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

[PocketNines]

Have been watching Robert Ryan films of late, enjoyed them all (Act of Violence, The Racket, On Dangerous Ground, Crossfire, Berlin Express, The Iceman Cometh). Odds against Tomorrow reunited the Roberts, Wise and Ryan from The Set-Up (one of Martin Scorcese's favorite films). Unlike on screen, Harry Belafonte and Robert Ryan became friends in real life.

I love Robert Ryan and have a special fondness for progressive white men who went to Dartmouth. He won four boxing titles; I left behind a 30-year tennis ball tradition with Dartmouth hockey.

As of now (still a final 100-to-1 rewatch to make final adjustments ahead) I have Act of Violence #29, Odds Against Tomorrow #32, The Set-Up #70.

He's also in Clash by Night (1952), which starts out like it's going to be the best noir ever for an hour before it becomes a totally different kind of film. Caught (1949) is a great Cinderella noir with Ryan as a Howard Hughes figure. The Woman on the Beach (1947) is meh. I Married a Communist (1949) is pretty reprehensible. House of Bamboo (1955) has some memorable scenes and is a Sam Fuller heist ride through Japan.

I haven't seen Berlin Express or The Racket but will eventually. The Iceman Cometh I'll see someday too.

Crossfire is great but ending keeps it off.

On Dangerous Ground I have seen twice for this project and it's brought me to tears twice. I love the film. Ryan's & Lupino's acting in this is first rate. The ending is just a form of hugely welcome relief from unrelenting doom and I am probably more actively struggling with what to do with this as doom noir than any other film. It's a taut, lean thriller. It's a "happy" ending but it plays as relief for the two loneliest people in the world. I am not a fan of violent cops and I'm not super excited about his "why do you make me do it" rationale in the outset but it's clear this is a PTSD situation and likely from WWII and that's the essence of noir protagonists reacting to a violent doomed world that feels out of control (there's a reason I'm doing this project!). It's on a list of about 30 films that are queued up for about 7 open spots on the list. I feel like 93 films have secured spots.

Speaking of one of Scorsese's favorite films I have The Phenix City Story on my very short moral exclusion list since it the hero was a real life Alabama Klan attorney general and Klan governor. To make a semi-documentary hagiography film of a heroic Klanned up white man in the year of Claudette Colvin and Rosa Parks makes it a morally excluded film. Just, no. We are far more doomed that this real man was alive than anything that happened in the film. I take Scorsese's singlehanded championing of this film to be a further sign he is chaotic neutral. He also loved Force of Evil which was a true achievement in bravery by Polonsky to kick a conservative cancel culture freight train in the teeth like that using a freaking Bible parable no less.

 

[VanIslander]

The Last Duel.

Starring Adam Driver, Matt Damon, with Ben Affleck. Directed by Ridley Scott.

A very good DRAMA dressed up like an action movie. It is not slow. It tells a story of a sort of love triangle, first from Damon's character's perspective, then retold from Driver's, then finally from the woman's.

The movie is an A-.

It was great to see the differences of each telling of the story, the different acting impression, scenes. The script is an A+.

I think the direction was very good, with even different camera angles reflecting different perspectives. And the acting was subtle but clear! Not flat and not overdone (not at all a Michael Bay type film).

But I felt the story could have been a bit edited down, tighter, to put it in a timeless classic category, as 2.5 hours it didn't justify (it wasn't boring but lacked enough peak dramatic moments to justify such drawn-out storytelling). So, instead of four stars, it gets three and a half.

Worth watching though!

 

[Chili]

I love Robert Ryan and have a special fondness for progressive white men who went to Dartmouth. He won four boxing titles; I left behind a 30-year tennis ball tradition with Dartmouth hockey.

As of now (still a final 100-to-1 rewatch to make final adjustments ahead) I have Act of Violence #29, Odds Against Tomorrow #32, The Set-Up #70.

He's also in Clash by Night (1952), which starts out like it's going to be the best noir ever for an hour before it becomes a totally different kind of film. Caught (1949) is a great Cinderella noir with Ryan as a Howard Hughes figure. The Woman on the Beach (1947) is meh. I Married a Communist (1949) is pretty reprehensible. House of Bamboo (1955) has some memorable scenes and is a Sam Fuller heist ride through Japan.

I haven't seen Berlin Express or The Racket but will eventually. The Iceman Cometh I'll see someday too.

Crossfire is great but ending keeps it off.

On Dangerous Ground I have seen twice for this project and it's brought me to tears twice. I love the film. Ryan's & Lupino's acting in this is first rate. The ending is just a form of hugely welcome relief from unrelenting doom and I am probably more actively struggling with what to do with this as doom noir than any other film. It's a taut, lean thriller. It's a "happy" ending but it plays as relief for the two loneliest people in the world. I am not a fan of violent cops and I'm not super excited about his "why do you make me do it" rationale in the outset but it's clear this is a PTSD situation and likely from WWII and that's the essence of noir protagonists reacting to a violent doomed world that feels out of control (there's a reason I'm doing this project!). It's on a list of about 30 films that are queued up for about 7 open spots on the list. I feel like 93 films have secured spots.

Speaking of one of Scorsese's favorite films I have The Phenix City Story on my very short moral exclusion list since it the hero was a real life Alabama Klan attorney general and Klan governor. To make a semi-documentary hagiography film of a heroic Klanned up white man in the year of Claudette Colvin and Rosa Parks makes it a morally excluded film. Just, no. We are far more doomed that this real man was alive than anything that happened in the film. I take Scorsese's singlehanded championing of this film to be a further sign he is chaotic neutral. He also loved Force of Evil which was a true achievement in bravery by Polonsky to kick a conservative cancel culture freight train in the teeth like that using a freaking Bible parable no less.

Caught and House of Bamboo are on my list to check out. I'm sure that I have seen Clash by Night but it must have been a long time ago. The Racket may be dated but I enjoyed watching Mitchum and Ryan go up against each other. The Iceman Cometh is a play and it's long. Lee Marvin is the star but for me it's Robert Ryan's film, I believe he knew he didn't have long to live while it was being filmed which made some of his lines poignant.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (Burr, 1990) - Jeff Burr started as a journeyman director, a doer who's been responsible for quite a few very forgettable sequels. This ain't no exception. Of course, following the disaster that was the second film of the series, this one feels like a masterpiece, but it really is a producers' movie, with no personality or originality (the characters are for most some kind of variations on characters from the previous two films). Contrarily to the second Hooper Chainsaw film, which built it's whole scare tactics on characters coming in the frame unexpectedly (breaking a door, through a wall, from the ceiling, out of a dark background), this one tries to build some atmosphere - but it never really works. It starts on a useless allusion to A Nightmare On Elm Street, and the film feels like it's trying to get closer to that type of horror (the introduction of the little girl with the scary doll could have been from a Nightmare film). It has ok performances (including an early one from Viggo Mortensen), and a fun cheapo soundtrack (including a Death Angel song that's still to this day in my regular rotation), but really nothing more. I'll boost it by 0.5 for nostalgia. 3.5/10

 

[Osprey]

I always know that a Pranzo review is about to follow by the nature of the image that precedes it.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

I always know that a Pranzo review is about to follow by the nature of the image that precedes it.

At first, I thought "who cares if I can't like posts, what kind of punishment is that?", but now I realize how many posts I'd just leave a like on and it's getting on my nerves not be able to! And it's until May! These guys here have no chill!

Anyway, I'm pretty sure my very distinctive avatar must help too! I should launch a contest: what movie is that still from?

 

[Osprey]

At first, I thought "who cares if I can't like posts, what kind of punishment is that?", but now I realize how many posts I'd just leave a like on and it's getting on my nerves not be able to! And it's until May! These guys here have no chill!

Anyway, I'm pretty sure my very distinctive avatar must help too! I should launch a contest: what movie is that still from?

Sorry if I contributed to your torture. I'll try to not say anything that you'll like until May.

I actually have avatars turned off, so the images in posts are the first things that catch my eye when I'm scrolling down.

 

[PocketNines]

Caught and House of Bamboo are on my list to check out. I'm sure that I have seen Clash by Night but it must have been a long time ago. The Racket may be dated but I enjoyed watching Mitchum and Ryan go up against each other. The Iceman Cometh is a play and it's long. Lee Marvin is the star but for me it's Robert Ryan's film, I believe he knew he didn't have long to live while it was being filmed which made some of his lines poignant.

Caught is good enough to make the top 100 as a film but you'll see why it's not when you watch it. It's a contribution to the genre for its woman protagonist.

Three of such pictures I have not finally resolved what to do with are more modern neo noir. I consider the femme fatale a pure style feature and not at all core to the substance of noir; substantively this character is the "last person you want to meet" character and is often a man. Thelma & Louise is a real landmark contribution on doom noir substance and is just riven with noir subversion but has execution problems. It's been on the list and off the list. I have pages of notes on it and still haven't resolved where to put it. Winter's Bone is a woman needing to get to the bottom of a crime not for some existential midlife crisis man reason but to literally survive and protect her vulnerable siblings; it's Ozark noir and there's no Julia Garner role in Ozark without it. Gone Girl which I have seen once and it was intense for me personally not least of which because it was shot where I grew up; I need to see it again on an even keel to judge it properly. All three of these are in the group for final review. Femme Fatale was enjoyable but the ending keeps it off.

 

[OzzyFan]

The Seventh Seal (1957) (Subtitles)
3.70 out of 4stars

"In the 14th century, a knight returning to Sweden after the Crusades seeks answers about life, death, and the existence of God as he plays chess against the Grim Reaper during the Black Plague."
An excellent existential fantasy drama that's a beautifully intelligent examination on death, faith, and religion's (Christianity's) impact on individuals and groups of people around the world. This is genius from Bergman. I was personally extremely moved by the monologue/dialogue combo by von Sydow's character and death early on in a church. The honest truths and self-concerns regarding God's existence, faith, morality, proof/tangibility, afterlife, death, prayers, guilt /repentance /penance /redemption, human suffering, life's tests/challenges, wars and acts in religion's name, dogma, and life's meaning were poetically brilliant and is full of ideas that every theist, atheist, and agnostic should contemplate to some degree at some point in their life. The rest of the film manages to expand on examining those ideas also while bringing more to the table, including metaphors, symbolism, and some surprising bits of dark dry wit sprinkled in. Definitely an intellectually and emotionally fulfilling movie that I'd suggest to anyone who's had interest on life's great existential questions.

Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
3.20 out of 4stars

"A private detective Mike Hammer picks up a deathly frightened mysterious woman hitchhiking on the highway wearing only a trench coat. A little while later, unknown men murder the woman and knock Mike unconscious, and attempt to fake both their deaths as a reckless off road traffic accident. Mike lives and dives head first into investigating the circumstances surrounding this situation fate has thrown him in."
A great noir mystery thriller that follows an anti-hero detective down a smartly intricate dirty path drenched in physical violence and murder. Dark and stylish and gets the job done by any means necessary just like it's protagonist, while pushing the envelope to controversial means for it's time (including some offscreen stuff you can only imagine), it delivers on everything you could want from it's premise and genre categorizations. Detective Hammer is combination of fearlessness, toughness, lawlessness, and sly wickedness that can and will do anything to get what he wants, a character you can't take your eyes off of that's been attempted but rarely effectively mastered like it has been here in endless amounts of action/crime movies. And to steal what other's have said about this one, since I have no more notable personal thoughts and because I can't really categorize it any better, "it's a nihilistic, fatalistic, cynical, brutal, and an apocalyptic metaphor for the cold war and it's fear/paranoia/actions encircling it". I can't understand why some have given it a sci-fi tagging, when imo there is nothing of the sort in the movie. This movie was also supposedly a huge influence in theme and style on French New Wave, including directors named Godard and Truffaut, and Tarantino's film Pulp Fiction.

The Set-Up (1949)
2.90 out of 4stars

"Expecting the usual loss, a boxing manager takes bribes from a betting gangster without telling his aging fighter about it."
A great sports noir film that excellently depicts the grimy world of low-end professional boxing alongside a troublesome scenario (well, grimy at least in the time period the movie takes place). Nothing is even remotely pretty about this world, from the glorified relentlessly violent fights, to the greedy scheming managers, to the bruised and beaten down to sometimes seriously injured fighters, to the hole in the wall locker rooms with short staffed universal trainers, to the small smoke ladened and jam packed arena, to the all encapsulating unwholesome audience. The audience felt like they were a modernized form of bloodthirsty Colosseum gladiator spectors. The members of this audience include low end corruption-inducing gangsters, gambling addicts, injury-seekers, cigar cloud creating smokers, street peddlers, gluttonous heathens, obsessors, and attention seeking women. As you can see, the setting and mood are top notch. The fight scenes are realistic too, including the main bout that spans about 20minutes, and they should be given Robert Ryan's collegiate boxing success and the choreographer being a professional boxer himself. That said, there is a glimmer of hope shed here and there. The main character specifically "has a puncher's chance" in even the worst odds, long shots hit every now and then, and the desire to end his career and settle down with his love interest in another profession after he earns enough purse money. Perseverance is the definition of Ryan, and you'd have to argue most boxers that carve a career, successfully or unsuccessfully, out of this physically debilitating sport.

Jackass Forever (2022)
2.35 out of 4stars

"Celebrating the joy of being back together with your best friends and a perfectly executed shot to the dingdong, the original jackass crew return for another round of hilarious, wildly absurd, and often dangerous displays of comedy with a little help from some exciting new cast."
It's stupid, it's silly, it's got way too many genitalia jokes, and you couldn't pay me enough to do almost everything they do, but I still laughed at most of it's stunts. Guilty pleasure stuff.

 

[kihei]

Flee (2021) Directed by Jonas Poher Rasmussen 7A

Flee is an extremely rare triple threat at the Oscars this year, nominated in best international film, best documentary film and best animated film categories. This Danish film tells the story of Amin, a lonely Afghan refugee, from early childhood through to eventually secure adulthood. It is a journey that takes Amin from Afghanistan to Russia, Turkey, Estonia, Demark, and Sweden. Flee finds an interesting way to demonstrate what it is like to be a refugee and what the many horrors are that refuges face before they are ever lucky enough to find a safe haven: there is no place you can call your home; your safety and security are permanently at risk; the well-being of your family is always fraught with potential disaster; and you must deal with some of the worst people in the world including the early Taliban, brutally corrupt Russian cops and heartless human traffickers. Amin is also gay, making him even more vulnerable in these circumstances, but with the help of his beleaguered family, he slowly manages to inch forward.

The first three quarters of the film that detail Amin’s harrowing experiences before he arrives in Denmark are as educational as they are compelling, didacticism being part of the point of the film and justifiably so. The final quarter of the film dealing with Amin’s current problems, which boil down pretty much to managing his relationships and his work, seem mundanely common place when compared with the hell he went through previously. That shift in focus undercuts the power of the movie slightly. Like Waltzing with Bashir, another serious animated work, one which dealt with a group of Israeli soldiers suffering post-traumatic stress syndrome because of their participation in a war crime, animation proves a very good means of acquiring some distance on a narrative that might be otherwise emotionally overwhelming. Despite its subject matter, Flee is not a chore to sit through in the least--it's a movie that very much deserves to be seen.

TIFF.net

 

[PocketNines]

The Seventh Seal (1957) (Subtitles)
3.70 out of 4stars

"In the 14th century, a knight returning to Sweden after the Crusades seeks answers about life, death, and the existence of God as he plays chess against the Grim Reaper during the Black Plague."
An excellent existential fantasy drama that's a beautifully intelligent examination on death, faith, and religion's (Christianity's) impact on individuals and groups of people around the world. This is genius from Bergman. I was personally extremely moved by the monologue/dialogue combo by von Sydow's character and death early on in a church. The honest truths and self-concerns regarding God's existence, faith, morality, proof/tangibility, afterlife, death, prayers, guilt /repentance /penance /redemption, human suffering, life's tests/challenges, wars and acts in religion's name, dogma, and life's meaning were poetically brilliant and is full of ideas that every theist, atheist, and agnostic should contemplate to some degree at some point in their life. The rest of the film manages to expand on examining those ideas also while bringing more to the table, including metaphors, symbolism, and some surprising bits of dark dry wit sprinkled in. Definitely an intellectually and emotionally fulfilling movie that I'd suggest to anyone who's had interest on life's great existential questions.

Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
3.20 out of 4stars

"A private detective Mike Hammer picks up a deathly frightened mysterious woman hitchhiking on the highway wearing only a trench coat. A little while later, unknown men murder the woman and knock Mike unconscious, and attempt to fake both their deaths as a reckless off road traffic accident. Mike lives and dives head first into investigating the circumstances surrounding this situation fate has thrown him in."
A great noir mystery thriller that follows an anti-hero detective down a smartly intricate dirty path drenched in physical violence and murder. Dark and stylish and gets the job done by any means necessary just like it's protagonist, while pushing the envelope to controversial means for it's time (including some offscreen stuff you can only imagine), it delivers on everything you could want from it's premise and genre categorizations. Detective Hammer is combination of fearlessness, toughness, lawlessness, and sly wickedness that can and will do anything to get what he wants, a character you can't take your eyes off of that's been attempted but rarely effectively mastered like it has been here in endless amounts of action/crime movies. And to steal what other's have said about this one, since I have no more notable personal thoughts and because I can't really categorize it any better, "it's a nihilistic, fatalistic, cynical, brutal, and an apocalyptic metaphor for the cold war and it's fear/paranoia/actions encircling it". I can't understand why some have given it a sci-fi tagging, when imo there is nothing of the sort in the movie. This movie was also supposedly a huge influence in theme and style on French New Wave, including directors named Godard and Truffaut, and Tarantino's film Pulp Fiction.

The Set-Up (1949)
2.90 out of 4stars

"Expecting the usual loss, a boxing manager takes bribes from a betting gangster without telling his aging fighter about it."
A great sports noir film that excellently depicts the grimy world of low-end professional boxing alongside a troublesome scenario (well, grimy at least in the time period the movie takes place). Nothing is even remotely pretty about this world, from the glorified relentlessly violent fights, to the greedy scheming managers, to the bruised and beaten down to sometimes seriously injured fighters, to the hole in the wall locker rooms with short staffed universal trainers, to the small smoke ladened and jam packed arena, to the all encapsulating unwholesome audience. The audience felt like they were a modernized form of bloodthirsty Colosseum gladiator spectors. The members of this audience include low end corruption-inducing gangsters, gambling addicts, injury-seekers, cigar cloud creating smokers, street peddlers, gluttonous heathens, obsessors, and attention seeking women. As you can see, the setting and mood are top notch. The fight scenes are realistic too, including the main bout that spans about 20minutes, and they should be given Robert Ryan's collegiate boxing success and the choreographer being a professional boxer himself. That said, there is a glimmer of hope shed here and there. The main character specifically "has a puncher's chance" in even the worst odds, long shots hit every now and then, and the desire to end his career and settle down with his love interest in another profession after he earns enough purse money. Perseverance is the definition of Ryan, and you'd have to argue most boxers that carve a career, successfully or unsuccessfully, out of this physically debilitating sport.

Jackass Forever (2022)
2.35 out of 4stars

"Celebrating the joy of being back together with your best friends and a perfectly executed shot to the dingdong, the original jackass crew return for another round of hilarious, wildly absurd, and often dangerous displays of comedy with a little help from some exciting new cast."
It's stupid, it's silly, it's got way too many genitalia jokes, and you couldn't pay me enough to do almost everything they do, but I still laughed at most of it's stunts. Guilty pleasure stuff.

Kiss Me Deadly is in my top 10. Ranks #10. An absolute all-timer and masterpiece of doom noir. Robert Aldrich so impressed the French with this open subversion of the most reactionary right wing character in American fiction that they called him "Le Gros Bob" with reverence. If anyone ever wondered what is alluded to in the Pulp Fiction briefcase, or have enjoyed the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark, then this is a film to see.

To me The Set-up is the top boxing noir. They're all variations on a theme. Everyman protagonist can rise only so far on merit before he can't beat a rigged game and it crushes his soul. The Set-up ranks #1, to me, because it's not trying to be this full melodrama along with it. It's simple and feels real.

Excellent picks!

 

[Spring in Fialta]

At first, I thought "who cares if I can't like posts, what kind of punishment is that?", but now I realize how many posts I'd just leave a like on and it's getting on my nerves not be able to! And it's until May! These guys here have no chill!

Anyway, I'm pretty sure my very distinctive avatar must help too! I should launch a contest: what movie is that still from?

Yeah, I got that shit taken away from me too for once again insulting somebody who probably deserved it.

 

[Osprey]

"Just put that in the back and hop in."

Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022) - 3/10 (Really disliked it)

A 60-year-old white-haired woman finally confronts an even older masked madman that she barely escaped from over 40 years ago. No, this isn't the 2018 Halloween, but since the concept worked there, why not rip it off for another franchise, right? Actually, that's more of a subplot. The main plot follows a bunch of annoying college-aged kids who take a road trip to backwater Texas for reasons which have something to do with being chefs, home renovators, entrepreneurs and auctioneers. I still don't understand it. It's one of the most confusing premises just to explain why they're in Texas. I guess that "cuz it's in the title" wasn't good enough. They eventually arrive at a tiny town that's almost deserted and clearly a set, since it was filmed in Bulgaria and there can't be many real towns that look like Texas in Bulgeria. They quickly act like they own the place and bother the few residents left, especially ol' Leatherface, who's just been chilling in the middle of town (and clearly working out at the local gym) for the last 45 years. He gets quite upset that these kids have interrupted his cozy retirement and limbs start flying. It has decent cinematography, cool kills and some good gore, but not a lot else going for it. The plot is dumb, the characters aren't likable and it's not very scary. The director makes an admirable effort, especially by showing only glimpses of Leatherface for most of the movie and then using quick cuts so that we don't really get a good, long look at him, but I suppose that there's only so much that you can do to make him scary in the 9th installment. It's not the worst horror film, but it's derivative, generic and mostly forgettable. The only memorable scene (on a party bus) is reminiscent of Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan, which isn't a good sign, and the only memorable line is from early on, when a creepy lady says, "If I'd known y'all were coming, I'd have put my face on." If you care to put it on, the movie is on Netflix.

 

[silkyjohnson50]

The Fallout (2021). Follows a teenage girl (Jenna Ortega) dealing with (or not dealing with) surviving a school shooting. A few familiar faces (Julie Bowen, John Ortiz, Shailene Woodley) in minor roles. Well acted, felt fairly authentic, 1.5 hours. I’d recommend it.

 

[sdf]

I see you're love watching movies here

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

"Just put that in the back and hop in."

Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022) - 3/10 (Really disliked it)

A 60-year-old white-haired woman squares off against an even more geriatric masked madman that she barely escaped from over 40 years ago. No, this isn't the 2018 Halloween, but since it worked there, why not rip it off for another franchise, right? Actually, that's more of a subplot. The main plot follows a bunch of annoying college-aged kids who take a road trip to backwater Texas for reasons which have something to do with being chefs, home renovators, entrepreneurs and auctioneers. I still don't understand it. It's one of the most confusing premises just to explain why they're in Texas. I guess that "cuz it's in the title" wasn't good enough. They eventually arrive at a tiny town that's almost deserted and clearly a set, since it was filmed in Bulgaria and there's no hope of finding a real town that looks like Texas in Bulgeria. They quickly bother the few residents left, especially ol' Leatherface, who's just been chilling in the middle of town (and clearly working out at the local gym) for the last 45 years. He gets quite upset that these kids have interrupted his cozy retirement and limbs start flying. It has decent cinematography, cool kills and some good gore, but not a lot else going for it. The plot is dumb, the characters aren't likable and it's not very scary. The director makes an admirable effort, especially by showing only glimpses of Leatherface for as long as possible and then using quick cuts so that we don't see him for too long, but I suppose that there's only so much that you can do to make him scary in the 9th installment. It's not the worst horror film, but it's derivative, generic and mostly forgettable. The only memorable scene (on a party bus) is reminiscent of Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan, which isn't a good sign, and the only memorable line is from early in the film, when a creepy lady says, "If I'd known y'all were coming, I'd have put my face on." If you care to put it on, it's on Netflix.

I'm bookmarking this and will read it when I get there. I should watch "#4" today.

 

[guinness]

Murder by Phone (1982)

This is one of those "what did you really expect though?" films. Some competent actors were featured here (Richard Chamberlain, John Houseman, Barry Morse), directed by Michael Anderson (Logan's Run), filmed in Toronto with some Canadian tax credits.

Plot: disgruntled person kills people that have slighted them, by calling them and then passing a tone/voltage through the headset and killing them. Chamberlain's character is the only one on the case.

6/10 - it does exactly what it sets out to do, it's not abstract or anything, but the special effects were over-the-top for me.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Murder by Phone (1982)

This is one of those "what did you really expect though?" films. Some competent actors were featured here (Richard Chamberlain, John Houseman, Barry Morse), directed by Michael Anderson (Logan's Run), filmed in Toronto with some Canadian tax credits.

Plot: disgruntled person kills people that have slighted them, by calling them and then passing a tone/voltage through the headset and killing them. Chamberlain's character is the only one on the case.

6/10 - it does exactly what it sets out to do, it's not abstract or anything, but the special effects were over-the-top for me.

Looks amazing! Is it streaming?

 

[Chili]

Touch of Evil-1958

Vargas (Charlton Heston) and his wife (Janet Leigh) are on their honeymoon when nearby a fatal bombing occurs in a border town. This leads to a clash between Vargas and Quinlan (Orson Welles), the decorated cop, over the responsibility of the crime. Quinlan turns out to be a cop who goes by his own book. Vargas has already made powerful enemies in the Grande family. Classic opening shot as the camera pans down the street with all kinds of activity and music, sets the tone nicely. Line from Marlene Dietrich to Orson Welles: "I didn't recognize you, you should lay off the candy bars". Great noir of a gripping, sordid tale.

Street Scene-1931

The setting is the front of a NY City tenement building and all the families who live there. A virtual melting pot of society as they talk about each other's problems, prejudices and each other. A pre code film and it's apparent in the dialogue and subjects. Very well written and presented, feel that alot of this film is relevant today.

"Why can't people be kind to each other? Why can't they live in peace?".

 

[Osprey]

I'm bookmarking this and will read it when I get there. I should watch "#4" today.

It'll take you a while. It's #9. To my knowledge, I've seen only #1, #5, #7 and, now, #9. I need to sort of do what you're doing and go through them to check off the ones that I'm not sure that I've seen. I'm in no rush, though, because it seems like only the really bad ones are left. Maybe I'll do that this next October.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation (Henkel, 1994) – For some reason, somebody somewhere thought it'd be a good idea (and not a recipe for disaster) to hire a 50 y/o dude who had never directed even a short film or a TV ad to direct another sequel to this shitstorm of a franchise (he taught screenwriting at the time, another gig he got based on his singular experience of having co-wrote the original Chainsaw film). Well, it wasn't, cause it is indeed a disaster – it's not even plausible that this movie was done seriously, the characters, the dialogues, even the sound mix are atrocious (especially at the very end, where they just don't seem to care anymore). It's part satire, part remake, and never makes sense as a 4th entry (it's not even clear if this new generation – who are they related to, we don't know – are even cannibals anymore). Of the three sequels, it's probably the one that's closest to the original on the white-trash level, but like the previous two, it doesn't match the tone of any of the films that came before it, making this “quadrilogy” pretty confusing. Leatherface is even more ridiculous than he was in the second film (that's him in the screenshot, with boobs and all, a true pioneer to composite genders), the true evil coming here from an over-the-top performance from McConaughey who plays this like he's Blue Velvet's Dennis Hopper, but x20 the crazy. I think they unintentionally end up with some reflexivity à-la Funny Games with the nonsensical cult subplot, where some kind of guru tells McConaughey that he's only there to let these people know the meaning of horror. Now these people could be pointing to the spectators, but that film is really much too dumb to do anything with that. At least it's funny at times (the prop pizza and the actress pulling her skirt down so we wouldn't see her panties – too late – while someone is crushing her skull with his boots were my favorite gags). 1/10

Edit: all of these films start with a short text read on voice over narration, more or less trying to propose the story as a "real" one - the result is pretty cool in the first one, but every sequel starts with a very disappointing voice actor. This one is particularly bad.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

It'll take you a while. It's #9.

I'm committed.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Nispel, 2003) – First feature film for music video director Marcus Nispel, who'd go on and direct two other remakes (Friday the 13th and Conan the Barbarian) in his relatively short lived career as a film director. It's a remake alright, it starts with a variation on the introductory voice over narration from the original, bringing back now well-known John Laroquette to re-read his first movie “appearance”. Watched today, it feels like a paint-by-numbers horror film, but it was some kind of (re)starting point for horror (just the fact that its box office returns went from less than 200K$ for the 4th TCM entry to more than 100M$ opened the door for a series of horror remakes we all know too well): some of it plays out real close to torture porn, marking – with other contemporary films like House of 1000 Corpses – the return of the splatter film and making it somewhat of a precursor to the torture porn “subgenre”. Leatherface is reduced to a killing machine, presented as a close cousin to Jason Voorhees (a bullied deformed little boy - we even have a glimpse of his face, like it was custom to do in the original F13 films) with the overpowering presence of Zombie's latter Michael Myers (they avoided making him ridiculous by making him bland, I'll take it). Not too much dumb stuff to report, apart from that girl walking along the highway with a loaded handgun up her vagina (?). Any attempt at gritty realism is lost on the sexy ways Jessica Biel is filmed throughout. 3/10

 

[guinness]

Looks amazing! Is it streaming?

It was on Youtube surprisingly. Quality was enough to get the job done. If you just search "Bells/Murder by phone (1982)", you'll find it.

Bells is what the movie is titled is this version, which was the UK title of the movie.

 

[Pink Mist]

Summer of Soul (…or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) (Questlove, 2021)

In the summer of ’69 while a bunch of hippies were having a weekend of peace and love in Woodstock, Harlem was having their summer of soul. Despite attracting hundreds of thousands of attendees to its summer long free music festival, predominately black residents of Harlem, the concert series was all but forgotten. The concert series was even filmed, but no one was interested in a film like they had given Woodstock, so the footage stayed in someone’s basement for over 50 years. Musician and first time director Questlove brought together this footage for the first time to tell the story of this forgotten festival and how it is a celebration of black music, fashion, culture history, and was a cathartic release for the black community. The footage of the performances here are incredible. Nina Simone, Sly and the Family Stone, Stevie Wonder, B.B. King among others put on a show, including a touching tribute to Martin Luther King with a collaboration between Mahalia Jackson and Mavis Staples singing one of his favourite gospel songs. While the footage and how it is put together to include contextual archival footage to show what the black community in Harlem and American more generally were going through is great, I’m not a huge fan of the talking head approach Questlove took, for the most part. He includes contemporary talking head interviews with attendees and performers from the festival and while some of them were great (for example 5th Dimension talking about this festival being the first time they felt embraced by their black community after being dubbed “white music”), I kind of wish the footage was just allowed to speak for itself because it was more than capable of doing so. I also wish there was more exploration of why this footage was just left to sit in a basement for 50 years. It is an incredible restoration and reclamation project and it was only briefly touched on about why no one was previously interested in the footage, I wish this had been explored more though I suppose that may be a different movie. Nonetheless, Summer of Soul is a great documentary and an important cultural artifact; it would make a great (albeit very long) double feature with Woodstock.