Rate The Last Movie You Saw

As of this day, I'll remember Hitchcock as the man who made tennis look interesting!
First of all, why is this the first time I'm hearing about Robert Walker? The man is like nothing I've ever seen!!! So magnetic...
The direction is awesome, as always with a really interesting plot and another glorious finale. One of Hitch's finest, no doubt!

Thanks GBG for pushing this to the top of my watchlist!

Locke (2013)



I watched this with my husband who thought it was brilliant and was outraged I would rate it so low, but it was a brilliant concept that didn't completely work for me. Some of the phone calls didn't quite ring true, I don't know whether it was the acting or the script. It is a difficult balance to pull off, making the dialogue realistic but still interesting, and kudos for trying, but it didn't quite nail it. I also thought it lacked tension because things fall apart for him so quickly there's never really any feeling of 'will it work out or won't it'. I didn't like his rants at his deceased father, or the ending. Perhaps it is just intended as a character study in a snapshot of time, but it wasn't quite my cup of tea.

Still, it's definitely my favourite film of the 'takes place almost entirely in the car' kind, beating Ten and Cosmopolis by a long way.

Recently watched one of my all time favorite movies: Count of Monte Cristo! It has romance, action, betrayal, and revenge! (Something for everyone).



There have been several versions of this classic tale by Alexandre Dumas. But it is ONLY the 2002 version with: Jim Caviezel (from Passion of Christ), Guy Pearce, (the late) Richard Harris, and the stunning Dagmara Dominczyk (who plays Mercedès Iguanada) that got it right!

Great movie, one of my favorite Hitchcock's

This is where European cinema blows the modern Hollywood out of the water - the European cinema hasn't lost its innocence and sincerity.
This is a heart wrenching masterpiece where everything is superbly done! The atmosphere just grabs you and makes you sadder and lonelier each minute. The setting, acting and writing are particularly important on this, as everything becomes emptier and colder as the story develops.
Brilliant!!!

Caged - 7/10

Very good pick. A fine movie, made at a good time in American history. The jail system has always been flawed, and I found this interesting also considering how most movies are about men, and we got to see their problems, which are the same problems once you get right down to it. Exposes corruption in the system itself, the double-standard - the prisoners have a sense of justice, and act and rebel accordingly. You also see a lot of sadism, and it's unfortunate, but we do need prisons.

The end reminds me a bit like "On The Beach" (There's Still Time Brother) - a short message for future generations. With "Caged" we hear "She'll be back" because of the high recidivism rate - 80% altogether, but I know the countries in Europe I've visited had an average of 20%, and the peace shows.

I also liked that they showed humanity among the prisoners. Even though each of them probably made a horrible mistake, it doesn't mean they can't be good people the rest of the time, or most of the time. I liked seeing the camaraderie among most of the women.

Trumbo 2015.
The characters of that blacklisting time are portrayed like martyrs a lot. Kind a weak dialogues. Kirk Douglas reference was very stupid ''I am Spartacus'' lol. Bryan Cranston was great though. The atmosphere of the 40's, 50's was nicely done. I guess 7/10.

After Inside Out the public have given a breath of relief. Pixar is back in form, it seemed. Sadly, it seems like we got another Brave, folks.

The story is forgettable and pretty much your standard underdog thing, the animation is very good, as per usual Pixar standards, but fails to amaze since there aren't any awe-inspiring scenes, visually, or emotionally for that matter.

The best word to describe this movie is "bland". You would have easily forgotten that you've ever seen this if it wasn't for the fact that it's freakin' Pixar. I'm not saying that you shouldn't show it to your kid. It still teaches the right lesson and is fairly entertaining but it simply isn't what we've come to expect.

I think the studio has run out of pure, condensed awesomeness, and from now on we will have to expect a great movie only now and then. Not every single time.

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I'm glad you liked Strangers on a Train. It's one of my favorite Hitchcock movies, but for some reason it seems to be underseen and underrated. I hope that enough people watch it so it will make the 1950's countdown.

I saw these two yesterday.

Hail, Caesar! (2016)
The most underwhelming Coens film I've seen since Intolerable Cruelty, although definitely more enjoyable than that one. This one harkens back to more loopy, screwball comedies of the Coens, although this one is more of a collection of vignettes spoofing 50's Hollywood, some very enjoyable, and on point with what they're pointing the finger at, some a bit obvious, throwaway stuff. The films attempts to have a consistent main storyline, but gets a bit sidetracked to everything else it's trying to juggle around it. Worth a watch, especially if you're pretty familiar with the history of old Hollywood, but I know I won't be coming back to it anytime soon.

The Boy (2016)
Just a dull watch overall, stuffed with cheap jump scares, and slow scenes of no interest. They maybe thought that taking the Chucky series, and replacing the series's much loved camp, and wisecracks with their own "serious" garbage would work, but as other film's like it before it found out, it just usually doesn't. Oh, and it pretty much shamelessly steals the climax straight from a much better recent horror film. How classy.

Strangers on a Train is an awesome film noirandRobert Walker makes the perfect stranger. I thought that it had been nominated in the Film Noir Hof, but I checked and nope it wasn't.

Les Miserables (2012) - rewatch



Les Miserables features mostly talented performers, great music and lyrics, and good direction from Tom Hooper, however I feel like it's missing something that's keeping it from being truly memorable.

Tomorrowland (2015)



Before I "rate" it, I want to find out what others thought.

The Big White Now, do NOT focus too much on the plot or it will ruin the movie experience for you. BUT, if you focus on the actors' performances; you will, as I did, laugh and fully enjoy yourself.
A dark comedy that echoes a Coen's production in nearly every facet, in a very good way.
I will be seeing this again and again in the future.

Hitchcock take on comedy - I certainly wasn't expecting it.
Though it's quite entertaining it's far away from being among Hitch's best!
The photography is gorgeous, the dialogues are really clever from time to time, the acting is solid though not impressive (Shirley MacLaine was so beautiful!!!) and it's funny to a certain extent. I liked the non-sense and dark humour!
Some parts were not exactly well done, I didn't like the ending scene, with all the recap...
But it's nice to see Hitch had a sense of humour, even if a twisted one.

Glad you enjoyed it although I give it a popcorn higher. I don't think it's a surprise Hitchcock did a comedy though, I think a lot of his films feature his dark humour, and whenever I've seen him in interviews he always comes across as a man with a good sense of humour too

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Yes, his movies have a very dark comedy touch but I wasn't expecting he made something like this! I'm glad I saw it!

Hitchcock was hilarious.

Edarsenal, you've got me real curious and wanting to see The Big White.

The two most recent I've seen for the first time:

Passage to Marseille (1944)

Very good WWII flick with Humphrey Bogart, Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet, Claude Rains, and George Tobias....the first four together again after Casablanca, this time mostly ship-bound, with tension boiling over between French patriots and Nazi-compliant French. Bogart, Lorre, Tobias and two others are prison escapees from French Guiana who get away when they find out WWII has broken out and they want to fight for their country. When a French ship picks them up, Greenstreet and several other lackeys are already on board, sailing for Marseille. Greenstreet doesn't trust the men they've picked up and plans on ratting them out when they get to Marseille, so Bogart's men and the captain of the ship plan on not going to Marseille. Meanwhile, the men tell their story to a sympathetic Claude Rains. It's interesting because there are flashbacks within flashbacks, which makes for an interesting middle third. Very nicely acted with good atmosphere and tension, and it's always great adventure when Bogart, Lorre, and Greenstreet get together.





Django Unchained (2012)

Loved this movie. Jamie Foxx and Christoph Waltz are great as the free-slave and German bounty hunter who team up to chase down some of Waltz's bounties and eventually save Django's wife, whom he was separated from. This has the usual Quentin Tarantino long passages of dialogue interrupted by sudden and graphic violence. This time, in an almost-Spaghetti-Western-setting, it works greatly. There's Tarantino's usual comic touches at inappropriate moments. There's his usual coarse language throughout. And the violence. Some have winced at it, but it didn't bother me at all. I guess I'm getting numb about violence in my middle-age but I found myself laughing when the bad guys would get shot and geysers of what looked like caro syrup would shoot into the air about ten feet. I just didn't take it seriously at all, which is the way I treat most of Tarantino's movies, and I had a great time. The supporting cast is excellent, including Kerry Washington, Leonardo DiCaprio, Walton Goggins (love this guy!), Dennis Christopher, James Remar, Don "Miami Vice" Johnson, and Samuel L. Jackson, just to name a few. Whoever did Jackson's makeup did an excellent job. And I laughed out loud when one of my favorite songs by Jim Croce, "I Got a Name," suddenly showed up in the middle of the movie.

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