Rate The Last Movie You Saw

I agree with you-- a fine earlier Hitchcock film. He stated that North by Northwest (1959) was simply the American version of The 39 Steps, which I'd never really considered before reading his comment.

It's a bit of a screwball comedy with a sci-fi twist for the 2020s. I suppose it was aimed at Gen Z-ers, what with the stale masturbation & cunnilingus gags. IMO it wasn't completely unfunny however. I laughed twice... Still, the leads were compelling and offbeat.

Hi
Just rewatch El Topo from Alejandro Jodorowsky 1970. I pickted up from 100 best western movie list and i was so suprise to found that movie there so i decided to give it a second look. Very strange plot but i think this is why it so special and interesting. A real piece of Art.
4/5

Sleepwalk (1986)

This is a hard film to classify--a drama/dark comedy/supernatural/thriller/magical realism flick with some excellent imagery.

A woman works in a transcription services office, and one day she's approached by two mysterious men who want to hire her privately to translate and transcribe a Chinese manuscript. As she works on the manuscript, strange events (some with overlaps of the stories in the manuscript) begin to occur to her and those around her.

It can be very easy in films like this for the director to simply begin throwing random, strange images on the screen, but that is not the case here. There is an overlap and a progression to the imagery (such as injured or missing fingers, or the appearance of animals, or the presence of children in incongruous settings) and it all stays relatively grounded.

Sara Driver, who directed this film, clearly has some relationship with Jim Jarmusch (EDIT: they were in a relationship). Not only is he the cinematographer here, she's also credited in some of his works. I was sorry to see that she didn't direct much else, because I really dug her style. In an interview I read she cited Spider Baby, Kuroneko, and Cat People as favorites and influences, and man would I love to see more movies from someone with that taste.

My only criticism would be that the ending of the film is a bit abrupt, in a way that left me feeling a bit let down.

But aside from that one critique, I thought that the movie was full of delightful surprises. Everything from a super-young Tony Todd as one of the mysterious men, to Ann Magnuson's comic turn as the lead character's self-centered roommate ("I have no insurance and I have no registration and I have no hair!"), to the self-assured way that the film progresses through its story without burdening itself with ham-fisted explanations.

It was certainly pretentious and deliberately allegorical, but sometimes, pretentious is OK. It was OK until that ending which seemed to unravel the whole "teaching point" of the movie.

Tonight, it's The Mothman Prophecies (2002) - It's a fictionalized version of alleged events that happened in the small town of Point Pleasant, West Virginia in 1966. Years before the movie, I recall reading crypto-zoology accounts of the events and then read the book of the same name, written by an author who is fictionalized in the movie.

People in the actual small town repeatedly saw a human sized, winged creature with blazing red eyes that seemed to portend doom. The sightings reached a crescendo when a bridge across the Ohio River collapsed, killing dozens of local people. After that the sightings stopped. Similar sightings have happened elsewhere and seemed to portend some awful event.

The movie, directed by Mark Pellington, starring Richard Gere, Laura Linney and Will Patton, takes the same story and condenses characters and sightings, but otherwise is pretty much true to the tense, grim events in the town. The movie is somewhat quiet and slow, but the dark tension keeps up until the climax. It's really pretty good, but not in a typical Hollywood sort of way. It's tense, slow and quiet. I think it's mainly a treat for people who actually know about the events or the region, or someone who wants to get away from the usual scary movie formula. Not bad, although the movie does NOT move as fast as the trailer, nor make as much noise.

Jubal (1956)

So I haven't seen this one since it came out, so forgive me if I'm a bit fuzzy on the details.

It seemed to me that the ending

Now, that said, something that stuck me when I saw the film in the theater was that the winky, comic elements of the film (like the music playing when the one building gets blown up) didn't quite mesh with the more serious social commentary. Tonally I had some issues with the film, most of which I think come down to the difficulty of capturing the vibe of a graphic novel in film. I absolutely adore the cast, especially Portman and Rea, but their performances almost feel too "real" in a universe that was a little too absurd at points. I liked the film overall (and so did the crowd I saw it with), but I had mixed feelings about it. For me it lands somewhere around a 7/10.

Birds of Prey: B
Black Widow: A+
Mulan:A+

Vast of Night (2019)


Though I love the Twilight Zone feel, I had a lukewarm approach to this movie just based on the reviews and trailers I had seen. It is exactly the type of movie my wife loves, so we watched it last night. She loved it as expected, and I'm glad it simply held up to my expectations. The pace is brisk and fitting, but the story itself fizzles a bit at the end for me.

Multiple views!

Probably, my favorite brazilian film of the century, so far. I remember when this film was released, and every kid wanted to become a police officer. Brazil is very complex when we talk about crime, and even if this film looks like a fantasy sometimes (like the BOPE training), it can show some of the systematic problems of Rio de Janeiro. This last time, I rewatched with english subtitles. It's a shame that a lot, and a lot of things gets lost in translate (just like City of God). Some dialogs sounds weak in english, because this film uses the "street dialect", and makes no sense in other languages.
I remember when the torture scenes got praised by audiences in movie theater around here, and some american critics got crazy, and The Guardian called this film fascist. I think neither critcs or "The Guardian" could understand this film, 'cause firts, you need to understand Brazil!

https://www.theguardian.com/commenti.../fascismonfilm

My problem with the end is that the plot did what the original Gunpowder Plot of 1605 would have done, which was to evoke Guy Fawkes and blow up Parliament and the King. In the context of the movie, however, my feeling was that the dictatorship was the problem. Over the centuries in UK, however, Parliament has served as a check on royal power. A return to some sort of representative government is what the rebels should want. Unfortunately, they were blowing up the most significant visual piece of representative democracy in Britain. Like a lot of movies on the rebellion theme, the writers didn't give a whit about what happens the day AFTER the fireworks; they just assume that everybody celebrates and goes home happy.

History suggests that the new despot takes over, starting on the next day, vowing to purge Britain of all Guy Fawkes masks, claiming that they blew up the greatest icon in the country, the Houses of Parliament, and that this sort of syndicalist rabble has to be stopped in the name of law and order.

Greyhound (2020)

Greyhound is a good old-fashioned enjoyable WWII naval battle type movie. In fact the tension and peril never quite let up during its 90 minute run time.

Tom Hanks gave a fine understated performance (although some might characterize all his portrayals as understated). He successfully represented a destroyer Captain who is faced with very difficult choices, but must make them in a hurry. Sometimes mistakes are made. The very busy Brit Stephen Graham plays Hanks' second in command. Graham too has a nuanced portrayal in which he shows his mastery of accents-- in this case an American seaman.

The story itself was a screenplay written by Hanks based upon The Good Sheperd by C. S. Forester. Since the book presumably covers the entire WWII maritime shipping conflict in the Atlantic, Hanks apparently took one section of the book and turned it into an action packed treatment. It was admirable that he eschewed the typical use of intense bloody scenes, and also was not afraid to show the Captain's reliance upon a Higher Power.

The CGI seemed over laden. It seems as though most all of the ocean scenes --and there were plenty-- were in very high seas, showing the destroyer heavily pitching and rolling. But yet the associated scenes inside the ship were always very calm and placid. However that one detraction did not negatively affect the enjoyment of the picture.

Doc's rating: 7/10

I mean, you're not wrong.

But I think that part of the point is that the "costume" of representative government has been perverted into that dictatorship. Sometimes when a system is no longer true to its ideals, it actually makes more sense to scrap that system and start with something new.

I agree that from a realistic/historical point of view, overhauling government systems leaves a lot of vulnerability and it's very easy for a new power-hungry person/group to just slide into the vacated seat of the last dictator.

But, and this is where the genre is important, I think that the outcome of the film is meant to evoke the ideal resolution and not the "realistic" one. It's about the message more than the literal reality.

I'm not a staunch defender of this film (again, I like it bit don't love it), but I don't see the ending as undermining the message. There are a lot of futuristic/sci-fi/thriller films that end with the destruction of the old guard and the heroes stepping into an unknown future. I know that it had sequels, but consider something like the end of The Matrix or the end of Fury Road.

The New York Times’ review was very lukewarm & they also had a problem with the CGI.

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

A Marriage Story kind of movie. I enjoyed it. Gemma Arterton & Dominic Cooper as the leads were very good.

I found this after spying on other member's top 10 favorites. I thought oh a 1970 Czech movie with good ratings, well that sounds pretty cool. I guess I'd describe it as a dark erotic coming of age fairy tale fantasy. If that sounds good to you then I highly recommend it. It's not really my type of movie, but I can at least say that I bought into the fantasy part, and that's a big hurdle for me. It's only an hour and 17 minutes long, and it's on YouTube with subtitles. The lead actress is only 13 years old. That fits perfectly with the storyline, but the content made me squirm.

The Gypsy Moths (1969)