Rate The Last Movie You Saw

Also finished Breaking Bad.


Masterpiece.

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Have you seen this one?

No Cat, recommend?

Absolutely!!!! If you like Kaurismäki's style, this is totally for you. It's like French Kaurismäki that's well aware that it is just that, (you'll see what I mean if you see the film). I loved it!!

Island Of Doomed Men (1941) - Reasonable b-movie 'thriller' that manages to hold interest despite being a little thin on both story and action

From What Is Before -

Too quick, too short.

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Ossessione (1943) - Luchino Visconti / The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) - Tay Garnett

I watched them back to back, considering they're both adaptions of the same novel by James M. Cain. While Visconti's version was definitely more challenging watch, I also found it to be more rewarding and compelling. The main aspect that separated the two was chemistry between the lead actors. Clara Calamai & Massimo Girotti really eclipsed John Garfield & Lana Turner in that area. It is also worth noticing that American version significantly worsened as the film progressed, whereas Visconti's version kept getting more and more interesting. Even though Garnett was more faithful to the book, I actually prefered Visconti's alteration in the second half, because it didn't focus so much on the trial. Ultimately TPART is a more accessible film, but Ossessione has it beat in direction, script, acting and cinematography in my opinion.



Ossessione -

The Postman Always Rings Twice - -

Wait, you forgot the other popcorns!

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Soooooo ..... are you going to give the sequel a go or not?

arrival 5/10
american sniper 6/10
edge of tomorrow 6/10

This really is a genial film like everyone says it is. Henry Fonda is the only one of the twelve jurors who believes, or is in fact reasonable, strong and good enough to believe a kid who's accused of killing his father is innocent. In the beginning, at least. But they all fall down one by one,each for his own reason. The quintessence of the movie is that it's not a crime movie in fact in it's heart. It's a psychological drama, a study of twelve different human conditions. We have him, who is good, a racist, a sadist, a psychopath (and this one made me laugh, I have to admit. It was hot, so in the beginning he voted guilty, just because it was in the majority, and he wanted to get out of there,but as it turned around, and he stilljust wanted to get out of there, he voted innocent), a dummie (Robert Webber in one of his early roles), another idiot who must do everything by the book etc. In the end Fonda wins, and it's clear the kid is innocent.

My favorite scene is when Fonda gets to the sadist, who starts yelling he'll kill him, just after they were talking about how when someone does that, it doesn't necessarily mean they mean it, as the kid was supposedly yelling it.



You don't really mean you'll kill me, do you?

I knew this was a very highly acclaimed movie that appears on a few of the MoFo lists. I also knew it was a comedy, not one of my favorite genres for older movies. It's a good thing I knew it was a comedy going in, because my feeble brain might not have been able to tell otherwise. It is very dark and clever, different from most other comedies. Alec Guinness is amazing playing 8 or 9 roles. I think I missed some things on my first viewing but it's as good as advertised.

Lost Highway (1997):


"Lost Highway" is a 1997 thriller by David Lynch, it introduces quite a unique and unconventional structure of a dark and intriguing story. I'm not too familiar with the acclaimed director, in fact, I have only seen his début film "Eraserhead", which is simply a beautiful nightmare, and just like in "Eraserhead", this film drives the viewer throughout a cold and hypnotizing dream-like fantasy.

The film employs a confusing (at first glance) structure, jumping from a subjective perspective of reality to an objective perspective to finally a fantasy, with the three worlds collapsing on top of each other at certain points of the film. This kind of structure further illustrates how vague reality is, not only for the audience, but for our main character, Fred.

Fred is a passionate jazz musician who's not only struggling through his social life, but also through his marriage with Renee. His inability to satisfy her emotionally and sexually creates paranoia in our "protagonist's" mind, which leads to suspicion of unfaithfulness and finally a distant and detached relationship between the two.

Kinda like in Michael Haneke's "Caché" (which was obviously inspired by this movie), guilt is the main emotion our "protagonist" is going through and trying to suppress, it naturally leads him to escapism, withdrawing from the pressures of the real world into a safer fantasy world, where he is the person he always wished to be, and ironically at the same time, the person he loathed. The examination of this hypocrisy is greatly done by Lynch, it is not only used to prove a point but to also further the narrative by clearing the foggy truth.

Although I loved this experience of a film, it does have some downfalls, and pretty much all of them are located in the middle portion of the movie, such as the acting by certain performers, it does become very amateurish, which negatively diminishes the built atmosphere, I am toying with the possibility of that being done intentionally, but if that's the case, I don't think the director communicated that well, nor was it the appropriate decision in my opinion.

Overall, I very much so enjoyed this film, and it made me even more excited and ready for Lynch's other works, I'd say it is slightly better than "Eraserhead", but I need to re-watch the latter anyways so that can possibly change. Blue Velvet is next on my list.

8/10

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- Michael "Gloomy Old Fart" Haneke

Dredd (2012) -

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"I shot an arrow into the air. She fell to Earth in Berkeley Square."

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Heartbreak Ridge - 6/10

Wonder Woman (2017)

Wonder of wonders (see what I did there? ), this is a great addition to the DC Universe film adaptations. To be truthful, I've not had a problem with any of the new movies so far, but that said, this is by far the best. I liken this to the original Christopher Reeve Superman, although it's not quite as good as that movie. The comparison I'm making is that they go epic with this one, with the characters beginnings shown, from child-to-teen-to-adult, just like Supes, with lots of beautiful imagery just like the first Reeve film. Princess Diana shows an interest in fighting from a very young age as she observes the other Amazons going through fight practice. Antiope (Robin Wright), the leader of the fighters, sees something in Diana and trains her in secret when Diana's mother, Queen Hippolyta (Connie Nielsen), objects. In the years that follow, they continue in secret until the Queen finds out. Although the island of the Amazons has been hidden since Zeus fought Ares, the god of war, a very long time ago, it hiding place is eventually breached by an American spy fighting for the British in WWI. Diana saves his life right when the German Navy discovers the invisible shield. The Amazons fight the Germans and the Germans lose but not without loss on the Amazon side. After witnessing a taste of war, Diana makes a vow to help the soldier Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) to stop war by stopping Ares, whose identity in WWI she doesn't know. It's not real hard to figure out but that doesn't ruin anything.

There is humor in the fish-out-of-water scenario when Diana arrives in London with Steve, and he practically has to hold her back from revealing her identity and causing chaos when she wants to help someone, or go pick up a baby, which she's never seen. Steve gathers a group of friends who have helped him before, and with Diana they all proceed to the front line of fighting. It is here where one of the best set pieces of the film happens when Diana breaks a hole in the front lines with her shield and arm bracelets repelling bullets and anti-aircraft shells. Excellent effects help a lot here. There is more to come in their fight against the Nazis and Diana trying to stop the war. Whether she achieves her goal is a big question throughout the movie. The stunts in the movie are awesome, particularly with Diana leaping into the air and smashing into stuff, grabbing people with her truth-revealing lasso, using it to flip baddies through the air. She also has a sword that is called "the god killer" and she hopes it will do just that if she ever meets Ares.

Gal Gadot is fine as Wonder Woman, lighting up the screen with her beauty, particularly her smile and her smiling eyes. It's hard not to fall for her for two-and-a-half hours plus. Chris Pine is good as Steve and is fun portraying his exasperation at calming Diana down when she wants to go full throttle at the bad guys. Danny Huston is good as a Nazi baddie but he doesn't have a giant amount of screen time, which is too bad as I really like him. David Thewlis does a good job as a British government official who is Steve's boss in England. Elena Anaya (The Skin I Live Inis almost unrecognizable as the chief Nazi poison gas maker. Although the film does take its time telling its story, it was never boring for me. I was hooked all the way through and the last forty-five minutes or so is balls-to-the-wall fun, fulfilling all the set-up that came before. Great installment in the superhero movie genre.

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Pinky (1949) - Nicely told tale of identity and bigotry