that seem even more tedious than it might sound at first.

Treilhou's gift for quiet observation will reward patient viewers and is better at simply recording a time and place in history that is long gone; there is certainly something about the locations (not just the XXX theater, but also a lesbian nightclub where Simone goes after work) that feels so much more quaint now than when the movie was brand new in 1980.

Nausicaä

09-15-24, 12:37 PM

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1.5

SF = Zzzzz

Viewed: Blu ray

[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

Thief

09-15-24, 01:00 PM

FilmBuff

09-15-24, 04:28 PM

https://images.fineartamerica.com/images/artworkimages/mediumlarge/2/underworld-1927--album.jpg

Underworld (1927)
4.5

Josef von Sternberg's silent classic may not be the first gangster movie ever made, but it is certainly credited as being the one that made moviegoers fall in love with the genre.

The movie also marked the beginning of a long and fruitful 8-year period of Sternberg at Paramount, where he would go on to make a few other classics, including some memorable films with Marlene Dietrich.

Underworld's staggering success made it the first movie in the US to have round-the-clock showings; people in the late 20s couldn't get enough of this new, raw gangster action!

The film's success also extended to screenwriter Ben Hecht, who won the first-ever Oscar for best original screenplay when the Academy held its first awards ceremony in 1929.

WHITBISSELL!

09-15-24, 05:48 PM

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/S/pv-target-images/b85bd6e7dd25436fea7a4ceab41a4543db19fcc6a06bc61beb68c854dc439a5a.jpg

rating_1_5

SF = Zzzzz

[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 itI almost fell asleep watching the trailer for this. It's a sad state of affairs when you can't manage to string together enough interesting moments to make your movie at least appear palatable.

Gideon58

09-15-24, 06:53 PM

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61JzxDk9mBL._AC_UF894,1000_QL80_.jpg

Umpteenth Rewatch...One of my favorite Carrey comedies that I never get tired of re-watching. Carrey plays a divorced workaholic attorney who has neglected his son so much that, at his fifth birthday party, the child makes a birthday wish that his father can't tell a lie for a whole day and the wish actually cmoes true. The guy can't tell a lie for 24 hours which, of course, complicates his life and career to no end. This movie is funny as hell, features a terrific cast supporting Carrey and still gets my vote for the funniest outtakes shown during the closing credits. 3.5

Gideon58

09-15-24, 07:16 PM

https://i.harperapps.com/hcanz/covers/9781557042460/y648.jpg

5th Rewatch...Robbed of the Best Picture Oscar of 1994, this sweeping and emotionally charged epic just seems to grow richer with each viewing. It's the story of a young banker named Andy Dufrane who goes to jail for the murder of his wife and his lover, even though he didn't do it. We thjen watch Andy go through the typical "fresh meat" routine we always see in prison movis, but we watch Andy not only learn how to survival prison but how to improve the conditions and eventually overcome them. Based on a novel by Stephen King, director Frank Darabont, who also brought another Stephe King story to the screen The Green Mile, employs sp[ectacular production values and a sensitive directorial eye to this story that makes you wait for a happy ending, but the journey is well worth it. Tim Robbins offIcially became a movie star with his performance as Andy and Morgan Freeman earned a Best Actor nomination for his performance as Andy's best friend, Red. Still scratching my head as to how Forrest Gump won Best Picture over this. 5

Gideon58

09-15-24, 07:35 PM

https://pics.filmaffinity.com/We_re_Not_Married-950848023-large.jpg

1st Rewatch...A superb ensemble cast is the main selling point of this sparkling 1952 comedy about a dotty justice of the peace who marries five couples before his license was actually valid and no one noticed for two years, so the five couples are informed by letter that they are no longer legally married. Funny thing is, this news is only a bad thing for one of the five couples. My favorites of the five stories are Fred Allen and Ginger Rogers as the stars of a radio show whose show is contractually dependent on their marriage; Marilyn Monroe and David Wayne as a couple who think they have to re-think their lives because Marilyn can no longer enter beautiy contests for married women; and Louis Calhern as a wealthy businessman who is about to be taken to the cleaners by his gold digging wife (Zsa Zsa Gabor). Victor Moore is a riot as the justic of the peace at the center of the nuttiness and yes, that's Oscar winner Jane Darwell playiing his wife. This one is a lot of fun. 3.5

Gideon58

09-15-24, 08:05 PM

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81-vkjYT1mL._AC_UF894,1000_QL80_.jpg

1st Rewatch...This is a slightly sanitized , fact-based story of a wealthy sociality named Lee Ann Tuoy who takes a young black homeless man into her home named Michael Ohr, who would eventually becme the 2009 number one draft pick of the Baltimore Ravens. This is a true story about real people but it has this feeling of being "cleaned up" for the silver screwen. I also felt the relationship between Michael and Lee ann" son, CJ was a lot more interesting than the relationship with Michael and Lee Ann. Sandra Bullock won the Oscar for Best Actress, but personally, I can think of at least four other performances of hers that were better, though I think she looked great as a blonde. 3

Gideon58

09-15-24, 08:15 PM

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/92/1993GypsyFilmPoster.JPG

5th Rewatch...People are very quick to rag on this version of the Jule Styne Stephen Sondheim musical that originally premiered on Broadway in 1959 starring Ethel Merman. Bette Midler starred in this version, originally broadcast on CBS, playing what is, arguably , the greatest female role in musical theater, Mama Rose Hovick, the narcissistic show biz mom from hell who made her daughters' lives miserable by making them into vaudeville stars as a way of living out her own show biz aspirations. Midler really sinks her teeth into ths role, giving the performance just a taste of crazy, which fits the character perfectly. Cynthia Gibb is a little one-note as the tomboy-ish Louise in the first half ot the show, but she really shines when Louise becomes Gypsy Rose Lee. Also gotta love Chrstine Ebersole as Tessie Tura. And Midler nails "Rose's Turn." 4

Gideon58

09-15-24, 08:21 PM

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Umpteenth Rewatch...This instant classic still brings the funny it did 40 years ago, thanks to a masterfull comic turn by the late Dudley Moore as a millionaire drunk playboy who has to marry a woman he doesn't love to inherit $750,000,000 but instead sets his sight on a poor waitress from Queens (Liza Minnelli). The Oscar-nominated screenplay is filled with zingers and Moore and John Geilgud. as his acid-tongued butler, Hobson, know exactly how to handle them. Moore receved a Best Actor nomination for his performance and Gielgud won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his perfect performance as Hobson. The song "Arthur's Theme" also won an Oscar. If you've never seen it please treat yourself. The film inspired a terrible sequel and an even worse remake, but this film is gold. 4

Fabulous

09-15-24, 09:26 PM

Cutter's Way (1981)

3

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/6BW5JJ9XMXfbG5x4gTuv6MGrKlN.jpg

PHOENIX74

09-16-24, 04:05 AM

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b5/People_vs_larry_flynt_poster.jpg
By Impawards.com, also can or could be obtained from Columbia Pictures., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=22800405

The People vs Larry Flynt - (1996)

It had been such a long time since I first saw this that it was pretty much like seeing it for the first time. I'd never felt a really great urge to rewatch it, to tell you the truth. Obviously, I didn't really become inspired by the man this is a biography is about - not as much as I did Andy Kaufman in Miloš Forman's Man on the Moon (which he made right after this.) Free speech is important, but we're not talking about someone who was fighting for his right to do anything but keep his business making profits. I don't think he should ever have been thrown in jail however, and it saddens me that he was shot (the film never explains, but the assassin, Joseph Paul Franklin, tried to kill him because he'd featured interracial couples having sex in his magazine. He was a white supremacist.) The movie keeps things light, despite all the drug addiction, pornography and court cases scattered throughout - and Harrelson makes Flynt seem like someone who was a little mentally unstable, and apt to adopt crazy beliefs and display bizarre behaviour. This led to the actor's first Oscar nomination. I'd forgotten that Courtney Love was in this (she's also in Man on the Moon I think), along with Edward Norton, Crispin Glover and James Cromwell. The flashy, gaudy, money-tainted side of America gets a good airing in The People vs Larry Flynt - with Flynt's many lawsuits making up the bulk of the movie.

I wonder if Larry Flynt's speech patterns radically altered as he got older, because Woody Harrelson suddenly pivots around 2/3rds of the way into this film into giving Flynt a pronounced drawl.

6/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/79/Original_movie_poster_for_the_film_The_Longest_Day.jpg
Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7037535

The Longest Day - (1962)

I went through a Cornelius Ryan reading phase - things get pretty technical, but I like the fact that painstaking research has been done, and you get a real feel for the brutal realities of war. This film is remarkable when it comes to production values, and stays true to many of the anecdotes that come from the novel - the sheer level of talent on display makes up for what's missing compared to what we'd see today - a real depiction of horror. Still - on a movie-making level this film is a staggering achievement - I'm awestruck just watching it sometimes, knowing full well how much effort went into making this the foremost film that depicted the events of D-Day. Who gave me the most pleasure just watching them? Richard Burton I think.

8/10

Gideon58

09-16-24, 04:16 AM

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Umpteenth Rewatch...Love this cheesy but entertaining disaster flick about a fire breaking out in a San Francisco high rise, complete with a once in a life time all-star cast, most of them in pretty thankless roles, but the movie remains watchable since 1974. Believe it or not Fred Astaire received the only Oscar nomination of his long and distinguished career for his work in this film. 3.5

Fabulous

09-16-24, 04:31 AM

Welcome to the Dollhouse (1995)

3.5

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/cmD7smdQnflmpthFDjSArI2jKZF.jpg

FilmBuff

09-16-24, 12:34 PM

https://cdn.flickeringmyth.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Will-and-Harper-poster.jpg

Will & Harper
5

I watched 3 documentaries over the weekend, and this is by far and away the very best of them. This is absolutely wonderful, and if there is any justice, it should be nominated for an Oscar.

Will & Harper is, in most ways, a very old-fashioned road movie, with Will Ferrell traveling across the country with his newly-transitioned friend of many years, Harper Steele (a former head writer for Saturday Night Live).

Now, I know what you're going to ask. Yes, we do get to see a pretty substantial number of other famous SNL members, especially those who were there around the same time as Will and Harper.

But that's really not what makes this a great documentary. When we have seen one documentary released this weekend openly embracing thinly-veiled prejudice and contempt for others, this is the complete opposite - it is a documentary that embraces open-mindedness, human camaraderie, and sticking with people when they're going through tough or challenging times.

It is, in short, about all of the wonderful things that make people be better and help society become more embracing and more caring for everyone.

WHITBISSELL!

09-16-24, 01:14 PM

The People vs Larry Flynt - (1996)
Free speech is important, but we're not talking about someone who was fighting for his right to do anything but keep his business making profits.That's a very discreet and tactful way of putting it. I salute you.

https://gifdb.com/images/high/beaver-480-x-360-gif-fs570flp690t0amv.webp

Allaby

09-16-24, 02:24 PM

The Unearthing (2015) watched on Tubi. Written, directed and produced by Tristan James Jensen, who was only 16 at the time he shot the film. The film is about three teen friends who meet a ghost. I thought this was pretty good, especially for a young first time director/writer. I especially enjoyed the performances of Riley Yeary and Angelina Masciopinto. It could have been a little longer and developed the story a bit more, but I liked it overall. 3.5

Takoma11

09-16-24, 06:22 PM

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftribecafilm-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Ffilm%2Fphoto_2%2F5545%2Ffull_SOMEWHERE_QUIET-02-Clean-16x9.png&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=c6e7ccf12b65039e23a41754f0f94845bf166da346a19b89b5e2361d73dc332e&ipo=images

Somewhere Quiet, 2023

Meg (Jennifer Kim) is recovering from the harrowing experience of having been held hostage by a kidnapper. Her husband, Scott (Kentucker Audley) decides that his family’s cabin in the woods is the perfect place for them to regroup. But Scott’s intrusive cousin Madelin (Marin Ireland) and strange visions in the woods begin to make Meg question Scott’s dedication to her and her own sanity.

Overstuffed yet underdeveloped, this thriller never quite nails its horror or its drama elements.

2.5

FULL REVIEW (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2488547#post2488547)

exiler96

09-16-24, 07:54 PM

Fighting with My Family (2019) - Really wanted to pass this with a 6, but should wait for a re-match (ha!). It's an underdog story so it already had me on its side. Many of the funny bits landed and Vaughn, Frost, The Rock and Lowden did some nice work; the last one especially since he's given the least likeable character and interestingly, his best moments are where he's alone & acting "by himself"...

Pugh plays the confused and insecure part of her character well, but she's less believable in her athletic part. Many crucial moments don't click (how was she never mentally prepared for a common thing in WWE like trash-talk? / the family members are more like friends than family) and feel like wasted opportunities (there's a "move" that she learns from her brother to pull off in the final show-down? why not film it in a more memorable way then?)... the heart is in the right place, but could've used a better approach (look at CODA from a year later). 5/10.

https://tvandfilmguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/fighting-with-my-family.jpg?w=1200

PHOENIX74

09-17-24, 05:32 AM

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9f/Speak_No_Evil_%282024%29_Theatrical_Poster.jpeg
By Blumhouse Productions - http://www.impawards.com/2024/speak_no_evil_ver2_xxlg.html, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=77179258

Speak No Evil - (2024)

2022 Danish film Speak No Evil was one of my personal top 10 films of that year - nobody else really grabbed onto it, but it got my attention. Now, I knew this American remake would probably do a few things I didn't like, but the reason I decided to see it was because I can't pass up a good James McAvoy performance, and I knew he'd have a role here that he could chew on with gusto. That he did, and he was mesmerising as far as I was concerned. Now - can I tell you why I absolutely hated this film without giving anything away? Maybe not if I just say that the changes that have been made, to satisfy the audience, have completely robbed this movie of it's power - and it's also subverted what certain characters represent, which goes a long way to completely erasing any meaning it might have had. This 2024 version of Speak No Evil has been given plastic surgery so it can look more like everything else, and not disturb anyone enough to leave a bad word on a test-screening questionnaire. This movie is much less upsetting, and way more pointless. It's cheap escapism that starts to say something and then changes it's mind and says nothing. Sad thing is, with some more changes it could have had things both ways - but I know that would have been more risky, and we have to consider the bottom line more than artistic integrity. I have to be vague, because the spoilers are massive - but I'm all for the Danish version, and think this '24 version will soon be forgotten. James McAvoy and Mackenzie Davis can hold their head up high though - way high. The movie's okay - if you're not like me and can't let go of the fact it's a butchered version of something else much greater.

3/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d1/Daniel%2C_film_poster.jpg
By unknown - www.moviegoods.com, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24060523

Daniel - (1983)

At it's core this was a really sad story that traces childhood trauma, and it was that which moved me more than the McCarthy era politics being reexamined and flaws in the American justice system probed. Full review here (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?p=2488204#post2488204), in my watchlist thread.

7/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/73/Justice_movieposter.jpg
By http://www.filmaffinity.com/en/movieimage.php?imageId=846343404, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7398243

...And Justice For All - (1979)

Very gritty movie this - with a lot going on adding substance to the main storyline featuring the judge up for rape and assault, and Kirkland's defense of this cruel and capricious man who deems those he sees as beneath him all deserving of the worst abuses the prison system can dish out. Best of all is the passion unleashed from the red hot Al Pacino - possibly the best in the business at the time. "You're out of order! You're out of order! The whole trial is out of order! They're out of order!" Full review here (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?p=2488666#post2488666), in my watchlist thread.

8/10

Fabulous

09-17-24, 06:35 AM

Where Is the Friend's House? (1987)

3.5

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/nUZuknTYxL7K0iwxjevf5F0Hrzi.jpg

chawhee

09-17-24, 09:02 AM

Se7en (1995)
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-T4iaAK2owlQ/UOaeXh6lG1I/AAAAAAAAAKg/MF-BNY9pOb4/s1600/se7en-movie-poster.jpg
4
I probably would have rated this higher if I had seen it 20 years ago, as it does show its age a little. The intelligence behind the story and script is pretty commendable here though.

I'll note that I've heard other people question whether Brad Pitt is a good actor, or just a good-looking actor. He didn't seem to carry himself well in this one, at least not standing next to Morgan Freeman.

TONGO

09-17-24, 12:11 PM

Speaking of Morgan Freeman, just saw a movie he did with Florence Pugh

A Good Person (2023)

4 out of 5 stars She should be an even bigger star going forward. I'm glad she was able to work with him.

Gideon58

09-17-24, 12:44 PM

Speaking of Morgan Freeman, just saw a movie he did with Florence Pugh

A Good Person (2023)

4 out of 5 stars She should be an even bigger star going forward. I'm glad she was able to work with him.

This movie was pretty good...a link to my review:

https://www.movieforums.com/reviews/2398447-a_good_person.html

Gideon58

09-17-24, 12:48 PM

https://media.senscritique.com/media/000019760707/0/funny_lady.jpg

6th Rewatch...This 1975 sequel to Funny Girl focuses on the years when Fanny Brice was a huge Ziegfeld star but the depression was having a disastrous effect on Broadway and led to her relationship with songwriter/showman Billy Rose (James Caan). The film features first rate production values and Streisand and Caan do generate some chemistry but the musical numbers feel rehashed from the first film. Never tire of that "Great Day" number and the 1975 Best Song nominee "How Lucky Can You Get?" 3.5

Gideon58

09-17-24, 12:52 PM

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71+Wysbs-6L._AC_UF894,1000_QL80_.jpg

2nd Rewatch...This sequel to Meet the Parents finds Greg (Ben Stiller) on road trip with future father-in-law Jack Burns (Robert De Niro) to meet Greg's very unconventional parents (Dustin Hoffman, Barbra Streisand). The plot here is pretty much a rehash of the first film, but, if the truth be told, the film is effortlessly stolen by Hoffman playing Bernie Focker. 3.5

Gideon58

09-17-24, 12:56 PM

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71IXp6RYwkL._UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg

1st Rewatch...This sequel to Austin Powers International Man of Mystery is actually funnier than the first film. The film begins with Austin (Mike Meyers) discovering that his girlfriend from the first film (Elizabeth Hurley) and then finds himself in a battle with Dr. Evil, who has decided the way to defeat Austin is by stealing his mojo. This movie is hilarious and includes the introduction of a new Meyers character, Fat Bastard, though most of the laughs come from Verne Troyer as Mini Me and Seth green as Scott Evil. The appearance of Scott and his dad on Jerry Springer had me on the floor. 3.5

Gideon58

09-17-24, 03:51 PM

https://www.dvdsreleasedates.com/posters/800/L/Longlegs-2024-movie-poster.jpg

3

Sedai

09-17-24, 05:32 PM

Come True
Burns, 2020

4

https://nofspodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Come-True-1-scaled.jpg

Another film recommended by Mr Minio, and another excellent recommendation, at that.

My wife and I had watched another film he recommended several months ago, The Empty Man, and we both loved it. Shortly after we saw that film, I told her about Come True, and that the same person had recommended the film, but she casually brushed it off after reading a short synopsis as something she wasn't really interested in. So it sort of fell off of our radar for a bit, even though every once in a while I would bring it up again, only to be rebuffed again. She had no solid reasoning other than "it doesn't look like something I would like."

My wife does this from time to time, with no logical reasoning, and she usually ends up liking whatever it is once she gets around to checking it out. Anyway, last night she is complaining there hasn't been a ton of good new horror films, so I just fire up the film and start it rolling. "We are watching Come True, or I am, and I hope you hang out to join me!"

Of course, she just absolutely loved this film. We both did! So now she is insisting I bug Mr Minio for a couple more horror recommendations.

Got a couple more for us, Mr Minio?

FilmBuff

09-17-24, 07:57 PM

https://d32qys9a6wm9no.cloudfront.net/images/movies/poster/b9/16561bd960a68286e7aceaf4628d4173_original.jpg?t=1695607472

The Critic
3.5

It is one of life's little ironies that The Critic wasn't really embraced by most of them.

Given the movie's cast, it's certainly possible to see why a lot of folks might have been expecting something with a little more horsepower under the engine.

The Critic is a slight but rather entertaining story about revenge gone wrong -- quite, quite wrong. Maybe the movie critics who've come out strongly against it simply couldn't stand a film that cast one of their colleagues in such a negative light?

The chief pleasure here is the wonderful cast of talented British actors: Ian McKellen, Gemma Arterton, Mark Strong, Lesley Manville and Romola Garai. It's also a movie with sparkly cinematography and some charming period detail.

Having said that, it's also the kind of movie that might have been perfectly at home going straight to streaming. I'm pretty lucky to have watched it at the cinema, but it certainly isn't going to be everyone's cup of tea for the price of admission.

If you watch it with somewhat tempered expectations, you might just dig it; and certainly McKellen fans shouldn't miss it.

Marco

09-17-24, 09:13 PM

The House on Sorority Row (1982)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/38/The_House_on_Sorority_Row_poster.jpg
Neat little horror, as you would expect, wrongdoing brings revenge! It moves at a swift pace though for effectively a claustrophobic film. Subjective I know but Kate McNeil is an absolute image!
3.5

Galactic Traveler

09-17-24, 10:46 PM

The Lost Weekend - 1945

4 out of 5

https://resizing.flixster.com/lz2LB79-l77i_Upho9sxyX_maNo=/fit-in/180x240/v2/https://resizing.flixster.com/-XZAfHZM39UwaGJIFWKAE8fS0ak=/v3/t/assets/p1105_p_v8_ak.jpg

Gideon58

09-17-24, 10:54 PM

North Dallas Forty (1979)

3

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/8m4dh4E4PzqnndK6Gv5LdvWGbLv.jpg

I liked this a lot more than you did

PHOENIX74

09-17-24, 11:54 PM

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/fd/Massacre_in_Rome_FilmPoster.jpeg
By The cover art can be obtained from Movieposterdb.com., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=33866884

Massacre in Rome - (1973)

Again we see the Germans murder with officiousness rather than rage in Massacre in Rome, compiling something of an inverse Schindler's List after an SS Police Regiment are attacked by partisans. Revenge killings take place while, quite strangely, the Nazis don't actually go looking for the perpetrators. In the meantime Pope Pius XII hears about the revenge killings before they take place, and does nothing to stop it (the makers of this film - producer Carlo Ponti and director George P. Cosmatos were successfully prosecuted in Italy for making those claims.) The transfer of the version I watched looked and sounded better than I thought it would, and watching Richard Burton play a Nazi was a hoot, because it felt to me a strange bit of casting. There are no end credits to this - just a list of the names and occupations of the 335 victims (many of them had the misfortune to be sitting in jail, which is where many of the needed victims were hurriedly drawn from.) Father Pietro Antonelli (Marcello Mastroianni) is the voice of moral sense, while SS-Obersturmbannführer Herbert Kappler (Burton) pivots from a philosophizing lover of the Italians and Italy who wants to finish his service with a clean "I committed no crimes" record to someone determined to carry out the order he's given, driven by a need to uphold his sense of duty. Not historically accurate, but a decent movie regardless. The film's score was composed by Ennio Morricone, which got my hopes up a little too high.

6/10

Fabulous

09-18-24, 03:04 AM

Taste of Cherry (1997)

3.5

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/oCAVHUIvkOAM4sTRvZ7LndzhFH.jpg

Mr Minio

09-18-24, 06:25 AM

Another film recommended by Mr Minio, and another excellent recommendation, at that. Wait, somebody is actually watching the films I recommend?

Anyway, last night she is complaining there hasn't been a ton of good new horror films, so I just fire up the film and start it rolling. "We are watching Come True, or I am, and I hope you hang out to join me!" Wow, great assertiveness! 👍

Of course, she just absolutely loved this film. We both did! So now she is insisting I bug Mr Minio for a couple more horror recommendations. Tssk, tssk. Give you an inch and you'll take a yard.

Got a couple more for us, Mr Minio? Not sure what you've already seen, but here are some more horror recs:
Repulsion (1965)
Mandy (2018)
Inland Empire (2006)
鬼婆 [Onibaba] (1964)
곡성 [The Wailing] (2016)
Bliss (2019)
La casa dalle finestre che ridono [The House With Laughing Windows] (1976)
Dellamorte Dellamore [Cemetery Man] (1994)
Demon Seed (1977)
The Devils (1971)
The Lighthouse (2019)
Spalovač mrtvol [The Cremator] (1969)
Tenebre [Tenebrae] (1982)
Un tranquillo posto di campagna [A Quiet Place in the Country] (1968)
Vampyr (1932)
The Witch: A New-England Folktale (2015)
バンパイアハンターD [Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust] (2000)
藪の中の黒猫 [Kuroneko] (1968)
기담 [Epitaph] (2007)
헨젤과 그레텔 [Hansel & Gretel] (2007)
Angustia [Anguish] (1987)
The Call of Cthulhu (2005)
La casa lobo [The Wolf House] (2018)
Il demone di Laplace [The Laplace's Demon] (2017)
回路 [Pulse] (2001)
Tras el cristal [In a Glass Cage] (1986)
L' ultimo treno della notte [Night Train Murders] (1975)
भूत [Bhoot] (2003)
Possession (1981)
Il profumo della signora in nero [The Perfume of the Lady in Black] (1974)
The Lair of the White Worm (1988)
La maschera del demonio [Black Sunday] (1960)
Ghostwatch (1992)
Hardware (1990)
House of Usher [The Fall of the House of Usher] (1960)
The Innocents (1961)
Kill List (2011)

Sedai

09-18-24, 09:55 AM

Thank you for taking the time to post these recs!

I've marked what I have seen so far in red...

Bliss looks cool; I will try to dig that one up next.

Not sure what you've already seen, but here are some more horror recs:
[B]Repulsion (1965)
Mandy (2018)
Inland Empire (2006)
鬼婆 [Onibaba] (1964)
곡성 [The Wailing] (2016)
Bliss (2019)
La casa dalle finestre che ridono [The House With Laughing Windows] (1976)
Dellamorte Dellamore [Cemetery Man] (1994)
Demon Seed (1977)
The Devils (1971)
The Lighthouse (2019)
Spalovač mrtvol [The Cremator] (1969)
Tenebre [Tenebrae] (1982)
Un tranquillo posto di campagna [A Quiet Place in the Country] (1968)
Vampyr (1932)
The Witch: A New-England Folktale (2015)
バンパイアハンターD [Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust] (2000)
藪の中の黒猫 [Kuroneko] (1968)
기담 [Epitaph] (2007)
헨젤과 그레텔 [Hansel & Gretel] (2007)
Angustia [Anguish] (1987)
The Call of Cthulhu (2005)
La casa lobo [The Wolf House] (2018)
Il demone di Laplace [The Laplace's Demon] (2017)
回路 [Pulse] (2001)
Tras el cristal [In a Glass Cage] (1986)
L' ultimo treno della notte [Night Train Murders] (1975)
भूत (2003)
Possession (1981)
Il profumo della signora in nero [The Perfume of the Lady in Black] (1974)
The Lair of the White Worm (1988)
La maschera del demonio [Black Sunday] (1960)
Ghostwatch (1992)
Hardware (1990)
House of Usher [The Fall of the House of Usher] (1960)
The Innocents (1961)
Kill List (2011)

Mr Minio

09-18-24, 10:02 AM

Thank you for taking the time to post these recs! Anytime, friend. 👍

I've marked what I have seen so far in red... You haven't seen Ghostwatch? It might be an essential Halloween viewing!

Bliss looks cool; I will try to dig that one up next. It's orgone-oozing but vulgar. You've been warned. :cool:

Sedai

09-18-24, 11:08 AM

Meanwhile:

Just a quick note that I am totally planning on cheating big time in the upcoming 31 horror in 31 days thread in the month of October. I know it is a paltry number of films to get into a whole month, but with a 5 year-old kid at the house, it is very difficult to find the time to get these types of films in. Last year, I found myself having to watch them in piece at lunch etc., which sort of ruins the entire experience, especially when horror is my wife's favorite genre and I am basically excluding her from the viewings that way. Anyway, I am going to include all the horror films we watch starting on Sept 16th like a big ol cheaty face! ;)

On with the show:

Immaculate
Mohan, 2024

2_5

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/immaculate-296386-copy.jpg?w=1296&h=730&crop=1

I had trouble rating this one. It is fairly well made and shot, and damned if I wasn't caught off guard by the tremendous acting skill displayed by Sidney Sweeney. I had no idea, really. But I kind of hated this film, especially the third act. Beneath it all, it's just another tired, tropey, I've seen it before and done better modern horror. Watch Rosemary's Baby instead.

FilmBuff

09-18-24, 11:12 AM

Is Sydney Sweeney in Rosemary's Baby? :p

Mr Minio

09-18-24, 11:15 AM

Cheating this way is fine. Usually people start Halloweeb marathons in October or watch horrors all November and then the moment they stop, they start Christmas time watching. I don't think those days matter that much unless you only want to watch one to three films of the kind on that special day and then wait until the next year which is very limiting but I can respect the continence if somebody can do that.

Takoma11

09-18-24, 01:16 PM

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fm.media-amazon.com%2Fimages%2FM%2FMV5BMjkyZDBlMDUtZmU3Mi00OWJmLWJiOTYtOTJiZTg5MjQxODcyXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTI3MD k3MzQ%40._V1_.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=8799ae125b87e2c9c51fcd934da4e579e6942573d9ceac388711e89ac07c833c&ipo=images

Lured, 1947

Sandra (Lucille Ball) is a disillusioned dancer who is alarmed when her good friend goes missing, suspected to be the latest victim of a serial killer luring women to their deaths with newspaper personal ads. The inspector on the case, Temple (Charles Coburn), realizes that Sandra would be a great resource to them and hires her. As Sandra responds to various personal ads, she finds herself in one precarious situation after another.

This is an involving, engaging thriller with a fantastic cast and very fun characters.

4

FULL REVIEW (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2489121#post2489121)

Allaby

09-18-24, 01:22 PM

Child Star (2024) Watched on Disney+ (in Canada). Directed by Demi Lovato and Nicola Marsh, this documentary explores the ups and downs of being a child star in a powerful,honest and insightful way. Features interviews with Drew Barrymore, Christina Ricci, Alyson Stoner, Raven-Symoné, Kenan Thompson, JoJo Siwa, and others. I really liked this. Very well directed and it was interesting to hear the perspectives of different former child stars. 4.5

Gideon58

09-18-24, 02:14 PM

https://littlebitsofgaming.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/everything-everywhere-all-at-once.jpg?w=1200

1st Rewatch...I found the 2022 Oscar winner for Best Picture just as much of a letdown as I did the first time and just don't understand what all the fuss was about. The Story, at its core, about the owner of a laundromat on the verge of losing her business who is offered a portal into alternate universes if she had chosen to take a different life path is a good one, but the story is so dressed up with so much cinematic pyrotechnics that the story gets lost, at least for this reviewer. As a textbook on film technique, this film is unprecedented, but I lose the story about an hour into it. The film won six other Oscars, including becoming the third film in Oscar history to win three of the four acting awards" Michelle Yeoh won best Actress (though I still think this award should have gone to Cate Blanchett for Tar), Best Supporting Actor for Que He Quon, and a long overdue Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Jamie Lee Curtis as an IRS agent named Deidre Beaubeidre, but on this second watch, I actually found myself on the verge of nodding off. 3.5

Gideon58

09-18-24, 02:17 PM

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BODhkZGE0NDQtZDc0Zi00YmQ4LWJiNmUtYTY1OGM1ODRmNGVkXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTMxODk2OTU@._V1_.jpg

2nd Rewatch...A luminous coming of age story that gets most of its strength from the Oscar nominated performances of Saoirse Ronan as the title character and Laurie Metcalf as her mother. This movie gets a little better with each re-watch. Ronan is an incredible talent. 4

Gideon58

09-18-24, 02:23 PM

https://ntvb.tmsimg.com/assets/p18173_v_h10_bf.jpg?w=960&h=540

2nd Rewatch...With a grand assist from Oscar winning makeup genius Rick Baker, Eddie Murphy scores a bullseye with this hilarious re-imagining of the Jerry Lewis comedy playing a grossly overweight college professor intent on getting the attention of pretty graduate student (Jada Pinkett Smith) by inventing a potion that will make him thin and desirable to her; unfortunately, the effects of the potion that turn Sherman Klump into Buddy Love are temporary, which complicates Sherman's life to no end. Murphy is nothing short of astonishing in this film as he not only plays Sherman and Buddy, but Sherman's mother, father, uncle, and grandmother. he also appears as Richard Simmons. His strongest work in the film though is the slightly pathetic Sherman, who you can't help but fall in love with. 3.5

Takoma11

09-18-24, 03:16 PM

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Focc-0-3011-116.1.nflxso.net%2Fdnm%2Fapi%2Fv6%2FE8vDc_W8CLv7-yMQu8KMEC7Rrr8%2FAAAABQmpnBd8_RNiA5zSxus48eH1u7gOslJCEecO4fv7hJKAGWdsEPDBujh8c4sgHvP1YDoaBWMMKROzpL5 23tbusoq3qD5i8EUKoN2S.jpg%3Fr%3Df91&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=682fb0b4a94286e5a26710a836ceddda87dabefcb545c11736ae259de9938165&ipo=images

Last Seen Alive, 2022

Will (Gerard Butler) is on the brink of a split from his wife, Lisa (Jaimie Alexander). When Lisa disappears at a stop at a gas station, Will must fight to convince the police that she’s been abducted, much less to help him in getting her back. While the officer assigned to the case, Paterson (Russell Hornsby) remains skeptical, Will goes on a one-man mission to rescue Lisa.

Silly and sluggish, this is weak action fare.

2

FULL REVIEW (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2489149#post2489149)

WHITBISSELL!

09-18-24, 04:49 PM

https://independentaustralia.net/_lib/slir/w800/i/article/img/article-16749-hero.jpg

The Quiet Girl - I was finally able to watch this winsome and somewhat reticent Irish movie from 2022. It's set in 1981 and nine year old Cait (Catherine Clinch) comes from a large, dysfunctional family with her ne'er-do-well father a drinker and philanderer and her mother overwhelmed and neglectful. With 4 children and another on the way the parents decide to send Cait to some distant relatives for the summer. She is the quiet girl of the title with a gentle disposition and, with no real place in the world she inhabits, has withdrawn into herself.

Her mother's cousin Eibhlín Kinsella (Carrie Crowley) and gruff husband Sean (Andrew Bennett) welcome her into their home. Director Colm Bairéad relates a story that has been told often enough. A lonely soul who blooms in new surroundings and under the careful ministrations of someone who sees them for what they truly are. It's his unadorned, modest take that makes it all seem fresh and immediate but also very cannily mirrors the character. Someone (and something) that is easy to overlook who holds a wealth of riches if you take the time to pay attention.

That ending though. It makes me wish that there could be a follow-up or an update. I've since perused several discussions that theorize on a hidden subtext of abuse. I can't even begin to entertain that possibility which would make it impossible to enjoy the movie if it were the case. I watched this with other people so I had to keep telling myself to man up. This is a beautiful and understated movie.

90/100

pahaK

09-18-24, 06:01 PM

Thank you for taking the time to post these recs!

I've marked what I have seen so far in red...

Bliss looks cool; I will try to dig that one up next.

Surprisingly Minio's list looked solid to me as well. As much as I like to mock his hipster elitism, out of the films I've seen from his list only two I wouldn't consider recommendation-worthy (Mandy and Cemetery Man).

From the ones you haven't seen, I'd say top-5 is something like this (in the order Minio listed them):

Bliss (2019)
La casa dalle finestre che ridono [The House With Laughing Windows] (1976)
The Devils (1971)
Tras el cristal [In a Glass Cage] (1986)
Il profumo della signora in nero [The Perfume of the Lady in Black] (1974)

As a bonus, I'd throw in the better film directed by Richard Stanley (Minio recommended Hardware by him), Dust Devil (1992).

FilmBuff

09-18-24, 06:09 PM

http://www.impawards.com/2024/posters/uglies_xlg.jpg

Uglies
2

For a movie that putatively is a criticism on the shallowness of superficial attractiveness, Uglies is a surprisingly shallow movie that pays lip service to an idea it can't commit to.

Mind you, the cast - particularly Joey King and Laverne Cox - are just fine, it's the ideas of this youth dystopian flick that really haven't been given enough thought.

There's some interesting concepts here, but they aren't fully realized, and ultimately it feels way too derivative of other, better movies about dystopian futures and societies obsessed with superficial beauty - and if you've seen any of those, you don't particularly need to watch this one.

Sedai

09-18-24, 07:09 PM

Surprisingly Minio's list looked solid to me as well. As much as I like to mock his hipster elitism, out of the films I've seen from his list only two I wouldn't consider recommendation-worthy (Mandy and Cemetery Man).

From the ones you haven't seen, I'd say top-5 is something like this (in the order Minio listed them):

Bliss (2019)
La casa dalle finestre che ridono [The House With Laughing Windows] (1976)
The Devils (1971)
Tras el cristal [In a Glass Cage] (1986)
Il profumo della signora in nero [The Perfume of the Lady in Black] (1974)

As a bonus, I'd throw in the better film directed by Richard Stanley (Minio recommended Hardware by him), Dust Devil (1992).

Noted and thank you! :)

Takoma11

09-18-24, 09:23 PM

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fm.media-amazon.com%2Fimages%2FM%2FMV5BMTNjOTQ1ZTAtMDE3MS00NGRjLWIwNzgtY2Y2ZDIwYzI3MGU2XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTQ0ND E5NTA%40._V1_.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=6344bb121e7335371849fa2f9d719b8a1bc488f726c866014d3d896d5bd5367b&ipo=images

The Silent Partner, 1978

Miles (Elliott Gould) is a teller in a bank in a mall who realizes that a man named Reikle (Christopher Plummer) is planning to rob the bank. In a daring move, Miles pockets a ton of money for himself while the authorities assume that Reikle made off with it. But when the sadistic Reikle realizes the deception, he comes after Miles who must find a way to stay one step ahead and keep his colleagues from learning the truth.

Suspenseful and centered on an ever-shifting game of cat-and-mouse, this is a compelling thriller.

4

FULL REVIEW (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2489246#post2489246)

skizzerflake

09-18-24, 11:44 PM

Gotta pull this out now and again....Gladiator. It's one of the better depictions of ancient Rome at it's peak, the reign of Marcus Aurelius, one of the more capable, decent and less demented of emperors. Poor me, I had 5 years of Latin in school and, now and again, I need to go back there to remind myself that I appreciate my century more than the reign of Marcus, as good as he was. Most of what happens in the movie is at least somewhat plausible, even including things like lions emerging from hidden trap doors. One thing the movie did not show that actually happened was flooding the arena so they could have mock naval battles.

The movie gets a lot right and Crowe's character Maximus is fairly believable. The opening battle scene is really vivid, as are the weapons that were in use. The main thing they got wrong is that Commodus was really a LOT worse than in the movie, being a brutal embarrassment to the empire. He was actually strangled in his bathtub by a wrestler named Narcissus. Nevertheless, it's one of my favorite Roman Empire movies, right up there with Ben Hur.

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5ieIbInFpg

PHOENIX74

09-19-24, 12:03 AM

Michelle Yeoh won best Actress (though I still think this award should have gone to Cate Blanchett for Tar)

That was so obviously Cate's Oscar, but I guess one great thing about the Academy Awards is how often they get it wrong, and how often we get to complain about them getting it wrong.

iluv2viddyfilms

09-19-24, 12:08 AM

Leave Her to Heaven (1945) - A - I liked everything but the ending.

PHOENIX74

09-19-24, 12:31 AM

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/ac/Wild_Rose_poster.jpg
By Studio and or Graphic Artist - Can be obtained from the film's distributor., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=60389220

Wild Rose - (2018)

Rose-Lynn Harlan (Jessie Buckley) is a character that will drive you mad, but hopefully most won't find her completely irredeemable at some point in Wild Rose. A mother twice over in her mid-teens, we catch up with her here as she's being released from prison after a one year stint (smuggling heroin), and immediately finding it hard to balance chasing her dream of becoming a Country music star, and forging a relationship with her two little ones. Her mother, Marion (the ever-dependable Julie Waters, who in her youth would have been a candidate to play Rose) thinks the music stuff is a pie-in-the-sky fantasy, and wants her daughter to stop neglecting the kids. When Rose's employer, Susannah (Sophie Okonedo), backs the talented young lady, it's without knowing that she's an ex-con or has children. In the meantime Rose parties, and causes disasters everywhere she goes due to her immature negligence, drinking and cavalier attitude. Jessie Buckley has to really charm the pants off of us, the audience, and mostly succeeds at that, even though there are many moments where we'll hate her for being a terrible mother (and while we're at that, where's the father?) If you like Country music (don't you dare call it Country & Western!) then there are plenty of musical moments that tip this ever so slightly into a possible "musical" category. Nice songs, all of them. Buckley is great, and was nominated for a BAFTA.

7/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/37/Deux_hommes_dans_la_ville.jpg
By May be found at the following website: http://www.movieposterdb.com/poster/17120f4b, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=37799198

Two Men in Town - (1973)

This '73 José Giovanni team-up of two all time greats - Jean Gabin & Alain Delon in their third film together - is a savage critique of the French justice system and capital punishment. In the end, the story completely took over and had me staring at the screen - agog. I think that's probably the best thing a film can do - give us a lot to admire visually and sound-wise, along with interesting performances, and then have the narrative completely captivate us once we're completely immersed into the world the movie has built for us. Full review here (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?p=2489056#post2489056), in my watchlist thread.

8/10

Fabulous

09-19-24, 03:56 AM

Riding in Cars with Boys (2001)

2.5

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/wXax3nRWlZDfRqgrmBIKfE2OnaJ.jpg

chawhee

09-19-24, 08:58 AM

He's Just Not That Into You (2009)
https://flixable.b-cdn.net/hbo-max/large/us/hes-just-not-that-into-you.jpg
5
I've always had a soft spot for this cheesy romance drama, and the cast is certainly formidable. Every relationship path here has pieces most can probably relate to.

Gideon58

09-19-24, 02:27 PM

That was so obviously Cate's Oscar, but I guess one great thing about the Academy Awards is how often they get it wrong, and how often we get to complain about them getting it wrong.

Glad someone agrees with me. I mean I understand Yeoh’s win and Blanchett already has two Oscars, but still…

Gideon58

09-19-24, 03:26 PM

Tugg

09-19-24, 03:31 PM

Trap (2024) 3
https://i0.wp.com/lostinmovies.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Trap-2024-Movie.jpg?resize=1038%2C576&ssl=1
Rebel Ridge (2024) 3.5
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS7COuBL3FUfrakD8IDWwlZsSslbNMaJWg6Dg&s
The Princess Bride (1987) 4
https://kslnewsradio.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/MV5BNzVmZjFjMmYtZWZhYS00MzdmLWI0OWQtZDNmMzNkNjE3OTU3XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNjQ2NDA2ODM@._V1_-620x370.jpg
Come True (2020) 3
https://www.thisisbarry.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/ComeTrue/sarah-and-her-mom.jpg

Torgo

09-19-24, 04:49 PM

Albert Pyun Roulette, Part 9

The Sword and the Sorcerer - 3

Plot: A mercenary with a three-bladed sword rediscovers his royal heritage when he is recruited to help a princess foil a brutal tyrant and a powerful sorcerer's plans to conquer the land.

Albert Pyun's debut feature is a reliably entertaining entry in one of the most reliably entertaining genres: sword and sorcery (well, obviously) fantasy. Movies like this one pass or fail on what could be called their central gimmick - see the awesome Glaive in Krull - and this one does the former with its sword that is not only three swords in one, but also fires its blades as if it were a Nerf toy for adults. A villain you love to hate is another necessity, which it also nails thanks to Richard Lynch's megalomaniacal King Cromwell, who earns even more cool/evil/what have you points for slightly resembling Rutger Hauer. It is also vital to have an underdog hero worth rooting for and a damsel in distress, which it has in Lee Horsley's mercenary Talon and Kathleen Beller's very charming Alana. The movie stumbles a bit here - more on that later - but salvages it with Richard Moll's gruesome and betrayed demon for hire Xusia. Pyun's skill at doing less with more also helps, especially when it comes to the sets - he makes southern California a worthy stand-in for fantasy medieval England - as does how well he adds quality comic relief at just the right times, mostly thanks to Talon's less than scrupulous cohorts. David Whitaker's rollicking score is also a banger.

As I have detailed, all the ingredients for a sword and sorcery movie are represented here, but the secret sauce is lacking, leaving us with a mostly satisfying yet unremarkable entry in this genre when compared to your Neverending Stories and Dragonslayers. Beyond combat, Horsely does not do much here even though he's technically the lead, and a lot of what he gets to do is either uninspiring or left me with bad vibes. I expect grit and grime in this genre, but it is not always in the right places here. I'll just say that if the strong women in the Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Witcher made you a fan of this genre, this may not become a new favorite. It still remains a solid debut and maintains my interest in the genre. It's just too bad Pyun did not return to it that often, especially since it teases a sequel.

Takoma11

09-19-24, 05:45 PM

Albert Pyun Roulette, Part 9

The Sword and the Sorcerer - 3

Richard Moll's gruesome and betrayed demon for hire Xusia.

"I hired a demon to help me steal the throne and then betrayed him and he's out for revenge" should have been 90% of this movie, not 18%. Like, maybe they could have cut out one of the dozen scenes where someone ends up in the dungeon/jail?

Torgo

09-19-24, 06:44 PM

"I hired a demon to help me steal the throne and then betrayed him and he's out for revenge" should have been 90% of this movie, not 18%. Like, maybe they could have cut out one of the dozen scenes where someone ends up in the dungeon/jail?LOL, there are a lot of jail scenes, aren't there? I laughed when we transition from the pirates/henchmen/whoever they are planning on storming the castle to them behind bars, but my average reaction to them was, "they're in jail again?"

One of Pyun's last movies was an unofficial sequel to Streets of Fire. In a perfect world, someone would direct The Sword and the Sorcerer 2: We Bought a Xusia.

Takoma11

09-19-24, 08:03 PM

LOL, there are a lot of jail scenes, aren't there? I laughed when we transition from the pirates/henchmen/whoever they are planning on storming the castle to them behind bars, but my average reaction to them was, "they're in jail again?"

Like, it's not a terrible running joke that most of the movie is all the male protagonists rotating in and out of the jail, but there was just so much talking about stuff that never happened.

One of Pyun's last movies was an unofficial sequel to Streets of Fire. In a perfect world, someone would direct The Sword and the Sorcerer 2: We Bought a Xusia.

And the animated spin-off, Xu-topia.

Takoma11

09-19-24, 09:39 PM

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fcriterion-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fcarousel-files%2FcletYih15lScznzQVOf4Oxa44LGwmtOV2MhQUoML.jpeg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=09d2c97e9c84db1e61624adb16307065853aa1ee0727a58812372ce5add1a0da&ipo=images

Blow Out, 1981

Jack (John Travolta) is a sound expert working on a slasher film who, out capturing sound samples one night, records audio of a car crash that kills a man. Jack is able to rescue a woman who was in the car, sex worker Sally (Nancy Allen), and the two are further thrown together when Jack realizes that his audio recording implies that the car crash was no accident. Coming up against a political conspiracy and the ruthless fixer (John Lithgow) employed to see it through, Jack and Sally find themselves in danger at every turn.

Intriguing in the way that it seems almost at war with itself, this is a compelling if problematic conspiracy thriller.

4

FULL REVIEW (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2489605#post2489605)

xSookieStackhouse

09-19-24, 10:25 PM

5 OMG I REALLY LOVED IT, LOVED THE SCENES AND THE CASTING IM HAPPY THE CAST FROM WANDAVISION IS BACK AND LOVED WHEN ITS CONNECTED TO WANDAVISION AND THE HOUSE OF M ESPCIALLY WHEN IM HUGE MAJOR FAN OF WANDA MAXIMOFF/SCARLET WITCH AND SOO HAPPY THEY DOING 9 EPISODES AHHH CANT WAIT!! AND LOVED KATHRYN HAHN SHES ONE OF MY TOP 5 FAVORITE ACTRTESSES AND LOVED AUBREY PLAZA SHES MY FAVORITE BADDIE AND HOPING AUBREY PLAZA REUNITED ELIZABETH OLSEN!!! AHHH I CANT WAIT FOR MORE EPISODES OF THIS SHOW <3. F***K THE HATERS!!
https://static1.colliderimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/agatha-all-along-2024-tv-show-poster.jpg

Fabulous

09-20-24, 03:33 AM

Jesus Christ Superstar (1973)

3.5

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/xQRh7hSPdtEE0aUmuY8EdifrXPK.jpg

PHOENIX74

09-20-24, 04:41 AM

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/11/Midway_movie_poster.jpg
Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5820588

Midway - (1976)

Up until the advent of CGI, it was much easier to film land battles than air or sea ones, and Midway had to be content with using actual footage of naval/aerial warfare in the Pacific theatre. I recently watched Overlord (1975), which did the same thing - mixing in real footage with that taken for the movie. Otherwise this film works best when confined to the Japanese admirals and brass (Toshiro Mifune, James Shigeta & Pat Morita) kind of acknowledging how damned risky their attack on Midway is, and then sweating their own decisions at probably the most crucial moment of the war as far as Japan was concerned. Risking and losing too much. Was it luck? Or was it the fact that the Americans were better at figuring out what the other side was up to? Charlton Heston, Henry Fonda, James Coburn, Glenn Ford, Hal Holbrook, Robert Mitchum, Cliff Robertson and Robert Wagner - it's stuffed with stars, but neither this nor the Roland Emmerich version in 2019 could make much of a cinematic gem from this crushing victory America had over the Japanese in 1942.

6/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2c/Texas-across-the-river-movie-poster-md.jpg
By May be found at the following website: https://www.cinematerial.com/movies/texas-across-the-river-i61080/p/aco0zyjr, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=65820720

Texas Across the River - (1966)

Dean Martin and Alain Delon in a film together? I had to see this. I thought it'd be fun at the very least, but it was a little too much of a "muck around" movie for my taste. Nobody takes anything seriously, and for some reason Delon is playing a Spanish guy instead of a French one? I don't know. Not much in this made much sense, with impromptu bull fights and Joey Bishop in brownface as a Native American - all of whom get pretty rough treatment inasmuch as they're made to look ridiculous. It's absolutely silly for the most part, with Delon's Don Andrea killing a wedding crasher (in self defense) which has him pursued by some Union cavalry out for vengeance and justice. Martin plays a cowboy who hooks up with him and spars with him when they're not getting along - Delon getting to kiss Martin and slap him numerous times, in a couple of the movie's best running gags. I like comedy, but this was too loose and not very palatable.

4/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d5/Hy%C3%A8nes92.jpg
Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25826184

Hyenas - (1992)

Based on Friedrich Dürrenmatt's play The Visit, about a wealthy, powerful woman's return to the town she grew up in, and the power her promises now have to spill blood. All-up, the coming together of context and original narrative here makes up something pretty special, and this is one of the best African films I've ever seen - it works as a film of gravity, vision and poetry. Full review here (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?p=2489670#post2489670), in my watchlist thread.

9/10

Daniel M

09-20-24, 05:00 AM

Bullitt (Peter Yates, 1968) 4

https://a.ltrbxd.com/resized/sm/upload/3y/oh/ej/ed/bullitt-1200-1200-675-675-crop-000000.jpg?v=ddd5f5538f

Very smart, mature and intelligent thriller. Nothing is overstated or spelled out to to the viewer unnecessarily. Dark, gritty, realistic, all while capturing San Francisco superbly. Also really liked Yates' The Friends of Eddie Coyle, which I watched the other week.

Siddon

09-20-24, 05:34 AM

https://dx35vtwkllhj9.cloudfront.net/lionsgateus/never-let-go/images/regions/us/onesheet.jpg

Never Let Go (2024)

Is the third Twilight Zone esque something's in the woods or is it horror film I've seen this year. It stars Hallie Berry as a mother of two young boys who are twins... As she lives in this strange cabin in the woods where for her family to survive they must stay tethered to the sacred house the whole time.

The film does a decent job building the mythology and the trailers do an excellent job hiding the main theme of the story...which I will not spoil. To be frank the film is a soft R when it needed to be a hard R like Anti-Christ to really hit the messages and themes home. Not to say it's a bad film..it's a pretty good one. The story is incredibly solid the third act is very good filled with twists and scenes that the pulp fan in me enjoyed.

Alexendre Aja is a fine filmmaker...the film isn't dark to the point where nothing can be seen which is a common issue with modern films. However the actual cinematography, sound design, and effects could have used a better touch. If this was a streaming movie I think people would enjoy it better but it's not really worth a trip to the theater.

rating_2_5

chawhee

09-20-24, 08:51 AM

I liked this movie but five stars?

Haha yeah...I should probably drop that down a bit. It is still just a simple movie.

Marco

09-20-24, 10:01 AM

Rebel Ridge (2024)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e5/Rebel_Ridge_film_poster.jpg
Entertaining drama with a man (Aaron Pierre) trying to post bail for his cousin in the small town holding him. There he comes upon a deeply corrupt local force willing to try anything in the book to put money in the coffers so that they don't get subsumed into the State Police. It's a neat story, well executed, by the director of Blue Ruin which was no surprise. If Aaron Pierre can stick to these movies with story he could be a big star. Good support from Don Johnson, Emory Cohen and James Cromwell.
3.5

matt72582

09-20-24, 11:12 AM

The Apple - 7/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/30/The_Apple.jpg

parkerbot

09-20-24, 11:44 AM

The Moon (2023), Korean with English subtitles - 6 out of 10.

Had been looking forward to it and was a little disappointed.

Everything looked okay but the dialogue seemed strange, even when an American character was speaking English.

Maybe that's how people react in South Korea but everyone seemed to be ill-suited to their job and liked to complain a lot.

My main problem was with the main character who was supposed to be a Navy Seal and he comes off as this total wimp who cracks under pressure right off the bat - Neil Armstrong he ain't.

Watch Apollo 18 if you want a good Moon movie with a touch of horror.

Probably a rent, not a buy.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhATcuE8Je3wRZLIkuIISMCEdo8awICWhhTIi9tXYKzs31gTv0Yt4Ly51ASJc_mxdLh42MvJ7iIle6OM_5WQq9jVgmPdpyB zJqs41uWb0l4qrsyw6CFH-ImLcMBXzdsnElImWWnFDsWmjwK6jpGcPrFb0BbjkwKXD_w0Hj6BU1kufrPmU2hCXvII8dtb4A/s561/Review%20Film%20Korea%20The%20Moon%20%282023%291.jpg

Marco

09-20-24, 12:20 PM

Trap (2024)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5e/Trap_2024_%28film_poster%29.jpg
I've heard some damning opinions on this here but decided to give it a go anyway. I'm not a fan of M. Night Shyamalan's work really. I thought the Visit was okay. Same with this really but this doesn't really know what it wants to be. It's not dark at all, as I suspect the intention was. It's watchable for Josh Hartnett and I was surprised to see Hayley Mills involved. Overall, a weak film in an ongoing downward trajectory for the director.
2

Takoma11

09-20-24, 12:22 PM

FilmBuff

09-20-24, 12:30 PM

Spoiler: it's really not.

Stirchley

09-20-24, 01:00 PM

Stirchley

09-20-24, 01:04 PM

101037

Good movie. Wouldn’t want to see it again. Wish there was more than a cameo of Jesse Plemons.

101038

Excellent movie. Caleb Landry Jones is amazing in this strange movie.

Citizen Rules

09-20-24, 01:21 PM

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fimage.tmdb.org%2Ft%2Fp%2Foriginal%2F2c1LoMQkwaB7giJBgslvXXCBm07.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=cf9700370aaeeeeadf0cce837af27bd0f5bc6c3ec62cc3452fc88c663aa5d4fe&ipo=imagesGigi (1958)
Dir. Vincent Minnelli

If Gigi had been a French language film directed by a renowned French director, it would probably be considered one of the great French comedies of all time. But it's not a French film, it's a Hollywood movie shot in Paris. Gigi won 9 Oscars and I think I know why...it feels like a French film in it's risque story that pushed the boundaries under the Production Code. Had this been a typical Hollywood musical it would've been sanitized and had golly-gee-whiz characters with hi-jinks galore. But Gigi isn't that type of film, it's very French being based on the novel by French author Collette. It's a story of a young woman being trained by her wealthy aunt to be a courtesan.

What didn't sit well with me and confused me too, was the perceived age of Gigi (Leslie Caron). When we meet Gigi she's dressed in what I took to be a young school girl's type clothing. She's described as not having a figure yet and isn't old enough to drink champagne. All of that seemed to be suggesting a girl of 12 or 13 years old, which I found uncomfortable and certainly not charming or funny. I did find the personality of Gigi to be charming enough. Maybe I'm wrong about her intended age? As later we see her dressed up in a fancy gown and she looks to be a young adult woman. So that put a damper on the film.

I didn't care for Louis Jordan, he was too dull for a romantic lead, a rather boring actor in my book. Maurice Chevalier he's fine in small doses, but like Jimmy Durante too much of his character becomes an annoyance. I really dislike his singing & hamming smile to the camera. Hermione Gingold on the other hand was my favorite, not surprising I usually like her.

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi.pinimg.com%2Foriginals%2Fc7%2F98%2Fe2%2Fc798e214f0ac2cde48ae2c02d940b3ab.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=439736cbb5b1aae7d307434a6bb871ad7380dd783cf0aadaaf7056f0151b8093&ipo=images

The plus side of Gigi is Vincent Minnelli's eye for art inspired sets, gosh the film looks beautiful! A big plus is filming on location in Paris with the cast and not just a second camera crew. We even see the inside of the famous Maxine's. The costumes are stunning.

If they had made it clear that Gigi wasn't a child but a young adult woman capable of making her own decisions...and if they replaced wooden Louis Jordan with a more charming actor and if they cut most of Maurice Chevalier scenes then I might have liked this more.
rating_3_5

Takoma11

09-20-24, 01:43 PM

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fimage.tmdb.org%2Ft%2Fp%2Fw780%2F8PjqpiO1eOmCxuoSaVa6c2LmBEP.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=08abfbeddbcf32a1002409b4191613573faed5760bd180dedc9ccdf76f0ea4f7&ipo=images

Targets, 1968

Byron Orlock (Boris Karloff) is an actor who made his name in the gothic horror boom of the 40s and 50s. Preparing for the debut of his latest, and last, horror film, Byron feels unsettled by the evolution of horror and the sense that he is being left behind. Meanwhile, clean-cut Bobby Thompson (Tim O’Kelly) wakes up and, for no apparent reason, embarks on a spree of violence that draws him closer and closer to the drive-in theater where Byron will premiere his new film.

This is a stunning directorial debut that shocks with scenarios and images that are hauntingly relevant nearly 50 years later.

Everything in this film, from the performances to the color scheme to the stunner of a climax, just absolutely clicks into place. If you have access to the Criterion Channel, I highly, HIGHLY recommend listening to Bogdanovich’s stellar commentary.

4.5

FULL REVIEW (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2489823#post2489823)

FilmBuff

09-20-24, 01:53 PM

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Prima Facie
2.5

As a huge Jodie Comer fan, I have to confess that Prima Facie was a bit of a letdown - though certainly not on account of her performance, which is magnificent.

The play was written by Australian-British playwright Suzie Miller, whose work I am not really familiar with.

However, without going into a lot of specifics which might constitute spoiler material, I'll just say that the play asks us to believe that the character of Tessa is both incredibly smart and super skilled at anything that involves lawyering, while at the same time capable of making incredibly poor decisions that she maybe could have known would lead to unwanted consequences.

This is a little bit like wanting to have the cake and eat it, too. I can believe one or the other, but the two aspects of her character simultaneously really stretches the suspension of disbelief into an area that is well beyond the Milky Way, to say the least.

There's another crucial misstep that comes late in the play, having to do with stage direction and the framing of the way in which it was filmed for cinema exhibition. It just completely destroys the immersive nature of everything that has come before, to the point that it just seems intended to remind you that this is just a stage performance and nothing more.

Having said that, Comer's performance really is amazing, and more than enough of a reason to watch this whenever you get a chance (it doesn't appear like this is streaming anywhere, and perhaps it never will).

FilmBuff

09-20-24, 02:01 PM

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Wolfs
3.5

The appeal of Wolfs is pretty simple, really: it's all about George Clooney and Brad Pitt's delightful display of star power and easygoing charisma.

That's all, really, but if you are already inclined to like them, then that's more than enough.

The premise of the movie is simple, like all buddy movies should be: they play fixers, who have to sort out a situation that is very compromising for a big-time politician, and they naturally make a big deal of how much they don't like each other, even though they really do have to work together on that thing.

Is that more than enough for a movie to be eminently watchable? With the cast that director Jon Watts has assembled here, it definitely is.

Try watching it on the big screen if you get a chance, you won't be sorry.

FilmBuff

09-20-24, 02:07 PM

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Transformers One
2

When it comes to Transformers One, there's a lot less here than meets the eye. Like, A LOT less.

I'll admit that the voice cast of the movie seems very appealing, which is the main reason why I even bothered with this in the first place.

Instead of an interesting (or original) narrative, the movie just made me wonder how many things we still don't know about the Transformers. Like, if they are machines, why do they even need to have a gender? They don't seem to reproduce sexually, since they are probably manufactured in an assembly line somewhere. Do they have lubricant instead of blood? Do they have any bodily excretions, like, you know, the occasional oil spill? How often are they supposed to visit the mechanic? Do they ever get a chassis transplant?

Alas, the movie does not offer any answers to those intriguing questions. Instead it's just a big, loud, bombastic mess with unappealing animation that doesn't really draw you into the story like the best animated movies do.

For Transformers fans, that will probably be more than enough. Everyone else should probably just stay clear.

Allaby

09-20-24, 07:27 PM

The Substance (2024) This was wild. Demi Moore is fantastic and Margaret Qualley is great too. It's sharply written, ferociously directed, and a fun ride. One of the best films of the year. 4.5

Nausicaä

09-20-24, 07:33 PM

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2.5

SF = Z

Viewed: TV

[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

Marco

09-20-24, 07:50 PM

Oh, nooooo! I was hopeful that this would be campy fun. I'll probably still check it out at some point, but the tepid-leaning-negative reviews are a real bummer.
The performance by Hartnett is quite campy but it's nowhere near the guilty pleasure of Dan Stevens in "The Guest" Takoma. That was a good film!

stillmellow

09-20-24, 07:58 PM

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Body Bags (1994)

Directed by John Carpenter and hosted by Wes Craven. It's a unique anthology horror movie that sadly ends on the weakest of the three entries.

A lot of surprising stars here, including Mark Hamill in the aforementioned weak entry, but he did what he could. They're just ripping off another well known movie, Body Parts. And even in their case, the premise has been used many times before.

The second story is kind of goofy, but the strength of the first, and the surprisingly funny Wes Craven host segments, elevates this a bit above average.

C+

Takoma11

09-20-24, 08:01 PM

The performance by Hartnett is quite campy but it's nowhere near the guilty pleasure of Dan Stevens in "The Guest" Takoma. That was a good film!

*sigh*

I feel like, while he's not the strongest actor, Hartnett really handled the pulp of Penny Dreadful with an enthusiasm that made me feel like he'd be perfect for a campy horror/thriller.

Ah, well.

Takoma11

09-20-24, 08:38 PM

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Night Games, 1966

Jan (Keve Hjelm, played as a child by Jorgen Lindstrom) is engaged to the lovely Mariana (Lena Brundlin), but he cannot shake the memories of his chaotic childhood spent with his mother, Irene (Ingrid Thulin). Blending the present and memories, especially once Jan and Mariana arrive at his childhood home, Jan relives the unhealthy, overly intimate relationship with his self-obsessed mother.

Amazing imagery, costuming, and camerawork are undercut by exploitative elements and a lack of overall direction.

3.5

FULL REVIEW (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2489995#post2489995)

Takoma11

09-20-24, 11:10 PM

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Our Father, the Devil, 2021

Marie (Babetida Sadjo) is an immigrant from Guinea who works as a cook in a nursing home. Marie is respected by her boss and beloved by her clients, and she’s even being wooed by sexy bartender Arnaud (Franck Saurel). But Marie’s world is turned inside out when she recognizes a man from her past, Father Patrick (Souleymane Sy Savane). A panicked Marie must decide how to handle this sudden threat, while at the same time guarding her own memories of her time in Guinea.

I honestly had no complaints about this film. I think it has a final scene that is bold and thought-provoking and exceptional. Highly recommended.

4.5

FULL REVIEW (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2490061#post2490061)

FilmBuff

09-21-24, 12:34 AM

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The Substance
2.5

I think Coralie Fargeat is a very talented filmmaker and I will definitely never miss anything she directs.
When it comes to The Substance, however, I think she should have learned the lesson that the movie's protagonist clearly failed to and realized that sometimes, less is more.
There's some truly demented ideas and very eye-catching visual style here that I definitely wish we could get more of in modern-day horror movies.
But horror movies have traditionally worked best when they kept it tight, with a relatively short running time... think of Halloween, Psycho, or Night of the Living Dead
Fargeat's latest film runs almost 2-1/2 hours, and there are times when you almost wish she'd found a way to make this work with a much tighter running time - the movie definitely has a lot of interesting ideas, but not so many that it justifies that crazy running time.
Having said that, there's a lot to like here, including some really fearless performances by Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley; the score by Raffertie and Stanislas Reydellet's production design are also top-notch.
Lastly, without giving away too much, don't be surprised if the movie scores an Oscar nomination for best makeup. It would actually be a very worthy winner, if the Academy decides to give it that recognition.

iluv2viddyfilms

09-21-24, 12:52 AM

Cairo Station (1958) - A-

PHOENIX74

09-21-24, 04:15 AM

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a2/Poster_of_the_movie_Raid_on_Rommel.jpg
By Derived from a digital capture (photo/scan) of the Film Poster (creator of this digital version is irrelevant as the copyright in all equivalent images is still held by the same party). Copyright held by the film company or the artist. Claimed as fair use regardless., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28678504

Raid on Rommel - (1971)

This really wants to be The Guns of Navarone but ends up a very middling commando movie with Richard Burton the only big name up on the screen. Most of the time it's quite silly, and pretty far-fetched and I only discovered when I went online that a lot of the action scenes have been lifted from another film entirely - Tobruk (1967). I should imagine it's stocks have sunk even lower in today's age, with the one female character drugged while all the men joke about taking advantage of her sexually. Disappointing.

5/10

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By The poster art can or could be obtained from the distributor., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26754956

The Driver - (1978)

Reminded me a lot of Walter Hill's The Getaway. I do wonder though, if this would have been a lot better to see on the big screen, because it does seem like that kind of movie. Full review here (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?p=2490138#post2490138), in my watchlist thread.

7/10