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

[ItsFineImFine]

Rat Race (2001) - 7.5/10

The journey was better than the um...ending. It needs a remake as I previoiusly said this film should be re-done every 20-30 years, we end with a song at a very 2000s Smashmouth concert lmao. The stunts are not as good as the original imo but the characters have been given a lot more depth while the runtime was thankfully trimmed.

 

[Chili]

The Great Train Robbery-1978

In 1855, a small group makes plans to attempt robbing a moving train carrying a large gold shipment headed from London to Paris (via Folkestone and Boulogne). Would be the first robbery of it's type if successful. The smooth talking Sean Connery leads the group aided by the maker of keys, Donald Sutherland. Connery pulls off a very dangerous stunt himself, on top of a train going 40-50 mph. The film is told more as a comedy but the real event is more interesting: Great Gold Robbery - Wikipedia

Kotch-1971

An elderly man (Walter Matthau}, living with his son, daughter in-law and grandson is getting in the way. His family encourages him to consider a retirement residence but he still feels pretty spry and decides to take a trip. The only film directed by Jack Lemmon which gave him a chance to work with his good buddy. He also cast his wife, Felicia Farr as Walter's daughter in-law. Larry Linville has a bit part and can see signs of the future Frank Burns. Matthau is in fine comic form. Good film.

Whistle Down the Wind-1961

Three kids find a stranger in their barn. Believing that he is Jesus, they agree to keep it a secret. Based on a novel written by the mother of one of the stars of the film, Hayley Mills. The 'man on the run' theme seemed popular at the time (i.e. films like Rapture, Cul-De-Sac, the tv series The Fugitive...). The kids and all the cast are very good including Bernard Lee (M from the Bond films) as the Dad. A reminder of how naive many of us were when we were young and how we found adventure in different places. Interesting story, very well done.

 

[No Fun Shogun]

Cocaine Bear - 8/10

Just a dumb, fun flick. Solid. Plus, only 95 minutes long? Killer.

Also had the most red band trailers attached to a single movie I've ever seen.

 

[Thucydides]

Banshees of Inshirin

Great movie- love the allegory story telling! This is my pick to win the Oscar. Still haven't seen Everything everywhere yet.

Oscar best movie watched and ranked

Banshees
All quiet
Elvis
Women talking
Top Gun

 

[Osprey]

Knock at the Cabin (2023) - 5/10

Four armed strangers (Dave Bautista, Ron Weasley and two others) show up at a cabin in the woods and insist that the family inside make a choice. Like many of M. Night Shyamalan's films, it starts strong, but gradually becomes more unbelievable and ends with more questions than answers. The first 30 minutes were the best part of the film due to the mystery and tension surrounding what the strangers want. After that, though, it was pretty predictable, no longer suspenseful and hard to take seriously. I found myself laughing a lot, even though the story and directing were deadly serious. I kept waiting for something to happen that would surprise me and it never came. I never imagined that a Shyamalan film would be lacking in twists and turns. In place of trying to surprise viewers, it felt like he was trying to make them think, but there isn't that much to think about. Apparently, the novel that the film is based on is rather philosophical, but not much of it made it into the film. Thankfully, the acting is pretty good, particularly from Bautista and the little girl. That and the fact that I found the plot unintentionally amusing made it easy enough to watch, but still ultimately disappointing, like most of Shyamalan's films in the last 20 years.

 

[sr edler]

Citizen Kane (1941) by Orson Welles – 3.5/10

So, I finally decided to watch this one, and..... my god was it not very good at all.

Especially the final 30 minutes were brutal, it was essentially just Orson and his wife talking very loud and obnoxiously to each other. And dragged out pointless scenes with some nice jigsaw puzzles.

I think this is the 4th Welles film I've seen, and easily the worst one. Touch of Evil, The Lady from Shanghai and Mr. Arkadin, I've all liked those films to various degrees.

I think there were 10 minutes or so somewhere in the first half of this film, where it felt mildly engaging, but other than that.... yikes.

This film has some nice photography, and some nice camera angles and stuff, but other than that it's just a real pain in your ass. Or in my ass at least.

I was about to make a joke about Kane being bitter over the Montreal Canadiens winning the 1916 Stanley Cup over the Portland Rosebuds, but even the recurring symbolism of a lost childhood was just way over-explicit and spelled out.

 

[nameless1]

Anyone have any films where the commentary is worth watching on Criterion Channel? I probably will get bored part-way in but I've never listened to a film commentary so might as well try to learn something.

Power of The Dog (2021) - 6/10

Cumberbatch is the only one given anything interesting to do here. The rest is an experiment in patience, a film that makes you feel uncomfortable but without any real payoff. Sort of less than the sum of its parts. Also part of the hypothesis that if you set a film in the West, it's usually better if it's a thriller than a drama excluding the classic types.

Personally, I like it a lot. It is on the slow side, but the story engrossed me enough that I barely noticed the speed, and I am a person who has a lot of trouble with slow cinema. Like OzzyFan stated, I like how Champion presented the relationship dynamics and the message of toxic masculinity, and while I did not like the ending, it was more of a personal preference, and the twist is indeed a worthy payoff.

 

[kihei]

Cocaine Bear (2023) Directed by Elizabeth Banks 5A

A crazed drug dealer throws a large shipment of cocaine from a plane and it lands in a Georgia state park where a bear becomes quickly addicted. This has nasty consequences for various bad guys and passers-by, The natural comparison here is obviously Snakes on a Plane and Cocaine Bear is way more fun. The movie is a mix of comedy and very, very light horror with a dollop of gore thrown in for good measure. We meet a number of characters who make their way into the nature preserve including a mom and two young teens, three dumb local hoods, a pair of drug dealers, a detective, and a forest ranger with romance on her mind. Some of the characters work better than others and the one-liners are not going to remind anybody of Dorothy Parker. But some of the situations are truly funny. Director Elizabeth Banks brings a nice, breezy approach to the shenanigans keeping things light and briskly moving along at a rapid rate. The bear has some funny moments, too, and I was rooting for her as much as anybody else in the movie. And at 95 minutes, Cocaine Bear doesn't overstay its welcome. I enjoyed myself; there are worse ways to kill an hour and a half.

 

[ItsFineImFine]

Ant-Man 3 (2023) - 6/10

Not the worse Marvel film imo but possibly the most bland and I blame the direction and script. I don't mean plot holes, I can suspend my disbelief beyond what you can believe, I mean the actual dialogue. Absolute dogshit dialogue dumbed down to the level that I think even 10 year old me would've found it cheesy, this is aimed at 6 year olds. Michael Douglas' lines for example are just a series of lame one-liners. Someone called it a mix of Spy Kids and they're right, I always thought the Spy Kids films were hokey garbage as a child. There's a very good villain and a good story going around him but they rush that at the end too.

This issue permeates through Phase 4 or 5 or whatever they're currently in. The stories have gotten more complex but the dialogue has gotten worse. And because of how complex the stories have gotten, the way to resolve them has gotten worse too and the plots have gotten more outlandish. Just give us a good solid more down-to-earth thriller like Civil War or Winter Soldier again.

Also TIL I have light sensitivity to the point of probably not being able to watch this sort of film in an early matinee again so I got that going for me

Citizen Kane (1941) by Orson Welles – 3.5/10

I've seen quite a bit of Kane's work and while it's all very interesting and intriguing, it's usually quite dull outside of maybe The Stranger and that Shanghai film and that's because those two followed a more straightforward path. The Third Man is also great obviously but don't know if he played any role in its direction. I don't think much of his work was successful at the time because there were just far more fun movies for people to go watch in the actual theatre.

 

[KallioWeHardlyKnewYe]

El. Got to see a screening of a "rare" and recently restored Luis Bunuel film. Rare not so much in that it isn't known, but more because there haven't been good copies of it for a long time so it's maybe a little lost in the shuffle with his more accessible films. It's a very focused portrait of a man consumed by paranoia that his wife is cheating on him. A tight, gripping character drama. One of the striking things is that though its thematically very Bunuel, style-wise you might be fooled it's him ... at least until a darkly funny sequence toward the end.

Fun side note, got to meet filmmaking legend Guy Maddin who was at the screening. He liked the movie.

 

[Osprey]

Cocaine Bear (2023) Directed by Elizabeth Shue 5A

A crazed drug dealer throws a large shipment of cocaine from a plane and it lands in a Georgia state park where a bear becomes quickly addicted. This has nasty consequences for various bad guys and passers-by, The natural comparison here is obviously Snakes on a Plane and Cocaine Bear is way more fun. The movie is a mix of comedy and very, very light horror with a dollop of gore thrown in for good measure. We meet a number of characters who make their way into the nature preserve including a mom and two young teens, three dumb local hoods, a pair of drug dealers, a detective, and a forest ranger with romance on her mind. Some of the characters work better than others and the one-liners are not going to remind anybody of Dorothy Parker. But some of the situations are truly funny. Director Elizabeth Shue brings a nice, breezy approach to the shenanigans keeping things light and briskly moving along at a rapid rate. The bear has some funny moments, too, and I was rooting for her as much as anybody else in the movie. And at 95 minutes, Cocaine Bear doesn't overstay its welcome. I enjoyed myself; there are worse ways to kill an hour and a half.

Were you snorting with laughter?

I'm enjoying the thought of you walking up to the ticket booth in a turtleneck and moccasins and saying, "Two for Cocaine Bear, please."

 

[OzzyFan]

Cocaine Bear - 8/10

Just a dumb, fun flick. Solid. Plus, only 95 minutes long? Killer.

Also had the most red band trailers attached to a single movie I've ever seen.

Cocaine Bear (2023) Directed by Elizabeth Shue 5A

A crazed drug dealer throws a large shipment of cocaine from a plane and it lands in a Georgia state park where a bear becomes quickly addicted. This has nasty consequences for various bad guys and passers-by, The natural comparison here is obviously Snakes on a Plane and Cocaine Bear is way more fun. The movie is a mix of comedy and very, very light horror with a dollop of gore thrown in for good measure. We meet a number of characters who make their way into the nature preserve including a mom and two young teens, three dumb local hoods, a pair of drug dealers, a detective, and a forest ranger with romance on her mind. Some of the characters work better than others and the one-liners are not going to remind anybody of Dorothy Parker. But some of the situations are truly funny. Director Elizabeth Banks brings a nice, breezy approach to the shenanigans keeping things light and briskly moving along at a rapid rate. The bear has some funny moments, too, and I was rooting for her as much as anybody else in the movie. And at 95 minutes, Cocaine Bear doesn't overstay its welcome. I enjoyed myself; there are worse ways to kill an hour and a half.

So the consensus is good and fun dumb? I liked it, but it's definitely a 5/10 movie. The highs are fun, the situations as stated are funny, the underutilized little kid is hilarious, but there's also a lot of borderline cringe-worthy/corny material inside.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Fun side note, got to meet filmmaking legend Guy Maddin who was at the screening. He liked the movie.

Niiiiiice!

 

[nameless1]

Cocaine Bear (2023) Directed by Elizabeth Shue 5A

A crazed drug dealer throws a large shipment of cocaine from a plane and it lands in a Georgia state park where a bear becomes quickly addicted. This has nasty consequences for various bad guys and passers-by, The natural comparison here is obviously Snakes on a Plane and Cocaine Bear is way more fun. The movie is a mix of comedy and very, very light horror with a dollop of gore thrown in for good measure. We meet a number of characters who make their way into the nature preserve including a mom and two young teens, three dumb local hoods, a pair of drug dealers, a detective, and a forest ranger with romance on her mind. Some of the characters work better than others and the one-liners are not going to remind anybody of Dorothy Parker. But some of the situations are truly funny. Director Elizabeth Shue brings a nice, breezy approach to the shenanigans keeping things light and briskly moving along at a rapid rate. The bear has some funny moments, too, and I was rooting for her as much as anybody else in the movie. And at 95 minutes, Cocaine Bear doesn't overstay its welcome. I enjoyed myself; there are worse ways to kill an hour and a half.

The movie is directed by Elizabeth Banks, not Shue.

 

[Martinez]

I really enjoyed cocaine bear, after the first 15 minutes or so I was thinking oh no this movie might really suck because not all the jokes were hitting but there’s some undeniably wild/hilarious scenes. Probably not a movie you need to see in the theater but still one to stream and enjoy on your own time

 

[kihei]

Were you snorting with laughter?

I'm enjoying the thought of you walking up to the ticket booth in a turtleneck and moccasins and saying, "Two for Cocaine Bear, please."

I asked my partner but she thought the movie might bruin her day.

 

[kihei]

The movie is directed by Elizabeth Banks, not Shue.

Oh, damn. Bear with me. Will fix.

I really enjoyed cocaine bear, after the first 15 minutes or so I was thinking oh no this movie might really suck because not all the jokes were hitting but there’s some undeniably wild/hilarious scenes. Probably not a movie you need to see in the theater but still one to stream and enjoy on your own time

Yea, Matty. Love the avatar. I'm a Kraken fan.

 

[kihei]

View attachment 651487

Infinity Pool (2023) - 4/10

Vacationing at a secluded beach resort in a tiny nation, a struggling writer (Alexander Skarsgård), his wife, another tourist (Mia Goth) and her husband experience a terrible accident that exposes them to horrific local customs. The latest horror film from Brandon Cronenberg starts promisingly enough with an unsettling atmosphere and a shocking early development, but then doesn't really develop after that and just becomes scene after scene of violence, drug trips, nudity and gore with barely any story behind it all. There's apparent social commentary about how the rich can buy their way out of trouble, but it gets lost in the confusing events, intense imagery and implausibility of the premise. I stuck it out, waiting for the big twist or payoff that I assumed was coming. Instead, the same twist happens over and over again and then the movie just ends. There's no big reveal, no resolution of conflict, no payoff. Skarsgård and Goth are both pretty good, but don't have much to work with. Goth gets to be seductive and a bit crazy, which she's good at, but Skarsgård spends the whole film as one of the most pathetic characters that I've ever seen. I guess that he wanted something really different after playing a Viking warrior in The Northman, but his character is so pathetic that I never had any sympathy for him and everything in the story happens only because he doesn't stand up for himself. It got pretty irritating. In summary, it's a film without much plot or character development, but a lot of intense scenes for the sake of shock value. The apple didn't fall far from the tree, but at least the David Cronenberg films that I've seen have had solid plots to tie all of the weird and extreme stuff together. Perhaps Brandon should take a cue from his father's best films and work with co-writers in the future.

Could not agree with you more.

 

[Pink Mist]

Fun side note, got to meet filmmaking legend Guy Maddin who was at the screening. He liked the movie.

You're the 2nd person I know in the past week who has got to meet Guy Maddin (went on a date with someone this weekend who got to do a podcast episode with him!).

I'm very jealous

 

[ItsFineImFine]

The Awful Truth (1937) - 7/10, maybe?

This is a fairly standard enjoyable Carry Grant film. Shockingly blunt in some regards compared to maybe even stuff from the 50s and generally quite fun. More dialogue than screwball. The only problem? I've apparently seen it according to the site I use to track/rate films I've watched but I have 0 recollection. You know how sometimes you get the familiar feeling of deja-vu at least when you re-watch something? I didn't even experience that and it's not like I saw it when I was a kid, I watched it in late 2018 apparently. So it must be a very forgettable film if I forget having watched it but at the same time, I thought it was better than the previous rating I attributed to it so...

La Vie De Boheme (1992) - 7.5/10

Kaurisamaki makes a French New-Wave film but it's a parody, or is it? It's really quite hard to tell with his deadpan style but I'm fairly sure this is supposed to be more on the comedic side. Characters which are as cold and flat as a plank for the most part but which feel a lot of emotions, it's a weird combo but I like it. Does lose points though for tricking me into thinking I'd be watching a Finnish film when it's just a French film from a Finnish director with some Finnish actors who clearly don't speak French as a first language.

 

[KallioWeHardlyKnewYe]

You're the 2nd person I know in the past week who has got to meet Guy Maddin (went on a date with someone this weekend who got to do a podcast episode with him!).

I'm very jealous

I wanted to talk to him about The Forbidden Room so bad but didn't want to bother him beyond a quick compliment and question about El.

 

[Osprey]

The Awful Truth (1937) - 7/10, maybe?

This is a fairly standard enjoyable Carry Grant film. Shockingly blunt in some regards compared to maybe even stuff from the 50s and generally quite fun. More dialogue than screwball. The only problem? I've apparently seen it according to the site I use to track/rate films I've watched but I have 0 recollection. You know how sometimes you get the familiar feeling of deja-vu at least when you re-watch something? I didn't even experience that and it's not like I saw it when I was a kid, I watched it in late 2018 apparently. So it must be a very forgettable film if I forget having watched it but at the same time, I thought it was better than the previous rating I attributed to it so...

The awful truth is that you're not alone. I did close to the same thing last month. You might recall my review for All Is Lost, in which I mentioned that I didn't realize that I'd seen it until the very last scene of the movie. I reached the same conclusion that I must've found it that forgettable. I didn't rate it the first time, so I'm not sure if I liked it more or less, but I think that I liked it a little less the second time, probably because I'd seen all of the situations in it before, even if I didn't realize it at the time.

 

[Babe Ruth]

Prisoners of the Sun (2014)

Had a sinking feeling this would be terrible.. and it was.

I'm a sucker for made-for-TV disaster movies, and a collapsing pyramid intrigued me, but this was really dull. It's the kind of Indiana Jones imitator that makes Crystal Skull look like Citizen Kane.

 

[KallioWeHardlyKnewYe]

All Quiet on the Western Front. (the new one). From Saving Private Ryan on we've been in this age of "war is brutal" extreme filmmaking. I'm not saying each successive film is trying to one-up the prior one in the 25+ years since, but I ain't saying they ain't. Black Hawk Down, Hacksaw Ridge, 1917, to name a few prominent ones, and now this one all are made by people completely aware of the previous movies.

I think I'm just burned out and the more I see the more the cynical part of me takes over. When I see a tank slowly roll over a soldier and pop him like a balloon (which happens here) I no longer think, "Shit man, war is AWFUL" I think "the director thought that effect was cool." This very well may be cruel and unfair on my part. I'm not exactly turning into Truffaut here and claiming all war movies to be "pro" war, but directors are very pro directing war movies. It might be the most "show off" genre in film when it comes to a certain kind of filmmaking.

To what end? To convey that war is hell? I agree. I've seen it. Repeatedly. This is better than some, worse than others, but it's so repetitive that I can't help but feel it's about the people making it more than the product itself. You may have seen a solider wallow in the mud for 10 minutes while they're slowly dying but you haven't seen ME do a scene where a solider wallows in mud for 10 minutes while they're slowly dying.

This may very well be more about me than the film. I'm burned out. That's fair.

The movie does have a few other flaws though. There are a couple of changes from the book that I really hated. It's not that I demand fealty to the source, but one change feels unnecessary, the other, ironically, I would argue LESSENS the impact of the story, not increases it.

The first is the weaving in of scenes of politicians trying to negotiate a truce. Despite the presence of a great actor like Daniel Bruhl, I thought these really drew out a point that was evident in the main story (or just, you know, life) and didn't need to be drawn out. That it adds time to what already felt like the longest 2.5 hour movie I've ever seen just doubles the problem.

The second is a couple of death scenes. Won't say who so as to avoid spoilers. But there's a randomness to events in the book that make the outcomes all the more tragic. Here that randomness is traded for some action-based reasons and it completely undercuts the real tragedy of these things. Bullets and knives move arbitrarily in the book. They move for reasons here. And that kinda whiffs on the point IMO.

Cool brutal fight scene though bro.

 

[NyQuil]

I kind of like the novelty of rooting for the "bad guys" at least from a historical perspective.

Unsurprisingly, most English language war movies have the anglosphere as the "good guys".

But who was hoping that the Nazi submarine in Das Boot would make it through the Gibraltar strait?

Or that poor Kat would get to go back to his wife in All Quiet on the Western Front?

It's an important reminder that a lot of the political decisions are made by individuals but it's just ordinary men and women who get caught up in the destruction.