Rate The Last Movie You Saw

"I hired a demon to help me steal the throne and then betrayed him and he's out for revenge" should have been 90% of this movie, not 18%. Like, maybe they could have cut out one of the dozen scenes where someone ends up in the dungeon/jail?

LOL, there are a lot of jail scenes, aren't there? I laughed when we but my average reaction to them was, "they're in jail again?"

One of Pyun's last movies was an unofficial sequel to Streets of Fire. In a perfect world, someone would direct The Sword and the Sorcerer 2: We Bought a Xusia.

Like, it's not a terrible running joke that most of the movie is all the male protagonists rotating in and out of the jail, but there was just so much talking about stuff that never happened.

And the animated spin-off, Xu-topia.

Blow Out, 1981

Jack (John Travolta) is a sound expert working on a slasher film who, out capturing sound samples one night, records audio of a car crash that kills a man. Jack is able to rescue a woman who was in the car, sex worker Sally (Nancy Allen), and the two are further thrown together when Jack realizes that his audio recording implies that the car crash was no accident. Coming up against a political conspiracy and the ruthless fixer (John Lithgow) employed to see it through, Jack and Sally find themselves in danger at every turn.

Intriguing in the way that it seems almost at war with itself, this is a compelling if problematic conspiracy thriller.



FULL REVIEW

OMG I REALLY LOVED IT, LOVED THE SCENES AND THE CASTING IM HAPPY THE CAST FROM WANDAVISION IS BACK AND LOVED WHEN ITS CONNECTED TO WANDAVISION AND THE HOUSE OF M ESPCIALLY WHEN IM HUGE MAJOR FAN OF WANDA MAXIMOFF/SCARLET WITCH AND SOO HAPPY THEY DOING 9 EPISODES AHHH CANT WAIT!! AND LOVED KATHRYN HAHN SHES ONE OF MY TOP 5 FAVORITE ACTRTESSES AND LOVED AUBREY PLAZA SHES MY FAVORITE BADDIE AND HOPING AUBREY PLAZA REUNITED ELIZABETH OLSEN!!! AHHH I CANT WAIT FOR MORE EPISODES OF THIS SHOW . F***K THE HATERS!!

Jesus Christ Superstar (1973)

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Midway - (1976)

Up until the advent of CGI, it was much easier to film land battles than air or sea ones, and Midway had to be content with using actual footage of naval/aerial warfare in the Pacific theatre. I recently watched Overlord (1975), which did the same thing - mixing in real footage with that taken for the movie. Otherwise this film works best when confined to the Japanese admirals and brass (Toshiro Mifune, James Shigeta & Pat Morita) kind of acknowledging how damned risky their attack on Midway is, and then sweating their own decisions at probably the most crucial moment of the war as far as Japan was concerned. Risking and losing too much. Was it luck? Or was it the fact that the Americans were better at figuring out what the other side was up to? Charlton Heston, Henry Fonda, James Coburn, Glenn Ford, Hal Holbrook, Robert Mitchum, Cliff Robertson and Robert Wagner - it's stuffed with stars, but neither this nor the Roland Emmerich version in 2019 could make much of a cinematic gem from this crushing victory America had over the Japanese in 1942.

6/10


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Texas Across the River - (1966)

Dean Martin and Alain Delon in a film together? I had to see this. I thought it'd be fun at the very least, but it was a little too much of a "muck around" movie for my taste. Nobody takes anything seriously, and for some reason Delon is playing a Spanish guy instead of a French one? I don't know. Not much in this made much sense, with impromptu bull fights and Joey Bishop in brownface as a Native American - all of whom get pretty rough treatment inasmuch as they're made to look ridiculous. It's absolutely silly for the most part, with Delon's Don Andrea killing a wedding crasher (in self defense) which has him pursued by some Union cavalry out for vengeance and justice. Martin plays a cowboy who hooks up with him and spars with him when they're not getting along - Delon getting to kiss Martin and slap him numerous times, in a couple of the movie's best running gags. I like comedy, but this was too loose and not very palatable.

4/10


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Hyenas - (1992)

Based on Friedrich Dürrenmatt's play The Visit, about a wealthy, powerful woman's return to the town she grew up in, and the power her promises now have to spill blood. All-up, the coming together of context and original narrative here makes up something pretty special, and this is one of the best African films I've ever seen - it works as a film of gravity, vision and poetry. Full review here, in my watchlist thread.

9/10

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Bullitt (Peter Yates, 1968)



Very smart, mature and intelligent thriller. Nothing is overstated or spelled out to to the viewer unnecessarily. Dark, gritty, realistic, all while capturing San Francisco superbly. Also really liked Yates' The Friends of Eddie Coyle, which I watched the other week.

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Never Let Go (2024)

Is the third Twilight Zone esque something's in the woods or is it horror film I've seen this year. It stars Hallie Berry as a mother of two young boys who are twins... As she lives in this strange cabin in the woods where for her family to survive they must stay tethered to the sacred house the whole time.

The film does a decent job building the mythology and the trailers do an excellent job hiding the main theme of the story...which I will not spoil. To be frank the film is a soft R when it needed to be a hard R like Anti-Christ to really hit the messages and themes home. Not to say it's a bad film..it's a pretty good one. The story is incredibly solid the third act is very good filled with twists and scenes that the pulp fan in me enjoyed.

Alexendre Aja is a fine filmmaker...the film isn't dark to the point where nothing can be seen which is a common issue with modern films. However the actual cinematography, sound design, and effects could have used a better touch. If this was a streaming movie I think people would enjoy it better but it's not really worth a trip to the theater.

Haha yeah...I should probably drop that down a bit. It is still just a simple movie.

Rebel Ridge (2024)

Entertaining drama with a man (Aaron Pierre) trying to post bail for his cousin in the small town holding him. There he comes upon a deeply corrupt local force willing to try anything in the book to put money in the coffers so that they don't get subsumed into the State Police. It's a neat story, well executed, by the director of Blue Ruin which was no surprise. If Aaron Pierre can stick to these movies with story he could be a big star. Good support from Don Johnson, Emory Cohen and James Cromwell.

The Apple - 7/10

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The Moon (2023), Korean with English subtitles - 6 out of 10.

Had been looking forward to it and was a little disappointed.

Everything looked okay but the dialogue seemed strange, even when an American character was speaking English.

Maybe that's how people react in South Korea but everyone seemed to be ill-suited to their job and liked to complain a lot.

My main problem was with the main character who was supposed to be a Navy Seal and he comes off as this total wimp who cracks under pressure right off the bat - Neil Armstrong he ain't.

Watch Apollo 18 if you want a good Moon movie with a touch of horror.

Probably a rent, not a buy.

Trap (2024)

I've heard some damning opinions on this here but decided to give it a go anyway. I'm not a fan of M. Night Shyamalan's work really. I thought the Visit was okay. Same with this really but this doesn't really know what it wants to be. It's not dark at all, as I suspect the intention was. It's watchable for Josh Hartnett and I was surprised to see Hayley Mills involved. Overall, a weak film in an ongoing downward trajectory for the director.

Oh, nooooo! I was hopeful that this would be campy fun. I'll probably still check it out at some point, but the tepid-leaning-negative reviews are a real bummer.

Spoiler: it's really not.

Eddie Coyle movie is very good.

Seen Bullitt a million times. Huge crush on Steve McQueen.

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Good movie. Wouldn’t want to see it again. Wish there was more than a cameo of Jesse Plemons.



Excellent movie. Caleb Landry Jones is amazing in this strange movie.

If Gigi had been a French language film directed by a renowned French director, it would probably be considered one of the great French comedies of all time. But it's not a French film, it's a Hollywood movie shot in Paris. Gigi won 9 Oscars and I think I know why...it feels like a French film in it's risque story that pushed the boundaries under the Production Code. Had this been a typical Hollywood musical it would've been sanitized and had golly-gee-whiz characters with hi-jinks galore. But Gigi isn't that type of film, it's very French being based on the novel by French author Collette. It's a story of a young woman being trained by her wealthy aunt to be a courtesan.

What didn't sit well with me and confused me too, was the perceived age of Gigi (Leslie Caron). When we meet Gigi she's dressed in what I took to be a young school girl's type clothing. She's described as not having a figure yet and isn't old enough to drink champagne. All of that seemed to be suggesting a girl of 12 or 13 years old, which I found uncomfortable and certainly not charming or funny. I did find the personality of Gigi to be charming enough. Maybe I'm wrong about her intended age? As later we see her dressed up in a fancy gown and she looks to be a young adult woman. So that put a damper on the film.

I didn't care for Louis Jordan, he was too dull for a romantic lead, a rather boring actor in my book. Maurice Chevalier he's fine in small doses, but like Jimmy Durante too much of his character becomes an annoyance. I really dislike his singing & hamming smile to the camera. Hermione Gingold on the other hand was my favorite, not surprising I usually like her.


The plus side of Gigi is Vincent Minnelli's eye for art inspired sets, gosh the film looks beautiful! A big plus is filming on location in Paris with the cast and not just a second camera crew. We even see the inside of the famous Maxine's. The costumes are stunning.

If they had made it clear that Gigi wasn't a child but a young adult woman capable of making her own decisions...and if they replaced wooden Louis Jordan with a more charming actor and if they cut most of Maurice Chevalier scenes then I might have liked this more.

Targets, 1968

Byron Orlock (Boris Karloff) is an actor who made his name in the gothic horror boom of the 40s and 50s. Preparing for the debut of his latest, and last, horror film, Byron feels unsettled by the evolution of horror and the sense that he is being left behind. Meanwhile, clean-cut Bobby Thompson (Tim O’Kelly) wakes up and, for no apparent reason, embarks on a spree of violence that draws him closer and closer to the drive-in theater where Byron will premiere his new film.

This is a stunning directorial debut that shocks with scenarios and images that are hauntingly relevant nearly 50 years later.

Everything in this film, from the performances to the color scheme to the stunner of a climax, just absolutely clicks into place. If you have access to the Criterion Channel, I highly, HIGHLY recommend listening to Bogdanovich’s stellar commentary.



FULL REVIEW