Rate The Last Movie You Saw

The Gauntlet (1977)

One of Clint's lesser appreciated films, this is a tight thriller with great action sequences. The story itself isn't brain surgery but both Clint (as the disenchanted, alcoholic cop) and Sondra Locke (as the mob involved call girl) acquit themselves well. I saw this years ago and thought "meh" but on rewatch found it to be very entertaining. Inevitably Bill McKinney is in it too

Phantom Lady (1944)

__________________
“You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” — Gandhi​

The Double Life of Veronique 8.5

This is such a strange film, which for me is ultimately disappointing.

It's visually beautiful. It's engaging an at one point it was becoming intriguing, but I feel that it ended as what would be at best akin to an episode of Tales of the Unexpected and at worse unintentional farce.

Let me recap the plot as I understand it:

1. We are following the life of a young woman Polish woman called Weronika
2. One day, she sees her double on a passing bus. The double is taking photographs.
3. Weronika is performing as a classical singer one day, when she has a heart attack and dies.
4. We are now following the life of her double, a young French woman called Veronique
5. Veronique feels like she has just lost someone in her life but can't explain it.
6. One day, Veronique sees a puppet show, and is attracted to the puppeteer.
7. She received a cassette tape in the post. She plays the tape and can hear announcements being made in a train station.
8. She works out which station it is and travels there. She finds the puppeteer in a cafe and joins him.
9. They go to a hotel where they make love. He says he wants to know everything about her, so she empties her handbag.
10. One of the things that falls out is the negatives of the photos she took when Weronika saw her on the bus. She sees Weronika and starts crying.
11. The puppeteer shows her his puppets, and they are her and Weronika. He explains something about their childhoods and how they were connected to each other.
END

1st Rewatch...Economic and exciting thriller that finds Liam Neesom playing a retired FBI agent who uses his very special skillset to find his daughter when she is kidnapped in Paris. I love the scene when he is on the phone with her just before she is snatched and tells her exactly what to do before they capture her and he hears her being abducted over the phone. The skills he utilizes to find his daughter are extraordinary and makes the viewer so curious as to what this guy did when he still worked for the feds. Neesom's stone-face works perfect for this role. The film is action packed and features first rate photography and editing. The film is so good it inspired two sequels that are just as good.

5th Rewatch...Tina Fey's Oscar-worthy screenplay is the real star of this wicked teen comedy about a girl named Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan) who is attending public school for the first time since being raised in Africa where she was home schooled who finds herself torn between genuine friends Janice and Damian and trying to fit in with a bitchy group of girls known as the Plastics, led by the nasty Regina George (Rachel George) while also attempting to steal Regina's ex-boyfriend, Aaron (Jonathan Bennett). Fey's screenplay nails the teenage female psyche unlike any movie I've seen and provides lots of laughs while doing it. McAdams is a revelation as Regina and solid support is provided by Lacy Chabert as Gretchen, Tim Meadows as the principal,, Fey as Miss Norbury., and I LOVED
Rajiv Surendra as mathlete Kevin Gnapoor. This has become one of those films I never tire of re-watching.

That They May Face the Rising Sun (2023)

A soft drama about a couple that have recently left London and returned to Country Leitrim in Ireland, she an art dealer and he a writer. Interacting with the old locals can be challenging to say the least as the area they live in is pretty much deserted farmland. It's portrayed well as we really see little youth to indicate that most have cleared off and don't want to keep up traditions. The quiet atmosphere and the haunting piano music are very well done.

2nd Rewatch...Adam Sandler was robbed of an Oscar nomination for his raw nerve of a performance in this intense drama about a fast talking New York jeweler trying to stay ahead of some serious gambling debts and having to walk a very thin tightrope to do so. Sandler really proved himself an actor of substance with this unhinged performance that keeps this drama on sizzle.

2nd Rewatch...A frighteningly unhinged performance by James Franco that should have earned him an Oscar nomination anchors this offbeat biopic of an eccentric and enigmatic filmmaker named Tommy Wiseau, who earned his 15 minutes directing a bizarre little movie called The Room. The movie follows Tommy's relationship with Greg (Franco's real life brother, Dave) and how their lack of success at getting acting jobs leads Tommy to the decision to write and direct a movie himself and have Greg star in it. The real meat of the story is the mystery behind who Tommy Wiseau really was...he spoke with a middle European accent and claimed he was from New Orleans, he spent 5 million dollars to make the movie and wouldn't tell Greg or anyone else where the money came from and wouldn't tell anyone how old he was. Especially love the end of the film where they show excerpts the movie's version of The Room and the same clips from The Room. Franco also directed the film and it received an Oscar nomination for Adapted Screenplay. An oddly riveting film experience.

1st Rewatch...Surprisingly rich film version of the Judy Blume bestseller that follows a young girl adjusting to her family's move form Manhattan to suburban New Jersey and thrown into an emotional tailspin about the fact that she hasn't gotten her first period. Fans of the Bo Burnham movie Eight Grade will have a head start with this often movie look at pre-teen growing pains that pre-teens go through, not just puberty but a completely believable look at religious beliefs that climaxes in a sizzling dinner party where Margaret's Christian grandparents and her Jewish Grandmother battle for her soul. Abby Ryder Forston is a revelation as Margaret and gets solid support from Rachel McAdams as her mom and veteran scene-stealer Kathy Bates as her Jewish grandma.

Never heard of it, but it’s in my watchlist now.

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

1st Rewatch...Clint Eastwood initially seemed an odd choice for the director's chair on this one, but he actually nails this beautifully expanded version of the Broadway jukebox musical that traces the rise and fall of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. With solid assistance from the screenplay Marshall Brickman and Rich Elice, Eastwood mounts a full bodied story that makes no bones about the fact that the group was initially funded by the mob. John Lloyd Young is allowed to reprise his Tony-Award winning role as Frankie Valli, utilizing that gorgeous voice of his, I could listen to this guy sing all day. That scene in the nightclub where Bob Gaudio first hears Frankie sing gives me chills. The real acting honors go to Erich Bergen as Gaudio and especially Vincent Piazza, who Boardwalk Empire fans might remember as Lucky Luciano,who pretty much steals the show as group leader Tommy DeVito. This film never got the acclaim it deserved for making a real movie out of a jukebox stage musical. As always with an Eastwood movie, production values are splendid, loved the way the musical numbers were given authentic sound and didn't sound just like dubbed in original recordings.

Because of Eve (1948) Watched on Tubi. A married couple, each with a sexual secret, go to a doctor while trying to conceive. Secrets are revealed and the doctor shows the couple education films about sexually transmitted diseases and childbirth. An explicit, at times graphic film, with more nudity than you would expect for 1948. If you enjoy these types of pretend educational (ie. exploitation) films, you will likely get a kick out of this. It's entertaining in its own way.

Frances Ha (2012)
Agh man.
So. Like, firstly I think they over do it imo. A fair bit of the middle of the movie for me is 'this is too much, it's too silly'. It loses marks for that.
Secondly, it's a beautiful looking film. Really, top quality work and all natural (I think). Now that is odd in a comedy, particularly a kooky comedy. It loses some of its beauty marks for that, but still gets some marks all the same.
Thirdly, "you're engaged?" is worth AT LEAST 0.25 on its own. Fourthly, it pulled it back to a really strong ending.
Sod it, I'll give it a 9.

IIRC, I liked this movie.

Hated Frances Ha...a link to my review:

https://www.movieforums.com/reviews/...rances_ha.html

This might be completely unfair of me, but I wonder if maybe you don't understand people who have to struggle?

I don't know, I do know I didn't understand this movie.

Strong statement from someone who’s only been here one month.