Movies: Last Movie You Watched and Rate It | Part#: Some High Number +3

[Osprey]

Damn, you guys are going to make we watch Sunrise aren't you.

If you do and don't like it, blame kihei. He's the one who gave it a 10 and made me watch it. I gave it only a 9 so that I would look like a critic and could have deniability .

Seriously, I don't want to oversell it. It's possible, if you go in with ideas of how amazing it is, that you might be disappointed. If you have an interest in the best silent films and can judge it against its peers, though, it's probably worth seeing, at least because it's so highly regarded and so that you can say that you've seen it.

 

[Puck]

Social Distancing Movies. I'm not much into virus horror flicks. Don't think I'd watch many now even given the times. However these are films that pretty much depict social isolation. Any others?

Cast Away with Tom Hanks
Moon with Sam Rockwell
I am Legend with Will Smith
Gravity with Sandra Bullock
The Martian with Matt Damon
A Boy and his Dog with a young Don Johnson
Just a Breath Away (Dans la Brume, from France)
Lost In Translation with Bill Murray
Lars & the Real Girl with Ryan Gosling
Room 1408 with John Cusack
The Shining

My favorite here is Moon with Sam Rockwell.

Zombie movies too are a good theme in this genre I believe. There might be a contagion in some that causes it, but the main characters usually all feel some sense of isolation. Zombieland and Zombieland Touble Tap with Woody are both pretty good, if you need a good laugh these days. Highly recommend both.

 

[Chili]

Hell in the Pacific - 1968

It takes two great actors to pull this one off, very little dialogue. Two enemy soldiers, one American one Japanese, who end up stranded on a small island in the Pacific in WWII. Lee Marvin and Toshiro Mifune weren't young when they made this what must have been a physically demanding movie. Both actors had served in the military during the war.

A touch of films like Castaway and Lord of the Flies, have enjoyed this movie several times.

 

[Jevo]

Sherlock Jr. (1925) Directed by Buster Keaton 9A

I really love The General, and I think as a full movie it's the best Keaton ever did. But just in pure concentration of great gags and stunts, I don't think anything beats Sherlock Jr. You can't find as much in 45 minutes as you get here. Keaton's output from 1923 to 1928 has to be among the very best any director has produced in so few years. Not to mention his run of shorts prior to that.

 

[kihei]

I really love The General, and I think as a full movie it's the best Keaton ever did. But just in pure concentration of great gags and stunts, I don't think anything beats Sherlock Jr. You can't find as much in 45 minutes as you get here. Keaton's output from 1923 to 1928 has to be among the very best any director has produced in so few years. Not to mention his run of shorts prior to that.

Here's one of his most famous (and crazy) stunts:

 

[GlassesJacketShirt]

Randomly decided to try.....

Ready Player One
Dir. Steven Spielberg

Pretty fun and really dumb. Really all there is to it.

Enjoyed the visuals and the whimsical Spielberg spirit. Character arcs are non-existent outside of the dead guy, and the plot is asinine beyond belief. One can only look so long before the cracks shatter the mirror.

Score: 5/10

 

[Jevo]

Here's one of his most famous (and crazy) stunts:

That's a great one. And one that's been referenced many times, and for good reason. The defunct Every Frame A Painting channel on youtube has a good video on Keaton that's always worth a watch. They also have a good video of Jackie Chan, who in my opinion is a sort of spiritual successor to Keaton.

 

[Tasty Biscuits]

Here's one of his most famous (and crazy) stunts:

Math!

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

The next two films on my hard drive are films you can watch on YouTube (in fact, that's where I watched 1, the subtitles file I had for my copy being a Google translation that drove me crazy in less than 10 minutes).

1 (Pater Sparrow, 2009) - It has the looks of a sci-fi film, and it seems it was advertised as such, but don't go in looking for anything else than a confused allegory. The film is visually pretty nice, with borrowings to caligarism (painted walls, doors and windows to accentuate and texture lights and shadows). As for content, I feel like I should have liked it, both because its premise is fairly complex and because its main theme (the friction between the real and its representation or understanding) is something I really like to juggle with. It's kind of based on a Stanislaw Lem exercice de style I haven't read (One Human Minute, an essay in which Lem proposes the review of a fictional book (One Minute, authored by Johnson & Johnson) about the statistical analysis of a single minute of existence for the whole of mankind). As far as I understand, 1 has nothing of an adaptation of Lem's essay - and who else than Peter Greenaway could even attempt such a feat? - it merely features the fictional book, retitled 1, as the center of its narrative (the police force of a dystopian future, the Reality Defense Institute, investigates how the whole collection of a rare books store was suddenly replaced by copies of a single book, 1). Details like having the police lab, the niche of science, decorated with old movie posters, or having the most fantasy-based-far-fetched character recite lines taken from a real-life philosopher, should have been very interesting and could have been part of a greater and more complex reflexion on the real. But maybe I just didn't get it, always possible. To me, the overall "reality is subjective" angle was disappointing and the whole thing felt like a missed opportunity. 4/10



2084 (Chris Marker, 1984) - Complete opposite. This film looks like crap, but is more complex and meaningful - in 10 minutes - than the Sparrow film even attempted to be. I won't pretend I can decipher the whole thing. To underline the 100th year of the trade unions existence, Marker comments with heavy cynicism what they could or should be like a 100 years in the future. Watched today, in this time of crisis, the gray and black hypothesis - alarmist warnings - sound strangely plausible, even familiar (for example, the overabundance of available images making free press only a burden of more images to chose from). Still, it is very much a minor film for Marker, and I would advocate seeing Sans Soleil (to me one of the most necessary* films of all times) beforehand, to have a better feel of Marker's process here (the sci-fi documentary approach). 6/10

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Sans Soleil (to me one of the most necessary* films of all times)

* by this I mean that some films are great films, but some films are important films. For example, to me the best Resnais film is L'année dernière à Marienbad, no contest, but if you ask me what's his most important, necessary film, than no, not at all (I guess the right answer would be Nuit et brouillard, but I'd be tempted by Mon oncle d'Amérique too).

 

[Spring in Fialta]

What are your thoughts on Nicolas Winding Refn beyond Drive? I haven't been a fan and outright hated Only God Forgives, but I did recently make my way through his Amazon series Never Too Old to Die and I liked it quite a bit almost in spite of myself. I can't in good conscious recommend it because it is so aggressively ponderous and almost antagonistic to the viewer. It's an endurance test both in time and content. But funny enough, that kinda made me like it a little more. The guy has a style for sure. It feels like he goes to the same school as David Lynch and Gaspar Noe but he only pays half attention in class.

Haven't seen all of his stuff but I loved Pusher and Drive. I'm one of the few people in the world who considers Only God Forgives a good film. And I hate the last one, can't remember the title, the one about modeling. A vapid and try-hard piece of shit. And since I see that we're mentioning Lynch and Twin Peaks, I'm currently in season 2 of the series. Man, a lot of it didn't work and it was slow to get seriously going, but season 2 really takes off. Some of it is just dumb and poorly-executed though, a weakness in acting and dialogue. Lynch as Gordon Cole is awesome. As is Kyle McChalan or however you spell his name. Still, there are moments of greatness but the whole series personifies how inconsistent I find Lynch. I think he leans on the oddball stuff a little too easily - a sort of easy, don't go to jail trick that sometimes feels lazy but when he's on, he is inimitable, particularly his humor, which he shows in spades during the series.

 

[Babe Ruth]

Southie (1998)

Because of Hulu, I've been unwittingly rewatching forgettable movies. I saw this about 20 years ago, but didn't realize until I had already wasted an hour & 15 minutes rewatching it..
Donnie Wahlberg returns to his South Boston neighborhood, and proceeds to cause unwanted chaos for himself & his family. A lot of Boston & (dated) Irish gangster clichés.. an irrelevant storyline about his sister struggling w/drinking. It felt like the writer really wanted to depict South Boston, but didn't have much of a plot to do it with. There was cool footage from a neighborhood St Pat's parade @ the end. But it also was irrelevant..
Movie does have some late 90s nostalgia now, so I give it a 4 (on 10 point scale).

 

[sdf]

Transformers 2
this is garbage, sometimes I just didn't understand what was happening on screen

 

[nameless1]

Did you log onto the wrong site @sdf? I had to google translate it, and it has nothing to do with movies.

 

[kihei]

Battleship Potemkin (1925) Directed by Sergei Eisenstein 10A

Battleship Potemkin is the most influential movie from the silent period and comes from cinema's most influential director, Sergei Eisenstein. Though there were no shortage of editing techniques before him, Eisenstein did more than any other single director to create and develop the grammar of modern film. He did this through his theories of montage (a sequence of shots edited for particular effects) which he divided into five different types: metric (cut according to exact measurement of shots); rhythmic (cut according to the content of shots), tonal (cut according to emotional tone of the shots), overtonal (cut according to the main overtones of the sequence, often combining the first three methods in the process), and intellectual (cut to reinforce a particular concept or idea). While this all sounds dry as dust, it revolutionized the way even modern directors, virtually all of them, deal with cutting particular sequences in their films. Importantly it also lead to more sophisticated approaches not just to montage, but to editing in general (keep in mind that while montage includes editing, editing is more than just montage). A movie about revolution revolutionized movie making.

All of these techniques are on display in Battleship Potemkin, Eisenstein's account of a mutiny about a naval vessel in support of the fledgling Soviet revolution that was just beginning to gather steam on land. Here the academic nature of montage as described above is transformed into pure action with results that are gripping and fascinating, not to mention no doubt rousing to the audience the film was first intended to serve. The movie's most famous part is Chapter Four, known as the Odessa Steps sequence. It is an example of rhythmic montage and it remains the most brilliantly edited sequence in movie history. (Brian DePalma did a homage to it in The Untouchables and Naked Gun even provided a brief parody of it). Battleship Potemkin is also a wonder to observe in terms of Eisenstein's approach to composition within the shot. Image after image in this film are impressive to behold, and all serve the purpose of pushing forward its dramatic story. One could argue that Battleship Potemkin represents the beginning of the modern era of film making.

intertitles

 

[ItsFineImFine]

Under The Silver Lake (2018) - 6/10
It's like a mix between Blue Velvet & Vertigo but with the shitty pacing/story of Inherent Vice. Andrew Garfield is also not a fun character to follow here, some cool shots though.

The Two Popes (2019) - 7.5/10
I don't know much about Catholicism as I follow a different religion but I still found the conversation to be fascinating to watch. Same director as City of God so the film has a good pace. Some weird shot selection on the conversations between the two popes though. I find that intellectual debate translates very poorly on film, My Dinner With Andre I found to be really pretentious emptiness, but the non-religious debate/conversation was fairly strong here.

Matchstick Men (2003) - 7.5/10
Really fun Ridley Scott film belonging to that late-90s/early-00s era where so much stuff in this tone was good. Sam Rockwell didn't have as much screentime as he should but Nicholas Cage was fun to watch here. I will say that it could have been cut down a bit and that the ending is too far out to take seriously, and I say that as someone who usually has no problems with plot holes, I preferred The Dark Knight Rises to The Dark Knight.

A Short Film About Killing (1988) - 6.5/10
I preferred A Short Film About Love. Good start but soul-less final third I also can't stand poorly lit films like this.

 

[aufheben]

Booksmart (2019, Olivia Wilde) - 3.5/5
Funny, on-point, sweet, great production.

The Gentlemen (2020, Guy Pierce) - 2.5/5
Sloppily slick, poor production. Meh.

Emma. (2020, Autumn de Wilde) - 3/5
Well-made, nice performances, funny, charming.

 

[cupcrazyman]

Ace Ventura Pet Detective 8/10

 

[Osprey]

The Platform (2019) - 5/10 (Didn't like or dislike it)

A man awakens in a tall, prison-like structure of concrete rooms, one on top of the next, with two people per floor and a shaft through the middle that brings food. It's sort of a dystopian horror that's very similar in look, design and premise to 1997's Cube. The main difference is that, instead of being a thriller for its own sake, this film has an obvious message running through it. You see, the feeding platform that passes down through each floor bears only the food that the floors above didn't eat. It quickly becomes apparent that it's better to be higher than lower and that it's meant to be a metaphor for and criticism of capitalism (though I think that it fails because the whole setup seems more representative of socialism gone wrong, considering that the people are not equally sharing the handout from above like they're supposed to). It's one of the more heavy handed messages that I've seen in a film and makes Parasite and Snowpiercer look subtle. In spite of that, I found it to be a pretty decent thriller. It's well acted and has a nice pace. I was never bored and I wanted to see what would happen next. I liked the suspense, especially whenever the buzzer sound indicated that the platform was about to move. There's killing and gore, but it's not too extreme. Some reviews call it disgusting, but there are many more disgusting horror movies that make this look a little tame. I thought that it was fairly satisfying until the end, which is disappointingly weak and obviously part of the movie's message. That and the heavy handedness of the message prevented me from liking it, but it's still a pretty decent, low budget horror movie and worth checking out if you like those (and especially if you liked Cube). It's on Netflix and you have the option of the original Spanish audio with English subtitles or dubbed English audio.

 

[nameless1]

Emma. (2020, Autumn de Wilde) - 3/5
Well-made, nice performances, funny, charming.

The rating is about right, and I like it more than I thought I would. Anya Taylor-Joy is just so much fun on screen.

Jane Austen often makes me wonder if she is ahead of her time, or just a Victoria-era romance writer that writes easy to digest work. For full disclosure, I have not completed one single Austin novel, but I cannot help see the similarities between modern romantic comedies and movies based on her novels. I honestly would appreciate people who can enlighten me on this matter, because I just can never finish one of her books. They really bore me.

 

[Supermassive]

Color Out Of Space - 5/10.
Not nearly as clever or scary as critics claim.

 

[Babe Ruth]

Go Tigers! (2001)

Real life of American Pie-era high school football in Ohio. Fubu jerseys, Jnco pants, & a brief interview with a disgruntled juggalo.. Basically a nice, tight knit community that loves it's high school football team. They mention in the narration how things have essentially remained unchanged in Massillon Ohio.. but I wonder if that still applies in 2020 (?)
This reminded me a lot of (& precursor to) Last Chance U series..

Pretty good documentary.

 

[OzzyFan]

Traitor (2008)
2.65 out of 4stars

Cheadle plays a terrorist/agent/double agent (what could it be?) with morals due to his heavily practicing religious background and beliefs. Cheadle is really good in it, and probably one of the more under the radar actors working today imo. It has a few decent twists and a few moments of depth on the subject matter of religion, terrorism, government, and world affairs. That said, the great touches are way too infrequent, it's predictable a lot of the time, and the genre cliches are there.

 

[ItsFineImFine]

Love On The Run (1979) - 8/10

This was quite lovely, oh those French girls.

 

[aufheben]

Funny Games (1997, Michael Haneke) - 3/5
Original German version. Bleak, horrifying, well-made, great performances.

The House That Jack Built (2018, Lars von Trier) - 1.5/5
Excruciatingly boring, nonsensical, and unnecessarily gruesome at parts. Melancholia and Dogville were great but this was a real chore.