Rate The Last Movie You Saw

[drinkanddestroy]

Babette's Feast (1987) 8/10

[cigar joe]

Babette's Feast (1987) 8/10

That's about right if I remember.

[noodles_leone]

500 Days of Summer 3/10
Quite inventive film, filled with good ideas and an interesting art direction, but what a terrible writing! The acting goes from average to laughable.
All in all it looks like a 16 years old wrote about his first love and got acting majors to play it.

[dave jenkins]

So Evil, My Love (1948) - 7/10. Ray Milland plays a schemer who corrupts Ann Todd, a clergyman's widow. Milland is in full-on charming swine mode--not quite at the level of his performance in Dial M For Murder or Alias, Nick Beal--but fun. Ann goes from a little Miss Goody Two Shoes to a double murderer in 2 hours: way to go, Ann!

[noodles_leone]

Abstract - season 1 episodes 1 to 5 - 8/10
I'm approximatively mid season, but this is awesome. This documentary series is about design, each episode focuses on a particular "designer" (a cartoonist, an architect, a set designer, a guy who works for Nike...). The mise en scene and the camerawork always fits the topic, so you're actually watching mini films each time. The filmmakers are usually as inventive as their subjects, so most episodes are quite fascinating and filled with great ideas. I'm not rating it higher because the quality depends on the guy they're interviewing: episodes 2 and 5 are the weakest so far, since they feel too much as Nike and Chrysler commercials.
Watch it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYaq2sWTWAA

[PowerRR]

Abstract - season 1 episodes 1 to 5 - 8/10
I'm approximatively mid season, but this is awesome. This documentary series is about design, each episode focuses on a particular "designer" (a cartoonist, an architect, a set designer, a guy who works for Nike...). The mise en scene and the camerawork always fits the topic, so you're actually watching mini films each time. The filmmakers are usually as inventive as their subjects, so most episodes are quite fascinating and filled with great ideas. I'm not ratig it higher because the quality depeneds on the guy they're interviewing: episodes 2 and 5 are the weakest so far, since they feel too much as Nike and Chrysler commercials.
Watch it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYaq2sWTWAA

watched the first 5 minutes of first two episodes. Really good. Was surprised about how unpretentious they were based on the subject matter

[noodles_leone]

Yeah they're much less pretentious than the trailer.

I watch them on week days, during my lunch. It's a perfect shot of creativity that isn't directly linked with filmmaking: quite inspiring while still giving me a window on another world during my work day.

[dave jenkins]

Victoria episodes 1-3 (2016) - 7/10. Sumptuous gowns and sets . . . characterization is a bit cartoony, though, and the drama is all about rats in Buckingham Palace and whether or not the queen can keep her ladies in waiting when the government changes. Albert finally puts in an appearance at the end of episode 3. But, man, I could watch Jenna Coleman, pouting, napping, looking out the window, et. al., for hours. No way was the historical Victoria that cute.

[noodles_leone]

The Lobster 6/10
Starts out great and drags a lot once they are in the forest. Also, even thematically, I'm a bit lost at that point.

[drinkanddestroy]

That Hamilton Woman (1941) 7.5/10 (TCM)


Vivien Leigh is terrific.

Laurence Olivier I have never been a huge fan of.

I have always liked Alan Mowbray very much.

[noodles_leone]

Kong: Skull Island - IMAX 3D 7/10

Fun fun fun.
Great action sequences.
Great pop-rock atmosphere all the way, from the classic rock soundtrack to the slowmo shots, from the fun pop culture close ups and funny transitions (a monster puts someone in its mouth, sudden cut to a dude eating a sandwich) to the nods to Vietnam war movies.
Cool adventure feel.
Some fun dialogues.
Nice cast apart from the stupid photographer girl.
For your ladies, Tom Hiddleston has never looked that hot.
Cool way to work around classic Hollywood clichés (like brave deaths, bad guys who becomes good in the end...).[/li][/list]

Of course, it's nothing but a brainless Hollywood pop corn flick so it comes with the full package:

Stupid, stupid, stupid characters that take terrible, terrible, terrible decisions all the fucking, fucking, fucking time without the slightest, slightest, slightest beginning of a reason/motivation to do so.
Laughable tries to introduce "emotion" (lol, I mean, really, lol) here and there.
The introductions of the big monsters, including Kong himself (who's fully visible like 2 minutes into the movie) always lack the required the build up.

All in all, it is everything every Marvel movie should be and never is, so count me in for the upcoming Kong vs Gozilla.

Needless to say, don't waste a second of your time watching this Disneyland ride in anything else than IMAX 3D.

[XhcnoirX]

Received the Man With No Name trilogy blu-ray set earlier this week so gave #1 a spin...

A Fistful Of Dollars (1964): Clint Eastwood is a drifter ending up in a small Mexican town controlled by 2 criminal families, who he starts playing against each other. Enjoyed it, but I really wish a 'crack' shot like Ramon would've gone for the (at that range easy) headshot rather than keep aiming for the heart. 7/10

[dave jenkins]

Kong: Skull Island - IMAX 3D 7/10

Fun fun fun.
Great action sequences.
Great pop-rock atmosphere all the way, from the classic rock soundtrack to the slowmo shots, from the fun pop culture close ups and funny transitions (a monster puts someone in its mouth, sudden cut to a dude eating a sandwich) to the nods to Vietnam war movies.
Cool adventure feel.
Some fun dialogues.
Nice cast apart from the stupid photographer girl.
For your ladies, Tom Hiddleston has never looked that hot.
Cool way to work around classic Hollywood clichés (like brave deaths, bad guys who becomes good in the end...).[/li][/list]

Of course, it's nothing but a brainless Hollywood pop corn flick so it comes with the full package:

Stupid, stupid, stupid characters that take terrible, terrible, terrible decisions all the fucking, fucking, fucking time without the slightest, slightest, slightest beginning of a reason/motivation to do so.
Laughable tries to introduce "emotion" (lol, I mean, really, lol) here and there.
The introductions of the big monsters, including Kong himself (who's fully visible like 2 minutes into the movie) always lack the required the build up.

All in all, it is everything every Marvel movie should be and never is, so count me in for the upcoming Kong vs Gozilla.

Needless to say, don't waste a second of your time watching this Disneyland ride in anything else than IMAX 3D.

Not going to see this, but your entertaining review gets a 10/10. I look forward to reading what you have to say about the sequel.

[drinkanddestroy]

I just saw A Very Long Engagement (2004)

Here are two previous comments on it:

A Very Long Engagement - 8/10 - Cleverly mixes elements of a detective story, melodrama and war film with Jeunet's usual stylized imagery. A bit sloppy in the plot department but lots of memorable set-pieces and episodes make up for it. Audrey Tautou is a sweetheart and there's an interesting supporting cast, most notably Jodie Foster.

Jodie Foster is really good in it. As you notice it, the movie's value lies far more in separate interesting pieces than in the whole movie itself. And the fact that Gaspard Ulliel gives one of his worst performances (which says a lot) does not help.
This movie could have reached 8 or 9/10 with a little more work, as it is it's more a 5 to me. Although not a "mediocre" 5: some parts deserve 9, others deserve 1.

I found it to be mostly a crappy movie that exists to show off the fancy cinematography and production design. Some filmmaker took one too many classes on the auteur theory. I give the movie a 5.5/10

The performances are very good. But the story, ugh .... got very boring very quickly. This concept – we're shown something briefly in the beginning; later, someone goes on a quest to find out the truth, and through flashbacks we learn that there is a lot more than what we first saw in the beginning – has been done a million and one ways.

THE REST OF THIS POST WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS, TO THE EXTENT THAT THIS DUMBASS MOVIE CAN BE SPOILED

Of course, there never is any doubt as to whether or not she will find him alive at the end.


The way the movie works it out at the end is I guess a decent way, rather than a simple "alive" or "dead," there is a twist. But how she finds out the answer to what she has been looking for is done stupidly - it's simply the PI telling her, rather than her discovering for herself. Whatever.

I should emphasize that the performances are all very good, particularly Audrey Tatou, Marion Cotillard and Jodie Foster.

For a movie with so many good performances, it's hard to actually be this bad. But yeah, the more I saw that pretty farmhouse and the pretty countryside and the great trenches and war violence and wonderful cinematography, the more irritated I got: Some filmmaker wanted to show off his technical prowess and didn't give a crap at how dumb the plot was, or what feels like two hours of the same thing over and over again. Wonderful technical work, wonderful acting, crappy movie.

[noodles_leone]

While I agree with your rating, I disagree with your theory: Jeunet didn't try to show off his craft, he tried to do Amelie in WW1, with a dark twist. It could have worked, but this kind of films are hard to pull off. The stupid "plot" works like a charm in Amelie. Don't be angry at the filmmakers here, salute the audaciousness.