Rate The Last Movie You Saw

Cool, you found it. Not a bad collection, although it would have been nice if they included Strangers on a Train and Dial M for Murderousness. Oh, and there are a few episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

Dial M for Murder is my #3 Hitchcock, so yeah. But with the special features and all, it seems to be a pretty solid investment.

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Marnie - Still crossing Hitchcock films off of my unseen list. According to IMDb he helmed 54 full length features and as far as I can tell I've watched 19 of them. I set out to tackle his most well known ones first and then go by highest rated. My next one should be Shadow of a Doubt and then maybe Spellbound. After that whatever either strikes my fancy or whenever the opportunity comes up. Marnie is a 1964 mystery and psychological study. Tippi Hedren plays the title character, a compulsive thief and con artist with a whole closet full of neuroses that include a fear of thunderstorms and of the color red. Sean Connery plays Mark Rutland, one of her unwitting victims who eventually recognizes her from a previous caper. He falls for her. Hard. Obsessively hard. Instead of turning her over to the authorities he inexplicably blackmails her into marrying him and sets out to untangle the Gordian knot that is her psyche. Their cruise ship honeymoon turns out to be an abject failure due to her revulsion to being touched by any man. This is made clear in a previous scene with her aloof and embittered mother. There's a scene in their stateroom that insinuates an assault takes place and which caused a storm of controversy at the time. Marnie's unresolved issues eventually come to a head with some prodding from her tenacious husband. The cast, as is usually the case with any Hitchcock movie, is solid with Connery and Hedren proving themselves as worthy as the directors other onscreen pairings. 90/100

Out of the 15 listed the ones I haven't seen are Torn Curtain and Topaz so I guess I'm doing okay.

For a Few Dollars More. (1965)






A classic.


4.5/5 Stars.

Also one of my favorites, I like it a lot more than Rope which gets more love (I compare them because they both feel like stage-plays with most or all of both films taking place inside a single apartment).

I like A Fistful of Dollars and The Good, The Bad and the Ugly a decent bit more than that one, but I'm a fan of all three films in the Dollars trilogy.

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In the Shadow of the Moon (2019)

This somewhat confusing sci-fi thriller opens with a good-natured Spielberg atmosphere, and in fact most of the story is fairly tame in comparison to most films of its style today. Its TV-MA rating strikes me as too high, and I'm usually conservative when it comes to ratings.

In Philadelphia several people from different walks of life suddenly die, and there seems to be no explanation for it. Yet all the victims have a pattern of 3 puncture wounds on the backs of their necks. Presumed to be the work of a serial killer, the police search high and low for clues and motive without success. 9 years later a similar occurrence stuns the city. Is it a copycat?

This sets up a gradual morphing into a time travel mystery in which the police officer most involved becomes obsessed, while hoping the case will advance his career. Suddenly the crimes become the single important thing in his life.

Despite its lack of star power and big name production people, the picture is a first rate effort. The ending feels a little worn, but the tale is woven very nicely. Some of it evokes incredulity, but after all, it IS sci-fi.

Available on Netflix and various streaming services.

Doc's rating: 6/10

Oh, I think you'll enjoy all 3, Torgo. I did. The big let down for me in Torn Curtain was the mediocre film score. As you know, Hitch and Herrmann had a falling out, so Hitch used John Addison. Also IMO Paul Newman was miscast, but nevertheless it was a good film.

Personally I never warmed up to Bruce Dern in Family Plot. He was too whiny and nasally. But there again-- enjoyable film.

Big time cheese with a slice of nasty. A truck driver has his whole family wiped out and his girlfriend assaulted by the local baddies led by daddy scene stealer Ned Beatty. When the law can't help, the young man builds a monster truck to take his revenge. It's an amusing watch.

Hellraiser (1987)

I thought that Torn Curtain was actively a bad movie. It sounds like others think it's okay/pretty good. But I STRUGGLED to get through it. Something about it was just off and the character development and chemistry between the actors was non-existent.

Some Kind of Wonderful (1987)

1917 - Although you can acknowledge and certainly appreciate the technical artistry on display the movie comes off a little bloodless to me. Maybe it was a more organic experience on a big screen but for some reason the story just didn't engage me. I spent the majority of the time wondering how many extras they had to employ and clothe or how many miles of trenches they had to dig or exactly how much square acreage of land was used. It's not a bad film of course but it does sort of hold you at arms length. 80/100

Snooze factor = Z


[Snooze Factor Ratings]:
Z = didn't nod off at all
Zz = nearly nodded off but managed to stay alert
Zzz = nodded off and missed some of the film but went back to watch what I missed
Zzzz = nodded off and missed some of the film but went back to watch what I missed but nodded off again at the same point and therefore needed to go back a number of times before I got through it...
Zzzzz = nodded off and missed some or the rest of the film but was not interested enough to go back over it

What the ****?!

50 year-old Ned Beatty in a black leather jacketed villain role being hounded by a monster truck of vengeance is something I should have seen 33 years ago. And probably every year since.

The Dancer Upstairs, 2002

In a South American country (which I never caught, but perhaps was intentionally unnamed?), a police detective, Rejas (Javier Bardem) is on the hunt for an elusive revolutionary who seems to be at the center of increasingly disturbing and brutal attacks. Complicating his investigation is the corrupt government around him and his interest in his daughter's ballet teacher (Laura Morante).

Bardem once again proves that he is a capable lead, and he has that particular gift of not having to say much to imply depths beneath the surface. His character feels very real: a man who is not himself corrupt, but who does not choose to fight the corruption around him. His past life as a lawyer has shown him some of the worst of his country (he represented a young rape victim whose family was later terrorized until she fled to Miami--the perpetrator of the rape was the country's current president), and we see a man doing the best he can in his corner of the country.

The central story--that of the dangerous revolutionary--was a mixed bag for me. At its best, it reflects the way that corruption can perpetuate from generation to generation. Rejas has the personal experience of his family's farm having been seized by the military. In a country where indigenous and vulnerable people have constantly been trod underfoot, you can see how the sparks of a revolution would catch.

On the flip side, the portrayal of the revolution at times didn't quite mesh with what we see of the characters. The terrorism as portrayed in this film not only uses violence as a means to accomplish its goal, it seems to revel in cruelty. Children are used as suicide bombers. The film blurs the line between people pushing for revolution and people under the thrall of someone more akin to a cult leader. Because the antagonist is kept off screen for almost all of the runtime and because his followers do little more than yell slogans, we are never given insight into how this man has marshaled an army of seemingly sensitive and empathetic people into committing violent atrocities (and animal cruelty). Sometimes the film is able to leverage this seeming contradiction, as in a scene where Rejas tries to help a mortally wounded young woman who even in her death throes violently rejects him. But for the most part the dynamics of the revolution are too vague.

This is a well-acted, solidly directed film, but the story lacks the fire or momentum it needs to make it truly engaging.

I was curious as to why you rated this so low

Extreme film that is supposedly hard to find, so I jumped at the chance when I finally found it. The first 70+ minutes are shot in one take, very cool in the right hands, but in this case editing was needed to prevent the movie from wearing out it's welcome. The result is a 93 minute movie that should've been 60 minutes. It's sick, had its moments, and I liked the way it was filmed, but I can not recommend.