Rate The Last Movie You Saw

I liked this movie too....here's a link to my review:

https://www.movieforums.com/reviews/2235115-pig.html

3rd Rewatch...Vincente Minnelli's warm and sentimental musical of days gone by remains just as entertaining as it was when it premiered way back in 1944. This story of a St Louis family named the Smiths actually features more than one storyline that segue quite neatly from one to the other. Of course, the heart of this movie is the enchanting performance by Judy Garland as Esther Smith. This film offers three of the strongest vocal performances of Garland's career: "The Boy Next Door", "The Trolley Song", and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas". Mary Astor adds a real touch of class to the movie playing Esther's mother and Margaret O'Brien is adorable as baby sister Tootie.

1st Rewatch...A 2013 Best Picture nominee, Her was the first real computer generated romantic drama that I think I liked even more this time around. Oscar winner Joaquin Phoenix plays Theodore Twombley, a lonely writer who has a new operating system installed into his computer with a female voice (Scarlett Johansson) and actually finds himself falling in love with her (her name is Samantha) and, while attempting to establish relationships with real women, decides to stop fighting the fact that Samantha is the woman he wants. Spike Jonz won a richly deserved Original Screenplay Oscar for this consistently inventive love story that offers smiles and possible tears from beginning to end. Love the moment when Samantha first speaks to Theodore...somehow it feels like she's sitting right there next to him or on the phone. Also love the scene where they have cyber sex for the first time and the scene where he gets up one morning and he can't find Samantha. It's also heartbreaking when he learns that he's not the only man in Samantha's life. This movie is such a heartbreaker and Joaquin Phoenix was robbed of a Best Actor nomination for his warm and sexy performance in the starring role...yeah, I said it, sexy. Upping my original rating.

1st Rewatch...I have such mixed emotions about this movie. I like director Craig Gillespie's almost tongue in cheek presentation of the story, it certainly keeps the viewer on their toes, but I just have trouble getting behind the way screenplay portrays Tonya Harding as this hapless victim. The movie is unapologetic in its presentation of Tonya's abusive relationships with Jeff Gilooly (Sebastian Stan) and her mother (Allison Janney), but the way she keeps returning to Jeff makes her look stupid. The movie does tell us that Tonya knew nothing about the attack on Nancy Kerrigan and I'm not sure I believe that. But, as fictionalized entertainment based on real events, this movie does hit a bullseye. I found myself enjoying Margot Robbie's in your face performance that earned her a Best Actress Oscar nomination this time. However, I still find Janney's performance as Tonya's bully of a mother, that won her the Best Supporting Actress, rather one-note and not that interesting. Still think that award should have gone to Laurie Metcalf for Lady Bird, a much more interesting performance. Sebastian Stan and Paul Walter Hauser are great though. Upping my original rating.

DECEMBER 5, 2023

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes

I must admit, I haven't seen any of the earlier films in The Hunger Games series. And if you've been following any of my previous reviews of other franchise film entries, you'll find this to be a familiar refrain with me! As I've stated before, my visits to local movie theaters have been pretty sparse over the past decade-plus, and it's only recently that I've gotten back into the habit of going to a new movie once every week. So this is my first dip into the young adult sci-fi dystopia created by author Suzanne Collins. And quite honestly, what I saw last Tuesday is just entertaining enough to make me curious about the earlier films. I've always had a soft spot for sci-fi dystopias, anyway, being a fan of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four and the 1984 Michael Radford film version starring John Hurt and Richard Burton, John Boorman's brilliantly eccentric Zardoz from 1973 with Sean Connery, as well as the Wachowskis-penned screen version of Alan Moore's V For Vendetta from 2006 (in which, of course, John Hurt himself has become the big threatening face on the viewscreen).

(SIDE NOTE: For a very interesting viewing exercise, if you ever have the time, try watching these three films together in a viewing marathon:



Nineteen Eighty-Four (Michael Radford / 1984)
The Osterman Weekend (Sam Peckinpah / 1983)
V For Vendetta (James McTeigue / 2006)

You'll watch John Hurt's screen persona undergo a quite fascinating metamorphosis from victim to monster, with Peckinpah's spy thriller / media-critique swan song serving as the missing link between the two more overtly dystopian tales!)

As you may know, the lead character here is Coriolanus Snow, who as played by Donald Sutherland is established as the primary villain of the series. So this is a kind of "Portrait of a Despot As a Young Man," so to speak. Here, the 18-year-old future president is played by Tom Blyth, whose screen persona I find to be rather thin, but that's rather well-suited to the character as Snow is here an unformed, undeveloped younger man and has yet to evolve into the villain he would later become. (I guess I would defend Blyth on the same grounds as I would defend Hayden Christensen's Anakin Skywalker for being a perfectly good precursor to the cybernetic Man in Black that would be Darth Vader in the Star Wars prequels.) Snow has become a mentor for the 10th Hunger Games, and Rachel Zegler portrays his charge Lucy Gray, a defiant young woman from District 12 who is one of the selected contestants, as well as a compelling singer-songwriter. (This, of course, what the Songbird part of the title refers to.) Zegler is very effective, developing an attachment to Snow as the story progresses, but Zegler's intelligence also conveys Lucy's not suffering fools gladly, a sense that time will tell with regard to what path Snow chooses to take. Less effectively, Peter Dinklage plays Casca Highbottom, the Academy Dean and the man who actually came up with the idea of the Hunger Games. Dinklage does a good job of oozing a weary mixture of schadenfreude and contempt, but beyond that he is not really given much to work with. Viola Davis is pretty good as Dr. Volumnia Gaul, the head gamemaker and primary villain of the story. Davis' take on Gaul is quite inhumanely malevolent, but lacks a certain depth, and I feel as though if she had a mustache she would probably twirl it! A trifle better is Jason Schwartzman as TV host Lucretius "Lucky" Flickerman, the ancestor of a character in the earlier films, who provides some amusing moments but whose cynicism eventually becomes grating beyond the call of duty. But best of all is probably Josh Andrés Rivera, who plays Sejanus Plinth, Snow's classmate and fellow mentor, who protests the inhumanity of the Hunger Games.

I was very impressed with how "organic" the film seemed in comparison to other franchise film entries. Yeah, I know, there are probably lots of CGI effects, but they're blended quite invisibly, to the point where I was completely immersed and didn't even notice. When it comes to the old "practical effects vs. digital effects" arguments, I have to say that it's ultimately a matter of whether or not you've succeeded in making a viewing audience suspend its disbelief. Everybody who goes to a movie understands on some level that everything they're seeing onscreen is an illusion of one sort or another, but if they forget about it for the movie's duration, then the filmmakers have certainly done their job.

I don't want to give out any spoilers. But I will say that the story deals with the question of just how "good" human beings innately are, whether deep down human beings are savages who need taming, or whether human beings are born with a purity and goodness and that it's society at large that screws them up and perverts them. In other words, the old saw of "nature vs. nurture." I can understand why liberals and progressives feel the need to reject the first notion out of hand, because they feel that if we accept the notion of innate human violence and savagery then we are automatically sanctioning the cold and pitiless grip of fascist control. But while I consider myself to be liberal and progressive in my thinking - a "bleeding heart," if you will - I can't quite blindly accept the second notion, because human beings are far too contrary and grasping to be completely peaceable. (To quote the great David Johansen from the New York Dolls' song Human Being: "And if I'm acting like a king / Well, that's 'cause I'm a human being / And if I want too many things / Don't you know that I'm a human being") And in any case, the liberal argument against fascist control is a bit of a projection, because how is any leftist form of social programming - or the most extreme communistic sort anyway - substantially different from any form of control on the right? Making people "play nice in the sandbox together" is certainly a laudable goal, and I'm certainly not saying it isn't possible. In fact, that's the very basis of civilized society itself! But I also think it's very dangerous to ascribe sinister motivations to the defenders of traditional "law and order" while actively being in denial of one's own desire to control and modify human behavior, and I would not support anyone who was so willfully blind.

Well... That certainly got a bit heavy, didn't it? Sorry for getting on the soapbox and pontificating a little bit, but it's a habit sometimes, you understand? Everyone's got opinions about things, especially these days, and I'm certainly no exception. I know that's quite a heavy load to put on a little Hollywood franchise flick like The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, and I'm not saying it's any kind of substantial contributor to such social discourse. Heck, I don't even really think it's all that great, y'know? But any form of art or entertainment touches on real-world concerns to one extent or another, right? So if it makes you think, then I should think any movie, book, piece of music or painting would be a worthwhile experience (if not necessarily a masterpiece).

That's all for now...

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"It's what people know about themselves inside that makes 'em afraid." - Clint Eastwood as The Stranger, High Plains Drifter (1973)

National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989)

More impressed by forgetting the people that were in this. Juliette Lewis’s forehead stole the show as always.

Nice review, that scene where Robin meets his old sous chef is my favourite too, hilarious as well.

Sisu -

A gold prospector, Aatami (Tommila) and his loyal terrier run afoul of Nazis in this lean, mean, efficient and delightfully bloody action movie from Finland. Led by Bruno (Hennie), the squad let him pass (but not without bullying him a little). Then, much to his chagrin, they discover that Aatami had a better than average day of work. The chagrin soon becomes theirs, though, because it's not long until they discover that he is not a man to be trifled with.

First and foremost, Lapland is a sight to behold. There is more than one moment that made me want to pause so I could take in the scenery even more. Cinematography is not just photography, though: it and the elegant editing also make the action as visceral and shocking as it is. That's not to discount Jorma Tommila, who makes Aatami a man who would traverse hell to pursue someone who wronged him or his dog in the slightest. On that note, hell describes what the Nazis have done to the place: if it's not the houses and businesses they've leveled, it's the mines they've laid, the latter of which figure in to one of the tensest and so bloody, you can't help but laugh scenes I've seen in a movie like this in a while. The laughter is nearly as frequent as the bursts of adrenaline, by the way, with the best of it coming at the expense of the movie's own near-live action cartoon craziness (some sample dialogue: "how many mines did you bury here?" "All of them.") I also like how the Tarantino-like chapters keep things moving, and hopefully not to spoil it too much, but the climactic moment is one he'd appreciate and surely tell you what it's from.

A one-man army who's triggered to take out an entire squad all by himself? If you're asking if this is like John Wick, you're not wrong, but since John Wick-like movies practically belong to their own genre now, I don’t think it’s a drawback. There are moments when the Nazis could have taken care of Aatami once and for all, but that provide an out that raised an eyebrow despite the pride and arrogance they give our villains. Also, while it is efficient, I would have preferred more skin on its bones on the whole if you know what I mean. Other than that, it succeeds as a tongue-in cheek John Wick-like movie in the same ways Nobody does and in making you want to hike the Finnish countryside. Oh, and don’t worry: the dog doesn’t die.

Loved this movie. Very believable. You probably know that Samantha Morton recorded all her dialog, but Jonze decided she wasn’t quite right for the rôle. Amicably resolved & Scarlet took her place.

Really liked this movie. There’s a documentary about Tonya Harding, which is also very interesting - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0810012/

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I’m here only on Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays. That’s why I’m here now.

The Good Nurse (2022)


Based on a true story, this movie certainly makes for an uncomfortably terrifying watch. However, it is pretty ordinary, and I still can't tell if Eddie Redmayne is acting or just being a slightly different version of himself in all of the movies I've seen him in.

This Must Be the Place (2011)

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[ J ] - [ S ] - [ F ]

The Christmas Chronicles (2018) I enjoyed this even more on rewatch. Kurt Russell is wonderful as Santa and the film is sweet and fun.

Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9244680

Tunes of Glory - (1960)

There's a great movie here aside from Alec Guinness, who gives a performance in Tunes of Glory that dominates the film to such an extent it's hard to see beyond it. Not a bad thing - who doesn't want to see this thespian provide us with something explosive? His equal, in a role that's much quieter and more introspective, is John Mills - and he was generally the award winner when this film played at festivals. I knew when I saw this was being distributed by Janus Films that it'd be interesting, and indeed, Tunes of Glory was very enjoyable. It's about a battalion of Scottish Highland soldiers commanded by the eccentric, fun-loving Major Jock Sinclair (Guinness) - not a stickler for soldierly rules and regulations, he's loud, drinks heavily, and is a smile and a wink kind of guy. When a new commander takes over, Lieutenant Colonel Basil Barrow (John Mills) he's shocked that there's so much deviating from strict regulations, and wastes no time punishing the entire regiment for infractions. It's when Sinclair is up on a court-martial charge for striking a fellow officer that the crux of the matter plays out - with terrible consequences. It's a battle between written codes of behavior and unwritten codes of spiritual definition - under Sinclair there's pride, happiness and brotherhood, under Barrow there's a lot of griping and ill-feeling, but discipline. For some officers, it hurts to see rules and regulations ignored, but for others it hurts to follow those rules and regulations if it means dampening morale. Very good film.

8/10


By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=33164922

Operation Crossbow - (1965)

This World War II spy movie had me continually mumbling "...well that was dark," as I watched the various good guys die horribly. It's why I hesitated to call it an adventure kind of feature - in most of those one or two of the characters bite the bullet, but rarely every single one. Another strange aspect is the sub-plot involving the Nazis perfecting their V-1 flying bomb, which is filmed from their point of view - up to the point where, when Hanna Reitsch (Barbara Rütting) makes a breakthrough it's a triumphant moment. Hey! That's the Nazis - we're not supposed to be celebrating their successes! Yes - an odd duck, Operation Crossbow. In it, various agents such as 1st Lt. John Curtis (George Peppard), Robert Henshaw (Tom Courtenay) and Phil Bradley (Jeremy Kemp) are given the identities of dead Dutch engineers, and tasked with infiltrating the Nazi's subterranean rocket factory. Included in the cast is a whole host of well-known stars of the day : Trevor Howard, John Mills, Sophia Loren, Anthony Quayle and Richard Johnson. It's not bad. It plays like a toned down sequel to Battle of Britain - with a lot of factual stuff included to give the action a sheen of authenticity. It's hard to fault - no expense was spared, and it's screenplay is smart and well worked out. I liked it.

6.5/10

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I really like Tunes of Glory.


And that movie poster is in my local pub, so I have double the affection for it.


I should probably watch Operation Crossbow

I have no idea how anybody would ever make a biopic about Leonard Bernstein, arguably the most important classical music conductor of the 2nd half of the 20th century, not to mention a composer, pubic figure, a controversial dabbler in 1960's radical politics, top-drawer New York celebrity and the target of the invention of the word Radical Chic. Bradley Cooper tried as director and also starred in Maestro. Given some makeup (aging wrinkles and a prosthetic nose) and a sketchy set of Bernstein speech mannerisms, it's a good try, but I can't imagine movie-fying such a vivid, larger-than-life character. Sometimes it works, some of it does not and an awesome number of cigarettes get smoked along the way. It's the smokiest movie I have seen in a long time.

We see both Bernsteins....the family guy married to a female musician Felecia Montealegre, with several kids, and also the fairly conspicuous gay man-about-town. He's writing music, conducting, being a public front of the New York Philharmonic, being a front page celebrity who goes to all of the parties worth going to, being controversial, being pictured in the media, and doing TV shows both as a performer and as an educator.

I guess that's the problem with the script....there's just way too much material for one 2+ hour movie and Cooper seems over-extended as director and star, playing in the role of this person that is so obviously NOT Cooper. Cooper wants to be Bernstein, doing everything, but doesn't pull it off. Part of it is color, part black and white and the sound of the music was great, at least in my theater. A lot happens in those two hours and as a result, pretty much every aspect of this charismatic media star gets short run time. Being a long time fan of classical music, I appreciated the attempt, but it did leave me wanting more. A significant chapter that is completely missing is Bernstein's 1960's anti-war activities, as well as his associations with the Black Panthers. That was quite a story in its time, but is absent in the movie.

And....Cooper really should have done something different with those Bernstein-New York speech mannerisms. A lot of work must have gone into the vocal tone and accent, but it was laid on too thick for me.

The King of Comedy 9/10 - Perhaps the most underrated movie from the great Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro was fantastic in this
Four Christmases 6.5/10 - A lot better than i thought it was going to be
Oppenheimer 7.5/10 - Its a good film but i found it a bit overrated, some parts were a bit of a drag but the acting was wonderful by everyone
Barbie 7.5/10 - I didn't think i'd enjoy a movie about barbie as much as i did,but it was a delight

Jaws (1975)



I've been meaning to rewatch Jaws for years. Yesterday I finally did!

A rewatch after 17 (?!) years, which means it's like a new watch. I remembered absolutely nothing from my first watch, not a single scene, so it felt like I was watching it for the first time. First of all, I'm surprised how brutal it is. Not just blood but also gore (there's a shot of a severed leg going underwater!). Second of all, the cinematography is great, from the colors to inventive shots (the reflection in the glasses, the vertigo effect, the shark emerging from the water above his shoulder, the through-the-window that is also through-the-jaws, the glistening light on the surface of the water...), to blocking (Spielberg might not be Kurosawa, but he's good). Third of all, the suspense is kinda Hitchcockian at times (weird association, maybe?) but it didn't work that well on me - I was mostly glued to the screen thanks to the camerawork and how, quoting mark f, it just flows so nicely. Maybe even too nicely, making it land in the gray zone between arthouse and mainstream, just like, say, most Johnnie To films do. But hey, this is very good overall.

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Look, I'm not judging you - after all, I'm posting here myself, but maybe, just maybe, if you spent less time here and more time watching films, maybe, and I stress, maybe your taste would be of some value. Just a thought, ya know.

1st Rewatch...A series shot of star power makes this movie seem a lot better than it is. The screenplay comes off like an extended episode of a sitcom, but Robert DeNiro, Diane Keaton, and Susan Sarandon do make it worth a look.

1st Rewatch...The breezy performances of Cher, Winona Ryder, and Bob Hoskins make this unconventional rom-com worth the watch. Cher lights up the screen as the sexually uninhibited single mom of two daughters who refuses to let her uptight older daughter (Ryder) dictate her life, which has basically consisted of moving every time an affair goes bad. Director Richard Benjamin's attention period detail is exquisite and Cher's rendition of "The Shoop Shoop Song" over the closing credits is flawless.