Movies: Last Movie You Watched and Rate It | Cinema at the End of the World Edition

[MetalheadPenguinsFan]

Rewatched:

8/10

 

[Ben Grimm]

Nightmare Alley (2021) Directed by Guillermo del Toro 4A

Nightmare Alley is a remake on steroids of the original 1947 carny/noir thriller. This conman-with-Daddy-issues number came in at a fairly lean 111 minutes in the original but takes 150 minutes in the new version. Director Guillermo del Toro has made a number of changes that embellish his career-long preoccupation with the fantastic (if you look at his filmography, he is to the fantastic what Hitchcock was to suspense). One result is that the first half, especially the set design, is more fun than the second half, which, once the story leaves the carnival, goes by at a sluggish pace. ...

Most of your review was off topic, but agreed. The first half was good, but after he met Cate no more new characters were needed. It could have a really good psychological thriller between the 3 main characters, the women in the film weren't developed, and the characters' actions were questionable.

Spoiler

Why would Bradley trust Cate with his cash? He barely knew her]

 

[ItsFineImFine]

Lifeboat (1944) - 7.5/10

I hadn't watched a Hitchcock film in several years after going through a dozen of his better ones within a couple years after university. Lifeboat is one of his b-sides and honestly one of my favs. It's fairly straightforward as per most 40s films but it also lacks something his films often have....suspense. They overdo it and Lifeboat is more of a conversational 'in a room/one location' type film. There isn't really anything special about it looks wise and the actors are okay non-big names but there is something special about some of the snippets of conversation you get on this film which feel a head of their time for the 40s. There's certainly a propaganda element to them, don't like how the German stories are handled here, a post-war anti-war version of this film would probably be more humanistic in that regard, but there's enough tidbits of humanism you don't get in more cynical Hitchcock films. They're tidbits not fully explored though as the length is around 100 mins.

 

[Sentinel]

The Invisble Guest (2017). In Spanish with subtitles. A young businessman wakes up in a locked hotel room next to his dead mistress. He hires a prestigious lawyer to defend him, and they are trying to solve this mystery. The biggest mystery here is how this movie ended up with an 86% audience approval on Rotten Tomatoes. It has it all: terrible acting, crappy story, the gray color palette, and every twist seen a mile away. As lame as they come. 4/10
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Trans-Siberian Express (1977). An old Soviet mystery film that is surprisingly good. In 1920s Manchuria a local club owner is blackmailed to take a secret (and a very long) train ride that involves a conspiracy to assassinate a Japanese businessman. Good acting, nice pacing, and lots of attention to details. Unavoidably, some Soviet cliches are present but they are kept to a minimum. Very enjoyable. 7/10
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Munich: The Edge of War (2021). A total disaster of a movie. The choppiest editing I have ever seen. Everybody is trying to make another , and it’s extremely taxing on the eyes. British PM Neville Chamberlain is trying to appease Hitler by surrendering him the Sudetenland. Two young diplomats, one English and one German, are working to derail this process. Yes, this shameful historical event needed to be put on film but this particular execution is terrible. It has it all: bad acting, lots of plot holes, and two people playing amateur spies and openly discussing government secrets in pubs full of people in the city crawling with spies and counter-spies. This movie will give you a headache in more ways than one. The only redeeming thing is Jeremy Irons playing Chamberlain. This role fits him like a glove. 4/10