Rate The Last Movie You Saw

[dave jenkins]

Tous les matins du monde (1991) 9/10. The viola da gamba. The music of Sainte-Colombe, Marin Marais, Lully, Couperin. The bravura stylings of Jordi Savall. Le Château de Bodeau (and environs), Rougnat, Creuse, France. The lighting of Yves Angelo. Jean-Pierre Marielle in the role of a lifetime. Anne Brochet. Gerard and Guillaume Depardieu, together again (separately) for the first time. The paintings of Baugin. The methodical genius of Alain Corneau. Caroline Sihol in 1080p. One helluva Blu-ray.

[Dust Devil]

Shoot to Kill (1988) - 5/10

Turns out pretty weak.

[Groggy]

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire - 6/10 - The first hour is solid: Katniss deals with psychological fallout from her time in the Hunger Games, all while going on a goodwill propaganda tour promoting the dictatorial regime. Only she and faux-boyfriend Peta have become symbols of resistance. This is heady stuff for a YA lit adaptation, and holds all kinds of potential. Then evil President Donald Sutherland declares a new round of Hunger Games featuring past victors, and we spend the rest of the movie rehashing the original's obvious elements. At 146 minutes it's a drag, the interesting elements smothering under violent action and computer generated thrills. The ending was cool though, and leads me to hope the next installment works better.

[cigar joe]

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire - 6/10 - The first hour is solid: Katniss deals with psychological fallout from her time in the Hunger Games, all while going on a goodwill propaganda tour promoting the dictatorial regime. Only she and faux-boyfriend Peta have become symbols of resistance. This is heady stuff for a YA lit adaptation, and holds all kinds of potential. Then evil President Donald Sutherland declares a new round of Hunger Games featuring past victors, and we spend the rest of the movie rehashing the original's obvious elements. At 146 minutes it's a drag, the interesting elements smothering under violent action and computer generated thrills. The ending was cool though, and leads me to hope the next installment works better.

WTF is a Hunger Game and why should we care 

[cigar joe]

The Bird with the Crystal Plumage "L'uccello dalle piume di cristallo" (1970) (original title) Director: Dario Argento, Writer: Dario Argento, Stars: Tony Musante, Suzy Kendall. This is an uncredited adaptation of Fredric Brown's novel The Screaming Mimi, which had previously been made into a Hollywood film, Screaming Mimi (1958). Neither is as good as the book however in my opinion. Watchable 7/10

[dave jenkins]

High Plains Drifter (1973) 7/10. A clever re-purposing of the Man With No Name icon; Eastwood's stranger is just mysterious enough this time to be of supernatural origin, but isn't necessarily so. The film is also a variation on the Yojimbo/FOD premise (there's even a whiff of High Noon), with Eastwood setting up two warring sides so they'll destroy each other. The bit where he puts everyone in place and then just rides away is the highlight of the movie, spoiled a bit when he has to come back. I would have preferred an approach where he keeps the two sides fighting by evening things up from time to time with well-chosen rifle shots and dynamite blasts. Then you could still have a final showdown between Eastwood and the last man standing (which again could have been Geoffrey Lewis). Watching the spectacular new BD of this film (which is as good-looking as everyone has been saying) I was struck by the film's resemblance to another 60s touchstone, The Prisoner. I guess what got me thinking along these lines was the presence of Billy Curtis, the little person who starts lighting Eastwood's cigars the moment he hits town. Of course, in The Prisoner it was always Angelo Muscat who attached himself to the person in power, finally gravitating to Patrick McGoohan in the final episode. Here Billy Curtis doesn't waste any time shifting his allegiance. Well, it may be Once Upon A Time in the Village (and don't forget The Prisoner actually featured a Western episode, "Living In Harmony"), but Eastwood isn't playing Number 6, he's playing Number 666. There's never any doubt about how things are going to turn out.

[drinkanddestroy]

Jeopardy (1953) 9/10

do not miss this the next time it plays on TCM. More here http://www.fistful-of-leone.com/forums/index.php?topic=11030.msg168511#msg168511

[drinkanddestroy]

East Side, West Side (1949) 6.5/10

I never liked Barbara Stanwyck... but this movie has a real good cast otherwise, with James Mason, Ava Gardner, a terrific particularly wonderful performance by Van Heflin (no Groggy, he is not a stiff straight-arrow), and an incredibly cute Cyd Charisse... (and in a small role, Nancy Davis, the future Nancy Reagan)..... But, the script leaves much to be desired. Society people loving each other, infatuated with each other, sleeping with each other, cheating on each other, of course there's eventually a murder involved 

[cigar joe]

The Bravados (1958) first of the Westerns to re-watch now on the new 50 inch, it looks excellent, nothing new to report but its a recommended must see for Leone fans a 9/10 http://www.fistful-of-leone.com/forums/index.php?topic=7675.msg12967#msg12967

[dave jenkins]

Wrapping up Truffaut week. . .

The Soft Skin (1964) 5/10. A married intellectual begins an affair with an air hostess. It doesn't end well. Apparently, clandestine relationships in early 60s France were hard to pull off--what, no love hotels? Instead of showing the humor in the situation, though, Truffaut makes us take everything straight. There's even a weekend in Reims that's interminable (which may be always the case in Reims, but why put the audience through it?). The melodramatic ending is labored, predictable, and unwarranted (despite being based on, I understand, an actual event). There are several nice touches--a kitten feeding on the remains of a breakfast tray that's been set outside the door of a trysting spot, the sound of a camera going off when the wife discovers the existence of photographic evidence of her husband's infidelity--but these are insufficient to redeem an exceedingly routine plot.

[stanton]

The Soft Skin is one I like. Normal people with realistic feelings in a gentle but sad film. 8/10

[dave jenkins]

Normal people with realistic feelings

Well, I guess that is where we differ.

[stanton]

Maybe ...

[drinkanddestroy]

Don't Bother to Knock (1952) 7/10

The first 60 minutes are better than the last 16...

Richard Widmark is terrific as always, Elisha Cook is also great (there's this one real funny moment between them in the elevator – it's basically just some glances between them just after a woman leaves the elevator; if you have the dvd, check it put at 23:54), the script has some nice funny lines. I didn't like Anne Bancroft all that much (at least partly cuz I am annoyed at the way she talks).
I didn't like Marilyn Monroe very much here; I elaborate more on that in the MM thread here http://www.fistful-of-leone.com/forums/index.php?topic=11738.msg168554#msg168554

THE REST OF THE POST WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS

 I'm not sure that it was smart for the movie to show us the scars on MM's wrists early on - I think that if we would have just seen them at the same time that Widmark saw them, that may have been better –– I'm not gonna say that showing them early on gave anything away, cuz I forgot about them soon after and didn't remember it again until Widmark sees them later on; and also, I guess maybe you could say the filmmakers wanted to give us one of those little "clues" to the truth just so at the end of the movie, we can't say they pulled a fast one on us –– but IMO, it mighta been better if we see them for the first time at the same moment Widmark sees them, so we share his shock

[cigar joe]

Death Rides a Horse 8/10 Beautifully shot, one of the top Lee Van Cleef starring Westerns, I didn't mind John Phillip Law this go round (perhaps this is a reaction to the crap that is passing for film nowadays, minor flaws become more & more minuscule comparatively).