Movies: Last Movie You Watched and Rate It | Part#: Some High Number +4

[ORRFForever]

Jeffrey Epstein / Filthy Rich (2020)
(Netflix) :

4 part documentary about the perverted recluse and his beautiful girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell - who needs to be found and charged. While no one can deny Epstein's charisma, he was an evil man and hearing about him leaves you feeling dirty - especially when the ladies talk about what they went through when they were young.

One of the most interesting parts of the story, where Epstein got his fortune, is barely addressed. That's unfortunate because that's where my interest lies.

As for the documentary as a whole : It's well made and well paced, but there's nothing new other than sexual assault details that you'd rather NOT know.

6.5/10

 

[Chili]

Das Boot-1981 (Director's cut)

There have been other great submarine films but this one is the gold standard for me. Felt like experiencing the challenges of living at sea in a very confined area. And then the life and death experiences of battle, the cat & mouse game where the hunter becomes the hunted. Great score, sounds, performances and story leave a profound message about war in general.

 

[ORRFForever]

Das Boot-1981 (Director's cut)

There have been other great submarine films but this one is the gold standard for me. Felt like experiencing the challenges of living at sea in a very confined area. And then the life and death experiences of battle, the cat & mouse game where the hunter becomes the hunted. Great score, sounds, performances and story leave a profound message about war in general.

For anyone who is claustrophobic (c'est moi), being on a sub must be hell. Maybe you'd get use to it.

 

[kihei]

The Executioner (1963) Directed by ‎Luis Garcia Bertanga 8A

The Executioner is a comedy that manages to be spirited and droll at the same time while packing a bit of a punch toward Franco's Spain, Jose, who is a mortician's assistant, falls for Carmen, the daughter of the soon to be retired state executioner. With a baby on the way, Luis and Carmen get married and along with her father share a nice apartment, by the standards of the time anyway. The rub is that the only way they can keep their abode is if Jose becomes the new executioner. The idea scares the bejesus out of him, but he reluctantly agrees hoping that every convicted felon to be garroted, the method of state-sanctioned death in Spain, will receive a pardon which indeed frequently happens. The idea of strangling a man with a mechanical device goes way beyond anything that Jose wants any part of--he just doesn't have it in him. And then the eventual day dawns when a prisoner is scheduled for execution with no pardon given or likely to occur. Jose, part well intentioned schmuck and part self serving chump, finds himself in the middle of a rather big pickle. Should he give up the apartment and put his family out on the street or knock the criminal off? The Executioner is a natural comedy by which I mean that the humour comes from the situation and from the characters' reactions to the situation. No artificial laughs are forced onto the material. Director Luis Garcia Bertanga's approach to family dynamics is detailed and loud--in fact, I thought the interplay among the three central characters had more in common with Italian family comedies (much brio and spirited feelings) than Spanish ones. Blurring the line between borders further, Bertanga is obviously indebted to Italian neo-realism as well. However, the context is very clearly Spanish and that's where the movie's subtle political digs come into play in a big way. In terms of the film itself, all the detail and character development that it painstakingly provides really pays off when we get closer to the crisis. One of the joys of sites like MUBI and the Criterion Channel is that they introduce to their audience some superb but relatively obscure directors whose work is often not appreciated or even very much exposed beyond their native shores. On the basis of this film, Bertanga looks like a major talent well worth exploring, even by ultra-elite '60s standards.

subtitles

available on Criterion Channel

 

[Chili]

For anyone who is claustrophobic (c'est moi), being on a sub must be hell. Maybe you'd get use to it.

Visited a couple of naval ships before when they were in port and saw how small the quarters were. Can only imagine what it would be like to be at sea on a sub for any length of time.

 

[ORRFForever]

Visited a couple of naval ships before when they were in port and saw how small the quarters were. Can only imagine what it would be like to be at sea on a sub for any length of time.

I bet there was no such thing as privacy.

 

[NyQuil]

Das Boot-1981 (Director's cut)

There have been other great submarine films but this one is the gold standard for me. Felt like experiencing the challenges of living at sea in a very confined area. And then the life and death experiences of battle, the cat & mouse game where the hunter becomes the hunted. Great score, sounds, performances and story leave a profound message about war in general.

What I liked about it was just how cluttered and realistic it looked.

There were bananas hanging from the ceiling, guys stuffed together elbow to elbow.

The tension was overwhelming.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Ghosthouse / La Casa 3 (Lenzi, 1988) - What do you get when you give a capable director shitty money, a shitty cast, and a shitty producer? I guess you get Ghosthouse, and if the shitty producer is also a rat, he tries to sell it in Italy as Evil Dead III. Can't blame Lenzi for not trying here, he really goes all out in every direction to come up with something somehow a little effective, but just can't (the doll props are really nasty, you either get the "high on meth" one or the even worse "evil" one). Can't blame him either for signing this one with an alias (Humphrey Humbert, I guess he's a Nabokov fan) and not wanting his name associated with this mess. 3/10 (for effort)

Witchcraft / La Casa 4 (Laurenti, 1988) - Having made a quick buck with Evil Dead III, D'Amato went on and produced an italian Evil Dead IV right away. Luigi Cozzi quit after a few weeks (for sure in part because D'Amato is an ass, but I have no internal sources), so D'Amato ended up with no credible director to save his ass this time. The result is abysmal and some fun gore and creative killings in the latter half can't save this total borefest. 2/10

Witchtrap (Tenney, 1989) - I don't know why I do this to myself. I blame TUBI. This one starts pretty much like the one before, with someone going through a window and meeting their end on the ground below. It's 3 minutes in, and I already knew it would be more of the same, and it was, but still a lot more fun than Evil Dead IV - if only because it doesn't take itself seriously for a second. It has a very weird relationship to Tenney's own Witchboard, but I guess all true artists have their personal themes and obsessions. I'll go with a symbolic 2.5/10 to note that it's better than the previous one, but don't be fooled, it's still not worth 90 minutes.

 

[kihei]

The Mystery of Picasso (1956) Direcxted by Henri-Georges Clouzot 7B (documentary)

Henri-Georges Clozout who made some of the most intense suspense movies of the '40s and '50s including The Wages of Fear and Les Diaboliques turns his attention here to a very different kind of mystery: the mystery of the creative process. After claiming that we can not see the creative process in action in poetry or musical composition, for instance, Clouzot suggests that painting may allow us to watch that process unfold much more clearly. He enlists his friend Picasso (!) to help him demonstrate this theory, and the result is a fascinating film. Clouzot uses a technique that allows Picasso to paint right on the screen. We seldom see the artist behind the "canvas" actually painting it, though there are a few occasions in which we do, but usually we watch the painting unfold on the screen before us while we are observing it. Picasso paints close to a dozen such paintings during the filming, some of which use time lapse photography to condense the time taken by the artist to complete some of the works. The result is spontaneous art by perhaps the greatest artist of the 20th century. While we learn little about the creative process in general, we do learn a lot about Picasso's incredibly fertile visual imagination and his command or space and form. He looks like he is having a very good time in the few glimpses in which we peek behind the screen to see him painting wearing only what looks like a bathing suit. Some of the paintings evolve multiple times before he is finished--one starts out as a tropical fish before transforming into a rooster before transforming into a forbidding black face. From my perspective, many of these works could have been completed any number of times, tens of times, actually, but only the artist gets to judge when each work is finally complete. If the documentary reveals no great mysteries about the creative process, it nonetheless is a valuable one-of-a-kind artifact of a great artist bringing to life his canvases with originality, imagination and wit. I don't know if The Mystery of Picasso will hold everybody's interest, but it sure held mine.

subtitles

available for a short time on MUBI

 

[Osprey]

Regarding the last two posts...
TUBI and MUBI appear to offer very different types of films. Don't get them confused .

 

[Spring in Fialta]

The Mystery of Picasso (1956) Direcxted by Henri-Georges Clouzot 7B (documentary)

Henri-Georges Clozout who made some of the most intense suspense movies of the '40s and '50s including The Wages of Fear and Les Diaboliques turns his attention here to a very different kind of mystery: the mystery of the creative process. After claiming that we can not see the creative process in action in poetry or musical composition, for instance, Clouzot suggests that painting may allow us to watch that process unfold much more clearly. He enlists his friend Picasso (!) to help him demonstrate this theory, and the result is a fascinating film. Clouzot uses a technique that allows Picasso to paint right on the screen. We seldom see the artist behind the "canvas" actually painting it, though there are a few occasions in which we do, but usually we watch the painting unfold on the screen before us while we are observing it. Picasso paints close to a dozen such paintings during the filming, some of which use time lapse photography to condense the time taken by the artist to complete some of the works. The result is spontaneous art by perhaps the greatest artist of the 20th century. While we learn little about the creative process in general, we do learn a lot about Picasso's incredibly fertile visual imagination and his command or space and form. He looks like he is having a very good time in the few glimpses in which we peak behind the screen to see him painting wearing only what looks like a bathing suit. Some of the paintings evolve multiple times before he is finished--one starts out as a tropical fish before transforming into a rooster before transforming into a forbidding black face. From my perspective, many of these works could have been completed any number of times, tens of times, actually, but only the artist gets to judge when each work is finally complete. If the documentary reveals no great mysteries about the creative process, it nonetheless is a valuable one-of-a-kind artifact of a great artist bringing to life his canvases with originality, imagination and wit. I don't know if The Mystery of Picasso will hold everybody's interest, but it sure held mine.

subtitles

available for a short time on MUBI

Ever been to Malaga? The museums which hold some of his work (one of the building is his childhood home) are phenomenal. Last I went, there was a mutual exposition with Alexander Calder which introduced me to the latter's work. Great experience, even as someone who wishes museums were physically, individual experiences, which means I often struggle to concentrate within them.

 

[kihei]

Ever been to Malaga? The museums which hold some of his work (one of the building is his childhood home) are phenomenal. Last I went, there was a mutual exposition with Alexander Calder which introduced me to the latter's work. Great experience, even as someone who wishes museums were physically individual experiences which means I often struggle to concentrate within them.

Never been to Malaga, but I have visited the Picasso Museum in Barcelona and viewed his Guernica in Madrid. Phenomenal experience in both instances. A few days later I did the Chagall Museum in Nice and then walked up the road and visited the Matisse Museum. That was quite a week for art.

 

[ORRFForever]

Sequel to Train to Busan 2...

 

[ItsFineImFine]

Captain Marvel: Civil War (2016) - 8/10

-Damn I should've re-watched these earlier before IF/Endgame, they're so fun.

-This is possibly the angsiest of the Marvel films. There's a lot of staring out of windows here.

-They didn't keep things too even, made Captain America far more logical than Tony Stark who looks like a bit of an idiot here, especially after seeing the later films.

-It immediately opens with a great fight scene set in Lagos and the airport scene is a lot longer than I remembered, fairly good action all-around.

-Black Widow is kinda like the Batman of the Marvel films. No superpowers other than just being badass and good with equipment.

-The Winter Soldier's powers are extremely inconsistent and confusing throughout these films.

-The introductions to Black Panther and Spider-Man from this film were really well done looking back at it.

-Daniel Bruhl is a wasted actor, needs to be in more films where he has a dramatic speaking role. Also, his villain was still alive at the end of this so maybe he'll be back, who knows.

-Martin Freeman's American accent is almost as bad as Benedict Cumberbatch's, should've just made the character British.

-The amount of characters and disorientating travel in this film made it a bit of a rehearsal to IF/Endgame, I guess just the space aspect and an opposing team of villains was missing.

 

[SepticFish]

-Daniel Bruhl is a wasted actor, needs to be in more films where he has a dramatic speaking role. Also, his villain was still alive at the end of this so maybe he'll be back, who knows.

He's coming back in the first Disney+ Marvel show, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Should be out sometime this year.

 

[Babe Ruth]

Full Moon High (1981)

This is a terrible movie I recently rewatched. An unfunny story of a teenaged athlete turned werewolf. Very similar to Teen Wolf, teen athlete with a single dad (there was no mom present in Teen Wolf if I remember right..). It preceded Teen Wolf by a couple years, I wonder if it did influence TW's creation.. But lacks Teen Wolf's charisma. It had a surprisingly decent cast.. Pat Morita, Alan Arkin, Ed McMahon.. On Hulu' Starz.

 

[ProstheticConscience]

Never been to Malaga, but I have visited the Picasso Museum in Barcelona and viewed his Guernica in Madrid. Phenomenal experience in both instances. A few days later I did the Chagall Museum in Nice and then walked up the road and saw the Matisse Museum. That was quite a week for art.

Would like this if I could.

 

[Chili]

What I liked about it was just how cluttered and realistic it looked.

There were bananas hanging from the ceiling, guys stuffed together elbow to elbow.

The tension was overwhelming.

True, there was attention to detail.

The uniforms they were wearing were interesting. There is a book called The Golden Horseshoe about Otto Kretschmer (the Red Baron of WWII) and his crew. When they went to port in France for supplies they were given uniforms the British had left. Looked like they may have used that in the film.

 

[ItsFineImFine]

So are those crazy Americans still planning on releasing Tenet next month? I'm not complaining I just wanna have a rough idea of when it'll come out on blu-ray, no way am I going to a theatre this year.

 

[NyQuil]

So are those crazy Americans still planning on releasing Tenet next month? I'm not complaining I just wanna have a rough idea of when it'll come out on blu-ray, no way am I going to a theatre this year.

I think it has more to do with the fact that Christopher Nolan is obsessed with the cinematic theater experience and won't compromise on it.

 

[ItsFineImFine]

I think it has more to do with the fact that Christopher Nolan is obsessed with the cinematic theater experience and won't compromise on it.

Meh, I saw The Prestige and Interstellar at home and they were both very good, probably enjoyed them more at home if anything being able to pause in between as they were both quite long. Dunkirk I actively avoided seeing in the theatre, even with concert earplugs it was too loud. I'm sure if Tenet's a good film, it'll be good whether on IMAX or on a computer monitor.

 

[ProstheticConscience]

Venom

with Tom Hardy, other people, and CGI things.

Tom Hardy continues to develop his own unique interpretation of a New York accent as Eddie Brock, investigative reporter and notable dick you don't want to leave your laptop unattended around. He's got a hunch that the local billionaire tech genius Carlton Drake is up to some total damn no-goodness, so Eddie runs some ambush journalism on him, gets fired, dumped, and six months later is still holding a grudge. But uh-oh, Eddie was totally right! Drake's been using his private space program to bounce off to a comet that somehow houses millions of aliens which can't survive on Earth without undergoing symbiosis with humans. Naturally, he doesn't tell anyone, and scoops up local bums to see if they're CGI compatible with the aliens. Fun! A doctor in the lab reaches out, brings Eddie in for the big expose, then locks him in a room and tells him not to touch anything while she gets rid of security. Spoiler alert: he touches stuff. An alien escapes and bonds with Eddie...somehow it speaks English, and its name is Venom. Ever heard of the Law of Conservation of Mass? Good! Neither have the people who made this movie! Mayhem ensues.

Dumb movie. Dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb movie. Literally every single scene I was saying, "Why? Why would they do that? No...!" Nothing makes objective sense. The villain's plan is stupid and illogical. The aliens are stupid and illogical. How they get here is stupid and illogical. Driving past the same theatre ten times during the same chase scene is stupid and illogical. Okay, comic book stuff requires some suspension of disbelief, but this one just beats you over the head with the stupid stick every damn scene. Besides where Eddie gets dumped and fired, there is no interaction at all that occurs between any characters at any time that resembles intelligent human behaviour. Movie is PG, so you don't even get to enjoy decent gore or splatter during the fight scenes.

Watching icicles forming is a better use of your time.

We are Trapper Keeper. We are One.

 

[KallioWeHardlyKnewYe]

Bond rewatch update. On my last check-in I had made it up through The Man With the Golden Gun. I'm through the Moore movies now and generally, as I wrote before, my impressions haven't changed that much from my historic feelings. The Spy Who Loved Me is still his best and one of the series best. Just a great time. Above average in every single Bond trope. For Your Eyes Only remains a personal favorite and one of my two go-to answers for "most underrated." Moore's most grounded movie. Certainly has a few flaws, but overall a lot of good here (and my favorite theme to boot).

Octopussy is on the short list for worst. Moore's really showing his age. It rivals (and maybe exceeds) Live and Let Die for dated, cringy culturally insensitivity. Moore quipily and gleefully throws money at poor Indian children to use them as a shield against killers. One of a host of problems here. Bond is a literal clown. A View to a Kill has a similar issue as Gun where there's a fun villain and performance, but the rest of the movie is trash and Moore in particular looks like he needs a nap. Still, does contain maybe my favorite unintentionally hilarious scene in the series when a blimp SNEAKS UP on Stacy Sutton. Again, a GIANT BLIMP creeps up behind a character (an ostensibly smart scientist no less!) so the bad guy can lean out the door and grab her.

My only real reassessment is with Moonraker. Given that James Bond goes to space it's always the easy punchline for "worst." I'm not going to give it a vociferous defense BUT I have to admit I enjoyed it a little more than expected. The humor is eye-rolling bad, especially anything involving Jaws (who had no business coming back). And yeah, Bond in space is deeply silly. All that said, I have a soft spot for 70s space special effects and these are perfectly fine for the time. The Venice and Rio locales stand out and are well used. Drax is a corny villain, but Michael Lonsdale commits. Lois Chiles is an underrated Bond Girl in all senses of the role. When I complete this rewatch it certainly may still be in the bottom five ... but it might not.

 

[GlassesJacketShirt]

Sequel to Train to Busan 2...

Trailer makes it look like a better version of Resident Evil.

 

[ItsFineImFine]

X:Men - Dark Phoenix (2019) - 4/10

I'm not that hard to please but if even I struggle to get through a superhero film then it's bad. This thing has CW level acting, some of that is a result of bad lines and some of it is because actresses like Sophie Turner are not leading film level actresses.

Anyways, these XMen films have been getting progressively worse after X2 (Logan and Days of Future Past excluded). The villain in this is monotonous and dumb, the special effects are really nothing new, and there's such an overusage of CGI that it's almost distracting. Marvel films use CGI too but sheesh at least you get some good fight sequences and some laughs in those. This is just a miserable joyless affair. The type of shitty superhero film that was being made in 2007.