Movies: Last Movie You Watched and Rate it | {Insert Appropriate Seasonal Greeting Here}

[Nakatomi]

Two Hands -

A fun Australian movie starring Heath Ledger before he really hit it big. Also features Rose Byrne, in the first role I have ever heard her natural accent.

I understand this is a bit of a cult favorite down under, and I can see why. Heath plays a young man stupid enough to do a job for a gangster and foolish enough to.....well, you need to watch to find out. Some bad choices come into play, and a rather entertaining movie featuring a great soundtrack ensues. 7 or 8 out of 10, I say.

 

[The Macho King]

Decided to rewatch for the first time in a million years In The Mood For Love.

I hate when hot people are in a movie and don't bone. The lead actress walks in a way that makes me feel things. Tony Leung is a snack all movie.

And it makes me so sad. Visuals are amazing. Score is perfect. Blue balls are real.

9/10

 

[KallioWeHardlyKnewYe]

Challengers. Based on my research the Fine Young Cannibals' cover of Suspicious Minds has appeared in four movies and I, improbably, have seen three of those in the past two weeks.

This ruled. I fist-pumped for two straight hours.

 

[KallioWeHardlyKnewYe]

Decided to rewatch for the first time in a million years In The Mood For Love.

I hate when hot people are in a movie and don't bone. The lead actress walks in a way that makes me feel things. Tony Leung is a snack all movie.

And it makes me so sad. Visuals are amazing. Score is perfect. Blue balls are real.

9/10

I just watched The Grandmaster and Tony Leung remains undefeated.

No blue balls there though because the kung fu is the sex.

 

[ItsFineImFine]

Dune 2 (2024) - 7/10

There's something off about this for me. While it does get more intense and enjoyable a the end, it feels a bit Star Wars-ish in terms of how it's constantly shifting between planets and the weird editing in how scenes almost miss together or just stop and skip, I can't describe it. I felt the original looked better and had maybe a more captivating story whereas this one was more forced I dunno.

Also think the casting choices are still weird here, particularly Chamalet & Zendaya. Should've used more serious British actors throughout.

 

[The Macho King]

I just watched The Grandmaster and Tony Leung remains undefeated.

No blue balls there though because the kung fu is the sex.

I have an embarrassing amount of Wang Kar-Wai blindspots. It's pretty much ItMfL, Chungking Express, and As Tears Go By. Two of them I adore, and one I don't really like but see the pieces of a guy I eventually will.

Might watch Fallen Angels tonight to plug away a bit.

 

[The Macho King]

So wife picked and we watched the Jackie Chan movie Miracles.

I mean... ugh this one was kind of tough. Obviously the action and stunt work are fantastic, but the comedy in this feels so culturally particular that I bounced off of it hard. It's also way too long for what it is?

I kind of passed in and out of paying attention to this one after awhile, only really looking at the fight scenes. 3/10.

 

[Nakatomi]

Sleeping with the Enemy - 2/10

What a stupid movie.

 

[Doothpick]

Decided to rewatch for the first time in a million years In The Mood For Love.

I hate when hot people are in a movie and don't bone. The lead actress walks in a way that makes me feel things. Tony Leung is a snack all movie.

And it makes me so sad. Visuals are amazing. Score is perfect. Blue balls are real.

9/10

I rarely post here, but I myself just watched this again after not having seen it in a while, and this review just makes it all worse.. or better, I don't know.

It sort of reminds me of "Lost in Translation" if it had some hot young stuff in place of Bill Murray. Not to dis Murray of course. If anyone has more of these blue balls recommendations I'm all ears. Obviously no spoilers though if one can help it. I gotta hold on to hope that all these good looking people might be wise and brave enough jump each others' bones.

Oh and also watched How to Blow Up a pipeline. This is exactly the kind of flick I felt everyone tried to do a decade ago. Stylistically I mean. It was okay, but my god those back stories were horrible. Should've just cut all of it, and let the viewer decide why they were doing what they were doing. It would've worked just as well without the unnecessary fat. It's definitely watchable and it really did take off in the end. Frustrating watch, though, since it could've been better and more intense. 6/10.

 

[The Macho King]

I rarely post here, but I myself just watched this again after not having seen it in a while, and this review just makes it all worse.. or better, I don't know.

It sort of reminds me of "Lost in Translation" if it had some hot young stuff in place of Bill Murray. Not to dis Murray of course. If anyone has more of these blue balls recommendations I'm all ears. Obviously no spoilers though if one can help it. I gotta hold on to hope that all these good looking people might be wise and brave enough jump each others' bones.

Oh and also watched How to Blow Up a pipeline. This is exactly the kind of flick I felt everyone tried to do a decade ago. Stylistically I mean. It was okay, but my god those back stories were horrible. Should've just cut all of it, and let the viewer decide why they were doing what they were doing. It would've worked just as well without the unnecessary fat. It's definitely watchable and it really did take off in the end. Frustrating watch, though, since it could've been better and more intense. 6/10.

Lost in Translation feels heavily inspired Wong Kar-Wai. EEAAO also basically used a lot of imagery for the dapper version of the husband universe.

 

[Doothpick]

Lost in Translation feels heavily inspired Wong Kar-Wai. EEAAO also basically used a lot of imagery for the dapper version of the husband universe.

Yeah I figured. I watched Lost in Translation few weeks ago, and out of blue today I just decided that now is a good time for Mood for Love. Now I realize it probably made perfect sense I wanted to watch that after getting that "itch" from LiT.

For the record, this was my 3rd time watching LiT. I watched it in my teens (didn't understand any of it) then in my mid twenties (it was okay, and I "got it") and finally now in my thirties. It's still just okay. I love the visuals, obviously, and the characters are relatable while both actors do a great job conveying that feeling of "out of place loneliness". Somethins is still missing for me. I think I'll like it better in my forties, but for now Mood For Love does everything I want that kind of film to do and then some. One of my all-time favorites.

 

[The Macho King]

I never really liked LiT, or third wave Bill Murray generally. It's fine - but idk just doesn't do much for me.

 

[Bounces R Way]

Monkey Man(2024) - 7/10

John Wick but make it in India, twice as gory, and with knives instead of guns.

Dev Patel writes, directs(his directorial debut), and stars in this action flick about a young man's quest for revenge. Apparently it was originally a Netflix production before they decided it was too violent for them and Jordan Peele stepped in to produce and get it to theaters.

Patel plays 'the Kid', who lives in poverty and makes money fighting in a underground boxing ring. He manages to get himself hired into an establishment where the target for his revenge frequents, working his way up the slimy underworld brothel/drug/club circuit in a populous Indian city to get close to the man who murdered his mother. Don't want to spoil anything from there but things get stabby, thought the tuk tuk with a turbo was a fun touch.

Very stylish and gets full marks for the cinematography and the fight choreography. Really had that Jason Bourne kind of fast paced shaky cam frantic pacing nailed for the action scenes. The story itself is fairly paint by numbers classic vengeance romp, but there's enough in the periphery to give the film shape. There's some vague commentary on class and religion as well as a transgender commune and a big local election. Also a love interest? Maybe one too many sub and sub-subplots, it's not that they were poorly incorporated or uninteresting exactly but never got properly fleshed out which made the conclusion seem less conclusive. Mostly these were just an engine to go full revenge rampage and that's what we did. The characters themselves weren't overly engaging but the supporting cast did a fair job. All in all I expected a decent shoot(stab)-em up action flick and that's what I got.

 

[The Macho King]

So I'm going to show my ass a bit here, but I recently watched The Master.

Ummm... you know those movies while you're watching and you think "there's not a single thing about this that is bad, and yet I hate everything about it"? No? Just me? Anyway that's this movie to me. Phoenix and Hoffman are really acting. The story isn't like... bad. The script is good and there isn't anything to say fails. But if I could go my entire life without ever thinking about this movie again I feel like I would lose nothing.

Part of it is I really think that it's hard for me to see anyone other than Phoenix when he's doing his thing. He may be my least favorite actor - and it's not necessarily his fault. He just always looks like he's trying so hard. I know this is widely regarded as a masterpiece and all of that, and PTA is extremely well regarded, but man... at some point I just have to acknowledge that I just don't like his movies.

My pithy Letterbox'd review? This bad boy really could use a Commander to bring it together.

5/10.

 

[The Macho King]

Decided to go international today and watched High and Low.

I think this is the only "modern" Kurosawa I've seen. This is one of those times where I heard about some details and filled in the gaps in my mind of what type of movie it was - and I was very wrong. I always heard about how this movie really dealt with class issues and the like. It certainly does that to an extent, but I thought it was like a 1960s Parasite rather than a crime drama. I kind of feel that the class discussion in this is pretty... mild but I guess at the time the interesting part was that it discussed it at all?

Still - set all of that aside because that's just the mindset I brought into it. The film itself? Really f***ing good. Mifune has one of those "faces" - just a great f***ing face. I really enjoyed how the investigation unfolded and how well it was presented. It feels very... Hitchcock in a lot of ways? IDK I'm not a film studies guy but it seems almost like a post-noir noir if that makes sense. The DNA was there but it seems more modern than that in a lot of ways.

Great flick. 8/10.

 

[The Macho King]

Decided to rewatch for the first time in a million years In The Mood For Love.

I hate when hot people are in a movie and don't bone. The lead actress walks in a way that makes me feel things. Tony Leung is a snack all movie.

And it makes me so sad. Visuals are amazing. Score is perfect. Blue balls are real.

9/10

Understandably I've been thinking about this movie a lot lately. Such a brain worm. Anyway what's sticking with me is how this movie uses the physical space to both accentuate how... tight everything is, but also how isolated the two leads are. I may have to bump this to a 10 - I can't stop thinking about it.