Rate The Last Movie You Saw

[T.H.]

The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996) - A mixed bag, and overcooked, albeit fun. I'd love to see the original script that Shane Black wrote, because I'm assuming the final product deviated from the original screenplay. Geena Davis and Sam Jackson have great chemistry, and their charisma carries this movie, but it's a shame that this leaned so much into generic blockbuster action when this could have been an incredibly fun P.I. movie mixed with some espionage. While this ultimately misses the mark, the first hour is a lot of fun, and it's charming in spite of its flaws. It also doesn't help that the score was bland and lifeless, and the villain looks like someone that belongs on a 90's sitcom about 20 somethings, though he was good in The Thirteenth Floor (1999). A generous B-

[cigar joe]

La lune dans le caniveau aka The Moon In The Gutter (1983) French Twilight Zone Neo Noir Nightmare

"Don't look for sense in these things Nightmares don't make sense " (Eddie Muller referring to all of Cornell Woolrich's Nightmare Noir - ASK EDDIE - August 3 2023)

Directed by Jean-Jacques Beineix (Diva, Betty Blue). Written by Jean-Jacques Beineix & Olivier Mergault and based on the novel The Moon In The Gutter by David Goodis.

The excellent Cinematography was by by Philippe Rousselot.  Music was by Gabriel Yared.    

The film stars G?rard Depardieu (The Last Metro, Green Card, Maigret) as G?rard Delmas, Nastassja Kinski (One From The Heart, Paris, Texas) as Loretta Channing, Victoria Abril (Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!, High Heels) as Bella, Bertice Reading as Lola. Gabriel Monnet as Tom, Dominique Pinon (Delicatessen, Am?lie, The City Of The Lost Children) as Frank.

10/10

[dave jenkins]

The 13-hour flight back from Japan promised to be hellish and I was hoping that ANA's holodeck would keep me entertained for at least part of the way. Finding something worth watching, though, wasn't easy: the last two John Wicks (uh, pass); The Menu (seen it); The Whale (one for the wife); Super Mario Brothers (no, no, no), and finally . . .  Disney's Tangled? There's just HAD TO BE something else! And in fact, there was:

RRR (2022) - 8/10. It's John Woo and Zack Snyder, together again for the first time (with a number of Leone touches thrown in--in fact, you could almost retitle this one Duck You Wallah). Two men--superheroes, really--meet and become fast friends, not suspecting they are on opposite sides of the culture war. It's 20s India, and the British are in full-on Nazi mode, which means lots of opportunities for feats of daring. I thought the opening sequence where the one hero takes on 10,000 rioters single handedly couldn't be topped, but the next bit where the other guy fights the tiger was amazing. Finally, CGI done right. Did I mention there are also song-and-dance numbers thrown in? The only thing that caused the pace to slacken was a dull love story thrown in for, I guess, F appeal. Eliminating that could have cut down the 3-hour runtime. Oh well, still hella entertaining. I'm wondering if the granddaughter would find it so . . . .

[dave jenkins]

No Country For Old Men (2007) - 10/10. Just about perfect. Well, OK, it's perfect.

[noodles_leone]

No Country For Old Men (2007) - 10/10. Just about perfect. Well, OK, it's perfect.

No mention of the soundtrack? This is easily in Carter Burwell's top 3.

[dave jenkins]

No mention of the soundtrack? This is easily in Carter Burwell's top 3.

Is this a gag comment? What soundtrack?

[noodles_leone]

Is this a gag comment? What soundtrack?

It's a bit of a gag but it's also quite sincere. It's also a Leone/Morricone nod. Burwell isn't an incredible composer (although he did nail Fargo and in Bruges). He actually worked on No Country. They never decided to not put any music in it, they tried to add some. But the same thing as with Morricone and the opening of OUTITW happened: every time they put music in a scene it made it weaker. So scene after scene, they agreed on removing it. From what I remember there are still supposed to be a few minutes of "music" in the movie (before the ending credits) but I don't think I ever successfully spotted it. I suspect there are a few seconds of very discreet "tense music layers" here and there.

[dave jenkins]

Saturday Fiction (2019) - ??/10. Shanghai, 1937. Black and white tracking shots. Gong Li. More tracking. Beautifully tailored clothing never before worn by their owners. Tracking, tracking, tracking. A time jump. Tracking. After a while, the subject of the film is the tracking. It's not an interesting subject. A film by Lou Ye.

[dave jenkins]

History Is Made at Night (1937) 7/10

Kind of odd... Mostly a love story between Jean Arthur and Charles Boyer, involving a society people and divorces and jealous spouses and murder, etc. ... Then some comedic scenes with an Italian chef who seems to be in love with Boyer, call it a gay subtext. Then the story moves to a ship and largely steals the story of the  Titanic. I won't say anything further, I won't spoil anything.

Enjoyable movie, some of the stuff that's funny is probably unintentional.

Odd is right. But also much of it is in questionable taste. Spending so much time with the deranged husband makes things very creepy, and the rip-off of the Titanic story leaves a very bad impression. The FX are laughable, even considering the year it was made. Jean Arthur is good, but overall, the film is not.

[dave jenkins]

I, the Jury 3D (1953) - 9/10. Must be viewed in 3D, and best seen with an audience. Watched it at Film Forum last night and everybody was howling with delight! What was produced as an earnest black-and-white crime drama 70 years ago now plays like a parody. And the visuals (newly restored) are stunning. Peggie Castle in 3D! The interior of the Bradbury Building in 3D! John Alton's chiaroscuro in 3D!

One more 3D showing at FF coming up on Sept. 8. Don't say you weren't told.

[dave jenkins]

Oppenheimer (2023) - 5/10. The problem with this film is that it has three stories to tell--1. The Road to Trinity 2. Oppenheimer Losing his Security Clearance 3. Lewis Strauss' Nomination to be Secretary of Commerce--and only the first one is of any interest. Who cares about Lewis Strauss (whoever he was)? And really, who even cares about Oppy's security clearance difficulties? How can that even rate beside what should be the main concern of the feature: the ethical questions that attend the creation of the world's first weapon of mass destruction? The three stories do allow Nolan to fragment the chronology so that each storyline is able to comment occasionally on the other two, and a very talky film is thereby also made more cinematic in the process, but in the final analysis those two extra stories are a drag. And after the explosion at Los Alamos, the interesting part of the film is over but we still have to continue with those stories we don't care about. Occasionally interesting casting choices do provide us with pleasant surprises--Kenneth Branaugh as Niels Bohr, Bennie Safdie as Edward Teller, Gary Oldman as Harry Truman, and (my favorite) Tom Conti as Einstein. (Tom, where've you been since the 80s?) But that's too little entertainment for a 3-hr movie. The book has got to be better.

[dave jenkins]

Cetait un rendez-vous (1976) 10/10. Claude Lelouch's second-greatest film. It's been more than 40 years since I last saw it, but I've never forgotten it. Now, there's also a "Making Of" to go with it! https://rarefilmm.com/2023/06/cetait-un-rendez-vous-1976/

[noodles_leone]

Oppenheimer (2023) - 5/10. The problem with this film is that it has three stories to tell--1. The Road to Trinity 2. Oppenheimer Losing his Security Clearance 3. Lewis Strauss' Nomination to be Secretary of Commerce--and only the first one is of any interest. Who cares about Lewis Strauss (whoever he was)? And really, who even cares about Oppy's security clearance difficulties? How can that even rate beside what should be the main concern of the feature: the ethical questions that attend the creation of the world's first weapon of mass destruction? The three stories do allow Nolan to fragment the chronology so that each storyline is able to comment occasionally on the other two, and a very talky film is thereby also made more cinematic in the process, but in the final analysis those two extra stories are a drag. And after the explosion at Los Alamos, the interesting part of the film is over but we still have to continue with those stories we don't care about. Occasionally interesting casting choices do provide us with pleasant surprises--Kenneth Branaugh as Niels Bohr, Bennie Safdie as Edward Teller, Gary Oldman as Harry Truman, and (my favorite) Tom Conti as Einstein. (Tom, where've you been since the 80s?) But that's too little entertainment for a 3-hr movie. The book has got to be better.

The bigger issue at hand is the fact that 80% of the artistic choices are made to make us "experience" how "heavily conflicted and even guilty" Oppy is feeling about all this. Which (1) was the worst possible way to deal with the chore thematic of the movie and (2) forbids all of the different storylines to be actually developped since, whatever happens, it will always be pushed aside by Oppy feeling so bad anyway let's just replace the background shake the camera and have loud noises, no, louder, NO, LOUDER!!!

[dave jenkins]

Body of My Enemy (1976) - 6/10. Belmondo gets framed for a double murder, and when released from prison returns looking for revenge. An elaborate flashback structure initially hides what is a fairly prosaic plot, but as the pieces of the puzzle began coming together, I found myself losing interest in the story. Belmondo is fun to watch (he wears some cool ties) and he's given plenty of witty one-liners by Michel Audiard to spout. I thank noodles for pointing me to this film (he's a much better friend than, say, that bathtub stanton) but having watched this once I don't feel the need to ever see it again.

Actually, I did watch it again. The blu looks really good. Belmondo looks really good. Marie-France Pisier looks really good. Nicole Garcia . . . well, you get the idea.

[dave jenkins]

Le dossier noir (1955) - 8/10. This starts out as one film--an expose of small town corruption--then turns into a witch-hunt due to bad forensics. The way the police extract false confessions out of innocent citizens is pretty interesting, especially after we learn no crime was committed. But, once the magistrate realizes that the evidence was compromised, why doesn't he simply redo the autopsy? Great build-up; not much of an ending. http://rarefilmm.com/2019/12/le-dossier-noir-1955/