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

Reza
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Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings

Post by Reza »

Maestro (Bradley Cooper, 2023) 8/10

Leonard Bernstein (Bradley Cooper), one of the most important conductors of his time, often comes off here like a wilful child - wants to have his cake and eat it too. Both male and female - but with a special preference for the male sex. This gorgeous looking film - shot both in black & white and in colour by Matthew Libatique - is not really a straightforward biography of this genius who became the first American-born conductor to receive international acclaim. It is an intimate (and at times very flamboyant) look at his relationship with people close to him - very briefly with friends, colleagues, lovers (the more the merrier) - but in depth with his very complex and tempestuous marriage to Costa Rican actress, Felicia Montealegre (Carey Mulligan), with whom he had three children. Cooper directs this tormented love story and makes it seem like we are watching a ballet on stage with the two main characters swaying and twirling to soaring music as they come together in a duet of clashing cymbals. A complex relationship that is driven to despair, hurt and anger, yet remains unbreakable despite the gross excesses - both sexual and cerebral - that one member indulges himself in while the other bears it with bitter and loving forebearance. Great art doesn't come easily and often a great emotional price has to be paid to achieve it which Cooper presents in vivid strokes through the lives of these two souls - one who is at turns childish and volatile but also extremely magnetic who is provided emotional balance by the other. A love story for the ages brought to the screen painted with bright urgent strokes. Cooper is both jarring and real under the prosthetic makeup - the notorious fake nose caused a lot of silly controversy but it is the body part that actually vividly transforms him into Bernstein. Mulligan, at first appears miscast and seems to initially tread softly around Cooper's edgy performance, but she quickly grows into her character and stands tall creating a strong woman who manages to hold her own next to the genius. She gets a stunning scene where she unleashes years of suppressed anger and verbally goes at him hammer and tongs while he tries to arrogantly defend himself. Despite all his selfish antics Bernstein maintains a deep love for his wife which he tenderly displays when she is gravely ill with cancer. Cooper has dressed his film in topnotch fashion - the outstanding costume and production design, the editing, makeup and hairstyle, the constantly moving camera, and ofcourse the stunning Bernstein music interludes that provide the dramatic backbone to the story. Thankfully the screenplay does not go the route of a standard biopic connecting each dot and moment in his life although it could have maybe spent a wee bit more time on some of the important supporting characters - his lovers and sister, and their children who we get to see so fleetingly. The film is a stunning ode to a narcissist, albeit one who has loads of charm.

The Blacklist (2013-2014) Season One 8/10

Mysterious criminal - Raymond Reddington (James Spader) - gives himself up to the FBI, demands immunity and in return promises to provide information on wanted criminals just as long he has direct access to rookie FBI agent - Elizabeth Keen (Megan Boone). The series uses the tone of "The Silence of the Lambs" in its interactions between the two leads. Spader takes the role and runs with it creating a hugely compelling character who drips sarcasm and vicious bon mots who is not afraid to kill with steel-eyed precision if the occasion calls for it.

High Plains Drifter (Clint Eastwood, 1973) 6/10

Eastwood directs his first Western and brings to the genre his apprentice training from his Spaghetti days as he channels Sergio Leone. The silent man with no name, cheroot stuck in his clenched teeth, rides into town, shoots dead three men, gets accosted by the town trollop, who he then rapes after dragging her to a barn and pushing her down onto a haystack. And this is only during the first ten minutes. So politically not correct? Or is it? Well she does start by struggling which quickly turns into a passionate embrace as she pulls him to herself while in the throes of what seem like multiple orgasms. Whatever the case may be this scene would never pass muster in today's over-sensitive woke climate in Hollywood. The stranger is hired by the bickering townfolk to protect them from a bunch of critters who were jailed and are now being released. It also appears the town is guarding a dark secret from the past. Eastwood looks very cool squinting his eyes and makes his gunslinger a mythical combination of Dirty Harry and Jesus Christ.
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Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings

Post by Sabin »

I recently revisited I Heart Huckabees, a film I hadn't seen in a long time, and shared the experience with my girlfriend, who was watching it for the first time. My initial positive feelings about the movie had evolved into a more favorable memory, particularly in light of director David O. Russell's later works.

EDIT: 01.17.24

On this viewing, what held me at bay was how over-plotted it is. It wants to set everything up within the first act and I don't think it really benefits from that. For example: Jason Schwartzman is an environmental activist-poet leading the Open Spaces coalition to protect a marsh from being destroyed to make room for a new Huckabee's Superstore. He finds a rival in Brad Stand (Jude Law), a PR executive with a wife (Naomi Watts) that Schwartzman becomes obsessed with. But what Schwartzman really thinks is going on is that Stand wants to undermine him and dismantle the coalition. This all happens BEFORE the movie begins. But that's not why Schwartzman goes to see the Existential Detectives. He goes to see them because of a coincidence involving an African man showing up repeatedly in his life.

By any metric, that's a lot. My problem isn't that there's too much going on. My problem is that there's so much going on that I never quite bond emotionally with the characters. And I want to. Ultimately that's what bothers me about the film. It has a very high bar to clear. This is a lark about all the big thoughts in the world but it's also about nothing. That's a high bar to clear and it only does it half of the time. The other times, it's abrasive and annoying.

But honestly, maybe that's okay. It's I Heart Huckabees after all. It doesn't all have to come together. Anyway, I didn't have the transcendent experience I did earlier in my life but it's still a fascinating and unique film within David O. Russell's quixotic oeuvre. It's unlike anything else.
Last edited by Sabin on Wed Jan 17, 2024 12:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Reza
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Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings

Post by Reza »

May December (Todd Haynes, 2023) 7/10

An actress (Natalie Portman) comes to observe in close detail the life of a woman (Julianne Moore) who was once involved in a scandal. She has been offered a script to portray the 37-year old married woman who had an affair with a boy in seventh grade. There was a jail sentence but now years later the two are married and have grown up kids and living happily together. The actress is amazed to see that the woman has no guilt but realizes that there is a lot of tension surrounding her when she speaks to other members of her extended family - first husband, kids by him, present husband's father. The film is loosely based on the true story, during the 1990s, of a schoolteacher who had an affair with a sixth grader. The film moves like a delicate memory piece with the actress intruding into the private life of a woman, who although outwardly seems upbeat about the idea, gives off an underlying signal of annoyance. Mid-point Haynes stages a scene between the two women - the actress wants to know what makeup the housewife applies which the latter then proceeds to apply to the face of the actress - which has a startling resemblance to a moment in Ingmar Bergman's 1966 classic "Persona" where the two personalities for an instant merge as one. Charles Melton is quietly devastating as the young husband who while seemingly faithful to his older wife has sound rumblings of doubt years into their relationship. Julianne Moore manages to provide sympathy to her southern belle character who is not quite the monster as portrayed by the tabloids and she brings a touch of gentle naïveté to the part along with a dash of fire simmering beneath the facade. Haynes continues in his streak of melodramas in line with the great Douglas Sirk.

Cadaveri eccellenti / Illustrious Corpses (Francesco Rosi, 1976) 7/10

Political thriller that more or less mirrors what was happening in Italy at the time. A series of high ranking judges are being assassinated and Inspector Rogas (Lino Ventura) is assigned to the case. Slow moving, but thoughtful and intriguing, police procedural with an outstanding supporting cast in bit roles - Marcel Bozzuffi, Paolo Bonacelli, Alain Cuny, Tina Aumont, Renato Salvatori, Fernando Rey, Charles Vanel, Max von Sydow - with a shock ending that is in keeping with the corrupt politics in play back then in the country.

The English (Hugo Blick, 2022) 8/10

Revisionist Western swings like a pendulum between Sergio Leone and Quentin Tarantino. It balances the silences and intense closeups of Leone with a whole lotta talkin' â la Tarantino. Plus we get epic shots of the vast Wild West in all its brutal fury. An Englishwoman (Emily Blunt) travels to the American West in 1890 to take revenge on the man who killed her son. The story turns into a violent road trip when she saves the life of an ex-cavalry scout who is a member of the Pawnee Nation (Chaske Spencer). He is on his way to Nebraska to claim land the army owes him. Both join together on their quest for salvation. Along the way secrets are revealed as they encounter assorted colorful characters - Stephen Rea, Toby Jones, Rafe Spall, Ciarán Hinds - under a vast umbrella of violence. For a British production this is a superb effort.

Anima persa / The Forbidden Room (Dino Risi, 1977) 8/10

Young art student arrives at a dilapidated mansion belonging to his aunt (Catherine Deneuve) who is married to a stern controlling man (Vittorio Gassman). He notices that his aunt is totally submissive to her husband who treats her with no respect. Things get sinister when he hears noises in the attic and is forbidden to go into a room upstairs. He is informed by his aunt and the maid that the uncle's twin brother resides in the attic who went mad after the death of the aunt's daughter from a previous marriage. Though the plot appears to be veering towards grand guignol this is not what we discover. Also intriguing to the young student is the weekly arrival of a prostitute who is taken upstairs to the mad man for his pleasure. This is another film that would horrify today's American audiences - a subject so matter of factly put across here - a man's facination and love for a child which he takes to a sinister extent. And it doesn't end there as the man has so much more up his sleeve. The film resembles a giallo but comes off more as a gothic horror mystery with Tonino Delli Colli's camera weaving through the musty rooms. Poor Venice again comes off as very sinister helped in great part by the faded baroque mansion in which the action plays out in an extremely perverse psycho-sexual way. The final twist ending does not come as a total surprise but is highly effective. The film is an adaptation of a novel by Giovanni Arpino, who also wrote "Il buio e il miele", which Dino Risi in 1974 turned into the classic film "Profumo di donna", which has one of Vittorio Gassman's most memorable performances. And he is equally mesmerizing here as well. Truly a great actor. And a star.
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Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings

Post by gunnar »

Strange Days (1995) - 8/10 - New Year's Eve 1999 is here and Los Angeles is a crime ridden battleground in many areas. Lenny (Ralph Fiennes) is a former cop who now deals in a fairly new type of illegal item which allows people to record memories, feelings, etc. to disc so that others can experience them. When a disc is given to him that contains the murder of someone he knows, his life and the lives of his friends are in danger. His main help comes from his limo driver friend, Mac (Angela Bassett). It took me a bit to get into this, but I liked it more and more as it went along.

Last Night (1998) - 8/10 - The people in Toronto are going about their lives on the last day before some unnamed catastrophe will end the world at midnight. The rioting is in the past and people are dealing with it in a variety of ways. Some are meeting in prayer groups, another is pursuing his sexual goals, and one man just wants to spend the evening alone in his apartment. It's a pretty good film.

Le pays des sourds / In the Land of the Deaf (1992) - 8/10 - This is a very nice documentary about a variety of deaf children and adults. The children are part of a class for the deaf who go on occasional field trips in addition to their classroom work. The adults talk about their experiences with family and growing up deaf and we also get to see them in parts of their regular lives.

King Carnival (1973) - 8/10 - A look at the Trinidad and Tobago Carnival, delving into its history as well as showing plenty of action from the 1973 Carnival. The costumes and music are pretty cool and I enjoyed this informative and entertaining doc.

The Circle / Dayereh (2000) - 8/10 - The film follows a number of intersecting stories of women who suffer repression in a number of ways in Iranian society. The birth of a daughter may lead to divorce, a woman just out of prison is ostracized by her family and threatened by her brothers, women can't do a number of things without a man. Bleak, but good.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023) - 7.5/10 - This was pretty entertaining with plenty of humor. Nothing really exceptional, but generally fun.

Silicon Cowboys (2016) - 7.5/10 - The film follows the rise of Compaq in the 1980s into a power in the computing industry as they took on IBM. The film uses a mix of interviews and archival footage. The company had a lot of success, though ran into a number of problems at different points and eventually started to decline with the 1990s being tough on the company. I remember this era fairly well and used a variety of different computers while in school. We had an Commodore 64s and Vic-20s in Junior High (1982-1984). We had TRS-80s, an IBM-PC, and Tandy-1000s (an IBM clone) in high school plus a Honeywell Level-62 which was used for our punchcard programs. We later got a Unix system and I used Compaqs at one of the other buildings in the district.

Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song (2021) - 7.5/10 - I first became aware of Leonard Cohen's music back in the late 1980s and I liked what I heard. I was more of a casual fan than a dedicated one, but I did enjoy his music. This film takes a look at his career from when he first started singing on stage in the 1960s through his death in 2016. The heavy emphasis is on his best known song, Hallelujah. I've always preferred Cohen's version to the various cover versions which sold better, but my favorite Cohen song is actually Everybody Knows from his 1988 album (and later, the soundtrack to Pump Up the Volume).

The Big One (1997) - 7.5/10 - Michael Moore travels around the US on a book tour in support of his book, Downsize This. Along the way, he talks to workers who have lost their jobs due to profitable corporations that have moved operations to other countries to save money. Moore also pays visits to these companies and tries to see politicians. We also get excerpts from Moore speaking to a large audience, apparently doing a mix of stand up and talking about his book tour. It's fairly entertaining.

Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks (2002) - 7.5/10 - This is really three parallel films that take place in a once prosperous industrial area. In the first part, the factories are closing down and the workers who haven't been laid off yet often have a lot of idle time. The second part deals with families that live in a rundown neighborhood that is scheduled for demolition. The families are supposed to be relocated to public housing and have been given a date where they have to be out of their old homes. A lot of time is spent with the teenagers who live there and face an uncertain future. The last part deals with a father and son who live illegally in the railroad yard and eke out a living collecting and selling scrap. The first section was okay, but I think it could have been shortened by about an hour without sacrificing anything important. It seemed kind of repetitive at times. The second section was easily my favorite of the three.

Fires on the Plain (1959) - 7.5/10 - A Japanese soldier with TB is abandoned by his company and left to wander alone in the Philippines near the end of WWII. The film is pretty bleak and meanders at times, but overall is pretty good.

Bitter Berry / Gorkaya yagoda (1975) - 7.5/10 - A nice tale of adolescent relationships one summer in Uzbekistan. I think that I might have liked it even more with proper English subtitles. Hopefully those show up some day.

Davandeh (1984) - 7.5/10 - An orphan boy survives on the streets by collecting bottles from the sea, shining shoes, and other jobs. He sometimes hangs out with a group of boys and occasionally finds time for fun. The boy is also enthralled with planes. I thought it was pretty good.

Mars Attacks! (1996) - 7.5/10 - Sure, it's kind of dumb and way over the top, but it is also fun. I hadn't realized how many big names had roles in the film.

Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970) - 7.5/10 - This is a nice cold war thriller where control of the nuclear arsenal of the U.S. is given over to a supercomputer named Colossus designed by Charles Forbin. It soon becomes apparent that not everything has gone as planned when Colossus and its counterpart in the Soviet Union use their respective nuclear weapons as the stick to have their demands met.

Mashenka (1942) - 7.5/10 - A nursing student falls in love with a taxi driver, but he isn't sure if he feels exactly the same way for her. Then war breaks out. I liked Valentina Karavayeva as Masha and the movie was pretty entertaining.

The Lion Hunters (1966) - 7/10 - A tribe prepares itself for a traditional bow and arrow hunt for a lion that is a danger to the tribe. The creation of the arrows and arrowheads is shown which is pretty interesting. We also get to see many other traditional parts leading up to the hunt and then the hunt itself.

The Damned (1962) - 7/10 - A young woman expresses some interest in an older American tourist, but her violent brother jealously guards her from the attention of others. The story shifts midway through as they end up on a remote island where a group of children are being held by the government.

Cinderella (1947) - 7/10 - The Soviet version of the classic fairytale is pretty good.

The Road (2009) - 7/10 - A father and his young son travel across the countryside in a post-apocalyptic world where most plants and animals are dead and there are gangs of cannibals among the surviving humans. It's a decent film, but pretty bleak.

Train of Life (1998) - 7/10 - The residents of a Jewish village in Eastern Europe create their own deportation train as a way to escape from the advancing Nazis and escape to the Soviet Union and Palestine. Kind of silly at times, but not bad.

Primary (1960) - 7/10 - The film follows JFK and Hubert Humphrey as they try to gain the Democratic nomination for President in 1960. It's an interesting look at the time.

The Madoff Affair (2009) - 6.5/10 - This documentary looks into Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme that defrauded investors of billions of dollars. I remember when this was big news back in the day, though it didn't affect me directly.

A Married Couple (1969) - 6.5/10 - Their marriage was failing so of course Billy and Antoinette Edwards agreed to have cameras set up in their home for 10 weeks to capture their daily lives. There is a lot of bickering and arguing without much in the way of love. The film is okay, but kind of unpleasant to watch at times. I think Billy came off looking worse here, especially from a modern perspective.

Asteroid City (2023) - 6.5/10 - The setting is a televised broadcast of a stage play. I generally liked the full color sections in Asteroid City. The 'behind the scenes' scenes in black and white were not as interesting.

Slaughterhouse-Five (1972) - 6.5/10 - This is a pretty good adaptation of the book from what I can recall. However, I wasn't a big fan of the book and am also not a big fan of this film, though it was okay.

Urgences (1988) - 6.5/10 - A look at some of the patients in the psychiatric ward of a large French hospital. The film reminded me some of Wiseman, thought the fly on the wall aspect was occasionally broken as the people interacted briefly with the people behind the camera.

From the Other Side / De l'autre côté (2002) - 6/10 - This takes a look at the fate of some Mexicans who crossed the border to go to the United States. Relatives of people who crossed are interviewed along with people who crossed and returned. People on the American side are also interviewed. Crossing over to the U.S. often seems not to have a happy outcome. There is a lot of time where no talking is going on and the camera just rolls on whatever is going on in that area.

Transatlantic Tunnel (1935) - 5.5/10 - A melodrama about the building of a tunnel connecting the United States to the United Kingdom. It is fraught with danger for the people building the tunnel. There are also delays and cost overruns. The engineer who conceived of the plan and oversees the projects makes a number of personal sacrifices as well. This seems like a film that I would enjoy quite a bit, but it came across as fairly dull, though there were a few interesting things here and there, though generally not connected directly with the plot.

The Overcoat (1926) - 5/10 - The film adapts two stories by Gogol. The visuals were decent, but the stories didn't really appeal to me.

Aelita: Queen of Mars (1924) - 5/10 - An engineer whose dream has been to travel to Mars has to deal with marital issues and also a mysterious message that may have originated from Mars. It's pretty dull for the most part.

Mediterranee (1963) - 4.5/10 - An experimental documentary that is kind of odd and only occasionally interesting.

Liquid Sky (1982) - 4/10 - The visuals were kind of interesting to look at, but the story and characters didn't do much for me.
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Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings

Post by Reza »

The Next Three Days (Paul Haggis, 2010) 5/10

As a thriller this has its moments although the premise is totally unbelievable - especially the latter part. When a woman (Elizabeth Banks) is accused of murder and she gets a life sentence her husband (Russell Crowe) plans to get her out of jail. However, he has to go through hell to achieve it - contemplate a bank robbery, get into assorted skirmishes where he gets beaten up, robs a local drug dealer where he gets into a deadly shootout, and it doesn't end there. Crowe goes through the motions totally deadpan looking very bored.

Thanksgiving (Eli Roth, 2023) 6/10

This harks back to all the slasher films of the 1970s & 1980s, helped in great part by the recent Jamie Lee Curtis Halloween trilogy, so it is most welcome. A small Massachusetts town is terrorized by a killer in a John Carver mask around the Thanksgiving holiday. The killing spree is directly related to a Thanksgiving sale a year before at a superstore where a riot broke out and a number of people were killed. Gruesome methods are applied by the killer who uses an axe, a knife, sleep-inducing darts, and the oven where one victim is literally cooked like a turkey with all trimmings intact. The cast of youngsters are all new while two familiar faces from the past appear as well - Gina Gershon as a housewife and Patrick Dempsey as the local cop trying to save the townfolk. Predictable but very watchable for the obvious thrill involved in seeing people getting massacred. Its like the West enjoying the massacre of innocent Palestinians.

Passages (Ira Sachs, 2023) 8/10

The marriage of a gay couple runs into problems when he dumps his husband, takes off with a woman, impregnates her and then wants to return to his old life. Intense portrait of a highly improbable love triangle between a narcissistic German film director (Franz Rogowski), his British husband (Ben Whishaw) and the French school teacher (Adèle Exarchopoulos) who inadvertently comes between them. Their lives become a cycle of fighting, reconciling and making love - the film has a number of very explicit sex scenes - until the two well-meaning souls both decide to opt out of their toxic relationship with the immature flamboyant fuckboy. The screenplay shows how couples often use sex as a tool to deflect problems in their relationship prefering to be in a toxic cycle of intense fighting followed by guilt and then reconciling through sex. Rogowski creates a character who is a grade-A asshole but manages to imbue him with charm in a pathetic sort of way where you end up feeling sorry for him.

Boy on a Dolphin (Jean Negulesco, 1957) 6/10

The film that brought Sophia Loren to the attention of the world courtesy of a clingy wet dress she is seen wearing as she comes out of the Aegean Sea. The film's highlight is the camera focusing on her ample bosom in glorious technicolor. Apart from being a travelogue across Greece - we get to see the Acropolis, the Meteora monastry, the ancient theatre in Delphi and various islands (Poros, Mykonos, Santorini, Hydra, Rhodes) - the film is rather slow with the main plot involving a statue of a boy on a dolphin discovered by a poor woman (Sophia Loren) on one of her dives to collect sponges. She is torn between two men - a greedy collector (Clifton Webb doing his patented supercilious turn) who plans to steal the statue and an American archaeologist (a wooden Alan Ladd) who wants the statue to be given to the Greek government, with whom she falls in love. In addition to the charms of Sophia Loren two other positive aspects of the film are Milton Krasner's lush colour cinematography and an Oscar-nominated score by Hugo Friedhofer. Ladd famously shot all his scenes next to the statuesque Loren while standing on a box due to his short stature.

Undercover Girl (Joseph Pevney, 1950) 8/10

Riveting B-noir - rookie cop (Alexis Smith) infiltrates a gang of crooks running a narcotics ring by going undercover in order to find the man who shot her father in cold blood. Smith, as the determined cop, creates sparks with Scott Brady who is the L.A. cop who recruits her. Also memorable in small roles are Royal Dano as a low-life underworld type, Connie Gilchrist as a senior policewoman, and Gladys George as an ageing moll who inadvertently helps the cops. Gunplay, blackmail, extortion and murder are all perfectly packed into this forgotten noir gem.

Undertow (William Castle, 1949) 7/10

This excellent little B-noir has all the trappings of the genre - hapless man - a former crook (Scott Brady) - framed for the murder of a Chicago mob boss, gambling, murder, betrayal, a sense of paranoia, a femme fatale, the good girl waiting in the wings (Peggy Dow), and the buddy cop (Bruce Bennett). Brady is very good in the lead and there is an early bit appearance by a future star actor billed simply as Roc Hudson - minus the "k".

Un homme de trop (Costa-Gavras, 1967) 6/10

The film's opening attack on a German prison - somewhere in the Cévennes mountains - to free 12 french prisoners by the resistance is shot in semi-darkness. One can hardly see what is happening as the men swiftly move in, kill the german soldiers and free the prisoners. However, a 13th prisoner (Michel Piccoli) is discovered who is unknown to them and he is suspected to be a spy and informant. Despite his attempts to explain that he is not on the German side the men decide that he must be executed. The film's amazing cast, a who's who of french cinema - Charles Vanel, Jean-Claude Brialy, Bruno Cremer, Gérard Blain, Claude Brasseur, Jacques Perrin, Pierre Clémenti, François Périer - all give vivid performances. Costa-Gavras keeps his cast and the camera in constant motion as the rebels move through villages and towns, into the hills, and culminating with a final battle with the Nazis on a bridge. Sadly the film grinds to a hault during the mid-section as the men, holed up in a hut, bicker, banter, and size up each other. The final deadly assault on the Nazis and their equally swift response is superbly played out on a hillside and on a bridge that leads to the inevitable conclusion.

I Wouldn't Be in Your Shoes (William Nigh, 1948) 6/10

B-noir, once thought lost, was rediscovered in 2000. Based on the novella by Cornel Woolrich the screenplay dispenses with the book's dark ending and comes up with a different conclusion here. A hapless couple living hand-to-mouth find a wallet full of money which they decide to keep. However, the man's shoe print outside a murdered victim's house leads the police to him and he gets convicted for theft and murder, and sentenced to be executed. Meanwhile his wife seeks help for her husband from a cop who has been stalking her and has professed his love for her. A poverty row quickie crime drama is briskly paced and competently directed.

Lassiter (Roger Young, 1984) 7/10

American cat burglar (Tom Selleck) is given a choice by Scotland Yard police inspector (Bob Hoskins) - either he goes to prison or he helps them steal a shipment of emeralds from within the German embassy in London. It's pre-war 1939 and the Swastika is proudly flying inside the embassy. The film harks back to the days when William Powell and Cary Grant played elegant jewel thieves only here there is danger of the Nazi kind. Selleck, who has incredible screen charisma, is here at the start of his rather wan film career which sadly always remained on the sidelines of his tv show "Magnum, PI". The screenplay adds on moments of nudity - lovely Jane Seymour is his girlfriend, while Lauren Hutton is the deliciously evil German countess who gets sexually turned on by violence and in bed likes to take charge by grappling her man while on top and has a nasty habit of sometimes impaling a thin steel rod into the neck of disapproved lovers while in the throes of an orgasm. Selleck looks very dapper in and out of his 1930s threads - tuxedo as well as the all-black outfit during his robbing sprees. Sadly this breezy film is let down at the conclusion by a rather pat ending. I expected at the very least a nasty showdown with the femme fatale.

Nyad ( Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi & Jimmy Chin, 2023) 7/10

Sports drama about Diana Nyad (Annette Bening) and her five attempts to swim across the Florida Straits from Cuba to Key West - that's 110 miles of unpredictable open ocean - without a shark cage. As with most films about sports it can get a tad repetitious and here there is not much you can do to keep up the interest in the plot - she made a number of attempts before she succeeded and the film throws in one dramatic shark encounter which actually never took place. Most of the running time is of her swimming, taking short stops for food and liquid, and the reactions and constant encouragement of the team accompanying her - coach Bonnie Stoll (Jodie Foster), all-but-mute captain Dee Brady (Karly Rothenberg), self-sacrificing navigator John Bartlett (Rhys Ifans) and box jellyfish expert Angel Yanagihara (Jeena Yi). Annette Bening gives a ferociously committed performance as the athlete. You can actually feel the great effort she makes during the swim. And she isn't afraid to play the character as abrasive and unlikeable - a woman absolutely driven to achieve her goal. Foster, is quietly superb, as the faithful friend and coach who has her back at all times gently nudging Diana to go on even when she is all but dead in the water from exhaustion. There is a ridiculous CGI moment in the film when Diana hallucinates that she is swimming over the Taj Mahal which should have been omitted. In the end the film is not only a moving tribute to a marathon swimmer but also an ode to female friendship.

Arthur's Whiskey (Stephen Cookson, 2024) 3/10

What quirky casting - Diane Keaton joins Patricia Hodge and the singer Lulu in this tiny little British film. When a small-time inventor is hit by lightning and dies, his widow (Patricia Hodge) and her two buddies (Keaton & Lulu) discover his invention in the garden shed - bottles of home made whiskey which when consumed transforms them into young girls for a period of six hours. Silly beyond belief as the film flits between the older women - moaning and groaning about their aches and pains - and the youthful girls who go in search for some sex and love but have a hard time mixing in with the youth of today. Also popping up are Hayley Mills in an old people's home and the singer Boy George as himself. Cloying, boring film.

Hijack (Jim Field Smith & Mo Ali, 2023) 9/10

A business negotiator (Idris Elba) suddenly finds himself in over his head when he has to try and negotiate with hijackers on a flight from Dubai to London. Riveting 7-part limited series puts the viewer right inside the plane surrounded by frightened passengers and five hijackers brandishing pistols. The running time of the series mirrors the almost 7 hour flight with the story alternating between the tension filled events inside the claustrophobic plane and the air traffic control and anti-terrorism offices on the ground. While the negotiator attempts to parry with the hijackers the city officials try to avert the plane from crashing down over London. Gripping story from beginning to end.

The Vanishing Prairie (James Algar, 1954) 7/10

Before there was the National Geographics channel to show us the wonders of our world we got to see bits of it via this Oscar-winning docementary feature by Walt Disney. A sprawling look at the area east of the Continental divide in the United States - an area of rolling grasslands once solely the haunt of the Native Americans (then referred to as Red (why red?) Indians who roamed, lived and hunted throughout this vast area. Later it was the route used by covered wagons as people migrated West towards Oregon. The camera captures the birds and animals as they migrate, hunt, mate (a sexual dance by cranes) and frolic - assorted birds, deer, jack rabbits, a mountain lion on the hunt, gophers, scuttling prairie dogs, swooping falcons, shuffling bison (also a quick shot of one giving birth - which was a first in a Disney movie). There is facinating use of music which accompanies the wild life as they swim, fly and interact with each other often in balletic mode. The film culminates with a brutal lightning storm which results in a fire and a flood on the prairie - nature at its best & worst, yet truly beautiful.

Good Grief (Dan Levy, 2023) 6/10

This earnest little film sadly comes off like one of those derivative Hallmark tv films - good looking people in lovely settings doing what friends do while one suffers stoically through not one but two traumas. A book illustrator (Dan Levy), married to a very successful author (Luke Evans) of romantic novels, suddenly finds his life collapsing around him due to a tragic event. His two bosom pals - an art dealer and former lover (Himesh Patel) and a boozy neurotic (Ruth Negga) - give him full support until suddenly he discovers his tragedy turning into betrayal. The trio turn up in Paris where the three try to find some meaning in life while trying to navigate fresh relationships. Levy, who starred in and created "Schitt's Creek" on tv, tries his hand on the big screen. While he has good screen presence the film misses several beats when the screenplay tries to push broad comedy into what is basically a bittersweet story about love and loss. The attempt to channel Nora Ephron, Nancy Meyers, and Richard Curtis does not quite work. And why is everything so perfect? - the snazzy clothes they wear, the parties they attend, the gorgeous apartments they live in, the romantic music accompanying every beat of the story, and topping it all there is Paris. In reality life is often too chaotic, messy and downbeat (with happy bubbles punctuating periodically) for all on view here to really seem authentic. The three leads work well together and are very convincing as long-term friends with their comfort level between each other vividly shining through.

The Terminal List (Antoine Fuqua, Ellen Kuras, M.J. Bassett, Frederick E.O. Toye, Tucker Gates & Sylvain White, 2022)

Compelling limited series based on former Navy SEAL officer Jack Carr's thriller novel. When a platoon is ambushed during a covert mission in Syria only two survive - their Commander (Chris Pratt) and his close friend who soon after commits suicide under mysterious circumstances. When the lone survivor's wife and daughter are murdered in cold blood he goes on the run. It appears a pharmaceutical company, his seniors at the Navy, and even the Pentagon may be involved. Helping him on his mission are a journalist (Constance Wu), who is looking for a story, and another close buddy and former teammate (Taylor Kitsch) who is a CIA operative. As he investigates the mystery he makes a list of ten names whom he, one by one, starts to eliminate in true vigilante fashion. Action packed conspiracy thriller is entertaining with enough twists to keep you bingeing through the eight episodes.

Three Pines (Sam Donovan, Tracey Deer & Daniel Grou, 2022) 9/10

Murder mysteries based on the series of novels by Canadian writer Louise Penny. Remarkable how the Agatha Christie formula continues to inspire modern writers - a murder followed by a bunch of suspects whom the detective - here he is Chief Inspector Armand Gamache (Alfred Molina) of the Sûreté du Québec police force - who doggedly solves the crime. Not quite Poirot, but pretty close in tone. The stories are all set in an idyllic fictional village - Three Pines - in Quebec, Canada. The series consists of four murder mysteries (two episodes each) along with a secondary storyline about a missing North American Indigenous girl which is spread out throughout the eight episodes. Quirky, atmospheric, often quite macabre and melancholic plotlines, with the detective suffering through his own neurosis which harks back to a childhood trauma. Molina is superb. Sadly the series was cancelled after just one season although there are several more award-winning books by the author which could have been adapted.
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Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings

Post by Reza »

Kho Gaye Hum Kahan (Arjun Varain Singh, 2023) 7/10

Hallelujah! We actually get to see here a superb performance by Ananya Panday. A tale of friendship set during the era of social media. That is now. Three besties - a stand-up comedian (Siddhant Chaturvedi), an MBA graduate from Harvard (Ananya Panday) who works as a corporate consultant (the screenplay is by Zoya Akhtar, Reema Kagti & director Singh, and Panday's casting shockingly works) and a personal trainer (Adarsh Gourav) - face the usual life trials twenty-somethings get to face and handle, not always successfully. While the screenplay predictably covers their banter, inner and outer conflicts, acrimony, separation and reunion, there is an honesty in their relationship and how this generation navigates through life using their phone and social media as a means to vent, reflect and get validation. What successfully moves the story forward is the immense chemistry between the three leads who portray their characters with a great deal of honesty. No melodrama here. Just a strong message about the extent to which people have taken to social media which has enveloped them in a lifestyle that is often fake and can swifty bring on heartbreak. The film's outstanding song score goes a long way in creating the perfect mood for what plays across the screen.

A Family Divided (Donald Wrye, 1995) 6/10

A young girl is gang raped by five college students at a frat house. One of the boys confesses to his lawyer father (Stephen Collins) who advises the boys to keep quiet. However, the boy's mother (Faye Dunaway) begins to suspect when the victim disappears and she becomes the moral centerpiece of her middle class family by confronting her son and husband. She refuses to go along with the deception and rages against her family members who are hell bent on hiding the facts. Overwrought drama has Dunaway's outstanding performance as the horror-stricken mother who can't believe how her son and husband could keep quiet over such a tragedy. Like many previous films on social issues American tv once more comes up with a dramatic subject which has a strong message.

The People Next Door (Tim Hunter, 1996) 2/10

Z-grade tv film about child kidnapping has a screenplay full of holes and character emotions that need to be played up. Woman (Nicolette Sheridan) escapes from her abusive husband and moves back with her three young daughters to be near her mother (Faye Dunaway) with whom she has an antogonistic relationship. Her loving neighbours, a childless couple (Michael O'Keefe & Tracey Ellis), help with the kids but later end up kidnapping two of the girls. Sheridan sleepwalks through the ordeal of trying to find her children while a miscast Dunaway blows hot and cold - often berating her daughter and then suddenly showing sympathy. O'Keefe also alternates being a loving kidnapper who in the blink of an eye appears to go off the deep end. Story needs an element of hysteria which is completely missing.

Running Mates (Ron Lagomarsino, 2000) 7/10

Antiseptic film follows the election campaign of a Democratic Party presidential candidate (Tom Selleck) whose most pressing chore is deciding on who yo choose as his Vice President while four women - all of whom he has bedded - try to influence his decision. The clever women surrounding him are three former lovers - his campaign manager (Laura Linney), his shallow Hollywood campaign fundraising manager (Teri Hatcher), and a garrulous Washington socialite (Faye Dunaway) who wants the VP slot for her womanizing husband (Robert Culp); the fourth is his current lover and wife (Nancy Travis). Will these women help him make the right decision or will they be more intent on exerting control over him while trying to win their own personal battles against each other? There is a funny sequence when all four ladies get together in the powder room and discuss his cocksmanship. The attractive cast makes the most of this comedy-drama with Selleck, front and center, making a dashing presidential candidate. Dunaway delightfully steals every scene and was rewarded with a nomination for a Golden Globe.

Blind Horizon (Michael Haussman, 2003) 4/10

If your plot involves an amnesiac you cannot make the mystery stretch to an inordinate length without divulging what the hell is going on especially when the remaining plot merely meanders along. An IRS employee (Val Kilmer) is shot, left for dead, recovers but has accute amnesia. The small-town cop (Sam Shepard) finds no clues and the patient, who keeps having visions - Faye Dunaway appears several times giving him or someone else some sort of instructions - and in a violent and confused state he divulges a confused plot about an assassination attempt on the United States President. The man's fiancée (Neve Campbell) appears and his nurse (Amy Smart) shows continued sympathy. Then the President arrives in this backwater and an assassin's rifle is discovered by the amnesiac. Is he the assassin? Is someone else also attempting to kill? Confused and confusing plot tries to annoyingly overdo the mystery angle. Unnecessarily arty direction, editing, camera movements with the actors posing like models. The excellent cast obviously took this project on for the paycheck. The mystery proves to be quite a bore long before this film ends. The time one wastes to check off yet another film with Faye Dunaway is also one of life's stupefying mysteries.

Elephant Walk (William Dieterle, 1954) 6/10

The plot of this film - based on the novel by Robert Standish - has more than a passing resemblance to Daphne du Maurier's "Rebecca". On a visit to England dashing Colonial tea planter (Peter Finch) weds a lovely young lady (Elizabeth Taylor) and takes her to his late father's plantation in Ceylon. As in the du Maurier novel the young woman finds herself in over her head in her new surroundings. The huge bungalow is run by an imposing major-domo (shades of Mrs Danvers) who does not like the new mistress interfering in the household, the overwhelming presence of her husband's dead father who is still treated like god (shades of the dead Rebecca), and her husband's volatile mood swings. Providing some respite is the plantation's manager (Dana Andrews) who offers much needed attention and friendship but who also falls in love with her. Adding to the problems is a rogue male elephant who has been pissed off because his path to the river was blocked when the bungalow was built across it. And then a cholera epidemic breaks out followed by the elephants going on a rampage. Colorful adventure film has the beauty of Elizabeth Taylor front and center and lovely location filming on an actual tea plantation in Ceylon. Initially Vivien Leigh - then Lady Olivier - was cast and actually filmed some scenes (she can be seen in longshot) before her bipolar disorder made her drop out - she and Peter Finch were also in the midst of a torrid affair which added to her problems. Extensive location filming took part in Kandy and Sigiria in Ceylon.

The Heat of the Day (Christopher Morahan, 1989) 7/10

Harold Pinter adapts the novel by Anglo-Irish Elizabeth Bowen. Set during the London Blitz the story revolves around a British intelligence agent (Michael Gambon) who blackmails a middle-aged woman (Patricia Hodge) to become his mistress or he will expose her lover (Michael York) who is revealing government secrets to the Germans. Since we are in Pinter territory it is all played out as if in slow motion with a number of characters populating the plot on the side - a young nymphomaniac (Imelda Staunton), an old lady in a home (Dame Peggy Ashcroft) whose husband drops dead and leaves his Irish estate to a distant nephew. Genteel drama acted to perfection by the distinguished cast.

Butcher's Crossing (Gabe Polsky, 2023) 6/10

The star of the film is the spectacular location in Glacier National Park in Montana. During the early 1870s an idealistic young Harvard dropout (Fred Hechinger) travels out West to the plains of Kansas and hooks up with a buffalo hunter (Nicolas Cage) collecting hides for a price. Their journey to a remote valley in Montana is fraught with danger and coupled with the reckless massacre of the bison herd and the sudden arrival of winter puts a total damper on their plans. After sitting out eight months of freezing weather the group return to find that the price of bison hides has dropped. Based on the 1960 novel by John Edward Williams which covers the exploration of the Wild West, confronting and surviving the brutal realities of nature, and a contemplation of man's purpose in life with respect to nature.

Sense and Sensibility (Ang Lee, 1995) 10/10

Such a happy marriage between two quite different auteurs - a director from Taiwan and a British actor/screenwriter - who join hands to bring to the screen this delightful adaptation of Jane Austen's classic novel. When their father dies the Dashwood Sisters - Elinor (Emma Thompson), reserved, practical, and a thoughful young woman representing "sense", and Marianne (Kate Winslet), spontaneous, a lover of nature, idealistically romantic, representing "sensibility" - find themselves, along with their mother (Gemma Jones) and younger sister in genteel poverty. A cousin (Robert Hardy) and his mother-in-law (the delightful Elizabeth Spriggs) provide them a cottage as shelter. No romantic fiction would be complete without dashing male lovers coming along and sweeping the women off their feet. Elinor is smitten by a shy but affectionate young man (Hugh Grant) who is informed by his mother that he shall be disinherited if he gets married to someone below his station. It's love at first sight for rich melancholic old bachelor (Alan Rickman), but Marianne instead falls head over heels in love with a very handsome but deceitful and selfish Byronic young man (Greg Wise). Matters of the heart do not run smoothly and it takes a whole lot of anguish and heartache before there is a semblance of happiness in sight. The entire cast is a miracle (including Imogen Stubbs, Hugh Laurie, Harriet Walter, Imelda Staunton) with Emma Thompson's Oscar winning screenplay a warm and witty delight. The film, both Thompson and Winslet (for their acting), the score, cinematography and costumes were nominated for the Academy award. Ang Lee's elegant direction was shockingly overlooked for a nomination although he absolutely nails Austen's stinging social observation and satire. And he does this thankfully without overloading the film with unnecessary period frills instead letting the screenplay provide its magic on screen in all its simplicity.
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Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings

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Reza wrote: Tue Dec 26, 2023 7:07 am
Saltburn (Emerald Fennell, 2023) 5/10

Keoghan, who is often filmed in extreme close-up, rightfully plays his character totally deadpan but fails to convey why every character so easily confides in him. He is physically not the kind of person anyone would easily cozy up to. And that is the film's major failure.
They confided in him because he was a good listener who also knew how to play them.

I didn't see the Waugh reference but maybe a little of The Loved One slips in. However, I did think this was a deft blend of The Talented Mr. Ripley and Teorema as well as Kind Hearts and Coronets and Something for Everyone (itself a takeoff on Teorema).

I liked it a lot. Compared to Maestro, which was a big letdown for me, this was the more interesting film. My reviews of both will be up on Cinema Sight at 11 a.m. EST.
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Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings

Post by Reza »

Saltburn (Emerald Fennell, 2023) 5/10

Take a spoonful of Evelyn Waugh, a dash of L.P. Hartley, a rather heavy dose of Patricia Highsmith's Ripley, and the outrageous sexuality of Pasolini's Teorema, and what you get is Saltburn - a richly expansive country estate in England where a lonely Oxford scholarship student (Barry Keoghan) is invited by his college mate (Jacob Elordi) to come stay for the summer with his uppity-rich eccentric family - dad, Sir James Catton (Richard E. Grant), mom, Lady Elspeth Catton (Rosamund Pike), bulimic sister (Alison Oliver), needy American cousin (Archie Madekwe), and depressed attention-seeking family friend (Carey Mulligan). The gauche young man is at first enthusiastically welcomed by the family but who gradually begin to realise that something seems off about him and he has enveloped his life in a web of lies. A story about obsessive love and hate appears to have gotten director Fennell way in over her head. What she feels is her attempt at showing shocking moments on screen - the slimy sexual finger and mouth fondling with a menstruating vagina making Keoghan's blood-soaked mouth looking like a vampire, the voyeuristic masturbation in a bathtub followed by sensually drinking the after effects as the water runs down the drain, and getting naked and humping a newly dug muddy grave - prove to be merely silly flourishes totally devoid of genuine erotica. None of these moments seem credible to the plot at all. The over-the-top finalé seems to have been hurriedly put together to get to a conclusion that is all too familiar from many films from the past. The ending smells of very stale wine making the film in many ways quite similar in tone to Fennell's previous film, "Promising Young Woman", which also ended up with an absurdly over-the-top ending. The film's highlight is the grand house through which the camera moves catching moments of garish caricatures amongst the rich inhabitants. Standing out in the cast are both Grant as the slightly addled father and especially Pike who gets all the unfiltered witty dialogue. Keoghan, who is often filmed in extreme close-up, rightfully plays his character totally deadpan but fails to convey why every character so easily confides in him. He is physically not the kind of person anyone would easily cozy up to. And that is the film's major failure.

Freelance (Pierre Morel, 2023) 2/10

Inane, lifeless action thriller merely goes through motions like a cow regurgitating its cud. Many much better films are brought to mind - "Romancing the Stone", for one - which this one hopes to emulate but fails miserably. A former U.S. Army Special Forces officer (John Cena) is tasked with providing security to a disgraced news journalist (Alison Brie) as she attempts to get an exclusive interview with a Central or South American dictator - the country is fictional but everyone speaks spanish. However, they arrive just as a coup is being attempted and the trio go on the run after the security officer kills all the attackers. Are American corporations after valuable minerals and attempting to prop another person in place of the dictator who refuses to do their bidding? Amazing how even third rate movie plots get to speak the truth about how the United States is in relentless pursuit of self gratification while totally indifferent to collateral damage of the human kind. Cena is a square-jawed mannequin and Brie is annoyingly perky as they dodge bullets and trade barbs. And why on earth has Christian Slater been relegated to tv shows and embarrasingly small parts in Hollywood films? Skip this turd of a movie.

Leave the World Behind (Sam Esmail, 2023) 7/10

The first end-of-the-world apocalyptic thriller out of Hollywood that has the sense to acknowledge all the interference by the United States government in other countries which could in turn actually result in nations joining up and retaliating leading to chaos and death. A misanthrope (Julia Roberts), married to a college professor (Ethan Hawke), arranges a weekend vacation for her family (teenage son and daughter in tow) by renting a house in Long Island. Very gradually things start getting askew - there is a complete blackout in the city, planes crash, the tv stops working as do cell phones and the internet. A large herd of deer suddenly appear out of the surrounding forest along with flamingos in the pool. A high decibel sound is heard, the son falls sick and the affluent African-American owner (Mahershala Ali) of the house arrives in the dead of night with his daughter and asks to move into the house with them. An adaptation of Rumaan Alam's novel, the film creates dread and supense by superbly using the camera to create unsettling moments capturing the characters from above, sideways and sometimes even upside down with its sweeping movements. He also uses rapid cross cutting between scenes adding to the tension.

Rush Hour 3 (Brett Ratner, 2007) 5/10

In the midst of the usual shenanigans - the cop duo (Chris Tucker & Jackie Chan) are in Paris tracking an assassin (Hiroyuki Sanada) - there are hilarious vignettes along the way via cameos by Yvan Attal (as a french cabbie), Roman Polanski (as a french policeman who harrases the two cops), and Dana Ivey (as a nun who translates 4-letter words into french). The sequence with a tall Chinese martial arts expert (basketball player Sun Mingming) making mince meat of the two cops is a riff on Bruce Lee's "Game of Death" where the short Lee tackled the very tall Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Tucker does his obligatory sing and dance act while mouthing inane dialogue at rat-a-tat speed. Chan is in serious mode as he confronts the assassin who is his foster brother from the distant past. Since its Paris the Eiffel Tower gets to take part in an action sequence. The great Max von Sydow appears as a villain.

Lake Placid: The Final Chapter (Don Michael Paul, 2012) 3/10

Direct sequel to the previous schlock takes off from the scene of mayhem in a grocery store where badly wounded, gravel-voiced, hunting guide - the semi-butch Yancy Butler - ferociously stabbed a crocodile before expiring. Well this installment opens with Ms Butler opening her eyes - yup, she survived - clutches her ample bosom, staggers up to find a giant crocodile hissing at her. "You again?", she grunts. "You really want to do this?" And with a sudden flip she knifes the reptile as the screen dissolves into the opening credits. The screenplay this time really tries with that kick-ass opening. However, it really is more of the same. Utter Schlock!!

Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham... (Karan Johar, 2001) 8/10

Karan Johar cranks up the melodrama quotient to the highest possible decibel and then takes it even further over the top. Very rich boy (Shah Rukh Khan) unexpectedly falls in love with poor girl (Kajol overacting to high heaven) from the wrong side of the tracks - Chandni Chowk - much to the arrogant consternation of his rigid dad (Amitabh Bachchan) who wants him to marry a friend and socialite (Rani Mukerji). He is literally sent into exile out of the family circle when he does marry the boistrous Punjabi girl. His doting Mom (Jaye Bachchan) looks on helplessly as her husband shows no mercy and shuts her up when she protests. Meanwhile Karan's obsession and adulation of Yash Chopra goes into full swing during the many, many song and dance numbers, never moreso than when the lovers realize their love for each other and the camera moves swiftly from the crowded streets of Chandni Chowk to the Great Pyramids of Giza and the Bahariya Oasis in Egypt, as a slinky Kajol gyrates to the tune of "Suraj Hua Madhham" in numerous chiffon sarees (red, lime green, yellow, orange, black, blue and white) all worn during the same song. Meanwhile exile is in London where the couple make a life with each other and the saalee - the iconic Poo (Kareena Kapoor). Trying to bring the family together is younger Bro - once fat boy but all grownup as a hunk (Hrithik Roshan) - who catches the eye of spoilt Poo. As if the main cast was not starry enough the supporting cast is equally memorable - Farida Jalal, Johny Lever, Shashikala, Achala Sachdev, Sushma Seth & Alok Nath. A huge success the film was nominated for 16 Filmfare awards including for the film, Karan, Shah Rukh, Amitabh, Hrithik & Kareena - winning for Kajol, Jaya, the production design, & Karan's dramatic (and often very patriotic) dialogue. Arm yourself with a truck full of tissues as the film will not only make you laugh but also cry bucket loads.
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Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings

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21 Up (1977) - 7/10 - The people from the first two films are gathered together to watch those films now that they are 21 years old. They are asked a series of questions, but we also get more from them interacting with each other or giving longer and more thoughtful answers. The film itself is a lot longer than the previous entries which is a mixed blessing.

28 Up (1984) - 7.5/10
35 Up (1991) - 7/10
42 Up (1998) - 7/10
49 Up (2005) - 7/10
56 Up (2012) - 7.5/10
63 Up (2019) - 7.5/10


When you watch these films over a short period of time, you see how much footage is repeated from one film to the next. There's a lot. With a 7 year break between releases, though, I'm sure that it was necessary to refresh peoples' memory. I think they became a little bit better with incorporating the flashbacks in the last couple of episodes. The series also became a bit more contemplative as it progressed. It was pretty interesting watching all of these people for a few days every 7 years as they aged.


Black Rain / Kuroi ame (1989) - 8.5/10 - The film starts just before the atomic bomb is dropped on Hiroshima and deals with both the immediate aftermath and 5 years later as people are still dealing with the effects of the blast. It's fairly bleak, but good.

The King's Choice (2016) - 8/10 - In 1940, Germany invades Norway and the king had to decide whether or not to capitulate to the Germans or resist. Jesper Christensen is really good as King Haakon VII and it's a fairly solid drama.

Alvorada: Brazil's Changing Face (1962) - 8/10 - This West German documentary gives an overview of life in Brazil, told mostly in a visual manner with occasional narration and music. The images and editing are pretty good. It was nominated for an Academy Award.

Love and Death (1975) - 8/10 - Woody Allen plays Boris, a Russian peasant in the early 1800s who gets roped into being a soldier in the fight against Napoleon and inadvertently becomes a hero. The woman he loves doesn't love him back and gets him involved in a dangerous plot. I liked the first half of the film more than the second half, but overall it is still a nice film with plenty of Allen's brand of humor.

My Voyage to Italy (1999) - 8/10 - Martin Scorsese narrates a look through the history of Italian film during the classic era of his youth, mixing in personal recollections, anecdotes, and more. It's a bit on the long side, but is very good.

Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father (2008) - 8/10 - In 2001, Doctor Andrew Bagby was murdered in a parking lot. One of his best friends started making a documentary about his friend, interviewing his parents and friends plus including lots of archival footage of Andrew. There are a lot of twists and turns during the film.

High School (1968) - 7.5/10 - It's an interesting look at high school life in the 1960s. It's definitely a different world from what I experienced 15-20 years later, more regimented and strict. The classroom scenes were not necessarily all that different, but the rules outside the classroom seemed to have loosened up by the 1980s, at least at my school. My parents and grandparents were all teaching at the time, though only my grandfather was teaching a high school. This was good, though I prefer the 1983 Guggenheim documentary - High Schools.

Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk (2016) - 7.5/10 - A young soldier becomes a bit of a celebrity when he is caught on camera in Iraq trying to rescue his wounded sergeant. His squad is back in the states and is set to be honored at a professional football game. He also reconnects with his family, especially his sister. The story of what happened during that fateful incident is told during flashbacks. I thought the film was pretty good, though Steve Martin seemed miscast in his role.

Sisu (2022) - 7.5/10 - In 1944, a Finnish prospector and former commando finds a large vein of gold. While riding on his horse to take the gold to Helsinki, he is accosted by a Nazi patrol who have been destroying villages and taking women prisoner. The film is ridiculous, ridiculously violent, funny at times, and entertaining. Never underestimate the versatility of a pickaxe.

Three Minutes: A Lengthening (2021) - 7.5/10 - A man found three minutes of old 16mm film that his grandfather had shot while on a trip to Poland in 1938, a year before WWII. The film captures a number of the Jewish residents of the town, including many children. The film was restored somewhat and digitized. The film is an examination of the footage, including attempts to identify the location of the film and any of the people who are shown. A few survivors or relatives of people in the film are interviewed. It's an interesting examination.

Alone in the Wilderness (2004) - 7.5/10 - In 1967, a man retired to the Alaskan wilderness, built himself a log cabin, complete with fireplace and chimney, and then lived there for the next 30 years. The film shows a lot of the effort that he put into making his home habitable plus gathering food, etc. during that first year with narration explaining things along the way. It's a fairly straightforward idea, but I also found it interesting seeing this lone man creating a home in the wilderness.

Ashes and Snow (2005) - 7.5/10 - The imagery was very nice and I liked the music, too. The film had a meditative quality through much of it.

Ydessa, the Bears and etc. (2004) - 7/10 - Varda learned about a woman who had an art installation filled with photographs of people with teddy bears. Varda then flew to Toronto to interview the woman and find out what her story was and the process she used. This was more interesting than I expected and the photographs are cool as well.

Made You Look: A True Story About Fake Art (2020) - 7/10 - In the mid-90s, a woman named Glafira Rosales walked into a prominent art gallery in New York City with unknown paintings by major 20th Century abstract artists. After some research, the gallery purchased the paintings and kept purchasing more over the next 15+ years, selling them for obscene amounts of money. Too bad these paintings were fakes. The film features interviews with a number of people involved in the case, including the director of the art gallery (which closed in 2011), people who had purchased the fakes, the man who actually painted the fakes, and various art experts. I liked the film, though I thought the middle section went on too long. The art world seems pretty sketchy in a number of respects.

Ashkal (2022) - 7/10 - Detectives start investigating after people start dying from self-immolation. It's definitely a slow burn, but a little too slow at times. I liked Fatma Oussaifi in the lead role and the setting and sounds were each pretty good. I didn't totally connect with the story, but still thought it was a good film.

Red Sorghum (1988) - 7/10 - A young woman (Gong Li) is sold to a 50 year old leper who owns a remote winery. He soon dies, though, and she takes charge of the winery and makes it a success, until the Japanese arrive. The film started out pretty well, but became less interesting after that.

Chimes at Midnight (1965) - 6.5/10 - Orson Welles directs and also stars as Falstaff, an obese drunkard around the year 1400 who is friends with the son of the king. The film looks good and has a few nice battles, but overall I didn't really get into it that much, except on occasion.

Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983) - 6.5/10 - Tom Conti stars as Colonel John Lawrence, a prisoner in a Japanese camp on Java during WWII who is fluent in Japanese and acts as an intermediary with their Japanese captors. A new prisoner is brought into the camp (David Bowie) and breaks the routine somewhat. I like Bowie as a singer, but I'm not very fond of his acting. Conti was good as Lawrence and Ryuichi Sakamoto and Beat Takeshi weren't bad in their roles. The film also looked pretty good, but I found the story to be pretty boring most of the time and Bowie certainly didn't help thing.

The Pigeon Tunnel (2023) - 5.5/10 - Errol Morris interviews David Cornwell (aka John Le Carre) about his life. Cornwell seems to have lived a pretty interesting life, but is a very dull interviewee.

Breaker! Breaker! (1977) - 5/10 - A young truck driver on his first solo job gets lured into a trap by a corrupt judge and his followers in a remote desert town. His brother (Chuck Norris) goes off in search of him when he goes missing and the brother wreaks havoc in the town. The story was pretty dumb and the acting was bad, but at least it wasn't dull.

Les carabiniers (1963) - 4/10 - A couple of farmers are recruited to become soldiers with promises of wealth and the ability to take just about anything they want. They send postcards home to their wives in this Godard comedy.. There were a couple of funny bits, but it was mostly just dumb.

For Ever Mozart (1996) - 4/10 - A crotchety director is working on his latest film. Meanwhile, his daughter and nephew decide to travel to war torn Bosnia to stage a play. None of it was really all that interesting.

The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989) - 4/10 - An uncouth English gangster takes over a high class French restaurant. His wife starts an affair with one of the customers. The actors do a good job with what they are given and the film has a decent soundtrack. Unfortunately, I just didn't like it very much.

Reason Over Passion (1969) - 2/10 - This was pretty dumb and impenetrable.
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Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings

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The Archies (Zoya Akhtar, 2023) 8/10

This American institution - the Archie comic book - makes a very happy diverse marriage with the Anglo-Indian community of Goa. All the characters from the comic book come to life in small-town Riverdale in a screenplay that has a special "green" message. When Mr. Lodge, the town's richest businessman, decides to plonk a new hotel in the midst of Green Park - the town's environmentally friendly landscape - all hell breaks loose in town. The kids meantime have problems of their own. Serial dater, Archie Andrews (Agastya Nanda), has eyes on spoilt rich girl Veronica Lodge (Suhana Khan) and on wholesome girl-next-door Betty Cooper (Khushi Kapoor). Vain Reggie Mantle (Vedang Raina) needs to grow up fast to take up a job at his father's newspaper. Jughead (Mihir Ahuja), who loves being at Pop's Diner, can't stop eating and is loved by Ethel Muggs (Aditi "Dot" Saiga). Smart and cute inventor Dilton Doiley (Yuvraj Menda) has his eyes on Reggie, while not too bright Moose Mason (Rudra Mahuvarkar) finds a champion in Midge Klump (Santana Roach). Zoya Akhtar brings fresh pizzazz to the film which along with memorable rock and roll music - the film has 16 songs - delightfully allows the entire cast of new actors to shine. There is not a single false beat in any of the young cast members as they confidently sing, dance and emote like true professionals. The director subjected her cast to a boot camp where they undertook singing, dancing and acting lessons before the film's shoot. It has paid off in spades as this bouncy musical is a wonderful tribute to the iconic comic book. The entire production is topnotch with outstanding production design, costumes, choreography, memorable music (by Shankar Ehsaan Loy & Dot.), peppy lyrics (courtesy of Javed Akhtar) and cinematography. Of the three lead actors Agastya Nanda scores big as he perfectly captures the comic book's Archie and is a natural on the dance floor. Both Suhana Khan and Khushi Kapoor come off a little self conscious on screen although both are superb dancers. Kudos to Zoya Akhtar for managing to smoothly blend something so very American into an Indian environment. This film is to the 1960s what "Grease" was to the 1950s.

The Other Woman (Nick Cassavetes, 2014) 6/10

For a change Hollywood takes "inspiration" from a Bollywood movie - the 2011 comedy "Ladies vs Ricky Bahl" - along with dipping into the plot of the 1996 comedy "The First Wives Club". New York attorney (Cameron Diaz), involved in a hot affair with captivating businessman (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), suddenly discovers he has a wife (Leslie Mann). The two women end up friends after a boozy night together and decide to make the man pay for his deceit. Matters take a further turn when they find out that he has been two timing them both with a very young blonde swimsuit supermodel (Kate Upton). The predictable, corny but often very funny plot - yes the laughs are indeed cheap involving pratfalls and scatological humour - has the three women ganging up to seek revenge and teach him a lesson. This women empowerment comedy got roasted by the critics and unfairly winning Cameron Diaz the Razzie award for worst actress of the year. That's really not true as she is quite charming throughout unlike Lesley Mann who plays her character with a permanent dose of very loud hysteria. Don Johnson plays Diaz's suave dad who also plays the field.

God is a Bullet (Nick Cassavetes, 2023) 7/10

Cassavetes brings to the screen an adaptation of the cult novel by Boston Teran. This road movie is a journey into hell as it follows the search by a police detective (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) for his kidnapped daughter taken by a group of satanic cult members. Helping him find her is a former cult member (Maika Monroe) and a social renegade (Jamie Foxx). The crazed tattooed cult members resemble the equally deranged characters from the Mad Max movies. Extremely violent film goes for the jugular from the get go when the girl is snatched and her mother is brutally shot repeatedly at the start of the film. The violence never lets up as body parts are chopped, shot at, cut off and stabbed ad nauseum. There is a kind of fascination watching this flow of blood as nasty people get their deserved comeuppance. I'm surprised the film was panned by critics mainly for its violence when Tarantino and others have won raves for similar blood thirsty moments on screen. Stylized roller coaster ride is a thrilling film although not without a number of potholes in the screenplay. Ignore them and enjoy the ride but only if you can stomach blood.

57 Seconds (Rusty Cundieff, 2023) 6/10

One of those B-films with a ridiculous Sc-Fi plot, a young leading man who you (if a senior citizen like me) have never heard of BUT have seen in a few films which you discover later, and a very famous star character actor in a small role which he probably took on as a favour to someone on the production or just decided to do it for a hefty paycheck. Tech blogger (Josh Hutcherson, who?) goes after a pharmaceutical company marketing a painkiller that killed his sister. He does it with the help of a mysterious ring which allows him to travel back in time by 57 seconds after rubbing it â la Aladdin. The ring may have something to do with a visionary tech guru (Morgan Freeman) whose life he saved from an assassin's bullet. Ignore the far fetched plot elements (and potholes in the script) which provide amusing and suspenseful moments and just go along for the fun ride.

Employees' Entrance (Roy Del Ruth, 1933) 6/10

Ruthless store general manager (Warren William) insists on riding his employees to the breaking point. He hires a broke and unemployed young woman (Loretta Young) after seducing her, and sees potential in a young man (Wallace Ford) whom he grooms to become his assistant. These two fall in love and get married without telling their compulsively philandering boss who later tries every trick in the book to keep the two lovers apart. Frank look at sex at the work place and how the casting couch works (rape) to the advantage of some and to the disadvantage of others - a senior board member of the store is blackmailed by a secretary (Alice White). William - nicknamed the "King of Pre-Code" - is superb as the brutal cad firing people left and right for the smallest of errors. Young, at age 20, is at her most beautiful.

Foyle's War (Giles Foster & Jeremy Silberston, 2003) - Season Two 8/10

Murder, espionage, and treason solved by police detective Christopher Foyle (Michael Kitchen) who reluctantly remains on duty in his quiet English coastal town. Guest stars include Alan Howard, Emily Blunt, Laurence Fox, Phoebe Nicholls, Joanna David, Corin Redgrave.
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Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings

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The Mauritanian (Kevin Macdonald, 2021) 7/10

Someday there will be a kick-ass film based on the terrors inflicted on innocent prisoners by the United States Government at Guantánamo. This film is not it, although we do get to see the main protagonist suffer notorious forms of torture that involved savage beatings, water boarding, binding in contorted stress positions, hooding, subjection to deafening noise, sleep disruption, sleep deprivation to the point of hallucination, subjection to extreme cold, death threats and sexual humiliation. One has been conditioned to believe that such inhuman torture methods were only either part of medieval history or in the recent past the sadistic playtime of the Stalin, Nazi and Vietcong menace. Never could it be imagined that a country priding itself as the Leader of the World would fall so low as to do exactly that. Of course that "holier than thou" aura of the United States has been repeatedly shattered during the last few years. Based on the bestselling memoir, "Guantánamo Diary", written by Mohamedou Ould Salahi, whom the United States held, without charge, for fourteen years and officially acknowledged by them that he had been tortured. The case comes to light when defense attorney Nancy Hollander (Jodie Foster) and her associate Teri Duncan (Shailene Woodley in an underwritten part) decide to defend languishing prisoner Salahi (Tahar Rahim) who had been abducted from his home in Mauritania on suspicion of being involved in the 9/11 attacks. Their controversial advocacy along with fabricated evidence uncovered by the military prosecutor (Benedict Cumberbatch) reveals a shocking conspiracy by officials to falsely condemn the prisoner by coercing a confession out of him using extreme torture methods. The screenplay lacks drama and takes a rather bland route merely ticking off all the major events in the life of this prisoner and comes across as a flat legal procedural. At the center of the film is the outstanding performance of Tahar Rahim who underplays yet perfectly conveys the character's humour, wit, confusion, trauma and who uses his strong religious faith to sustain him through his incredible ordeal of fourteen years in prison. Jodie Foster, wearing a startling white wig and in brusque "Clarice Starling" mode, not only adds marquee value but also adds spice to all her scenes opposite Rahim. Although the film is a strong indictment against the Bush era I found the film's emphasis on forgiveness hard to take as it deflects completely from the major issue of the United States government still refusing to apologise for its hand in the goings-on in Guantánamo which is still very much around and kicking. The film ends on a memorable note with footage of Salahi being welcomed back home and singing a Bob Dylan song.

Agora (Alejandro Amenábar, 2009) 3/10

Very interesting period - late 4th-century Roman Egypt - about a clash between pagans and early Christians in Alexandria with the great library as the backdrop. At the center is a mathematician, philosopher and astronomer - a woman (Rachel Weisz) - who struggles to save classical antiquity in the midst of great social upheaval. She is loved by a student (Oscar Isaac) and by her father's slave (Max Minghella) whose love remains unrequited so he converts to Christianity and turns against her. Badly edited film makes the plot confusing and hence uninvolving. The film's only saving grace is the radiant performance by Rachel Weisz.

The Old Man (Jon Watts, Greg Yaitanes, Zeta Fuentes & Jet Wilkinson, 2023) Season One 7/10

Retired CIA agent and Vietnam veteran (Jeff Bridges) suddenly finds himself thirty years later being hunted by the agency at the behest of his former colleagues (John Lithgow & Joel Grey). He is forced to go on the run with a reluctant woman (Amy Brenneman) he meets along the way. Flashbacks to the war in Afghanistan hold the key to the mystery and the dilemma the old man finds himself in. These scenes quickly become very tedious and the series' main interest lies in the scenes set in the present with Bridges, Brenneman and Lithgow in a series of cat-and-mouse chase sequences. Bridges (who was nominated for an Emmy) is absolutely sublime in this late career role which allows him to shine brightly.

A Queen is Crowned (1953) 9/10

British documentary on the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Shot in stunning colour and narrated by Sir Laurence Olivier the film captures the pageantry of the event on the streets of London and inside Westminister Abbey. Nominated for an Academy Award in the Documentary Feature category.

Tokyo Twilight (Yasujirō Ozu, 1957) 10/10

A rare Ozu that is incredibly grim throughout. While the film has his signature low level static shots he bathes the entire story in shadows and wintery darkness. This sets the tone for the plot about two sisters - the elder (a sublime Setsuko Hara) returns with her small child to the home of her father (Chishū Ryū) escaping from a bad marriage to an alcoholic; the younger (Ineko Arima) finds herself pregnant by her uncaring boyfriend and goes in for an abortion. Adding to their woes is the return of their mother who had abandoned them in childhood and run off with another man. The father quietly suffers guilt for forcing his older daughter to marry someone she did not like and indulging and spoiling his youngest - a third child, a son died a few years before in a mountain climbing accident. Extremely pessimistic drama is acted to perfection as the characters go about in stoic fashion - the japanese way - with no sign of any hysteria despite being struck by life's many anguish filled moments. This quietly magnificent film retains enormous dramatic power as Ozu's camera moves out of the troubled family home and explores even darker corners of Tokyo - smoky mahjong parlors, Ginza bars, and seedy gambling dens - before finding a somewhat forced ray of light at the end of the tunnel. After all life must go on despite the tragedy.

The Creator (Gareth Edwards, 2023) 7/10

"Star Wars" really started the Sci-Fi ball rolling and which then eventually evolved into many different hybrids of which this is one of the better ones. It's a cross between "Blade Runner", "Apocalypse Now" & "Paper Moon" with a whiff of combat Indiana Jones. After a rogue AI decimates Los Angeles via a nuclear bomb the Western Nations wage war against all AI who have evolved into fighting machines and have made allies of the Far East nations. An Army sergeant (John David Washington) is tasked with going undercover to route out the mysterious "Nirmata the Creator", the chief architect behind the AI advancements. He falls in love and gets married to Nirmata's daughter Maya (Gemma Chan) who gets killed during an attack by the Allied forces. Some years later he is again tasked with going after a new weapon created by Nirmata, discovers his wife may be alive and comes across a child who is part AI and holds immense power to change the course of all future warfare. Is this child-weapon his own daughter? Visually stunning film has superb production design, special effects and cinematography which needless to say overwhelm the rather silly plot which seems to have been created by taking moments from at least a dozen far greater films and pieced together. It doesn't mean the film is a bore. Far from it as the action set pieces make for an excellent fun time at the movies. The otherwise bland Washington here makes a fine action hero as he makes his way through the war torn terrain trading quips with the innocent, innovative but deadly child.

Nope (Gordon Peele, 2022) 3/10

A couple of horse wrangler siblings (Daniel Kaluuya & Keke Palmer) encounter on their farm the presence of strange goings on - flashing lights, scared and disappearing horses, a still cloud, steel pellets raining down and a downpour of flowing blood - which they discover to be a UFO and an alien-like beast. I found the whole premise ridiculous, totally devoid of horror or suspense, and painfully paced with a number of moments making no sense. Kaluuya goes through the film with a deadpan expression while Keke Palmer uses a constant flow of four-letter words to possibly help the audience from falling asleep. Peele appears to be paying an hommage to Spielberg's "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" but sadly comes off just as loopy as that M. Night Shyamalan alien film. Skip this nonsense.

Only Murders in the Building - Season 2 (2022) 9/10

Murder strikes again in the Upper West Side apartment building and the series' three protagonists - semi-retired actor (Steve Martin), a financially struggling Broadway director (Martin Short) and a young artist (Selena Gomez) - are implicated when the latter is found covered in blood holding a knife over a dead body. As before there are various eccentric suspects and a cop (Da'Vine Joy Randolph) trying to solve the case. Shirley MacLaine guests as Martin's late father's foul-mouthed lover.
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Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings

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Cape Fear (1962) - 8.5/10 - Max Cady is released from prison after an eight year term for rape. He's out for revenge on attorney Sam Bowden and his family. Bowden was the witness who got him convicted. Cady stalks the Bowden family, but does so in a way that stays within the letter of the law. The remake was good, but I liked this one a little bit more.

Carnival Night (1956) - 8/10 - A New Year's Eve party is planned at the Economics Institute with a lot of singing, a jazz band, a magician, and other fun acts. The new director arrives and wants to replace this with boring speeches and no fun whatsoever. The organizers of the show do what they can to circumvent the director and keep him from spoiling the fun. This would not have been out of place as a Hollywood production of the time and I thought it was fun and entertaining.

El Mariachi (1992) - 8/10 - A young mariachi player travels through a town with his guitar case trying to find work so that he can earn a living and do what he loves. Unfortunately for him, there is a killer who recently escaped from jail traveling around town with a guitar case full of weapons and the mariachi player is mistaken for the killer by the drug lord's men who want him out of the way. A very entertaining film.

Anand (1971) - 8/10 - A doctor is being celebrated for his new novel. He then tells the audience how the book is about a real man and the story unfolds from there. Anand has a rare form of cancer which leaves him around 6 months to live. He is determined to stay active and keep a sunny outlook, bringing happiness to those around him even as he gets closer to dying. The doctor finds himself affected in a number of ways by Anand. Nice performances and a pretty good movie.

Intruder in the Dust (1949) - 8/10 - In 1940s Mississippi, a black man is found holding a gun and standing over the body of a white man who was just shot. It's up to a lawyer, two teenage boys, and an old woman to prove his innocence and keep him away from the lynch mob.

Panique (1946) - 8/10 - Monsieur Hire is a middle aged loner who has lived in the local hotel several years. He isn't particularly sociable or well liked. When a woman is found strangled in a lot on the day the carnival arrives, suspicion eventually falls on Monsieur Hire with mob mentality setting in, fanned along by the real killer. This is a very nice French noir.

Pépé le Moko (1937) - 8/10 - Pépé is a thief who has been avoiding the police by staying in the Casbah for the past two years. If he leaves, a local police inspector is likely to arrest him. They've been playing a game of cat and mouse for some time. One of Pépé's associates plans to betray him, but the real danger may lie in the Parisian woman who happens into the Casbah one evening and the two end up falling for each other. Jean Gabin gives a pretty nice performance.

Tension (1949) - 8/10 - Warren Quimby is a drugstore manager whose wife has expensive tastes and isn't faithful to him. His wife leaves him for another man and this man roughs Quimby up when he tries to reclaim his wife. Quimby creates a new look and a new identity and starts plotting his revenge, but matters get complicated when a murder occurs. This one was pretty good with Richard Basehart in the lead.

The Brothers Rico (1957) - 8/10 - Eddie Rico (Richard Conte) and his wife have a successful laundry business in Florida and are about to adopt a baby. Their life is disrupted when Eddie finds out that his two brothers are in trouble. All three brothers used to work for the mafia in New York, but only Eddie managed to get out. Eddie is asked to locate his missing brother and get him to leave the country for a while, but things aren't that simple.

Ninjababy (2021) - 8/10 - Rakel is a young woman who is enjoying life and sleeps around on occasion. Still, she is surprised to learn that she is pregnant and even more surprised when she later finds out that she is around 6 months pregnant without showing. She has no desire to be a mother so this presents a problem. She starts seeing and conversing with an animated version of her unborn child. Overall, it is pretty good.

Børning (2014) - 7.5/10 - Roy has a souped up Mustang and likes to race it against others. His ex-wife drops off their teenage daughter just before a big street race and he mostly ignores her and wants her to stay out of the way. After the street race, Roy ends up agreeing to take part in a long race from Oslo to the North Cape. The movie was mediocre early on, but I thought it got better as it progressed and I liked the ending?

Strange Bargain (1949) - 7.5/10 - Sam Wilson has been a bookkeeper for a company for 12 years. He goes in to see the boss seeking a raise, but is offered a strange bargain instead. The boss plans to commit suicide for the insurance money and wants Sam to make it look like a murder. Jeffrey Lynn is very good as the nervous Sam Wilson who seems incapable of hurting anyone. Harry Morgan is also pretty good as the police detective in charge of the case.

No Man's Woman (1955) - 7.5/10 - A woman refuses to give her husband a divorce unless she pays him a huge settlement which would necessitate his selling off part of his business. She has at least one man on the side that she is using for her own purposes and intentionally tries to seduce her assistant's fiancé. She seems to enjoy making trouble for everyone. When she is murdered one night, there is a long list of suspects. Very entertaining.

Open Secret (1948) - 7.5/10 - A landlady checks on a photographer who lives in her building, but he seems to be on edge. He gets a call from an old army buddy who is on his honeymoon and wants to crash at the photographer's apartment and visit as well. Then he gets a second call which isn't as pleasant. When the army buddy shows up at the apartment, his friend is nowhere to be found. Another good noir.

The Face Behind the Mask (1941) - 7.5/10 - Peter Lorre stars as a newly arrived Hungarian immigrant who turns to crime after his face is badly burned in a fire and he can't find work. Lorre gives a nice performance.

Corsage (2022) - 7.5/10 - It's just before Christmas in 1877 and Empress Elizabeth of Austria is about to turn 40. She seems to be affected by getting older and appears to feel constrained by her role. I really liked the performance of Vicky Krieps as Elizabeth and while the film was a little too slow at times, especially during the middle portion, overall I enjoyed it quite a bit. The music worked pretty well for me, too.

Apples (2020) - 7.5/10 - A mysterious pandemic is causing people at random to lose their memories. They end up in institutions/hospitals where doctors try to help them recover or create new identities if they are among those with no identification and no one to claim them. A man joins one of these programs and becomes part of an experiment where he is set up in a house and given tasks to do each day, documenting them with polaroids. The film moves at a pretty slow pace, but remains interesting. There are some clues about the man scattered in the film and it is clear that the film is about more than just amnesia.

Ballad of a White Cow (2020) - 7.5/10 - After her husband is executed, Mina has to figure out how to keep going while also caring for her 7 year old deaf daughter. Several complications arise, starting with the discovery that her husband was actually innocent of the crime that he was executed for. The state seems indifferent and tells her and her husband's brother that she will receive blood money for his death. A man shows up at her door saying that he is an old friend of her husband and offers her aid, though this comes with its own set of problems. It's a pretty bleak film in a lot of ways, though not without some humor. The ending is perhaps a bit predictable, but still good.

Two O'Clock Courage (1945) - 7.5/10 - A female taxi driver comes across a man who is slightly injured and suffering from amnesia. She sets out to help him find out who he is, even though he fits the description of a man wanted for killing a theater producer. There is plenty of humor mixed in along with the mystery and action.

The Strange One (1957) - 7.5/10 - A sadistic bully at a military academy (modeled on The Citadel) uses manipulation to get others to carry out his wishes in punishing those who offend him and to show his power over others. It's a pretty good film, though the staginess of some sections and the age of some of the cadets took away a bit at times. Ben Gazzara gives a very nice performance as the villain. I also found the car that he drove (a Messerschmitt KR200) to be interesting, though it only appeared briefly.

The Tattooed Stranger (1950) - 7/10 - The body of a woman is found in a car in Central Park. She can't be identified except for a tattoo on her arm. This leads to a police procedural where a pair of detectives try to discover who she is and then who killed her. The most polished actor was the botanist/love interest who helps the younger detective with the investigation. It was pretty entertaining, though.

Strange Alibi (1941) - 7/10 - A police detective goes undercover to try and take on a gang that essentially runs the city, but is framed for the murder of the only man who knows that he was undercover. I had a couple of issues with the initial setup and there is only so much that you can pack into an hour, but this was pretty entertaining and the second half moved at a very nice clip. Arthur Kennedy does a nice job in the lead.

Strange Impersonation (1946) - 7/10 - Nora Goodrich is a scientist who has come up with a new anesthetic. The man she loves wants her to marry him as soon as possible, but she wants to finish her work with the anesthetic first. Then she has a pretty bad time where several events totally upend her life. I enjoyed the film and didn't mind the ending, though I've read comments from others who really disliked it.

Key Witness (1947) - 7/10 - The plot of this film is kind of ridiculous, but is still entertaining. Much of the story is told in flashback after a hobo is in an accident and ends up in the hospital. Milton Higby is an amateur inventor who is stuck in an office job where he is picked on by the boss and hasn't had a raise in years. He is something of a milquetoast at home as well. His whole demeanor changes when he hits it big at the races one day and this sets off a chain of event that sees him hit the road.

Walking the Streets of Moscow (1964) - 7/10 - A young writer from Siberia arrives in Moscow for a short visit. He makes a friend shortly after arriving and the tow hang out for the next day, helping a friend who wants to get married, going to a concert, walking the streets of Moscow, and so on. It's a pretty lighthearted film.

The Clay Pigeon (1949) - 7/10 - A former POW wakes up after being in a coma for two years to find that he is charged with treason. He supposedly informed on his fellow prisoners for stealing rations, leading to the death of one of his friends. His memories of that time are pretty hazy, but he is sure that he is innocent so he escapes and seeks help to clear his name. Fairly fast paced and entertaining.

The Lady Confesses (1945) - 7/10 - Larry Craig is about to marry his longtime girlfriend Vicki, but his wife shows up after being missing and presumed dead for 7 years. When the wife turns up dead, the police investigate with the investigation centering on Larry and a few people at a nightclub. Vicki also does her own investigation to try and clear Larry.

Duel to the Death (1983) - 7/10 - During the 16th Century, the champion swordsman of China is set to face off against the champion from Japan in a duel that is held every 10 years. However, the fighters discover that there is a plot to rig the fight. The two fighters are honorable and friendly toward one another, though they still plan to go on with the duel for their nation's honor. We get ninja and plenty of wuxia action.

Footsteps in the Night (1957) - 6.5/10 - A man is found dead in a hotel room. The chief suspect is another resident of the hotel and has fled the scene, but the detective in charge thinks that another man may be responsible. This is a decent police procedural.

Bhuvan Shome (1969) - 6.5/10 - Bhuvan Shome is a strict boss and very set in his ways. He decides to go on a hunting trip, though he has no experience. While on the trip, he meets a teenage girl named Gouri who befriends him and helps him change his ways. The film is a lot better and more interesting in the scenes with Gouri than in those without her.

When Strangers Marry (1944) - 6/10 - Millie Baxter travels by train to meet her husband, but finds that he isn't at the hotel when she arrives. He is a traveling salesman and she only went on three dates with him before getting married so she doesn't know him very well. This setup doesn't make me too inclined to think highly of Millie, but Kim Hunter does a decent job in the role. It turns out that her husband is wanted in connection with a murder in Philadelphia and is laying low. Millie isn't sure whether he is a murderer or is innocent, but innocently tries to help him.

Showdown in Little Tokyo (1991) - 6/10 - Dolph Lundgren and Brandon Lee team up as police officers who are skilled in martial arts. They are looking to take down the yakuza who are shaking down businesses and have a methamphetamine racket going. The leader of the yakuza also has history with Lundgren's character. It's not a particularly good film, but it's certainly watchable and the chemistry between the two leads is decent.

Journey Into Fear (1943) - 5/10 - An American working in Turkey is informed that Nazi agents are after him. He is quickly ushered onto a ship that is supposed to take him out of danger, but may actually put him in more danger thanks to the other passengers on the trip. The film is a bit of a mess, though that is likely intentional in some ways to get you to feel the confusion felt by the protagonist. I didn't really enjoy the film that much.

Shoot to Kill (1947) - 5/10 - A car crashes down a hill containing the new D.A., his wife, and a wanted gangster. She ends up in the hospital with a head injury and when she awakes, she tells her story to a newspaperman that she is friends with. The story had potential, but the acting isn't very good and a number of corners are cut, probably due to the low budget.

The Glass Alibi (1941) - 5/10 - A sleazy reporter concocts a scheme to marry a rich young woman who is supposed to have around 6 months to live. He figures to inherit the money when she dies, but she starts to get better. This wasn't very good.

The Hoodlum (1951) - 4/10 - A mother pleads with a parole board to set her son free. They grant him parole, but it doesn't take long to see that he hasn't changed at all and is still rotten and selfish to the core. The acting was subpar.

Happiness (1998) - 4/10 - This wasn't really my type of humor.

Accidental Luxuriance of the Translucent Watery Rebus (2020) - 4/10 - Some of the art was kind of cool here and there, I guess, but the film didn't really do much for me. The seeming randomness of it didn't help.

Quei Loro Incontri (2006) - 3/10 - Five sections with two static actors reciting dialogue to each other. Dull as dishwater.
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Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings

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Napoleon (Ridley Scott, 2023) 4/10

Ridley Scott's Napoleon (Joaquin Phoenix) is like a petulant child wanting immediate victory....and sex. One hilarious scene has him actually whinnying and stamping his feet like a horse as a signal to his wife Joséphine (Vanessa Kirby) for sex which he proceeds to do by crawling towards her under the dining table and pulling her down under himself. This very long film touches on every important moment in the young army officer's life starting during the French Revolution (he was never at Marie Antoinette's execution which the film incorrectly depicts) and his rapid rise to power going onto becoming Emperor of France. The problem with this film is that moments in his life are shown briefly as the screenplay swiftly moves from event to event at the cost of characterization - so many important historical characters - Marie Antoinette, Talleyrand (Paul Rhys), Paul Barras (Tahar Rahim), Louis XVIII, Tsar Alexander I, his mother Letizia Bonaparte (Sinéad Cusack), his second wife Marie-Louise, the Duke of Wellington (Rupert Everett) - all appear literally for a few minutes on screen before exiting. The screenplay throws in five huge battles which are also shown as if on fast forward - the Battle of Austerlitz here takes place on a frozen lake (also innacurate) as the French take on the combined Austrian and Russian forces. However, it is a stunning moment on film with the ice cracking and the soldiers and horses drowning in frigid waters. The one constant theme running throughout the film is the Emperor's relationship with Joséphine - his sexual obsession with her which leads to marriage, crowning her as his Empress, being disappointed with her inability to give him an heir, their divorce, and his continued connection with her through letters until the day she died. Vanessa Kirby is the lone standout in the large cast who plays her character as sultry, shrewd and bemused by her lover's antics. She has an amazing moment during the public divorce sequence where the camera catches a slew of expressions that cross her face - sadness, amusement (she giggles at his absurd behaviour) and horror (when he slaps her). Scott's attempt at an epic involves a lot of historical innacuracies but which he uses purely for dramatic effect - the french media called him out on this to which he responded by telling them to get a life. The film's most annoying aspect is Dariusz Wolski's dreary and dark cinematography where sometimes even faces of actors are shrouded. Every moment on film is set in almost darkness - scenes shot indoors (candle light since no electricity back then) as well as outdoors (sky overcast during every battle scene). Overall disappointing film which should have been much better considering it was helmed by Ridley Scott.

Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (Ol Parker, 2018) 7/10

Feel-good movie with many happy and fun moments accompanied by over 20 songs by ABBA on the soundtrack: amusing Celia Imrie breaking into song and dance, six young actors portraying older versions of Streep, Walters, Baranski, Brosnan, Firth and Skarsgård with Lily James and Amanda Seyfried both singing the lion's share of the songs, the surprise appearance of Cher who not only lifts the film further with her version of "Fernando" but sings it as a duet with Andy Garcia, the touching closing moments with Streep followed during the end credits by a rousing rendition of "Super Trouper" by the entire cast dressed to their teeth in ABBA attire from the glittery outfits down to the massive heeled shoes. It's all very cheesy and silly but those songs lift the spirits and bring a smile to the face. And Croatia substitutes for Greece this time round but is just as appealing and happily passes muster.

Allied (Robert Zemeckis, 2016) 7/10

Old fashioned cinema, stylishly filmed, which is a throwback to the likes of "Casablanca" only it comes up rather short on suspense or chemistry between the two hot stars - the enigmatic beauty of Marion Cotillard and the suave handsomeness of Brad Pitt fails to create sparks. Playing spies for the Resistance - he is a Canadian officer posing as french while she is french (of course) - who pose as husband and wife on a mission in Morocco where they assassinate the German Ambassador - the scene as filmed holds no suspense and the two go through the motions like two robots. They soon get married, have a child (in an open hospital yard during the Blitz with bombs falling all around), settle down into a comfortable (if rather boring) existence in the leafy Highgate section of London when suddenly there is suspicion of a grand deception. This is such a good looking film in every way - the stunning beauty and simplicity of the costumes, shimmering cinematography by Don Burgess, authentic period sets not to mention a whole lotta CGI - that it is easy to overlook the contrived plotting. Cotillard comes off better than Pitt. She is not only shown here as the movie star goddess she is but also acts well. Pitt is rather stiff but exudes the appropriate movie-star aura that is required for the part. This is basically a film to visit if you think they no longer make 'em like they used to - a flashback to the fake but golden age of Hollywood.
Reza
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Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings

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Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret (Kelly Fremon Craig, 2023) 9/10

Acclaimed 1970 book by Judy Blume comes to the screen in this touching yet often very funny adaptation about the trials, tribulations and coming-of-age of an 11-year old girl (Abby Ryder Fortson) brought up in an inter-faith household. Her Jewish father (Benny Safdie) and Christian mother (Rachel McAdams) want her to choose her own religion once she grows up. The story touches on anxious and happy moments in a child's life - shifting from the city to the suburb, adjusting to a new school, making new friends, and confronting early adolescent issues, such as menstruation, brassieres and the first kiss. The book faced controversy for its frank talk about menstruation and its depiction of a child being allowed to decide for herself what religion she would prefer to adhere to. Today these subjects are no longer a cause for concern but the film perfectly captures the angst a child feels about religion and God - she has regular conversations with God during times of crises, and during a tense family moment exclaims how religion is always causing strife and wants no part of it. Kathy Bates is a riot as the child's loving Jewish grandmother. The screenplay treats every character with care and tenderness but the entire film is held together by the fantastic lead performance by Abby Ryder Fortson who so perfectly captures the conflicting moods of an adolescent.

Queen of the Desert (Werner Herzog, 2015) 5/10

Dull movie about a fascinating woman - Gertrude Bell (Nicole Kidman) who was an English writer, traveller, spy and archaeologist who explored, mapped, and became highly influential to British imperial policy-making due to her knowledge and contacts, built up through extensive travels in Syria, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, and Arabia. Along with T. E. Lawrence (Robert Pattinson), Bell helped establish the Hashemite dynasties in what is today Jordan as well as in Iraq. Her supposed love affairs are briefly touched upon - with a diplomat in Iran (James Franco) which ends badly and later with a married British officer (Damian Lewis) which remains unconsumated. The film tries to ape David Lean's "Lawrence of Arabia" but is presented in a plodding by-the-numbers manner. Kidman sails through the film with a deadpan expression on her face.

Mary Poppins Returns (Rob Marshall, 2018) 5/10

I never took to this character or the original film. While I was very familiar (and loved) the Sherman Brothers' score as a kid I never actually saw the film until I was well into my twenties. Thought it was rather tedious but found Julie Andrews amusing enough in her iconic part. I raised both my kids on a good staple of Disney fare throughout their childhood so they had a very special fondness for the classic original having watched the film on video probably a hundred times - last week both apparently got bleary-eyed watching Mary descend again from the sky in this sequel which has taken Hollywood 54 years to make. No doubt it's a welcome return so new generations can enjoy P.L. Travers' iconic and delightful character. The film is charming but absolutely inconsequential with more than a passing resemblance to situations and secondary characters from the original film so it almost seems like a reboot instead of a sequel. The screenplay takes up several decades after the first film with both kids now grown up. Michael Banks (Ben Whishaw) is a recent widower with three kids and still lives in his late father's old house with the family cook (Julie Walters). His sister Jane (Emily Mortimer), like her mother, is an activist. The plot revolves around the family under threat of getting their house repossessed by the bank - Colin Firth is appropriately droll as the token Disney villain. To the rescue comes Mary Poppins (Emily Blunt) descending from the sky holding her umbrella as nanny and saviour. Helping her is cockney street lamplighter Jack (Lin-Manuel Miranda), clearly a tribute to the original's chimney sweep played by Dick Van Dyke who also makes an appearance here as an old banker in a brief song and dance turn. The film infuses animated sequences with Poppins and Jack taking the kids on a magical journey under the ocean and inside a Royal Doulton bowl. There is a visit to Poppins' flame-haired eccentric cousin (Meryl Streep in a hideous cameo speaking and singing one song in a strong Russian accent) where the room moves upside down with everyone sitting on the ceiling which is now beneath their feet. This sequence harks back to the tea party on the ceiling at Ed Wynn's house in the original film. Angela Lansbury makes a cameo appearance as an old balloon seller who reminds of the old lady with the pigeons in the original played by Jane Darwell. Blunt does a delightful impersonation of Julie Andrews but the screenplay relegates her totally to the background during the film's second half. The score is merely passable with one huge production number involving Miranda (and a bunch of guys all in silhouette) who gives an energetic performance. The film scores with its outstanding production design, costumes and visual effects but too bad the screenplay kept looking towards the original film for inspiration instead of following one of Travers' many books about Poppins. Let's hope the next installment is better and gives Blunt more to do as Mary Poppins.

The Favourite (Yorgos Lanthimos, 2018) 8/10

Wicked and zany power tangle set during the early eighteenth century reign of Queen Anne of Great Britain. Lanthimos brings his own quirky style to the story completely dispensing with the usual stuffy and pompous rendering which has been the forte of such historical dramas in the past. Helping him greatly is a deliciously savage screenplay playing fast and loose with historical fact, the gorgeous candle-lit cinematography of Robbie Ryan who often shoots at off-kilter angles using a fisheye lens which causes visual distortion and claustrophobia, witty costumes by Sandy Powell which help to accentuate the three main characters and a bombastic score consisting of classical and modern pieces. At the centre of the film are three superb actresses who swagger to dangerous proportions playing the historical characters of this story. Lady Sarah Churchill, the Duchess of Marlborough (Rachel Weisz) and her poor cousin Abaigail (Emma Stone) fight tooth and nail for the favours and affection of Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) in and out of bed. The monarch is in a sad state after 17 pregnancies that failed to provide her an heir and has been reduced to acting like an impetuous, whiny and jealous child which the two women try to use to their advantage. Sarah is blunt and goes into an attack like a coiled viper while Abigail uses cunning calm as her weapon of flattery. All three actresses give memorable performances with Colman the clear standout as the tragi-comic queen who in even her most vulnerable moments manages to show what makes her a true monarch. She won the Oscar (famously defeating Glenn Close on her seventh try) while the film, Emma Stone, Rachel Weisz, Yorgos Lanthimos, the screenplay, production & costume design, editing, and cinematography received nominations.

The Departed (Martin Scorsese, 2006) 7/10

The film that finally won Scorsese his long-awaited Oscar for his direction (it also won Best Picture) is, in hindsight, not one of his top tier outputs. A remake of the 2002 Hong Kong film "Infernal Affairs" with it's setting transposed to Boston. The film is a cat-and-mouse game between an Irish Mob Boss (Jack Nicholson) and the cops. The vicious killer mentors a young boy from his neighborhood and sees him (Matt Damon) join the police force and secretly makes use of him as his mole. Meanwhile the police Captain (Martin Sheen) and his Sergeant (Mark Wahlberg) secretly get a pre-graduation recruit (Leonardo DiCaprio) to infiltrate the Mob. Both moles keep their handlers well informed until events cause both parties to suspect they have a mole within their ranks. The violence, which has been simmering in fits and starts througout the film, suddenly erupts in glorious fashion when the two moles finally confront each other at the end. This is one of DiCaprio's most memorable performances but many in the supporting cast also shine - Jack Nicholson plays to the gallery as the disheveled crook with a savage streak, Ray Winstone as his close aide, Alec Baldwin as a senior cop, Vera Farmiga as a police psychiatrist who forms a close bond with both moles, as lover to one and doctor to the other, and Mark Wahlberg as the foul-mouthed Sergeant who has a uniquely harsh way of hiring recruits. The film also won Oscars for its screenplay and editing while Wahlberg received a nomination. Entertaining film but not even amongst Scorsese's top 10.

Atonement (Joe Wright, 2007) 8/10

A crime, followed by a lie, ruins the lives of three individuals and it takes six decades before there is a fictitious act of atonement. A 13-year old girl (Saoirse Ronan) from a wealthy family is infatuated by the housekeeper's adult son (James McAvoy) who is in fact the lover of her older sister (Keira Knightley). Anger, jealousy and a vindictive lie on part of the child tragically results in keeping the lovers apart. The story, based on the novel by Ian McEwan, is set in three time periods - 1935 England, Second World War England and France, and present-day England - charting the star-crossed lives of a pair of lovers and a reflection on the nature of writing. Vanessa Redgrave appears in a vivid cameo at the end. The story references the work of many writers - Henry James, Thomas Hardy, Jane Austen, Vladimir Nabakov, Shakespeare and especially L.P. Hartley's "The Go-Between". Nominated for seven Academy Awards - Best Picture, for Ronan's supporting performance, the production design, cinematography (the film has a memorable tracking shot set on the beach at Dunkirk), costumes, and a win for the score by Dario Marianelli.

Bergman Island (Mia Hansen-Løve, 2021) 7/10

A film-making couple (Tim Roth & Vicky Krieps) arrive on Fårö island for an Ingmar Bergman film screening and to spend a month to work on their screenplays. While he takes part in a tour of Bergman's film locations she frolics with a film student. They both write their individual screenplays - her vision is shown as a film within a film about a woman (Mia Wasikowski) on Fårö to attend a friend's wedding and hooking up again with a former lover (Anders Danielsen Lie) which does not go down well. Later the writer interacts with the two actors who are shown playing the characters in her screenplay. Dream-like often melancholic look at creativity and romantic malaise as life and art begin to merge. The superb vistas of the island add a memorable touch to this elegant little film.

Seraphim Falls (David Von Ancken, 2006) 7/10

A Confederate colonel (Liam Neeson) and his posse track a Union soldier (Pierce Brosnan) in this atmospheric revisionist Western. The cat-and-mouse chase is a relentless exercise in violence as we follow the two men through raging rivers, over icy mountains, a scorching desert as they encounter families who help and abet, hostile railroad construction workers, religious pilgrims and other assorted nasty characters. The reason for the relentless pursuit is revealed at the end during a flashback sequence. Brosnan gives an incredibly physical performance as he endures all manner of abuse. Often bleak film has John Toll's magnificent cinematography which captures the vast beauty of the Western landscapes of the United States.

The Hateful Eight (Quentin Tarantino, 2015) 8/10

This is Tarantino's wicked, if excessively long, take on Agatha Christie by way of a very gruesome Italian gialo horror film. The stunning wide screen format, shot by Robert Richardson's exquisite camera lensing, takes us on a journey through the wild old West with obvious winks at John Ford's "Stagecoach" along with a few extra winks directed at Hitchcock and Howard Hawks. A group of lowlife vermin - cutthroats and liars - traveling on a stagecoach through a snowy landscape end up at a haberdashery. On board are a bounty hunter (Kurt Russell having fun swaggering like John Wayne) chained to his feral prisoner (Jennifer Jason Leigh - in a stunning comeback of epic proportion. All her great roles in the past had her used and abused but this has to be her most "abused" role ever). Also on board is a sheriff (Walter Goggins) and Tarantino's muse, Samuel L. Jackson, a soldier who they pick up along the way. At the wayside inn they find a motley group consisting of Bruce Dern, Michael Madsen, Tim Roth & Demian Bichir. With the entire cast (Tarantino has more than one surprise under his sleeve on this front) confined under one roof due to a raging blizzard outside it allows the players (like on stage) to perform long monologues. It takes a while before the first death to take place but the exciting and hilarious last half is a virtual bloodbath and Tarantino doesn't let up for a minute as he throws in red herrings, flashbacks, and more information at the audience than need be. It all works in a twisted and delicious way making for a film that is great fun and will no doubt allow fans to visit it over and over again. Ennio Morricone won an Oscar for his score and Jennifer Jason Leigh and Robert Richardson's cinematography were nominated.

The Burial (Maggie Betts, 2023) 7/10

Old fashioned story about an underdog - a flashy over-confident black personal injury lawyer (Jamie Foxx) - who fights a legal contract suit against a big Canadian Corporation for a financially troubled funeral home owner (Tommy Lee Jones). If this story, inspired by events which took place during the 1990s, had been made into a film during that decade the smart-ass flamboyant lawyer would have been played by Eddie Murphy. Here Foxx and his deliciously fancy wardrobe take the part and run with it. Jones is equally good as the quietly introspective family man - he has 13 children and 22 grandchildren - who has dug his family business into a hole by over extending himself. Despite a number of obvious differences both men are very similar with deeply felt family values. The sued Corporation retaliates by hiring a hotshot black female attorney (Jurnee Smollett) and the action on the floor gets dirty. The film is not really about race but we feel it as it hovers all around the plot as issues of history, poverty and discrimination are front and center throughout the trial. Inspirational, moving, but also amusing film goes through its very familiar beats making it seem like comfort food.
Reza
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Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings

Post by Reza »

The Saturday Night Kid (A. Edward Sutherland, 1929) 2/10

Static early talkie about two sisters - both salesgirls - in love with the same man (James Hall). He likes one sister (Clara Bow) but the other one (Jean Arthur) tries to steal him. Pre-code film is a boring talkfest despite Edna May Oliver's presence and a bit part by Jean Harlow.

Daybreak (Jacques Feyder, 1931) 7/10

Feyder brings a strong touch of sophistication to this pre-code European concoction based on a story by Arthur Schnitzler. A happy-go-lucky, irresponsible but charming member of the Royal Imperial Guard (Ramon Novarro) falls in love with a music teacher (Helen Chandler). A sleazy senior member of the guard (Jean Hersholt) tries to force himself onto her and she is rescued by the younger man. A misunderstanding between the two results in the girl becoming the whoring mistress of the old lech. Trying to win her back he challenges him to a game of Baccarat but loses. Will his rich Uncle (Sir C. Aubrey Smith) bail him out and will he earn back the love of the woman he loves? Novarro is delightful as the flirtatious and frivolous party boy and the production has a number of pre-code memorable moments - decadent Vienna high life, scenes set inside a brothel, one night stands and casual sex.

Night Flight (Clarence Brown, 1933) 4/10

MGM was the first studio to come up with an all-star disaster flick - a genre that came into its own during the 1970s - with this story about dare devil pilots who risked their lives flying through bad weather and over dangerous terrain to get medicines to remote places. The plot is set in South America where during a polio epidemic pilots fly over the Andes to get medicine across to critical patients. Episodic film has MGM contract actors playing assorted South American characters - all speaking with their own American accents. The stern director (John Barrymore) of a small airline insists that his pilots brave every natural element - rain, fog, snow - to get mail and medicines across. His actions go against the urging of the airline's safety instructor (Lionel Barrymore). The pilots are played by the studio's up and coming young actors - Clark Gable, Robert Montgomey, William Gargan - while two of the wives who anxiously await news of their husbands are Helen Hayes and Myrna Loy. The success of the previous year's "Grand Hotel" made MGM reprise an all-star cast in an action scenario that here comes off boring at best despite the tension-ridden flying sequences. The actors are superbly lit throughout making each stand out when they appear on screen.

Nine Hours to Rama (Mark Robson, 1963) 5/10

A "serious" film about the nine hours leading up to the assassination of Mahatama Gandhi becomes cringeworthy due to hideous miscasting. Every important Indian character is played by an international star in "blackface" - so we get British Robert Morley playing dress-up as an Indian politician, Harry Andrews as a local army officer, Puerto Rican José Ferrer as a local cop on the lookout for an assassin, German Horst Buccholz as Nathuram “Nathu” Godse - the assassin - his married mistress played by Welsh Valerie Gearon and American Diane Baker as a local prostitute. The screenplay, based on the novel by Stanley Wolpert, is fictional as it cooks up a storm providing reasons for the young man's intense hatred for Gandhi - a flashback relates his sob story. The film was shot on location so has loads of atmosphere plus Robson's sincere direction which takes on a riveting crescendo during the last few minutes which movingly ends with the tragedy. In brief parts Indian character actors - David Abraham, Jairaj, Achala Sachdev - provide much needed local colour. Arthur Ibbetson's widescreen colour Cinemascope cinematography is a major plus as well.

Death on the Nile (Kenneth Branagh, 2022) 6/10

Walking out of the movie my 85-year old dad said, "they've certainly jazzed up this film version". Indeed they have.......starting, or rather ending with Poirot in love with a *gasp* black blues singer. That's not all. The screenplay fiddles around with a number of characters, adding new ones - a sapphic couple, a renowned painter (Annette Bening) and her son (Tom Bateman). The character of romance novelist Salome Otterbourne and her daughter (played in the previous film version by Angela Lansbury and Olivia Hussey) here become a black blues singer (Sophie Okonedo) and her niece/manager (Letitia Wright) who are invited aboard the Nile steamer "Karnak" as part of the wedding party of a rich heiress (Gal Gadot) who has stolen the boyfriend (Armie Hammer) of her best friend (Emma Mackey). Also on board are the bride's maid (Rose Leslie), her former fiancé (Russell Brand), her cousin/lawyer (Indian actor Ali Fazal), her communist godmother (Jennifer Saunders) and her maid/traveling companion (Dawn French). When the bride is found dead of a gunshot wound to the head every passenger becomes a suspect. But never fear because Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh) and his little grey cells are also on board to solve the mystery. Shot in Morocco all the Egyptian historical sites, including the three pyramids, the sphinx and Abu Simbel are courtesy of CGI which gives the film a terribly fake feel throughout - even the flaura and fauna (a snapping crocodile) alongside the Nile are CGI. Luckily the old steamer is authentic and a marvel of production design allowing the cast members to flit about the endless state rooms and corridors either murdering each other or trying to avoid being killed. Compared to the gorgeous 1978 version, with its magnificent cast, none of the actors here stand out. Agatha Christie's story remains fool proof so its worth sitting through although its all too ridiculous of Branagh to add all the changes - its so obvious that he ticked off assorted boxes in his head and added them all into the plot to appease today's woke audience - a white man in love with a black girl, a gay couple and two black ladies traveling on a first class steamer down the Nile in 1937. Pleasing to one's sensibility, wishful thinking but hardly authentic.

Murder on the Orient Express (Kenneth Branagh, 2017) 8/10

Agatha Christie's murder mystery with the famous twist ending gets a big screen remake with some interesting flourishes. Branagh opens up the plot, which is confined to a train, with scenes shot outside giving the story a fresh outlook. Hercule Poirot (Sir Kenneth Branagh) is faced by a baffling crime - a crooked antique dealer (Johnny Depp) is found dead with multiple stab wounds on a train stranded in the snow caused by an avalanche. As with all Poirot mysteries the train is full of colorful suspects - a garrulous American divorcée (Michelle Pfeiffer), the dead man's valet (Sir Derek Jacobi), his accountant (Josh Gad), a spanish missionary (Penélope Cruz), a doctor (Lesley Odom Jr), a governess (Daisy Ridley), a countess (Lucy Boynton), a german scientist (Willem Dafoe), a princess (Dame Judi Dench) and her maid (Olivia Colman) among others. Lavishly filmed but cannot quite match the aura and glamour of the 1974 Sidney Lumet version with it's star studded cast, sumptuous costumes and Richard Rodney Bennett's magnificent score.
Branagh brings changes to the book - an inter-racial relationship is substituted, a count shows sudden moves that would be a norm in a Jackie Chan film, Poirot gets shot, CGI rules supreme in the breathtaking shots of old Istanbul and during the scenes of the train moving through snow covered mountains. The interrogation scenes are filmed in an interesting way with the camera cross-cutting between the different characters. The murder is filmed in sepia with Patrick Doyle's swirling score turning the gruesome moment into an extraordinarily emotional one. Amongst all the stars only Michelle Pfeiffer stands out as she gets the most scenes and also sings during the closing credits. This remake takes some interesting diversions even if not quite managing to hold its own against the more celebrated original but is in fact better paced due to the interesting little touches the director brings to his version. Christie would be pleased to see her favourite book get an exciting new adaptation.

Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan, 2023) 8/10

Riveting but overlong film about the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) - the American theoretical physicist and director of the Los Alamos Laboratory during World War II who has often been credited as the "father of the atomic bomb" for his role in organizing the Manhattan Project. Nolan uses sound, music (by Ludwig Göransson) and rapid editing to bring a sense of desperate urgency to the events in his life - first as a student, then as a professor of quantum mechanics and nuclear physics at Berkeley, his sexual relationship with a neurotic student (Florence Pugh) who is a communist, his marriage to an alcoholic (Emily Blunt), his involvement with the Manhattan Project and the development of the atom bomb, the successful test explosion followed by the government deciding to drop the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, his brief celebrity status, his intense guilt afterwards over the loss of lives in Japan and finally his relentless hounding by the HCUA for his one-time communist leanings which takes up the greater part of the film. The non-linear screenplay moves backwards and forwards continuously with the story's two major thrusts - the scientist's work on the bomb and his gruelling moments on the stand as he is questioned about being a communist at the urging of Lewis Strauss (Robert Downey Jr.), a staunch anti-communist who held a grudge against him. As with every Nolan project this has superb production values - wonderful sets, costumes and cinematography by Hoyte van Hoytema. Many familiar actors - Kenneth Branagh, Matt Damon, Casey Affleck, Tom Conti (as Einstein), Rami Malek, Josh Hartnett, Gary Oldman (as Truman), Matthew Modine, Tony Goldwyn, Jason Clarke - make brief but vivid appearances. However, the film rests on the shoulders of Cillian Murphy who gives a deeply-felt introspective performance and there are equally good turns by Emily Blunt as his volatile but extremely loyal wife and Robert Downey Jr. as the jealous member of the Atomic Commission who ensures that the security clearance of Oppenheimer is revoked. Nolan adapted this thought provoking film from the 2005 biography "American Prometheus" written by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin.

Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino, 2009) 6/10

WWII gets a mighty skewering by way of a southern U.S. Army Lieutenant (Brad Pitt) who hires a team of Jewish-American soldiers to go into occupied France to kill and scalp Nazis. Tarantino also throws into the mix a cultured but ruthless SS officer (Christoph Waltz), a French jewish cinema owner (Mélanie Laurent) who catches the eye of a German army sniper (Daniel Brühl) whose life inspires a film which Goebbels wants to premiere at that cinema with Hitler as the chief guest. Also helping the Allied side are a famous German actress turned British spy (Diane Kruger) and a British commando and former film critic (Michael Fassbender). History gets re-written in very broad strokes in Tarantino's screenplay as the story plays out in chapters - Waltz (who won an Oscar) is very funny as the fast-talking Nazi who seems to know everything and suspects everyone. The film's best sequence is set in a tavern that turns into a typical Tarantino bloodbath. Skillfully made but often rather silly film received 8 Academy Award nominations.

Django Unchained (Quentin Tarantino, 2012) 7/10

Tarantino's overlong revisionist homage to spaghetti Westerns in this highly stylized but film is set in the Old West and Antebellum South. He also pays tribute to the black man who never seemed to figure in a lead role in all the hundreds of Westerns Hollywood churned out. Django (Jamie Foxx) is a slave who with the help of a German bounty hunter (Christoph Waltz) gets unchained, freed, trained and spruced up on a violent journey that eventually leads to a reunion with his wife (Kerry Washington) who now belongs to a cruel plantation owner (Leonardo DiCaprio). The journey is long, arduous and violent with Tarantino's signature bloody shootouts. The director brings in many familiar faces from cinema's past in small but vivid roles - Dennis Christopher, Don Johnson, James Remar, Franco Nero (who was the original Django in Sergio Corbucci's classic film from 1967), Bruce Dern, James Russo, Don Stroyd, Michael Parks, Lee Horsley, Jonah Hill, Russ Tamblyn, Ted Neeley, Robert Carradine. Samuel L. Jackson is memorable as the ruthless and foul-mouthed head house slave at the plantation. Waltz basically reprises his smooth talking role from Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds" with only a slight shift in character and won his second Oscar - as did Tarantino for his screenplay. Additional nominations went to the film, Tarantino's direction, the cinematography and sound editing.

The Crown - Season 6: Part I (Alex Gabassi & Christian Schwochow, 2023) 8/10

Part 1 of the season covers Diana (Elizabeth Debicki) and the days leading upto her death through its first four episodes. It's really a matter of interpretation how her story - her love life - progesses here. First of all they completely omit her passionate affair with Pakistani doctor Hasnat Khan - "the love of her life" - which in reality also the British press and the Royal Family downplayed making it almost seem totally non-existent. He was very much part of her life and their parting - he wanted out - led to her friendship with Dodi Fayed (Khalid Abdalla) on the rebound. This part of her love life gets highlighted on the series which is also very much a matter of interpretation. He is manipulated by his reptilian father to make a ruthless go for Diana. Was Dodi really complicit with his father? The screenplay shows him bending to his father's will - he is a weak man - but seems to have affection for her. What about Diana? She is overwhelmed by the relentless pursuit of her by the paparazzi and is here clearly not interested in marriage to Dodi. Is this a narrative spin by the producers to appease the Royal Family? Maybe she was in love with him - the sequence with the ring and marriage proposal in his hotel room at the Ritz is obviously a moment nobody witnessed as only the two of them were present. So we will never know as the immediate event that followed - the car crash - did not allow things to become certain. Episode 4 covers the aftermath of her death - Charles (Dominic West) bereft with grief, the two boys numb with shock, the Queen (Imelda Staunton) stoic and aloof at Balmoral as the world mourns and her subjects criticize her absence in London. The images brought back vivid sad memories of the live tv presentation of her funeral in 1997.

Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood (Quentin Tarantino, 2019) 7/10

Time and place - 1969 Los Angeles - is brought vividly to life in Quentin Tarantino's often bloated but delightfully kitschy paean to Hollywood. The film is bursting at the seams with movie memorabilia and pop culture artifacts which are sure to bring every fanboy to the brink of a massive orgasm. And if it doesn't we all know for sure that Tarantino certainly experienced it while writing and shooting this film. Actual Hollywood personalities interact with the lead fictional characters - a has-been Western tv actor (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his longtime buddy and stunt double (Brad Pitt). An agent (Al Pacino) tries to keep the actor's career going by getting him a role as a villain in a studio western followed by lead roles in four Italian spaghetti westerns. Just on the fringe of this main plot we catch glimpses of actress Sharon Tate (charming Margot Robbie) cruising around in a car with her husband Roman Polanski, watching one of her own films at the cinema and spending time with her former lover Jay Sebring and close friend Abigail Folger. A brief appearance by Charles Manson and an extended tense sequence set at the ranch where Manson and his gang live sets the dreaded tone for the entire film. With Tarantino at the helm expectations run sky high and the director delivers a spectacularly violent finalè but with a gleefully ironic twist. The film is far too long and drags mercilessly during all of DiCaprio's scenes. Fortunately the laconic Pitt is around to bring the movie to life in every scene he appears - providing loving support to his cranky and spoilt buddy, trading insults and fists with Bruce Lee, interacting with his dog, showing his mettle during the showdown at the end - and winning a much deserved Oscar. The film also scores major points for the outstanding production design which also won an Oscar, costumes and Robert Richardson's cinematography which makes L.A. glow. Too bad about the excessive running time which, if nothing else, at least allowed Tarantino to indulge in all his movie fantasies. The film received 10 Oscar nominations.

Women Talking (Sarah Polley, 2022) 8/10

Women who find themselves sexually violated finally decide to stand up and take charge of their lives. True story, an adaptation of Miriam Toews’ 2018 novel, set in a Mennonite community in Bolivia where the women were repeatedly raped by men - husbands, brothers, neighbors - after being drugged with horse tranquilliser. While the men of the community go to town to bail out the rapists their women gather together and vote on whether to stay and fight the men, to try and change the community and its vices, or permanently leave. Polley's screenplay, which won her an Oscar, takes on the #metoo movement head-on in this vivid look at lives shaped and constricted by religious tradition and steeped by oppression, violence, and a silence which finally finds a voice that manages to speak up and expose a terrible wrong. Polley gathers a fantastic cast - Rooney Mara, Judith Ivey, Sheila McCarthy, Jessie Buckley, Claire Foy, Frances McDormand - who portray uneducated women who have lived all their lives facing violence and been told it was the work of spirits and the devil. Strength in numbers and a final awakening to their plight puts them in fighting mode as they discuss the pros and cons of their situation which is horrific although shown on screen as an aftermath which does not lessen the impact of the horrors committed. Surprisingly the screenplay also has humour which the women display during their discussions which is filtered through the voice of a trusted male school teacher (Ben Wishaw) - the only adult male presence in the film - who is compassionate towards the plight of all the women while nursing a related heartbreak from his past. Hard hitting film makes strong points using both powerful and gentle strokes.

Kiss the Boys Goodbye (Victor Schertzinger, 1941) 3/10

Neophtye actress (Mary Martin) pretends to be a southern belle and tries to con a director (Don Ameche) and composer (Oscar Levant) of a Broadway musical to give her the leading role. Silly film with Martin extremely annoying and Ameche very dull although there is one very energetic musical number - "Sand in My Shoes" - sung and danced by Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson.

The Miracle Club (Thaddeus O'Sullivan, 2023) 6/10

Working-class women go to Lourdes in seek of a miracle but discover guilty secrets about each other and learn to forgive and forget instead. A somewhat derivative plot is saved by a trio of good performances with all three actresses putting on a rather dodgy Irish brogue. When a beloved member of a small Irish village dies, her daughter (Laura Linney) suddenly appears after 40 years to attend the funeral. This does not go down well with the deceased woman's two close friends - a bitter mother of six (Kathy Bates) and a sad withdrawn guilt-ridden woman (Maggie Smith). They all end up together on a trip to Lourdes - the older two angry at the younger - with all three women in search of either a miracle or at least redemption. What they find there is the stark commercialization of a holy sight, the absence of miracles and a whole lot of anger and recriminations between them. Despite all the hand wringing the film is a small miracle as an ode to actresses of a certain advanced age who seem to still be around and happily playing main leads.
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