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

[Big Magilla]

The drubbing of Tom Jones is largely based on the wrong-headed 1989 "director's cut" of the film which was the only version available from then until now. The Criterion and BFI DVD and Blu-ray releases contain both versions.

Richardson's 1989 re-cut of the film removed several scenes which are essential to the plot of the film. Without them the ending is too abrupt. Be sure to watch the original theatrical release version of the film and not the dumbed-down version foisted upon the world by Richardson two years before his death.

[Reza]

Tom Jones (1963) Tony Richardson 9/10
In the Mood for Love (2000) Kar-Wai Wong 7/10

Interesting to see you gave the Wong a 7 - which many think is a masterpiece. While Richardson's film has gone down in many people's estimation which got a 10 from you.

I agree with your rating for the former. Haven't seen the latter in almost 40 years. Need to watch it again to see if it holds up.

[Precious Doll]

Adrift (2018) Baltasar Kormakur 4/10
Drums of Love (1928) D. W. Griffith 5/10
Music in Manhattan (1944) John H. Auer 4/10
Day Dreams (1928) Ivor Montagu 6/10
Skyscraper (1928) Howard Higgins 5/10
The Mysterious Island (1929) Lucien Hubbaud 3/10
Hunters of the Deep (1954) Ben Chapman 5/10
Sunbonnet Sue (1945) Ralph Murphy 4/10

Repeat viewings

The Sea Hawk (1940) Michael Curtiz 8/10
The Entertainer (1960) Tony Richardson 8/10
Tom Jones (1963) Tony Richardson 9/10
In the Mood for Love (2000) Kar-Wai Wong 7/10
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960) Karel Reisz 7/10
A Taste of Honey (1961) Tony Richardson 7/10
Frances (1982) Graeme Clifford 4/10

[Precious Doll]

Ideal Home (2018) Andrew Fleming 4/10
Foxtrot (2017) Samuel Maoz 4/10
Upgrade (2018) Leigh Whannell 5/10
Incredibles 2 (2018) Brad Bird 5/10
Moon Child (1989) Augusti Villaronga 4/10
Marguerite and Julien (2015) Valerie Donzelli 4/10
Tehran Taboo (2017) Ali Soozandeb 7/10

Repeat viewings

There Was a Crooked Man (1970) Joseph L. Mankiewicz 7/10
The Men (1950) Fred Zinnemann 7/10
Marborosi (1995) Hirokazu Koreeda 5/10
Threads (1984) Mick Jackson 7/10

[Precious Doll]

Terror Nullius (2018) Soda Jerk
Thoroughbreds (2018) Cory Finley 5/10
The Road a Year Long (19580 Giuseppe de Santis 5/10
Three Identical Strangers (2018) Tim Wardle 4/10
Leap into the Void (1980) Marco Bellocchio 5/10
Hereditary (2018) Ari Aster 1/10
Death Wish (2018) Eli Roth 2/10
Disobedience (2018) Sebastian Lelio 2/10
Vazante (2017) Daniela Thomas 7/10
This Special Friendship (1964) Jean Delannoy 8/10

Repeat viewings

The Three Faces of Eve (1957) Nunnally Johnson 6/10
Where's Poppa? (1970) Carl Reiner 6/10

[Precious Doll]

The Kindergarten Teacher (2018) Sara Colangelo 3/10
Daughter of Mine (2018) Laura Bispuri 4/10
Three Faces (2018) Jafar Panahi 5/10
Leave No Trace (2018) Debora Granik 6/10
Samui Song (2018) Pen-ek Ratanaruang 4/10
The Wild Pear Tree (2018) Nuri Bilge Ceylan 6/10
The Heiresses (2018) Marcelo Martinessi 7/10
Shoplifters (2018) Hirokazu Koreeda 8/10
Woman at War (2018) Benedikt Erlingsson 7/10
Climax (2018) Gaspar Noe 2/10

[Precious Doll]

Transit (2018) Christian Petzold 4/10
Cold War (2018) Pawel Pawlikowski 5/10
Mug (2018) Malgorzata Szumowska 5/10
Scary Mother (2017) Ana Urushadze 4/10
One Day (2018) Zsofia Szilagyi 4/10
Ryuchi Sakamoto: Coda (2018) Stephen Nomura Schible 4/10
3 Days in Quiberon (2018) Emily Atef 7/10
A Season in France (2018) Mahamat-Saleh Haroun 6/10
In the Aisles (2018) Thomas Stuber 2/10
The Original Sin (1948) Helmut Kautner 4/10
The Wife (2018) Bjorn Runge 4/10
Burning (2018) Chang-dong Lee 8/10

Repeat viewing

Ghost Story (1981) John Irvin 6/10

[Precious Doll]

Support the Girls (2018) Andrew Bujalski 4/10
Hard Paint (2018) Filipe Matzembacher & Marcio Reolon 5/10
Tea with the Dames (2018) Roger Michel 5/10
Broadway Hostess (1935) Frank McDonald 4/10
Cobain (2018) Nanouk Leopold 4/10
Annihilation (2018) Alex Garland 7/10
The Seen and the Unseen (2018) Kamila Andini 1/10
Holiday (2018) Isabella Eklof 4/10
Zama (2017) Lucrecia Martel 6/10
Mektoub, My Love: Conto Uno (2018) Abdellatif Kechiche 6/10
Season of the Devil (2018) Lav Diaz 4/10
Puzzle (2018) Marc Turtletaub 6/10
Touch Me Not (2018) Adina Pintille 4/10

Repeat viewings

Mighty Joe Young (1949) Ernest B. Schoedsack 6/10
The High and the Mighty (1954) William A. Wellman 6/10
Wild River (1960) Elia Kazan 7/10
Come Back, Little Sheba (1952) Daniel Mann 6/10
Used Cars (1980) Robert Zemeckis 7/10
The Asphalt Jungle (1950) John Huston 6/10

[Precious Doll]

Solo (2018) Ron Howard 4/10
Stronger (2017) David Gordon Green 4/10
Paula (2016) Christian Schwochow 4/10
Mademoiselle Paradis (2018) Barbara Albert 5/10

Repeat viewings

Goodbye Mr. Chips (1969) Herbert Ross 7/10
Brute Force (1947) Jules Dassin 6/10
After the Storm (2015) Hirokazu Koreeda 7/10
Wolfen (1981) Michael Wadleigh 4/10
The Dogs of War (1980) John Irvin 6/10
The Best Man (1964) Frank J. Schaffner 6/10
The Return (2003) Andrey Zvyagintsev 6/10
Dark Blue (2003) Ron Shelton 5/10
The Square (2016) Ruben Ostlund 8/10
Planet of the Vampires (1965) Mario Bava 6/10

[Reza]

Twilight of Honor (Boris Sagal, 1963) 6/10

Overbaked court room melodrama with a good cast and a subject going into overdrive to appease the newly allowed sexual permissiveness in movies during the 1960s. A young man (Nick Adams) and his slutty wife (Joey Hwatherton) are picked up by an elderly policeman while hitchiking on the freeway. While stopping at a motel the man finds his wife in bed with the old man and proceeds to kill him. Later he is turned in by his wife who wants the reward money. The prosecuting attorney goads the man into confessing the murder but ensures that the old man's lecherous behaviour remains hidden as he and his family are pillars of society. A young lawyer (Richard Chamberlain) is assigned to defend the young man who relentlessly faces an uphill task against the prosecuting team and the community who want the young man hanged. The film has a tv movie feel to it especially with Chamberlain in the lead - it was his first leading role on the big screen even though he was already a huge star on tv courtesy of "Dr Kildare". The authentic southern background, the Oscar nominated sets and Phillip Lathrop's superb noir-like cinematography raise the film several notches. The film is stolen by Claude Rains as the lawyer's mentor in a brief but telling part while Nick Adams was inexplicably Oscar nominated for his supporting turn as the naive almost feeble minded murderer. The film has a familar feel to it coming soon after the somewhat similar if much better "Anatomy of a Murder" and "To Kill a Mockingbird".

[Reza]

Summertime (David Lean, 1955) 10/10

Venice has been on the map for centuries but this exquisite little film put this water-logged city on the map in a big way. David Lean captures the city in a very special light moreso than it actually is when you visit. Based on Arthur Laurents' play, "The Time of the Cuckoo", this is a slight tale of a repressed and lonely American spinster school teacher (Katharine Hepburn) who visits Venice on holiday. The film not only traces this lonely woman's journey but shows us a bittersweet glimpse into her love life which she hesitatingly dips into for a brief instance coming out glowing and satisfied. The film is a marvelous ode to the radiant Katharine Hepburn - one of a series of spinster roles she played during the 1950s - and is one of her most deeply moving performances perfectly capturing the essence of a woman who has resigned herself to a life of lonely solitude but to her utter surprise finds herself falling for a suave shopkeeper (Rossano Brazzi) who first acts as her guide and later gently glides her into a romance. Lean's sensitive direction not only superbly captures this woman's many moods - Hepburn is often directed in tight closeups capturing flickers of emotion on her familiar face and has never looked lovelier on screen - but also seeks out the beauty of Venice itself. The film is also a superb travelogue as Jack Hildyard's stunning camerawork captures the city's memorable locations - the Grand Canal, the Bridge of Sighs, Piazza San Marco with St Mark's Bascilica and the Doge's Palace, the many narrow alleys and the breathtaking architecture of ancient buildings with their dramatic murals and statues. Lovely Isa Miranda has a small part as the owner of a pensione and little Gaetano Autiero plays the delightful street urchin who acts as Hepburn's guide. The film's memorable score by Alessandro Cicognini is still played in cafés around Venice as an ode to this wonderful film which helped bring up the city's tourist trade. The film is also an interesting bridge in David Lean's career. All his films before were intimate studio bound dramas. "Summertime", although an intimate little film, has a grandeur about it due to the on location filming. All of Lean's subsequent five films would be shot on grand locations and be epic in nature. This little film was Lean's own personal favourite. A classic and a must-see.

[Reza]

Northern Pursuit (Raoul Walsh, 1943) 7/10

Action packed WWII propaganda film set in the snowy north of Canada. A Canadian Mountie (Errol Flynn), of German descent, captures a Nazi (Helmut Dantine) and infiltrates their group to see what they are planning. Flag waving heroics set on studio bound sets but stunningly filmed with ski chases, an avalanche and a German sub rising above and breaking ice on the ocean as its major set pieces. Notwithstanding the fake projection shots this is an exciting film with Flynn at his handsome heroic best. Flynn's bad health forbade him from joining active duty during the war so his series of Warners films about WWII set him in good stead with the public as he managed to do his "bit" for the war effort.

[Reza]

Virginia (Edward H. Griffith, 1941) 6/10

A New York chorus girl (Madeleine Carroll) comes down South to claim her property - a dilapitaded old plantation complete with her Mammy in tow (the great Louise Beavers). She finds herself pursued by a poor married Southern gentleman (Fred MacMurray), who lives with his spinster cousin (Helen Broderick) and a wife galavanting in Europe, and a dashing and much younger Yankee (Sterling Hayden). Overlong film has far too many cutesy scenes with a child actor who yammers on and on but this is an extremely rare film (a sadly faded print but in colour) and in contrast to GWTW which came out only two years before - where that production was lavish this one seems like it's extremely poor relative set during modern times. Brit Carroll makes a spirited heroine not unlike Vivien Leigh and she also ended up married to Hayden (in his film debut) off screen.

[Reza]

Washington Story (Robert Pirosh, 1952) 7/10

Slick film about dirty Washington politics. An idealistic young congressman (Van Johnson) is set upon by a reporter (Patricia Neal) to dig up dirt on him. Filmed at the height of the Red Scare the story exposes destructive elements man indulges in to create chaos with the press rightfully getting the brunt of most of the mud raking. Johnson and Neal - she of that incredibly smoky and sexy voice - both make a very attractive pair and their characters hold a remarkable resemblance to the young JFK and Jackie Bouvier. Louis Calhern is also very good as another congressman who with experience under his belt has tricks up his sleeve. Shot on Capitol Hill the film is sharply filmed by John Alton giving it a bright glow especially during the scenes set amongst the chic cocktail circuit.

[Reza]

The Jungle Princess (Willhelm Thiele, 1936) 3/10

Dorothy Lamour's sensational film debut wearing that Edith Head sarong. The film is pure hokum and absolute nonsense though it was a huge hit and got the star a career playing similar exotic jungle females wearing an assortment of sarongs. A female (Dorothy Lamour) is raised all alone in the jungle with her pet tiger and comes to the recue of a hunter (Ray Milland) and falls in live with him. Totally absurd but Lamour is charming andbalso gets to sing.