Rate The Last Movie You Saw

[Groggy]

Watched the first two episodes of ESPN's new documentary series, O.J.: Made in America this morning. Really great so far.

[PowerRR]

One Wonderful Sunday (1947) - 7.25/10
Very good, light (and sometimes heavy) Kurosawa flick - but I'd say it loses at least a whole point for the amphitheater scene. Phew, people think the wedding in The Deer Hunter is too long? This must have lasted 20% of the movie. It was effective for a while...but come on.... move along.

[drinkanddestroy]

I just saw KILLING THEM SOFTLY.

A damn fine movie, I even liked the "soundtrack" of the political speeches; then the whole movie gets flushed down the toilet with Brad Pitt's dumb speech at the end. This is a very good crime movie and if I ever re-watch it, press END before the last speech.

Like some idiot took The Godfather's "metaphor for American capitalism" just a tad too literally. This is a damn good movie, they basically coulda kept it exactly as is and just cut out the last speech.

Terrific performances up and down.

I'm just upset that they didn't include Bush's speech with his idiotic excuse for the Wall Street bailout: "I abandoned free-market principles to save the free market." I was waiting for that one!

HOPE & CHANGE!

[Groggy]

The Kremlin Letter - 6/10 - 2nd viewing. Liked it a lot more the first time. Many plot strands and characters to keep track of, but what to end? Just a long, muddled, violent exercise in cynicism, redeemed by an excellent cast.

[noodles_leone]

The Neon Demon 7/10
More accessible than Only God Forgives but without more substance.
It's captivating and always surprising although I was almost never 100% in it.
Gorgeous, presumptuous, empty and cool cool cool.
The worst part are the dialogues, which are always based on good ideas but poorly written, like a first draft.
Neo is great. For the very first time.
Watch it in theater or don't bother and if you're DJ don't bother anyway.
I'll buy the BD.

[Groggy]

Tap Roots - 7/10 - Van Heflin and Ward Bond organize resistance to the Confederacy in Civil War era Mississippi. Romantic entanglements with Susan Hayward (as Bond's daughter) and some Confederate douchebag. Boris Karloff plays an Indian medicine man, complete with brown face and English accent. Based on a James H. Street novel, inspired by the Free State of Jones.

[dave jenkins]

The Neon Demon 7/10
Watch it in theater or don't bother and if you're DJ don't bother anyway.

Taking you at your word.

[Groggy]

The Birthday Party - 7.5/10 - William Friedkin does his best handling Harold Pinter's bizarre play about a washed-up musician (Robert Shaw) driven mad by two menacing visitors. Cinematic enough thanks to Friedkin's pounding, claustrophobic direction, but this kind of play (with characters speaking in veiled, cryptic threats) doesn't translate well to film.

[Groggy]

The Luck of Ginger Coffey - 7/10 - Early Irvin Kershner film with Robert Shaw as an Irish immigrant to Canada struggling to find work. Downbeat and dreary, like a British kitchen sink film transplanted to Montreal, but well-written and acted.

[Groggy]

Custer of the West - 3/10 - Garbage Little Bighorn story fails on every front. Constantly looks cheap despite its Cinemascope photography, is less accurate than They Died With Their Boots On, has a stilted script and lousy acting, starting with the egregiously miscast Robert Shaw. Some decent action scenes but you have to wade through mountains of shit to find them.

[drinkanddestroy]

TCM has been showing a bunch of Billy Wilder movies lately. I saw Sunset Blvd. and Stalag 17 over the weekend. (I think it's my third viewing of each film.)

Stalag 17 is nearly a perfect movie, it gets a 10/10. I'm a little down on Sunset Blvd. though; I think that both Swanson's performance and the script could have been toned down a little. I'd rather that Norma Desmond wasn't THAT crazy, it would have made for a lot more believable story, if she would have just been a little less nuts. Also, the script, Holden keeps telling us stuff we already know, there's no subtlety. Again and again, stuff like "she's waving to a parade that had already passed her by ..." Very good movie, but a little over the top.

[PowerRR]

Watership Down (1978) - 6.5/10
I liked the blood.

[dave jenkins]

I'm a little down on Sunset Blvd. though; I think that both Swanson's performance and the script could have been toned down a little. I'd rather that Norma Desmond wasn't THAT crazy, it would have made for a lot more believable story, if she would have just been a little less nuts.

Why does the story have to be believable? If Swanson were a vampire, would her performance need toning down? I don't remember anyone ever complaining that Lugosi played Dracula too over-the-top. What's that? Swanson isn't a vampire? Sez you, numbnuts!

[dave jenkins]

She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949) - 9/10. John Ford's love letter to the profession of arms. Refreshingly, the film favors a meandering narrative over the conventions of drama (e.g. all action does not build to a single climax). This allows Ford to explore the work-a-day-world of professional soldiering whilst dispensing with the usual story elements enjoyed by children and retards. Naturally Ford wishes to honor the men who fought WWII, and there are occasionally anachronistic touches (A fort bar operating during duty hours?), but attention to the details of Indian fighting circa 1876 is often scrupulously observed. One thing I noticed on this viewing is the many times the troop mascot races along with the horse soldiers--like something a painter might have observed; also, I was gratified to see the men on patrol routinely walking their mounts as per SOP; another great thing is the use made of bugle calls. I did a little bit of bugling in Boy Scouts myself--I even got the merit badge--and I remember having to learn a lot of the calls. It wasn't always clear to me what the purpose of every call was. When, for example, was "Officer's Call" used? The picture gives us an answer: when the commander wants his officers--and only his officers--to leave the troop and join him on point.

Ford goes wrong when he decides to throw in the occasional "humorous" scene; Victor McLaglen's donnybrook in the bar is an egregious case (and the reason I can't give this film a "10"). Also, Ford's taste in music is insipid--we get the tiresome title theme again and again ("Hey, this approach worked so well in My Darling Clementine") and too rarely a jaunty air such as "Garryowen" (the march tune of the 7th Cavalry). But these cavils do not spoil things for me. And then there's the glorious Technicolor, rendered so well on the new Warner disc in 1080p. Break out the sunglasses! Finally, it's wonderful to have an entertaining film where irony is almost non-existent and cynicism is zero. It's amazing that, once upon a time, such a film could be made.

[drinkanddestroy]

Finally, it's wonderful to have an entertaining film where irony is almost non-existent and cynicism is zero. It's amazing that, once upon a time, such a film could be made.

What about American Sniper?