Movies: Last Movie You Watched and Rate It | Mid-Spring Edition. Happy Beltane!

[kihei]

I would be lying if I said the thought of switching hasn't crossed my mind, however I don't really want to switch to a west coast team since I like my beauty sleep

From forever, I've always preferred vampire hours. Plus, I'm retired. So no problem for me.

 

[kihei]

It has to me as well, vaguely...(Habs). Now I have major fear that this win, as colossal as it was, will keep Bergevin on. I just hope that he's tired enough of our abusive fanbase to call it quits himself.

Congrats, by the way. To think I had never paid any attention before to Danault. I thought he was the difference maker (and Price, of course).

 

[kihei]

Army of the Dead.

Does this zombie movie end (almost) with a slowed-down cover of The Cranberries' Zombie. You bet your ass it does!

This is enough for me to really hate Snyder forever.

 

[Pink Mist]

It has to me as well, vaguely...(Habs). Now I have major fear that this win, as colossal as it was, will keep Bergevin on. I just hope that he's tired enough of our abusive fanbase to call it quits himself.

Just exhausting to be a fan of these teams. Absolutely chaotic franchises

 

[Spring in Fialta]

Congrats, by the way. To think I had never paid any attention before to Danault. I thought he was the difference maker (and Price, of course).

Thanks. Yeah, Danault's great although it's far from certain we'll keep him. Would love to, but he does seem to value himself has a bonafide top-6 C after having done okay enough in the role on a trash heap team but he had a weak offensive season, so let's hope it'll bring his expectations down a bit.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

Just exhausting to be a fan of these teams. Absolutely chaotic franchises

For sure. In all honesty, I think Toronto would be wise to trod on despite their playoff failures. Save for game 7, this happened largely because they ran into a guy who is the absolute best in the world when on and on he was. I think they largely played pretty well. I thought Matthews was very good. He just couldn't beat Price. Marner on the other hand...oof.

 

[kihei]

For sure. In all honesty, I think Toronto would be wise to trod on despite their playoff failures. Save for game 7, this happened largely because they ran into a guy who is the absolute best in the world when on and on he was. I think they largely played pretty well. I thought Matthews was very good. He just couldn't beat Price. Marner on the other hand...oof.

Honestly Matthews creeps me out a little. With that sleazy mustache, he would make a good movie villain, lounge lizard variety.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

Army of the Dead. A fun premise that is turned into a dreadfully dour unfun movie. Being Zach Snyder there are some moments of flash and skill but the characters are lame and lifeless and the zombie lore is comically dumb and uninteresting. Does this zombie movie end (almost) with a slowed-down cover of The Cranberries' Zombie. You bet your ass it does!

Psycho Goreman. It's the Spielberg-Peter Jackson-Stuart Gordon mash-up you neither want nor need. Decent idea: E.T. but a galactic warlord. And I laughed a few times but like a lot of modern horror/sci-fi (especially the self-referential sort) its too obsessed with telling you its creators have also seen all those movies you like too.

A New Leaf. A good, jet-black comedy premise (rich man is now poor and decides to solve his problem by marrying and murdering a rich woman) but it ultimately boxes the story in in ways that's really tough to get out of. The ending is a disappointment. I've seen some interesting defenses of it, but it didn't work for me. Still, the journey is pretty entertaining. An uber-witty script from writer-director Elaine May with multiple lines worthy of better remembrance. Walter Matthau is an adept sleaze. May herself is winning as his target. The backstory is that the movie was taken from her re-edited so what exists isn't her version. I haven't yet looked up what she wanted but I'm curious if her original thoughts are more fitting ...

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. If the world were a fair and just place this movie would have killed the music biopic forever. Alas it did not and we're still afflicted with these trite, cliched, deeply uninteresting stories. Shame on every one who makes these movies with a straight face. Great jokes abound here, but I think the two that hit me the hardest are the first and last ones of the movie — "Dewey Cox needs to think about his entire life before he plays" and (spoiler alert) Dewey Cox died three minutes after this performance. Brilliant comedy book ending there.

The greatest line from Dewey Cox is: 'Well, maybe Bob Dylan sounds a lot like me! How come nobody ever asks Bob Dylan why you sound so much like Dewey Cox?'

That entire scene is great.

 

[nameless1]

Because of the discussion about it last week, I decided to re-watch To Live and Die in L.A. for the first time in over 30 years. The only thing that was familiar about it was this scene because young me assumed for a while that it's what "money laundering" referred to.

Apparently, that was how counterfeiters did it those days. The crew did meticulous research, and perhaps it was just promotional fluff, but the director claimed that he was visited by the FBI due to the scene's accuracy.

 

[nameless1]

I know Dennis Hopper typically gets praised for his performance and character in that movie, but it did nothing for me. I found it eye rolling.

Yeah, that performance did nothing for me either. I do not hate the movie, but I certainly do not understand the praise for the movie. That movie is rather messy for me, but it is pure Lynch.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

Yeah, that performance did nothing for me either. I do not hate the movie, but I certainly do not understand the praise for the movie. That movie is rather messy for me, but it is pure Lynch.

It's over the top but completely appropriate. I think it helps that he also the most memorable lines by far, as everyone else doesn't have much to say regarding the bizarre events. I don't think it'd be controversial to say that Dean Stockwell puts in the greatest performance of the movie, but I thought Hopper was very good. Great film that I was lukewarm about on a first viewing, just like Mulholland Drive, which knocked my socks off when I re-watched it and is now of my favorites.

'You get a love letter from me, you're f***ed forever!' does not work on a sheet of paper but is flawless on screen. Blue Velvet is filled with moments like that and IMO, shows how strong of a director Lynch can be when he's at his best. Also, I can't think of a movie that is so strongly associated to a pop song. I love a lot of Roy Orbison's stuff in general, but I can't listen to In Dreams without having the Beer at Ben's scene playing in my head.

 

[nameless1]

It's over the top but completely appropriate. I think it helps that he also the most memorable lines by far, as everyone else doesn't have much to say regarding the bizarre events. I don't think it'd be controversial to say that Dean Stockwell puts in the greatest performance of the movie, but I thought Hopper was very good. Great film that I was lukewarm about on a first viewing, just like Mulholland Drive, which knocked my socks off when I re-watched it and is now of my favorites.

'You get a love letter for me, you're f***ed forever!' does not work on a sheet of paper but is flawless on screen. Blue Velvet is filled with moments like that and IMO, shows how strong of a director Lynch can be when he's at his best.

I am pretty much apathetic to the movie, so I do not share any of the sentiments. We will have to agree to disagree.

Along with The Night of the Hunter, this is likely the second movie where people here heap praises on, but I am the complete opposite.

 

[Osprey]

Apparently, that was how counterfeiters did it those days. The crew did meticulous research, and perhaps it was just promotional fluff, but the director claimed that he was visited by the FBI due to the scene's accuracy.

Yeah, I can believe that did do that. Running it through the dryer seems like a clever way to soften the fibers and make the money look and feel like it's been in circulation. It's just an optional step in the whole laundering process, though, a process which is more figurative than anything, and young, naive me took it to be the necessary, literal step that gave it its name.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

I am pretty much apathetic to the movie, so I do not share any of the sentiments. We will have to agree to disagree.

Along with The Night of the Hunter, this is likely the second movie where people here heap praises on, but I am the complete opposite.

I think a lot of it has to do with intonations (even the word itself brings a tingle!) It's been swirling in my head for a while, but I think intonation might be the most important and gratifying aspect of the arts I enjoy and seek (cinema, literature and music). I think Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive have it in spades while something like Eraserhead, despite some transcendent shots, doesn't have much of.

 

[ItsFineImFine]

Fires On The Plain (1959) - 7/10

I think it's better thematically than as a film. Doesn't have particularly good visuals and the acting is quite wooden and stiff even for a Japanese classic. Your usual wartime suffering, probably better if you haven't seen the same thing a bunch of times.

Toronto Maple Leafs vs Montreal Canadiens (2021) - 6/10

Becoming more tiresome than the Fast & Furious films, we've seen this before haven't we? Fairly boring except near the end most of the time with little room to maneuver and a similar script.

 

[Osprey]

Toronto Maple Leafs vs Montreal Canadiens (2021) - 6/10

Becoming more tiresome than the Fast & Furious films, we've seen this before haven't we? Fairly boring except near the end most of the time with little room to maneuver and a similar script.

Each one is like an M. Night Shyamalan film. Nothing really matters up until the inevitable twist arrives, which then tends to make you facepalm. Canada produces a lot of horrors and comedies and I can't decide which one this was. At least Hollywood isn't the only one running out of ideas.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

The Thin Red Line (Malick, 1998) - I know the way to best appreciate Malick's films should be through a Wittgensteinian angle*, considering them outside the psychological realms and into some philosopĥical ones, but 1) my knowledge of Witt-genstein (Private Witt is arguably the main character here) is too limited for me to go that way and 2) I think that the main interest of The Thin Red Line doesn't lie in the voice-over wanderings but in the very basic portrayal of soldier anxiety, despair and resignation. Without being too gruesome, the film manages to paint a very dark portrait of war times, where death is a very serious matter, even when soldiers are treated as pawns - and the enemy as sick dogs. Malick manages to take culture and nature's extremes in a confrontation where the former end up looking very small and futile (and bound to disappear). 8/10

*For those interested in doing so, I think this is the front door: "As Wittgenstein writes: “The philosophical self is not the human being, not the human body, or the human soul, with which psychology deals, but rather the metaphysical subject, the limit of the world – not a part of it.” (TLP, 5.641) And it is useful to remind ourselves here that “the limits of my language signify the limits of my world.” (5.6) Hence, that which is conceived as the limit of the world must also be conceived as being at the limit of language. While we can give an exhaustive objective, scientific description of the world, according to Wittgenstein, that description cannot touch on the (transcendental) fact that the world is after all my world. This fundamental feature of subjectivity cannot be accounted for by postulating an objectively available subject (or objectively available subjects) within the world." Wittgenstein on the Self – Truth and Power

 

[Tasty Biscuits]

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. If the world were a fair and just place this movie would have killed the music biopic forever. Alas it did not and we're still afflicted with these trite, cliched, deeply uninteresting stories. Shame on every one who makes these movies with a straight face. Great jokes abound here, but I think the two that hit me the hardest are the first and last ones of the movie — "Dewey Cox needs to think about his entire life before he plays" and (spoiler alert) Dewey Cox died three minutes after this performance. Brilliant comedy book ending there.

It certainly killed the music biopic for me! So, that's one plus for my allotted movie watching time. Honestly, standard biopics in general have lost a little luster too.

Eminently quotable, for sure. Tim Meadows is the king of deadpan in this. I'll still use variations of "You never once *fill in the blank*. Not. Once" whenever appropriate in my life.

I forget who and where the tweet came from, but it was something along the lines of "75% of Hollywood directors have never seen Walk Hard, and it shows."

 

[NyQuil]

The episode of Community that mocked the Ken Burns style of documentary was a real winner.



I can't watch Ken Burns any more without smirking.

 

[KallioWeHardlyKnewYe]

The episode of Community that mocked the Ken Burns' style of documentary was a real winner.



I can't watch Ken Burns' any more without smirking.

Might be my favorite episode. It's really spot on.

 

[KallioWeHardlyKnewYe]

It certainly killed the music biopic for me! So, that's one plus for my allotted movie watching time. Honestly, standard biopics in general have lost a little luster too.

Eminently quotable, for sure. Tim Meadows is the king of deadpan in this. I'll still use variations of "You never once *fill in the blank*. Not. Once" whenever appropriate in my life.

I forget who and where the tweet came from, but it was something along the lines of "75% of Hollywood directors have never seen Walk Hard, and it shows."

I don't want to turn this into a Dewey Cox quote off (again, too many) but I was writing about another artist bio movie in another thread and was thinking about how movies often portray moments of inspiration and was immediately transported to the scene where he's fighting with his first wife and says he's "guilty as charged" and as he stares off into the distance, she says something to the effect of "Dewey Cox don't you dare write a song while we're fighting ..."

 

[Spring in Fialta]

I don't want to turn this into a Dewey Cox quote off (again, too many) but I was writing about another artist bio movie in another thread and was thinking about how movies often portray moments of inspiration and was immediately transported to the scene where he's fighting with his first wife and says he's "guilty as charged" and as he stares off into the distance, she says something to the effect of "Dewey Cox don't you dare write a song while we're fighting ..."

The mouse with the overbite explained how the rabbits were ensnared
'N the skinny scanty sylph trashed the apothecary diplomat
Inside the three-eyed monkey within inches of his toaster oven life

 

[ProstheticConscience]

Child 44

with Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace, Gary Oldman, and other people being morose.

Hardy is Leo Demidov, former dejected Ukrainian orphan who grew up to become a heroic soldier in WWII and later a not-quite-so-heroic Soviet internal security man. Rapace (Hollywood's go-to actress for traumatized damsels) is Raisa, his terrified wife. Leo runs afoul of a serial killer who's targeting children along a couple of rail lines...but in Soviet Russia there's no such thing as murder, so everyone has to pretend it isn't happening. Until his friend's kid is a victim. Everyone's miserable and paranoid (welcome to Soviet Russia...), and our unhappy couple is soon stripped of all their privileges and bundled off to live in a bathroom in Rostov due to Leo's refusal to ignore a serial killer. Lots of unhappy people mill about in rags, drive cars from the 30's, and try to keep going despite their days being 50% crying and 50% existential terror. And, oh yeah. There's a serial killer out there. Not that it matters much.

Yawn. Spends far too much time documenting the horrors of casual 1950's Soviet life than actually being a murder mystery, which is what it was billed as. The two leads have zero chemistry and the whole thing aims for bleak and shocking but only reaches tedious and self-important. Child 44 is the title of the movie...but he's barely even mentioned or touched on.

Unqualified miss.

On Prime.

"Whaddaya mean I can't make up my own accent again?!"

 

[Chili]

The Seventh Cross-1944

Seven prisoners escape from a concentration camp in Germany 1936 and the hunt begins. Where to go, who to trust, who can help? I appreciated that it is much more of a human interest film than political. Real life husband and wife Hume Cromyn and Jessica Tandy as...husband and wife. Intriguing, well told story.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Topio stin omihli (Landscape in the Mist, Angelopoulos, 1988) – At the beginning, a story told in the dark by a young girl, a story easily relatable to the story of Creation. Her brother tells her it will never end if their mother continuously interrupts. So they go, get rid of the mother (who is never seen onscreen), and depart on a quest for a father that may or may not exist. It's a clear invitation for an allegorical religious reading of the film, but Angelopoulos folds this apparent simplicity with layers of political comments (mostly carried by a theater troupe that can't find nowhere to play anymore), mythology (the children are guided by Orestes), and reflexivity (fun little moments linked to theater, and a brilliant one where they find a piece of film in the street on which they can – or can't – see the ending of their own story: the Tree of life, appearing here decades before Aronofsky and Malick, but two years after Tarkovsky). An amazingly beautiful film blending cinéma-vérité-like techniques with quasi-surreal imagery, sometimes reminiscent of Jodorowsky but always avoiding the absurd, just bizarre enough to pierce the realism and remind us that it's all a children's tale. If you haven't seen this one, you really should. 9.5/10