Rate The Last Movie You Saw

This was, by family dogma, the Best James Bond movie according to my family, growing up from the time I was old enough to watch movies. To suggest otherwise, even if you'd just seen Bond fly a kit-helicopter into a volcano-lair or run across the backs of crocodiles, was heresy.
On the one hand, I am pleased that my family had an official Best James Bond Movie. On the other, The Spy Who Loved Me is also pretty good. And despite what you say, I personally love Thunderball.

You're Next (2011)

By Universal Pictures, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=44093934

The Dressmaker - (2015)

This is normally the kind of movie I'd hate, but for some reason I came out of The Dressmaker liking it a great deal. There's something utterly absurd about it, and I think that was the crucial element for me - I'd be at it all day describing the plot in full, so best to say young woman Myrtle Dunnage (Kate Winslet) comes home to a country town that she was shuttled from after being blamed for the death of a young boy. It's a town full of eccentrics, which includes a cross-dressing policeman (Hugo Weaving), Myrtle's senile mother (Judy Davis) and a bunch of the cruelest vipers on Earth. Myrtle has learned and excelled at dressmaking, and she uses this like a weapon while unearthing what really happened when she was a child and coming to terms with it and the town. Nearly everything that happens from the film's halfway point onward would be the climax of a normal film - but in this is just another plot point. It makes for an interesting explosion of drama and break-neck (plus lop-sided and unusual) pacing. It shouldn't be a good movie - but I give it the score I do because I enjoyed it that much. To top it off Winslet does a pretty decent Aussie accent.

8/10


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Once Upon a Time in the West - (1968)

And what can I say about this? This has stayed with me the day after watching it, after initially being worried about not liking it. Whenever I watch a huge movie for the first time it's "What if I don't like it?" It doesn't come any bigger or more grand than this. I must say that Sergio Leone seems to have come to the conclusion that it's all in the eyes. I can still see Bronson's stare, Fonda's expression and Robards sweaty, dirty bearded face. This feels like a biblical story with blood and betrayal - and a story about the birth and death of a murderous kind of capitalism in a lawless land reaching beyond the boundaries of civilization - but it's civilization that's closing in, meaning those who deal in bullets and murder either die or move on. For a family and a bunch of killers, the railroad's progress will be fateful. I certainly enjoyed my first viewing of Once Upon a Time in the West.

9/10

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The Circle (2017)

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5/10 Lackluster was expecting something over the top, was sort of bloated.

The Power of the Dog Beautifully made and tightly constructed slow burn of a movie. Cumberbatch gives you sympathy for a hate filled guy. Kirsten Dunst looks plenty miserable as the new wife of the brother. The character of the kid is as cool as a cucumber.
I give it three popcorns and a whole box of jujubees. It was a litte too slow of a burn and wasn't something I would feel complelled to return to.

The Vanishing (2018) - Gerard Butler acted very well.

Rate - 7/10

I enjoyed this movie. It was a little slow at times (not the 'slow burn' type) but the movie kept me compelled to continue watching. This unique story involves 3 regular Joes who get wrapped in a nasty situation. These fellas are manning a lighthouse on an island off the coast of Great Britain when a dead guy washes ashore with his wrecked little boat and a mysterious chest. Without giving anything away, there is some intrigue surrounding the contents of the locked chest

Gerard Butler will be seen in his upcoming action, thriller movie kandahar

The Last Duel (2021)

A Ridley Scott-ed up tale of factions in Medieval France (Sires and Renters) that ends up going down a different route with differing versions of the same emotive story. Each was interesting and I thought this very well done, Damon was his best for a while whilst surely Affleck was playing this for laughs??

[rating3[/rating]

The Power of the Dog (2021)

Melodramatic tale of 2 brothers and the wife one marries (and her adopted son). It's got it's moments but, at the same timed dragged like hell, going for "character development". Not bad, mad ending.

Oh and the music. Holy crap, that soundtrack. I can't say it's Morricone's best because the man has 526 freakin' composing credits but every time I listen to it it transports me. Great movie, great soundtrack.

Classic.

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

5/10 Statement piece but wasnt impressed. Nice camera work though.

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Emma (1996)

By Nordisk Film/Drafthouse Films/Zentropa Productions - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1680136/, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=38834581

Klown - (2010)

So, now I'm interested in the Danish "Curb Your Enthusiasm" that has run for 8 seasons so far called Klovn - chances are I'll never get around to seeing it, but watching Klown last night - the first feature film based on the show - has certainly provided me with the impetus. I'm going to turn around now and not go on about how great this was, because it wasn't brilliant, but it was that kind of edgy "awkward" humour that involves a lot of sex and constant faux pas from it's leads that I kind of like. In it, Frank kidnaps a kid to prove to his wife how capable he is of being a father, and ends up taking him on a canoe trip that involves his sex mad friend. Mortifyingly embarrassing mishaps abound.

Heads up though - there was a moment when things turned down a wrong alley when Frank's friend Casper is chased from a high school camping ground with claims that he attempted to rape one of the girls. Yeah, that's not so funny guys. Most of the rest is, but for just that moment the film lost me in a big way. The rest is hit and miss - but I'm pretty happy for that, because many comedies I watch these days are just miss and miss, and when Klown hits a right note (usually involving something horrifying) it really is kind of charming in a rude kind of way. Frank's seeming innocence just clinches it.

7/10


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Tatie Danielle - (1990)

Apparently this movie is well known enough (in France perhaps) that an old, miserable and mean relative is known as a "Tatie (Aunty) Danielle". Tatie Danielle is a real bitch - if the Dalai Lama met her, he'd try to kill her. This film spends a little too long establishing that, or at least expecting it to amuse us as she tortures her housemaid (to death) and then her family. She does one horrible thing after another and it's neither making me laugh or advancing the plot. When her family goes on vacation to Greece they hire someone to look after her, Sandrine (played by the wonderful Isabelle Nanty), who proves to be too tough to crack and stands up to her. A relationship of a kind develops, and it took me until then to finally relax and get into the film. Too bad by then it's nearly finished.

Spent the first three-quarters kind of hating it, the last quarter very much enjoying it - I never found it laugh-out-loud funny, despite it being a comedy, but I don't completely dismiss Tantie Danielle. Theres a 4/5 review on letterboxd by Sed. Dine that says a lot about the film I completely agree with. So I agree with a 4/5 review - but personally I have to dock points for making me uncomfortable and miserable for an hour. I've rarely both liked and hated a film to such extremes as this.

6/10

I don’t really get the woman, except The Piano, but whatever.

SF = Zzzzz

This took forever to get through, what a chore.



[Snooze Factor Ratings]:
Z = didn't nod off at all
Zz = nearly nodded off but managed to stay alert
Zzz = nodded off and missed some of the film but went back to watch what I missed
Zzzz = nodded off and missed some of the film but went back to watch what I missed but nodded off again at the same point and therefore needed to go back a number of times before I got through it...
Zzzzz = nodded off and missed some or the rest of the film but was not interested enough to go back over it

I went in with low expectations on House of Gucci and, yeah, I was right. It is entertaining but really, like who really gives a crap. It's the kind of movie that I'd expect to see as a "made for TV" on the E Channel or USA Network....reasonably well executed by pros, but about as cheesy as it gets. So what do you get? It's the rise of the family business of that name until the murder-for-hire killing of Maurizio, who plots and schemes his way past other family members who want the fashion empire, egged on and advised by his plotting and scheming wife Patrizia. It's a plot line worthy of the Borgias. It was also "ripped from the headlines" and simultaneously castigated by whoever in the family is not either dead or in jail. It's full of sunglasses, heavily made up women and guys with their suit jacket draped over their shoulders. There's always a goon squad in the scene...kinda like The Godfather.

Lady Gaga is Patrizia and Adam Driver is Maurizio. That's about all you need to know about the cast. They read their lines well, but Driver comes across as being completely clueless, even though he's one of the schemers. I guess that's why he's the dead schemer.

You could do worse for an evening's entertainment if you have the right attitude, but you could also do better. It looks good, everything appears very Italian. What I don't get is accents. Given that these people ARE Italian, speaking Italian and that dialog is presented in English in the movie, just WHY do they speak English with an Italian accent? It's a translated script guys, either do it in Italian with subtitles or use standard English. That part makes no sense at all. You also have to look for Jared Leto, who shows up with a fat suit, a bald wig and a really bad accent.

Mom's spaghetti.