Rate The Last Movie You Saw

By May be found at the following website: Movieposterdb.com, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=32347583

Boiling Point - (1990)

I've come to the point now, with I think the 4th Beat Takeshi film I've seen, to know what to expect, and be more familiar with his style - and that means I enjoy his films straight off the bat. Although I expect to enjoy films like Hana-bi more when I see them again, Boiling Point was the best experience I've had watching one of his films. It's a very toned down, low key film about a shy young man crossing paths with a violent Yakuza member, and the world he enters (via his baseball coach) when he reaches that boiling point and lashes out physically. Takeshi himself doesn't appear until the film's second half, leaving his scene-stealing presence out of it to give the story enough oxygen to flow. This was also by far the funniest film of his I've seen, and includes so many clever little touches that I thought it was just brilliant. I'm now becoming a fan, and look forward to seeing more of his films, and revisiting the three I've already watched.

9/10


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Goodbye Christopher Robin - (2017)

Wasn't fully sure whether I really wanted to watch this, but it turned out better than I thought it was going to be, and I like it a bit more than the critics did in general. I'm not a big fan of Whinny the Pooh, but more than just his creation, this film delves into the relationship A. A. Mile had with his son, which was complicated in this. I'm a big fan of Domhnall Gleeson, so that helped as well - and the film looks really nice visually, and has a decent score. It's very emotionally engaging with husband/wife, master/servant, nanny/child and parent/child dynamics going on - so my reading material was left untouched and it had my full attention from beginning to end. I thought it was going to be more a more kind of "magical and happy" kind of film, but instead it focuses on Milne's experience fighting in the First World War, his child's difficulty with the fame his father's creation brought, and other serious issues. Not bad.

7/10

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I’m actually not that big on Coppola’s Dracula. It all seems to me to be a lot of incredible images in search of a movie (and a woefully miscast Keanu Reeves, who’s even more out of his element there than he is in Dangerous Liaisons).

As for Frankenstein, I watched part of it in high school when we read the book (our teacher used it to clarify the wrap-around segments in the Arctic). I watched the full thing a couple of months ago in order to be a “1990s Universal Monster Movies Remade as Prestige Period Dramas” completionist. Sadly, my spouse has accidentally gotten into a habit of late of making me rewatch questionable movies that I already watched recently on my own (this, Mary Reilly, Blade Trinity, Wolf, Constantine, Rambo II and III, etc…), but I guess those are on me.

Schedule disrupted because of construction going on at the house, forcing us to shack up with my in-laws for the past two weeks (it was supposed to be less than one, but apparently the last guy we hired to work on the house did an exceptionally shoddy job, which caused the need for additional repairs).

So, handling my backlog topically, I’ll start with the recent Scooby-Doo marathon we had with my 18-month-old. I’ll even rank them for the fun of it:

1.Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island (1998)
2. Scooby-Doo! and Kiss: Rock and Roll Mystery (2015)
3. Scooby-Doo! & Batman: The Brave and the Bold (2018)
4. Scooby-Doo! Frankencreepy (2014)
5. Scoob! (2020)
6. Scooby-Doo! Camp Scare (2010)
7. Scooby-Doo! WrestleMania Mystery (2014)
8. Scooby-Doo! Mask of the Blue Falcon (2012)
9. Scooby-Doo! Abracadabra-Doo (2010)
10. Scooby-Doo! Moon Monster Madness (2015)
11. Scooby-Doo! Stage Fright (2013)
12. Scooby-Doo! and the Gourmet Ghost (2018)
13. Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School (1988)
14. Scooby-Doo! Adventures: The Mystery Map (2013)
15. Happy Halloween, Scooby-Doo! (2020)
16. Scooby-Doo (2002)
17. Scooby-Doo! and the Curse of the 13th Ghost (2019)
18. Lego Scooby-Doo! Blowout Beach Bash (2017)
19. Lego Scooby-Doo! Haunted Hollywood (2016)
20. Scooby-Doo! Legend of the Phantosaur (2011)
21. Scooby-Doo! Return to Zombie Island (2019)
22. Scooby-Doo! Shaggy’s Showdown (2017)
23. Scooby-Doo! The Sword and the Scoob (2021)
24. Scooby-Doo! Pirates Ahoy! (2006)
25. Straight Outta Nowhere: Scooby-Doo! Meets Courage the Cowardly Dog (2021)
26. Scooby-Doo! Music of the Vampire (2012)
27. Scooby-Doo! and the Samurai Sword (2009)
28.Scooby-Doo! and WWE: Curse of the Speed Demon (2016)
29. Scooby-Doo! and the Goblin King (2008)

Watched Silent Partner. Quite an enjoyable small thriller.

Scared to Death is a lackluster monster feature from the 80s. Sort of like a mixture of Terminator (which it amazingly predates by four years) and Alligator but far worse than either of those.

Angela is a downbeat drama about a little girl whose mother is suffering from some mental health issues. It's pretty obvious that those issues are also hereditary to a degree. At times it could have had a bit more punch, but it's definitely towards the upper end of OK. I took it was somewhat anti-religion which is also a plus in my books.

The Infernal Trio is a pitch-black French comedy about a French lawyer and two German sisters who seek better fortune through immoral means. It's not a laugh-out-loud type of comedy but more like an absurd crime drama. Funny fact: this was banned in Finland back in the day.

Housewife is truly a mixed bag. The intro scene and the last scene are good, but most of the in-between are boring as hell. It doesn't help that the film is Turkish but the actors speak English (with different amounts of foreign tones). The story doesn't seem to make sense and it's mashing too many influences into its meager runtime. The only thing keeping it above bad is its cosmic horror vibe.

Then there's this one film that's not in Letterboxd...



The Sinful Dwarf (1973)

This one is a Danish exploitation film with some hardcore porn thrown into the mix. The story is surprisingly on par with your average B-movies and it has some serious sleaze factor. The Dwarf himself is an amazing display of depravity. It's not a great movie but I enjoyed it more than I expected.

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It's on there, you just gotta toggle your settings, my friend.

Oh, I see. Thanks. I'm still naive enough to think that such options don't exist

Have you seen The Sinful Dwarf? If so, did you like it? I was positively surprised.

I was going to say, "also directed by Mario Bava," but then checked and realized he directed the sequel. Which is to say, there's more of this series...

I have not, but I think Crumbsroom is a fan.


Also, apologies for ruining your Letterboxd feed.

I was also surprised by the fact that there are two of them. But you know what? I would watch two of them, so . . .

Having seen Drive My Car, I found it to be a deeply moving story about the healing powers of art and the various hurdles one has to overcome to achieve this (opening up to people, forgiveness of those who wronged you in the past). It has some powerful scenes, but it fell a bit short of greatness to me. Unlike some others, I didn't mind the pacing or the length. Rather, my issue was with the writing of certain characters. Some of the more eccentric sub-plots (a woman who comes up with story ideas during sex, a volatile actor who blows up when people take pictures of him without his permission, the detail of Misake's mother having schizophrenia) felt like dead weight. Those details could work just fine in a different film, but when you're dealing with a genuine drama with real people, they feel out of place. In spite of this, I do enjoy the film quite a bit. I just think it's at its best when its less explicit about its themes (the rehearsals of the play, the cassette tapes of Oto's voice, the long silences between car rides, the live performance of the play at the end).

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IMDb
Letterboxd

I'll be seeing you
In all the old familiar places
That this heart of mine embraces
All day through
In that small cafe
The park across the way
The children's carousel
The chestnut trees
The wishing well
I'll be seeing you
In every lovely summer's day
In everything that's light and gay
I'll always think of you that way
I'll find you in the morning sun
And when the night is new
I'll be looking at the moon
But I'll be seeing you
I'll be seeing you
In every lovely summer's day
In everything that's light and gay
I'll always think of you that way
I'll find you in the morning sun
And when the night is new
I'll be looking at the moon
But I'll be seeing you

Yes, but it is also possible to just be alone for a little while. A cardinal sin in lesser films like the average rom-com churned out over the last who knows how many years, but for a film like this, that seemed the obvious choice for this character. The ending you suggest was the obvious and correct one and I was actually kinda shocked that this character in this story made that choice in the end. But Hollywood!
And I think what you say here is exactly what bothered me, the whole relationship was just poorly (in fact barely) developed shorthand for "and this messes with her personal life too!" Lazy and not good in a movie that deserved better.

Exactly!

American Gigolo -

American Gigolo's Julian Kay is another memorable misunderstood lonely man from the mind of Paul Schrader. As the title implies, he lives to show women - specifically older ones, as his is preference - a good time. A man who knows multiple languages and whose car, manner of dress, physique and southern California digs define chic, he's everything his clientele could possibly want. Julian's life becomes more complicated when against his better judgement, he gets into an off-the-books fling with Michelle (Lauren Hutton), a senator's wife. On the other end of the spectrum, he also becomes a suspect in a murder investigation.

The most striking aspect of the movie even from minute one is its look and feel, which defines the '80s aesthetic that Miami Vice popularized. Almost every frame resembles a fashion or alcohol ad found in the typical issue of Rolling Stone or Vogue from that decade. In addition to the palm trees, pastels, daylight shining through vertical blinds and Moroder soundtrack, though, are profound sadness and emptiness. Despite all the time he spends with clients or Michelle, my mind goes to the moments when he's alone in his cavernous home and his solo convertible drives first, which make him seem as lonely as Travis Bickle does. What's more, there's the use of empty space and limited extras, which accentuates the pathos. It shifts to terror once Julian's little problems become huge ones, though, and boy, do you feel it. Everyone he knows from his clients to procurer Anne (Nina van Pallandt) to pimp and supposed friend Leon (Bill Duke) want nothing to do with Julian as if they only want him to exist when it's convenient for them. As for the performances, I've always found Gere to be closed off and unknowable, which make him ideal as Julian, and Hutton and Duke demonstrate why they are always welcome sights. Besides the iconic look, what I appreciate the most about the movie - and hopefully not to spoil it too much - is that unlike similar tales about reviled men whose encounter with the genuine or meaningful spells their doom - Carlito's Way and Uncut Gems come to mind - this one has a much different take.

While I really enjoyed it, it doesn't quite reach the heights of Schrader's best like Taxi Driver and First Reformed. Despite not totally getting what I expected, and this criticism could also be leveled at First Reformed, but the protagonist and story's similarities to Taxi Driver's make it predictable at times. There are also times when all the emptiness and coldness become more than just meaningful. Still, for its aesthetic, and again, how well Schrader explores another flavor of outsider life, it is worth seeking out. Just don't be surprised if you find yourself reevaluating your wardrobe or fitness routine afterwards.

One of the essential menswear movies. Fun fact: the wardrobe was by Giorgio Armani, who was originally brought on by John Travolta (who was originally cast in the lead role). The movie is a major factor in the brand become a household name.


https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/articl...r-armani-suits

That's pretty cool, I didn't know that. Speaking of, I didn't acknowledge how good Hector Elizondo is as the detective. He sort of makes the transition from the '70s to the '80s himself when he swaps his huge-collared suit and shirt for an Armani.

Oh, and this is a must-see for anyone into the vaporwave aesthetic.

Cha Cha Real Smooth (2022) I thought this was moving and sweet and really well written. Good performances from the cast.

The Hoodlum Saint, 1946

Terry O'Neill (William Powell) returns home from service in WW1 only to find that it's a lot harder to find work than he imagined. He crashes an upper-class wedding--where he happens to meet the lovely Kay (Esther Williams)--and manages to get an in with a wealthy businessman. Years later he's made good for himself, which allows him to anonymously help some of his old friends. But the stock market crash threatens to put his plans in jeopardy.

This was one of those movies that's just sort of fine. It has a few positives in the form of Powell's reliably good performance and a fun turn from Angela Landsbury as Dusty, a woman he romances when Kay turns her romantic attentions elsewhere. Rags Ragland (who was also in Girl Crazy) is memorable as one of Terry's old friends.

But despite the positives, there just isn't a ton to get your pulse going. The writing tends to be kind of on the nose, especially the sequences where everyone is raving about how great the stock market is doing. The dramatic irony comes on way too strong.

Somewhere underneath is an interesting theme about balancing the ruthlessness needed to succeed with the loyalty and compassion that you have for others.

Not bad, just kind of unremarkable.