Rate The Last Movie You Saw

What Would Jesus do? B+

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Well at least we agree it's not a very good movie

The first 3 and the first Hood movies are the best ones.

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3rd Rewatch...Keenan Ivory Wayans wrote and directed this sporadically funny spoof of horror movies that begins with a dead on parody of the opening scene of Scream with Carmen Electra stepping in for Drew Barrymore. It then moves into the primary story which is a pretty accurate comic melding of Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer. The gags come a lot quicker than the laughs, but there are some laughs. As for the performances, Shawn Wayans gets the most laughs as the gay student who doesn't know he's gay and his brother Marlon's performance is just excruciating. Probable the worst movie to ever merit four sequels.

1st Rewatch...Second only to A Woman Under the Influence, this is probably the greatest collaboration between John Cassavetes and his muse, Gena Rowlands. Discovered that I definitely missed some stuff during my initial watch. What we see is an actress named Myrtle Gordon (Rowlands) in New Haven, after the first preview of the out of town tryout for a new play called "Second Woman". Struggling to get through autograph seekers, we see her encountered by a female fan, who is clearly unbalanced. Right after Myrtle gets into her limo, this woman is seen being hit by a car and killed. We then see Myrtle consumed with guilt about the incident, fueling an alcoholic-fueled breakdown for the actress which finds her putting "Second Woman" in serious jeopardy. But everything is not as it appears here. Cassavetes manages to bring us live theater onscreen here that rivets, shocks, and confuses the viewer wanting to know exactly what's going on with this woman. Her leading man (Cassavetes), the play's director (Ben Gazzara), and the cynical playwright (Joan Blondell) are equally perplexed. We then see the play come to Broadway where Myrtle arrives at the theater drunk and what happens onstage provides the extraordinary finale to this stomach-churning comedy-drama. The final fifteen minutes of this film are probably the zenith of the career of Cassavetes and Rowlands...live theater on a movie screen. Upping my original rating.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024) This is a significant drop in quality from Afterlife. It is nowhere near as fun and lacks the charm and humour of the previous instalment. There's a lot of characters involved and most of them don't get a chance to make much of an impact. Mckenna Grace does the best job with the material and it's worth seeing just for her. A couple cool moments, but overall it is pretty underwhelming.

I went ahead and gave this one another try; it's only going to be in Dolby Cinema for one week, and I had a free slot on my A-List anyway, so it didn't cost anything (didn't buy snacks either).

I stand by the earlier rating; it's a shame that with such a fantastic cast, most of who are real charismatic actors, they just couldn't come up with something better - and funnier.

The movie would be just fine if it was made for streaming, but as a theatrical offering... it feels oddly soulless. It isn't quite a ghastly mess, but the way it misses the mark is downright... spooky.

Well, at least I got another of those pins.

Dune pt 2


Want a drinking game guaranteed to send you to the hospital? Take a drink every time anyone says 'he is Mahdi', or 'he is not Mahdi'. I swear to God, that back and forth is 90 minutes of the movie's runtime.


Everything really good in the movie was also present in part 1. But I do like many of the changes they made, especially making Chadi a much stronger and independent character. The movie doesn't reach the highs of the original movie until the last 30 minutes, but it's very good when it gets there. It's just a very LONG journey there.


And I know it's an older story, but 'white savior' is not a trope that's aging well. The movie does show his character in a balanced light though, revealing the bad as well as the good, hunting at things to come in the second book.


2.5 out of 4 stars

Perfect Days (2023)

Directed by Wim Wenders
Starring Koji Yakusho

Wow! ...just saw it and I'm still emotionally shaken and happy of this great work... What a powerful film! What an absolute art of cinema! I can't describe anything else... the amazing last scene with Yakusho's face and the famous tune is deeply imprinted in my mind. I'm close to say - This is the movie of the year!

100/100

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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

Birdman of Alcatraz

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Great movie, and like every Cassavetes movie I've seen, it's always better on the 2nd and even 3rd tries, because he never spoon-feeds his audience, and I'd always notice something I didn't notice before, especially this movie.

Kung Fu Panda 4 (2024)


Didn't expect this to be as good as the originals, and it is not. The Chameleon villain was enticing though, and Viola Davis does some good voice acting here (as does Awkwafina with her new character). Plot was sound, but they seemed to go over the top with one-liner jokes and very few of them landed for me.

Had to get my wife to watch it since we both inexplicably didn't care for it when it first came out. She loved it this time and couldn't believe it was the same film. It suits both of us very well. Having driven the same streets, gone to the same bars, and known the same people, I feel a strong connection to these Boston movies, so my rating should be taken with a grain of salt. However I do believe there's plenty to like here. The characters all have strong moments as the film is full of them, and I believe there's a lot to think about. Beyond the obvious moral dilemma presented, the blurring of good and bad, right and wrong, and the differences between how family and environment play a role in the type of person you will become. There's a lot in this movie that makes me think about my own life, and that brings an emotional aspect that many viewers might not feel.

I came across this one by accident, it's simply Ben Affleck's greatest piece in moviemaking after Good Will Hunting. Agree, a few moral dilemmas make it even better than the standard thriller.

Descendants (2011)

A nice "little" film I'd say. George Clooney is a property earner in Hawaii that when his wife goes into terminal coma after boating accident finds out she was in love with another estate agent. He has 2 brattish daughters to deal with but through the frustration and sadness Matt King manages to keep his dignity. Clooney carries this and it is an enjoyable watch. Good appearance from the late, great, Robert Forster also.

Drive-Away Dolls (2024)

Road House (2024)

If you've been dying for the chance to hear Bill Shatner blabbering on about all of his personal obsessions for an hour and a half, then this documentary is absolutely perfect for you.
Anyone else should approach with caution.
It's a bit surprising to hear him describe just how unpleased he was with his own delivery of his dying line in Star Trek: Generations. From the way he talks about it, he totally fumbled the line (I've always thought it was just fine).
But it's hardly a surprise that, as a man in his early 90s, he is very much contemplating his own mortality - and one can only hope he is pleased with how the documentary turned out, since it essentially amounts to a preemptory self-eulogy.