Rate The Last Movie You Saw

[drinkanddestroy]

Manchester by the Sea - 9/10
Maybe my favorite film of the year

I have read lots of glowing reviews of this movie. But for me it is a 7/10.

Best thing about it is terrific performances.

The plot of a death in the family forcing someone to go back home and deal with a past he has tried to forget, is one that has been done a million times. But anyway, this movie IMO is decent not great.

[Kurug3n]

No never knew there was a book.

Based on the novel No Beast So Fierce by Eddie Bunker. Who became the youngest prisoner to grace San Quentin in 1951. He has a cameo as Dembo's buddy in the bar. Best know for playing Mr. Blue in Reservoir Dogs as well doing some some writing for the movie, Runaway Train.

[PowerRR]

I have read lots of glowing reviews of this movie. But for me it is a 7/10.

Best thing about it is terrific performances.

The plot of a death in the family forcing someone to go back home and deal with a past he has tried to forget, is one that has been done a million times. But anyway, this movie IMO is decent not great.

I loved it - been thinking about it all weekend and for the first time in a while, it's a movie I have the urge to watch again as soon as possible.

No, the plot isn't completely original... but nothing is. If you simplify any film's plot enough, you can say its been done before. It's the execution that makes things different.

Boyhood and The Tree of Life are both movies about a kid growing up and developing under the guidance of two differing parents. Yet obviously as a whole, the two are barely comparable. Manchester by the Sea has certainly been done before, but it doesn't feel like its been done before to me. Atmospherically it feels  unique as its own, with a realism in acting and dialogue that isn't often matched in film.

that being said, I'd say a 7 is a perfectly reasonable score. but for me it's my perfect kind of movie.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story - 6/10
My least favorite of the good Star Wars movies. Worth checking out for fans, otherwise skip. They did do an excellent job of putting it in the Star Wars universe while straying away from the style of the main series, making it feel  both separate and connected at the same time

[noodles_leone]

THE ARRIVAL (spoilers)

Nice.

SPOILERS:

I didn't care too much for the twist of how everything that was perceived to be in the past was actually the future. From a film making standpoint it felt like Villeneueve (or really the writer/editor?) was cheating emotions / tricking the audience in a way that annoyed me in hindsight. It also felt too random to me that just by learning the language, Amy Adams could see into the future. It felt like some rule that was just kind of thrown in for the sake of making a twist work - where the core message of the movie all along was really about emphasizing the importance of communication in the world. In other words, it felt like a really real movie to me that was stamped with a sci-fi twist last minute. Your thoughts on that?

Amy Adams though...is there any working actress better than her?

Hum, the flashback/forward thing fully worked on me so I won't complain. The real test will be the second viewing of the film. I highly suspect it all works much better once you "know", but I'll see.

About language changing the way your brain works: it's a famous theory among linguists and neurologists. They just push this a tad further for the plot twist.

[noodles_leone]

Star Wars : Rogue One 7/10

It isn't a good movie, but it's definitely a good Star Wars.

The dialogues and music are terrible, the plot isn't good (while not half as terrible as was the one from last year), the actors, including the good ones, are bad (could someone forbid Ghost Dog to play in a movie ever again so that we're still believing in his acting skills?), the 3D is among the worst I have seen.

The background and the visuals are top notch. The darker atmosphere suits Star Wars much better than the Disneyised version. It features the best action sequences of the whole franchise (something like 30% of the running time, so it as a real impact on my rating) as well as some great scenes (including one of Darth Vader's top 3 moments ever). It's full of adventure, it's real Star Wars, it's cool.

Apart from an inability to direct actors, all the flaws are certainly due to the marketing team behind the movie. The creative team did its job.

[dave jenkins]

BTW, Kerr at the time was 40: I'd say perfect age for the role.

There were no 40-year-old governesses in Victorian England getting a first posting EVER. In James the character was 20.

The Dino Risi Retro at MoMA has begun!
Una vita difficile / A Difficult Life (1961) - 7/10. As I watched this I was frequently annoyed with the Sordi character--what a loser! And he's got Lea Massari, and he just throws her away--twice! Sometimes Sordi is funny, but a lot of times he's just pathetic and Risi doesn't cut away early enough. Plus all the references to Italian history is of no interest to anyone here in the Anglo-sphere. But I found myself reflecting on the film later and actually laughing at things I remembered, so it's go something. The bit actors are very good.

[titoli]

There were no 40-year-old governesses in Victorian England getting a first posting EVER. In James the character was 20.

If she was cast that means that few knew about that age limit or cared about it. On the other hand, a 20 year old, good looking girl can hardly suffer credibly from those "ghost" suggestions.

[titoli]

Una vita difficile / A Difficult Life (1961) - 7/10. As I watched this I was frequently annoyed with the Sordi character--what a loser! And he's got Lea Massari, and he just throws her away--twice! Sometimes Sordi is funny, but a lot of times he's just pathetic and Risi doesn't cut away early enough. Plus all the references to Italian history is of no interest to anyone here in the Anglo-sphere. But I found myself reflecting on the film later and actually laughing at things I remembered, so it's go something. The bit actors are very good.

Risi didn't like (like me and, I presume, everybody else) the finale: terrible. I don't like some other parts, like the pro-monarchy dinner, terrible schematic scene. And it can be an advantage not knowing much about italian history: so the didascalism of some dialogues  may pass you by. It could have been much better, but they wanted to show Sordi always on the right side and that was not a very smart move.  Especially as Sordi is at his best when he's on the wrong one. Well, almost. On another movie dealing with a particular moment of italian history, Tutti a casa, he's great. But, again, I don't like the finale.

[dave jenkins]

It could have been much better, but they wanted to show Sordi always on the right side and that was not a very smart move.  Especially as Sordi is at his best when he's on the wrong one.

Yup.

[dave jenkins]

Went down for more Dino Risi at MoMA, ended up seeing a Pietro Germi film instead. Go figure!

Un maledetto imbroglio / The Facts of Murder (1959) - 7/10. A whodunit with a lot of laughs, with the film's director playing the lead detective. As the plot is rather complicated, I defer to the IMDb synopsis: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053039/ Lots of red herrings, which obscure--for a time--what turns out to be an obvious and not-very-satisfying solution. Great seeing another screen appearance of La Cardinale, of course.

Now, I'll try to get back to Mr. Risi . . . .

[titoli]

Went down for more Dino Risi at MoMA, ended up seeing a Pietro Germi film instead. Go figure!

Un maledetto imbroglio / The Facts of Murder (1959) - 7/10. A whodunit with a lot of laughs, with the film's director playing the lead detective. As the plot is rather complicated, I defer to the IMDb synopsis: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053039/ Lots of red herrings, which obscure--for a time--what turns out to be an obvious and not-very-satisfying solution. Great seeing another screen appearance of La Cardinale, of course.

Now, I'll try to get back to Mr. Risi . . . .

The "problem" with the novel on which the movie was based was that it didn't have a solution. So it was for the movie that a guilty party had to be devised. The novel was written by one of the most important italian writers of past century and made use of the whodunit just a a starting point but it had other aims in view. In fact few people can say to have read it at all (I read it twice but painfully).

[dave jenkins]

The "problem" with the novel on which the movie was based was that it didn't have a solution. So it was for the movie that a guilty party had to be devised. The novel was written by one of the most important italian writers of past century and made use of the whodunit just a a starting point but it had other aims in view. In fact few people can say to have read it at all (I read it twice but painfully).

Wow, thanks! Now I'm thinking this needs to be remade, and more in line with the author's original intentions. Audiences today can more readily accept a whodunit without a solution.

Well, I gave Dino at MoMA a couple more tries but was disappointed.

Venice, the Moon, and You (1958) - 3/10. Sordi as a gondolier? The picture-postcard views of Venice are nice, I guess. But the standard sit-com plot is unendurable. In fact I didn't endure--at the half-way point I fled the theater, went to Barney's and looked at the new Zegna neckties. Then I rushed back in order to see . . . .

The Widower (1969) - 5/10. Great premise: Sordi wants his rich wife dead. Not such a good execution, though. A single gag gets milked and milked, for a very predictable pay-off. Rarely have I been so bored.

Well, I'm giving up on Risi. There are probably some decent films on offer next week, but I'll be out of town for the holidays.

[titoli]

Well, I gave Dino at MoMA a couple more tries but was disappointed.

Venice, the Moon, and You (1958) - 3/10. Sordi as a gondolier? The picture-postcard views of Venice are nice, I guess. But the standard sit-com plot is unendurable. In fact I didn't endure--at the half-way point I fled the theater, went to Barney's and looked at the new Zegna neckties. Then I rushed back in order to see . . . .

I never saw it myself. I.e. I voluntarily missed the hundred occasions I had to watch it.

The Widower (1969) - 5/10. Great premise: Sordi wants his rich wife dead. Not such a good execution, though. A single gag gets milked and milked, for a very predictable pay-off. Rarely have I been so bored.

In fact I had warned you that the movie was strictly for italians: what is funny is the clash between Sordi's roman accent (meaning immediately: nogooder, job shirker, incompetent and what else) with Valeri's milanese one (efficiency, workaholic and so on). The way she calls him"Cretinetti" is memorable.All of it lost on strangers, of course. A pity you're missing the best ones.

[noodles_leone]

Gremlins - 6/10

Say what you want, Home Alone 2 : Lost in New York is Columbus' masterpiece.

[stanton]

Gremlins - 6/10

Say what you want, Home Alone 2 : Lost in New York is Columbus' masterpiece.

Gremlins is not from Columbus (the one with the egg?)