Rate The Last Movie You Saw

This is pretty good, an old one from 1983, part of a box set of movies made from Stephen King novels. It's The Dead Zone, starring Christopher Walken. He's a guy whose life was upended by an accident that left him in a coma for 5 years. When he wakes up, he finds that everything has changed and he has a new special power, the ability to see things about people, either who they are, what they have done or what is about to happen to them.

You know, being Stephen King, that it's going nowhere good. It doesn't. For a movie of its sort, it's done really well, believable enough and well acted enough to be really creepy.

Sound of Metal, 2019

Going off of word of mouth on here I decided to check this one out. I thought it was pretty fantastic.

Ruben (Riz Ahmed) is a drummer in a metal band with his girlfriend, Lou (Olivia Cooke). Suddenly, Ruben's hearing begins to sharply decline, and he discovers that he only has about 25% hearing in both ears. Ruben ends up in a community of other people with partial or entire hearing loss. Facing a world without music and unsure of how he fits into his own future, Ruben must navigate his own emotions and try to make a life for himself.

The thing that I found most compelling about this film was the way that it portrayed the despair of being trapped between two worlds. It's not just Ruben's hearing loss: he is a recovering addict (and Lou also has struggled with self-harm), he must decide whether or not to try to use cochlear implants to try and "fix" his hearing loss, he repeatedly finds himself in situations where he is not "fluent"--unable to understand ASL, and later not speaking French. This sense of not 100% belonging anywhere helps us to understand Ruben's sense of alienation and frustration. As a viewer there are times that we do not understand what is being signed or (in my case) what is being said in another language. The film puts us in Ruben's shoes so beautifully, it allows us to draw general meaning from a very specific circumstance.

Ahmed's lead performance is incredibly strong. His anger, disorientation, and sorrow are all mixed together in his words, facial expressions, and gestures/signing. He is well matched by Cooke and Paul Raci as the leader of the retreat where Ruben spends several months. I found that all of the characters--even those in small supporting roles--felt incredibly lived-in.

There's a larger message that I took from this film about things in our lives that we can and cannot control, and how to cultivate a kind of "productive acceptance" to our own circumstances. I thought the whole thing was really beautiful and empathetic.

I would highly, highly recommend this one.

The Day the Earth Stood Still - Still one of the smartest and most accomplished sci-fi thrillers of the Cold War era. It manages to get it's weighty, portentous message across without getting bogged down in sermonizing. I can only imagine how many jingoistic military types were thrown into a tizzy after watching this. It's held up remarkably well especially with it's period appropriate effects and Michael Rennie's charismatic, other worldly performance as Klaatu.

P.S. Patricia Neal was a hottie. 90/100

Ninja III: The Domination -

In a cave in the Arizona desert - of all places - there's a katana imbued with the soul of the evil Black Ninja. The soul's latest host is Christie, a lineworker who does aerobics, owns Patrick Nagel artwork and is essentially the 1980s personified. The movie is no Runaway Train or The Company of Wolves, but it is way better than the average Cannon production. Besides having decent action, stunt work and special effects, it's light on the tastlessness and misogyny typical of the production company. Also, and most importantly, it makes sense (well, as much sense as a story about ninjas and exorcism can make). There are a couple of obvious criticisms you could level at the movie, but I don't have issues with either one. The director himself said that audiences would not buy Christie as the hero, but I appreciated the change of pace of making the villain an innocent bystander, and with Lucinda Dickey's physique and her aerobics and dance skills, she's more than up to the task. As for Sho Kosugi only appearing in a small portion of the movie, he makes his scenes count. In short, it's one of the few Cannon productions that is worth sticking around for after the production logo displays. Word of warning - and not to spoil it too much - but you are less likely to enjoy it if you're a cop.

Nice write up. It really is a good film.

I have always really enjoyed this movie, from when I saw it in the theater with my best friend and my mom, who did not enjoy it nearly as much as we did, but she was a good lady and tolerated it for her boy.

Gort Klaatu Berada Nicto.

One of my favorite classics. It's a very smart movie that batted way above its league, especially compared to the re-make that was so overburdened by FX and Keanu Reeves.

This is the stupidest complaint about a movie I've seen in a long time.

The Pervert's Guide to Ideology -

I can think of two things wrong with that title.

loved Christopher Walken on hairspray

Cell, 2016 (D)

This is the most Stephen King movie ever. It has everything except the bully. A signal coming from cellphones turns people into phone zombies that kill people, not eat them. Everything is predictable in this movie, and the effect are bad, but that doesn't really matter at that point. If you're witing to find out exactly what's happening or why, you can stop watching the moment you lose interest. Yep, it's one of those.

I agree. He was unstoppable on hairspray. He's never been the same since hairspray rehab.