Rate The Last Movie You Saw

How the movie introduces you up in the first scenes sets your expectations for the rest of the movie, so its all relative to the upfront presentation. But some moviemakers like to tweak those sensibilites and add surprises and imbalance the norm.

That follow/commit excerpt can go either way. Like watching an awesome movie for two hours then at the last minute they sneak something in fully offensive and detestable to you, youre like well, how can I say I like this movie because its like saying you like that thing at the end.

A good example is The Wolf of Wall Street where its a great movie but then one of the characters glorifies incest and then youre like man if I say I like this movie people of that undesireable type will be like hey man, I hear you.

Now you dont want that to happen do you?

Non-Stop (2014)

You'd probably like this one of you like "whodunnit?" suspense action movies. Like Clue on a plane with some surprises. Some fistfights, gunplay, a couple brawls. Nothing lewd, obscene or gross. No sex, no nudity.

7.5/10

Has Showgirls reputation improved over the years? I feel like more people appreciate it now than when I first started posting on RT in 2004. I watched it for the first time this week, it's ridiculous but I enjoyed it. And longer than I would have expected, it's like a rags to riches tit flick.

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It’s kinda become a cult classic midnight movie type of thing, especially among the gay community.

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

65 - Despite the setup this was ultimately an underwhelming watch. There are any number of reasons you can point to or maybe a combination of all. A subpar script from Scott Beck and Bryan Woods (the guys responsible for writing A Quiet Place). Uninspired direction from Beck and Woods. You can't really lay the blame on the casting. There's only four people in the credits and one of them is Adam Driver who's usually money in the bank. Makes you wonder why he would sign up for something like this. He apparently got his usual salary of around 3 million so maybe he wanted work with the guys responsible for AQP? They should have brought along John Krasinski to direct.

Anyway, Driver plays Mills, the pilot of an interstellar charter ship ferrying passengers across a vast distance that will keep him from his family for two years. The ship runs into an unmapped asteroid belt and crash lands on a nearby planet. I don't how much of the setup is considered a spoiler since the details are included in the actual title and in the title card at the very beginning. Driver is from the planet Somaris and he ends up marooned on Earth 65 million years ago. An Earth where dinosaurs still hold sway. But even that encouraging detail is largely nullified by the creature design. Instead of halfway believable dinosaurs the production decided to go with inexplicably foreign looking specimens. If you're going to make the crux of the plot that this is Earth 65 million years in the past why do that? Were there copyright issues? Did they think Spielberg was going to come after them? That's just one of the many things that they get wrong.

There a second survivor in the crash and this is foreshadowed by the prelude with Mills' daughter back on Somaris. It's that kind of script. There's also a scene where Mills is exploring the planet and runs across a "geological anomaly" of sorts that you'll be able to figure out is gonna play a part later on. And it does. It's that kind of script. The people watching this with me enjoyed it and it is an innocuous enough offering. Nothing to make your blood boil or make you regret watching it. You might end up lamenting the waste of talent and potential.

50/100

Zandy's Bride - 8/10
Re-watch... I need something to dream with. And a sure movie... Gene Hackman sends for a woman to marry, and Liv Ullman shows up and he knows right away that she lied about her age, etc..

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https://www.youtube.com/c/LoyalOpposition

Fear No Evil, 1981

A priest kills a man he believes to be Lucifer, and as he dies the man laughs that he will return. Decades later, a couple have a child named Andrew (Stefan Arngrim), who from the beginning seems to be accompanied by strange events. When Andrew is a senior in high school, the strange and violent events escalate. One of Andrew’s classmates, Julie (Kathleen McAllen) begins having odd visions and makes her way to Margaret (Elizabeth Hoffman), who tells her that Julie is the embodiment of the archangel Gabriel and that Margaret herself is the embodiment of Mikhail. Together, the two women must stop Andrew before he brings large-scale destruction to their town.

I wish that the last act was stronger. But honestly, I could see this becoming a frequently rewatched low-key favorite.



Full review

Go, go second time virgin - Yuke yuke nidome no shojo (Kôji Wakamatsu, 1969)



An unpleasant pinku captivated by sexual violence, but more closely associated to a radical nihilistic viewpoint on life and generational transition in 60s Japan. Wakamatsu uses the themes of sexual abuse and violence to build an extreme yet poignant story of two poor souls who are not going to survive their trauma because there is nothing beyond it for them. The main character, Poppo, is abused right at the beginning of the film; and since then, neither she or us as spectators will be able to leave the building, as a metaphor that her trauma has become an indelible part of her identity.

Partly pure pinku exploitation, partly a formal New Wave-styled film, and partly a strong and radical political manifesto by one of the most decidedly political directors of the Japanese film scene, Go, go second time virgin is short but not sweet at all, and one of the crudest metaphors I've seen on youth angst and lack of prospects for their present and future. It's also a very competent film itself on the matter of dealing with trauma, but I don't think that is the main theme; rather a vehicle for radical self-expression and a narrative symbol of the incapacitating feeling that young people back then had within a social, cultural and moral statu quo they didn't belong to.

Wakamatsu stylizes this film a lot to enhance the experience, and two of the most mesmerizing resources are, on the one hand, the scarce yet very impactful use of color, that represents mainly shocking and scarring moments in the past, and the music on the other, which plays quiet ballads at some of the most horrific scenes. All in all, what it manages to generate with this treatment of violent themes and stylization is a lasting effect beyond the visceral reaction, and that together with its hopeless and nihilistic feel, leaves a mark by the end.

Eating Raoul (1982)

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[ J ] - [ S ] - [ F ]

SF = Z

I echo everything WHITBISSELL! said above.


[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

Took your tip and watched Thief last night. I'd seen it when it came out, and remembered a good deal of it.

It was a perfect role for James Caan, which he didn't disappoint. Tuesday Weld is not only enjoyable to look at, but she turns in a good performance here. I was impressed by her acting in the scene in the diner where Caan tells her that he wants her to be with him. She was stunning.

I almost didn't recognize Dennis Farina. I think that was his first film gig. Then he really broke out in Crime Story (1986-88) as Lt. Mike Torello-- a series I LOVED.

For me the two major flaws were that they didn't say what Caan was going to do for money at the end of the film or if he ever got back with Weld. I think Mann didn't know how to end it...

I was glad the ending wasn't what i was expecting, just him being busted or killed. Not knowing at the end makes us fill in the gaps.

A Man Called Otto - Another collaborative viewing. Some films you don't really seek out but this was a Tom Hanks vehicle and he's usually pretty dependable. I'm trying to think of the last time I was actively disappointed or even regretted watching one of his films. The closest I can come is Captain Phillips and even that one didn't really feel like a waste of time. It was just a little underwhelming for some reason. Strictly a personal reaction so I didn't mind when this was "suggested". It gives off a bit of Gran Torino vibe since his character Otto Anderson is also a reclusive widower. Without the unapologetic bigotry though. I'm not sure Hanks has it in him to pull off an openly unlikable character. Here he's mostly annoyed. At his neighbors, delivery drivers and just about anyone who doesn't measure up to his vision of how the world should or ought to be.

Anyway, the catalyst for change/engine driving the plot is the arrival of new neighbors, a pregnant Marisol (Mariana Treviño), her husband Tommy (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) and their daughters Abbie (Alessandra Perez) and Luna (Christiana Montoya). The most important thing being that Otto was in the process of offing himself. His schoolteacher wife of many years has passed away and Otto has figured it's time to check out. The rest of the movie involves Otto meticulously planning and then going on a mass shooting spree. NO, OF COURSE IT DOESN'T.

The spunky Marisol eventually breaks down the walls that Otto has built and helps him to remember and appreciate the good things life has to offer. The script maybe lays on the neighborhoods quirkiness a little thick but this isn't meant as a dark, gut twister of a film. Treviño does a really good job of making you believe that Marisol is the right person at the right time to pull Otto out of his doldrums. Hanks is of course a pro and knows what he's doing. And even though it's not exactly a challenging role or movie it's probably enough to satisfy most people. It is what it is.

75/100

The Howling, 1981

Television news anchor Karen White (Dee Wallace) nervously takes part in a sting operation to catch a man who has been murdering woman in Los Angeles. The killer, Eddie (Robert Picardo) is eventually trapped and killed, but Karen is very traumatized by the experience. When she and her husband Bill (Christopher Stone) are sent off to an isolated resort area to recuperate, things take a turn for the worst--it seems that several of the resort residents are hiding a very hairy secret.

The effects alone are worth the price of admission, but the rest is underwhelming.



Full review

By Tom Beauvais - Movieposter.com, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5714787

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - (1969)

There's a moment in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid that exemplifies the difference between these outlaws and many of the other cinematic portrayals of bank robbers on the run. Bolivian bandits have this time robbed them, and when the two have these unapologetic thieves at gunpoint, Cassidy (Paul Newman) nervously explains to the Sundance Kid (Robert Redford) that he's never shot or killed a person in his life. To Cassidy it's all excitement and games - he's polite, jovial and often jokes around. When a bank changes to a system that makes it harder to rob, he wonders aloud why they'd do that and spoil all the fun. It's why we get a "Raindrops are Falling on My Head" segment with Newman riding around with Etta Place (Katharine Ross) on a bicycle, later riding alone and doing stunts. When serious heat emerges, and Cassidy along with the rougher Kid are outmatched, their pursuit plays out in one of the most extended chase sequences in film history - including the famous Redford "I can't swim!" moment when the two jump from a cliff face into a raging river. Their comedic bumbling in Bolivia, and unhappy arrival in that Third World country, tops off a film with two of the most charming and charismatic villains you'll ever see on celluloid. An essence is captured that connects with the audience in myriad ways - we love them, and yearn for them to escape. The robbers, in this film, are the good guys.

8/10

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I watched this one late last year. Thought it was entertaining - gave it 7/10.

My understanding is, yes. Significantly.
Granted, I thought its reputation when it came out was pretty terrible, so there was no where to go but up...
I still have never seen it, though will watch it on criterion this month. To my understanding, its supposed to be an updated version, or some type of version, of All About Eve.

Your comment about the portrayal of other bank/trainrobbers on film made me remember how wild it is that this came out the same year as The Wild Bunch, and it's supposed to be based on the exact same group of train/bankrobbers as The Wild Bunch.

I can't remember which one changed the name of the gang so the two movies wouldn't be associated together.

Silent Rage (1982)

That was a pretty damn good movie. The story was great. I don't know how to say this, but you watch this film and then you watch a newer action movie of the same type and in the new movie the actors seem desentised and somber in contrast. Like, in these 70's and early 80's films, theyre more genuine as though they weren't acting, but as normal real people would act in this situation. It was a full well rounded story and when you get to the end you feel like the movie is too short. Other than some shaky cameras in the opening scenes and a few technical things here and there, I like this one a lot.

8/10