Rate The Last Movie You Saw

1st Rewatch...From the "If it Ain't Broke Don't Fix it" school of filmmaking, comes this 2003 Disney remake of the Meredith Wilson musical that made a star out of the late Robert Preston. The remake features flawless production values (especially the costumes). but sadly, Matthew Broderick is no Robert Preston and is pretty one-note in the titular role. The rest of the cast isn't much to brag about either except for Broadway bombshell Kristen Chenoweth who is the best Marian the Librarian I've ever seen. Her renditions of "Goodnight My Someone" and "My White Knight" are absolutely breathtaking. There's also something strange going on with the orchestrations. They've added music to the opening number "Rock Island" which was explicitly written to be performed acapella. The orchestration for "Iowa Stubborn" is kind of strange too. I guess it's watchable if you've seen it onstage or never seen the 1962 movie. Fans of Kristen Chenoweth should definitely check it out, fans of the show, beware.

Driveways (2019)

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[ J ] - [ S ] - [ F ]

The Father - 5/5



I genuinely believe The Father features Anthony Hopkins' greatest ever performance, coming at the age of 82. It's a heartbreaking look at dementia and Hopkins is astonishingly good at portraying a man grappling at a life that is increasingly so different to the one he once knew. Olivia Colman is also brilliant. Writer-director Florian Zeller is one to keep an eye on. He also made 2022's The Son.

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My Night at Maud's (1969, Eric Rohmer)

Rohmer's wintery tale to go with the mood. As always, intellectually riveting and enigmatic yet strangely comforting like being in the warm familiar company of people you know and love. The long philosophical conversations should come across as pretentious and stilted but for some reason they don't (ok, i'm lying, sometimes they do, just a tiny bit ) — perhaps because I am too busy being interested in the underlying intrigue, or because I inherently accept Rohmer's rules of the game and agree to view his characters as the abstract entities that they are, mysterious chess pieces making their moves within this cozy little puzzle world. Anyway, another winner from Rohmer, and a psychoanalyst's field day full of secrets, innuendo and psychological manipulation. Francoise Fabian as Maud was definitely one of the highlights (magnetic performance!), lovely ending too, with the effective use of voiceover.

Bookworm -

Frodo returns to Middle Earth, ahem...Elijah Wood returns to New Zealand in this wholesome and highly entertaining adventure. He gives one of his best performances as a failed Las Vegas magician who reconnects with his estranged and precocious daughter, Mildred (an also great Nell Fisher) as they try to film an elusive panther in the country's vast wilderness. If the general setup sounds familiar, it is, but the movie does enough extraordinary things to make up for it. For one, it's beautiful to look at and not just because of the locations. It begs to be seen on the big screen or at least the largest TV in your house. Their journey is also always unpredictable, with the panther's flightiness being only one reason. I'll just say it’s not the only creature the father and daughter have to worry about. Again, Wood is really impressive here. While it helps that the role of Strawn plays to his strengths - he gets to be scared a lot, for instance – it lets him reveal how strong he is at comedy and at being vulnerable. As for Fisher, I hope we see more of her because she has experience beyond her years just like Mildred has knowledge beyond hers.

The movie is not perfect: in the end, the supposedly elusive panther is really not that elusive. Also, I feel like a jerk criticizing its CGI since this is not a Hollywood production, but its motions are a little too cartoonish at times. With this movie and Come to Daddy, writer/director Ant Timpson continues to prove his expertise with stories about difficult father/child relationships and family complications arising from trying to make it in the entertainment industry. Despite these weighty subjects, this is again a movie the whole family is bound to enjoy. Just try not to let Elijah Wood's wig and beard and how they clash with his eternally youthful appearance distract you too much. Forget Paul Rudd: if anyone has found the fountain of youth, he has!

I'm really looking forward to his next release, The Holy Ghost.

Terrific movie. Denzel & Frances both so good.

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

Tetsuo: The Iron Man follows an office worker (Tomorowo Taguchi) that is involved in a hit-and-run accident. After apparently leaving the scene, he starts being haunted by strange hallucinations of scraping metals. Eventually, he starts sprouting metal parts himself from various parts of his body sending him on a crazied frenzy. Can he retain his sanity or will his brain turn into metal as well?

This is one of those films I've been hearing about for a long time. One of those where you kinda know already what's going on, mostly because of pop culture. Still, after my first official watch, I can say it was even weirder than I expected. Not only because of its weird story and bizarre visuals, but also because of its unconventional narrative and frantic pacing.

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Full review on my Movie Loot

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I watched Messiah of Evil this morning. Unfortunately it didn't resonate with me. I wasn't really a fan. Some of the imagery was good. It just felt kind of empty. It's not bad. The film just isn't for me.

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I destroyed the dastardly dairy dame! I made mad milk maid mulch!

That is the simple sentence that opens this short in which "Charlie Chaplin" addresses his "best girl" before heading to a pushcar race in Venice, California. While there, he causes all kinds of mayhem as he tries to draw the attention of a cameraman and film director by constantly stepping in front of their shots and in the middle of the track.

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Full review on my Movie Loot

In Paradise Canyon, Wayne's character is a federal agent that is trying to stop a counterfeit operation led by Curly Joe (Yakima Canutt). In the process, he meets with Carter and his troupe, who were at one point framed by Joe so they decide to help Wayne. Between one thing and the other, there's a lot of riding and shooting.

I've seen a handful of John Wayne films and I don't think it's disrespectful to say that he had a limited range, either by fate or by choice. That's not to say he couldn't turn a good performance, but more often than not, it was within those limitations. Paradise Canyon doesn't ask much for him other than look strong and talk tough, while riding and shooting a lot.

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Full review on my Movie Loot

Holiday Hit (2022) Written and directed by Lynaia Jordan. Two kids are accidentally left home alone at Christmas when burglars break in. This was alright, although it does feel too similar to Home Alone. The acting is fine and the writing is okay. It's obvious that they had limited resources, which is reflected in the end result, but there is a certain charm to the film. If you have reasonable expectations, then you might get some amusement out of this low budget Home Alone type family Christmas comedy. Available on Tubi.

The Visit (2015)

Melody Time is an anthology film released by Disney in 1948. It is comprised of seven different shorts all using songs and music to take you to different lands and stories. Although they all feature different characters, one of them features Donald Duck, along with José Carioca and the Aracuan Bird, both of which were introduced during Saludos Amigos and Three Caballeros respectively.

Whereas in Saludos Amigos and Three Caballeros there seemed to be a Latin-infused focus, the focus here isn't as defined but it seems to be different types and styles of music. But the lack of a general connective tissue to it all hurts it a bit. Even Three Caballeros frames it all as a celebration of Donald Duck's "birthday". Here, it just feels like what they are, random bits and pieces some of which work better than the others.

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Full review on my Movie Loot

I watched Citizen Kane this afternoon. It's the third time I've seen the film with the first time being back in around 2009 or 2010, and the second in 2011 or 2012. It's been so long I've forgotten. I do know I watched it the second time in a class so I wasn't totally focused because I have a really bad habit of watching my classmates watch films in class when I've already seen the film because I honestly enjoy seeing people's reactions. Whether that's good or bad I don't know. People-watching is enjoyable to me.

Anyway the film rocks, and I could follow it better this time even with some more distractions, namely two children, which I didn't have when I watched it the first two times. I regret nothing. Yeah it's an awesome film. I wouldn't call it the greatest movie ever. It's still a wonderful piece of cinema. I think my context for my opinion is different than when it first came out, which is hard to separate. Still I've always liked Citizen Kane, even if I've always known Rosebud was the sled.

my wife wanted to watch this because she'd never seen it. still a for me.

Damn....it's Wicked, the new movie version. It might have been OK (just OK) if it had been an hour shorter, but it wasn't. It's a prequel to the Wizard of Oz, a back story on one of the witches, but really, it has absolutely NONE of the charm of the original. Munchkins are full human sized and the songs are screachy and over-dramatic considering the nature of the plot material. I wanted to make a bathroom run, even though I didn't need one. Be forewarned.- (Yeah, that's minus one popcorns).

Gladiator 2


All spectacle, little substance. The only performance that really stood out was Denzel Washington's.


As it is, I give it a "meh". Slim it down to 100 minutes of ridiculous violence, and I'd give it a , and go see it two more times in theaters.

The last movie I watched is The Russians Are Coming the Russians Are Coming which I found fairly enjoyable. I wouldn't expect a comedy to have a fictitious start to World War III in the final twelve minutes so the ending I saw made sense. One part that stood out was how my primary care physician looks so much akin to Eva Marie Saint in this. That's not hyperbolic or falsified; they look strikingly similar. She could be Eve Marie Saint's granddaughter or something. It's weird.

Anyway overall it's a fine movie. Someone has to know some stuff about the Cold War to catch the humor, which I do so I could. The third quarter was a mite off though. I liked it overall in spite of that.