movies What's the last film you watched? And rate it!

X-men, ... Future Past.

D-

Just lazy, lazy, lazy, lazy film making on every level. From the hacked up script, to the shotgun camera placement; from the effects that looked like they were missing a couple render passes to the "out of the box" obvious grades they slapped on the hide out in future China.

And all the nagging little things like elder Charles talking about the importance of the various X-Men, calling them each by their birth names, except for Oro whom he refers to as storm.


Just a lazy, lazy, lazy movie. :(

Godzilla and Winter Soldier completely crush it be comparison. I have my complaints about those, but Future Past makes them look like outright masterpieces.
 
Watched an indie film on Netflix called Toad Road. Still not sure what I think about it. It wasn't very well done, but it's really staying with me. Not what I was expecting at all. A bunch of kids, spend time partying and doing a lot of drugs. One girl starts trying to explore a deeper experience, and becomes obsessed with a local urban legend of "Toad Road", a path through the woods that leads through 7 gates to hell. Again, not a good movie, and chock full of the stereotypes of bad indie films, but I really liked the (poorly constructed) plot and the (confusingly executed) ending. So maybe 2 or 3 out of 10 for quality, but 7 out of 10 for my taste. I would like a better filmmaker to pay the writer/director for his idea and make a better movie out of it.
 
The Postman Always Rings Twice directed by Tay Garnett - 8/10
This is a very good film noir with a crazy plot, good cinematography, and great performances. One thing that makes the film stand out for me is its incredible sensuality for the time, I could really feel the sexual tension between the two characters in the early scenes. While the film is very good I don't think it reaches the level of the best films in the film noir genre. There are no really huge flaws except that the ending is really off in terms of tone.

The John Garfield Story directed by David Heeley - 7/10
This is a fine documentary on the life of a very interesting actor. It gets the job done as a bonus feature on the DVD of The Postman Always Rings Twice but its nothing special.

Learn From Experience, Part One directed by Mikio Naruse - 8/10
This is one of Naruse's stronger early efforts in my opinion as it creates an involving drama from very simple plot and character material. The directing in this film is not as masterful or as experimental as many of Naruse's other early films but it doesn't suffer from an unengaging story which makes it one of my favorites. I love how there are multiple relationships explored in the film and some very emotional scenes. The twist at the ending is also just incredible and made me want to watch the second part of the series immediately.

Learn From Experience, Part Two directed by Mikio Naruse - 6/10
And unfortunately I was disappointed by the sequel. The film has a more interesting plot and more interesting character relationships that are being explored, but for some reason the film just failed to engage me as much as Part One did. There are glimpses of genius here such as an early use of ensemble casting and in the way that Naruse lets the audience know what the characters don't in order to keep us interested. However, other potentially good aspects of the film are not handled well such as the overuse of elliptical narrative (which doesn't serve much of a purpose except maybe to keep the running time short), and the ending of the film is one of the weakest in Naruse's filmography. Unfortunately I didn't find the masterful aspects of the film to justify the entire film. In Part One, I found that Naruse did so much with so little, and in Part Two I feel like Naruse didn't do enough with a lot of interesting elements that he was given.
 
Sorry Wrong Number 4/5
My favorite actress Barbara Stanwyck giving an amazing performance.. and the ending of this film!! Awesome. The intensity of that finale is right up there with some of her best work
 
Scarface 10/10

You can use this movie to become a multimillionaire in no time at all, it functions as both entertainment and a self improvement video. It teaches you how to get money,power and women and if you avoid making enemies and being murdered like Tony Montana did which he shows us expertly,to teach us a lesson not to get greedy we can all become wealthy prosperous individuals.
 
House On Haunted Hill directed by William Castle - 8/10
I liked this film a lot because it just captured a good creepy atmosphere in such a simple manner. I loved Vincent Price as usual, he is just amazing. I also liked the set-up for the plot, as the film went on the plot didn't go in the best direction in my opinion, but it is redeemed by the amazing twists in the end. I keep reading how predictable and mediocre this film is but I disagree, I didn't find the twist to be too predictable (but maybe that's cause I'm not super well versed in 50's horror) and I found the film to be an amazing low-budget picture. Unlike today's horror films (or any commercial films for that matter), the film has a good sense of how to use lighting, composition, and staging to tell a story. I wasn't very fond of the jump screams though, but I did like the screams lol so they weren't too bad. Anyone who's into old horror should check this film out but it's by no means a masterpiece of the horror genre.
 
A Field In England dir. Ben Wheatley

this was one of the most hallucinatory, captivating and utterly consciousness-altering movies i've watched in a very, very long time. i was and am still frankly speechless; partly because i feel confused with the plot, but also because i'm in awe of the way my senses were manipulated during the film. anyone else seen this? i mostly felt confused by the rope scene that ends in finding (revealing?) O'Neil. i understand that there is a history of alchemical tradition built into the symbolism of the movie, but i didn't quite catch it in the way i'd hoped. The director states in an interview that the film is about the fact that "someone like O'Neill [Michael Smiley] could have come out of that field and run the country". anyone? anyone?
 
Creature From The Black Lagoon directed by Jack Arnold - 7/10
This is a pretty good horror film but I find it to be not nearly as good as the other Universal classic horror films. The pacing is good, I love the atmosphere created by the film, and the underwater scenes that remind me of Jaws are good too, but the film seemed to lack amazing moments and I honestly didn't find the directing to be as good as other Universal horror films in terms of cinematography, lighting, performances, and pretty much all filmmaking elements. The score is pretty good if repetitive though. A good film but not among my absolute favorite classic horror films.

Rebels Of The Neon Gods directed by Tsai Ming-liang - 9/10
Wow this was a pleasant surprise as it is one of the best debut feature films I have seen. This is essentially a summary of Tsai's style: urban alienation, water as symbolism, slow pace shots of ordinary interactions, brilliant mix of visual composition and staging, the mix of the absurd and the mundane, and the loosening of causal chains between the events that occur in the film. It also does a good job at interweaving two storylines featuring different characters. It's by no means a perfect film, but it does an amazing job at capturing alienation and has brilliant overall filmmaking. Surprisingly it has more music and dialogue than most Tsai films, the soundtrack was simply amazing though, it is extremely catchy and fits every moment in which it is used. I actually had the pleasure of seeing this film with a friend who is not a cinephile at all, and even he recognized its brilliance, so I'd say this could be used as a good introduction to contemporary art films.
 
The Virgin Suicides - 8/10

I'd heard it was good, and was expecting a sentimental coming of age drama. What I found was an amazingly well executed dark comedy by Sofia Coppola. Interesting ideas and scenarios emerge from a normal American suburbia, then we are thrown off track as disturbing future events to come are mentioned by the narrator. By the time the credits role, we're left with only fragments of the lives of the characters we've seen, no clear explanation or idea served to us on a platter. It's open ended and ambiguous, leaving us with plenty to think about.
 
The Big Combo directed by Joseph H. Lewis - 8/10
This is a good film noir. I loved the cinematography, the dialogue, the lighting, and the music. But I found some of the performances to not be that good, and the plot became a little tedious after a while. It's very entertaining, but I wouldn't say it's one of the best film noirs.
 
Beauty And The Beast directed by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise - 10/10
I grew up on the films of the latter half of the Disney Renaissance era and on the post-Renaissance era films so this is actually my first time watching this film. And I just have to say, I was simply enchanted by everything, the characters, the music, the story, the romantic scenes, almost everything was nearly perfect. So far this is my favorite Disney film and it makes me want to watch all of them as soon as possible, it also makes me want to watch Jean Cocteau's adaptation of this beautiful story as well. My only complaint about the film is that some of the most romantic scenes could have gone on a little longer, but otherwise this is definitely a masterpiece.
 
Nothing Sacred directed by William A. Wellman - 1/10
Wow I really did not like this movie, I was completely bored throughout and I hated the ethnic stereotypes, the punching women scene, and the inane plot. The direction was so lifeless too, I have never seen a Technicolor film look so dull as this one. This is one of the few times that I nap through a movie lol. Maybe those parts were actually good so I'll re-watch a restored copy of this version (as I also was watching a mediocre public domain copy). Even if a restoration will help bring some life to the film and I may like it a little more, I doubt I'll give it more than a 6/10, and I doubt it'll be among my favorite screwball comedies.
 
Avalanche directed by Mikio Naruse - 8/10
This is a re-watch of the first Naruse film I saw. I still give it the same rating but for completely different reasons, however, it goes falls lower in my ranking of his films now. The film is very well directed but now that I think of it, the script somehow takes super melodramatic elements and not really do anything with them. For every interesting character there is one that has potential but is underdeveloped such as Yayoi, the mother, and Yayoi's brother. I actually like the way the twist ending was handled now, I used to hate that element but now I find it to be the most memorable part of the film. The directing is good, and I was surprised to see some of Naruse's early experimentation with visuals and editing again here. This film is also notable because Ishiro Honda (director of the first Godzilla film) and Akira Kurosawa served as assistant directors for the film.
 
Dr. No directed by Terence Young - 7/10
I've always wanted to watch all the Bond films as I was actually named after the main character of the series, and now I'm finally going to be watching all of them (although it'll take me a while since this cinema generally doesn't suit my tastes). The first film in the Bond series is a solid spy film with lots of entertainment, and the right mix of music, acting, and scenes to make one of the most badass characters I have seen. The film is not perfect, I find it to be a little too long and unengaging at some points, and I kind of wish that a director as talented as Hitchcock or even Stanley Donen with Charade would work on a Bond film as they would make it exciting from beginning to end, and they would add a level of artistry not found in this film at least. Still, this movie was a lot of fun to watch and I loved the Technicolor cinematography.
 
Chef - 7/10

The film wasn't bad. It started fairly strong, boasting strong performances and snappy dialogue. But as the film continues, it loses it's comedic edge when the heavier drama kicks in. From that point on, both the comedy and drama begin to cancel each other out, and by the end, every dramedy cliche in the book is captured on screen. But the film had it's moments and was actually incredibly well made up until the disappointing last 10-15 minutes.
 
MiniJamesW said:
Dr. No directed by Terence Young - 7/10
I've always wanted to watch all the Bond films as I was actually named after the main character of the series, and now I'm finally going to be watching all of them (although it'll take me a while since this cinema generally doesn't suit my tastes). The first film in the Bond series is a solid spy film with lots of entertainment, and the right mix of music, acting, and scenes to make one of the most badass characters I have seen. The film is not perfect, I find it to be a little too long and unengaging at some points, and I kind of wish that a director as talented as Hitchcock or even Stanley Donen with Charade would work on a Bond film as they would make it exciting from beginning to end, and they would add a level of artistry not found in this film at least. Still, this movie was a lot of fun to watch and I loved the Technicolor cinematography.
Click to expand...

Give Goldfinger a watch. :yes:
 
Batman: Mystery Of The Batwoman directed by Curt Geda and Tim Maltby - 6.5/10
The last of the animated Batman film series is the weakest, but it's still very entertaining. I love these films because even with their flaws they are good superhero film noirs that always have awesome animation with fun plots to follow. The third installment has more flaws than the others though as the mystery feels forced at times, and some of the characters really are useless. Still it's very entertaining and never feels too long, which is not something I can say about The Dark Knight Rises.
 
Bad 25 directed by Spike Lee - 8/10
I think this is a great tribute to a wonderful album/artist. Michael Jackson was the first artist I really got into when I was young, and I listened to just about every single song he recorded, and watching this reminds me why I loved him so much. This film reveals Michael to not just be a talented song and dance man, but also a visionary who had a unique touch on every single aspect of his work (which isn't just music and live shows, but also music videos, and even the way he was portrayed in the media). Spike Lee lovingly shows the audience just about every notable thing to know about the Bad album in such an accessible way, and he pulls it together in a narrative form. I think the best thing for any film, especially documentaries is to make you want to know even more about the subject, and I'm glad to say that Bad 25 did a good job at making me want to listen to the album again and Jackson's other work as well. It also captivated me with the unique character of Michael Jackson, a character that I love and that will always be an influence in my work (even with all his flaws).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top