Rate The Last Movie You Saw

[Groggy]

Titoli liked that one right?

[drinkanddestroy]

Witness for the Prosecution (1957) - 5 to 6 out of 10

I still remember how impressed I was when I first saw this. I must have been 12 or something. Now I just wish I never watched it again.

It's draggy, unimaginative and annoyingly silly, most of the time, while the ending is just embarrassing. Is there anyone that actually bought it? I hope not.

I only saw it once and enjoyed it, but it's the kind of movie I assume can only be really enjoyed once; the movie rests on a plot that surprises, once you know who dun it and there are no surprises anymore, there's probably no fun in watching

[Groggy]

Zero Dark Thirty - 8/10 - An impressively detailed thriller about the manhunt for Osama Bin Laden. I believe this project was in production before Abbotabad; that film might have been a spy version of Zodiac, with Jessica Chastain's CIA analyst obsessed with an uncatchable target. Indeed, the final SEAL raid plays almost like a standalone set piece tacked onto the existing script. (But what a set piece!) Even so it's a compelling mix of spy film and character study, absorbing from the very first frame. Most commendably, Bigelow avoids editorializing on hot button issues (torture etc.), allowing events to speak for themselves. Chastain is incredible: smart, single-minded, self-confident but worn down by her obsession. Good character roles for Jason Clarke, Mark Strong and James Gandolfini among others. Highly recommended.

[PowerRR]

Moonrise Kingdom - 7/10
Was a truly great film on my first viewing, but on repeat viewings I've come to realize how annoying and distracting Wes Anderson's overly quirky style is. If he could tone down is absurdity to the way it was for Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, or even Royal Tenenbaums - this could be brilliant.

A Prairie Home Companion - 8/10
A perfect 'farewell letter' from the world's greatest dead filmmaker, Robert Altman. It has it's faults here and there but it's thematically brilliant for a legend like Altman to go out with.

Combination of wisdom teeth extraction and college still being out for winter break has lead to me watching a sickeningly high number of movies.

[drinkanddestroy]

Bob le Flambeur 8/10

THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS

IMO the narration is completely unnecessary here; and unnecessary narration reduces some of the tension and drama. Just like any other element in a movie, narration is something that should have a real purpose, when done right it can be great, but when used poorly it can suck, if not ruin a movie. It certainly does not ruin this movie, but at the very least is adds nothing at all; there is almost no information that the narrator tells us that couldn't have been "told" to us by watching the movie.

so, eg. when, on the morning of the heist, Bob starts gambling and winning, it's certainly a great moment: (the viewer is thinking "he's winning big, maybe he'll just ditch the heist, etc.?") and when the narrator cuts in with some completely needless statements, it just ruins a lot of the tension. As a viewer, I feel tension from watching a tense situation; I do not feel any tension from hearing some voice-over tell me something.

This is a very good movie, but the narration is my one criticism.

btw, for those of you who like pointing out movie "mistakes": on the night that Paolo goes to kill Marc (I don't remember if it's just before or just after he's shot him), there's one shot of Paolo walking through the streets, and you clearly see on the side of the image that there is a huge crowd of people standing around and just watching him; there's nothing in the movie to justify it; it's obvious that they just show this movie on some big street, and a crowd gathered to watch

[Groggy]

Sapphire - 8/10 - A mixed race girl is murdered in London. Police find a plethora of suspects and unhelpful witnesses obfuscating their investigation. Basil Dearden's first foray into socially relevant film making holds up surprisingly well. Dearden does provide irritating position speeches: Nigel Patrick's detective explaining to his partner why racism is bad comes off about as well as Crossfire's lecture on anti-Semitism. But the central mystery is interesting enough that the film holds up as a whodunnit, its characters mostly free of stereotyping or easy strawmen.

[PowerRR]

Killing Them Softly - 1/5
Dull characterization, awful dialogue, overly blatant political message (at least it's aware of its blatancy. It's not at all trying to be subtle, but still annoying). A piss poor followup to Dominick's masterpiece Assassination of Jesse James. Also, happy songs as antithesis to violent scenes isn't stylistic anymore - it just screams "i'm a film school fucking faggot". I can't count how many times this was pulled in KTS.

[drinkanddestroy]

Just saw I Died A Thousand Times (1955) Fourteen years after having major success with High Sierra, the movie that made Bogie a star, Warner Brothers does a remake, in CinemaScope and Warner Color, with Jack Palance and Shelley Winters, with Earl Holliman and Lee Marvin playing the two younger criminals. (The Marvin character is supposed to be scared of Holliman; are you fucking kidding me? Lee Marvin scared of Earl Holliman? Please) Holliman is awful as usual.

This movie made me laugh from just how ridiculous the concept is. The second half gets better than the first, after the casino robbery I actually began really enjoying the movie  (maybe cuz by then I was over the shock of realizing they were remaking the Bogie movie, or maybe just cuz Holliman and Marvin are out of the way). Shelly Winters, I don't know how she ever had a job in Hollywood, let alone major starring role after major starring role; she is painful to watch.

This one gets no more than a 6/10; it only gets that high on the strength of the later scenes.

The only think I enjoyed in the first half of the movie: Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez, who also plays the Mexican in Rio Bravo

I noticed several times when the camera pans, the image takes on a certain "circular" look; I guess that is an effect of the anamorphic lens?

From this era, you don't see many crime movies in color, I think most of the heist/gangster movies in 1955 were still in black and white. So it's interesting to see the color footage from the era. eg. the gas station, with the red and yellow pumps, I don't think I have ever seen that before. The town, from where Roy Earle makes his escape to the mountains, is a beautiful town right in the shadow of those mountains (what range is that? -- it's NOT the Sierras)

And there is a great car chase at the end

[PowerRR]

Beasts of the Southern Wild - 7.5/10
I liked it

Heaven's Gate - 8/10
A flawed epic. Incredibly huge in scale but lacking in depth due to some pretty dull characters and a mundane romance. I'm a sucker for amazing visuals, and this film has some of the best - so my rating's probably a bit higher than it should be. Regardless, it's a highly underrated epic tarnished by it's financial history. It's a pretty good movie about a generally dull guy who never really finds love and then dies at some point in history.

[drinkanddestroy]

The Big Knife (1955) 9/10

this movie has the greatest Jack Palance performance I've seen yet. Ida Lupino is incredible as well. Rod Steiger is hilariously awesome as a bleach-blonde nutjob of a Hollywood studio chief

[dave jenkins]

Just saw I Died A Thousand Deaths (1955)

Isn't it actually called I Died A Thousand Times?

[dave jenkins]

The Big Knife (1955) 9/10

Revival of the play coming to Broadway soon.

[cigar joe]

The Great Silence aka Il grande silenzio (1968).  

Had to climb the roof today 18°F Wind: West at 15 mph, snow on the ground, to clean the cap of the wood stove chimney.  First a ladder up two stories (anchoring the ladder to the icy deck by a wooden cleat),  then up the ladder to some more wooden cleats I anchored to the shingles running along edge of the roof that I scrambled up to the peak. I straddled the peak and unscrewed the band that clamped it down to the stove pipe and scraped out the creasote buildup then replaced the cap, fun huh? My hands were freezing and numb by the time I climbed down.

Just the kind of day to come inside, build up the fire in the wood stove (that now works), and pop in The Great Silence. If you just tone down your overly inquisitive brain, and watch it's style and images of the barren snow bound wilderness of 1898 Snow Hill play out, you'll better enjoy the the sightly off kilter Neo Noir Western world that Corbucci creates.

<spoilers>

Of the two stars Kinsky and Trintignant,  Kinsky as Loco the bounty hunter oozes menace, the leader of a bunch of human buzzards, a bizarre grotesque reaper of the minor renegade/cultists/outlaws that inhabit the back country and control the passes into Snow Hill, a stage stop on the road to nowhere. Trintignant is Silence a hired gun who is summoned to Pine Hill by Pauline (Vonnetta McGee) the comely wife of a recently shot outlaw who wants revenge against Loco. She tries to borrow $1000 dollars from general store proprietor/banker/justice of the peace, Pollicut (Pistilli), the defacto town boss. He refuses and she in turn offers herself to Silence as payment. Frank Woff is the well meaning new county sheriff, Burnett who with town madam Regina (Marisa Merlini) give off a Marshal Dillon-Kitty-Gunsmoke vibe.

The rock, pines, shanties, and blood sharply contrast against the white snow with another Morricone masterpiece of a soudtrack, and one of the bleakest endings of any Western out there. My rating is going up, 8/10.


and last night:
Plunder Road (1957) 6.5/10 minimalist railroad heist yarn with a interesting gimmick used in Solima's Run Man Run.
Patterns (1956) Rod Serling scripted look at  the corrosive competition at the executive branch of Ramsey & Co., a New York industrial conglomerate 8/10

[drinkanddestroy]

Isn't it actually called I Died A Thousand Times?

oh yeah, you're right, I changed it. Thanks 

[PowerRR]

Amour - 7/10

The Hidden Fortress - 10/10
Can't believe it took me so long to see this. Kurosawa's masterpiece. One of the best movies I've seen in literally years.