Rate The Last Movie You Saw

[Moorman]

The Great Silence (1968)  I just watched this. Lets just say that it has pushed into my top 5 western of all time and i'm debating exactly where i wanna put this, even though i got a good idea... 10 out of 10...

[dave jenkins]

Thanks to Criterion, Claude Autant-Lara week continues with:

Le mariage de Chiffon (1942) - 6/10. A very insubstantial bit of whimsy: an ingénue (Odette Joyeux) in turn-of-century France is courted by an older man, who is an army colonel and a duke. But she's actually in love with another older man, one year the duke's junior! I love these sweet stories about old goats getting young girls--so precious! There's also some fun with re-creations of pre-aviation "flying." And an impossibly young Bernard Blier (with hair!) makes a cameo.

[dave jenkins]

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007) - 8/10. I remember when Albert Finney could act. Here he tries to get a performance out of running through scenes with his mouth open. Also, the Carter Burwell score really creeps me out, but I guess that's a good thing.

[noodles_leone]

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007) - 8/10. I remember when Albert Finney could act. Here he tries to get a performance out of running through scenes with his mouth open. Also, the Carter Burwell score really creeps me out, but I guess that's a good thing.

 

Everytime I watch this movie I have trouble breathing for a few hours afterwards just thinking about this open mouth.

[noodles_leone]

3 Billboards 8.5/10
Awesome!!! McDonagh really is the most exciting screenwriter working these days. He's now becoming a very good director too, although he clearly doesn't master the craft the way he masters screenwriting. The acting is perfect (best overall performance of the year). I don't know what happened to Woody Harrelson when he worked with the Coen on No Country, but he's been getting better and better with each project ever since. A couple of small regrets here and there, but I sure hope this is getting every single Oscar it can.

[dave jenkins]

3 Billboards 8.5/10
I don't know what happened to Woody Harrelson when he worked with the Coen on No Country, but he's been getting better and better with each project ever since.

Truer words were never written.

McDonagh is of course a playwright as well as a film guy. He's got something on Broadway even now. I'd expect him to be able to pump out good film scripts from time to time. Check out some of his plays.

[noodles_leone]

McDonagh is of course a playwright as well as a film guy. He's got something on Broadway even now. I'd expect him to be able to pump out good film scripts from time to time. Check out some of his plays.

I didn't know that! I'll check them out, thanks.

[cigar joe]

3 Billboards 8.5/10
Awesome!!! McDonagh really is the most exciting screenwriter working these days. He's now becoming a very good director too, although he clearly doesn't master the craft the way he masters screenwriting. The acting is perfect (best overall performance of the year). I don't know what happened to Woody Harrelson when he worked with the Coen on No Country, but he's been getting better and better with each project ever since. A couple of small regrets here and there, but I sure hope this is getting every single Oscar it can.

 

[drinkanddestroy]

1. Allegheny Uprising (1939) 6/10 http://www.fistful-of-leone.com/forums/index.php?topic=7805.msg193798#msg193798

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2. The FBI Story (1959) 7/10

This is a long movie (146 minutes), and lots of it is the typical stuff of a wife (Vera Miles) whining about her ambitious husband (James Stewart, playing an FBI agent) being away all the time. And this movie is pure FBI propaganda. J. Edgar Hoover makes an appearance here, and the movie had to go through his approval, according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_FBI_Story#Production

The blatant propaganda will irritate many people; I found it pretty amusing. It's a decent movie. Glorious technicolor. It's basically a bunch of episodes, different projects the FBI took on over the years. The final episode involves Communist spies. There's a scene toward the end where agents are tailing a Communist spy to Yankee Stadium. Not much color footage exists of Yankee Stadium in the 50's, but here there is some terrific color footage of the train emerging out of the tunnel to Yankee Stadium, and inside the stadium during a football game.

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3. Miss Sloane (2016) 6.5/10

Jessica Chastain is a ruthless, work-obsessed Capitol Hill lobbyist. Ok. She never sleeps, just takes uppers. She has no time for relationships. Ok. So where does she get her sex? She hires male whores. Yeah. In some male screenwriter's fantasy.

Anyway, she's acting so tough she doesn't seem human, more like a cartoon character.

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4. Bengazi (1955) 5.5/10

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5. Around the World in 80 Days (1956) 7.5/10

This movie has perhaps the largest ever assemblage of an all-star cast – both well-known movie stars and well-known supporting players. Some of these people may appear on the screen very briefly, but the list of recognizable names and faces that appear, however fleetingly in some cases, includes: David Niven, Shirley MacLaine, Charles Boyer, John Carradine, Charles Coburn, Ronald Colman, Noel Coward, Andy Devine, Marlene Dietrich, Trevor Howard, Buster Keaton, Evelyn Keyes, Peter Lorre, Victor McLaglen, Mike Mazurki, Alan Mowbray, George Raft, and more. Full list here http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048960/fullcredits?ref_=tt_cl_sm#cast  Special mention goes to a pretty clever appearance by Frank Sinatra: there's a scene in an American Western saloon. There's a guy pounding the keys on the piano, with his back to the camera at all times. The scene goes on for quite some time, with a number of shots of the guy's back; finally, as the scene is about to end, the player turns around, and it's Ol' Blue Eyes himself.

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[XhcnoirX]

La Mante aka The Mantis (2017): French mini-series starring Carole Bouquet (Bond-girl in 'For Your Eyes Only') as a convicted serial killer who's asked to help her son Fred Testot who's investigating a new serial killer who's copying all of his mother's murders. Interesting premise, and it's got its moments, but the plotholes and overall stupidity of the police force are grating. And Bouquet fails miserably at imitating Anthony Hopkins's Hannibal Lecter. 6-/10

[dave jenkins]

Lettres d'amour (1942) - 6/10. French farce, which can be trying, here executed with a light touch. You will believe actors can dance a quadrille. Also, I think I'm now in love with Odette Joyeux.

[cigar joe]

Murder, Inc. (1960), starring Stuart Whitman, May Britt, Henry Morgan, Peter Falk, Simon Oakland, and Vincent Gardenia was close to a Noir, it had the Dutch angles and some stylistics in enough shots to get that noir tuning fork vibrating. 

[cigar joe]

The Silent Partner (1978) A bank teller Eliot Gould is held up at gun point by a Santa Claus (Christopher Plummer), during the holidays in Toronto. The robbery takes place after a large deposit is made. But he's anticipating the heist because of two things, a discarded withdrawal slip he found earlier with identical capitol "G's" that match a hand drawn sign he spots held by the same Santa Claus, and the fact that the Santa was going to rob the bank right after a large deposit was made by a local business man, but he was foiled in the earlier attempt by a small boy who attracted a lot of attention because wanted to tell Santa his Christmas list.

Because the observant teller knows whats coming he devises a way to steal most of the money for himself while letting Santa get away with a portion.

Its a nice little cat and mouse game once the real thief figures out what happened and wants a cut of the loot. The rest of the cast  Susannah York, Céline Lomez and John Candy. 8/10

[noodles_leone]

7 psychopaths (Martin McDonagh, 2012) - 6.5/10
Second watch. Still very flawed and please stop thinking Colin Farrell can play comedy, but the film has many great qualities.

Loulou (Maurice Pialat, 1980) - 6/10
Pretty boring after a while, but still too fascinating (mainly due to the actors) to stop.

Reservoir Dogs (Quentin Tarantino, 1992) - 9/10
I'm still in love.

The Handmaid Tale (season 1, 2017) - 6.5/10
Interesting, especially in the flashback sequences. Some incredibly powerful scenes (most notably an execution), mostly very good acting although the main actress bothers me (I get it, I get it, they took a good actress instead of a beauty in order to make a feminist statment, which is cool, but then you have to stop treating her like a beauty in the script). The color grade almost made me stop watching it several times.

[dave jenkins]

The Lost City of Z (2017) - 4/10. It's Aguirre The Wrath of God done as an afterschool TV special, with English-speakers in for the krauts. You will believe that Sienna Miller can do an Emma Thompson impression. The film indulges bad faith from start to finish. The downer ending even gets sold as a moment of uplift. National Geographic porn!