Rate The Last Movie You Saw

⬆️ Can’t remember a single scene, but I did like it.

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

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
7/10.
I had low expectations going into this movie, due to my dislike of Crystal Skull and some negative reviews, but I actually thought it was pretty good. Action was great.

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Boldly going.

Just finished this and was blown away by it. The hype is justified for this one. I thought it might be predictable but I never knew where it was going. The visuals were great and the idea was wonderful. It had many twists too.
Talk to Me (2022-2023)

Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers follows up a couple of years after Halloween 5 as Loomis realizes that Michael's existence or evil is the result of scientific experiments performed by members of a druid-like cult trying to investigate and control the power of Thorn... or something like that, who cares. Meanwhile, Michael is out to eliminate family members because, well, that's what he does. Again, who cares.

I remember seeing this back in the day and still thinking it was crap. Rewatching it now, it just confirms that it is. The film is an unnecessary convoluted mess that clearly doesn't understand what made the original film work. Aside from that mess, we have uninteresting characters, as well as yet another unceremonious dispatch of the lead character of the previous two.

Grade:


Full review on my Movie Loot

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The Cat and the Canary - Ten years after his death the six surviving relatives of millionaire Cyrus Norman gather at his remote Louisiana bayou mansion. His oddball companion Miss Lu (Gale Sondergaard) has been the sole occupant and she professes to be attuned to the many spirits which inhabit the mansion and grounds. Cyrus' executor Lawyer Crosby (George Zucco) is the first to arrive for the reading of Cyrus' will which is to take place at the stroke of midnight. Joyce Norman (Paulette Goddard) is named as the sole beneficiary. But, fearing the streak of insanity that runs in his family, Cyrus has stipulated that she must remain in full control of her faculties for 30 days in order to claim her inheritance.

Bob Hope plays radio actor Wally Campbell and you can see him starting to settle into his comedic delivery. But there's so much going on with the spooky mansion, hidden passages, escaped madmen and quirky, devious relatives that Hope isn't asked to shoulder as much of the load.

This "old dark house" horror/mystery was such a success when it was released in 1939 that Paramount studios rushed to reteam Hope and Goddard in The Ghost Breakers the following year. I still liked TGB a bit more but this has the richer palette as far as story goes. It comes in a close second.

79/100

Midjourney, make a me a poster for a mediocre ensemble comedy.

Caligula (1979)

Well, you could make a film about the making and editing of this film but just lets say, if your expecting a sword and sandals epic, forget it. Tinto Brass made a rather artsy and erotic retelling of the legend of the Emperor Caligula, packed with nudity and violence. Then it was butchered to increase sales by inserting hardcore sex scenes post production by Bob Guccione and we end up with this mess. Not to say it doesn't have good "bits"...McDowell is great playing the insane Prince/Emperor and there are several good set pieces. The "inserted" scenes are obvious and slow the story down and caused even moreupset to the original director as they used the same sets made for his vision.
Pretty mad!

I agree. Lange took pains to almost impersonate Crawford-- her expressions, her manner; whereas Sarandon rarely felt like B. Davis. Interesting portrayal of them and their relationship.

I'm shocked. Not the gooch. I mean, just look at him.

Set in 1934, Shimásáni follows two sisters (Brigadier and Noelle Brown) standing at a cultural crossroad. Because of the needs in the household, only one of them has been chosen to attend school while the other has to stay to tend the goats and the crops under the watchful eye of their strict grandmother (Carmelita B. Lowe). The die has been cast for both, and both hate the fate that has been chosen for each. But when the second one gets her hand in her sister's school book, she finds herself drawn and mesmerized by the outside world she might never know.

Grade:


Full review on my Movie Loot

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My Name is Nobody - (1973)

You go in blind and sometimes you come out a little perplexed, but it wasn't long before I was set straight regarding My Name is Nobody. By the time it came out, in 1973, the Spaghetti Western was old hat, and this Tonino Valerii (Sergio Leone did have a big hand in this as well) version completely pokes fun at the genre. I guess the inclusion of Italian comedian Terence Hill should have clued me in, but I just thought he was branching out into westerns. There are two distinct sides to this film - there's the Henry Fonda side, which is pretty much straight-up western stuff, and then there's the Terence Hill side, which is flat out Tom and Jerry cartoon. This slapstick isn't quite my style, but it was so strange seeing it in a western that I have to admit to being interested. Even Ennio Morricone is in on it - composing loopy versions of work he'd done previously, trading lusty twangs and operatic swoons for foghorns, duck quacks and tin-rattles. The story, of old great gunslinger Jack Beauregard (Henry Fonda) and the young, better, up-and-comer who idolizes him, Nobody (Hill) is par for the course - but when cartoon logic is sometimes applied, I wouldn't get comfortable with relying on it. I'd have been better steeping myself in Spaghetti Westerns before watching this - but I get the joke anyway. The genre as a whole was dying around this time, and to send it up would be the smart thing to do.

7/10


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Triangle - (2009)

The best psychological horror films go the weird and inexplicable route without copping out and explaining what's going on - half of the fun is maintaining the mystery, and in Triangle there's so much that's weird and wonderful, and never even given the slightest hint of being explicable. I can't say much - the fun of the film is in the way it unfolds, and as such it's a spoiler minefield. Single mother Jess (Melissa George) and a group of her friends take a yacht sailing, encounter a storm, and are stranded on their upturned boat - but along comes a mysterious ship to save them. Trouble is, the group can't find anyone aboard, and those they do see are only fleeting glimpses of someone, just around corners - always running away. From there, things get freakier and freakier. If you think too hard about everything, there are plot holes - but when you're in the land of the bizarre, who's to say what's real or what's not? This mightn't feel special at first, but when the conceit has finally been revealed, then many will be hooked - and will remain so right to the end.

7/10


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Safe House - (2012)

Master manipulator Tobin Frost (Denzel Washington) has valuable information on his hands that he's trying to sell for $10 million. When pursued by killers, he flees to the American consulate in Cape Town, South Africa. He's tortured by the C.I.A. in an attempt to get him to confess his contacts, and what he knows, but the killers find him, and kill all but one of the agents, Matt Weston (Ryan Reynolds) who flees with Frost - beginning a wild ride and bloody ride. This is one of those films where a main character, Frost, is set up with a gift (here, as someone who can talk anyone around) - so of course I'm expecting that to play a big part in what follows. Nope. Safe House goes the safe route, and pretty much stuffs in as much chasing and gunplay as it can instead of storytelling - it's not bad per se, but it just felt like we were promised so much more at the start. I mean, it's Denzel Washington playing a silver tongued rogue - come on, let's see him use it - and come to think of it, the film didn't make any use of Ryan Reynolds innate abilities either. A fine movie - while at the same time a monumental waste of acting talent.

6/10

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A completely new version of this played at the Cannes festival this year - edited from previously unused footage, this new "Ultimate Cut" version (considering the film, I might say definitely no pun intended) doesn't have a single shot that was used for the 1979 version. Tinto Brass is being a killjoy and trying to kill it with lawsuits - but that will only perhaps end up with his name being scrubbed from the credits. I'm looking forward to checking it out, albeit with reservations.

It isn't available anywhere for streaming that I can find and maybe this legal thing is the reason. I would like to see both versions now, theatrical and re-cut.

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Love that film. It's a proper mindfunk film.

Dead presidents tells the story of Anthony, a black man from New York who struggles to adapt to life after being a marine in the Vietnam war. The film is structured into three distinct parts; his early years deciding to not go to college, the experience of the Vietnam war, and life after the war in which he decides to commit a crime to help pay the bills.

It's a bit of a patchwork film in that respect, as the segments don't flow easily. The first segment is well put together with some excellent family drama. The Vietnam segment is quite graphic and has some rather ludicrous make up / blood spurting effects, and the last segment is altogether a bit of a mess. The acting is satisfactory in parts but stunted in others. There’s no real resolution at the end, with the directors choosing to just hammer home the theme of how difficult life was after military service. It’s not a bad film, just rather dated and no real spark there to enhance any emotion.

Red Rock West follows Michael (Nicolas Cage), a drifter desperately looking for a job in rural Wyoming. In the process, he finds himself in the middle of a misunderstanding when a bar owner (J.T. Walsh) mistakes him for a hitman he hired to murder his wife (Lara Flynn Boyle). Things get even more complicated when the actual hitman (Dennis Hopper) arrives and stumbles upon Michael.

Cage has always done a great job portraying vulnerable guys that are cornered into complicated situations all while trying to come afloat and still be "nice". He's also paired with a solid supporting cast, with Hopper easily having the meatier role. His performance as Lyle (from Dallas) is not equal to Frank Booth, but it's somewhere in that area. Walsh and Boyle are both pretty good too.

Grade:


Full review on my Movie Loot

Not many can get away with *that* look.....

Nic Cage and Dennis Hopper, together at last! How have I never heard of this movie before?

Sounds interesting, certainly to me. How much footage did they actually shoot?! I'd heard that the idyllic scene with he and his sis in the field at the start was originally to go in the middle of the film. Good editing whomever put it at the start. Shows his decline.