Rate The Last Movie You Saw

A Mighty Heart (2007)

Dead and Buried, 1981

In the small town of Potter's Bluff, a man on a beach is suddenly and ruthlessly murdered by a group of people who stage his death as a car accident. Local Sheriff Dan Gillis (James Farentino) begins to investigate the incident, and soon finds that things in his town are not quite as picturesque as he imagined.

This movie, for the most part, manages to just walk the line of controlled chaos. As the film goes on, our understanding of what is happening and who is involved is constantly shifting and evolving, all peppered with violent attacks and disorienting encounters. There are a lot of "wait, what?" moments, but the film controls them with a deliberate pace and a steadily building sense of dread.

Farentino does a really solid job as lead protagonist Dan, who through the film also begins to suspect that his wife might have some part in things. And the rest of the cast is good as well, including Jack Albertson as the quirky local mortician, Lisa Blount as a mysterious woman who is always present at the killings, and Estelle Omens as Dan's flighty administrative assistant.

In terms of negatives, there aren't really many for me. The look of the film (which I don't think was just the print I watched) was a bit hazy at times. I also had some logistical quibbles with our ultimate understanding of the plot, but at the same time the last act is so strong and packed with such memorable imagery that I Didn't mind all that much.

This is a film I've heard a lot about (broadly speaking) for many years and I see why it is considered a classic.

A Colt is My Passport, 1967

A cool, calm, and collected hitman named Kamimura (Jo Shishido) is hired by one mob boss to take out another. He does so, but soon he and his partner, Shun (Jerry Fujio) find themselves trapped between both gangs as the one group is out for revenge and the other group decides they might be better of taking him out of the picture. Along the way they meet up with lonely waitress Mina (Chitose Kobayashi), who has had her own unpleasant run-ins with the mob.

I could tell you that this film is part of a Criterion Collection series of Japanese noir and that this is what made me interested. But if we are being perfectly honest, it was like 75% that title, which, coolest title ever, right?

I enjoyed this film from beginning to end, starting with the tense build-up to Kamimura assassinating the mob boss to the final, inevitable showdown between Kamimura and the mob crew chasing after him.

Much like films such as Yojimbo and Fistful of Dollars, A Colt is My Passport pulls off the neat trick of giving us a cool-as-can-be killer, and yet one who still has enough emotional connection to those around him that we stay invested in his story and survival. In particular, Kamimura's big brother attitude toward Shun is incredibly relatable and becomes the character's main point of vulnerability and motivation. This is a really wise choice, because while it is true that he develops something of a relationship with Mina, their young romance doesn't feel like enough of a motivator for some of the actions he takes later.

The film begins and ends with a bang, literally. It's an interesting structure for the film, in which there is a lot of action right at the beginning, then the middle mainly concerns the characters just trying to get out of town, then ending with the final showdown. Both the beginning and ending sequences have some interesting parallels, in particular the way that we watch Kamimura prepare for the encounters. He is a professional, but even the most astute professional has his limits.

While she was not developed quite as much as I would have hoped, I liked the film's use of the character of Mina. She takes certain actions later in the film that are a bit off-putting, so it is good that we are given a solid chunk of time to understand where she is coming from. Mina's lover was killed by a mob lackey who wants her for himself, and her relationship with Kamimura offers her a real chance of escape. Having this baseline understanding of her character is really critical later when she makes certain choices.

One minor complaint that I had was the soundtrack. At times it is really awesome and deliberately scored like a spaghetti western. But there were one or two times where I found the intensity of the soundtrack a bit jarring and felt like the mix of levels was off. In one scene, Mina is just . . . walking around, but the soundtrack would make you believe that she was a gunslinger walking into a saloon. That said, the score does work really well in certain action scenes, and especially in the final sequence of the film.

Overall I really dug this one. It more than lives up to the promise of its title.

It was a good "outside looking in" film Wooley....calm and well done.

Great review GulfportDoc and resounds with all my thoughts!

Cherry (2021)

This is a solid but predictable film. Concerns the vagaries of a young man trying to come to terms with his situation by joining the army and training as a medic. He then suffers PTSD and turns to drug abuse...it was well put together but I didn't really see the point in the love angle, it was superfluous.

Although I thought Tom Holland did a good job, it required a bigger mans shirt to really hit home.

I am pleased.

Vampyr follows Gray (Nicolas de Gunzburg) as his studies of devils and vampires take him to the village of Courtempierre. It is there that he finds himself immersed in a dreamlike journey where death is not only a matter of investigation, but a constant threat to him, and everyone around him; especially the family that he's trying to protect.

This is my second time watching this film and, even though I still find it hard to peg down, I still find it visually mesmerizing and captivating anyway. Much like Gray himself seemed eager to dive into this journey, I was looking forward to rewatching it myself.

Grade:


Full review on my Movie Loot and on the HOF24.

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Yep. As opposed to you, I don't remember hearing/reading about this until I saw it mentioned here or in Corrie a year or two ago. Which maybe is why I considered it such a pleasant surprise when I finally got around to it last year.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Aladdin (2019) - I think that it was too predictable and definitely too long. My rate is 6 / 10.

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Re: Dead & Buried (perhaps a bit spoilerific)...

Some of the things I liked were how it effectively treaded the line between several horror sub-genres...



I also thought that Farentino was pretty solid, but really enjoyed Jack Albertson as the coroner. I think he stole most of his scenes.

Finally, the special effects from Stan Winston were superb.

The Hooked Generation (1968), directed by William Grefé, on blu ray as part of the He Came From the Swamp box set. It's alright for a low budget B movie. There are some good moments, acting is decent, and the screenplay is alright. It's worth a watch. My rating would be .

I enjoyed this immensely on my second viewing.

Godzilla Vs Kong, 2021 (B)

Pretty decent. It meanders a lot in the middle and that takes away from it quite a bit, and for a subplot that felt entirely unnecessary, at least for now.

There's three big fight scenes. The first is the best, Kong vs Zilla in the middle of the ocean, from ship to ship. If you"ve seen that Neon Genesis Evangelion episode; it's like that. Daytime. Super dope.

The second battle is the worst and, along with the first one, will make you squint pretty hard at the physics of it all. The movie is a bit too in love with stabilizing the camera to Kong or Godzilla's face, so it's not top on scenery. It also seems to happen in the same place where Tetris the game is filmed, so there's a slight visual overload happening, where contrast in light and colors would have worked to a better effect than full neon.

Third is a spoiler, but it's great. The humans and their stories are there, but vastly more subdued, and way, way more focused on the monsters. No more family drama interrupting the giants here.

叫 (2006)
aka Retribution

Oh boy, Kiyoshi Kurosawa has such a strong resume. It's kinda like Kairo lite dressed up as a police film. Not quite on par with his best, but the level of direction and the general aesthetics are top-notch. The story could have been a bit more polished, though.

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Mothra vs. Godzilla - This had a 92% rating at RT and several reviews that had called it the best Godzilla movie. So even though I'm not an aficionado I decided to give it a chance. But not having much to compare it against outside of the original Gojira or it's Americanized, Raymond Burr-ized version I had to judge it on it's own merits. It wasn't bad.

The plot is straightforward (again, not knowing just how byzantine your average Godzilla flick is) with a giant egg washing up off the coast of Japan after a typhoon. An unscrupulous businessman purchases the egg from the local fishermen who found it and builds a hotel and theme park of sorts. There's a trio of a scientist and reporters who oppose him and there's the two little singing sprites who sort of control Mothra. And of course there's the guy in the rubber suit romping and stomping throughout the Japanese countryside. It's quick (90 minutes) and dirty and imminently watchable.

Due to a holiday weekend of free Showtime (including On Demand) I got to watch a movie I've wanted to see since I first heard about it...

Swiss Army Man (2016).



Despite knowing the basic premise, it wasn't what I expected...



Surreal, uplifting at times, depressing at others, introspective with a few scattered chuckles, yet overall; entertaining and amusing. A weird film beyond just the unusual premise.

I was surprised at how much I liked Swiss Army Man. Here's my glowing review of it, Swiss Army Man