Rate The Last Movie You Saw

Is that fan art, MG? Nice.

not sure.. just googled movie poster and that was one of the first ones listed.. .

just like the one I posted in "what are you watching tonight"

@Dani8

they had this one too

I agree with your comments. Evidently "Three Billboards" has become the official "in" movie at this time. And because of the promise from this superb cast, anticipation built as the opening credits concluded. However a mild gnawing suspicion soon formed in the back of my mind when most of the dialogue was littered with "F" words. Hardly a sentence could be delivered without generous portions of the word in every conceivable grammatical usage: noun, adjective, adverb, other. It's as if at the script meetings, a line could not be approved unless it contained a minimum of three "F" usages. Is it that we are tasked with believing that this is common small town speech; or is it that the use of the word must be included in any modern progressive banter? Its prevalence gradually came to be like fingernails scraping on a blackboard. It was doubly annoying after just recently watching I, Tonya, which suffered under the same handicap.

The film has two strong attractions: 1. a heavenly alluring title, and, 2. a cast of heavyweight actors. Unfortunately the movie was basically a clever plot device searching for a believable story to go along with it. Reportedly writer/director Martin McDonagh saw similar billboards regarding a crime somewhere in the southeastern U.S., and decided to write a story using the incidence. But having introduced the billboards, the screenplay soon abandoned the title, the billboards, and their usefulness.

[spoilers] At about 30 minutes into the film, the Sheriff (Woody Harrelson) visits Mildred Hayes (Frances McDormand) to explain to her why the investigation into her daughter's murder had stalled: there was little evidence, no eye witnesses, and the DNA and fingerprints did not match anyone in the criminal databases. So unless someone were to finger the perpetrator, there was little else that could be done. This is totally plausible, and in reality brought the entire movie's premise to an end. So with Mildred's and the film's justification for the plot pulled out from under them, all that followed was groundless, muddled, or silly.

Hitchcock stated to Francois Truffaut that in film, "Whatever is said instead of being shown is lost upon the viewer." In this case we are not shown the crime, and there is minimal description of it. So on good faith alone we are supposed to understand why the McDormand character has turned into a miserable, monomaniacal, wretch, whose sole purpose in life has become to embarrass, then terrorize an entire town-- but without justification.

In order to continue the film's shaky plot, they simply switched the focus of Mildred's rage to a dumb, hackneyed racist (what else?) deputy sheriff. Despite the character's triteness, he at least provided a suitable living breathing foil on which to base most of the rest of the movie.

Credit must be given to the fine performances by McDormand, Harrelson, Sam Rockwell, and the inestimable John Hawkes, along with a first rate supporting cast.

But it was the screen play and dialogue that came up short. Several characters complete 2 or 3 major personality changes. Rockwell's deputy sheriff alone transformed from a moronic bigoted dufus to a sharp caring sleuth in the space of about 45 minute's screen time.

In the process many of the usual trite Hollywood cliches were featured: a mother enraged over her daughter's senseless killing (you go, girl!); the hick racist deputy; the crotch kick; a dwarf explaining that they're in fact real people; the new black replacement sheriff (who looked like he stepped off the appellate bench) to can the deputy and institute racial equality; the ogre ex-husband takes up with a younger woman; and the like. One looses count. And perhaps the writers did not know that pancreatic cancer does not cause coughing up blood.

In the end, the newly enlightened pairing of Mildred and the reformed deputy decide to go ahead and hunt to kill a man who they presume must have raped someone at some time. After all the daughter's killer had not yet been found, so someone deserves to die, right? But we're left with the question: will they really do it? Would this ending fit better on some other film?

Evidently this is all acceptable under the "black comedy" distinction. When the writers do not commit to credibility, anything goes. However in this case there was very little comedy, and the black tended more towards gray.

Doc's rating: 6 of 10, based on the acting.

I'm no oncologist that's for sure but I think that's a bit of a nitpick, Doc. Pancreatic cancer can cause Zollinger-Ellison syndrome which can lead to excessive bleeding in the gut. That has to come out some way, so I found that plausible. The cancer meds can also have various side FX. Even excessive coughing , vomiting etc itself can lead to ruptured blood vessels which lead to coughing up blood.

The use of the f word - yeah this can get very distracting when overused but for me it seemed to fit. The crotch kicking was a bit OTT but so was throwing molotov cocktails at the police station and not being questioned over it. I just put that down to Coen brothers entertainment. As for the character being 'miserable, monomaniacal, wretch' - well I can understand a parent, especially a mother, reacting that way to the death of her child (especially considering her last words to her) and not seeing that the cops had nothing to go on. Stress causes people to act in some very strange ways and denial is a powerful tool.

The 'in' movie? Yeah for sure but I, and I assume a lot of other viewers, could not give a flying fig if something is trendy to watch or like. People like what they like and vice versa.

Despite my nitpicks of your review I do understand your complaints and enjoyed the read.

ETA this quote

"However in this case there was very little comedy, and the black tended more towards gray."

I agree, but I'm seeing a lot of people saying they found it extremely funny so I find it interesting finding out how differently viewers have reacted to it.

I remember the creepy behind the door eyeballs and vocal sounds of the killer, as well as the laughing policemen. That high pitched, frat boy laughter..reminded me of Porky's. Bob Clark seemed to have a thread between his tonal shifts revolving around hijinks.

I tried watching this twice, and both times I failed as a viewer. It's garbage. It deserves to be destroyed by that library that preserves films. They should open up an office that handles the destruction of crappy films, right next door to the office that ushers in films worthy of proper storage.

Bout time someone gave this movie it's deserved rating on this squirrely lightbox. Classic dialog, great analog FX and CHARISMA. Dan Aykroyd rocking a cigarette amidst a crowd of excited new yorkers.

Yeah, for such an extensive comedy cast, it is pretty awful.
But it did have one notable point for me - the only real movie role for my teen crush Diane Kay (Nancy on Eight Is Enough)!
She played Betty Douglas in 1941.

The Enforcer (1976)



Pretty good, you can tell that Don Siegels direction is missed. Still, solid apart from flagging retribution flags very early on. Tyne Daly is a joy in this (and very attractive...if that's not too subjective!). The soundtrack is groovy (although not as good as Coogans Bluff) Good 3/5

Ha! too funny...I felt like, if Hell was anything like an old Twilight Zone episode the punishment would be having to watch 1941 over and over.....and on the big screen....a really big screen!

Oh yeah! I though of you as soon as I seen her. She was actually by far the best part of the movie. Second was seeing Laverne, Lenny and Squiggy.

Well done Joel, once was enough for me...risible garbage. Doubly annoyed that peers of mine went on about how funny it was. Chronic.

I dont know the movie (thank goodness by the look of things) but just wanted to rep that word.

Ha ha ha! Cheers Dani, better than my usual profanity

It's a great word, Marco. I dont hear or read it often, but somehow the entertainment does not extend to the movie. Wont be going on the watchlist any time soon.

Yeah, it's funny if staring at a cockroach doing the lambada with a broken leg is considered funny. Actually...

The best movie i last saw is The Foreigner 2017 by Jackie Chan
Download this and latest TV Series and movies from wwww . lightdl . xyz

8-year-old 1941 fan here.

__________________
It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
My IMDb page

Even I gave 1941 a - I don't think I'd even consider it the worst Spielberg film, let alone one of the worst I'd ever seen.

Last movie I watched...

Teorema -

Not significantly better than 1941.

__________________
Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0