Rate The Last Movie You Saw

****
BRUTE FORCE- Densely plotted, well shot slow burn from Jules Dassin that builds up to a visceral climax. It’s not the strongest noir that I’ve seen from Dassin or Lancaster (that would be RIFFIFI and THE KILLERS respectively) but it’s no slouch.

Not sure I trust the director who did this with doing a new Friday The 13th.

__________________
“I really have to feel that I could make a difference in the movie, or I shouldn't be doing it.“
Joe Dante

Fully agree ScarletLion, I found this very touching and profound.

Jackie Chan's First Strike -

In the fourth entry of one of cinema's most reliably entertaining action franchises, the Police Story series, Jackie's assignment is to track down nuclear weapon smugglers. A heartbeat away from being a James Bond movie, Jackie's mission takes him to Ukraine, Russia and Australia and has action set pieces ranging from a snowboard chase to a fight in an aquarium tank. Despite the larger scale, it has everything you know and love about this franchise and Jackie Chan like death-defying stunts, fights with household objects like brooms and ladders and hilarious slapstick including one scene where you see more of Jackie than ever before. I watched the 84-minute New Line edit which pares down the exposition, character development; in short, everything linking the action scenes. If this edit were a baked good, it would be a cake with a lot of frosting, but there's just enough cake to not make it inedible. Proving that bigger is not necessarily better, the movie does not reach the heights of the series' classic first entry. Even so, it maintains the series’ reputation, and most importantly, I had a blast.

ScarletLion, have you tried Dolls (2002)? It's very stylised but a very good representation of "Beat"s more contemplative style.

Sling Blade - 7.5/10

Ya know, I can almost see VI (even though I was terribly disappointed with it) but IV just baffles me. I hear people say it and I'm just like, "What am I missing?!" To me it's almost the "cheesiest" one of the franchise and from an action/scares POV, I can't see how it's better than any of the others. I wish someone could explain it to me.

Snooze factor = Z


Trailer:





[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

I also think IV sucks, but it does have the best and strangest moment in the entire series - well, the first six movies, anyway, which are all I've seen - and that is when we see Crispin Glover's dance moves.

Yeah, I won't defend the film because like I said, none of them are beacons of creativity, but one of the things I appreciate about the fourth one are the kills. I think it has some of the best kills in the franchise, and that's the main reason why most of us watch this anyway. But other than that, I think that Tommy Jarvis is a good character, and Corey Feldman is good.

__________________

Re-watch of this 50 year old classic.

Interesting that one scene had Alex & his droogs walking along in slo-mo exactly as QT did in Reservoir Dogs. Wonder if QT was influenced by this scene?

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

Roger Dodger (2002)

From 1947, it's a movie I've seen several times and really enjoyed it each time. It's described as a noir, but it's really more of a prison drama.

Hume Cronyn, in one of his early roles, was chilling as the sadistic warden. No one could have played it with more depth, IMO.

I agree with you about The Killers.

Wonderful movie. Billy Bob Thornton's jaw dropping performance really put him on the map. And I'd forgotten that he wrote the screenplay, and directed as well.

He not only wrote the screenplay but won an Oscar for it

Austin Powers In Goldmember (2002):
Funny movie, Mike Myers makes you forget he’s playing multiple characters.
8/10

I think there’s a few times when prison drama distinctly overlapped with noir, this and Riot in Cell Block 11 as prime examples. I think what sets them apart is the distinct sense of institutional failure/sadism and the inability to overcome it.

Cronyn was excellent and it was great seeing him play such a substantial role. I’m a big fan of his scene stealing turn in Postman Always Rings Twice.

Huzzah! Siegel (who also did Riot) made a remake of the Killers that’s also very worth checking out if you haven’t.

__________________
“Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place and I don't care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard ya hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!” ~ Rocky Balboa

Love Affair (1939)