Rate The Last Movie You Saw

[drinkanddestroy]

TCM is showing 75 WWII movies, on Thursdays in May and June, in honor of the 75th anniversary of D-Day. I DVR'd some and working my way through them

The Longest Day (second viewing) (1962) 7/10 further discussion here http://www.fistful-of-leone.com/forums/index.php?topic=11704.msg198331#msg198331

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A Bridge Too Far (1977) 7.5/10

Ryan O'Neal is one of the worst generals I've seen in my life; his dialogue sounds awful - it may be dubbed in.

[dave jenkins]

Lost Highway  (1997) – 7/10. I had never seen this and there was a new blu-ray released so I got a copy and took it for a spin. As Lynch films go, it isn’t bad. It’s utterly incoherent, but it carries a lot of visual interest. That interest lies primarily with Patricia Arquette’s tits, but there’s another actress in this who also takes her top off, and there’s even a scene with Arquette where you get to see her naked ass (albeit from a distance). So it gets at least five points just for nudity. Weirdness accounts for the other points. Speaking of which, if this film wasn’t weird enough, it’s gotten stranger since the time of its release. In particular, Robert Blake hadn’t actually killed anyone in real life when he assayed the role of a killer here. Now that he’s a murderer in fact it’s necessary to look at his role and performance in LH in a whole new light. I guess it adds to the sense of dread and the nightmare quality of the piece.

The new blu looks very good. There were some anticipatory scare comments on the web that almost put me off getting it, but I took a chance. The reviewer at blu-ray.com was similarly daunted, similarly reckless, and similarly pleased.

If Lost Highway happens to be one of your favorite films, I would recommend that you completely ignore all the drama that social media has fueled in recent days, and only then make an intelligent decision that determines whether you should acquire Kino Lorber's new release. I have only one other release of this lovely film in my library, which a French label produced almost a decade ago (and the master that was used to source it is actually even older). I think that this new release represents a huge upgrade in quality, and for the time being offers the most convincing technical presentation of the film on the home video market. (For what it's worth, our site did not get a screener to offer a review. I purchased this disc on my own because I hoped that it will turn out to be a solid upgrade. It absolutely did). HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Lost-Highway-Blu-ray/79184/#Review

[cigar joe]

Lost Highway  (1997) – 7/10. I had never seen this and there was a new blu-ray released so I got a copy and took it for a spin. As Lynch films go, it isn’t bad. It’s utterly incoherent, but it carries a lot of visual interest. That interest lies primarily with Patricia Arquette’s tits, but there’s another actress in this who also takes her top off, and there’s even a scene with Arquette where you get to see her naked ass (albeit from a distance). So it gets at least five points just for nudity. Weirdness accounts for the other points. Speaking of which, if this film wasn’t weird enough, it’s gotten stranger since the time of its release. In particular, Robert Blake hadn’t actually killed anyone in real life when he assayed the role of a killer here. Now that he’s a murderer in fact it’s necessary to look at his role and performance in LH in a whole new light. I guess it adds to the sense of dread and the nightmare quality of the piece.

The new blu looks very good. There were some anticipatory scare comments on the web that almost put me off getting it, but I took a chance. The reviewer at blu-ray.com was similarly daunted, similarly reckless, and similarly pleased.https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Lost-Highway-Blu-ray/79184/#Review

Is this the R2 blu?

[noodles_leone]

Lost Highway  (1997) – 7/10. I had never seen this and there was a new blu-ray released so I got a copy and took it for a spin. As Lynch films go, it isn’t bad. It’s utterly incoherent, but it carries a lot of visual interest. That interest lies primarily with Patricia Arquette’s tits, but there’s another actress in this who also takes her top off, and there’s even a scene with Arquette where you get to see her naked ass (albeit from a distance). So it gets at least five points just for nudity. Weirdness accounts for the other points. Speaking of which, if this film wasn’t weird enough, it’s gotten stranger since the time of its release. In particular, Robert Blake hadn’t actually killed anyone in real life when he assayed the role of a killer here. Now that he’s a murderer in fact it’s necessary to look at his role and performance in LH in a whole new light. I guess it adds to the sense of dread and the nightmare quality of the piece.

The new blu looks very good. There were some anticipatory scare comments on the web that almost put me off getting it, but I took a chance. The reviewer at blu-ray.com was similarly daunted, similarly reckless, and similarly pleased.https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Lost-Highway-Blu-ray/79184/#Review

What's incoherent? I could understand "uninteresting", but it's pretty damn coherent once you "get" it. If you've "understood" Mullholand Drive, it's easy to get: it's exactly the same thing, only less mainstream (and better, although, I know, no lesbian scene can be spotted here).

As often with Lynch films, even for those who are bored by the whole mystery thing, it carries way more than just visual interest: it contains several utterly cinematic gems. The phone scene with Robert Blake is incredible. The road rage one is almost as good as a top notch Coen brothers scene (the cops scene at the begining isn't far from the cops scenes in Barton Fink, by the way). Apart from very strong individual scenes (which is the way Lynch writes, by the way: he thinks of strong scenes and then loosely ties them together. The themes of the movie are also a stronger tie than the "plot"), it's filled with genius ideas, like the tapes at the begining, the switch in jail and many others.

The film is now aging (although the B movie from the 90's aesthetics is now starting to give it a great looking patina) and Lynch got more precise (also very redundant) with Mullholand Drive, but Lost Highway is still my favorite film of his. The main flaw is Bill Pullman, of course, who took Lynch's directions way too seriously.

[cigar joe]

...Lost Highway is still my favorite film of his.

Me too, and I like Pullman. BTW have you seen Zero Effect with Pullman, Ben Stiller and Kim Dickens?

[noodles_leone]

Me too, and I like Pullman. BTW have you seen Zero Effect with Pullman, Ben Stiller and Kim Dickens?

Never even heard of it I think. I just saw a trailer...

[cigar joe]

Never even heard of it I think. I just saw a trailer...

Its a Sherlock Holmes-isan update detective story with Pullman playing the detective and Stiller the Dr. Watson role. My wife loves it.

BTW are you coming back to NYC anytime soon?

[cigar joe]

Stan and Ollie - Amazing recreation of comedy team Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. 10/10

[noodles_leone]

Its a Sherlock Holmes-isan update detective story with Pullman playing the detective and Stiller the Dr. Watson role. My wife loves it.

BTW are you coming back to NYC anytime soon?

My girlfriend was in NYC 2 weeks ago, for work. We may or may or may not come back later this year to work out some details... but we’re definitely moving there next year. Maybe even first semester.

[drinkanddestroy]

My girlfriend was in NYC 2 weeks ago, for work. We may or may or may not come back later this year to work out some details... but we’re definitely moving there next year. Maybe even first semester.

!!!!!!!!!! 

[dave jenkins]

Hour of the Wolf (1968) - 7/10. On a remote Scandinavian island, Liv Ullman watches as her artist husband (Max von Sydow) slowly cracks up.  Soon memory, imagination, dream, and fantasy merge: all beautifully photographed in b&w by Sven Nykvist. I'm gonna make a wild conjecture and say David Lynch has seen this film a few times. There's an actor in this who could be the forerunner of Robert Blake's Mystery Man; there's even a scene where the character applies make-up to von Sydow, as if to ensure a smooth succession. I guess Lynch's contribution to the genre is to hold out the possibility that weird shit can happen even to the un-sane.

[PowerRR]

Midsommar (2019) - 4 and 9

The story and characters are irredeemably bad / weak.

The technical merits are astounding, especially: pacing, cinematography, sound design. Some very good performances, some very weak ones.

It's also quite funny.

Taking the best parts of Hereditary and merging them with the best parts of Midsommar = one of the best horror films ever made.

There's so much I want to really, really love about Midsommar but I can't get past the basic flaws.

I really just wanna know what n_l has to say

[stanton]

Hour of the Wolf (1968) - 7/10.

For me this is a fascinating masterpiece, and Bergman's best film. A true 10er.

And after a recent re-watch Persona is close, and his 2nd 10er.

[noodles_leone]

Midsommar (2019) - 4 and 9

The story and characters are irredeemably bad / weak.

The technical merits are astounding, especially: pacing, cinematography, sound design. Some very good performances, some very weak ones.

It's also quite funny.

Taking the best parts of Hereditary and merging them with the best parts of Midsommar = one of the best horror films ever made.

There's so much I want to really, really love about Midsommar but I can't get past the basic flaws.

I really just wanna know what n_l has to say

Hmmmmm this is disappointing. It will be release at the end of the month here I think.

[PowerRR]

Hmmmmm this is disappointing. It will be release at the end of the month here I think.

No worries, we could have entirely different opinions. I'd still worth checking out... you might think it's a masterpiece. Or like me, you might think it's garbage. You did like Hereditary much more than me if I recall.

I think Song to Song is a masterpiece so who am I to trust?