Rate The Last Movie You Saw

[dave jenkins]

Under the Skin - 7/10 - Scarlett Johansson is an alien honeypot cruising Glasgow for young single men, harvesting them for... something. It's all incredibly vague and abstract, all unsettling music and imagery with everything else left to the viewer's imagination.

Isn't this just an artsy-fartsy remake of Species? For heaven's sake, whatever for?

[cigar joe]

The Lady Vanishes(1938) Hitchcock, entertaining 7/10

[Groggy]

Isn't this just an artsy-fartsy remake of Species? For heaven's sake, whatever for?

Surely that's a premise that could be greatly improved upon.

[drinkanddestroy]

The Lady Vanishes(1938) Hitchcock, entertaining 7/10

pure shit. starts out entertaining, turns into ridiculous. first it seems like a Hitch suspense film, then it turns into stupid comedy.

[drinkanddestroy]

The Lower Depths (1936) 7.5/10

[dave jenkins]

Sorcerer (1977) - 7/10. I first saw this film on its original theatrical run and thought it was okay (I wasn't aware of Clouzot's original at the time). Later, in grad school, I saw it again (Friedkin was supposed to introduce it but he never showed). Then there was about a 30-year period when it wasn't available (at least, in a form I was willing to watch it in). And now the Blu-ray is out. Seeing it again, in the best possible home-theater conditions, I now think the film is . . . okay. Glenn Erickson and the director both think there's something special about it (http://worldcinemaparadise.com/2014/04/22/blu-ray-review-sorcerer-1977/). Learning about how plagued the production was explains a lot, but doesn't, for me, alibi the final product.  Friedkin is one of those directors who is good at showing how things are done (for example, how the police dismantle a car looking for drugs, as they do in the French Connection), and he starts out well in this, detailing how the trucks get prepped for their journey. But then, when we get to the trip itself, presentation becomes much more slapdash. The bridge-crossing in the storm is an impressive set-piece, or would be, if we could follow it, but there are too many missing shots to really get the step-by-step approach we need. Worse, once the first truck is across, we see it driving in lush jungle and the storm is over. Then we cut back to the second truck making its attempt, and the storm is still raging! Of course, it is possible to drive out from beneath a storm, but the trucks are never all that far apart; the weather should always be the same for each. Another mistake: at the end, Roy Scheider's truck craps out, 1.3 miles from his destination. He decides to carry one of the boxes of nitro the rest of the way, a movie gesture that no one would do in real life. But then Friedkin squanders even this, by not showing Scheider's final walk--we get only the very end, his arrival. What about all the suspense of whether he'll put a foot wrong and blow himself up? It's madness to leave this out. Finally, the movie is not so much about the suicide mission the men are on, but cinematic impressions of the mission. We never get the sense that we are going through the experience with the men, that we are experiencing, vicariously, what they are experiencing. And that, it seems to me, was the whole point of the exercise. That is what Clouzot accomplished in his original. And several times as I was watching Sorcerer this time I thought how I'd much rather be watching The Wages of Fear.

[drinkanddestroy]

They Drive By Night (1940) dir Raoul Walsh, with George Raft, Humphrey Bogart, Ida Lupino, Ann Sheridan, and Alan Hale. Two wildcat truckers, brothers Joe and Paul Fabrini (Raft & Bogart) struggling to make it in the hauling business. First half of the film is mostly about their trials and tribulations, triumphs and failures. Joe meets redhead waitress Cassi (Ann Sheridan) and they eventually hit it off. After Bogart looses his arm in a wreck Raft goes to work for his old friend Joe Carlson (Hale) as a traffic manager. Complications ensue when Carlson's wife Lana (Ida Lupino) an old flame of Joe's starts to come on to him.  Ida looks pretty good in this one, Raft & Bogart and Sheridan are entertaining. 7/10

since when has George Raft ever been entertaining? And how about the idea that his character here is supposed to be some big ladies man!  
The movie is horseshit, and it has plenty of other problems: Ida Lupino is usually great, but I hate her here; that guy who plays her husband is ridiculous; and how about  the story (reminds me of the bullshit stories the taxi drivers tell Travis Bickle about the hot model jumping in the backseat, giving him a blow job, a $200 tip, and the phone number to her vacation home in the Bahamas   ) : I gotta sit through some horny guy's fantasy where a truck driver picks up the stranded beauty on the side of the road, gets her a hotel room, marries her, but wait... problems problems.... there's another girl, a married girl, the wife of his rich friend, who is sooooooo nuts about him, she can't live without him - after all, he is the irresistible George Raft - and the poor guy can't just live a peaceful rich life fucking Ann Sheridan, cuz Ida Lupino simply won't stand for it.

The first half, focusing on the life of the truck drivers, is decent; the Lupino jealousy story comes into the picture, it gets excruciating.

5/10

[cigar joe]

Europa (1991) Director: Lars von Trier, Storyline: Max von Sydow's voice-over narration hypnotizes the protagonist (and audience) back to 1945 where our protagonist the young American ideologist Leopold Kessler (Jean-Marc Barr) has just arrived in post-WWII 1945 Germany to help rebuilding the damaged country. Uncle Kessler (Ernst-Hugo Järegård) supplies Leopold with a job in the big Zentropa train corporation, but soon Leopold falls in love with Katharina Hartmann (Barbara Sukowa); daughter of Zentropa owner Max Hartmann (Jørgen Reenberg). Leopold soon finds himself caught in a web of corruption, being taken advantage of, and losing his ideology. 7/10

[dave jenkins]

The War Lord (1965) - 1/10. This film has one of the most beautiful transfers to Blu-ray I've ever seen. Unhappily, the movie is one of the worst I've ever had to sit through. Charlton Heston, Richard Boone, Maurice Evans and a cast of nobodies couldn't save this turkey. No one could: worst plot and dialogue I've endured for as long as I can remember. Thank you Franklin J Schaffner!

[drinkanddestroy]

The War Lord (1965) - 1/10. This film has one of the most beautiful transfers to Blu-ray I've ever seen. Unhappily, the movie is one of the worst I've ever had to sit through. Charlton Heston, Richard Boone, Maurice Evans and a cast of nobodies couldn't save this turkey. No one could: worst plot and dialogue I've endured for as long as I can remember. Thank you Franklin J Schaffner!

You actually sat through a 1/10 movie from beginning to end?

[dave jenkins]

Europa (1991) Director: Lars von Trier, Storyline: Max von Sydow's voice-over narration hypnotizes the protagonist (and audience) back to 1945 where our protagonist the young American ideologist Leopold Kessler (Jean-Marc Barr) has just arrived in post-WWII 1945 Germany to help rebuilding the damaged country. Uncle Kessler (Ernst-Hugo Järegård) supplies Leopold with a job in the big Zentropa train corporation, but soon Leopold falls in love with Katharina Hartmann (Barbara Sukowa); daughter of Zentropa owner Max Hartmann (Jørgen Reenberg). Leopold soon finds himself caught in a web of corruption, being taken advantage of, and losing his ideology. 7/10

Your review is accurate as far as it goes--where's your comment on how funny the film is? What about the fact that Trier uses obvious rear projection for some spectacular artsy-fartsy effects, some incredibly hilarious ones? Why no mention that the whole film takes the piss out of certain genres and even cinema in general? I laugh my ass off every time I watch it. On the count of three you will return to your review and amend it. One: you are getting sleepy. Two (I say two!): you are passing back into the "review" state. Three: you awaken, typing. You are in rural New York state at the beginning of the 21st Century. You have come to guide men to fish. You are floating downstream. Soon you will be floating out to sea . . .

[dave jenkins]

You actually sat through a 1/10 movie from beginning to end?

I really surprised myself! But I just couldn't get over how good that Blu-ray transfer looked.

[dave jenkins]

since when has George Raft ever been entertaining? And how about the idea that his character here is supposed to be some big ladies man!  
The movie is horseshit, and it has plenty of other problems: Ida Lupino is usually great, but I hate her here; that guy who plays her husband is ridiculous; and how about  the story (reminds me of the bullshit stories the taxi drivers tell Travis Bickle about the hot model jumping in the backseat, giving him a blow job, a $200 tip, and the phone number to her vacation home in the Bahamas   ) : I gotta sit through some horny guy's fantasy where a truck driver picks up the stranded beauty on the side of the road, gets her a hotel room, marries her, but wait... problems problems.... there's another girl, a married girl, the wife of his rich friend, who is sooooooo nuts about him, she can't live without him - after all, he is the irresistible George Raft - and the poor guy can't just live a peaceful rich life fucking Ann Sheridan, cuz Ida Lupino simply won't stand for it.

The first half, focusing on the life of the truck drivers, is decent; the Lupino jealousy story comes into the picture, it gets excruciating.

5/10

I can't disagree with most of what you're saying. But would the picture actually be better without the Ida Lupino angle? The film seems to really pick up when she starts planning the murder . . .

[drinkanddestroy]

I really surprised myself! But I just couldn't get over how good that Blu-ray transfer looked.

if it looked so good that you wanted to sit through the whole movie, maybe it should be rated higher; isn't the look of a movie part of its rating? Shouldn't anything that makes a movie enjoyable or not enjoyable should be part of the rating? or are you saying it would have gotten a 0/10 without the nice-looking BRD? 

[drinkanddestroy]

I can't disagree with most of what you're saying. But would the picture actually be better without the Ida Lupino angle? The film seems to really pick up when she starts planning the murder . . .

Firstly, I don't think she planned it; it was spontaneous, when he was passed out drunk she saw an opportunity. Anyway, IMO, the moment the Lupino story entered the picture the movie went even further south. It wasn't bad at all during the part that focused on the truckers; in fact, if not for Raft, I'd say that early part was actually enjoyable, definitely not a bad story, one of WB's socially conscious films of that era - until the Lupino angle starts, which IMO is so silly it's like George Raft writing for himself, "I'm a ladies man, the babes love me... but we need some conflict, so... yes, that's it - my wife's boss simply can't LIVE without me, poor me that I can't go off and marry Ann Sheridan in peace..." 

I agree with what you once said: If only George Raft rejected every role he was offered 

And btw, speaking of the lovely Ann Sheridan (who was my girlfriend in a previous life)... If she can't make a movie enjoyable, it must really suck