Movie Tab II

Bored, so I wanted to collect all my ratings from 2022. Another low volume year, but some great ones in their

Dune (Villeneuve , 2021) -

-
The Unforgivable (Fingscheidt , 2021) -

Sightless (Karl, 2020) -

Red Notice (Thurber, 2021) -

+
Interstellar (Nolan, 2014) -

The Tinder Swindler (Morris, 2022) -

-
Dead Asleep (Borgman, 2021) -

RW: There's Something Wrong with Aunt Diane (Garbus, 2011) -

RW: Monster in Law (Luketic, 2005)-

The Batman (Reeves, 2022)-

-
RW: Withnail & I (Robinson, 1987) -

The Platform (Urrutia, 2019) -

++
RW Fargo (Coen Bros, 1996) -

+
The Gift (Edgerton, 2015)-

-
Little Miss Sunshine (Dayton/Faris, 2006) -

+
Witness for the Prosecution (Wilder, 1957) -

RW: Shrek 2 (Multiple, 2004) -

You're Next (WIngard, 2011) -

-
Our Father (Jourdan, 2022) -

-
Top Gun: Maverick (Kosincki, 2022) -

Death Sentence (Wan, 2007) -

--
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (Parker, 1999) -

RW: Goodfellas (Scorsese, 1990) -

The Impossible (Bayona, 2012)-

-
Life of Brian (Jones, 1979)-

+
His Girl Friday (Hawks, 1940)-

+
Groundhog Day (Ramis, 1993)-

+
RW: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone -

+
Shaun of the Dead (Wright, 2004)-

Unchartered (Feischer, 2022)-

House of Gucci (Scott, 2022)-

Avatar: The Way of Water (Cameron, 2022) -

Harry potter and the Goblet of Fire (Newell, 2005) -

+
The Menu (Mylod, 2022) -

-
Harry potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Yates, 2007) -

Harry potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Columbus, 2002)-

Bullet Train (Leitch, 2022)-

-
Ticket to Paradise (Parker, 2022)-

-
Bros (Stoller, 2022)-

--
Beast (Kormakur, 2022)-

Smile (Finn, 2022)-

Harry potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Cuaron, 2004)-

Where the Crawdads Sing (Newman, 2022)-

-
Certified Copy (Kiarotamsi, 2010)-

--

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December, 2022 movies watched-

Pain and Glory (2019) Almodovar and Banderas make such a great team.

Tangerines (2013) A film to remember for the eventual war movie countdown.

Elle (2016) - One of Paul Verhoeven's best.

X (2022) - Nothing special but it is enjoyable.

Rise of the Footsoldier: Origins (2021) + The 5th installment in a series that I can't get enough of.

Fat City (1972) + A good look at people with little hope.

World of Tomorrow (2015) A lower than deserved rating due to my bias against short films.

Dead Man's Letters (1986) + Probably the best look at a post apocalyptic nightmare I've seen.

Ship of Fools (1965) Solid Stanley Kramer classic with a strong cast.

Total-9
2022 total-123

I'm trying to watch more films this year, and I'm off to a great start. I won't be able to keep this pace throughout, however I'll be trying to watch and note some thoughts on all. I realized how nice it is to go back on your review or notes years later for reference. Otherwise it all just starts blending together for me.

For those I haven't written anything about in other threads:
Larry David: Curb Your Enthusiasm: Awesome TV movie that serves as a pilot for one of my top 5 all time shows, and an introduction to Larry David. The interviews are just as funny as the little sketches, the best of which is the porn sequence. You can tell LD is fond of this piece as well with how often he hints back at it during the show. BTW: shouldn't we do a top 100 shows list?? How cool would that be
Harry Potters: My fiance got me to watch the series, when I watched as child I had only gotten to the first five. Awesomely creative, and one of the few fantasies I could sit through eight of. My favorite of them all was Goblet of Fire, which has the best vibes and most complex storyline
This Place Rules: Callaghan is doing a lot of great things in the Youtube world, and awesome to see HBO give him the time. What I love about this it shows what big of dorks all these "politically involved" protestors are. It's sad that such a large portion of Americans have fallen into these echo chambers, and being first hand Callaghan nails exactly why. Give this a watch

January seen list (newly rated only):




Missing posters are:
The War Is Over
Quality Time
Echo Of Diana

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January, 2023 movies watched-

Pearl (2022)

X wasn't great but I liked it better.


Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022)

A step down but still plenty entertaining.


Licorice Pizza (2021)

+ All about good feelings.


Husbands (1970)

+ Cassavetes, Falk, and Gazzara together are pure gold.


Sonny Boy (1989)

A cult film that just isn't very good.


Meat Grinder (2009)

- Nothing too exciting but above average for a gore film.


Playground (2016)

Well done Polish film based upon a real life horror story.


No Child of Mine (1997)

One of the most upsetting movies I've seen, and it was made for TV.


Let Me Fall (2018)

- One of the very best films about drug addiction.


Dr. Lamb (1992)

- We'll made but mediocre Cat III.


Piggy (2022)

- Worthwhile Spanish horror/drama.


Total-11

What did you think of No Child of Mine? I was thinking you probably had already seen it.

I quite possibly did see it when it came out but it was your recent reporting on having watched it that made me (re)visit it.

For a tv-movie (that wouldn't have been allowed to be overly graphic) it is remarkably effective in portraying the awful existence of poor Kerry who sadly has very few positive influences in her life. Some of the acting might not always be the best and it has nothing remarkable by way of how it's made but both make it more grounded in a way. I gave it a .

__________________

Watched a few movies this month.

The Outfit - Mark Rylance is a tailor who is mixed up with the mob. Small cast, single location film. One of the best of the month

The Black Phone - From the Director of Sinister, this was pretty bad. A kid gets kidnapped by Ethan Hawk and is locked in a room with a disconnected phone that only communicates with Hawk's previous victims who use it to help the newest victim to escape.

Caliber 9 - 70's Italian Mob/crime flick about a guy, just released from prison, being hassled by the mobs enforcer to figure out where he stashed loot before he went inside. I liked it. It's violent, grimy, sleazy, fun.

Hideout - Zero budget Tubi flick about a group of criminals who go to the wrong house while trying to escape the police. The fx were pretty good considering the budget, the girls can act a little but the dudes...not too good. Not very good but not nearly as awful as I expected

Cleo from 5 to 7 - Started off well enough but by the time it ended I didn't care about any of it. I kind of liked Cleo at first but as the movie went on she started to annoy me. Not a big fan of this era of French films.

The Menu - I liked it but it's nothing special. A chef invites a bunch of d-bags to his restaurant for one last meal. I laughed a few times so

. Almost a guilty pleasure type movie.

X - The first of the three porn themed movies I caught this month. A group heads out to the country to film a porn flick at the wrong farmhouse. Slasher film that bored me. Why can't they make a good slasher film anymore?

Pleasure - A young girl travels to L.A to try and make it in the adult film biz. She makes it but it comes at a pretty stiff price. This wasn't bad at all but it's got some rough stuff in it. People and their fetishes...geez! Does not paint the industry in a very good light, like Boogie Nights did

New York Ninja - This was bad. It's a film that was shot in the early 80's but was lost until it was discovered a few years ago. All the sound and script notes were lost so these guys just pieced together whatever story they could from the footage they had, hired some actors for ADR and released this. It's awful but could be fun with the right crowd and mind altering substances.


Red Rocket - The final film of the porn trilogy. Former porn star returns home to Shitsville, Texas and proceeds to ruin everyone's life he comes in contact with. The lead is such a lying ass, he's not somebody you'd want around, yet he's kinda interesting with all his shenanigans. Well acted slice of life film.

Spring Breakers - **** this movie. Made it an hour in and shut it down. Thought maybe it would get better when Franco showed up. I was wrong.



Argentina, 1985 - Not bad. About a prosecutor trying of a bunch of Military bad guys someplace, sometime in South America. Thought it would be a little more courtroom thriller-ish but it never gets you on edge. It's still good just wasn't what I expected. Strong performances especially from the lead.

Everything Everywhere all at Once - This was a blast! Michelle Yeoh and Jamie Lee are fantastic as is Ke Huy Quan. Was smiling almost the entire movie. Not sure it lived up to the hype but if it didn't it came close.

Some rewatches:


Midsommar - Done with this one. Everytime I watch it, it gets worse and I used to really liked it.

The Gospel According to St. Matthew - Love this, always have, but definitely watch it with subtitles. This was the dubbed version and it's still good but loses a little of the magic. Watching this is penance for all the shitty films I watched this month, especially the next two....

Tromeo and Juliet - Was on the treadmill and didn't want to watch anything I really needed to pay attention to. It has boobs and blood and tells a familiar story. I did not shed a tear at this version.

Torture Dungeon - Just wanted to make sure it was as bad as I remembered and it is just as bad as I remembered. Everybody in this looks stinky.

Keeping my focus on newer releases. I have a goal of watching all the best picture nominees come Oscars, and otherwise I'm living in today so may as well spend the time watching the films of today.. not a mentality I've ever had

Start with the non oscar, and non oscar worthy stuff.

Barbarian has probably the most intense 40 minute sequence I've seen in any film. When I tell you I was on edge beyond belief.. however it very quickly dropped off after that. I would've been much more satisfied with an inconclusive short film than the attempt to close the loop here. But the first half is seriously amazing
The Htachet Weilding Hitchhiker is a good run down of the case of Kai.. viral sensation turned forgotten true crime case. I actually remembered all these events happening much further apart at the time, didn't realize it was all in such close order.
Terrifier 2, I will give this credit for having some unique takes and horror techniques. However it still relies to much on gore and gags.
Jonah Hill: Wow, You People is bad. & I mean really bad. I've given this rating probably less than 20 times in my life. No on-screen chemistry, down to the CGI kiss... no seriously. the two love birds couldn't even stand to kiss on screen so they used CGI to edit it in. These characters were so unrelatable, unless maybe you're an LA trust fund baby with some racist views. The statement? I feel like this movie promotes stuff that segregationists would relate to. A bunch of tropes with no punch line. really awful... 21 Jump Street makes me question if Jonah was ever funny

Oscar Nominees:
Banshees is the best of the lot, but not one I bothered writing up a review for. However it's an amazing dark comedy with a beautifully played out script. My favorite McDonagh, however I haven't seen In Burges & gave The Billboards the same rating

February, 2023 movies watched-

McVicar (1980) Roger Daltrey plays the real life British criminal.

When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (1960) A great Japanese film.

Brutal (2017) - Passable for fans of extreme film.

Jurassic World: Dominion (2022) + Surprisingly entertaining and maybe my favorite of the series.

Jack Be Nimble (1993) Strange New Zealand horror.

Orphan: First Kill (2022) + Not as good as the 1st but still a good watch.

The Night of the Hunter (1955) Repeat A rightful classic but not without it's flaws.

Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky (1991) - An amusing over the top time.

Infinity Pool (2023) I wasn't always sure what was happening, but I loved watching it play out.

Top Gun: Maverick (2022) High marks for nostalgia and awesomeness.

Fetus (2008) Extreme gore film that's too amateurish.

Smile (2022) Worthwhile horror.

Evil Dead Trap (1988) Solid Japanese horror that's not really my type.

Total-13
2023 total-24

Why did she annoy you?

Were slashers ever good, to begin with? With a few exceptions, the genre is mostly bollocks.

Pun intended?

I loved it. You don't need drugs or friends to watch it with. You just have to like "bad" movies.

A true love-it-or-hate-it movie! I, for one, loved it. Might be Korine's best.

There's no horror, though!

Been meaning to watch it ever since it came out, but oh boy if it doesn't look like a complete disaster.

Interesting. I very rarely, if ever, find a movie even worse on a rewatch. Citizen Kane and Alien were two films like that to me. But apart from some exceptions, I mostly like movies more on a rewatch. That might have to do with the fact I mostly rewatch my favorites, though.

Heretic!

Kinky title, stinky movie, eh? Looks really awful in the trailer. Love that!

Saw this one a while back. Gonna have to spread the word about it if Romance wins for the next countdown. A couple scenes almost brought me to tears. It was very touching.

Originally Posted by Mr Minio

Why did she annoy you?

I don't know. She started off fine but as the movie went on I found myself caring less and less about what happened to her. French films of this era aren't my fav so the fact that I made it to the end says something. I have yet to finish a Goddard film.

Originally Posted by Mr Minio

Were slashers ever good, to begin with? With a few exceptions, the genre is mostly bollocks.

No, they weren't, but many of them were entertaining, which is all I need to consider them good.

Originally Posted by Mr Minio

Pun intended?

Sure

Originally Posted by Mr Minio

I loved it. You don't need drugs or friends to watch it with. You just have to like "bad" movies.

I don't think the average movie goer would appreciate the awfulness but I could be wrong. I also like really bad movies and watch them without imbibing but I have friends who can only do these kinds of movies in a group setting with whatever they just picked up across state lines.

Originally Posted by Mr Minio

A true love-it-or-hate-it movie! I, for one, loved it. Might be Korine's best.

Seems like it. Korine doesn't move the needle for me at all.

Originally Posted by Mr Minio

There's no horror, though!

There's torture. Torture is common in many horror films. Also, I'd imagine having your child ripped from you then having your head bashed in as you attempt to rescue her would be horrific.

Originally Posted by Mr Minio

Been meaning to watch it ever since it came out, but oh boy if it doesn't look like a complete disaster.

Skip it.

Originally Posted by Mr Minio

Interesting. I very rarely, if ever, find a movie even worse on a rewatch. Citizen Kane and Alien were two films like that to me. But apart from some exceptions, I mostly like movies more on a rewatch. That might have to do with the fact I mostly rewatch my favorites, though.

Right. Was my fourth time watching it so it was liked well enough to watch it four times. I was surprised that I didn't enjoy it as much as before I just didn't. Could've been my mood or who I was watching it with but either way I'll be shelving it for a few years.

Godard.

No sci-fi, then! :P You lose either way. Haha.

Maybe I will.

Dayum. I've seen it only once but liked it. Judging from your change of opinion, I guess I better never rewatch it. Haha!

What Did Jack Do? (2017) -
A policeman interrogates a suspect in a train station, but that’s not weird enough so lets make the suspect a monkey. A fifteen minute exercise in trope-y classic noir dialogue that occasionally seems to make a little bit of sense kinda, regarding a murdered chicken. I liked it.

Caveat (2020) –
A man is paid to babysit a disturbed young woman in a secluded creepy house. Really good at letting tension breathe, although others might think it’s too slow because of that. For a ghost movie, I appreciate the absence of swinging cabinets & flying chairs.


Pitch Black (2000) -
I guess this now qualifies as nostalgia for me. First watch in a few years. Still cool.

Riddick (2013) -
Basically a retelling of Pitch Black with rain monsters replacing night monsters, even though both movies climax in the rain at night. Riddick isn’t as ‘bad’ in the sequels, which makes it less cool, but I still like the character.

Garden State (2004) -
A young man feeling lost in life finds some love & personal development upon returning to his hometown. Good, but not really my kind of thing.

Chain Reaction (1996) -
A man & woman are on the run from the gubberment & some clandestine organization because they [insert made up science jargon]. Vanilla 90s action thriller. Disappointed it wasn’t more sci-fi.

Willow (1988) -
Conan the Barbarian (1982) -
Clerks 3 (2022) -
Storm of the Century (1999) -


… and I flew to WA and got to see the following at the old North Bend Theatre during this year’s Twin Peaks festival! Expensive!…

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992) –
Deer Meadow deserved its own movie.
Mulholland Drive (2001) –
The music & ending still get me emotional, and then Rebekah Del Rio gave a short post-show performance that made me cry a bit in a crowded theater.

March, 2023 movies watched-

Elephant (1989) - Short crime film with a documentary feel.

Imprint (2006) Decent Takashi Miike craziness.

1917 (2019) - Nothing iconic but beautifully made and kept me glued to the screen.

Kanal (1957) + Polish war film that's a must watch for the countdown. On YouTube.

Le Silence De La Mer (1949) - An unusual war film full of elegance and tenderness.

The Imitation Game (2014) Pretty good.

Kelly's Heroes (1970) Not a great war film, but a fun one.

The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1932) - Nice classic with Barbara Stanwyck.

Bloody Hell (2020) + Entertaining horror/dark comedy.

King Rat (1965) Surprisingly dismal.

Little Dieter Needs to Fly (1997) - One of my new favorite documentaries.

The Burmese Harp (1956) The most peaceful I've ever felt after watching a war film.

Total-12
2023 total-36

Banner month for movie watching. Got three new ones in:


Nic Cage's truffle sniffin' pig is stolen and he's on a mission to find it. Wasn't what I was expecting but it was good. Had the crazy idea that Nic would go a little off the rails at some point and leave a trail of carnage across the Pacific NW in search of his beloved pig but it's not a shoot em up, beat em up kind of movie. Cage is very reserved in this one.



Doc about the Vietnam war told from multiple perspectives. Really enjoyed it as far as you can enjoy something like this. It's well done. There are a few pretty rough scenes that may put you on edge a bit.




Burt Lancaster is a prisoner going to battle against Hume Cronyn's sadistic Capt. Munsey. Enjoyed this quite a bit. Someday we need to do a prison movie countdown. This would make my list right around Shawshank and Reform School Girls.



Rewatch:
Top Gun: Maverick - Definitely a better experience in the theater but still fun.
Road House - Kid asked me if Swayze was a good actor. Swayze, good? He was great! Here's a taste. It went over well.

John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023) -
Triangle of Sadness (2022) -
This is not a Burial, it's a Resurrection (2019) -
Burning (2018) -

Breaker Morant - Best movie of the month was the first one I watched. A few Australian soldiers, who were acting on orders from the British army, are being brought up on charges for following those orders. The orders - do not capture POW's. So....what do we do with 'em? uh-huh. This was mostly a courtroom drama with bits of war flashbacks thrown in and it was very well done.. Haven't made up my mind on what type of films I'm going to include on my war ballot but this has a chance.





War of the Worlds (2005)- This was bad. Possibly the worst Spielberg or Cruise movie I've ever watched. It was so bad I wanted the World to lose and I don't wanna think about it anymore.





The Hornets Nest (2014) - Documentary about a platoon of soldiers who get into a major firefight in a remote part of Afghanistan. Does a good job of documenting the fight but it has this side story of a photojournalist who, in an effort to connect with his adult son, brings him along to help record the events. Would have enjoyed it much more if the soldiers were the main story and not the family stuff. Still not bad





My Man Godfrey (1936) - A forgotten fellow, Godfrey, helps out Irene, a Big City Socialite involved in some crazy scavenger hunt and ends up becoming her nutty family's butler. This was good. Had a few solid chuckles, especially in the first half and William Powell is somebody I need to familiarize myself with. I've heard The Thin Man series is good so maybe I'll check them out. He was very good as Godfrey. The other standout was Gail Patrick as Cornelious, Irene's devious sister who has it in for Godfrey.


Re-watch:
Born on the Fourth of July
Little Shop of Horrors
Kill List
The Emerald Forest