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

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

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To Catch a Thief (Alfred Hitchcock, 1955) 10/10

The incredible sexual chemistry between the two stars, the lovely Riviera locations (photographed in stunning widescreen colour by Robert Burks who won an Oscar) and a witty screenplay combine to make this a highly erotic mystery romance. A retired jewel thief - John Robie, the "Cat" (Cary Grant) is suspected of robberies taking place on the Riviera. A rich young American tourist (Grace Kelly never more beautiful) accompanied by her vulgar mother (the delightful Jessie Royce Landis) has her jewels stolen and she immediately suspects the "Cat" with whom she has fallen in love. The film has many memorable moments - the icy Kelly kissing Grant on the mouth, the picnic in the car as Kelly offers Grant a choice between a leg or a breast and the highly charged scene with the fireworks. The film is a delightfully fun ride and one of Hitchcock's most underated gems. A must-see!!
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Reign of Fire (Rob Bowman, 2002) 4/10

Dragons get loose from beneath London and end up destroying the world. Survivors (Christian Bale, Matthew McConnaughy & Izabella Scorupco being the prominent ones) hide underground and take on the fiery beasts as they descipher that an arrow needs to be shot into the mouth of the lone male dragon in order to explode it. Absurd, noisy action adventure with the cast annoyingly shouting at each other.
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Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (Kerry Conran, 2004) 5/10

A great premise that quickly grows rather tiresome. Set in an art deco New York circa 1939 created via CGI effects - the actors acted against blue screens - the film is an homage to the pulpy comic book film serials of the 1930s. Scientists are being kidnapped and ace reporter Polly Perkins (Gwyneth Paltrow) is hot on the trail, helped by former boyfriend "Sky Captain" (Jude Law in full Errol Flynn mode wearing Indiana Jones' leather jacket) as giant robots attack. Whizzing through the air in WWII bombers which also have the capacity to dive deep down into the ocean the duo save the day with further help from Sky's bubble gum chewing techie friend Dex (Giovanni Ribisi) and daredevil pilot Frankie Cook (Angelina Jolie wearing an eye patch, a skin tight black costume and speaking the Queen's english). Laurence Olivier appears (15 years after his death) in hologram form as the dastardly villain behind all the chaos. Visually exciting film is let down by trite dialogue and an absolute lack of chemistry between Law and Paltrow who boringly bicker throughout their adventures. The film has the feel of the Star Wars and Indiana Jones films unfortunately without the excitement.
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Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings

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North By Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock, 1959) 10/10

From the film's opening as the Saul Bass credits unfold across the screen to the last scene where Hitchcock's favorite leading man gets into a romantic clinch with his cool blonde leading lady this is one hell of a fun ride. The crackling screenplay never lets up with witty dialogue, scenes of paranoid suspense, famous set-pieces - the murder at the U.N. building, the chase by a crop duster and the climb up Mount Rushmore - the obligatory cameo by Hitchcock himself, Bernard Herrmann's superb score and Robert Burk's widescreen cinematography. The plot: A man (Cary Grant) is framed for murder and goes on the run trying to prove his innocence and is helped by a sexy blonde woman (Eva Marie Saint) along the way. James Mason makes an incredibly suave villain with Martin Landau as his creepy henchman. Jessie Royce Landis has an amusing cameo as Grant's irritated mother who thinks her son is imagining everything. The film rests on charming star Grant's shoulders who is game and runs off with the film keeping a fine balance between the story's claustrophobia and intrigue on the one hand and romance and comedy on the other. This is topnotch Hitchcock breezing through a nightmarish tongue-in-cheek plot with an incredible lightness of touch.
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Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings

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The Searchers (John Ford, 1956) 10/10

One of Ford's best films easily has star Wayne's best ever performance as a man who is twisted by hatred for the Commanches who killed his family and kidnapped his young niece (Natalie Wood). Ford beautifully recreates the old west, repeating himself - a funeral, the dance at the party, the ornary simple folk, the annoying comic buffoon and a romantic sub-plot (with Jeffrey Hunter & Vera Miles) - but at the heart of the plot is the angry protagonist who spends five long years giving chase to the Indians in order to kill his niece who he feels has been "soiled". Starkly humorless, bitter and obsessed, Wayne creates a fascinating flawed character who also has a hidden gentleness about him - scenes at the start with his sister-in-law whom he clearly loves. Notwithstanding the racist overtones in the script this is a remarkable film with it's justifyably memorable opening and closing shots with actors standing in doorways signifying their lonely status. A true classic of American cinema and a must-see.
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True Grit (Henry Hathaway, 1969) 7/10

Old fashioned western which appeared when the genre was off into a different tangent of the spaghetti variety. A young girl (a spunky Kim Darby) hires a drunk, one-eyed U.S. Marshall (John Wayne) to go after the man who murdered her father. Accompanying them is a Texas ranger (Glen Campbell) also hard on the murderer's trail. Superbly photographed on location by Lucien Ballard with a fine Oscar winning performance by Wayne - yes, he won it on the sentimental vote but it is a fun performance in it's own right. He is gruff, irascible, stubborn and has a quiet confidence about him as he fits into the part so easily. Glad that the Oscar he finally won was for a western - the genre he was so identified with throughout his long and distinguished career. Superb score by Elmer Bernstein adds to the drama. Interesting to see both Dennis Hopper and Robert Duvall in small but telling roles.
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About Alex (Jesse Zwick, 2014) 7/10

Is this film an homage to Lawrence Kasdan's classic (?) "The Big Chill"? It is a variation - a dog is named "Jeff" (as in Goldblum), the characters talk about how they feel their situation is like from an 80s movie and the plot runs the same course - a bunch of college friends reunite when one of their friends (Jason Ritter) - also named "Alex" in the old movie - commits suicide. He survives and they all descend down on him to spend a long weekend at his large rambling house in the country. It's a weekend where secrets are revealed, a lot of recriminations are churned and a lot of catching up is done between old friends with a lot of comfort level between them. The soundtrack this time round does not have the same classic stature of the original. What is interesting about the film is the cast of young actors most of whom I was unfamiliar with - except for Ritter who is the son of the late John Ritter & Nate Parker who is on the verge of exploding big time as an actor later this year.
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Julia holds up so well. One of the striking things about it to is that it hasn't aged or dated due to it's 'look'. So period films that were made during the 1960's & 1970's have a dated look because they hairstyles and makeup are influenced the era in which they were made. Julia was the rare beast in that it care wasn't taken in every aspect to recreate the past.

The film still every bit of suspenseful and engrossing as it was when first released and viewing it for the third time took me back to when I first saw it. Having purchased the Twilight Time Blu Ray just a couple of weeks ago it was great to find the time to revisit one of the very best films from 1977.
"I want cement covering every blade of grass in this nation! Don't we taxpayers have a voice anymore?" Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) in John Waters' Desperate Living (1977)
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From my April 19th review of Jane and Julia on Cinemasight:

From her first Oscar nomination in 1970 for the late 1969 release of They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? to her dual wins for Klute and Coming Home to her fifth nomination for 1979’s The China Syndrome, no actress exemplified films of the 1970s more than Jane Fonda. The actress, who like most in her profession, loathes watching herself on film but did just that to sit down with Nick Redman on Twilight Time’s limited edition Blu-ray of 1977’s Julia, for which she received her third Oscar nomination.

Not having seen the film in decades, Fonda’s memory of the film was a bit sketchy, but she remembered well the film’s central train journey, her scenes with Oscar winners Vanessa Redgrave and Jason Robards and fellow nominee Maximilian Schell as well as Meryl Streep’s debut in a key scene. She also remembers meeting the formidable Lillian Hellman, whom she plays, as a hurricane was about to hit her Martha’s Vineyard home and helping her board up the place. What neither she nor director Fred Zinnemann nor anyone else connected with the film knew at the time, was that Hellman’s memoir on which it was based, was total fiction. There was no Julia in Hellman’s life. The resistance fighter played by Redgrave was based on a real-life resistance fighter who never met Hellman. The real “Julia” escaped Nazi Germany, emigrating to the U.S. with her husband and daughter in 1939 two years after the alleged tragic events portrayed in the film.

Fonda retired from acting when she married third husband Ted Turner in 1991, but returned to acting in 2005, four years after their divorce. Ten years later she finally had a role the equivalent of her great roles of the 1970s as the reluctant divorcée in Netflix’s Grace and Frankie, now on DVD.

Fonda and Lily Tomlin play two very different women, Fonda a retired cosmetics entrepreneur, Tomlin an art teacher of ex-convicts, who form a bond after their attorney partner husbands, Martin Sheen and Sam Waterston announce they are gay, have been in a twenty-year relationship and are divorcing them to marry one another. With a vibe reminiscent of The Golden Girls, the four stars, along with their terrific supporting cast and guest stars, deliver an excellent portrait of life in the 70s, not the 1970s as they did forty years ago, but their own seventies.
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Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings

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Precious Doll wrote:Janis: Little Girl Blue (2015) Amy Berg 7/10
The Meddler (2016) Lorene Scafaria 4/10

Repeat viewings

Black Widow (1987) Bob Rafelson 8/10
Julia (1977) Fred Zinnemann 9/10
Tangerine (2015) Sean Baker 9/10
The Fury (1978) Brian De Palma 4/10
Still Life (2013) Uberto Pasolini 9/10
It's a tiny sentiment, but you can't imagine how much means to me when I realize Julia is as much loved by someone -in this case, by you- as it is by me. I even give it more importance given your high standards concerning your ratings and your admittedly good taste and criteria. I've recently purchased this new limited edition in Blu-Ray, that includes an audiocommentary with Jane Fonda that I'm very impatient to listen. http://www.twilighttimemovies.com/julia-blu-ray/
"Rage, rage against the dying of the light". - Dylan Thomas
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Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings

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Janis: Little Girl Blue (2015) Amy Berg 7/10
The Meddler (2016) Lorene Scafaria 4/10

Repeat viewings

Black Widow (1987) Bob Rafelson 8/10
Julia (1977) Fred Zinnemann 9/10
Tangerine (2015) Sean Baker 9/10
The Fury (1978) Brian De Palma 4/10
Still Life (2013) Uberto Pasolini 9/10
"I want cement covering every blade of grass in this nation! Don't we taxpayers have a voice anymore?" Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) in John Waters' Desperate Living (1977)
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Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings

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Night of Fear (1972) Terry Bourke 4/10
Next to Her (2015) Asaf Korman 5/10
THe Invitation (2015) Karyn Kusama 5/10
Nina Forever (2015) Ben & Chris Blaine 4/10
The Man Who Knew Infinity (2016) Matt Brown 4/10
Green Room (2016) Jeremy Saulnier 4/10
Mysterious Object at Noon (2000) Apichatpong Weerasethakul 6/10
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (2016) Glenn Ficarra & John Requa 2/10

Repeat viewings

Cutter's Way (1981) Ivan Passer 10/10
Taking Off (1971) Milos Forman 8/10
Eureka (1983) Nicolas Roeg 10/10
"I want cement covering every blade of grass in this nation! Don't we taxpayers have a voice anymore?" Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) in John Waters' Desperate Living (1977)
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Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings

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The Major (2013) Yuriy Bykov 6/10
James White (2015) Josh Mond 7/10
Krampus (2015) Michael Dougherty 5/10
Chronic (2015) Michel Franco 7/10
Florence Foster Jenkins (2016) Stephen Frears 6/10
The Girl King (2015) Mika Kaurismaki 4/10
Hitchcock/Truffaut (2015) Kent Jones 6/10
Symptoms (1974) Jose Ramon Larraz 6/10
Inn of the Damned (1975) Terry Bourke 4/10
"I want cement covering every blade of grass in this nation! Don't we taxpayers have a voice anymore?" Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) in John Waters' Desperate Living (1977)
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Flowers (2014) Jon Garano & Jose Mari Goenaga 7/10
My Big Night (2015) Alex de la Iglesia 6/10
Sanctuary (2015) Marc Brummund 4/10
Prejudice (2015) Antoine Cuypers 6/10
Mississippi Grind (2015) Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck 4/10
He Never Died (2015) Jason Krawczyk 4/10
The Jungle Book (2016) Jon Favreau 7/10
A Month of Sundays (2016) Matthew Saville 5/10
Magical Girl (2015) Canus Vermut 6/10
Try any Get Me (1950) Cyril Endfield 8/10
The Fool (2014) Yuriy Bykov 8/10
Mediterranea (2015) Jonas Carpignano 5/10
"I want cement covering every blade of grass in this nation! Don't we taxpayers have a voice anymore?" Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) in John Waters' Desperate Living (1977)
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Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings

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Ma Ma (2015) Julio Medem 1/10
The Brave Bulls (1951) Robert Rossen 6/10
Our Brand is Crisis (2015) David Gordon Green 2/10
Tough Love (2015) Rosa von Praunheim 5/10
Midnight Special (2016) Jeff Nicholls 4/10
Mon Roi (2015) Maiiwenn 6/10
Almanac of Fall (1994) Bela Tarr 5/10
Peter De Rome: The Godfather of Gay Porn (2014) Ethan Reid 7/10
Sunset Song (2015) Terrence Davies 8/10
Bright Night (2015) Florian Gottschick 2/10
"I want cement covering every blade of grass in this nation! Don't we taxpayers have a voice anymore?" Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) in John Waters' Desperate Living (1977)
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