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On Her Majesty's Secret Service (Peter Hunt, 1969)
This is certainly the most visually compelling and stylish film in the series thus far and it really needed to be because its paired against maybe the least compelling story in the series thus far. Even with the wonderful camerawork doing a more than admirable job carrying the film it does still start to drag through the middle. Fortunately, it starts to pick up in the back end and actually has the strongest finish of the films up to this point. Would have been nice if Lazenby had a pulse outside of the fight scenes (a loop of him throwing and uppercut should be hanging in a museum somewhere) but it helps that he's undercover as a dweeb for most of the film so he doesn't always feel miscast, though its not like Connery is that much less of a dweeb tbh. Overall, I was always entertained enough by the shot composition to at least be on board and I marked out enough times during the final act to make up for the duller bits and the conclusion was genuinely emotionally moving.


Diamonds are Forever (Guy Hamilton, 1971)
Probably the most wall-to-wall entertaining film of the series thus far. A great cast of side characters, great fights, a super dope car chase and an abundance of genuinely funny writing are the many highlights here. While not the strongest film of the series visually its certainly an improvement from Mr. Hamilton's previous go at the franchise in that regard and more than gets the job done, even having its fair share of flashy moments. Though the one unfortunately holdover from Goldfinger is just how underutilized the music is which unfortunately sucks the air out of a few key scenes, most notably in the final act. It's a blast for sure but it losing that bit of steam in the third holds it back from being a truly great Bond film.


Current Bond rankings:
01. From Russia with Love
02. Thunderball
03. Diamonds are Forever
04. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
05. Dr. No
06. You Only Live Once
07. Goldfinger



Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension, 2015, 2nd watch (D)

Same thing as the other ones, but this time with special effects. I've seen the two endings, and both somehow manage to be the same ending as every PA movie that came before it. Otherwise, no changes in the characters, with every kid being completely interchangeable, every parent being the same dumb parent, but this time with an extra douche. With a mustache. They also kept the same buildup for every jump scare, so zero effect there at this point. The special effects add nothing, unless you thing jumping on the camera is better than dropping heavy objects as far as jump scares go.



I know I saw a bunch of the Moore ones when I was a kid/teen, but I don't remember much of them (which is why I want to revisit them). The only one I have fresh in my mind is A View to a Kill, which I thought was ok/fun.
Moore kind of grew on you, although Connery was always missed. My favorites of his were the ones where "Jaws" (Richard Kiel) appeared, especially Moonraker (1979), where Jaws falls for Dolly (Blanche Ravalec), the blonde with the pigtails. Great comedy between the two of them, and touching too. The movie itself was not Moore's or the fanchise's best for sure.



Moore kind of grew on you, although Connery was always missed. My favorites of his were the ones where "Jaws" (Richard Kiel) appeared, especially Moonraker (1979), where Jaws falls for Dolly (Blanche Ravalec), the blonde with the pigtails. Great comedy between the two of them, and touching too. The movie itself was not Moore's or the fanchise's best for sure.
I remember Jaws, but I can barely remember the film. I plan on calibrating my expectations once I hit the Moore era
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Bachelor of Hearts (1958)
D: Wolf Rilla
Starring: Hardy Krüger, Sylvia Syms, Ronald Lewis

First time viewing. Had been wanting to see it for quite some time because of the cast. Decent light-hearted British comedy film about a German foreign exchange student coming to Cambridge University, and running into all sorts of shenanigans with local customs, university culture and the opposite sex. Simple and pleasant entertainment.

7/10





Antwone Fisher, 2002

Antwone Fisher (Derek Luke) is a young man working in the Navy. After attacking a fellow seaman, Antwone is sent to a Naval psychiatrist named Dr. Davenport (Denzel Washington, who also directed the film). While Antwone is at first reluctant to open up, Dr. Davenport is eventually able to get Antwone to discuss his childhood and the traumas that still haunt him and fuel his anger and fear.

The majority of the respect that I had for this film has to do with a plot element that is revealed about a third of the way into the film, thus I will spoiler tag a lot of this review, but will not give away the ending or anything like that.

WARNING: spoilers below
There are, in my opinion, far too films that address the way that children who have endured abuse and trauma cope as they get older, and the way that those traumas can manifest themselves. Stories about boys and trauma more often feature as explanatory backstories for brutal killers in horror or thriller movies. Even more rare is seeing a film in which a male character has a history of sexual abuse.

Stories about women who have experienced sexual trauma fit with a lot of what we are comfortable with as a culture. It makes sense that girls are abused because girls are not as strong. It makes sense that women might be afraid of men because men are stronger than women. Women-centered narratives about sexual abuse fit into our notions of the structure of power and align with our cultural "logic".

The portrayal of a male character coping with physical and sexual abuse inflicted by female "family" members (maybe it would be better to say "members of his household") is something that doesn't fit as easily. We don't tend to think of men as being victims of sexual violence. We don't square the idea of a man being afraid of sex the way we might square a female character with the same fear. I really applaud this movie for portraying such a narrative, and for normalizing what Antwone goes through. It's not even a line of dialogue, per se, but rather the way that Washington's character doesn't even flinch when Antwone admits he has never had sex or seen a woman naked aside from his abuser. And I really appreciated that the way through Antwone's fear wasn't to "man up"--it was to find a person, Cheryl (Joy Bryant), who is patient and understanding and doesn't flinch when he admits his inexperience and hesitation. Antwone does get a "stand up for himself" moment more toward the end, but I liked that he and Cheryl cemented their bond before this.


This movie struck a lot of chords with me. In my years as a teacher, I have worked with many victims of abuse--physical, mental, emotional, neglect, sexual--and just in the last month had to make a call to Child Protective Services (about a child in my community, not one of my students). Even the smartest, kindest children carry a heavy burden when they have endured such treatment. Something that this movie captured incredibly well was the way that Antwone's anger is a two-headed beast: one part he knows is his direct anger at those who hurt him, but the other part is more obscure. It is the unknowable possibilities of a better childhood. It is the lack of understanding of why these things happened to him. It's an inability to see a way forward.

Luke and Washington are both solid in their performances, and their scenes together are good. Novella Nelson is appropriately terrifying as Antwone's abusive foster mother.

I had only two hangups about the film, one from a craft point of view and the other from a personal logic point of view.

From a craft point of view, I had mixed feelings about a subplot involving Davenport's own past and issues. While it was a good way to make his character more dimensional, it felt like that part of the story was a bit half-hearted. And because there are some inevitable parallels with the therapist/angry-young-man relationship in Good Will Hunting, it's hard not to see how the subplot falls a bit flat where it could have been much deeper. There were a few parts in the film that seemed to lose momentum, and way too many times that Davenport seems almost on the edge of saying something and then doesn't, leaving me wondering "What was that all about?" several times.

And this is a little personal qualm, but it bothered me that apparently they did not report Antwone's foster family? This is a family that has at least three people in the household willing to abuse children in a variety of ways. And who is to say they haven't been cycling through children for the last 15 years? I don't even think this needed to be a significant part of the plot at all, but it bugged me a little that it was never even addressed.

This was an interesting and emotional film with a unique central conflict for the main character. It is inspiring to know how much of it was lifted from the real experiences of the film's writer, Fisher himself.




Bone Tomahawk - 2015

Holy hell. That escalated quickly Anchorman meme comes to mind. So it basically felt like a pretty normal western for about the first hour and 40 of the movie. Then about the last 30 minutes it accelerates into the horror genre. There is a scene towards the end...if you have seen it you know...that is seared into my brain forever. Yikes. It's a slow burn but goes from 0-60 quickly.

Kurt Russell is fantastic as usual. He knows how to navigate a western. The whole cast was pretty good. Richard Jenkins was especially a stand out to me. I thought the plot and writing were fine with the exception of some minor stuff that would get into spoiler territory. My biggest gripe is just a personal taste one. I was all in on the western stuff but once it dissolved into some horror boundaries it started to lose me a bit. It's just not my favorite genre. If you like westerns and horror then you will have a field day with it. Horror is just not my cup of tea. So it gets knocked a bit for that for me. I like subtle horror. But listen it was entertaining and well executed. Phew...that one scene is not for the faint of heart.



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I came here to do two things, drink some beer and kick some ass, looks like we are almost outta beer - Dazed and Confused

101 Favorite Movies (2019)



Onibaba is pretty great, though I LOVED Shindo's Black Cat, which is more overtly supernatural.
Kuroneko
Onibaba
Woman in the Dunes


are a sort of pseudo trilogy. I find I can't think of one of them without thinking of one of the other two.



Badlands (1973)

*** 1/2 out of *****

Great debut for Malick, a very well shot and directed movie with a straight forward narrative about the theme of guilt. Sheen delivers one of his best performances. Can't wait to see the rest of his filmography this week.



On Her Majesty's Secret Service (Peter Hunt, 1969)
This is certainly the most visually compelling and stylish film in the series thus far and it really needed to be because its paired against maybe the least compelling story in the series thus far. Even with the wonderful camerawork doing a more than admirable job carrying the film it does still start to drag through the middle. Fortunately, it starts to pick up in the back end and actually has the strongest finish of the films up to this point. Would have been nice if Lazenby had a pulse outside of the fight scenes (a loop of him throwing and uppercut should be hanging in a museum somewhere) but it helps that he's undercover as a dweeb for most of the film so he doesn't always feel miscast, though its not like Connery is that much less of a dweeb tbh. Overall, I was always entertained enough by the shot composition to at least be on board and I marked out enough times during the final act to make up for the duller bits and the conclusion was genuinely emotionally moving.


Diamonds are Forever (Guy Hamilton, 1971)
Probably the most wall-to-wall entertaining film of the series thus far. A great cast of side characters, great fights, a super dope car chase and an abundance of genuinely funny writing are the many highlights here. While not the strongest film of the series visually its certainly an improvement from Mr. Hamilton's previous go at the franchise in that regard and more than gets the job done, even having its fair share of flashy moments. Though the one unfortunately holdover from Goldfinger is just how underutilized the music is which unfortunately sucks the air out of a few key scenes, most notably in the final act. It's a blast for sure but it losing that bit of steam in the third holds it back from being a truly great Bond film.


Current Bond rankings:
01. From Russia with Love
02. Thunderball
03. Diamonds are Forever
04. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
05. Dr. No
06. You Only Live Once
07. Goldfinger
Lazenby's is easily in my Bond Top 5. I love his demeanor and approach to the role, and the film is a lot of fun.



Bone Tomahawk - 2015

Holy hell. That escalated quickly Anchorman meme comes to mind. So it basically felt like a pretty normal western for about the first hour and 40 of the movie. Then about the last 30 minutes it accelerates into the horror genre. There is a scene towards the end...if you have seen it you know...that is seared into my brain forever. Yikes. It's a slow burn but goes from 0-60 quickly.

Kurt Russell is fantastic as usual. He knows how to navigate a western. The whole cast was pretty good. Richard Jenkins was especially a stand out to me. I thought the plot and writing were fine with the exception of some minor stuff that would get into spoiler territory. My biggest gripe is just a personal taste one. I was all in on the western stuff but once it dissolved into some horror boundaries it started to lose me a bit. It's just not my favorite genre. If you like westerns and horror then you will have a field day with it. Horror is just not my cup of tea. So it gets knocked a bit for that for me. I like subtle horror. But listen it was entertaining and well executed. Phew...that one scene is not for the faint of heart.



Personally, I didn't mind the shift; I even think that *boom* moment worked to the film's advantage, but I can see why it wouldn't be for everyone. Overall, I liked the film. I know a lot of people have condemned it as "racist", but I never got the notion that the filmmaker was saying that "every Native" is like this. All I can say is that I was thrilled and yeah, disgusted



Kuroneko
Onibaba
Woman in the Dunes


are a sort of pseudo trilogy. I find I can't think of one of them without thinking of one of the other two.
Yes, and I enjoy them in roughly that order, though I think that is largely because my personal taste leans more toward horror.




Wild River (1960, Elia Kazan)


The cinematography was probably the best thing about this movie (some shots were breathtakingly beautiful), as was Jo Van Fleet's memorable performance as Ella Garth, but otherwise I was pretty underwhelmed. It started out fine with an interesting premise, but from the moment Montgomery Clift entered the screen till the end of the movie he annoyed the **** out of me - overacting with his face way too much. I was almost screaming at the screen for him to get it together and finally knock that disgusting racist jerk out with a punch, but no luck. I couldn't understand his character, his motivations, weak and unlikable afaic (not that weak characters can't be likable, mind you). Lee Remick wasn't bad but there was not enough chemistry between her and Clift , and their relationship just didn't come across as believable to me. I felt the flow and pacing were off at times, some scenes just didn't work (for me), the ending was a bit too choppy and lacked punch, and overall the second half of the film failed to deliver the way I hoped it would. On a positive note, aside from the central theme of progress vs nature, the film tackles other important issues, like the harsh reality of racism, with an unflinching eye and shows exactly what it was like living in those times without sugarcoating it.
Good but flawed imo.



Welcome to the human race...
I liked the film a lot, but what did you not like about it?
A slapdash exercise that settles for surreal non sequiturs or overly literary digressions while ultimately being anchored to a story that is at once simplistic yet unfocused. There may be some interpretation that vindicates it but so far my own attempts to figure it out are unsatisfactory in one way or another, like I'm either going "still don't get it" or "I get it, but so what".

A masochist Iroquois huh? I found it interesting but too clever-clever. Certainly a 1 time watch.
You don't know the half of it.

Yikes. Been looking forward to this, since it's Kaufman and all. Still gonna have to see for myself, but that's a bummer to hear.
I've generally liked everything else I've seen from Kaufman so I was disappointed that this one didn't work for me. It's like Tenet in that it sees its creator indulging his worst tendencies for their own sake than anything else.

The Garden -


Jarman out here doing the "God is female and doesn't talk" thing long before Dogma was a thing
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Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0



I thought I'M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS was great. *shrug*
I agree.






The Art of Political Murder (2020) - 7/10. Another great documentary from HBO. The same year they did Collectiv.... An incident that not many people know about coz it's from one of those lesser known South American countries. Enjoyable and recommend.
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