Rate The Last Movie You Saw

1st Rewatch...This edgy and bizarre comic-mystery about a group of wealthy people who are transported to an elegant restaurant on a remote tropical island for a very special dinner at the bargain price of $1200 a plate and find much more in store for them than a gourmet meal. This film starts off so innocently but just gets creepier and creepier as it progresses, but it does make you want to know exactly what's going on and exactly how it's going to end. Ralph Feinnes was robbed of an Oscar nomination for his performance as the enigmatic chef. Agatha Christie fans will have a head start here.

The Old Man and the Pool - This is the first Mike Birbiglia standup special I've seen even though he has five listed on Netflix. I've been aware of Birbiglia and his brand of amiable vignettes into his life and I've seen him in movies like Trainwreck and A Man Called Otto. But I never watched an entire special. Actually this doesn't qualify as a movie or maybe even a standup special. I've heard it described as a one man show and it is more of a stage production (come to find out that it did indeed have a successful Broadway run).

He talks about hitting middle age and his numerous phobias and he shares some surprisingly poignant moments with his sold out Lincoln Center audience. It's at these times when the audience goes quiet that you truly appreciate Birbiglia's talent and his ability to connect with people. He doesn't curse or disparage anyone outside of some warmhearted self-deprecation. I can totally picture him slipping into a cardigan and slippers and hosting his own TV show, Mr. Birbiglia's Neighborhood. And I'll be checking out his other Netflix specials.

80/100

Good movie. I enjoyed it though it won’t be repeated.



Re-watch. Terrific strange movie.

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

Birbigs is great. I been watching his specials since I was in middle school. His one about having a kid is probably my favorite. And he made a movie called Sleepwalk with Me.

I do remember watching parts of that special where he talks about the delivery and bringing the baby home. I want to check those out but I ended up watching The Old Man and the Pool with someone else. They seemed to enjoy it as much as I did and etiquette requires me to at least ask.

It also doesn't matter if Ratchet specifically was the one to make the call for the lobotomy. It is the whole system that is at fault in the film and the book. And Nurse Ratchet is physical embodiment of that system.


And the reason she is such a great villain is that she portrays herself as benign. She confuses the patients into believing she is trying to help with her rules and regulations. She doesn't tip her hand that she's an oppressive force to those who are in her care.


You know, like lots of real life villains in similar positions in the world

Great movie!

Face the Music (The Black Glove) - I watched this 1954 Hammer production noir and either couldn't sync up with it or maybe it was just a subpar movie. Not subpar as in distractingly bad acting or cheap production values. You can't really blame director Terence Fisher either since he went on to helm numerous Hammer films including my personal favorite, The Devil Rides Out. The movie's shortcomings had more to do with the bland and confusing script. It was written by Ernest Borneman who, according to IMDb, had only nine other nondescript writing credits. James Bradley (Alex Nicol) is a hotshot American jazz trumpet player, newly arrived in London and headlining at the Palladium. There's a quick setup involving his manager Maxie Margulies (John Salew) who apparently is supposed to provide comic relief. But, like so many other aspects of the script, it never really lands. Anyway, Maxie is exasperated and Bradley is jet lagged but on the way home for some much needed sleep he hears a woman singing (from inside a taxi a half block away and down in a basement club no less).

He meets Maxine Halbard (Ann Hanslip) and she ends up inviting him home for one of those 2 AM home cooked dinners. He eventually leaves but forgets his trumpet case only to be woken up by the police the next morning. Halbard has been found murdered, shot by a .45 caliber pistol. That's another thing, for a country that's known for being relatively gun free there's a surprising number of citizens packing heat. The cops don't actually arrest Bradley which leaves him free to conduct his own little investigation. He meets the dead woman's sister Barbara Quigley (Eleanor Summerfield) and Johnny Sutherland (Paul Carpenter) the man who broke her heart by running off with, you guessed it, her sister Maxine. There's a lot of characters introduced, most involved in the London jazz scene. Bradley does his amateur sleuth due diligence until it's time to reveal the actual killer. But it's all so inert that when the perpetrator was eventually unmasked it failed to make much of an impression. This has no rating on Rotten Tomatoes, either critic or audience. And that just about sums this movie up.

45/100

I've been a fan of his for almost 20 years now. Starting with the viral video of the title joke from his special "What I Should Have Said . . . Was Nothing.

The Beginning or the End (1947)

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[ J ] - [ S ] - [ F ]

The title of that last movie threw me. I assumed it was the giant grasshopper movie. But Brian Donlevy and Robert Walker weren't in that.

I thought going in that there was a horror element to this, and nothing I saw convinced me it wasn't coming. Yet it never came, and I never missed it, pretty cool. Awesome visuals and all around vibes, I never knew what was coming. Excellent performances and a lot of fun.

Brave of Barry to go full frontal IMO.

Eh, I do it all the time

He certainly had the equipment for that particular job.

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Mandy (2018)

By Searchlight Pictures - IMP Awards, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=73929537

Poor Things - (2023)

Certainly delightful in a whole range of different ways - visually arresting when it's not having you bay for the blood of certain characters I never expected to be cads. That said, I also have to say that I didn't expect the horrific Dr. Godwin "God" Baxter (Willem Dafoe) to be such a sympathetic character. Yorgos Lanthimos working with over twice the budget he had for The Favourite, and he did incredible things with that. Here his bizarre world isn't so different from ours that we feel any disconnect - it's close enough that we easily make the mental shift and believe in the wonder of steampunk era surgery that somehow make the doctor's creatures kind of cute (I loved the dog-chicken and the duck-dog). Mostly it's emancipation through self-reliant education and advancement, without being told what's right and what's wrong - but discovering it ourselves. That adds a nice added sheen to the whole fanciful and entertaining show.

8/10


By Impawards.com, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=23364349

Loser - (2000)

There was a lot less here than what I was expecting. A college days coming-of-age romantic comedy with lots of date rape and little spark. Best scene was the cutting of the placenta sac of that kitten - and that's not a compliment. It lacks real inspiration, and as all it's impotent side-plots just fade away we're left with a romance that's decidedly C minus, or D plus.

5/10


Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4772050

Across 110th Street - (1972)

Against the grimy backdrop of Harlem poverty a desperate story plays out when three robbers hold up a Mafia "bank" and steal $300,000 - filmed on the real Harlem streets with new Arriflex 35 IIC cameras, this grindhouse-like blaxploitation classic gives equal weight to all players and thus is balanced perfectly. My review is here, on my watchlist thread.

8/10

soo sad but loved when its based on the true story and true events. loved the casting

The Vindicator - (1986)

Also known as Roboman in Brazil. For the longest time I've been trying to remember the name of this movie, that I saw so many years ago. Watching a video on YouTube about Robocop/Terminator clones there it was. Of course I had to watch it... and it is as bad as it looks, hahahaha

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