Rate The Last Movie You Saw

Night of the Blood Beast - 1958 scfi schlock. Shot on a budget of around 68,000 dollars and does look threadbare. Or maybe it was the crappy print I found on youtube. I watched this about a week ago and I'm having trouble remembering all but the most basic of plot elements. An astronaut dies while in space, or maybe he dies when his rocket ship crashes. Anyway his team recovers his body and brings it back to their tracking station. While there his body reanimates. Turns out the he picked up some alien hitchhikers that want to use his body as an incubator. It's not remotely as interesting as it sounds and this was an egregiously low energy movie.

25/100


Invasion of the Saucer Men - From 1957 and just as dull and poorly made but in a different way. Aliens land near a small town's lovers lane and it falls to a group of teenagers to battle them. The alien makeup is better than Night of the Blood Beast (which was just laughable) but the actual reveal is so sporadic and poorly shot that it's mostly confusing. It really leans heavily on the "this is a wacky comedy" bit without really earning any honest laughs. Not much in the way of tension either if you don't count the odd disembodied hand crawling around. My experience might have had a great deal to do with the terrible copies I watched. At any rate you probably shouldn't bother wasting your time on either of these dogs.

35/100

3rd Rewatch...Paul Thomas Anderson has never really topped his 1997 masterpiece, robbed of a Best Picture nomination. This look at the decay of the porn industry and what happens when some of the industry's biggest movers and shakers get chewed up and spit out is a riveting cinematic journey no matter how many times I watch it. The late Bu rt Reynolds and Julianne Moore were both robbed of the Supporting Actor Oscars for their work here. Anderson's screenplay creates a dangerous and inviting canvas filled with characters we genuinely care about as the final credits roll. I read Leonardo DiCaprio was originally offered the role of Dirk Diggler, but had already committed to something called Titanic allowing Mark Wahlberg to turn in a star-making performance. And I have to say that the characters played by William H Macy, the late Phillip Seymour Hoffman, and Don Cheadle might be the most heartbreaking movie characters I have ever seen.

South of the Border follows director Oliver Stone as he travels through different countries in Latin America, investigating the shift to the left within many countries of the region towards the beginning of the 21st Century; the so-called "pink tide". In the process, Stone meets with leaders like Hugo Chavez (Venezuela), Raúl Castro (Cuba), Evo Morales (Bolivia), Lula da Silva (Brazil), and several others.

It is not a secret that Stone has a certain agenda. He doesn't hide it, so it's there for everybody to see. He has been a hard-core critic of U.S. government, the establishment, and a firm detractor of President Bush, among other things. Take from that what you may as you watch this documentary, but he still does a great job of presenting facts in a neat package. The rise of leftist governments was indeed surprising and I suppose worrisome to the U.S. establishment.

Grade:


Full review on my Movie Loot

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Bunny and the Bull - (2009)

This was Paul King's (best known at the time for directing The Mighty Boosh) directorial debut feature-wise - it kind of scampered through unnoticed, and it deserves some attention. Although it features Richard Ayoade, Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt (all in very funny roles) it's two leads are played by Simon Farnaby (as the titular Bunny) and Edward Hogg (as Stephen Turnbull). Stephen is a shut-in recluse, not having left his house in a year, and as he goes about his day we flash back to a fateful holiday he took with best friend Bunny, where the two met Eloisa (Verónica Echegui) - forming a love triangle as the three traveled to Spain so Bunny could fight a bull. It's a strange remembrance, where flashbacks feature scenes made up of cardboard/newspaper scenery, and very fake-on-purpose scenic and prop design. It's the way Stephen remembers things. It'll depend very much on who views it, but the various characters who flow through the story tipped the balance for me, making for a delightfully funny and very different movie. If you like things like The Mighty Boosh or anything the likes of Richard Ayoade would be in (King was involved with co-directing Garth Marenghi's Darkplace back in the day) - then you might want to give it a shot. It's a charming little fun-filled snowglobe of a movie.

7/10


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Taxi - (1998)

Daniel Morales (Samy Naceri) is an ace driver who has finally been granted a taxi license - using his souped-up car to get clients to where they want to go fast. Émilien (Frédéric Diefenthal) is a cop who simply can't pass his driving test. When Émilien uses Daniel's taxi, without telling him he's a cop, he ends up busting the driver for traveling at 175k/h - around 3 times the speed limit. To square things up, Daniel helps him via his driving skills to try and bring down a gang of German bank robbers terrorizing France. This was a pretty mainstream buddy-type comedy - fast-paced, with pretty decent comedic performances. So popular in France that it was followed by 4 sequels. Marion Cotillard features in it - a very early role for her. I watched the dubbed version without knowing I had the option to watch it in French with subtitles, and it would have been better the other way - but I still thought it was okay.

6/10


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Hannibal Rising - (2007)

Dark and dour, Hannibal Rising tells the story of Hannibal Lector's early life, from his Lithuanian childhood to his trip through the Iron Curtain and quest for vengeance after a group of militia during World War II kill and eat his little sister. Relentlessly sour, the audience has nothing and nobody to cheer for as the malignant sociopath chops up people who insult him and visits a terrible revenge on his enemies. It's simply one rotten thing after another, and doesn't give much insight into anything other than the fact that Hannibal's wartime experiences damaged him and turned him into a monster - the film keeps playing that one note, over and over, and in the end it just felt like an relatively empty experience.

4/10

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The rest of the film has nothing to do with Laurie. Instead, it follows the crew of a reality show called Dangertainment, as they prepare to film a group of young volunteers that will spend the night at the abandoned Myers house. What they don't know is that, after Michael's encounter with Laurie, he has returned home and he doesn't like visitors.

Putting aside how ludicrous the logistics of this alleged show are, the film has very little to offer. Characters are paper-thin, the film doesn't really bring anything new to the franchise lore or themes, but rather just unleashes Michael Myers in a house full of meat bags for him to slice through. Oh, and did I mention that Busta Rhymes "kung fu fights" Michael Myers in the end?

Grade:


Full review on my Movie Loot

Lookin pretty crispy there, Mikey.

Oh, Busta sure got the chance to bust some killer one-liners.

"Trick or treat, motherf**ker!"

6th Rewatch- The only time four time Tony Award winner Gwen Verdon was allowed to recreate a role she created on Broadway for the big screen was in this exuberant 1958 film version of a musical about a middle-aged baseball fan named Joe Boyd (Robert Schafer) who agrees to sell his soul to the Devil aka Mr. Applegate (Ray Walston, also reprising his Broadway role) in exchange for becoming a young baseball sensation named Joe Hardy (Tab Hunter). Hardy gets homesick and tries to return to his wife and Applegate forces a 172 year old witch named Lola (Verdon) to keep Joe happy as Joe Hardy. That Adler/Ross score can't be beat "Whatever Lola Wants", "Heart", "Shoeless Joe From Hannibal Mo", and "Two Lost Souls", not to mention the film's highlight "Who's Got the Pain" , a dance duet by Verdon and the film's choreographer and Verdon's husband, Bob Fosse, the only time they danced together onscreen, that's worth the price of admission all by itself.

The Grey Fox -

Some people drink while others smoke. Bill Miner robbed stagecoaches. He's the subject of this very good western from Canada, which dramatizes the time he spent in the country. After serving a 33-year prison sentence, Miner reunites with his sister, who lands him a more respectable job of gathering oysters. He quickly realizes he's not cut out for it or for respectable work in general, and since stagecoaches no longer exist, he feels purposeless. Everything changes once he attends a screening of The Great Train Robbery.

This movie works just as well as a classic western as it does a drug addiction tale, with the drug of course being staging robberies since the best drama comes from whether or not Miner will fall off the wagon, no pun intended. The robbery scenes appropriately elicit disappointment more than excitement as a result although they are no less compelling to watch. Farnsworth is excellent for how convincing he is that robbing is all Miner wants to do or perhaps can do. That also goes for how he presents his difficulty in adapting to his very different time and surroundings. Just as memorable is Jackie Burroughs as Kate, a photographer with whom Bill shares a romance. This sequence is one of the sincerest and mature of a couple falling in love I've seen in a long time and provides the most hope that Bill can reform. Sincere and mature are how I would describe the entire production, really, especially since it never relies on sensationalism. While I like to see a good robbery or shootout as much as the next person, I appreciate that the movie respects my intelligence enough to know that the entertainment in Miner's journey first and foremost. Thankfully, it still makes room to highlight the natural beauty of the British Columbian countryside courtesy of Frank Tidy's cinematography along the way. It ends up being a very compelling and substantive portrait of a criminal and of someone who cannot stop doing a certain thing despite having all the reasons in the world not to. Also, as his relationship with Kate and his adorable interaction with a young man indicates, it ably demonstrates that such people cannot easily be pigeonholed as good or evil.

Good movie for sure.

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

This new Halloween is a direct sequel to the original, ignoring all of the other sequels and most importantly, ignoring the twist that had Laurie and Michael as siblings; something that has pretty much shaped the franchise since Halloween II. But, like a character says in this film, "is scary to have a bunch of your friends get butchered by some random crazy person". Allowing Michael to be a random killer on the loose is scarier than tying his actions to a specific family or place.

Of course, Michael was institutionalized in a facility, but Laurie was as captive as him because of the trauma. That duality is evident in the script, but also in the direction. Green does a lot of interesting things to portray that duality, by visually referencing the events of the original, especially in the last act. The character of Karen is also interesting as we see her also reckoning with her traumas, directly caused by her mother's traumas, so it's an interesting illustration of the effects of traumatic experiences.

Grade:


Full review on my Movie Loot

A classic. Nothing needs to be said.



Didn’t know that “X” should be seen first. Think I bailed out of it, but will re-visit.

This one is good: Mia Goth has the sassiest little face.



Knew I would love this & I did. Love me an ensemble cast.

The Sense of an Ending (2017)

Starring Jim Broadbent and Charlotte Rampling

Came across this movie on the superb European channel TV1000 today.
Wow, what a hidden new title, it turned to be a very good film.
Something to remind us that aging people also had a life once and they still have it. A classic calm type of filming, featuring skilful screenplay and top level acting (of course, there are Broadbent and Rampling).
Recommended for skilled cinema appreciators.

++
85/100

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"Population don't imitate art, population imitate bad television." W.A.
"You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus." M.T.

The Night Porter (1974)

Never heard of this. It’s in my Q now.

The Lost Moment - (1947) There's no getting around it. This is a chick flick. For starters it's Susan Hayward. That alone should have made me rabbit but it was someone else's pick and it seemed rude to get up and leave. It takes place in Venice and unless there's a bank getting knocked over or James Bond and Spiderman are hanging around chances are it's gonna be a chick flick.

Bob Cummings costars as Lewis Venable, an American publisher who's after the lost love letters from 19th century poet Jeffrey Ashton to Juliana Bordereau (a largely indiscernible Agnes Moorehead). The now 105 year old recluse and her niece Tina (Hayward) live in a decrepit palazzo and are in desperate need of funds. Venable exploits this in order to rent a room under the guise of being a writer. He means to comb through the house, find the invaluable love letters and publish them.

There's the usual gothic romance happenings. A lot of crepuscular goings on and secrets by the bagful. There's also cats, forbidden love, schizophrenia, cats, wild haired piano playing (complete with candelabra). And cats of course. I fell asleep at least twice (and honestly didn't miss anything). The performances were a bit of a hoot. And it ends accordingly. Miss Havisham would have given this two thumbs up.

50/100

VERY nice review, Torgo! The Grey Fox happens to be in my top 10 favorite movies of all time. I saw it in Hollywood in 1983, and was so impressed I went back for a second viewing. To me it's a flawless picture. Farnsworth was perfect in his characterization, and was Jackie Burroughs.

I couldn't stop thinking about the picture. The music alone (by the Irish group The Chieftains) spoke to me in a way that I hadn't felt in years (and I was in the music performance business). There were zero mistakes in that picture, and all the actors and everyone involved in the production were perfect. Cheers-- Doc

Thanks, and good call about the Chieftans soundtrack. Oh, and did I mention how beautiful the movie is? If it's wrong to pause and take in the beauty of the British Columbian countryside every now and then, I don't want to be right.

Sounds fabulous!