Rate The Last Movie You Saw

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Bright light. Bright light. Uh oh.

The Strange Vengeance of Rosalie (Jack Starrett, 1972)
5/10
Batman (Leslie H. Martinson, 1966)
5.5/10 Camp Rating: 8/10
Mainstream (Gia Coppola, 2020)
5/10
The Times of Harvey Milk (Robert Epstein, 1984)
+ 7.5/10

Incredibly insightful, powerful history lesson about what was going on in San Francisco in the 1970s.
Long Weekend (Steve Basilone, 2021)
+ 6/10
North Hollywood (Mikey Alfred, 2021)
6/10
Hollywood Man (Jack Starrett, 1976)
+ 5/10
The Killing of Two Lovers (Robert Machoian, 2020)
6/10

Ominous telling of the breakdown of a marriage and family, featuring Clayne Crawford, Chris Coy and Sepideh Moafi.
Love Is Better Than Ever (Stanley Donen, 1952)
+ 5/10
Buccaneer's Girl (Frederick de Cordova, 1950)
6/10
Timecrafters: The Treasure of Pirate's Cove (Rick Spalla, 2020)
5/10
The Hustler (Robert Rossen, 1961)
7+/10

Fast Eddie (Paul Newman) knows a lot about pool but needs to learn more about life, and Piper Laurie tries to help him.
Wildcat (Jonathan W. Stokes, 2021)
5/10
Above Suspicion (Phillip Noyce, 2019)
5.5/10
Süden (Christian Petzold, 1990)
5/10
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (David Swift, 1967)
7+/10

Go-getter Robert Morse tries to climb the ladder from window washer to corporate executive in tuneful, amusing classic.
Life Returns (Eugen Frenke, 1935)
5/10
Isle of the Dead (Mark Robson, 1945)
6/10
Miss Robin Crusoe (Eugene Frenke, 1954)
5/10
The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (Luis Buñuel, 1954)
7/10

Robinson Crusoe (Dan O'Herlihy) survives many years on a remote tropical island, and that's before Friday and the cannibals show up.
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Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow- 9/10 A very stylized and enjoyable movie with a great cast and a lot of heart

Metropolis- 10/10 I wached the Giorgio Moroder cut for the simple reason it was much shorter and I don't see the need to see a 2 and a half hour cut for a movie, if an 80 minute cut is available. It was quite a surreal experience. The movie was way ahead of its time and is perhaps the most unique movie I have ever seen.



when i saw logan when it first release it reminds me of joel and ellie from the last of us
You should watch the road.



La Vie En Rose (2007)
This film raised an interesting question for me. How should you rate a biopic? Should it be based solely on the portrayal that is presented on screen, how accurately it captures the life and essence of the person it's chronicling, or some mixture of the two? I suppose the more you know about the person yourself, the more you accurate you will want the depiction to be
....
)

That's a good question, and one that's ignored often enough. IMO the person should be portrayed accurately, not --as often happens-- as the actor or director THINKS it should be. It also helps if the actor resembles the subject, and can well represent some of their mannerisms.

But equally important is to tell the story with historical accuracy. So many biopics have gone so far afield that it seems as though they're portraying some OTHER figure.



Victim of The Night
when i saw logan when it first release it reminds me of joel and ellie from the last of us
Yup



Victim of The Night
I really love Lone Star. Just the exact right combination of mystery and drama for my taste.
I am also a fan.
While Chris Cooper manages to steal this movie from McConaughey and Kirstofferson, I felt Pena was the secret weapon of the movie.



I forgot the opening line.

By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=57484344

Woman at War - (2018) - Iceland/France/Ukraine

Neat little movie about a woman (an excellent Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir playing Hanna and her twin sister Ása) resisting industrialization in the beautiful Icelandic coast, mountains and rivers. As she ratchets up her pressure on authorities they call her a 'terrorist' and are determined to hunt her down. In the meantime she finally has the chance to adopt a gorgeous young Ukranian girl after 4 years of processing and waiting. Everything collides in a drastic way - will we get some kind of happy ending, or has Hanna completely wrecked her own life?

Another great film from Iceland (not from the makers of Rams) - they must have some kind of burgeoning scene. Worth the price of admission alone just to see Geirharðsdóttir ply her craft. She's really exceptional. The story is timely, and has everything from a First Blood-style chase in the wilderness to touching scenes between the sisters and their dreams being crushed by ill-considered actions. Still, you respect her for putting everything on the line to protect the Iceland she loves. Beautiful shots of the landscape. Not original - but I still love the device of musicians playing the score while they're literally included in scenes (coming mostly from Hanna's imagination - she's a musician herself.) Definitely one to look out for.

8/10



Hard Candy (2005)



Elliot looks so handsome in that shot



Re-watch of an excellent movie.



Re-watch of a good movie.

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IT FOLLOWS
(2014, Mitchell)
A film with a title that starts with the letters I or J



"But the most terrible agony may not be in the wounds themselves, but in knowing for certain
that within an hour, then within ten minutes, then within half a minute, now at this very instant... your soul will leave your body, and you will no longer be a person, and that is certain; The worst thing is that it is certain."

There is an old quote that says "it's impossible to be sure of anything but death and taxes." And, as cheeky and bleakly amusing as the quote might be, the sad thing is that even taxes are not certain, but death certainly is. We are born, we live, and then we die. That's it. What we do in the process will vary, but the end will undoubtedly be the same, regardless of the decisions we take down the road. That sentiment seems to be at the core of David Robert Mitchell's breakthrough hit It Follows.

The film follows Jay (Maika Monroe), a young college student that is haunted by a supernatural presence after a sexual encounter with new boyfriend Hugh (Jake Weary). Terrified by it, Jay tries to fend off this presence, whatever it is, with the help of her sister Kelly, and friends Paul, Yara, and Greg.

With a budget of barely over a million dollars, director and writer David Robert Mitchell relies more on an eerie mood and a dread-filled atmosphere to keep us on our toes. There are a couple of well executed jump-scares, but the key is a constant sense of fear and danger lurking around every corner which is definitely effective. This is transmitted especially by Monroe, who takes a subdued but confident approach to her character.

Grade:



Full review on my Movie Loot
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Letter Never Sent (1959) -


Mikhail Kalatozov has really been killing it for the past few weeks or so with me. With The Cranes Are Flying and now this film, I'm glad I got to watch a couple of his films for this thread. While I like The Cranes Are Flying a bit more (it sat well with me upon reflection), I also enjoyed this film quite a lot.

This is the kind of film where, instead of analyzing aspects and scenes which I liked, I prefer to say what I felt while watching it. This is in part because I was left in a state of amazement multiple times as I watched it given all the daring shots and set pieces Kalatozov put together. From actually lighting a forest on fire on multiple occasions, to navigating through all kinds of rough terrains, to floating down a fairly rapid, icy river on an unstable wooden raft, I imagine that the act of making this film was just as exciting as the film itself. I also loved the occasional dream-like sequences, such as Tanya and Andrei running to the group after they discovered the diamond mine, Konstantin and Tanya stuck in a thunderstorm, or Konstantin's hallucinations as he floated down a river. They gave the film an extra layer of style which I quite enjoyed. The film also packs quite a bit of suspense and dread into its fairly short runtime.
WARNING: spoilers below
Most of the character deaths were telegraphed ahead of time and were predictable, I suppose, but I wasn't bothered by that as this only made them more dreadful. I also loved the ending. I was convinced the film would have a tragic ending, but I was relieved that at least one of them made it out alive in the end.


My only issue with the film is that Kalatozov made some rather questionable narrative choices. The narrative starts out well by introducing and setting up the stage for a couple character dynamics in the first half hour, like Konstantin's romantic feelings for Tanya (which are complicated since she's already in a relationship with Andrei, another man on their expedition), or Konstantin's rather aggressive personality. Unfortunately though, these sub-plots were pretty much scrapped once the forest fire started and, save for a bit of subtext here and there, weren't explored again. Of course, I still found the final hour of the film compelling for the reasons listed above. I just found it unnecessary for the first half hour to establish these character conflicts given the way they culminated.

Regardless of my issues with the narrative though, I still found the film really enjoyable and, even though it gets off to a rough start, the final hour or so is wholly satisfying on a number of levels.
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I forgot the opening line.

By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=55199223

Roman J. Israel, Esq. - (2017)

Denzel Washington shows how much range he has in playing the titular character in this legalistic drama, Roman J. Israel, Esq. In fact, if you watch it you'll quickly realize that you're seeing this film just for that particular performance. One of an autistic lawyer who, for years, has kept himself apart from society by doing all the work on briefs and motions at a law firm where others take those cases to the actual courtroom. One day his long-term mentor has a heart attack and dies. All of the sudden this autistic savant is thrown into the courtroom - troubles ensue.

Roman is something of a crusader. He's spent much of his life collating and preparing a brief that would have massive impact in what's basically an unfair justice system. When forced to communicate with others though, he makes bad and sometimes weird decisions. These have ripple effects, and they continue until he's way up high and loved one minute and then in huge trouble and hated by everyone the next. One day, with his life in turmoil, he finds he can make $100,000 if he breaks his confidentiality with a client...another bad decision ensues...

This is one of those films where you want to scream at the protagonist as they're in the process of making really strange choices (They make sense to him.) Washington has a kind of Richard Ayoade thing going on, and it's fascinating to see him play a shy and quiet character who reacts with fear at times and really projects that fear well. There's not a lot going on plotwise - it's mainly a character study, and a good one - but not a great one.

Denzel Washington was nominated for an Academy Award (Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role) at the 2018 Oscar ceremony for his role in this film. Written and directed by Dan Gilroy, who did the same on the very good Nightcrawler.

6/10



Star Wars: The Last Jedi (Johnson, 2017)





WARNING: spoilers below
To say that expectations for The Last Jedi were space-high would be putting it mildly; as the 2nd episode of the new Star Wars trilogy, everyone seemed to wonder if Rion Johnson would continue with the fun, but still fundamentally play-it-safe nature of Force Awakens that was oh-so JJ, tracing over the general outline of its corresponding middle chapter in the original trilogy (that being The Empire Strikes Back) in the process, and doom this entry to never truly step out of its predecessor's iconic shadow... or would Johnson try for something more challenging, more daring, like Empire itself did back in its day? Well, while Last Jedi will inevitably draw comparisons to that classic at times (granted, sometimes to its detriment), I'm still happy to say that, like its new generation of heroes and villains, it finds a way to honor and respect what its legendary predecessors created, while also forging more of its own path forward, something that apparently The Rise Of Skywalker failed to capitalize on (although I still actually haven't seen it yet, so I can't comment on it personally).

Anyway, The Last Jedi follows parallel story threads, with the forces of The First Order launching an devastating assault on the vulnerable New Republic, before pursuing the surviving forces through space for the rest of the film, a plot that's intercut with a young Jedi apprentice training with a wizened, reluctant teacher in the mysterious, sometimes-frightening ways of The Force, just like in, well, Empire. However, I feel Jedi distinguishes itself both from the often derivative elements of Force Awakens by telling a more subversive, surprising story, one that's less reliant on pure nostalgia, and distinguishes itself from the overall Star Wars saga through its greater sense of moral ambiguity, especially through its demythologization of the titular "last Jedi" himself, Luke Skywalker.

When Rey (and we) first see him, Luke is a weary, grey-bearded, grizzled old man, living as a hermit in the ruins of an ancient Jedi temple (which just so happens to be in the middle of space-nowhere), his only company being the local wildlife, and the giant toad-nuns aliens that maintain what's left of the structures there. He is a far cry from the beaming, triumphant hero of the original trilogy, and when Rey approaches him in the hopes of being trained as the first of a new generation of Jedi, Luke just tells her to leave the planet immediately. And, while such reluctance is somewhat to be expected, as it would be narratively dull if Luke just immediately acquiesced to every one of Rey's wishes, I still didn't expect him to be as defeated and downtrodden as he turned out here, since, even after he agrees to teach Rey, he only does it to try to show her why the Jedi must die as a way of life, which, combined with a rather unexpected revelation that arises from his past here, really surprised (and pleased) me, with just how dark Rion was willing to go with his arc.

It's a daring spin on a classic, iconic hero, one that somewhat split the Star Wars fanbase, but one that I appreciate for its unwillingness to coddle us as viewers, and besides that, Rion Johnson continues the trend of Force Awakens in making The Force itself a more mysterious and ethereal, well, force, than the disappointingly literal treatment Lucas gave it in the Prequels, through a series of intriguing psychic conversations that occur between two certain characters here, as well as actually making The Force seem more accessible to the random "nobodies" of the galaxy, as you'll see, and that's all the detail I'll go into on those points, lest I spoil the film even further for you.

Outside of the Force-related shenanigans here, the film's other main plot thread of the scant remnants of The New Republic in constant pursuit by The New Order, their numbers steadily dwindling as the film goes on, is, for the most part, tense, desperate, and above all exciting, with some of the better scenes of combat seen in any Star Wars to date, with a certain subplot involving a new, seemingly cowardly Rebel Admiral taking an unexpected turn, further reenforcing the film's overall ambiguity when it comes to its various characterizations. I mean, don't get me wrong or anything, as The Last Jedi is hardly a perfect film; it's overlong by at least 15 minutes, with one too many climactic battles, some of its comedic relief moments feel a bit forced and unnecessary, and its story doesn't always unfold as smoothly, as it should've, with a particular side-story during the middle act that could've easily been altered, or better yet, erased from the film entirely. However, all that being said, this still a very rousing, borderline mythic piece of pop-storytelling, a vital new continuation of what is surely the defining film series of all time, and a work that left me more hopeful than I had been in a long time for the future of the franchise, if Disney can ever get it back on track again as much as it did with this one; may The Force be with it, indeed.



Final Score: 8.25