Rate The Last Movie You Saw

The Cosmic Man - 1959 formulaic scifi directed in a nondescript way by Herbert S. Greene who only did this and one other film. It quite openly poaches from the far superior The Day the Earth Stood Still, even going so far as to lift an entire scene where the benevolent alien solves a physics problem that has stumped the local boys. Bruce Bennett gets second billing as astrophysicist Dr. Karl Sorenson even though he's in most of the scenes. John Carradine is listed as lead playing the titular character. I'm assuming because of name recognition.

An unidentified flying object is picked up on Air Force radar traveling at nearly the speed of light. It sets down in Stone Canyon outside of Oak Ridge, California. Sorenson and Air Force Col. Matthews (Paul Langton) are both called to the scene where they proceed to immediately butt heads. War widow Kathy Grant (Angela Greene) and her terminally ill son Ken (Scotty Morrow) show up. She runs a tourist lodge near the canyon and their characters are mostly there to advance the paper thin plot.

It's distressingly slow moving and talky with the only detail worth remembering being the alien's ship, a sphere that floats a few feet above the ground and cannot be moved. Carradine's portrayal of the otherworldly visitor is also passable when measured by the meager yardstick of it's surroundings. I have to confess that I have access to a youtube account and I've been watching whatever cheesy looking scifi or horror that pops up on my feed. The problem being that the last few have been colorized. And not a good kind of colorized. The kind where colors bleed into one another and things like the alien's white spherical ship is instead a bright yellow that makes it look like a giant golf ball. I doubt if the original B&W is any better though.

I can't think of any legit reason as to why I would recommend it. A nice thunderstorm moved though my area near the end of this so I paused it and went in my garage and watched the rain fall. I did eventually come in and finish it. Thumbs up to the weather. This gets a ...

25/100

Karagoez catalogo 9,5 is their best, so watch it if you haven't.

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Preserving the sanctity of cinema. Subtitles preferred, mainstream dismissed, and always in search of yet another film you have never heard of. I speak fluent French New Wave.

The Polka King (2017)

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[ J ] - [ S ] - [ F ]

Fight Club - 8/10 (9 if we're being kind)


Rewatched it for the first time in years, and yeah, it holds up very well. The angst that the movie is known for is very well-handled. The plot gives you time to marinate in it and avoids barking therapy-talk at you, it's brought over by the set design and the music as much as everything else, and provides enough humour and energy to complement it. I appreciate it that someone tried to make a film of this sort fun, and did it tastefully. The actors did a great job at it, and the choice of them is spot-on. Everyone's face seems tailor-made for the character.


The visual directing deserves special praise. Every take informs you of something about thr given scene, including a sense of space and multiple characters' points of view. There are instances where it cuts every two seconds, but none of them are disorienting because it sticks to what it wants to tell you, and only moves on when the point has been made.

Metalocalypse - Army of The Doomstar - (2023)

I loved the show, but didn't get to watch it all, I think I got till the 3rd season... maybe 4th. The movie is more serious than I remember the show to be, maybe it was like this in the last seasons. I'd give it a 6/10

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There has been an awekening.... have you felt it?

I really liked this movie too...a link to my review:

https://www.movieforums.com/reviews/...the_devil.html

I'll keep an eye out for it.

June 25, 2024

THE BIKERIDERS (Jeff Nichols / 2023)

I've got to admit: That title had me worried! But it turns out I had absolutely no cause for worry, because this definitely belongs among my favorite movies (so far) of 2024! You know... going to the movies at my local theater once a week has become a bit of a rollercoaster experience for me... and not necessarily in a positive way. Whenever I experience a junk-food sensory assault like Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire or Bad Boys: Ride or Die, I really start questioning whether it's at all worth it. But then every once in a while, I experience something like Jeff Nichols' The Bikeriders and I'm reminded of why it's important for movie lovers to keep the faith.

For me, this movie has kind of a classic Martin Scorsese feel to it, in the sense that it's about struggling working-class people who get involved in something that provides a sense of belonging and/or upward mobility, but then starts to become dangerous and threatens to consume their lives. In the case of this particular story, it's about the people involved in a Chicago motorcycle club called the Vandals during the mid-'60s. The story is told in a series of flashbacks, framed by an interview format where Kathy Bauer (Jodie Comer) is talking about her boyfriend Benny Cross (Austin Butler), a member of the Vandals with more heart than brains, a "rebel without a clue" for whom riding is his life. He's apparently also very accident-prone, and his physical well-being is not helped by the fact that when certain people try to make him remove his gang jacket in bars, he point-blank refuses and ends up getting the you-know-what beaten out of him. The leader of the gang is Johnny Davis (Tom Hardy), an amiably good-natured if taciturn fellow who starts the club with no agenda beyond the fact that he caught The Wild One with Marlon Brando on TV once and thought that would be a good way to spend time and hang out and ride with his friends. The trouble starts, however, when new chapters gradually start forming across the Midwest and the biker gang phenomenon starts to take on a life of his own. Johnny becomes gradually unsettled by the fact that his gang's behavior starts to inspire fear in other people in the neighborhood, and he finds this sudden taste of power unnerving. But that's nothing in comparison with the increasingly violent behavior - and appetite for drugs - of the younger guys who start to join up. Some of the newcomers to the Vandals' ranks include a pleasantly (relatively) laid-back Californian named Funny Sonny (Norman Reedus), but also a young borderline psychopath identified only as The Kid (Toby Wallace), whom we first see in a violent altercation with his family during a domestic dispute. By the year 1973, tragedy will have struck - No spoilers! - and any survivors with any good sense will have moved on with their lives to other occupations. By the movie's end, you definitely have a sense that the surviving characters are better off having gotten out of the Vandals alive, but as the film ends you definitely get this wistful sense of regret, a sense of now being - to paraphrase Ray Liotta as Henry Hill in Scorsese's GoodFellas - "average nobodies living the rest of their lives like schnooks." And this happens to include the one character whom you'd thought would rather die than compromise.

I enjoyed this film immensely. Tom Hardy's performance as the Vandals' leader Johnny is particularly good. He's really getting his inner Brando or De Niro on here, really getting into the skin of this working-class Joe who you feel may not be especially intellectual or articulate, but whom you definitely get a sense of hidden depths and an inner life. And as the rebellious Benny, Austin Butler is equally strong. With few words, Butler gives his character a sense of troubled melancholy even before things really start to go wrong. Especially impressive is the very English Jodie Comer, who admittedly comes down a little hard on the Chicago accent in a way that perhaps might bring to mind Frances McDormand's Minnesotan in the Coen Brothers' Fargo (1996), but provides a strongly matter-of-fact sense of clear-headed objectivity about the events her character witnesses.

I admit I have never seen any of Jeff Nichols' previous films, but I was impressed by his talent and his approach to the story. Like I said, he's kind of working in a vintage Scorsese groove here, and does so in a way that doesn't really feel derivative. And lest we forget, I have to say that I love the soundtrack, which like the music of Scorsese's films, firmly grounds us in the milieu and the time period being shown and gives a sense of historical context. I think it's more or less a perfect summation of the story's arc that we go from the pop romance of the Shangri-Las' Out In The Streets to the grungy malevolence of Iggy Pop and the Stooges' Down On The Street! And along the way, we take in the strains of Muddy Waters' Mannish Boy, Bill Justis' Raunchy, Muddy Waters' Mannish Boy, Cream's I Feel Free and the Fleetwoods' Come Softly To Me... to name only just a few of the numbers.

Heartily recommended!

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"Well, it's what people know about themselves inside that makes 'em afraid" - Clint Eastwood as The Stranger, High Plains Drifter (1973)

"I'll let you be in my dream if I can be in yours" - Bob Dylan, Talkin' World War III Blues (1963)

I was shocked at how unfunny and sophomoric this picture is. I'm a big fan of the Seinfeld series, and also Seinfeld's standup, but this effort was semi-embarrassing. I believe I made it to 30 minutes.

Open Range (2003)

This was a really enjoyable western about "open-rangers" on a mission to avenge persecution against wealthy landowners and corrupt authority. Directed by Kevin Costner who does a great job but in this instance I'd say he should have stayed behind the camera (not a criticism of Costner who I like) but some lines don't ring true. Luckily he has cast Robert Duvall as "boss" and provides a great sagacity and makes even the little lulls in dialogue even out . Never even heard of this! Impressed. Great cast.

Umpteenth Rewatch...This stylish and melodramatic soap opera i one of two movies in cinema history to receive eleven Oscar nominations and not win a single award (the other was The Color Purple). Oscars wnners Anne Bancroft and Shirley MacLaine are at the top of their games playing Emma and Deedee respectively, estranged BFF's who were in the same dance coompany together many years ago. Deedee gave up ballet and now teaches ballet, is happily married to former dancer, Wayne (Tom Skerritt) and has three children, the oldest, Amelia is on the verge of becoming a prima ballerina. Emma spent the same time onstage dancing every great ballet there is, but she has nothing to go home to at night but her two dogs. When Emma and Deedee are reunited when Emma and the company come to Deedee's hometown, old resentments and jealousy bubbles to the surface between these two regarding the choices they made that makes for grand, soap opera style entertainment. But if nothing else, I will always be grateful to director Herbert Ross for preserving the dancing of Mikhail Baryshnikov on celluloid forever. I think this is the only movie I've ever seen where the dancing makes me cry.

Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17902336

Righteous Kill - (2008)

I knew that Righteous Kill wasn't considered a very good movie, but I'd picked up a really nice Collector's Edition for $1 and felt I needed to see this oft-derided collaboration between heavyweight actors Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. They've both said publicly that they're not proud of the movie, and felt bad about the fact that fans were probably expecting something better. I tell you, when I guess the big twist at the very beginning of the movie, I'm guessing most others will. The big hint is in one of the first scenes, where a character is playing chess and absolutely slaughtering his opponent - film-speak for "thinks many moves ahead" and "carefully plans things". It's still a blast to see these two share so much screen time, but the narrative itself is nothing special - it hovers around "TV series" quality writing, and the pacing is way off. We're meant to think one character is doing all the extraneous killing, but the killer is carefully concealed, so we know for sure it's not him. We're not babies - we can see what's going on. And please - no more sex scenes featuring old De Niro. Like I read somewhere - it's like watching your dad have sex. Not a great movie - but it's always a pleasure watching De Niro and Pacino, even when they're phoning it in.

4/10

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I'm a pretty big fan of Lupita Nyong'o, an actor whose talent has frequently been wasted on big-budget movies, which is why I was particularly disappointed in the disaster that A Quiet Place: Day One turns out to be.

That's right, it's not a disaster movie, it's a disaster of a movie.

Some critics have said it is more like a Hallmark movie than a monster movie - I don't disagree with that, or with the fact that it's a remarkably sappy movie in places. But it is also unrelentingly bleak in a way the previous two movies in the series absolutely weren't.

It is also a frustratingly myopic film: when disaster strikes a metropolitan area that is home to several million people, it remains firmly focused on just 2 persons (and one cat). If you expected to see all the widespread destruction caused by the monsters in the movie, you've probably already seen all there is - in the trailers.

The effects by ILM aren't bad, but the movie just lacks scope. And for some strange reason, it was all filmed in the UK, which perhaps helps explain why pretty much none of the movie has any real NYC flavor.

1st Rewatch...This steamy southern soap olpera has a lot going for it, primarily the first screen teaming of Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, whose chemistry burns a hole through the screen. It also features a deliciously hammy Orson Welles as the manipulative patriarch of the Varner family, Tony Franciosa as his wimpy son, Lee Remick as his trampy daughter-in-law, and Angela Lansbury as Welles' mistress who really wants to be his wife. They don't make 'em like this anymore.

Dillinger - 1973 biographical crime drama with John Milius directing and Warren Oates starring as Depression era bank robber, folk hero and cause célèbre John Dillinger. Both men, the unapologetically macho Milius and the taciturn Oates, seemingly born to fill these respective roles. It also boasts a cast of heavyweight talent with Harry Dean Stanton and Geoffrey Lewis as the two longest serving members of Dillinger's heist crew, Homer Van Meter and Harry Pierpont. Michelle Williams also stars as Dillinger's girlfriend Billie Frechette and Ben Johnson as the FBI agent tasked with bringing the crew to justice, Melvin Purvis. Rounding out the cast are Steve Kanaly as Pretty Boy Floyd and Richard Dreyfus as Machine Gun Kelly. Cloris Leachman shows up at the end as "The Lady in Red" Chicago madam Anna Sage.

It's by no means a documentary but it gets enough of the details right to allow you to sit back and enjoy the storytelling without casting a jaundiced eye every few minutes. It's got a relatively brief runtime of 104 minutes so it mostly hits the high points but you don't end up feeling cheated. Mostly because it's an American International production and that usually means quick and dirty. Oates carries the picture across the finish line and Ben Johnson matches him note for note. These are two super charismatic performances with Harry Dean Stanton providing several moments of much needed comedic relief. If you haven't seen it consider it recommended.

85/100

Jerry is obviously a talented stand up....but the further you get away from it the more you see the success was probably more Larry David then Jerry. Curb is kinda proof.

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I came here to do two things, drink some beer and kick some ass, looks like we are almost outta beer - Dazed and Confused

101 Favorite Movies (2019)

Re-watch. Love this movie. Who would think Wahlberg could pull off a rôle as an associate professor of English? He could & he did.

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

Kinds of Kindness - Saw this tonight. Too long, makes little sense, nothing engaging, no characters I liked or cared about. Wikipedia says "Absurdist Black Comedy". I'm good with the absurd part. 3 plot lines intersect, the same actors are in all three, there's no obvious connection and no reason why I was in THAT theater tonight. Watch it if you dare. It was that moment when I wanted to ask the theater for my money back, but I resisted making a scene.

Minus

There are two very obvious connections. One is that every story features the same character and his name is in the name of each segment. (The stories are titled "The Death of RMF," "RMF is Flying" and "RMF eats a sandwich").

The other connection is that each segment examines different aspects of submissive behavior - who are we submissive to, and why? When do we stop being submissive, and what comes of it?