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

Reza
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Precious Doll wrote:Pharaoh (1966) Jerzy Kawalorowicz 5/10
Wasn't this nominated for an Oscar?
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In Search of a Midnight Kiss (2008) Alex Holdridge 7/10

Let's Talk About the rain (2008) Agnes Jaoui 8/10

Pharaoh (1966) Jerzy Kawalorowicz 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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Post by mlrg »

The Paper Chase (1973) - James Bridges

6.5/10

I found this film very entertaining with a very charismatic performance by John Houseman, who I think really deserved the oscar. The screenplay is rather flawled at times, but the film holds itself to a fine ending, although the relationship between Timothy Bottons and Lindsay Wagner never really develops throughout the film.
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Test Pilot (Victor Fleming, 1938) 6/10

Not as compelling as Howard Hawks' Only Angels Have Wings the following year, but a good showcase for stars Clark Gable, Myrna Loy and Spencer Tracy in more or less the roles played by Cary Grant, Jean Arthur and Thomas Mitchell in the latter film. Interestingly, Hawks co-wrote this one.

From This Day Forward (John Berry, 1946) 7/10

Interesting study of a marriage that survives the Great Depression, World War II and the uncertainty of hte war's aftermath. It beat both Till the End of Time and The Best Years of Our Lives into theatres, making it the first major film dealing with the plight of the homecoming G.I. Mark Stevens, in his film debut, is outstanding as the young husband and Joan Fontaine, stripped of her usual upper class mannerisms, is a revelation as his working class wife. 8 year-old Bobby Driscoll is already showing signs of his his future greatness as Fontaine's nephew in one key scene.

The Happy Time (Richard Fleischer, 1952) 8/10

Listening to the cast recording of the 1968 Kander and Ebb musical about the coming of age of an adolescent French Canadian boy has long been one of my guilty pleasures so I have been wanting for some time to see this film made from the same source material.

The emphasis in the musical is on the boy (Michael Rupert), his photographer uncle (Robert Goulet) and his rascally grandfather (David Wayne). The emphasis here is on the boy (Bobby Driscoll) and his extended family including parents (Charles, Marsha Hunt), uncles (Louis Jourdan, Kurt Kasznar) and grandfather (Marcel Dalio). The film was nominated for four Golden Globes including Best Picture - Drama, Director, Actor (Boyer) and Supporting Actor (Kasznar) as well as WGA nomination for best written comedy.

The Writers' Guild got it right, it's a comedy, not a drama as the Globes classified it. The Globes got something else wrong, too. While Boyer and Kasznar are both excellent, it's 15 year-old Driscoll who owns the film. The Oscar winning child star of Song of the South, So Dear to My Heart and The Window, who would go on to voice Disney's Peter Pan the following year, never had a better role and that's saying a lot.

Another pleasant surprise is Linda Christian, then Mrs. Tyrone Power, as the film's femme fatale who Driscoll's character has a crush on.

The film is set in Ottawa in the late 1920s. A bonus for film buffs is that Boyer is shown in his job conducting the orchestra for silent films. The film being shown is 1926's The Son of the Sheik, Rudolph Valentino's last film.
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Post by Sabin »

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles - 7/10
This is a sweet, ramshackle film. It's really messy but I like it. By having Steve Martin all-but immediately tell off John Candy, it sways the film away from easier convention of it all building inside him to climactic tell off. He spends a lot of the film trying to dickishly get away from him. It never finds an adequate tone between pathos and silliness but I like it.
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The Gigolos (2006) Richard Bracewell 6/10

Interesting low budget British film about the lives of a couple of male gigolos. Susannah York, Sian Philips & Anna Massey have small roles as customers.

A Pain in the Ass (2008) Francis Veber 3/10

A lame rip off of Billy Wilders Buddy, Buddy

The Chaser (2008) Hong-jin Ha 8/10

A Woman of Affairs (1928) Clarence Brown 7/10

One of Garbo's best silent film performances that is beautifully shot and directed.

JCVD (2008) Mabrouk El Mechri 5/10

Invitiation of Happiness (1939) Wesley Ruggles 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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Post by dws1982 »

I've not seen Breaking Away, but I've always liked Barbara Barrie, even if she now looks like the Ghost of Christmas Past, and I'm glad she got a role that put her in the limelight for a short while.
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Post by Mister Tee »

--Cinemanolis wrote:Breaking Away 7/10
... I don't get Barbara Barrie's nomination (not to mention that when i started watching it i expected Barbara Harris to be in it), especially since her screen husband Paul Dooley is the one that should be nominated.

This was a feeling widely shared at the time. The answer is, supporting actress was a far more thinly populated field, and Barrie slipped in on best picture momentum, while Dooley -- who was my choice for the win that year -- was squeezed out.




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Post by Big Magilla »

Marley & Me (David Frankel) 8/10

Quite a surprise for me. Not at all the silly dog movie I was expecting from the trailer, but a well crafted film about family life in the 90s and 00s. Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston are very believable as a couple, he a newspaper columnist and she a reporter turned housewife. Kathleen Turner has an uproarious bit as a dog trainer and Nathan Gamble (Babel, The Mist) all but steals the last part of the film as the couple's oldest child.

Tea for Two (David Butler) 4/10

1950 remake of No, No, Nanette dumbs down the original plot, which was at least quaintly naive, jettisons most of the songs and replaces them with songs by composers other than Youmans and Harburg that don't fit. The best that be said about Doris Day, Gordon MacRae and Gene Nelson is that they look wholesome. They've all done much better work, Even Eve Arden and S.Z. "Cuddles" Sakall can't save it.
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Post by Big Magilla »

--mlrg wrote:Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971) - John Schlesinger

9/10

Extremely well crafted film, with exquisit acting, directing and an really well written screenplay.

A movie about affections (and the lack of them) it's easy to feel connected with these characters and the movie doesn't feel dated at all.

I wonder how the movie was received by moviegoers and critics when it openned.

Extremely well. Penelope Gilliat, who wrote it, was a well known critic herself. Her reviews alternated with Pauline Kael's in the New Yorker. Her second husband was the playwright, John Osborne (Look Back in Anger).




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Post by dreaMaker »

Monsters Vs. Aliens

7.5/10

Fun and spectacular. :)
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Post by mlrg »

Cinemanolis wrote:Breaking Away 7/10
I expected to like this film more. I don't get Barbara Barrie's nomination (not to mention that when i started watching it i expected Barbara Harris to be in it), especially since her screen husband Paul Dooley is the one that should be nominated.

I saw this a few months ago and didn't connect with it. Also don't understand Barbara Barries's nomination.

It probabbly was nominated for best picture for it's box office appeal
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Post by Cinemanolis »

A Little Romance 5/10
Tender film, with a nice supporting turn by Olivier and interesting score. However the story wasn't conviencing for me.

Who's Killing the Great Chefs of Europe? 7/10
The first half hour of the movie is hilarious, but the rest of the movie doesn't live up to the expectations created by the beginning. Very funny one-liners. Robert Morley steals the show, but Jean Rouchefort and Jean Pierre Cassell are also wonderful. Segal on the other side is monotonous.

Manhattan 7/10
Refreshing like most the early Woody Allen films. Wonderful Manhattan images and Gershwin music. Hemingway is very good, but Keaton's performance was awfully familiar. Certainly in my Woody Allen Top10, but not Top5.

Breaking Away 7/10
I expected to like this film more. I don't get Barbara Barrie's nomination (not to mention that when i started watching it i expected Barbara Harris to be in it), especially since her screen husband Paul Dooley is the one that should be nominated.

Long Good Friday 7/10
Wonderful performances by Hoskins and Mirren. Nice music score, and a memorable last shot.

Secret of Santa Victoria 6/10
It's always nice to see Anna Magniani, and there are some nice moments in this, but it never really delivers as it should have. Anthony Quinn is over the top at times.

84 Charring Cross Road 6/10
I liked the premise of a 'love story' between two people who have never met in person, but somehow the movie didn't work for me. Anne Bancroft was excellent (although i didn't understand why she was talking to the camera, especially since it was happening randomly). And why the hell did they cast Judi Dench when her role was so underwritten? Though i must say that in her one good scene, writting her last letter to Bancroft, she was magnificent.




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mlrg
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Post by mlrg »

Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971) - John Schlesinger

9/10

Extremely well crafted film, with exquisit acting, directing and an really well written screenplay.

A movie about affections (and the lack of them) it's easy to feel connected with these characters and the movie doesn't feel dated at all.

I wonder how the movie was received by moviegoers and critics when it openned.
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Post by Reza »

Act of Violence (Fred Zinnemann, 1948) 6/10
Highlight of the film is Mary Astor as an old and jaded prostitute.

Decoy (Jack Bernhard, 1946) 9/10
Superb, forgotten film noir from the Monogram studio with possibly the best portrayal of a femme fatale (British actress Jean Gillie..who made 2 films only and died at the early age of 34) ever.

Crime Wave (Andre de Toth, 1954) 8/10
Yet another film that proves how underrated Sterling Hayden was. Hard hitting film noir with equally superb performances by Phyllis Kirk and Charles Bronson as a sadistic thug. Warners wanted Bogart and Ava Gardner to star but director de Toth turned them down in favour of Hayden and Kirk.




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