Rate The Last Movie You Saw

Karen, 2021 (F)

A lady is horrified as a... DUN DUN DUN... black couple movies into her white neighborhood. Her racist ass and her racist ass cop brother proceed to commit all the racisms. If you've seen some of these karen videos, you know what's in the movie, pretty much. You'll watch this entire thing wide-eyed, mouth agape at how egregious and stupid the whole thing is. It's just all the headlines mashed together into a succession of scenes barely strung together by the lady's racism.

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)

Yes yes, but is she ... racist?

Kidding. I had trouble getting through the trailer because the message it was trying to get across was apparent in the first few seconds. And if that ham fisted approach isn't enough the title is there to elbow you in the ribs. I can't imagine what sitting through the whole movie would be like.

Sorry

As a straight horror movie i think it was ok so kind of my fault. Should have just said i didnt like it lol

The One and Only Dick Gregory

One of my favorite comedians. The documentary is available for free (Showtime is free for a limited time) but a friend saw it on Hulu.

There's a lot of stuff that wasn't included, especially from Dick's later years because it didn't fit the stereotype. He would say repeatedly, "Obama's going to cancel the election in 2016" or how Trump's choice of tie (blue vs. white) would be an indicator of which side of the issue he'd be on.... and a lot of other stuff. But, his family was involved, so they're going to make their dad appear they want him to be.

The best part is when Dick is talking, or archival footage. I don't wanna hear from ****ing Lawrence O'Donnell. There's too many who love to latch on, with that "justice by association" because it's usually just lip service while doing the opposite for humanity.. By saying they admire Dick Gregory (while not sticking their neck out for anything), it allows them to get trendy justice points while collecting the paycheck.

It's also unfortunate that I live in a black-majority city, but all I get is, "Never heard of him". When I mention the name Nipsey Russell, they incorrectly try to correct me by saying, "No, it's Nipsey Hustle".. It's also unfortunate that they mention that in 2015 he supposedly had early onset Alzheimer before some fellow comedians saying the crazy things he would say, and he did say some crazy things, but then suddenly they say how he became funny again and back on stage. Of course they omitted all the work he did regarding the JFK assassination, something he mentioned a million times, but because he blamed the CIA, I guess they thought it would be better to leave it out. If you're going to make this documentary about activism, HOW could you leave that part out? And a lot of other things.

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The Blues Brothers (1980)

Dead Man, 1995

Accountant William Blake (Johnny Depp) travels across the country for a new job, only to find that he's too late to claim it. Things only go from bad to worse when he ends up in the middle of a deadly confrontation between two lovers, a confrontation in which he is mortally wounded. Carrying a soon-to-be-fatal bullet in his chest, Blake wanders into the wilderness where he is cared for by an indigenous man called Nobody (Gary Farmer) and pursued by a slew of bounty hunters.

I have spent literal decades thinking that I'd find this film too pretentious or too slow, and I am very pleased to say that I was wrong on both counts.

I have been struggling to articulate what I found so great about this movie, and what I can settle on right now is the way that both the main character and the film itself seem to pick up momentum as things go on. Blake starts out as a timid, nebbish character, but as the weight of his impending death presses against him, he transforms into something more akin to a force of nature.

I have enjoyed performances from Johnny Depp before (in particular his manic turn in Ed Wood), but, wow, to me this film seemed to fit him like a glove. And the longer the movie went on, the more compelling and magnetic I found his performance. Sometimes I think there's a strong synthesis between writing and an actor, and that's really how it felt to me here. The line delivery just seemed to perfectly fit the dialogue and the overall vibe of the film. (The scene above---"You know my poetry"--is a great example of this).

Depp (along with Farmer) is a solid anchor for the film, but the cast is chock-full of an almost absurd list of actors. Alfred Molina, Gabriel Byrne, Billy Bob Thornton, Lance Henrickson, Michael Wincott, John Hurt, Jared Harris, ROBERT MITCHUM. I often find myself kind of annoyed and distracted by excessive numbers of recognizable faces, but this film is so weird anyway that sure, why not have Iggy Pop show up as a cross-dressing cowboy named Sally?

There really is something thrilling about a film way exceeding your expectations. This film really charmed me, and I found it to be the rare delight where the final act is actually the strongest. Very glad I finally gave it a chance.

Les Horizons Morts, 1951

In this debut film short from Jacques Demy, a young man contemplates self-harm after his girlfriend leaves him for someone else.

This is just an 8-minute short, but it's good for what it is. A young man debates drinking poison, and we see a flashback/nightmare about his lover being with someone new. The short makes good use of just two settings (the apartment and an outdoor location). The jagged wall mirror and the use of lighting add to the slightly off-kilter feeling of the whole thing. Not necessarily groundbreaking, but stylish and I'm glad I watched it.

The Incredible Shrinking Man follows Scott Carey (Grant Williams), who after being exposed to a strange mist in the ocean, begins to gradually shrink in size. This obviously causes serious issues in his daily life, including straining his relationship with his wife, Louise (Randy Stuart) and leading him into emotional distress.

I don't think one can talk about this film without praising the special effects. Like I said above, they are indeed ground-breaking and impressive, but in a way that's not overpowering and in-your-face, but rather to benefit the story. The story follows a seemingly simple premise, but it's quite a feat to see a film like that executed in such an engaging way, while also being as thought-provoking as this.

Grade:


Full review on my Movie Loot and on the PR HOF4

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I was shocked by how thought-provoking and poignant I found this movie. A lot of what I knew coming into it was just, like, "and he has to fight a spider!!". But there is so much more depth to it. I think that I'd count its final line as a great all-time "last line of a film".

Yeah, the more I think of it, the more I like it. I might consider bumping it to 4.5 in time.

The Straight Story, 1999

An older man named Alvin (Richard Farnsworth) lives with his adult daughter, Rose (Sissy Spacek). When Alvin learns that his estranged brother, Lyle has had a stroke, he sets out on his riding mower to trek the 370 miles to his brother's home.

I'm not crying, you're crying!

Okay, so most people probably know this film as the G-rated David Lynch film. But don't let the mild rating fool you--there's a lot of depth to this one.

I spent seven years living in Iowa, and this film was like a little piece of nostalgia. The various anecdotes rang some very familiar notes. While I definitely felt the most kinship with the distraught woman having a breakdown after hitting a deer (gesturing at the wide open fields she bellows "Where do they even come from?!?!?!?! And I LOVE DEER!"), it all felt absolutely correct. The disillusioned pregnant teenager, the bickering brothers running tractor repair, the small town people willing to offer accommodation to a stranger.

Farnsworth (who tragically died of suicide after filming this movie, a reaction to a terminal and painful cancer diagnosis), totally own the film as the spirited Alvin. Struggling with lower-body pain, Alvin does everything with a measured but solid sense of determination. You can feel his humor and warmth, and totally understand why others want to help him to succeed.

The film's most compelling sequence, however, comes when Alvin stops at a bar and strikes up a conversation with another old-timer (the scene pictured at the top of this review). The two talk about their time in the second world war, and Alvin relates a painful, harrowing story about one of the actions he took as a sniper. He reflects on the fact that his lost comrades are all still young men in his memory, and that the older he gets, the more years it means they have lost. The conversation is brutal and, again, harrowing. This scene alone more than justifies Farnsworth's Oscar nomination.

All in all this is just a delightful, funny, and genuine film.

Yeah, that film is a delight indeed.

I wonder how many people missed out on it because of the G rating.

Or maybe it's the opposite and more people checked it out because a G-rated Lynch is such a novelty?

I think it's the latter. It definitely is an outlier in Lynch's filmography, but most Lynch fans I know are pleased with it. On the other hand, I've read a bunch of people that would never watch Eraserhead praise this one.

Yeah, The Straight Story is great. Even though it's an outlier in Lynch's filmography, it still holds up as one of his best films.

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Felicia's Journey (1999)

I thought it was original in how it depicted a slice of life but was bored

5/10

I've heard similar sentiments about Mean Streets before, but I've never agreed with them; I mean, sure, it doesn't have the laser-like focus of a Goodfellas (then again, very few movies do), but the messiness of Street's style still ends up working in its favor for the most part, since it's that aspect that gives it the overwhelming sense of energy and life that it possesses:

A Fistful of Dollars - (1964)
For a Few Dollars More - (1965)
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly - (1966)

Just finished watching all three of Sergio Leone/Clint Eastwood's 'Dollars' trilogy, only having seen the last one in it's entirety before. I was surprised by how low-key the first film was - each film gets a little longer, and has more main characters than the one before, I guess this happened as the films grew more popular and successful - although they weren't released in the United States until 1967 (all three.) In A Fistful of Dollars Clint Eastwood's loner character is the most ambiguous as far as morality goes. He arrives in a town beset with violence due to two rival families making money trading in arms and booze - and decides to make a great deal of money working both sides. Although somewhat incidentally, he does end up helping a young woman held against her will, along with the friendly barkeep and the coffin-maker. I liked it without really loving it.

The second film was a great improvement on the first - as if Leone had learned many lessons, honed his skill and had a bigger budget. I was about to check out who wrote the actual screenplays - but the story from the first is basically Kurosawa's Yojimbo so it's hard to compare the two. In this Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef play bounty hunters going up against a murderous bunch of bank robbers. I thought Van Cleef brought a lot to this film and I enjoyed watching Klaus Kinski as a suitably crazy gunslinger. There's a much bigger scope to this one, and the characters are much more fully drawn. The character Eastwood plays is still in it for himself, but he's much more sympathetic - especially after

The third film is truly epic and grand. Set against the American Civil War, it portrays the competition between three men in finding a hidden pile of loot amounting to $200,000. Lee Van Cleef is back again with Eastwood - but this time we also have the delightful Eli Wallach as Tuco. All three characters are pretty cut-throat, only forming alliances out of necessity. Eastwood's character and Tuco have a nice little scam going where Eastwood continually turns him in for a bounty, only to rescue him again over and over. This film is different than the other two inasmuch as there are no big villains - the three characters alone have enough bad traits to fill that void. There are many impressive scenes involving Civil War battles, and some wonderful cinematography to boot. It's by far the best film out of the three - and now I feel left out not having seen Once Upon a Time in the West, where Leone finally got Charles Bronson and and Henry Fonda to star in one of his Westerns. After watching this trilogy, I also want to find out a lot more of the story behind why Sergio Leone made these films, and his reaction to their success.

I wonder if these films were eligible for the Foreign Language Movie Countdown...

A Fistful of Dollars - 6/10
For a Few Dollars More - 8/10
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly - 9/10