Rate The Last Movie You Saw

Hard to believe Topol was 36 when they made Fiddler. 36!

That is amazing, because he doesn't look a year under 60 in the film. It's such an amazing performance.

Last thing I watched was a nine part documentary I just started to view again for the umpteenth time: The Civil War by Ken Burns. Easily one of the 5 greatest docs I've ever seen. Ken Burns is a master of the documentary drama and this one leaves you breathless.

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“You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” — Gandhi​

Gambit (1966)

I really liked this flik too. There are some really brilliant one-liners "don't cry in front of the Mexicans Rick". It captured the zeitgeist well. Thought Brad Pitt was excellent as the jaded, laid back former stunt man. His performance as easy go lucky Cliff was a good counterpoise to Leo's neurotic Rick. Margot Robbie is utterly charming in this too. A good part for Emile Hircsh too, wish he'd get these roles more often as Alpha Dog and Into the Wild clearly show he is a very talented actor.

The Crawling Hand - 1963 scifi/horror directed by Herbert L. Strock (I Was a Teenage Frankenstein) and starring Peter Breck, Rod Lauren and Alan Hale Jr. An astronaut, believed dead after running out of oxygen, contacts ground control and rants about something having taken over his body. This is indicated by a wicked case of raccoon eyes. He convinces ground control to blow up his capsule but his arm somehow ends up on a California beach where it's discovered by a teenage couple.

I watched this like a week ago and I'm having trouble remembering all but the basic story outline. It's egregiously low budget of course and the hand being a rambling kind of appendage does the hand version of tiptoeing around while looking for it's next victim. It's preferred method of killing being strangulation it has to wait for the exact moment when a throat presents itself. There's a surprising number of these moments. Carpe Diem? More like Carpe Faucium. Anyway, the teenage guy who secretly took the hand home to his rooming house finally realizes that it's much too dangerous to have around so he attempts to destroy it.

The cast is earnest in their efforts so that's worth some points. There's an open ended closing shot which threatens a sequel but it's been over 60 years and counting so I don't think it's happening. There's no shame in watching this just to be able to say you did. People do it all the time, especially when engaging in movie related discussions.

50/100

1917 (2019)


First time rewatching this, and I was a little surprised I remembered barely anything from seeing it originally. I think that speaks to my original opinion (same score of 4), in that its a good war movie but not a great one.

Wow can’t believe you mentioned Alpha Dog because I thought Hirsch was the weakest part of that movie

1st Rewatch...This goofy distaff variation on The Hangover definitely provides laughs though it never quite comes together as a complete movie experience. Kristen Wiig plays Annie, a romance-challenged woman who is thrilled when her BFF Lillian (Maya Rudolph) becomes engaged and asks Annie to be her maid of honor, but things get complicated when Annie thinks she is getting competition for the maid of honor position from a bitchy new friend of Lillian's named Helen (Rose Byrne). There's a lot to enjoy here. Wiig is very funny as Annie, displaying Lucille Ball-calibre skill at physical comedy and Byrne is a surprisingly effective comic villain. Most of the laughs though come from Melissa McCarthy as Lillian's sister-in-law-to-be, whose fall on the floor funny performance actually earned her a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination. The subplot of Annie's romance with a sweet and silly cop (Chris O'Dowd) really slows things down, but the scenes with Annie and her scummy ex (Jon Hamm) are gold.

1st Rewatch....This film was a box office smash in 1983 and after this second watch, I'm still scratching my head trying to figure out why. The film stars Jennifer Beals as a girl named Alex, who works as a welder during the day and dances at a nightclub at night, who gets involved with her boss (Michael Nouri) where she welds. Alex's real passion is to get into a prestigious ballet company, but she is too scared to audition and refuses to take any ballet classes, yet gets furious when her boss steps into give her a hand. Adrian Lyne's stylish direction and the song score are definite plusses here, but this film's popularity is still a mystery to me. I think I'm troubled by the lifeless performance from Beals and the fact that she doesn't really do much of the dancing on display here.

Umpteenth Rewatch... I don't know what else can be said about the definitive MGM musical. Even people who don't like musicals like this movie. The two things that keep me coming back to it are the fun of watching the contrasting dance styles of Kelly and O'Connor and the brilliant comic turn by Jean Hagen as Lina Lamont, that should have won her the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress of 1952.

Heat (1995)

What an enjoyable film! It’s a personal first re-watch since it came out, and it holds up every bit as well as on first viewing. Michael Mann is one of the best action crime drama directors ever, and this is one of his best. Boasting a dream cast: Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Val Kilmer, Tom Sizemore, Jon Voight, Diane Venora, Amy Brenneman, and Ted Levine, there are simply no weaknesses in the acting.

The story itself is not complicated. It’s basically a triple heist film, with sub stories about the main character’s personal relationships with their wives, along with some very clever plotting and character interactions.

But it is the underlying authenticity and believability of all the action that separates this picture from others of its style. Everything was shot on location. Not a single frame was done on a soundstage, nor was any CGI used. The action sequences are superb, and have a perfectly live feel to them.

The shoot out in downtown L.A. is one of the best on film. Taking place at Flower and 5th streets, as De Niro’s heist crew exits a successful large bank theft, Pacino’s police are heading to the scene, having been tipped off. What ensues is a powerful battle between the thieves and the cops, with the thieves having the upper hand using automatic weapons-- the cops armed only with semiautomatic rifles.

The scene lasts a full 10 minutes, and is galvanizing from start to finish. The actors were all firing live weapons (with blanks of course), and they’d all been given extensive training in firing and handling those types of automatic rifles. Consequently the viewer is convinced they’re watching a real live gun battle. The filming of this 10 minute sequence took 6 full weekends in downtown L.A.

That robbery and shootout was so impressive that it inspired a number of real crimes in several locations around the world with similar action. Most notable was the 1997 robbery and shoot out of the North Hollywood Bank of America, in which two heavily armed men with automatic weapons, and protected by military grade flak vests and helmets, engaged a large contingent of LAPD officers for 44 minutes in a continuous battle resulting in the deaths of both robbers. It is the longest police shoot out in American history.

The movie never really lags, but at 2 hours and 50 minutes, 15 minutes or so could have been cut with no loss to the film. Some of Pacino’s interactions with his wife were dramatically interesting, but unnecessary. But if you haven’t seen this great picture, treat yourself to a masterpiece of the style.

Doc’s rating: 9/10

The Bikeriders

Tell Them You Love Me (2024)
This is a fascinating documentary of a female Rutgers professor, who is convicted of raping a non-verbal man with cerebral palsy and mental retardation. One of the doctoral candidates in her class, sees a film about a controversial method for communicating with non-verbal people called facilitated communication. His brother is non-verbal and the professor agrees to use this method of communication with the brother.
The man with CP is named Derek. He is a beloved son and brother and his family has done everything they can to facilitate his development. They even got him to the point where he can walk with assistance. His mother and brother are excited by this opportunity to look into the mind of Derek.
He begins working with the professor. Lo and behold, he seems quite intelligent according to the transcript of his facilitated communication. Then things get weird.
It is an interesting film about the intersection between race, disability and delusion. Derek is black and the professor is white. The family believes that the professor is presumptuous with regard to their boundaries because she is white. I am not sure. She just seems like a delusional, middle class woman to me. Though I am sure her presumption about the family’s class is based on race.
The part of the film that really stick with me is when the professor changes the station on Derek’s mother’s car while Derek’s mom is driving. I’m like, oh no you didn’t! This is the beginning of the family realizing that may have held a viper to their collective bosoms.
Anyway, it’s very interesting and on Netflix. I would love to hear other people’s take on this story.

Had it not been for the 2023 strikes in Hollywood, The Bikeriders would have opened in theaters last December.

The 6-month delay was excruciating for those of us who had been eagerly anticipating Jeff Nichols' latest film, but thank goodness, the movie is finally being released, and it was definitely worth the wait.

A somewhat fictionalized depiction of a late-60s motorcycle club in the Midwest, the movie does a wonderful job of exploring various facets of American manhood, and the extent that some men go through to try to conceal their feelings.

Jodie Comer is absolutely fantastic as the much put-upon wife of one of the most rebellious bikers in the club (Austin Butler). Tom Hardy is in top form as the soft-spoken leader of the club, who is at times at a loss about how to pass on the club's leadership to a younger man.

(Comer, famously good at doing accents, has said in interviews she took pains to study the accent of the real-life woman her character is based on, because it was like no accent she'd ever heard).

In the very simplest way, it could be seen as an old-fashioned "girl gets boy, girl loses boy, girl gets boy back" narrative - and it works surprisingly well as far as that goes. But what it has to say about masculinity in America in the late 60s and early 70s is also surprisingly robust.

Mike Faist and Michael Shannon round up the cast, as an intrepid journalist trying to learn more about the bikers; and as one of the older and more roughed-up bikers, respectively.

The movie boasts a fantastic sense of period detail and a great soundtrack.

The start of the movie moves a little faster than the rest of it, and it might at first give the impression that this is going to be the Goodfellas of biker movies - but to Nichols' credit, he is trying for something different here, the film shifts gears when you might least expect it, and the result is far more elegiac and mournful than you might anticipate.

This is without a doubt one of the best movies of the year; one can only hope the movie will not have been forgotten come awards season.

I thought he played the part of (let's face it) Jesse James Hollywood well Gideon, narcissistic, entitled headbanger. Ben Foster stole the picture for me though.

Central Station (1998)

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[ J ] - [ S ] - [ F ]

Ben Foster did steal the movie

Call Northside 777 (1948)