Rate The Last Movie You Saw

The Dirty Dozen (1967) Re-watch

Hadn't seen this action classic in many a year, and have never seen it in its original theatrical form. There wasn't a whole lot of difference except for a few cuss words and a few seconds of gore (bullet to the head, knife to a woman's gut). Other than that, same great movie. The plot, for those few who have never seen it, is the mold for many that would follow. It's about Major Reisman (Lee Marvin) who is tasked with training a motley crew of twelve army prisoners to raid a WWII Nazi fortress and kill as many enemy officers as possible. All the prisoners are naturally not with the program, especially Franko (a great John Cassavettes), but Reisman and Sergeant Bowren (Richard Jaeckel) get them all into shape to make the big raid. What follows is the requisite training, followed by the raid and all the mayhem that ensues. A great cast (besides Marvin, Cassavettes, and Jaeckel) includes Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, Jim Brown, George Kennedy, Trini López (the singer), Ralph Meeker, Robert Ryan, Telly Savalas, Donald Sutherland, Clint Walker, and Robert Webber. Expertly and tightly directed by class director Robert Aldrich (The Flight of the Phoenix, Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte, The Longest Yard, to name but a few). One of the best.

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"Miss Jean Louise, Mr. Arthur Radley."

Bubba Ho-Tep (2003)

Arrival (Villeneuve, 2016)


As much as I'd like to praise Villeneuve for crafting such a big movie about such intimate exchanges, I can't get past watching a film about communication which fails to communicate with me. I could wax poetic about the visualizations or broader concepts, but I can't form a cogent opinion on what exactly it means or how it should affect me. For all of the fair criticisms levied at a picture like Interstellar, the emotional affirmation it awarded me felt far more genuine than the shorthand provided here which is basically a device to explain a concept.

So while I can appreciate Villeneuve's incredible resolve in making an impenetrable movie for a wide audience, I'd be lying to myself if I pretended that its profundity resonated with me in any meaningful way. When a film adaptation makes me want to read its source material so that I can develop some semblance of intertextual meaning, that means it can't stand on its in a satisfactory manner. I have no problem with movies that require further attention to yield answers, often those are the most fulfilling experiences, but I want to see how Ted Chiang approached this subject more than I want to revisit how Denis Villeneuve did. The fact that Story of Your Life is written as a message from the mother to the daughter already feels more appropriate given what kind of emotional and thematic weight hinges on their relationship.

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Letterboxd | ReverseShot | SlantMagazine

Street Fighter -



Better than so many "good" movies.

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Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0

See no evil, Hear no evil (1989) 5/10.

Kong: Skull Island

Well done. Enjoyed this flick a lot. I especially loved the way they made Kong look. It was a basic yet cool throwback to the old black and white version. And like Peter Jackson's version, the island was one of horror with creepy and deadly creatures at every corner. The action scenes were off the chain and the CGI was mostly realistic and kept to a minimum; nothing too over the top; which I like.

The plans are to do a Godzilla movie and then one with both Kong and Godzilla, with the top secret Monarch agency in the story line.

BTW, watch until the end of the credits.

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I absolutely adored Lee Remick...miss her so much.

Life, very creepy and tense in places, overall a pretty decent, solid sci-fi horror. Check out my full review below, the grade I gave the movie was a B+.

Candy (2006)

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You can call it the art of fighting without fighting.

you've got pretty articulate speech Is that a microphone in front of you?

Thanks! Yeah its a Bluesnowball. Thanks for the comment, really appreciate it.

Show Me Love. Agnes (Rebecka Liljeberg) is a lonely and miserable teenage girl living in the dead-end Swedish town of Amal, ostracised from her peers due to an (accurate) perception of her sexuality, and painfully in love with one of her school's most popular girls, blonde bombshell and supposedly boy-mad Elin (Alexandra Dahlstrom), who has no idea she even exists. Their paths finally cross one night, and following a cruel prank that Elin instantly regrets, she goes back to apologise and finds that Agnes may be more of a kindred spirit than she would ever have guessed. This 1998 Swedish teen comedy-drama-love story was a massive success in its home country, actually outgrossing Titanic, and remains a touching, sweet, agonisingly believable and often very funny movie that remains firmly in my top 10 favourite films of all time. Lovely.

The Here After (2015):

I'm pretty sure not so many people know about this film, in fact, I would be extremely surprised if I found out that anyone in this board has watched it before, which is very sad and disappointing because of how great it is. I wouldn't recommend it to just anyone though, it's definitely incredibly slow, but it also offers enough to keep you engaged in the character(s) and the happenings. It's nowhere near perfect, but it sure is an experience to have. If you're interested in it, I advise you to jump into it completely blind, all you really need to know is that it's Swedish. I'm currently debating within myself about it being either a

or a

and I think a second watch will decide that for me.

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"A film has to be a dialogue, not a monologue — a dialogue to provoke in the viewer his own thoughts, his own feelings. And if a film is a dialogue, then it’s a good film; if it’s not a dialogue, it’s a bad film."

- Michael "Gloomy Old Fart" Haneke

You're right, I've never heard of it before. Just added it to my watchlist.

Careful with those ratings. You don't want to lose that moniker.

Burn After Reading (2008) -

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Letterboxd

Moana 8/10

La Luna - 4/10

Clint Eastwood's favorite movie was nominated for best picture but lost to Casablanca. I can't argue with that, but I thought this movie was also brilliant. There is so much power packed into a measly 75 minutes, and it results with what I thought was a deeply haunting film. Great performances from Henry Fonda, Dana Andrews, Anthony Quinn, and more. I can't wait to watch it again. I thought the 40's weren't going to be so great but boy was I wrong.

Key Largo -

Ehh, not bad, but it still felt like an ever-so-slightly improved version of The Petrified Forest.