Rate The Last Movie You Saw

This is one of those films I always knew existed but never watched. Up until now, that is. By seeing Fox and Penn in the cast and knowing De Palma directed it, I just assumed it was another American war film that, yes, took some risks but ultimately delivered nothing new.

I was rather wrong on that. This was much more emotionally hard-hitting and perturbing than what I initially suspected, and it is certainly not a conventional black-and-white war film. Minus a few, let's say, of-their-time moments of sentimentality and heavy-handedness, this was a stylistically impeccable, dramatically profound film. Penn, in particular, was fantastic, and Fox just felt right for his role.

A great, tragic film. Tarantino calls it the greatest film ever made about the Vietnam war. I actually concur with this. Yes, yes, I even prefer it to Coppola's entry.

A new favourite, this one here.

The Cloverfield Paradox (2018) is a fine little space horror film. It doesn't quite hit the Sunshine (2007) or Event Horizon(2017) levels of a hidden gem but it's as good as Lockout (2012) or Pandorum (2009). A crew is sent into space to test a science doohicky to give the Earth unlimited power. Things go wrong, people die others show up the ship turns crazy...basically it's a 40 million dollar episode of The Outer Limits.

Chris Dowd, Zhang Ziyi, and Gugu Mbatha-Raw are good...everyone else is pretty terrible, especially Daniel Bruhl and Roger Davis. The movie is like driving car with three working tires and one flat one and that's Bruhl in the A plot and Davis in the B plot.

And the B Plot SUCKS HARD

What I enjoy about Cloverfield is that each of these Sci-Fi films shares it's own universe but also feels like it's own horror film. I'm not thrilled with the plot twist that Abrams loves to go to but the movies are watchable. And I'm very curious to see where this series goes next.

This film is funny as hell
That 'bush scene' always gets me

Chained (Jennifer Lynch, 2012) +
Not as captivating as it perhaps could have been

One of my favourite ever war films. Always seems to fly under the radar in terms of war film lists. Penn is brilliant.

Amazing! I've never witnessed the creation of a masterpiece, and of course, this film gave me that opportunity. Jacques Rivette puts us in an atelier with the artist and the model (the beautiful Emmanuelle Béart), and makes us witness to the creation, the frustration, the dangers of art. Sometimes, outside of the studio, we see what art brings to the people who live with the artist, and it raises the question "how far to go for art?". This film was released in 1991, and I think it has never been as eficient and actual as it is now, with the current discourses on the boundaries of art (theme lightly touched recently by Ruben Östlund's 'The Square'). For four hours, I was claustrophobic, imprisoned, next to Edouard Frenhofer (Michel Piccoli), witnessing his fears and uncertainties before an artistic blockade. A multi-layered film (literally), the exasperation of the creative process is clearly felt by us who follow this journey. Beautifully directed by Rivette, beautifully acted, a masterpiece!

Incendies(2010) 7,5/10

Villeneuve direction is superb, but there are some things with the Script that just didn't fit well for me, I mean, the movie for me stated its bases on a pure destilation of reality and towards the end of the movie the audience is filled with improbabilities that end up connecting all the dots of the story.

Best frame in the movie for me:

__________________
"Bate, bate, bate na porta do céu."

Legendary cinemagrapher Orbo did an amazing cinemagraph of that shot:

This looks great!
I'll check it out.

Accident Man (Jesse V. Johnson): The very talented and always working British martial artist and actor Scott Adkins co-wrote, produced, and stars in this adaptation of a 1990's Toxic! comic title about an assassin who makes his hits look like accidents. When the love of his life is murdered, he searches for answers and when he discovers his fellow assassins may be involved, he breaks protocol and goes after them, especially when there is a price of his head.

Adkins showcases both his acting and action skills in the titular role of Mike Fallon. The second act consists of a lenghty flashbkac when we learn how teenage Mike becomes an assassin under the tutelage of Ray Stevenson, who plays assassin handler Big Ray. I see it more of a cooldown before the fun stuff.

Some great fight scenes involving a two-on-one between Adkins against Ray "Darth Maul" Park and Michael Jai White and a stellar fight against Amy Johnston. An enjoyable film, if you like action, then this should be on your list.

Final Rating: A-

__________________
It's All About the Movies
http://www.worldfilmgeek.com

Pet Sematary (Mary Lambert, 1989)
Unsettling but not always for the right reason

Through A Glass Darkly (1961, Ingmar Bergman)
+
That final father-son dialogue is priceless, as is Harriet Andersson's quietly devastating performance. Beautiful black-and-white cinematography by Sven Nykvist.

Orlando (Sally Potter, 1992)
Failed to engender much outside of it's visual allure

Ok, I'll be next. This would be the movie for tonight Thanks.

Notorious But Nice (Richard Thorpe, 1933)
Lacking but likeable

Through a Glass Darkly is one of my favorite Bergman movies. Seen it a million times.

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

The film critic Mark Kermode thought this was the best film of 2017 apparently, so I was very interested in seeing this film and usually end up agreeing with him when it comes to horror style films but I was rather disappointed.

Anyway, the most disturbing thing in the film for me was nothing to do with the main aspect of the film but from one scene at a party where one woman was licking the EYEBALL of the man she was dancing with, wtf. Just no. The hair waxing scene was amusing though.

I could not finish Raw. Are vets really that nutty in France?

Evolution 2001 7 / 10



"A fire-fighting cadet, two college professors, and a geeky but
sexy government scientist work against an alien organism that
has been rapidly evolving since its arrival on Earth inside a meteor."

The Beloved Rogue (Alan Crosland, 1927)
The adventures of a poet out on the tiles

*thanks to mark for bringing this to my attention a couple of months back, certainly an enjoyable enough romp