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

[Reza]

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (Zack Snyder, 2016) 3/10

What is worse than a film shot with a shaky hand held camera? It's a film with murky camera work (courtesy of Larry Fong) as if shot through a mug of black coffee. It was such an eye strain looking at the actors' faces perpetually shrouded in darkness. I miss the old fashioned, straightforward view of DC comics where it wasn't a chore trying to figure out wtf was going on in terms of plot. Here the convoluted screenplay appears to be channeling Bergman or Antonioni in it's artiness - and please don't miss the homage to "Citizen Kane" as Batman's dying father whispers not "Rosebud" but "Martha" which signals that "she" will play an important part in the scenario - and it just did not gel with me. An eclectic supporting cast are all at sea - Amy Adams (coming off best, as Lois Lane, in an underwritren part), Holly Hunter (as a senator with a bad facelift), Laurence Fishburne (a black man playing Perry White is Hollywood's idea of diversity), Kevin Costner (as Superman's dead dad whom he weirdly meets on an ice capped mountain), Diane Lane (as mom "Martha" - the actress is shockingly in need of a facelift), the moronic Jesse Eisenberg (playing a moronic Lex Luthor), Michael Shannon (as General Zod in a one shot appearance), Jeremy Irons (as droll Alfred) and something called Gal Gadot (as Wonder Woman). And our heroes - Batman (Ben Affleck) who wears an overcoat over his batsuit - how weird is that? And steel jawed Superman (the equally deadpan and steel jawed Henry Cavill) who get to hit each other in a long drawn boring action sequence. The film throws in alien ships and a giant Kryptonian monster which tussels with the two super heroes along with help from Lady Wonder. The film is a mess of epic proportions and the long running time made it an incredible chore to sit through.

[Reza]

This Sporting Life (Lindsay Anderson, 1963) 10/10

Grim, intense and extremely hardhitting story about the rise of a working class ex-miner (Richard Harris) via the brutal sport of rugby. The sport is a metaphor for the man's violent anti-social tendencies although he shows great tenderness and restraint in his relationship with his widowed landlady (Rachel Roberts) and her two young children. This film ended the cycle of the angry-young-man British New Wave. It was not a success as it was deemed too depressing and glum. However, the superb performances - Richard Harris' fierce, no holds barred method acting - Brando's Stanley Kowalski comes to mind - lifts the story to immense heights and he is matched every step of the way by Rachel Roberts' subtle turn as the passionless woman who refuses any emotional involvement despite reluctantly submitting to a physical relationship with the brutal man. The sharp editing and non-linear structure of the film maintains a sense of modernity which takes it into the realm of classic cinema. A great film and a must-see.

[Reza]

Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (Karel Reisz, 1960) 8/10

Hard-hitting film from the stable of British New Wave kitchen sink dramas that emerged during the late '50s - early '60s featuring disillusioned and angry young men. Albert Finney became an instant star as a cocky factory worker who works all week and parties on weekends at the local pub. He juggles affairs with two women - one (Rachel Roberts) who is married to another man and who gets pregnant by him and the other (Shirley Anne Field) whom he picks up at a bar and who refuses to go to bed with him. The appropriately bleak ending finds the beligerant young man stuck in the very same life as all the men around him whom he had railed against. Finney is superb giving an electrifying performance and is matched by Roberts as the matron who realises she has shacked up with a smooth talking louse.

[Reza]

Shaft (John Singleton, 2000) 7/10

Detective Shaft (Samuel L. Jackson) investigates a racially-motivated murder and goes head-to-head with a rich industrialist's son (Christian Bale) who is the main suspect. Violent, cool and dressed in snazzy outfits, Jackson is superb as the cop who goes on the lam to get his prey - whether it's the whacko murderer, a druglord (Jeffrey Wright) or the lone withess (Toni Collette) to the murder. He is surrounded with a wonderful supporting cast - Vanessa Williams, Phillip Bosco, Josef Sommer, Pat Hingle and Richard Roundtree (as the original Shaft from the classic 1971 film and Uncle of the detective here). The memorable Oscar nominated Issac Hayes score from the '71 film can be heard throughout the film.

[Reza]

My Best Friend's Wedding (P.J. Hogan, 1997) 8/10

One of the best rom-coms that still holds up on repeated views. Smartly scripted, directed and acted by a great ensemble cast. A woman (Julia Roberts) is disturbed to find that her best friend (Dermot Mulroney) is getting married. She discovers that her feelings of friendship are actually feelings of love and she plots to breakup the relationship with his fiancé (a hilariously ditsy Cameron Diaz). She arrives for the wedding armed with a gay friend (Rupert Everett) to make her best friend jealous. The expected chaos that ensues is expertly handled by the game cast. Hogan directs with a sure hand using supporting actors who each make a mark even if they are characters in the background - Phillip Bosco, Susan Sullivan, M. Emmett Walsh, Rachel Griffiths - there's a lot of funny business going on in the background which in no way distracts from the main actors up front. Everyone stands out brilliantly with Everett giving a witty performance and easily running away with the film. The outstanding background song score has a major hand in the film's success.

[Reza]

Made of Honor (Paul Weiland, 2008) 5/10

Notwithstanding the lovely Scottish locations, this does not hold a candle to the charming "Four Weddings and a Funeral". A man (Patrick Dempsey) ends up being the maid of honor at the wedding of the woman (Michelle Monaghan) he loves. It becomes a race against time to prevent her from marrying. Dempsey is an extremely appealing actor who has never been able to find a worthy film to act in. This is no exception unfortunately although he has great chemistry with Monaghan. The lovely location filming carries the day but it's not enough to overcome a tired plot.

[Reza]

The Vow (Michael Sucsy, 2012) 7/10

A woman (Rachel McAdams) loses her memory after a horrific car crash and has no recollection of her husband (Channing Tatum) after she comes out of a coma. Corny and predictable as the lovesick husband tries to make his wife fall in live with him all over again. The two stars are earnest and cute but bringing a bit of a bite to the proceedings are Sam Neill and Jessica Lange as McAdams' rich parents who have an agenda of their own to keep the couple apart. Time has not been kind to Lange as her face looks ravaged with age although her natural sexiness shines through in spades.

[Reza]

When in Rome (Mark Steven Johnson, 2010) 3/10

A New Yorker (Kristen Johnson), unlucky in love, finds herself pursued by a collection of weirdos who fall madly in love with her when she steals coins out of a fountain in Rome - legend has it that if you steal the coins you will be pursued by the people who dropped the coins in the fountain. Attending her sister's impromptu wedding she attracts the attention of the groom's best man (Josh Duhamel) and she wonders if he also threw one of the coins. Frantic and stupid comedy where the two unknown (at least to me) leads actually appear charming as a couple although the intense mugging by the supporting cast - Danny DeVito, Anjelica Huston, Will Arnet - playing quirky and extremely annoying characters completely destroys any logic this film could have had. This is the first film I've seen, set in magical Rome, where the director actually fails to show how charming this city is. He should be shot for doing this.

[Precious Doll]

Crime d'amour / Love Crime (Alain Corneau, 2010) 8/10

Kristin Scott Thomas is the boss from hell as she manipulates a naive but brilliant assistant (Ludvine Sagnier) taking credit for every smart idea the junior officer comes up with. When she catches on to her boss's shark like manoeuvres an ingenious plan is hatched as a counteract. Boardroom rivalry has more than shades of the old stagebound classic film "All About Eve (1950)" with an ending lifted straight up from it. Superbly acted film with Scott Thomas a standout as the bitch from hell who doesn't realise the quietly simmering guile the ambitious prodigy possesses. The only negative aspect of the film are the flashbacks which attempt to "explain" the convulated plot. Corneau's last film is a crossbreed of Hitchcock and De Palma right down to the glimmering carving knife.

Ironically De Palma would remake this a few years later under the title of Passion. Not one of his finest moments I'm afraid.

[Reza]

Just Like Heaven (Mark Waters, 2005) 4/10

Corny romance between a landscape artist (Mark Ruffalo) and the ghost of a woman (annoyingly perky Reese Witherspoon) who lives in his apartment. Sort of a rehash of both "Ghost" and "Heaven Can Wait" is syrupy beyond belief with the two lead characters' sweetness quotient in extreme overdrive. It's a race against time for the man's love to overcome the death of the woman who is lying in a coma on a hospital bed. Predictable fluff.

[Reza]

Killing Kennedy (Nelson McCormick, 2013) 5/10

By-the-numbers screen biography of President Kennedy (Rob Lowe) from the time he announces his candidacy upto and a bit after his assassination. The story alternates the scenes of the President with those of Lee Harvey Oswald (Will Rothhaar), a disillusioned Marxist (and a nutjob) who defected to the U.S.S.R. and later returned and settled in Texas with his Russian wife and baby daughter. The story brushes aside any of the subsequent conspiracy theories which makes the going pretty bland. And the short running time make all the events whizz by in a blur. The actors are all very good with Rob Lowe doing commendable work managing to get a good approximation of the President's mannerisms - the makeup is also very good as glimpses of Kennedy can be seen on Lowe's (equally recognuzable) face. In underwritten parts both actresses - Ginnifer Goodwin (as Jacqueline Kennedy) and Michelle Trachtenberg (as Marina Oswald) - manage to give vivid performances as women stuck in unusual circumstances beyond their control. Pity the film is a missed opportunity.

[Reza]

Columbo: Étude in Black (Nicholas Colasanto, John Cassavetes, Peter Falk, 1973) 9/10

A rare teaming on this show by two long time friends and collaborators - Falk & Cassavetes - and the chemistry between the two is amazing as they play "cat & mouse" with each other. A famous conductor (John Cassavetes) kills his mistress (Anjanette Comer) when she threatens to expose their affair to his wife (Blythe Danner - then 5 months pregnant with Gwyneth Paltrow). He makes it look like a suicide but Columbo (Peter Falk) doggedly pursues him and it's the carnation in the coat lapel which plays an important part in the denouement. The great Myrna Loy appears as Danner's mother, a rich patron of the arts. Cassavetes is superb as the clever murderer and the scenes between him and Falk (directed by both actors) sizzle. A memorable episode.

[Reza]

Ransom For a Dead Man (Richard Irving, 1971) 8/10

The best Columbo plots are always the ones where he comes up against a clever adversary. And in this episode, one of the pilots to the long running show, he has one of the best played by Lee Grant in an Emmy nominated performance. A hotshot lawyer kills her "boring" husband for his money and makes it out like a case of kidnapping for ransom. She manages to fool the FBI but runs foul of Columbo (Peter Falk). The two stars create sparks with Grant wonderful as the sexy, shrewd and flirtatious killer having great fun with the part.

[Reza]

Columbo: Dagger of the Mind (Richard Quine, 1973) 7/10

Columbo (Peter Falk) goes to London town and cleverly solves a murder case while taking in the sights. When an eminent theatre promoter (John Williams) threatens to close down a production of Macbeth the married lead performers (Richard Basehart & Honor Blackman) - "ham and slut" - inadvertently kill him with a jar of cream during an argument. They go through an elaborate ruse to hide the fact and end up being blackmailed by the dead man's droll butler (Wilfred Hyde White). Scotland Yard cops (Bernard Fox & John Fraser) stumble around while visiting Columbo steps in to save the day via a silly denouement. Basehart and Blackman are hilariously over the top and are topped by the wily Hyde-White.

[Reza]

Columbo: Requiem For a Falling Star (Richard Quine, 1973) 8/10

A fading Hollywood star (Anne Baxter) discovers that her longtime companion and secretary (Pippa Scott) is involved with a gossip writer (Mel Ferrer) who is trying to expose something nasty from her past. When the secretary is found burnt to death in a car, Lt. Columbo (Peter Falk) suspects that the murderer intended to kill the writer but mistakenly killed the secretary instead. The denouement digs up yet another murder. Excellent episode succeeds due to the great chemistry of Falk and Baxter who plays the great star and diva with dramatic artificiality.