Rate The Last Movie You Saw

Return of the Living Dead 2


Really, really lame. Just like those Abbott and Costello movies, this was not made for me.
3/10

American ninja B-movie .

The sequel is quite a bit better.

I watched Koe no Katachi aka A Silent Voice

It was beautifully animated, had lovely music and I loved the different take about showing things from a former bully's perspective.

The only thing I found off-putting was the several closeup, suggestive shots of girls' legs. Felt weird.

This one was actually a rewatch. The sequel I'll watch for the first time tonight. Heard is actually better so I'm excited since I liked the first one already.

It’s not Scott Adkin’s best but it’s certainly close and the first movie that made me take him seriously. Plus, it has Kane Kosugi. That’s ninja royalty right there.

The Rules of the Game, 1939

The lives of several upper-class people and their servants get increasingly fraught as various romantic entanglements complicate a vacation weekend at a sprawling estate. Famous pilot Andre (Roland Toutain) lusts after Christine (Nora Gregor). Christine's husband Robert (Marcel Dalio) is aware of the affair, and is having his own side relationship with Genevieve (Mila Parély). Christine's servant, Lisette (Paulette Dubost) is married to Schumacher (Gaston Modot), but a new employee, Marceau (Julien Carette) actively pursues Lisette once they arrive at the estate.

It took a little bit for me to catch the rhythm of this film, which sets up characters and a setting that feel predictable and well-worn, but then decelerates the expected plot points. All of the sneaking around--or not sneaking around-- is part of the game. But the characters don't seem to do it all that well. Marceau chases a shrieking and giggling Lisette around the kitchen . . . until he falls and all of a sudden it isn't so fun anymore. Christine accidentally catches sight of an intimate moment between Robert and Genevieve . . . and then bluntly tells Genevieve that it's okay and she doesn't need to leave the estate.

I read Ebert's review, where he suggests that the romances (the "game") between the characters are meant as a distraction from the looming international conflict about to take place. While I didn't pick up on that aspect, it does seem clear that the characters are trying to distract themselves from something, which I simply took to be a lack of purpose. The upper class characters, particularly, just don't seem to have a lot going on. Andre has his aviator career, but his passion and the clumsy expression of it sets him a bit apart from the others.

Everything feels a bit off, and that seems to be the point. In theory these characters have it all: money, spouses, lovers. But there seems to be little genuine joy. In a central, horrifying sequence, the characters go hunting together, gunning down birds and rabbits. It's a brutal massacre, and the last shot has barely been fired before the characters seem totally over it. A bit of pain and death as a diversion, but the high of it doesn't even last ten minutes.

The most joyful and elegant sequence in the film is a show and masquerade put on in the mansion in the evening. It's the most invigorating sequence for the character and for the movie's audience. While they get to play at being someone else, the characters are genuinely smiling.

Eventually, though, there is tragedy. And it isn't because of the games, but rather because the party includes a few characters who don't follow the "rules". Just like what happens in most of the film, the tragedy is senseless.

Without a strong narrative through-line, this seems like the kind of film that might need a second viewing to grasp all of what is happening, especially visually. The cast of characters is huge, and there are often many people on screen at the same time. Certainly a very interesting film.

Been following his releases since Undisputed 3 but somehow missed Ninja 2.

Recently saw Ken as Ninja Black Jiraiya in the classic tokusatsu, was happy to see that he'll be in Kamen Rider Revice's 2022 movie. Didn't knew he is in Ninja 2. That, for sure is a plus.

edited: I messed up some words.

Ninja 2, Undisputed 2 and Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning were what hooked me. The latter remains my favorite work from him, my favorite DTV sequel and simply one of my favorite sci-fi action flicks ever.

I still don’t understand why he doesn’t have a career at least comparable to Jason Statham.

Tentacles (Tentacoli) - I took note of this 1977 Jaws Italian clone of sorts when dadgumblah mentioned it in the Bo Hopkins memorial thread. He plays marine expert Will Gleason and as soon as they show him at work training his "pet" killer whales I think most people will be able to figure out how the movie will end. The production reportedly had a healthy budget of five million and they apparently spent a significant chunk of it hiring recognizable name actors. Along with Hopkins it also stars Henry Fonda, Shelley Winters, John Huston, Claude Akins and Cesare Danova.

Even though it currently holds a 0% Tomatometer rating and it is slow moving in parts there's still plenty of distinctively weird touches that make it a worthwhile watch. Right out of the chute a baby gets snatched right out of it's stroller. It's not actually shown but you still have to award bonus points for the chutzpah. Let's see ... what else? There's the harpsichord heavy score and a guy with an actual pegleg. There's also that whole weird John Huston and Shelley Winters as brother/sister vibe. You get to see apparent crusading reporter Huston in a nightshirt and your first glimpse of Winters is her fluffing up her breasts. Mind you, this attempt at playing a bombshell is five years removed from her role as elderly Belle Rosen in The Poseidon Adventure.

I also noticed that most if not all the name players were introduced off camera while uttering dialogue until it was time for their big reveal. Director Ovidio G. Assonitis had a strategy and by God he was going to stick to it. There are moments of levity which may or may not have been intended. There's a scene where a fat guy jumps into the ocean for an impromptu swim and the camera immediately cuts to the lurking octupus. It's eyes actually light up with anticipation like it's thinking, "Mmm, super size me." Then a short while later the fat guy's wife is frantically calling for him when a pair of legs pop straight up out of the water. No payoff though. No half a body bobbing between the waves or anything.

There are any number of 70's Italian adaptations that "borrow" heavily from American hits. I'm not sure where this one would fall but it has it's charms.

70/100

Brother Outsider, 2003

This documentary follows the life and activism of Bayard Rustin, a man whose claim to fame is having organized the March on Washington. But Rustin's principles, based in his Quaker upbringing and a belief in equality, cause conflict both with others in the Civil Rights movement and the United States government.

My first real understanding of the concept of intersectionality--the idea that people have different combinations of social capital and thus different needs when it comes to advocacy--came in high school when confronted with the quote "The only position for women in SNCC is prone". (Yes, there might be more to this quote than it appears, but still!). Bayard Rustin is a really interesting example of someone working within a movement where his homosexuality is seen as an embarrassment and weaponized by the enemies of the Civil Rights movement.

The documentary, to its credit, doesn't limit its scope to Rustin's sexuality and the fallout of an arrest for "sex perversion". Instead, it centers Rustin's character and the way that he was forced to wrestle with his principles while trying to do the best he could for what he believed in.

I was kind of shocked to realize that I didn't have strong associations with Rustin's name, despite knowing a lot of the other names that were dropped (Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael, etc). But the film does a great job of explaining Rustin's involvement in many memorable Civil Rights moments, including the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

It's disappointing, but predictable, that Rustin's homosexuality is brought up by those who wish to discredit or distract from the movement. But what the film shows is that people within the movement were also willing to use it in an attempt to shut him up. When Rustin's actions around labor movements creates conflict and he is seen as having sold out, signs calling him a "f*g" are carried by his former comrades.

I thought that Rustin's story came across as very human. He is for equality, against war, and generally interested in eradicating poverty. He searches for places where others will share those values, including the Communist party, the integration and Civil Rights movement, several anti-war groups, and humanitarian organizations. Like many activists I most respect, Rustin seems to care greatly about all people, not just those whose demographics or interests line up with his own.

I quite enjoyed learning about Rustin's life and activism. I liked the way that the interviews and archive footage were mixed, as well as the fact that the documentary didn't seem interested in sensationalizing the events of his life.

I saw Tentacles pop up when I was looking for lists of ridiculous international knock-offs of horror movies (apparently there's a Bollywood Evil Dead out there that I didn't know about).


It's wild that John Huston and Shelley Winters were both in this and then two years later, The Visitor.

The Visitor was produced by Assonitis, director of Tentacles.

The Gray Man

https://boxd.it/330jGL

3.5/5

Compared to something like Red Notice, it’s a 5/5

50% of the budget was spent on Shelley Winters' hat.

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Captain's Log
My Collection

It's from the Turd Ferguson Collection

That poor kid playing Winters' son's best friend was doomed. You could practically see the tombstones in his eyes. And that whole scene with his mother at the dock came off like he had fulfilled his destiny.

"The old gypsy woman was right. Keep him away from large bodies of water. But did I listen? Noooo."

The Black Phone (2021)



I've just finished watching this one. One of the better horror films of the recent years, I think. Lots of things in the movie didn't make sense to me, howbeit I tend to watch the movies that are cinematically impressive but logically frivolous as if I'm having a dream/nightmare; now that this is a horror flick, it is the latter in this case.

7.5/10