Rate The Last Movie You Saw

I do that sometimes, but usually not just because I'm not sure if I used a perfectly legal website. If you want to see something just pm me for a link. I assume you have at least a little bit of shady in you.

Fright Night (1985)
6/10.
The premise is fine, but the execution fell behind: the characters make stupid decisions, there's consistency and continuity problems and the special effects are overblown.

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Boldly going.

The Long Night - 1947 noirish drama directed by Anatole Litvak and starring Henry Fonda at his speechifyin' best as ex-GI and good hearted working stiff Joe Adams. As the film opens a shot rings out in a rundown rooming house somewhere in a shabby, noxious factory town. A man staggers out of a room, tumbles down the stairs and dies. When the authorities show up the man inside the room tells them to FO and leave him alone, throwing a couple of shots their way to emphasize his request.

We eventually finds out it's Joe and from this point on the movie turns into a siege of sorts as he barricades himself inside his room. The cops blast away at every opportunity, employing the let's-evacuate-the-building-and-turn-his-room-into-Swiss-cheese negotiating tactic. They also rough up the ever growing crowd of bystanders outside the rooming house.

While all this is going on the majority of the film is related in flashback as Joe reflects on the events that lead him to this moment. Vincent Price costars as the sardonic, seemingly cosmopolitan, debauched magician Maximillian the Great. The two dissimilar men find themselves vying for the same woman, a young and guileless shopgirl named Jo Ann (Barbara Bel Geddes). Joe is genuinely smitten with her and when she breaks a date he's curious enough to follow her to a nightclub where Maximillian is performing. There he makes the acquaintance of Charlene (Ann Dvorak) who has just resigned as Maximillian's assistant.

We never quite know where we stand with Maximillian since he enjoys playing head games with just about everyone in his sphere of influence. Charlene tries to warn Joe about this but Maximillian largely succeeds in making Joe doubt himself. This was a remake of the original French production Le jour se lève and needless to say it doesn't end the same way.

75/100

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See How They Run - (2022)

"The Mousetrap" - a murder mystery play by Agatha Christie has had a run on the West End that has gone from 1952 to the present day - stopping only for Covid - it's 27,500th performance taking place on 18 September 2018. Well, this movie is a celebration of that, by way of creating a fictional murder mystery surrounding the play itself. Film director Leo Köpernic (Adrien Brody) who intends to direct a film version is murdered during the celebrations of the 100th show in 1953. The always slightly-drunk Inspector Stoppard (Sam Rockwell) and the very naïve and inexperienced Police Constable Stalker (Saoirse Ronan) are put on the case. This is a very light parody that takes aim at the kind of murder mysteries Christie would be so wont to write about, and while Ronan really takes her part and runs with it, Rockwell almost disappears in front of our very eyes - his low key performance much more subdued and unremarkable than I'm used to from him. The comedy is so-so, and I more enjoyed the mix of real history with fiction (Richard Attenborough - played by Harris Dickinson - becomes part of the plot, and the John Christie Rillington Place murders are dominating the news and police resources.) It's cute, gets the feel for period right and has a fair bit of charm, but it wasn't as funny as it should have been. I love The League of Gentlemen, so I was very happy to see Reece Shearsmith in this. Saoirse Ronan shines brightly though, and is the biggest reason to see it.

6.5/10


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Skyline - (2010)

Skyline is my guilty pleasure - I know it's not very good, but I still love the look of it, and it's hopeless, nihilistic realism. The people here have no chance - and it's a shame the people writing it couldn't think of better reasons for the characters in this to continually abandon good hiding places to put themselves in danger over and over again. The technology-infused biology of the invading alien forces feels just about right for what we'll one day become and the kind of life-forms we'd face if we had visitors. It has a big dumb plot, and the writing is no good at all, but I try to block all of that out and just sit back to enjoy this sci-fi/horror tale that feels more realistic than ones like Independence Day. I didn't go in for the sequels though - they sucked in every way a film can be no good.

6/10

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10/10 perfect film for me.

Monroe (2022)

Don't really see the point of this movie. No doubt garnered with awards but I really found it dull.

I went and saw Amsterdam today. It was fairly interesting. I thought Christian Bale gave the best performance in the film. John David Washington and Margot Robbie were good too. The film is a little too long and not everything works, but I was mostly entertained. Although this is not one of David O. Russell's best films, it is also not his worst. My rating is .

The Broadway Melody (1929) -

Damn, this film is more confusing than any other movie I have ever watched. I really didn't understand the flow of the plot

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It - (2017)

I saw this when it came out (who didn't?) - I read the novel a long, long time ago. I was about the age of the kids in it when I read it, but the neat thing this adaptation does is bring the action forward to the 1980s instead of the 1950s and therefore I get the nostalgia adults would have been getting reading the book. Everything is moved forward because the present has shifted. Well, I liked this well enough, but I wasn't completely blown away by it - not as much as I was hoping. I don't think any adaptation has got Pennywise just right (or else clowns just don't scare me as much as other people.) There's some nice creepy imagery, but a horrible overdependence on CGI for just about everything. I liked Chapter 2 more actually - there are some nice set-pieces in that one. I don't begrudge this film for the success it had though, because It was one of Stephen King's better works of fiction. It's destined to be around for some time - there's even a Hindi adaptation released in India. I like this more than it sounds like I do, if you get my drift.

7/10


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The Incredible Hulk - (2008)

I wanted to check out a bit more of Marvel, so I decided to start on the ground floor with all the films that lead up to The Avengers before seeing that for the first time. This was Ed Norton's only go at Bruce Banner - he'd be replaced by Mark Ruffalo. Awkward - having to replace a main character like that - it's bad enough with supporting characters (which happens often.) Anyway, I thought this was okay - there are a lot of fine action sequences, and I always like watching Tim Roth - he makes a great proto-Abomination. It's another film stuffed with CGI, but I don't think practical effects could have given us the same sense of destructive power being unleashed. Am I the only person that liked the 2003 film Hulk though? That version which was absolutely torn to pieces by critics and fans? I really liked it, and thought it was a different and thoughtful kind of superhero movie - a new kind, which differed from the action and CGI-heavy extravaganzas that just repeat the same storyline over and over. Anyway - for what it's worth, this was just good enough to not stop me continuing.

6/10

The Heiress (1949)


Not my typical fare for movie watching, but an excellent film nonetheless. Although it's a romance that starts out slow, the last several minutes almost felt Hitchcockian in how tense it was. There was a noticeable shift in tone towards the end, and it was then that Olivia de Havilland's personality shifted to something considerably darker and more cynical. Reading up on the film after viewing it, I wasn't surprised in the least that she won the Academy Award for best actress for her role.



One of her final lines is just fantastic, and probably the most well known from the film:

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It's one of my favorite first-time watches of this year. The ending really stuck with me.

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IMDb
Letterboxd

Terrific movie. And the book it is adapted from - Washington Square by Henry James - is brilliant too.

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

There's a play as well,isn't there?

Is there? There’s definitely enough material for a play.

Five Million Years to Earth (Quatermass and the Pit) - This would likely make my Top 5 favorite Hammer Studios films list. If I had a Favorite Hammer Studios films list. I should really put together a Favorite Hammer Studios films list. They've been in business since 1935 but didn't really dip their toe into the horror genre till 1955's The Quatermass Xperiment. I wiki'd the Hammer catalogue and I've seen 34 of their productions (not all of them horror). Anyway, FMYtE (QatP) would definitely make the Top 5 along with The Devil Rides Out. The rest I'll have to think on.

Construction of an extension to the London underground is halted when workmen unearth prehistoric skulls followed by a large metal like object. Thinking it to be unexploded WWII era ordinance the military is brought in, led by the officious Colonel Breen (Julian Glover). It also invites the curiousity of rocket expert Professor Bernard Quatermass (Andrew Keir). He eventually teams up with paleontologist Dr. Matthew Roney (James Donald) and Roney's assistant Barbara Judd (Barbara Shelley) when unexplained supernatural phenomena start occurring the more the object is disturbed.

I've seen this countless times and it never fails to entertain. It has just enough of an intellectual bent to lend it a highbrow sheen and the cast all deliver winning performances. It's gotta be those British accents. What can I say, I'm partial to this movie.

90/100

I seen three really good movies this time around

Cabaret - Did not like as much as I though I would. I really liked the songs and the characters(especially Lisa Minnelli), but I was a bit bored. I was tired when watching this so maybe the opinion will change. I feel happy to have finally seen it and this movie was made really well and not in a "money-makes-the-world-go-round" attitude.

Sling Blade - I watched this one on Sunday, and it had a vibe I never really felt before in a movie. I enjoyed Karl(Billy Bob) very much and also his relationships with other people especially the kid. I found him really amusing due to his behavior and how he likes "fried potaters". The movie looked a bit dated due to how it looked, but that does not change my opinion on how much I liked this.

Rosemary's Baby - I watched this one for the first time so that I could prepare for Halloween. In fact I knew it was coming that the old people were going to be the villains when I saw Rosemary act suspiciously throughout the film. Another film with an new vibe I never seen before, I really felt the Halloween spirit I wanted so thanks for that. I do not remember the rape scene in the dream, but my favorite part is where Rosemary is rearranging Scrabble words to figure out a twist that the old man was the son of a Satanist. Then the ending felt emotional as she knows of her acquaintances' schemes but could not escape it.

La Belle Noiseuse - I had so much free time that I decided to watch this... Jacques Rivette succeeded again to impress me as its concept of an aging painter finishing his piece with a younger woman being his model was executed in such a novel way. It almost feels like an extended Joy of Painting episode except there is a story to it and that there are mistakes being made in everybody's lives here(not just happy accidents). Like other Jacques Rivette films, this one is a film that has a lot to think about throughout, and the actions are really satisfying to watch.
This is the longest movie I have ever seen at 4 hours dethroning Gone With the Wind by 16 minutes, which the latter ironically overthrew Celine and Julie Go Boating(another Rivette film) by half an hour.

What to watch next: Duelle a second time, Psycho and The Shining in prep for Halloween, La Dolce Vita, The Long Goodbye, Out 1, Double Life of Vernonique, Noroît, Band a Parte (This should be even cooler than Quentin Tarantino is said to be) and the "Five Other" Moral Tales by Eric Rohmer(probably should wait till summer).

By Norman Rockwell - Scan via Heritage Auctions. Cropped from the original image and retouched; see upload history for unretouched original., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/inde...curid=90646807

The Razor's Edge - (1946)

Before the Bill Murray flop there was this adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham's novel, and I really enjoyed it because it's more weighty than a lot of 1940s films. It principally involves itself with the life of a man, Larry Darrell (Tyrone Power) who has decided earning money isn't for him - and dedicates himself solely with figuring out his purpose in life, whether life has a purpose at all, and what it all means. He travels from Europe to Tibet, and leaves in his wake a fiancé, Isabel (Gene Tierney) who didn't agree with the direction he was taking. This comes close to what's explored in another film I watched from the same era - 1938 film Holiday. It seems around this time there was a push against a vision of man as just a money-making machine, with no spiritual depth. When Larry comes home, Isabel has married someone else (called Gray - played by John Payne) but still loves her former flame. So Larry's engagement to widowed and troubled Sophie (Anne Baxter) is what drives the drama in the story's final act. The film concerns itself with honesty, seekers, and that spiritual depth that must have been at the forefront of everyone's mind again once the dust had settled from a terrible conflict (notably - in the book Larry has just fought in the First World War.) I really enjoyed it - a really fulfilling movie with both drama and a philosophy, which is fine. That's what I like. Anne Baxter won an Oscar for her portrayal of a tragic figure - it's a part full of emotion and much drunkenness.

8/10

The Howling (1981)

Sole Survivor (1984, Thom Eberhardt)

Early 1980s supernatural horror, reminiscent of 'Carnival of Souls' (but nowhere near as good imo). The story follows a TV producer who ends up the lone survivor of a fatal plane crash and soon after starts to be haunted by unsettling encounters with strange zombie-like people and voices in her head calling her by name. We don't know whether they are real or just hallucinations caused by trauma and her sense of guilt coupled with heavy use of antidepressants mixed with alcohol. The opening 15-30 minutes or so were pretty effective, setting up an intriguing premise and eerie atmosphere. However, in the second half the movie fails to flesh out its ideas in any cohesive, meaningful way, and the creepy vibe loses much of its edge. It's almost like Eberhardt pulled out all his best cards too early and then just ran out of imagination. OK movie but ultimately disappointing because of the squandered potential.