Rate The Last Movie You Saw

The Jazz Singer (1927)

The trailer is actually a lot, lot more cheerful than the movie - Belfast - Kenneth Brannaugh's semi-autobiography about his early childhood in Northern Ireland during The Troubles. Imagine living in a small enclave in Belfast in 1969, with the neighborhood surrounded by burnt out cars, barbed wire and British soldiers trying, with only partial success, to tamp down the hostilities. The kids try to have a somewhat kid-like life, but damn...you probably know that there's nothing all that good about living in something close to being a war zone, being personally threatened by the "other guys" in the conflict.

Like some similar movies, this very Irish version of English language nearly needs subtitles, but there's no problem seeing what's going on the film. Cast, plot and production are excellently low-budget and mainly non-digital.

The Andromeda Strain - I think this 1971 sci-fi thriller has held up remarkably well. That should probably come as no surprise since it was directed by the legendary Robert Wise and adapted from Michael Crichton's first novel. The film opens at night with two soldiers monitoring the small New Mexico town of Piedmont. They've been sent to retrieve a US government satellite that landed near the town and has been tracked there. After a startling last message and radio contact is cut off, their base sends out a coded message to Washington which issues a Wildfire alert. A team of scientists and doctors are called in and assembled at a top secret underground laboratory in the Nevada desert. It's purpose is to identify, engage and find a way to mitigate any biological contagion.

The team consists of Drs. Jeremy Stone (Arthur Hill), Mark Hall (James Olson), Ruth Leavitt (Kate Reid) and Charles Dutton (David Wayne). A reconnaissance fighter jet reveals a town full of dead bodies and Stone and Hall are helicoptered in. They retrieve the satellite and find two suicides along with the rest of the populace whose blood has somehow turned to powder. They also stumble across two survivors, an old drunk and an infant. Back at the facility their first order of business is to examine the satellite and find out what caused the deaths. With Dr. Stone insisting on a methodical process the team soon enough identifies the extraterrestrial culprit.

This was a clinical kind of thriller with the special effects designed by Douglas Trumbull. And Wise used a split screen in several scenes to great effect, giving the proceedings a vérité look and feel. The ending involves a headlong sprint to avert catastrophe and the wrapup not only leaves the fate of the laboratory up in the air but the whole planet as well. It was absorbing and felt consequential and I certainly think it could be considered ahead of it's time.

90/100

Wichita - 1955 Western starring Joel McCrea as Wyatt Earp. I thought this was a pretty conventional western with McCrea playing Earp starting his career as a peace officer. There's no mention of age of course because that would have raised some questions about the 49 year old McCrea playing 26. I had no idea that the director was none other than Jacques Tourneur. But this being his first Cinemascope technicolor film there were none of the flourishes that distinguished his B&W thrillers earlier in his career. I had read somewhere that he had eventually fallen out of favor with studio executives and had ended his career doing B movies out of necessity. This is a well made movie don't get me wrong, but it is pretty much by the numbers.

Earp rides into the railhead town of Wichita that's expecting the first herd of cattle and is eager to welcome the cash rich and entertainment starved cowhands. After things get out of hand they hire Wyatt as the new Marshall and he quickly bans guns. This has a chilling effect on business and the local bigwigs decide to fire him after a few days. But he's already made enemies of some of the cowhands and a crooked town boss. McCrea is unerringly sincere though in the role of steadfast lawman. He more or less carries the movie.

75/100

Needs more Ana de Armas. I enjoyed the movie, but I still think Casino Rayole is the best Bond movie of the Daniel Craig era.

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Free Guy 6.5/10

Escape Room 5/10

Dead Calm 7/10

As Above, So Below 7/10

1408 6.5/10

Yo. Need some advice.
Looking to watch Chaplin's The Gold Rush for the first time and there are TWO versions on TCM Hub.
One is 1h 12m and the other is 1h 28m. I don't know which is the preferred version (longer is not always better and of course, I could apply the extra 16 minutes to watching a second movie), but I would like to watch the "definitive" version as much as that's a thing.
Anyone have any thoughts?
I'm trying to watch it right now so if anyone's around, I appreciate it.

(I'll cross-post this elsewhere in order to increase likelihood of an answer.)

When you have a chance you should watch both. I recommend for a first watch the longer, silent version. The shorter one has Chaplin narrating (eliminating the subtitles) and his musical score. They're both equally very good.

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Thanks!
Watching City Lights while I waited for a response, really enjoying this.
(The Great Dictator is the only Chaplin film I've ever seen al the way through.)

Yup.
It's not just the film, it's everything. I mean, for years I didn't watch older movies because of the acting style. Everything I liked was method or post-method.
Got over that bull****.

(One only needs to watch Robert Mitchum in Night Of The Hunter or, going back further, Maria Falconetti in The Passion Of Joan Of Arc to disavow oneself of such silly notions._

Ok, I'm drawin' a line in the ****in' sand here, having popcorn with a movie is of critical importance to the cinema-going experience. I honestly get popcorn every time even if I'm not remotely hungry. Take away my popcorn, there will be blood.

I'm surprised by this, I thought the CGI was downright terrible for 2021 and one of my criticisms of the film was, Damn, Marvel, y'all have the biggest budgets and how many years you been doing this and this film looks this bad?
Also I just thought the movie sucked.

That is pretty much the only positive to come out of this film.


After Captain Marvel, Black Widow, and Shang Chi (and my friends got up and walked out of Eternals, and they haven't walked out of a movie in a decade), I think Marvel might be done outside of the Spider-Man and possibly Guardians/Thor films.
I mean, they'll keep making them, and they'll keep making money because spectacle and the masses, but done making movies one wants to see.

Then luckily for you I'm not in charge of global cinemas

Although, tbh, I'd probably allow popcorn as it has become completely married to that pasttime. That and I absolutely love it. I can just do without it while watching a film. But all other stinky hot food is completely out and that isn't negotiable. I remember hearing someone once took fish curry to a cinema. Fish. Curry. Unacceptable on any level.

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SF = Z


[Snooze Factor Ratings]:
Z = didn't nod off at all
Zz = nearly nodded off but managed to stay alert
Zzz = nodded off and missed some of the film but went back to watch what I missed
Zzzz = nodded off and missed some of the film but went back to watch what I missed but nodded off again at the same point and therefore needed to go back a number of times before I got through it...
Zzzzz = nodded off and missed some or the rest of the film but was not interested enough to go back over it

I've had this in my queue forever and never pulled the trigger.

Fair enough. I am no real judge of these things. I guess it would be better to say that the designs themselves are quite nice (e.g., the water dragon and other fantasy creatures). The colors are nice. I found it pleasant to behold.



Note: A similarity between this film and Red Notice: Underground car chase escaping a lair/fortress, culminating in driving through a waterfall.

I liked it about as much as you did. Had issues with the script. Marvel never takes itself too seriously, and that’s even more evident here. Add the fact that they never seem to stray from the basic blueprint they have laid out for these, and it becomes a bit formulated.
Middle of the pack.

For the record, Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers have been the high point for me, with Captain America and the first Iron Man following closely behind.
Everything else is either disappointing or meh.

It is interesting to note that the film's most progressive idea is that of allowing girls to train and study in addition to boys. In the fantasy village, girls are allowed to fight and train. In the "real world" girls are not allowed to do so and the father does not herald the return of his daughter (he only announces "My son has come home!"). Welcome to the 19th century, I guess? The woke-a-meter being so low on this film is a sure sign that this was designed primarily for the Chinese market. And they did the casting such that they did not need to shrink or erase or conceal black actors on the poster (Big brain moment: Can't be accused of obscuring black talent if you don't hire any).



I have no problem with different films being made for different audiences, but you have to laugh when you see the coding shift.