Rate The Last Movie You Saw

[dave jenkins]

By Sidney Lumet (2016) - Largely shots of Sidney's talking head circa 2008, interspersed with film clips. Interesting, but how do you do justice to a 44-film career in under 2 hours? Of course a bunch of titles are ignored. Prince of the City, his masterpiece, barely gets a mention. However, on the disc there is also a 10-minute interview with Treat Williams, and that went a long way to placating me. The interviewer asks him to place Lumet within the pantheon of great directors he's worked with, and although he refuses to rank them, he does speak approvingly of his time with "Steven" and "Woody." Finally he mentions sitting at the feet of Leone, sipping wine, and listening to anecdotes about the making of his westerns. What language were those conversations in, Treat?

[noodles_leone]

Swiss Army Man 7/10
Exactly the kind of indie feature you expect from the directors of:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HMUDVMiITOU
Unique, unpredictable, surprisingly sweet and enjoyable.

[noodles_leone]

Bronson (2008): Tom Hardy plays Britain's most notorious & violent prisoner Michael Peterson (who renamed himself Charles Bronson) in a heavily stylized 'bio'-pic by Nicolas Winding Refn. Hardy is mesmerizing, and scary. Good shit. 8/10

My main grief is that the whole thing feels much more like Hardy and Refn are building their respective showreel rather than an actual movie, but I like watching it. I've seen it 3 or 4 times now, and the experience is still enjoyable.

[stanton]

Exactly the kind of indie feature you expect from the directors of:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HMUDVMiITOU
Unique, unpredictable, surprisingly sweet and enjoyable.

Nice vid, fine music

[drinkanddestroy]

Babette's Feast (1987) 8/10

[cigar joe]

Babette's Feast (1987) 8/10

That's about right if I remember.

[noodles_leone]

500 Days of Summer 3/10
Quite inventive film, filled with good ideas and an interesting art direction, but what a terrible writing! The acting goes from average to laughable.
All in all it looks like a 16 years old wrote about his first love and got acting majors to play it.

[dave jenkins]

So Evil, My Love (1948) - 7/10. Ray Milland plays a schemer who corrupts Ann Todd, a clergyman's widow. Milland is in full-on charming swine mode--not quite at the level of his performance in Dial M For Murder or Alias, Nick Beal--but fun. Ann goes from a little Miss Goody Two Shoes to a double murderer in 2 hours: way to go, Ann!

[noodles_leone]

Abstract - season 1 episodes 1 to 5 - 8/10
I'm approximatively mid season, but this is awesome. This documentary series is about design, each episode focuses on a particular "designer" (a cartoonist, an architect, a set designer, a guy who works for Nike...). The mise en scene and the camerawork always fits the topic, so you're actually watching mini films each time. The filmmakers are usually as inventive as their subjects, so most episodes are quite fascinating and filled with great ideas. I'm not rating it higher because the quality depends on the guy they're interviewing: episodes 2 and 5 are the weakest so far, since they feel too much as Nike and Chrysler commercials.
Watch it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYaq2sWTWAA

[PowerRR]

Abstract - season 1 episodes 1 to 5 - 8/10
I'm approximatively mid season, but this is awesome. This documentary series is about design, each episode focuses on a particular "designer" (a cartoonist, an architect, a set designer, a guy who works for Nike...). The mise en scene and the camerawork always fits the topic, so you're actually watching mini films each time. The filmmakers are usually as inventive as their subjects, so most episodes are quite fascinating and filled with great ideas. I'm not ratig it higher because the quality depeneds on the guy they're interviewing: episodes 2 and 5 are the weakest so far, since they feel too much as Nike and Chrysler commercials.
Watch it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYaq2sWTWAA

watched the first 5 minutes of first two episodes. Really good. Was surprised about how unpretentious they were based on the subject matter

[noodles_leone]

Yeah they're much less pretentious than the trailer.

I watch them on week days, during my lunch. It's a perfect shot of creativity that isn't directly linked with filmmaking: quite inspiring while still giving me a window on another world during my work day.

[dave jenkins]

Victoria episodes 1-3 (2016) - 7/10. Sumptuous gowns and sets . . . characterization is a bit cartoony, though, and the drama is all about rats in Buckingham Palace and whether or not the queen can keep her ladies in waiting when the government changes. Albert finally puts in an appearance at the end of episode 3. But, man, I could watch Jenna Coleman, pouting, napping, looking out the window, et. al., for hours. No way was the historical Victoria that cute.

[noodles_leone]

The Lobster 6/10
Starts out great and drags a lot once they are in the forest. Also, even thematically, I'm a bit lost at that point.

[drinkanddestroy]

That Hamilton Woman (1941) 7.5/10 (TCM)


Vivien Leigh is terrific.

Laurence Olivier I have never been a huge fan of.

I have always liked Alan Mowbray very much.

[noodles_leone]

Kong: Skull Island - IMAX 3D 7/10

Fun fun fun.
Great action sequences.
Great pop-rock atmosphere all the way, from the classic rock soundtrack to the slowmo shots, from the fun pop culture close ups and funny transitions (a monster puts someone in its mouth, sudden cut to a dude eating a sandwich) to the nods to Vietnam war movies.
Cool adventure feel.
Some fun dialogues.
Nice cast apart from the stupid photographer girl.
For your ladies, Tom Hiddleston has never looked that hot.
Cool way to work around classic Hollywood clichés (like brave deaths, bad guys who becomes good in the end...).[/li][/list]

Of course, it's nothing but a brainless Hollywood pop corn flick so it comes with the full package:

Stupid, stupid, stupid characters that take terrible, terrible, terrible decisions all the fucking, fucking, fucking time without the slightest, slightest, slightest beginning of a reason/motivation to do so.
Laughable tries to introduce "emotion" (lol, I mean, really, lol) here and there.
The introductions of the big monsters, including Kong himself (who's fully visible like 2 minutes into the movie) always lack the required the build up.

All in all, it is everything every Marvel movie should be and never is, so count me in for the upcoming Kong vs Gozilla.

Needless to say, don't waste a second of your time watching this Disneyland ride in anything else than IMAX 3D.