Rate The Last Movie You Saw

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An American in Paris - (1951)

Add American in Paris to the musicals I've caught up with over the last few years - it's only been a recent decision to watch them, my curiosity overpowering my general apathy when it comes to that Golden Age of the genre. There wasn't much in this one to dislike, aside from some of the awkward monkeying around Gene Kelly gets up to with Oscar Levant and Georges Guétary. Even the fact that Gene Kelly, nearing 40 in '51, gets himself a teenage love interest - I mean, it's a little icky, but that love interest is the wonderful Leslie Caron. Caron is still alive today, 91-years-old and her last theatrical appearance was in 2020. This film has a real bravura ending segment which is all interpretive dance with costumes and wild sets to match - beautiful colours, and a great note to end on. The songs are great too, with "'S Wonderful" and "I Got Rhythm" getting things moving. It was a little old fashioned for me though, and it won Best Picture at the Oscars, beating A Streetcar Named Desire and A Place in the Sun - two of my all-time favourite films. In the meantime, The African Queen wasn't even nominated. 1951 was a great year for film - and this was one of the attractions.

Also - a quick note - I was really pleased that an American film would embrace France and French talent so readily. MGM didn't have to cast Guétary, Caron or the French-born Eugene Borden. A shame they didn't film in Paris though, instead choosing the MGM lot, with it's multitude of "Parisian" sets.

7/10

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Travels with My Aunt (1972)

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[ J ] - [ S ] - [ F ]

There were decapitation and head trauma, but none smashed through or as visible as his previous two

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Wasted $6 streaming this hot mess on Amazon.

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I’m here only on Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays. That’s why I’m here now.

Thank you for the specificity. I might have to give it a miss. I like Ari Aster but if i go to a movie and all I remember is the head smashing. That is a problem.

John Mulaney: Baby J. (2023) 2/5
It fills me with great sorrow to report that Baby J is not funny. I give it two tear drops. I watched the whole thing even though I wanted to bail out. Mulaney's whole special is about his addiction and his recovery. I want to say that he dug deep and revealed his true self but he did not. At least, that is my assumption. If not, John Mulaney is the most boring drug addict on the planet. He tells a couple of stories. One about his star-studded intervention. Boring! Another about spending an enormous amount for a watch in order to pawn it for half its value. Boring! And then he talks about a boring interview he did for GQ when he was stoned that he has no memory of. Boring! John, I know you are not listening but I am begging you if you can not look inward for material then look outward. Until then I wish you well and hope sobering up has not destroyed your comedy. Sigh...

Delicatessen (1991) -

Given my mixed reaction to Jeunet's Amélie last year, I was curious how this film would compare, but though I hoped to enjoy it more, my reaction was more or less the same. Like Amélie, once you look beyond the memorable atmospheric design, there isn't a whole lot else to dig at. While great detail was put into the post-apocalyptic world, I wish we would've gotten more depth to the characters who occupied it. Julie's father/daughter relationship with Clapet, Louison's romance with Julie, some of the tenants who were aware of and endorsed the butcher's actions, or the motivations of the troglodytes ware all promising character dynamics, but since the film didn't delve into them enough, they all came off as bland and underdeveloped. And this was a real shame as, given the colorful ensemble of characters, there's a lot of room for exploring the motives/surroundings which influence the characters to do what they do, but the film instead opts to paint a black and white good and bad portrait of them. A missed opportunity, unfortunately. As a result, the film felt cold and distant. If there's one reason to watch this film though, it's for the visuals. By use of the color palette, sets, sound design, camera placements, and editing, Jeunet matches the manic energy of the characters very well. While certain set pieces may be too over-the-top for some, specifically much of the final act, I was on board with all of it and I thoroughly enjoyed every darkly humorous happening of the apartment, with the flooded bathroom being my favorite set piece. Overall, I understand why some people dig Jeunet's style and I wish I could be one of those people. From what I've seen of him though, while this film and Amélie has the shell of a great film, they lack the meat of one and his visual ingenuity shouldn't be in films this cold and distant. I'll likely give him a third chance down the road though.

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The film follows Van Damme (Chance Boudreaux) as a homeless drifter and veteran in New Orleans that ends up being hunted by a team of organized and ruthless hunters led by Emil Fouchon (Lance Henriksen) and his right-hand man Pik Van Cleef (Arnold Vosloo). This was Woo's first Hollywood film and, although I'd say it is a bit more of a Van Damme film than a Woo film, it still has a good dose of Woo trademarks to please his fans.

The way the action unfolds is part Van Damme and part Woo. There is a good dose of the typical Van Damme bad-assery and silliness that we're used to see in his films. However, you also get a lot of Woo, with some elaborate action setpieces, some great gun play, and lots of dazzling acrobatics. Like with the previous Woo films I've seen, it was nice to see and recognize the influence this gets from previous Woo films, but also the ripples it makes on future action films.

Grade:


Full review on my Movie Loot

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Hot Millions (1968)

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The King and I - (1956)

I know I haven't been all over these musicals, despite being interested in them - but damn, I've found one that I can claim as brilliantly, yet troublingly, great. The King and I, powered as much by an all-out performance of incredible magnitude by Yul Brynner, has the music, sets and costumes to make an impact already - but it's just such a cinematically astute version of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical. It's everything, and everything leads up to that pivotal and very famous moment when the King of Siam dances with Anna (Deborah Kerr) in a golden palatial room to the strains of "Shall We Dance" - a moment often highlighted in "history of cinema" montages. There are moments that had my jaw dropping - such as the adapted Uncle Tom's Cabin (Small House of Uncle Thomas), which becomes a play with unforgettable artistic invention - a must see for anyone who loves to be dazzled and enchanted. Did it have to break my heart as well? It had my heart by that stage, after what felt like an inauspicious start - and I never expected to be as captivated as I was. I don't know if it mattered what songs were sung - the performances (again - Brynner's is outstanding) and sentiment suited me fine. The art direction and set decoration were out of this world.

But then, we have to talk about the fact that the West was "civilised" and that the King of Siam is immediately, consistently and always looked upon as some kind of barbarian and beneath us. Sometimes the Siamese are treated as fools - and much is made of their reluctance to acknowledge the world as not being flat and not being carried around on the back of a giant turtle. A lot is made of polygamy and Western culture. But hell, this was made in the mid-1950s, and is set in the early 1860s. I just thought that the best of this film took me right out of the politics, cultural sensibility and lack of progressive foresight. The King and I had led up to the scenes which were it's crowning glory in it's own timely fashion to catch me off guard - and I loved it :



9/10

War of the Worlds (2005) - 4/10

A halfway watchable disaster flick when viewed on its own merits, but not worthy of being spoken of in the same light as the book, the album, or the 1953 film. War of the Worlds has had incredible luck when it comes to adaptations up to that point, but you're gonna have to drop these expectations if you wanna enjoy this thing.

The pros:
-It's more faithful to the book than the '53 flick, with how it's told through the subjective point of view of a civilian, so in that way, it justifies its existence.
-The production design and cinematography are quite good. It's Spielberg's biggest talent imo, he cares about visual storytelling. You can tell he wasn't just half-heartedly recording the actors. The sets and their spaciousness, colour, etc are all very considered, and he knew exactly how to have something pop into frame to startle you.
-They included the red weed.
-As generic as it was, the score was not bad.
-Some of the CG is good.
-That part in the ayys' basket was silly, but cool and imaginative.


The cons:
-It's generally too silly, and not in a good way. It tries to be a serious disaster film, but the dialogue, the characters' behaviour, the action scenes, the mechanics of teh alains, it's all impossible to take seriously. It lacks the book's cold pragmatism and attention to consistency and believability.
--Chalk it up to the movie trying too hard to look cool, or scary, or serious, depending on the scene.
-It fell victim to the two great cancers of dialogue writing: Joss Whedon's disaffected quipfests, and grimdark gravelly repetitive whispering. Individually, they'd just be cliche, but together, as polar opposites, they're tonally crass on top of that.
-The aliens are not even remotely scary. The book clearly had the best ayys. The ones in the first movie weren't as good, but were still scary due to how they make no earthly sense. These are just grey monkeys. Their machines have the same problem.
-It uses CG where it isn't necessary, such as for broken windshields.
-The CG technology afforded it the chance to include the Flying Machine and the Handling Machine, but it didn't.
-The pacing is [i]freaking poop[/] when compared to the 1953 film.
-The script drastically loses focus after the first act.
-The book showed the aliens were vulnerable very early on, giving you a slim, slim hope of victory. The first movie made them completely impervious to all our weaponry, making them more of a puzzle to rack your brain over. This one tries to have it both ways, reusing the energy shields idea from the last movie, but having the humans figure out a way to take it down in the last 15 minutes. And then they still die of the coof. Then what the flip were we doing for the last 2 hours? Smelling our farts?
--Also, the military didn't resort to any WMDs or guerilla tactics. In the end, it seriously does seem like the humans lost because they didn't try hard enough.

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I'm the Yugoslav cinema guy. I dig through garbage. I look for gems.

Very nice review both contrasting and comparing the book with the '53 and '05 films.

I've never read the book. It's astonishing that Wells could imagine space ships in the late 19th Century! But when we watched the '53 version in the theater, it scared the tweet out of us. We were convinced that nothing could ever stop the aliens, right up to the ending.

The sci-fi effects were captivating for 1953, bettered only by 1956's Forbidden Planet.

I enjoyed the 2005 re-make, but it didn't have near the impression on me that the 1953 film had.

2nd Re-watch...Eastwood rules in this movie...how he didn't get an Oscar nomination for his performance is beyond me.

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Fiddler on the Roof - (1971)

1971 was a great year for films, with A Clockwork Orange, The Last Picture Show, The French Connection, Nicholas and Alexandra and Fiddler on the Roof all vying for Best Picture at the Oscars. A rare year where I actually like every nomination a great deal. It took until now to confirm my feelings for Fiddler on the Roof however - a 3 hour musical that I have to admit breaking into two portions. Topol is marvelous as Tevye the put-upon father of five willful daughters who will test just how willing he is to break with age-old Jewish traditions. I remember getting to know this guy from when he appeared in Flash Gordon and For Your Eyes Only in the 1980s - and sadly, he died only a few weeks ago at the age of 87. He's obviously most famous for appearing in this film, and provides it with it's heart and soul. It's hard to fathom that the young girls in this are now old ladies.

There's something magical about Fiddler on the Roof - almost as if something sacred has been woven into the fabric of the film, and it gives us a glimpse into the world of a Jewish community that, while persecuted, had remained unchanged for centuries until modernity came to disrupt their way of life. The music has a certain timeless quality, and that's why I rate it above the likes of An American in Paris, Easter Parade and High Society, which seem trivial in comparison. The fierce anti-Semitism and growing instability inside Russia creates an upheaval which sets the stage for the struggle these people go through, and makes this specific musical feel important and gives it a weighty depth. The fiddler on the roof represents the precarious balancing act of living life while still playing your personal tune and making decisions - hopefully without falling.

9/10


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Hair - (1979)

Far out man. Like, can you dig that this musical is like a trip man. You never know what these dudes are gonna say or sing next - sometimes they'll just do something completely random and spin you out and you'll be like "far out man" and they don't even care, they'll crash parties and "borrow" cars. But the Vietnam war is in full swing. Bummer man. John Savage, Treat Williams and Beverly D'Angelo lead the cast and while Savage starts out as a real square cowboy from Oklahoma, joining the army and doing what the man tells him, he still becomes friends with a group of hippies who remain loyal to him - an unexpected switcheroo between him and Williams leads to a surprise ending. The standout song is "Hair" of course, and while the film doesn't always hit the highs it does in that sequence, it has a strong finish and is another fine film from Miloš Forman. I believe in God, and I believe that God believes in Claude.

7.5/10

The Loved One (1965)

Malignant follows Madison (Annabelle Wallis) who, after being assaulted by her abusive boyfriend, starts experiencing a string of hallucinations and visions of murders that end up happening in reality. The above quote is how she tries to comfort herself at one point after listening strange sounds in the night. "It's all in my head..." But in this case, what's in her head might end up being worse than anything else.

You gotta admire a film that goes all in with a completely batshit crazy twist and that's what Malignant does. It doesn't really cowers from the total absurdity of what happens trying to sell itself as so-called "elevated horror", but rather commits to it all the way. This makes it feel all the more fresh, unique, and yes, fun.

Grade:


Full review on my Movie Loot

Wasn't sure where to post this, but I came across Empire of the Sun (1987) already in progress on TCM the other night... and thought I spotted Ben Stiller in it.



Wait... What??? Nah, couldn't be. Too early, right? After all, the star, Christian "Batman" Bale was only 13 when this movie was filmed.

What would Ben Stiller be doing in an ultra dramatic, Steven Spielberg, epic World War II movie?
(What's next, someone betting me Dustin Hoffman was in Star Wars?)

Well, it was him alright!
(Did Ben Stiller have ambitions to be a dramatic actor early on???)

What also amazed me was learning he's older than Christian Bale - I would have thought Stiller was around the same age, if not younger, but he's 9 years older than Bale!

Anyway, I didn't see the whole thing from the beginning, so I'll give it at least a..

I haven't seen it, but I've heard/read that Stiller's pretty good in Permanent Midnight, which is an indie drama from the 1990s.

Anyway, I've always loved Empire of the Sun but I have to admit I haven't seen it in 15-20 years.