Rate The Last Movie You Saw

Broadway Limited (1941) This was just okay. The story isn't very interesting, but the acting is decent. The baby is the best character.

Good movie. I enjoyed it. Hanx put in 100% & Caleb Landry Jones was excellent as “Jeff”.

__________________
I’m here only on Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays. That’s why I’m here now.

System won’t let me post for Evil Does Not Exist, but it’s a good Japanese movie.

1st Rewatch...This juvenile and painfully unfunny comedy stars Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott as energy drink reps who get in enough trouble that to avoid a year in jail, they are sentenced to 150 hours of community service in the form of a mentoring program called Sturdy Wings, where they are assigned to be big brothers to a nerdy teenager who is into medieval battle reenactments and a foul mothed, boob-obsessed black pre-teen. Paul Rudd and Elizabeth Banks deserves so much better and looks pretty embarrassed to be involved in this mess and an actor I hate like a coldsore, Ken Jeong, has a major role in this. The only real laughs here come from Jane Lynch, in a precursor to Sue Sylvester, as the director of Sturdy Wings.

4th Rewatch...Where feature length film re-imaginings of classic television series go, this is one of the very best. Harrison Ford takes over the role of Dr. Richard KImble from the late David Janssen, who played the role on the 60's series. Dr. Kimble has been falsely convicted of murdering his wife and is sent to prison, but an accident during transport provides the opportunity for Kimble to escape. While he's trying to evade recapture and simultaneously trying to prove his innocence, he is being pursued like a dog by a US Marshall named Sam Gerard (Tommy Lee Jones) who is determined to get his man no matter what. This is a rare case of allowing the story to unfold slowly is an asset. Unlike the TV series, we know Kimble is innocent, but we understand that Gerard is just doing his job. Love that moment before Kimble jumps into the falls and tells Gerard he didn't kill his wife and Gerard casually counters with "I don't care." Ford completely disappears inside this character offering one of the strongest performances of his career and Tommy Lee Jones won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor (personally I think he should have won for JFK). Exciting movie with endless rewatch appeal.

3rd Rewatch...A rather ordinary story is given a boost it doesn't really deserve thanks to an eye-opening performance by Mark Wahlberg that was the first time I noticed the guy had some acting chops, though it has become fashionable these days to diss the guy. He plays a guy who begins going out with a virginal high school student (Reese Witherspoon) who is slowly revealed to be a genuine psychopath. The film is nearly forgotten for some reason but Wahlberg's performance makes it worth a look.

Umpteenth Rewatch...The meticulous direction by the legendary Stanley Kubrick and an electrifying performance by Jack Nicholson that didn't even earn him an Oscar nomination make this 1980 film version of Stephen King's novel. Nicholson plays a writer who gets a job taking care of an isolated Colorado resort during its down season and how the isolation and the haunting thoughts of what happened in this hotel many years ago start to drive the man insane. Truthfully, there is a lot of stuff in the novel that is left out here, but you just don't care because Nicholson is just so damned good, he makes up for anything that’s wrong with this movie and anything he doesn't do, Kubrick does. I debate daily whether this or Dr Strangelove is Kubrick's masterpiece. Nicholson has never been better. This performance is better than any of the ten performances that did earn him Oscar nominations. When I did my list of favorite Nicholson performances, this one came in at #1 of course. Remade as a miniseries in 1997 with Steven Webber, but nobody seems to care.

Set in the middle of a civil war in the United States, the film follows a group of war journalists traveling to Washington, DC to try to interview the President before the capital is taken over. Leading the group are Lee Smith (Kirsten Dunst), a war-torn and cynical war photographer that seems to be questioning the purpose of everything as the violence around her rages on, and Jessie (Cailee Spaeny), a younger, and seemingly more optimistic and naïve photographer who idolizes her.

I think the biggest act of provocation from this film is to actually call it Civil War. I don't know how intentional or not that might be, but with a title like that, this may very well be a film that lives or dies on your expectations, or how well you adjust to what the film is actually offering you. Civil War does take place during a "civil war", and the war does move the plot forward, of course; but the film is not about *the war* but rather about how people, namely these group of journalists, react and approach it.

Grade:


Full review on my Movie Loot

__________________

Syriana follows an ensemble cast through four main storylines, all tied to a corporate fight for oil rights in the Middle East. There's Prince Nasir (Alexander Siddig), who wants to take his country into a more progressive path, and Bryan Woodman (Matt Damon), the energy analyst that he hires to assist him. Then there's Bob Barnes (George Clooney), the veteran CIA agent that is assigned to eliminate Nasir under the illusion of him being a threat. Finally, there's a subplot about Pakistani oil workers that are being affected by all the struggle between the oil companies.

That's just a bit of what's going on, cause there's a lot. I've seen this film easily 10 times, and I still forget details of what is going on until I'm watching it again. Regardless, I just find it to be one of the most thrilling films I've seen. Director and writer Stephen Gaghan, who also wrote Traffic, brings some of that fast-paced jump between storylines without it feeling suffocating. Plus, every storyline has a character that serves as an effective anchor for the audience.

Grade:


Full review on my Movie Loot

It's still great... sure it's a two hour long US Navy ad and the quintessential Reagan era 80s film, but it's been one of my favorites through my life and the sequel was even better and is my favorite film of 2022... not that I've seen a ton from that year.

__________________
"A candy colored clown!"
Member since Fall 2002
Top 100 Films, clicky below

http://www.movieforums.com/community...ad.php?t=26201

I had never heard of this until a couple of members posted about it in this thread the last couple of days. It seemed like something I needed to see, so while fighting with my wife I went to my car in the pitch dark with my iPad and found a copy online. Besides some dude saying "oh sh*t" about half way through, it was like watching Netflix. My fear when going into a film advertised as the type to watch blind or with an enormous twist is that the whole film will turn out to be a dream or something stupid like that. Nothing like that here thankfully. 6 chapters and an epilogue told out of order except for the last chapter and the epilogue. Initially I thought I'd be going back to each chapter, but it was just that the film flies by. As easy to follow as if everything was told in order. Looks good, terrific acting for a film like this, especially by the girl. A must see for fans of horror/serial killer fans. Looking forward to seeing it when I can watch it on my TV.

A Poem is a Naked Person (1974, Les Blank)



This is a very rough documentary from Les Blank about songwriter and musician Leon Russell, who to be fair, I haven't really heard of before nor have I known much about him. This film is very loose and random without any kind of narrative or even commentary or thesis. There's no narration... it's simply the camera rolling on Russell during his concerts, before, and after, and during his minor excursions with his crew. It features some very startling imagery and scenes... a couple of the more interesting ones include a pet snake eating a baby chick with some philosophical ramblings as voice over, a man who gives a speech and then proceeds to eat glass, and a painter who claims parents are denying their children's inner artist by not allowing them to scribble on the walls of their rooms. It's all very interesting material from the man who brought us Burden of Dreams and Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe, but it doesn't really give us insights into Russell or his music or process or the meaning behind his music or what it means to people. What it does is give a snap shot into a behind the scenes look at the man, so for those like myself unfamiliar with Russell, it will have less appeal than I would imagine it would to his fans. Still worth a watch for those dedicated to a canon of documentary films or who enjoy Les Blank's work. It's currently on the Criterion Channel.

Grade: C+

Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=64010284

Gattaca - (1997)

Cool, Art Deco, dystopian future sci-fi that I've watched a couple of times recently - I'd gotten it on Blu-Ray, and couldn't resist seeing it again. Gattaca is a film that has grown on me - and the fact that Ethan Hawke really shines in one of his earlier roles helps it's esteem in my eyes. A shame Alan Arkin didn't get a meatier role as a lead detective on the hunt for a murderer and accidentally catching the scent of Vincent Freeman (Hawke), who is posing as Jerome Eugene Morrow (Jude Law) because he has inferior, natural genes and as such shouldn't be the astronaut he aspires to be. Included are Uma Thurman, Gore Vidal, Ernest Borgnine and Tony Shalhoub. Loads of style - and really is a nice-looking movie in many ways. Looks at whole new ways us human beings can discriminate by, and posits that we have every right to live free from discrimination altogether by presenting a world driven by invasive testing. It goes for a look over realism, but I think it's quite good.

8/10


By http://www.impawards.com/1997/bean_ver4.html, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4734680

Bean - (1997)

Incidental watch - but hey, I like it. It mightn't be as good as the TV show, but it's funny - Atkinson's creation is something truly otherworldly.

7/10


By The poster art can or could be obtained from the distributor., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28342605

Fallen Angels - (1995)

Never has murder felt more peripheral, or neon felt more like sunlight glowing on the cheeks of young men and women who are right in the moment, and alive. This is a desert island movie, for I reckon it's one I could watch over, and over, and over. Full review here, in my watchlist thread.

10/10

__________________

The Last American Hero (1973)

__________________

[ J ] - [ S ] - [ F ]

Joan of Arc (1948) - Painfully ordinary movie about an extraordinary figure... colourful sets and look (it won two Oscars for cinematography and costume design, which were deserved I guess) but few scenes stood out in the first half - main one really is when Joan recognizes the hidden prince with that proper score playing over it; where you finally begin to "believe" her - and while it gets more engaging as it goes along (it should be a positive that it doesn't feel it's length much), you can't feel it's doing it's subject matter much justice... goes without saying that it doesn't hold a candle to Drayer's milestone of course.

What holds it together is Ingrid Bergman's performance though. Every guidance, praying and objection she gives is with mighty conviction. Everytime the camera frames her graceful face, while she's searching for courage within herself or letting out a smile to her prosecutors, the movie wins. Has anyone seen Rossellini's output too? Do tell if it's better that this...

Basically 5/10, but I up it to 6 for Ingrid.

Anastasia (1956) - Another mediocre "history" drama with Bergman as the lead, who gets to do a variety of actions (play drunk, play scared -if not traumatized, needy and commanding...it's quiet a role now that I think about it) and makes this watchable especially in her scenes with (a one-note but reliable) Yul Brynner and one long, effective scene with Helen Hayes (as the Empress)...

I also appreciated the royal interior decorations and background music (you're gonna recognize a tune or two lemme tell you), but as a whole, I felt emotionally detached from this... I often struggle with stories that do not have a serious antagonist force in them (in Joan of Arc, for example, our girl is surrounded by them) and the direction and progression here is wooden and predictable like a lot of standard Hollywood pictures of the time. And yes, the 1996 20th Century Fox animated version beats the ball out of this. 5-ish/10...

__________________
HEI guys.

The original Beetlejuice is easily one of my favorite 80s films, and probably my #1 Tim Burton movie, so I should probably preface this by saying that I didn't totally dislike this sequel, but I also didn't feel like I was watching the kind of movie Burton was so fearlessly making while still in his prime.

Is this movie entertaining enough? In its own sweetly mediocre way, yes. Is this something that could be considered a good movie applying strictly objective standards? No, not really.

The movie has a really wonderful cast, but it has too many characters and needless subplots and doesn't ever really seem to find its focus. The fish-out-of-water element that made the original film so sweet and charming is also pretty much non-existent.

While the original felt fresh and edgy, this one feels... cheugy and overstuffed.

It certainly does feel like all the lead actors must have had fun while making it. And while it's great to see Keaton back in one of his most iconic characters, even he doesn't seem quite as edgy or irrepressible anymore (maybe in this day and age, some of his most inappropriate habits just can't be shown on screen anymore).

Well, there's still some cool stuff in the film, including a cameo by an old Burton buddy, and a sequence that seems to pay homage to a famous Italian filmmaker.

But all in all, there's too much plot, too many characters, too many ideas left unexplored, and a deep sense that this is all just kind of rehashing some of the best bits of the original while not really coming up with anything that's nearly as inventive.

Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice (2024) This was fun. Keaton hasn't lost any of his spark or energy and does a great job. Ryder, O'Hara, Orega, and Dafoe were good too. Although not quite as good as the original, this is an entertaining and enjoyable sequel.

i really enjoye4d it i loved the cast and loved the music and loved the storyline and its one of amazing movies

When can we expect your analysis of how D&W succeeds where this one fails?