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

[Reza]

Home Town Story (Arthur Pierson, 1951) 2/10

Propaganda "B" film financed by General Motors singing the praises of big corporations. A defeated senator (Jeffrey Lynn) returns to his small hometown becomes a journalist and exposes the greed of large corporations much to the consternation of the head (Donald Crisp) of a big company. When his little sister gets trapped in a mine the corporation saves the child's life. Corny and obvious plot is today remembered for an early four minute appearance by Marilyn Monroe looking very stiff and "actressy" dressed in a tight fitting outfit which she also wore in a scene in "All About Eve". Skip this one.

[Reza]

Until They Sail (Robert Wise, 1957) 7/10

Soap opera about four lonely sisters and equally lonely U.S. servicemen stationed in New Zealand during WWII - the young widow (Jean Simmons) who falls in love with a divorced alcoholic soldier (Paul Newman), the spinster (Joan Fontaine) who has a child out of wedlock, the troubled rebel (Piper Laurie) who goes from bed to bed and the precocious 14 year old (Sandra Dee) curious about the marines. The film, based on a James Michener story and shot on location in Christchurch and Wellington, is sensitively directed by Robert Wise and beautifully acted by the star cast. Simmons and Newman (billed third) make a most attractive screen couple as mature lovers who hesitatingly fall in love wary of all the emotional destruction around them due to the war. One of Newman's early roles helped establish his matinee idol status in Hollywood. Top production values courtesy of MGM.

[Reza]

Baadshaho (Milan Luthria, 2017) 3/10

During the Emergency declared by Indira Gandhi in 1975 the Indian government clamped down on the princely states and confiscated their property and treasury. Using this as its base the screenplay has a sleazy and powerful political figure (suspiciously resembling Sanjay Gandhi) hound and arrest a Rajasthani queen (Ileana D'Cruz channeling Maharani Gayatri Devi of Jaipur) and has all her gold ornaments lifted. Not willing to take it sitting down she has her loyal bodyguard (a glowering Ajay Devgn) and his three cronies (Emraan Hashmi, Esha Gupta, Sanjay Mishra) track down the gold and steal it back from the police. Chases galore with guns blazing, bloody fistfights, scenes of police torture and brutality, doublecrosses, surprise twists and D'Cruz brandishing a pistol and running across a desert in a saree wearing high heeled shoes. Absurd badly acted and edited film has no sense of the specific period the story is set in. Highlights include the location filming in Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Bikaner, an item number with ex-porno star Sunny Leone and the song "Mere Rashke Qamar" sung by the great Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Rahat Fateh Ali Khan. Disappointing film.

[Reza]

Hampstead (Joel Hopkins, 2017) 7/10

A chick flick for grownups which is a sweet and charming true story about a widow (Diane Keaton) coming to the rescue of a gruff homeless man (Brendan Gleeson) who is being evicted from his shack in their North London neighborhood. Star Keaton brings immense warmth to the role along with her quirky yet chic wardrobe and is comfortable acting opposite the usually great Gleeson who is somewhat subdued here and both really do not share any chemistry. The story relies on humour and its use of lovely location work - a picnic in a cemetary, walks through lush woods and drifting on a river barge. Keaton proves that actor-stars of a certain age still have mileage in Hollywood and here she provides a marvelous antidote to the science fiction superhero flicks which the studios churn out in order to make a buck.

[Reza]

Looking For Love (Don Weis, 1964) 2/10

One of a series of films allowing Connie Francis to sing on the big screen while stuck within a screenplay that is beyond silly. Great voice and dance moves get defeated by the shrill and animated performance by Jim Hutton as the object of her desire. A host of guest stars - George Hamilton, Yvette Mimieux, Johnny Carson, Danny Thomas, Paula Prentiss - appear to bolster Francis in this crappy film. Avoid.

[Reza]

Ransom! (Alex Segal, 1956) 8/10

When his young son is kidnapped a rich businessman (Glenn Ford) is told by the cops that paying the ransom will not guarantee the child's safe return. So he decides not to pay the sum demanded. Extremely tense, edge-of-the-seat thriller plays the waiting game at the man's house where a group of people gather to see the outcome - the child's distraught mother (Donna Reed), the police chief (Robert Keith), a wily but concerned reporter (Leslie Nielsen), the old butler (Juano Hernandez), the maid (Juanita Moore) and hordes of reporters hovering outside the house like vultures awaiting news. The film avoids showing the kidnappers which places the audience in the same space as the characters on the screen. The entire story focuses on the father's decision and his struggle to come to terms with what he has done. Ford is outstanding as the helpless, guilt ridden but tough man who gambles on the life of his son. Remade in 1996 with Mel Gibson.

[Reza]

The Wilde Wedding (Damian Harros, 2017) 3/10

Awfully contrived situations, a screenplay that unsuccessfully juggles far too many characters and a wonderful cast who appear to be simply going through the motions spells disaster for this film. A family gathers for the fourth marriage of an over-the-hill actress (Glenn Close - lovely but botoxed) at her fabulous New York estate. Amongst the guests for the weekend are her three grownup sons, assorted grandchildren, her egocentric first husband (John Malkovich - bald and acting fey), her rockstar ex-daughter in law (Minnie Driver), the groom (Patrick Stewart - wearing a ridiculous permed wig) and his two daughters with one bringing along her female friend/lover. Needless to say chaos ensues along with romance in the air, various sexual couplings with one awkward one going viral on the net and numerous heart-to-heart talks between present and former lovers. This whole enterprise not only smells of deja vu but is clumsily directed to boot. Close has remarkable screen presence and despite looking bored throughout still manages to shine playing off her two leading men. She deserves much better though.

[Reza]

Wind River (Taylor Sheridan, 2017) 7/10

Leisurely paced thriller about the murder of a Native American girl. Investigating the case on a Reservation in snowy Wyoming is a rookie FBI agent (Elisabeth Olsen), who is totally out of her depth in this strange land, and a local tracker (Jeremy Renner) harboring something similarly tragic from his past. Acting as her guide they try to find the killers. Sheridan, who wrote the screenplays for "Sicario" and "Hell or High Water", makes his debut as a director and as in the two former films there are sudden scenes of brutal violence superbly staged here as a standoff between a bunch of cops. This leads to a deadly shootout which really makes no sense other than to provide the film a set-piece which mirrors similar confrontations in a Tarantino film. This slow film abandons the mystery by revealing all in a sudden flashback which is clumsily edited into the scene involving the shootout. The highlights of the film are the stunning white vistas of the countryside through which the two leads trudge either on foot or on a snowmobile. A rare mainstream film that highlights a forgotten American community. Renner is very good as the stoic, resourceful and sympathetic man who wants answers.

[Precious Doll]

The Snowman (2017) Tomas Alfredson 2/10
The Belko Experiment (2017) Greg McLean 4/10
Zigeunerweisen (1980) Seijun Suzuki 6/10
Don't Torture a Duckling (1972) Lucio Fulci 8/10
Brigsby Bear (2017) Dave McCary 5/10
Top of the Lake: China Girl (2017) Jane Campion & Ariel Kleiman 7/10
Eight Hours are Not a Day (1972) Rainer Werner Fassbinder 8/10

Repeat viewings

The Kremlin Letter (1970) John Huston 4/10
The Landlord (1970) Hal Ashby 6/10

[Greg]

After my recent challenges, it is good to get back to a more normal life, including movie watching.

Brief Encounter - David Lean - 1946

This is another classic which I have until now missed that I was able to catch up with on TCM.

The film tells the story of a housewife, heartbreakingly portrayed by Celia Johnson, who has an almost-love affair with a doctor, played by Trevor Howard, that she meets on a weekly Thursday trip to town. Brief Encounter expertly, and quite appropriately, breaks the show-it-don't-tell-it rule as a significant part of the film's time is taken up with a voice over from Johnson's character. Because so much of what happens between the Johnson and Howard characters occurs with their feelings only and not their actions, it works to have a meaningful part of the plot restricted to just one person's mind.

David Lean foreshadows the epic grandeur he would bring to later movies in this intimate story, most notably how the rushing into and out of the train station of the trains they ride underscores the ebbing and flowing of their relationship. You can actually see hints of what would come decades later in Dr. Zhivago. Also, there is even more decades of foreshadowing with frequent use of Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 in the score, as it forms the instrumental basis for Eric Carmen's 1975 song "All By Myself."

The final scene between the Johnson character and her husband delivers one of the simplest-but-most-affecting viewings of pathos ever in a motion picture. A masterpiece.

10/10

[Precious Doll]

Shock Troops (1967) Coast-Gavras 8/10
The Mountain Between Us (2017) Hany Abu-Assad 3/10
Jesus (2016) Fernando Guzzoni 5/10
It (2017) Andy Muschietti 5/10
The Last Face (2017) Sean Penn 1/10

Repeat viewings

State of Siege (1972) Costa-Gavras 9/10
Pennies From Heaven (1981) Herbert Ross 7/10
Under Fire (1983) Roger Spottiswoode 6/10
Bang the Drum Slowly (1973) John D. Hancock 6/10
Being John Malkovich (1999) Spike Jonze 9/10
The Big Bus (1976) James Frawley 5/10
The Earrings of Madame De (1953) Max Ophuls 9/10
1776 (1972) Peter H. Hunt 5/10

[Reza]

Victoria and Abdul (Stephen Frears, 2017) 8/10

Utterly charming, witty - in fact sometimes quite hilarious - drama about yet another of Queen Victoria's unconventional relationships. The film is sort of a sequel to "Mrs Brown" and deals with the Queen's later years when Victoria (Judi Dench, playing the Queen again) grew attached to an Indian-Muslim, Abdul Karim (Ali Fazal), who was brought across from India to ceremoniously present a gold coin to the aged monarch. Bored, stifled and depressed but still feisty, she takes to the handsome young man and much to the horror of the Prime Minister - Lord Salisbury (Michael Gambon), Bertie, the Prince of Wales (Eddie Izzard), Lady Churchill (Olivia Williams) and her private secretary, Sir Henry Ponsonby (Tim Piggot-Smith) she has the young man made part of the royal household and her "munshi" - she learns Urdu and verses of the Quran from him. The ironic screenplay has a field day with historical facts, spices up incidents and lays bare racism and the white man's folly for underestimating their own "coloured" subjects - something which the silly white man still hasn't mastered today even if they no longer rule but only try to cohabitate yet fail miserably at it. The screenplay takes a tongue in cheek attitude and presents the relationship with a lot of respect with both thoroughly enjoying each other's company. Dench is magnificent as the seemingly docile old monarch who underneath maintains a razor sharp mind who easily commands fear all around. Fazal is also very good, thankfully not playing his character as a caricature, bringing a lot of infectous humour and pathos to the part. Superbly produced film - with sumptuous sets and costumes - unfortunately presents all the characters around the two leads as buffoons and villains - although Bertie, after the Queen's death, immediately banished Abdul back to India and destroyed all evidence of his presence in the Queen's life - which creates an uneven balance. This is a delightful film with Dame Judi Dench at the top of her game at almost age 83.

[Reza]

Source Code (Duncan Jones, 2011) 7/10

Prepostrous premise - however most science fiction usually is - but fairly riveting action drama has a comatose / dead (?) soldier (Jake Gyllenhaal) whose brain has been transplanted by another man's brain cells courtesy of a scientist (Jeffrey Wright) which allows the person to be transported to a Chicago bound train which was destroyed by a terrorist's bomb. Absurd? Sure it is. The man gets to repeatedly spend eight minutes on that train in order to discover which passenger planted the bomb. The confused man is suitably perturbed to find himself in this forced predicament but manages to obey the instructions by forming a bond with his direct contact (Vera Farmiga) and a passenger (Michelle Monaghan) on the doomed train. This time-shifting concept was applied years ago in the comedy "Groundhog Day" but here it's deadly serious, full of suspense, pathos, American jingoism and heavy bouts of sentimentality. Sounds cheesy but manages to be fairly gripping and moves at a breakneck pace. An interesting B flick with Gyllenhaal good as the beleagured man who has to race against time to not only save lives but try and reinvent his own.

[Reza]

The Italian Job (Peter Collinson, 1969) 8/10

Cockney Michael Caine masterminds a gold bullion heist by creating a traffic jam on the streets of Piedmont while using Mini Minors as the getaway cars. Classic British caper is held together by the insouciant charm of Caine, a sense of rivalry between Britain and Continental Europe, the tiny cars whizzing through the Italian streets and the appearance of wizened Nöel Coward as a kingpin operating out of a maximum security prison. The lovely Italian Alps get a glimpse although the two major Italian stars barely make any impact - Rosanno Brazzi as the late crook whose idea is used for the robbery and Raf Vallone as a Mafia don. Fondly remembered film set during the swinging sixties which evokes a sense of nostalgia looking at the locations and at a very young Michael Caine.

[Reza]

Destroyer (William A. Seiter, 1943) 3/10

Sentimental WWII actioner set on a battleship given the dubious task of carrying mail under the command of a martinet captain (Edward G. Robinson) who clashes with one of the officer (Glenn Ford) who has secretly married his daughter (Marguerite Chapman). Between moments of comedy the crew manages to down five Japanese planes and ram a submarine. Silly and predictable.