Rate The Last Movie You Saw

Confessions of a Driving Instructor (1976)

This is a,not bad, British comedy that's a bit bawdy. The set pieces are pretty good and who knew the "Bisto mum" would be in something a bit raunchy. It's got Windsor Davies in it so decent but straying from Carry On into vicarious nudity (though funny). Of it's time.

By Image source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=73831785

Nimona - (2023)

Here's something that would have made a rare few appearances on the big screen, but would have been great to see on the big screen. A really entertaining and attractive animated film set in a fictional kingdom that is a mix of future technology and old-style knights-in-armour Middle-Ages kind of decor. Ballister Boldheart (voiced by Riz Ahmed) is the first non-noble born man to become a knight when he's framed for the Queen's murder and has to go on the run, meeting up with the shape-shifting Nimona (voiced by Chloë Grace Moretz) who will try to help him prove his innocence. This does something daring for a mainstream animated film - it has the hero in a gay relationship with fellow-knight Ambrosius Goldenloin (voiced by Eugene Lee Yang). It's Nimona, though, who provides most of the thrills and the laughs. This felt fresh and new, making competitors like Elemental suddenly look old hat and tired. Great animation and bold storytelling.

7.5/10


By Netflix - IMP Awards, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=74029461

They Cloned Tyrone - (2023)

This was a big hit with quite a few people last year, but it didn't quite do as much for me - although I have to admit to thinking this was a lot of fun during a very funny second act, where pimp Slick Charles (Jamie Foxx), prostitute Yo-Yo (Teyonah Parris) and drug dealer Fontaine (John Boyega) are encountering strange goings-on around their town and trying to figure out what it all means. After that, the metaphor-heavy denouement saw the fun dialed way back and the whole package became a little stale. Kiefer Sutherland made a good white villain - but I won't spoil things by revealing anything else.

6/10


By The poster art can or could be obtained from the distributor., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=51060441

Tickled - (2016)

New Zealand reporter David Farrier's decision to do a story on "competitive endurance tickling" takes a bizarre turn when Jane O'Brien Media unleashes a tidal wave of abuse and lawyers for no reason whatsoever - and everything only gets stranger from there in this surprise-a-minute documentary with dozens of twists and turns. Full review here, on my watchlist thread.

7/10

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Popping a DVD into the player for my late night movie. It's that classic from 1942, Casablanca. Movies have rarely been better than this. With wartime drama and urgency, music performance from Dooley Wilson as Sam (Play It Again, Sam, As Time Goes By) and an iconic cast including Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman as Rick and Ilsa, creepy Peter Lorre as the sleazy smuggler, Sidney Greenstreet as the "civilized" smuggler and Claude Rains as the chief of police, it's classic black and white Hollywood about as good as it ever got. This DVD is about as pristine with images as could be for a 1942 piece of film. It's a compact movie that goes right to the point, no wasted words or scenes and terrific iconic imagery, hard to forget.

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

Have to say I rated the movie like this because I did not like Coppola's story (in this case) very much. Love his movies but "Life Without Zöe" here was not quite on my taste.
The other two stories made by Scorsese and Allen were more authentic. Loved Nick Nolte's performance here. But I rated it with a 3/5 ; 6/10, because of Francis F. Coppola's story.
He still remains one of my favourite directors though for what he accomplished during his career.

Another movie on my list of movies I never tire of re-watching. Yes, there are a few gaping plotholes, but we do have spectacular production values, a pair of razor sharp supporting performances from Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci, but it is the one woman acting class offered by Meryl Streep as dragon lady Miranda Priestley that makes this movie worth watching all by itself.

4th Rewatch...This feel good sports comedy is about as predictable as they come but remains a lot of fun thanks to a winning cast, with standout work by Charlie Sheen as Wild Thing, Dennis Haybert as the voo doo worshipping Serrano, Wesley Snipes as Willie Mays Hayes, and especially, as the villian, the late great Margaret Whitton as the bitchy team owner trying to set the guys up for failure.

Happiness (1998)

This is a bizarre affair, on the one hand funny and quirky and on the other intentionally disturbing. It's certainly watchable for the performances but I don't think it really hangs together. I've seen Storytelling and Palindromes by Solondz and, while interesting, thought the director was trying too hard to be provocative without any real end message, that's how I felt about Happiness (I've seen Salo about 10 times so am not adverse to provocative cinema).

John Wick Chapter 4

4

Meow!

This may be one of the better "scary cat" movies, and it's a hoot. My only regret is not having been able to watch it with an audience for my first viewing. I'll bet that would be hysterical.

Don't forget - cats see the world with a distorted anamorphic lens!


A somewhat less successful "scary cat" movies, although it has a few moments. But despite being just barely about an hour long, it absolutely overstays its welcome, which no decent cat would ever do.

Black Easter (2021) What happens if you cross a low budget sci-fi time travel flick with a Christian movie about Jesus? The answer is Black Easter, an odd and convoluted film that remains strangely compelling and entertaining, despite its flaws. An extremist wants to send a military team back in time to kill Jesus before the crucifixion to prevent the rise of Christianity. There is lots of jumping around in different timelines by multiple characters and I'm not sure how much of it actually makes sense. Performances are hit and miss. Morgan Roberts is the weakest link as the main scientist and narrator, whose performance is not very believable or interesting. The narration is especially ineffective and takes away from the film. Lamar Usher makes the most of his character as a scientist who has the film's best scene, a humorous conversation about movies with Jesus. Dialogue ranges from cliched and cheesy to sometimes funny and amusing. The tone feels all over the place, but in spite of all of the films shortcomings there are enough enjoyable elements to make this time travel Jesus mash up movie worth checking out. Watched on Tubi.

We're pretty much on the same page with this movie...here's a link to my review:

https://www.movieforums.com/reviews/...oad-house.html

4th Rewatch...The classic Broadway musical makes a decent transition from stage to screen despie some questionable casting and unnecessary changes to the score. Marlon Brando was an odd choice to play gambler Sky Masterson, but fresh off his Oscar win for On the Waterfront, he was the biggest movie star in Hollywood, so him getting this role wasn't really shocking. Brando's no singer, but I keep thinking that maybe they should have switched him with Frank SInatra and have Sinatra play Sky and have Brando play Nathan Detroit, a role that didn't really seem a good fit for Sinatra. Vivian Blaine and Stubby Kaye are allowed to reprise their roles as Adelaide and Nicely Nicely Johnon, who stop the show with their numbers "Adelaide's Lament" and "Sit Down You're Rocking the Boat". Jean Simmons delivers a rich performance as Sarah Brown, that despite her limited vocal skills, won her the Golden Globe for Outstanding Actress in a Comedy or Musical. The replacement of "A Bushel and a Peck" with "Pet Me Poppa" and the replacement of "I've Never Been in Love Before" with "A Woman in Love" don't really work, believing they were made to gain the film a possible Best Original Song Oscar nomination, which failed, though it did receive four nominations in technical categories. This movie still provides pretty consistent entertainment, but I would still love to see this musical brought to the screen properly.

Saint Omer (2022) -

This was a fairly interesting courtroom drama about alienation and clashing cultures where certain parts of Coly's life were reflected in that of Rama's. Both women are Senegalese, are in interracial relationships, and have complex relationships with their mothers. Aside from a couple brief scenes here and there and a few quality close up shots, the film doesn't do a whole lot with Rama's connection to Coly. The scenes which occur outside of the courtroom which give us a personal look at how the court hearing is affecting Rama feel rushed through as the film is constantly eager to cut back to the lengthy courtroom sequences. Fortunately, what we get in that regard is quite thought provoking and layered. While watching it, I frequently thought about my experience reading Native Son. While neither works attempt to apologize for the crimes of the respective characters in each, they instead portray the various factors which led to the crimes taking place and recontexualize the violent criminal trope which is used all too often and instead portray them more as everyday humans. The more Coly opens up throughout the film, the more we begin to understand the various factors which shaped her and led to her actions. The most telling bits for me was when her boyfriend (who's noticeably much older than her) was revealed to have gone through great lengths to hide Coly from his family and ignored her distress when she needed him the most. While understanding the nature of a crime is interesting though, so were the parallels between Coly and Rama. Given how much Rama's character existed on the outside edges of the film and how it kept seeming like we'd finally be given more to latch on to with her, there were some noticeable missed opportunities involved. I couldn't help but get the sense that the film was only capitalizing on maybe 2/3 of its potential at best. Still though, the film sat decently well with me upon reflection and thinking about its themes and strategies later on was enjoyable. I think I preferred that over watching the film.

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IMDb
Letterboxd

Take the Money and Run - 1969.



Rewatched this after many years. Watched it with joy.
Love his early filmmaking style where he uses this self-mocking humor

Dogman is easily the nadir of Luc Besson's film career - a long career that was already showing signs of creative exhaustion 20 years ago.

I don't mind admitting I was quite into Besson's films as late as 1999 - and that he made some very fun movies back in the 90s.

By turns appalling and nauseating, this film practically wallows in hoary clichés and some very problematic tropes - including racist and ableist ones - and as the pièce de résistance, the old stand-by of vilifying gender variance.

And then there's the part about using trained dogs to commit heinous crimes.

Marisa Berenson is in this movie for what amounts to an extended cameo, and it's a sad thing that she should have chosen this film to make a brief return to the big screen. She deserved better, and so did all of the dogs who appeared in the movie.

By BFI - BBC News, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=72775449

Enys Men - (2022)

Arthouse horror can be much scarier than your average slasher or haunted house movie - and Enys Men is just the kind of offering that's going to burrow down deep, because of it's dreamlike ambience and because the isolated location it was filmed in feels haunting enough as it is. It's about a wildlife volunteer (played by Mary Woodvine) doing a scientific study on certain flowers in the region (a very specific group of flowers) through observation. This constant observation bleeds over into the environment as a whole, with an abandoned mine, ruins, and rocks all taking on more and more sinister appearances as time flows forward. Is the young girl she's with her daughter, friend or even a younger version of herself? Ghosts from disasters both recent and very old are all about, and familiarity with the area only serves to make them more present - in fact, the volunteer is becoming a permanent part of the place she's examining so closely. This was fascinating, and very disturbing in a creepy kind of way.

8/10


By Eiga.com, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=74324464

Godzilla Minus One - (2023)

Every time Godzilla made an appearance in Godzilla Minus One I was overwhelmingly entertained, and of the opinion that the action in this film is the best Godzilla-based explosive destruction I've ever seen. When we were dealing with the human characters, everything became a lot less thrilling and a lot more average. I'm not saying bad - Japanese men and women had to deal with much survivor guilt after the war, and to explore that isn't a bad idea. I have to say though, that Japan as a culture and society dealt with their part in the war a lot differently than Germany did, and it shows, with the war looked upon as a "tragedy" that befell Japan instead of something they actually did. Anyway - many people rave about this movie, and I can see why. If the human drama had of grabbed me just a little more, this would be a point higher.

7/10


By Universal Pictures - IMP Awards, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=74399518

The Exorcist : Believer - (2023)

This earned a lot of money at the box office, and it earned quite a bit of eye-rolling from me last night. It was so hard to shoehorn Ellen Burstyn's Chris MacNeil into this movie, and once she was in it felt so odd and contrived. To Danny McBride : the Halloween franchise wasn't enough? Now you want to produce three Exorcist films to blight the mainstream cinema landscape? All of that stuff aside though, and just judging this as a horror film on it's own, this had a moment here and there. Ann Dowd didn't fare too well though, and the screenplay was certainly lacking.

5/10


By Scanned from the DVD by User:johantheghost., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3539606

The Impostors - (1998)

Oliver Platt and Stanley Tucci feature as Maurice and Arthur, two out-of-work and out-of-luck actors who accidentally stow away on a cruise ship in this ode to 1930s screwball comedies and the silent films of the golden age of Hollywood. It has loads of heart and charm. Full review here, in my watchlist thread.

7/10

Death Sentence - (2007)

How far would you go to protect (avenge) your loved ones? Pretty far, apparently.

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There has been an awekening.... have you felt it?

Popping a DVD into the player for my late night movie. It's that classic from 1942, Casablanca. Movies have rarely been better than this. With wartime drama and urgency, music performance from Dooley Wilson as Sam (Play It Again, Sam, As Time Goes By) and an iconic cast including Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman as Rick and Ilsa, creepy Peter Lorre as the sleazy smuggler, Sidney Greenstreet as the "civilized" smuggler and Claude Rains as the chief of police, it's classic black and white Hollywood about as good as it ever got. This DVD is about as pristine with images as could be for a 1942 piece of film. It's a compact movie that goes right to the point, no wasted words or scenes and terrific iconic imagery, hard to forget.