Rate The Last Movie You Saw

[dave jenkins]

Good one. If my 9th grade students knew about you, you'd be their god.

[Groggy]

A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia - 7/10 - 3rd viewing. If you're a fan of Lawrence of Arabia, interested in T.E. Lawrence, are a history buff in general, or a Ralph Fiennes fan, it's an interesting look at imperial politics, the Paris Peace Conference and Lawrence himself. If you are none of those things, it's a boring, stuffy TV movie. To each his own.

[Groggy]

Good one. If my 9th grade students knew about you, you'd be their god.

Away, laddie, or I'll burn you to a crispy noodle.

[dave jenkins]

The Hidden Fortress (1958) - 7/10. Supposedly the inspiration for Star Wars--except, I don't remember the part in ST where C-3PO and R2-D2 plot to rape Princess Leia--see if the story doesn't in fact remind you of something else entirely: Two Magnificent Tramps, passing back and forth across enemy lines in a time of war, have a number of widescreen adventures in an attempt to secure a defeated clan's 200 bars of gold. Anyway, this is the film where Kurosawa mastered the use of 'scope, and for the occasion, treated everyone to a really cool spear duel. This is also the film--I gather--from which SL got the idea for his if-it's-not-in-the-frame-the-characters-can't-see-it technique. Entertaining but long, the movie suffers from some occasional mawkishness and the fact that the two leads are annoyingly juvenile. It's kind of an art film for kids.

[Groggy]

The Four Feathers (1939) - 8/10 - 2nd viewing.

[Groggy]

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp - 8/10 - 2nd viewing.

[cigar joe]

Flipping around the channels yesterday and caught probably 1/2 or 2/3 of  "In A Day" sort of a backhanded love story, The main lead reminded me of a young Malcolm McDowell and the female lead of a young Laura Lindley,  it was good enough to put it in my Netflix que 8/10.

[dave jenkins]

The Damned United (2009) - 6/10. Man, was I disappointed with this. Michael Sheen plays Brian Clough, a hitherto successful football manager who gets tapped to helm Leeds United after the departure of a popular predecessor. He lasts 44 days. Clough is portrayed as an annoyingly smug little prick, but one who can speak well, and by contrast with the film's other characters (who range from dull to boring), becomes, by default, the side to root for. So the fun is watching him take others apart, or, alternatively, seeing him get his comeuppance. The film goes terribly wrong, though, when the man's one professional failure is presented as a chance to learn a life lesson--that he can't be successful without the best friend and assistant he jettisoned at the height of his success. So he must go back and apologize and get the guy to, as it were, take him back. The whole film turns out to be a treacly celebration of bro-mance! Uggghhhh.

[titoli]

A Man for All Seasons (1966) - A movie worth only for what one who doesn't know by and large the story can learn. Apart from a couple of conversations which show Moore's eloquence and Shaw's performance there is little to praise it. 6\10

[titoli]

Death Proof (2007) To make a short story long...4\10

[titoli]

Ivan Groznyy part 1 and 2 (1944-6). One of my personal choices for best movie ever.

[Groggy]

A Man for All Seasons (1966) - A movie worth only for what one who doesn't know by and large the story can learn. Apart from a couple of conversations which show Moore's eloquence and Shaw's performance there is little to praise it. 6\10

Titoli, where did you go wrong?

[Dust Devil]

Ivan Groznyy part 1 and 2 (1944-6). One of my personal choices for best movie ever.

9/10 in my book.

[Groggy]

Chungking Express - 5/10 - The first half = good off-beat comedy with an amusing noirish tinge. I'm not sure what anything had to do with anything, but it was well-written and acted (and funny) enough that I didn't mind just enjoying the ride. The second half = trite, twee and wholly predictable romcom. Several people in class made an Amelie comparison and that doesn't seem out of place, as both have stupid female characters doing wacky things for no good reason. At least Amelie was interestingly shot, and Audrey Tautou is way more likeable than whoever the girl is here. And that one didn't beat any jokes into the ground like this one did with the pineapple cans and California Dreamin'. By the time whatsherface started breaking into the cop's apartment I tuned out.

[moviesceleton]

Le Testament du docteur Cordelier (1959) - 7/10
A Jekyll/Hyde adaptation directed by Jean Renoir. An unnecessary prologue tells that the actual movie is an episode in "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" kinda show hosted by Renoir - a clever excuse for low production values and uninspired direction. The first hour is indeed very much like a story from the Hitchcock show: a lawyer tries to catch a rapist and murderer called Opale who his friend Dr. Cordelier has used for some dangerous experiments. Then it becomes clear that Opale is Dr. Cordelier. The last fifteen minutes are built around a tape recording on which the doctor confesses everything. The first hour is totally plot orientated, 5-6/10, but the revelation comes as a relatively genuine surprise and after that things get very interesting and we go quite deep into the sexual side of the Jekyll/Hyde dilemma.