Rate The Last Movie You Saw

I was a 15 yo boy when Top Gun came out so of course I loved it. It's been many years now since I last watched it and I imagine it may be a little dated and cheesy, so this new one is probably superior. I can see how some may see this as a pretty average movie, but for the right viewer like myself, it's packed with awesomeness and nostalgia. Danger Zone is a song that's long been played out but when it came on in the beginning i said f**k yea! I didn't think Jennifer Connelly was right for her role, and Val Kilmer's scene was definitely not awesome, more sad. I generally don't care for Miles Teller but he was decent as Goose's Rooster; playing a cock suits him well. Tom Cruise seems like a flake but he was born to play Maverick. The jet scenes are incredible. Best picture material it is not, but you can say that about a lot of nominees in a lot of years. It was just a lot of fun.

Standing In The Shadows Of Motown

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Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes (2020, Junta Yamaguchi)

Perfect example of how much can be achieved on a small budget, just by using an iPhone as a camera. Such a smart, fun little movie — it looks like it was shot in one take but it probably wasn't.
Really enjoyed it!
If you're into time travel/time loop movies, give this one a shot.

So, it's those funny "horror" movies that are not actively trying to be a comedy (unlike Shaun of the Death) but instead works as one. So, I rated it very highly as one of those movies "so bad that are good."

SF = 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

Extreme gore film that's too amateurish. You're more likely to find success with these movies if you look at foreign cinema. The same guy starred, directed, wrote, did the score, the special effects, and everything else; always a bad sign. A little bit of respectable shock gore but nothing I haven't seen before that was done better.

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Portrait of a Lady on Fire - (2019)

2019 was a great year for movies as far as I'm concerned. We got Joker, Parasite, 1917, Jojo Rabbit, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Booksmart, Uncut Gems, Ad Astra and a host of second tier films and more obscure titles. We also got Portrait of a Lady on Fire, one of the decade's best and a movie I watched for the second time last night. It's a truly beautiful film, both to look at and to think about - and a reminder to me to watch Petite Maman. It stands to reason that a film with "looking" and "seeing" as one of it's major themes is so visually rich and it's an all-round finely acted and directed film.

9/10


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Licorice Pizza - (2021)

This Paul Thomas Anderson film is growing on me - Alana Kane (Alana Haim) is a 25-year-old woman who seems frustrated at not being able to bridge the gap between childhood and adulthood, despite her age. Gary Valentine (Cooper Hoffman) is a 15-year-old boy and a bit of a hustler who seems to have reached adulthood already, running various money-making enterprises while at the same time trying to climb up the ladder acting-wise. Together, from the time they meet until the touching (and at the same time troubling) ending, they provide this film with a unique kind of odd-couple, "made for each other" duo and it's their chemistry you fall in love with. The film is very funny, and also nostalgic - a series of vignettes, each one saying something about the Los Angeles of the 1970s. I don't think it's P.T Anderson's best, but as with all his films, it's rich with interesting characters, moments, meaning and filmmaking.

8/10

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Jojo Rabbit (2019)


One of the best movies about WW2 I have watched in recent years.

Rendez-vous in Paris (1995, Éric Rohmer)

Rohmer is one of those directors that seem to have an irresistible power over me — he's like that old comfy chair you love to sink into, glass of wine in hand and wood crackling in the fireplace; someone you know what to expect from and are completely ok with it.
This particular one consists of three small vignettes about love, set against the beautiful backdrop of Paris —simple but charming and endlessly intriguing. The city is almost like a full-fledged character, it washes around the characters and breathes within them. As always with Rohmer, the charm and wit of his films leave a sweet aftertaste, tickling the viewer's intellectual palate... I'd say partly bittersweet because hiding behind (and now and then bursting through) the external heartwarming romanticism lies a profound existential backbone that reflects not only the fateful role our own personal choices play in matters of life and love, but also the impact of mysterious forces beyond our control, such as fate and coincidence.

The ending was kinda disappointing, but overall, a good experience.

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Mother - (2009)

Mother is even better the second time around, when you know the basic "whodunnit" and "why and how he did it" - I rate it all the way up the top of Bong Joon-ho's Best Films list, with Memories of Murder and Parasite. I can't say much more about it now, except that the actors are really at the top of their game, and that this director is a genius. It's amazing how he weaves comedy into such a dark story, and that the heightened comedy and dark gritty drama exist side by side - only in his films does this really work perfectly.

9/10

Bong Joon-ho's films ranked :

1 - Parasite
2 - Mother
3 - Memories of Murder
4 - Okja
5 - Snowpiercer
6 - The Host
7 - Barking Dogs Never Bite


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The Lighthouse - (2019)

I had to watch The Lighthouse again after reading all the praise it got in the 2010s Countdown - and, I liked it a little more than I did the first time I watched it, and really enjoyed it. I didn't fall in love with it, like I was hoping, but it's a very visually striking film with frequent moments of bizarre comedy etched between the drama of two men going insane while stuck on an island for far longer than was intended. It's one of those films where I can immediately see why people love it, and I think it's dour atmosphere works a little too well on me.

7/10

La Jetée is a short film from the Sight and Sound top 100 list that I’d recommend checking out even for people who aren’t normally into arthouse stuff. A quick 28-minute sci-fi story that’s told almost entirely through still photos and narration and became the inspiration for 12 Monkeys. It’s got some fun sci-fi ideas, the pacing is brisk, and it feels like a fresh new way of telling a story through film.

Had a lot of fun reading your recent dive into Bong's filmography. I still need to see Okja and I probably owe a rewatch to Snowpiercer, but we more or less agree with the ranking, just with a couple of swaps, maybe. They all range from pretty good to great for me, though.

1. Mother
2. Parasite
3. Memories of Murder
4. Snowpiercer
5. Barking Dogs Never Bite
6. The Host

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I like creature features, which are a good alternative to the "Art House" movies I usually see. Since it was playing in the downtown art house, I guess others also need release from stuff like My Dinner With Andre. It delivers an hour and a half of exactly what you see in the trailer.

I'll go:

1 - Memories of Murder
2 - Parasite
3 - Mother
4 - Barking Dogs Never Bite
5 - Okja
6 - SnowPiercer
7 - The Host

It's a really strong filmography. Those top three are more or less interchangeable for me, although I really responded strongly to Mother's emotional core, which is why it gets the top spot for me. On the other hand, my bottom two are two films that I thoroughly enjoyed. There isn't really a weak one for me.

Wasn't really gonna watch it (love basketball, hate Sandler), but my love for the game trumped the hate. This was actually a pretty solid movie. Nothing stands out, but nothing dives down either.

Bong's got a new film out next year. Looks like a cross between 'Blade Runner' and 'Moon'! Starring Robert Pattinson, Steven Yeun, Toni Collette and Mark Rufalo and I'm 100% in for it.

Hmm, just read the synopsis. Yep. I'm all for it too.

That is how physicist Thomas Nesbitt (Paul Christian) sums up another scientist skeptical reaction to the alleged appearance of The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, a prehistoric dinosaur awakened by a nuclear bomb test. The film follows Nesbitt's attempts to alert everybody after his first encounter with the beast in the Arctic. An encounter that everybody dismisses as a moment of delirium.

But regardless of the scientific push-and-pull from the story, this is a film about a giant lizard wreaking havoc, and in that aspect, the film delivers. The special effects and stop-motion animation of the beast are quite impressive and wonderful to look at. One notable example is the moment when the beast destroys a lighthouse, which results in a very visually striking moment (hence my inclusion of it here), but the scenes in the city halfway through, or the closing ones in Coney Island are just as good.

Grade:


Full review on my Movie Loot and the 1950s Sci-Fi/Creature thread.