Rate The Last Movie You Saw

Babylon

https://boxd.it/3zfMtz

5/5

Larceny, Inc. (1942)

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There has been an awekening.... have you felt it?

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022) I enjoyed this for the most part. Screenplay was pretty good and I liked the performances. There were a couple things that didn't completely work for me, but overall this is an entertaining good time.

Strange story. Despite this the two leads are excellent & the two supporting actor/actress are excellent too. I enjoyed it.

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

Warm Bodies, 2013

R (Nicholas Hoult) is a zombie living out his days at an abandoned airport, with occasional trips into the city to hunt for brains. On one such foray, he and his fellow undead come across a band of humans scavenging medicine. R kills and eats Perry (Dave Franco), but finds himself struck by a young woman named Julie (Teresa Palmer). Not entirely understanding why, he not only saves Julie from being eaten, he smuggles her back to the airport. Once there, Julie is shocked to learn that the undead still retain some of their humanity. And the more time they spend together, the more R emerges from his zombie state. But Julie's father (John Malkovich) is about to launch a military offensive to wipe out the zombies once and for all.

I was watching Dawn of the Dead (remake, not original) and it was bumming me out. So I took a lateral step from zombies-depressing to zombies-adorable. I think that this was my third viewing of this film, and it never fails to make me smile.

While the movie is not without its flaws, something that I love about it is the way that it maintains a lighthearted tone while introducing just enough emotional heft that it gives stakes to the story.

Hoult is very enjoyable as R, a character who starts as a slouching pile of grunts and single word exclamations, but slowly regains his human physicality and speech as the film goes on. Palmer is also good as Julie, even if her character is given some really dumb choices. Hoult and Palmer have a nice, easy chemistry to them, and it gives the movie a sweet heart of romance.

The supporting characters are also good. Lio Tipton plays Julie's best friend, Nora, and she has fun comic timing. Rob Corddry has some good moments as M, R's best friend at the airport. M's rehumanizing is a little more choppy than R's, but the character is funny.

Something that I always appreciate in movies that have romances is when they don't feel the need to vilify the characters' former relationships. It's really easy to saddle a woman with an abusive boyfriend, or to pair a man with a girlfriend who is shallow or berating. It makes it super easy to root for the main couple to get together. We largely get to know Perry through flashbacks, and I really like how humanized he is. In many ways, I think that his character is the most tragic of all the film. He endures a lot of loss, including watching his own father die. He is in love with Julie, but that is something that clearly covers up a lot of sadness and dissatisfaction. It is through Perry's memories that R first comes to love Julie, and I really like this element of the film.

For better or worse (for me it's mostly better), this is a very silly movie. Characters make choices that don't make a ton of sense. People randomly change their minds about things. The "rules" of the zombies are played with kind of fast and loose. But in the end: who cares? Certainly not me.

I could see this being a piece of forgettable fluff for many viewers. I find it really sweet and funny, and it's a great movie to be able to return to.

Anomalisa, 2015

Michael (David Thewlis) is a corporate efficiency author doing a speaking tour that takes him to New York City. Despite his specialty being customer service, Michael experiences a serious lack of connection to those around him, including his wife and child. But one night at his hotel, Michael meets Lisa (Jennifer Jason Leigh), and the two experience an intense, one-night romance.

This is a strong little slice-of-life drama that asks questions about what it is that we need from each other as people, and what it means to try and shake ourselves out of unproductive routines.

Lisa is painfully, painfully insecure, and it's hard to tell if Michael is drawn to her because of this trait or in spite of it. Their very first scene together consists of her fangirling about meeting him, while simultaneously insisting that he not look at her because she's taken off her makeup. Both Lisa and Michael are boxed in by their own mental state, but the results of their fling are very different for each of them.

For me, the movie's power comes through mostly in the last act, which takes place the morning after Lisa and Michael meet.



I did like the animation style, which adds to the sense of a world where people are disconnected. Likewise, I really enjoyed the style choice of having every character aside from Michael and Lisa be voiced by a single actor (Tom Noonan). This is particularly fun when Michael watches a clip of My Man Godfrey on the hotel TV. But it also adds some emotional weight as the sound of characters' voices change based on Michael's perception.

A very interesting merging of story and format.

Dawn of the Dead, 2004

Nurse Ana (Sarah Polley) runs for her life when a zombie infection turns her husband and daughter into undead monsters. Ana ends up in a large shopping mall along with police officer Kenneth (Ving Rhames), the subdued Michael (Jake Weber), father-to-be Andre (Mekhi Phifer), and power-hungry security guard CJ (Michael Kelly). The mall only provides temporary relief, as a zombie horde forms outside the mall doors and tensions inside grow.

I think that if I hadn't seen (and really enjoyed) the original film, I probably would have enjoyed this remake/update a bit more. But when I think about the fundamental problems I had with it, it's not really a case of standing in the shadow of the original so much as it is stylistic choices that took me out of the film.

There is a lot to like here, including Polley's performance as Ana and the quasi-romance she develops with Michael. Likewise, I absolutely loved the subplot of the long-distance friendship that grows between Kenneth and a man named Andy (Bruce Bohne) who is trapped alone on the roof of his apartment building. The two communicate via large whiteboards, playing chess and generally bonding over their shared plight. Kelly is appropriately hateable as the security guard who enjoys having authority over the people who come into the mall.

There were also some pretty decent suspense sequences, such as when the group tries to get supplies to Andy in an unconventional manner.

But despite good work from the actors--including many more people I could name, like Kevin Zegers as a baby-faced security guard who helps wrest power away from CJ, or Jayne Eastwood as the driver of a big-rig who brings several people to safety--a lot of the choices of the film kept pulling me out of the moment.

I didn't mind at all the use of "When the Man Comes Around" in the opening credits, but just about every musical choice after that made me roll my eyes. The jazzy version of "Get Down with the Sickness" was a particular lowlight, but generally it was a series of missteps.

And I also wasn't a fan of how the action sequences were shot. Too many cuts, too many angle changes. I don't like it when I become hyper-aware of how a movie is being shot (unless it's a "wow--this is so cool!" kind of thing). I found the editing and filming of the action frustrating. I will grant the film that these sequences do have stakes, and there is some good suspense at points.

Finally, and I will stay really vague here, I did not appreciate the movie "ending" only to unfold more plot during the closing credits. It felt like a cheap trick and after the movie had really nailed the last 10 or so minutes, it felt like a slap in the face of the good emotional work done by the actors leading into the conclusion.

Credit where credit is due (mainly to the actors), but I can't imagine wanting to watch this one again.

Dawn of the Dead is somehow still the best Snyder movie.

When the first terrible music choice came on I was like "Who directed this?! . . . Oh . . . "

By http://www.impawards.com/2012/jack_reacher_ver2.html, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=37219725

Jack Reacher - (2012)

Knowing how expertly Tom Cruise chooses his projects, screenplays and directors, I decided I'd give this a try. My mother was a big fan of the Jack Reacher books, and when she saw that the movie version was going to star Tom Cruise, she basically said "Oh, I see they've gone and completely ruined Jack Reacher." She told me that in the books Reacher was a monster of a man - an intimidating giant, which Cruise is surely not. Still, I've never read any of the books, so I was willing to take this film at face value - just an ordinary thriller. Well, taken that way Jack Reacher is actually very enjoyable. I liked it far more than just about any other person on the planet by the looks of it - Cruise injects his (somewhat different from the source) Reacher with confident smarts with a twinge of dark foreboding. The conspiracy story (reminding me a lot of JFK) works and getting Werner Herzog to play main villain Zek Chelovek was inspired. I hated this movie when it came out (without seeing it) - but coming at it from a new angle had me much more disarmed. I hear the second Reacher film was feculence, so I won't be going there. Christopher McQuarrie's Reacher did quite well however, as long as you're not a fan of the novels.

7.5/10

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30th Hall of Fame (REWATCH)

An Autumn Afternoon (1962) -

When I watched this film a couple years ago, I had a lukewarm reaction to it and I began to wonder if I was starting to feel diminishing returns with Ozu's style. When Early Summer blew me away earlier this year though, I thankfully found out this wasn't the case. I was also pleased to enjoy this film a bit more with a rewatch, though while I wouldn't say I'm a fan of it, I wouldn't say my issue is a result of feeling burnout with Ozu's style.

Before I explain my reservation though, it's important to defend Ozu a bit to explain why this film isn't just a case of recycled themes from his earlier films. While a couple other films I've seen from him (Late Spring and Early Summer) have recurring themes regarding marriage and while both their endings convey similar moods, this film stands in contrast from them by taking a two-sided approach to the subject of marriage, showing both the pros and cons of it. On one hand, we get the usual scenes of various people urging Hirayama to marry off Michiko, in addition to The Gourd and his middle-aged daughter Tomoko acting as a what-if scenario of what could happen if Hirayama's and Michiko's situations don't change. On the other hand though, given the occasional bickering between Kōichi and Akiko and the discussions of one of Hirayama's acquaintances being ruined by marriage, it's apparent that, while Michiko may not necessarily be worse off if she gets married, it might not give her any further happiness than living with her father would.

With that being said, while the potential for a great film is certainly here, that we don't get enough memorable scenes of Michiko provides a ceiling for my enjoyment of this. Throughout much of the first two-thirds of the film, her character is largely secondary to the conflicts and sub-plots of other characters in the film, whether you're referring to the banter of Hirayama's classmates, The Gourd's fractured relationship with his daughter, Kōichi's conflict with his wife, or Sakamoto. As I sort of alluded to up above, these characters aren't necessarily irrelevant to the plot (I'm not sure how to interpret the post-WW2 aspect though), but their sub-plots took too much time away from Michiko. As a result, once the film got to the inciting scene of Hirayama urging Michiko to get married, I didn't have anywhere near the amount of emotional investment in her character to be moved by her scenes as much as I could've. Plus, that her arc in the final act moved at somewhat of a fast clip didn't help in this regard.

And this is a bit of a shame as the film had more than enough potential elsewhere to stand with Ozu's best films. Due to the lack of focus on Michiko though, it didn't reach that level of greatness for me. Regardless, it's still a pretty good film as the strengths I discussed up above are more than enough to carry it. If you're a fan of Ozu, you should find plenty to enjoy here.

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The Amazon Prime show is quite fun and according to fans of the book more true to the source material.

I've read all 25 of the Reacher novels and I thought the same thing as your mom. They cast shrimpy Tom Cruise as someone who's supposed to be 6 foot 5 inches and around 250 pounds. But I found it to be surprisingly entertaining. But not as a Reacher story. Fans of the series need to blank their minds and view it strictly as a conspiracy thriller.

I really need to watch that. But I'm afraid they're going to screw it up like the Syfy channel did with The Dresden Files.

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There are good Snyder movies?

well yesterday i seen avatar the way of water twice this time with my support in 4DX those sits that move around and spraying water and bubbles and lights etc lol and he really enjoyed it so he gave it a 5

Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941)