Rate The Last Movie You Saw

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A Place in the Sun 1951 Directed by George Stevens

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Cat on a Hot Tin Roof 1958 Directed by Richard Brooks

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Z 1969 Directed by Costa-Gavras

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Silver Streak 1976 Directed by Arthur Hiller

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Blue Collar 1978 Directed by Paul Schrader





Nope. Black and white.

Though maybe you saw a colorized version?
No, I didn't see a colorized version so must be just my bad memory It's been a looooong time since I've seen Beat the Devil, I was doing a Bogart watching spree. I should get back to that, well one of these days.




STUBER
(2019)

First viewing. The story is nothing original but the clever dialogue and chemistry between Dave Bautista and Kumail Naninjani make this action comedy worthwhile.

__________________
“Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place and I don't care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard ya hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!” ~ Rocky Balboa



Clockers (1995)

I think this is one of Spike Lee's finest moments. A strong cast and a thrilling tale that keeps you on your toes till the very end. Mekhi Phifer is wonderful as "Strike", the wrong-doing sibling (the other being the great Isaiah Washington). The police side (Harvey Keitel and John Turturro is interesting and the street-side also. A very interesting soundtrack (more soulful than rap) enhances this no end. The Delroy Lindo character is both admirable and **** scary!!! Good piece of movie-making. Many shades of black and white and grey.



The House Of Magic aka Thunder And The House Of Magic (Jeremy Degruson, Ben Stassen & Mimi Maynard, 2013)

Average animated childrens fare, precious little magic on show really



Rio Bravo (1959)

Perfect watching for a Sunday afternoon. Nice light touch in the directing and the story was engaging. Dean Martin could certainly act and all the cast did well. Satisfying, I think is the word.

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Long Day's Journey into Night (2018) -

an interesting journey with a quiet astounding visual feast, the director Bi Gan gave some kind of modern rendition of Tarkovskian touch while still left some originality from his delicate vision; in part, I do love the surreality in the second half but regard the main story everything just on a fine level if not the stylization. maybe sometimes, the 3D?



Ex Machina (2014) -

somehow I decided to look this one attentively back, after around five years now the topic does grab the two cents of me.
the setup quite solid, the build-up, but can't help that as once the feel of "i know where it's going" arose along the line, it kinda turns meh.
also, I think there something on me that not sitting well with Vikander's presence as an actress.
__________________
"Фильм призван вызвать духовную волну, а не взращивать идолопоклонников."



You’re the disease, and I’m the cure.
Trailer Park Boys: The Movie (2006):
A great comedy that is a good introduction to people whom haven’t seen the show before, not everyone’s cup of tea but gives you a slice of what Canada is like.
8.5/10
__________________
“I really have to feel that I could make a difference in the movie, or I shouldn't be doing it.“
Joe Dante



Long Weekend (1978)

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An Australian movie whose headline is something to the effect of, mess with nature and nature will fight back. A couple go camping and are disrespectful towards nature while they struggle to get along. The animals are watching. Decent atmosphere and sense of dread, but not good enough to make up for the lack of excitement.



[center]Long Weekend (1978)

+

An Australian movie whose headline is something to the effect of, mess with nature and nature will fight back. A couple go camping and are disrespectful towards nature while they struggle to get along. The animals are watching. Decent atmosphere and sense of dread, but not good enough to make up for the lack of excitement.
I enjoyed it as a slow-burn. I know what you mean by "lack of excitement", but I loved some of the details like
WARNING: spoilers below
the dead group in the water or the dead(??) creature that kept appearing.



I enjoyed it as a slow-burn. I know what you mean by "lack of excitement", but I loved some of the details like
WARNING: spoilers below
the dead group in the water or the dead(??) creature that kept appearing.
It wasn't bad but I kept thinking how awesome Wake in Fright is.



School starts tomorrow, thus this weekend has been filled with anxiety, and thus I have been watching (1) movies that I find upsetting and (2) the worst looking movies that have somehow ended up on my watchlist. Some quickies:



The Frozen Ground, 2013 (Rewatch)

This movie is so infuriating. Based on a true story, the film starts where you would normally imagine a movie ending: a young woman, bloodied and handcuffed, escapes from a man who intended to kill her. She reports that she's been raped and tortured, gives a description of the man (including details about his home, his car, and the fact that he owns a plane). And yet the police decide that because she's a sex worker she's making up a story, that the man she accused is a "good family man" (despite having several legal run-ins in his past, including two rapes!), and close the case. Vanessa Hudgens plays the victim, Cindy, who is justifiably cynical about the police helping her. Nicholas Cage plays a detective who is trying to solve the disappearance/murder of many women in the same region. John Cusack plays Robert Hansen, the killer. It's all very frustrating and the real life case is so depressing. I watched this movie for the first time around the same time I read the book The Lost Girls (which I see has been adapted into a film on Netflix). Both stories really highlight some of the biases and flaws in the criminal justice system. To the film's credit, it devotes most of its runtime to the police investigation and Cindy's ordeal. The real case had some pretty lascivious elements (the rapes/torture, the fact that he apparently hunted some of his victims like animals before shooting and burying them), and I appreciated that the movie doesn't wallow in those--it treats the victims as people and with respect.





I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore, 2017 (Rewatch)

Melanie Lynskey plays a woman who is constantly dismayed by the crappy way that people behave in the world. When her house is broken into, she is pushed over the edge and decides to pursue the perpetrators on her own. Elijah Wood plays her eccentric neighbor who agrees to be her vigilante wingman. But as the two chase their leads, they end up in over their heads.

This movie, even on a second watch, was very intense for me. Macon Blair (who made the excellent Blue Ruin) has a way of inserting startling and upsetting violence in his films. In this film it's mixed with comedy, but that almost makes it more unsettling? Anyway, it's funny and intense. The acting is really great. This movie makes me happy and unhappy.





The Man in the Trunk, 2019

(I did watch this while also working on lesson plans. Sorry.)

Better than I expected, though not without flaws. One night a man named Andrew opens his door to find a friend he hasn't seen in 5 years asking for help. He agrees to help him, and, well, you know that old saying "A friend will help you move, a good friend will help you move a body"? But soon things get complicated and Andrew must figure out what his friend has gotten him into.

This is one of those low budget films that benefits from mostly decent writing, pretty good acting (especially the lead actor), and a good pace. Heck, it gets half a star for having a scene where two men are fighting and the wife of one of them actually helps instead of cowering in the corner.

The only real complaint (because if a film's budget is like $10,000 I'm not saying a word about the acting or the sets) is that, like many low-budget thrillers, the film has a "twist" that it holds onto until the very end, but that should have just come out earlier in the movie. I wish that directors/writers would just have the confidence to tell a story without feeling like that have to have that one big last reveal.





The Fall

(I also watched this while working. Sorry!)

Just a case of about three too many ideas. A man named Tony is arrested for the stabbing murder of a priest. His brother, a rising politician/judge, agrees to act as his defense attorney. Everything is complicated by the relationships that the brothers have with their wives, a tragic incident from their past, and their fraught relationship with the church.

I consider myself a pretty savvy viewer, but there was just so much plot in this one--and so many times that characters alluded to things without actually just saying them--that it was hard to keep track. To be clear: there are some pretty decent ideas in here. But it feels like the writer just had to keep adding things in. The judge overseeing the case is blind! A homophobic, sadistic prison guard! A wacky, over-the-top cellmate! There were also a handful of scenes played for comedy that I just found confusing. The whole film is just kind of messy.





GET ON UP
(2014)

First viewing. In light of the recent passing of star Chadwick Boseman, I felt compelled to watch his portrayal of the Godfather of Soul after having pushed the film to the side for 6 years. The movie plays like your ordinary biopic. We get to see James Brown during his turbulent childhood and youth, and how he rose from under the rags to become the most influential figure in music history, and then we get to see his fall from grace before "getting on up" again. I believe that the well written script, the amazing soundtrack, and Boseman's captivating and spot-on performance all the way down to Brown's groovy footwork on stage elevates this movie into an excellently made biopic.

Next up on my list are Boseman's performances as Jackie Robinson in 42 and Thurgood Marshall in Marshall.