Rate The Last Movie You Saw

Just a small part but dayum, this is a fun movie. I love british dark humour. Everyone in it is such a moron except for maybe Alice who looks brain damaged.

Pacific Rim

weird how this seemed much better on a second viewing

Loveddddddddd this. Filmed around near where I live but they cheated with the BMX riding scenes as they were apparently filmed about 50ish miles away in another county.


Trailer:

Dancer in the Dark 8/10

Still haven't seen it, and I've always liked Chris Morris. I've just noticed that it was written with Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong, so that makes it even more attractive .

I cant get enough of it. You can view it as a straight up comedy or a topical expose on attitudes to muslims and the hysteria created by the media and the ignorant. Some hilarious one liners, and the jihadis in this are just so freaking dumb except for Omar. Barry is classic!

Barry: You can't win an argument just by being right!

LOL. Reminds me of someone.

Stalker (1979) -

Mulholland Drive (2001) -

The Founder (2016) -

I Saw the Devil (2010) -

Le Bonheur - 6.5/10

Amityville 2



Supposedly a prequel (there have been some arguments due to the presence of more modern day items, but that's a common goof with many movies taking place longer back) to the first one, this movie is based on another true story... with the names changed, about the Montelli family. They move into a house which seems nice at first glance, but very shortly they start to notice some curricular activities going on. Objects suddenly moving by themselves, creepy drawings appearing on the wall, a cold wind and the sense of an unknown hand on your shoulder... It doesn't take long before it starts to get a little crazy. Okay, REALLY crazy.

Wow. What a sequel. Of course from the set-up you know something's bad is going to happen, but when inside the house I started to really get the shivers! The overwhelming supernatural power makes for some excellent classic scares. And it's even spookier when you look at how the father is starting to behave.
Right from the start, he's not a very nice person in general. So when weird things start to happen, what does he do? He blames it on the kids! Seriously, in some instances you want to scream at him because of how irrationally upset and angry he gets. When he takes out his belt getting ready to punish his two youngest kids you're disturbed. This man is sick. It then leads to his wife trying to strangle him (ghosts trying to make her) and the oldest son (Sonny) almost shooting him. Now, this is an interesting difference. In the movie he's close to but doesn't pull the trigger, while in reality he did but there were no bullets. I think what he did in real life is creepier, but what they went for in the movie still gives me the chills.

What I admire a lot is how they showed even more this time what influence this house has on the inhabitants. Sonny has a walkman he usually listens to music to, which becomes a mechanism for the demon to speak to him, telling him to murder his entire family. He resists the urge as much as he can, but when he gets possessed he starts acting creepier than ever. If someone deserves to be commended for best acting it's Jack Magner. Holy crap! He scared the hell out of me. He always stares in the way like he's just ready to kill you, and speaks in a slow, syrupy manner which makes you tremulant over what's on his mind. The most effective scene is when he goes into his sister's bedroom and asks her to pose for him. And let's just say what happens next... isn't pleasant. In the original cut it was more graphic, but I think what they left it at was enough to do the job. And as it goes on, he will only get eerier. You feel really bad for Patricia, and acting wise Diane Franklin does a fantastic job too. Burt Young is impressive as the abusive and impatient father and husband. I think it was smart of them to go a different route. Seeing someone initially friendly go insane might not be as effective twice, so they made him just about but not quite decent enough at the beginning, then had him go all-out nuts. And even though the focus is later switched to Sonny, it's not like he just goes back to normal, he continues behaving like an abusive maniac. Hearing him yell at his wife Dolores from the bedroom when forcing himself upon her is very unsettling.

The priest has a larger role in this movie. While the priest in the first movie did try to help out, he was too affected by the house to do anything. There are some inconsistencies here with what we've seen before, being that the priest can go back several times and try to give the house his blessing again (granted he's failing, but he doesn't become sick), while the previous priest couldn't even talk on the phone after a while since it was having so much influence on him. I'm not sure this is really a problem though, since the last thing you'd want is retreads of the original. I liked that Father Adamsky was an important character, and James Olson turned out a very memorable performance. He gets to show a lot of different emotions, and does it very believably. Andrew Prine is good as his assistant and friend Father Tom as well.

So for the first hour and 20-odd minutes, it's possibly the scariest film I've seen in a while. The subtle creepy moments and all the objects moving really builds up the tension in classic manner. I was about to rate it the same as the original, until...



Despite that, I still stand by what a great sequel this is. Damiano Damiani's directing was excellent, and gave his own unique spin on the series with a more demonic bite this time. I can't wait to for, uuuuh... Amityville 3-D? Oh well, I'm sure it will be fun.

P.S. Even though it didn't really result in anything bad, I actually got creeped out when Jan put a plastic bag over her brother's (Mark) head. This was actually not supposed to be the worst thing we see Jan do, since one of the unreleased deleted scenes include Jan holding Mark's head underwater trying to drown him. It's perhaps best it didn't make the final cut since God, at least don't make the two youngest kids have to become evil! Still, I kinda wish it was available since I'm curious over how disturbing that would've looked.

Dunkirk (2017)

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Letterboxd

I'll be seeing this, this week. Very excited.

My cinema didn't get it. As per usual.

Sorry buddy....think of me though, having a great time, that should help

Philadelphia (1993)

Very emotional and well made film. Great acting, directing, cineamatopgraphy. Not tacky, geniuenly moving. Comparable to Dallas Buyers Club in terms of themes but polar opposites in terms of the direction taken, both great films though. The cinematography, in particular the way the characters make eye contact with the camera and close ups reminded me very much of Silence of the Lambs which had the same director. This was effective in both films and really canvassed the acting and emotion from the characters.

4 and a half stars out of 5 although I could maybe move in to 5 in time. This was my first time watching.

Wifey wanted to watch a lifetime movie but agreed to watch something else if I could find a movie that interested her. This is what we settled on, and a big reason she chose it is because it's based on a true story. We both love that kind of crap. Christine is about a reporter in the 70's who battled mental health/depression issues until a tragic end. The movie does a nice job capturing the era with it's look and some era specific popular music. The story is a sad one and the performances are fine. It could have used a little more pizzazz but I enjoyed it.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016)

J.K. Rowling's first direct-to-screen work (screenplay) is set in the same world of Harry Potter, albeit in the 1920's and set in America, New York City to be exact. Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne), the famous writer whose book Harry studies at Hogwarts in the future, visits New York on his way to Arizona and is sidetracked when he tries to capture several on-the-loose "fantastic beasts." While searching for them, he meets a Muggle, or in America, a "Non-maj," a person without any magical powers who assists him in his search. He's Jacob Kowalski, (Dan Fogler), a would-be-baker, who, when he sees Newt's use of magic and the creatures he's tracking, is not scared, but amazed, and eager to help, unlike most Non-majs. These two are worlds apart but like each other and find common ground and have an easy-going relationship. Newt wanders around shyly, with a whimsical attitude about almost everything, and Jacob at first thinks he's dreaming but soon accepts the other world he's stumbled into. There are two lovely ladies who become involved with Newt and Jacob, and they are Tina Goldstein (Katherine Waterston) and her sister, Queenie (Alison Sudol). Tina works for The Magical Congress of the United States of America (MACUSA), and is a demoted Auror who arrests Newt for being an unregistered wizard performing magic in public. America, it seems, it more secretive about the wizarding world than the U.K. and Tina takes her job seriously. But when the Congress and the President of MACUSA are not interested in Tina's arrest of Newt due to something serious and mysterious happening on a major level in New York, Tina is left with Newt in her custody. So, she does what any ex-Auror would do: she takes him home. Jacob is along for the ride also and it's at Tina's apartment where he meets Queenie, and the attraction is immediate.

Waterston is perfectly cast as the no-nonsense Tina who learns to adapt to Newt's sense of wonder. Sudol is a blast as her sister who is more than eager to break the rules, especially when it comes to a would-be romance with a Non-maj. The rest of the cast is fine, especially Colin Farrell as a higher-up in the magic Congress by the name of Graves---the name fits: he seems especially grave all the time; Ezra Miller is excellent as the troubled young man Creedence Barebone who is adopted by the very strict Mary (a terse Samantha Morton); Faith Wood-Blagrove is a fine young actress who plays Modesty Barebone, another child adopted by Mary, who is troubled also; Carmen Ejogo is beautiful but doesn't have a lot to do as President Picquery; the same goes for Jon Voight as Henry Shaw Jr., whose son's run for Senator enters into the plot.

The special effects are excellent, especially the madness of a furious force that threatens to tear New York apart; the effects of the creatures are fine and more often than not reflect the comedic tendencies of the creatures; Newt has a magical suitcase that has larger space than it first appears---the effects here are also great. There are mentions of characters from Harry Potter's world that will sound familiar to most fans and one character that appeared in older form in a Potter film also appears here, played by a different, younger actor. This movie is mostly light-hearted, except for some late-in-the-game seriousness, but is fine for the whole family. Directed with expertise by David Yates who, appropriately, directed four of the Harry Potter movies. Fun stuff.

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"Miss Jean Louise, Mr. Arthur Radley."

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Look, Dr. Lesh, we don't care about the disturbances, the pounding and the flashing, the screaming, the music. We just want you to find our little girl.

For what it's worth, the rating's more for the film itself than the actual experience of seeing it in 3-D, which was in and of itself rather underwhelming.

Death Note (2017) -

Much better than I expected. Possible review to follow.

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Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0