Rate The Last Movie You Saw

Solo: A Star Wars Story

It's alright. I took the kids and it was a perfectly entertaining family outing. To start off with it was really good but it got bogged down in a not entirely convincing plot involving cartels and rebellions and having to tick off all the references to the Star Wars we know. There were some fairly thrilling heist/chase/escape sequences but it wasn't really exciting as a movie. They played it a bit too safe which was kind of what I expected from Ron Howard to be honest. I had imagined something a little darker for the ending though, something more like Rogue One. I liked that there were no Jedi and minimal Empire. Emilia Clarke's character doesn't quite work. Alden Ehrenrieich is OK but not quite Han. L3 is supremely annoying but I guess that's the point...? Donald Glover as Lando is great and all his scenes were the best.

+ maybe because I did have fun and I'm just being picky.

6.5/10 Interesting premise and I never got too bored, but Leo just has no charisma and I didnt care much for his characters emotional arc with his wife tbh. The movie was convoluted but not hard to follow. The twist with how he knew inception was possible was obvious. Besides that ehh it was an enternaing popcorn flick with ambition but not something id ever want to watch again.

I enjoyed the horror elements the most which isn't a surprise. I thought it did a nice job balancing the thrills with making the viewer ponder it's meaning, although neither aspect is quite consistently brilliant. It's a good movie with solid performances and visuals. I still prefer the director's Ex-Machina.

The only thing I knew about this legendary masterpiece is that it featured a knight playing chess with Death itself. What I didn't know about was the depth of the reflexion about Life, Death, God, Love...

As in any Bergman film, the acting, soundtrack and cinematography are there to serve the script and its message, and in that sense everything worked perfectly.

The Dance of Death in particular stunned me!



Weird film to watch on a first date. xD
Didn't know anything about it coming in, started really well with the quasi-Trainspotting vibe, but it got weirder and weirder.
I had some good laughs and perhaps if I do not think about it at all, it may pass as a good film. The thing is, I thought about it and as my date said: the problem with this kind of sci fi is that you really can't argue with its logic which seems unfair.

The soundtrack is nice, the acting is quite solid and the script as some good bits though it's unidimensional overall.

21 jump street. Holds up to a rewatch for me. Came as a surprise to see Johnny Depp looking healthy. Poor guy seems very frail at the moment.

Dark Crimes (2016)



Can Charlotte Gainsboroug tell any jokes or do impressions? Acting aint her bag. Decent little movie that Jim Carrey excels in. Pretty flat to represent the Polish authorities of the time I guess,

Chapeau again to Charlotte, the only "actress" that made me give up on von Trier.

5/10

Watched this today also, good little film. Exact same rating as you Gideon58.

The Letter (1940)

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The nice guys (2016)

A budy cop type movie. Strong and genuinely funny first half. Has a dash of intrigue, drama and comedy lead by the two charasmatic leads. Funny comedy! Not that fast talking, loud, observation type babble a poster on this site recently made a thread about. This comedy is at times subtle, softly spoken and edgy.

The second half really delves into just comedy....to its detriment. Imagine if the original classic lethal weapon forgot its dramatic and action roots half way through and became somewhat of a slapstick jumble of happenings...much like the lethal weapon sequels.

It should have stuck to being more than a comedy. It should have taken itself more seriously but maybe the plot and plot holes would have made than impossible.

I did enjoy my time but I feel like the leads were wasted. A good time, worth a watch, not a classic and more of a could have been than a been.

3.5/5

As I mentioned, my mentions don't work, so I missed you. I maybe wouldn't have seen it at all if I didn't figure out a way to see them afterall. @Yoda, you have one less worry in your life now.

You're welcome. And thanks. Yeah, us two have one more thing in common - we were both born in summer. Summer is the best.

Unbelievbable coincidence, as this was gonna be my next in "what are you listening". Well, maybe not. Afterall summer is here.

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I've been off this site a while so I'm just gonna rate the last few films I went to the theater to see.


Star Wars: the Last Jedi (2017)

Wish this was the LAST Star Wars film. So many plot holes, forced plot points and such a waste of a very talented cast. Mary Sue is still very much a Mary Sue with no struggle to get to where she eventually gets to in end of film and there is no explanation for how she is so amazing at everything other than "Just deal with it she's the new lead of this franchise". So many uncompelling characters and the few compelling characters are wasted in the end. *cough*Andy*cough*Serkis. Also would like to add idk who this old hermit was that they had Mark Hamill portray in this film but that wasn't Luke Skywalker. *rant ended* I could rant about this film all day but I will stop for now. Can't wait to watch the other apparent train wreck that is Solo.


A Quiet Place (2018)

One of the best horror films I've seen in a quite a while. Whole cast was great.


Black Panther (2018)

Saw it twice (only because I was forced to go again with this girl and a group of her friends the second time) and liked it even less on the second viewing. Easily one of my least favorite marvel stand alone films. Michael B. Jordan and Andy Serkis were great villains wasted against Black Panther who is easily just as boring a character as Captain America.


Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

Easily the best Marvel film I've seen in years. The whole cast was great and Thanos was actually a decent villain.

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I Spit on Your Grave (1978) (Dir. Meir Zarchi)


A lot of it is really stupid, particularly how the inciting attacks are staged separately, but between the odd decisions and bad acting there are a handful of powerful images/sequences. The silent journey back home after the inciting incident as well as the shower after the traumatic experience are both unmistakably artful. Our avenger's musical respite after the bath tub slashing is angelic. These moments in particular almost definitely planted the seed for Ms. 45 to arrive a few short years later.

Of course Abel Ferrara improves on the idea in every way imaginable, but I Spit on Your Grave is definitely more watchable than Wes Craven's nearly incomprehensible The Last House on the Left. Where most would be turned away from the rape scenes, I'd argue they're rightly disgusting and hard to watch. Perhaps the most disagreeable scene is when the lead antagonist seems to momentarily persuade our broken avenger with arguments that she brought the attack upon herself. Thankfully, this argument is not entertained for very long.

Seeing Jennifer Hills evolve from a naive out-of-towner into a cold blooded harpy turns into a cathartic, somewhat cartoonish experience by the very end. It's a keystone exploitation film, but unlike something vaguely similar such as Coffy, a heroin undertaking revenge by using her sexuality as a lure, it edges much closer to the realm of horror which makes it all the more intriguing to somebody like me.



I Spit on Your Grave (2010) (Dir. Steven R. Monroe)


A ballsy re-imagining of Meri Zarchi's seminal rape revenge flick which drives the story deeper into horror territory, strongly embracing the more fantastic elements of the original. In this reboot, once Jennifer Hills is assaulted, she takes to the shadows, haunting those who did her wrong. Utilizing her character in this fashion, as a borderline supernatural slasher villain for a significant stretch, makes a lot more sense than the immediate transition Hills makes in the original. That evolution taking place off screen makes it more digestible. In this iteration, the realism it has to skirt to tell the story works for the atmosphere instead of against the immersion.

Some other significant improvements made here include the emphasis on the power dynamics of rape, the Cronenbergian marriage of sex and violence visualized by incorporating firearms into the attack, as well as indictment of the artist by way of the character who tapes the violence suffering the same fate as those commiting it. On the last point, while the film critiques empty depravity, it reclaims brutal filmmaking when the victim assumes control of the camera and documents her revenge.

Steven Monroe's go at this iconic property definitely blazes its own trail and doesn't rely on the source material beyond a foundation. Though they share narratives and characters, they diverge greatly in tone and purpose as films made in different eras about an ever-evolving issue should. Despite what it gets right, I Spit on Your Grave (2010) drags its feet a little more than the original and somehow ends up more convoluted despite somehow being both more grounded and outlandish in certain regards. It isn't all that much "better" overall despite how interesting its different aims and styles are. It's not as important a movie in building your cinematic lexicon, but that isn't its fault.

I recommend both to those interested in brutal cinema. This one certainly approaches the bar set by foreign entries into the subgenre such as the various French Extremity pictures and South Korean revenge thrillers that appeared throughout the aughts.

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Really? She's one of the greatest actresses alive in my opinion. Brave, uncompromising and totally engaging on screen.

The Americanization of Emily (1964)

This is probably the most serious Troma film I've seen, and only the second one I've really liked besides The Toxic Avenger. A Vietnam veteran who was captured and tortured returns home to complete squalor. The wife is on his ass, he's got a deformed baby, and another on the way. Everyone he knows is a degenerate and he'll only be able to take it for so long. It's a very ugly movie with a surprisingly decent lead performance.

Here's my favorite clip --

I own the DVD. Only watched it once, years ago but its a difficult one to forget. Especially that ending

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