Rate The Last Movie You Saw

Not bad. Three leads very good. Dozed off a couple of times. It’s that kind of movie that is more like a play.

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

Rolling Thunder -

Fans of John Wick as well as action and horror movies like it need to check out this entry that likely inspired them. Just be warned it is a lot less fantastical. This is another heart wrenching study by Paul Schrader (who co-wrote) of Vietnam veterans returning home feeling like they had been chewed up and spit out. It would not be wrong to describe it as "Taxi Driver in the Heartland," in other words.

I've only seen William Devane in 24, whose performance I enjoyed on that show even though I found him a bit cold and hard to read. Those aspects work in his favor here since Major Charles Rane tries his best to be grateful for the warm reception, gifts and affection of man-in-uniform admirer Linda (Linda Haynes) he receives upon returning to good ol' "San Anton'," but he can only mask his emptiness for so long. Schrader and company couldn't have made his mental state more justified given that his wife is seeing another man and his son was just starting to walk before boarding the plane. If you're starting to think this is not the popcorn flick that John Wick is, you would be right, especially since there are fewer action scenes. The ones it has hit hard, though, and they're not only fueled by a desire for justice, but also come from a real place. I will not soon forget Haynes' work for how convincing she makes Linda's desire to find a good man and how she provides a reason for Charles to rethink his revenge plans. A young Tommy Lee Jones also shines as Johnny, Rane's military buddy who thinks he has readjusted to civilian life - at least better than Rane has - but who may be kidding himself.

Not to count out director John Flynn and co-writer Heywood Gould, whose other work I will explore, but I must once again credit Schrader for crafting yet another great story of a broken man who is not sure how to solve his problems. While I love the John Wick franchise, Nobody, et al, it is nice to see an entry call into question the belief that their only solution lies at the end of a gun. Again, there are fewer action scenes, but in this now subgenre's fashion, it does save the best one for last. Just be prepared to do something you might not always do when it's over: stare at the screen until all the end credits go by.

Megalopolis (2024)

Firstly, what a strange film! I'm probably not the target audience for this but the fact that Coppola was fighting to have this made and released since the 80s is just wild. It's a fairly pat story with nice effects but, to me, has no real substance and I did struggle to keep interest in the Cesar vs Cicero battle. Any scene with Shia LaBeouf in is overacted and silly, I think that was supposed to be the comedic element in amongst the over-wraught grand gesturing of the central story, it didn't work. Nice costumes, scenery and effects but a paper thin reason for even existing never mind fighting for 40-odd years to have it made!

I need to check it out.

Blonde Fever (1944) - Mary Astor's a plus, Philip Dorn's a minus, and the movie, a screwball rom-com, would have been a forgettable trifle, if not for it being Gloria Grahame's feature debut.



All of 20 when it was filmed, and you can tell she had that certain something, even then, the screen loves her.

Based on a play by Molnár (I wonder if it was any better?) - 2 stars for its 2 stars (Astor & Grahame)

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Completed Extant Filmographies: Luis Buñuel, Federico Fellini, Satyajit Ray, Fritz Lang, Andrei Tarkovsky, Buster Keaton, Yasujirō Ozu - (for favorite directors who have passed or retired, 10 minimum)

My bad. I could have sworn I read somewhere he had died. Maybe I was thinking of Richard Lewis. Anyway, I'm happy to hear he's still among us.

a rewatch of what is hands down movie of the year, though you can argue it came out in 2022, 2023 or 2024. queer coming of age film by way of super villain origin story and a huge win for fair use laws. its also a multimedia nightmare and i love every second of it. hilarious that the most sincere and honest trans movie i've ever seen has batman in it.

By "Copyright 1949 – By Twentieth Century–Fox Film Corp." - Scan via Heritage Auctions. Cropped from the original image., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/inde...curid=86899006

Twelve O'Clock High - (1949)

Finally got this war film under my belt. Gregory Peck stars as Brig. Gen. Frank Savage - sent to head the dysfunctional 918th Bomb Group in daylight bombing raids over occupied Europe and Germany, he decides trial by fire is required. He pushes his men to their absolute limit and in doing so makes the group a much admired success, and it's this he hopes will win the men over. How much punishment and how many insults can he dish out before the effects of his harshness make his men hate him? How far can he push himself before he himself has a complete and utter nervous breakdown? When the going gets tough, we all find at a certain stage that even the toughest of us has a limit. This was an interesting look at the psychological perils of being in command of young men in life and death situations, and the pros and cons of the Whiplash method of trying to attain greatness from the men you are in charge of.

8/10


By The cover art can be obtained from Movieposterdb.com., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=32677431

The War Game - (1966)

Surprisingly brutal and unsparing for 1966, this pseudo documentary about what would happen to Britain in the event there was a nuclear war. On Letterboxd immediately after watching it I wrote : "Sometimes words won't suffice. After a nuclear war, civilization may never fully recover - and yes, we'd envy the dead. A great precursor to Threads." I was still feeling the aftershocks, and was a little shaken.

9/10

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sheesh, you'd think this was a gay porn with all these dudes getting whacked