Rate The Last Movie You Saw

1st Rewatch...Enjoyed this movie a lot more on the rewatch. There's a lot of subtlety and clever double entendres in Billy Wilder and IAL Diamonds screenplay, the polar opposite of their previous film Sunset Boulevard, which won them an Oscar. There is a lot of legend regarding the behind the scenes turmoil in getting this film made, mostly surrounding the unprofessionalism of Marilyn Monroe as Sugar Kane...she was apparently constantly late for work and her lines were taped up all over the set because she couldn't remember them and Tony Curtis apparently hated working with her as well, but none of this really shows onscreen. Joe E Brown made me laugh every time he appeared on screen, but if the truth be told, Jack Lemmon's Oscar-nominated performance as Jerry/Daphne that is the best thing about this movie. This is another of those performances that should be studied by acting students.

3rd Rewatch...This movie provides the same laughs it did back in 1992, thanks to the effortless onscreen charisma provided by Michael Jordan. Jordan has just begun his baseball career when he gets sucked into a hole by the Looney Tunes who need his help in winning a basketball game with five very large aliens who stole their talent from five NBA legends (Patrick Ewing, Charles Barkley, Shawn Jackson, Larry Johnson, Muggsey Bogues). This movie still provides consistent laughs most of them coming from Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Bill Murray, even though you really notice the absence of Mel Blanc. That scene where Bugs and Daffy go to Jordan's house to get his basketball clothes never gets old.

1st Rewatch...this film is such an oddity, though it does provide sporadic laughs. I'm pretty sure the only reason this film came to fruition is because someone wanted to do a sequel to Bruce Almighty and Jim Carrey either wasn't available or wasn't interested. So what they did was take the villain out of that movie and place him in a similar situation that actually reminded me more of a 1977 film called Oh God! than it did of Bruce Almighty. Just like in Oh God, I hate the way God (Morgan Freeman) just craps all over Evan's life to the point where his family walks out on him, his career is destroyed and the world thinks he's insane. I don't understand why God would do this to someone. Maybe it had something to do with Evan's campaign slogan "Change the World", which got him elected to Congress, but God is really hard on Evan in this one.

The World, the Flesh, and the Devil - 5/10
This could have been good. I even FF'd the first 30 minutes, and that hour remaining lasted forever.. Inger Stevens is pretty. I listened to an interview recently where she's on a panel of women on The Tonight Show who talk about "the new woman" in the age of liberation (1962 and it was nice to put a moving woman to the voice I've heard many times. There was too much emphasis on showing empty streets, but the movie had a lot of empty dialogue. And even that was not well thought out... Either you be natural, OR, an intellectual way of saying a lot in a few words to avoid having a 4 hour movie. And Harry Belafonte, the lead, can't act, but he was brought in because of his popularity in music, just like that same year with Mort Sahl with stand-up.

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Which Way is Up? - (1977)

Here's another virtually forgotten movie from the 1970s - I was expecting this to be quite bad, and while it's certainly very poor in many departments Richard Pryor really busts a nut to try and elevate it. It's just like one of these Pryor vehicles to give me a pretty good laugh here and there in spite of the overall tackiness of the screenplay. Pryor plays three roles - Leroy Jones, a worker who becomes a union hero when volunteers are being called for and he accidentally falls off a ladder. Rufus Jones, Leroy's father, who has a high libido and is a one-joke character. Reverend Lenox Thomas, who impregnates Leroy's wife causing Leroy to seek revenge by seducing the Reverend's wife. It's the tale of a union hero selling out after witnessing an assassination - it plays to Pryor's schtick of being terrified of something, and it plays to that a lot. The other dominant theme is sex - every second scene features Pryor either seducing someone or being aggressively seduced by a woman. So, all you have to do to imagine what this is like is to think of one scene where Pryor is really scared and chickening out of something, then a scene where Pryor is being handcuffed to a bed and being violated, or smoothly (sometimes comically clumsily) seducing some woman. Rinse and repeat. If it sounds bad - most of it really is, but Pryor can sure dredge up a big laugh from time to time, making this a little less awful than it could have been. (As long as you're willing to overlook the raging homophobia - apparently this was perfectly okay in the 1970s.)

5/10


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Ghosts of Mars - (2001)

Once again I ventured into a film I thought would be terrible, but ended up just being a little bad and forgettable. I was surprised just how good the premise to Ghosts of Mars is, and the make-up effects for the possessed Mars workers. You see, they've been possessed by the wandering spirits of a bygone Martian civilisation - beings which float around and possess any other lifeforms that come to Mars as 'invaders' - okay, it sounds stupid. It sounds a lot better when the movie explains it, and when you see the creepy creatures putting heads on spikes and mutilating themselves. Horror/creepy, on a deserted Martian base that feels haunted. Unfortunately, Carpenter and co couldn't think of much else to do with this film, so we just end up with action scenes while the group of survivors we have race from building to train to building staving the creatures off. It's Assault on Precinct 13 with Martian spirits instead of local thugs and gang members. This film has a great atmosphere, set design and make-up effects - it's just a shame that the story is so non-existent. By the way spoiler alert but


Okay, okay - the scales end up level on this one. John Carpenter really had something here, but did nothing with it - he took a great horror premise and by the time he was finished it had morphed into a mindless action flick.

5/10



Costa Rican Summer - (2010)

No way. Peter Dante (a lower tier 'Happy Madison' schlub) and Pamela Anderson sink as low as they can go by featuring in this amateur, microbudget production. It has every mark of a "worst ever" movie - stilted delivery by actors not at all suited to the profession, nudity that feels so exploitative you'll actually look away, music that sounds like it's a Casio keyboard demo tune, excruciating "jokes" that are painful to watch, sub-par production values, "never handled a camera before - or even learned how" cinematography and a clumsily lifted storyline that's a cliché of clichés. Everything is rock bottom - Costa Rican Summer is easily one of the worst movies I've ever watched, and you can be damned sure I'm going to force other people to watch it as often as I can. Words don't do it justice really - even the two "big name" stars give wooden, awkward and halting line readings. This isn't bottom of the barrel - this exists somewhere beneath the barrel, most probably in hell itself. It's insane that this was even made.

1/10

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Napoleon
7/10.
Napoleon delves into both the personal life and the military career of one of the world's greatest rulers. The battle of Waterloo was the best part - epic and grand.

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Boldly going.

SF = Zzzz



[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

The Brood (1979)

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[ J ] - [ S ] - [ F ]

The Invisible Man (1933, James Whale)

What a delightful adaptation this is! Short, sweet, and the special effects are just outstanding...still hold up to this day!

This has to rank among the best psychological horror films I've ever seen. Catherine Deneuve stars as a frigid female scared stiff of men and as she interacts with them she slowly loses ber mind, with the film culminating in acts of extreme violence.

Polanski's direction is amazing, there are a couple of very jarring jump scares and effective use of practical effects (like the cracking of walls) to mimic the lead characters psychological state.

Excellent film.

1st Rewatch...This one didn't hold up as well on rewatch as I had hoped. This story of a fictional 196o's black singing group offers some strong performances, especially Michael Wright and Leon, but the script gets a little syrupy at times. That scene where Robert Townsend and his little sister write a song on the spot from pieces of paper hidden around the room is one of the silliest things I have ever seen.

1st Rewatch...this one might have been even more harrowing than the first time. It had my stomach in knots and had me talking back to the screen. This is the story of an overweight, barely literate teen who lives with her physically and emotionally abusive mother (Mo'Nique) and has one child and one on the way, courtesy of her stepfather. The Oscar winning screenplay (Geoffrey Fletcher, BTW, was the first African American to win the award in this category, original or adaptation) is raw and uncompromising and just so you know, the welfare system doesn't work like this anymore (the film is set circa 1987). Lee Daniels' Oscar nominated direction sends a story that you want to but are unable to turn away from. My only problem with this story is that Precious is a character we want a better a life for and she deserves it, but she just seems to want it to be handed to her on a silver platter. But this movie does not play. Gabourey Sidibe's Oscar-nominated performance in the title role demands viewer empathy and Mo'Nique's ferocious performance as her mom won her the Best Supporting Actress, a win that surprised me at the time, but after watching this again and reviewing who the other four nominees were, I understand the win. The scene where Precious brings her second baby home is one of the most horrifying things I have ever seen in a movie.

1st Rewatch...this one was definitely better than I remembered. This sexually charged romantic drama stars Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling as Cindy and Dean, a married couple with an adorable daughter, whose marriage has begun to implode and they have decided o figure out why by sending their daughter to Grandpa for the night and checking into a hotel, and it is there Dean and Cindy's past is revealed to us, hopefully providing some insight into what led Dean and Cindy to this hotel. We never really get an answer to that, but what we do get is a fascinating look into a marriage that had more than its shares of dangerous waters. It's insane how the screenplay leaps back and forth in time, requiring complete attention. That scene in the doctor's office where Dean his Cindy's boss heartbreaking and terrifying. The chemistry between Williams and Gosling is off the charts. Gosling brings a very De Niro quality to Dean and Michelle Williams' all over the place and earned her a Best Actress Oscar nomination. This appointment viewing for fans of the stars and I am upping my original rating.

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (2023), short film

Written and Directed by Wes Anderson
Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Benedict Cumberbatch, Dev Patel and Ben Kingsley

Wow! This guy Wes Anderson is a cult. What a screen design! Very Nice!
90/100

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"Population don't imitate art, population imitate bad television." W.A.
"You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus." M.T.

Napoleon (Ridley Scott, 2023)

I went into this movie wanting to see Joaquin Phoenix and some cool battle scenes and on that level I was definitely not disappointed. Ridley Scott is a master at constructing spectacular battles. He also has a keen eye for cinematography. The film, its sets, and its costumes are gorgeous. I also thought the performances were excellent.

But I definitely didn’t love it. What little story there was felt disjointed, none of its key players were even a little bit likable, and supporting characters just seem to appear and then suddenly disappear with little to no explanation. There wasn’t really anyone to root for or against. I do think it is a good film overall and one that I will watch again but it’s definitely never going to be a favorite.





Venom: Let There Be Carnage (Andy Serkis, 2021)

I watched this because I wanted some stupid entertainment with the delicious eye candy that is Tom Hardy. I was not disappointed. It is REALLY stupid, Tom Hardy looks hot AF, and I was entertained. Great for one watch, but I doubt I will ever see it again.

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And the chickens were adorable.

Plan 9 from Outer Space follows a group of aliens, ahem, from outer space implementing a plan to stop humans from using "big guns" and "explosives" or, if that fails, destroy humanity. The plan? To resurrect the dead because, as their commander Eros says in the above quote, humans are "frightened by those who cannot [think]". So they think that, somehow, the undead and the ensuing chaos will help them to either grab humanity's attention or just finish them.

Written, produced, directed, and edited by Ed Wood, it is one of the most notorious examples of his skills, or lack of. The film has a mostly non-sensical plot, stilted performances, odd use of stock footage, and overall inept production values. The sets and costumes look like those from a school production and the pace of the film is, to put it mildly, awkward as it sputters along different plotlines loosely hanging from each other.

Grade:


Full review on my Movie Loot

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I was really impressed by this film when it came out in '65. But I was so shocked, afterward it took me 5 beers to calm down. I was reluctant to see a Catherine Deneuve film for a long time afterwards! God bless her, she's a year older than I, and happily still alive. She was gorgeous.

Interesting color still. The original film of course was in black & white, but I read that there had been a colorization of it in 2006. I don't know if color would help it or not. The film was silly-ass even in 1957, but I love the parts with Lugosi and Vampira.

As you know the movie plays an interesting part in Tim Burton's Ed Wood (1994), which I thought was a great film.

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Bombshell - (2019)

Fox News has been at the center of one controversy after another in recent years - for example, their need to cozy up to a certain controversial figure meant they reported certain things they knew weren't true. In the meantime, there's been a steady outing of senior figures sexually harassing and debasing women working there. Not being an American, all I know about the place comes from documentaries like Outfoxed and various other commentaries I happen to see, read and/or hear - making the channel seem assuredly propagandistic and biased towards right-leaning politics. Bombshell actually seems balanced for the most part - and doesn't portray Roger Ailes (John Lithgow) as a complete slobbering monster, just as a guy who quietly preyed upon women because he had the power to do so. Overall it gives us another example of a kind of "strength in numbers" victory for the victims of powerful predators. Many great performances in this - although I feel the surface is just being scratched, and in future years, once the dust has settled, deeper probes into the rise and fall of the toxic environment at this particular workplace might come to fruition.

7/10


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The Boondock Saints - (1999)

Watching 2003 documentary Overnight poisoned the well a little - it paints the making of this film and it's director in such an awful light it's hard for me to judge it solely on it's merits. Still, if you don't take it too seriously, The Boondock Saints is somewhat fun and enjoyable. You can see why Troy Duffy's screenplay attracted the attention it did, and all we can do is lament the fact that his guy didn't have the poise and sense of humble self-awareness to be a real filmmaker. His story - the MacManus twins Connor (Sean Patrick Flanery) and Murphy (Norman Reedus) deciding they have such a flair for killing that they decide to take out as many Mafioso as they can - isn't bad, and you sense Duffy is seeing himself as the next Tarantino. Unfortunately for him, he's not as talented, and some of this really comes off as amateurish and lacking polish. Moments of "coolness" come off as juvenile posing, and there's nothing worse than a person who's not cool thinking he is. All that aside - it's a lot of silly fun though, and if you don't take it seriously or think too much about Duffy being a poser and wannabe you can enjoy much of this film's comic aspect and bizarre charm. Because of that, it's all the more tragic it's talented maker couldn't rein in his self-destructive impulses.

7/10


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Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor - (2023)

For found footage horror, this movie gets a little too brazen and ups the ghostly visuals a little too early for the proper amount of tension to have built up, but overall it's not a bad spook-fest. It's haunted mansion location, various freaky clown statues that come alive, and reality-bending creepy moments are enough to entertain, and the film trundles along with no pretense to being a masterpiece. It's got me in the mood to go back to the original of this series, Hell House LLC, which I didn't have enough time to see last night.

6/10