Rate The Last Movie You Saw

They Look Like People - #4 on Mike Flanagan's Top 10 list of underrated horror movies. Wyatt (MacLeod Andrews) shows up one day out of the blue at his friend Christian's (Evan Dumouchel) NYC apartment building. The two had once been close but had drifted apart. They're at loose ends in their personal lives both having recently left long term relationships so Christian invites Wyatt to stay with him for the time being. Wyatt is desperate and as close to broken as a person can get in that he has come to believe that shape shifting creatures have started to take over the bodies of people around him. He has visions and hears voices warning him of a coming war between humanity and these creatures. Christian, on the other hand, has long been plagued by feelings of inadequacy which he disguises with weightlifting and aggressive machismo.

This was written, produced, filmed and edited by first time director Perry Blackshear and, in Wyatt and Christian, he's managed to create two fragile and genuinely endearing characters. If it wasn't for their inherent likability a lot of what goes on might have been hard to accept. It's a short film clocking in at around 80 minutes but Blackshear has peopled it with winning characters including Christian's work boss and unrequited crush Mara (Margaret Ying Drake). Their interactions and reactions go a long ways towards selling the narrative. You quickly come to that realization when the screen goes to black and the credits start rolling.

I'm going put this in spoilers just in case but 85/100

She really was (and still is!) beautiful. I can only imagine the reception in the 60s to this film!

I may have got the wrong poster here but - Didn't you knock about with Zappa and Beefheart in those days? I bet there were some wild reactions to films like this from that crowd if they were on the mind altering stuff!!!!

BlacKKKlansman (2018)


A clever, funny tale that was a little hard to watch because of how it makes you realize that some people in this world do act/think how the KKK does. Adam Driver is incredible as always, but John David Washington continues to be a bit underwhelming.

This is Spinal Tap - (1984)

First view, I thought it was pretty funny, the songs are hilarious.

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You don't remember me? We spoke on the phone two days ago. I told you I would find you.

(MILLS, 2008)

Champions (1984)

A charming true story film about the jockey Bob Champion and his battle back to fitness from cancer to his favourite steed Aldaniti (that had been described as lame) to victory. It's a low budget film but John Hurt and the interesting cast (Jan Francis, Edward Woodward, Alison Steadman, Ben Johnson, Kirstie Alley), combined with the realistic race scenes make this a really enjoyable "little" film.

I remember seeing this on UK TV in the late 80s as a youngster! A real blast from the past!

Grand Slam -

Despite a cast featuring Edward G. Robinson, Klaus Kinski and Janet Leigh and settings like New York and Brazil, I found this heist movie to be an endurance test. A retired teacher (Robinson) who taught in Brazil works with old friend and criminal mastermind Mark (Celi) to steal millions of dollars in diamonds while Carnival is happening. They assemble an international team including Kinski's stuntman and Robert Hoffmann's Casanova. The first step? Have Hoffmann charm Mary Ann (Leigh), the safe's sole keyholder.

When I think about my favorite heist movies - examples include Thief, Rififi, Topkapi and the 2001 Ocean's Eleven - one thing they have in common is one or more characters who are interesting at the most and worth giving a damn about in the least. This movie simply has neither. It succeeds at informing me about each one's specialty, but it does not do enough to say what they are like. It comes close with Cucciolla's kind and nerdy toymaker, but no cigar. I do not think the relatively large cast is an excuse because, well, look at Ocean's Eleven. While I have no complaints about the filmmaking during the pivotal safecracking sequence, my ultimate reaction to it is indifference. A scene where the safe's guards return to duty made me think "go ahead, catch them, I don't care," for instance. Besides, there is a problem when you are more interested in the cutaways to the Carnival than the heist. The movie does succeed in defying your expectations late in the game, but it is not enough to redeem everything that happens before. I like the movie's time capsule qualities with its late ‘60s footage of New York City and Rio de Janeiro and Ennio Morricone's score is as enjoyable as the rest of his music. Other than that, the end result comes across like director Montaldo and company watched Rififi, were inspired to make their own version afterwards but left out the secret ingredients in the process.

Terrific movie. Bening very good as Diana Nyad, but Jodie Foster stole the show as her coach.

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

I promise you that this movie will become funnier upon each rewatch, but thank you for noticing the brilliance of the song lyrics.

Loved this movie too...here's my review:


https://www.movieforums.com/reviews/2422668-nyad.html

1st Rewatch...enjoyed this much more upon rewatch. This film version of Tracy Letts' play centering around a terribly dysfunctional southern family who are brought together when the patriarch of the family commits suicide. John Wells' uncompromising direction is given a huge boost by a serious shot of star power, including Meryl Strep, Margo Martindale, Ewan MacGregor, Dermot Mulroney, Chris Cooper, Benedict Cumberbatch, Juliette Lewis, Julianne Nicholson, and in the performance of her career that earned her a supporting actress Oscar nomination, Julia Roberts as Barbara, the bitter and emotionally exhausted eldest daughter. Roberts has never been better and is the anchor that holds this film together.

4th Rewatch....Not sure why this film didn't really hold up on this rewatch, but I found it kind of dumb, with plenty of plot holes for which no explanation is provided. Martin Lawrence plays an FBI agent who goes undercover as an old woman to catch a murderer (Terrance Howard) by cozying up to his ex-girlfriend (Nia Long) and her young son. The story tries to set up Lawrence's Malcolm as the greatest FBI agent ever, which is pretty much impossible to accept, since he pretty much starts sexually harassing Long's character from the moment he meets her. Of course, we're supposed to believe that she doesn't catch any of his leering so that the story can move. Basically, the story is just too protective of this guy and, in order to do so, makes the rest of the characters in the movie look like blithering idiots. It's starting to remind me of some of those stupid comedies that Jerry Lewis made during the 60's. The bloom has definitely worn off this cinematic rose. Lowering my original rating

The Piano Teacher (2001) -

While I've enjoyed most of what I've seen from Haneke so far, my appreciation of his films mainly boils down to enjoying them more on a technical level rather than an emotional level (Cache and The White Ribbon have their moments though), so I was definitely not expecting this film to resonate with me as much as it did.

My initial takeaway was how well Huppert communicates the sexual repression and loneliness of her character. Erika's mother is domineering and expects perfection from her (interestingly enough, this behavior has strong parallels with her teaching style), yet she's unable to meet her high expectations. Since Erika has likely spent her entire life with her mother, her repression comes out in the form of porn addiction, paraphilia, and sadomasochism. With minimal contacts outside of work though, her tendencies turn out unfulfilled all too often, so there's no place for her to direct them but inwards. This leads to some disturbing set pieces of her urinating outside a car where a couple are making love and cutting her vagina with a razor. They tell you all there is to know about why she grows to latch onto Walter and demand so much from him.

Speaking of which, the love-making scenes between Erika and Walter are disturbing for reasons including but not limited to the paraphilic and sadomasochistic aspects of them. One thing which stood out to me is how Erik and Walter pursue their relationship at the expense of other people. The first half scratched the surface of this with the aforementioned urinating scene, but the second half shows the sheer lengths which the two of them go to satisfy their tendencies. Leaving a bathroom door wide open during a love-making session and having sex while Walter's hockey team members are right in the other room represent the lower end of extremity with this aspect. A more disturbing scene is a climactic scene of Walter forcing Erika's Mom into her bedroom so he can make love with Erika. Though Erika was clearly in a state of hesitancy at that point in the film, it's worth noting how she doesn't protest or speak up against Walter's rough treatment of her Mom at all. The most disturbing scene though is when Erika causes one of her students to cut her hand on broken glass for socializing with Walter. Though she clearly displayed a hard personality with her students prior to that, it's still a shocking moment, albeit one which feels true to her character.

What gave me the most anxiety though was how their hesitancy to commit to their sadomasochistic relationship gave a sense of escalation to the film. Erika and Walter are never on the same page on how to proceed with their relationship. Initially, Erika is the one eager to go along with it while Walter is hesitant. But then Walter begins to take Erika's role while she takes his, thus keeping an impasse between the pair. The frustration this causes them adds a sense of escalation to their relationship and gives the sense the film is building to something where either one of them or someone around them will be hurt. What we do get as a culmination may come off as abrupt, but the ambiguity it left gave me a couple disturbing outcomes to ponder over.

Overall, this is definitely my favorite Haneke film by a long shot and, given how well I responded to it, I'm tempted to revisit some of his other films to see if I'll warm up some more to them.

You’ve inspired me to re-visit this movie & now it’s in my Q.

I hope you enjoy it. Would you say you're a fan of Haneke?

Absolutely. The White Ribbon being my total fave.

I know ScarletLion, as a youth playing 5-a-side football if we were getting beat, our in joke was (smokey John Hurt voice) "With Aldaniti we can win this!". I 1/2 expected the hand of Michael Winner in this!

Yeah that's a great film. Haneke is one of the greats in my opinion. The White Ribbon is my favourite also. Cache also good and 'Code Unknown' i find to be hugely underrated.