Rate The Last Movie You Saw

True Stories (1986)

3/5

I can't say that I didn't like it, but it is different. Of course, I also wasn't crazy about The Big Lebowski (1998), the first time I saw it.
I guess this movie will require a second viewing in the future, just not the near future.

From the top 100 noirs list, but it didn't seem like a noir to me. There's no murder, hardly any type of mystery, and really no crime. I spent most of the movie waiting for these scenarios to come into play, but this turned out to be a pretty unique movie with several thematic elements. Tyrone Power plays a bit of a hustler who joins a carnival. He's not exactly a bad guy, but he's a bit of a con artist who wants to make it big. He starts out there helping out in an act that makes people think their minds are being read, and this leads to him leaving the carnival and escalating his scam all the way to acting as one of those psychic mediums. The movie stays interesting throughout, and eventually has quite a haunting and memorable finale.

Rope (1948) - +

Really brilliantly directed and it's shot with such precision that it washes off the faults in the plot.

The Lady Vanishes (1938) -

The film takes so many twists and turns that it just becomes somewhat ridiculous, still for the time this was top notch action.

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It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything.

Histoires extraordinaires (Spirits of the Dead)


And rewatched:


The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance



Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
Judas was content for 4970 dollars less.


Truth be told this movie could have been 80 minutes long, and would have been in the hands of anyone else, especially today. But Sergio Leone is a master of taking his time, and savoring every scene making it the best it can be, and earns the climactic shootout at the end. He uses things like atmosphere and silence to his advantage, and creates the most brilliant scenes of tension with a wealth of incredible detail, seriously, the opening scene might just be the best opening in history. The plot isn't spoon fed to you with exposition and unnecessary scenes, but is gathered in bits and pieces over time and allows you to piece it together for yourself. There's an incredible list of characters, notably Harmonica(A Welcome improvement from Charles Bronson since The Magnificent Seven), Cheyenne, my personal favorite, and Frank, who felt like an answer to my complaint about Angel Eyes from The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. The score also doesn't disappoint, and I gotta say I didn't think I'd be able to be so mesmerized twice within the span of 2 days but I suppose Leone will do that to a man. If anyone hasn't seen it, which I doubt, do yourself a favor.

. So this or TGTBATU? I preferred TGTBATU on first watch but i find Once..West much better on a rewatch. Also i think For A Few Dollars More might be my favourite of the Dollars Trilogy.

Vokzul, you're batting a 1000 Glad to see someone discover a 5/5 classic movie. Another good write up from you too. So what's your next classic you're watching?

If I was posed to answer that question with a gun to my head, I think I'd rather they pull the trigger.

Splitting hairs but I think Once Upon a Time In The West takes it.

I liked For A Few Dollars More much better than the 1st one, For a Fistful Dollars (which was OK).

Fistful was actually my favourite at one point. Weirdly they've all been my favourite at different times. Still got to watch Duck, You Sucker!.

The Wild Bunch (1969) or I might go back and see A Fistfull of Dollars and For a Few Dollars more. Then after that I think I'm gonna top off westerns with Unforgiven and then move into a new genre. Unless I'm totally skipping over another gem of a western I don't know about.

I considered Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and a couple others but I'm not sure yet.

Unforgiven is my second favourite western and is in my top ten. The Wild Bunch is one of my favourite westerns too.

At this rate my entire top ten will be westerns.

Well, there's like a zillion great westerns, but yea I understand you want to explore other film avenues. I seen The Wild Bunch but it didn't impress me much, it's OK. The Unforgiven is way cool. At least try to check that one out.

Excellent film overall. Good nomination for the HoF.

Unforgiven (1992)
Deserve's got nothin' to do with it.


Unforgiven is a very gripping story of the moral balance of a man haunted by his past, and starts as a film about bounty hunting, then revenge and then it's topped off with some redemption. Clint Eastwood is fantastic, both on screen and the directors chair, giving one of the standout performances of his career, and Gene Hackman did a great job playing a Sheriff who I really wanted to hate but I just couldn't for the majority of the film. However, I can't help but feel like Richard Harris sort of just came and went, and was a bit wasted here. Overall, Unforgiven is a great film and beautiful homage to Eastwood's mentors, Sergio Leone and Don Siegel, and is definitely worth a watch to any who haven't yet seen it.

The Sum of all Fears (2002)



Enjoyable action/thriller movie, but too long.

I liked this more than the director's Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, although I'm not particularly fond of his style. It seems that mixing genres can be difficult to pull off, and I think Shane Black has had mixed results. At times this movie was entertaining and funny, but it also had it's fair share of cringe worthy forced moments. Russell Crowe plays it pretty straight and turns in a solid if unspectacular performance. On the other hand, Ryan Gosling makes the movie; he is often very funny. I'm never excited to see a child get a starring role in an adult movie, but I also thought the girl did a very nice job. Other than that, there's no standout characters or performances, and I think that leaves a large void in a film like this. The action and violence was fairly exciting and creative, and I'd say Black has a gift there if he could reel it in just a tad. My big beef with the movie is it's atmosphere, or lack thereof. A movie set in the 70's offers up great opportunity for style points, and just having a few good songs from the era isn't enough. The clothing, cars, etc., all looked 70's, but it didn't feel 70's. For this movie to be great, it needed to ooze it's time period, and that was sorely missing. I enjoyed the movie, but it's very forgettable.

Agree with most of what you said, if it had been more funny/cool all the way throughout it could have been great, but it's not all the way through. The final act after a certain death was a mess in my opinion.

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