Rate The Last Movie You Saw

This countdown. The Killing of a Chinese Bookie placed at #60-something.

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Child's Play is a film that I've seen several times. This first entry follows the attempts of Chucky to get back into a human body, which turns out has to be Andy. But in the process, bodies start piling up, bringing Det. Mike Norris (Chris Sarandon) to investigate and try to figure out who is actually behind the killings.

What Child's Play does offer is a pretty effective atmosphere, a lean pace, some nice kills, and a great villain. Much like Freddy, Chucky would turn into a bit of a joke in future sequels, but despite the seemingly silly premise of a killer doll, here he is genuinely scary in moments. Dourif does a great voice work, but kudos also to Vincent for a pretty solid performance, especially for a 6-year old kid.

Grade:


Full review on my Movie Loot

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
(George Miller, 2024)

Saw it this afternoon and...

It was disappointing. Don't get me wrong, it was fun. But it wasn't what I wanted. It felt too normal. The crazy cars weren't crazy enough. The crazy characters weren't crazy enough. The costumes were just more of the same from Fury Road yet somehow not as good. The new characters mostly fell flat too. Hemsworth's character was amusing, but not especially memorable. And Furiosa's love interest/mentor was likeable but we didn't get enough of him for me to be invested in him and when he met his end I didn't really feel anything.

It just didn't feel like a Mad Max movie and that had nothing to do with the absence of Max himself. I don't watch Mad Max movies for Max. I watch them for the craziness. It just viewed more like a Mad Max inspired movie than the genuine article to me. Perhaps it'll grow on me, but for now it was just...

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Sometimes, brevity is better.

Somebody should remind George Miller.

Blind Chance (1987)

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[ J ] - [ S ] - [ F ]

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

The Dressmaker (2015)

Invaders from Mars- The 1953 original directed by William Cameron Menzies and not the Tobe Hooper 1986 remake. Young astronomy buff David McLean (Jimmy Hunt) is awakened one night by a strange noise and sees what he thinks is a flying saucer land behind a hill near his house. When his aerospace engineer father George (Leif Erickson) goes to investigate he disappears and David's mother calls the police. He eventually shows up but has completely changed with the once affectionate father surly and hostile towards David. The two officers also go missing and when David sees his young friend Kathy Wilson fall out of sight in the sand pit on that same hill he goes to tell her mother. Kathy shows back up but is also acting strangely. It turns out all the families being affected work in some capacity at a top secret missile base.

With more and more people exhibiting strange behavior David eventually calls up local astronomer Dr. Stuart Kelston (Arthur Franz). He doesn't so much believe the young man's account but decides to err on the side of caution and contacts health-department physician Dr. Patricia Blake (Helena Carter). She talks to David where he is being held at the police station and her suspicions are aroused when both his parents show up acting oddly. Soon enough Dr. Kelston has called in his contacts in the armed forces. Turns out the military has come up with what sounds like a rudimentary version of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). There are also contingency plans in place to defend against a hypothetical hostile response. Morris Ankrum once again plays an army officer, Col. Fielding, and he's also all in on the apparent threat after his immediate superior disappears.

A lot (if not all) of the plot is predicated on David not only knowing the right people in positions of authority but also having said people ready and willing to give him the benefit of doubt. Most of these details have the ready-made rationale of Cold War paranoia so it's not a major sticking point. If you're also willing to give that plot point the benefit of doubt then this will all go down smoothly and you'll enjoy this for what it is. A decent enough scifi offering despite some admittedly low budget yet still creative FX, the liberal use of stock footage and some laughably bad costumes for the alien's goon squads of "Mu-tants".

75/100

The Garfield Movie (2024) Much of the main story doesn't work here. Garfield on a high stakes adventure involving a villainous cat and a plot to steal milk doesn't fit with Garfield. The best parts of the film are the beginning scenes and the ending. There are a few laughs here and a couple cute moments, especially Garfield as a little kitten. Needed more of Jon and less of Vic and Jinx. Flaws and all, I still love the character of Garfield.

Hit Man is a killer movie (pun fully intended).

If you have a serious interest in getting the most out of this movie, try to know as little as possible about it before watching it.

I'll just say it's about a perfectly nice guy (Glen Powell) living in New Orleans who isn't really a hit man, but who, for certain reasons, has to pretend to be a hit man. Then he meets an attractive woman (Adria Arjona) and things get... complicated.

To say more would be to spoil the fun.

Also, somewhere in an alternate reality, there is a version of this movie that was made in the 1980s with Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner in the Powell and Arjona roles, and with Matt Dillon in the part played here by Austin Amelio (a truly delightful turn, by the way). That version could have been directed by Danny DeVito and photographed by Stephen Burum, and would be possibly even better than this one.

Hit Man is playing in select cities right now ahead of a June 7th premiere on Netflix. But if you really want to enjoy this movie, definitely watch it at the cinema, it's a total delight to share this one with an appreciative audience.

By British Pictures, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3151288

A Night to Remember - (1958)

I'd seen A Night to Remember a bazillion times before, but never the colourized version, which got my interest. When you see something so many times, it's hard to objectively judge it, but the fact that it goes down so easy every time (pun definitely not intended) probably proves it's worth. For 1958 (and a British production) it's so impressive that the tragedy was so accurately portrayed, without feeling like there was any kind of obstruction. I love Walter Lord's book as well - I've read that more than once. A fascinating event, regardless of the fact that there was an awful loss of life that included women and children, despite attempts to put them first. Great score and casting, and first rate movie all-round. Seeing it in colour for the first time was a lot of fun, but I think I prefer the black and white version.

8/10


By Gautham Ramachandran - Sai Pallavi Official Twitter Account, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=71247487

Gargi - (2022)

Gargi (Sai Pallavi) has a father who's arrested on suspicion of participating in the gang rape of a young child, and she must struggle against people who consider him guilty before he's had the chance to prove his innocence. This is a tense drama which moves at a brisk pace, with it's central protagonist forced to fight misogyny, a corrupt justice system and the media. Full review here, in my watchlist thread.

6/10


By https://www.movieposterdb.com/ai-no-mukidashi-i1128075, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=73814128

Love Exposure - (2008)

Crazy 4 hour Japanese film which includes religion, parenting, perversion, sin, cults, love, erections, family and upskirt photography all mixed together in a crazed swirl, with characters trying to reach each other, but being blinded by their own preconceptions and the influence of others. Great movie. Full review here, in my watchlist thread.

9/10

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Phantasm: Ravager - From 2016, this is the fifth and by some accounts the final Phantasm entry in the sporadically filmed series. It's also the first one not directed by Don Coscarelli. I think they were trying to wrap it up somehow especially after Angus Scrimm (The Tall Man) passed away shortly after filming wrapped. The star is once again Reggie Bannister playing former ice cream vendor and now demon slayer Reggie B. He's still looking for his friend Mike (A. Michael Baldwin) who's been missing since the events of Phantasm IV: Oblivion. Mike eventually shows up but in an unexpected way. There are numerous red herrings, illusory dreams within dreams and alternate realities. So much so that the viewer will probably be left flummoxed. I do think that leaving it open to individual interpretation was their stated goal though. But then the conclusion does reunite the three protagonists from the first movie along with a character from Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead. Are they setting up additional entries even though all three characters are getting a little long in the tooth? And the antagonist that held the whole thing together is no longer available. If it was indeed a swan song it was of course a melancholy farewell but also a nice callback for fans of the franchise.

65/100

Napoleon - (Ridley Scott, 2023)

Good, not great.

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Marie Antoinette (2006) ‐

On a surface level, this is a hard film to recommend since it makes a handful of questionable choices which most other historical dramas would get dismissed for, whether you're referring to the severe lack of historical context towards the state of France throughout Antoinette's reign or the mix of a contemporary and classical soundtrack. Heck, I was considering dismissing the film myself partway into it, but the further I got, the clearer it became that these directorial choices fit the film very well. Coppola displays Antoinette as living in a bubble from the outside world. Thrown into a position which demands a high responsibility at such a young age, given little guidance on what to do, and ignoring the advice of those around her, she ultimately chooses to isolate herself from politics and is insular of her duties. Therefore, just as Antoinette exists in a bubble as to what's occurring around her, we do as well. Whatever historical insight we're given is brushed aside in service of numerous lavish parties and personal drama. Of course, this tone is disrupted in the final 20 minutes once reality begins to intrude more significantly (in all fairness, I don't think there was any way around that), but one gets the impression that Antoinette wasn't mature and experienced enough to fully understand the consequences of her behavior and what led her to her fate by the ending. As for the contemporary soundtrack, it took me longer to gel with it. I generally find that does more harm than good to period dramas and breaks the illusion of the film taking place in the past. In the case of this film, however, while its undoubtedly malapropos for the 16th century setting and while I initially scoffed at it, its awkward contrast added to Antoinette's desire to exist out of time and the aforementioned bubble she separated herself from the outside world with. Though sure, it might've been better to either stick with contemporary or classical soundtracks all the way through instead of dabbling in both territories. Still, while I imagine this film won't be to everyone's tastes, I enjoyed it quite a bit and felt its unconventional choices worked quite well.

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Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller, 2015)
(Rewatch)

Yep, still awesome.

The Beekeeper (2024)

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea -- 1916 -- 3/5 -- i didn't like the underwater footage, but some parts were special like when Captain Nemo explains his origins, beautiful symmetrical imagery, i followed it quickly with Un chien andalou, to do an immediate comparison, i love that crazy little experiment. 5/5 ... Now before getting some shut eye gonna wrap it up with some Essanay Comedies of Charlie Chaplin.

Xmen 3 7/10

Personal Best (1982)

Mariel Hemingway and Patrice Donnelly star here as two USA athletes competing to get into the team for the (ultimately boycotted) Moscow Olympics. Hemingway's part is of a rough diamond and Donnelly's to mentor and tutor under the tutelage of Scott Glenn's rather bitter coach. The treatment of the lesbian relationship that flourishes is sensitive considering this was 1982 and both leads (Donnelly being an actual athlete) acquit themselves very well. It's dated but I really enjoyed this, probably the sauna scenes were a bit unnecessary but they do give it a real feel.