Rate The Last Movie You Saw

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The Sessions (2012)

Armageddon (1998) - 4/5 Stars.


Switch off your brain, sit back and watch Bruce Willis and co. save the world!


Possibly the most ridiculous premise for a mainstream blockbuster ever conceived but I love it. Pretty much the entire film is shot like a music video, complete with excessive slow-mo shots, giant flags in the background and the colour dialled up to 11. Subtle film making this is not. But it has a great cast, excellent pacing and is thoroughly entertaining.


If you're looking for a big, dumb Friday night blockbuster you can't get much better than this.

Waitress (2007)

The Age of Innocence (1993)


Costume dramas are not usually my taste but I thought I'd give this a shot because it's Scorsese and the cast looked great.


Strong performances from the three lead actors, great set and costume design; I really felt immersed in the bubble of upper class east cost society in the late 19th century. However the plot was not particularly interesting and I found myself losing interest in the middle two thirds of the film; watching it began to feel like hard work. But it finished strong and I found the ending quite poignant and moving.


Overall the performances, setting and visuals elevate the uninspiring plot.


3/5 Stars.

A slow burning psychological thriller, this turned out not to have much depth and settled for mild entertainment. The reason I wanted to watch this was just to see more of Julia Garner's work. Ambyr Childers also stood out. Both girls delivered intense performances as sisters living under miserable circumstances, displaying sorrow, depression, resentment, and angst. Michael Parks also acted with conviction as the small town's resident doctor. With solid acting, especially from the leading pair of girls, it was unfortunate that the story, plot, and dialogue didn't have more meat to them. I did like the way a lot of things were implied without being said, but the subject matter wasn't explored deeply enough to interest me. The dialogue felt superficial without any of the characters saying anything remotely insightful, controversial, or emotionally moving. Rather, the movie relied on the sorrowful expressions of the actors faces and music to stir the viewer's emotions. Garner was nineteen years old at the time the movie was made, but her character was supposedly 14. As much as that age gap didn't really work for me, it was easy enough to ignore for the sake of immersion. Overall it was a pretty average movie, but the two girls' acting was strong enough to make it entertaining.

Sid & Judy (2019)

This is a very well edited and produced documentary illuminating the main events in the great Judy Garland's life. It also demonstrates that the film, Judy (2019), a fictionalized account of Garland's last series of concerts in England, was a feeble representation of Garland, her powerful singing, and irrepressible sense of humor. Hearing Garland's voice in all of its glory raises the painful question of why Renee Zellweger sang the Garland songs using her own voice.

Judy had problems with drugs and alcohol for her entire career. She was taken financial advantage of by her managers and even her 3rd husband, Sid Luft. But through it all she always rose to the occasion and put 100% into her performances. This documentary is one of the most revealing and true to life that I've ever seen. Recordings of phone calls between she and Luft, and Luft and the studios provide insights and reality into the events of her life, most poignantly toward the end of her career. She died at aged 47.

On a side note, I've mentioned before that I had the honor of performing as a musician in her band for a show she did at the Cincinnati Gardens in 1965. I've observed and played with many dozens of name performers, but she had a palatable other-worldly star quality, along with a bond with her audiences that was the greatest I've ever seen. This documentary portrays that magnetism and the woman beneath it.

Doc's rating: 9/10

It's been a while since I've had my heart crushed this hard. Jake Weary played Sammy, a tough guy with little going for him in life. He was a strong silent type. Despite not being too bright, his eyes were keen, and he saw things for what they really were. One delinquent night he ran into an adventurous girl with bright red dyed hair named Jamelee (pronounced Jamee-Lee), played by Julia Garner. She was accompanied by her gay brother Jason, played by Nick Roux. They formed a tight bond of friendship and got into wild reckless trouble until things went drastically South, and their world was turned upside-down. Still, I thought I saw a light at the end of the tunnel. I so badly wanted things to turn out differently. A point this realistic movie had to make though, was that life just doesn't always turn out the way we want it to.

Beautiful movie. Edith Wharton is turning in her grave due to your review of her book as having an “uninspiring plot”. It’s an American classic.

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

Lol well she should have written something more original.


Boy marries beautiful but dull girl who epitomizes the high society New York in all its exquisite banality. Boy meets exciting new girl mired in scandal who he connects with on emotional and intellectual level. Boys falls in love with new girl but social constraints and his own conscience prevent him from leaving wife. Boy suffers anguish and torment until wife tells him she's got a bun in the oven and new girl removes herself to Europe, leaving him no choice but to man up and act the role of responsible husband and father. Boy ends up living contented family life with wife but is forever haunted by his lost true love.


Emotional stuff but I've seen the same plot beats played out many times before. He made the right choice anyway; Winona Ryder was a stunning gen-x goddess in the early 90s, Pfeiffer was well past her prime.

You do realize that HollowMan reviewed the movie, not the book

12 Angry Men (1957)


A classic. They don't make 'em like this anymore. Just 12 guys in a room talking for 90 minutes.


Sounds dull but I was gripped the whole way through as Fonda tries to convince 11 jurors to reconsider their position. Excellent acting all round. Each of the jurors feels like genuine characters, and you come to realise as the film progresses just how much their verdict is rooted in their personality rather than a serious dispassionate evaluation of the evidence. Whether it's racism, stupidity, disinterest, meekness or a projection of pent up hostility; each of the jurors has a different reason for coming to the wrong verdict. Brilliant stuff.


This film makes me hope I never end up wrongly accused of a crime with my fate left in the hands and twelve random people, most of whom couldn't care less about thoughtfully evaluating the evidence. If I do, I hope there's a Henry Fonda type character with the courage and dignity to fight my corner.


5/5 Stars.

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Do you know what a roller pigeon is, Barney? They climb high and fast, then roll over and fall just as fast toward the earth. There are shallow rollers and deep rollers. You can’t breed two deep rollers, or their young will roll all the way down, hit, and die. Officer Starling is a deep roller, Barney. We should hope one of her parents was not.

Night Shift (1982)

In Julia Garner's first lead role she played Rachel, a sweet and innocent fifteen-year-old who lived in a Mormon commune. When she experienced an immaculate conception, her brother Will, played by Liam Aiken, was falsely accused of raping her and expelled. She was forced to marry, but fled instead. The pair soon found themselves in Las Vegas where they befriended Clyde, played by Rory Culkin, as they searched for the musician who's cassette tape Rachel believed to be responsible for her supernatural pregnancy. Garner's charm and innocence were exceptionally captivating. Her naivete was beyond cute, and she handled any form of ridicule or abuse with a gracefulness that inspired sympathy.

Schizo (1977)


Effective thriller/slasher, set in late 70s UK.

My fascination with Julia Garner continued, but in this movie she wasn't the primary focus. Rather, Juno Tempo played the lead, Iris. Garner played a secondary focus, Catherine. The movie opened with the two young women reuniting for summer vacation. As the plot unfolded it became obvious that they were very close friends in high-school, but had entered college or university. They were both also suffering from the trauma of a fatal car accident that took the life of one of their close friends. The realistic story encapsulated numerous characters, with Iris at the center and Catherine in close proximity. Iris became entangled in an affair with her literature professor. He was married and twice her age, and the whole affair, though passionate, was doomed to failure from the start. Meanwhile Catherine more subtly and off to the side became entangled with the brother of their dead friend. I personally wanted to see more of Julia Garner, and not just because I liked her more as an actress, but also because I just found the complexity of her story more sympathetic and interesting. To some extent I felt like there just wasn't enough time to focus on both characters, and they didn't choose the character I was more interested in. I still liked the movie quite a bit, but more for Garner than for Tempo. The cinematography was decent, but it didn't stray from conventional techniques.

Under the Skin (2014)


Mesmerizing, disturbing, challenging, unsettling. Shot with a stark minimalist beauty by Jonathan Glazer.


If I'm ever in Scotland and an attractive woman in a van asks if I want a lift I might have to decline after watching this.



This is the kind of film that lives or dies on its central performance and Scarlett Johansson is a captivating presence throughout the film. She does so much with so little; a very nuanced performance, it's all about her eyes and her face. You really get the feeling that you're watching an alien entity inhabit a human form. The way she instantly switches from cold alien huntress to charming and seductive woman is brilliant. Her best performance.


A film like this improves with repeat viewings but for now I rate it 3.5/5. Actually, I forgot you get to see Scarlett naked in a couple of scenes so...


4/5 Stars.