Rate The Last Movie You Saw

All the Moons (2020)
Ilargi guztiak

A Basque coming-of-age film with vampires. It's a mixture of things like Interview with the Vampire, Let the Right One In, Near Dark, and modern Del Toro fantasy. It manages to blend familiar themes and concepts somewhat uniquely (it obviously helps that I personally like most of these ideas myself - some scenes were close to what I've been thinking for years now). The film looks great and the young lead does a fantastic job. There's a minus half star on my rating for the ending.

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I just finished watching Young Man with a Horn (1950). Directed by Michael Curtiz, this drama features a great cast including Kirk Douglas, Doris Day, Lauren Bacall, Hoagy Carmichael and Juano Hernandez. Douglas plays Rick Martin, a talented and obsessive trumpet player whose self destructive nature threatens his career and relationships. The lead actors are all good here. I believed Douglas's performance and I thought Day and Bacall were convincing and interesting in their roles as the women in his life. Black and white cinematography was well done and the music was nice too. I felt that some of the story elements were a little predictable and formulaic at times though. The film does feel a touch too long and could have easily been a little shorter without losing anything significant. Director Michael Curtiz doesn't always get the appreciation he deserves. He directed 173 an impressive 173 feature films, including some great ones. I've seen at least 11 of his films and I would rank Young Man with a Horn as his 5th best.

Not a bad little Swedish horror film.

[rating]2.5[/Rating

Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8778289

Army of Shadows - (1969)

Well, that has to be one of the best World War II movies I've ever seen - I haven't seen many about the French Resistance, but this is about as realistic and as gritty as you can get. It's populated by real flesh and blood people, and by that I mean characters that have tremendous depth and we care about. Aside from that, the way everything is staged is very suspenseful, but we never veer off into fantasy. Sound is used to great effect. The cinematography is out of this world. The casting was perfect. Make no mistake though, this film is as bleak as it's subject matter is, and it's not about heroes and victory, or thrills and action - it's about sacrifice, death and struggle. It's about giving yourself body and soul to a cause. These resistance fighters lose themselves, become murderers and eventually martyrs. I loved the fact that Army of Shadows did not romanticize the war or resistance - but showed it how it really was, becoming a real anti-war statement and powerful film.

9/10

Foreign Language Countdown films seen : 85/100

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Just an excuse to post a classic Scarlet Witch comic cover!

I really think the movie is pretty much a masterpiece.

I thought this movie was just riveting and incredibly memorable. I hung on every minute, it gave me a great deal to think about, and it changed the way I thought about African filmmaking.
Made a tremendous impression on me.

Marvel has been on a bit of a slump for me...Black Widow felt very amateurish and dated. Shang Chi was alright but it felt to silly at times with Awkafina when the tone should have been wonder. Eternals I liked for what they were going for but the execution was lacking. I was starting to worry that Marvel was done...the magic was gone. And here comes Doctor Strange to sort of fix the problems.

Doctor Strange isn't a home run...modern films have to be political in the effort for representation we end up with silly, cheap, and stupid scenes. And Strange definitely has that...you have a scene where one character has to be a hero while the other a coward now imagine one is a white dude and the other is a black female...guess which played which role. The movie also has a walking mcguffin in America Chavez who has the typical personality, character arc and powers of the laziest of writers. You have a contrast with the characters in which in which the female characters are generally one note except for the one who isn't...and that person carries and elevates the film.

Sam Rami is also the star of the film...in that this is 100% a Sam Rami film in that it's a light horror film that shocks you at points but always lets you have a good time. Some of the set pieces and visuals in the film are remarkable...and restrained. It's subtleties and contrasts that makes a story like this work. I'm really sad that this wasn't made in 3D like the first one because it so many of these worlds and vistas would have been improved.

My biggest pop that got a little tear out of my eye wasn't a scene but a note. I didn't expect it but when I saw it I got a nostalgia feeling that added an extra star in my eyes. You have actual emotionally earned moments in the film that will touch the marvel fan in you. I sincerely hope the Strange series continues.

The Hitman's Bodyguard (2017)

The Electrical Life of Louis Wain (2021)

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I totally agree. It has stuck with me something fierce, and has potential to eventually be a 5/5 for me.

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The Gunfighter -

This is a classic western that argues that being the best gunfighter is more curse than blessing. It stars Gregory Peck as Jimmy Ringo, who is confronted by challengers everywhere he goes, with it ending badly for them every time. One such encounter occurs before he visits the small town of Cayenne, where he hopes to reconnect with a lost love and his young son and whose Marshal, Mark Strett (Millard Mitchell), happens to be one of his old partners in crime. If it weren't enough that the brothers of his ill-fated challenger are after him, Cayenne has yet another hot shot, Hunt Bromley (Skip Homeier), who's gunning (no pun intended) for Jimmy's title.

I like how the movie shows that being the best gunfighter is like being a celebrity and having a contagious disease at the same time for how everyone is equally fascinated by Jimmy, but also wants to keep their distance. This is exemplified by Cayenne's expansive and empty saloon that becomes his hideout, which besides the Marshal and loyal bartender Mac (a young Karl Malden) is only visited by the few customers who somehow haven't heard of Jimmy. The presence the townsfolk's fascination gives Jimmy combined with the threat of those who would see him dead makes for genuine tension. It helps that Peck is 100% convincing for how his skill puts the weight of the world on his shoulders. Thankfully, there is room for tenderness within all the tension, the highlight being when the Marshall reminisces with Jimmy about their time together and explains how he was able to get out. As for the moments when Jimmy finds who he is looking for, they are as bittersweet as you can imagine and are bound to bring tears to the eye to someone who is just as hardened as our antihero. In short, it's an affair as suspenseful as it is melancholic and it successfully shows that being the best at something may make one's life easier in some ways, but the difficulty it adds to others makes you wonder if the tradeoff is worth it. The movie also proves that genre deconstruction was happening much earlier than Unforgiven, which this movie would pair well with in a double feature.

I'm glad to hear this because I agree with you completely, I think Marvel is in a serious slump with Black Widow and Shang-Chi and Eternals.

I think it's a 5/5 for me. I can't think of a flaw. And it really hit me. Loved the end too. Definitely an instant classic in my world, I'd recommend it to almost anyone.

Doc Strange in one of the Multiverses of Madness



This felt like a little bit of a mess. There is stuff to like here and moments to mark out for, but it didn't really get going for me until the last part of it. I realize they're trying to tell a more focused story but the multiverse dimensions felt a little limited and under used. I did start laughing at a part towards the end and couldn't stop. May have been the drugs.

The Survivor (2021)

This was good if understated (rightfully so) film. Ben Foster plays the boxer Harrf Haft that was in the concentration camps during the 2nd WW. It's a great story and Ben Foster (as always) is excellent as the man still struggling with his past and present.

Jason X, the 10th installment in the immortal Friday the 13th franchise does exactly that, taking Jason-fu¢king-Voorhees to fu¢king space, and it is as much dumb fun as you would expect. The basic premise has a cryogenically frozen Jason waking up in a spaceship in the year 2455, only to wreak havoc again among its passengers. Along for the ride is Rowan (Lexa Doig), a scientist that that was accidentally frozen along with Jason.

Regardless of whatever flaw you can think of, this film pretty much delivers what you would expect from the tenth film in a slasher franchise about a zombie killer that's sent to space, in the future. Still, despite having the biggest budget of the franchise, to that point, the production values are pretty cheap. Also, although it features one of the most memorable kills of the franchise (guess which one!), the film isn't as gory as I would've expected.

Grade:


Full review on my Movie Loot

From Black Girl to Jason X. Don't let anybody tell you I'm not versatile

Not a great movie at all but the scene with the VR girls makes me laugh every time.