Rate The Last Movie You Saw

W. 7/10

A good performance by Josh Brolin as President 43.

Thelma & Louise (1991)

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[ J ] - [ S ] - [ F ]

Its nice to see good things written about this movie. I'll have to check it out this weekend if it's still showing around my area.

The Broadway Melody (1929)

By CineMaterial, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=73709643

Dune : Part Two - (2024)

Wow - score one for epic mainstream action cinema, not dead yet it seems with the surprisingly powerful second chapter in Denis Villeneuve's mega-blockbuster adaptation. I swore this might be a bit of a let down, but instead it lost none of it's momentum having to wait so long after the first part was released. I wasn't a big fan of having Timothée Chalamet play Paul Atreides, but the movie itself works so well it seems to matter little who is playing which part. Something of a "Lawrence of Arabia in space" for this generation, with the desert and prophecy both real and cynically engineered carried forward as Atreides struggles against his calling, knowing what it would mean for so many if he does accept his role in the scheme of things. Visually, it's no surprise at all that this film is great. What is a surprise is how well adapted Frank Herbert's story is for the cinema screen, and how the film doesn't lumber for one single second - I had not a moment to think anything, as glued as I was to that screen. Galactic politics, with Caesars dethroned, knives shoved deep into hated enemies and hallucinogenic poison guzzled down. I was mightily impressed - the first mainstream movie I actually liked going to see for as long as I can remember.

8/10


By Dune Dune Movie Poster (#16 of 23) - IMP Awards, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=68273917

Dune - (2021)

Well, yeah. Of course I had to catch up before going to to see Part Two. Goes without saying I really like the first part as well.

8/10


Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=68273917

Into the Deep : The Submarine Murder Case - (2020)

Creepy and twisted. Danish inventor Peter Madsen was well known, and being filmed for a documentary by Australian Emma Sullivan when he went and tortured/murdered Swedish freelance journalist Kim Wall on his homemade submarine Nautilus. He's been sentenced to life in prison - but really, the whole affair is super bizarre and almost impossible to believe. I needed to go to bed early last night - but I didn't, this doco was impossible to turn off until I'd finished it.

7/10


Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=68273917

Ali & Ava - (2021)

Middle-aged Ali and Ava find love in contemporary Yorkshire complicated by their families, race, and their own troubled experiences in the past. This is a great, down to earth love story that feels genuine and very intelligently made. Great soundtrack too. Full review here on my watchlist thread.

7/10

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Good question As of this moment, I think Eric Rohmer is my favorite director of all time, in all honesty. Then there's Kiarostami, Tarkovsky, Lynch, Rivette, Kieslowski, Dreyer, Antonioni, Misoguchi...also Kelly Reichardt...Maya Deren...I could go on.

Lovely film. I'm a fully paid up Clio Barnard fanperson.

Great taste. Do you have Letterboxd?

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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.

Friday (1995)


A classic that does seem to be losing some of its shine over time, but I wanted to show it to my significant other since she had not ever seen it. The sequels are nowhere near this one in quality.

That soundtrack has legendary status. Not because of merit, but the time it arrived in my life. Mini truck life.

The Boys in the Boat (2023)

This is one of those movies that you pretty much know what to expect going in, but despite that --or perhaps because of that-- you enjoy it anyway.

Directed by George Clooney, starring Joel Edgerton, Calllum Turner, and Hadley Robinson, with some striking photography by Martin Ruhe, this is an old fashioned underdog sports drama.

Young Joe Rantz (Turner) is desperately hunting for a way to make enough funds to stay in his engineering studies at the University of Washington. He hears that the rowing team is auditioning for rowers that, if accepted, comes with room and board. Rantz becomes one of the 8 out of 50 candidates who is accepted, despite the fact that he’s never been a rower. He and his teammates put in countless hours of grueling work to gain the power and synchronicity to become a first class rowing squad. Along the way Rantz begins a relationship with a childhood heart throb. He also has an accidental meeting with his father who abondoned him as a kid. How these relationships play out are significant under-stories. The team must prevail in several national races in order to qualify for the 1936 Olympics/

It’s a pleasure to see a contemporary movie made in the style that those of its type used to be made. It’s puzzling why it drew a PG-13 rating. There was no gutter language, no perversions, no sex, no deep adult themes. A bonus? No idiot phones. Due to it’s setting in the 1930s, the viewer isn’t aggravated by the continual display of little iPhone screens.

Despite Clooney’s bona fides in Hollywood, this type of picture would certainly be dissed by the modern Oscar crowd. But its energy, traditional emotions, and excitement make it well worth a watch.

Doc’s rating: 7/10

Thank you!
Yes, I have an account but I'm not active there (I know I should be but I can never find the time to commit to it on a regular basis), I think I've created one list and that's it.
I do go there from time to time to check out other members' lists and reviews, it's fun.

And I was starting to like you... I need to browse through your ratings somehow!

I saw Poor Things yesterday. I love the story and Tartarian designs, wardrobes and architecture but hated all the unnecessary s*x and swearing. 2 out of 10. Normally 1 out of 10 but since the sets and general idea are dope I added one star.

If the Academy gave an Oscar for Best Canine Performance, then the lovable mutt playing the title character in this movie might as well start practicing his acceptance speech.
I am, if anything, generally pretty cynical about movies with animals playing the title character, but this one really won me over (I knew absolutely nothing about the real-life story on which the movie is based).
So, forget that what's-his-name is the putative human star of the movie. He's not even worth mentioning. Simu Liu and Nathalie Emmanuel, on the other hand, at least do a top-notch job with their somewhat underwritten supporting roles. They've got plenty of charisma, and I guess in their own way they're both easy on the eye.
The movie also deserves credit for some above-average location work, as it seems most of the movie was actually shot where it's supposed to be taking place (Dominican Republic).





You know, it's probably been over a decade since the last time I watched the original Poltergeist, but I'll be darned if this movie isn't a nearly identical carbon copy - merely replacing the poltergeist with a creepy imaginary friend. I'm pretty sure the story beats are very nearly identical - but, in this case, completely forgettable.
It's a real shame, because deep in the last third of the movie, the filmmakers reveal the only conceit worthy of a little recognition - an alternate world that feels like M.C. Escher's Relativity come to life. (Yes, even in the most 'imaginative' moments of the movie, it seems to be copying something).
At least Betty Buckley and Verónica Falcón try to inject a bit of life into the proceedings, but their efforts are ultimately insufficient to breathe some life into this dreck of a horror film.

P.S.: this is the first of two 2024 releases that deal with kids' imaginary friends; there can be little doubt that the other one is bound to be better than this, if for no other reason than it's hard to fathom something worse than this.

By http://www.moviegoods.com/movie_post..._jane_1953.htm, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19255374

Calamity Jane - (1953)

Doris Day is a lot of fun and has such a bright aura around her in Calamity Jane - an electrifying presence that seems about to break through the screen and dance on through the 4th wall. Funny, with her superb singing and lively limber body to really energize the whole movie. The rest of the film is a pretty ordinary and unremarkable story about real-life frontier figure Martha "Calamity" Jane Canary. It was nominated for 3 Oscars, and won one for Best Song - "Secret Love". The occasional jab at "women" and how they behave is my only sour spot with the movie. Enjoyable bit of fluff - but no more than that.

6/10


By "Copyright 1949 Paramount Pictures Inc." - Scan via Heritage Auctions. Cropped from the original image and retouched; see upload history for unretouched original., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/inde...curid=86863451

The Heiress - (1949)

Brilliant film about the dark, cruel face of love both familial and romantic - set in the mid-1800s and featuring one hell of an incredible performance from Olivia de Havilland. Also features Montgomery Clift. Full review here, on my watchlist thread.

9/10

It may not have been the humongous hit its animated counterpart became last year, but the live-action version of SMB remains by far the goofiest and most original.

And now, thanks to a fantastic 4k restoration, it looks almost as good as it did back in 1993.
Trust the fungus!

Margaret (2011)

Drama in which a single event (the death of a woman after a bus driver runs a red whilst distracted) crystallises a young woman's reason for being i.e. bringing him to justice even though she was the one distracting him with her stupid behaviour. This is a film where it's hard to feel any sympathy for any of the characters as they flit in and out of her life, with herself being the most self-obsessed of all. Either meant and pitch perfect by Paquin or a really one dimensional script. The fact that it was filmed in 2005 and not released till 2011 probably tells you a lot. Too long with nothing much to say, nice music though.

Ouch. I encourage anyone who is interested in Margaret, has it on their watchlist, etc. to see it some day anyway despite Marco's low rating and statement that it has nothing to say. I think it's one of the great movies of the last decade. It does a great job at capturing that transitional period between adolescence and adulthood, specifically how this time sadly forces us to put our dream of a better world aside in favor of self preservation and having to accept how much the odds are stacked against us. That may not seem like a premise that could sustain such a long runtime, but I was never bored.

If you need any more encouragement, I rarely agree with Marco's ratings, but I've let it slide. This time, I can't!