Rate The Last Movie You Saw

[Wooley]

Broken Arrow (1996)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/91/Broken-Arrow-poster.jpg
This film by hit-and-miss action helmer John Woo is mildly entertaining but ultimately forgettable. Woo did a much better job the following year with Face/Off.
rating_2


This is one of the first movies if not the first, where I was old enough to realize that A-list Action movies could absolutely suck, bomb, shit the bed, fail in every way, and make me absolutely want to leave the theater before it even ended. Which we discussed in the theater.
I had already become a little bit discerning, I guess, some may be surprised to hear that I thought Predator was brutally hokey when it came out even though it was somewhat amusing.
But I had never seen a truly bad A-list actioner until Broken Arrow.

[Torgo]

The most exciting thing about Broken Arrow is watching Ebert convince Siskel to change his rating from a thumbs up to a thumbs down. I think that's the only time that ever happened.

https://youtu.be/pumI6S3vPII?si=999ky98k-OdgfgQA

[Thief]

CONCLAVE
(2024, Berger)

https://i.imgur.com/VtPLec8.jpeg


"Our faith is a living thing precisely because it walks hand-in-hand with doubt. If there was only certainty and no doubt, there would be no mystery. And therefore no need for faith."



That is probably the key point with which Cardinal Thomas Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) addresses his fellow cardinals as he kickstarts the titular conclave to elect the next pope. And doubt is something that Lawrence is certainly plagued with; from self-doubts about his own faith, to major doubts about the motives and agendas of the cardinals present and those that are frontrunners to become "the most famous man in the world".

Contrasting with the nature of the event and what is expected of the people involved, Conclave is plagued with secret scandals, gossip, backdoor machinations, backstabbings, selfish ambitions, and even an opportune explosion. All of those reinforce Lawrence's doubts in himself and the process. To add to that, a previously unknown archbishop arrives out of nowhere claiming the backing of the deceased pope.

Grade: 4


Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2534912#post2534912)

[markdc]

@Wooley
“But I had never seen a truly bad A-list actioner until Broken Arrow.”

@Torgo
“The most exciting thing about Broken Arrow is watching Ebert convince Siskel to change his rating from a thumbs up to a thumbs down. I think that's the only time that ever happened.”

Did you like any of Woo’s other action movies? I thought The Killer (the original, haven’t seen the remake) and Face/Off were good. Hard Target isn’t memorable, but I enjoyed it because I love “The Most Dangerous Game.” Never saw Mission: Impossible 2. None of these films is as good as Speed, Die Hard, First Blood, or T2.

Btw, I miss Siskel and Ebert. I’ve liked very few critics as much as I liked them.

Mark

[Torgo]

@Torgo
“The most exciting thing about Broken Arrow is watching Ebert convince Siskel to change his rating from a thumbs up to a thumbs down. I think that's the only time that ever happened.”

Did you like any of Woo’s other action movies? I thought The Killer (the original, haven’t seen the remake) and Face/Off were good. Hard Target isn’t memorable, but I enjoyed it because I love “The Most Dangerous Game.” Never saw Mission: Impossible 2. None of these films is as good as Speed, Die Hard, First Blood, or T2.

Btw, I miss Siskel and Ebert. I’ve liked very few critics as much as I liked them.

Mark

Yes, very much so. I love Hard Boiled, the original The Killer and his two A Better Tomorrow movies. Once a Thief is silly, but still fun. Face/Off is the only American movie of his I really like, sadly.

Whether or not you're also obsessed with Hong Kong action movies, you might enjoy this review thread (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?&t=65747) I put together.

[ueno_station54]

https://a.ltrbxd.com/resized/film-poster/4/3/4/6/2/6/434626-absolute-vow-0-2000-0-3000-crop.jpg?v=623bbfea99
this is something but also kind of nothing. looks like everyone had fun tho.
3

[markdc]

@Torgo
“Whether or not you're also obsessed with Hong Kong action movies, you might enjoy this review thread I put together.”

Thanks, I’ll check it out. Admittedly, I’m normally not familiar with action movies made outside the U.S. The Killer is probably the only HK action movie I’ve ever seen, and I saw it once 26 years ago and only because a classmate practically pushed it on me. He recommended it and even loaned me the movie without me asking him to. Still, I enjoyed it.

Mark

[LeBoyWondeur]

The Defiant Ones (1958)

105131

The best thing about streaming is that you can impulsively click on a title and start watching without knowing what to expect, and this has made The Defiant Ones a wonderful experience.
It doesn't take long to figure out what the main premise is going to be, and for a moment I feared it would be one of those annoyingly forced-funny "buddy" stories.
But this film isn't from the 1980s or 1990s, it's from 1958 and back then they had a much better sense of humour.
In some ways this film reminds me of the no-nonsense attitude of Billy Wilder's Ace In The Hole - critical and cynical, with shades of absurd humour and unexpected moments of poignant drama.
It's precisely that kind of non-genre that makes these old films incredibly lively and entertaining.

The Defiant Ones features the issue of racism, and how could it not, but it really hits home when the story enters a moment of ease and the only significant female character assumes that she wouldn't have to feed the black man.
It's the ongoing action-reaction that allows the characters to learn a little bit more of themselves but not necessarily take advantage of it.

There are several laugh-out-loud funny moments in the simplicity of the chained characters tumbling down or beating each other up, in other moments it looks frustratingly tense.
The chase patrol delivers the quirkiness with the red tape decision making and the particular concern for the dogs.
Off the top of my head I can't think of any other movies that end with an exclamation.

I haven't seen many films starring Tony Curtis or Sidney Poitier therefore it also felt like killing two birds with one stone. Incidentally, for many years I thought Tony Curtis was a British actor but maybe I confused the name with Tony "The Way To Amarillo" Christie.

5

[Fabulous]

Con Air (1997)

3.5

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/wHR1QdeuWvZmLYr4tmaxfwUQ0n0.jpg

[Gideon58]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/45/Speed_movie_poster.jpg



5th Rewatch...Instant action classic about a cop who steps up when a madman plants a bomb on a bus that will detonate if the bus goes below 50 MPH. This film is still as exciting as it was the first time I watched it. Keanu Reeves created a brand new career for himself as an action hero with his detective Jack and moviegoers were introduced to Sandra Bullock as the innocent passenger who ends up behind the wheel of the bus, not to mention the late Dennis Hopper playing one of his greatest psychopath character, the demented ex-cop Howard Payne. 4

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMmQ3Mzk1NmUtOGMzYy00NTUwLTlkNGYtYTQ1ZjljNDI5YmEzXkEyXkFqcGc@._V1_.jpg


1st Rewatch...A rather meh MGM musical about a bathing suit designer (Esther Williams) who travels to South America for business with her sister (Betty Garrett). Sis is determined to marry a famous polo player named Jose O'Roarke, but meets a masseuse named Jack Spratt (Red Skelton) who she mistakes for O'Roarke. Meanwhile, Williams meets the real O'Roarke (Ricardo Montalban) and pretend to be interested in him to keep him away from her sister. The plot is mundane and Esther is dry docked for most of the movie though she does generate chemistry with Montalban. The film won the Oscar for Best Song for "Baby It's Cold Outside", which is the best thing about the film. There's also a whole lot of running time wasted on Xavier Cugat and his orchestra but hardcore Esther fans might enjoy it more than I did. 3

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BZjE0ZjgzMzYtMTAxYi00NGMzLThmZDktNzFlMzA2MWRmYWQ0XkEyXkFqcGc@._V1_FMjpg_UX1000_.jpg

1st rewatch...This exquisitely mounted romance epic ranks up there with great movie love stories like Gone with the Wind and The Way We Were in this story of young lovers (Ryan Gosling, Rachel McAdams) brought together and torn apart by one circumstance after another. The chemistry between Gosling and McAdams is off the chain and there's solid support from Sam Shepherd, James Marsden, James Garner, Gena Rowlands, and especially Joan Allen. 4

[Stirchley]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BZjE0ZjgzMzYtMTAxYi00NGMzLThmZDktNzFlMzA2MWRmYWQ0XkEyXkFqcGc@._V1_FMjpg_UX1000_.jpg

1st rewatch...This exquisitely mounted romance epic ranks up there with great movie love stories like Gone with the Wind and The Way We Were in this story of young lovers (Ryan Gosling, Rachel McAdams) brought together and torn apart by one circumstance after another. The chemistry between Gosling and McAdams is off the chain and there's solid support from Sam Shepherd, James Marsden, James Garner, Gena Rowlands, and especially Joan Allen. 4

Put this in my queue. Never seen it.

[shlomi]

IN A VIOLENT NATURE [2024]

honestly such an amazing and fresh take on the slasher genre, which generally tend to be very flat.

10/10

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BOTM5ODBlOTAtYjcwZi00YzkzLWIzODEtMTM2MTZlNDFmMWU2XkEyXkFqcGc@._V1_.jpg



4

[Wooley]

@Wooley
“But I had never seen a truly bad A-list actioner until Broken Arrow.”

@Torgo
“The most exciting thing about Broken Arrow is watching Ebert convince Siskel to change his rating from a thumbs up to a thumbs down. I think that's the only time that ever happened.”

Did you like any of Woo’s other action movies? I thought The Killer (the original, haven’t seen the remake) and Face/Off were good. Hard Target isn’t memorable, but I enjoyed it because I love “The Most Dangerous Game.” Never saw Mission: Impossible 2. None of these films is as good as Speed, Die Hard, First Blood, or T2.

Btw, I miss Siskel and Ebert. I’ve liked very few critics as much as I liked them.

Mark



I liked The Killer. I thought Face/Off was absolutely ridiculous but I couldn't call it bad. I rolled my eyes a lot but I expect that was intentional. But I thought Broken Arrow was just atrocious.

[Wooley]

The Defiant Ones (1958)

105131

The best thing about streaming is that you can impulsively click on a title and start watching without knowing what to expect, and this has made The Defiant Ones a wonderful experience.
It doesn't take long to figure out what the main premise is going to be, and for a moment I feared it would be one of those annoyingly forced-funny "buddy" stories.
But this film isn't from the 1980s or 1990s, it's from 1958 and back then they had a much better sense of humour.
In some ways this film reminds me of the no-nonsense attitude of Billy Wilder's Ace In The Hole - critical and cynical, with shades of absurd humour and unexpected moments of poignant drama.
It's precisely that kind of non-genre that makes these old films incredibly lively and entertaining.

The Defiant Ones features the issue of racism, and how could it not, but it really hits home when the story enters a moment of ease and the only significant female character assumes that she wouldn't have to feed the black man.
It's the ongoing action-reaction that allows the characters to learn a little bit more of themselves but not necessarily take advantage of it.

There are several laugh-out-loud funny moments in the simplicity of the chained characters tumbling down or beating each other up, in other moments it looks frustratingly tense.
The chase patrol delivers the quirkiness with the red tape decision making and the particular concern for the dogs.
Off the top of my head I can't think of any other movies that end with an exclamation.

I haven't seen many films starring Tony Curtis or Sidney Poitier therefore it also felt like killing two birds with one stone. Incidentally, for many years I thought Tony Curtis was a British actor but maybe I confused the name with Tony "The Way To Amarillo" Christie.

5

I've heard nothing but great things about this one, have not as yet had the opportunity to see it.

[Gideon58]

The Defiant Ones is great...I waffle as to whether this or The Boston Strangler is Curtis' best performance.

[BeeHooKoo]

The Apprentice (2024)
https://www.filmihulluleffakauppa.com/38974-large_default/the-apprentice-2024-blu-ray.jpg

My expectations for the film weren't high, but the film ultimately turned out to be ok.

3

[Gideon58]

CONCLAVE
(2024, Berger)

https://i.imgur.com/VtPLec8.jpeg




That is probably the key point with which Cardinal Thomas Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) addresses his fellow cardinals as he kickstarts the titular conclave to elect the next pope. And doubt is something that Lawrence is certainly plagued with; from self-doubts about his own faith, to major doubts about the motives and agendas of the cardinals present and those that are frontrunners to become "the most famous man in the world".

Contrasting with the nature of the event and what is expected of the people involved, Conclave is plagued with secret scandals, gossip, backdoor machinations, backstabbings, selfish ambitions, and even an opportune explosion. All of those reinforce Lawrence's doubts in himself and the process. To add to that, a previously unknown archbishop arrives out of nowhere claiming the backing of the deceased pope.

Grade: 4


Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2534912#post2534912)

This movie was excellent...a link to my review:


https://www.movieforums.com/reviews/2530979-conclave.html

[exiler96]

The Driller Killer (1979) - The first movie that Ferrara made (that isn't a full-blown porno)... I remember him saying in that Conan interview that Texas Chainsaw was the one that made him want to become a filmmaker and for some reason was expecting to see something half that cool, but of course this is too inconsistent in it's "fun" factor and too thoughtless in it's killings and and too random in it's happenings to be an essential viewing; even though it features the mad man himself as the lead... you can feel it's made with guts, but it just isn't interesting to follow - and it's no longer than 90 minutes....
4.5/10

https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/images/newsite/drillkill.jpg

[Fabulous]

Somewhere in Queens (2022)

3.5

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/bIfaNBE5VQmkuhn3Tbox65miAJz.jpg

[LeBoyWondeur]

https://a.ltrbxd.com/resized/film-poster/4/3/4/6/2/6/434626-absolute-vow-0-2000-0-3000-crop.jpg?v=623bbfea99
this is something but also kind of nothing. looks like everyone had fun tho.
3
I'm always fascinated by your choice of films. Where do you find 'em and how did you get into this type of "alternative" cinema in the first place?

[ueno_station54]

I'm always fascinated by your choice of films. Where do you find 'em and how did you get into this type of "alternative" cinema in the first place?
i watched this particular film because i'm slowly making my way through all this guy's movies but generally i find stuff through letterboxd lists and following other weirdos there. i think i got into watching trash in high school when someone gave me burnt copies of Ichi the Killer, The Toxic Avenger and Riki-Oh and my brain has only deteriorated since.

[chawhee]

Rebel Ridge (2024)
https://thatgrapejuice.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/netflix-thatgrapejuice-rebel-ridge-trailer-aaron-pierre-2024.png
4
Most of the reviews I've seen for this movie on here have been positive if I recall correctly, and my opinion is no different. The action gets a bit over the top towards the end, but the plot and acting are outstanding. Some states are making progress on civil asset forfeiture laws, but damn if this isn't such an obviously corrupt part of our society.

[Allaby]

Teacher's Pet (2025) This is above average for a Tubi movie. It's a little trashy, in a fun way that worked well for me. The cast is likeable, good looking, and do a decent job in their roles. I enjoyed the story. 3.5

[markdc]

Random Hearts (1999)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4b/RandomHeartsfilm.jpg
This 1999 film by Sydney Pollack is dull and mediocre. However, I love Harrison Ford and Kristin Scott Thomas and enjoyed seeing them onscreen, even though the movie around them sucked. Pollack was a talented filmmaker, and I liked most of the movies that I’ve seen of his, but none of them were what you’d call exciting. Even The Firm, which was supposedly a thriller, was slow.
For twenty years (1973-1993), Harrison Ford had an incredible run. He starred in some of the greatest blockbuster movies to ever come out of Hollywood, from American Graffiti to Star Wars and Indiana Jones to The Fugitive. He also played in more intellectual artistic films like The Conversation, Apocalypse Now, and Blade Runner. But after the Fugitive, the films he chose to star in represented a steep downward slide in terms in of quality, with the notable exception of Blade Runner 2049. Random Hearts is indicative of this trend. Definitely don’t recommend unless you’re having trouble getting to sleep.
rating_2

Mark

[exiler96]

Fear City (1984) - My Ferrara exploration continues with this cake of entertainment which he baked after Ms. 45 if I'm not mistaken. They must've seen how he can pull off a revenge crime story and had given this to him... Instead of his usual obsessions (such as Catholic guilt, redemption and otherwordly imagery) he's working with detective-noir genre tropes here; you could argue - outside of the apetite for strippers perhaps - it could've been directed by anybody... some nice touches here (as in how it communicates the protagonist's background information through images - magazine pics, poster on the wall) but it's not one of his more "auteur" outputs.

Dependable partner, "Carmine" behind the table, authority figure who gives our hero a tough time, bombshell with a heart of gold, senseless killer (who knows martial arts!) and a man with a bad past at the center; they're all here... not plotted in a good pace (a 90-mins movie like this should've felt shorter) but overall it's entertaining... if you mute your sensitivities for awhile (like the lesbian lover should go for the baby to come to her senses right?).

My favourite sequence should be the red herring guy who Jack Scalia's character beats up in the kitchen with the help of a smart blonde hottie and the owner (who's pissed when he finds out he just wasted a costumer, lol)...

The cinematography is moody and Tom Berenger fares well as the badass lead, to the point that I found myself caring for that last fight (which didn't need to take place really if he had brought a damn gun but where's the fun in that right?)....

7/10


https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTc0NTIyNTY2OF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTYwMDkzMzA5._V1_.jpg

[Allaby]

I'm Still Here (2024) I went and saw this today at a small arthouse theatre in my city that I just found about this year. This is a beautiful film, well written and with great performances from a wonderful cast. I'm predicting this to win best international feature at the Oscars. It would be a shame if this film lost to the inferior Emilia Perez. If you get an opportunity to watch this at the cinema, definitely go see it. 4.5

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/714jbXv7ZFL._AC_UF894,1000_QL80_.jpg


Umpteenth Rewatch...This 1984 musical drama about a Chicago high school student who moves to a tiny Texas hamlet where dancing is forbidden by law and his efforts to change that law, complicated by the fire and brimstone preacher and his semi-wild daughter.This film was a smash upon its release, thanks primarily to a kick ass song score and a sex on legs performance by Kevin Bacon that made him an official movie star. John Lithgow is excellent as the preacher, but Bacon and the music are the stars here. Since its release, the film has spawned a Broadway musical and a remake. 4

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BZjZiODE3ZTUtYTA0Yi00YjVmLTlhYTEtMzc3MDU1YmZjMWYxXkEyXkFqcGc@._V1_.jpg

Umpteenth Rrewatch...I don't know what it is that still draws me to this movie. Ben Stiller directed this almost macabre black comedy about a recently dumped executive (Matthew Broderick) who finds his life turned upside down by a cable imstaller (Jim Carrey) who completely installs himself into Broderick's life, complicating his relationship with the girlfriend (Leslie Mann) he's trying to reconcile with. Jim Carrey was paid an unprecedented at the time $20 million for his role here and his performance is as dark as the story, but his performance does make the film worth checking out. Broderick was a perfect straight man and actually keeps a straight face during all of Carrey's antics. Stiller's direction is excellent and there are things that remain funny, like the phone messages, Carrey's karoake tribute to Jefferson Airplane, and the basketball game, but the mideveil times scene goes on way too long as does the nightmare where Carrey is trying to break into Broderick's apartment and the over the top finale. 3

[LeBoyWondeur]

The Ballad Of Tam Lin (1970)

105179

This was in my films-to-watch list but I have no idea why. Maybe I had discovered it in a list of forgotten cult classics or whatever.
Apparently this was was marketed as a folk-horror film based on a traditional Scottish poem but apart from some mild violence and drug-induced hallucinations there isn't any horror or supernatural stuff in it.
I really enjoyed the first half, it's got that feel of seductiveness and hedonism that often looks so natural in early seventies European films.
However, once it becomes a story with a "physical" plot - and continues that plot into the underwhelming finale - it only shows that this plot isn't substantial enough to warrant a feature length film.

Overall, it's nicely shot and Ava Gardner proves once again what an incredible screen presence she has.
Ian McShane and Stephanie Beacham make the best of their roles but such was the attitude of British actors: a bad film is no excuse for a bad performance.
Cyril Cusack is very good in his supporting role of the vicar and Joanna Lumley gets to speak a few lines as one of Ava Gardner's groupies.
Speaking of which, none of these young(ish) characters need a lot of persuasion - let alone witchcraft - to live the good and lazy life in the older woman's castle. It never feels as if there's anything at stake here.

It's a weird film but not weird enough to call it a cult classic.
1.5

[exiler96]

China Girl (1987) - Ferrara's West Side Story. Of course it's not *that* good, but it's worth a watch, if only because how universal the themes that this story speaks of are.

It makes me smile to read this is his favourite of the things he's made (IMDB trivia). Maybe because it's so humane and emotional in it's central romance and subsequent tragedy, maybe because he loathes his own dirty American self so much he likes it when he looks elsewhere, into another culture, and comes out of it depicting it this balanced. Um....

What surprised me was how I was rooting for these two lovebirds; what I didn't like was how. so. much. time was devoted to characters other than them; who brought the typical mob beefs to the movie...they added to the complexities of this universe I guess (not only it's Asians v Italians but both gangs have fights among their own members which result in more bloodshed and miseries; a reflection of our world really, no matter in what point in time you're witnessing a tale such as this). Nice visuals from start to finish too...

Why only 6/10 then? eh, maybe because it was my second flick of the day. I tend to like the movie less (no matter how good it actually is) when I'm watching it after another one in the span of an hour, so I'm not like some of yous... I make sense :p

https://www.retro-film.de/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Krieg-in-Chinatown-Stream-Jetzt-Film-online-anschauen-832222533.jpg

[ueno_station54]

https://a.ltrbxd.com/resized/sm/upload/g1/7l/2j/qk/tSRdvZY1waXrTeMqeLBmq9IRs08-0-2000-0-3000-crop.jpg?v=938633fc19
watched this with my wife at the theatre for valentine's day and i loved it (she didn't but it was still a wonderful date)
4

[Siddon]

https://bloody-disgusting.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/monkey-king-scaled.jpg

The Monkey (2025)

For about 10 years Stephen King adaptations were amazing. They were well-done classics adapting his work changing quite a bit but still managing to fit in his style. And then things started slowing down, and good work from King came out a bit far and few between. Every three years or so something really good would come out but it was mixed with a bunch of really bad stuff. The last work of King's that merited attention and affection from me is The Green Mile which came out 25 years ago. King's had some good work since then...It, The Mist, Mercedes Man. The Monkey is the best Stephen King work in 25 years.

Theo James an actor I never gave a second thought to plays twin roles of Billy and Hal. Billy's life is terrible, it's out of a Tim Burton/Coen Brothers script where this movie star looking guy is just surrounded by stupidity and cruelty. When he was a boy he found a toy monkey that was his fathers, any time you turn the key and the monkey plays it's drum somebody dies. Billy and his brother get rid of the monkey and 25 years later the Monkey returns and the deaths start piling up.

Oz Perkins shoots this film like it's a horror film but plays it like a comedy. It is so graphically violent but it's also mixed with deadpan hilarity. Often times horror/comedies are either good comedies or good horror films but this one is both. This will make my top ten list at the end of the year.

rating_5

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/db/Goodbye_again_1961.jpg
By United Artists - IMDb, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=71329161

Goodbye Again - (1961)

This was an interesting second-hand DVD purchase from MGM's World Films subsidiary distribution - right to the crux of why I like blind-buying DVDs in the first place. A combined French/American production, it's set in Paris and features Ingrid Bergman as Paula Tessier, slavishly devoted to her partner Roger (Yves Montand), who shamelessly beds much younger women and often leaves Paula in the lurch - experiencing one lonely night after another. Through her work as an interior decorator she meets the son of a client, Philip Van der Besh (Anthony Perkins) - 25-years-old, eccentric, energetic and child-like, Philip almost immediately falls in love with Paula and persists in wooing her no matter how hard she tries to keep him in his place. In Philip she has an attractive young man who truly loves her and would be devoted to her - but there's something a little unstable and mentally fragile about him. The longer he hangs around, the worse Paula's relationship with Roger gets though, as it makes her realise just how far short Roger falls when it comes to fulfilling her and being there for her. It's a love triangle that makes room for a surprisingly extensive tour of Paris via automobile, and one that really features three flawed characters of a type you rarely see in movies. Director Anatole Litvak, who was getting towards the end of his career, would go on to work with Perkins again in Five Miles to Midnight. It's far more than a May-December romance movie, and a really pleasant surprise to come across in my collection.

8/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9e/Unstoppable_Poster.jpg
By The poster art can or could be obtained from IMP Awards., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28928315

Unstoppable - (2010)

Denzel Washington is the real unstoppable force in contemporary film, and all you have to do is plant him in a train engineer's seat, pilot's seat, or counsel's seat to provide an aura of invincibility, wisdom and strength - he anchors a really well-crafted action/disaster film here, with the more-than-able Tony Scott driving in his final feature and delivering what has become something of an enduring, measured, fast-paced classic flick. It's such an easy watch, and with Chris Pine holding his own (and my childhood love of trains) I'm onboard. We get a potential disaster out on the tracks and in the workplace with friction between the older Frank Barnes (Washington) and younger Will Colson (Chris Pine), with the former seeing his colleague as too young and inexperienced to get the job done. Very solid and surprisingly technically sophisticated for this day and age - not dumbed down like so many yawn-inducing peer films.

7/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/66/Limite_Poster.jpg
By Funarte - http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fLB0aNVi1tU/UjHUNnF2YRI/AAAAAAAALI0/Jke3ghN4kr0/s1600/limite_1931.jpg, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=40727976

Limite - (1931)

This was bizarre and visually arresting - but unfortunately I went in too blind and ended up being bamboozled by an experimental art film that has a cohesive story to it - but might seem inscrutable if you watch it without being informed as to what's going on. I spent an entire two hours having no idea of what was happening as seemingly random shots played out before me. This movie from Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Project is another I really have to rewatch because after reading about it so much clicked into place - and as weird as it is, it's probably not as crazy and arbitrarily constructed as I thought last night. At the time of it's release, it must have been one of the most visually inventive movies ever made.

No Rating

[TheManBehindTheCurtain]

Inheritance (2024)
2.5

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/53/Spadek_2024.jpg

A loopy, comedic Polish whodunnit. Family members, each with their own dysfunctional backstory, assemble for the reading of the will of a rich family member. Only to discover their dreams of getting a new apartment, buying a fancy car, or getting a yacht, depends on their being able to solve a series of puzzles before they can collect. See it not because it's good, but because it has no pretensions other than to entertain, and especially U.S. viewers will find the Polish wit appealingly askew.

Viewed on Netflix.

[exiler96]

Body Snatchers (1993) - Not that the two Invasion of... classics needed another take, but here is Ferrara's; in which he takes this supernatural curse to a military base and tears the nuclear family apart.

So clean-around-the-edges and so avoidant of overstepping into sex or gore or ridiculousness that it doesn't even feel like an Abel flick at first, lol... but the bleak point of view and atmosphere (I enjoyed the lighting especially; was it all filmed during the golden hours?) were definitely his trademarks... 6.5/10.

https://www.cinema.de/sites/default/files/styles/cin_landscape_510/public/sync/cms3.cinema.de/imgdb/import/dreams2/1000/959/6/1000959623.jpg?h=2ffd00db&itok=aRoh3W-k

[gbgoodies]

Random Hearts (1999)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4b/RandomHeartsfilm.jpg
This 1999 film by Sydney Pollack is dull and mediocre. However, I love Harrison Ford and Kristin Scott Thomas and enjoyed seeing them onscreen, even though the movie around them sucked. Pollack was a talented filmmaker, and I liked most of the movies that I’ve seen of his, but none of them were what you’d call exciting. Even The Firm, which was supposedly a thriller, was slow.
For twenty years (1973-1993), Harrison Ford had an incredible run. He starred in some of the greatest blockbuster movies to ever come out of Hollywood, from American Graffiti to Star Wars and Indiana Jones to The Fugitive. He also played in more intellectual artistic films like The Conversation, Apocalypse Now, and Blade Runner. But after the Fugitive, the films he chose to star in represented a steep downward slide in terms in of quality, with the notable exception of Blade Runner 2049. Random Hearts is indicative of this trend. Definitely don’t recommend unless you’re having trouble getting to sleep.
rating_2

Mark




It's been a while since I saw Random Hearts, but I remember liking it.
It's on my watchlist to rewatch it for the 1990s countdown.

[iluv2viddyfilms]

Shane- A+

[Fabulous]

Mortal Kombat (1995)

3

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/eDg6HPCnQaUhTOdZB3LzJjpnGtT.jpg

[LeBoyWondeur]

Goodbye Again - (1961)

Through her work as an interior decorator she meets the son of a client, Philip Van der Besh (Anthony Perkins) - 25-years-old, eccentric, energetic and child-like, Philip almost immediately falls in love with Paula and persists in wooing her no matter how hard she tries to keep him in his place. In Philip she has an attractive young man who truly loves her and would be devoted to her - but there's something a little unstable and mentally fragile about him.

And the next year he gets romantically involved with another older woman in the film Phadrea.
Even though Anthony Perkins was a terrific actor I suspect he was difficult to market as the more traditional romantic lead, but perfect for the more "angsty" types.
Even his marriage story in On The Beach almost looked like a brother-sister relationship.

I enjoyed all the performances in Home From The Hill (1960) but the role played by George Hamilton seemed to be tailor-made for Anthony Perkins. I wonder if he was actually considered for the part...but of course he was doing something else in that Hitchcock film.

Either way, Goodbye Again goes straight on the to-rewatch-list.

[chawhee]

The Nice Guys (2016)
https://www.indiewire.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/the-nice-guys-poster-1.jpg?w=680
3.5
This type of comedy doesn't typically work for me, but its hard to deny Crowe and Gosling here. I laughed a lot at the stupidity, but it did wear thin on me by the end.

[matt72582]

Arab Israeli Dialogue - 7/10
Must be new on Criterion. From 1974. Nice to compare.


https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1196116/

[Captain Quint]

105192
SLY LIVES! (aka The Burden of Black Genius) (2025)
First 2025 movie for me. Growing up, I remember Sly as being so cool, just a mega-talent, with this incredible, diverse band (or family, in this case).

Enjoyed this as much as Summer of Soul (from the same director). At Hulu.

4

[exiler96]

The Blackout (1997) - Talk about self-loathing. Geesh...you screw up, realize it's too late to fix it but don't really accept it, try to improve, to start again... until you screw up again.

Ferrara opens up about his drug use (and unsuccessful recovery?) through a doomed hollywood love story; and paints a picture so unpleasant I can't decide if I'm witnessing an unreal level of authenticity or a cynical case of miserablism... it jumps here and there too much for his protagonist's issues to become ours; yet I can't shake the bad vibes of it just yet.... 6/10.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4ZdF6brK6M5kHjCChds8OatZIaLDxJ9Jx1bUqKVfWfZHvTdEjiFERUbkqfvVfmnHhHhLL1AVW7SD77T5XdXy6dqGZPOBG VxWrI6X2CZA8TmMayCrAZ1P-NhBSJoVR21iE1c0A2w/s640/The-blackout.jpg

[Corax]

105192
SLY LIVES! (aka The Burden of Black Genius) (2025)
First 2025 movie for me. Growing up, I remember Sly as being so cool, just a mega-talent, with this incredible, diverse band (or family, in this case).

Enjoyed this as much as Summer of Soul (from the same director). At Hulu.

4
"The Burden of Black Genius"? Sounds like the "struggle" bus is on the road again. How about, "The Lightness of Whiteness: Genius is Just Easier for Us"? Or, "The Weight of Female Supremacy"? Or, "The Challenge of Asian Greatness"? I need Rick James to pop the world in the face with his UNITY ring.

[LeBoyWondeur]

Bleak Moments (1971)

105195

The title kinda reads like a parody on the downbeat "kitchen sink" genre and although I don't know if this is intentional, the film itself certainly looks like it. Not the conventional/popular parody with gags and references, but more like a bunch of (very long) sketches aimlessly strung together.
In that regard I found it easy to lose track of whatever this film was trying to convey (a bleak existence, the lack of energy to escape it?) but at the same time it has an extraordinary spellbinding quality similar to, say, Jeanne Dielman.
It's impossible to look away because of "what else is not going to happen next?".
It is first and foremost a performance film - by actors I had never heard of before - and there isn't anything in it that could have been done better.

Bleak Moments takes shyness and the incapacity (or unwillingness) to communicate to the next level, and it's hard to imagine that a film that relies so heavily on body/facial language was based on a stage play.
It's the anti-My Dinner With Andre, and yes, it's often hilarious but not really at the expense of the characters (except for one, but I think we're supposed to hate her).

Mike Leigh is a familiar name to me but when I checked his filmography there wasn't anything on the list that rang a bell. However, some further reading informed me that he was the man behind the famous cringe classic Abigail's Party which I have watched many, many times.

4.5

[ueno_station54]

https://a.ltrbxd.com/resized/film-poster/5/0/4/7/2/50472-breakdown-0-2000-0-3000-crop.jpg?v=9bbe0fba51
wifey wanted to watch this after RLM recently talked about it and yeah it kinda rips.
3.5

[iluv2viddyfilms]

Casablanca (1942, Michael Curtiz)

Had a chance to see this movie, one I have seen at least a dozen times, on the big screen for the first time as Flix Brewhouse was playing it today.

https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/financialpost/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/no0629Casablanca.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1128&h=846&type=webp&sig=93A3wa8aOuvuMk6AsQrj4Q

Now, say what you will about Rick and Ilsa, we all know this is a subversive early LGBTQ+ bromance between Renault and Rick and that Ilsa was just a distraction, just as Renault's philandering of random women and the emptiness of his carousing and gambling was a way to drown out his unrequited love for Rick. In the end Rick finally relents and does the right thing by accepting Renault's love. Also Ilsa and the boring guy get to go off and fight Nazi's for the greater cause in the resistance while pretending to have a deeper relationship in their sexless marriage, AND Sam gets a huge boost in the world and in his paycheck by getting 25-percent of the profits as in the contract when Rick sells his bar to Ferrai. It's a win win for everyone except the Nazis in one of the greatest films of all time. Casablanca is a piece of anti-isolationist and pro-American involvement in WWII propaganda and it fits right in with a handful of other great 1942 pro-global America films including Sergeant York, To Be or Not to Be, and Yankee Doodle Dandee. However, more than that... Casablanca is the greatest LGBTQ+ film of all time because the relationship between Rick and Renault goes beyond the physical and both are cashing out their chips in the end and are off to escape the horrors of war and to take the massive profits Rick made from selling his gin joint to go see and explore the world! The start of a beautiful friendship is the end of a beautiful piece of cinema!

A+ (duh)

[BigBendHiker68]

Even though Anthony Perkins was a terrific actor I suspect he was difficult to market as the more traditional romantic lead, but perfect for the more "angsty" types.


I agree..He was Welles' perfect choice for the role of Mr. K in The Trial (1962).


I've not seen Goodbye Again, will add it to my list.


Catch-22 (1970) is my favorite Perkins movie!

[I_Wear_Pants]

Finally got around to (finishing) Casablanca. The build up to the end isn't the best, although I did like the pattering. That was pretty cool. I love the ending though. It's awesome. I love how everything cumulates into its conclusion. I'm not sure where the Major's shot went though... Eh is no big deal. Casablanca is a solid film. I think I would appreciate it more if I saw it in 1942. It's still fine in 2025.

I feel I need to include that the film didn't really do anything wrong and I don't mean to say I disliked any of it. I personally don't think it's nearly as good as the overall consensus. I won't say "overrated" vis I never do. I will say I'm not a gigantic fan. Casablanca is a great film. I think I just don't hold it in as high esteem as most people.

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/cc/The_Favourite.png
By IMP Awards, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=57185501

The Favourite - (2018)

Great movie - this is around about my third time seeing it, and my perspective has changed a lot over those viewings. The first time it's easy to pinpoint Lady Sarah Churchill (Rachel Weisz) as the villain of the piece. Friend, advisor and lover to Queen Anne (Olivia Colman), Sarah Churchill seems intent on governing in her place, and often manipulates the Queen - so when Abigail Hill (Emma Stone) arrives on the scene, Sarah Churchill's cruelty towards her seems predicated upon the fact that she's desperate to keep her place and will do anything to see off any rival. The awful tricks and circumstances she's forced to endure really has us seeing Abigail as an underdog, and her initial honesty and loyalty have us favouring her. Over time though, Abigail learns how to become ruthless, and it's also slowly revealed that Sarah Churchill really is a true friend regarding Anne - but once the die is cast it's clear that Abigail is smarter and more manipulative. What Sarah Churchill lacks is false kindness and modesty. Yorgos Lanthimos lets just enough of his unusual method to seep into a rare foray into a narrative featuring real historical figures, and when added to how foreign early 18th Century life was like at the Royal residence it all mixes into a slurry of absurdism and dark comedy. Olivia Colman gives the performance of a lifetime as Queen Anne and steals the show - her childlike pouting and desire to simply play with her rabbits giving the impression that she's completely at sea, and proving just how bad an idea monarchy really is. The film is stupendous in many, many other ways and very darkly funny - a favourite of mine.

9/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2f/The_Music_Man_%281962_film_poster_-_three-sheet%29.jpg/320px-The_Music_Man_%281962_film_poster_-_three-sheet%29.jpg
By Bill Gold - Scan via Heritage Auctions. Cropped from the original image and retouched; see upload history for unretouched original., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=87237735

The Music Man - (1962)

What a funny film The Music Man is - undoubtedly playful, fun, joyous and cheerful at all times with a story that's pretty offbeat for a musical. Pure joyousness on celluloid. Full review here (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?p=2535731#post2535731), in my watchlist thread.

8/10

[Fabulous]

Scanners (1981)

3.5

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/hpGnwYSdW9WYlVY9Xg2btpdaXoJ.jpg

[I_Wear_Pants]

Casablanca (1942, Michael Curtiz)

Had a chance to see this movie, one I have seen at least a dozen times, on the big screen for the first time as Flix Brewhouse was playing it today.

https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/financialpost/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/no0629Casablanca.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1128&h=846&type=webp&sig=93A3wa8aOuvuMk6AsQrj4Q

Now, say what you will about Rick and Ilsa, we all know this is a subversive early LGBTQ+ bromance between Renault and Rick and that Ilsa was just a distraction, just as Renault's philandering of random women and the emptiness of his carousing and gambling was a way to drown out his unrequited love for Rick. In the end Rick finally relents and does the right thing by accepting Renault's love. Also Ilsa and the boring guy get to go off and fight Nazi's for the greater cause in the resistance while pretending to have a deeper relationship in their sexless marriage, AND Sam gets a huge boost in the world and in his paycheck by getting 25-percent of the profits as in the contract when Rick sells his bar to Ferrai. It's a win win for everyone except the Nazis in one of the greatest films of all time. Casablanca is a piece of anti-isolationist and pro-American involvement in WWII propaganda and it fits right in with a handful of other great 1942 pro-global America films including Sergeant York, To Be or Not to Be, and Yankee Doodle Dandee. However, more than that... Casablanca is the greatest LGBTQ+ film of all time because the relationship between Rick and Renault goes beyond the physical and both are cashing out their chips in the end and are off to escape the horrors of war and to take the massive profits Rick made from selling his gin joint to go see and explore the world! The start of a beautiful friendship is the end of a beautiful piece of cinema!

A+ (duh)

I think it's amusing we watched it in the same day with no prior, so far as I know, knowledge of the other watching it today. Casablanca is a great film, and in its context works perfectly.

[chawhee]

Just Mercy (2019)
https://primevideoaanbod.nl/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/just-mercy.jpg
4
I've been wanting to see this movie since it came out in theaters years ago, and I wasn't disappointed. Based on a true story decades ago of a wrongful conviction, the film has superb acting, pacing, etc. It may lean a bit too heavy into bias messaging that everyone is innocent, but this is a topic that I think needs more publicity, even today.

[ueno_station54]

https://a.ltrbxd.com/resized/film-poster/2/9/0/7/8/29078-the-neverending-story-0-2000-0-3000-crop.jpg?v=d6c13b7351
wow the difference seeing this on the big screen vs. on my laptop in the middle day like i did last time. even just hearing the song made me tear up.
4

[ueno_station54]

https://a.ltrbxd.com/resized/sm/upload/ij/ub/so/m3/zuXMvSQq9F7H29qzuUm0qyUqw6m-0-2000-0-3000-crop.jpg?v=a53cafc017
feels like a focus grouped version of the first film and Hugh Grant is a massive step down from Nicole Kidman in the villain role. the end made me cry still but even that felt a bit cheap.
3

[Takoma11]

The Nice Guys (2016)
https://www.indiewire.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/the-nice-guys-poster-1.jpg?w=680
3.5
This type of comedy doesn't typically work for me, but its hard to deny Crowe and Gosling here. I laughed a lot at the stupidity, but it did wear thin on me by the end.

Have you seen Kiss Kiss Bang Bang from the same writer/director? (I feel like we've maybe discussed it before, but not totally sure). I find it a notch above Nice Guys.

https://a.ltrbxd.com/resized/film-poster/2/9/0/7/8/29078-the-neverending-story-0-2000-0-3000-crop.jpg?v=d6c13b7351
wow the difference seeing this on the big screen vs. on my laptop in the middle day like i did last time. even just hearing the song made me tear up.
4

I love just about everything about The Neverending Story, but as an adult I especially appreciate just how physical/real the world feels and just how much disturbing imagery (the swamp, the crumbling sphinxes, the wolf emerging from the darkness) is in it.

I read the book in high school and, if you weren't already traumatized enough by the Swamp of Sadness scene, in the book THE HORSE TALKS.

It's on the shortlist of movies that I will cry like 8 times during it.

[ueno_station54]

I read the book in high school and, if you weren't already traumatized enough by the Swamp of Sadness scene, in the book THE HORSE TALKS.
omg the look my wife gave me when i relayed this info to her.

[Fabulous]

Working Girl (1988)

3.5

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/5yPlKUU74bwXHw0kRp1ThbPdGe4.jpg

[LChimp]

https://posterspy.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/alien-romulus.jpg

Alien Romulus - (2024)

I wasn't expecting anything from this and was positively surprised. Really good movie even if a little too similar to the first one, but it does have its merits. 9/10

[chawhee]

Have you seen Kiss Kiss Bang Bang from the same writer/director? (I feel like we've maybe discussed it before, but not totally sure). I find it a notch above Nice Guys.



I have not...Downey should be suitable for this kind of thing haha

Looks like my local library has it so I may try and check it out some time. Thanks for the recommend.

[ueno_station54]

https://a.ltrbxd.com/resized/film-poster/1/0/9/9/0/8/1/1099081-easter-evil-0-2000-0-3000-crop.jpg?v=7be41fca98
between Elizabeth Rath always being charming as hell and Jared Masters in drag acting as c*nty as he can manage this should have been an instant slam dunk but it took awhile for it to start to click with me. it got there eventually tho and i had a good time with it.
3.5

[Thief]

THE WILD ROBOT
(2024, Sanders)

https://i.imgur.com/Af02ipK.jpeg


"Sometimes to survive, we must become more than we were programmed to be."



The Wild Robot follows ROZZUM Unit 7134, or Roz (Lupita Nyong'o), a service robot that has been left stranded on a remote island after a shipwreck. Without anyone else needing her services and trying to adapt to her surroundings, Roz becomes the caretaker of Brightbill (Kit Connor), an orphaned goose, along with Fink (Pedro Pascal), an initially opportunistic fox with a good heart. Together, they help Brightbill prepare for his eventual migration, while working out clashes among the rest of the wildlife, battling the elements, and preparing for the inevitable retrieval of Roz by its manufacturer.

This is one of the animated films nominated for a Best Animated Feature Oscar and you can clearly see why. You can say The Wild Robot follows the same beats as other films like The Iron Giant, or countless others where you have reluctant parties working out their differences for a common goal. But even though it doesn't really tread a lot of new ground, it does what it does with an undeniable heart and charm while boasting some solid casting and gorgeous visuals.

Grade: 4


Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2536026#post2536026)

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMjA2NzEzNjIwNl5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwNzgwMTEzNzE@._V1_.jpg


1st Rewatch...I actually enjoyed this movie a little more than I did the first time. A slick and charming performance by Dwayne Johnson is the anchor of this sometimes confusing action comedy where Johnson plays a former high school fatty who reaches out via Facebook to the only guy who was nice to him (Kevin Hart), without revealing to him that he is an alleged rogue CIA agent and he needs Hart's help in figuring out some secret codes to keep from a villain called The Black Badger. The story is slightly confusing and Hart is a little out of his element playing the straight man, but Johnson's slick and breezy performance makes the film worth a look. 3

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMzUyNDA5Njc4NV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwMDI1Nzg4OTE@._V1_FMjpg_UX1000_.jpg

1st Rewatch...A lovely and often moving melodrama that nobody saw. Eddie Murphy really steps out of his comfort zone as an actor here, delivering a performance that should have earned him his second Oscar nomination. Murphy plays Henry Joseph Church, who after the death of his former very wealthy employer, is sent to cook for his single mom girlfriend (the breathtaking Natascha McElhone), who is dying of breast cancer and her ten year old daughter. To say anymore would ruin this emotionally charged cinematic journey that has more than a couple of lump-in-the-throat moments and the finest performance of Eddie Murphy's career. Sensitively directed by Bruce Beresford (Tender Mercies, Driving Miss Daisy) 4

[ueno_station54]

https://a.ltrbxd.com/resized/film-poster/3/4/1/7/6/3/341763-deadly-punkettes-0-2000-0-3000-crop.jpg?v=e24b860e59
it starts out as an alright girlband movie but it shifts gears into a dumbass ghost movie in the second half and it rules.
rating_3_5

[Takoma11]

omg the look my wife gave me when i relayed this info to her.

As an act of love, you must keep her away from any print copies of The Neverending Story.

I have not...Downey should be suitable for this kind of thing haha

Looks like my local library has it so I may try and check it out some time. Thanks for the recommend.

I love Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. It's very quotable, and Downey, Val Kilmer, and Michelle Monaghan are all really funny and good in it. I hope you enjoy it if you do get around to it.

[LeBoyWondeur]

Phantom Of The Paradise (1974)

105267

Another visual and energetic spectacle by Brian De Palma, and while the comedy helps to make the film play out the way it does I think it undermines the outrageousness a little bit.
It's all very good and the music is awesome (saving the best for the end credits) but it lacks the bite to make it a strong contender for a Great Seventies Movie. To be fair, the competition was insane in that decade.

In a perfect world, Phantom would have the memorable performances from Rocky Horror - or the latter made by Brian De Palma - instead of these two half-great movies.
Nevertheless I was constantly entertained, and the suspense is not in what will happen but how it will happen.

3.5

[ueno_station54]

https://a.ltrbxd.com/resized/sm/upload/1i/js/mj/tp/5G3gOZemcwXf2nbUFB4VCc5gl2A-0-2000-0-3000-crop.jpg?v=00c4e97f90
3

[Takoma11]

https://a.ltrbxd.com/resized/sm/upload/1i/js/mj/tp/5G3gOZemcwXf2nbUFB4VCc5gl2A-0-2000-0-3000-crop.jpg?v=00c4e97f90
3

This is on a shortlist of the films I would never imagine you watching.

EDIT: But to be clear, I love it when someone watches something and I'm like "Oh, realllllllly????"

[ueno_station54]

This is on a shortlist of the films I would never imagine you watching.
wife thought it would be a good follow up to paddington 2

[Takoma11]

wife thought it would be a good follow up to paddington 2

Like I just wrote above, I love it when people watch something that you imagine is out of their wheelhouse.

[Stirchley]

105282
105283

Two good movies.

Just realized there’s a theme going here. :)

[Nausicaä]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/e7/A_Quiet_Place_Day_One_%282024%29_poster.jpg/220px-A_Quiet_Place_Day_One_%282024%29_poster.jpg

3

SF = Z

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

[Fabulous]

Wild Things (1998)

3.5

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/1Gci6i2RHuum4JaXnlWfev3GH5b.jpg

[BigBendHiker68]

Casablanca (1942, Michael Curtiz)

Had a chance to see this movie, one I have seen at least a dozen times, on the big screen for the first time as Flix Brewhouse was playing it today.

https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/financialpost/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/no0629Casablanca.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1128&h=846&type=webp&sig=93A3wa8aOuvuMk6AsQrj4Q

Now, say what you will about Rick and Ilsa, we all know this is a subversive early LGBTQ+ bromance between Renault and Rick and that Ilsa was just a distraction, just as Renault's philandering of random women and the emptiness of his carousing and gambling was a way to drown out his unrequited love for Rick. In the end Rick finally relents and does the right thing by accepting Renault's love. Also Ilsa and the boring guy get to go off and fight Nazi's for the greater cause in the resistance while pretending to have a deeper relationship in their sexless marriage, AND Sam gets a huge boost in the world and in his paycheck by getting 25-percent of the profits as in the contract when Rick sells his bar to Ferrai. It's a win win for everyone except the Nazis in one of the greatest films of all time. Casablanca is a piece of anti-isolationist and pro-American involvement in WWII propaganda and it fits right in with a handful of other great 1942 pro-global America films including Sergeant York, To Be or Not to Be, and Yankee Doodle Dandee. However, more than that... Casablanca is the greatest LGBTQ+ film of all time because the relationship between Rick and Renault goes beyond the physical and both are cashing out their chips in the end and are off to escape the horrors of war and to take the massive profits Rick made from selling his gin joint to go see and explore the world! The start of a beautiful friendship is the end of a beautiful piece of cinema!

A+ (duh)


One of my all-time favorites.. Michael Curtiz is the greatest director most people have never heard of!😀


My favorite scene:


https://youtu.be/SjbPi00k_ME?feature=shared

[BigBendHiker68]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91LsbV70WSL._AC_UF894,1000_QL80_.jpg


The Duke goes out with a bang in his cinematic swan song as a dying gunfighter in turn-of-the-century Nevada, whose trade is also facing its demise in a rapidly changing world.


Don Siegel's masterful direction and a "Who's Who" ensemble supporting cast make for an understated yet powerful Western that is one of Wayne's very best in the genre ...


4.5

[ueno_station54]

https://a.ltrbxd.com/resized/sm/upload/0j/t5/zx/pg/bean-0-2000-0-3000-crop.jpg?v=52f78dd6eb
turns out my wife rented both bean movies so we watched this one too. probably a "worse" "movie" than Mr. Bean's Holiday but i think we both laughed at literally every joke.
4

[*Sky*]

The Quiet Man (1952) - John Ford: 0/10
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/47/4f/39/474f398831c1629e0838171d5941f05a.gif

[Fabulous]

Practical Magic (1998)

3

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/xck4gvjSr1u3YbsoW7HYh4Ny0tQ.jpg

[chawhee]

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)
https://lzd-img-global.slatic.net/g/ff/kf/S8d83be84b6ca4d60919bff18af987d15y.jpg_720x720q80.jpg_.webp
3
I liked The Nice Guys better. However, I'll record a disclaimer as the copy I got from my library required me to skip a scene or two due to skipping/scratching. That may have left out some good material and/or interrupted the flow.

[Tugg]

Den of Thieves: Pantera (2025) 3.5
https://imageio.forbes.com/specials-images/imageserve/67805d897afa9b731263164f/-Den-of-Thieves-2--Pantera--partial-poster-/0x0.jpg?format=jpg&crop=1406,791,x0,y561,safe&width=960
One of Them Days (2025) 3
https://locations.friendsgroupname.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/One-of-Them-Days-Filming-Locations-yg-1024x576.webp
Flight Risk (2025) 2.5
https://marruda3.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/flight-risk-1.jpg

[exiler96]

R Xmas (2001) - A little kidnapping story that gets cleaned in just about 80 minutes... I love how it used very few direct dialogue and instead, a lot of dissolve effects in it's first act to set the stage...who cares if it doesn't end up as something more than half-baked family dynamics (anchored by Adriana from The Sopranos) and "Newy'ark was so racist, ya dig?"

5-ish/10... almost a 6 rather than a 4 of course.

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMWRkMjU0ZjQtNGFhNi00Njg1LTkwMzktZmJlMjk4MTBjNTAzXkEyXkFqcGc@._V1_.jpg

[ueno_station54]

https://a.ltrbxd.com/resized/film-poster/1/1/2/7/6/0/6/1127606-spirit-riser-0-2000-0-3000-crop.jpg?v=d7d58ddb35
lol wut?
3.5

[Gideon58]

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

1st Rewatch...Joanne Woodward's luminous performance as Amanda Wingfield anchors this 1987 version of the Tennessee Williams play, directed by Woodward's husband, the late Paul Newman. Loved John Malkovich as Tom too. Appointment vieweing for Woodward fans. 4

[BigBendHiker68]

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/WyUAAOSwB-1YpPr5/s-l640.jpg


Despite the uneven and occasionally awkward plotting, this searing portrait of repressed sexuality and conflicting social mores is ultimately redeemed by Natalie Wood's Oscar-nominated portrayal of a young woman grappling with love and betrayal in Depression-era Kansas.


3.5

[Takoma11]

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)
https://lzd-img-global.slatic.net/g/ff/kf/S8d83be84b6ca4d60919bff18af987d15y.jpg_720x720q80.jpg_.webp
3
I liked The Nice Guys better. However, I'll record a disclaimer as the copy I got from my library required me to skip a scene or two due to skipping/scratching. That may have left out some good material and/or interrupted the flow.

Interesting! I love Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, but I also did see if before Nice Guys. However, I find it incredibly quotable, most notably "Who taught you math?!" or "He looked sad!"

[Takoma11]

https://a.ltrbxd.com/resized/film-poster/1/1/2/7/6/0/6/1127606-spirit-riser-0-2000-0-3000-crop.jpg?v=d7d58ddb35
lol wut?
3.5

Someone said, "Make the poster Phantasm, but different enough we don't get sued."
"Like instead of deadly orbs, a melting Statue of Liberty?"
"Yeah, that's the ticket!"

[ueno_station54]

Someone said, "Make the poster Phantasm, but different enough we don't get sued."
"Like instead of deadly orbs, a melting Statue of Liberty?"
"Yeah, that's the ticket!"
yeah but that actually happens tho. the statue gets voltroned by real estate agents or something.

[iluv2viddyfilms]

I love just about everything about The Neverending Story, but as an adult I especially appreciate just how physical/real the world feels and just how much disturbing imagery (the swamp, the crumbling sphinxes, the wolf emerging from the darkness) is in it.

I read the book in high school and, if you weren't already traumatized enough by the Swamp of Sadness scene, in the book THE HORSE TALKS.

It's on the shortlist of movies that I will cry like 8 times during it.

I haven't read the book, but the film is just absolutely amazing and it's one of the best entries into that 1980's era where there were so many swords and sorcery films that used some great practical special effects. Stuff like The Never Ending Story, just flat out puts modern CGI stuff to shame.

I must've been about eight or so when I saw it for the first time and was enthralled by it and really, still am today. That scene in the swamp of sadness where the horse... Atrax, I think, dies, is one of the top five most devastating scenes in all of film for me.

[*Sky*]

Out of the Past (1947) - Jacques Tourneur: 6/10
https://64.media.tumblr.com/ed9c815565c284c11614d9d7e35723b9/c90fa9f2ebffe778-50/s540x810/55aa24274f01bb7d2613178e0cb843c9697f370b.gifv

[iluv2viddyfilms]

The Quiet Man (1952) - John Ford: 0/10
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/47/4f/39/474f398831c1629e0838171d5941f05a.gif


The Quiet Man... one of John Ford's more highly appreciated films...?

0/10?

Really?

So I get people don't like certain films, but any time I see anyone rate a film 0/10 or 1/10, I just cringe a little bit. I get that people have different rating scales or criteria for how they assign meaning to their ratings... for instance some people rarely ever give 10/10s while other people (such as myself) can easily assign a 10/10 if a film is truly great and cinema history is absolutely loaded with great and perfect films.

The other end of the spectrum doesn't seem to work quite to that extreme however. I could even view some of the worst films of all time such as Freddy Got Fingered or It's Pat or The Room or something like that and maybe rate them a 3/10 or even a 2/10. Films that are just plain bad... so bad they don't even qualify for the "so bad, it's good" camp category.

But if I go and rate a film that's generally well recognized as a 0/10, that seems a bit bait-y or at least provocative, especially when there's zero comment or qualifier behind it... in a discussion forum of all places.

I genuinely get that classic films or critically acclaimed films having the possibility of being overrated is a real thing. Heck, that Jeanne Dielman thing, I'd probably give a 4/10 or 3/10 because while I find it beyond pretentious and an exercise in a filmmaker almost "playing a game" or gaslighting the audience, I still see value in perhaps what it might be trying to accomplish or do to advance or experiment with the language of film in a way that's entirely subversive or challenges expectations.

I think the Lord of the Rings films are tedious and have too much expository dialogue with clunky special effects and bizarre mise en scene and wonky editing, but I see value and would rate them in the 4/10 - 6/10 ballpark.

I don't think a director like Chris Nolan has made a really good film since Insomnia, with the exception perhaps of Dunkirk. The man edits way to fast and substitutes good writing and real tension with loud bombastic music and polish in films. Even so I can rate Oppenheimer a 7/10 or so and Inception a 6/10 along with The Dark Knight probably a 7/10.

But dude, 0/10 for The Quiet Man...???

I'd probably rank it a 9/10 as I do think it's a great film, but whether or not people like it or not is something that I am entirely cool with and fine with, just like anything. Disagreement and multiple viewpoints is the spice of life and keeps things interesting, but if a person gives a film 0/10, especially for a film that objectively does truly have value, quality, and merit... just seems... well... to be perfectly honest, it seems dishonest and like a person has other motives or bias beyond the film itself.

For example, a film that I find to be a morally repugnant piece of propagandist material and just downright unethical is Bowling for Columbine. The way Moore uses those kids and the way Moore acts completely shameful to Charlton Heston on completely false pretense is just sickening and vile, whether a person agrees or not with the overall message of the film... AND to be fair, I LOVED the brief interview with Marilyn Manson which was a brutally honest moment in the film. Be real. Call the balls and strikes down the middle as they come. The point is even a film, which is among my top 10 most hated of all time, I still think it's a well made film if I'm objective and honest and I would rate it an 8/10 or so despite my personal distaste toward some of the material.

Even if a person hates John Wayne, hates the whole Shakespearian Taming of the Shrew aspect of it, and hates the whole mythicizing of the Irish culture thing going on... it can't even get a 1/10 for it's beautiful cinematography or musical score?

So with all that being said, why the zero out of 10 rating for The Quiet Man?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvWZs6dB15M

[*Sky*]

The Quiet Man... one of John Ford's more highly appreciated films...?

0/10?

Really?

So I get people don't like certain films, but any time I see anyone rate a film 0/10 or 1/10, I just cringe a little bit. I get that people have different rating scales or criteria for how they assign meaning to their ratings... for instance some people rarely ever give 10/10s while other people (such as myself) can easily assign a 10/10 if a film is truly great and cinema history is absolutely loaded with great and perfect films.

The other end of the spectrum doesn't seem to work quite to that extreme however. I could even view some of the worst films of all time such as Freddy Got Fingered or It's Pat or The Room or something like that and maybe rate them a 3/10 or even a 2/10. Films that are just plain bad... so bad they don't even qualify for the "so bad, it's good" camp category.

But if I go and rate a film that's generally well recognized as a 0/10, that seems a bit bait-y or at least provocative, especially when there's zero comment or qualifier behind it... in a discussion forum of all places.

I genuinely get that classic films or critically acclaimed films having the possibility of being overrated is a real thing. Heck, that Jeanne Dielman thing, I'd probably give a 4/10 or 3/10 because while I find it beyond pretentious and an exercise in a filmmaker almost "playing a game" or gaslighting the audience, I still see value in perhaps what it might be trying to accomplish or do to advance or experiment with the language of film in a way that's entirely subversive or challenges expectations.

I think The Lord of the Rings films are tedious and have too much expository dialogue with clunky special effects and bizarre mise en scene and wonky editing, but I see value and would rate them in the 4/10 - 6/10 ballpark.

I don't think a director like Chris Nolan has made a really good film since Insomnia, with the exception perhaps of Dunkirk. The man edits way to fast and substitutes good writing and real tension with loud bombastic music and polish in films. Even so I can rate Oppenheimer a 7/10 or so and Inception a 6/10 along with The Dark Knight probably a 7/10.

But dude, 0/10 for The Quiet Man...???

I'd probably rank it a 9/10 as I do think it's a great film, but whether or not people like it or not is something that I am entirely cool with and fine with, just like anything. Disagreement and multiple viewpoints is the spice of life and keeps things interesting, but if a person gives a film 0/10, especially for a film that objectively does truly have value, quality, and merit... just seems... well... to be perfectly honest, it seems dishonest and like a person has other motives or bias beyond the film itself.

For example, a film that I find to be a morally repugnant piece of propagandist material and just downright unethical is Bowling for Columbine. The way Moore uses those kids and the way Moore acts completely shameful to Charlton Heston on completely false pretense is just sickening and vile, whether a person agrees or not with the overall message of the film... AND to be fair, I LOVED the brief interview with Marilyn Manson which was a brutally honest moment in the film. The point is even a film, which is among my top 10 most hated of all time, I still think it's a well made film if I'm objective and honest and I would rate it an 8/10 or so despite my personal distaste toward some of the material.

Even if a person hates John Wayne, hates the whole Taming of the Shrew aspect of it, and hates the whole mythicizing of the Irish culture thing going on... it can't even get a 1/10 for it's beautiful cinematography or musical score?

So with all that being said, why the zero out of 10 rating for The Quiet Man?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvWZs6dB15M
You done? I'm not reading all that. Feel free to block me or whatever.

[iluv2viddyfilms]

You done? I'm not reading all that. Feel free to block me or whatever.

lol, why bother reading or discussing on a discussion forum right?


“He's for a jig, or a tale of bawdry, or he sleeps”

But yeah, to answer your question, I'm done. Other people read.

[*Sky*]

lol, why bother reading or discussing on a discussion forum right?


“He's for a jig, or a tale of bawdry, or he sleeps”

But yeah, to answer your question, I'm done. Other people read.
I only read things worth reading. ��

[iluv2viddyfilms]

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/WyUAAOSwB-1YpPr5/s-l640.jpg


Despite the uneven and occasionally awkward plotting, this searing portrait of repressed sexuality and conflicting social mores is ultimately redeemed by Natalie Wood's Oscar-nominated portrayal of a young woman grappling with love and betrayal in Depression-era Kansas.


3.5

That sums up largely how I feel about Splendor in the Grass, although I may be a bit more generous because like a lot of Elia Kazan films that are unbalanced the great moments and themes of his films are just sooo great that they more than make up for any shortcomings in the writing or pacing department. Kazan is great at getting wonderful performances out of his actors and wonderful at capturing the magic of a great scene and connecting on emotions heights with characters who are deeply developed going through some sort of crisis. Some of the most powerful moments in film belong to scenes in his films like East of Eden, On the Waterfront, A Face in the Crowd, and even the underrated and largely forgotten Man on a Tightrope.

The fact is, the moments between Beatty and Natalie Wood are just so impactful and powerful that I'm so drawn into their world and how the crisis of youth, especially during that time with confining mores and values could be truly tragic. Elia Kazan is one of my top 10 directors of all time, despite his weak-points, because he's probably a director more than any other in American cinema that has truly touched on the intersection of great character drama on a micro level, while also providing social and political commentary on a macro level. No other director in my mind, has married those two entities so perfectly as Kazan has.

So while the writing of Kazan's films seem to be limited to the heights or lows of his source material... whether it's great work such as Tennessee Williams, John Steinbeck or Budd Schulberg or writing that doesn't quite live up to those films, he's still great and his films transcend their weaknesses like few other filmmakers' body of work. He's no Billy Wilder in the writing, pacing, and plotting department, another director in my top 10 of all time, but I can easily "forgive" Kazan for that because he does something that no other director has done quite as well. For my mileage at least.

[iluv2viddyfilms]

I only read things worth reading. ��

I'm hurt. I entirely trust in your ability to distinguish between what is and isn't worth reading. You win. Ignored.

[Wooley]

The Quiet Man (1952) - John Ford: 0/10
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/47/4f/39/474f398831c1629e0838171d5941f05a.gif

Ouch.
This is one of my favorite movies of all time.

[Wooley]

I have not...Downey should be suitable for this kind of thing haha

Looks like my local library has it so I may try and check it out some time. Thanks for the recommend.

I just re-watched this (maybe fourth or fifth viewing) and it continues to be excellent.

[Wooley]

Phantom Of The Paradise (1974)

105267

Another visual and energetic spectacle by Brian De Palma, and while the comedy helps to make the film play out the way it does I think it undermines the outrageousness a little bit.
It's all very good and the music is awesome (saving the best for the end credits) but it lacks the bite to make it a strong contender for a Great Seventies Movie. To be fair, the competition was insane in that decade.

In a perfect world, Phantom would have the memorable performances from Rocky Horror - or the latter made by Brian De Palma - instead of these two half-great movies.
Nevertheless I was constantly entertained, and the suspense is not in what will happen but how it will happen.

3.5

I love this movie dearly despite its fairly awful or at least extremely weak soundtrack. For a movie about music it should have had more than ONE good song in it. As it is, "Life At Last" is the only good number and, sadly, the song that the whole movie is based on, the song that only Phoenix can sing or people get murdered, doesn't have a hook anywhere in it. Williams should have done better.
Yet it is a testament to DePalma that he makes it not matter too much, the movie is just too much fun to be sunk by the fact that the music's no good.

[Wooley]

105351

Such a pleasure this movie is for me.
Takoma recently asked what are Comfort Horror movies for people and this is just a regular Comfort Movie for me.
Leslie Howard is just spectacular, really special as the titular hero, not because of how he plays Batman, erm, The Scarlet Pimpernel, which is fairly straight, but how wonderfully he plays Bruce Wayne, erm, Sir Percival Blakeney. He's so pleased with himself over the four-line poem he has composed about The Scarlet Pimpernel while tying his cravat that he performs it three times in the film with the same hilarious delivery.
"They seek him here, they seek him there
Those Frenchies seek him everywhere
Is he in Heaven, is he in Hell...
That damned elusive Pimpernel, what?"
And how he can switch back and forth between the two so wonderfully in the same shot. It's such a great performance. And yet I was reminded on this watch of how great Merle Oberon's performance is as well as the French actress and wife of Sir Percy, Marguerite. Their marriage is deeply troubled by the fact that her husband has turned into this useless, foppish dandy as far as she can see and his wife betrayed innocent nobles to the guillotine as far as he can. Damn shame they actually deeply love each other.
Raymond Massey of Arsenic And Old Lace fame (and a great deal more) provides the cherry on the top as the clever and dogged villain, Citizen Chauvelin.
A swashbuckling film without ever a sword being drawn and one I can just sink into and relax and smile away 90 minutes or so, The Pimpernel is a genuine pleasure for me.

[Fabulous]

Identity (2003)

3

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/sRbp7ZFumFGtCX84Vb8TBmxw4mi.jpg

[Stirchley]

105361

Good movie.

[Fabulous]

Gate of Hell (1953)

3.5

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/sd6ubptU7n0iWYSn9a0tHl1bVpb.jpg

[Gideon58]

https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/571e7cc14c2f859b347c0167/1737326663504-5UMKFPSQO9MB1MBJ7NFH/brutalist_ver4_xlg.jpg?format=1000w



4

[ueno_station54]

https://a.ltrbxd.com/resized/film-poster/3/2/0/1/1/3/320113-ballet-of-blood-0-2000-0-3000-crop.jpg?v=9a16442c11
this is peak.
4

[BigBendHiker68]

That sums up largely how I feel about Splendor in the Grass, although I may be a bit more generous because like a lot of Elia Kazan films that are unbalanced the great moments and themes of his films are just sooo great that they more than make up for any shortcomings in the writing or pacing department. Kazan is great at getting wonderful performances out of his actors and wonderful at capturing the magic of a great scene and connecting on emotions heights with characters who are deeply developed going through some sort of crisis. Some of the most powerful moments in film belong to scenes in his films like East of Eden, On the Waterfront, A Face in the Crowd, and even the underrated and largely forgotten Man on a Tightrope.

The fact is, the moments between Beatty and Natalie Wood are just so impactful and powerful that I'm so drawn into their world and how the crisis of youth, especially during that time with confining mores and values could be truly tragic. Elia Kazan is one of my top 10 directors of all time, despite his weak-points, because he's probably a director more than any other in American cinema that has truly touched on the intersection of great character drama on a micro level, while also providing social and political commentary on a macro level. No other director in my mind, has married those two entities so perfectly as Kazan has.

So while the writing of Kazan's films seem to be limited to the heights or lows of his source material... whether it's great work such as Tennessee Williams, John Steinbeck or Budd Schulberg or writing that doesn't quite live up to those films, he's still great and his films transcend their weaknesses like few other filmmakers' body of work. He's no Billy Wilder in the writing, pacing, and plotting department, another director in my top 10 of all time, but I can easily "forgive" Kazan for that because he does something that no other director has done quite as well. For my mileage at least.


Great insights, I think you described Kazan's sensibilities as a director very eloquently and succinctly!


I love his films too, though I have to separate my admiration for his movies from my disgust with his complicity in damaging the careers of numerous filmmakers via the HUAC blacklisting.

[BigBendHiker68]

https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/571e7cc14c2f859b347c0167/1737326663504-5UMKFPSQO9MB1MBJ7NFH/brutalist_ver4_xlg.jpg?format=1000w



4


I'm going to see this tonight - $5 tickets at my local theater 😁 I am hitting the espresso though, don't expect to get home until nearly midnight 😔

[Gideon58]

It took me three days to watch it

[BigBendHiker68]

Just wanted to chime in and say, as an affirmed Celt-ophile (is that a word?) big fan of The Quiet Man here! And Victor McLaglen steals the show, IMO.

[Captain Quint]

Venom: The Last Dance
Jesus Christ... I was in the mood for some brainless entertainment... this turned into a case of "be careful what you wish for". Painful, each movie in this series got worse and worse. My own fault, I should have found a dumb but fun kung fu movie instead.

1

[iluv2viddyfilms]

105361

Good movie.

Pig is wonderful and very offbeat and challenges the conventions in even the most offbeat of genres with the revenge flick.

I do love, love Nic Cage's foray of the last decade of so in making these smaller indie films that are hardly the mass appeal big budget action flicks he made in the mid-lates 90s with stuff like The Rock, Con Air, and Gone in Sixty Seconds that even went into the 2000s with stuff like National Treasure which I have absolutely zero interest in.

I'd easily take stuff like Pig, Mandy, and Joe over that stuff any day, and Nic Cage is probably one of the biggest work-a-holics in the industry continuing to make film after film.

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7d/Somethings_gotta_give.jpg
By IMP Awards, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7676773

Something's Gotta Give - (2003)

Well, I'm not a huge fan of rom-coms, and I'm not a big lover of watching movies about really rich people getting in on and living in luxury - so Something's Gotta Give had it's work cut out. I of course love Jack Nicholson - who does have a special kind of charisma, and can do comedy with ease. Diane Keaton is pretty good as playwright Erica Barry. Harry Sanborn (Nicholson), a playboy who only dates young women, falls in love for the first time at the age of 63 - with Erica - but has his work cut out as Erica is being wooed by a younger man in 36-year-old doctor Julian Mercer (Keanu Reeves). The funny moments were enough to keep me plugging forward, but the ostentatious display of wealth and privilege made me not care all that much about the first world problems all of these characters worry over while buying high-priced art and ordering caviar for breakfast. There's not much for them to overcome in a storytelling sense. Sanborn is so sickly to begin with that it's something of a miracle I was able to enjoy Nicholson's work in this.

6/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2f/Rachel%2C_Rachel_%281968%29_poster.jpg
By Warner Bros.-Seven Arts - https://movieposters2.com/Rachel-Rachel-movie-poster_783456.html, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=72995575

Rachel Rachel - (1968)

A delicate, dream-like vision of an inner awakening that creates a central character bravely stepping out from under her own fears to face life - all of it's heartaches and joys included. Full review here (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?p=2536456#post2536456), in my watchlist thread.

8/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/ad/Lyle_poster.jpg
By https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3333968/, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=63821368

Lyle - (2014)

Full of great ideas, thinking and performative execution - despite some serious shoestring budget limitations. Full review here (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?p=2536805#post2536805), in my watchlist thread.

6/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/45/Shutterposter.jpg
By Copyright 2004 by Grammy Tai Hub., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5154671

Shutter - (2004)

While at times derivative, I was pretty satisfied with Shutter's storytelling, the fact that this was a Thai take on the genre, the excellent visuals and the film's breakneck pace. I definitely view it as one of the better takes on J-Horror-inspired spectral female vengeance. Full review here (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?p=2537121#post2537121), in my watchlist thread.

7/10

[iluv2viddyfilms]

Just wanted to chime in and say, as an affirmed Celt-ophile (is that a word?) big fan of The Quiet Man here! And Victor McLaglen steals the show, IMO.

If I was able to, I would always try to find a way to watch this around St. Patrick's Day when I was a kid. We didn't have cable until we got Dish Network around the time I was in eighth grade, but prior to that if I happened to be at my grandparent's house, who did have cable, it seemed like TNT or TBS always showed it and I remember at least a couple years I had checked it out from the library as a kid around St. Patrick's Day, so it was just a great film that was always around and available it seemed like.

It's an endlessly charming film and even though some of the scenes seem off balance and all three of the leads (not Barry Fitzgerald) were a decade too old for their respective roles, it all comes together as a whole marvelously.

I get that people could have a laundry list of issues with it... maybe they don't like John Wayne because of his politics, maybe they are Irish and are somehow (as some Irish are) offended that it doesn't present a realistic portrayal of Ireland more of a "green-washed" portrait of a mythical far-away land full of charm, drinking, fistfights (where no one gets seriously hurt), and an idelic countryside full of beautiful hills and green glens and sheep and rainbows, and on and on, I even get that some people might think its portrayal of dowries is outdated and problematic or that its presentation of the role of women is misogynistic and out-dated, and on and on and on... but simply put, who cares?

Of course for more serious faire, Ford had visited the topic of his beloved Ireland very early in his career with two films, The Informer and The Plough and the Stars, so if he wanted to go and make a simple little story mythizing Ireland, then he's certainly earned it.

The Quiet Man is a beautiful shot film and John Ford's love letter to a land, that while it's not his homeland, it's the land of his ancestors and heritage (as is it is mine being near 50-percent Irish me-self) and a land he absolutely fell in love with. The Quiet Man is a fairy tale and a sweet and mythic travelogue and a simplistic but genuine love fable and if people don't like it... fine, but I always say call balls and strikes and a person can hate the substance of the film, but still find value in just how gorgeously shot and well crafted it is.

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

[Nausicaä]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/0/0f/Priscilla_the_Queen.jpg/220px-Priscilla_the_Queen.jpg

3.5

SF = Z

Viewed: Amazon Prime

https://i.makeagif.com/media/11-29-2017/VjroPw.gif


[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

[Jeff]

I come here to say that film came to the rescue to cap off a taxing day at home here, silent film was given to my dad, without the ability for him to annoy me, that means i supplied for myself my own soundtrack with my headphones for the beginning of Feuilliade's Tih Minh (10/10 very good stuff, dreamy, some shots looked like it came from Mizoguchi's Ugetsu), then we watched Steamboat Bill Jr, except for the dazzling finale was missed as dad had to go to the boy's room, each time he gets up and lies back down is fraught with high drama, but he was giggling quite a bit at Buster Keaton's perfect physical humor -- 10/10, and then we began Fritz Lang's Woman in the Moon, a film i haven't watched before, and i shall surely come back to it, and looks to be no less than a 9 out of 10.

[Fabulous]

The Beguiled (1971)

4

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/1jCmmjnldEjpeVvciSVNbX421qm.jpg

[Captain Quint]

105387
Who Loves Me? (1936) - directed by José Luis Sáenz de Heredia, co-directed by Luis Buñuel

Whenever I think I'm finished with Luis, something else shows up, first a home movie, now, one he co-directed. But I think that's it, all the dibs and dabs. With this I've completed Buñuel's directorial efforts (co or solo), mark it as complete on 2/22/2025.

35 in total (the journey started in the late 70s when I happened upon Un Chien Andalou on PBS, and had my mind totally blown)

2
Yeah, aside from a few chuckles it's not so hot, and not very Bunuelian, but being only his 3rd effort as a director, it might have helped him learn the craft of narrative storytelling - which he would hone during his Mexican period from the late 40s to early 60s. Call it baby steps

[matt72582]

Becoming Led Zeppelin
My friend was late, and then insisted on getting Taco Bell.. The place was empty, but so much talking pissed me off. I've only been to the theater three times in the last 21 years, and that's one reason why. I liked the interviews, but there was too much studio sound with random pictures/video, which I've heard and seen a million times.. I wouldn't recommend this for a Zep fan who knows about the band inside-out. But, it was something to do, something to check out, being with a friend I grew up with that I hadn't seen in 15 years.


https://youtu.be/EDKC77QS8WM

[chawhee]

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri (2017)
https://reelifereviews.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/three-billboards-poster.jpg
3.5
I really wanted to like this more, but the abrupt and incomplete ending brought me down. The mixed fun and serious tone was enjoyable throughout.

A couple movies in a row that have now made me a little squeamish at parts haha (the dentist part here, the finger gag in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang).

[BigBendHiker68]

https://s3.amazonaws.com/nightjarprod/content/uploads/sites/238/2024/12/09120009/c2VAIn0yto7wkq6maw4mTse1mId.jpg


Having rested from yesterday's late-night viewing and taken time to reflect on this ambitious film, I will submit that I was/am admittedly underwhelmed.


The performances were stellar, and Brody is certainly a strong contender for Best Actor. The one exception (for me) was Guy Pearce's portrayal of the sleazy industrialist Van Buren, which struck me as wooden and "phoned-in".


The film is gorgeous, from the chaotic frenzy of Laslo's arrival, to the sweeping shots of the rural Pennsylvania landscape, to the bleak, starkly beautiful moonscape of Carrera's marble quarries. It definitely has a shot (pun intended) at winning Best Cinematography.


But the movie ultimately fell flat for me. Parts of the story seemed haphazardly stitched together. I had trouble becoming truly invested in many of the characters, some of whom, such as Laslo's assistant and fellow immigrant, Gordon, seemed woefully underdeveloped. And while I am certainly no prude by any stretch, much of the graphic sexual content was a little gratuitous and didn't do much to further either the plot or the characters (for me, anyway...maybe I'm missing something).


Lastly, the ending. It ultimately felt like they weren't sure how to end the film, resulting in a hastily tacked-on denouement that had me scratching my head a bit.


I certainly think the film has its merits, but I wasn't blown away by it.


2.5 to 3

[BigBendHiker68]

105361

Good movie.


One of my favorite Nick Cage films!

[AngeliqueDeWill]

https://d32qys9a6wm9no.cloudfront.net/images/movies/poster/47/7381efbdc9f4d19599c1f34b34f121b7_300x442.jpg?t=1733686334

3/10

[Gideon58]

https://s3.amazonaws.com/nightjarprod/content/uploads/sites/238/2024/12/09120009/c2VAIn0yto7wkq6maw4mTse1mId.jpg


Having rested from yesterday's late-night viewing and taken time to reflect on this ambitious film, I will submit that I was/am admittedly underwhelmed.


The performances were stellar, and Brody is certainly a strong contender for Best Actor. The one exception (for me) was Guy Pearce's portrayal of the sleazy industrialist Van Buren, which struck me as wooden and "phoned-in".


The film is gorgeous, from the chaotic frenzy of Laslo's arrival, to the sweeping shots of the rural Pennsylvania landscape, to the bleak, starkly beautiful moonscape of Carrera's marble quarries. It definitely has a shot (pun intended) at winning Best Cinematography.


But the movie ultimately fell flat for me. Parts of the story seemed haphazardly stitched together. I had trouble becoming truly invested in many of the characters, some of whom, such as Laslo's assistant and fellow immigrant, Gordon, seemed woefully underdeveloped. And while I am certainly no prude by any stretch, much of the graphic sexual content was a little gratuitous and didn't do much to further either the plot or the characters (for me, anyway...maybe I'm missing something).


Lastly, the ending. It ultimately felt like they weren't sure how to end the film, resulting in a hastily tacked-on denouement that had me scratching my head a bit.


I certainly think the film has its merits, but I wasn't blown away by it.


2.5 to 3

I liked this more than you did but I do agree with a lot of what you’ve said here. I think Brody or Chalamet is going to win the Best Actor Oscar and I also think it should win the cinematography Oscar.

[Allaby]

The Forge (2024) Directed by Alex Kendrick and starring Aspen Kennedy, Cameron Arnett, Priscilla C. Shirer, and Karen Abercrombie. An aimless 19 year old 's life is changed when he is mentored by his new boss. I enjoyed this. The performances are good and for the most part, the story was interesting. It is a little too long and the subplot about the business trying to keep an account over a rival competitor didn't completely work for me. The best elements were the mentorship between the two main characters and the faith based elements of the story. If you like inspiration type dramas, then you might want to check it out. 4

[Raven73]

Transformers One
7/10.
Better than I thought it was going to be. The biggest negative for me were the voices - Optimus didn't sound like Optimus, Megatron didn't sound like Megatron. The second half of the movie was better than the first.
Sadly, this is the best Transformers movie since the first one (2007).

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a4/Transformers_One_Official_Poster.jpg

[BigBendHiker68]

I liked this more than you did but I do agree with a lot of what you’ve said here. I think Brody or Chalamet is going to win the Best Actor Oscar and I also think it should win the cinematography Oscar.


Yes, I still need to go see A Complete Unknown before it leaves the big screen!

[Siddon]

https://www.the-island-house.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Captain-America.jpg


Captain America:Brave New World(2025)


We had all heard about the problems with Brave New World and heard about Disney's pivot away from identity politics towards more comercal and acceptable Marvel films. So I decided to bite the bullet and watch the last two MCU films.


My impression of Brave New World is that it's not brave nor is it new but it is a product. When I say it's a product I mean to say the film still works in the blandest way possible. So much of the film is and should be bad but the corporate overlords have cut, glossed, and worked it's way into giving a mildly enjoyable and somewhat forgettable product.



The idea of the film is Sam Wilson is now Captain America and the film wants absolutely nothing to do with it. You have to admire that Captain America has basically walked into a Hulk movie (minus The Hulk) which is a giant build up to a fight that's basically been given away in the posters, trailers, synopsis. This is a film where you have zero suspense if you know anything about the film going into it.



Harrison Ford is in what must have been a much more interesting story with stakes and a character growth. The new Falcon tries to build levity in a thankless role and we'll never see him again. Sabra shows up but is kept out of costume because the idea of an Israeli superspy isn't really PC anyone...she's terribly cast. Giacarlo Esposito chews his scenery the best he can but he's done dirty by the editors.



Every pre-production choice this film makes is bad...but the final thanks to quick pacing and FX manages to be serviceable.


2





https://lumiere-a.akamaihd.net/v1/images/92754d0537dc72d8d6f25f32f0a564fd_4096x2048_0d9d5d06.jpeg?region=0,0,4096,2048&width=768
The Marvels (2023)


Has any actress sabotaged their franchise more than Brie Larson? Much like Harrison Ford in Captain America Iman Vellani is working on a much better film in her mind playing Ms Marvel who ends up switching with Carol Danvers and Monica Rambeau. The idea behind the film is similar to the Captain Marvel story (the male Genis-Vall version) where Marvel switches places with human Rick Jones. The filmmakers decided to make a movie out of that with women folk.


It is somewhat amusing to me that these people want a female led franchise but then take the source material from the male led books. (the 60's book that I adore was trippy alien spies on Earth tale kinda like Captain Marvel). But what we are left with in this film is a lead who is basically a background character who has no personality and all agency, her black friend who exists to throw out exposition and then move in the background, Samuel L Jackson running a side mission in a space station and Ms Marvel who is a sidekick and to be frank it's a real waste of an opportunity here.


The film should be about Khan coming to terms that her role model is a flawed person who has been damaged and makes decisions that aren't great. Y'know like a coming of age story but at every turn when the film starts to touch on heavy moments with consequences it moves onto to something silly.



It's not bad enough to hate, not good enough to enjoy just corporate mandated fun.


2

[Guaporense]

Gladiator II
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/04/Gladiator_II_%282024%29_poster.jpg

A worthy successor to Battlefield Earth in the "so bad its good" type of movie. This movie is indeed awful: nothing really works and it doesn't remotely feel like Gladiator felt. Instead, it's like a TV sketch that is trying and falling to parody the first movie. Yes, it's that bad.

Rating: 0/10.

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/34/Furiosa_A_Mad_Max_Saga.jpg
By IMDb, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=76616879

Furiosa : A Mad Max Saga - (2024)

I was supposed to watch the original Black Christmas last night, but Letterboxd lied to me about it being on Shudder (it's the remake that's on Shudder, only the remake in Australia), so I was suddenly bereft of the planned watch I'd been looking forward to. I went over to Netflix, to treat myself to something big I hadn't seen yet - and immediately went for Furiosa. This doesn't hit the giddy heights Fury Road did, but all the same it hits all the right notes throughout, and never drags - not for one second over it's two-and-a-half hour runtime. George Miller has never lost that certain knack he has for dieselpunk dystopia - and it's actually touching from my perspective, because I grew up with the Mad Max movies. It's one of those bizarre franchises where the first film is astonishingly unrecognizable from what the series is known for - but it sets up the character. Here, for the first time, we don't get that character - but Furiosa (Anya Taylor-Joy and Alyla Browne) is a more than worthy addition to the mythos created, and deserving of her own film. I thought Dementus (Chris Hemsworth) especially well-written and played - fitting so perfectly into all aspects of the modern Mad Max narrative. The battle action is worthy of the greatest of war movies, and I enjoyed it a lot. It did make me realise, however, how damn good Fury Road is - impossibly good.

8/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/05/Invictus-poster.png
By May be found at the following website: IMP Awards, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=34925417

Invictus - (2009)

Post-apartheid president Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman) hopes that a good showing by the Springboks (the South African national rugby team) in the 1995 Rugby World Cup being held in South African might help start the healing process and bring the nation together. Spoilers - against the odds, despite being predicted to perform poorly, they win the whole tournament. Seeing Mandela get into rugby (to the point where he's pushing state business aside for an hour here and there) is really cute - and Matt Damon as captain Francois Pienaar certainly looks the part. Nice to see fancied New Zealand go down in that final, but overall, despite the uplifting vibe to most of this, it kind of plods along predictably and isn't the kind of movie I'd watch over and over again to admire and appreciate.

6/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6c/SaveTheLastDance.jpg
By The poster art can or could be obtained from Paramount Pictures., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2594242

Save the Last Dance - (2001)

Nice music, nice dancing, nice interracial message - but this movie seems to be strictly for teens, and brain-numbing for adults.

4/10

[Takoma11]

Save the Last Dance - (2001)

Nice music, nice dancing, nice interracial message - but this movie seems to be strictly for teens, and brain-numbing for adults.

4/10

This movie is perfect if you are a 12-14 year old girl.

And this is the "good" version of the "rebel dance girl" movie we got around this time. Please do yourself a favor and find a copy of Center Stage if you really want your mind blown.

[PHOENIX74]

This movie is perfect if you are a 12-14 year old girl.

And this is the "good" version of the "rebel dance girl" movie we got around this time. Please do yourself a favor and find a copy of Center Stage if you really want your mind blown.

I've got Center Stage upcoming in my DVD collection purchases, so that's good to hear.

[*Sky*]

Babygirl (2024) - Halina Reijn: 2/10
https://media1.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExd3RzY3ZiODR3cGdzMzFrYnFnem5ocDBzOXlqOTY4cXltYnkzdXY5ZyZlcD12MV9pbnRlcm5hbF9naWZfY nlfaWQmY3Q9Zw/e0R37fqfQTrisEHCc6/giphy.gif

[Wyldesyde19]

This movie is perfect if you are a 12-14 year old girl.

And this is the "good" version of the "rebel dance girl" movie we got around this time. Please do yourself a favor and find a copy of Center Stage if you really want your mind blown.

The only Center Stage I’ll tolerate is Stanley Kwan’s 1991 film with Maggie Cheung.

[ueno_station54]

https://a.ltrbxd.com/resized/film-poster/1/1/0/9/6/0/9/1109609-love-hurts-2025-0-2000-0-3000-crop.jpg?v=4369814548
its got that modern action movie look where they crank up the speed on the hits and assemble the fights with hidden cuts and makes everything look extra fake but at least some of the choreography is outlandish enough to justify it. otherwise its pretty cute tho. marshawn lynch should be in everything.
rating_3


https://a.ltrbxd.com/resized/film-poster/5/1/3/5/9/51359-blue-velvet-0-2000-0-3000-crop.jpg?v=b0ee3c20f6
rewatching this while in the middle of also rewatching twin peaks didn't do it any favours. still good tho. shout out to the woman sitting next to me at the screening who laughed hysterically every time isabella rossellini got the shit beat out of her and seemingly had no reaction to anything else, hope you're good.
rating_3_5

[Nausicaä]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/b8/Cuckoo_%282024_film%29_poster.png/220px-Cuckoo_%282024_film%29_poster.png

3

SF = Zzz

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

[SpelingError]

Ishtar (1987) - 2

Having been a huge fan of Elaine May so far, I can see why this is usually considered to be her weakest film. Still though, I would classify it as an interesting failure, so I don't think its Razzie win was deserved. The opening 20 minutes are easily the best thing about it. The two leads are dreadfully untalented, yet the fault lines between their perceptions of their talents vs. the reality of their situation makes their banter full of comedic tension. Also, while the duo's songwriting/singing voices aren't good by any means, you can still get a sense they have passion for what they do and are trying to make their dreadful act as exciting as possible. With the early stretches, this seemed destined for greatness. Unfortunately, once the pair arrive to Morocco, the brilliant character dynamics are pushed aside in service of a convoluted, twisty plot involving CIA overreach, political uprisings, left-wing guerillas, etc. This section does have a couple fun moments here and there and isn't poorly directed by any means, but it doesn't play to May's strengths which were on display in the opening and the potentially great film we got in the first act is lost. Now, was the fun of the detour worth it? I honestly don't think so. While I did enjoy the auction and helicopter scenes well enough, most of the comedy/plot threads still feel as if May is simply thinking them up as she goes along with little thought put into congruency/comedic bite. As a result, the jokes don't hold up when you start to analyze them and the satire on the CIA lacks any sort of bite. If it wasn't for the opening 20 minutes and if this was from a different director, I might've been more amused by this, but May was just the wrong director for this kind of film. Especially since it teases us by starting out in her signature style.

[cricket]

Nosferatu (2024)

3

https://thenationaldesk.com/resources/media/080915bb-66c1-4e57-8139-2773784647a8-NOSFERATU_FP_00127_R1731371061.jpg

I had higher expectations than most horror remakes and I'm a fan of the first two. It's a little grand for my taste and started to go downhill once the vampire was first introduced. I wasn't a fan of how he looked or sounded. Some of the visuals and atmosphere are spectacular and the performances are fine. I haven't been around enough lately to know how anyone else here feels about it. I'm guessing it's pretty popular.

[LeBoyWondeur]

Vanishing Point (1971)

105432

Continuing my watch of previously unseen seventies classics - just to make sure I'm not missing out on anything great this decade had to offer - Vanishing Point was added to the list after watching Death Proof.
Every webpage that mentions this film describes it as a cult classic, but personally I can't see it.
Sure, it's a cult classic in the technical sense of the word because it failed upon initial release, both critically and commercially, I believe. But that has happened to a lot of films that were re-appreciated at a later time.
My idea of "cult" is the support for a, say, Ed Wood film.

But anyway.

It's pretty clear from the very beginning that this is not a typical action movie based on crime and suspense.
All we know is that the protagonist intends to drive a car from A to B as fast as possible.
Apparently there's no motive, reason or scheme, and perhaps a big part of the film's effectiveness is in everything that isn't being told or being shown. They don't even bother to make Kowalski look like a kick-ass character.

Even though some scenes look questionable (as in "that can only happen in movies") I was surprised to see that the spectacle is kinda average by today's standards but I think it helped to keep everything in balance: the chase, the supporting characters, the scenery, Kowalski's determination.
It seems to me that he's got a need for constant movement even if it takes drugs to make that possible. The flashbacks (also very well done) reveal a state of frustration and therefore I wouldn't call it a story about freedom.
If anything, it almost looks as if he's imprisoned by the car because "there's nothing else out there".

It's only the public reaction to his actions that taps into the late 60s / early 70s counter-culture zeitgeist because they think they understand why's he doing what he's doing. Nobody knows, and it's that combination of nonchalance, tragedy and mystique that gives Vanishing Point that final bit of oomph.

5

Looking at my DVD collection of films from the seventies, 1971 + 1973 + 1977 seem to be the most successful years when it comes to the number of great films released.
Actually, the only year that massively underperforms in 1972. For those who are not devoted fans of The Godfather, this year of cinema didn't have much to offer.

[Torgo]

Dark (2017) - 3

With no disrespect to Paul Schrader's abilities as a filmmaker, this is not far off from what would happen if David Lynch had made a political thriller. With deconstruction and abstractions that will make you check your drink to spare, this may be the writer/director's most unusual work yet. In case you didn't know, this is the closest we'll get to having a director's cut of Dying of the Light because having been denied access to what he filmed, he had to rely on workprint DVDs instead. Having not seen the theatrical cut, I cannot say if it's an improvement over it, but Schrader does get his message across, which is scarily accurate. Giving Cage's veteran CIA agent Evan Lake dementia is an inspired way to represent America's inability - or is it unwillingness - to learn from its actions in the Middle East. The movie's most affecting flourishes come from how it captures Lake's mental deterioration, culminating in a finale that is as mind-blowing - no pun intended - as it is sad. On the other hand, what could be more appropriate than giving his target, the terrorist Banir (Karim), a blood disease to represent how American intrusions have poisoned his culture? The much too early departed Yelchin is a welcome sight as Milton, Lake's only fellow agent who believes Banir is worth pursuing, and the touch of class Irene Jacob adds to the project as Lake's former lover Michelle goes a long way. Also, as a Cage fan, I admire how committed he makes Lake to his cause despite 99% of his department not being on his side, not to mention how he fits in his trademark bursts of enthusiasm.

Despite the accuracy of the disease metaphors and deserving to be called a work of art, I found what makes this a thriller to be serviceable at best. It may not be fair for me to say this because again, I have not seen the theatrical cut, but I can see why it received mediocre reviews because the plotting brought many similar movies and TV series to mind. It remains proof that Schrader is still one of our most exciting, interesting and important filmmakers as well as another reason to be thankful that he is still active. I wouldn't be surprised if Schrader modeled the hero after himself because he is who we could always use more of in Hollywood: filmmakers committed to getting their personal visions out there regardless of how many higher-ups tell them "no."

[Takoma11]

I've got Center Stage upcoming in my DVD collection purchases, so that's good to hear.

Wait for the part with the motorcycle (you'll know what I mean), and try not to die of vicarious embarrassment that someone thought it was cool and/or sexy.

[Takoma11]

The only Center Stage I’ll tolerate is Stanley Kwan’s 1991 film with Maggie Cheung.

You're really missing out on an incredible portrayal of what a "bad boy" ballet dancer might look like.

Interested now?

[Allaby]

The People's Joker (2022) This was really creative and offbeat and I appreciate the director's vision. She took some wild, big swings and they worked well for me. I loved the way the film looked and I liked the unusual direction she took with the characters. There were some funny parts and some effective heartfelt moments too. I would rather watch more creative films like this that do something original than the traditional comic book movie. 4

[Wooley]

Mildred Pierce

Ok, honestly, I haven't finished it yet but - and man, this never happens, I'm usually better than this - I dislike every single character in this movie so much that I just don't know how much longer I want to watch them. I'm wondering if there aren't 17 better things I can do with the next 40 minutes than finish this.

Edit: Oh, except for Eve Arden's Ida. Everyone else sucks.

[Takoma11]

Mildred Pierce

Ok, honestly, I haven't finished it yet but - and man, this never happens, I'm usually better than this - I dislike every single character in this movie so much that I just don't know how much longer I want to watch them. I'm wondering if there aren't 17 better things I can do with the next 40 minutes than finish this.

Edit: Oh, except for Eve Arden's Ida. Everyone else sucks.

Don't feel bad--they are all terrible!

[Wooley]

Don't feel bad--they are all terrible!

God what a miserable film. I wish I'd known, I'd have never watched this.

[Gideon58]

I've got Center Stage upcoming in my DVD collection purchases, so that's good to hear.

Love Center Stage…has a scene stealing performance from Oscar nominee Zoe Saldana

[Wooley]

105450

Well.
That was about the most miserable hour and fifty-one minutes I've had in a while.
To be clear, this movie is well-directed, well-filmed, well-acted, well-executed overall. It's probably well-written too but since I loathe these characters deeply enough to say I would be fine if they all died and the World would probably be a better place for it, I can't say I liked the script.
I think it's fair to say that I outright hated this movie. Though I will not speak ill of it because it is what it is. The story and the characters may have made me feel angry and angrier and angrier still and kind of hate people and maybe have to go to bed feeling like people don't deserve to live and it's ok if the World just burns... but hey, that's probably what they were going for so bully for them.
Anyway.
At least I have a new Most Hated Character In Cinema (which excludes portrayals of real-World people). Veda, the Worst Seed I've ever seen on film, for the win.

I'm gonna have to watch The Scarlet Pimpernel again to cheer myself up and make me not hate movies.

[SpelingError]

105450

Well.
That was about the most miserable hour and fifty-one minutes I've had in a while.
To be clear, this movie is well-directed, well-filmed, well-acted, well-executed overall. It's probably well-written too but since I loathe these characters deeply enough to say I would be fine if they all died and the World would probably be a better place for it, I can't say I liked the script.
I think it's fair to say that I outright hated this movie. Though I will not speak ill of it because it is what it is. The story and the characters may have made me feel angry and angrier and angrier still and kind of hate people and maybe have to go to bed feeling like people don't deserve to live and it's ok if the World just burns... but hey, that's probably what they were going for so bully for them.
Anyway.
At least I have a new Most Hated Character In Cinema (which excludes portrayals of real-World people). Veda, the Worst Seed I've ever seen on film, for the win.

I'm gonna have to watch The Scarlet Pimpernel again to cheer myself up and make me not hate movies.

Eh, it's just standard depiction doesn't equal endorsement 101, so disliking the characters didn't make me dislike the film by any means. Though sure, I can certainly understand having a bad time with the film due to your hatred of the characters. I don't mind movies like this though.

[Gideon58]

105450

Well.
That was about the most miserable hour and fifty-one minutes I've had in a while.
To be clear, this movie is well-directed, well-filmed, well-acted, well-executed overall. It's probably well-written too but since I loathe these characters deeply enough to say I would be fine if they all died and the World would probably be a better place for it, I can't say I liked the script.
I think it's fair to say that I outright hated this movie. Though I will not speak ill of it because it is what it is. The story and the characters may have made me feel angry and angrier and angrier still and kind of hate people and maybe have to go to bed feeling like people don't deserve to live and it's ok if the World just burns... but hey, that's probably what they were going for so bully for them.
Anyway.
At least I have a new Most Hated Character In Cinema (which excludes portrayals of real-World people). Veda, the Worst Seed I've ever seen on film, for the win.

I'm gonna have to watch The Scarlet Pimpernel again to cheer myself up and make me not hate movies.’

No argument that Veda is a bitch but I think you’re a little rough on the rest of this movie

[WHITBISSELL!]

The part I like the best about Mildred Pierce is how they killed off the little sister. One second she's fine, then gives a little cough and a few minutes and couple of scenes later she's dead, buried and quickly forgotten.

[Wooley]

Eh, it's just standard depiction doesn't equal endorsement 101, so disliking the characters didn't make me dislike the film by any means. Though sure, I can certainly understand having a bad time with the film due to your hatred of the characters. I don't mind movies like this though.

I thought Curtiz' dalliance with Noir looked great and there was real tension. I have nothing bad, really, to say about the movie, I just hated almost everyone in it and it brought me down. I can't think of the last movie I watched where I just hated everyone. But then again, I don't watch things like Succession or maybe White Lotus, and mostly didn't enjoy Game Of Thrones either.
"Bad People Behaving Badly" is probably my least favorite genre of all media.

[Wooley]

The part I like the best about Mildred Pierce is how they killed off the little sister. One second she's fine, then gives a little cough and a few minutes and couple of scenes later she's dead, buried and quickly forgotten.

As a physician, I particularly enjoyed that bit.
Though I guess, absurd a portrayal as it was, I was actually a bit lifted that she was spared a life amongst the rest of these awful people. Sometimes dead is better.

[Wooley]

’

No argument that Veda is a bitch but I think you’re a little rough on the rest of this movie

Well, I tried to be clear that I think it's a fine film, probably a good one, and maybe so good that it completely brought me down and made me hate people again because all of these characters are perfectly credible they are just all pretty terrible in their own ways and therefore just seem like a mirror for the worst of the World which is really just regular people being awful to each other because of how selfish and selfish-centered they are.

[*Sky*]

Il mostro (1994) - Roberto Benigni: 8/10
https://64.media.tumblr.com/e948ff32df47e32a92335c8738a1ec3a/tumblr_n3uvn3DzZJ1t2pbgvo1_r1_400.gif

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6e/Mad_Max_Fury_Road.jpg
By May be found at the following website: http://www.impawards.com/intl/australia/2015/mad_max_fury_road_ver13.html, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=46349290

Mad Max : Fury Road - (2015)

This was something else. I thought it was just going to be a belated Mad Max film, at best a reboot which modernized the franchise. It had been stuck in development hell for decades. Then it comes out and turns up as this incredible action/adventure powerhouse with so many layers worked into it that most regard it as an instant classic - nominated for 10 Oscars, including Best Picture and winning 6, the most ever by an Australian film. Goes to show that you never, ever know where the next great film is going to come from - and that action had the ability to sit side-by-side with quality storytelling, meaningful narrative and cinematic excellence. Thanks to two great leads too - Tom Hardy (even though he's not Australian) and Charlize Theron - both bring gravitas to extremely physical performances. This exemplifies what Mad Max movies are all about.

10/10

https://i.postimg.cc/brLWwB7c/the-proposition.jpg
Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=46349290

The Proposition - (1998)

It has a score which gets pretty close to that from Miller's Crossing, and a story from a trashy magazine. The ultra-rich and powerful Arthur Barret (William Hurt) and his wife Eleanor (Madeleine Stowe) can't produce so the young and virile Roger Martin (Neil Patrick Harris) is promised $25 grand if he can get Eleanor pregnant, and after several attempts he does - falling in love with her during the process. In the meantime a young priest, Father Michael McKinnon (Kenneth Branagh) becomes involved with Eleanor, and confesses a secret to Arthur. There's a murder, more love affairs, pregnancies, scandal - and all the while that score swells and I swear it's Carter Burwell's job for that Coen Bros classic until it deviates just enough...it's all a little preposterous, was hated by critics, and nobody went to see it. A forgotten cellar dweller that's unlikely to snag a cult following - I kind of feel like I'm unique in having seen it.

5/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/ee/Black_Christmas_%281974%29_poster.jpg
By https://deadline.com/2019/06/black-christmas-sophia-takal-blumhouse-1202632407/amp/, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=49876787

Black Christmas - (1974)

My expectations were blown out of the water with this look back into the pre-history of slasher films, turning up a movie that transcends it's soon-to-be genre. Full review here (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?p=2537766#post2537766), in my watchlist thread.

9/10

[Fabulous]

Late Night with the Devil (2023)

4

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/umyOinNa6vqqnqoVc9QqzyaapUz.jpg

[chawhee]

Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (2024)
https://coolmusicltd.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/WG.jpeg
4
I can see how this is on the short list of best animation for the Oscars, but I find it a small step below other nominees like Inside Out 2 and Wild Robot. The humor is top notch, and the plot is terrific as well. If you haven't given Wallace and Gromit a chance up to this point, this is a good one to watch.

Dog Man (2025)
https://cdn.theatertoolkit.com/media/pccmovies/features/posters/dog-man-do19822-Medium.jpg
3
This one was a rollercoaster of good and bad. It fell into the habit of a lot of animated movies these days with YouTube short-like techniques, using loud and fast-paced sequences that are disorienting for me. When it wasn't yelling in my face at dizzying speeds, the movie does have some good humor and a good heartfelt story. I think my daughter preferred this one between the two, but there is probably recency bias haha

[Takoma11]

At least I have a new Most Hated Character In Cinema (which excludes portrayals of real-World people). Veda, the Worst Seed I've ever seen on film, for the win.

If Mildred Pierce is mentioned anywhere in the vicinity of my sister, you will get an automatic "Ugh! Veda! She sucks!"

[Gideon58]

Well, I tried to be clear that I think it's a fine film, probably a good one, and maybe so good that it completely brought me down and made me hate people again because all of these characters are perfectly credible they are just all pretty terrible in their own ways and therefore just seem like a mirror for the worst of the World which is really just regular people being awful to each other because of how selfish and selfish-centered they are.

You don’t really make it clear at all. Maybe it’s just me.

[Takoma11]

You don’t really make it clear at all. Maybe it’s just me.

He does start by saying "To be clear, this movie is well-directed, well-filmed, well-acted, well-executed overall. It's probably well-written too but since I loathe these characters deeply . . . I can't say I liked the script."

I get what he means here: the elements of the movie are all good, but because it's so unpleasant being around these characters, it was not a good movie-watching experience.

[Gideon58]

But everything he says after that negates what he said at the beginning

[Takoma11]

But everything he says after that negates what he said at the beginning

I don't think so. He says that the characters were just so awful that the movie watching experience was terrible. And he even says that this was probably the point of the movie, and it "succeeds" in that sense, but it made for really disliking the overall experience.

I think that a movie can be a well-acted, well-written, well-directed, etc piece of work, but if the characters are unpleasant enough it just leaves you with a bad feeling. Like, "Oh right, people are awful and the world can be a terrible place. Thanks, movie!".

It doesn't mean the film is bad, it means that he had a negative experience, which are different things.

I know that I left the film not ever wanting to watch it again.

[Stirchley]

One of my favorite Nick Cage films!

I sat down last night & watched it again for bits I missed. Loved it.

[Stirchley]

105461

Excellent Sean Baker movie. Wild & crazy & I really enjoyed it.

[Wooley]

I don't think so. He says that the characters were just so awful that the movie watching experience was terrible. And he even says that this was probably the point of the movie, and it "succeeds" in that sense, but it made for really disliking the overall experience.

I think that a movie can be a well-acted, well-written, well-directed, etc piece of work, but if the characters are unpleasant enough it just leaves you with a bad feeling. Like, "Oh right, people are awful and the world can be a terrible place. Thanks, movie!".

It doesn't mean the film is bad, it means that he had a negative experience, which are different things.

I know that I left the film not ever wanting to watch it again.

Thank you for clarifying.
I thought it was clear (and you seem to have understood it perfectly) but I appreciate you clarifying for the people in the back you hit the nail on the head.

[SpelingError]

Thank you for clarifying.
I thought it was clear (and you seem to have understood it perfectly) but I appreciate you clarifying for the people in the back you hit the nail on the head.
For what it's worth, I understood what you meant as well, hence me saying "Though sure, I can certainly understand having a bad time with the film due to your hatred of the characters." I was just explaining why I didn't mind the unlikable characters in the film.

[LeBoyWondeur]

Capote (2005)

105465

I knew nothing about the man Capote, the novel or the circumstances thereof, and with Philip Seymour Hoffman in the lead role I figured this could be an interesting film.
Now, I'm pretty sure that PSH portrayed Capote as accurately as possible but that doesn't change the fact that I find this Capote character extremely annoying - what he says and how he says it.
Nevertheless I continued watching because I thought the story itself had something to offer, but apart from the basic facts (the crime, the novel, the visits to prison) I was still none the wiser after the film had ended.
Because of Capote's hot/cold approach I have no idea what this film tried to convey on a more emotional level.

Two hours of sheer annoyance, except for the supporting actors Catherine Keener and Chris Cooper.

1.5

[SpelingError]

Now, I'm curious. Which movie character would you guys say is the single worst person of all time (excluding movies based on real-life people)?

[Gideon58]

Capote (2005)

105465

I knew nothing about the man Capote, the novel or the circumstances thereof, and with Philip Seymour Hoffman in the lead role I figured this could be an interesting film.
Now, I'm pretty sure that PSH portrayed Capote as accurately as possible but that doesn't change the fact that I find this Capote character extremely annoying - what he says and how he says it.
Nevertheless I continued watching because I thought the story itself had something to offer, but apart from the basic facts (the crime, the novel, the visits to prison) I was still none the wiser after the film had ended.
Because of Capote's hot/cold approach I have no idea what this film tried to convey on a more emotional level.

Two hours of sheer annoyance, except for the supporting actors Catherine Keener and Chris Cooper.

1.5

Wow...1.5? I thought this movie was excellent...different strokes I guess.

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BYmVkYzUzNTEtMDNhNC00MjQxLTliYWQtODYyYzNjNzg2OGMyXkEyXkFqcGc@._V1_FMjpg_UX1000_.jpg



3rd Rewatch...The first time I ever saw this movie was at the V Drive Inn in Vestal New York. I was six years old. It put the rest of my family asleep. The late Debbie Reynolds received her only Oscar nomination for her rambunctious performance in this 1964 film version of the 1960 Meredith Wilson Broadway musical that won Tammy Grimes a Tony award. This is a fictionalized musical biopic about a real character who was one of the passengers on the ill fated Titanic. Reynolds plays Molly Tobin, a backwoods tomboy who grew up dirt poor in Leadville Colorado but dreams of becoming part of Denver society, with the aide of handsome minor named Leadville Johnny Brown (Harve Presnell), but Molly and Johnny learn that money doesn't buy social acceptance. Meredith Wilson's score has been butchered here, but we still have "I Ain't Down Yet", "Colorado My Home", "Belly Up to the Bar Boys", and a song written especially for the movie called "He's My Friend" The film features athletic choreography by Peter Gennaro that recalls some of Michael Kidd's best work. The scenes revolving around the Titanic are silly, but the rest of the movie is a lot of fun. Harve Presnell was born a little too late to become the next Howard Keel, but he sure had the pipes and I loved one of movie's favorite villainesses, Audrey Christie as Mrs. McGraw and Ed Begley is a lot of fun as Molly's father. There's also a brief appearance from Hayden Roarke, who you might remember as Dr. Bellows on I Dream of Jeannie. Kathy Bates' Molly Brown is probably a lot closer to the real Molly than Reynolds, but this is a musical, so that's OK. Oh and if you want a chuckle, look at Molly and Johnny's mansion in this movie and then google the real Molly Brown house in Denver. 3.5

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71qiE6Kz1RL._AC_UF894,1000_QL80_.jpg


1st Rewatch...The Safdie Brothers, who guided Adam Sandler to the best performance of his career in Uncut Gems, are the creative force behind this film about a two bit criminal (Robert Pattinson) who masterminds a bank robbery that lands his brother (Benny Safdie) in jail. When his brother ends up in the hospital, Pattinson plans to bust him out of the hospital but he kidnaps the wrong guy from the hospital. This story goes to some very cringy and crazy places, but Pattinson's performance makes it worth a look. 2

[Gideon58]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71s32zVAddL._AC_UF894,1000_QL80_.jpg


1st Rewatch...After losing the role of Scarlett in Gone With the Wind, Warner Brother decided to give Better Davis her own manipulative southern belle, resulting in Davis' second Oscar for Best Actress. Davis plays Julie Marsden, a wealthy society girl who embarrasses her business man fiancee (Henry Fonda) by wearing a red dress to a ball where women are supposed to wear white and then finds herself using a handsome soldier (George Brent), until Fonda comes back into her life. William Wyler's direction and Davis' flashy performance are definitely the show here. 4

[Gideon58]

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


Umpteenth Rewatch... In their final film together, Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn play the liberal-minded parents of a flighty 23 year old (Katherine Hougton, Hepburn's real life niece), who comes home from a trip to Hawaii with a black fiancee. The story is a little safer than it should be, but Tracy, Hepburn, and Poitier are an absolutely joy in this film. William Rose's screenplay won an Oscar and Hepburn won her second Best Actress Oscar. Tracy was also nominated posthumously, having died a few months after completing the film. 3.5

[Gideon58]

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


5th Rewatch...Alan J Pakula's meticulous direction and William Goldman's Oscar winning screenplay anchor this look at Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein's investigation of the Watergate scandal. The political thriller and detective drama blend seamlessly is one of the best docudramas ever made. In addition to Goldman's Oscar, the late Jason Robards won the first of consecutive Supporting Actor Oscars for his Post ediior Ben Bradlee. 5

[Wooley]

Now, I'm curious. Which movie character would you guys say is the single worst person of all time (excluding movies based on real-life people)?

Well, I've put in my vote. Veda Pierce, ftw.

[WHITBISSELL!]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BYmVkYzUzNTEtMDNhNC00MjQxLTliYWQtODYyYzNjNzg2OGMyXkEyXkFqcGc@._V1_FMjpg_UX1000_.jpg



3rd Rewatch...The first time I ever saw this movie was at the V Drive Inn in Vestal New York. I was six years old. It put the rest of my family asleep. The late Debbie Reynolds received her only Oscar nomination for her rambunctious performance in this 1964 film version of the 1960 Meredith Wilson Broadway musical that won Tammy Grimes a Tony award. This is a fictionalized musical biopic about a real character who was one of the passengers on the ill fated Titanic. Reynolds plays Molly Tobin, a backwoods tomboy who grew up dirt poor in Leadville Colorado but dreams of becoming part of Denver society, with the aide of handsome minor named Leadville Johnny Brown (Harve Presnell), but Molly and Johnny learn that money doesn't buy social acceptance. Meredith Wilson's score has been butchered here, but we still have "I Ain't Down Yet", "Colorado My Home", "Belly Up to the Bar Boys", and a song written especially for the movie called "He's My Friend" The film features athletic choreography by Peter Gennaro that recalls some of Michael Kidd's best work. The scenes revolving around the Titanic are silly, but the rest of the movie is a lot of fun. Harve Presnell was born a little too late to become the next Howard Keel, but he sure had the pipes and I loved one of movie's favorite villainesses, Audrey Christie as Mrs. McGraw and Ed Begley is a lot of fun as Molly's father. There's also a brief appearance from Hayden Roarke, who you might remember as Dr. Bellows on I Dream of Jeannie. Kathy Bates' Molly Brown is probably a lot closer to the real Molly than Reynolds, but this is a musical, so that's OK. Oh and if you want a chuckle, look at Molly and Johnny's mansion in this movie and then google the real Molly Brown house in Denver. rating_3_5As someone who isn't exactly drawn to musicals I really liked this film. It was my #6 pick on my Musical Countdowns ballot. Oh and ... https://gifs.cackhanded.net/galaxy-quest/miners-not-minors.gif

[LeBoyWondeur]

Well, I've put in my vote. Veda Pierce, ftw.
Isn't she supposed to be hateful?

Let's see if I can find a youtube video about "Veda being an iconic queen for 10 minutes straight" :D

[iluv2viddyfilms]

Sans Soleil (1983, Chris Marker) - B

Interesting documentary that I'll need to watch again. Some great travelogue and archival footage, and wonderful narration in taking seemingly disjointed pieces of different cultures: Japanese, Korean, Icelandic, American, and others. I'm remiss to use the word pretentious and while the exploration of memory and different cultures as well as juxtaposing those against cinematic images and allusions such as to Vertigo and Stalker is interesting, I still don't know if I could supply a proper thesis statement as to what this documentary is really about. Granted it's a first watch and I went into this a bit blind other than just simply being aware that it placed near the top of the Sight and Sound documentary list. Still it's captivating, but I'll need to watch it again if I really want to dissect and break it down.


-----

Hunger (2008, Steven McQueen) - A

Great movie; a very difficult watch, but how this thing is paced is beautiful and it certainly doesn't shy away from the horrors of the Maze Prison in Northern Ireland used to house and abuse IRA soldiers/terrorists (depending on your POV). Michael Fassbender is great and Steve McQueen's direction here is spectacular. It's the first film I've seen of his and I need to catch up and watch his others. The scene between Fassbender and Liam Cunningham is one of the best and most interesting scenes I've ever watched as the two battle intellectually and also pit their convictions against one another in a debate on whether or not a hunger strike is worthy martyrdom or simply prideful suicide.

[Allaby]

Witches (2024) This was an interesting and creative documentary. The editing and use of film clips was really well done and effective. 4

[Wooley]

Isn't she supposed to be hateful?

Let's see if I can find a youtube video about "Veda being an iconic queen for 10 minutes straight" :D

She ain't nuttin' nice as they say down here in New Orleans.

[LeBoyWondeur]

Lawman (1971)

105490

If this film had more humour it could have been the first "Fargo".
There's a meta reference about the story's "last days" of the wild west and the Western film genre that had run its course after dominating the big screen for several decades.
Instead of the traditional, bloodthirsty eye-for-an-eye narrative we get Burt Lancaster as Marshal Maddox who takes his job very, very seriously.
The crime committed that calls for justice doesn't involve the death of a child or a beautiful woman - it's an unknown old man who became a casualty in an act of drunken vandalism.
In other words, this is not another "I Did What I Did For Maria".

And yet, somehow, it does become an eye-for-an-eye situation: town Sabbath pays the price for the destruction in town Bannock.
The Sabbath town's folk rebel against Maddox almost in the same way as the classic Western genre rebels against this "soft" version, but in a sneaky way the film has its cake and eat it.
The dramatic climax could be perceived as depressing, personally I think it looks uncompromising and unforgiving which, again, was what many of the classic Westerns were all about.
And it certainly wasn't the first time Burt Lancaster starred in a film with a downbeat finale.

4

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/JnPMxhWF/holiday.jpg
By The poster art can or could be obtained from the distributor., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5796219

Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday (Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot) - (1953)

Obviously Rowan Atkinson's Mr Bean owes one hell of a lot to Jacques Tati's Monsieur Hulot, but there's a key difference to the worlds they exist in. Jacques Tati creates his very own universe in this where everyone, to some degree, is clumsy and accident prone. Funny things just happen here, almost of their own volition - it just so happens that Hulot (played by Tati) is basically the king of the idiots, very much amongst his own. Or at least, he's the one we follow most closely at a seaside resort where various French families vacation - there are no heroes or villains here, just men, women and children trying to have a good time. What we get is basically closest in style to old Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin silent films, with all manner of carefully set up gags which really require rapt attention - and they're all pretty clever and exceptionally well executed. I felt the same way here as I did during Jour de fête - there are so many little funny moments occurring at such a crazy pace that there are some I'll have missed completely. Tati's shots are busy, with characters and extras part of crazy set-pieces, very kinetic, high energy and driven. I had a great time watching it for the first time, I loved Tati's sense of humour and his ability to set up visual comedy that has such complexity to it.

8/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/80/For_the_Love_of_Mary_Poster.jpg
By Universal Pictures - http://sharemovi.es/movie/56722-for-the-love-of-mary, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=37023210

For the Love of Mary - (1948)

I've sat through a lot the past few years - and I pride myself on always making it to the end of movies, no matter how boring or pointless they might seem. I like to give them a chance to redeem themselves. Well, for the first time in a long time I'd completely lost interest by the time For the Love of Mary came to an end - and I've no idea who Mary Peppertree (Deanna Durbin) ended up with out of her three suitors. Mary is a switchboard operator in the White House, and even the President manages to play match-maker in this turgid rom-com. Durbin quit Hollywood after this movie - and you really can't blame her. It's such a languid, dull, plodding nothing of a movie punctuated occasionally by Durbin's amazing singing voice. Ugh. The worst of "just going through the motions" cinema.

4/10

[*Sky*]

Red River (1948) - Howard Hawks, Arthur Rosson: 8/10
https://64.media.tumblr.com/fe3b660045656e5178979a1db169ca2c/1ce2ff956c8fb38c-77/s500x750/e4dcd9c5ad311efcc67a97bb9f280503382a3c9c.gif

[chawhee]

The Lunchbox (2013)
https://play-lh.googleusercontent.com/VmXrKZdtWcpAHTlduEZh1n6Okzwc8Nfw7Yiq6KajzexLJ4oM5t0iQfUEqkTQNbjrcMev
3
A foreign movie with charm, but it doesn't really say much by the time it ends. It is about a man who mistakenly receives lunchboxes from a wife who thinks the lunchboxes are going to her husband. They both eventually realize the mistake but use the daily lunchbox to write increasingly personal letters back and forth.

[Fabulous]

Cooties (2014)

3.5

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/fhqyC981r2WPbElo1Wyp3i54eQM.jpg

[Gideon58]

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


2nd Rewatch...This is another one of those movies that can't decide if it's a sequel or a remake. On paper, this film is the story of a grown Rusty Griswald taking his wife (Christina Applegate) and kids to Walley World, but the film just basically rehashes most of the scenes in the 1983 Chevy Chase classic. 2.5

[Fabulous]

The Arrival (1996)

3.5

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/5UP1WoAbxsyG9ZuHViHyRzS0ia2.jpg

[Gideon58]

https://www.peterbrownstudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/WRB_Teaser1Sheet12_1080x1350_3.jpg


4.5

[Thief]

SUGARCANE
(2024, NoiseCat & Kassie)

https://i.imgur.com/Y1y2rff.jpeg


"Our community has been just screwed around enough by everybody. We're not gonna go through it again. I don't give a shit if it's the Oblates, the government, or whoever. You're gonna g0ddamn well be accountable, and we're gonna start now."



Sugarcane follows an investigation in Canada trying to find out the whereabouts of potentially hundreds of children that went missing during the period that boarding schools were in operation. The documentary is co-directed by Julian Brave NoiseCat, the son of one of the child survivors of one of these boarding schools, along with Emily Kassie. As part of their investigation, they talk with Julian's father, but also with several other people that were part of this system that was kept alive until early in the 20th Century.

The quote I shared above is from one of the victims of these boarding schools vowing to reveal what's "under the carpet", and to hold someone accountable for it. That is part of the mission from NoiseCat and Kassie as they dig deep, and in the case of NoiseCat, even within his own family, to uncover the truth. In the process, the documentary offers a series of very emotional and heart-breaking conversations and confrontations between those involved. Perhaps the most notable is that of NoiseCat and his father, but I was really moved by the conversation between one of the survivors and a Catholic priest (not involved in the events).

Grade: 3.5


Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2538341#post2538341)

[GulfportDoc]

105525

The Last Showgirl (2024)


This is a small movie about a deep subject: a woman’s defiant struggle to face the realities of both her age and loss of the steady job she has had as a showgirl in a long running Las Vegas extravagant stage production that is suddenly slated for closure. It’s fundamentally a women’s picture that showcases some first rate acting, chiefly by it’s star, Pamela Anderson, and co-star Jamie Lee Curtis.


Shelly Gardner (Anderson) is an aging showgirl who has fervently performed her part for 3 decades in a lavish revue at a major Vegas casino. She loves and completely inhabits her role as a performance artist, so much so that as the years go by it never occurs to her that it would eventually come to an end. But in fact the extravaganza has gradually become passe and out of fashion in comparison to the newer style of shows at other venues.


So when the cast is notified by its producer that the show will finally be canceled in two week’s time, Shelly is presented with the reality of what she can do with her life-- of what employment choices could be open to her. Her fading beauty and loss of dancing skills combine to severely limit the chances of getting hired for other stage shows. The story is predominantly about her quandary, and her relationship with her daughter, an old friend, and a previous lover.

If there ever was a part written that was filled by the perfect choice, it was the role of Shelly Gardner for Pamela Anderson. In fact playwright and eventual screenwriter Kate Gersten, on whose play Body of Work was developed into The Last Showgirl, stated that the project had earlier been shelved because they simply could not find the right actress for the crucial key role. When Anderson eventually was given the script to read, she was immediately struck by how much she related to the character. She had not done many serious dramatic roles over the course of her career, having begun as a regular in Playboy magazine, making her soon rather typecast as a sex symbol ala Jayne Mansfield or Marilyn Monroe.


But here she let out all the stops in delivering an obviously heartfelt range of emotions, while subtly portraying Shelly’s childlike naivete that she would stay in her bubble forever-- that her well familiar life in the show would never end. When her long term employment abruptly came to a close, its as if she had to wake up to a new reality, and to try in desperation to stay in the business that she had entered as a young woman 30 years before, whereas now as an older woman she found herself no longer equipped for its demands.


Her friend Annette (Curtis) had earlier been released as a showgirl owing to her age. She had found employment as a casino cocktail waitress, having faced the fact that she had few options. But even in that job she had been reduced to unpopular shifts in favor of younger more attractive girls. It took courage for Curtis to take on a role that accentuated the character’s unattractiveness, much like Bette Davis did in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?. Curtis as Annette was so natural that she was completely believable in the part.


Mention must be made of the part of Eddie, the producer of the long running revue, played with a soft understated demeanor by Dave Bautista-- a hulk of a man who had been for years in real life a world wrestling champion and tough guy. His masterful portrayal of a sympathetic but realistic stage producer will guarantee him future complex roles.


The only slight deficit in the picture was in its last act writing. After all the activity and emotional ups and downs in the story the viewer would have benefited from a more definitive, a more explanatory ending. We know what happens, and it’s gratifying enough, but a more spelled out finish would have perfected the film.

It’s remarkable that with a slim budget of less than $2 million that the producer Robert Schwartzman and director Gia Coppola were able to lay out a film about a large casino revue (based upon the historic long running show Jubilee! at Bally’s Las Vegas). Upon reflection we realize that we never actually saw any production numbers or expansive representation of the stage show itself. Yet the viewers see that in their minds. The filming confines itself mostly to interiors and tight exterior shots, which enabled the budget to be kept at a minimum.


But it is the award caliber of acting that is the big draw to this thoroughly enjoyable movie. Dropped into a slate of big budgeted splashy films, this little but poignant story is gratifying to experience.

Doc’s rating: 9/10

[MovieGal]

105528
The Monkey
(2025)
3.75/5

The kills were good and there was humor in them. The story was just ok.

If you want gore, this may work for you.

[*Sky*]

Lirica ucraina (2024) - Francesca Mannocchi: 7/10
https://pad.mymovies.it/filmclub/2024/09/179/locandina.jpg

[BigBendHiker68]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMjE4NDI2OTUwMl5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwNzg2NjQzMTE@._V1_.jpg


A rollicking Australian "meat pie" Western helmed by Fred Zinnemann (High Noon, From Here to Eternity) that follows Robert Mitchum as Paddy Carmody, a wanderlust-driven drover, and Deborah Kerr, his long-suffering wife Ida who, like their spirited teenaged son Sean, is tired of their nomadic lifestyle and longs to finally plant roots and settle down.


A great story that captures the rugged spirit of sheep station life in rural 1920s Australia, and beautifully shot by Oscar-winning DP Jack Hilyard (Bridge on the River Kwai). Dimitri Tiomkin's whimsical score meshes perfectly, with great supporting turns by Peter Ustinov and Glynis Johns.


4.5

[ueno_station54]

https://a.ltrbxd.com/resized/film-poster/8/9/0/0/8/8/890088-universal-language-0-2000-0-3000-crop.jpg?v=56c3b2dbbc
omg this was so funny but also beautiful. definitely a 2024 highlight.
4

[PHOENIX74]

https://i.postimg.cc/3xBssz6N/truce.jpg
Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18535723

Truce - (2005)

Old red meat-eating Harry Dodds (Buck Taylor) is trying to work his cattle ranch but he's getting on in years and the banks are riding him hard - when his daughter dies, he also finds himself looking after granddaughter Jenny (Samantha Droke) who'd rather send text messages to her friends than do a hard day's ranch work for him. What's a God-fearin', red state simple man to do? Absolute bargain basement movie-making standards, poor acting, mind-numbingly threadbare story and the worst guitar-twanging country score I've ever heard combine to produce 106 minutes of cattle country torture. Oscar winner George Kennedy drops in a few times as Dr. Peter Gannon, always on hand when Harry falls off his horse to pat him on the shoulder and burst into tears while shaking his head.

3/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f9/Viy_%281967_film%29.jpg
By Official film poster - https://www.kinopoisk.ru/picture/2619576/#, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=51874338

Viy - (1967)

Great stuff. This is the very definition of a classic. What I saw was a cultural treasure that is a whole heap of fun to watch - and a must-see for any fan of world cinema. Full review here (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?p=2538427#post2538427), in my watchlist thread.

9/10

[chawhee]

Love Actually (2003)
https://tse3.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.d7JTBph7bgKpFqIssW-FlAHaF1&pid=15.1
2
First time watching this...maybe this just hasn't held up over time? Reviews appear to be rather positive generally, but I thought this was borderline unwatchable. Every romantic cliche is thrown in, the tone is all over the place...He's Just Not That Into You does this kind of thing much better.

[Raven73]

Captain America: Brave New World
7/10.
I've seen mostly bad reviews of it, but I honestly didn't think it was that bad.

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNDRjY2E0ZmEtN2QwNi00NTEwLWI3MWItODNkMGYwYWFjNGE0XkEyXkFqcGc@._V1_FMjpg_UX1000_.jpg

[Stirchley]

105557
105558
105559

Three good movies.

[Gideon58]

Haven't seen the first two, but The Woodsman was excellent...Bacon was robbed of an Oscar nomination.

[Gideon58]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c1/Cabin_in_the_Sky_%281943_film_poster%29.jpg


1st Rewatch...Vincente Minnelli made his directorial debut with this 1943 film version of a Broadway musical about a womanizing gambler named Joe Jackson (Eddie "Rochester" Anderson) who is trying to give up gambling but is talked into one last shot at a big payoff that ends up getting him shot. The Devil's son arrives at Joe's bedside to take him to hell, but God's #1 assistant, known as the General, shows up because of Joe's wife's Petunia's prayers, that are so heartfelt and sincere that God decides to give Joe six months to change his ways. Lucifer Jr decides to fight back with a $50,000 sweepstakes ticket and a smoking hot temptress named Georgia Brown to tempt Joe back to his old ways. The film features exuberant direction of Minnelli of an all black cast and seven songwriters, including the composers who scored The Wizard of Oz, contributed to the terrific score, which includes "Consequences". "Takin a Chance on Love", and the Oscar-nominated "Happiness is a thing called Joe.' Ethel Waters is a delight reprising her Broadway role as Petunia and work well with Anderson, taking over the role originated on Broadway by Dooley Wilson. Rex Ingram and Kenneth Spencer are total scene stealers as Lucifer Jr and the General, and Lena Horne makes the most of the somewhat thankless role of Georgia Brown. An engaging musical that clearly hints at the legendary director Minnelli would become. 3.5

[Gideon58]

https://eriklundegaard.com/media/2/love-me-or-leave-me.jpg


3rd Rewatch...For my money, the finest performance of Doris Day's career. This 1955 musical biopic is a fictionalized look at the career of 1930's torch singer Ruth Etting and her relationship with a gangster named Marty "The Gimp" Snyder (James Cagney) and how supposedly the help that Marty offered Etting with her career turned out to cost Etting any control of her life or career. The film features Day's take on several classic songs, but that scene of her in that black dress singing 'Ten Cents a Dance" is worth the price of admission alone. Cagney's explosive performance as Snyder but earned him an Oscar nomination but somehow Day was denied a nomination for her amazing performance in this film...Day has never been so adult, so sexy onscreen. Daniel Fuchs' screenplay did win an Oscar. 4

[Thief]

THE APPRENTICE
(2024, Abbasi)

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


"What is truth, Tony? What is truth? You know what's truth? What you say is truth, what I say is truth, what he says is truth. What is the truth in life? Deny everything, admit nothing. You know what's true? What I say is true."



That is one of the "rules" shared by Donald Trump (Sebastian Stan) towards the end of The Apprentice. Rules that he adopted from his former attorney Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong), and which set the basis of how he relates to others and how he does business. This film follows Trump's early years as a real estate developer in New York and his eventual rise to the spotlight, which started under Cohn's tutelage.

I know this might be a shaky film to write about and I might be pushing the boundaries with Yoda of what to say, but as far as the film goes, I think it does a pretty good job of showing how the main character got from Point A to Point B. The way his character evolves seems pretty consistent with the different variables around him, from his relationship with his father to Cohn's manipulation, and gives us an interesting outlook of the actual real-life figure.

Grade: 4


Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2538572#post2538572)

[Stirchley]

THE APPRENTICE
(2024, Abbasi)

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




That is one of the "rules" shared by Donald Trump (Sebastian Stan) towards the end of The Apprentice. Rules that he adopted from his former attorney Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong), and which set the basis of how he relates to others and how he does business. This film follows Trump's early years as a real estate developer in New York and his eventual rise to the spotlight, which started under Cohn's tutelage.

I know this might be a shaky film to write about and I might be pushing the boundaries with Yoda of what to say, but as far as the film goes, I think it does a pretty good job of showing how the main character got from Point A to Point B. The way his character evolves seems pretty consistent with the different variables around him, from his relationship with his father to Cohn's manipulation, and gives us an interesting outlook of the actual real-life figure.

Grade: 4


Full review on my Movie Loot (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?anchor=1&p=2538572#post2538572)

I loved this movie.

[Wooley]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c1/Cabin_in_the_Sky_%281943_film_poster%29.jpg


1st Rewatch...Vincente Minnelli made his directorial debut with this 1943 film version of a Broadway musical about a womanizing gambler named Joe Jackson (Eddie "Rochester" Anderson) who is trying to give up gambling but is talked into one last shot at a big payoff that ends up getting him shot. The Devil's son arrives at Joe's bedside to take him to hell, but God's #1 assistant, known as the General, shows up because of Joe's wife's Petunia's prayers, that are so heartfelt and sincere that God decides to give Joe six months to change his ways. Lucifer Jr decides to fight back with a $50,000 sweepstakes ticket and a smoking hot temptress named Georgia Brown to tempt Joe back to his old ways. The film features exuberant direction of Minnelli of an all black cast and seven songwriters, including the composers who scored The Wizard of Oz, contributed to the terrific score, which includes "Consequences". "Takin a Chance on Love", and the Oscar-nominated "Happiness is a thing called Joe.' Ethel Waters is a delight reprising her Broadway role as Petunia and work well with Anderson, taking over the role originated on Broadway by Dooley Wilson. Rex Ingram and Kenneth Spencer are total scene stealers as Lucifer Jr and the General, and Lena Horne makes the most of the somewhat thankless role of Georgia Brown. An engaging musical that clearly hints at the legendary director Minnelli would become. 3.5

I have such great affection for this movie.
It used to be on Turner Classic Movies kind of a lot back when I had cable and would just leave that channel on in the background all the time and I must have seen parts or all of the movie at least five or six times. It's another Comfort Movie for me.

[BloodArtliterature]

A Deck of Girls
Desolation came as a weapon from groups and societies, generating a propagation for wandering perseverance.

Girls, symbols of manipulation power, fell into the hands of perpetrators, absorbing the course in knowledge of our love. A friendship elevated in social promotion.

Our memories drained, as this world became a prison. Conquerors vibrate their talks in timbres of war.

The girls, incapable of forming perceptions by our presence, are held prisoner, as machines continue to hold power, influencing the virtual world.

The devices that now enrich the intellect are the fame business in the social bubbles within our memories that have been built with imagination.

Artificial Intelligence is seen as an interruption course from where our perception took place. Errant Personas, Scattered Groups, Machines, and the new keyword: Get Lost.

BloodArt(literature)

[exiler96]

The Crime of Monsieur Lange (1936) - It's Renoir; so it's full of sudden blues, perfect comic timing and humanity. Got me a while to get on with it's characters (they're not even that, they're "types") but the titular guy himself is a wonderfully-realized protagonist, one that any daydreamer would sympathize with and grow to love. He's a comic book artist who thinks loves a brunette but really falls for a blonde, while the both of them (and a whole neighborhood, really) get rid of an asshat of a boss...or they think so.

I wish it was longer and we would've gotten the chance to sit better (and more, duration-wise) with this crowd if only to follow their motivations more clearly, in close-ups. I normally appreciate an 80-mins running time usually but here I thought things could use more exploration. It's that attractive... Also brought to my attention actor Jules Berry who played another charming baddie in Daybreak (1937) clashing with Gabin. Can't wait to watch this again already.... 8/10.

https://media-cache.cinematerial.com/p/500x/nwxpmlhm/le-crime-de-monsieur-lange-british-movie-poster.jpg?v=1536773666

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/56/Blink_Twice_poster.jpeg
By http://www.impawards.com/2024/blink_twice_xxlg.html, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=76717070

Blink Twice - (2024)

What Get Out was to race, Blink Twice seems to cover regarding misogyny and the 'Me Too' era - along with our reckoning due to the revelations regarding Jeffrey Epstein (I nearly typed Brian Epstein - possibly sending at least one person on a wild goose chase) - I did question whether scenes dealing with sexual violence might make this too unpleasant a watch (the film starts with a warning), but the audience is well looked after by Zoë Kravitz. Great casting - the women shine, especially Naomi Ackie and Adria Arjona, but then we get our group of villains, a delicious variety including Channing Tatum, Christian Slater, Red Rocket's Simon Rex and a surprising turn from Haley Joel Osment, stepping out from beneath the shadow of his boyhood performances. Geena Davis fits into that mix nicely. The basic plot - which is too spoiler-specific to really go into at all - is just about as unbelievable as that of Get Out, but I found the climax of the film psychologically satisfying in a very primal way. The mantra "Are you having a good time?" will never sound the same again, and you'll most likely feel sick whenever you hear it. From my perspective, at least, I thought the whole package works really well.

7/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/94/Winter_in_Wartime_%28film%29.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=26491080

Winter in Wartime - (2008)

I was expecting a little more from this Dutch movie which focuses on a boy in his early teens coming to terms with the Nazi occupation of his town in Holland. Michiel van Beusekom (Martijn Lakemeier) has a father who kowtows to the Germans, much to his eternal shame and disgust. He feels he has to do something to resist, and when he discovers an injured British airman he takes it upon himself to help him escape, with the aid of his sister Erica (Melody Klaver). The question of whether you get along with your occupiers to help your family and friends or be honorable and fight them is a tricky one - and depends on who you are as a person. This moral minefield is further complicated by the fact that the Germans arbitrarily start executing civilians in retaliation to airman Jack's (Jamie Campbell Bower) killing of a soldier - meaning that Michiel could have saved these people, but at the high price of turning in the airman to authorities. The grey areas in Jan Terlouw's novel of the same name are less hazy here, although Michiel is saved at one point from drowning by a German soldier - this is more of a basic wartime coming of age adventure and as such a little less interesting than it could have been if the novel's themes had of been explored, but Martin Koolhoven and co took the more mainstream and less controversial route.

6/10

[Fabulous]

Night of the Comet (1984)

3

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/wE1x0OinNZ7RxFOLfXRSHZ91gx8.jpg

[ueno_station54]

https://a.ltrbxd.com/resized/film-poster/3/3/6/4/8/0/336480-8-reels-of-sewage-0-2000-0-3000-crop.jpg?v=788e7e304f
Jared Masters really does just get by by casting really charming women and having them talk to each other lol.
3

[Gideon58]

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



3.5

[Captain Quint]

105623

Heist (2001)
Not bad but not truly effective as a twisty thriller because throughout I was thinking, it's all a con; on top of a con on top of a con... My 58th Hackman film, RIP Gene.

3

[Darth Pazuzu]

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/Za0AAOSwgXxnhNU6/s-l1600.webp

February 19, 2025

BECOMING LED ZEPPELIN (Bernard MacMahon / 2025)

I've been a die-hard Led Zeppelin fan practically from the womb. My parents had all of their albums, and I pretty much know them all front to back. And I've read my share of books about Led Zeppelin, seen and heard many interviews, seen the 1976 concert film The Song Remains the Same as well as the Led Zeppelin DVD. I've also got the mid-'90s Page & Plant albums and live DVD, most of the solo discs from the ex-members, the live reunion CD and DVD Celebration Day from 2007, and I also like the 2008 music documentary It Might Get Loud featuring guitarist Jimmy Page along with Jack White and The Edge. I say all this not to brag or boast of being Led Zeppelin's #1 fan or anything gauche like that, but merely to point out that there was very little in Bernard MacMahon's admittedly well-made and lovingly-crafted documentary that came as a surprise to me or that I didn't already know.

Here are four facts that I already knew (to limit the list):

1) Jimmy Page brought his guitar to school with him as a young boy, but the school authorities always confiscated it and only gave it back to him at the end of the day.

2) John Paul Jones' father was a pianist and big band arranger who counseled his son to take up the saxophone instead of the bass guitar, which he felt would be only a passing fad.

3) The first song that all four members of Led Zeppelin played together in a rehearsal space was the classic Tiny Bradshaw / Johnny Burnette rock 'n' roller Train Kept A-Rollin' (to be covered later on by Aerosmith, Motörhead, etc.)

4) Singer Robert Plant and John Bonham had played together in a group called Band of Joy before joining Led Zeppelin.

(A lot of this information, and many other things, were revealed on a bonus interview disc which was included on the 1990 Remasters compilation, and there was another interview disc featured as a bonus with the 1997 The BBC Sessions, in which I learned many things that aren't in this movie. For example, in an interview with Jimmy Page, the interviewer at one point mentioned that Robert Plant had once revealed to him that Rosemary Clooney's 1955 hit Where Will the Dimple Be? was one of his formative musical influences from childhood... a fact which Jimmy hadn't known and seemed genuinely amused by! :lol:)

Another issue I have with the movie is that it only focuses on the first two years of the band's existence, 1968 and 1969, covering only the first two albums. Granted, not every band is lucky enough to have an opening double-shot like that, and Led Zeppelin and Led Zeppelin II comprise probably the best opening double-shot in any band's career. But I'm definitely more of a fan of later albums such as 1971's Led Zeppelin IV (featuring Stairway to Heaven, Black Dog and When the Levee Breaks), 1973's Houses of the Holy (featuring The Song Remains the Same, Over the Hills and Far Away, No Quarter and The Ocean) and 1975's defining epic double-album Physical Graffiti (featuring Kashmir, the actual song Houses of the Holy, Trampled Underfoot and Ten Years Gone). Yet this period is not dealt with in the movie, preoccupied as it is merely with the group's beginnings. "My hunch, my... opinion" (as Lee J. Cobb's Lt. William F. Kinderman said in 1973's The Exorcist)... is that to address the events of the later '70s would be to potentially delve into the more darker and more sensationalistic aspects of the band's existence (the drugs, the groupies, Aleister Crowley and the occult) which - in addition to great personal trauma and tragedy - have served as grist for many a Led Zeppelin biography over the past 40 years (in particular Stephen Davis' defining 1985 text Hammer of the Gods). The fact of the matter is, the surviving members of Led Zeppelin possess far too much gentlemanly English reserve to make anything coming within even spitting distance of something like Mötley Crüe's The Dirt. But it would have been kind of nice if the film's coverage had included the writing and making of Led Zeppelin III in 1970, during which the band had rented an 18th-century cottage in Wales to write songs, and the abode's lack of electricity and running water encouraged a stylistic tilt toward a more acoustically-driven, folkier sound. That was a major development in the band's musical creativity, and was a giant step towards what they would achieve in something like the song Stairway to Heaven in 1971.

But having said all that... ;) Becoming Led Zeppelin is nevertheless a superior rock documentary in almost every respect. There is much terrific live footage here, with standouts including a Danish black-and-white TV performance of How Many More Times and a raging take on Dazed and Confused filmed for a program called Supershow in a London studio filled with smoke and dry ice and a smattering of applauding audience members. It's always fun to watch Page, Plant and Jones reminisce and tell the stories of their lives and careers, collectively and individually. And there is a wonderful treat for fans in the form of a super-rare audio interview with late drummer John Bonham, who had passed away in 1980, and whose perspective completes the picture provided by the other surviving members.

In short... Yes, this movie covered a lot of territory which was already quite familiar to me as a lifelong superfan, but for casual viewers or those people out there who may be passingly familiar with Led Zeppelin's music and don't know the story of the group's origins (and it's probably only the second-greatest "superhero origin story" of rock and roll after The Beatles), this rock documentary is a highly-recommended treasure. :up:

[iluv2viddyfilms]

The Butcher Boy (1997, Neil Jordan) - A+

What can one say about those nasty communists, Nugents, and aliens?


https://m.media-amazon.com/images/S/pv-target-images/30b0914bbd865951234fc11208329a65d477a5e8ea3f60a055a674c3736ad52b.jpg

[Beenting1963]

Inside Out 2 8/10

[Fabulous]

The Big Easy (1986)

3

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/4RBQjZlgojXfTraDlAWo3ecY3pw.jpg

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a8/The_Muppet_Movie.jpg
By https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079588/, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15518760

The Muppet Movie - (1979)

I'd had this on decades-long overdue rewatch status for a while - mostly to catch the multitude of cameos which mean so much more to me now than they did back then. Dom DeLuise, James Coburn, Madeline Kahn, Telly Savalas, Paul Williams, Elliott Gould, Bob Hope, Richard Pryor, Steve Martin, Mel Brooks and Orson Welles for a start! They only get a scene - sometimes two, and are gone so fast, but that line-up of talent really gives some indication of what status the Muppets had at that time. The movie is a lot of fun, and obviously Jerry Juhl, Jack Burns and James Frawley had their heart in the right place, making something true to the style and feel of the television show.

7/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7c/Empire_of_Passion.jpg
Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21565514

Empire of Passion - (1978)

This surely wasn't your average "kaidan" (Japanese ghost/supernatural) film, but a psychologically intense experience that grabbed my attention. Full review here (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?p=2539066#post2539066), in my watchlist thread.

8/10

[ScarletLion]

105557
105558
105559

Three good movies.

Three brilliant films. I'd say 'Poetry' is the greatest Korean fillm I have ever seen and one of my favourites of all time

[ScarletLion]

[CENTER]THE APPRENTICE
(2024, Abbasi)


I want to watch this but the subject content is far, far more depressing than any grim, bleak, Eastern European fare I have on my watchlist, I can't bring myself to watch it.

[chawhee]

Phantom Thread (2017)
https://www.bollywoodcrazies.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/phantom-thread-review.jpg
3
A random article convinced me to watch this, despite myself knowing it is not my type of movie. My expectations got even lower once I watched the first few scenes, but it grew on me by the end. The acting is brilliant...its just everything else haha

[Hotel Security]

^Love the Phantom Thread...as bizarre as it can be, I feel it's a great love story overall. PTA's the man.

I have a couple I've seen for the first time:

Red Rooms (2024) - Excellent French movie out of Quebec about a woman who is closely following the trial of a serial killer and all that comes from it. A really interesting character study in a sense which is never gory but often unsettling. Can't recommend it enough.

Sexy Beast (2000) - Jonathan Glazer's first movie which I finally got around to seeing...Ray Winstone is a retired criminal with Ben Kingsley there to get him to do a final job. Kingsley is ****ing amazing in this movie...he's vulger, rude, terrible, sadistic, and bloody hilarious at the same time. It's worth seeing it just for him. I read there's 400 F-words and 300 C-words in this movie and I'll bet almost all of them come from Kingsley.

[LeBoyWondeur]

For my money, the finest performance of Doris Day's career. This 1955 musical biopic is a fictionalized look at the career of 1930's torch singer Ruth Etting and her relationship with a gangster named Marty "The Gimp" Snyder (James Cagney) and how supposedly the help that Marty offered Etting with her career turned out to cost Etting any control of her life or career. The film features Day's take on several classic songs, but that scene of her in that black dress singing 'Ten Cents a Dance" is worth the price of admission alone.
I haven't seen much of Doris Day so maybe I'm going to give this one a try.

[Stirchley]

105668
105669

Two terrific movies. The first one is Iranian & had to be shot in total secrecy, which is incredible to imagine. Risking one’s life to make a movie.

The second movie is Danish. Based on a true story.

[Gideon58]

^Love the Phantom Thread...as bizarre as it can be, I feel it's a great love story overall. PTA's the man.

I have a couple I've seen for the first time:

Red Rooms (2024) - Excellent French movie out of Quebec about a woman who is closely following the trial of a serial killer and all that comes from it. A really interesting character study in a sense which is never gory but often unsettling. Can't recommend it enough.

Sexy Beast (2000) - Jonathan Glazer's first movie which I finally got around to seeing...Ray Winstone is a retired criminal with Ben Kingsley there to get him to do a final job. Kingsley is ****ing amazing in this movie...he's vulger, rude, terrible, sadistic, and bloody hilarious at the same time. It's worth seeing it just for him. I read there's 400 F-words and 300 C-words in this movie and I'll bet almost all of them come from Kingsley.

LOVE Sexy Beast

[Gideon58]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/64/End_of_Watch_Poster.jpg


1st Rewatch...This gritty police drama from the director of Suicide Squad is a documentary-styled look at the lives of a pair of beat cops played by Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena that might b a little over the top in terms of what beat cops have to deal with but will keep the viewer on the edge of their seat. Mention should also be made of a supporting performance by David Harbour who gets seriously injured during the film's climax. Fans of Training Day will have a head start here. 4

[Stirchley]

LOVE Sexy Beast

Me too. Never heard of Red Rooms, but it’s now in my Q.

[Wooley]

Night of the Comet (1984)

3

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/wE1x0OinNZ7RxFOLfXRSHZ91gx8.jpg

One of my favorite movies ever.

[Deschain]

^Love the Phantom Thread...as bizarre as it can be, I feel it's a great love story overall. PTA's the man.

I have a couple I've seen for the first time:

Red Rooms (2024) - Excellent French movie out of Quebec about a woman who is closely following the trial of a serial killer and all that comes from it. A really interesting character study in a sense which is never gory but often unsettling. Can't recommend it enough.

Sexy Beast (2000) - Jonathan Glazer's first movie which I finally got around to seeing...Ray Winstone is a retired criminal with Ben Kingsley there to get him to do a final job. Kingsley is ****ing amazing in this movie...he's vulger, rude, terrible, sadistic, and bloody hilarious at the same time. It's worth seeing it just for him. I read there's 400 F-words and 300 C-words in this movie and I'll bet almost all of them come from Kingsley.

I watched these two for the first time in the last few months too and they are both excellent.

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/0d/Civil_War_2024_film_poster.jpeg
By https://a24films.com/films/civil-war, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=75518807

Civil War - (2024)

It's war in the United States as a despotic president embarks on an unconstitutional third term and creates mayhem for his people - Texas and California secede and join other friendly states to create the "Western Forces", aimed at bringing him down. Chaos envelops the country as law and order breaks down, militias cause havoc, and America's mighty war machines rain down shock and awe destruction on their own people. Jaded journalist Lee Smith (Kirsten Dunst) records the horror so that people everywhere can see what's happening, and for posterity's sake - she's aided by Joel (Wagner Moura), a Reuters journalist from Florida, Jessie (Cailee Spaeny), a young aspiring photographer and Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson), an old veteran journalist as the four brave various horrors and hardship and try to make their way to Washington D.C. in the hopes they can interview the president, on the brink of defeat. This was pretty chilling, because how close are we to this very scenario now? Is it a case of not if, but when? I loved how Alex Garland really made the movie American, with micro-conflicts flaring up all over the country, and wherever our intrepid journalists go - armed groups seizing their chance to settle scores and make their plays. In the meantime the media do all they can to dramatize the symptom - death, misery, pain, destruction - for a nation captivated by violence, and compelled by anger. The movie sidesteps politics by showing us the war from an outsiders perspective - that of journalists who simply record without interfering, even if that means watching men and women die. From what I'd heard of this, it was better than I thought it was going to be.

8/10

[skizzerflake]

What a story....Last Breath - There aren't many movies like this anymore, a "ripped from the headlines" adventure of a valiant rescue in stormy Arctic water. Deep divers, trapped way underwater, can't come up fast due to being down so long, The Bends and all that, air is running low and the storm is raging. It's Woody Harrelson as straight as I've ever seen him, a crew of unknowns, all sincere, dedicated and working their guts out to save the crew member. It's one of those rare "right stuff" kind of movies, quite enjoyable as well as very tense. It's unusual enough to get 8/10 from me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9JkXIA-I1E

[GulfportDoc]

105689

A Complete Unknown (2024)


Entertainer biopics are tough to pull off because they often end up being caricatures of caricatures, the subjects themselves being larger than life in their fame. Although A Complete Unknown encapsulates only 4 years of Bob Dylan’s early rise to stardom (from 1961 to 1965), which should have been an easier task than trying to highlight events over Dylan’s 50+ year career, the writers nevertheless broke no new ground in the method of telling the story. The screenplay had a formulaic feel to it, even though director James Mangold had previously directed and co-wrote the excellent biopic of Johnny Cash, Walk the Line (2005). So Mangold’s reputation, along with the obvious attraction of Dylan’s star power, likely were the major factors in securing the $50-$70 million funding for the project.


The chief draw in this film is the superb acting of its star and co-stars: Timothee Chalamet as Bob Dylan, Edward Norton as Pete Seeger, and Elle Fanning as Sylvie Russo. Honorable mention goes to Boyd Holbrook as Johnny Cash.


But it is Chalamet who is stunning with his near perfect impersonation of Dylan, and his ability to express moods and thoughts with the use of his eyes and facial expressions. His impression of Dylan’s singing and speaking voices, along with his not dissimilar facial resemblance to his character, combined to present an uncanny likeness of the famous musician. His portrayal is certainly the equal of Austin Butler’s in Elvis (2022), Sissy Spacek’s Loretta Lynn in Coal Miner’s Daughter (1980), or Dennis Quaid as Jerry Lee Lewis in Great Balls of Fire! (1989).


It’s remarkable that Chalamet, Norton, Holbrook, and Monica Barbaro (as Joan Baez) did their own singing and instrument playing, all the while recording their songs live during filming.


For those who were present during those early ‘60s years, and were fans of the principals, the movie is a poignant revisiting of that era. Reportedly the main driver of the project was Dylan’s then heretical use of electric instruments in opposition to the orthodoxy of the established folk music scene, and what a strong negative reaction that it caused among the seasoned folk movement. It was if Dylan had betrayed them and their collectivist philosophy. Their resentment was profound. Many viewers in contemporary audiences will not be troubled by that distinction, since it appears in hindsight as a natural progression. Dylan was chiefly driven by his desire to express his art rather than be a representative of an established subculture. He would go on to compose and perform in many music styles in his famously eclectic career.


Though the screenplay itself is not remarkable enough to garner the highest awards, the first rate quality of the performances alone make A Complete Unknown a fascinating picture.


Doc’s rating; 7/10

[GulfportDoc]

^Love the Phantom Thread...as bizarre as it can be, I feel it's a great love story overall. PTA's the man.
...
I agree. It's a fine film. Some commentary:

Phantom Thread (2017)

It stands to reason that serious movies deserve seriously considered commentary. Films which have drawn together first rate writers, director, cast and craft people are at a higher level in terms of expectations, and set a higher standard for reflection.

Paul Thomas Anderson's Phantom Thread has been placed in that elite group of films which come out every so often that have garnered the type of attention and anticipation reserved for serious cinematic artists. In fact the film was already considered to be of the highest caliber before most people even saw it. And in most aspects the picture did not disappoint.

The film is beautiful to watch. The camera work, art and set design by Denis Schnegg and Veronique Melery, and costume design by Mark Bridges, along with attention to detail, expertly place the viewer into mid-1950s London where the story takes place. The music score by Johnny Greenwood uses an entire palette of musical styles from several periods (Romantic, Impressionism, Modern, avant-garde) to enhance the story. Reportedly Anderson had no cinematographer, but relied heavily for the photography on the camera people.

We are immediately drawn into the high end personal dressmaking trade of the 1950s, and to one of it's most painstaking and eccentric high priests of the trade, Reynolds Woodcock, whose designs grace the figures of wealthy, famous, and royal ladies of London. He lives and breathes dressmaking, which allows him no personal life apart from interaction with his sister, who serves as his manager, confidant, and sounding board. His dress making process is like battlefield preparation, assembling his soldiers for their tasks, and having the maneuvers carried out with military precision. But soon Woodcock happens upon a waitress by whom he is enchanted, and the rest of the story mostly concerns their relationship.

The film was anticipated to be masterful, the presumption magnified by Daniel Day-Lewis' announcement that he was retiring from film making due to the rigors of performance in this project. His acting was predictably exceptional and many-faceted. Lesley Manville, as Woodcock's sister, turned in an icy cold and first class performance, putting many in mind of Judith Anderson's Mrs. Danvers in Hitchcock's Rebecca. Vicky Krieps was good as Woodcock's mistress, although she seemed slightly miscast, lacking of a full range. The rest of the cast was as natural and believable as if it were a documentary. And in fact many of those playing Woodcock's staff were not actors, but professional seamstresses.

There was no plot to the film, but instead more of a linear story. The relationship between Woodcock and his mistress, who he eventually marries, goes through many changes, as does the juxtaposition of his sister and wife. But midway through the final act Woodcock suddenly has a major personality change. Within five minutes the movie shifts from an intriguing drama to an art house film. The result is mystifying and not quite believable.

To suddenly believe that Woodcock would knowingly and purposefully consume poisonous mushrooms to make himself ill in order to enter into a pact with his wife, who will then both control and take care of him, is perplexing and uncharacteristic. Putting his life in jeopardy to continuously be his wife's ward strains credulity. The scene offered the opportunity for a fine bit of acting from  Day-Lewis; and in fact reportedly the idea for this came from a time when Anderson himself was sick, and his wife showed him extreme tenderness. But yet the notion that the protagonist as a self-centered monomaniacal artist who insists on obedience and complete control of all his endeavors would suddenly cede his life and well being to another is irretrievably far-fetched. Presumably Anderson must have been consumed by the story point, but since it was not lead up to with sufficient preparation, it didn't make sense.

The title Phantom Thread was itself a phantom, since the word "phantom" has no bearing on the story, except to perhaps give the project more mystique. One could imagine that simply "Thread", or "Woodcock's Thread" might have better fit the bill.

Doc's rating: 7/10

[Fabulous]

The Iron Lady (2011)

3

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/rZbscyHQk2dFb8PyX0bQhDbkK1e.jpg

[BeeHooKoo]

Brutalist (2024)
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BM2U0MWRjZTMtMDVhNC00MzY4LTgwOTktZGQ2MDdiYTI4OWMxXkEyXkFqcGc@._V1_FMjpg_UX1000_.jpg

The beginning of the film was very interesting and fascinating. After about 2 hours the film became long-winded and numbing. The rest of the film was spent waiting for the end of the film, without any major surprises. Somehow a shame, because the beginning felt like it had potential for much better..

3

[Fabulous]

Red Dawn (1984)

3

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/mX9bv5KzgZlVg9KqGD6DSGW2pPP.jpg

[Gideon58]

105689

A Complete Unknown (2024)


Entertainer biopics are tough to pull off because they often end up being caricatures of caricatures, the subjects themselves being larger than life in their fame. Although A Complete Unknown encapsulates only 4 years of Bob Dylan’s early rise to stardom (from 1961 to 1965), which should have been an easier task than trying to highlight events over Dylan’s 50+ year career, the writers nevertheless broke no new ground in the method of telling the story. The screenplay had a formulaic feel to it, even though director James Mangold had previously directed and co-wrote the excellent biopic of Johnny Cash, Walk the Line (2005). So Mangold’s reputation, along with the obvious attraction of Dylan’s star power, likely were the major factors in securing the $50-$70 million funding for the project.


The chief draw in this film is the superb acting of its star and co-stars: Timothee Chalamet as Bob Dylan, Edward Norton as Pete Seeger, and Elle Fanning as Sylvie Russo. Honorable mention goes to Boyd Holbrook as Johnny Cash.


But it is Chalamet who is stunning with his near perfect impersonation of Dylan, and his ability to express moods and thoughts with the use of his eyes and facial expressions. His impression of Dylan’s singing and speaking voices, along with his not dissimilar facial resemblance to his character, combined to present an uncanny likeness of the famous musician. His portrayal is certainly the equal of Austin Butler’s in Elvis (2022), Sissy Spacek’s Loretta Lynn in Coal Miner’s Daughter (1980), or Dennis Quaid as Jerry Lee Lewis in Great Balls of Fire! (1989).


It’s remarkable that Chalamet, Norton, Holbrook, and Monica Barbaro (as Joan Baez) did their own singing and instrument playing, all the while recording their songs live during filming.


For those who were present during those early ‘60s years, and were fans of the principals, the movie is a poignant revisiting of that era. Reportedly the main driver of the project was Dylan’s then heretical use of electric instruments in opposition to the orthodoxy of the established folk music scene, and what a strong negative reaction that it caused among the seasoned folk movement. It was if Dylan had betrayed them and their collectivist philosophy. Their resentment was profound. Many viewers in contemporary audiences will not be troubled by that distinction, since it appears in hindsight as a natural progression. Dylan was chiefly driven by his desire to express his art rather than be a representative of an established subculture. He would go on to compose and perform in many music styles in his famously eclectic career.


Though the screenplay itself is not remarkable enough to garner the highest awards, the first rate quality of the performances alone make A Complete Unknown a fascinating picture.


Doc’s rating; 7/10

I really liked this movie and despite all of its nominations, the only one I think it has a real shot at winning is Best Actor for Chalamet. It's going to be him or Adrien Brody.

[Gideon58]

https://crackedrearviewer.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/mr1.jpg


1st Rewatch...This 1955 Best Picture nominee finds Henry Fonda reprising his Broadway role as the Cargo Officer on an old army bucket with a faithful hardworking crew that respects him but in a constant battle of wills with the hard-nosed Captain (James Cagney) who keeps doing whatever he can to keep Roberts being transferred into actual, which is where he really wants to be. Fonda gives one of his most likable performances and Cagney is sublime as the captain. Jack Lemmon won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his lazy, skirt-chasing Ensign Pulver. Pretty sure this film inspired the 1960's ABC sitcom McNale's Navy. 4

[Gideon58]

https://resizing.flixster.com/-XZAfHZM39UwaGJIFWKAE8fS0ak=/v3/t/assets/p175320_p_v10_aa.jpg



2nd Rewatch...Jason Segel not only starred in this goofy comedy but wrote the screenplay. Segal plays Peter Brenner, a TV composer who gets dumped by his TV star girlfirend, Sarah (Kristen Bell). Needing to get away, Peter decides to go to Hawaii ans wnsa up in the same hotel where Sarah is vacationing with her new squeeze, a sexist and self-absorbed rock star named Aldous Snow (Russell Brand) and his obsessive jealousy almost has him miss the flirting of a pretty hotel desk clerk (Mila Kunis). Segal's basic idea is a good one, but there's a little too much sub plotting and unnecessary characters that unnecessarily pad the running. Paul Rudd is a very funny as a perpetually stoned surfing instructing as are Bill Hader as Peter's brother and Jonah Hill as a waiter obsessed with Snow. Segel does lose points for the casting of Brand, but the movie does bring the funny for the most part. 3.5

[Gideon58]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/47/The_Music_Man_%281962_film_poster%29.jpg/220px-The_Music_Man_%281962_film_poster%29.jpg



Umpteenth Rewatch...This 1962 Best Picture nominee is one of the best translations of a Broadway musical to the silver screen. Robert Preston reprises his Tony-Award winning stage role as Harold Hill, a con man who pulls into a one horse town in turn of the century Iowa called River Cty planning to rip off the town by claiming he can form a boys band, but finds his plans complicated by a pretty librarian (Shirley Jones). The iconic Meredith Wilson score includes "Seventy-Six Trombones", "Ya Got Trouble". "Goodnight My Someone", "Pick a Little Talk a Little", "Marian the Librarian", and "Til There was You". Preston lights up the screen and Onna White's choreography is brilliant (eepcially "Marian the Librarian"}. Paul Ford and Hermione Gingold steal every scene they're in as Mayor Shinn and his wife, Eulalie, as does a little six year old named Ronny Howard as the lisping Winthrop...wonder whatever happened to him? 4.5

[LeBoyWondeur]

A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)

105705

Gone With The Wind meets Sunset Boulevard, or so it seems.
Exaggerated, magnified and overwrought from start to finish, Streetcar is the quintessential film of a theatrical play.
While I often enjoy the more claustrophobic dramas, this particular style takes a little bit of getting used to even though I've seen it many times before. The reason is because I watch - or start to watch - every film without interpretations and take everything that happens on screen at face value.

The more I watched of Streetcar, the more it became like a song - a verse here, a chorus there - and the main reason for this is Vivien Leigh's incredibly enchanting performance.
I don't watch many pre-sixties movies and I had previously only watched her in Gone With The Wind. I wasn't very impressed by affectionate artificiality of those characters but I admire the film on a technical level.
Blanche DuBois is a grown-up and far more interesting version of Scarlett, or maybe it's because the disillusionment is drenched in a Gothic atmosphere as opposed to the swooning grandeur of GWTW.

It's also got that very effective narrative of a cataclysmic character arriving at a certain place, and those who are familiar with the successful soap operas know that this is how most of these soaps started (Dr. Rossi in Peyton Place, Bobby and Pam Ewing at Southfork). It doesn't matter if the characters are good or bad, they'll find a way to turn everything upside down.
Blanche DuBois doesn't waste any time showing her peculiar needs and her disdain for everyone who doesn't have those needs or desire for tradition.
As it turns out it's a coping mechanism to suppress the ugliness of reality, and even though this wasn't very hard to guess it still has an element of surprise because Vivien Leigh's performance kinda makes me want to believe in Blanche, like a contagious insanity.
And this is how a good film becomes a great film.

Then there's Blanche's past that lingers on: her life at Belle Reve after Stella had left, her first lover who killed himself, the sordid lifestyle at the hotel.
While Kim Hunter's character Stella has the tendency to be overshadowed by the others, merely functioning as mediator or translator between Blanche and the others, Marlon Brando gets some really meaty stuff to do.
And yet I was more intrigued by Mitch played by Karl Malden. There is something about Mitch that I find both endearing and disturbing. Shades of Norman Bates there.

4

[PHOENIX74]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/71/Woman_of_the_Hour_poster.jpg
By http://www.impawards.com/2024/woman_of_the_hour_ver3_xlg.html, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=77615861

Woman of the Hour - (2023)

As Sheryl Bradshaw (Anna Kendrick) struggles to kick-start her acting career in a male-dominated 1970s L.A., where her looks and willingness to do nude scenes trump her acting talents, and even her kindly neighbour pressures and finagles her into bed, she agrees to go on The Dating Game - a popular television show - where the man who wins a date with her, Rodney Alcala (Daniel Zovatto), just so happens to be one of the most vicious serial killers of the decade. A true story which shocks when you consider how many chances the authorities had to nab Alcala (he was let out on bail when finally arrested, and went on to abscond and kill two more!) and how many times he was given the benefit of the doubt. The film reaches an electric conclusion when Sheryl and Alcala meet up after the television show is broadcast and she realises how dangerous and twisted he is. I'd seen clips of that episode of The Dating Game many times, just because of how sensational it was for such a killer to appear on live TV. Some of the photographs he took (he was an amateur photographer) include victims that haven't been identified to this day. Chilling and pointed movie also produced and directed by Kendrick herself.

7/10

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/ef/Evil_Dead_Trap%2C_Japanese_release_poster%2C_1988.jpg
By Japan Home Video - nofspodcast.com, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=67246395

Evil Dead Trap - (1988)

I think I would have absolutely loved this when I was 15 or 16-years-old. I was also smiling while watching this movie careen through it's final act - there are some situations where a descent into absolute insanity works in a film's favour, and this is definitely one of those occasions. Full review here (https://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?p=2539556#post2539556), in my watchlist thread.

7/10

[LeBoyWondeur]

Woman of the Hour - (2023)
My first reaction when I saw the image: Late Night With The Devil.
Apparently it's a date with the devil.


Misery (1990)

105714

In some ways this looks like a step-up from the cheesy Stephen King adaptations from the 1980s and I certainly enjoyed it when I watched it for the first time.
The obsessive fan/friend/lover wasn't exactly a new theme in 1990 but it does predate the backlash of the fanbase who "knows better". Annie Wilkes is the future voice of our modern social media mob.
This isn't fair!

As a thriller/horror it hasn't aged very well and I think that has a lot to do with the filmmaker's crowd-pleasing approach, and it's ironic that a film called "misery" looks so cheerful.
The creation of Annie Wilkes' film version alternates between seriously psychopathic and knowingly "camp", and also between gullible and extremely clever and calculating.
In other words: the scenes aren't written for the character, the character is written for the scenes in order to achieve instant and maximum effect.
And while that kinda works (especially on a first-time watch) I think it diminishes the overall effect of the film.

In a somewhat comical way it works best as a story about a feud or one-upmanship.
A big part of the film is about prolonging the escape of Paul Sheldon, writer of pulpy period piece romance novels, and while these actions are inventive and sometimes suspenseful they're also too plot-driven to enjoy them all over again and I couldn't resist checking the remaining running time every now and then.
If anything, I found the investigation by the old sheriff's couple more entertaining.

As a phsychological thriller Misery is a bit rubbish, and perhaps its main asset is its charming familiarity and campy quotes.

2.5

[markdc]

Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (2009)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c6/Beyond_a_Reasonable_Doubt_2009_Poster.jpg
A dull, predictable, and utterly forgettable legal thriller, this movie, which is about an enterprising journalist who “frames” himself for the murder of a woman in order to entrap a district attorney he suspects is corrupt, is basically John Grisham for Dummies. The only bright spot (and I use that term loosely) is the presence of Michael Douglas, an actor I always enjoy seeing on the screen. Still, I can’t for the life of me understand why the man who played Gordon Gekko and William “D-Fens” Foster agreed to star in this celluloid version of compost. He must have needed the money. Can’t imagine WHY he would have needed the money, but that’s the only explanation I can come up with. And speaking of Gordon Gekko, there’s a scene in Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps where he tells Shia LeBeouf’s character that the most important commodity is time. If you value this commodity as much as Gekko does, then you’ll avoid Beyond a Reasonable Doubt at all costs.

1

[LeBoyWondeur]

Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (2009)
an enterprising journalist who “frames” himself for the murder of a woman in order to entrap a district attorney he suspects is corrupt
What could possibly go wrong? :lol:
I think I want to see this!

[markdc]

Atlantic City (1980)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a4/Atlantic_City_%281980_film%29.jpg
This is one of my favorite mob movies. The plot itself isn’t that interesting, but I love the setting and characters. Burt Lancaster gave one of his best performances as Lou Pascal, a weak small-time hood who dreams of being a big-time hood and finally gets a chance to prove himself a “real” man by killing bad men and protecting a young woman. And Susan Sarandon is wonderful as Sally Matthews, the aforementioned woman, who has own dream, which is travel to Europe and become a dealer at a lavish casino. And all of this is set against the backdrop of a city that has left its glory days behind and is undergoing profound transformation. Atlantic City is a poignant, bittersweet cinematic love poem to the once-great “boardwalk empire” and is filled with nostalgic longing for a bygone era in which mobsters, gamblers, and corrupt politicians ruled the city.

rating_5

[markdc]

@LeBoyWondeur
“an enterprising journalist who “frames” himself for the murder of a woman in order to entrap a district attorney he suspects is corrupt What could possibly go wrong? I think I want to see this!”

That’s what I thought when I first saw the synopsis. I enjoy watching legal thrillers—well, good ones, that is. While not great, Runaway Jury and The Lincoln Lawyer are examples of really fun legal thriller movies. And 12 Angry Men is the gold standard in this subgenre. Beyond a Reasonable Doubt doesn’t even deserve to belong in this category.
View at your own risk.

Mark

[chawhee]

My Dead Friend Zoe (2025)
https://static.wixstatic.com/media/b4a95b_07ce1dde991444229de3971a489bee32~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_980,h_512,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/b4a95b_07ce1dde991444229de3971a489bee32~mv2.jpg
4
I couldnt find a good image that really conveys this movie well, but its a formidable cast as you can see. I hadnt heard of this movie at all until I saw my theater presenting showtimes for it, and I'm glad I took a chance on it.

Its about a woman who was deployed to Afghanistan who is now home dealing with PTSD in a form of her now dead war buddy following her around as if she is still there in reality (obviously a ghost to others). It was a fine movie most of the way, but the twist on the end turned it into a great movie for me.

Definitely check out the trailer to get a feel for the tone. Its not your typical war-related drama, as it has a lot of comedic elements. Also heavily based on a true story (which really shouldn't come as a surprise in a sense).

[Gideon58]

My Dead Friend Zoe (2025)
https://static.wixstatic.com/media/b4a95b_07ce1dde991444229de3971a489bee32~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_980,h_512,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/b4a95b_07ce1dde991444229de3971a489bee32~mv2.jpg
4
I couldnt find a good image that really conveys this movie well, but its a formidable cast as you can see. I hadnt heard of this movie at all until I saw my theater presenting showtimes for it, and I'm glad I took a chance on it.

Its about a woman who was deployed to Afghanistan who is now home dealing with PTSD in a form of her now dead war buddy following her around as if she is still there in reality (obviously a ghost to others). It was a fine movie most of the way, but the twist on the end turned it into a great movie for me.

Definitely check out the trailer to get a feel for the tone. Its not your typical war-related drama, as it has a lot of comedic elements. Also heavily based on a true story (which really shouldn't come as a surprise in a sense).

Any time with Ed Harris is time well spent