Rate The Last Movie You Saw

[drinkanddestroy]

and don't forget that the idiot blondie says "in this world, there's two kinds of people" when he should say " ... there are two kinds of people." even the mexican dude knows to say "are"

[PowerRR]

Into the Abyss - 8.5/10
Gotta love Werner

[noodles_leone]

Killer Joe - 6/10
Second viewing. It's not a real movie: half of the scenes are terrible, cheap and look to be written and directed by students. The other half features incredible writing, mainly top-notch acting and ok to good directing.
It's probably Friedkin's most Lynchean film.

[drinkanddestroy]

A Life of Her Own (1950) 5.5./10


In a supporting role, I liked Barry Sullivan a lot in this movie.

RE: another supporting player,  Ann Dvorak: She had what could have been a good supporting role, but she simply didn't deliver. That sort of character – which you've probably seen a hundred times in movies – is a favorite of mine, if done properly: the self-destructive woman, usually a little over the hill, some variation of this: the down-and-out girl, either a whore or an actress or, in this case, a model; past her prime,  now boozing, stuck on a feller who doesn't treat her right, trying to perhaps recapture her past, drinking too much... etc. The way that part was written was such that a good performance could have made this a really good character. (I'm thinking Mary Astor in Act of Violence, playing an over-the-hill boozing whore with a heart of gold. With a similar performance, she could have been wonderful in this part.) But Ann Dvorak is so ... ordinary. Provides nothing special. And when a writer serves you up a pitch right down the middle and you fail to hit it outta the ballpark (or for you Europeans: when you have a game-winning penalty-kick opportunity all lined up for you and you miss   ) I HATE you.


Now, to the lead actress, the subject of the movie, Lana Turner: Turner may have had the looks, but she did not have the acting chops to match. I'm not saying I think she was awful, but she simply wasn't very good. Her acting sorta seems forced, you never feel like it's natural, when watching a character played by Turner, you don't feel like you are watching a regular character; you feel like you are watching Turner playing the character. (It is possible, underline possible, that she was good in The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) and Peyton Place (1957) - two very good movies for which I don't have strong memories of her performances, though I believe she was playing somewhat older women in both movies. But generally,) I don't like her as an actress. I wouldn't say she was usually awful, but I really don't think she brought anything positive, acting-wise. In other words, IMO she is the kinda person whose movie-star status was only warranted for her looks and not for her acting.


The scene I most hate Turner in – and in this scene I do think she was BAD –  is in The Postman Always Rings Twice: it's the scene where the District Attorney has tricked Jon Garfield into turning against Turner and signing a paper detailing her guilt; now Turner  is furious, and starts screaming how she is going to turn on Garfield and sign a confession detailing his guilt – she is going to bring him down with her; she is furious and screaming. And that scene is an awful, awful performance, soooo forced.
In fact, in general, Turner's acting was IMO a negative for  TPART. Yeah, she is really pretty and you can see why the Garfield character falls for her, but unfortunately, while Garfield delivers a very good performance, Turner does not. She simply never feels real. Whatever she says, like that she loves Garfield or whatever, she is just saying; you never feel that it is true. You can feel Garfield's obsession for her; you never feel anything from her. E.g. Compare her performance to that of Clara Calamai's in Ossessionne, and it's no contest. Turner merely says she loves her lover; with Calamai, you truly feel her obsession with her lover.... As terrific as TPART is, IMO Turner's performance is the one major drawback. Come to think of it, maybe I should actually cut and paste this to the TPART thread  

[Groggy]

Ghosts of Mississippi - 6/10 - Standard liberal message movie focusing on the retrial of Medgar Evers' assassin. Good acting, indifferent drama.

[cigar joe]

Shoot the Pianist-Shoot the Piano Player (1960) Director: François Truffaut based on David Goodis (novel) with Charles Aznavour, Marie Dubois, Nicole Berger. Interesting enough. 7/10
Johnny O'Clock (1947) Director: Robert Rossen with  Dick Powell, Evelyn Keyes, Lee J. Cobb, Thomas Gomez, Ellen Drew. Nice ensemble cast 8/10

[dave jenkins]

Ellen Drew.

An absolute stone fox.

[dave jenkins]

Das merkwürdige Kätzchen/Strange Little Cat (2013) - 7/10. A German family (who have a cat and dog) spend the day preparing a supper for relatives. The film eschews melodrama in order to accurately present quotidian reality. Traditional plotting is jettisoned. Set ups are simple: the camera is always locked down and characters enter and leave frames (or just remain stationary). There are no bullshit camera movements: ridiculous tracking shots, ostentatious pans. Beautiful still-lifes--of those there are plenty.

Man in the Dark (1953) - 3D DCP - 6/10. Edmond O'Brien in 3-D! (Probably the reason for the format's demise). O'Brien is a prisoner who volunteers for a brain operation to remove his criminal tendencies (and for which he will get early parole). After the op he remembers nothing of his former life. This is vexing to his known associates, who want him to tell them where he stashed the $130,000 from their last job together. There's an insurance investigator who is interested in the question also. And then there's Audrey Totter, miffed that O'Brien doesn't even remember his old flame. Will O'Brien relearn how to kiss her? And will he lead everyone to the loot before the boys lose patience and beat him to death? And does the fact that the crook's hideout overlooks an amusement pier with a massive rollercoaster mean that there will be an exciting 3-D climax on that very location? Gee, I wouldn't want to give anything away.

[drinkanddestroy]

Eight Men Out (1988) 8/10

I liked the cinematography, nice-looking colors!
The cast was mostly very good. Particularly the actor who played Shoeless Joe Jackson. Read this interesting article a year ago about the supposed signed confessions that were later stolen:

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424127887324136204578641990501023144


Hunting Shoeless Joe's Holy Grail

Collectors Have Renewed Their Quest for the Ultimate Artifact of the 1919 Black Sox Scandal—If It Even Exists

By Ben Cohen

Aug. 1, 2013

It is one of the most enduring mysteries in sports: What happened to the long-lost signed confession of "Shoeless" Joe Jackson?

The question has persisted since Jackson and seven other Chicago White Sox players were indicted on charges of fixing the 1919 World Series. The "Black Sox" were acquitted of those criminal charges, but became baseball's most famous outlaws when they were banished from the sport by Major League Baseball's first commissioner, Kenesaw Mountain Landis.

Now, almost a century later, the quest to find the most captivating piece of evidence in the case has intensified, luring collectors and fans alike to this week's National Sports Collectors Convention, which is being held in Chicago.


Last month, in the lead up to the convention, a prominent auction house posted a $1 million bounty for Jackson's confession, the city's holy grail of sports memorabilia. "I wouldn't offer $1 million if I didn't think it was worth more than that," said Josh Evans, founder of the New York auction house Lelands.com, who called himself a "treasure hunter."

But as troves of newly discovered documents have forced experts to reconsider the entire scandal, leading Black Sox researchers are in consensus about Jackson's missing confession: It's a myth. It doesn't exist and, in fact, never did.

"There are no signed confessions," said Jacob Pomrenke, chairman of the Society for American Baseball Research's Black Sox committee.

The confession represents a coveted treasure for serious collectors of sports memorabilia, in part because the Black Sox loom so large in the nation's sports psyche, having committed perhaps the gravest sin in the history of American sports. But it is equally prized for its mysterious absence, since the alleged disappearance of the document has long served as a crucial plot point in popular stories about the scandal.

According to the legend, Jackson's signed acknowledgment that he agreed to take a $20,000 bribe to throw the World Series was stolen before his 1921 criminal trial, possibly by the mob figure Arnold Rothstein, who figures prominently in the story of the 1919 World Series. As the tale goes, the theft scuttled the prosecution's case, leading a Chicago jury to acquit the Black Sox on charges of defrauding the public.

The evidence has been sought ever since. This week in Chicago, Evans hopes that his seven-figure offer will smoke out what he calls the "Dead Sea scrolls" of baseball.

The importance of the documents traces back, in large part, to "Eight Men Out," Eliot Asinof's 1963 book about the scandal, and John Sayles's 1988 film of the same name. In the book, the confessions play a role not only in the Black Sox criminal trial, but also in a lawsuit that Jackson filed in 1924 seeking back pay from White Sox owner Charles Comiskey. As Comiskey's attorney, George Hudnall, was presenting his defense, something remarkable happened, according to Asinof.

"Incredibly, the stolen confessions, missing since the winter of 1920, suddenly reappeared in Hudnall's brief case!" Asinof wrote.

The film version of "Eight Men Out" relies on the confessions for even more drama. In a pivotal scene, a witness in the Black Sox criminal trial mentions Jackson's confession, prompting a defense attorney to ask that the prosecution present it to the court. The judge agrees, demanding that the document be brought forward. "We don't have them, your honor," the prosecutor says. "They've been stolen."

Onto the screen flashes the front page of a fictional newspaper: "CONFESSIONS DISAPPEAR." Not long afterward, an acquittal has the defendants partying in the courtroom.

What actually happened, Black Sox scholars say, wasn't so cinematic. Information recently unearthed, particularly a 2007 auction of Black Sox papers won by the Chicago History Museum, has convinced some experts that the signed confession is a fabrication—even though the evidence that would debunk it has existed all along. Jackson's signed confession, these Black Sox researchers say, was nothing more than his testimony before a Cook County, Ill., grand jury on Sept. 28, 1920. The whereabouts of that transcript are well known: A copy was given to the Chicago Historical Society by the former law offices of Comiskey's attorney in 1988. In that testimony, Jackson admitted to agreeing to throw the 1919 World Series for $20,000, but said he pocketed only $5,000 in denominations of $50 and $100 bills.

Legal procedure wouldn't have called for Jackson to sign his so-called confession—much less with the famously scrawled "X" that fans of "Eight Men Out" remember—said Bill Lamb, the author of "Black Sox in the Courtroom," an account of the judicial proceedings published in March.

Thus, the scholars predict, the auction house's reward will go unpaid. "I believe their million dollars will remain in their bank account," said Mike Nola, founder of the Shoeless Joe Jackson Virtual Hall of Fame.

Like all good myths, of course, this one is rooted in some truth. Before the criminal trial, the original copy of Jackson's grand-jury testimony did go missing, resulting in wide and sensational press coverage. There was even public speculation that it was stolen by Rothstein. But the testimony was quickly reproduced on a typewriter from the grand-jury stenographer's notes and admitted as evidence in the 1921 trial. The state's attorneys even read the transcripts aloud in the sweltering courtroom.

As it turned out, jurors could make little sense of the transcript, in part because it was redacted "to the point of near unintelligibility," writes Lamb. In the grand-jury transcript, Black Sox players like Eddie Cicotte and Lefty Williams became "Mr. Blank" and "Mr. Blank," he says.

The legal keepsake that Black Sox historians are certain Jackson did sign was his waiver of immunity before giving his grand-jury testimony. But even that testimony, along with its brief disappearance, was irrelevant to Jackson and his teammates being found not guilty. "It's a big misnomer," said David Fletcher, the founder of the Chicago Baseball Museum, who is writing a revision of "Eight Men Out."

Evans isn't buying their skepticism. Should his million-dollar offer produce results this week—and it hadn't as of Thursday—he said he will have his checkbook ready and cash stored in a nearby safe. "I think they exist," Evans said. "I believe that signed confessions were done and they're out there."

As for those who disagree, he added: "They could be right. They could be wrong. It doesn't matter. I'm looking for great things, and this is one of them."

Write to Ben Cohen at ben.cohen@wsj.com

[drinkanddestroy]

The Shopworn Angel (1938) 6.5/10

[Groggy]

Nice article Drink. Eight Men Out is one of my favorite sports movies.

[moviesceleton]

Law and Order (1969) - 6.5./10
Frederick Wiseman's documentary about street level police work. Some memorable scenes, and some not so memorable. I wouldn't be surprised if this was an influence on shows like NYPD Blue and The Wire.

High School (1968) - 8.5/10
"Documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman takes us inside Northeast High School as a fly on the wall to observe the teachers and how they interact with the students." Very insightful in historical context but also in its exploration of a hierarchic social system or community. An up-to-date film about the same subject matter wouldn't hurt, though.

Marathon Man (1976) - 6.5/10
"In New York City, the brother of an infamous Nazi war criminal is killed in a head on collision car accident. Shortly thereafter, members of a covert US government group called "The Division" begin to be murdered one by one. When the brother to one Division member sees his brother knifed to death, it is revealed that former SS dentist Szell, "the White Angel" of Auschwitz, is wrapping up loose ends to smuggle priceless diamonds from the United States." The first half or so is very suspenseful and promising but towards the end it just turns into a run-of-the-mill thriller.

[noodles_leone]

Marathon Man (1976) - 6.5/10
"In New York City, the brother of an infamous Nazi war criminal is killed in a head on collision car accident. Shortly thereafter, members of a covert US government group called "The Division" begin to be murdered one by one. When the brother to one Division member sees his brother knifed to death, it is revealed that former SS dentist Szell, "the White Angel" of Auschwitz, is wrapping up loose ends to smuggle priceless diamonds from the United States." The first half or so is very suspenseful and promising but towards the end it just turns into a run-of-the-mill thriller.

The first half is good and unique enough to me to keep the movie above 7/10 (I think I rate it 7.5) but I agree with you. I have not read the book but from what I understand, most of the film's flaws are due to a the production trying to remove everything that wasn't hollywoodian enough. For example, the brother in the book is a much more violent character: he goes into a revenge rampage after his stay in Paris and kills over 20 people. The actor agreed todo the part because of these scenes, but they were not even filmed (they make the character less likable).

SPOILER ALERT

Another huge change is that in the book, The Marathon Man kills the nazi (who's just standing in front of him, doing nothing dangerous) while in the movie the bad guys kills himself out of his own evilness. Even Dustin Hoffman criticizes the change in the bonus of the DVD.

[stanton]

The Marathon Man was the stuff (especially with that cast) for a masterpiece. It's a good film though, but somehow still very, very wasted. 6/10

[cigar joe]

The Tall Target  (1951) Director: Anthony Mann, Stars: Dick Powell, Paula Raymond, Adolphe Menjou, Will Geer, Marshall Thompson, and Ruby Dee. A New York City detective, traveling by train between New York and Baltimore, tries to foil an on-board plot to assassinate President-elect Abraham Lincoln when he reaches Baltimore to give a major pre-Inauguration speech in 1861. A great noir-ish detective on a train yarn. The Warner made on demand DVD is bare bones but they sprung at least for a poster cover 8/10