Rate The Last Movie You Saw

I just remembered I reviewed Them! and guess what my lead photo was?


Make no mistake about it, 1954's Them! is no B-budget movie. Warner Brothers studio went all out with an expensive production that used real military equipment and personal. There's a real military helicopter, plane and a number of jeeps too. Most impressive are the real flame throwers, that were operated by actors who had been in WWII and used them in combat. Add to that the on-location filming in a real California desert where the temperatures were 110 degrees!

We get authenticity not often seen in giant mutated insect movies. Plus we're treated to a unique view of the underbelly of LA, when the military go under the city into the actual water basins and viaducts of LA. This is an A list movie with a lot of money spent on it and it shows!

I did have an hour and a half to burn plus low expectations. I figured that the biggest piece of work would have been coming up with the concept of a coked-up bear. After that, the rest just has to be mildly amusing. That was about it, an excuse to get out of the house.

By http://www.impawards.com/2023/past_lives_ver2.html, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=73102407

Past Lives - (2023)

12-year-old sweethearts Nora (Seung Ah Moon - Greta Lee as adult Nora) and Hae Sung (Seung Min Yim - Teo Yoo as adult Hae Sung) are seperated when Nora's family immigrates to Canada. 12 years later, Nora is surprised to learn that Hae Sung has been looking for her, and trying to get in touch with her over the internet. There starts a deep life-long relationship which is constantly asking us "what if?" as Nora and Hae Sung chase after their career goals and Nora gets married to another man. Nora looks upon it all in relation to the Korean concept of "in-yeon" - that we all keep meeting the same people in past and future lives, and that every relationship has it's significant place. The way Past Lives works all of this into it's narrative is in a magnificently direct and unsparing way, with every scene pressing down hard on the nerve centers which play on the central themes of this film. Believe the hype - this was absolutely brilliant in both an emotional and artistic point of view, and dug right down deep into my soul. It's a stirring debut from Celine Song, who I'll be watching carefully as to what she does next. Heartrending, bittersweet and beautiful.

8.5/10


By "Fantastic Four Poster". IMP Awards. Retrieved 2007-01-30., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1597562

Fantastic Four - (2005)

Harmless and cute, I didn't really have all that much of a clue this existed - but came across it because of my curiosity surrounding Marvel failures that predated the success of the MCU. The Fantastic Four have always had a bit of a curse on them when it comes to making films based on the characters - and perhaps that's because they're a little far out. This one has all the polish of a Television show pilot, but people were so desperate for a good F4 film that it turned into a box office success - thus meaning we'd get a sequel to a film there really, really should not have been a sequel to. The weakest link was director Tim Story. Goofy, lightweight - but also adorable compared to the Marvel behemoths we get today. Already terribly dated.

5/10


By The poster art can or could be obtained from IMP Awards., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=29207768

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer - (2007)

Zips by in under 90 minutes, and has a pretty promising story outline - one that sounds like it might have actually belonged in a much better movie. From space a silver Klaatu-like being heralds the end of mankind, and the military bring in villain Doctor Doom to help deal with the problem. A great set-up, but the tone is a mismatch with the wackiness that's the Fantastic Four, and the climax to the film feels perfunctory and lacking in imagination. I didn't mind either Fantastic Four film all that much, but they pale in comparison with the good superhero movies we get these days - here, the F4 go with a limp screenplay and a lack of great set-pieces. Everyone bar Chris Evans feels like a second-stringer, and even he was one at the time this was made. If you don't take them all that seriously, they're a bit of fun though, in a zany way.

4/10


By The poster art can or could be obtained from Revolution Studios., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4779839

Little Man - (2006)

Hands down worst movie I've seen this year - by a margin. When you come close to crossing the threshold of good taste, you have to be sure your stuff is at least a little funny. What we get from the Wayans here is so far from funny it's not fun, or even slightly amusing. Idiots made this movie. Lame, stupid and constantly looking for the dumbest common denominator when it comes to comedy, Little Man is bad in a head-shaking way. People who come down hard on this movie are sometimes called out for being a "stick in the mud" - but I'm all for fun, and I'm even more all for fun in bad taste - but when it's simply stupid non-funny stuff in bad taste, then be ready to get booed off the stage. An absolute nightmare of a movie.

1/10

__________________

Super Mario Movie (2023)


First rewatch, and my rating remains the same. It fills all the nostalgic feelings, but some voices still feel a bit miscast. The body of the movie still seems elementary as well.

i been seeing alot of movies lately so cant be bothered to put on here but last movie i saw is equlizer 3

My favorite of the old Universal horror movies. I love that old stye of black and white cinematography and, how Frankenstein the man goes into the mad scientist thing, and, how Karloff brought some believable feeling into that ponderous makeup and costume. The "Bride" sequel is equally great. A blue-ray box set of the classic Universal flicks has a place of honor on my shelf.

Vacation Friends (2021)

No Hard Feelings (2023)

Vacation Friends 2 (2023)

The Flash (2023)

Strays (2023)

Spider-Man Into the Síder-verse (2019)

Re-watch, with my son. Next up, Across the Spider-verse

__________________
There has been an awekening.... have you felt it?

London Has Fallen - 2016 sequel to 2013's Olympus Has Fallen. Gerard Butler reprises his role of uber-competent Secret Service Agent Mike Banning with Aaron Eckhart once again playing President Benjamin Asher. There's an opening scene of a US drone strike in Pakistan which is a set up for the rest of the movie. Fast forward two years and the British Prime Minister has unexpectedly died which necessitates an all hands on deck for his state funeral. Most of the world's leaders are expected to attend including Asher.

The plot mirrors the somewhat outlandish events of OHF where the audience is expected to play along and buy into the action driven plot. And to be honest it does do a competent job of it if the overriding jingoistic aspects don't trouble you too much. I read a couple of reviews that also made use of the "racist" descriptor. I suppose you could perceive it but I really think you'd have to be looking for it or already in that mindset going in.

I happened to derive enjoyment from it for what it is, which is a shoot-em-up along the lines of some of the Die Hard flicks. Where a lone hero takes on an overwhelming and seemingly inexhaustible number of bad guys. Sure there are some eye rolling moments but that's to be expected with this type of actioner. You shouldn't have to grunt and hoot your way through it in order to be considered satisfied.

75/100

White Mischief, 1987

Based on a true story, this film follows the exploits of a crew of wealthy aristocrats living in Happy Valley in Kenya during World War 2. Drugs, drinking, and infidelity are everyday occurrences, and that’s all well and good until Diana (Greta Scacchi) and her older husband, Jock (Joss Ackland), roll into town. Diana is immediately smitten with local playboy Erroll (Charles Dance), a man who is the side-piece of practically every woman in the region. Tensions rise and rise until a deadly incident occurs and everyone is left questioning who pulled the trigger.

None of the pieces of this movie worked for me. The decadence wasn’t memorable enough; the mystery wasn’t mysterious enough; and the drama wasn’t dramatic enough. Not a bad film, necessarily, merely a weak one.



Full review

The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum (1975)

__________________

[ J ] - [ S ] - [ F ]

The Breakfast Club, I’ve seen a million times btw, 10/10

By https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2980516...wer/rm72239616, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=56836391

The Theory of Everything - (2014)

My fascination concerning how the remarkable Stephen Hawking lived his life comes up against my general dislike of biopics in The Theory of Everything - how can you really condense a life into two hours on a screen? Hawking (Eddie Redmayne) was diagnosed with motor neurone disease when he was 21, in 1963, and given 2 years to live. He went on to live another 55 years - as startling an achievement as his wonderous theories about the universe we live in. In this film what concerns us is his relationship with his first wife, Jane (Felicity Jones), his children, his colleagues - and especially his disease. I can't speak to it's accuracy, but it imparts a fair amount of information about all of these things, and Redmayne rises to the particularly unique challenges of this once-in-a-lifetime role. This might sound extra corny - but Hawking taught us as much about fighting adversity as he did physics, and while he wasn't a perfect man, he was inspirational in a broader sense. His first wife rose to his level in a situation few wives are faced with for such a considerable amount of time - and it's the second version of Jane's book, Travelling to Infinity, that this is based on. It can be hoped that quite a few kids who didn't know who Stephen Hawking was saw this, and as such it's not a bad introduction to the great theorist.

7/10


By http://mycampfriends.com/pages/my_gr...p_lists/75.php, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26629467

Indian Summer - (1993)

I always remember summer camps as being an ordeal - fun from a "friends cutting loose" standpoint, but very far from the many comforts of home. In Indian Summer a group of 30-somethings return to meet the retiring Lou Handler (Alan Arkin), who runs Camp Tamakwa. In a Big Chill kind of way, they reflect on past crushes, regrets, good times and big events when they were all kids. The likes of Diane Lane, Bill Paxton and Elizabeth Perkins appear in this, and there's even a small role for Sam Raimi, who was director Mike Binder's childhood friend. It's an average sort of drama that never reaches any great heights, and won't stick in many people's memories the way the past antics of these people have. It's best aspect is it's tendency to make us think back to our experiences as kids.

5/10

Showgirls (1995) -

My MKS approval rating has likely gone up.

Django (2017)

This French language movie showcases Django Reinhardt, the popular jazz guitarist of the 1930s and 1940s, during WW2 occupation. So, it isn't a biopic in the true sense, only focusing on a brief period of time in 1943.

Very dramatic and entertaining. The music is great and the picture quality is great. All the costume and everything appears authentic. I can't help but think there should be more detail to the story or maybe there should be some more movie preceding what is shown here to illustrate Djangos life as a guitarist.

Good movie, recommended.

7/10

Fear is the Key - B
Lost Highway - A-
Frontier Marshall - A
Ninotchka- A+

__________________
"A candy colored clown!"
Member since Fall 2002
Top 100 Films, clicky below

http://www.movieforums.com/community...ad.php?t=26201

Cabin in the Sky (1943)

The music didn't stand out but none of it was bad enough to make you want to stop watching. The story though was pretty funny and completely out of left field. The acting was great. I liked this one and wouldn't mind seeing it again. Most movies from the 1940s are boring in comparison, at least the ones I've watched.

7/10

American classic. Seen it a million times. Why the heck didn’t Brad Davis win an Oscar for this?




Not bad. Good ensemble cast. Don’t ask me about the plot - I haven’t the faintest idea. Amusing to see Sally Hawkins as a gangsta girlfriend. Sienna Miller wildly under-used. All she had to do was parade in her lingerie.





Excellent movie from the Balkans. Funny thing is I got to the very end of the movie & only then realized I’d seen it before. Odd.

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