Rate The Last Movie You Saw

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The World of Henry Orient (George Roy Hill, 1964)
7/10
She Gods of Shark Reef (Roger Corman, 1958)
4+/10
Young and Willing (Edward H. Griffith, 1943)
6-/10
I'd Climb the Highest Mountain (Henry King, 1951)
6.5/10

Preacher William Lundigan and wife Susan Hayward have an adventurous few years c.1910 remote Georgia.
Boxing Day (Aml Ameen, 2021)
6/10
When Hell Broke Loose (Kenneth G. Crane, 1958)
5/10
The President's Lady (Henry Levin, 1953)
6.5/10
A Shape of Things to Come (Lisa Malloy & J.P. Sniadecki, 2020)
5.5/10

Survivalist Sundog, on the Tex-Mex border in an unidentified future, alternates his time between violence and hallucinogens.
Berlin, I Love You (13 Directors, 2019)
+ 5/10
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City (Johannes Roberts, 2021)
5.5/10
A Royal Scandal (Otto Preminger & Ernst Lubitsch, 1945)
- 7/10
Being the Ricardos (Aaron Sorkin, 2021)
+ 6.5/10

Solid acting by the four actors playing the four leads in "I Love Lucy" highlights good drama which still seems to be missing a little something.
Kentucky (David Butler, 1938)
6/10
Desk Set (Walter Lang, 1957)
6.5/10
The Matrix Resurrections (Lana Wachowski, 2021)
6/10
The LCD Soundsystem Holiday Special (Eric Wareheim, 2021)
- 6.5/10
The sitcom surrounding the concert footage is meh, but it's worth a peek to see the recently-reclusive band.
Throw Momma from the Train (Danny DeVito, 1987)
7/10
Carol for Another Christmas (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1964)
+ 6.5/10
The Impersonator (Alfred Shaughnessy, 1961)
5.5+/10
Benedetta (Paul Verhoeven, 2021)
6.5/10

Tale about 17th-century Tuscan nuns (Virginie Efira & Daphne Patakia) is really more about the plague and religious hypocrisy in typical Verhoeven style.
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Hadn't seen this before so checked it out last night. Absolutely cracking noir, very impressive. Same rating from me. Thanks!
You're very welcome.



28 days...6 hours...42 minutes...12 seconds
Spider-Man: No Way Home -


The Matrix: Ressurections -
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Suspect's Reviews






The Last Black Man in San Francisco - This has all the earmarks of being a labor of love. It's in the way the scenes are set up and laid out. It's in the easy and plainspoken friendship between the two protagonists Jimmie Fails (Jimmie Fails) and Montgomery Allen (Jonathan Majors). And most of all it's in the endemic allegiance that director Joe Talbot so obviously holds towards the city of San Francisco.

Jimmie works a low paying job as a nurses assistant in an elder care facility. He lives with his best friend Mont and Mont's blind grandfather Grandpa Allen (Danny Glover) and sleeps on the floor of Mont's closet sized bedroom. For the last few months Jimmie has been covertly carrying-out minor maintenance of his former childhood home. Touching up the weathered paintjob and weeding the garden. All to the chagrin of the current residents, an elderly white couple. Jimmie's family had lost the home after being evicted for failure to pay taxes and it's turned into an obsession for him since his return to the city. This is all predicated on his grandfather having built the home himself in the 1940's.

One day on one of their periodic treks to the house they find a moving van and find out that the owner and mother of the current resident has died, leaving her and her sister to fight over ownership. Jimmie and Mont visit realtor Clayton Newsom (Finn Wittrock) who advises them that, since the late owners estate has to be settled in court, it could take years. After confirming that the place is empty Jimmie hits upon the idea of squatting. The friends drop in on Jimmie's paternal aunt Wanda (Tichina Arnold) to salvage the family's furniture and move it back into the now abandoned home.

The cast is on the mark and even though Jimmie Fails is essentially playing himself and the story is partly based on his own experiences he does turn in a relaxed and unaffected performance. But it's Jonathan Majors that really impressed me. I only remember him being in Lovecraft Country and Loki even though he was also in White Boy Rick and Captive State, both of which I've also seen. I think his is the starring performance here since so much of what transpires is filtered through his eyes. The story is sort of dependent on him to serve as both viewer's proxy and as a watchman keeping it thoughtfully grounded.

There are plenty of powerful and cogent moments and it does tackle or at least address issues like systematic marginalization and pernicious machismo (I am loathe to call it "toxic masculinity" since it's already so overused) but when it came time to close out the narrative I thought it lacked something. Emotional engagement maybe? There was just something missing. The closest equivalent I can think of is a microbrewery. An assiduously crafted product targeted towards a specific demographic. And it's this singularity that is not only it's biggest asset but also it's one impediment that keeps it from effectively and decisively resonating.

80/100



Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure (1977)

This one escaped my notice back when I was a kid. (I probably dismissed it as a "girl" movie). The plot bears some resemblance to Toy Story in that a kid's toys come to life when she leaves the room. The pirate from a snow globe abducts the new French porcelain doll and runs away with her, and Ann & Andy set out to rescue her.

So I'll admit that RA&A are likable but bland, and the songs aren't great which is a problem because there's a lot of them. I mean, they're not obnoxious but I don't remember any of them mere hours after having watched it. BUT, the animation is terrific and there's lots of inventive and bizarre stuff going on.




Animation buffs are encouraged to check it out.
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This one freaked me out more than a bit when I saw it in the theater as a seven-year-old. Though not a fraction as much as Hugo the Hippo did.
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The Last Black Man in San Francisco
This was my favorite film of that year. It's funny because it was actually a true story from the actor's life, they made a short film before this film, you can find it online. I enjoyed the poetry, the friendship, the representation of a different masculinity, the song was OMG, I liked everything about the film.



The Spine of Night -


Fans of Ralph Bakshi - Fire and Ice in particular- are bound to love this delightfully bloody rotoscoped dark fantasy tale. It has more in common with Heavy Metal, however, and not just because of all the hardcore violence and nudity. It's a collection of tales from different eras that are connected by a powerful object: the Bloom, a flower that grants godly abilities like being able to control one's thoughts and raising the dead. Thankfully, homage and nostalgia are not all the movie has going for it. It's much more interested in telling an overarching story about civilization's seemingly never-ending cycle of tyranny and rebellion as well as questioning if it really amounts to anything worthwhile, which it does in a stirring and visceral way. Like the movies that inspired it, this one also attracted a lot of prime voice talent, the highlights being Patton Oswalt's fussy, entitled prince and Richard E. Grant's ancient guardian of the Bloom who, in a beautiful and colorful animated sequence, proves that there are only so many times any one person should bear witness to this cycle. Speaking of the animation, it manages to honor Fire and Ice and the like while having a unique personality. If I could put the overall look and feel into words, I'd say that it's a combination of classic Silver Surfer comics and the Dark Souls video games. What's more, each segment manages to have its own visual identity. Does this movie tell a tale unlike any you've seen in the fantasy genre? Despite a few unexpected moments here and there, not really. Even so, I typically walk away from visually inventive genre flicks like this one thinking about the visuals more than anything else. This one, however, offers just as much to chew on thematically.




Blast of Silence - This 1961 lowest-of-low-budgets character study might well be the noiriest noir that ever noired. And don't get thrown off by the "low budget" tag. Writer/director/star Allen Baron manages to do more with less than any other film I can remember. And we're not talking FX or recognizable stars making surprise appearances. The reported 20,000 budget appears to be mostly used on equipment and whatever salaries Baron found he couldn't avoid. One of which was probably Lionel Stander's fee for doing the second person voiceover narration that runs throughout the film. Having dealt with the technical side of things he was able to put together a surprisingly cohesive and professional looking production. We've all sat through films with a low budget look and feel or vibe and this isn't one of them. The film takes place during the Christmas holidays and there are plenty of shots of our protagonist walking the streets of Manhattan. There are obviously no studio shots and Baron did it all guerilla style with zero permits. He also used plenty of screen test footage that he had filmed earlier in hopes of scaring up some financing.

Frankie Bono (Baron) is a hit man from Cleveland in NYC to kill a mid level mobster named Troiano (Peter Clune). Frankie shadows his target and his bodyguards to find the best place for the hit then goes looking for a pistol and silencer. He visits Big Ralph (Larry Tucker), an old acquaintance that has always made him uncomfortable. Ralph lives in squalor and keeps countless rats in cages as pets and he provides Frankie with an address where he can pick up the gun. It's not till the next day so Bono is forced to wait and fills his time by continuing to scout his target. He runs into childhood friend Petey (Danny Meehan) from his days in an orphanage and he invites the reluctant Frankie to a Christmas party where he spots his old girlfriend Lori (Molly McCarthy). Frankie is a solitary figure by nature and, given his line of work, has never formed any meaningful bonds. But seeing Lori and spending time with her brings up long dormant issues.

This has a relatively short runtime of 77 minutes and Baron makes the most of it. The denouement literally takes place in the midst of a cataclysmic storm. Chosen for it's remoteness and desolate surroundings it was filmed on the northernmost tip of Long Island sound during Hurricane Donna.

There's some fascinating trivia attached to this production. Baron had worked on Errol Flynn's last movie, Cuban Rebel Girls, which was filmed while the actual Cuban Revolution was unfolding. The production ended up having to flee the country and were forced to abandon valuable equipment including cameras. Baron made a deal with the producer for free use of the equipment if he could figure out a way to sneak back into the country and smuggle it back out. He had to use subterfuge because he was a wanted man at the time, having stabbed a local man during an altercation. He had also offered the role of Frankie to a friend from his acting class named Peter Falk. Falk had to turn it down when he found an acting job that actually paid.

This is one of those films that shouldn't exist but was made against all odds. The fact that it's also a surprisingly effective slice of noir adds a touch of serendipity to it.

90/100
Nice review, and a great film! I'm glad that you reviewed it because I'd never seen it, so I fired it up last night. Some of the settings and filming of "Blast" could be put right up there with some of the best noir films, especially the first half of so of the picture.

Director/writer Allen Baron was not a great actor, although the eccentric, cold hit man role did not require a heavyweight. He brought it off beautifully. It's astonishing how he could construct a polished film on a such a micro budget. I note that the producer, Merill Brody, was also the cinematographer! Universal distributed the film, so Baron must have made back many times his budget.

The movie was perfectly enhance by the first rate contemporary jazz sound track by Meyer Kupferman, who was a noted performer, composer, and professor of music during that era and beyond. And the picture would have almost been unimaginable without the atmospheric narration of the gravely voiced Bronx native, Lionel Stander (later of Hart to Hart fame).

I see that it's been re-mastered by the Criterion Collection, so the film quality is superb. Thanks for the recommendation!



Nice review, and a great film! I'm glad that you reviewed it because I'd never seen it, so I fired it up last night. Some of the settings and filming of "Blast" could be put right up there with some of the best noir films, especially the first half of so of the picture.

Director/writer Allen Baron was not a great actor, although the eccentric, cold hit man role did not require a heavyweight. He brought it off beautifully. It's astonishing how he could construct a polished film on a such a micro budget. I note that the producer, Merill Brody, was also the cinematographer! Universal distributed the film, so Baron must have made back many times his budget.

The movie was perfectly enhance by the first rate contemporary jazz sound track by Meyer Kupferman, who was a noted performer, composer, and professor of music during that era and beyond. And the picture would have almost been unimaginable without the atmospheric narration of the gravely voiced Bronx native, Lionel Stander (later of Hart to Hart fame).

I see that it's been re-mastered by the Criterion Collection, so the film quality is superb. Thanks for the recommendation!
You're very welcome.



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Meh, well written dialogue but pretty mediocre in other respects. A conversation movie, you get the feeling that they started in the middle without telling you anything. Not a great story arc but has enough humor and suspense to make it watchable.









Meh, well written dialogue but pretty mediocre in other respects. A conversation movie, you get the feeling that they started in the middle without telling you anything. Not a great story arc but has enough humor and suspense to make it watchable.
Shame, looks like I want to see this.



I watched House of Gucci last night and don’t really have a lot to say about it. It’s pretty good and it feels like a Scorsese movie.



Shame, looks like I want to see this.
Nothing would make me watch Bugsy
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The Matrix Revolutions (2003, Lilly & Lana Wachowski)

unfortunately i felt the best matrix movie was the first one, the second best being this, which nobody knows about:



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Animatrix


the hidden benefits of DVD bins! Not a movie but a collection of short films.



unfortunately i felt the best matrix movie was the first one, the second best being this, which nobody knows about:



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Animatrix


the hidden benefits of DVD bins! Not a movie but a collection of short films.
Really? I thought everyone loved The Animatrix.