Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings

[cam]

THis has been a very bad winter health-wise for me, so we are just getting around to seeing some of last year's films in DVD.
Doubt( 6/10)
Hoffman wasn't very convincng in his big scene.
The film reminded me of what a bunch of hokum the Catholic Church really is worldwide, any in any Catholic Church I have attended, I never heard anything as Folksy as that priest's sermons. The pernicious abuse of priests in the Church could have been served better than this film.
I thought Adams was good, but the ending( for Sr. Adams) left us totally flat: finally Sr. Aloyicious breaks down and says she has "doubts". What doubts? Obviously a play, not a film, and not worth the hype it got, we did not think.
In any case, Streep(who reminded us a bit of Bette Davis in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?) was better this past year in Mamma Mia!
And --someone help me-- I do not remember transistor radios in 1964. Hell I don't even remember ear-plugs then.



Edited By Big Magilla on 1241619294

[Precious Doll]

Elegy (2008) Isabel Coixet 4/10

The Houseboy (2008) Spencer Schilly 3/10

Gomorra (2008) Matteo Garrone 7/10

Oxford Murders (2008) Alex de la Iglesia 2/10

Mum and Dad (2008) Steven Sheil 4/10

[Heksagon]

Young Guns II (Geoff Murphy, 1990) 4.5/10
--Pointless, but somewhat entertaining

Six-String Samurai (Lance Mungia, 1998) 6.5/10
--Weird, but kind of fun

Bender's Big Score (Dwayne Carey-Hill, 2007) 6/10

Bridget Jones - The Edge of Reason (Beeban Kidron, 2004) 4.5/10
--Occasionally fun, and I do like Renée Zellweger here, but overall, it's a weak film

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (Mark Herman, 2008) 4/10



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[Franz Ferdinand]

Clearing house:

Nights in Rodanthe (George C. Wolff) 3/10

Bolt (Chris Williams, Byron Howard) 6.5/10

The Thomas Crown Affair (Norman Jewison) 6/10

Sophie Scholl: The Final Days (Marc Rothemund) 7.5/10

Monsters vs. Aliens (Conrad Vernon, Rob Letterman) 4.5/10

Igor (Anthony Leodis) 3/10

Synecdoche, New York (Charlie Kaufman) 7/10



Edited By Big Magilla on 1241577565

[Precious Doll]

The Boat That Rocked (2009) Richard Curtis 2/10

A complete shambles in just about every department. Thank goodness for the outstanding selection of hit's from the 60's on the soundtrack.

Good (2008) Vincene Amorin 4/10

Viggo Mortensen is the best thing about this sometimes muddled affair. The films climax, which takes place at a Nazi death camp, is filmed in a particularly striking manner.

Puffball (2008) Nicolas Roeg 7/10

It's hard not to be disappointed with this film given my fondness of most of Roeg's work. And whilst this is no Walkabout, Performance, Eureka, Bad Timing, The Witches or The Man Who Fell to Earth it is nevertheless good in it's own right. It could have done with a trim. All of Donald Sutherlands scenes could be removed without disrupting the narrative though despite this the film flows quite beautifully. Like most of Roeg's film one can interpret it anyway one pleases. The film is based on a novel by Fay Weldon.



Edited By Precious Doll on 1239321003

[Sabin]

Duplicity (dir. Tony Gilroy) - 8.5/10

Ultimately, what I want that I'm not getting doesn't detract from how much fun this movie is. Read more in the thread.

[Reza]

Last Chance Harvey (Joel Hopkins, 2008) 7/10

Extremely old fashioned romantic comedy, not unlike Indiscreet (1958) from way back. The plots of both films rely heavily on the antics of ''mature'' stars and succeed thanks to their charm.....Grant & Bergman in the old film and Hoffman & Thompson here. Pity Eileen Atkins has little to do......although with the right part it would be great to see her eventually win an Oscar.

[Reza]

Twilight (2008): 5/10
Some kind of entertaining at the beggining but eneventfull in the end. Is the book that simple, underdeveloped and sketched as the film?

I heard from numerous sources that this is the case for all of the books in the series.

My 14 year old daughter is an absolute fanatic of this series of books......although she did not like the film version of Twillight.



Edited By Big Magilla on 1241619332

[Zahveed]

Twilight (2008): 5/10
Some kind of entertaining at the beggining but eneventfull in the end. Is the book that simple, underdeveloped and sketched as the film?

I heard from numerous sources that this is the case for all of the books in the series.



Edited By Big Magilla on 1241577590

[dreaMaker]

Elegy
8/10

Excellent movie, Kingsley and Cruz are great!

[Precious Doll]

Redbelt (2008) David Mamet 4/10

Hamlet 2 (2008) Andrew Fleming 4/10

Inkheart (2008) Iain Softley 4/10

Knowning (2009) Alex Proyas 4/10

[Sabin]

Choose Me (dir. Alan Rudolph) - 8/10

Noir by way of fly-by-night. A study of noir-ish manners and the desperate need to be chosen. Three great performances and a song that fills in the gaps between their lips.

[HarryGoldfarb]

Twilight (2008): 5/10
Some kind of entertaining at the beggining but eneventfull in the end. Is the book that simple, underdeveloped and sketched as the film?

[Penelope]

The Lady and the Duke (2001; Eric Rohmer) 7/10

Episodic account of Grace Elliott's experiences during the French Revolution. Fun for us students of the Revolution, and Rohmer's use Digital Video and an unsual CGI approach make for an interesting visual experience, and the heroine's pro-royalist sympathies are certainly different...but film overall lacks dramatic oomph.

[Sabin]

I've been too busy for movies lately. I'm going to see Duplicity tomorrow and hopefully Silent Light, Two Lovers, and Coraline by the end of the week. I did catch the last half hour of Saving Private Ryan last night and after not having seen it since its release, I enjoyed it but was astonished at how much stronger Spielberg's mise-en-scene has developed this decade. Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and The Terminal aside, I think his visual storytelling has never been stronger. What I saw was certainly enjoyable but I don't see much reason to revisit it. I probably will just to see how it has aged as a whole and because I'm fairly fascinated by the man's work these days, but on the whole it felt somewhat impersonal and rooted in basic-yet-efficient coverage, solid performances, development of archetype, et al. Tom Sizemore's speech about how in "saving Private Ryan, we all earn the right to go home" felt especially reeking of clap-trap.