Rate The Last Movie You Saw

How can you know that if you aren't familiar with it?

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I destroyed the dastardly dairy dame! I made mad milk maid mulch!
He hid in the forest, read books with great zeal
He loved Che Guevera, a revolutionary veal
Cow Tse Tongue

I am familiar with works of Shakespeare and the quality of his playwriting, and I am familiar with the film The Forbidden Planet and the quality of its plot and script.

These are not one and the same. I am starting to lose interest in this conversation. I think I'm going to end my part of it.

Watched the Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, and it was a lot of fun! The stop motion effects were really good, and the acting was much better than expected. It's still a Godzilla clone, but I enjoyed it.

Didn't take any photos, and don't have all that much to say about it, but These Are the Damned (1962)
is a decent sci-fi and horror.
Particularly inventive sci-fi for the early 60s, and it makes a pretty decent job of it.
All things considered, I don't mind giving it an 8.5.

October 22, 2024

THE WILD ROBOT (Chris Sanders / 2024)
SATURDAY NIGHT (Jason Reitman / 2024)

Well, last week at the movies was a lot of fun. First up was The Wild Robot, a very cute and very intelligent animated sci-fi wilderness adventure about an all-purpose service robot named Roz (the voice of Lupita Nyong'o) - part of the ROZZUM series - who, due to an accident, finds herself stranded on an island populated by wildlife and devoid of humans to serve. Therefore, she must find herself a purpose and develops relationships with the local wildlife, as well as serving as a foster mother to an orphaned goose named Brightbill (Kit Connor). She is aided in her efforts by a sly fox named Fink (Pedro Pascal). I don't want to drone on any further, so I'll just say that it's a very fun, very entertaining animated feature, with very funny dialogue, lots of laughs, intelligent observations about modern society as well as questioning whether competition vs. cooperation is the key to survival, and a genuine sense of poignancy. There's a little something for everybody here, and I would heartily recommend it to anybody.

Next up, we've got Saturday Night, the true story of the chaotic events leading up to the first broadcast of Saturday Night Live on October 11, 1975. A very put-upon and stressed-out Lorne Michaels (a very good Gabriel LaBelle) - with only 90 minutes until showtime - is trying to deal with on-set accidents, friction between the actors, and a rebellious crew. On top of that, network man David Tebet (Willem Dafoe) has arrived on set and although the man is outwardly encouraging, it's 50/50 odds on whether or not he'll give this counter-culture longshot a chance and allow it to air live at the appointed time. For when asked what exactly the show is about, Lorne can't really give an easy answer. On top of that, he needs to encourage a very rebellious and wasted John Belushi (Matt Wood) to sign his contract before showtime. In the meantime, things threaten to get ugly between Chevy Chase (Cory Michael Smith) and Milton Berle (J.K. Simmons), the puritanical NBC censor Joan Carbunkle (Catherine Curtin) spars with Michael O'Donoghue (Tommy Dewey) and host George Carlin (Matthew Rhys) makes his own feelings known in no uncertain terms. In short, a quite famously bad case of last-minute collective showbiz jitters. But as history has proven, Saturday Night Live did make it to air, and has been entertaining us for the past 50 years. Very funny, very inspirational, and the actors playing the original SNL cast are very good in their roles, in particular Lamorne Morris as a perplexed Garrett Morris (no relation).

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"Well, it's what people know about themselves inside that makes 'em afraid" - Clint Eastwood as The Stranger, High Plains Drifter (1973)

"I'll let you be in my dream if I can be in yours" - Bob Dylan, Talkin' World War III Blues (1963)

I downgraded The Day the Earth Stood Still to an 8.75.
The alien guy (who should really have been played by Henry Fonda) does get quite tiresome.

Notorious (1946) - Alfred Hitchcock: 7/10

By C@rtelesmix, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=40859594

Chinese Puzzle - (2013)

Well, I at least proved that you can watch this third entry in Cédric Klapisch's "Spanish Apartment" trilogy without having seen the first two, and still get what's going on without any problems. I guess wherever Xavier (Romain Duris) is concerning life, you can pick up from where he's at. He briefly fills us in through narration anyway at the start of the film. It's basically about a French guy (Xavier), whose English wife, Wendy (Kelly Reilly), divorces him and takes his two kids to live in New York. Xavier goes to live there himself, staying with his gay friend Isabelle (Cécile de France) - who he helped impregnate so she could have a baby. He marries a nice Chinese-American lady, Nancy (Li Jun Li), so he can stay in America and gets more than friendly with friend Martine (Audrey Tautou) when she visits. His is a complex life, considering his kids and his precarious position in a foreign country with scarce work opportunities - and it all evolves into a drama that approximates a French Woody Allen movie (inescapable consideration because this movie is really focused on living in New York, and takes a loving look at the city.) It was okay - moderately funny, and moderately interesting. It made me feel like moving to New York simply because if you get a nice apartment in a high-rise then there are some spectacular city views on offer.

6/10

I watched Bad Education, Spider-Man : Homecoming and Dream Scenario all for a second time :

Bad Education (2019) I upgraded to 8/10 - Powerful yet fun true-life story about corruption and theft involving a school superintendent (Hugh Jackman) and his underlings stealing from the school they're employees of. Great performances and snappy screenplay - and just as good the second time around.

Spider-Man : Homecoming (2017) I upgraded to 7/10 - It might be derivative, but it's still a load of fun and Michael Keaton adds a whole lot to the formula as villain Vulture. That Marvel magic was fading, but there's still some to be found here.

Dream Scenario (2023) Remained a steady 8/10 - I was able to pay a lot more attention to what this was really all about, and although I rate it the same, I enjoyed this even more the second time around.


By RKO Pictures - https://www.amazon.com/Most-Dangerou.../dp/B001YZHE18, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/inde...urid=102066713

The Most Dangerous Game - (1932)

Really enjoyable and exciting early '30s horror, on par with The Old Dark House. Full review here, in my watchlist thread.

8/10


By https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon....yMQ@@._V1_.jpg, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=51638104

Ike : Countdown to D-Day - (2004)

Ike : Countdown to D-Day was fine. It went through the motions, but at least contained a lot of information that I didn't know about that didn't deviate too far from actual historical fact. Full review here, in my watchlist thread.

6/10


By Internet Movie Poster Awards http://www.impawards.com/1996/bound_ver1.html, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3926250

Bound - (1996)

Well executed and with a whole lot of erotic and violent snap to it. I had a great time watching Bound last night, and while a lot of the time this kind of film can be disposable once all the twists and turns have been revealed, this neo-noir gangster movie has enough artistry regarding performance and visualisation woven into it's DNA that it's worthy of future rewatches. Full review here, in my watchlist thread.

8/10

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Alien:Romulus - Sad

The Horse Soldiers (1959, John Ford) - B-

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"A candy colored clown!"
Member since Fall 2002
Top 100 Films, clicky below

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Critters (1986)

La Belle et la Bête (1946) 9

Cocteau turned his earlier experimental work into unreality here with this marvellously enchanting and compelling fantasy romance; a fairy tale for grown ups, about the power of love.
Using groundbreaking techniques which still look the part 80 years later, he weaves a spell over the viewers just as La Bete does over those who come into his Kingdom.
A beautiful film which, whilst perhaps inspired in parts by The Wizard of Oz (1939), was one of its kind at the time in both ambition/visualisation and execution, and would much later inspire the likes of Guillermo Del Toro. That Cocteau was able to do this in the 1940s was masterful.

MaXXXine - (Ti West, 2024)

Loved the first two (X and Pearl), but this one felt a little off. The ending was quite bad too. 5/10

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There has been an awekening.... have you felt it?

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"This Would Sharpen You Up And Make You Ready For A Bit Of The Old Ultra-Violence."

Michael Rennie in the original version? Iconic performance, and no, Fonda shouldn't have played it instead. Top tier classic and is an easy .

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Managed to get two in last night


Takács, 1987





Perhaps objectively, this is pretty rough, but I used to watch this a lot as a teen so there is a strong nostalgia factor here. Still fun, with some great 80s cheese and fun 80s attire and hair etc. Kudos for playing into the silly satanic panic via heavy metal that was big in those days - I love the detail they put into the Sacrifyx band and lore in this film. Also, for a PG-13 flick, there are some intense scenes that my wife said freaked her out when she was a kid; she is almost 10 years younger than me, so she saw it at a young age. A guilty pleasure that I plan on continuing to enjoy throughout the years.



Bava, 1966





I had trouble finding a screenshot for this film, since the cinematography is such total shit. Oh wait, every single frame in basically poster worthy. My favorite Bava, and an absolute pleasure from start to finish. Seminal camera, use of color and set design portray a story that is pretty much perfect for the season. Almost fits in the bloodless category, but it doesn't matter, as it just serves to reinforce its classic status. If you haven't seen this, run, don't walk to see it immediately.