Rate The Last Movie You Saw

[PowerRR]

Alien
Might be the greatest sci-fi movie ever made. Aside from ship blowing up at the end, the greatest use of special effects ever as well.

Blade Runner
Not nearly as good as I remembered. I also don't understand the overwhelming love for the 'tears in rain' speech.

[moviesceleton]

Prometheus had the best use of 3D I've seen, alongside with Pina. Still I'm not sure if it actually added anything valuable to the experience.

[noodles_leone]

Blade Runner
Not nearly as good as I remembered. I also don't understand the overwhelming love for the 'tears in rain' speech.

That speech tells me pretty much everything I need to know about life and death. And it tells it beautifully.

[noodles_leone]

Prometheus had the best use of 3D I've seen, alongside with Pina. Still I'm not sure if it actually added anything valuable to the experience.

I have not seen Pina but Prometheus uses 3D just like avatar, doesn't it? Which means very little (even more little with Prometheus I think). It's gets you (a bit) more into the universe, and it improves dramatically every kind of CGI (have you ever seen Avatar flat? all the CGI suck), except, maybe, explosions.

[PowerRR]

That speech tells me pretty much everything I need to know about life and death. And it tells it beautifully.

fair enough. it is a great soliloquy, I guess it just doesn't affect me as much as it affects other. I'm just surprised it's so renowned to even have its own Wikipedia page.

I guess the final moments of life of Pvt. Witt in The Thin Red Line (for me) accomplishes similarly and much more powerfully the same thing the Tears in Rain speech states ...and much more... without any use of dialogue.

[moviesceleton]

I have not seen Pina but Prometheus uses 3D just like avatar, doesn't it? Which means very little (even more little with Prometheus I think). It's gets you (a bit) more into the universe, and it improves dramatically every kind of CGI (have you ever seen Avatar flat? all the CGI suck), except, maybe, explosions.

Avatar was also good but it still had stuff thrown at you and things like that. I have not seen it flat and never intend to. The trailer looks awful enough in 2D.

I grant that 3D probably draws you a bit more into the movie (actually, human faces are often the most interesting thing in 3D movies) but the glasses on your nose and the dim image kinda ruin that effect.

Le fond de l'air est rouge / A Grin Without a Cat
Chris Marker's essay film, a fresco, about the socialist movements around the world in the 60s and 70s. I saw the 177 min version assembled in 1993 (the original four-hour cut of the movie premiered in 1977). It's hard to believe but the film really holds you in its grip for the whole three hours. It's not a history lecture or great analysis, but it's a hell of a film. If it even has a message, it has more to do with the concept of history rather than historical events or political left/right. Can't really rate it (roughly 8-9.5/10) but I highly recommend it.   

[cigar joe]

Senso (1954) 6/10

[Groggy]

Dog Day Afternoon - 8/10 - One of the most intense thrillers ever. Lumet wisely focuses on the protagonists, making the robbery and its ludicrous escalation easy to follow. Though this approach undermines Lumet's thematic pretensions re: the media and anti-Establishment backlash, dramatically it's the right play. The ending is a real shocker though I guessed something like it was coming. This is probably Pacino's best performance, and he's surroundeded by an excellent supporting cast: Chris Sarandon, John Cazale, Charles Durning. Keep an eye out for Lance Henriksen.

[stanton]

Only 8 for "One of the most intense thrillers ever" ?

[Groggy]

Yeah.

[drinkanddestroy]

Yeah.

useless fact: I used to pass that area all the time; the bank where this story happened -- the real story, not the filming of the movie --  was at Avenue P and East 3rd street in Brooklyn, a mile from my house, half a mile from where my mom and her parents would have been living at the time. There is a park across the street from the bank, deserted at night, which hosted many a late-nite piss from yours truly during a walk home after a night partying  

maybe I'll take pictures next time I pass that street

[Groggy]

useless fact: I used to pass that area all the time; the bank where this story happened -- the real story, not the filming of the movie --  was at Avenue P and East 3rd street in Brooklyn, a mile from my house, half a mile from where my mom and her parents would have been living at the time. There is a park across the street from the bank, deserted at night, which hosted many a late-nite piss from yours truly during a walk home after a night partying  

maybe I'll take pictures next time I pass that street

Cool, would be interested in seeing them.

[cigar joe]

The Last Gangster (1937) 7/10 pretty good but predictable yarn. Below is an IMDb review:


Unpromising material, but excellent drama, 29 August 2004
Author: mgmax from Chicago
There are a lot of theoretical strikes against this movie-- Robinson playing a Capone lookalike for the zillionth time (right before he switched mainly to playing them for comedy in things like A Slight Case of Murder and Brother Orchid); post-Code MGM instead of pre- Code Warner Bros., which surely means a softer handling of the gangster theme; a no-name director and female co-star, Jimmy Stewart in a thankless good guy role; and, not least, a sort of gangster Sin of Madelon Claudet plot in which Robinson gets to get weepy about not knowing his son while he's in Alcatraz.

And amazingly, it's all handled remarkably freshly-- and toughly, especially from the point where the movie pulls the rug out from under big shot Robinson with a long and realistically bleak prison train sequence. Almost every opportunity to sink into cliche is rethought to find a fresher angle-- instead of the archetypal Warner Bros. tough-guy prison, with the warden acting like a crime boss himself to keep his charges in line, the movie's Alcatraz is a streamlined, impersonal machine for reducing men to numbers, the striking production design as institutionally cold as the manner of the warden. The classic welcome home from the boys (such lovable gangster lugs as Lionel Stander and Edward Brophy) takes a highly unexpected turn-- and keeps turning. Although the scenes where he finally meets his son again are hampered by unrealistic dialogue for the kid, in all this is a strong and thoughtful adult drama which brings emotional realism back to a genre usually riddled with cliches.

[drinkanddestroy]

Cool, would be interested in seeing them.

ok, I will do so next time I'm there.


Wikipedia has this photo of the bank http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:LFChaseP1975.jpg

The building is now a Medical Imaging Center http://www.google.com/maps?q=450+avenue+P+brooklyn,+NY&hl=en&ll=40.609119,-73.970483&spn=0.000474,0.000947&sll=40.60843,-73.976634&sspn=0.008047,0.015149&t=h&hnear=450+Avenue+P,+Brooklyn,+Kings,+New+York+11223&z=20&layer=c&cbll=40.609106,-73.970604&panoid=hZKkJtzRZdunfmFC1D33Qg&cbp=12,190.46,,0,3.31


Looks like it is the same structure and the exterior has not been altered, even has the same parking lot

[drinkanddestroy]

actually, I noticed that the Google Street Images that I posted above (taken on Avenue P) are old, and that more recent images are available on East 3rd Street http://www.google.com/maps?q=450+avenue+P+brooklyn,+NY&hl=en&ll=40.609119,-73.970483&spn=0.000474,0.000947&sll=40.60843,-73.976634&sspn=0.008047,0.015149&t=h&hnear=450+Avenue+P,+Brooklyn,+Kings,+New+York+11223&z=20&layer=c&cbll=40.609106,-73.970604&panoid=hZKkJtzRZdunfmFC1D33Qg&cbp=12,190.46,,0,3.31

(I know that the images from East 3rd street at this link  are later than the one from Avenue P I provided in the previous link because in the previous link, you see a huge building under construction diagonally across the street; in these newer images, you can see that that building is already built).

And as you can see from the newer images, only available as a side view, looks like that building is no longer a medical imaging center, but that it is closed up. (Don't let the graffiti or boarded up building fool you -- this is actually in an insanely pricey neighborhood, real estate is incredibly high).

Anyway, screw these Google images. I am just going to head over there myself and take some up to photos  
Okay, I am heading out the door of my house soon. Sunset is at 8:27 PM so I hope I make it there with some light.

Gonna run now