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1st Rewatch...Bette Davis appears to be having a ball in this lavish 1944 soap opera about a flighty and vain socialite named Fanny Trellis who has four different men determined to marry her, but when her younger brother is accused of stealing $24,000 from his boss, a Mr. Job Skeffington (Claude Rains)., she decides to marrySkeffington to get her brother out of trouble. Davis shines a a sort of contemporary Scarlett O'Hara who enters a loveless marriage and has a daughter she doesn't really want and taking way too long to learn that her new husband is not the fool she thinks he is. Davis received her seventh Best Actress nomination for this film and Rains got a supporting actor nod as well. Aslo loved Walter A bel, who almost stole Holiday Inn from Astaire and Crosby as Fanny's cousin George.







4th Rewatch...Jamie Foxx's dazzling Oscar-winning performance anchors this 2004 biopic of Ray Charles, that is a little longer than it needs to be, but Foxx makes it worth a look.






Umpteenth Rewatch...A triumph for Julie Andrews and director/husband, the late Blake Edwards. This delicious musical comedy finds Andrews playing an out of work singer in 1930's Paris who, with the aid of a gay mentor (Robert Preston), becomes the toast of Paris as a female impersonator, which works out great until a Chicago mobster named King Marchand (James Garner) arrives in Paris and falls hard for the drag queen, refusing to believe that she really is a man. The screenplay is rich with a few more gay stereotypes than I would like and I never for a single minute ever believe that Andrews is a man, but this film is a joy from beginning to end. Andrews received a Best Actress nomination for her Victoria, Robert Preston received the only Oscar nomination of his career for Toddy, and Lesley Ann Warren's ditzy moll earned her a Supporting Actres nomination. The fim did wn an Oscar for Henry Mancini's music. Dazzling entertainment as long as you don't think about it too much. A couple of decades later it was turned into a stage musical with Andrfews again playing Victoria.



Victim of The Night



Umpteenth Rewatch...A triumph for Julie Andrews and director/husband, the late Blake Edwards. This delicious musical comedy finds Andrews playing an out of work singer in 1930's Paris who, with the aid of a gay mentor (Robert Preston), becomes the toast of Paris as a female impersonator, which works out great until a Chicago mobster named King Marchand (James Garner) arrives in Paris and falls hard for the drag queen, refusing to believe that she really is a man. The screenplay is rich with a few more gay stereotypes than I would like and I never for a single minute ever believe that Andrews is a man, but this film is a joy from beginning to end. Andrews received a Best Actress nomination for her Victoria, Robert Presoon received the only Oscar nomination of his career for Toddy, and Lesley Warren's dim-witten moll of Garner's earned a a Supporting Actres nomination. The fim did wn an Oscar for Henry Mancini's music. Dazzling entertainment as long as you don't think about it too much. A couple of decades it was turne dinto a stage musical with Andrfews again playing Victoria.
Yeah, I've loved this movie since I was about 12 years old. Great fun.



Victim of The Night
Eyes Wide Shut (1999)



...

In a nutshell, Eyes Wide Shut looks like a remake of a Peter Greenaway film that has all of Greenaway's bite, humour and audacity stamped out of it.
On top of everything it moves slower than a daytime soap and the dialogue doesn't sound much better than a daytime soap.
These characters are awful and that doesn't mean that they have to be nice or likeable, but there's got to be something to get on board with and make me care.
This time I made it to the end credits, but there were many, many times when I was thinking of my upcoming dental appointment and how much more fun that is going to be.

Interesting. I thought EWS was fantastic.



Victim of The Night
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984)



A personal All-Time Favorite.




Constantine
(2005)
4/5

What if the Church tells you that your sister committed suicide, however, you knowing her personality, it is something she would never do? Angela Dodson know her sister Isobel too well so she enlist the help of Demonologist John Constantine to help her uncover the truth. Along the way, Constantine learns that God and Satan made a pact, that will impact all of mankind.

This was a great film when it came out in 2005 and a huge hit for Keanu Reeves. It's one of his films that I have always been a fan. Im a fan of Rachel Weisz as well. Peter Stormare and Tilda Swinton are perfect for their roles. This is a film that cant go wrong for me.

Of couse, its not exactly like DC/Vertigo's comic Hellblazer but Im not really much of a DC fan.



I forgot the opening line.

By Variance Films - http://www.impawards.com/2024/sugarcane_xlg.html, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=78036959

Sugarcane - (2024)

Another sad documentary. This one is all about the Canadian Indian residential school system - run by the church, the priests in charge would regularly abuse all of the kids in their care. There were many deaths, either by suicide, kids trying to escape or the infanticide related to the many births that would occur because the girls were being impregnated by those charged with looking after them. The wounds are still fresh, and many of the older people coming to terms with what happened are deeply damaged and trying to deal with it all by investigating and searching for answers. We spend time with them as news about newly discovered mass graves hit the airwaves and those priests who are still alive are pursued in the interests of justice. The last residential school in Canada closed in 1997 - we had similar things happen here in Australia because orphaned children in Great Britain were once sent to Australia and enrolled in schools run by the church, whereupon they'd be abused by predators running rampant in the system. The most shocking aspect to this is that the church knew, and did nothing to protect the kids - instead deciding to protect the reputation of their organisation and the priests who were committing these ugly crimes.

8/10


Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8005284

Sleepless in Seattle - (1993)

Our two lovebirds in Sleepless in Seattle - widowed Sam Baldwin (Tom Hanks) and uncertainly engaged Annie Reed (Meg Ryan) - only properly meet each other in the film's last scene. So, it's a romantic film that surprisingly lacks in onscreen romance. What we do get is an examination of our various characters' viewpoints related to romance, dating and love as Sam's son, Jonah (Ross Malinger) tries to set his father up with Annie, who has become interested in Sam after hearing him talk about his experiences with his deceased wife on a radio show. It's very 90s, but endearingly looks to An Affair to Remember as a quintessential model of the perfect romance. Hanks and Ryan have a certain screen presence, but the movie is a very safe and mainstream - cute, to be sure, but a little too lacking in really memorable moments for me.

6/10


By The poster art can or could be obtained from the distributor., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10852105

Ju-On : The Grudge 2 - (2003)

Not as good as the first Grudge, but I do like these movies. More so than ever, The Grudge 2 is like a jigsaw puzzle that will test your mind as it tries to fit all of the non-chronological pieces together. I almost feel like there's a bit of an overload here, with an abundance of scenes featuring the ghosts of the Saeki family, who pop up so regularly that they kind of dilute the terrifying power they have just a little. There are some very nice set-pieces though, and visually the film scores a number of indelible instances.

6/10
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The Instigators - (Doug Liman, 2024)

8/10
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Charlie Chan in Reno (1939)


First time seeing any Charlie Chan movie...I'm sure this is a result of modern times, but I thought this was bad (heavily due to the obvious racist stereotypes). Its only 70 minutes and even that felt too long. Detective movies aren't really my type in the first place.




crazy to call this a letdown when i thought the first two were just ok but this is a noticeable drop in quality




hadn't seen this since i was a kid and so much nostalgia. maybe the best opening scene in history and the clovers are so cool! almost convinced me that cheerleading is cool. loved it.




if that controversial HoF happens this might be my pick. so funny.
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Interesting. I thought EWS was fantastic.
One of my fave movies ever.
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THE GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY
HOLIDAY SPECIAL

(2022, Gunn)



"Why would you go through all the trouble of going all the way to Earth and abduct Kevin Bacon?"

This Holiday Special follows the attempts of Mantis and Drax (Pom Klementieff and Dave Bautista) to cheer up their friend Peter (Chris Pratt) by bringing him his "childhood hero" Kevin Bacon (Kevin Bacon). But of course, between hanging out with cosplayers, dealing with hangovers, and Kevin Bacon's security system, things won't be that easy for the two.

I know I'm late (or early!) catching up with this, but who cares. It's a fairly simple short, but it's evident that Gunn and everyone involved are having a ton of fun with it, and so did I. The chemistry between Klementieff and Bautista is insane, and it was nice to see Sean Gunn having more to do. Plus, adding Bacon to anything is always a plus!

Grade:



Full review on my Movie Loot
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DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER
(1971, Hamilton)



"Curious... how everyone who touches those diamonds seems to die."

Diamonds Are Forever features the return of Sean Connery to the role of James Bond after George Lazenby's one entry. This time, Bond infiltrates a diamond smuggling operation led by his arch-enemy Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Charles Gray) who plans to use the rocks to build a deadly laser satellite. Can Bond get his hand on those diamonds and not die in the process?

Even though Connery had his fair share of weak entries, there's no denying that he is the quintessential Bond, so as much as I liked Lazenby's entry, it was nice to see Connery back in the suit. I wish there had been more consistency between his angry attitude as he's supposed to be looking for revenge, and the excessive amount of double entendres. Not that I'm bothered by them per se, but it becomes tedious at points.

Grade:



Full review on my Movie Loot



>Mr Skeffington
>1st Rewatch...Bette Davis appears to be having a ball in this lavish 1944 soap opera about a flighty and vain socialite named Fanny Trellis who has four different men determined to marry her


I've read both bad and good things about this movie was unable to decide if I should see it. Nice to see a positive review. I may have to try it.

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Nights of Cabiria (1957)


First Time Watching. Well, I mentioned in the other threads that I needed to check out Federico Fellini so there's no better time than the present. Thought this movie was excellent. The main actress is engaging, charming, and has a wonderful smile but also is pretty in-your-face for much of it as she doesn't take crap from anyone...her character somewhat reminded me of Anora with the same tough-gal attitude. Music was great, visuals were great, and it does a remarkable job juggling comedy and tragedy which is something a lot of films fail to pull off. A great experience for my first Fellini and I'll definitely be checking out more of his stuff. Any suggestions are appreciated.




if that controversial HoF happens this might be my pick. so funny.
Why can't we see this stuff on Prime?



I forgot the opening line.

By http://www.impawards.com/2024/nickel_boys_xxlg.html, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=77799598

Nickel Boys - (2024)

Many of the movies I'm watching lately deal with pretty painful subjects - Nickel Boys particularly, as it's based on a real reform school. The Dozier School for Boys was a place notorious for the way it treated the boys in it's care. Here, in this movie based on Colson Whitehead's novel The Nickel Boys, two protagonists - Elwood (Ethan Herisse) and Turner (Brandon Wilson) - try to survive best they can at the Nickel Academy (based on Dozier). Elwood is a well behaved boy on his way to college who has the misfortune of accepting a ride in a stolen car, magnifying a situation that is already plagued with injustice. The movie operates almost exclusively through 1st person "through the character's eyes" cinematography, gives us another glimpse of life from an African-American perspective during a time of segregation and is terribly sad. Occasionally we flash forward in time, where unmarked graves are being discovered at the site of the Academy - the kids that "ran away" or "escaped" but were actually murdered. I thought the filmmaking approach was really interesting and worked while the narrative hurt as much as it was meant to and the period vividly brought to life with real-life footage of what was happening during the 60s in America - with an interesting focus on the exploration of the moon and Martin Luther King Jnr. What's amazing is that none of this feels like another retread of what we've already seen in terms of cinema that's explored the black experience in the U.S. - it's more intensely personal, and specific to the horror of these reform schools.

8/10


By Berlinale, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=76180863

No Other Land - (2024)

As an expose regarding the Palestinian experience in the occupied West Bank No Other Land is an absolutely shocking indictment of Israeli policy - people who have lived in an area for centuries are having their homes demolished and being forced to flee and live in caves so that the land can be used for "military training exercises". But we know, don't we? We know what's happening today regarding the killing of innocent civilians by a regime so bloodthirsty for revenge that they've lost all claims to moral justification, superiority and understanding. Everyone should watch this documentary before deciding where they stand on the issue.

8/10