Rate The Last Movie You Saw

Based on the popular novel and set in Italy at the beginning of the 20th Century, Pinocchio follows the adventures of the titular character (Gregory Mann), a wooden puppet created by Geppetto (David Bradley) after the loss of his real-life son in a World War I bombing raid. Through the movie, Pinocchio embarks in a journey which includes a stint in a circus, time at a military youth camp, performing for Mussolini, and ending up in the belly of the terrible Dogfish.

That dark tone permeates the whole film. Pinnochio is still charming and naïve, but he's also reckless and careless as he keeps on finding ways to die and come back again. The "ghost" of Carlo is constantly hanging above the choices of Geppetto and Pinocchio, along with the impending doom of war upon them. As interesting as those layers might be, I do think the film hits a few bumps as it tries to juggle the struggles of Geppetto and Pinocchio with both the stories of the circus and the military youth camp.

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Full review on my Movie Loot

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Tigerland (2000)

This is a decent and watch-able outing for Collin Farrell, playing the rebelious Bozz that has been conscripted to go to fight in Vietnam. He tries all sorts of antics to point out the futility of the titular training camp and is openly hostile to his seniors (as they are to him). Joel Schumacher's film is pretty blunt and the story of Bozz is interesting but otherwise it is just a run of the mill drama. The ending is unsatisfying also.

What would you do if all of your friends started to literally blow up in front of you one by one? What if you're the next one? That is the premise of this unique film. Blending aspects of romcom, coming-of-age, dark humor, and horror, Spontaneous focuses mainly on Mara and Dylan (Katherine Langford and Charlie Plummer), two teenagers at Covington High that are thrust into the unexpected situation described above.

I was trying to complete one of the categories of my challenge that asked for a romantic film; a good Internet friend recommended this, and imagine my surprise when instead of a romantic film, I found a really powerful exploration of trauma and grief through the eyes of these two lovestruck teenagers. It's always refreshing when you stumble upon a filmmaker that can walk that fine line between genres, and Duffield here does an acrobat job, walking between romance, comedy, drama, and horror, without it feeling like an overstuffed mess.

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Full review on my Movie Loot

Body Double (Brian De Palma, 1984)

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Sixteen Candles (1984)

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[ J ] - [ S ] - [ F ]

The Cremator -


I typically begin short reviews with statements like this: what the unholy hell. Like, I enjoy psychological films, but I have never seen one so consistently disturbing throughout. And it's all done through the eyes of one character! Excellent psychoanalysis and excellent filmmaking. This is EASILY a prime example of a film that doesn't need development from everyone else. Top 100, and I finally found a 100/100 for 1969.

Werewolf by Night follows Jack Russell (Gael García Bernal), part of a secret group of monster hunters gathering to win a mysterious gem by defeating a powerful monster. The twist? Russell is a werewolf himself, but will he be able to control that part of him if it comes to that?

But aside from its ties to any bigger universe, this was a pretty interesting experiment. Director Michael Giacchino and cinematographer Zoë White wisely use black and white cinematography and a unique directing style, which gives the film a look reminiscent to the Universal Monster films.

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Full review on my Movie Loot

After watching Luca with the kids, I decided to check out this short. Ciao Alberto follows the attempts of Alberto (Jack Dylan Grazer) to win the approval of Giulia's father, Massimo (Marco Barricelli), with whom he lives now. This relationship is one of the subplots I admired from the original film, so I appreciated the opportunity to revisit it and focus on it.

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Full review on my Movie Loot

Set concurrently during the events of Up, Dug's Special Mission follows the titular dog (Bob Peterson) as he tries to track the mysterious bird, Kevin! When he fails, the other dogs try to assign him random tasks to keep him occupied, only to have them backfire on them.

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Full review on my Movie Loot

Strange very good movie from Austria. Lead actress really good.

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

Beetlejuice follows Adam and Barbara Maitland (Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis), a young couple that tragically end up dead and stuck in their country home. When an eccentric family from New York try to move in, they are determined to get them out, even if it means hiring the titular character (Michael Keaton) with the above credentials. But, do you think he's qualified?

This is a film I've seen lots of times since it came out. I still wouldn't consider myself a hardcore fan, but I've always enjoyed its odd and quirky approach. Which is why we decided to give this one a shot with the kids, and see how well they liked it. As far as I'm concerned, I've always thought the film makes some great use of set design, production values, makeup and costume.

Grade:


Full review on my Movie Loot

How did the kids like it, Thief?

Set about a year before the events of A Quiet Place, Day One follows Samira (Lupita Nyong'o), a terminally ill woman trying to survive the first days of the alien invasion in New York City. She is joined in her survival journey by Eric (Joseph Quinn), an English young man that came to study law ("It's the one thing I was supposed to do"), but who will end up doing much more.

As the invasion starts and the aliens are unleashed, Sam is determined to get to Patsy's pizzeria to get one last slice of their pizza. Something that we find out later has a deeper meaning to her than just good pizza. It is quite rare and remarkable to get not only a horror film, but a horror prequel, that rely so much on emotional character development instead of plot, and yet here we are.

Grade:


Full review on my Movie Loot

They liked it well enough. I think the younger one asked to rewatch it the next day, or so my wife told me. Overall, my appreciation is that it's on that mid-tier for them, which means films they enjoy but they don't necessarily ask to revisit over and over, or keep talking about over and over.

This is pretty much everything you'd expect from a modern-day Indian action flick: it's a 3-hour-long (with intermission) soap opera with plenty of heartfelt moments, very broad comedy, and a few musical numbers here and there.

Vijay, who is 50, has a dual role that has him playing both father and son; there must be some serious de-aging VFX or great makeup being used, because it didn't take much suspension of disbelief to accept him playing a 24-year-old kid.

This is already the highest-grossing Tamil film of 2024, so it's definitely a big hit back in India, while the Indian diaspora in the U.S. seemed to be very excited to be able to watch this in IMAX.

Oh, there's a touching tribute to the late Vijayakanth, which was reportedly made using Artificial Intelligence. He is definitely missed!

Chopping Mall gives you just that. A bunch of horny teenagers being chased around a mall in the middle of the night by killer robots. The film starts with the presentation of the new security system to the mall public, which includes three robots programmed to stop criminals. After that, it introduces us to the cast of teenagers; four couples, that decide to stay at the mall for an impromptu party, only to end up terrorized by the robots.

Now, don't come to the film expecting great performances or character development, cause you won't get it. Pretty much all the teenagers are one-dimensional characters and half of them are a$$holes. None of the boys really stand out, except for Mike (John Terlesky) as the most a$$hole-y and Ferdy (Tony O'Dell) as the least a$$hole-y. As for the girls, Allison (Kelli Maroney) is the geeky, "virgin-like" one, which gives you a hint of how the plot will progress.

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Full review on my Movie Loot

Wake Island (1942)

Dune: Part Two (Denis Villeneuve, 2024)

Similar thoughts to the first one, from a technical perspective it's impressive insomuch that everything we see looks incredible detailed and realistic, but the downside of that is that the end result is quite dull and sterile. Lots of brown, lots of gray, lots of actors who are normally entertaining just doing normal stuff (Walken)... Lynch's version is much better in my honest opinion.



Rebel Ridge (Jeremy Saulnier, 2024)

First hour is great, then it drags a bit and gets a bit repetitive. Saulnier knows how to direct though, his blocking, frame compositions, editing... it's all very good. I hope he does well from this and we see more from him.

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The Phantom of the Opera - (2004)

This is the second (and probably the last) time I give Joel Schumacher's Phantom a go. "Looks so good, but fits so strange" as No Doubt might say - I'm not all that familiar with the stage version, so I'm not sure if it has been adapted really poorly, or if the whole shebang just leaves me cold. I like the music though - and when you're backed up by music like that it almost feels like it'd be more difficult to make a bad movie than a good one. I don't like the casting here - but there's simply an uncanny feeling that something is off, and it's really hard to state unequivocally what's spoiling the recipe. The direction, the acting, the way the story is presented, a combination or all of the above - I'm waiting for the next stab at it, which might never actually come considering the way Cats turned out. Maybe I should just catch the show.

5/10


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Palm Trees and Power Lines - (2022)

For all those thinking about how they'd feel watching this film, you'll experience a lot of anger, nausea, discomfort and sadness. Full review here, in my watchlist thread.

7/10


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The Eyes of My Mother - (2016)

The Eyes of My Mother doesn't want to shock you, despite being an at-times grisly horror movie - it wants you to feel empathy and think about grief. I spent a moment or two thinking about grief and the infinite ways it can manifest itself. Not a bad effect for a movie to have. Full review here, in my watchlist thread.

7/10

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North Dallas Forty (1979)