16th Hall of Fame

Just put Poison for the Fairies at the top of my Netflix queue for next weekend.

If this isn't the most meh movie I've ever seen, then I don't what is. Reading the synopsis on IMDb actually got me real excited, before delving into the film, and being reminded of never elevating my expectations, no matter what. On paper, the story has potential, but in execution, the safest route was taken, leading to the making of quite the uninteresting flick. For a 90 minutes long feature, I was checking the time right and left, not because of it being a bad movie, but simply because of its passable quality. Those kind of movies that can only be described as meh, or bleh, usually tend to offer the least interesting experience.

Overall, nothing about Poison for the Fairies was exceptionally bad, nor was anything about it particularly impressive either. It had a good opening and ending, the setting and the landscape were kinda nice, and the cinematography wasn't shoddy in the slightest. Still, a wasted 90 minutes of footage this was.

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"A film has to be a dialogue, not a monologue — a dialogue to provoke in the viewer his own thoughts, his own feelings. And if a film is a dialogue, then it’s a good film; if it’s not a dialogue, it’s a bad film."

- Michael "Gloomy Old Fart" Haneke

Naked

While it could be the easiest thing to simply dump on this as nilihistic attempt at being cool, or, (which whomever said this, made me chuckle) "awful people doing awful things to one another," I kind of feel I'm doing a disservice by going that easy route.
Considering that the main character, which David Thewlis utterly and completely nails it, has an innate characteristic of taking the hard way, every time, all the time. He is part of the refuse. The derelict. The emotionally and mentally broken. The cast off and the cast away. Those who cannot and will not fit the normal scope of things but survive, as they will, on society's fringes and it's darker street corners. Which, more often than not, is glamorized or shown in a more likable light in other stories and/or films.
Not here.
F@ck that.
We get the full obnoxious, lewd and despicable behavior without any filter or relief.
We are given a Day in the Life of this book-savvy miscreant that spews out his pessimistic theology as he works his way into any momentary bit of warmth, food, or physical/sexual comfort. While biting at those that attempt to feed or assist like a rabid wild creature would. Knowing full well that humans CANNOT be trusted and, to need assistance from others is a greater indignity than the meager existence that he charges through now.

That is the subject matter. That is the re-occurring theme of this, rather rape happy, cinematic endeavor.

If I had seen this when it came out or the few years after when I had my own little dark sojourn on the fringes, I'm sure I would have enjoyed it on some levels. DEFINITELY applaud Thewlis at his prowess, that's for sure.

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What I actually said to win MovieGal's heart:
- I might not be a real King of Kinkiness, but I make good pancakes

~Mr Minio

That was me.
Didn't hate it, though, it just didn't appeal to me.

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thank you, I was too lazy to go back and figure out WHO that was. lol

Glad you liked it Hasthtag Yeah, the omission of music score made the movie all the better, IMO.

that ending did catch me by surprise, I must admit.

Since the Hays Code hadn't come in yet they could've of done basically anything.

Wait Till Dark

This has been a number of times watching this and I continue to enjoy it.
Specifically the criminals. I've always enjoyed the underlying tension that will continue to leak out, try as they might to keep their heads when it comes to keeping an eye on another. Especially Arkin who has this James Bond villain persona going on that I get a kick out of.

For this to truly work, as it does for me, the victim must be someone you care for and about. And how can you NOT care about Audrey Hepburn, who's fragility AND strength shine through so well in various scenes. The woman is plain, all out, adorable! Pure and simple.

And the fact that it is kept mostly in the confines of a basement apartment gives it a great claustrophobic aspect that adds to it.

Not sure if it's simply that I've seen it quite a number of times or that I simply enjoy the bad guys just a WEE bit more, but there wasn't the usual enjoyment of tension of past views. Perhaps it was simply a one time thing and the next time around, I will find myself caught up in the tension of the third act as I have in the past.

Regardless, a great revisit for an old favorite. THANK YOU @HashtagBrownies for nominating it so I could revisit it, again!

Exactly. And I thought it was going to be similar to the 40s remake, which, I can't remember if you've seen or not. But it still was a bit of an eye opener in regards to surprises.

This was my second time watching this after first seeing it for the 60's countdown. It didn't make my list but it was a contender. I didn't quite love it as much this time, but I was still very much entertained.

SPOILERS

First off, Samantha Jones as Lisa was a total babe and I would have liked to have seen more of her. Kim Catrell's character on Sex in the City was named Samantha Jones. Every girl should be named Samantha Jones.

The movie starts off well, simple and effective to set up the plot. To get my negative out of the way, I just thought there was a whole lot of stupidity, and I wasn't watching it to pick it apart. I thought the elaborate plot to get the doll back was a bit much. I also couldn't understand why Susy didn't use the phone before the line got cut. She had to have at least some suspicion from the start. Even when she knew for sure she was in danger, she had many options. She could have gone to the little girl's apartment, used her phone, sent her to a neighbor's house, etc. There were also the little things that seemed ridiculous; grabbing her own face when Roat grabbed her ankle when natural instinct would make you put your hands down, Roat carelessly putting the knife into the doll without worrying that he would cut the drugs open, Susy suddenly not saying anything when the rescue team showed up, and seemingly endless other moments. Fortunately, I enjoyed myself enough so that the problems didn't ruin the movie. I love Audrey Hepburn, yet every time I see her, I can't help but be bothered by how thin she is. I think her performance here was good, but I think her frail appearance plays a big part as it screams victim. Alan Arkin really makes the movie for me. He dominates the screen when he's on, and he's got the charisma that makes for a memorable villain. The other two don't stand out, but they play their roles well. The character of the little girl was often odd and the husband was just there when necessary. I don't think it's a great movie but I do think it's a great watch.

Anything labeled as horror has my attention so I was hopeful with this movie. I don't even know what to say about it. I saw it as a children's fantasy with a touch of Giallo thrown in. I liked the general story but thought the execution was just ok. The performances were ok. Sometimes it looked great but it mostly looked ok. The atmosphere was ok. I started to notice that we weren't being shown adult faces, with just a couple of exceptions. My guess is that we were supposed to be kept in the children's world? I couldn't even say if that was effective if the case. The short runtime was helpful. The very end was great even if I didn't feel any kind of tension leading up to it. I don't have much for positives or negatives as I can't say I liked it or disliked it; I mostly feel indifference.

Call Me By Your Name

I don't mean to offend anyone in this review but I absolutely despised this film. Like Citizen said, I can appreciate a film like Moonlight because it had a much better story, but in this pretty much nothing happens other than a miniature game of cat and mouse with no real meat to the story IMO. Said to maybe get some influence from Rohmer, but it doesn't even come close to his standards of storytelling. Masturbating with a peach and kissing just doesn't tell a story. The characters are as bland as can be, the story is a snoozefest, and the acting itself is incredibly overrated for me. The piano scene is lifeless for me, often regarded as the films best scene other than that goofy peach scene.im also not getting the big deal over Chalamets performance. If someone wants to tell me a specific scene where they think his acting chops really showed in this film, I'm all ears. I also thought Armie Hammer was pretty weak actually, thought it was weird with all the praise he had gotten for the film.

In the end, it's certainly a contender for one of the worst 10 films I've seen in my life. Let's hope Cynema never sees this.

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Ouch!

76/121. Only 45 reviews left to be seen!

Oof.

just rented Call Me By Your Name today from my library

3:10 to Yuma (2007)

It's good to see such a good modern Western, they are not exactly easy to find.

The acting by everyone involved is impeccable, especially by the two leading men and Ben Foster who has the aura of those villains from past Westerns.

I liked most action sceens, the dialogue is really solid and the soundtrack serves the movie well.

My only problem with this was the last segment, with Dan and Wade fleeing from the Hotel to the Station. Suddenly everyone became stupid. There was no plan of escape and everyone else started shooting dangerously close to the man they were supposed to protect (especially considering how poor shooters almost everyone on this film were).

I definitely need to watch the original now!

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My voice didn't let me go to work today so I just took the day off and managed to get 2 watchings to this HoF. Will probably take one more week or two to start watching the rest of them but I'll be done before the deadline.

Wait Until Dark (1967)

Well, I can say I liked the acting, especially from Hepburn who's always a charm, and the overall pacing of this thriller, which makes it quite entertaining to watch.

Apart from that the storyline just has too much problems. The overall plan is waaay too complex to be believable. The villain could have just pressured Lucy or Sam to give her the doll, or simply drill the safe. He killed a woman right in the beggining so he clearly hasn't a problem with violence.
Also, why does Lucy hangs to the doll so much after she finds out it has no value to her or Sam?

And that last scene with the desperate husband finding his wife alive but still playing the act of "you can do it, come to me you independent woman", screamed fake!