Rate The Last Movie You Saw

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

Torch Song Trilogy (1988)

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[ J ] - [ S ] - [ F ]

Cop Car (2015)

Written and Directed by Jon Watts
Starring Kevin Bacon

Haven't seen Kevin Bacon for very long time. What happened with this guy?
Came across this movie on the telly today. Not bad thriller. Very interesting story as a whole. Well filmed. Just some ridiculous details here and there but anyway it is OK.

70/100

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"Population don't imitate art, population imitate bad television." W.A.
"You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus." M.T.

The Incredibles (2004)

One of THE best super hero movies ever, jut love it.

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There has been an awekening.... have you felt it?

My Favorite Brunette - 1947 comedy starring Bob Hope as San Francisco baby photographer Ronnie Jackson. The film opens with Jackson on death row recounting his story to reporters after having been convicted of murder. His office had been next door to tough as nails private eye Sam McCloud (Alan Ladd). Ronnie dreams of one day becoming a PI himself. McCloud repeatedly turns down Ronnie's offers of becoming his partner but does give him access to his office while he's out of town. One day while daydreaming in McCloud's office he is interrupted by Carlotta Montay (Dorothy Lamour). She wants to hire a PI to look for her missing husband and Ronnie, being instantly smitten, pretends to be McCloud.

This leads into a classic PI entanglement featuring a gang of spies or wartime profiteers or both. There are also concussions, frameups, car chases and narrow escapes. The cast is first rate with Peter Lorre as the small and murderous Kismet and Lon Chaney Jr. as the walnut cracking and simple minded muscle Willie. I didn't find it as funny as The Ghost Breakers and the version I ended up watching was shoddily colorized but that didn't detract too much from the proceedings. The bad guys are easy to root against and Hope and Lamour make for an appealing couple.

75/100

Danny Collins (2015)

Written and Directed by Dan Fogelman

Starring Al Pacino, Annette Bening and Christopher Plummer

My second view. First I saw it when it came out and last evening, it was on the telly.
Cute, entertaining movie. A bit overcooked here and there from the screenplay side. Anyway, full with nice characters and top acting.
+
73/100

Vox Lux (2018)

I think this movie is rife with metaphors but I only got a few of them. Seems to define some general things about singers in the post-diva era. It doesn't feel like 2 hours because of the time gaps in the story and the speed of the progression. Sort of a novelty you'd not watch twice. The ending performance reminds me a lot of Miley Cyrus and so I'm guessing thats where they got their blueprint from for some of the imagery and sound. Altogether a numbed version of the post-Columbine era state of music affairs from a girls point of view. It doesn't shovel too deep and probably for the better. This has got to be my least favorite Portman character by far.

5/10

The Parts You Lose, 2019

An unnamed, injured man (Aaron Paul) is on the run from the police and ends up hiding in the barn belonging to the family of a little boy named Wesley (Danny Murphy). Wesley is deaf, and suffers abuse at the hands of his classmates and his alcoholic father, Ronnie (Scoot McNairy). Wesley forms a bond with the stranger, but their tentative friendship is clearly on borrowed time as the police close in.

This is one of those movies that is just good enough that its paltry momentum can carry you along from beginning to end. But it’s hard to recommend as anything other than something you put on in the background while you vacuum.



Full review

This is one of those movies where on the surface it looks like my kind of thing, but I have never dared watch it because of all the bad reviews and poor ratings I've seen.

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Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8055850

Hombre - (1967)

Paul Newman delivers a white hot performance made up of suppressed rage and simmering discontent in Hombre - a film in which he features as John Russell. Raised by Apaches and known by many names, Russell lives as one, and sees first hand his people starved and driven onto inhospitable land by white settlers, who steal the reparations which are meant to go to them. When his father dies, he's left a large boarding house and gold watch as inheritance, and to sell them so as to help his people, he has to transition to white society - where he's treated well...until he mentions he's Indian. When a stage coach he's riding on is held up, all the passengers who insisted he travel outside the coach have to rely on him to save them. Hombre is really gritty, and was totally reliant on Newman's above par performance, which makes the film. It takes place in a dust and dirt-filled Arizona where even the most respectable people end up looking like bums due to the sheer amount of filth about them. It's one of those films where the hero hates the people he's saving about as much as those he's fighting - and in it there are many moral quandaries that keep the narrative interesting. It doesn't have many faults in a storytelling sense, and is as rock solid as they come. A great movie.

8/10

I saw this movie at a drive-in when I was a kid. Don't really remember it,but might have to revisit.

Shag (1988)

It's a take no prisoners kind of film so it's no surprise that it was adapted from an Elmore Leonard novel. You should try Valdez Is Coming if you haven't already. It's another Leonard western but you'll have to get past Lancaster performing in brownface playing Bob Valdez. It's not as good as Hombre but still a decent flick.

se7en (1995)

There's nothing wrong with the acting, the way it was filmed or anything, its the story and the subject matter and the characters that seem like poor choices and that theres seems to be room for more movie but I guess thats what fit the bill at the time. I'm not into pop culture a whole lot so I don't have an opinion without knowing much. As a movie though its something to see that seems to portray a certain type of music star in an accurate manner. Not my sort of thing. Not sorry I saw it.

Jalsaghar (1958) India
The Music Room in the U.S.A.

A man of royal wealth who lives in a palace is heir to a strong lineage but he cuts it short with his addiction to music and partying, spending large sums on private shows to entertain guests. He's living in the old ways as the new ways of electricity and automobiles start taking over. There's a supernatural angle to it, a sort of poetic tragedy, that his obsession brings about.

First half of the movie sets you up for something great but you get disappointed with the way it ends. That first song resonates so well with the harmonies that I had to go back when it was over and listen once again. With a better ending that equals the opening this could have easily been a 9 or 10, but you're left feeling as empty as this once wealthy landlord.

7/10

1st Rewatch...I stand by what I said in my original review. The film can't decide if it's a sequel or a remake, but there's a lot of entertainment to be gleaned here, thanks to Rob Marshall's energetic direction and choreography. Emily Blunt is the closest thing to Julie Andrews we will ever have and Lin-Manuel Miranda does a convincing cockney accent. And I LOVED Ben Whishaw as a grown up Michael Banks. Marc Shaiman's score contains no classics but it serves the story and I love that David Magee's screenplay gave Mary's umbrella bigger role than in the original.

1st Rewatch...This quietly powerful film on a squirm-worthy subject should have earned Kevin Bacon an Oscar nomination. His intense and understated performance as a pedophile trying to resume his life after 12 years in prison is powerhouse work and easily the finest work his career. The film reminds me a lot of the Dustin Hoffman film Straight Time because this guy really wants to rehabilitate and is doing everything to fight his demons but finds roadblocks at every turn, including a nasty parole officer (Mos Def) and an initially sympathetic brother-in-law (Benjamin Bratt). I checked the lead actor nominations for 2004 and I think Johnny Depp got the nomination that Bacon should have received, but I think the award went to the right performance (Jamie Foxx in Ray). Bacon should have been nominated though. It's an uncomfortable watch, but well worth it.