Last Movie You Watched and Rate It | Spring 2021 Edition

[kihei]

Riot in Cell Block 11 (1954) Directed by Don Siegel 6A

One of the more famous true “B” movies of the ‘40s and ‘50s, Riot in Cell Block 11 is surprisingly socially conscious for a prison riot movie. Dunn (Neville Brand), a tough con, leads a prison revolt in an attempt to force the warden into providing better conditions. The warden isn’t the problem, though, as he has been trying to improve conditions for years. It’s his superiors who are dragging their feet, claiming prisoners should not be coddled. A large mob of prisoners, many of them colourful characters, have had enough of that noise. Surprisingly, the movie has more on its mind than cheap thrills, early on making the point that 35 states have suffered prison riots for similar reasons. Though not close to its equal, Riot in Cell Block 11 is a kindred spirit of 12 Angry Men in that both movies employ melodrama to examine an important failing of the justice system. Director Don Siegel is a masterful no-nonsense director, and he focuses on tension and grit and let’s the social commentary take care of itself.

Criterion Channel

 

[ItsFineImFine]

Coming To America (1988) - 6/10

It feels like a B version of some of the better 80s comedies, very unpolished despite being late rather than early 80s with some amusing bits sprinkled in but never quite laugh out loud funny. I also think they drew out some scenes for way too long, there's something to be said for a 90 minute comedy. There's a love story which develops but not really until the 2nd half which makes the first one seem like a bit of a by the numbers fish out of water story. Eddie Murphy also suffers a bit from that Robin Williams syndrome of thinking his voices and impressions are funnier than they are leading to some unnecessary extra characters in this film which he himself plays.

I should've watched Trading Places instead.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

The House of the Devil (West, 2009) - One of the good ones from the last 20 years. It kind of gets out of breath with the ending, but the atmospheric buildup is very neat, and it came before it was too cool to reproduce the 80s aesthetics (and it does so with restraint, it's very well done). I had it at 6/10 and it seems fair.

 

[Osprey]

Safety Last! (1923) - 8/10 (Loved it)

A young man (Harold Lloyd) moves to the big city to make money to support his girlfriend, but must impress her when she shows up to surprise him, ultimately leading to a dangerous stunt on the side of a 12-story building. Thanks to @Fiji Water for his review earlier this week, which inspired me to watch this again, since it had been a really long time. I had forgotten how good it is, especially how funny it is. It's clever comedy, too, which relies on perspective, timing or amusing solutions to problems, such as when Lloyd hops a free ride into town in an ambulance by pretending to be unconscious. At his destination, he sits up, waves to the shocked paramedic and walks off down the street. There are also funny scenes while he's working in a fabric store and, first, dealing with the chaos of ladies fighting over fabric, then pretending that he runs the place when his girlfriend shows up. The very funny first 50 minutes eventually give way to an exciting final 20 and perhaps the most famous and recognizable scene from Hollywood's silent era: Lloyd hanging from the minute hand of a clock many stories above the street:

Spoiler: GIF of the famous clock scene

That scene and the climbing sequences on either side are thrilling and nerve-wracking even today (and even more impressive when you realize that Lloyd was missing two fingers due to a set accident a few years before). I can only imagine how nervous and afraid to watch audiences likely were way back in 1923. In fact, the whole film holds up astonishingly well for being almost a century old. It's a silent film that I think even those who aren't really into silent films might enjoy. A couple of years ago, it entered the public domain in the US (as most works do after 96 years), so it's free to watch and above is the best quality version that I found.

 

[explore]

Slap Shot (1977) - Rotten Tomatoes - 9/10 Loved it

Watched Slap Shot for the first time and was blown away by the movie. It's the first seriously old movie I've seen since I watched the original Godfather series, actually I don't know if I've ever seen a movie from the 70s before I watched Slap Shot. Just checked and the Godfather was released in 1972, so I have seen a 70s movie before Slap shot!

Either way, incredibly entertaining, and surprisingly thoughtful character depth and back stories

A more professional review from Rolling Stone: Why 'Slap Shot' Is the Perfect 1970s Sports Movie - Rolling Stone

EDIT: Late edit, but for any LGBTQ+ folks, this film is very liberal with casual homophobia, so I figured I should give a heads up if any of y'all plan on watching it

NOTE: This trailer makes the movie look terrible, I watched a re-mastered 1080p version and it looked fantastic compared to the quality of the trailer below.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

(and even more so when you realize that he did the climbing while missing two fingers)

Are you suggesting he performed the stunt as "shown"?

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

I don't know if I've ever seen a movie from the 70s before I watched Slap Shot.

Osprey feels so old with his 1923 film...

 

[Osprey]

Are you suggesting he performed the stunt as "shown"?

No. I know how they did the illusion, but he still repeatedly pulled himself up on ledges and I imagine that missing a couple of fingers didn't help.

Osprey feels so old with his 1923 film...

I feel worse that he called something from 1977 "seriously old."

 

[Chili]

In the Name of the Father-1993

Court/prison drama based on the true story of a wrongfully accused group (known as the Guildford Four) of a fatal bombing in London in 1974. Strong performances especially by Daniel Day Lewis. Excellent, moving film.

 

[Puck]

I checked out The Most Dangerous Game. I had seen Joel McCrae in old Westerns (from the 50s) but did not recognize him that young. YouTube offered other suggestions from there, including a 1965 sci-fi flick "Space Probe Taurus"?. Couldn't help but click on it. OMG. 1965? That looked more like the 50's too.



Compare that to Star Trek (Original) which is 1966, Lost in Space, 1965, or even 2001 A Space Odyssey filmed in 67 (released in 68) and what a jump in quality.
What a difference for the same era. Could not believe it.

Anyway, I also caught Osprey's other recommendation today, Boss Level. Another Groundhog Day inspiration. Kind of a cross between Crank: High Voltage (with Jason Statham) and Edge of Tomorrow (with Tom Cruise). Highly entertaining, they don't take themselves seriously, good fun. I also recommend it if you're looking for a decent, escapist action flick. Just out recently on Hulu.

 

[ItsFineImFine]

In the Name of the Father-1993

Court/prison drama based on the true story of a wrongfully accused group (known as the Guilford Four) of a fatal bombing in London in 1974. Strong performances especially by Daniel Day Lewis. Excellent, moving film.

I actually that his father in this film was even better, great film once it settles in after the first 30ish minutes.

 

[Osprey]

I checked out The Most Dangerous Game. I had seen Joel McCrae in old Westerns (from the 50s) but did not recognize him that young.

I watched another early Joel McCrea film yesterday: 1937's Dead End. I didn't review it, but I liked it. It also has Bogart and the kids from Angels With Dirty Faces, and is a bit like that movie. It's on YouTube if you or anyone else is interested.

I actually that his father in this film was even better, great film once it settles in after the first 30ish minutes.

I remember wanting him to win Best Supporting Actor and being a little disappointed that Tommy Lee Jones won (for The Fugitive). Also, I remember thinking that it was neat that he and Day-Lewis were in both that and The Last of the Mohicans in back-to-back years.

 

[nameless1]

But then again, we could watch a fictional movie following the Houston Texans and I think everyone here would scoff at it as unrealistic.

- Preacher having major control over the team/football operations
- Trade DeAndre Hopkins
- Deshaun Watson situation

Football is weird. Somehow, idiots always take control of the team. I guess that is why we watch, because off-field drama is sometimes better than the on-field product.

 

[nameless1]

I don't really know football but I could still tell that it seemed highly unrealistic in terms of how team management works. BUT....I enjoyed it and just focused on the Kevin Costner angle of it and didn't really worry about the realisticness of the rest. It was a good vehicle in terms of being invested in a single character for 24 hours.

I should add that I also liked The Dark Knight Rises more than The Dark Knight because it felt better and I didn't think too much about plot holes so what do I know?

Your review is fine. That movie just pisses me off.

 

[nameless1]

Didn't know that. What were the memorable movies, if any come to mind?

Pinku is not my my cup of tea, so I am not too well-versed with it, as I probably have only watched anywhere from 5 to 10. Like Pranzo Oltranzista wrote, the whole genre is quite sleazy, and some of them are just plain weird. That said, I do like Blind Beast, a story about a blind sculptor who kidnaps a model. It has really interesting mise-en-scene, and it asks some provocative questions. In fact, the character becomes such an iconic cult figure, that he actually spawned a series of cult movies. However, I am not sure it can be defined as a pure Pinku movie, but it feels close enough for me.

Another one is Abnormal Family: Older Brother's Bride. Directed by Masayuki Suo, who later became known for the original Shall We Dance?, I like how the movie is an homage to Ozu, only in a soft-core erotic setting.


I found this list on wikipedia. Perhaps some of them would interest you.

 

[kihei]

Jackass 1, 2 and 3D (2002, 2006, 2010) Directed by Jeff Tremayne 6A to D to infinity

It took a pandemic to get me to tackle these things, but the moment finally arrived and I watched these three virtually identical movies over a period of two late nights this week. For those of you who have been living on Mars, nine quite likeable guys led by charismatic ringleader Johnny Knoxville literally do the most stupid, outrageous, grossest, most dangerous daredevil stunts risking serious self harm and causing themselves extremes of pain like you wouldn't believe dozens of times in each movie. And have a lot of fun doing it, fueled presumably by lots of beer and perhaps more than a little coke. If you ever wondered what it felt like to have your penis bitten by a snake; to be bungied 80 feet in the air in a full to overflowing porta potty; to have somebody's ass glued to your chest; to deliberately step on a rake; to have a leech attached to your eyeball; to be kicked in the balls by a mule; to walk barefoot through a room filled with mousetraps; to rupture your urethra doing a motorcycle flip (any guy not cringing needs to look up "urethra"); to be trapped in a limousine full of pissed-off bees; to suffer the dreaded "fart bubble"; to deliberately push a giant fish hook through your cheek and be thrown in an ocean as shark bait; and my favourite: the Lamborghini Tooth Pull; then these movies will provide you with a very clear idea of what that experience would feel like. And much, much more. I could live without most of the shit and piss stuff. However, I don't know when I have laughed so often and so hard in a movie. A big part of what makes this work is the crew is somehow, despite their wretched excesses, extremely likeable. It helps, too, that they stay completely away from racist or sexist humour as well. Hard to give these movies a critical score. All I can say is that they accomplish what they set out to do very well. Not date material, though--I can't imagine too many women tolerating this stuff. Definitely a guy thing.

 

[Osprey]

Cosmic Sin (2021) - 2/10 (Hated it)

It's only March and I can already tell that this movie is going to win a lot of awards this year... all Razzies. It's a sci-fi action movie about mankind making first contact with a race of alien vampires in the 26th century and sending a strange assortment of soldiers and scientists, led by a very old Bruce Willis, to exterminate it. I think that the title refers to genocide, but it could also refer to the fact that this movie was made. It makes Armageddon (another movie about Willis leading a team into space) look like a masterpiece. First of all, the acting is really bad. Willis looks bored and mails in his performance. Frank Grillo is decent, but also barely in the movie. The other actors are either just bad or seem so because the dialogue is so awful. I actually felt bad for them. Many lines are cringeworthy. There's one scene in which a well-liked character dies and, seconds later, a guy comes walking into the room, sees that no one is talking or looking up and jokes "who died?" There are other awkward moments like that where you're not sure if they're supposed to be funny, sad or what. I started out laughing at a lot of it, but eventually realized that it wasn't worth even that. The writing, in general, is just awful. Even though the story is incredibly simple and shallow, it still managed to be confusing and I couldn't understand why some scenes existed or what the characters were sometimes talking about. I think that it even tried to raise the question about whether it's right to exterminate another species, even though the movie's answer ultimately was "Why yes, yes it is." The characters look ridiculous in oversized space suits and the CGI occasionally looks 1990s quality. There isn't as much action as you'd expect (lots of standing around talking, though) and what there is isn't exciting. Don't be fooled by the 96% audience score at RT. That has to be from fraudulent ratings and will come down fast. Trust the 5% critic score, instead. "So, you're saying that there's a chance that I'll like it?" I hear you say. Yes, but I would take that 5% chance only if you can't find a better sci-fi to watch, like Battlefield Earth.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Here's a combo of films that have surprisingly a lot of things in common.

Gräns (Border, Abbasi, 2018) - Overly praised little tale of alterity that's only kind of interesting. I thought it didn't go much further than what you get at face-value, but it's still original enough in itself. 4.5/10

The Swamp Thing (Craven, 1982) - Another tale of alterity, but this one is so all over the place that it's completely ridiculous. From start to finish, everything is laughable: the scientist womanizer turned swamp vegetable, the scooby-doo reveal of a guy that needs to introduce himself ("Surprise! Now I know you don't know who I am..."), Adrienne Barbeau going for a bath in the gooey swamp (naked of course - Border is in part about gender fluidity, but Craven's film is very gender-rigid, and pretty dumb at that). I don't think there's a single scene in here that has no laugh-out loud moment, even the wipe transitions are over the top (I get it that it's supposed to be comic-booky, but it's a clash with the actual no-genre of the film). Every actor, just like every line of dialogue they're fed, is terrible, and it hurts to see David Hess being so poor. If you need proof that Wes Craven was a terrible director, just watch this thing. If you need proof that Harry Manfredini was a hack, well, watch Slaughter High, on which he just pasted the Friday the 13th score, but then watch this one and see how he also reuses it (only amplifying the all-over-the-place-going-nowhere feel). It is so, so bad, that you can't hate it. 1/10

Oh, and before he put on the swamp vegetable onesies (you see the folds in its arms and fingers), Dick Durock also played this other green fellow on The Incredible Hulk TV show (the guy just had no shame):

 

[Mr Jiggyfly]

Jackass 1, 2 and 3D (2002, 2006, 2010) Directed by Jeff Tremayne 6A to D to infinity

It took a pandemic to get me to tackle these things, but the moment finally arrived and I watched these three virtually identical movies over a period of two late nights this week. For those of you who have been living on Mars, nine quite likeable guys led by charismatic ringleader Johnny Knoxville literally do the most stupid, outrageous, grossest, most dangerous daredevil stunts risking serious self harm and causing themselves extremes of pain like you wouldn't believe dozens of times in each movie. And have a lot of fun doing it, fueled presumably by lots of beer and perhaps more than a little coke. If you ever wondered what it felt like to have your penis bitten by a snake; to be bungied 80 feet in the air in a full to overflowing porta potty; to have somebody's ass glued to your chest; to deliberately step on a rake; to have a leech attached to your eyeball; to be kicked in the balls by a mule; to walk barefoot through a room filled with mousetraps; to rupture your urethra doing a motorcycle flip (any guy not cringing needs to look up "urethra"); to be trapped in a limousine full of pissed-off bees; to suffer the dreaded "fart bubble"; to deliberately push a giant fish hook through your cheek and be thrown in an ocean as shark bait; and my favourite: the Lamborghini Tooth Pull; then these movies will provide you with a very clear idea of what that experience would feel like. And much, much more. I could live without most of the shit and piss stuff. However, I don't know when I have laughed so often and so hard in a movie. A big part of what makes this work is the crew is somehow, despite their wretched excesses, extremely likeable. It helps, too, that they stay completely away from racist or sexist humour as well. Hard to give these movies a critical score. All I can say is that they accomplish what they set out to do very well. Not date material, though--I can't imagine too many women tolerating this stuff. Definitely a guy thing.

Did they have Off-road Tattooing with Steve-O in one of the movies?

Can’t remember if that skit was in one of the movies or the TV show.

 

[ItsFineImFine]

Quiz Show (1994) - 7.5/10

The only thing worse than movies about movies is movies about TV. Thankfully, this gets going into the investigative angle eventually but it keeps feeling like it pulls itself back and tries a little hard to be philosophical and holier than thou. It needed a bit more of a push at times and a bit more conciseness to make it a truly great film. As is, it's another solid outing to add to the '94 list.

 

[Osprey]

Psycho Goreman (2021) - 4/10 (Disliked it)

A murderous alien overlord who was imprisoned on Earth must do the bidding of the bossy little girl who accidentally freed him. Imagine a parody of Terminator 2, except with a less well-behaved killing machine and an even more annoying kid than Edward Furlong. Seriously, the girl overacts so much that it really hurt the film for me. I blame the writer/director (who also made The Void) for writing her character like that, coaxing that performance out of her and not realizing that it would come off as more irritating than funny, though. Quite a few parts of the film are funny and I laughed several times, but there were just too many other times when it felt like it was trying too hard for laughs. It does have a lot of great gore, though, some good costuming and a distinct retro style that's kind of like "Predator meets Power Rangers." I respect that it knows exactly what it wants to be, which is a silly, over the top, gory comedy. I wanted to like it more, but it just missed the mark for me. You may like it better, but you might want to watch it with some buddies and/or several drinks to get the most out of it.

 

[kihei]

Did they have Off-road Tattooing with Steve-O in one of the movies?

Can’t remember if that skit was in one of the movies or the TV show.

Yup. He's the one, I think, that snorted wasabi, too. No shortage of highlights for that guy.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Psycho Goreman (2021) - 4/10 (Disliked it)

A murderous alien overlord who was imprisoned on Earth must do the bidding of the bossy little girl who accidentally freed him. Imagine a parody of Terminator 2, except with a less well-behaved killing machine and an even more annoying kid than Edward Furlong. Seriously, the girl overacts so much that it really hurt the film for me. I blame the writer/director (who also made The Void) for writing her character like that, coaxing that performance out of her and not realizing that it would come off as more irritating than funny, though. Quite a few parts of the film are funny and I laughed several times, but there were just too many other times when it felt like it was trying too hard for laughs. It does have a lot of great gore, though, some good costuming and a distinct retro style that's kind of like "Predator meets Power Rangers." It also knows exactly what it wants to be, which is a silly, over the top, gory comedy, which I respect. I wanted to like it more, but it just missed the mark for me. You may like it better, but you might want to watch it with some buddies and/or several drinks to get the most out of it.

I liked The Void enough to want to watch this. Where did you catch it?

 

[Osprey]

I liked The Void enough to want to watch this. Where did you catch it?

It's on Amazon, Google Play, YouTube and others for about $6.99 US. I don't know about Canada, where it might be different, since it's a Canadian film. It also appears to be coming to DVD/Blu-ray on the 16th.

Yeah, I mentioned The Void because I remembered that you liked it and figured that it'd be up your alley. In fact, I often think of you while watching disturbing films.

 

[kihei]

Yeah, I mentioned The Void because I remembered that you liked it and figured that it'd be up your alley. In fact, I often think of you while watching disturbing films.

I had to smile at this one.