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

[KallioWeHardlyKnewYe]

The Eliminators. A man-droid (named Mandroid!) plus a scientist plus a ninja plus dollar-store versions of Han Solo and R2D2 square off against a mad scientist whose grand plan is to ... well I'll leave that unsaid but the reveal comes with 15 minutes left in the movie and it generated my biggest laugh. Oh and there are cavemen too for some reason. It's cheap and sloppy and derivative. It's no where near good, but it also isn't quite as bad as you might want it to be.

The Hot Rock. Robert Redford heads a group of thieves out to steal a diamond. It's a tougher job than expected. Comedic mishaps ensue. Light and frothy. Kinda in-one-ear-out-the-other, but in a pleasant way. Redford is near peak charm. The story (based on a Donald Westlake novel) has a bit of "what the hell's going to happen next?" driving it. The story is clever. Could be the jumping off point for a nice remake.

The Last Detail. This may be my favorite Nicholson performance. All the swaggering bravado and biting, comedic edge, but a decent amount of soul hiding behind that mask. Good road movie. Hal Ashby is one of the most humane and understanding directors. There's a world weary sadness that runs alongside all the dark humor. It doesn't beat you over the head with its ideas.

Last Flag Flying. A psuedo sequel to The Last Detail. The source book is a direct sequel, but this Richard Linklater adaptation changes the trio of lead character's names and their past circumstances. Similar to The Last Detail but not exactly the same. Different circumstances but the men on the road again. More overtly somber. More directly political. It's not quite heavy handed, but it lacks the nuance of the predecessor. That said the trio of performances here — Bryan Cranston, Laurence Fishburn and Steve Carell — are pretty good. It's almost like a play in some respects and is at its best when that trio is just interacting and talking. Richard Linklater, like Ashby, is one of the great understanders of humans and is a natural inheritor of this story.

 

[Pink Mist]

The way Toronto is going with the pandemic right now, this seems almost like wishful thinking. But September is a ways away, so let's hope for the best.

The optimist in me knows that by September most people will just be getting their second vaccination (vaccine schedule could even be expedited by then with people getting earlier than the 4 month interval). But yeah the current covid situation is not encouraging at all.

But who knows a lot can change in 4 months for the good and the bad. Forget TIFF, I just want to be able to watch films in theatres again


Last thing I saw in theatres was Ford versus Ferrari in February 2020. Probably the longest I've gone without stepping foot in a theatre since I was a baby

 

[Puck]

The way Toronto is going with the pandemic right now, this seems almost like wishful thinking. But September is a ways away, so let's hope for the best.

Hopefully they have passes and we can watch online, (even if my IP address is outside Toronto). Last year the electronic passes weren't that easy to subscribe to (had to go thru a Bell website if I remember correctly). The movies were also $17-24 each. I'd be willing to pay $20 each for a few of the better ones (if I knew what they were, but I might have a better idea after Cannes). So before shelling out for a one-day rental I would prefer to get a positive review from yourself or someone else here first. Theoretically, if you get your second jab in August, you should be raring to go to theatres in Toronto by September (although you still might prefer to watch at home with an e-subscription).

Hopefully all the new covid variants won't make our jabs ineffective by late Summer. I hear Moderna is already working on a booster shot for a possible third jab by Christmas, with all the new variants (kind of a depressing thought)

 

[Puck]

You also have to wonder about the films available for TIFF. Who the heck was making movies during this covid mess? Not everybody was Tom Cruise.

 

[Pink Mist]

You also have to wonder about the films available for TIFF. Who the heck was making movies during this covid mess? Not everybody was Tom Cruise.

Probably a lot of stuff that was pushed back from being released last year or who's production was halted. Also I believe in Toronto and Vancouver their film industry has been active for much of the pandemic, not to mention in the States. Can't say for the rest of the world though.

 

[Osprey]

Never finished Blood Meridian, though.

I think that Cormac McCarthy would understand. He never finishes a sentence.

 

[Puck]

Probably a lot of stuff that was pushed back from being released last year or who's production was halted. Also I believe in Toronto and Vancouver their film industry has been active for much of the pandemic, not to mention in the States. Can't say for the rest of the world though.

High probability though that this might be a lean year. We shall see, as they say.

 

[kihei]

I think that Cormac McCarthy would understand. He never finishes a sentence.

My problem was the relentless carnage; literally, overkill. I never got all the way through The Iliad either for the same reason. I'm not squeamish but enough was enough.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

Have you seen Godless, a Netflix mini-series from a few years back? It's not Blood Meridian, but it has a few aspects that reminded me of it in a generally positive way including a somewhat Judge-like character.

Will definitely check it out.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

My problem was the relentless carnage; literally, overkill. I never got all the way through The Iliad either for the same reason. I'm not squeamish but enough was enough.

Its intellect couldn't push you through?

 

[Osprey]

My problem was the relentless carnage; literally, overkill. I never got all the way through The Iliad either for the same reason. I'm not squeamish but enough was enough.

I have no problem with page after page of relentless, senseless carnage, but sentences without verbs is where I draw the line!

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Big John (Dunand, 2006) - A documentary about John Carpenter which follows him around in Hollywood in different "mythic" locations, with interviews with the few collaborators that were available that weekend. The film is anecdotical at best, it really smells like an old ashtray, and these two French assclowns (why they are interviewed is beyond me) are the most insufferable type of people. Proof that anybody can say anything about films and find someone dumb enough to record them doing it. It's on YouTube, the French parts are not subtitled (but believe me, it's a good thing), and the rest is only rarely interesting. 2/10

 

[kihei]

I have no problem with page after page of relentless, senseless carnage, but leaving verbs out of your sentences is where I draw the line!

Not a problem for me. Most of the time. Some of the time, yes, sure. Not often, though. Really eye of the beholder stufff or a redeemable fault especially in the cold and the dark with the gun just resting there like its sleeping during such hard days as these.

 

[kihei]

Its intellect couldn't push you through?

Nope.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

Really eye of the beholder stufff or a redeemable fault especially in the cold and the dark with the gun just resting there like its sleeping during such hard days as these.

Brilliant.

Nope.

Dimming...

 

[Spring in Fialta]

At any rate, I'll easily grant Cormac McCarthy the status of genius as its not usually conceived. A polymath to the extreme whose claim to fame (fiction) is not high on his list of interests but merely what he was the best at and thus pursued out of ego. Small surprise he hasn't published in fifteen years following his biggest mainstream success and found a comfortable chair in a think tank with esoteric physicists. How somebody without a BA gets on its board when there's a bunch of accomplished PHD's, search my empty pockets.

 

[kihei]

^ Great book but I've never seen a good adaptation of it yet it's hard to do.

-------------------------

Can any of you with Prime or a download watch this and let me know if it's any good? Thanks

L'Enfant Terrible (2019) - IMDb

L'Enfant Terrible (2019)

8.3/10
81

Kobe, a young famous and successful writer, he has everything in life: money, fame, recognition, love - The problem remains in his way of being, due to a hidden and difficult past, affecting him in his current life unable to leave behind.

I watched it, with some significant fast forwarding which I virtually never do. I checked and it is indeed an 8.3 on IMDb, but, trust me, it is one of the worst movies I have seen in the past ten years. It is about an arrogant little shit who writes self help books of all things. His mother is in the hospital, he has just discovered a half-sister he didn't know he had, and he has a bunch of exploitative or destructive relationships with various women. The movie is all talk, talk, talk, with our screwed-up protagonist virtually never leaving the screen. On top of all this the movie is amateurishly made, horribly photographed, and badly acted except for the lead. The movie contains nothing but a string of lame aphorisms or groaners like "She's a cougar; she will make your legs tremble." L'Enfant Terrible is a serious contender for a 1B rating.

You would be better off with near namesakes, Enfant Terrible, a gritty biopic of German director Rainer Werner Fassbender or Les Enfants Terribles, Jean Pierre Melvilles well respected adaptation of a story by Jean Cocteau.

I am going to take IMDb ratings with even more of a grain of salt than I did before.

 

[kihei]

Actually the 13 user reviews for L'Enfant Terrible on IMDb are hilarious. They are written by the same semi-literate moron over a period between April 24 and May 4.

Some samples:

"Success and fame are a test for every man! And in this film, the protagonist has the strongest rival - he himself !!!!"

"It was always interesting how such projects are shot Very interesting, thank you."

"I really liked it. The judging is very good, but I put 9ku so that there was something to strive for)"

"It is good thing.so we can do everything for this."

"The film is very interesting. Not a typical plot, it will definitely not be boring when watching a movie. I like this movie! ...".

They are all like that.

Could be the director.

 

[ProstheticConscience]

I knew Stowaway sounded familiar.

"The Twilight Zone" The Cold Equations (TV Episode 1989) - IMDb

It was a Twilight Zone episode.

 

[SpookyTsuki]

Kubo and the Two Strings. 9/10

 

[Puck]

Fried Barry, Directed by Ryan Kruger, 3.14

Avant garde horror flick. Didn't like it but didn't hate it.

White trash from South Africa, heroin addict Barry gets abducted by aliens, they take over his body and the alien now possessing him gets to run around Cape Town to experience all humanity has to offer (mostly bad). What follows is "Sex, drugs and rock and roll" (and not the slick Hollywood kind)

I picked this movie up because the genre was falsely mis-labeled 'comedy' (is the 'falsely mis-labeled' double-negative allowed here to amplify the fact it was a lie?), and unfortunately I had not watched a trailer beforehand. It's more of a WTF horror flick. However the underarching (sic) kind of comedy inside I wouldn't define as haha funny, more a kind of weird disturbing humour. I don't recommend you watch this one with anyone you love or respect (i.e. watch it alone before subjecting someone you know to it). Also recommend watching it in a format where you can Fast forward, it does drag on in some scenes and the 'porn' was purposefully bad. Officially 'one hour and forty minutes', I admit skipping at least parts of several sequences; glad to report I did not miss much to understanding the subsequent scenes. Fun fact, it seems they did not follow a script for this movie. It was largely improvisational. THey had a general outline but a lot of it was ad libbed (read that after).

The principal actor I thought was quite good, believable and convincing as a drug addict and bad boy. Not sure that is a compliment though.

My personal opinion is that this project was conceived after an actual bad heroin trip (not kidding). Or the entire film is a symbolic depiction of a bad trip.

Weird movie but as I mentioned above it is 'avant garde'. So it has fans.

Fantasia Film Festival Review: Fried Barry

 

[kihei]

I knew Stowaway sounded familiar.

"The Twilight Zone" The Cold Equations (TV Episode 1989) - IMDb

It was a Twilight Zone episode.

Nice find.

 

[Osprey]

I am going to take IMDb ratings with even more of a grain of salt than I did before.

In fairness, that's a problem with most review sites when a movie doesn't have many ratings. Last month, I was suckered into watching an absolutely terrible Bruce Willis movie because it had a fairly good audience score at Rotten Tomatoes (which turned out to be bogus). Definitely take ratings with a large grain of salt when they come from, I'd say, less than 1,000 ratings. That movie that you're talking about has been rated only 81 times (probably most fake).

I knew Stowaway sounded familiar.

"The Twilight Zone" The Cold Equations (TV Episode 1989) - IMDb

It was a Twilight Zone episode.

Yeah, the original basis is a popular 1954 short story called The Cold Equations. Supposedly, it's been adapted over 20 times. One of those is The Twilight Zone episode, which sticks very close to the short story. There was also a TV movie of the same name made for The SciFi Channel in 1996. Stowaway is a much looser adaptation. Actually, calling it an adaptation probably isn't accurate, since it's more just inspired by it.

The short story is available in PDF form here, if anyone cares for a quick, 15-page read.

The Twilight Zone episode and the SciFi TV movie are both available on YouTube:

Spoiler

 

[ItsFineImFine]

Tommy Boy (1995) - 6.5/10

Was Chris Farley funny? Yes in a basic way. Was he funny enough for a 100 minute movie? No. It's thankfully fast moving but this movie does feel like it belongs in the 80s in terms of humour. Enough laugh out loud moments but probably better to view as a high schooler before the turn of the decade.

I absolutely love the basic rustic American cinematography of the 80s and 90s comedies and dramas btw.

 

[OzzyFan]

Wrath of Man
2.65 out of 4stars

"Mysterious and wild-eyed, a new security guard for a cash truck surprises his co-workers when he unleashes precision skills during a heist. The crew is left wondering who he is and where he came from. Soon, the marksman's ultimate motive becomes clear as he takes dramatic and irrevocable steps to settle a score."
The darkest, tensest, and most serious movie Guy Ritchie has ever made. And it mostly works. The twist, turns, and plot are more intricate than they need to be for a revenge action thriller and Statham carries it with aplomb. It's fun in a different way comparatively to Guy Ritchie's other movies.


Dark City (1998)
3.00 out of 4stars

"A man struggles with memories of his past, which include a wife he cannot remember and a nightmarish world where night is 24hours a day and no one else ever seems to wake up from. A world where the night never ends. Where man has no past. And humanity has no future."
An expansively themed sci fi movie that is as complex narratively with it's themes and ideas as it is visually appealing. A thoroughly enjoyable find from the late 90's.


Two Lane Blacktop
2.75 out of 4stars

"2 men drag-racing across the U.S., in a '55 Chevy. Dennis Wilson's the mechanic, James Taylor's the driver. And they get caught up with a young girl drifter and a GTO owner in Warren Oates"
Felt like an art house film. I don't know what it purposely wants to do, but it is a good example of the early 'muscle car world', obsession, toxic masculinity, emotional detachment, and nomadic purposelessness.


The Innocents (1961)
2.70 out of 4stars

"Based on the Henry James story "The Turn of the Screw," a psychological thriller about a woman who takes a governess job for two orphans in a Victorian home. She begins to see what she believes are ghosts and suspects the children's bizarre behavior is the result of supernatural powers."
A scenically shot atmospheric horror movie that is well acted all around.