Rate The Last Movie You Saw

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Bright light. Bright light. Uh oh.

The Feminine Touch (W.S. Van Dyke, 1941)
6/10
Talent Scout (William Clemens, 1937)
5/10
Go Go Mania AKA Pop Gear (Frederic Goode, 1965)
6.5/10
Army of the Dead (Zack Snyder, 2021)
6/10

In a zombie-infested Las Vegas, a military team tries to survive while robbing a casino.
The Public Menace (Erle C. Kenton, 1935)
6/10
The Get Together (Will Bakke, 2020)
5.5/10
Everybody's Hobby (William C. McGann, 1939)
6/10
State Funeral (Sergei Loznitsa, 2019)
6.5/10

With footage not seen for almost 70 years, an expertly-edited-and-scored anti-propaganda piece of propaganda about the death, funeral and lionization of Joseph Stalin.
Maybe It's Love (William C. McGann, 1935)
5.5/10
Stacey (Andy Sidaris, 1973)
5/10
The Big Noise (Frank McDonald, 1936)
6/10
Come Next Spring (R.G. Springsteen, 1956)
6.5/10

In 1920s Arkansas, a family (Steve Cochran, Richard Eyer, Ann Sheridan & Sherry Jackson) is somewhat reluctantly reunited, and the local townsfolk wonder if it's a good idea.
The Brass Bottle (Harry Keller, 1964)
6/10
Made in Chinatown (Robert J. Samuels & James Lew, 2021)
5/10
The Brothers Rico (Phil Karlson, 1957)
6/10
Midnight Run (Martin Brest, 1988)
7/10

Bounty hunter Robert De Niro and Mob accountant Charles Grodin may make it to the Next Life after their long, adventure-filled trip to Los Angeles.
Aunt Clara (Anthony Kimmins, 1954)
+ 6/10
Great White (Martin Wilson, 2021)
5/10
Bachelor Bait (George Stevens, 1934)
6/10
The Family Album (Alan Berliner, 1988)
6.5/10

Director Berliner takes various other people's home movies and their voiceover narrations and edits them together to make one family's story.
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I guess I'm using arc loosely, but I guess I was hoping for something like a reveal or just not exactly what you'd expect him to do from the moment he first comes on screen. I mean, the guys spends every scene talking about the bottom line, is it any surprise that he ends up being a total weasel at the end? In contrast, even Gorman, who is nobody's favourite character, manages an act of bravery the audience is led to believe he isn't capable of.


Gorman > Burke
Oh, total agree about Gorman. As for Burke, that was not the case for me. Not sure if it's because he sold it well, or because I was used to seeing him in sitcoms like My Two Dads when I saw the film way back then, but he got me. Even though you can see he's a "company guy" at its core, I genuinely thought he cared about Ripley, so when that moment with the face-huggers came, and you see him turn off the security screens, I was shocked as hell. But I guess that's one of those reveals that's been ingrained in our collective subconscious that most people expect this kind of character to be a weasel nowadays.
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Becoming a Don's fan, he's interesting. I've seen some, one or two of his interviews and a interesting video on his YouTube page about him making cartoons way back, tremendous amount of work. Cartooning is difficult, very difficult, ask Adam Elliot. Appears to be a lonesome task, maybe that's why the good ones seem so introspective and often dark, almost nihilistic, or maybe are the lonesome that are attracted to cartooning. Oh, about the movie, I didn't understood a frinking thing.



'Let me Fall' (2018)

Baldvin Zophoníasson


In 2018, the film 'Beautiful Boy', starring Steve Carrell and Timothy Chalamet was released. It details the struggles of addiction and the pain it brings families. Beautiful boy was nominated for 30 major film awards all over the world.

In the same year, 'Let me Fall' was released. It's an Icelandic film about the same subject matter - addiction and family. It spans 20 years in the lives of 2 best friends (Magnea and Stella) who turn to substance abuse and get sucked in deeper and deeper into the depths of addiction. The performances (most notably from Kristín Þóra Haraldsdóttir as the older Magnea) are brilliant, as is the Direction and the photography which doesn't rely on artful shots of beautiful Iceland, but instead uses intelligent camerawork to convey timelapses and paranoia of the characters. The scenes centered around the damage drugs do are some of the most brutal and devastating I've seen in film.

This film is so good that it deserves to be spoken about in the same breath as the brilliant modern 'addiction films' that normally get bandied around like 'Requiem for a Dream', 'Christiane F', 'Krisha', 'Trainspotting, 'Half Nelson' and all the others.

'Let me Fall' is twice the film 'Beautiful Boy' is............It got nominated for a total of zero award nominations outside it's home country of Iceland.




This film is so good that it deserves to be spoken about in the same breath as the brilliant modern 'addiction films' that normally get bandied around like 'Requiem for a Dream', 'Christiane F', 'Krisha', 'Trainspotting, 'Half Nelson' and all the others.
Oslo, August 31st, Candy and Shame are also good. Alongside with Shame, Nymphomaniac, enjoyed watching this last one.



Oslo, August 31st, Candy and Shame are also good. Alongside with Shame, Nymphomaniac, enjoyed watching this last one.
Yes I loved Oslo August 31st and Nymphomaniac. Not seen Candy, looks decent. Thanks.



The Counterfeiter (A.K.A Project Gutenberg) -
It is a film about counterfeiting money, starring Chow Yun-Fat and Aaron Kwok.
I enjoyed it quite a lot, especially the first half where they devise a system to create the money. I've read that a lot of people don't like it due to the obvious influences from films like Fight Club and usual Suspects. While I can see what they are referring to, it didn't make me enjoy it any less, I mean after all many films borrow elements from other films.



Yes I loved Oslo August 31st and Nymphomaniac. Not seen Candy, looks decent. Thanks.
Like your profile picture. Embrace of the Serpent. One of my favorite films. If you like indigenous films check out Chuva é Cantoria na Aldeia dos Mortos.





Re-watch. Very entertaining. Douglas terrific as Liberace.



You have to be fan of Jean Seberg & Kristen Stewart to enjoy this movie, which I am & I did.



Glad I found subtitles in the streaming version. Very good action-packed true story movie.
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The Verdict (1982, Sidney Lumet)

Excellent courtroom drama beautifully written by David Mamet and featuring an impressive cast including James Mason, Charlotte Rampling, and of course, Paul Newman in one of his best roles.

I think this was the best performance of Paul Newman's career.



Taxi (2004)- While it wasn't as good as the french original it was a good bit of fun. You know a movie is old when run flat tires were treated as something exotic.

5/10



DEVIL TIMES FIVE
(1974, MacGregor)
A film with the number 5 (Five, Fifth, etc.) in its title



"It's the kids. Jesus Christ, it's the g0ddamn kids!!"

Devil Times Five (also known as People Toys, The Horrible House on the Hill, or Tantrums) follows a group of "killer kids" that escape from a psychiatric hospital and find their way into the luxurious cabin of a real estate tycoon that's having a group of people over for both business and pleasure. As you might expect, there isn't much of a chance for neither business nor pleasure.

This is a film I don't think I had seen mentioned ever... at all, but when I was looking for something to fit this criteria, I was intrigued by the premise. The film doesn't feature any notable cast and crew member as far as I'm concerned, it seems to be very low budget, direction is somewhat amateurish, and the film is overall fairly exploitative, featuring a lot of nudity and violence (even if it's not that graphic).

But what it might lack in so-called "finesse", it kinda makes up for with a certain edge and boldness to its topic. Even though its presentation of people with mental issues is problematic, to say the least, I was captivated by how daring the film was in its story and eventually in how things end.

Grade:



Full review on my Movie Loot



Midnight Cowboy (John Schlesinger, 1969) -


Saw this when I was 17 (more than ten years ago) due to it being one of @mark f's favorites, and this is now my second time seeing it. I didn't remember the, for lack of a better word, spontaneous energy this film has, with the almost Brakhage-esque flashbacks, party scene, etc. with some flashy - in a good way - cinematography at times. It created a unique mood that I really loved. But I think the storytelling is the films strength. Despite being a time capsule of the late 60's the film could have been made today, fitting in alongside movies like Call Me By Your Name and Moonlight. Voigt and especially Hoffman, who gives a contender for the greatest performance in cinema history, really drive it all home.

Spotlight (Tom McCarthy, 2015) -
+

Really enjoyed this as a stripped back undramatic tale of disgustingness and great journalism uncovering that disgustingness. The cleverness involved in the reporters was fun to watch. But I especially loved the lack of overt drama, because when the ending hits you're made to feel like the major events are just about to begin - and that's the point, as the ending title cards suggest.

I also watched God's Not Dead.



Midnight Cowboy (John Schlesinger, 1969) -


Despite being a time capsule of the late 60's the film could have been made today,
It sure could be made today. One has only to read The NY Times every day to see in what desperate straits so many Americans are living in. Just to address the issue of homelessness shown in the movie, people today are working 2-3 jobs & still can’t make rent.



Russian Language Hall of Fame

The Return (2003) -


This film would definitely make a short list of my favorite thrillers. It starts off with a super interesting premise and keeps getting better as it rolls along, culminating with an emotionally oblique and complex final act that resonated with me more than anything I've seen in film for a while.

Even though Andrei and Ivan both reacted to their father's abuse with different degrees of seriousness, both their responses were valid reactions to his behavior. Ivan was the more rebellious and concerned of the two. He protested his father's behavior a lot, refused to address him as his father when speaking to him (I found the ending to be a powerful culmination to this aspect), and experienced most of his father's abuse. His response felt like a natural reaction to his father's behavior. By contrast, Andrei protested his behavior less, was fine with addressing him as his father, and, as a result, experienced less of his abusive behavior, as if he was trying not to get on his father's bad side. I also liked that the film didn't go over-the-top with the father's abuse. Yes, he recurrently physically and emotionally hurt both brothers as the film went on, but it also didn't feel like the film was wallowing in the brutality of this (part of this is because some of the father's behavior simply involved him acting strange rather than abusive). I normally don't do well with seeing characters hurt for long periods of time, but I think Zvyagintsev found a good balance for the father's behavior and made their plight engaging to watch.

WARNING: spoilers below
While those elements are compelling though, I was mainly drawn to the mystery of the film in regards to which details were left ambiguous and which ones weren't. Throughout most of the film, the possibility that the father might kill his kids was on my mind. This raised questions on what his motives were and if he actually was their father to begin with. The father threatening Andrei with an axe implied that he did intend to kill them for a second, but the next scene implied otherwise. As he chased Ivan through the woods and up the tower, he didn't yell anything like "I'm going to kill you!" Instead, he tried to reason with him and seemed genuinely concerned for his safety. Obviously, this doesn't excuse the way he treated them prior to that scene, but what's important is that he was arguably trying to protect his son when he died rather than hurt him. Given the possibility of that, I didn't feel relieved when their father fell to his death. Instead, I questioned how I initially viewed him and wondered what would've happened if he made it to the top of the tower (I don't think he would've hurt him). Regardless of what his intentions were though, both outcomes lead to compelling results. If their father did intend to kill them, it's good that he died. If he didn't intend to kill them though, that makes the film a tragedy. Those who felt a lack of closure by the film's open-endedness are experiencing the full extent of the film's ambiguously menacing power. Granted though, if I had to nitpick one small detail, the mystery over what was in the box the father dug up on the island was unnecessary and that sub-plot could've been removed. Every other ambiguous aspect though worked phenomenally.


In conclusion, I'm glad I got to watch this film as it's a new personal favorite of mine. It sucked me in right at the beginning and never let go.



SPIRAL
FROM THE BOOK OF SAW

(2021, Bousman)
Freebie



"John Kramer was right. The spiral: a symbol of change, evolution, progress."

Spiral follows Detective Ezekiel Banks (Rock) as he pursues a serial killer that seems to be inspired by John Kramer, a.k.a. Jigsaw. He is reluctantly partnered with rookie cop William Shenck (Max Minghella) as they start investigating the murders. This is complicated by the fact that the killer seems to be targeting cops, especially those close to Banks, all of which seem to be corrupt at some level, something that Banks had uncovered before, earning their repudiation.

I won't deny the fact that I found myself intrigued by Rock's involvement, and the potential for change, evolution, and progress in a spin-off. Unfortunately, there is little of that here. The film does take a different approach, focusing more on the "cop" angle, but the plot is too predictable and director Darren Lynn Bousman shows little skill building tension or creating genuine intrigue. So the film ends up in a weird, awkward middle ground, where it is too bland for a Saw-related film or too dull for a crime thriller.

Grade:



Full review on my Movie Loot