Rate The Last Movie You Saw

Tools    





Victim of The Night
Adkins absolute best is Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning. Especially if you track down the director's cut. Rather than feeling lineage to the franchise, it feels like Gaspar Noe and Nicolas Winding Refn decided to co-direct a blend of Blade Runner and Apocalypse Now.

Ninja 2 is also quite possibly the best Ninja movie around (it’s even got Sho Kosugi’s son in it).
What?!!!


(Big fan of Sho Kosugi.)



Hmmm... that's actually interesting.

Alright, let's just say I was actually gonna add one or two of these to my queue - not saying I'll watch 'em but maybe put 'em in the queue and who knows what could happen some rainy day - y'all give me Adkins' best and one other of these to put in those slots. Please.
The only thing I've seen him in outside of his mainstream work is Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning, but I'll echo the support for that one. I would actually extend that support to Universal Soldier: Regeneration, which doesn't feature Adkins, but it's a pretty solid action film. But Day of Reckoning? That one's kick-ass, trippy, and disturbing, all in the same package.
__________________
Check out my podcast: The Movie Loot!



Welcome to the human race...
Licorice Pizza -


Officially the first film I've ever seen that made me think "man, I wish Bradley Cooper had had more screen-time".
__________________
I really just want you all angry and confused the whole time.
Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0



Victim of The Night
Licorice Pizza -


Officially the first film I've ever seen that made me think "man, I wish Bradley Cooper had had more screen-time".
How was Alana Haim?
(I'm a big Haim fan and I'm hoping she does well in this new creative avenue.)



WEST SIDE STORY
(1961, Wise & Robbins)



"Why do you kids live like there's a war on? Why do you kill?"

The film follows these two gangs as they struggle for control of their NYC neighborhood. The Jets are a white gang while the Sharks are a Puerto Rican gang. Meanwhile, Tony (Richard Beymer), a former Jet, falls in love with Maria (Natalie Wood), the sister of the leader of the Sharks, which further sparks the conflict between both groups.

I'm Puerto Rican, and my first experience with West Side Story didn't go that well. The first time I saw it was probably 20-ish years ago and I really didn't like it. Not necessarily for the reasons I mention above, but mostly because I found the two central characters AND performances (Beymer and Wood) to be utterly boring and completely uninteresting. However, as I grew up, I became more aware of the racial issues in its script and execution.

In addition, although the story does intend to put the Jets and Sharks on more or less the same level, the script and direction can't help but lean towards the Jets. The film opens with the Jets, and for most of the film's duration, the focus is solely on them, relegating the Puerto Rican Sharks to secondary characters or even the "bad guys". For a film that's heralded as the representation of Puerto Rican culture, that says a lot.

But my first point of contention remained the same; Beymer and Wood just can't hold this. Not only are their performances bland, but they're characters are completely boring. The fact that they are completely upstaged by Chakiris and Moreno, whose characters are infinitely more interesting, just adds to the list of film's flaws.

Grade:



Full review on my Movie Loot



Victim of The Night
WEST SIDE STORY
(1961, Wise & Robbins)





Beymer and Wood... are completely upstaged by Chakiris and Moreno...
I completely agree with this, for sure.



Check out the remake of WSS when you get a chance, @Thief. I felt it made Bernardo and Anita a lot more sympathetic, and the Jets come off a little more like ********.



Welcome to the human race...
How was Alana Haim?
(I'm a big Haim fan and I'm hoping she does well in this new creative avenue.)
Very good.

Red Desert -


I can think of two things wrong with that title.



Check out the remake of WSS when you get a chance, @Thief. I felt it made Bernardo and Anita a lot more sympathetic, and the Jets come off a little more like ********.
I'll surely check it out, but even as it is, I totally empathize with Bernardo and Anita in the original. I mean, Anita loses his boyfriend and is almost gang-raped, and it is all brushed aside as if it was nothing, in favor of poor Maria and Tony.





Interesting real-life story & a great cast. But terribly slow. Two hours seemed like 4 hours.
__________________
I’m here only on Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays. That’s why I’m here now.



RITA MORENO
JUST A GIRL WHO DECIDED TO GO FOR IT

(2021, Pérez Riera)



"Her career did not take off after West Side Story, rising with bigger and better parts. Her career widened to encompass a diversity of roles and media"

This documentary, from Mariem Pérez Riera, follows the life and career of Moreno from her birth in a humble town in Puerto Rico to where she is now, a 90 year old Oscar-winner with a renowned career, and a new film about to come out. The path there is neatly defined by film historian Annette Insdorf in the above quote, because when faced with the same stereotypes, she managed to shake it off and diversify her career in a unique way.

But the documentary also puts a spotlight on the many personal issues she has faced. Aside from discrimination and typecasting, she went through a toxic relationship with Marlon Brando, and even a sexual assault by a former agent. Despite all that, Moreno has managed to become a stalwart of Latin communities and an icon of female empowerment. All of that because she decided to go for it.

Grade:



Full review on my Movie Loot



matt72582's Avatar
Please Quote/Tag Or I'll Miss Your Responses

Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17727690

High and Low - (1963)

Mark off another on the Kurosawa/Mifune list for me, this is the 6th collaboration between director and actor I've seen and the 9th Kurosawa film overall. There's a lot to unpack with High and Low, an epic detective story where people are ruined, a kid is kidnapped and a loathsome perpetrator hunted by the police. Mifune's Kingo Gondo lives in a large house on a hill and is just days away from a boardroom coup that will cement his ownership over a shoe manufacturing business he oversees. Someone attempts to kidnap his son, catches the wrong kid, but asks for the ransom anyway. Gondo is compelled to pay up - and it is up to the cops to track this person down. The first segment focuses on Gondo and his palatial home, which is invaded once the kidnap has taken place, then we descend from this heaven into the hell of the streets, ending up with the living dead in heroin dens (the film's Japanese title, Heaven and Hell is more apt.) For 1963 this film is ambitious and beyond most everything I've seen from that time period. I'd say that many police procedural films have taken a cue or two from it. It's genuinely exciting, captivating and emotionally wrenching. There's a final scene that just puts an added stamp on the excellence that has gone before.

8.5/10

Foreign Language Countdown films seen : 56/100


https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9f/Leben_der_anderen.jpg

The Lives of Others - (2006)

Set in East Germany, this brilliant masterpiece of a film places us inside the lives of people living under an oppressive regime where privacy has become a thing of the past and friends, family and neighbours have been scared to the extent that they betray those they love. But in the midst of this, a wonderful character has been created - Gerd Wiesler (played by Ulrich Mühe) : a true believer and ruthless Stasi Captain, who nevertheless becomes involved in the life of a person he's spying on. I can't say anything more than that. The Lives of Others is a film you have to see and approach fresh to get a wonderful, but difficult, surprise from. It's incredibly rare to come across a film that feels so fresh and brand new - something that's saying something unique enough to really stand out and be well worth the time invested in watching it. Tremendous performances, a last line I'll never forget, and just on the whole a perfect film for me. I can't believe a film about the East German Stasi is so life affirming and inspirational - really bucks up my faith in the human race as a compassionate and hopeful phenomenon.

10/10

Foreign Language Countdown films seen : 57/100

I liked how you divided "High and Low" into two parts. I'd call the first one "High" and then the descent into the streets as "Low"


I liked "The Lives of Others", but if you liked that, you might love "The Ear" (1970, released in 1990). I think its more realistic, and just better overall.



I liked how you divided "High and Low" into two parts. I'd call the first one "High" and then the descent into the streets as "Low"


I liked "The Lives of Others", but if you liked that, you might love "The Ear" (1970, released in 1990). I think its more realistic, and just better overall.
The Lives of Others is very good.



What?!!!


(Big fan of Sho Kosugi.)
Yup! The first Adkins Ninja flick is a decent enough joint but the second really steps up the action, strips the plot to a revenge flick and let’s Kane Kosugi show off how much of a badass like his dad he has become since his little kid turn in Revenge of the Ninja.

Basically, if you miss 80s action flicks from both Hollywood and Hong Kong, the closest you’re going to get is Adkins DTV vehicles. They’re straight forward, very violent and fun. Often pretty stupid but that comes with the territory.



Crumbsroom has warned me away from A Hole in My Heart, so I haven't seen that one. But everything else I've seen from Moodysson (Show Me Love, We are the Best!) I have loved. The latter film in particular is just an awesome explosion of joy.
Yes, I understand that...it's pretty bleak and nihilistic. "Together" is another great one by Moodysson.




Don’t Look Up (2021)

This is one of those shockingly bad films that comes along once in awhile which is packed with big name actors who, despite their best efforts, could not rescue it. It’s difficult to believe that writer/director Adam McKay was the same man who directed and co-wrote The Big Short (2015), which was a very well done film. Perhaps his co-writer on that project, Charles Randolph, might have made something of this turkey had he been employed.

Right out of the chute the premise of the picture was shaky, and had been done before in several iterations. To try to make an end-of-the-world black comedy humorous would be a very tall order no matter who were the writers. In this case it was the cinematic equivalent of a loud belch at a funeral.

Two scientists (Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence) discover and determine that a large comet will collide with the Earth in 6 month’s time, the impact of which will destroy the planet. The pair eventually are able to take this news to the President of the U.S. (Meryl Streep), and her son and chief of staff (Jonah Hill). They at first pooh-pooh the idea, but then later see it as a move to increase their re-election chances. In addition, a Steve Jobs/Elon Musk type character (Mark Rylance) latches onto the circumstance as a way to make trillions by bombing the comet and mining its large trove of rare earth metals.

Along the way we meet two news anchors, ala the
Today show, one of which (Cate Blanchett) inexplicably falls for the nerdy looking DiCaprio. The other scientist (Lawrence) flees home to Illinois where she has a relationship with a stoner (Timothee Chalamet). We’ll spare you the ending, but it’s as consistently bad as the rest of the film.

The picture was not without some good acting. DiCaprio let out all the stops when screaming to the TV audience that this would be the end of the world. Mark Rylance did a very effective and creepy portrayal of a megalomaniacal CEO whose sole intention was to increase his power and wealth. Some of the other actors did their best, but it’s not possible to breath life into a dead script.

Despite the fact that the title –
Don’t Look Up—was an signal that this was to be a comedy, it was 15 minutes into the movie before there was evidence of it. As the story dragged on, hammering away with one leaden satiric or comedic misfire after another, the task soon became to try to last through a little longer believing that surely the film would improve. It didn’t. By the time the credits and two epilogues wound through at a tedious 138 minutes we’d become numbed but yet flabbergasted that this picture was made at all. If one didn’t know better one could imagine that this was a satire about a cast of social justice types who have attempted to make a satire. At least that would have been novel.

Doc’s rating: 2/10







Watermelon Man - 1970 social satire directed by Melvin Van Peebles and starring Godfrey Cambridge and Estelle Parsons. I hesitate to label it a comedy even though there's a fair amount of farce in it. Hesitate mostly because a lot of what you see onscreen is still going on today only with deadlier consequences.

Cambridge plays Jeff Gerber, a cartoonishly insufferable insurance salesman and nonchalant racist. His levelheaded wife Althea's (Parsons) attempts to enlighten Jeff about his virulent views towards minorities go largely unheeded. There is no subtlety here. Cambridge's Gerber is an outsized buffoon and more of a dismissive renunciation of racism than an attempt at authenticity.

One day Gerber wakes up black. No explanation or foreshadowing provided although Jeff does frantically try to "cure" himself by using numerous skin care products and drinking copious amounts of milk. He also blames his predicament on his overuse of a sun lamp and homemade tanning lotion. Police constantly harass him while his boss sees it as the perfect opportunity for the company to branch out into the previously untapped and potentially lucrative "Negro" market. On the home front there are constant anonymous threats over the phone for the family to get out of the neighborhood.

One night a group of neighbors shows up and offers him increasing amounts of money to sell his house before he drives property values down. He eventually agrees to almost triple the amount it's worth. His wife does leave him though and takes their two kids, leaving Jeff to unreservedly embrace his new life.

I suppose when this first came out it was unheard of and I'm assuming controversial but watching it now only accentuates it's dated qualities. I don't know if Peebles meant to make it look like an old time sitcom or soap opera but there were also extraneous tight closeups sprinkled in for no apparent reason. I've read the reviews and some have called it a "masterpiece" and a "classic". Maybe back in the day but now it's more of a curio.

65/100