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

Post by **Big Magilla** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 10:52 pm

Ghost (David Zucker) 7/10

Still fun after all these years.

Holiday (George Cukor) 9/10

Still lovely after all these years.

Notorious (Alfred Hitchcock) 10/10

My favorite 40s Hitchcock still thrilling after these years.

Happy-Go-Lucky (Mike Leigh) 6/10

I found the heroine an annoying pain in the ass for much of the film, but she won me over in the end. Still, Leigh's meditation on happiness is merely okay at best. Cukor's seventy-plus year-old version of Philip Barry's eighty-plus year-old Holiday mined the same territory much more effectively.

Post by **Reza** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 9:30 pm

Body of Lies (Ridley Scott, 2008) 3/10

Post by **Bog** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 2:54 pm

Damien wrote:Tropic Thunder (Ben Stiller 2008) 3/10

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Forgetting Sarah Marshall (Nicholas Stoller 2008) 2/10

Turning over a new leaf for 2009 Damien? Widening your horizons? I'm thinking you had to have lost a horrible horrible bet for that to have been your 2 most recent films...if Wall-E is your next film in this thread, someone has to be blackmailing you.

Envision a film written by Ben Stiller and directed by Judd Apatow

Sabin · Post by **Sabin** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 1:56 pm

Gran Torino - 4/10

I'm still mulling over whether there is anything endearing about the entire film's shakiness, but right now I'd say that this is the downside to Eastwood's much-lauded efficiency: a crotchety movie with little-to-no attention for its own crotchety humor or even less for half the movie which Eastwood barely seems interested in. It seems like a movie made to get done.

Post by **Damien** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 3:00 am

Tropic Thunder (Ben Stiller 2008) 3/10

Not funny, not clever, not cohesive and certainly not necessary. Only saving grace are some droll moments from Robert Downey, Jr. But Tom Cruise has the worst comic timing of anyone since Al Pacino in Dick Tracey. My God, Cruise is abysmal -- really painful to watch.

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Forgetting Sarah Marshall (Nicholas Stoller 2008) 2/10

I can't imagine more mundane and uninteresting characters populating a movie. This thing comes across as a 12-year-old boy's idea of a sophisticated comedy. It's the first work I've seen from the Apatow crowd, and it confirms that my instincts of staying away from the likes of Knocked Up and 40 Year Old Virgin were certainly right. A pathetic movie.

Edited By Damien on 1230883272

Post by **Okri** » Thu Jan 01, 2009 11:32 pm

Burn After Reading: 7-ish/10

It's inspired but inconsistent.

abcinyvr · Post by **abcinyvr** » Thu Jan 01, 2009 11:03 pm

rain Bard wrote:Glad I'm not alone. Are you a fan of To in general? I agree that the cinematography was tremendous- or was it the loving digital intermediate? I can't tell anymore. All I know is, I hope I can make time to see this again before it departs from my neighborhood theatre.

Also, it's way better than Slumdog Millionaire (4/10).

I have only seen Sparrow and the excellent Mad Detective, which I have mentioned on this board once before. That makes two film festival years in a row where a Johhny To film resided close to the top of the pile.

Sorry though, our opinions on S.M. do not also match.

danfrank · Post by **danfrank** » Thu Jan 01, 2009 3:53 pm

Good, I was hoping you'd say you liked it for its humanness. I liked it for that, too, as well as its sense of intimacy and its humor. And you're right, I think that Jimmy Stewart has rarely been better, and that's saying a lot.

Sabin · Post by **Sabin** » Thu Jan 01, 2009 3:12 pm

The Shop Around the Corner is just such a perfect romance and its virtues are held steadfast throughout. It's never too sappy and always subverts its romance moments with very human moments like Margaret Sullivan checking to see if Jimmy Stewart is bow-legged before kissing him. I don't know how Ernst Lubitsch coaxes such a priggish-yet-sweet performance from Stewart but I think it might be his greatest work outside of It's a Wonderful Life and Vertigo. It's full of all the Lubitsch regulars like Josef Schindlkraut but they're given the sweetest roles of his oeuvre. It's basically the best of the filmmaker's career in one movie.

Trouble in Paradise and To Be Or Not To Be are great and Ninotchka is fun but I don't really care for Melvyn Douglas (if only Cary Grant took that role and Bogart's in Sabrina!), but to me The Shop Around the Corner is just such a beautiful movie that is so tender and wise and human and funny that it almost seems to exist on a tightrope. It believes in love conquering all but in a timid fashion and a lot of films with the same preoccupations are prone to naval-gazing and schmaltziness. It's not a movie that astonishes but rather beguiles.

danfrank · Post by **danfrank** » Thu Jan 01, 2009 12:43 pm

Sabin wrote:
The Shop Around the Corner (Ernst Lubitsch, 1940) 8/10

Very charming; why can't they make romantic comedies this well anymore? Nicely directed, good cast, made me laugh.

This is one of the greats. One of the absolute best films I've ever seen.

I don't know a lot about Lubitsch other than he was obviously a fine craftsman. I think the only other film of his I've seen is Ninotchka, which he made just before this. I admire that one, but something about The Shop Around the Corner makes you feel at home in it, as if you're one of the clerks in the shop observing the action take place.

I'm curious, Sabin, what about this makes it one of the very best for you?

Sabin · Post by **Sabin** » Thu Jan 01, 2009 12:44 am

The Shop Around the Corner (Ernst Lubitsch, 1940) 8/10

Very charming; why can't they make romantic comedies this well anymore? Nicely directed, good cast, made me laugh.

This is one of the greats. One of the absolute best films I've ever seen.

Post by **Precious Doll** » Wed Dec 31, 2008 5:29 pm

Zabriskie Point (1971) Michelangelo Antionioni (repeat viewing) 10/10

I haven't seen this in over 20 years and it's aged very well and still relevant. Warners have released it in France and the transfer is gorgeous.

Frost/Nixon (2008) Ron Howard 6/10

Enjoyable enough with good performances all round but it lacked spark.

I am Cuba (1964) Mikhail Kalatozov 8/10

danfrank · Post by **danfrank** » Wed Dec 31, 2008 12:38 am

The Shop Around the Corner (Ernst Lubitsch, 1940) 8/10

Very charming; why can't they make romantic comedies this well anymore? Nicely directed, good cast, made me laugh.

Elmer Gantry (Richard Brooks, 1960) 6/10

Wins points for (sort of) questioning religion back in 1960; Burt Lancaster seems over-the-top at first, but his performance is very consistent, especially that sociopathic smile. Shirley Jones is solid in the sympathetic hooker-with-a-heart (and thus, we need to give her a Oscar) role. Annoying bombastic score by Andre Previn.

Post by **Bog** » Tue Dec 30, 2008 3:34 pm

Let the Right One In- 9/10

pretty stunned at how glorious this little thing was...

POSSIBLE SPOILERS...

I found it ironic that I saw 88 Minutes and this film on back to back days, despite either film's merits, as they have coinciding, quite obscure plot points. If anyone has seen both films this year, they will know what I mean, just found it strange. With that being said, don't see 88 Minutes.

Post by **Big Magilla** » Tue Dec 30, 2008 11:54 am

Reza wrote:
Big Magilla wrote:Home Before Dark (Mervyn LeRoy) 6.5/10

Jean Simmons won numerous awards recognition for her role of a woman released from a mental institution into the

Which awards?

This is a rare film. Have not seen it.

Golden Globe, Golden Laurel nominee, runner-up in the New York Film Critics' voting.

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