Sunset (1988) - 6/10 - Tom Mix (Bruce Willis) and Wyatt Earp (James Garner) team up to solve a murder mystery in Hollywood in 1929. Earp is brought in as a technical advisor on a movie about his exploits. The movie stars Tom Mix in the lead role, but they soon have more on their hands than just making a movie. This wasn't a particularly good movie and definitely feels fake and somewhat lifeless at times. I didn't think that Mariel Hemingway was very good in this one. Still, I liked the two leads and the movie was watchable even with all of its faults.
Bullhead (2011) - 7/10 - Jacky Vanmarsenille (Matthias Schoenaerts) is a cattle farmer who is addicted to steroids. The police are investigating the murder of a federal officer who was investigating local mafia with ties to the use of growth hormones in livestock. Jacky gets drawn into the investigation through a couple of coincidences and one of his childhood friends who is acting as a police informant. A dark secret from Jacky's childhood plays a role through flashbacks and its continuing influence on Jacky's life. I thought that Schoenaerts was pretty convincing in his role, but the movie seemed a bit uneven at times. I enjoyed it, but it could have been a lot better.
Monsieur Vincent (1947) - 7/10 - This biography of Vincent de Paul is pretty well made and the lead actor does a nice job in the role. However, the seemingly neverending scenes of misery get a bit tiresome after a while. It's not a bad movie and there are a number of interesting parts, especially early in the film, but it just seems to keep hitting the same notes over and over again.
Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
L'uccello dalle piume di cristallo / The Bird With the Crystal Plumage (Dario Argento, 1970) 8/10
The success of Argento's first film owes a great deal to Vittorio Storraro's camerawork, Ennio Morricone's memorable score and to it's sound design. An American writer (Tony Musante) in Rome witnesses a vicious attack on a woman (Eva Renzi) inside an art gallery. Trapped between glass doors he sees a man in a trench coat, wearing black gloves struggle with a knife. The woman is stabbed and the man gets away before the police arrive. Since he is a witness to the attempted murder he is detained by the police. A serial killer is on the loose having murdered three other women. As he investigates with the police the killer begins to stalk him and his girlfriend (Suzy Kendall). Stylish horror-thriller has many unsettling moments as Argento places the protagonist in awkward spaces and in dark rooms while shooting scenes in a claustrophic manner putting the audience in the same position as the victim of the attacks. Along the way various eccentric characters are introduced - a gay shop owner, a pimp and an assassin. There are more murders but the film's most nerve wracking sequence has the girlfriend trapped in her locked apartment in darkness with the killer hacking at the door as she crawls around on the floor screaming helplessly. This memorable film set the tone and was followed by several giallos which used the same theme with much more graphic violence along with plots with twists.
Misconduct (Shintaro Shimosawa, 2016) 1/10
Who is Josh Duhamel - the young leading man in this thriller? I had to look him up and his claim to fame has been a stint on a daytime soap, assorted B films and a dip into the awfully noisy "Transformers" franchise. So here he gets bolstered by two huge stars who probably picked up huge paychecks for their trouble and despite their fairly important presence this film got a very limited release followed by getting shunted by the studio to video on demand. The derivative, by-the-numbers plot throws in a number of twists and a familiar steal from the old Alan J. Pakulla / Harrison Ford film "Presumed Innocent". A young lawyer (Josh Duhamel), stuck in an uneasy marriage, manages to get incriminating evidence on a tycoon (Anthony Hopkins) from an old girlfriend who in turn is stuck in a nasty relationship with the rich man. His boss at the firm (Al Pacino) has had a few bones to pick with the tycoon in the past so relishes the courtroom attack on his adversary. When the girl turns up dead in her apartment and her dead body is mysteriously transferred to his house, he has to go on the run chased by a cop (Julia Stiles) and an assassin. After many red herrings and major potholes in the screenplay the plot leads up to a ludicrous moment with Pacino camping it up with a hilarious southern accent which is then followed up with an even more absurd twist. Absolutely vile film is a total waste of time and rightfully ended up on the video for view format.
I See You (Adam Randall, 2019) 7/10
There's a lot going on in this eerie film. A cop (Jon Tenney) is investigating the disappearance of a kid in town with clues that resemble a spate of similar kidnappings and murders that took place 15 years before. His wife (Helen Hunt) had an affair and both he and their son are terse with her. Meanwhile there is something strange going on inside the house as all three sense a strange presence. The record player starts playing by itself as does the tv, cutlery goes missing, a window is smashed, the pet hamster gets loose out of its cage, the cop gets locked inside a cupboard and the son is attacked and tied up and left in the tub. The wife's lover turns up, gets hit on the head by a mug and gets viciously whacked and killed. The couple secretly bury him in the woods thinking their son killed the man in anger. The story takes a strange twist and in a flashback we see two teenagers breaking into the house to "phrog" - move into a stranger's house and secretly photograph them - which explains some of what has gone on before. The screenplay throws in an assortment of genres - horror, thriller, domestic drama, supernatural, police pocedural and murder mystery. Thought provoking film is certainly not formulaic as it maintains suspense throughout with a number of twists and shocking reveals. Also sadly revealing is how much work Helen Hunt has done to her face which has not only aged her badly but left her mouth drooping downwards.
The Departed (Martin Scorsese, 2006) 7/10
The film that finally won for 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 amongst Scorsese's top 10.
Emma (Autumn de Wilde, 2020) 5/10
Beautifully staged adaptation of Jane Austen's story about a selfish meddler who interferes in the love lives of her friends. Anya Taylor-Joy makes an icy Emma and the film does not bring anything fresh to the table. It's a straight forward and very good looking adaptation of the book, but unlike the recent remake of "Little Women", it fails to excite. The film's best performance is by Bill Nighy as Emma's hypochondriacal father who, in just a few scenes, manages to create a very comical character. The film has outstanding sets and costumes.
The success of Argento's first film owes a great deal to Vittorio Storraro's camerawork, Ennio Morricone's memorable score and to it's sound design. An American writer (Tony Musante) in Rome witnesses a vicious attack on a woman (Eva Renzi) inside an art gallery. Trapped between glass doors he sees a man in a trench coat, wearing black gloves struggle with a knife. The woman is stabbed and the man gets away before the police arrive. Since he is a witness to the attempted murder he is detained by the police. A serial killer is on the loose having murdered three other women. As he investigates with the police the killer begins to stalk him and his girlfriend (Suzy Kendall). Stylish horror-thriller has many unsettling moments as Argento places the protagonist in awkward spaces and in dark rooms while shooting scenes in a claustrophic manner putting the audience in the same position as the victim of the attacks. Along the way various eccentric characters are introduced - a gay shop owner, a pimp and an assassin. There are more murders but the film's most nerve wracking sequence has the girlfriend trapped in her locked apartment in darkness with the killer hacking at the door as she crawls around on the floor screaming helplessly. This memorable film set the tone and was followed by several giallos which used the same theme with much more graphic violence along with plots with twists.
Misconduct (Shintaro Shimosawa, 2016) 1/10
Who is Josh Duhamel - the young leading man in this thriller? I had to look him up and his claim to fame has been a stint on a daytime soap, assorted B films and a dip into the awfully noisy "Transformers" franchise. So here he gets bolstered by two huge stars who probably picked up huge paychecks for their trouble and despite their fairly important presence this film got a very limited release followed by getting shunted by the studio to video on demand. The derivative, by-the-numbers plot throws in a number of twists and a familiar steal from the old Alan J. Pakulla / Harrison Ford film "Presumed Innocent". A young lawyer (Josh Duhamel), stuck in an uneasy marriage, manages to get incriminating evidence on a tycoon (Anthony Hopkins) from an old girlfriend who in turn is stuck in a nasty relationship with the rich man. His boss at the firm (Al Pacino) has had a few bones to pick with the tycoon in the past so relishes the courtroom attack on his adversary. When the girl turns up dead in her apartment and her dead body is mysteriously transferred to his house, he has to go on the run chased by a cop (Julia Stiles) and an assassin. After many red herrings and major potholes in the screenplay the plot leads up to a ludicrous moment with Pacino camping it up with a hilarious southern accent which is then followed up with an even more absurd twist. Absolutely vile film is a total waste of time and rightfully ended up on the video for view format.
I See You (Adam Randall, 2019) 7/10
There's a lot going on in this eerie film. A cop (Jon Tenney) is investigating the disappearance of a kid in town with clues that resemble a spate of similar kidnappings and murders that took place 15 years before. His wife (Helen Hunt) had an affair and both he and their son are terse with her. Meanwhile there is something strange going on inside the house as all three sense a strange presence. The record player starts playing by itself as does the tv, cutlery goes missing, a window is smashed, the pet hamster gets loose out of its cage, the cop gets locked inside a cupboard and the son is attacked and tied up and left in the tub. The wife's lover turns up, gets hit on the head by a mug and gets viciously whacked and killed. The couple secretly bury him in the woods thinking their son killed the man in anger. The story takes a strange twist and in a flashback we see two teenagers breaking into the house to "phrog" - move into a stranger's house and secretly photograph them - which explains some of what has gone on before. The screenplay throws in an assortment of genres - horror, thriller, domestic drama, supernatural, police pocedural and murder mystery. Thought provoking film is certainly not formulaic as it maintains suspense throughout with a number of twists and shocking reveals. Also sadly revealing is how much work Helen Hunt has done to her face which has not only aged her badly but left her mouth drooping downwards.
The Departed (Martin Scorsese, 2006) 7/10
The film that finally won for 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 amongst Scorsese's top 10.
Emma (Autumn de Wilde, 2020) 5/10
Beautifully staged adaptation of Jane Austen's story about a selfish meddler who interferes in the love lives of her friends. Anya Taylor-Joy makes an icy Emma and the film does not bring anything fresh to the table. It's a straight forward and very good looking adaptation of the book, but unlike the recent remake of "Little Women", it fails to excite. The film's best performance is by Bill Nighy as Emma's hypochondriacal father who, in just a few scenes, manages to create a very comical character. The film has outstanding sets and costumes.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
The Boat is Full (1981) - 8/10 - During WWII, a small group of refugees plus a deserter slip over the border into Switzerland seeking asylum. However, Switzerland's policy was to return most refugees to Germany. Their 'lifeboat' was full and they did not want any more mouths to feed. The owner of a small inn tries to help the group so that they can stay in Switzerland. I thought that the movie was pretty well acted. There is an interesting mix of characters. The movie does have its faults and could have flowed a bit better, but it was still pretty effective.
The Crime of Padre Amaro (2002) - 7/10 - Padre Amaro is newly ordained as a priest and is a favorite of the bishop. He is sent to a small town in Mexico where he soon learns of the corruption and various sins of the church and other priests in the area. A young woman in the town makes advances on him, but will he be able to resist? The movie was very much like a soap opera in some ways, but it was a decent enough film. It was entertaining enough, but somewhat predictable as well.
The Crime of Padre Amaro (2002) - 7/10 - Padre Amaro is newly ordained as a priest and is a favorite of the bishop. He is sent to a small town in Mexico where he soon learns of the corruption and various sins of the church and other priests in the area. A young woman in the town makes advances on him, but will he be able to resist? The movie was very much like a soap opera in some ways, but it was a decent enough film. It was entertaining enough, but somewhat predictable as well.
-
Big Magilla
- Site Admin
- Posts: 19353
- Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 3:22 pm
- Location: Jersey Shore
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
I wouldn't say it was joyless and I wouldn't say skip it, but otherwise I pretty much agree with your assessment, although I'd give it a solid three stars which on a scale of 1-10 would probably be between 6 and 7. The first hour sails by fairly well, but the second hour drags. I see it capturing a number of Golden Globe - Comedy or Musical nods but nothing from Oscar except maybe hair and makeup and costume design.Reza wrote:The Prom (Ryan Murphy, 2020) 3/10
Joyless adaptation of a rather corny Broadway musical is just as cheesy as "Mamma Mia!", except that at least had familiar songs for many of us of a certain age to relate to. Here the production numbers have neither a razzle nor a dazzle despite the big name cast giving it a brave twirl. Meryl Streep has always been known to have a musical bent which unfortunately throughout her long career Hollywood never saw fit to properly utilize. A song here and a few there in films led to her delightfully belting out the ABBA songs in Mamma Mia! although her character, as written, was not that much. Here she shows some pizzaz â la Shirley MacLaine - donning a short red wig plus a pair of legs that kick high - playing a bitchy, narcissistic, aging Broadway diva, who along with an equally bitchy and narcissistic James Corden receive news at the story's outset that their musical based on Eleanor Roosevelt has just bombed big time with critics laying the entire blame on both the egocentric stars. Wanting to quickly correct their public image both decide to back any cause out there for the sake of publicity. Joining them in this quest is a lifelong chorus girl and wannabee star (Nicole Kidman) and an actor-bartender (Andrew Rannells). The cause they pursue is of a lesbian girl in Indiana whose High School has cancelled the annual Prom because she wanted to take her girlfriend as her date. All hell breaks loose as the crazy actors from New York descend on small-town America to battle it out with a puritan teacher (Kerry Washington) who is dead-set against anybody who is gay. Notwithstanding the preachy liberal message, which here satirizes such films, the film keeps getting worse as it goes along. The "lets-put-on-a-show" plot was already a cliché when Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland tread that route back in the 1940s. Here it becomes a loud bloated mess. Streep goes into forced overdrive with her campy mannerisms, Corden's flaming gay character relies on boring stereotypes while Kidman badly fumbles up her Fosse-style solo number. Although the story champions the rights of LGBTQ teens the story kind of squanders that by having the young cast play second fiddle to the over bearing grown-ups. Skip this film.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Ava (Tate Taylor, 2020) 4/10
A-list talent stuck in B-movie zone done much better with Charlize Theron as the "Atomic Blonde". Although Jessica Chastain also makes a kick-ass assassin and one-woman army in this thriller which appears to be a chip off the "Jason Bourne" franchise. It's all boringly predictable, as Ava (Jessica Chastain), a former teenage delinquent and reformed alcoholic, takes orders from her mentor (John Malkovich) and trots the globe assassinating assorted undesirables for a fancy fee. At home she has a troubled relationship with a sarcastic mother (Geena Davis), an angry sister (Jess Weixler) and the latter's boyfriend (Common, who badly needs acting lessons) with whom she has a past connection and who is upto his eyeballs in debt to a woman (Joan Chen) who owns a gambling den. When a hit which was a set-up goes wrong, another assassin (Colin Farrell) who was trained by her mentor decides she is now a liability and must be terminated. There are sporadic fight sequences as she in turn battles the assassin sent to doff her, goons at the gambling den and lastly with the man who has put a hit on her. There is nothing new here and I left this film wondering where on earth was Joan Chen all these years and why would someone be stupid enough to go around with a name like Common. I mean wtf!!
La tempesta / Tempest (Alberto Lattuada, 1958) 8/10
Epic film covers Russian history by way of Alexander Pushkin's novel "The Captain's Daughter which was a romanticized account of the Rebellion against the rule of Catherine the Great (Viveca Lindfors) by Pugachev (Van Heflin), a disaffected ex-lieutenant of the Imperial Russian Army. At the center of the story is a young soldier (Geoffrey Horne), banished by the Empress to a remote outpost, who inadvertently befriends the rebel leader and falls in love with the local commander's daughter (Silvana Mangano). Superb widescreen De Laurentiis production has epic battle scenes (shot by Aldo Tonti) and outstanding costumes and set design. Horne and Mangano make a very good looking pair of lovers although the young actor is the weak link in what otherwise is a superb cast - Heflin, cast against type, is memorable as the rebel leader of the Cossacks, Lindfors is delightfully campy, Mangano with her stunning beauty and Agnes Moorehead as her tart tongued mother. A worthy film with strong direction by Lattuada.
Honest Thief (Mark Williams, 2020) 2/10
Ever since Natasha Richardson died Liam Neeson's face has an underlying sadness in all his movies. And all his movies - he churns out quite a few - seem to resemble each other with very little variation. After meeting a young woman a serial bank robber (Liam Neeson) decides to turn himself into the FBI. The two agents assigned to interview him turn crooked, steal the money and frame him for a murder. On the run with his girlfriend (Kate Walsh) he tries to prove his innocence. Neeson seems to be on auto mode making movie after movie strictly for the money and probably to keep busy. If not, then he is obviously rather stupid for failing to recognise that almost every film script he accepts have plots with ridiculous potholes and all his characters seem to have been wrung from the same cloth. Gunplay, car chases and a death or two are the order of the day which can be fun if not always so repetitious in Neeson's case. This one is pretty much the pits lacking even a feeble attempt to create any plot twist. Boring rubbish.
Helmut Newton: The Bad and the Beautiful (Gero von Boehm, 2020) 7/10
A look at the bad boy of the world of photography - the scandalous, transgressive provocateur Helmut Newton. An original who crossed all boundaries presenting women in every outrageous avatar. Many of his muses - Charlotte Rampling, Grace Jones, Hanna Schygulla, Isabella Rossellini, Claudia Schiffer - have very fond words to say about him recalling their provocative sessions in front of the camera which in today's politically correct climate would never be allowed. Critics said he demeaned women in his photographs while his subjects all say he empowered them to be dominant. An exploration of the naked female body, certainly fetishistic, as Newton creates "porno chic" out of tall amazonian figures. A fascinating look at a man who played strictly by his own rules and left behind thousands of erotic and iconic images.
A-list talent stuck in B-movie zone done much better with Charlize Theron as the "Atomic Blonde". Although Jessica Chastain also makes a kick-ass assassin and one-woman army in this thriller which appears to be a chip off the "Jason Bourne" franchise. It's all boringly predictable, as Ava (Jessica Chastain), a former teenage delinquent and reformed alcoholic, takes orders from her mentor (John Malkovich) and trots the globe assassinating assorted undesirables for a fancy fee. At home she has a troubled relationship with a sarcastic mother (Geena Davis), an angry sister (Jess Weixler) and the latter's boyfriend (Common, who badly needs acting lessons) with whom she has a past connection and who is upto his eyeballs in debt to a woman (Joan Chen) who owns a gambling den. When a hit which was a set-up goes wrong, another assassin (Colin Farrell) who was trained by her mentor decides she is now a liability and must be terminated. There are sporadic fight sequences as she in turn battles the assassin sent to doff her, goons at the gambling den and lastly with the man who has put a hit on her. There is nothing new here and I left this film wondering where on earth was Joan Chen all these years and why would someone be stupid enough to go around with a name like Common. I mean wtf!!
La tempesta / Tempest (Alberto Lattuada, 1958) 8/10
Epic film covers Russian history by way of Alexander Pushkin's novel "The Captain's Daughter which was a romanticized account of the Rebellion against the rule of Catherine the Great (Viveca Lindfors) by Pugachev (Van Heflin), a disaffected ex-lieutenant of the Imperial Russian Army. At the center of the story is a young soldier (Geoffrey Horne), banished by the Empress to a remote outpost, who inadvertently befriends the rebel leader and falls in love with the local commander's daughter (Silvana Mangano). Superb widescreen De Laurentiis production has epic battle scenes (shot by Aldo Tonti) and outstanding costumes and set design. Horne and Mangano make a very good looking pair of lovers although the young actor is the weak link in what otherwise is a superb cast - Heflin, cast against type, is memorable as the rebel leader of the Cossacks, Lindfors is delightfully campy, Mangano with her stunning beauty and Agnes Moorehead as her tart tongued mother. A worthy film with strong direction by Lattuada.
Honest Thief (Mark Williams, 2020) 2/10
Ever since Natasha Richardson died Liam Neeson's face has an underlying sadness in all his movies. And all his movies - he churns out quite a few - seem to resemble each other with very little variation. After meeting a young woman a serial bank robber (Liam Neeson) decides to turn himself into the FBI. The two agents assigned to interview him turn crooked, steal the money and frame him for a murder. On the run with his girlfriend (Kate Walsh) he tries to prove his innocence. Neeson seems to be on auto mode making movie after movie strictly for the money and probably to keep busy. If not, then he is obviously rather stupid for failing to recognise that almost every film script he accepts have plots with ridiculous potholes and all his characters seem to have been wrung from the same cloth. Gunplay, car chases and a death or two are the order of the day which can be fun if not always so repetitious in Neeson's case. This one is pretty much the pits lacking even a feeble attempt to create any plot twist. Boring rubbish.
Helmut Newton: The Bad and the Beautiful (Gero von Boehm, 2020) 7/10
A look at the bad boy of the world of photography - the scandalous, transgressive provocateur Helmut Newton. An original who crossed all boundaries presenting women in every outrageous avatar. Many of his muses - Charlotte Rampling, Grace Jones, Hanna Schygulla, Isabella Rossellini, Claudia Schiffer - have very fond words to say about him recalling their provocative sessions in front of the camera which in today's politically correct climate would never be allowed. Critics said he demeaned women in his photographs while his subjects all say he empowered them to be dominant. An exploration of the naked female body, certainly fetishistic, as Newton creates "porno chic" out of tall amazonian figures. A fascinating look at a man who played strictly by his own rules and left behind thousands of erotic and iconic images.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Sundays and Cybéle (1962) - 8/10 - Pierre was a pilot whose plane was shot down in the Indochina War. He suffers from amnesia, vertigo, and other ailments from his experiences. He spends a number of evenings in the local train station and happens to see a young girl whose father is taking her to a boarding school where he plans to abandon her. Thinking that she might be able to help him with his problems, he goes to the school and is mistaken for her father which the lonely girl does nothing to dispel. While others might look at Pierre thinking he has sinister motives, his motives are nothing of the sort. I thought that this was a good film and you get to know the two main characters fairly well. Their relationship is convincing and both actors do a nice job.
Papa's Delicate Condition - 6.5/10 - Jackie Gleason and Glynis Johns star in this adaptation of silent film star Corinne Griffith's memoir about her childhood in early 1900s Texas. Jack Griffith is a good man, but somewhat eccentric and extravagant when he has been drinking. When he spends the family saving to buy a circus, his wife leaves him to return to her father's home with the children. This isn't a bad movie and is decent enough to watch, but there isn't a lot of substance there either. The best acting job in the film was Linda Bruhl as the 6 year old Corrie Griffith.
Mahogany (1975) - 5.5/10 - Diana Ross stars as Tracy Chambers, a woman from the south side of Chicago who works as a secretary, but dreams of starting her own fashion line. She catches the eye of a fashion photographer and becomes a world famous model, though she finds that life has its drawbacks. Billy Dee Williams is a political activist in Chicago who becomes involved with Tracy, but is very focused on his political activities. I didn't really buy the relationships or the transformation into supermodel/fashion designer. A lot of things seemed kind of sketched out, but didn't seem real to me.
The Burmese Harp (1956) - 9/10 - A group of Japanese soldiers in Burma discover that the war ended several days earlier. They are taken to a camp by the Allies for processing, but one of their members goes missing after being recruited to try and convince another group of soldiers in a mountain bunker to surrender. The soldiers in the camp worry for their friend who has taken up the guise of a Buddhist monk and has been changed by his experiences. The music, cinematography and acting are all excellent and I think that it is an excellent movie as well. Apparently the director remade the film in color the 1980s, but it didn't achieve the same acclaim. I don't see any reason why the movie would have needed a remake. It works well in black and white.
Scent of a Woman (1974) - 8/10 - An army cadet is assigned to travel with and watch over a blind captain as he travels from Turin to Naples. The actors playing the captain and the cadet each did a very nice job. The film seemed to be a bit coarser than the remake, but I haven't seen that film since it was released in 1992 so it is hard to make comparisons. The original is also a very good film which I enjoyed quite a bit. After watching the film, I discovered that the actor who portrayed the cadet died in an accident about a month before the movie was released and was only 17 at the time of his death. He probably would have had a long and successful career otherwise.
Papa's Delicate Condition - 6.5/10 - Jackie Gleason and Glynis Johns star in this adaptation of silent film star Corinne Griffith's memoir about her childhood in early 1900s Texas. Jack Griffith is a good man, but somewhat eccentric and extravagant when he has been drinking. When he spends the family saving to buy a circus, his wife leaves him to return to her father's home with the children. This isn't a bad movie and is decent enough to watch, but there isn't a lot of substance there either. The best acting job in the film was Linda Bruhl as the 6 year old Corrie Griffith.
Mahogany (1975) - 5.5/10 - Diana Ross stars as Tracy Chambers, a woman from the south side of Chicago who works as a secretary, but dreams of starting her own fashion line. She catches the eye of a fashion photographer and becomes a world famous model, though she finds that life has its drawbacks. Billy Dee Williams is a political activist in Chicago who becomes involved with Tracy, but is very focused on his political activities. I didn't really buy the relationships or the transformation into supermodel/fashion designer. A lot of things seemed kind of sketched out, but didn't seem real to me.
The Burmese Harp (1956) - 9/10 - A group of Japanese soldiers in Burma discover that the war ended several days earlier. They are taken to a camp by the Allies for processing, but one of their members goes missing after being recruited to try and convince another group of soldiers in a mountain bunker to surrender. The soldiers in the camp worry for their friend who has taken up the guise of a Buddhist monk and has been changed by his experiences. The music, cinematography and acting are all excellent and I think that it is an excellent movie as well. Apparently the director remade the film in color the 1980s, but it didn't achieve the same acclaim. I don't see any reason why the movie would have needed a remake. It works well in black and white.
Scent of a Woman (1974) - 8/10 - An army cadet is assigned to travel with and watch over a blind captain as he travels from Turin to Naples. The actors playing the captain and the cadet each did a very nice job. The film seemed to be a bit coarser than the remake, but I haven't seen that film since it was released in 1992 so it is hard to make comparisons. The original is also a very good film which I enjoyed quite a bit. After watching the film, I discovered that the actor who portrayed the cadet died in an accident about a month before the movie was released and was only 17 at the time of his death. He probably would have had a long and successful career otherwise.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
The Prom (Ryan Murphy, 2020) 3/10
Joyless adaptation of a rather corny Broadway musical is just as cheesy as "Mamma Mia!", except that at least had familiar songs for many of us of a certain age to relate to. Here the production numbers have neither a razzle nor a dazzle despite the big name cast giving it a brave twirl. Meryl Streep has always been known to have a musical bent which unfortunately throughout her long career Hollywood never saw fit to properly utilize. A song here and a few there in films led to her delightfully belting out the ABBA songs in Mamma Mia! although her character, as written, was not that much. Here she shows some pizzaz â la Shirley MacLaine - donning a short red wig plus a pair of legs that kick high - playing a bitchy, narcissistic, aging Broadway diva, who along with an equally bitchy and narcissistic James Corden receive news at the story's outset that their musical based on Eleanor Roosevelt has just bombed big time with critics laying the entire blame on both the egocentric stars. Wanting to quickly correct their public image both decide to back any cause out there for the sake of publicity. Joining them in this quest is a lifelong chorus girl and wannabee star (Nicole Kidman) and an actor-bartender (Andrew Rannells). The cause they pursue is of a lesbian girl in Indiana whose High School has cancelled the annual Prom because she wanted to take her girlfriend as her date. All hell breaks loose as the crazy actors from New York descend on small-town America to battle it out with a puritan teacher (Kerry Washington) who is dead-set against anybody who is gay. Notwithstanding the preachy liberal message, which here satirizes such films, the film keeps getting worse as it goes along. The "lets-put-on-a-show" plot was already a cliché when Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland tread that route back in the 1940s. Here it becomes a loud bloated mess. Streep goes into forced overdrive with her campy mannerisms, Corden's flaming gay character relies on boring stereotypes while Kidman badly fumbles up her Fosse-style solo number. Although the story champions the rights of LGBTQ teens the story kind of squanders that by having the young cast play second fiddle to the over bearing grown-ups. Skip this film.
Ammonite (Francis Lee, 2020) 8/10
The cold and dramatic seaside setting of Lyme Regis was first brought memorably to the screen in the adaptation of John Fowles "The French Lieutenant's Woman". This film is also about a scandalous love affair set in another century and like Lee's previous film, "God's Only Country", it is an elegantly paced poetic mood piece which creates quiet sparks. The story of Mary Anning (Kate Winslet), a brusque and guarded 19th-Century fossil collector, who lives with her old mother (Gemma Jones) making important discoveries on the Devon coast but for which men take all the credit. To make ends meet she sells fossils to rich tourists. A paleontologist arrives wishing to learn from her and she makes an acquaintance with his sad and timid wife Charlotte (Saoirse Ronan) who is later left in her care. Their friendship deepens after the woman's husband leaves as they spend time together on the beach hunting for fossils. In reality the two formed a deep platonic friendship but here Lee gives their relationship an artistic tweak having the two gradually fall into each other's arms which leads to a couple of fairly graphic sex scenes brimming with passion. In the midst of their story we get to glimpse other characters - a local doctor (Fiona Shaw), with whom Mary appears to have shared a history which may have ended badly, and Mary's mother who has her own sad crosses to bear. A lot of the film moves without dialogue with just the sound of the wind and the crashing waves as a backdrop. This slow-burn love story avoids romantic gloss and concentrates instead on how quiet passion transforms both women. Mary becomes less guarded and opens up while Charlotte becomes more confident. Stark somber film is shot with an exquisite attention to detail and is brought to life by the wonderful performances of both Winslet and Ronan who share great chemistry on screen.
The Undoing (Susanne Bier, 2020) 6/10
Old fashioned whodunnit, once the staple of the big screen during the 1980s often starring two major stars embroiled in a murder-mystery ("Jagged Edge", "Suspect", "Against All Odds", "The Big Easy", "The Morning After"), now goes the limited series route on tv. At six hours this is quite a stretch but manages to sustain suspense throughout. The lives of a wealthy and happily married couple in Manhattan - a clinical therapist (Nicole Kidman) and an oncologist (Hugh Grant) - goes for a twirl when the battered dead body of a woman is discovered in an art studio. She had briefly been on a committee at a prestigious school and showed an odd interest in the therapist, who was also attending the meeting - both women's sons are students at the school. When the oncologist suddenly vanishes the police discover that the doctor had been fired from his job at a hospital three months before and he had also been having an affair with the murdered woman. Baffled by all these revelations about her husband, she and her son (Noah Jupe) escape the intense publicity of the high profile murder case and retreat to their beach front home where she runs into her husband who has been hiding there. Although he claims his innocence she calls the cops on him and he is arrested. At the sensational trial that ensues certain other suspects pop up as well - the dead woman's husband who has a feeble alibi, the therapist herself as she was captured by a camera walking near the place where the murder took place, her son who had witnessed his father with his mistress and suspected their affair, and her father (Donald Sutherland) who never liked his son-in-law. Notwithstanding the superb cast - Grant, Jupe and Sutherland are especially memorable - the top production values and each episode ending with a cliffhanger, the film tends to bog down during the trial scenes. Pity this wasn't made as a two-hour film instead.
Joyless adaptation of a rather corny Broadway musical is just as cheesy as "Mamma Mia!", except that at least had familiar songs for many of us of a certain age to relate to. Here the production numbers have neither a razzle nor a dazzle despite the big name cast giving it a brave twirl. Meryl Streep has always been known to have a musical bent which unfortunately throughout her long career Hollywood never saw fit to properly utilize. A song here and a few there in films led to her delightfully belting out the ABBA songs in Mamma Mia! although her character, as written, was not that much. Here she shows some pizzaz â la Shirley MacLaine - donning a short red wig plus a pair of legs that kick high - playing a bitchy, narcissistic, aging Broadway diva, who along with an equally bitchy and narcissistic James Corden receive news at the story's outset that their musical based on Eleanor Roosevelt has just bombed big time with critics laying the entire blame on both the egocentric stars. Wanting to quickly correct their public image both decide to back any cause out there for the sake of publicity. Joining them in this quest is a lifelong chorus girl and wannabee star (Nicole Kidman) and an actor-bartender (Andrew Rannells). The cause they pursue is of a lesbian girl in Indiana whose High School has cancelled the annual Prom because she wanted to take her girlfriend as her date. All hell breaks loose as the crazy actors from New York descend on small-town America to battle it out with a puritan teacher (Kerry Washington) who is dead-set against anybody who is gay. Notwithstanding the preachy liberal message, which here satirizes such films, the film keeps getting worse as it goes along. The "lets-put-on-a-show" plot was already a cliché when Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland tread that route back in the 1940s. Here it becomes a loud bloated mess. Streep goes into forced overdrive with her campy mannerisms, Corden's flaming gay character relies on boring stereotypes while Kidman badly fumbles up her Fosse-style solo number. Although the story champions the rights of LGBTQ teens the story kind of squanders that by having the young cast play second fiddle to the over bearing grown-ups. Skip this film.
Ammonite (Francis Lee, 2020) 8/10
The cold and dramatic seaside setting of Lyme Regis was first brought memorably to the screen in the adaptation of John Fowles "The French Lieutenant's Woman". This film is also about a scandalous love affair set in another century and like Lee's previous film, "God's Only Country", it is an elegantly paced poetic mood piece which creates quiet sparks. The story of Mary Anning (Kate Winslet), a brusque and guarded 19th-Century fossil collector, who lives with her old mother (Gemma Jones) making important discoveries on the Devon coast but for which men take all the credit. To make ends meet she sells fossils to rich tourists. A paleontologist arrives wishing to learn from her and she makes an acquaintance with his sad and timid wife Charlotte (Saoirse Ronan) who is later left in her care. Their friendship deepens after the woman's husband leaves as they spend time together on the beach hunting for fossils. In reality the two formed a deep platonic friendship but here Lee gives their relationship an artistic tweak having the two gradually fall into each other's arms which leads to a couple of fairly graphic sex scenes brimming with passion. In the midst of their story we get to glimpse other characters - a local doctor (Fiona Shaw), with whom Mary appears to have shared a history which may have ended badly, and Mary's mother who has her own sad crosses to bear. A lot of the film moves without dialogue with just the sound of the wind and the crashing waves as a backdrop. This slow-burn love story avoids romantic gloss and concentrates instead on how quiet passion transforms both women. Mary becomes less guarded and opens up while Charlotte becomes more confident. Stark somber film is shot with an exquisite attention to detail and is brought to life by the wonderful performances of both Winslet and Ronan who share great chemistry on screen.
The Undoing (Susanne Bier, 2020) 6/10
Old fashioned whodunnit, once the staple of the big screen during the 1980s often starring two major stars embroiled in a murder-mystery ("Jagged Edge", "Suspect", "Against All Odds", "The Big Easy", "The Morning After"), now goes the limited series route on tv. At six hours this is quite a stretch but manages to sustain suspense throughout. The lives of a wealthy and happily married couple in Manhattan - a clinical therapist (Nicole Kidman) and an oncologist (Hugh Grant) - goes for a twirl when the battered dead body of a woman is discovered in an art studio. She had briefly been on a committee at a prestigious school and showed an odd interest in the therapist, who was also attending the meeting - both women's sons are students at the school. When the oncologist suddenly vanishes the police discover that the doctor had been fired from his job at a hospital three months before and he had also been having an affair with the murdered woman. Baffled by all these revelations about her husband, she and her son (Noah Jupe) escape the intense publicity of the high profile murder case and retreat to their beach front home where she runs into her husband who has been hiding there. Although he claims his innocence she calls the cops on him and he is arrested. At the sensational trial that ensues certain other suspects pop up as well - the dead woman's husband who has a feeble alibi, the therapist herself as she was captured by a camera walking near the place where the murder took place, her son who had witnessed his father with his mistress and suspected their affair, and her father (Donald Sutherland) who never liked his son-in-law. Notwithstanding the superb cast - Grant, Jupe and Sutherland are especially memorable - the top production values and each episode ending with a cliffhanger, the film tends to bog down during the trial scenes. Pity this wasn't made as a two-hour film instead.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Tunes of Glory (1960) - 8/10 - Alec Guinness stars as Major Jock Sinclair, the temporary commander of a Scottish Highland Regiment. He is a coarse sort of officer and finds himself in conflict when Colonel Barrow (John Mills) takes over and tries to reinstill discipline. Guinness and Mills are both in top form and the other actors do a nice job in this battle of wills. Susannah York made her film debut as Sinclair's daughter who is having a relationship with one of the pipers.
Obsession (1976) - 6/10 - Cliff Robertson stars as a businessman whose wife and daughter are killed after they are kidnapped and the rescue attempt goes wrong. While in Italy 16 years later, he sees a young woman who looks amazingly like his late wife and he gets to know her and then courts her. The movie moved at way too slow a pace much of the time with the music enhancing it. I guessed a number of the plot twists early on as well. Genevieve Bujold stars as the wife and lookalike.
The Power and the Prize (1956) - 7.5/10 - Robert Taylor plays a business executive named Cliff Barton who is sent to England to negotiate with a company about mining rights and his boss tells him to use shady practices to get a much better deal. While there, he falls in love with a refugee (Elizabeth Müller) working to get jobs for other refugees from central Europe. He falls in love even though he is engaged to the niece of his boss (Burl Ives). Charles Coburn also has a small, but important role as the owner of the company. Cedric Hardwicke and Mary Astor also have small roles. The movie doesn't have a great rating on IMDB, but I thought it was a good drama/romance and I enjoyed it.
The Policeman (1971) - 8.5/10 - Azulai is a patrolman in Jaffa who is so inept that he has been on the job for 20 years and hasn't received a promotion. He is very kindly, but naive, and his superiors are trying to see that his contract isn't renewed, but the criminals want to keep him on the job. I thought it was a very funny movie. Azulai is a likable guy, but definitely exasperates some of the other officers. Shaike Ophir does a great job as Azulai.
Obsession (1976) - 6/10 - Cliff Robertson stars as a businessman whose wife and daughter are killed after they are kidnapped and the rescue attempt goes wrong. While in Italy 16 years later, he sees a young woman who looks amazingly like his late wife and he gets to know her and then courts her. The movie moved at way too slow a pace much of the time with the music enhancing it. I guessed a number of the plot twists early on as well. Genevieve Bujold stars as the wife and lookalike.
The Power and the Prize (1956) - 7.5/10 - Robert Taylor plays a business executive named Cliff Barton who is sent to England to negotiate with a company about mining rights and his boss tells him to use shady practices to get a much better deal. While there, he falls in love with a refugee (Elizabeth Müller) working to get jobs for other refugees from central Europe. He falls in love even though he is engaged to the niece of his boss (Burl Ives). Charles Coburn also has a small, but important role as the owner of the company. Cedric Hardwicke and Mary Astor also have small roles. The movie doesn't have a great rating on IMDB, but I thought it was a good drama/romance and I enjoyed it.
The Policeman (1971) - 8.5/10 - Azulai is a patrolman in Jaffa who is so inept that he has been on the job for 20 years and hasn't received a promotion. He is very kindly, but naive, and his superiors are trying to see that his contract isn't renewed, but the criminals want to keep him on the job. I thought it was a very funny movie. Azulai is a likable guy, but definitely exasperates some of the other officers. Shaike Ophir does a great job as Azulai.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Mank (David Fincher, 2020) 9/10
This has to be one of the best looking films of the year. In fact any year. Shot in impeccable black and white the film has outstanding production values evoking the golden age of Hollywood in all it's decadent glory - the stars, their homes, the vicious politics behind the scenes. The film delves into the machinations that went into creating the screenplay for Orson Welles' classic "Citizen Kane". Credit for the screenplay eventually went to both Herman J. Mankiewicz (Gary Oldman) and to Welles (Tom Burke), who both shared the only Oscar the film received for Original Screenplay. However behind the scenes Welles offered Mank $10,000 in return for sole credit which the screenwriter refused. And this was after an initial contract between them where Mank was to be simply a writer "for hire" and was not to get credit for writing the screenplay. The story he wrote was a thinly disguised biography of newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst (Charles Dance) which grew from the writer's close association with the tycoon and his mistress, the Hollywood star Marion Davies (Amanda Seyfried), and of his time spent with them at the Hearst castle San Simeon. Mank, famous for "fixing" screenplays of other writers, was a great wit but a voracious alcoholic. Oldman superbly captures this flawed character. Often labeled "the court jester" due to his pathetic but witty drunken rants while disrupting Hollywood parties he still manages to maintain relationships, some loving but many exasperating, with people close to and around him - his wife (Tuppence Middleton), his secretary (Lily Collins), with MGM studio head Louis B. Mayer (Arliss Howard), the wunderkind MGM producer Irving Thalberg (Ferdinand Kingsley) and especially Marion Davies with whom he formed a special bond. While Oldman gives a solid and sympathetic performance, the film's surprise package is Seyfried. Not unlike Marion Davies herself - a sweet young starlet - she shows remarkable depth in her brief scenes portraying the oft-ridiculed comedienne and star, bringing out her soft yet steely reserve and genuine love for Hearst. Sharply written story is not for everyone - you need a crash course in Hollywood lore to truly enjoy this film. It also helps if you have actually seen "Citizen Kane", a film almost everyone has heard of yet not many have seen. However, you cannot deny this film's outstanding look and style - the editing, the expressionistic cinematography, the costumes and the production design, all of which seem to be from a film of that era. Fincher captures it all perfectly - the glamour, the sleaze, the corruption and glory - and also pays a fitting posthumous tribute to the genius of Herman J. Mankiewicz.
Le placard / The Closet (Francis Veber, 2001) 4/10
Silly film about a man (Daniel Auteuil) who comes out of the closet even though he was never in one. Sad and lonely - his wife has left him, his son ignores him and everyone at his work place finds him a bore and uptight and hates him. His neighbour comes up with an idea to save his job. He is told to pretend he is gay which he does after fake photos of him in a gay bar are circulated at the office. Fearing bad publicity the Company President (Jean Rochefort) decides to keep him on. Soon his life changes - the office brute (Gerard Depardieu) befriends him causing complications for him with his wife, his son finds him cool, his immediate boss (Michele Laroqe) ends up shagging him and his nasty wife gets her comeuppance. Auteuil breezes through the film with a stricken look across his face while Depardieu gets sidelined. Despite challenging sterotypes the jokes are all pretty lame and the film is instantly forgettable.
This has to be one of the best looking films of the year. In fact any year. Shot in impeccable black and white the film has outstanding production values evoking the golden age of Hollywood in all it's decadent glory - the stars, their homes, the vicious politics behind the scenes. The film delves into the machinations that went into creating the screenplay for Orson Welles' classic "Citizen Kane". Credit for the screenplay eventually went to both Herman J. Mankiewicz (Gary Oldman) and to Welles (Tom Burke), who both shared the only Oscar the film received for Original Screenplay. However behind the scenes Welles offered Mank $10,000 in return for sole credit which the screenwriter refused. And this was after an initial contract between them where Mank was to be simply a writer "for hire" and was not to get credit for writing the screenplay. The story he wrote was a thinly disguised biography of newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst (Charles Dance) which grew from the writer's close association with the tycoon and his mistress, the Hollywood star Marion Davies (Amanda Seyfried), and of his time spent with them at the Hearst castle San Simeon. Mank, famous for "fixing" screenplays of other writers, was a great wit but a voracious alcoholic. Oldman superbly captures this flawed character. Often labeled "the court jester" due to his pathetic but witty drunken rants while disrupting Hollywood parties he still manages to maintain relationships, some loving but many exasperating, with people close to and around him - his wife (Tuppence Middleton), his secretary (Lily Collins), with MGM studio head Louis B. Mayer (Arliss Howard), the wunderkind MGM producer Irving Thalberg (Ferdinand Kingsley) and especially Marion Davies with whom he formed a special bond. While Oldman gives a solid and sympathetic performance, the film's surprise package is Seyfried. Not unlike Marion Davies herself - a sweet young starlet - she shows remarkable depth in her brief scenes portraying the oft-ridiculed comedienne and star, bringing out her soft yet steely reserve and genuine love for Hearst. Sharply written story is not for everyone - you need a crash course in Hollywood lore to truly enjoy this film. It also helps if you have actually seen "Citizen Kane", a film almost everyone has heard of yet not many have seen. However, you cannot deny this film's outstanding look and style - the editing, the expressionistic cinematography, the costumes and the production design, all of which seem to be from a film of that era. Fincher captures it all perfectly - the glamour, the sleaze, the corruption and glory - and also pays a fitting posthumous tribute to the genius of Herman J. Mankiewicz.
Le placard / The Closet (Francis Veber, 2001) 4/10
Silly film about a man (Daniel Auteuil) who comes out of the closet even though he was never in one. Sad and lonely - his wife has left him, his son ignores him and everyone at his work place finds him a bore and uptight and hates him. His neighbour comes up with an idea to save his job. He is told to pretend he is gay which he does after fake photos of him in a gay bar are circulated at the office. Fearing bad publicity the Company President (Jean Rochefort) decides to keep him on. Soon his life changes - the office brute (Gerard Depardieu) befriends him causing complications for him with his wife, his son finds him cool, his immediate boss (Michele Laroqe) ends up shagging him and his nasty wife gets her comeuppance. Auteuil breezes through the film with a stricken look across his face while Depardieu gets sidelined. Despite challenging sterotypes the jokes are all pretty lame and the film is instantly forgettable.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Banjo on My Knee (1936) - 6.5/10 - Ernie and Pearl are getting married in a small Mississippi River community. Ernie has a temper and runs away on his wedding night when he thinks he's killed a man. Pearl waits a long time, but when Ernie finally returns, he plans to leave again almost right away so Pearl runs off to New Orleans to get away from him. I thought that Barbara Stanwyck did a decent job as Pearl and Walter Brennan was good as Ernie's eccentric father, Newt. Ernie (Joel McCrea) was pretty unlikeable though and that detracted from the story. I couldn't really see why Pearl would stay with him. There was enough in here so that it wasn't a horrible movie, but it wasn't that great either.
It Happens Every Spring (1949) - 7/10 - Ray Milland stars as a college professor who discovers that an accident has caused chemicals to mix in such a way that the resulting liquid causes objects to avoid wood. He decides to use this to become a star baseball pitcher, leaving behind his old job and girlfriend (Jean Peters) for an 'emergency leave of absence'. The movie is enjoyable enough, though pretty formulaic and not really anything special.
Johnny Come Lately (1943) - 8/10 - James Cagney stars as a drifter named Tom Richards who visits the town of Plattsville in 1906. The town is run by the crooked W.M.Dougherty (Edward McNamara), though a small newspaper run by elderly resident Vinnie McLeod (Grace George) stands up to the corruption as best they can, though they are in financial difficulty. Richards takes over running the paper and the fight with Daugherty. I thought that this movie was very entertaining with plenty of humor. It's a fairly simple story and runs along familiar lines, but is done well and the performances are pretty good. Marjorie Main has a nice turn as saloon owner, 'Gashouse' Mary, and Hattie McDaniel is pretty funny as Aida, Vinnie's live-in maid.
It Happens Every Spring (1949) - 7/10 - Ray Milland stars as a college professor who discovers that an accident has caused chemicals to mix in such a way that the resulting liquid causes objects to avoid wood. He decides to use this to become a star baseball pitcher, leaving behind his old job and girlfriend (Jean Peters) for an 'emergency leave of absence'. The movie is enjoyable enough, though pretty formulaic and not really anything special.
Johnny Come Lately (1943) - 8/10 - James Cagney stars as a drifter named Tom Richards who visits the town of Plattsville in 1906. The town is run by the crooked W.M.Dougherty (Edward McNamara), though a small newspaper run by elderly resident Vinnie McLeod (Grace George) stands up to the corruption as best they can, though they are in financial difficulty. Richards takes over running the paper and the fight with Daugherty. I thought that this movie was very entertaining with plenty of humor. It's a fairly simple story and runs along familiar lines, but is done well and the performances are pretty good. Marjorie Main has a nice turn as saloon owner, 'Gashouse' Mary, and Hattie McDaniel is pretty funny as Aida, Vinnie's live-in maid.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
The Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives (Uttam Domale, 2020) 6/10
Cringy, bitchy, vulgar, superficial but very funny look into the lives of four Bollywood wannabee divas married to four has-been actors. The only one of the four to have had a fairly thriving Bollywood career as an actress is Neelam Kothari (wife of Samir Soni) which ended over 20 years ago. The other three are Bhavna Panday (wife of Chunkey Panday), Seema Khan (wife of Sohail Khan) and Maheep Kapoor (wife of Sanjay Kapoor). All four women are not only nurturing mothers but have independant and fairly thriving business careers so they are not total write-offs. Their friendship, lasting 25 years, is brought to the tv screen on this reality show courtesy of producer Karan Johar who ensures he not only gets ample screentime himself but tries to out vamp all four divas - all close friends of his. The glue that silently holds these four screeching women together is the biggest Bollywood diva, Gauri Khan, wife of superstar Shah Rukh Khan. The star couple make an appearance during the last episode which revolves around a Bollywood bash thrown by Gauri for her four friends to celebrate their long friendship. All these women seemed to have modeled their lives off the pages of a Jackie Collins potboiler. It has to be one of the worst shows on the telly but like a bad habit very hard to resist. Campy fun.
His House (Remi Weekes, 2020) 8/10
A Sudanese couple escape their war-torn country, reach England and take asylum. Assigned a house to live in they discover the place is haunted by a demon who wants retribution for the death of their daughter who drowned in the sea when their boat capsized during their escape. Is the couple going mad? Do they actually see and hear the strange being living inside the walls of the house? Harrowing story delves deep into the psyche of refugees who have witnessed unbearable horrors enroute to a life of safety. The ones who make it out alive carry horrific memories and scars with them for the rest of their lives. An eerie ghost story - haunted house mystery is used as a springboard to look into the tortured souls of surviving refugees who leave behind a traumatic past full of blood and death. The film's superb sound design helps to create the nightmares buried deep inside the brain of a person who has gone through hell to reach salvation and safety.
Paris By Night (David Hare, 1988) 7/10
Playwright David Hare's work has often been concerned with modern Britain and with society's apparent failure to live up to the idealism of the post-war period. Here he launches an acid assault on the morals of Thatcherism. His central character, in this dark twisted tale, is a Conservative Member of the European Parliament (Charlotte Rampling), a cold and ambitious woman who is disgusted by her weak alcoholic husband (Michael Gambon), also a senior politician, and is neglectful of her young son. For some time she has been receiving annonymous phone calls with a man's voice hinting at some past indiscretion. She is also being blackmailed by a former business partner who was swindled in a business deal by her husband. While on a trip to Paris to attend a conference she has an affair with a young man (Iain Glen) and has a chance encounter with the blackmailer who begs her for money. She tips him over into the Seine and he drowns. Since there are no witnesses she carries on without remourse until she is told by the dead man's daughter that he was penniless and only needed money to help her. Rampling is riveting as she moves through the film with the stealth of a deadly panther as Roger Pratt's evocative cinematography and camera angles bathe her in shadows and sudden light. The eerie noir-like atmosphere of the plot conjures up a nighmarish world of deception, sexual manipulation and extortion.
Cringy, bitchy, vulgar, superficial but very funny look into the lives of four Bollywood wannabee divas married to four has-been actors. The only one of the four to have had a fairly thriving Bollywood career as an actress is Neelam Kothari (wife of Samir Soni) which ended over 20 years ago. The other three are Bhavna Panday (wife of Chunkey Panday), Seema Khan (wife of Sohail Khan) and Maheep Kapoor (wife of Sanjay Kapoor). All four women are not only nurturing mothers but have independant and fairly thriving business careers so they are not total write-offs. Their friendship, lasting 25 years, is brought to the tv screen on this reality show courtesy of producer Karan Johar who ensures he not only gets ample screentime himself but tries to out vamp all four divas - all close friends of his. The glue that silently holds these four screeching women together is the biggest Bollywood diva, Gauri Khan, wife of superstar Shah Rukh Khan. The star couple make an appearance during the last episode which revolves around a Bollywood bash thrown by Gauri for her four friends to celebrate their long friendship. All these women seemed to have modeled their lives off the pages of a Jackie Collins potboiler. It has to be one of the worst shows on the telly but like a bad habit very hard to resist. Campy fun.
His House (Remi Weekes, 2020) 8/10
A Sudanese couple escape their war-torn country, reach England and take asylum. Assigned a house to live in they discover the place is haunted by a demon who wants retribution for the death of their daughter who drowned in the sea when their boat capsized during their escape. Is the couple going mad? Do they actually see and hear the strange being living inside the walls of the house? Harrowing story delves deep into the psyche of refugees who have witnessed unbearable horrors enroute to a life of safety. The ones who make it out alive carry horrific memories and scars with them for the rest of their lives. An eerie ghost story - haunted house mystery is used as a springboard to look into the tortured souls of surviving refugees who leave behind a traumatic past full of blood and death. The film's superb sound design helps to create the nightmares buried deep inside the brain of a person who has gone through hell to reach salvation and safety.
Paris By Night (David Hare, 1988) 7/10
Playwright David Hare's work has often been concerned with modern Britain and with society's apparent failure to live up to the idealism of the post-war period. Here he launches an acid assault on the morals of Thatcherism. His central character, in this dark twisted tale, is a Conservative Member of the European Parliament (Charlotte Rampling), a cold and ambitious woman who is disgusted by her weak alcoholic husband (Michael Gambon), also a senior politician, and is neglectful of her young son. For some time she has been receiving annonymous phone calls with a man's voice hinting at some past indiscretion. She is also being blackmailed by a former business partner who was swindled in a business deal by her husband. While on a trip to Paris to attend a conference she has an affair with a young man (Iain Glen) and has a chance encounter with the blackmailer who begs her for money. She tips him over into the Seine and he drowns. Since there are no witnesses she carries on without remourse until she is told by the dead man's daughter that he was penniless and only needed money to help her. Rampling is riveting as she moves through the film with the stealth of a deadly panther as Roger Pratt's evocative cinematography and camera angles bathe her in shadows and sudden light. The eerie noir-like atmosphere of the plot conjures up a nighmarish world of deception, sexual manipulation and extortion.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Red Dwarf: The Promised Land (2020) - 7/10 - The crew of the Red Dwarf encounters a fleet of ships filled with the cat people descended from Lister's cat. While this wasn't the best of Red Dwarf, it was comfortable and fun. I prefer the episodic format of the tv series, but this worked. It's good to see the crew back in action and I definitely hope that they keep creating more Red Dwarf for many years to come.
Wild in the Streets (1968) - 5/10 - A popular rock star starts a movement to lower the vote to 14 and get the power in the hands of the youth. He seems to have tons of followers who cause problems for the establishment through protest and violence. Liberal use of LSD helps bring about changes that he wants and gains him power in Washington, D.C.. The movie is kind of ridiculous and I didn't really enjoy it very much, except for the soundtrack, which I thought was good. The movie fits in okay with the counterculture in the 1960s I guess. A young Richard Pryor is the drummer in the band.
Wild in the Streets (1968) - 5/10 - A popular rock star starts a movement to lower the vote to 14 and get the power in the hands of the youth. He seems to have tons of followers who cause problems for the establishment through protest and violence. Liberal use of LSD helps bring about changes that he wants and gains him power in Washington, D.C.. The movie is kind of ridiculous and I didn't really enjoy it very much, except for the soundtrack, which I thought was good. The movie fits in okay with the counterculture in the 1960s I guess. A young Richard Pryor is the drummer in the band.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Tenet (Christopher Nolan, 2020) 2/10
A CIA agent (John David Washington), his sidekick (Robert Pattinson), an arms dealer (Dimple Kapadia), a Russian oligarch (Kenneth Nranagh) and his estranged wife (Elizabeth Debecki) all come together in a convoluted plot that allows them all to move backwards in time. In fact the plot is so dense - nonsense about plutonium bombs that will be detonated by the crazed heavy causing WWIII - that it comes in the way of all the spectacularly staged action set-pieces which all fall flat. This science fiction action thriller is totally devoid of actual thrills as one's brain is trying desperately to understand what is happening on screen so each scene sort of whizzes by with one's brain in a fog. Also not helping matters is the terribly deadpan Washington who is in almost every scene of the film but has zero star charisma. Pattinson, Debecki and Kapadia have great presence playing interesting characters while Branagh is saddled with a role that requires the obligatory "foreign" accent to differentiate him from the good guys. Nolan's regular mascot, Sir Michael Caine, appears in a brief cameo with a witty quip about the demerits of a Brooks Brothers suit. As if the whole enterprise was not boring enough Nolan stretches it to an excessively hideous 2.5 hours with bad sound to boot - all the actors' dialogue sounds strangely muffled causing one to strain one's ears to hear what they are saying. Thanks to the Pandemic the film bombed big time and should be a lesson to film makers to go on thinking big if they want but at least make sense of what they present on the screen. The film's only saving grace is the spectacular cinematography by Hoyte van Hoytema.
Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (Jason Woliner, 2020) 1/10
Stupid beyond belief. Every joke in this sequel falls flat. A classic case of trying to wring laughs out of a premise that was never funny in the first place. Sacha Boren Cohen should from here henceforth stick strictly to dramas only. His Borat shtick is a pathetic bore.
The Pledge (Sean Penn, 2001) 7/10
Penn's film is a remake of the classic 1958 German film "Es geschah am hellichten Tag", and based on the book by Friedrich Dürrenmatt. A lonely retired cop (Jack Nicholson) becomes obsessed with a murder case after making a pledge to the battered young girl's mother (Patricia Clarkson) that he would find the killer. The police - the Chief (Sam Shepard) and another cop (Aaron Eckhart) - close the case after a mentally challenged supect (Benicio Del Toro) is coerced into a confession after which he shoots himself. Discovering a pattern of similar murders he purchases a gas station on the route of the suspected serial killer's beat and befriends a chip-toothed waitress (Robin Wright) and her daughter who eventually move in with him after she is attacked by her ex-husband. He uses the young child as bait to trap the killer. An extraordinary cast work together to bring this chilling story to life with many of the actors agreeing to appear in small roles as a favour to both Penn and Nicholson. Each gets a vivid moment or two - Harry Dean Stanton as the owner of a gas station, Mickey Rourke as a grieving father whose child has been missing for 3 years, Helen Mirren as a psychiatrist, Vanessa Redgrave as the grandmother of the most recent victim and Lois Smith as an invalid who makes little wooden porcupines. Dark, and disturbing film is brightly lit by cinematographer Chris Menges capturing the icy wilderness of Nevada (although the film was shot in Canada) and the poverty-stricken small towns the cop moves through. Penn carefully weaves in themes of mental impairment and fundamentalist religion into the plot with a deeply felt performance at the center by Nicholson.
Agatha and the Midnight Murders (Joe Stephenson, 2020) 5/10
Fed up to death over her creation of Hercule Poirot and how the character has taken over her life, Agatha Christie (Helen Baxendale) has written a manuscript for a new book in which she kills off the Belgian detective. With bombs falling over London she finds shelter in the basement of a posh hotel with her friend and chauffeur and an assortment of other people including a Japanese fan who wishes to buy the book's rights, his shrewd partner, their bodyguard, a PC, a rich Lord, his glamorous companion, an Italian gangster and two mysterious women. As in all of Christie's books there is soon a murder, and another and then followed by yet one more. Trapped in the basement the killer is one of them and before the story ends there are five dead bodies, a twist ending and Christie not only figuring out the killer but also coming to an appreciation of Poirot. Now that all of Christie's books have been filmed, some many times over, this latest series of tv films has created a spinoff with the author herself front and center of the murder mysteries.
A CIA agent (John David Washington), his sidekick (Robert Pattinson), an arms dealer (Dimple Kapadia), a Russian oligarch (Kenneth Nranagh) and his estranged wife (Elizabeth Debecki) all come together in a convoluted plot that allows them all to move backwards in time. In fact the plot is so dense - nonsense about plutonium bombs that will be detonated by the crazed heavy causing WWIII - that it comes in the way of all the spectacularly staged action set-pieces which all fall flat. This science fiction action thriller is totally devoid of actual thrills as one's brain is trying desperately to understand what is happening on screen so each scene sort of whizzes by with one's brain in a fog. Also not helping matters is the terribly deadpan Washington who is in almost every scene of the film but has zero star charisma. Pattinson, Debecki and Kapadia have great presence playing interesting characters while Branagh is saddled with a role that requires the obligatory "foreign" accent to differentiate him from the good guys. Nolan's regular mascot, Sir Michael Caine, appears in a brief cameo with a witty quip about the demerits of a Brooks Brothers suit. As if the whole enterprise was not boring enough Nolan stretches it to an excessively hideous 2.5 hours with bad sound to boot - all the actors' dialogue sounds strangely muffled causing one to strain one's ears to hear what they are saying. Thanks to the Pandemic the film bombed big time and should be a lesson to film makers to go on thinking big if they want but at least make sense of what they present on the screen. The film's only saving grace is the spectacular cinematography by Hoyte van Hoytema.
Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (Jason Woliner, 2020) 1/10
Stupid beyond belief. Every joke in this sequel falls flat. A classic case of trying to wring laughs out of a premise that was never funny in the first place. Sacha Boren Cohen should from here henceforth stick strictly to dramas only. His Borat shtick is a pathetic bore.
The Pledge (Sean Penn, 2001) 7/10
Penn's film is a remake of the classic 1958 German film "Es geschah am hellichten Tag", and based on the book by Friedrich Dürrenmatt. A lonely retired cop (Jack Nicholson) becomes obsessed with a murder case after making a pledge to the battered young girl's mother (Patricia Clarkson) that he would find the killer. The police - the Chief (Sam Shepard) and another cop (Aaron Eckhart) - close the case after a mentally challenged supect (Benicio Del Toro) is coerced into a confession after which he shoots himself. Discovering a pattern of similar murders he purchases a gas station on the route of the suspected serial killer's beat and befriends a chip-toothed waitress (Robin Wright) and her daughter who eventually move in with him after she is attacked by her ex-husband. He uses the young child as bait to trap the killer. An extraordinary cast work together to bring this chilling story to life with many of the actors agreeing to appear in small roles as a favour to both Penn and Nicholson. Each gets a vivid moment or two - Harry Dean Stanton as the owner of a gas station, Mickey Rourke as a grieving father whose child has been missing for 3 years, Helen Mirren as a psychiatrist, Vanessa Redgrave as the grandmother of the most recent victim and Lois Smith as an invalid who makes little wooden porcupines. Dark, and disturbing film is brightly lit by cinematographer Chris Menges capturing the icy wilderness of Nevada (although the film was shot in Canada) and the poverty-stricken small towns the cop moves through. Penn carefully weaves in themes of mental impairment and fundamentalist religion into the plot with a deeply felt performance at the center by Nicholson.
Agatha and the Midnight Murders (Joe Stephenson, 2020) 5/10
Fed up to death over her creation of Hercule Poirot and how the character has taken over her life, Agatha Christie (Helen Baxendale) has written a manuscript for a new book in which she kills off the Belgian detective. With bombs falling over London she finds shelter in the basement of a posh hotel with her friend and chauffeur and an assortment of other people including a Japanese fan who wishes to buy the book's rights, his shrewd partner, their bodyguard, a PC, a rich Lord, his glamorous companion, an Italian gangster and two mysterious women. As in all of Christie's books there is soon a murder, and another and then followed by yet one more. Trapped in the basement the killer is one of them and before the story ends there are five dead bodies, a twist ending and Christie not only figuring out the killer but also coming to an appreciation of Poirot. Now that all of Christie's books have been filmed, some many times over, this latest series of tv films has created a spinoff with the author herself front and center of the murder mysteries.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Let Him Go (Thomas Bezucha, 2020) 3/10
What starts out suspiciously like a Hallmark tv-movie weepie suddenly turns into a Western thriller with gothic overtones. Bringing gravitas to the proceedings, but barely raising it above a notch or two from being a mere revenge potboiler, is the lackadaisical charm of both the leads. A retired sheriff (Kevin Costner) and his plucky wife (Diane Lane) deal with tragedy when their son dies in a freak accident. Some years later his widow remarries a stranger and disappears with their grandson. Having witnessed the man mistreating his wife and her son - their grandson - they end up on a road trip to see what became of them. The plot shifts totally into bizzare mode from here onwards as they discover their former daughter-in-law and grandson are living on a ranch in the back of beyond ruled by a Ma Barker-like matriarch (Lesley Manville) who controls the lives of her brood of nitwit sons. Trying to persuade the young woman to come with them backfires and the old lady and her sons invade their motel, assault them and chop off the sheriff's hand. The plot then further shifts into a ridiculously implausable revenge saga which results in more mayhem, a number of dead bodies and a burning ranch. Absolutely hard to believe that a former sheriff could be so inept with a gun or his fists. Both Costner and Lane should have avoided this genre movie like the plague. Manville is not only completely over-the-top but also seems to be having a great time playing with an American accent and brandishing a hatchet and a shotgun. Extremely disappointing film.
The Charge of the Light Brigade (Tony Richardson, 1968) 7/10
Richardson's film is a clear exercise in how NOT to wage war. In fact it's a clear warning against military interventions in other lands - true of most wars but very relevant in 1968 with the Vietnam War then raging and the great folly it turned out to be for the United States. This particular failed military action - hardly resembling the poem written by the then Poet Laureate, Lord Alfred Tennyson - involved the British light cavalry led by the overbearing Lord Cardigan (Trevor Howard) against Russian forces during the Battle of Balaclava in 1854 during the Crimean War. The Commander of the British Forces, Lord Raglan (Sir John Gielgud), had intended to use the Light Brigade in preventing the Russians from capturing Turkish guns but due to miscommunication in the chain of command the Light Brigade was instead sent on a frontal assault against a different artillery battery, one well-prepared with excellent defensive fire. The assault charge ended with very high British casualties and no decisive gains. This was the first major Battle that Britain was involved in since the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 and in the interim the Army was riddled with an inept chain of command, the arrogance of aristocratic officers bound by bureaucracy, interpersonal wars within the unit, including unfaithful wives and an intense bitter rivalry between Lord Cardigan and Captain Nolan (David Hemmings), who led the charge. Making matters worse was the spread of cholera and the intense heat and flies which started killing off soldiers even before the battle began. Fascinating, if flawed film, was cut by the studio without Richardson's permission. There are still some wonderful moments scattered throughout along with an exemplary cast, including Vanessa Redgrave as an adulterous wife and Jill Bennett as a soldier's wife, infatuated with Lord Cardigan, who accompanies the Army and wrote a journal of her experiences during the Crimean War. The film includes jingoistic animated images by Richard Williams, based on the 19th century graphic style of Punch magazine, to explain the political events surrounding the battle. The film has a memorable score by Richard Addison and superb widescreen cinematography by David Watkin.
What starts out suspiciously like a Hallmark tv-movie weepie suddenly turns into a Western thriller with gothic overtones. Bringing gravitas to the proceedings, but barely raising it above a notch or two from being a mere revenge potboiler, is the lackadaisical charm of both the leads. A retired sheriff (Kevin Costner) and his plucky wife (Diane Lane) deal with tragedy when their son dies in a freak accident. Some years later his widow remarries a stranger and disappears with their grandson. Having witnessed the man mistreating his wife and her son - their grandson - they end up on a road trip to see what became of them. The plot shifts totally into bizzare mode from here onwards as they discover their former daughter-in-law and grandson are living on a ranch in the back of beyond ruled by a Ma Barker-like matriarch (Lesley Manville) who controls the lives of her brood of nitwit sons. Trying to persuade the young woman to come with them backfires and the old lady and her sons invade their motel, assault them and chop off the sheriff's hand. The plot then further shifts into a ridiculously implausable revenge saga which results in more mayhem, a number of dead bodies and a burning ranch. Absolutely hard to believe that a former sheriff could be so inept with a gun or his fists. Both Costner and Lane should have avoided this genre movie like the plague. Manville is not only completely over-the-top but also seems to be having a great time playing with an American accent and brandishing a hatchet and a shotgun. Extremely disappointing film.
The Charge of the Light Brigade (Tony Richardson, 1968) 7/10
Richardson's film is a clear exercise in how NOT to wage war. In fact it's a clear warning against military interventions in other lands - true of most wars but very relevant in 1968 with the Vietnam War then raging and the great folly it turned out to be for the United States. This particular failed military action - hardly resembling the poem written by the then Poet Laureate, Lord Alfred Tennyson - involved the British light cavalry led by the overbearing Lord Cardigan (Trevor Howard) against Russian forces during the Battle of Balaclava in 1854 during the Crimean War. The Commander of the British Forces, Lord Raglan (Sir John Gielgud), had intended to use the Light Brigade in preventing the Russians from capturing Turkish guns but due to miscommunication in the chain of command the Light Brigade was instead sent on a frontal assault against a different artillery battery, one well-prepared with excellent defensive fire. The assault charge ended with very high British casualties and no decisive gains. This was the first major Battle that Britain was involved in since the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 and in the interim the Army was riddled with an inept chain of command, the arrogance of aristocratic officers bound by bureaucracy, interpersonal wars within the unit, including unfaithful wives and an intense bitter rivalry between Lord Cardigan and Captain Nolan (David Hemmings), who led the charge. Making matters worse was the spread of cholera and the intense heat and flies which started killing off soldiers even before the battle began. Fascinating, if flawed film, was cut by the studio without Richardson's permission. There are still some wonderful moments scattered throughout along with an exemplary cast, including Vanessa Redgrave as an adulterous wife and Jill Bennett as a soldier's wife, infatuated with Lord Cardigan, who accompanies the Army and wrote a journal of her experiences during the Crimean War. The film includes jingoistic animated images by Richard Williams, based on the 19th century graphic style of Punch magazine, to explain the political events surrounding the battle. The film has a memorable score by Richard Addison and superb widescreen cinematography by David Watkin.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Movies watched from the last 10 days
Pathfinder (1987) - 8/10 - The movie takes place around the year 1000 AD in the northern part of what is now Norway. Aigin is a teenage boy of the Sami people who returns home to find that a group of foreign soldiers/raiders have killed his family. He escapes to another Sami village, but is pursued, thus endangering them as well. I thought that it was a pretty good film. The enemies are pretty one dimensional, but the movie was entertaining.
Blue Skies (1946) - 6.5/10 - Fred Astaire is the narrator and a dancer. Bing Crosby is a man who opens and then sells nightclubs. Each of them falls in love with a showgirl (Joan Caulfield). The movie features a lot of Irving Berlin songs. I found it to be pretty slow through the first half, but I thought it got a little better after that. Overall, it's not a great film, but is watchable.
Birth of the Blues (1941) - 7.5/10 - Bing Crosby plays a talented clarinet player with a flare for Dixieland music. He puts together a band, but they initially have trouble gaining acceptance for their music in New Orleans around the turn of the century. I thought it was a fun movie, certainly moreso than Blue Skies, and the music was good, too.
To the Shores of Tripoli (1942) - 7/10 - A wealthy playboy joins the Marines, but is definitely lacking in discipline. His sergeant is an old friend of his father. He also tries to start a romance with a navy nurse who outranks him. The movie came out a few months after Pearl Harbor, though it was in postproduction when the attack happened. Despite the movie's flaws, I enjoyed it. John Payne, Maureen O'Hara and Randolph Scott star. This was also Harry Morgan's film debut.
The Thief (1952) - 8/10 - Ray Milland stars in this noir film as a nuclear physicist who works for the Atomic Energy Commission, but has also been selling secrets to a foreign power. A traffic accident with one of the couriers leads to his being investigated by FBI agents, leading to a climactic scene at the Empire State Building. I thought that this film was very good. There is no dialog in the film, but it does contain ambient sounds as well as a nice soundtrack.
The Well (1951) - 7.5/10 - A five year old black girl falls down a well and goes missing. People are searching for her and a white man is suspected of having kidnapped her, leading to escalating racial tension and violence as rumors spread. Richard Rober did a nice job as the sheriff who tries to keep things under control. Harry Morgan plays the stranger who is accused of taking the girl. I thought it was a solid film.
The Dark Mirror (1946) - 8/10 - A doctor is found murdered in his apartment and there are several eyewitnesses who identify the young woman that he is with. However, it turns out that she has an identical twin and one of them has a perfect alibi, but they won't tell which one. A psychiatrist becomes involving in analyzing the two women in part to see if he can determine which one could be the killer. I thought that this was a very entertaining film. Olivia de Havilland does a nice job as the twins and we get good performances from Lew Ayres as the psychiatrist and Thomas Mitchell as the police lieutenant in charge of the case.
I Love You Rosa (1972) - 7/10 - Late in the 18th Century, a young Jewish woman is widowed. An old Jewish law dictated that her husband's brother should marry the widow, but Nessim is a young boy of 11 or 12. Nissim is in love with Rosa, but she sees him as a son and helps raise him as such. I thought that it started pretty slow, but got better as it went along. It wasn't great, but there was enough in there to like.
Pathfinder (1987) - 8/10 - The movie takes place around the year 1000 AD in the northern part of what is now Norway. Aigin is a teenage boy of the Sami people who returns home to find that a group of foreign soldiers/raiders have killed his family. He escapes to another Sami village, but is pursued, thus endangering them as well. I thought that it was a pretty good film. The enemies are pretty one dimensional, but the movie was entertaining.
Blue Skies (1946) - 6.5/10 - Fred Astaire is the narrator and a dancer. Bing Crosby is a man who opens and then sells nightclubs. Each of them falls in love with a showgirl (Joan Caulfield). The movie features a lot of Irving Berlin songs. I found it to be pretty slow through the first half, but I thought it got a little better after that. Overall, it's not a great film, but is watchable.
Birth of the Blues (1941) - 7.5/10 - Bing Crosby plays a talented clarinet player with a flare for Dixieland music. He puts together a band, but they initially have trouble gaining acceptance for their music in New Orleans around the turn of the century. I thought it was a fun movie, certainly moreso than Blue Skies, and the music was good, too.
To the Shores of Tripoli (1942) - 7/10 - A wealthy playboy joins the Marines, but is definitely lacking in discipline. His sergeant is an old friend of his father. He also tries to start a romance with a navy nurse who outranks him. The movie came out a few months after Pearl Harbor, though it was in postproduction when the attack happened. Despite the movie's flaws, I enjoyed it. John Payne, Maureen O'Hara and Randolph Scott star. This was also Harry Morgan's film debut.
The Thief (1952) - 8/10 - Ray Milland stars in this noir film as a nuclear physicist who works for the Atomic Energy Commission, but has also been selling secrets to a foreign power. A traffic accident with one of the couriers leads to his being investigated by FBI agents, leading to a climactic scene at the Empire State Building. I thought that this film was very good. There is no dialog in the film, but it does contain ambient sounds as well as a nice soundtrack.
The Well (1951) - 7.5/10 - A five year old black girl falls down a well and goes missing. People are searching for her and a white man is suspected of having kidnapped her, leading to escalating racial tension and violence as rumors spread. Richard Rober did a nice job as the sheriff who tries to keep things under control. Harry Morgan plays the stranger who is accused of taking the girl. I thought it was a solid film.
The Dark Mirror (1946) - 8/10 - A doctor is found murdered in his apartment and there are several eyewitnesses who identify the young woman that he is with. However, it turns out that she has an identical twin and one of them has a perfect alibi, but they won't tell which one. A psychiatrist becomes involving in analyzing the two women in part to see if he can determine which one could be the killer. I thought that this was a very entertaining film. Olivia de Havilland does a nice job as the twins and we get good performances from Lew Ayres as the psychiatrist and Thomas Mitchell as the police lieutenant in charge of the case.
I Love You Rosa (1972) - 7/10 - Late in the 18th Century, a young Jewish woman is widowed. An old Jewish law dictated that her husband's brother should marry the widow, but Nessim is a young boy of 11 or 12. Nissim is in love with Rosa, but she sees him as a son and helps raise him as such. I thought that it started pretty slow, but got better as it went along. It wasn't great, but there was enough in there to like.