Rate The Last Movie You Saw

The Super Mario Bros. Movie - Someone I watched this with summed it up as "cute" and I suppose that's as good a way of nutshelling this as any other. It helps, BTW, if you're any kind of gamer and at all familiar with the Mario bros franchise. I played Mario Kart years and years ago so as it was I maybe only got around 10 to 15% of the references and it wasn't until Rainbow Road that I finally thought, "Oh okay, yeah." I mean I knew the characters. Or most of them. No Princess Daisy. Or Toadette. And I had no idea who Bowser's sorcerer sidekick was. But then the rest was a pleasantly presented blur. No big guffaws were elicited but there were plenty of smiles and moments of appreciation earned for it's amiable storytelling. Judging by it's box office take I guess there are lots more Marios bros fans than I could have imagined. It wasn't as consistently funny or entertaining as the Netflix trailer led me to believe but then I suppose it did it's job.

75/100


Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse - It would have been downright difficult to inconceivable to recreate the experience of watching Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse for the first time. And it was of course. The jolt you felt watching it wasn't readily available this time. In it's place was a satisfaction in seeing that the filmmakers held true to course in the universe/multiverse they created. The writing, voice actors and innovative animation style were still front and center but with a well thought out expansion of Miles Morales' life as Spider-Man since the events of S-M:ItS-V. That part of the Spider-Man mythos hasn't changed. It's all about the isolation. The secrets Miles must keep from the people he cares about the most along with the singularity and resulting loneliness. That's what this does so well. They take a protagonist at a specific point in their life where they're at their most vulnerable and feeling out-of-place and just tighten the screws. They pile on burden after burden, leaving you wondering if they'll be able see their way clear. The good ones share things in common. It doesn't really matter if it's Tobey Maguire, Tom Holland or Shameik Moore. A well written protagonist and well constructed narrative arc will always deliver.

90/100


Puss in Boots: The Last Wish - This sequel did not follow through like Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. It did follow the usual schematics. More of the same. Only more so. More characters, more movement and color and derring-do. The selling points were certainly there. Antonio Banderas' gruff and outrageously overblown Latin lover voice-work. The use of nursery rhyme VIP's in unfamiliar and (somewhat) innovative ways. I say somewhat because after all the Shrek movies and the first Puss in Boots it's only natural for the shine to fade away a bit. Salma Hayek is back but it took me awhile to determine it was actually her. She somehow sounded different. Anyway, another thing that was missing was a serviceable third banana. Instead of Zach Galifianakis' Humpty Alexander Dumpty we have the uninspired Perrito voiced by Harvey Guillen. This one involves Puss in Boots in danger of running out his string and looking for a reset button of sorts. Goldilocks and the Three Bears and Little Jack Horner are the other major players. Just like so many other sequels it powers along on the goodwill generated by the original. But as so often happens, it never quite reaches the heights that one did.

65/100

A lot of the movie may admittedly be going straight over my head. All I can describe is my own experience.


I have a strong feeling your request for my top 10 isn't because you're interested in me as a person. :-)



Top is Inside Out (2015), as the Avatar suggests. I also love:


Persona (1966)
Let the Right One In (2008)
Clue (1985)
High Noon (1952)
Jaws (1975)
Laura (1944)
Spirited Away (2001)
Get Out (2017)

Us (2019)
The Shining (1980)


Yes, I know that's 11 total. I can't choose between Get Out and Us.

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Coach Carter - (2005)

Samuel L. Jackson gets many opportunities to scream and shout in Coach Carter - he plays real-life high school basketball coach Ken Carter, determined to see the kids who play for him study and claim for themselves a better life than jail, unemployment, food stamps and crime. When his team outperforms themselves, going 16-0 up in a season that has all of Richmond cheering, he locks the team out and cancels practice and games when he finds out most of his players are flunking. The town goes ballistic - but Carter is sticking to his guns no matter what. Have I seen around 100 of these films by now? A combination of school and sports, I can't deny that it has more than a few great moments, and carries a heavy 136-minute running time across the finishing line. Channing Tatum debuted in this film as the token white guy, and overall the only criticism I have is that we've seen so many of these films - there aren't many truly original moments. Still, it does what it does well enough to pass with a solid 'B' grade. Based on a true story it's a watchable high school sports film that although being good, still doesn't stand out from the genre as a whole.

7/10


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Freddie Mercury: The Great Pretender - (2012)

A Freddie Mercury biographical documentary that just is what it is. It has interviews with many of the important people in his life, which is good - and we get a fair few clips of Freddie being interviewed, along with private video clips of him out partying. It lacks focus a little, but is a grade above exploitative rubbish - so it makes the grade.

6/10

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Asteroid City -

This movie managed to make me totally okay with revisiting a time I try not to think about too much: the height of the pandemic. Ably employing the "frame within a frame" structure that also worked so well in The Grand Budapest Hotel, Anderson presents it like a documentary for whom Cranston's, well..."Host" is our guide. It's about the titular play, which is the brainchild of playwright Conrad Earp (Norton). The site of a Junior Stargazer convention, the isolated desert city is aptly named because its centerpiece is a giant crater, which is near its other, not-so-subtle landmark, a highway to nowhere. As the various Stargazers and their families arrive, we meet Woodrow (Ryan), whose photographer dad Augie (Schwartzman) has tragic news he's been struggling to share with him and his three daughters. At the convention's stargazing event, something that's even more difficult to explain occurs that not only makes everyone question everything, but they also become prisoners thanks to a government-mandated quarantine. Meanwhile, the Host takes us backstage to meet the players, each of whom do similar reckoning when they're not working.

Despite occurring at that time and place we know Anderson loves so well, mid-century America, he manages to take us right back to 2020 in various ways, with each one making me smile. Consider how the window conversations between Augie and Midge (Johansson), a death-obsessed actress, resemble a certain app, for instance. The movie is not so much about the pandemic, though, as it is what most of us spent too much time doing during it: trying to explain the unexplained. Besides Augie's dilemma and what I dare not spoil, there's what occurs offstage, which makes the on-stage questions all the more interesting. It also wisely explores the unexplained within, exemplified by one Stargazer's zany obsession with putting himself at deadly risk. All of Anderson's regulars, Schwartzman, Johansson and Jeffrey Wright in particular, shine, as do all the newcomers, especially Steve Carell's dutiful yet duplicitous hotel manager and Matt Dillon's world-weary mechanic. I also loved all the classic Western songs and the aesthetic, which I would describe as pastel Fallout.

Do art and science answer all the questions and dull the pain of Asteroid City's characters and their creators? It's not a spoiler for me to answer no, but as the movie so amusingly posits, maybe there's more fulfillment in just pursuing them? While this may be a backhanded compliment because I enjoyed the movie so much, since there are so many players in a relatively short space of less than two hours, I wouldn't complain if it were a bit longer. Doing so would have let some characters be fleshed out a bit more and would have provided breathing room, all of which I think Anderson and team could have done without ditching their storybook style. Other than that, the movie ends up being a delightfully quizzical movie that succeeds in reminding us of the essences of art and science and how they came about in the first place. Oh, and as for the former, it also reminds us that its creators made up of ones and zeroes don't think about such things.

Re-watch. Kristen Stewart fan so I do like this strange movie.



Speaking of strange. Two lead actresses really good.

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

Even for Quentin Dupieux, the master of surreal, this film is batsh*t crazy

Five superpower avengers who release toxic fumes (from cigarette ingredients) to defend against evil giant mutant tortoises are placed in a retreat to improve their teamwork. Once there, the 5 of them, along with a random 6 year old girl and a talking fish share urban myth type horror stories before being asked to save the world from a galactic man-lizard bad guy.

I guess it has something to say about the environment, smoking and toxicity in general but I was too caught up in the mayhem to develop any sense of an analytical mindset.

Insane. And highly enjoyable. I love Quentin Dupieux.

1st Rewatch...Diane English, the creator of the CBS sitcom Murphy Brown really struck out with this 2008 remake of the 1939 classic, based on a play by Claire Booth Luce. This is the story of a happily married woman named Mary Haines (Meg Ryan) who impulsively divorces her husband when she learns from a manicurist that her husband is having an affair with a Saks perfume countergirl named Crystal Allen(Eva Mendes). The hook of the original play and movie is that no males characters appear onscreen at all, despite it is their actions that drive the story, especially Mary's slimy ex-Stephen. English put a lot of money into this movie, but the story is just hopelessly dated, despite an impressive group of actresses gathered. Ryan and Mendes both seem to be phoning it in, but we also have Annette Bening, Debra Messing, Jada Pinkett Smith, Carrie Fisher, Cloris Leachman, Bette Midler, Joanna Gleason, Debi Mazar, and, of course Candice Bergen. A couple of things I didn't remember from my first watch: Annette Bening is superb as Sylvie, the character that Rosalind Russell played in the original, and the movie seemed about five hours long.

1st Rewatch...the late Joel Schumacher might have been in a little over his head with this expensive film version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Broadway musical about the romance between a virginal young opera singer (Emmy Rossum) and facially disfigured musician (Gerard Butler) who lives below a Paris opera house. It's a faithful rendering of the musical, but Shcumacher's lumbering direction makes the film seem a lot longer than it is. And this is an odd criticism for a musical, but this is probably the only musical I've ever seen where the actors are doing their own singing, but it doesn't look like it. I still love the title song, "All I Ask of You", and "Masquerade". Also loved Minnie Driver, who steals every scene she's in.

1st Rewatch...Amy Shumer made an unimpressive film debit in this laugh-challenged rom-com playing a writer who spends the entire running time pushing away a charming sports doctor (Bill Hader). Oddly enough, the only real laughs in this film come from Jon Cena, Marv Albert, and NBA legend Lebron James.

1st Rewatch...This 1948 classic not only inspired millionaires of little girls to take ballet class, but also provides limitless entertainment as a flawless mix of melodrama and dance unlike anything seen up to that point. This second watch confirmed for me that the Red Shoes Ballet is the best ballet ever mounted for a movie, the only thing that might rival it is the finale of An American in Paris. This clearly is another film that gets better with each viewing.

1st Rewatch...The sizzling, Oscar-nominated performance by Bette Davis in one of her most duplicitous and unlikable characters, makes this movie worth watching all by itself.

Bottoms (2023)

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The Boy and the Heron - (2023)

As per usual, I was overwhelmed by this Studio Ghibli film before it finished, and it's going to take another go at it to know where I stand. I got my fill of emotionally connecting with the storyline (the film's first third) and just witnessing utter madness take over (the film's last third). I'd heard this might be a bit of a autobiographical film for Hayao Miyazaki - and because of that I thought it might ease up on the weirdness - but it's there in spades, and I enjoy it. I'd have enjoyed this going either way, although I'm often overloaded by the sheer cornucopia of unbridled pedal-to-the-metal animated action, usually involving insane dream creatures. I have to say, I'm glad I got to see one of these in a cinema - thanks Miyazaki for giving me that chance.

7.5/10


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When a City Falls - (2011)

Documentary about the 2011 earthquakes that hit the Canterbury region of New Zealand, including the one that wreaked terrible destruction on Christchurch, killing 185 people. Seeing this happen to a city that close to me in a cultural sense is disturbing - but it was interesting to see the extended aftermath, and the way various people deal with the psychological and practical consequences.

6/10

The Howling follows White, as she recovers from a dangerous encounter with a serial killer. As part of her recovery, Dr. Waggner sends her and her husband to the "Colony", a country resort where he treats his patients. But things are not what they seem with most of the patients or with the "Colony" overall.

However, the transition from the serial killer/rapist subplot to the whole werewolf cult thing feels a bit awkward. In addition, a couple of relevant characters feel a bit underserved, and the overall motivations of the antagonists doesn't feel as clear as I would've wished. On the other hand, the makeup and special effects of the werewolves are pretty amazing, especially for the time being, and they contribute to build that creepy and scary ambience.

Grade:


Full review on my Movie Loot

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Totally Killer (2023)

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The Assignment - (1997)

Some movies are okay enough to keep you occupied for a couple of hours, but all in all forgettable in that a year or two later, if you come across them again, you strain and struggle but can't remember much about them. There was a French movie I watched a year or two ago about farmers over there committing suicide - it was a pretty good movie but I can't recall anything specific about it. I probably watch too many movies, and anything memorable has to really force it's way into my long-term memory. I imagine The Assignment is going to drift away from me over time. It's about the hunt for Venezuelan terrorist Carlos the Jackal, who the CIA wants to frame as slipping over to their side so the KGB will kill him for them. Features Donald Sutherland, Ben Kingsley and, heading the bill (playing both the Jackal and Lt. Cmdr. Annibal Ramirez, the man tasked with impersonating him), Aidan Quinn. There are some training sequences that are pretty nifty, and the overall plan goes so awry that I was kept interested - it was good enough to keep me onboard the whole way through. Thinking about it now, it slots in to a ranking that has it comingle with the great bulk of thrillers out there that are serviceable and entertaining, without being classics. Oh - and the overall plot was pretty out there and far fetched. I didn't mind though. There's some well directed and edited action in it too.

6/10

Escape Room (2019)