Rate The Last Movie You Saw

Tools    





Victim of The Night
Yeah, a lot of people apparently did not like this movie, even to the point of ridiculing, but I was not among them. I thought the ending maybe got a little silly and of course the 10% thing has been shown to be nonsense, but who cares, this movie is mostly about style and how great Scarlett is at these kind of roles and it delivers strongly on both counts.



The Ghost and Mr. Chicken (1966) An enjoyable and charming comedy starring Don Knotts as an aspiring reporter who has to spend a night in a haunted house.




A Quiet Place Part II (2021, John Krasinski)

I remember the first one was ok. Part II felt like more of the same, only worse.



Hell House LLC, 2015 (F)

A mockumentary about a haunted house attraction where all hell broke loose one night.

First off, they could have dropped the mockumentary aspect entirely. Most of the movie is straight up footage from the people who set up the place and the event itself. The three people interviewed add nothing.

Second, this is just the worst of found footage. Everybody's a douche, everybody's always screwing with everyone, so no one believes anyone when they talk about, or literally film the weird stuff. The level of swearing makes The Blair Witch Project seem like a kids' film.

Third, not only is the camerawork nearly parody-level bad found footage stuff, but you have a scene that feels a minute long of a room going from black to bright white with a flashing light. You can almost never tell what's going on, and it's bad when you can. Basically just costumes and makeup.

Pretty long even though it's 90 minutes, mostly uneventful, and just bad.



We're on a mission from God.
Just finished Awakenings (1990).
I honestly can't remember the last time I cried so much at a film... This movie really resonated with me for some reason. De Niro does such an incredible job at playing Leonard, a catatonic patient in the Bronx during the 1970s.
For those of you who have not seen this film in a while, I would highly recommend revisiting it.



Yeah, a lot of people apparently did not like this movie, even to the point of ridiculing, but I was not among them. I thought the ending maybe got a little silly and of course the 10% thing has been shown to be nonsense, but who cares, this movie is mostly about style and how great Scarlett is at these kind of roles and it delivers strongly on both counts.
true i only watched it cause scarlett is in it, shes one of my favorite actresses and loved her fighting skills also



Double (Drive-in) feature





King Kong Escapes
- This 1967 feature has plenty of things working in it's favor. For starters it's directed by the venerable Ishirô Honda and from what I've read the guy practically invented the Kaiju genre. The head bad guy is Dr. Who, an emaciated gent with a penchant for black clothing and dramatic flourishes and the most jacked up teeth this side of Austin Powers. He's played by the just as venerable Hideyo Amamoto. Dr. Who had been chilling at his North Pole lair until Madame Piranha came calling. She has an itch for some highly radioactive Element X so Who builds a giant mechanical ape to dig for it. Because hey, who doesn't go the giant mechanical ape route when it comes to mining? As luck would have it, Mechani-Kong isn't up to the task so Who and Madame Piranha decide to kidnap the real King Kong and let him have a go at it. Kong resides on Mondo Island and he's all torso sitting atop these short, spindly legs. Sort of like a weightlifter who never bothered to schedule a leg day. He's also more than a little mongoloid-ish looking. And since you can't have two big dogs residing in the same neighborhood without them tussling he and Mechani-Kong eventually go toe to toe. There's also a trio of protagonists in mod outfits who travel around in mod conveyances and alternate between being captured and escaping from Who and his henchmen. Long story short, this movie is a big slice of goofy fun.







Frankenstein 1970 - This is in black and white which kind of surprised me until I checked out the production date and the 1970 in the title is there strictly to make it sound somewhat futuristic. It was actually filmed and released in 1958. I was also expecting Peter Cushing but he's nowhere to be found. Boris Karloff instead stars as Baron Victor von Frankenstein, the last of his line and also hurting for funds. In order to finance a "secret project" he gives permission for an American television crew to film at his ancestral home. He uses the money to supposedly buy an atomic reactor which isn't something I thought you could purchase much less have delivered to your house. The Baron is distraught over his bloodline coming to an end with his passing so he has a fallback under wraps. Literally. His unfinished "monster" looks more like a mummy with an enormous, block shaped head. But seeing as how it needs a brain and eyes among other things he goes after the likeliest donors.

Not much happens in this film. There's a lot of dialogue and Karloff is his usual game self and emotes up a storm. The rest of the cast are willing as well. I didn't find it all that boring but then I like these old type of horror flicks plus I'm a big Karloff fan.






Billy Budd (1962)
Directed by Peter Ustinov
Starring Robert Ryan, Peter Ustinov, Terence Stamp, Melvyn Douglas, David McCallum

Stumbled across this film by chance and very pleased to have done so. This is a very well made British period naval drama, which is not too heavy on the clichés often associated with the genre, and delivers a strong and thought provoking story.

In 1797, young, naive and innocent English sailor Billy Budd is transferred from a merchant vessel to the fighting ship HMS Avenger for active service. Here his ever present optimism strongly contrasts the negativity and ill feelings of many of the other sailors. Yet his indefatigably good natured spirit manages to win them over, except for the cruel hearted Master at Arms who looks on Billy with hatred. This simple and powerful clash between good and evil will have dramatic consequences, where issues of morality, law and justice are subsequently and intelligently explored.

Well written and produced, with excellent performances from Peter Ustinov as the Captain with a troubled conscience, Robert Ryan effectively detestable as the bad guy, and a fine charismatic performance from Terence Stamp as Billy Budd in his debut film.

8/10





Whole family enjoyed this one, my kid was laughing pretty much all the way through. Great entry in the Pixarverse
__________________
There has been an awekening.... have you felt it?



I forgot the opening line.

By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=51576793

Finding Altamira - (2016)

In 1879, amateur archaeologist Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola (Antonio Banderas) and his 8-year old daughter stumble across cave paintings that are over 10,000 years old. The religious and even scientific community do everything in their power to deny they are real. Marcelino and his family are the subject of ridicule, and charges of forgery are levelled at him. Eventually the scientific community realises the cave paintings are real, and apologise - years after Marcelino's death...

Fascinating story, but this movie kind of plods along. There are nice sequences when Marcelino's daughter dreams the animals in the cave paintings are coming alive and causing all of the trouble her family is going through. Other than that, you know exactly where the movie is going - and it goes along with a minimum of fuss, as if director Hugh Hudson is bored with the material.

5/10



Thursday Next's Avatar
I never could get the hang of Thursdays.
The Tenth Victim (1965)



Absolutely nuts, and I sort of loved it for that. It doesn't take itself at all seriously. Very sixties.




Victim of The Night


Billy Budd (1962)
Directed by Peter Ustinov
Starring Robert Ryan, Peter Ustinov, Terence Stamp, Melvyn Douglas, David McCallum

Stumbled across this film by chance and very pleased to have done so. This is a very well made British period naval drama, which is not too heavy on the clichés often associated with the genre, and delivers a strong and thought provoking story.

In 1797, young, naive and innocent English sailor Billy Budd is transferred from a merchant vessel to the fighting ship HMS Avenger for active service. Here his ever present optimism strongly contrasts the negativity and ill feelings of many of the other sailors. Yet his indefatigably good natured spirit manages to win them over, except for the cruel hearted Master at Arms who looks on Billy with hatred. This simple and powerful clash between good and evil will have dramatic consequences, where issues of morality, law and justice are subsequently and intelligently explored.

Well written and produced, with excellent performances from Peter Ustinov as the Captain with a troubled conscience, Robert Ryan effectively detestable as the bad guy, and a fine charismatic performance from Terence Stamp as Billy Budd in his debut film.

8/10
I've been meaning to watch this for years. I'm a big fan of Melville's story. I didn't want to read it in high school, 33 years ago, because the title didn't sound like much and I thought the period writing would be boring, but I was totally captivated by the story. One thing I worried would be lost in the film is that not only was Billy supposed to be absurdly handsome but also big and strong like "a fresh horse" and someone that, despite his good nature, people wouldn't cross because he would simply be able to physically overpower anyone on the ship. This feature actually mattered to the story and the themes and I worried that Stamp, as much as I have always appreciated him as an actor, would lack that quality. Of course, that's because he seems short in Superman II, the film I first saw him in and arguably his most famous role. But I forgot that Christopher Reeve was 6'4", not to mention the fact that the other two Kryptonians were cast, in part, due to their height. Non and Ursa were actually 6'6" and 5'10", respectively, and they stood next to him for most of the film. If you assumed that just Ursa was an average sized woman or that Reeve was even just 6'1", you would expect that Stamp was no taller than about 5'9". Which would hardly fit Billy's character.
Yes, it is that simple and silly a reason that I never saw this film. But now, liberated by the research I've done after reading your review, I am free to finally watch it.




The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021, Michael Chaves)

The worst Conjuring yet. The story felt lacking, and the scares weren't as good as in the other two Conjuring films, which I remember being quite enjoyable.



Kill List (2011)

This is quite an entertaining film about 2 ex mercenaries that get into harsh times and take on the contract of all contracts. Good juxtaposition of light and dark in bits but always quite enjoyable as the story is good and linear. In my view it builds to a good, but rather fatuous conclusion. Ben Wheatley is kind of an enigma to me.




Double Feature - (Semi) Famous Monsters of Filmland






Love and Monsters - I liked this. Got into it and found myself invested by the time the third act rolled around. I think that had a lot to do with Dylan O'Brien's likable protagonist Joel Dawson. It's seven years removed from an asteroid hitting earth with the chemical fallout resulting in widespread growth and mutations in the surviving insects. The few remaining humans have been forced to take up residence in underground colonies. Joel lives in one of these and being the sole member that hasn't paired off with anyone makes him feel like the ultimate third wheel. But he has somehow managed to find his high school girlfriend Aimee (Jessica Henwick) at another colony. After one of the mutated baddies breaches their bunker Joel decides it's time for him to test his mettle, venture forth and reconnect with her. The problem being that Joel is decidedly ill-equipped to handle this sort of challenge having been relegated to cooking duties because of his tendency to freeze up in times of stress.

The second act unfolds as Joel travels the 80 or so miles where he encounters both sizable threats and unexpected allies. The third act both veers away from the previous events but also hits familiar beats for anyone who has been paying attention. The supporting cast is capable and understated with Henwick (Colleen Wing in Iron Fist), Dan Ewing, Ariana Greenblatt and the always dependable Michael Rooker providing able support. Since it's happened countless times in the past with movies I've liked I assumed that critics would have trashed the film but checking in at RT I was pleasantly surprised to find it has a 93% Tomatometer. So don't take my word for it. Check it out.






Monster Hunter - Whatever became of Uwe Boll? Because a movie based off a Capcom video game would have been right up his alley. Instead it's Paul W.S. Anderson directing, with his wife Milla Jovovich starring as U.S. Army Ranger Captain Natalie Artemis. I suppose now that the Resident Evil teat has finally run dry Anderson and Jovovich are looking for the next franchise. I don't know if this is the one though. The ending is plainly set up for a sequel and while the FX are first rate (something Boll was never able to master) the story should come off as paper thin to anyone but fans of the game. This costars Tony Jaa as The Hunter, Tip "T.I." Harris as Lincoln, a member of Artemis' squad and Ron Perlman as The Admiral.
WARNING: spoilers below
The first act involves Artemis and her squad, while the second act is all Jovovich and Jaa and in the third act a 71 year old Perlman shows up in a fright wig and sailing a pirate schooner across the shifting sands of whatever parallel world Artemis and her troops blundered into.

The acting is sketchy AF with the editing frenetic especially during the
WARNING: spoilers below
assorted "fight" scenes between Jovovich and Jaa. Probably to cover up the fact that it's Milla Jovovich fighting Tony freakin' Jaa. Oh and there's a two legged humanoid cat named Palico (?) who is apparently the cook on Perlman's ship.
Fans of the game will probably like this, everyone else should probably not expect too much.





The Tenth Victim (1965)



Absolutely nuts, and I sort of loved it for that. It doesn't take itself at all seriously. Very sixties.

Yeah, this was quite a surprise for me. Liked it a lot.
__________________
Check out my podcast: The Movie Loot!