Rate The Last Movie You Saw

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Babylon - (2022)

Babylon is still vivid in my mind - it's hedonistic and depraved take on Hollywood is anything but negative commentary - in fact Chazelle is awake to the sheer other-worldly magic that cinema is. It's the fact that movies are so important to humanity that leads to the celebratory highs and the pistol-to-the-temple lows that those involved with the business go through. The film's opening reminded me more than a little of the first few scenes of Das Boot, and the intrepid partygoers are indeed due on a battlefield the next day, both literally and figuratively. What we get with this huge film is a very dark remake of Singing in the Rain, and the fact that this is a remake of that film is very pointed (in fact, once or twice Chazelle tugs our sleeve a little too hard.) A damn shame this was a bomb - I had to race to see it before it left cinemas here, just lasting a few weeks. It's three-plus hours race by - the film moves at a crazy breakneck speed. Brad Pitt could feel a little hard done by not to get an Oscar nomination here - he's terrific, and Tobey Maguire has a marvelous few moments in the film's latter stages. All up, I'd say this is perhaps a little too much for most people, but as for a film that sheds light on the magic and the misery of Tinseltown, it's very good. It's a lot to take in with one viewing, but I have a feeling that over time people will still be talking about Babylon. Margot Robbie though, I'm not so sure about.

8/10


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Puss in Boots : The Last Wish - (2022)

This certainly wasn't a bomb. It's a good Dreamsworks animated movie, and anyone who has seen one knows what to expect - including a lot of funny stuff that adults can enjoy as well as kids. Like the best of the Shrek films, these play just as easily to jaded old people like me, while maintaining that cuteness and adventure that's needed. Some pretty serious themes are explored as well, including death and our fear of death - but also friendship and the ad-hoc nature of some families meaning just as much as blood ties. I've now seen 4/5 as far as the animated features go for this year's Oscars.

7/10


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Black Panther : Wakanda Forever - (2022)

The Black Panther franchise adeptly deals with Chadwick Boseman's untimely demise here, and thankfully retires the character with dignity (albiet of the hurried kind) - so the mantle is being passed on to sister Shuri (Letitia Wright), and this entry in the series features deeply consequential events. Funny then how it feels like just another MCU film - lacking the grandeur of the best of them. One thing that should not have made it to the final cut was the silly winged ankles the god-like Namor (Tenoch Huerta Mejía) has - you mean to say those pigeon wings are propelling this man through the sky like a rocket? They wouldn't even be able to lift him off the ground. Too silly. Otherwise this is another MCU film that impresses in many areas but can't pull off the storytelling genius needed to capture our hearts and make this entry stand out. Entertaining and engaging, but not great or memorable.

6/10

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Set in this dystopic future, Mad Max: Fury Road follows Rockatansky (Tom Hardy) as he reluctantly join forces with Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron), a member of Immortan Joe's forces who goes rogue to free his five "wives". Unfortunately, Joe is not going down without a fight, or in this case, without an extensive chase.

The first thing I'm going to credit Fury Road with is how relentless it is. Other than a brief "prologue" at the Citadel to set things up, the film doesn't wait to kickstart things, and it literally doesn't stop until about an hour; and then it starts again until the end. The action is so unabating that we barely have a chance to catch our breath.

Grade:


Full review on my Movie Loot

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The Two Killings of Sam Cooke
I could do without ALL those who weren't even born when he was killed. He doesn't need some young jagoff to co-opt his message. In a few years, I'm sure he'll be a leader for whatever is trendy then..... They should have gone through his music, and not just a couple of hits. And the man, but that was redundant. Typical talent-less Netflix junk, but they're worth watching for the music, interviews, archival information. I love to pause during an old newspaper and read the entire thing, get the zeitgeist, not this historical revisionism by a 20-yr old or someone with zero musical talent.

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The Banshees of Inisherin (2022, Martin McDonagh)

Finally got around to seeing this, and I have to say, the hype is real. Great film.
Superb visuals, great writing and direction, fantastic performances by the cast, plenty of metaphorical subtext and symbolism, and, perhaps most importantly, the characters and their arcs are incredibly well fleshed out and memorable. There's some dark comedy in this but the general tone is of bleakness and depression, mounting to heartbreaking, almost apocalyptic heights toward the end. At some point I even caught myself thinking: this is like if Bela Tarr went mainstream and decided to do a more conventional film— ripe with hopelessness but also with a glimmer of hope shining through. In the end, to me, it's a film about the prisons we build for ourselves (both physical and mental) and become so used to, that we lose the will power to escape and change our lives. Prisons of everyday routine, loneliness, pride, ambition, endless war— even friendship can become a prison and drive a man insane on a secluded island. A prison within a prison within a prison.

The Old Man and the Sea (1958)

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[ J ] - [ S ] - [ F ]

Cooke wrote one of the very greatest slow dance songs in history: "You Send Me". I can still hear that song in my mind and recall dancing to it in Jr. High School. Beautiful song.

As per his murder, the murderer got away with it. The women's story of what happened is ridiculous. Somebody had beat the hell out of him before he was shot. His manager owned the rights to all of Cooke's recordings.

The docu sounds pretty bad by your description. I don't know if I'll bother.

Yes, someone is definitely lying, and Allen Klein screwed with The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, so a black guy back then - very plausible. It's what ... someone believed, and there's a few other theories.



You should see it.. But, I'll just say all my criticism can be lumped as political correctness, and how people are being duped (again) by it, as a replacement for real action.

Just like last year, I started 2023 with a bunch of really old short films from early in the 20th Century. It's always really interesting to trace the evolution of cinema from these to what we experiment today.

That quote is not on this short film, but it should definitely apply to this duty-driven, persistent little robot. Set in the Axiom ship, it takes place concurrently with the events of the second half of WALL•E. The short film follows the titular robot as he tries, tries again and again to repair one of the lights on the ship's hull.

Grade:


Full review on my Movie Loot

Set in a school playground, Lou follows the titular creature, an unseen being that lives in the "lost and found" box, taking the shape of the different objects inside. When a bully starts stealing toys from other boys, Lou takes it upon itself to teach the boy a lesson, and maybe help him find his way in the process.

Grade:


Full review on my Movie Loot

Yet another Pixar short I put for the kids. Set before the events of Soul, it follows 22 (Tina Fey), a character living in a heaven-like realm where pre-existing souls are sent to Earth. However, this results in 22 losing all her friends as they each are sent to the "dumb planet". This causes her to resent the planet, and therefore organize a group of rebel souls against Earth.

Grade:


Full review on my Movie Loot

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Thirteen Lives - (2022)

John-Connor reminded me of this film's existence, and it had been one I was looking forward to watching. It gave me exactly what I wanted - the lowdown on how desperate the situation was for the kids trapped in that cave in Thailand, and how they were rescued. It's very straightforward in that manner, without playing up the drama - there's no dramatic musical cues set to rising water, and no Oscar-bait moments or melodramatic speeches, just a step-by-step examination of the difficulty and urgency of the situation. I'm very claustrophobic, so diving through those narrow confines would have set off panic in me - and the film does it's best to show us the winding, jagged twists and caverns that led to the trapped kids. Viggo Mortensen, Colin Farrell and Joel Edgerton give their characters a natural, laid back kind of feel to them, accentuating their professionalism. I was satisfied once I'd seen it - and it's good for one watch, but not to kind of movie I'd keep returning to. It just completely satisfies your curiosity with it's documentary-type feel.

7/10

Another fine neo-realist piece from the Dardennes brothers. This one focusing on the plight of a young immigrant lady who boards a boat bound for Italy and travels to Belgium with a young boy via the help of two contacts. Unfortunately, penniless, the two are forced to work all sorts of menial jobs, some of which involve some unsavoury characters.

So the exploitation of immigrants is the key theme and as usual the Dardennes get great performances out of the cast, most notably from non actors Joely Mbundu and young Pablo Schils. The Dardennes force us to look at just exactly what lengths some people will go to just to restart their life.

Some critics say this film has a few implausible moments, which might be true but I was able to look past that, because I found the story and message on point. It’s yet another good one from this duo.

i just finished watching it. omg its soo amazing, i really loved it. and soo happy that they showed loki 😍😍😍. theres 2 post credit scenes

Nope (2022, Jordan Peele)

This definitely had its moments (like some of the special effects/visuals, or interesting shots like the one above) but overall, nope, sorry. It's a pretty long film that takes an awful lot of time establishing the atmosphere but to me the wait wasn't worth it... it just never clicked. The only remotely scary scenes were the ones with the monkey. Otherwise, it was just a bit silly, ridiculous and kinda boring tbh. Maybe I'm missing some subtext here, I don't know... Maybe the whole thing is just one big metaphor that went over my head? There's definitely a fair amount of social commentary and Hollywood satire in it, I'm sure. Anyhow, purely as a sci fi horror thriller, this was a disappointment to say the least.
This is the third Jordan Peele film I've tried watching, and none of them really did much for me (Get Out is def my favorite).

Camera Buff - 7.5/10
What a relief to see a good (Polish) movie.. This was sometimes satirical, sometimes political, and little bits of humor sprinkled throughout. I imagine @Mr Minio being like a young Jerzy Stuhr, without the wife, kid, and camera.

Not bad. Phoenix very good, the other characters undeveloped. Duvall chewing the scenery & wishing he were younger. Eva in her underwear, as per. Wahlberg being Wahlberg.

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I’m here only on Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays. That’s why I’m here now.

I've wanted to say how much I've missed Mark for a while, especially on this thread, especially as I scroll and am reminded. But I always tell myself no, but thought, "Who else can I tell?"... Even if it was just to see his ratings to find a good movie.

Yeah, basically. But I don't even have a camera.

But yes, Camera Buff is a masterpiece. Perhaps even my favorite from Kieślowski.

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Look, I'm not judging you - after all, I'm posting here myself, but maybe, just maybe, if you spent less time here and more time watching films, maybe, and I stress, maybe your taste would be of some value. Just a thought, ya know.

It's the best movie I've seen this year. After seeing this, I'm not as anxious to see The Colors Trilogy (partly because there's three parts - seems overwhelming).

I love movies like this -- domestic but original. Some damn good writing, too.


P.S. - Malgorzata Zabkowska is so beautiful she doesn't even have a Wiki page