Rate The Last Movie You Saw

I had a similar reaction to that one.

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rewatch cause avatar 2 is coming out in december this year and will watch the first avatar at the cinema on the 22nd of september

I hear what you're saying but when I saw this in the theater in '95, there wasn't too much like it. Pulp Fiction had only been out a year and this felt pretty fresh.
Plus I fell in love with Salma and I've never fallen out.

I went the other way. Saw this after loving El Mariachi (one of my favourite movies of the 90's back then) and was really excited (a sequel with Banderas and Hayek?) How could it fail? But fail it did. Just a soulless procession of scenes with too much money and 'cool' thrown at it, whilst also trying to be a remake and sequel.

A bit like the later neo-grindhouse stuff where they made whole films filled with 'woah, cool!" moments, without realising that they worked in the originals because there were only one of two.

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I think that's my point though. I think Desperado is a really good movie on its own. If you're not comparing it to El Mariachi.
I saw El Mariachi after. Didn't make me like Desperado any less.

I understand, this is just a difference of opinion. But I would add that that's usually how it works, isn't it? I'm sure we all have experience of liking a copy/remake/cover of something which we really like and then find out there's an 'original'. Whether we then like the original or not (or even prefer it) it rarely lessens our liking/love of the one we first saw/heard. Not in every case, of course, but for the most part I find that to be the case with myself and people I know.

Maybe it's just that, as much as I loved El Mariachi, my expectations for a sequel were too high? Especially with that cast. But I do feel that it lost what the original had and, maybe, leaned too heavily on the shiny news toys? I don't know. I really have to watch it again to be able to discuss it in any great detail.

The Young One - 7/10
Not so black and white. Nuanced.

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I've seen worse, but I wish I had avoided this. It felt too after-school special for me. The writing was embarrassing. The last 10 seconds of the movie was honest, lol.

I saw "The Talented Mr. Ripley" first, and then "Purple Noon"... "Purple Noon" is SO much better.

I totally get it.
To me, Desperado was just a lightning bolt out of the blue.
I didn't find out El Mariachi existed for several years after.

Cinema Paradiso follows the friendship between Alfredo (Philippe Noiret), an aging projectionist at a small theater in Sicily, and Salvatore (Salvatore Cascio), an impressionable 8-year-old that finds himself mesmerized upon the world of cinema as well as Alfredo's job. Initially reluctant, the old man does end up taking the kid under his wing and teaches him the trade, which he embraces. But Alfredo's warning for him is to not get complacent in that fictitious world, but to go and make more of his life.

I've been trying to write this review for days, and I still can't find a thread to latch on to. But the more I think about it, the more I find myself in Salvatore's shoes. This was actually one of the first "foreign" films I saw when I was on my late teens and barely starting to get into films. So, much like Salvatore, I found myself amazed by the beauty of this story and the "wonder of cinema". I think I saw it a couple of times around that same time. Enough for it to get stuck in my mind, and for me to vote it at #1 in the recent Foreign Countdown.

But then I "left": a year, two years, 20 years. I just "came back" this month, and everything had changed. The beauty and wonder I felt when I was a teen wasn't exactly there, even if all the pieces were. Like adult Salvatore looking around at the same people he knew when he was a kid, everything was there, but everything's changed. The thread was broken.

Grade:


Full review on my Movie Loot

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Count me in as someone else who was a bit let down by Desperado after really enjoying El Mariachi first. Like it has been said before, I understand the appeal of the former, and I suppose it *works* but to me, it felt empty and devoid of the heart and grit that made the original work.

Emergency (2022)
This is an exciting and biting movie starring Donald Elise Watkins as Kunle and R. J. Cyler as Shawn, two African-American college students come home to find a scantily clad white girl passed out on their living room floor. All hell then commences to break loose as Kunle, Shawn and their roommate (who has been home the whole time playing video games) try to figure out how best to handle this conundrum while fear of the police and concern for the girl take turns as the overwhelming reason behind their actions. The cast is wonderful especially Watkins and the very charming Cyler.
The adventure had me on the edge my seat until it culminates with the Shawn's van being stopped by the police and Kunle who has been giving the girl CPR being dragged out at gunpoint. You see the frightened face of Kunle crying as he repeats over and over that he was just trying to help. Luckily, Kunle is not shot but it feels like a near thingas we stare into the cop's gun barrel.
The movie loses its drive after that when Kunle and Shawn (who had bailed out of the situation some time earlier) rehash of the situation. this exposition is unnecessary as the audience has been with them and seen and heard all the arguments between the two along the way. Only Kunle's understanding of Shawn's position feels like it may be a necessary part of their resolution.
It returns to its mordant comedy when the young woman stops by to thank Kunle and her sister begins to apologize for her misunderstanding of the situation and Kunle quietly closes the door on her face.
Mostly enjoyable. I give it 3.5/5 popcorn boxes

I can understand that.
But imagine a world in which El Mariachi didn't exist, because it was 1995 and the movie was only seen by critics and people with access to the few art-houses it may have played in the U.S. And then Desperado just comes to the theater with all its style and some barely known guy named Antonio Banderas and some unknown actress named Salma Hayek and all that film's swagger just a year after Pulp Fiction. It was a helluva thing, honestly.

That's precisely why I enjoyed Desperado as much as I did when I first saw it.

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Oh yeah, like I said, I understand the appeal, but I can't divorce myself from the perspective under which I saw it.

By May be found at the following website: IMPAwards, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7597974

Romancing the Stone - (1984)

This I remember as a good one from the 1980s, and going back to take a look at it, I see it's not quite up there as far as great cinematic adventures go. Producer Michael Douglas has cast himself as the dashing, gruff and handsome hero - but he fits the nerdy businessman role more than raffish lionheart. Kathleen Turner however, is wonderful - ever so beautiful and out-performing everyone in Romancing the Stone - the film was nominated for a Best Editing Oscar, but that's all, I don't think this film was serious enough for Kathy to get a nod. There are some fine stunts, but the action falls flat a little - mostly consisting of Turner and Douglas being shot at (all 2000 or so shots taken at them miss.) Danny De Vito (everywhere in the 80s, and that generation's Peter Lorre) turns up throughout, and tries to yuck up some laughs, but the screenplay isn't clever enough for that. Instead, this just turns out to be a solid adventure/romance film that's a little formulaic, but is shot in some great locations - mostly in Mexico.

6/10


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Easy A - (2010)

Well, this teen comedy aimed way higher than I was expecting it to, coming off as an intellectual romp which referenced works such as Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. Olive Penderghast (Emma Stone) feels the need change her virginal 'good girl' image for something a little more exciting and racy, but unfortunately her lies end up turning her into a high school tramp, looked down on by all. The effect snowballs as she agrees to let guys lie about sleeping with her, at first out of kindness and then financial gain. I found quite a bit genuinely funny, and a lot of it agreeable and pleasing, with interesting characters played by the likes of Thomas Haden Church, Lisa Kudrow and Stanley Tucci - adults trying their best to help confused kids with their sometimes quite awkward problems.

7/10

I suspect this is not unlike me and Mad Max/The Road Warrior.
I loved The Road Warrior (and still do/always will) but I saw Mad Max first and there is something about the deranged grit and almost guerrilla feel of that film that no other movie can live up to.
Toecutter > All Other Mad Max Villains

SF = Z


[Snooze Factor Ratings]:
Z = didn't nod off at all
Zz = nearly nodded off but managed to stay alert
Zzz = nodded off and missed some of the film but went back to watch what I missed
Zzzz = nodded off and missed some of the film but went back to watch what I missed but nodded off again at the same point and therefore needed to go back a number of times before I got through it...
Zzzzz = nodded off and missed some or the rest of the film but was not interested enough to go back over it