Rate The Last Movie You Saw

Oh yeah. I have a huge canvas print of that poster in my cinema room.

Wow. What an outstanding debut by Emmanuelle Nicot. Belgian drama cinema is flying at the moment and this co-production with France (in French) is more of the same. The content is bleak at times but there is nothing disturbing image wise, it is purely about the drama.

Synopsis: "One evening, Dalva is suddenly taken away from her father’s house. Dumbfounded and outraged at first, she later meets Jayden, a social worker, and Samia, a teen with a temper. A new life seems to start for Dalva, that of a girl her age."

Zelda Samson gives not just one of the best young performances of recent times but perhaps the performance of the year as the titular character who is suffering from a form of Stockholm Syndrome in the grasp of her father's controlling ways. It's a film that is hard not to spoil as it's key theme is at the forefront of the whole film, but it is so tenderly dealt with by Nicot, who also wrote it. What an incredible talent.

There are many close ups of Dalva and it's her headspace that we focus on and not the criminal, which makes the audience zoom in on the victim side of the crimes. We see Dalva in he recovery as she tries to make new friends and gain an understanding of something which is so difficult for her to comprehend. The final scene in a court room is a tearjerker.

This is a great film.

9/10

not a fan of DC movies but went with my support worker who is fan of DC movies this is kinda okay i loved george lopez his really funny actor and susan sarandon is a really good actress she did a good job as a villian

Phantom of the Paradise (1974)

I'm glad I found this movie. Feel good comedy that doesn't disappoint. You can see where a lot of musicians got some of their visual ideas throughout the years since this movie. There's some noticeable picture quality variation where you can see some of the higher quality film was used, mostly during the first half, unusual for a 70s movie, but then you get some of the blurrier film quality near the end. The music isn't the best but in a comedy like this the music plays second string. Enjoyed this a lot and will one day add it to my collection.

9/10

Bubba Ho-Tep (2002)

Another good movie. Watch Elvis and President Kennedy fight a cursed mummy who haunts a resting home, preying on old folks, sucking their souls away. Better than I thought it was going to be.

8/10

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By IMDb, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=22381511

Father of the Bride - (1991)

Specifically, the upper middle class Father of the Bride who can afford a $100,000 wedding, and invite 500 people to the ceremony and reception. Yes, I was just as shocked as George Banks (Steve Martin) when it was revealed the wedding cake would cost $1200 - even though I kind of get it. This 1991 remake isn't as funny as the original overall, although it has some very funny moments - it keeps hovering between drama and comedy. Steve Martin and Spencer Tracy play the father part very differently - with Martin very much externalizing his anguish and displeasure with his daughter getting married. He's that type of comedian - Tracy was way more subtle. That's not a bad thing though. It's a very light affair - anyone can watch this, and it simply plays on familial connection, growing up, change and love. If Cape Fear or Terminator 2 were too violent for you, there was this option at multiplexes. My biggest fault with it is the guilt most people were going to walk away feeling, not able to splash a ridiculous amount of money around for their daughter's big day. Martin shines like a beacon, however, and he's just too damned likeable to not make this film worth seeing at least once.

6/10


Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7542016

Father of the Bride Part II - (1995)

I thought we were going to get a remake of Father's Little Dividend here, but Father of the Bride Part II goes in a different direction. When Annie (Kimberly Williams) - the daughter of George Banks (Steve Martin) announces she's pregnant, George's wife Nina (Diane Keaton) finds out she's also expecting. Keaton was 49 when she took on this project - so it's a definite surprise to me, because I went into this blind. From there on it's mostly predictable - the screenplay plods along, but Steve Martin and Martin Short are both wonderful performers here. I don't think the first film really needed a sequel - and without actually including the kid like the 1951 film does, there's a slight lack of focus. A few sporadic sparks aren't enough to make this film memorable or worth recommending.

5/10


By May be found at the following website: http://www.impawards.com/1995/powder.html, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8345633

Powder - (1995)

Oh Powder - I threw this on without knowing anything about it, including it's director, Victor Salva. The way it started off, it was really interesting, and had a slew of big-name talent in supporting roles : Mary Steenburgen, Lance Henriksen and Jeff Goldblum feature prominently. It's about an albino kid, Jeremy Reed (Sean Patrick Flanery), whose grandfather dies with him never having left his house before - leaving him alone in the world. When Jeremy gets taken to a boy's home and normal school, you know this kid is going to get bullied - but what we don't know about is the varied incredible powers he has. In it's second half, the film deals really heavily in schmaltz - with far too many heart-rending speeches set to rising orchestral music. It feels trite - and it was a shame because I liked a few of the factors here. Then I go look this film up and see it getting smashed because it's director, Salva, is a convicted paedophile. This was back in the day when people weren't cancelled, so after he got out of jail he just kept rolling along making movies. Powder at times felt like a superhero origin story, at others an emotionally sentimental sugary drama, but in the end I had to deal with a lot of disappointment regarding the way it played out.

5/10

Red-Headed Woman (1932)

Ptačí král - 9 / 10

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A fascinating look at the real life of Hiroo Onoda - the Japanese soldier who trained in the secret force of the Futamata, who were different to normal soldiers in that they were trained to never surrender or take their own lives.

As a result, Onoda spent 29 years on a Phillipine island evading capture, The film is apparently very true to real life events, and has to be seen to be believed.

8/10

I’ve put this in my queue. Will either love it or hate it.

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

⬆️ Can’t remember a single scene, but I did like it.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
7/10.
I had low expectations going into this movie, due to my dislike of Crystal Skull and some negative reviews, but I actually thought it was pretty good. Action was great.

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Boldly going.

Just finished this and was blown away by it. The hype is justified for this one. I thought it might be predictable but I never knew where it was going. The visuals were great and the idea was wonderful. It had many twists too.
Talk to Me (2022-2023)

Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers follows up a couple of years after Halloween 5 as Loomis realizes that Michael's existence or evil is the result of scientific experiments performed by members of a druid-like cult trying to investigate and control the power of Thorn... or something like that, who cares. Meanwhile, Michael is out to eliminate family members because, well, that's what he does. Again, who cares.

I remember seeing this back in the day and still thinking it was crap. Rewatching it now, it just confirms that it is. The film is an unnecessary convoluted mess that clearly doesn't understand what made the original film work. Aside from that mess, we have uninteresting characters, as well as yet another unceremonious dispatch of the lead character of the previous two.

Grade:


Full review on my Movie Loot

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The Cat and the Canary - Ten years after his death the six surviving relatives of millionaire Cyrus Norman gather at his remote Louisiana bayou mansion. His oddball companion Miss Lu (Gale Sondergaard) has been the sole occupant and she professes to be attuned to the many spirits which inhabit the mansion and grounds. Cyrus' executor Lawyer Crosby (George Zucco) is the first to arrive for the reading of Cyrus' will which is to take place at the stroke of midnight. Joyce Norman (Paulette Goddard) is named as the sole beneficiary. But, fearing the streak of insanity that runs in his family, Cyrus has stipulated that she must remain in full control of her faculties for 30 days in order to claim her inheritance.

Bob Hope plays radio actor Wally Campbell and you can see him starting to settle into his comedic delivery. But there's so much going on with the spooky mansion, hidden passages, escaped madmen and quirky, devious relatives that Hope isn't asked to shoulder as much of the load.

This "old dark house" horror/mystery was such a success when it was released in 1939 that Paramount studios rushed to reteam Hope and Goddard in The Ghost Breakers the following year. I still liked TGB a bit more but this has the richer palette as far as story goes. It comes in a close second.

79/100

Midjourney, make a me a poster for a mediocre ensemble comedy.