Rate The Last Movie You Saw

And Then There Were None - 7.5/10
I hardly ever watch Mystery, but when I saw Walter Huston was in it, I gave it a shot, and after 10-15 minutes, I was captivated. A great "Who-dunnit" with an interesting .... I'll say no more. Just watch it, and try not to read a thing about it.

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Sounds/looks good, watchlisted! While watchlisting I saw they remade it already as a mini series starring Sam Neil; https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3581932/

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Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves








Plenty to entertain fantasy movie fans while giving longtime fans of the game a plethora of easter eggs to enjoy.

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Last Hurrah for Chivalry begins with a bloody confrontation between warring clans during the wedding of Lord Kao (Lau Kong). To seek revenge against the ruthless Pak Chung Tong (Lee Hoi-sang), Kao hires two killers: Tsing Yi (Damian Lau) and Chang San (Wai Pak). But with honor and loyalty on the line, can they all keep track of the many moves from each other?

Like pretty much every single Woo film I've seen (with the exception of Hard Target), the backbone of this film is in the interactions between Tsing Yi and Chang San. Once they finally pair together, their chemistry sizzles. The thing is that although they meet very early, the film does take a while to put them together for good. The journey is fun, but it does feel a bit "questy": find this sword here, beat this other swordsmen there.

Grade:


Full review on my Movie Loot

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4 for Texas (1963)

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Beau is Afraid - (2023)

Ohhh-ho boy. Some people are going to come down hard on this, and not like it very much at all. I remember when Midsommar came out, and how excitedly I approached it, only to find it took me a few watches and time to really come around. Now Ari Aster is taking something of a gamble on a surrealist, dream-like amble through the subconscious - examining guilt, fear and all the other things our parents give us to make life more difficult than it had to be. Beau is Afraid doesn't live up to it's insane, nightmarish first third - and at 179 minutes chances are you'll suffer fatigue watching it without a break. I did. But all up, Aster's imagination writ large on the screen is still good enough to keep me as a fan. Joaquin Phoenix is a little one-note, and goes the full journey on "almost comedically terrified" the entire time. The world that Aster builds around him though, is where he comes closest to pulling off a triumph - it's more diabolical than a dystopia, and instead becomes an insane nightmare-land where corpses litter the streets, naked hobos undertake stabbing frenzies and deadly spiders are a real menace. We only spend the first third of the film there, before Phoenix's Beau moves on to a surrogate family for the second third, and finally comes to confront his demons - living and dead, and living. I liked it - I wasn't blown away - but I had that same uncertainty the first time I watched Midsommar, so my jury is still out.

7.5/10


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American Pie 2 - (2001)

While this is unusually good for a sequel, I only really like Jason Biggs, Eddie Kaye Thomas and Eugene Levy from the cast of these. But hell - those three, and their characters, seem to be having so much fun playing around with their characters that I can't help but give this a small bump-up.

5.5/10


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American Wedding - (2003)

Okay, definitely slipping now, and far too much of that annoying Stifler character - thank you guys, for going out of your way to make so much of this revolve around him. (I was being sarcastic.)

4/10

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Recent watches:
Her Smell 2018 +
The Last Day Of August 2012
Trespass 2011 +
Topsy-Turvy 1999
Wyatt Earp 1994 +
Lynch/Oz 2022
Liberation: The Fire Bulge 1970 +
Glumov's Diary 1923
Force 10 From Navarone 1978
The Man Behind The Gun 1953
Liberation: Breakthrough 1970 +
The Blob: A Genius Without A Brain 2019
Liberation: Direction Of The Main Blow 1971 +
Come And See 1985
A Room With A View 1985

Unlike the Raimi entries, this remake leans more into horror than it does into comedy as there is little humor in the film. Instead, Alvarez maintains a constant sense of dread through the film where nothing feels quite right. Obviously part of that is because they are five people in a remote cabin in an Evil Dead film, but I think Alvarez direction does a great job of transmitting that uneasiness and discomfort.

The catalyst for them being in that cabin is to help Mia (Jane Levy) as she tries to overcome her addiction problems by going "cold turkey". Other than her estranged brother David (Shiloh Fernandez), you can sense that the rest of the cast is pretty much doomed, but they all do a solid job within the boundaries of their characters. The relationship issues between Mia and David, as well as their parents, is barely brushed upon but it works to make the backstory feel a bit more organic.

Grade:


Full review on my Movie Loot

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Chappaquiddick - (2017)

During the 20th Century Joe Kennedy stood as the father of one of America's most prominent families. He'd had four sons. Joe Jnr, the most senior, died in a virtual suicide mission during World War II. Jack Kennedy became a U.S. President, and was assassinated in an event people will still be talking about 500 years from now. Robert Kennedy became a U.S. Attorney General, and was assassinated himself. Ted Kennedy had the humiliation and disgrace of the Chappaquiddick controversy. He was involved in an automobile accident in which he drove his car into an inlet - it landed roof-down, and while Kennedy was able to free himself, the woman he was travelling with, Mary Jo Kopechne, was left stranded in the car, underwater. Nobody knows the exact, true story of what happened next, for incredibly, Ted Kennedy didn't report the incident for 9 hours. I've read speculation that Kopechne might have been able to survive for quite some time in an air pocket - and that prompt emergency rescue activation might have been able to save her.

Chappaquiddick portrays Edward Kennedy (played by Jason Clarke) as a popular, but somewhat spoiled and dense member of the Kennedy family. He has a great inner turmoil, since he has to live up to his three brothers, all great men of history - but he's just not that kind of person. His father, Joe (Bruce Dern) treats him with absolute contempt - even from his vantage point of being half-paralyzed after a stroke. Despite all of this, Ted embraces his father and treats his words of scorn as if they're words of praise. He blames all of his horrible actions on his many problem-solvers, and often ignores their sage advice. In the end he can't muster up the courage to quit the Senate and live his own life - but luckily for him he's wealthy and a member of a powerful family - despite this being a clear case of manslaughter, he gets the lowest possible jail sentence, and even this is suspended. He reads his televised speech, and the American public continue to love him, despite his flaws. I've always enjoyed the interesting character study that Chappaquiddick is, and this was my second time watching it.

7/10


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American Reunion - (2012)

Thank goodness this is the end of the American Pie franchise for now - although I have to admit to some mixed feelings about the films. The likes of Eugene Levy and Jason Biggs made them not completely contemptable. It's also interesting to note that all of the objectionable stuff the series started with was corrected, and the series didn't feel as on the nose from the 2nd film onwards. Still, sequels dilute, and this 4th iteration doesn't manage to work up many hilarious episodes - so what we're left with is rather limp and ineffectual. There's more character depth, and it adds puzzling plot turns (for example Noah Levenstein's wife has died, adding an unnecessary note of sadness to his scenes - they used to be hilarious.) Credit to the filmmakers for fleshing out the characters - but when all is said and done, it drained this film of any fun it might have had.

4/10

The Gazebo (1959)

Good movie. Jason Clarke always good.

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

Come September (1961)

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[ J ] - [ S ] - [ F ]

Like you, I thought it was a fairly faithful representation of the known facts, and was an interesting film. At the time of the accident everyone knew that Kennedy was lying, but he had too many friends in high places. However that incident probably kept him from running for President.

So while trying to stay very vague here: the original novel by Agatha Christie is a very interestingly structured mystery. Different adaptations make some very radical changes to the characters and even the ending.

I absolutely adore the 1945 version, which is funny and moves along at a great clip.

The miniseries from a few years back is a radically different take on the material---much more faithful to the original story and very dark in tone--that I also enjoyed.

By The poster art can or could be obtained from the distributor., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=44974518

X+Y - (2014)

Sometimes all I need from a drama is for it to defy worn out formulas, and that's exactly what X+Y did to satisfy me last night, taking a hard left turn and truly subverting my expectations and surprising me. This Morgan Matthews movie has a Mike Leigh feel about it - reintroducing Sally Hawkins with Eddie Marsan (from Happy-Go-Lucky), and throwing in Rafe Spall along with youngsters Asa Butterfield and Jo Yang - and it basically explores how being different and gifted isn't always the best of trade-offs. It's about a severely autistic Maths prodigy, Nathan Ellis (Butterfield) going to the International Mathematical Olympiad (it's a thing) - jetting off to Thailand despite his difficulty in social situations. Nathan wants human relationships to resemble good old trustworthy mathematics (even his eating habits are dictated by mathematical logistics) but people coalesce around the agreeable boy - he has his mother Julie (Hawkins - who he treats as coldly as a stranger), his long-suffering and eccentric teacher Martin (Spall - a weed smoking, M.S. suffering ex-prodigy whose own trip to the Maths Olympiad was a disaster) and young Chinese competitor Zhang Mei (Jo Yang) - a cute girl with whom Nathan becomes inseparable. Nathan was in a car accident with his father at a young age, and witnessed his death - it's tense to see him struggle, pushed to contribute by Olympiad organiser Richard (Eddie Marsan), but this isn't the kind of film where Nathan is relentlessly bullied. All of the gifted students struggle with expectations, and have to deal with failure - if you think you know where X+Y is headed when it introduces all of it's narrative elements, you might be surprised. I was, and found it a very enjoyable film.

7/10


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Midsommar - (2019)

I jotted down my thoughts on Letterboxd after watching the director's cut of Midsommar - "I approached Midsommar expecting/hoping for Hereditary 2, and it was so different that I've spent a long time and several viewings trying to get a firm grasp on it. It's not easy - Ari Aster makes me so damned uncomfortable with Dani (Florence Pugh) having to deal with the grief of her family's suicide, and a relationship that is so toxic it gives off all kinds of poisonous vibrations. The fact that Dani and Christian (Jack Reynor) head to a Swedish death cult with a few of their a-hole American friends (bumping into just as disagreeable British tourists) doesn't help to ease the tension and discomfort.

I'm never in this film's groove - I'm always reacting to the dark negativity, even as we spend our time in the colour and marvel of the Swedish landscape. Friendly faces abound, but the rituals make us feel uneasy at first, and then the audience is screaming at these kids to run for their lives. I was asking for something dark, horrific and testing - and unfortunately I got what I asked for. Burn it all down. For a film about grief, the death of relationships, the ending of things so we can face a new beginning - it's a tough one. It's an ordeal. Grief is never, ever, pretty - and there are few films about it. I'll spend my life trying to come to grips with Midsommar - but it keeps calling to me, so I keep returning. I'm guessing that's a good thing? It's certainly not what I was expecting from Aster - and that is a good thing. If I'd got what I'd expected, it would have meant he was content to spin those wheels. Instead, he challenges."

8/10


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Ever After - (1998)

I was less than kind to Ever After - it was okay, but there was some terribly trite moments that spoiled the overall good work of those making it. I wrote "A pop song during the end credits and lines like "I come here not as a prince, but as a man in love!" are enough for me to mark down this retelling of the classic Cinderella story. I was finding it hard to believe that Prince Charming would fall for Drew Barrymore in any event. Richard O'Brien appears in a small role - and I'm guessing with all sincerity that the production allowed him to wear all the marvelous gowns during the days he wasn't needed on set. Anjelica Huston was the key actress, and best thing about Ever After - a good idea pulled off with competency."

6/10


By Stephen King - Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=53533851

The Dark Tower - (2017)

Good lord, I wasn't expecting anything great - but this film is pure rubbish. Stephen King's Dark Tower was a work that spanned seven novels - some of them lengthy. Here we have the adaptation, coming in at 95 minutes and pretty much doing it's own thing. You can see that one of the producers overseeing the project wanted a Marvel film. Another producer wanted to try to stay true to the story. Another wanted to start a franchise. What we have is a derivative and consistently unenjoyable corporate product. Lip service to a mammoth and labored work of fiction in the most crass, commercial way possible. To all those responsible : Shame on you.

3/10

Elba's done more than his fare share of garbage. It's too bad that he's been wasted on so many duds.

I could understand your viewpoint on the rest of the film, but this? You. Are. Mental.

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