Rate The Last Movie You Saw

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"Betty Blue" (1986)


Really enjoyed this. Beautifully shot with a great soundtrack. Both the leads are excellent, particularly Béatrice Dalle as Betty. Has a kind of tragic tone that runs throughout which I always like in films. Only thing I would say is that at around 3 hours it did feel a little long.

8/10

"Our Little Sister" (2015)



Another great one by Koreeda. Like most of his films it's quite subtle with not much happening for large periods. Still, the characters are interesting and very well developed, great dialogue and interesting locations. He gives you a great insight into the culture of the town and by the end you almost feel as though you've been there yourself.

9/10

"Submarine" (2010)


Wow, I really hated this one. It's directed by Richard Ayoade who I usually like and find funny and the reviews were good so I had reasonably high expectations. For me the comedy just didn't work at all mainly due to the main character. The whole film just lived and died with him. He was annoying, whiny, self-centred, cruel and just generally reprehensible. Also I thought the actor who played him was pretty poor. I haven't seen him in anything else though so it might have just been the script. Some of the other characters were pretty insufferable as well (his girlfriend especially) but nobody even compared to him. The story was very weak and never even tried to do anything noteworthy or thought-provoking. My mam was in the room while I was watching this but she left and wouldn't come back in until it was over because she thought it was that bad. I think that's a pretty fair assessment.
1/10

The Karate Kid (1984)


I've had the DVD for this I'd say for at least 10 years but never got around to watching it until the other day. I've also never seen any of the other ones so I didn't know what to expect but I was a bit worried that I might find it too childish. Overall, I thought it was pretty good actually. Ralph Macchio was excellent. His humour was on point and made me laugh several times. The relationship between him and Pat Morita was really nicely handled. Even when they did go into the student-master clichés, the good chemistry between them stopped it from becoming stale. Only slight drawback was that I thought the music was a bit erratic. At times, particularly for the first hour or so, it didn't seem to be matching what was happening on screen at all. Overall, enjoyable movie that I'd have no problems watching again.
7/10









Makes me glad that I don't have a brother or a dog. There is a lot to dig into with this if that's your thing. Three stories connected by a car crash. Liked the first (love triangle with dogfighting) and third (former guerrilla turned dog loving hitman) stories the most but the second wasn't bad it's just that, c'mon, I'm a pretty lazy person but even I would have put a board or something over that huge hole in the floor or else just get used to hearing "When you gonna fix that huge hole in the floor?" every waking hour. You can kind of see a few things coming from a mile away but it didn't make the film any less interesting.




"Submarine" (2010)


Wow, I really hated this one. It's directed by Richard Ayoade who I usually like and find funny and the reviews were good so I had reasonably high expectations. For me the comedy just didn't work at all mainly due to the main character. The whole film just lived and died with him. He was annoying, whiny, self-centred, cruel and just generally reprehensible. Also I thought the actor who played him was pretty poor. I haven't seen him in anything else though so it might have just been the script. Some of the other characters were pretty insufferable as well (his girlfriend especially) but nobody even compared to him. The story was very weak and never even tried to do anything noteworthy or thought-provoking. My mam was in the room while I was watching this but she left and wouldn't come back in until it was over because she thought it was that bad. I think that's a pretty fair assessment.
1/10
Is this from the top 10 submarine movie list ?



Is this from the top 10 submarine movie list ?
It doesn't actually have anything to do with submarines but I think someone did mention it on the submarine thread.



Only thing I would say is that at around 3 hours it did feel a little long.
Is a movie even a real movie and not a long short if isn't in the 2 and a half hour range or longer ?



I adored this movie when I first saw it but the years have dulled my appreciation for it.



It doesn't actually have anything to do with submarines but I think someone did mention it on the submarine thread.
I enjoyed it. Fairly quirky fare, like Ayoade's other stuff. Maybe I'm biased though as the lead character (Craig Roberts) is from the same part of the world as me. He directed a film last year called Eternal Beauty which I thought was really charming. It's a well trodden path that dissects Mental Health but it is still well directed. And it stars 2 fantastic actors in David Thewlis and Sally Hawkins:




Maybe I'm biased though as the lead character (Craig Roberts) is from the same part of the world as me.
You're welsh scarletlion ?



In Fear (2013)

Low budget horror/thriller about a fledgling couple attempting to attend a music festival but instead getting way-laid to a most troubling hotel site (or not!).

Pretty strong in points and kept me interested to a rather dramatic and open end.



Finishing Fat City. I gotta admit, I wasn't into it. It was an incredibly realistic story, but Bridges got minimal development and the dialogue was barely inventive.



I enjoyed it. Fairly quirky fare, like Ayoade's other stuff. Maybe I'm biased though as the lead character (Craig Roberts) is from the same part of the world as me. He directed a film last year called Eternal Beauty which I thought was really charming. It's a well trodden path that dissects Mental Health but it is still well directed. And it stars 2 fantastic actors in David Thewlis and Sally Hawkins:
I agree with your points. Here is my commentary on it:


Eternal Beauty

I was attracted to the film by the two principal actors, Sally Hawkins (The Shape of Water) and David Thewlis (Fargo season 3). Both came through in spades. Another standout was Penelope Wilton (Isobel Crawley in Downton Abbey).

It's tricky to produce a film which features characters with severe mental illness. The writers tend to over write, and the actors tend to over act, which sometimes results in a type of a parody that never jells. In this case the performances by the inestimable Hawkins and Thewlis were adept at keeping up the natural feel, which may have disguised some weak writing.

Pictures that are helmed by the same writer and director sometimes run the risk of mediocre continuity. Since the director is directing his own script, the danger is that there is no second party to beware of cohesion or stability problems in the production. Those issues are not overwhelming in this picture, but one might say that those principles kept Eternal Beauty as a nicely done film rather than being a really good film.

Hawkins plays a woman who is shockingly left at the wedding altar, which results in her eventual slide into schizophrenia. She is supported by the state, but is something of an embarrassment to her family, including 3 sisters. She presently meets Thewlis, another with mental problems, and they are attracted to each other. Thewlis moves into her government apartment, but one of the sisters soon brings their relationship to a close in a deeply underhanded way. The film then chugs along to a rather uneventful ending.

Another treacherous feature of these type films --and I'm reminded of The Snake Pit, The Three Faces of Eve, David and Lisa, and Repulsion-- is that the stories are easy to write into, but oftentimes difficult to write out of. There are only a few outcomes available when basing a story on a character with severe mental illness. In this case the denouement was digestible, but one has the impression that the entire film could have been fine tuned. Still, the acting alone was worth the price of admission.

Doc's rating: 6/10





A Land Imagined, 2018

A police detective named Lok (Peter Yu) is assigned to investigate the disappearance of a Chinese migrant worker named Wang (Xiaoyi Liu) from a land reclamation construction site. The film splits between Lok's investigation and a flashback to Wang's time at the construction site. A common thread is a woman named Mindy (Yue Guo) who works at a 24-hour computer cafe where Wang spent many of his sleepless nights.

I really, really enjoyed this film, and it came with that extra pleasant surprise when you don't know anything about a film before going in.

I am a big fan of films with a dreamy look and feel to them, and from the first angled shot of multi-colored, angled scaffolding on the construction site, I knew that I was at least going to appreciate the visuals. The visual delights did indeed keep coming--from the neon environment of the internet cafe, to the synchronized swimming in the night-black water off of the coast--but the plot itself also goes to a dreamy place.

The film is ostensibly a mystery, but ultimately it goes somewhere interesting and strange as Lok and Wang's sequences reveal echoes and overlaps in the lives of the two men. Lok's search for Wang becomes both literal and spiritual. At the same time, the film goes into the plight of migrant workers, specifically in the many sequences between Wang and a Bangladeshi worker named Ajit (Ishtiaque Zico) whose passport is being held hostage by the construction site managers. It gives a grounded context for the question of having control over one's own life.

I'm wondering if anyone else here has seen this one and has thoughts. I had a really hard time figuring out if it's something most people would like, especially because so many of the elements were things I tend to love in movies.




In Fear (2013)

Low budget horror/thriller about a fledgling couple attempting to attend a music festival but instead getting way-laid to a most troubling hotel site (or not!).

Pretty strong in points and kept me interested to a rather dramatic and open end.
Little known film that I rarely see mentioned. I more or less agree with you. I thought this one had a great first half, but sorta lost a bit of "oomph" as things start to fall in place. Still solid.
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Little known film that I rarely see mentioned. I more or less agree with you. I thought this one had a great first half, but sorta lost a bit of "oomph" as things start to fall in place. Still solid.
I had an overall negative reaction to it. Too many implausibilities, and some aspects of the horror that were just too cruel for me to enjoy.



I forgot the opening line.

By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=22604077

City of Life and Death - (2009) - China

Affecting and extremely depressing film about what is known as the Rape of Nanking. What is unexpected though is the sympathetic treatment the Japanese sometimes get. I remember reading about this - after the Japanese take the city a humanitarian 'safe zone' is erected by Nazi official John Rabe and various British and Australian aid workers. It was thought that the Japanese would respect Rabe's authority, (Nazi Germany and Japan were allies at the time,) but constant Japanese incursions bring the massacre and rape into this leaky commune. Eventually Rabe is ordered to go back to Germany due to the obvious conflict of interest. Some of the Japanese feel a great deal of shame and distress over what their compatriots have done.

Black and white cinematography turns this into a vivid nightmare - there are many instances where it feels we are dreaming. When the Japanese and Chinese forces meet just inside the walls of the city, you expect conflict to erupt. Instead, the Chinese try to flee while the Japanese try to obstruct them. There's a roiling mass of humanity - death will be the result after all, just by crushing instead of gunfire. Later a Japanese soldier accidentally shoots women and children in hiding, and is broken by this - his compatriots trying to interfere with his dogged suicide attempt. It was this treatment of Japanese innocence lost that made me angry at one point, but by the end of the film I felt the events were very accurately portrayed. For a Chinese production, which had been painstakingly examined by Chinese censors, the balance is remarkable.

In the end I felt more depressed by this as opposed to excited about finding a great new film. I can't find much wrong with it, but be warned. This one isn't out to shock with graphic depictions of war, it's more of a human drama. Even though it ends on a slightly positive note, I felt some of it was about how humanity flourishes in an individual but completely breaks down once a mob is formed. I need to watch something uplifting lest I give up on humanity altogether.

7/10