Rate The Last Movie You Saw

5th Rewatch...From the Joe Pasternak unit at MGM, this is one of my favorite Jane Powell musicals. her seventh film appearance found Powell playing the daughter of a Broadway star (Ann Southern) who finds herself not only competing for the lead in a new musical with mom, but for a man (Barry Sullivan) as well. Southern and Powell make a lovely mother/daughter and Carmen Miranda, in her second to final film film appearance, has a couple of fun musical numbers. Louis Calhern offers another of his dirty old man turns, but Barry Sullivan just seems out of place here, but nothing else matters when Powell opens her mouth to sing. Her rendition of "Musetta's Waltz" from La Boheme is breathtaking.

hi everyone, its been awhile

guess i'll rate a few things i've seen recently to get back into posting

Axegrinder (David Palmieri, 2006)
mostly just another kids in the woods slasher but there's a strong low-budget charm and a few really out-there decisions


The Substance (Coralie Fargeat, 2024)
Didn't fully win me over until it goes banana sandwich at the end but the rest of it is still solid


Red Rooms (Pascal Plante, 2023)
One of those movies would be pretty mid if it didn't happen to strike a chord, really got under my skin by the end


Shutter Island (Martin Scorsese, 2010)
I get that its kind of stupid on purpose for most of it, and it does some stuff i like towards the end but its just a long time before any of that good stuff happens, also just really don't like it from a visual standpoint


Joker: Folie à Deux (Todd Phillips, 2024)
not nearly as interesting as the positive or negative reviews suggest but at least this one's trying to be fun?


Club Lingerie (Jared Masters, 2014)
Masters is one of the few guys who can crank out low effort tubi trash, that has no interest in hiding that fact, and have it usually work out and also not feel cynical at all. This one is really just baffling at every turn but its honestly a blast. Only held back a couple moments of cringe.


Trap (M. Night Shyamalan, 2024)
Much like Joker this also isn't nearly as interesting as the reviews led me to believe, its fine.


The Nightgown (Jared Masters, 2023)
Probably the least outright strange film i've seen from Masters so far, which should be a big let-down but its pretty cute and its a vibe idk

Hi, welcome back!

Zatōichi (2003)

A pretty entertaining take on the legend of the blind warrior that has appeared in other films and TV serials. Beat Takeshi plays the titular nomadic warrior for justice....a ham fisted analogy buy rather like an "equaliser"! (Woodward or Washington). It is quite stylised in terms of sets but I think that was intended and contains good humour. The blond Kitano is impeccable as usual. The dance sequence at the end is amazing. Definitely not his best as director but distracting nonetheless.

This is something I both kinda, sorta want to watch while also being understandably wary of. I envy you being somewhat removed from the experience but anything that casts the guy in a sympathetic light is something I would want to avoid.

After Death follows Andrei (Vitold Polonsky), a scholar that finds himself smitten by Zoia (Vera Karalli), a young actress, after a brief meeting. When a misunderstanding leads to the two being uncommunicated for several months, she decides to kill herself. Burdened by guilt, Andrei becomes obsessed with her presence and join her after death.

The main thing that caught my attention was Yevgeni Bauer's direction and Boris Zavelev's cinematography. There is some really good framing in most scenes, and some great camera movement. Early on the film, there is a continuous long shot that goes on for a couple of minutes as we see Andrei arrive at a party and meet several guests. For a film made more than 100 years ago, I thought it was impressive.

Grade:


Full review on my Movie Loot

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Existenz (1999)





A weird mishmash of the Matrix and Videodrome that surprisingly works. It's a bit slow to start, and at times strange for the sake of strangeness, but that's Cronenberg's M.O.


I liked it.

Up until 2016 I'd only known Donald Trump as a name - celebrity New York business person. I'd never watched his Apprentice television show and had no idea what he was like. His presidency was perhaps the most shocking long-term event I've ever lived through - and this coming from someone on the other side of the world! I have very strong feelings about what's happening over in the United States, and I read a lot about it. I'm sensitive about it as well, but I still found The Apprentice to be fascinating, enlightening and a portrait of Trump as he is - just much more intimate than we're used to seeing. The way Ali Abbasi and screenwriter Gabriel Sherman present this - well, if you feel strongly about it all, I don't think this would anger you or make you feel uncomfortable. The story of Roy Cohn and Trump doesn't allow for much sympathy, even though we get to see things that were hard to imagine (Trump falling in love, Trump crying despite trying to repress the feelings of guilt he has over his brother Fred's death.) In the end this is still a horror movie, with Cohn teaching Trump the dirtiest tricks in the book, and the man himself gradually morphing into a monster while Cohn - the devil himself - bemoans the man's lack of morals, empathy, decency, shame and honor.

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I haven't seen this since it came out but recall liking it, rewatch required.

The Ghost of Sierra de Cobre (1964)

Good made for TV horror with Martin Landau and Judith Anderson and a very gorgeous Diane Baker. It's got the feeling of a "Rebecca" about it and does crank up the drama pleasingly.
3 from 5

By www.movieposterdb.com, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7404598

Don't Look Now - (1973)

My reverence for this film almost makes it impossible to write about - because I simply can't do it justice. Not with a few words. When I first watched Don't Look Now I was kind of expecting a normal movie, and as such my mind was constantly askew - because there's nothing normal about it. Before you've even settled down in your seat you're confronted with the horrifying vision of John (Donald Sutherland) and Laura Baxter's (Julie Christie) daughter drowning, and their reaction. From there it's off to the most creepy version of Venice you could ever dream up in a film. Overcast, muted, dirty and disheveled - it's a Venice where bodies are often being fished out of the canals and buildings as a murderer lurks the streets. Psychics speak to Laura about seeing her daughter, and a daunting kind of foreboding when it comes to husband John. John sees things - a red raincoat (worn by his daughter when she died) catches his eye everywhere he goes. Water takes on a menacing appearance - a remembrance of the water that engulfed the poor child. When John catches sight of his wife after she's jetted off back to England, it's a vision which only increases the sense of unease we've been feeling throughout this expressionistic, darkly charged work full of uncomfortable, personal and private moments between husband and wife. How could it have been her? He can't let it go. He goes to the police - and sets off a chain of events which will end in a creepy manner you could never have envisaged. Ghosts do haunt us - it just depends on how you define them.

10/10

[rating]3.5[/Ratng]

Love, love, love, love this movie...due for a rewatch...Joan Crawford stole the Oscar Tierney should have won for this.

Tierney did deserve it.

That sounds like driving up on a particularly gory car accident. You know you shouldn't but you simply have to look.

1st Rewatch...My parents took me to see this movie at the V Drive In in Vestal, New York when I was a kid during its original theatrical release and this is my first official rewatch. Three years after winning the Best Suporting Actress Oscar for The Miracle Worker, Duke was pegged to star as Billie Carol, a 16 year old tomboy who can outrun all the boys on the track team because of music she hears in her head she calls "the beat". Her special athletic ability not only interferes with her trying to get a boyfriend (Warren Berlinger), but her father (Jim Backus) is not thrilled either because his run for mayor on a "women souldn't compete with men" campaign is also being damaged. Duke lights up the screen sportiing a blonde Mia Farrow haircut and Backus is very funny as dad. All kinds of familiar faces pop up here. Dick Sargent plays Backus' campaign manager, Richard Deacon plays the school principal, Chalres Lane is the track coach, Billy DeWolfe plays the mayor and Ted Bessell plays Billie's older sister Jean's boyfriend. Jean is played by Susan Seaforth Hayes, who would spend the next 50 yeas or so playing Julie Williams on Days of our Lives and in case you don't recognize her as the lead dancer in that terrific but pointless dance number halfway through the movie wearing the red and white shirt, that's Donna McKechnie, who a mere decade later, would win a Tony Award for Lead Actress in a Musical for A CHorus Line (She is also billed as Assistant Choreographer). A cinematic curio to be sure.

Last Tango in Paris (1972)

Bertolucci's drama concerning a recently widowed man (Paul, Marlon Brando) who starts an obsessive sexual relationship with a free spirited, much younger Parisienne girl. The acting is good in both ends (I won't go into the controversy about Maria Shneider and subsequent complaints about filming techniques/ pressure to do sex scenes). It's a downbeat film with a few quality scenes (Paul at his wifes coffin for example) but it's a real mean-spirited and cynical one too. The final sequence of the chase ending up in the dance-hall really is rather depressing but I guess that was the intention? Bertolucci made 1900 after this which was a far better film IMHO.

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Depravity (2024)