Rate The Last Movie You Saw

[stanton]

Interesting, though, that you agree The Drowning Pool is the better picture. Not everyone feels that way, apparently.

Yes, I prefer Harper.

[XhcnoirX]

Tom Jones (1963) – 7/10. Tony Richardson adapts Fielding, and it’s pretty funny. Criterion offers two cuts of the film, the theatrical release, and the director’s cut, which is 7 minutes shorter (Richardson trimmed scenes he felt went on too long). Neither version looks all that great, either due to production circumstances (it was a Woodfall film) or the lack of proper element preservation (it was a Woodfall film) or both.

BFI in the UK is releasing an 8-film boxset of Woodfall films, incl Tom Jones. I assume it will use the same master/restoration that Criterion used, but who knows, it might look a bit better...

http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Woodfall-A-Revolution-in-British-Cinema-1959-1965-Blu-ray/198759/

[cigar joe]

Interesting, though, that you agree The Drowning Pool is the better picture. Not everyone feels that way, apparently.

Harper does feels like a TV flick, it's best sequence is the title sequence. Most of the other characters in Harper feel just plugged into the story for nostalgic purposes, the exception is Strother Martin against type.

[dave jenkins]

BFI in the UK is releasing an 8-film boxset of Woodfall films, incl Tom Jones. I assume it will use the same master/restoration that Criterion used, but who knows, it might look a bit better...

http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Woodfall-A-Revolution-in-British-Cinema-1959-1965-Blu-ray/198759/

I'm guessing it will look identical. However, there is a conspicuous horse fall in the picture, a no-no under current British film policy, and there is speculation that it will be edited out (they have done that kind of thing with other pictures). And you really want that horse fall (one of the great unintentional gags in the film). If it has been taken out of the BFI edition, the CC release will be the one to get.

[XhcnoirX]

I'm guessing it will look identical. However, there is a conspicuous horse fall in the picture, a no-no under current British film policy, and there is speculation that it will be edited out (they have done that kind of thing with other pictures). And you really want that horse fall (one of the great unintentional gags in the film). If it has been taken out of the BFI edition, the CC release will be the one to get.

Gotcha... I'm not familiar with the movie myself, but yes, that does sound like something the BBFC frowns upon.

[dave jenkins]

All That Heaven Allows (1955) - 9/10.  Greatest Woman's Picture ever made, partly because of Technicolor, but also for the humor. That gag with the TV pays off really well. Hey, here's one almost no one ever gets: the high-minded soiree hosted by Virginia Grey and her husband? It's really cover for a wife-swapping party! ("I make the flirty eye at you!").

[noodles_leone]

Aliens - 1992 Special Edition 6.5/10

I've seen this movie a lot of times but not in the past few years. It's also the first time I watch this cut, which is described by Cameron himself as the director's cut. Although the guy clearly knows his stuff and provides some of the (rightfully so) most iconic shots of the franchise...



... it's also the most by the book and forgettable film of the 4. The classic 80's plot centered around a testosterone filled squad of space marines aged a lot.

Alien 3 - 2003 Special Edition 7.5/10

David Fincher always refused to have anything to do with the film after the legendary (and almost career ending) disaster the production was, but the team in charge of the SE went into a lot of hard work to release a film close to what the filmmaker intended, at least in postproduction. Once again, it's the first time I see the SE while I've seen the regular version several times (not as much as the other 3, though). It reconciled me with the movie, which features top notch acting, ballsy heroic fantasy inspired aesthetics (emphasized by the use of the soundtrack on wide shots) and for the first time in Alien history, an actual (although not always clear) plot. The VFX are hit and miss.

Alien Resurrection - Theatrical Cut 7/10

We were going to watch the SE cut, but JP Jeunet's introduction made us change our mind: he insists that the theatrical cut is the director's cut and that the longer SE cut is just a longer version intended for curious fans, that include alternative opening, cut scenes and stuff. So we watched the regular cut, that I know pretty well. This is definitely the Alien film where the director is the easiest to spot. Every Alien director hired his regular cast, but this film is full of classic Jeunet, which makes him a bit apart in the Alien mythology. I like the film, although it is clearly the less professionally done of the series. A couple of cheesy scenes,the fact half of the actors play in a ridiculous way (while Alien films had always featured nothing but great acting up to this point) and let's say "weird" character design don't help. Still, the improbable yet successful mix of Jeunet and Alien aesthetics (once again resulting on some powerful imagery) and an inventive plot make it another good entry.

[Kurug3n]

Annihilation - 2/5

It looks good but other than that, it doesn't really do much. The characters are just tropes of what you have seen before & the situation they get into is nothing new and they make sure to do nothing special with it. My only real thought when watching it was seeing the bear creature and wondering how the alien meteor has affected how/what it poops. People seem to be making a big deal by believing that the film has a question worth pondering about but the only answer I got when the credits came up was that Science Fiction in film has reached an all time low if this is the film that people are earnestly attaching themselves to.

[dave jenkins]

Annihilation - 2/5

It looks good but other than that, it doesn't really do much. The characters are just tropes of what you have seen before & the situation they get into is nothing new and they make sure to do nothing special with it. My only real thought when watching it was seeing the bear creature and wondering how the alien meteor has affected how/what it poops. People seem to be making a big deal by believing that the film has a question worth pondering about but the only answer I got when the credits came up was that Science Fiction in film has reached an all time low if this is the film that people are earnestly attaching themselves to.

Yeah, from everything I've heard about this, it sounds like a tepid re-launching of Roadside Picnic (adapted on film as Stalker), with monsters added. Uh, I think I'll pass.

Red Sparrow (2018) - 8/10. I enjoyed this a lot, a spy flick whose plot makes sense and ends on a very up note. I knew I was in good hands when the opening sequence rolled out two separate intercut narratives detailing a fateful night in the lives of the film's two principal characters (who hadn't yet met). Intercutting is nothing new, it goes back to Griffith, but it's nice to see it handled so competently. Also, Jennifer Lawrence is playing a ballerina, and the CGI that renders her face on a dancer's body is superb (You Will Believe that JL Can Pirouette). Perhaps having the mostly Russian roles filled by English speakers doing accents wasn't the best idea--stalwarts Jeremy Irons and Charlotte Rampling lose a bit of credibility here. But the crackerjack plot keeps things humming along so well it is hard to pause over quibbles. This is not a short film by any means--but events fly by so well it seems like one.

[Kurug3n]

Yeah, from everything I've heard about this, it sounds like a tepid re-launching of Roadside Picnic (adapted on film as Stalker), with monsters added. Uh, I think I'll pass.

I haven't read Roadside Picnic but I did get the feeling that this something that reminded me of Stalker but less existentialism and wonder. But seeing the Sicario 2: Soldado trailer on the big screen was pretty great.

[Moorman]

Get Out (2017)  I had to see what the big deal was about with this movie.  Jordan Peele got a lot of accolades for this.  The movie started slow for me.   The point of the plot was drawn out for about half the movie.  About mid way though the film took off and had a great finish.  The simplicity of the action and the tension is what makes this a great film.  The acting of Daniel Kaluuya also helped carry the film.   Peele won the best original screenplay Oscar.  Its worth a look.   8 out of 10...

[cigar joe]

Blackthorn - Mateo Gil, 2011

A western shot in Bolivia by a Spanish director, who earned some fame by writing several screenplays with and for Alejandro Amenable (Tesis ; Obre los ojos and its remake Vanilla Sky; Mar adentro and others). Blackthorn is the name under which Butch Cassidy, who apparently here wasn't shot back in 1908, lives in Bolivia since then. The film is set in 1927 when Cassidy wants to return to the states. But a Spanish mine engineer and his robbed money involves him in another adventure which also brings some memories back on his days with Sundance Kid and Etta Place.

It is one of those more realistic feeling modern westerns like Appaloosa, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford or The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, which don't point the western in a new direction, but which walk on a viable path to visit the genre without relying on the past.
Blackthorn is a fine film, and Sam Shepard gives the old Cassidy the earthed enough presence to contrast the him surrounding myth. The long chase and fight in the salt desert is one of the best western scenes since the 70s. 8/10

This is, hands down, one of the best Westerns, albeit actually a "Southern American" Western , of this century. It has what Tarrantino Westerns lack and that is breathtaking landscapes, it fits perfectly in the same time period as The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre, The Good The Bad The Weird, and the "Northern" Death Hunt. Agree. 8/10 Just watched it and a purchase is immanent.

[cigar joe]

Blackthorn (2011)

This is what I said about the film 2 years ago:I pretty much stand by what I wrote, but I'm thinking I scored it rather low. We don't get that many competently handled Westerns, and the crossing of the salt flats is, as you say, pretty well done. OK, I'll raise it to a "7". If it weren't for Shepard's singing, I might have even gone higher.

The locations were excellent, this captured continually the essence of the Western. Again, it fits the same end frontier period of time as The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre, The Good The Bad The Wierd, Death Hunt. I'm going an 8/10 maybe even higher on repeated viewings. Bravo

[dave jenkins]

Quai Des Orfevres (1947) - 9/10. Gets better every time I see it. Blier is, of course, inspired casting, but Jouvet is some kind of miracle. And Clouzot's direction was never better: he can do noir-like despair in one scene (the suicide attempt), then immediately follow it up with a pratfall (the journalists chasing Jouvet down the stairs--was that planned, or a lucky take?). Can't say I like the music much, though.

[stanton]

Quai Des Orfevres (1947) - 9/10. Gets better every time I see it. Blier is, of course, inspired casting, but Jouvet is some kind of miracle. And Clouzot's direction was never better:

Yes, and a lot better than Les Diaboliques and The Wages of Fear. And every other later Clouzot film.