Le Notti Bianche / White Nights (1957) - 9/10 - A man arrives in the city of Livorno and sees a woman crying on a canal bridge. He approaches her, but she is shy and runs away at first. Eventually she talks to him and explains that she was waiting for the man she loves to return after a year away. The man falls for her and tries to get her to fall for him as well. Maria Schell and Marcello Mastroianni are excellent in the lead roles here in a beautifully told story. The music and cinematography are each very nice.
The Easy Life / Il sorpasso (1962) - 8.5/10 - Roberto is a serious law student who meets Bruno, a seemingly carefree man who talks Roberto into joining him on a road trip after Bruno missed meeting up with friends. They spend a couple of days driving fast, passing cars dangerously, and meeting each other's family. Bruno appears to have boundless energy and flirts with just about any attractive female that he encounters, but Roberto is much more shy and reserved.
Pearl (2022) - 8/10 - Mia Goth stars as Pearl, a 20 something woman who lives on her German immigrant parents' farm in rural Texas in 1918. Her husband Howard has been away at the war for some time, her father is a non-speaking invalid, and her mother is fairly strict. Pearl longs to get off the farm and have a chance at stardom. An upcoming audition may give her that opportunity. Pearl is also somewhat mentally disturbed. Mia Goth is excellent and the colors and stylized atmosphere worked pretty well for me. I thought it was a touch on the slow side at times, but overall is very good.
X (2022) - 8/10 - A group of amateur filmmakers head to a rural Texas farm in 1979 to make a pornographic film with the aim of getting rich or becoming a star. The elderly couple who own the farm (Howard and Pearl) aren't too friendly and take offense once they learn the true purpose that the people renting a cabin from them have for being there. Mia Goth and Jenna Ortega were each pretty good here.
Who Can Kill a Child? (1976) - 8/10 - An English couple are vacationing in Spain while awaiting the birth of their third child. They travel to an island in the Mediterranean that the husband had visited many years earlier, but find the place strangely deserted, except for some children. The children stare and smile and mostly seem happy, but seem off and the couple soon learns why. This is pretty well done.
My Mother's Smile (2002) - 8/10 - Ernesto is a well known painter who is informed that his mother is up for canonization as a saint. Ernesto is an atheist with a young son who has recently taken an interest in religion. Ernesto has some inner conflict about religion due to his upbringing and we learn a bit about his family as the film progresses. This was a pretty good film.
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014) - 8/10 - A black and white modern western about a lonely vampire girl who wanders Bad City at night. It was made in the U.S., though in the Persian language. The cinematography, music, and acting all work for me and I enjoyed it quite a bit.
Jacob's Ladder (1990) - 8/10 - Tim Robbins stars as a Vietnam veteran in the mid-70s who is experiencing visions and flashbacks to an incident during his time in Vietnam. He finds that some of the survivors from his unit are also experiencing the same type of thing. He has a few near death experiences and feels that he is being followed. Robbins gives a nice performance and I enjoyed the film.
Nanny (2022) - 7.5/10 - Aisha is an immigrant from Senegal who works as a nanny for a wealthy white couple in Manhattan. She is saving up money to bring her son over to the U.S. with her, but the women that she works for doesn't do a good job of paying her the money that she is owed. Aisha starts having disturbing dreams and visions which can sometimes overwhelm her even when she is awake. This was a fairly slow moving film, but one that managed to keep my interest throughout. Anna Diop is very good in her role as Aisha.
The Day of the Beast (1995) - 7.5/10 - A priest spends Christmas Eve committing a number of crimes in an effort to thwart the coming of the Antichrist. He is assisted by a guy who sells death metal albums in this entertaining horror comedy.
M3GAN (2022) - 7.5/10 - A little girl named Cady loses her parents in an accident and goes to live with her aunt Gemma. Gemma is a talented robotics engineer who seems to be more interested in her work than in becoming a parent. She takes a prototype life size robotic doll in the form of a little girl and makes it Cady's companion. Things go well at first, but the doll (M3GAN) soon develops her own way of protecting Cady and dealing with others. I enjoyed this quite a bit.
The Mass is Ended (1985) - 7.5/10 - Nanni Moretti stars as a priest who has been away for many years in a remote part of the world, but returns home to Rome and is assigned to a small, neglected parish. He tries to renew relationships with his family and friends, but finds that much has changed and that it is not in his power to fix everything. There is plenty of humor mixed in with the drama.
Fear (1954) - 7/10 - Ingrid Bergman stars as Irene, a woman who is married to a German scientist, but had an affair with another man. The former girlfriend of the man that she had an affair with starts blackmailing her, making threats to tell her husband and extorting money. Irene lives in fear that her husband will find out about the affair.
The Profession of Arms (2001) - 7/10 - The film shows the battles between German mercenaries and the Papal armies in the 1520s. The Papal armies were led by Giovanni de'Medici and this film was a lot better than Condottieri (1937) which also featured de'Medici. They do a great job with the setting and feel of the film. War and medicine in the 16th Century could be pretty brutal. The narrative wasn't as interesting, but it's still worth seeing.
Journey to the Seventh Planet (1962) - 7/10 - A movie that starts with narration telling us that in 2001, war is be a thing of the past and the UN is be the sole governing body plus most of the planets have been explored is one that gets off to an amusing start. However, the movie itself turned out to be good. A group of explorers are headed to Uranus where they discover an alien mind that can seize control of them and can also pick things out of their minds and make them real. They try to find the truth behind the illusions. It's done on a very small budget, but is done pretty well and I enjoyed it.
Shock (1977) - 6.5/10 - A woman moves back into the home she once shared with her late husband. She is accompanied by her 7 year old son and her new husband. The son seems changed at times and the mother comes to fear that he is possessed by her late husband's spirit. Frightening nightmares also come her way.
Red Wood Pigeon (1989) - 6.5/10 - Nanni Moretti stars as Michele, a Communist Party parliament member who loses some of his memory in a car crash, but his friends don't seem to notice. He is a member of a water polo team and they pick him up and take him to an important match. Throughout the match, he starts to remember things from his past. The film was interesting and kind of fun at first, but the political talk throughout were less so. Still, there was enough of interest during the rest of the film that overall it was okay. I do know that he should have his driver's license taken away, though.
The Third Part of the Night (1971) - 6/10 - A Polish man witnesses the murder of his wife, mother, and child by the Nazis during WWII. He joins the resistance, but a number of strange things happen to him, including meeting a pregnant woman who is the double of his wife. I really liked the first part of the movie with the setting and the action and so on, but as the film progressed, it became much less interesting. The setting and look of the film were still good, but the story less so.
Lady in the Death House (1944) - 6/10 - Jean Parker plays a woman who was convicted of killing her blackmailer and is now awaiting execution. The twist is that the person who is scheduled to flip the switch is the man she loves. A criminologist works to prove her innocence before it is too late. The film cuts a number of corners and could definitely have benefited from being fleshed out by another half hour or so. I enjoyed the film for the most part, but it's just too bare bones.
The Brain from Planet Arous (1957) - 6/10 - Two men discover a newly created cave and one of them has his brain subjugated by an evil alien brain bent on world domination. A 'good' alien brain later shows up to help. Some of the special effects are pretty dated, but this wasn't too bad overall.
The Killer Shrews (1959) - 5.5/10 - A small group of people get trapped on an island during a storm and find out that a scientist there has been experimenting on animals. This has led to a pack of giant shrews roaming the island and these shrews are hungry. They have to fight off the shrews to survive. This wasn't too bad, really. It certainly wasn't great and the shrews looked pretty bad, but it was still somewhat entertaining.
The Love Witch (2016) - 5.5/10 - They did a great job capturing the look and feel of the 1960s and Samantha Robinson isn't bad, but the movie is very dull. The story is just not really interesting, except for a bit here and there.
A Lizard in a Woman's Skin (1971) - 5.5/10 - A woman starts having dreams about sex parties and murdering her neighbor. Then the neighbor really is murdered. Did the woman do it or is she being set up? There were parts of the film that were interesting, but large parts of it were just tedious.
Silent Hill (2006) - 5/10 - A woman searches for the town of Silent Hill in an attempt to help her preteen adopted daughter. The visuals were sometimes interesting, but the story was not.
Hatchet for the Honeymoon (1970) - 5/10 - John runs a bridal gown factory and is stuck in a loveless marriage with his wife supporting him and his factory financially. John is crazy and murders various young brides to be while they are wearing their wedding gown. I couldn't really get into this one.
A Quiet Place in the Country (1968) - 5/10 - An artist travels out to the countryside to find inspiration. He becomes obsessed with an abandoned villa where a countess died during WWII. He rents the place, works at restoring the property, and starts to lose his mind. He seemed pretty weird to begin with. The soundtrack is good, but the lead character and the story just didn't work very well for me.
Red Sonja (1985) - 5/10 - Brigitte Nielsen stars as Sonja in the sword and sorcery comic book adaptation. The acting here is generally not very good and the Sonja here is not really that close to the Sonja from the comic. Arnold Schwarzenegger gets top billing as Con.. Kalidor and pops up now and then to rescue Sonja. The story is also kind of lackluster.
Bad Girls Go to Hell (1965) - 4/10 - A woman is raped and then kills the man who raped her. She flees and goes on the road, one step ahead of the police at times. The acting is pretty bad.
Test Tube Babies (1948) - 3/10 - This film is kind of weird. There is a couple that fall in love and get married. She walks around the house in skimpy outfits, even when visitors are over. He seems to work late all the time while she hosts parties for a bunch of drunks who like to make out, strip, and act boorishly. Eventually, they decide to have a baby and have no luck so they visit the doctor only to find out the husband is sterile. The doctor recommends artificial insemination. If the film had left out the earlier section, it would have been a fairly routine educational/informational film from that era.
The Undertaker and His Pals (1966) - 3/10 - An undertaker and a couple of restaurant owners ride motorcycles and kill a variety of people to get meat for the restaurant and customers for the undertaker. It's pretty bad.
Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Our Century (1983) - 9/10 - A large part of this film is devoted to the space program with shots of cosmonauts in training (centrifuges, etc.), in flight, in space, and so on. Some of the shots are majestic while others show disasters such as rockets exploding shortly after takeoff. We also get images from earlier eras with balloons, dirigibles, early experiments in flight, and much more. The shots tend to be pretty short and the score adds quite a bit to the film.
I bambini ci guardano / The Children are Watching Us (1943) - 8.5/10 - A small boy witnesses the marital troubles of his parents. The mother is seeing a man on the side who wants her to run off with him. The father is aware of this and is deeply hurt by it. The boy is caught in the middle and wants to keep his parents together, but had very little power to make it happen. The acting here is very good all around, including the small boy.
I Bury the Living (1958) - 8/10 - Robert Kraft is the newly appointed director of a local cemetery. He has his own business interests and doesn't really want the job, but it's a family tradition so he accepts the role. He accidentally places a couple of black pins (for the dead) in the cemetery map instead of white ones (for the living) and those people soon die. He is disturbed and searches for answers when it happens again. This is nicely acted and directed.
Mister Max (1937) - 8/10 - Gianni runs a newspaper stand in Rome and has finally saved up for a nice vacation. He encounters a couple of wealthy aristocratic women at the beginning of his journey and they invite him to travel with their group after mistaking him for a fellow aristocrat named Max. He keeps up the pretense, burning through a fair amount of his savings in the process, but also falls for the maid who travels with the women. It's a fun romantic comedy.
Stir of Echoes (1999) - 8/10 - Tom and Maggie's son has the sight and talks to a ghost that is in their home, though they don't realize it at first. After being hypnotized, Tom starts having visions and can see the ghost at times as well. He needs to figure out what the ghost wants him to do. This got lost in the mix a bit coming out a month after The Sixth Sense so I never saw it before. I enjoyed it and think it is a pretty good supernatural thriller.
The White Sheik (1952) - 8/10 - A newlywed couple checks into a hotel in Rome. The wife is enamored with a film star known as the White Sheik and since the film studio is only a 10 minute walk from the hotel, she goes there all wide eyed in search of the star. Things don't go as planned, though, and she ends up far from Rome where they are shooting the latest film while the husband is searching for his missing wife back in Rome.
Carriage to Vienna (1966) - 8/10 - As WWII is ending, a young Austrian soldier is trying to get back home to his village with his injured buddy while also staying out of the hands of the Russian Army. He forces a woman to carry them in her horse drawn cart. He tries to be friendly, but she's looking for an opportunity to get revenge for her husband who was recently killed by German soldiers. The cinematography, score, and acting are all very good.
The Consequences of Love (2004) - 8/10 - A middle aged man has lived in a Swiss hotel room for a decade. He seems dead emotionally and carries out his various routines without much change in expression or tone. Things start to change a bit when he starts interacting with a young woman who works at the hotel bar and we eventually learn his background. The use of music here was excellent and while Sorrentino can be somewhat hit or miss for me, but this time it worked.
Domenica d’agosto / Sunday in August (1950) - 7.5/10 - It's Sunday and lots of people head to the beach in Ostia. They travel by bike, car, and train in a mad rush. The film follows a few different characters whose stories intersect at times. There is some romance and comedy along the way in a pleasant film.
Dora Nelson (1939) - 7.5/10 - A temperamental actress named Dora Nelson walks off of a movie set one day and says that she will not be returning. She also leaves her husband to go off to Cannes with a handsome, but poor prince. The filmmakers happen to come across a young woman who is the perfect double for Dora Nelson and they convince her to pretend to be Nelson and take her spot in the film so that they can finish the picture. The double also ends up impersonating Nelson in her personal life as well. I've seen this type of story before, but it was fairly well done and entertaining.
Maddalena, Zero for Conduct (1940) - 7.5/10 - The film takes place at a private girls high school. Many of the girls seem kind of unruly, especially one Maddalena Lenci. Some of their antics were funny, but others were annoying. The film changed course when a letter written to a fictional man from the business correspondence class textbook is sent in the mail by one of the students and ends up in the hands of a real man (Vittorio De Sica) with that name. He travels from Vienna to Rome to find the author of the letter. The film becomes a romantic comedy at that point.
Bread and Tulips (2000) - 7.5/10 - Rosalba is a housewife who accidentally gets left behind while on a family vacation. She hitchhikes home, but ends up in Venice instead. She finds a place to stay, gets a job, and decides to take a real vacation from her unfaithful husband and her normal life. The husband eventually discovers that he is helpless around the home without her and enlists others to track her down and convince her to return. This is a fairly light romantic comedy which I enjoyed.
Rubber (2010) - 7/10 - A group of spectators gather in the desert to watch a film in the distance using binoculars in the metafictional tale. The film is about a tire that is able to get up and move on its own. The tire eventually starts killing people. The early part of the film and the ending were the most fun for me. The middle part dragged a bit, but wasn't bad.
The Blob (1988) - 7/10 - A blob creature invades a town, slowly at first, but gradually increasing its rate of growth. It consumes many people along the way. a few teenagers try to find out what is going on and how to defeat the blob. This was about on par with the original.
The Girl by the Lake (2007) - 7/10 - The body of a nude teenage girl is found by a lake. We follow a detective from a neighboring city as he investigates the death and interviews various suspects. It's a good film, but doesn't quite live up to the promise that I thought it held early in the film.
The New York Ripper (1982) - 7/10 - A New York City detective leads the search for a serial killer who is killing young women with knives and razors. The killer quacks like a duck and makes taunting phone calls to the detective. The film starts out pretty well and is a bit uneven after that, but is still fairly entertaining.
I due orfanelli / The Two Orphans (1947) - 6.5/10 - In the mid-1800s, two middle aged orphans work at an orphanage for girls. They discover their true parentage with one of them (Totò) being the kidnapped son of a count. This leads to a series of adventures that are mildly amusing at times. I did like the ending.
Sleepaway Camp (1983) - 6.5/10 - A girl named Angela loses her father and sibling in a boating accident when she is pretty young. Years later, she is a shy and introverted girl who goes to a summer camp with her cousin Ricky. There are bullies at the camp, but also a possible love interest. It isn't long before people start turning up dead. A lot of the acting in this wasn't very good, but I still enjoyed the film.
The Stuff (1985) - 6.5/10 - A strange white and creamy substance is discovered which tastes good and is soon marketed as a no-calorie alternative to ice cream. People become addicted to it and it is immensely popular, but a few people have their doubts about whether 'The Stuff' is actually harmless or not. Not great, but certainly watchable and funny at times.
Frankenhooker (1990) - 6.5/10 - After his fiancée dies in an accident, a medical school dropout is determined to bring her back to life using the experiments that he has performed and perfected over time. He was able to save her head, but needs to accumulate other parts to complete her body. I thought this was a slow started, but picked up about halfway through during the super drugs scene.
The White Ship / La nave Bianca - 6/10 - Roberto Rossellini's first feature is about the Italian navy during WWII. It's competently made, but not really all that interesting.
Puppet Master (1989) - 6/10 - An aging maker of puppets who has used a secret formula to bring life to those puppets is pursued by Nazi spies just before WWII. He hides the puppets, but a new puppet master emerges decades later. A group of psychics gather at the hotel where the puppets were hidden and the puppets kill a number of people in various ways. I liked the opening segment, but after that it got pretty boring. I didn't find most of the characters to be very interesting.
Maximum Overdrive (1986) - 6/10 - A passing comet appears to be the cause of various machines around the world coming to life and trying to harm people. Killer 18 wheelers are the big villains here as they keep people trapped inside of a truck stop. The film isn't very good really, but is still fun to watch.
The Keep (1983) - 5/10 - Nazis move into a mysterious looking medieval castle in Romania in 1941. There is a supernatural entity contained there which they inadvertently release. The Tangerine Dream soundtrack is good and some of the visuals are also good, but the story is kind of a mess. I wonder if the original 3.5 hour version would be appreciably better, but that hasn't seen the light of day.
Lisa and the Devil (1973) - 4.5/10 - Lisa is a tourist who wanders into a shop and is scared by one of the customers there (Telly Savales). While getting a ride to a hotel, the car breaks down and she ends up on an estate where that man runs the household. The story is a real mess and is pretty boring as well.
Mother of Tears (2007) - 4/10 - There were a few interesting bits here and there, but the story wasn't that good and the film seemed to just relish the gore for gore's sake at times. I didn't really like Suspiria or Inferno, but they were each better than this.
Street Trash (1987) - 3/10 - They got the title right. Lots of street bums, old liquor that turns them into goo, and grimy action. I didn't really enjoy it very much, though I can see why some people would get a trashy pleasure out of it.
Beyond the Darkness (1979) - 2/10 - An embalmer digs up the body of his recently deceased girlfriend, does some work on her, and sets her up in a bedroom in his home. This one really wasn't for me.
I bambini ci guardano / The Children are Watching Us (1943) - 8.5/10 - A small boy witnesses the marital troubles of his parents. The mother is seeing a man on the side who wants her to run off with him. The father is aware of this and is deeply hurt by it. The boy is caught in the middle and wants to keep his parents together, but had very little power to make it happen. The acting here is very good all around, including the small boy.
I Bury the Living (1958) - 8/10 - Robert Kraft is the newly appointed director of a local cemetery. He has his own business interests and doesn't really want the job, but it's a family tradition so he accepts the role. He accidentally places a couple of black pins (for the dead) in the cemetery map instead of white ones (for the living) and those people soon die. He is disturbed and searches for answers when it happens again. This is nicely acted and directed.
Mister Max (1937) - 8/10 - Gianni runs a newspaper stand in Rome and has finally saved up for a nice vacation. He encounters a couple of wealthy aristocratic women at the beginning of his journey and they invite him to travel with their group after mistaking him for a fellow aristocrat named Max. He keeps up the pretense, burning through a fair amount of his savings in the process, but also falls for the maid who travels with the women. It's a fun romantic comedy.
Stir of Echoes (1999) - 8/10 - Tom and Maggie's son has the sight and talks to a ghost that is in their home, though they don't realize it at first. After being hypnotized, Tom starts having visions and can see the ghost at times as well. He needs to figure out what the ghost wants him to do. This got lost in the mix a bit coming out a month after The Sixth Sense so I never saw it before. I enjoyed it and think it is a pretty good supernatural thriller.
The White Sheik (1952) - 8/10 - A newlywed couple checks into a hotel in Rome. The wife is enamored with a film star known as the White Sheik and since the film studio is only a 10 minute walk from the hotel, she goes there all wide eyed in search of the star. Things don't go as planned, though, and she ends up far from Rome where they are shooting the latest film while the husband is searching for his missing wife back in Rome.
Carriage to Vienna (1966) - 8/10 - As WWII is ending, a young Austrian soldier is trying to get back home to his village with his injured buddy while also staying out of the hands of the Russian Army. He forces a woman to carry them in her horse drawn cart. He tries to be friendly, but she's looking for an opportunity to get revenge for her husband who was recently killed by German soldiers. The cinematography, score, and acting are all very good.
The Consequences of Love (2004) - 8/10 - A middle aged man has lived in a Swiss hotel room for a decade. He seems dead emotionally and carries out his various routines without much change in expression or tone. Things start to change a bit when he starts interacting with a young woman who works at the hotel bar and we eventually learn his background. The use of music here was excellent and while Sorrentino can be somewhat hit or miss for me, but this time it worked.
Domenica d’agosto / Sunday in August (1950) - 7.5/10 - It's Sunday and lots of people head to the beach in Ostia. They travel by bike, car, and train in a mad rush. The film follows a few different characters whose stories intersect at times. There is some romance and comedy along the way in a pleasant film.
Dora Nelson (1939) - 7.5/10 - A temperamental actress named Dora Nelson walks off of a movie set one day and says that she will not be returning. She also leaves her husband to go off to Cannes with a handsome, but poor prince. The filmmakers happen to come across a young woman who is the perfect double for Dora Nelson and they convince her to pretend to be Nelson and take her spot in the film so that they can finish the picture. The double also ends up impersonating Nelson in her personal life as well. I've seen this type of story before, but it was fairly well done and entertaining.
Maddalena, Zero for Conduct (1940) - 7.5/10 - The film takes place at a private girls high school. Many of the girls seem kind of unruly, especially one Maddalena Lenci. Some of their antics were funny, but others were annoying. The film changed course when a letter written to a fictional man from the business correspondence class textbook is sent in the mail by one of the students and ends up in the hands of a real man (Vittorio De Sica) with that name. He travels from Vienna to Rome to find the author of the letter. The film becomes a romantic comedy at that point.
Bread and Tulips (2000) - 7.5/10 - Rosalba is a housewife who accidentally gets left behind while on a family vacation. She hitchhikes home, but ends up in Venice instead. She finds a place to stay, gets a job, and decides to take a real vacation from her unfaithful husband and her normal life. The husband eventually discovers that he is helpless around the home without her and enlists others to track her down and convince her to return. This is a fairly light romantic comedy which I enjoyed.
Rubber (2010) - 7/10 - A group of spectators gather in the desert to watch a film in the distance using binoculars in the metafictional tale. The film is about a tire that is able to get up and move on its own. The tire eventually starts killing people. The early part of the film and the ending were the most fun for me. The middle part dragged a bit, but wasn't bad.
The Blob (1988) - 7/10 - A blob creature invades a town, slowly at first, but gradually increasing its rate of growth. It consumes many people along the way. a few teenagers try to find out what is going on and how to defeat the blob. This was about on par with the original.
The Girl by the Lake (2007) - 7/10 - The body of a nude teenage girl is found by a lake. We follow a detective from a neighboring city as he investigates the death and interviews various suspects. It's a good film, but doesn't quite live up to the promise that I thought it held early in the film.
The New York Ripper (1982) - 7/10 - A New York City detective leads the search for a serial killer who is killing young women with knives and razors. The killer quacks like a duck and makes taunting phone calls to the detective. The film starts out pretty well and is a bit uneven after that, but is still fairly entertaining.
I due orfanelli / The Two Orphans (1947) - 6.5/10 - In the mid-1800s, two middle aged orphans work at an orphanage for girls. They discover their true parentage with one of them (Totò) being the kidnapped son of a count. This leads to a series of adventures that are mildly amusing at times. I did like the ending.
Sleepaway Camp (1983) - 6.5/10 - A girl named Angela loses her father and sibling in a boating accident when she is pretty young. Years later, she is a shy and introverted girl who goes to a summer camp with her cousin Ricky. There are bullies at the camp, but also a possible love interest. It isn't long before people start turning up dead. A lot of the acting in this wasn't very good, but I still enjoyed the film.
The Stuff (1985) - 6.5/10 - A strange white and creamy substance is discovered which tastes good and is soon marketed as a no-calorie alternative to ice cream. People become addicted to it and it is immensely popular, but a few people have their doubts about whether 'The Stuff' is actually harmless or not. Not great, but certainly watchable and funny at times.
Frankenhooker (1990) - 6.5/10 - After his fiancée dies in an accident, a medical school dropout is determined to bring her back to life using the experiments that he has performed and perfected over time. He was able to save her head, but needs to accumulate other parts to complete her body. I thought this was a slow started, but picked up about halfway through during the super drugs scene.
The White Ship / La nave Bianca - 6/10 - Roberto Rossellini's first feature is about the Italian navy during WWII. It's competently made, but not really all that interesting.
Puppet Master (1989) - 6/10 - An aging maker of puppets who has used a secret formula to bring life to those puppets is pursued by Nazi spies just before WWII. He hides the puppets, but a new puppet master emerges decades later. A group of psychics gather at the hotel where the puppets were hidden and the puppets kill a number of people in various ways. I liked the opening segment, but after that it got pretty boring. I didn't find most of the characters to be very interesting.
Maximum Overdrive (1986) - 6/10 - A passing comet appears to be the cause of various machines around the world coming to life and trying to harm people. Killer 18 wheelers are the big villains here as they keep people trapped inside of a truck stop. The film isn't very good really, but is still fun to watch.
The Keep (1983) - 5/10 - Nazis move into a mysterious looking medieval castle in Romania in 1941. There is a supernatural entity contained there which they inadvertently release. The Tangerine Dream soundtrack is good and some of the visuals are also good, but the story is kind of a mess. I wonder if the original 3.5 hour version would be appreciably better, but that hasn't seen the light of day.
Lisa and the Devil (1973) - 4.5/10 - Lisa is a tourist who wanders into a shop and is scared by one of the customers there (Telly Savales). While getting a ride to a hotel, the car breaks down and she ends up on an estate where that man runs the household. The story is a real mess and is pretty boring as well.
Mother of Tears (2007) - 4/10 - There were a few interesting bits here and there, but the story wasn't that good and the film seemed to just relish the gore for gore's sake at times. I didn't really like Suspiria or Inferno, but they were each better than this.
Street Trash (1987) - 3/10 - They got the title right. Lots of street bums, old liquor that turns them into goo, and grimy action. I didn't really enjoy it very much, though I can see why some people would get a trashy pleasure out of it.
Beyond the Darkness (1979) - 2/10 - An embalmer digs up the body of his recently deceased girlfriend, does some work on her, and sets her up in a bedroom in his home. This one really wasn't for me.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese, 2023) 6/10
We've all heard of a "director's cut". Well I wish Scorsese had cut this film by at least an hour because at 3 hours and 26 minutes it just goes on and on and on. Otherwise this epic film is a handsome production with a very compelling true story, based on a book by David Grann, and centering on a series of Oklahoma murders in the Osage Nation during the 1920s, committed after oil was discovered on tribal land. The plot revolves around three characters - a rich white rancher (Robert De Niro) who poses as a friendly benefactor to the Osage people but secretly schemes to murder them and steal their land and money. When his somewhat dim-witted nephew (Leonardo DiCaprio) returns from the Great War his uncle sets his plan into motion by suggesting he marry an Indian (Lily Gladstone) whose family owns great wealth. Gradually her family is eliminated one by one (her sisters and mother) with the hope that after his wife is also dead - she is being slowly poisoned - he will inherit her family's wealth which the Uncle also hopes to benefit from. However, before she can succumb to the poison she goes to Washington and pleads with President Calvin Coolidge for help. This brings the newly formed FBI down to Oklahoma to investigate the spate of killings. An important film that exposes the United States' relationship with Indigenous peoples. The entire cast is superb with DiCaprio, Gladstone and De Niro especially memorable. Unfortunately the film's length proves to be the real killer along with its clinical view of the murders allowing no sympathy for the victims nor any horror towards the villains' actions. A disappointment from Scorsese.
The FBI Story (Mervyn LeRoy, 1959) 3/10
Sanitized history of the FBI - how it started and what it eventually became - as seen through the eyes of one agent (James Stewart). This overtly propaganda piece was heavily controlled off the movie set by J. Edgar Hoover - the first Director of the Bureau - who approved every frame of the film and even insisted on re-shooting several scenes he didn't think portrayed the FBI in an appropriate light. The subject of Martin Scorsese's new film releasing today, "Killers of the Flower Moon", is about a series of Oklahoma murders in the Osage Nation during the 1920s, which were committed after oil was discovered on tribal land. This notorious incident was first shown in this film with the FBI tackling a series of different cases through the decades with the Stewart character being sent down South to investigate the Ku Klux Klan & in Oklahoma to look in on the series of murders of Native Americans who had oil-rich mineral land and rights, to the involvement in the capture and/or deaths of numerous infamous mobsters of the day including John Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd, Baby Face Nelson, and Machine Gun Kelly, the round up of enemy aliens (Germans, Japanese, Italians) who were notoriously contained in internment camps in the United States during WWII, capturing Nazi spies, the communist hysteria during the Cold War era and the tracking down of a terrorist who bombs an airliner. The screenplay also shows the agent's private life - his courtship and marriage to the local librarian (Vera Miles), his three kids, his son's enlistment during the War - all of which are presented in a squeaky clean aw-shucks manner in typical 1950s style with the American family shown without any blemish as in an advertisement for cosy Eisenhower-era domesticity. Stewart was the personification of the perfect husband and father and was personally chosen by Hoover who even had a hand in the film's casting. It's all terribly bland and very quickly becomes cumbersome with its long running time and especially thanks to Stewart's narration which drones on and on. And why was lovely Vera Miles never used properly by any director (even Hitchvock) during the 1950s and 1960s?
Big House, U.S.A. (Howard W. Koch, 1955) 8/10
Hard-hitting film is actually a police procedural that links two different plots involving a bunch of extremely nasty characters. An asthmatic boy is kidnapped for ransom but accidently dies. The kidnapper (Ralph Meeker) dumps his body in a gorge and hides the ransom money before getting caught and imprisoned. His jail mates - a motley group of hardened criminals (Broderick Crawford, Lon Chaney Jr., Charles Bronson, William Talman) - plan to kidnap him, escape from prison and go after the loot. Things don't quite go according to plan as double crosses result in murder. Despite the almost languorous pace with its police procedural and its accompanying narration giving it an atmosphere of a documentary, the film's vicious undertone makes it a tense and harrowing experience. Also worth noting is Felicia Farr in her film debut as a nurse who in her quiet way turns out to be equally loathsome as the men.
The Dirty Game / La guerre secrète (Christian-Jaque, Carlo Lizzani & Terence Young, 1965) 5/10
One of those european portmanteau films with three short spy stories - the plots are a mixture of James Bond hijinks and John le Carré downbeat realism. Life for a spy is not all booze, women and sex. The stories are linked by a narrator - an American General (Robert Ryan) who is the contact person a deep cover CIA agent (Henry Fonda) is looking for after escaping East Berlin. He is relentlessly pursued by double agents (Peter van Eyck, Klaus Kinski) and manages to leave a clue before being killed by a gun spewing a deadly gas. The plot then segues to Djibouti where another spy (Bourvil - normally a comic but here in full-on action mode) is assigned to a case where he is shot at, tries to dally with a sexy receptionist (Annie Girardot who gets to do a nude scene in silhouette) who seems to not be who she claims to be, and tangles with a double agent (Robert Hossein) while exposing two nuclear powered submarines. The third plot involves a suave double agent (Vittorio Gassman) who kidnaps a scientist. The Bond films brought in a completely new language to the spy genre with weird gadgets that aide the agent ("Q" and his technological gadgets which other films also copied) along with sexy women and suave agents. Here we get a couple of sexy dames (one wearing the exact same revealing black bathing suit as Claudine Auger in "Thunderball"), the gadgets but the spies are far from suave - they look like the ordinary man on the street which is how it is in reality and which le Carré brought to life in his books.
Cry Vengeance (Mark Stevens, 1954) 7/10
Brutal noir is relentlessly violent with it's lead character - a former cop (Mark Stevens) out of prison for a crime he did not commit - setting the tone of the film with his revenge fueled desire to kill the man who put a bomb in his car that killed his wife and daughter and badly scarred half his face. He chases the wrong man - a former gangster hiding under an alias in small town Alaska with his young daughter but manages to find brief respite after befriending a sympathetic tavern owner (Martha Hyer). Meanwhile he is pursued by the man who is the cause of all his misery - a deadly hitman (Skip Homeier) - who arrives looking for blood and it is only a matter of time before there will be a deadly confrontation between the two. A noir without shadows as Stevens shot the film on location in Alaska during summer with long daylight hours. Atmospheric film with a strong central performance, unique setting and a fast pace puts it a notch or two above the typical B-noir.
Between Midnight and Dawn (Gordon Douglas, 1950) 7/10
Two buddy cops - one romantic (Mark Stevens) and the other pragmatic (Edmond O'Brien) - work the night shift. Both fall in love with their office despatcher (Gale Storm) and she ends up engaged to the former. Stark noir has both involved with the arrest of a notorious gangster which eventually leads to revenge and murder. Hardboiled dialogue and superb performances make this B-noir an excellent crime melodrama.
The Dark Corner (Henry Hathaway, 1946) 8/10
A private investigator (Mark Stevens), just out of prison for a crime he did not commit, finds himself being tailed by a sinister thug (William Bendix). He thinks it's at the behest of his former partner (Kurt Kreuger) who had double crossed him and is now having an affair with the chic wife (Cathy Downs) of a rich art dealer (Clifton Webb). Top billed Lucille Ball plays his secretary who is in love with him and provides help when he is framed for a murder. Superbly paced noir came in the wake of the much superior Laura (1944) with Webb here playing a similar supercilious character obsessed by yet another woman. Ball's non-stop sardonic banter with Stevens is amusing although she is mostly wasted as the love interest. Events have Stevens in a constant spin backed in a dark corner as he tries to figure out who is trying to frame him a second time. Superbly shot by Joseph MacDonald.
Poker Face (Russell Crowe, 2022) 5/10
Oh to be so rich as the poker-addicted character, played by Russell Crowe here, to leave in your will the amounts he does to his four childhood buddies, his daughter, and to his soon-to-be ex-wife who he just found out happens to be f**king one of his friends. Rather generous of him to be so nice to the wife though. A tech billionaire and professional gambler (Russell Crowe) gathers his best friends - Liam Hemsworth & RZA play two who actually have something to do - for a night of high-stakes poker. However, the night does not go as planned - the friends discover that their drinks have been poisoned after which they confess certain skeletons in their closet, their host reveals some alarming news about himself, the house is invaded by three robbers who plan to steal his art collection (which includes a $200 million Cézanne), and his wife and daughter arrive unexpectedly and are held hostage. The word "poker" in the title and the friends' game of choice is just a red herring as the plot turns instead into a heist with psychological gamesmanship with rather overbaked reveals and a cartoonish villain. Russell goes a bit overboard with his flashy directing style - all jump cuts with voiceovers and a tripy flashback to the Australian outback with a sage old shaman (Jack Thompson). Crowe, who directed and wrote the screenplay, is poker-faced throughout as the rather mundane beats of this thriller play out.
The Last Voyage of the Demeter (André Øvredal, 2023) 6/10
An adaptation of "The Captain's Log", a chapter from the 1897 novel Dracula by Bram Stoker, about a treacherous ocean voyage from Transylvania to London. With Dracula on board its only a matter of time before the obvious happens. This horror film is a combo of Dracula and Alien - as each member of the crew gets picked off one-by-one in vicious style. The concept is hardly original but manages to go through the motions with some eerie moments along with intense savagery.
Rogue (Greg McLean, 2007) 6/10
The Australian outback. A tour guide (Radha Mitchell) leads a boatfull of tourists on a crocodile infested nature cruise. Yet another "Jaws" ripoff has enough moments of suspense as the boat is struck by a gigantic crocodile. The occupants find themselves on a mud island in the middle of the river which at high tide threatens to get submerged. The thrill is seeing them attempt to swim across to dry land on either side of the island with the giant reptile waiting to attack. Formulaic but solid action-horror film.
One Ranger (Jesse V. Johnson, 2023) 5/10
Texas ranger (Thomas Jane) is requested by MI6 to come capture an Irish terrorist in London. Action packed story has the hero take constant beatings at the hands of a Russian bodyguard as he drawls his way around London. A fish out of water in the large city it takes a stint back in the Texan outback for him to regain his poise and aim. Leading man churns out B films of which this one was just about bearable.
Dolly Kitty Aur Woh Chamakte Sitare (Alankrita Shrivastava, 2020) 7/10
Character study of two cousins. Dolly (Konkona Sen Sharma) is in a sexually unsatisfactory marriage with two sons - her younger one is beginning to assert a gender identity that is more feminine than masculine and likes to cross dress. Kaajal (Bhumi Pednekar) is her live-in cousin who has to constantly stave off sexual advances from her brother-in-law. She moves out to a hostel and takes up a job with a paid dating app as a phone sex provider to lonely men under the name of "Kitty". She starts an affair with a phone client (Vikrant Massey), loses her virginity to him, falls in love but discovers he is married. Meanwhile Dolly, who fears she is frigid, finds sexual satisfaction with a delivery boy. Bittersweet slice of life is explored through this insightful screenplay as it delves into the areas of sex and desire, its effect on women and how they cope with it through their relationship with men. Both women are flawed - and hence real - as they navigate through life's problems and gradually open up to each other as they frankly discuss their issues which allow them to grow and reach a state of independence.
Jab We Met (Imtiaz Ali, 2007) 8/10
Imtiaz Ali brings a fresh perspective to the proverbial Bollywood romance. Nobody here dances around trees to express their love. The director applies what would become his trademark filmmaking style, which includes conversational romance and travel. Suicidal businessman Aditya (Shahid Kapoor) runs into feisty chatterbox Geet (Kareena Kapoor) on a train. She soon has him out of his depressed stupor while chattering nine to the dozen as they go on a road trip that has her twice missing the train connection, being chased by lecherous men, taking a wild taxi ride and escaping the police from a sleazy hotel where she is mistaken for a call girl. She is returning home to her family who have arranged her marriage. However, she is planning to elope with her boyfriend, who is not liked by her family due to religious differences, and in true madcap style wants Aditya to marry her cousin. As her wedding draws closer she pretends to elope with Aditya in order to fool her family. As he drops her off at her destination he realizes he loves her but returns to his family business not knowing that in the meantime her boyfriend has jilted her leaving her devastated. Will they both meet again and resolve their complicated relationship? The perceptive screenplay, Pritam's lovely song score and Kareena Kapoor's spectacular performance (for which she won the Filmfare award) created boxoffice magic. The two stars, who were in a long term relationship at the time but which broke down in the midst of the shoot, have sizzling chemistry on screen. Shahid Kapoor is equally good even though his character mainly reacts to the madcap shenanigans of Geet which Kareena Kapoor superbly enacts with nary a moment of over-acting. It is obvious Imtiaz Ali reigns her in and she creates a lovable loud, often annoying, character which is now considered to be iconic.
We've all heard of a "director's cut". Well I wish Scorsese had cut this film by at least an hour because at 3 hours and 26 minutes it just goes on and on and on. Otherwise this epic film is a handsome production with a very compelling true story, based on a book by David Grann, and centering on a series of Oklahoma murders in the Osage Nation during the 1920s, committed after oil was discovered on tribal land. The plot revolves around three characters - a rich white rancher (Robert De Niro) who poses as a friendly benefactor to the Osage people but secretly schemes to murder them and steal their land and money. When his somewhat dim-witted nephew (Leonardo DiCaprio) returns from the Great War his uncle sets his plan into motion by suggesting he marry an Indian (Lily Gladstone) whose family owns great wealth. Gradually her family is eliminated one by one (her sisters and mother) with the hope that after his wife is also dead - she is being slowly poisoned - he will inherit her family's wealth which the Uncle also hopes to benefit from. However, before she can succumb to the poison she goes to Washington and pleads with President Calvin Coolidge for help. This brings the newly formed FBI down to Oklahoma to investigate the spate of killings. An important film that exposes the United States' relationship with Indigenous peoples. The entire cast is superb with DiCaprio, Gladstone and De Niro especially memorable. Unfortunately the film's length proves to be the real killer along with its clinical view of the murders allowing no sympathy for the victims nor any horror towards the villains' actions. A disappointment from Scorsese.
The FBI Story (Mervyn LeRoy, 1959) 3/10
Sanitized history of the FBI - how it started and what it eventually became - as seen through the eyes of one agent (James Stewart). This overtly propaganda piece was heavily controlled off the movie set by J. Edgar Hoover - the first Director of the Bureau - who approved every frame of the film and even insisted on re-shooting several scenes he didn't think portrayed the FBI in an appropriate light. The subject of Martin Scorsese's new film releasing today, "Killers of the Flower Moon", is about a series of Oklahoma murders in the Osage Nation during the 1920s, which were committed after oil was discovered on tribal land. This notorious incident was first shown in this film with the FBI tackling a series of different cases through the decades with the Stewart character being sent down South to investigate the Ku Klux Klan & in Oklahoma to look in on the series of murders of Native Americans who had oil-rich mineral land and rights, to the involvement in the capture and/or deaths of numerous infamous mobsters of the day including John Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd, Baby Face Nelson, and Machine Gun Kelly, the round up of enemy aliens (Germans, Japanese, Italians) who were notoriously contained in internment camps in the United States during WWII, capturing Nazi spies, the communist hysteria during the Cold War era and the tracking down of a terrorist who bombs an airliner. The screenplay also shows the agent's private life - his courtship and marriage to the local librarian (Vera Miles), his three kids, his son's enlistment during the War - all of which are presented in a squeaky clean aw-shucks manner in typical 1950s style with the American family shown without any blemish as in an advertisement for cosy Eisenhower-era domesticity. Stewart was the personification of the perfect husband and father and was personally chosen by Hoover who even had a hand in the film's casting. It's all terribly bland and very quickly becomes cumbersome with its long running time and especially thanks to Stewart's narration which drones on and on. And why was lovely Vera Miles never used properly by any director (even Hitchvock) during the 1950s and 1960s?
Big House, U.S.A. (Howard W. Koch, 1955) 8/10
Hard-hitting film is actually a police procedural that links two different plots involving a bunch of extremely nasty characters. An asthmatic boy is kidnapped for ransom but accidently dies. The kidnapper (Ralph Meeker) dumps his body in a gorge and hides the ransom money before getting caught and imprisoned. His jail mates - a motley group of hardened criminals (Broderick Crawford, Lon Chaney Jr., Charles Bronson, William Talman) - plan to kidnap him, escape from prison and go after the loot. Things don't quite go according to plan as double crosses result in murder. Despite the almost languorous pace with its police procedural and its accompanying narration giving it an atmosphere of a documentary, the film's vicious undertone makes it a tense and harrowing experience. Also worth noting is Felicia Farr in her film debut as a nurse who in her quiet way turns out to be equally loathsome as the men.
The Dirty Game / La guerre secrète (Christian-Jaque, Carlo Lizzani & Terence Young, 1965) 5/10
One of those european portmanteau films with three short spy stories - the plots are a mixture of James Bond hijinks and John le Carré downbeat realism. Life for a spy is not all booze, women and sex. The stories are linked by a narrator - an American General (Robert Ryan) who is the contact person a deep cover CIA agent (Henry Fonda) is looking for after escaping East Berlin. He is relentlessly pursued by double agents (Peter van Eyck, Klaus Kinski) and manages to leave a clue before being killed by a gun spewing a deadly gas. The plot then segues to Djibouti where another spy (Bourvil - normally a comic but here in full-on action mode) is assigned to a case where he is shot at, tries to dally with a sexy receptionist (Annie Girardot who gets to do a nude scene in silhouette) who seems to not be who she claims to be, and tangles with a double agent (Robert Hossein) while exposing two nuclear powered submarines. The third plot involves a suave double agent (Vittorio Gassman) who kidnaps a scientist. The Bond films brought in a completely new language to the spy genre with weird gadgets that aide the agent ("Q" and his technological gadgets which other films also copied) along with sexy women and suave agents. Here we get a couple of sexy dames (one wearing the exact same revealing black bathing suit as Claudine Auger in "Thunderball"), the gadgets but the spies are far from suave - they look like the ordinary man on the street which is how it is in reality and which le Carré brought to life in his books.
Cry Vengeance (Mark Stevens, 1954) 7/10
Brutal noir is relentlessly violent with it's lead character - a former cop (Mark Stevens) out of prison for a crime he did not commit - setting the tone of the film with his revenge fueled desire to kill the man who put a bomb in his car that killed his wife and daughter and badly scarred half his face. He chases the wrong man - a former gangster hiding under an alias in small town Alaska with his young daughter but manages to find brief respite after befriending a sympathetic tavern owner (Martha Hyer). Meanwhile he is pursued by the man who is the cause of all his misery - a deadly hitman (Skip Homeier) - who arrives looking for blood and it is only a matter of time before there will be a deadly confrontation between the two. A noir without shadows as Stevens shot the film on location in Alaska during summer with long daylight hours. Atmospheric film with a strong central performance, unique setting and a fast pace puts it a notch or two above the typical B-noir.
Between Midnight and Dawn (Gordon Douglas, 1950) 7/10
Two buddy cops - one romantic (Mark Stevens) and the other pragmatic (Edmond O'Brien) - work the night shift. Both fall in love with their office despatcher (Gale Storm) and she ends up engaged to the former. Stark noir has both involved with the arrest of a notorious gangster which eventually leads to revenge and murder. Hardboiled dialogue and superb performances make this B-noir an excellent crime melodrama.
The Dark Corner (Henry Hathaway, 1946) 8/10
A private investigator (Mark Stevens), just out of prison for a crime he did not commit, finds himself being tailed by a sinister thug (William Bendix). He thinks it's at the behest of his former partner (Kurt Kreuger) who had double crossed him and is now having an affair with the chic wife (Cathy Downs) of a rich art dealer (Clifton Webb). Top billed Lucille Ball plays his secretary who is in love with him and provides help when he is framed for a murder. Superbly paced noir came in the wake of the much superior Laura (1944) with Webb here playing a similar supercilious character obsessed by yet another woman. Ball's non-stop sardonic banter with Stevens is amusing although she is mostly wasted as the love interest. Events have Stevens in a constant spin backed in a dark corner as he tries to figure out who is trying to frame him a second time. Superbly shot by Joseph MacDonald.
Poker Face (Russell Crowe, 2022) 5/10
Oh to be so rich as the poker-addicted character, played by Russell Crowe here, to leave in your will the amounts he does to his four childhood buddies, his daughter, and to his soon-to-be ex-wife who he just found out happens to be f**king one of his friends. Rather generous of him to be so nice to the wife though. A tech billionaire and professional gambler (Russell Crowe) gathers his best friends - Liam Hemsworth & RZA play two who actually have something to do - for a night of high-stakes poker. However, the night does not go as planned - the friends discover that their drinks have been poisoned after which they confess certain skeletons in their closet, their host reveals some alarming news about himself, the house is invaded by three robbers who plan to steal his art collection (which includes a $200 million Cézanne), and his wife and daughter arrive unexpectedly and are held hostage. The word "poker" in the title and the friends' game of choice is just a red herring as the plot turns instead into a heist with psychological gamesmanship with rather overbaked reveals and a cartoonish villain. Russell goes a bit overboard with his flashy directing style - all jump cuts with voiceovers and a tripy flashback to the Australian outback with a sage old shaman (Jack Thompson). Crowe, who directed and wrote the screenplay, is poker-faced throughout as the rather mundane beats of this thriller play out.
The Last Voyage of the Demeter (André Øvredal, 2023) 6/10
An adaptation of "The Captain's Log", a chapter from the 1897 novel Dracula by Bram Stoker, about a treacherous ocean voyage from Transylvania to London. With Dracula on board its only a matter of time before the obvious happens. This horror film is a combo of Dracula and Alien - as each member of the crew gets picked off one-by-one in vicious style. The concept is hardly original but manages to go through the motions with some eerie moments along with intense savagery.
Rogue (Greg McLean, 2007) 6/10
The Australian outback. A tour guide (Radha Mitchell) leads a boatfull of tourists on a crocodile infested nature cruise. Yet another "Jaws" ripoff has enough moments of suspense as the boat is struck by a gigantic crocodile. The occupants find themselves on a mud island in the middle of the river which at high tide threatens to get submerged. The thrill is seeing them attempt to swim across to dry land on either side of the island with the giant reptile waiting to attack. Formulaic but solid action-horror film.
One Ranger (Jesse V. Johnson, 2023) 5/10
Texas ranger (Thomas Jane) is requested by MI6 to come capture an Irish terrorist in London. Action packed story has the hero take constant beatings at the hands of a Russian bodyguard as he drawls his way around London. A fish out of water in the large city it takes a stint back in the Texan outback for him to regain his poise and aim. Leading man churns out B films of which this one was just about bearable.
Dolly Kitty Aur Woh Chamakte Sitare (Alankrita Shrivastava, 2020) 7/10
Character study of two cousins. Dolly (Konkona Sen Sharma) is in a sexually unsatisfactory marriage with two sons - her younger one is beginning to assert a gender identity that is more feminine than masculine and likes to cross dress. Kaajal (Bhumi Pednekar) is her live-in cousin who has to constantly stave off sexual advances from her brother-in-law. She moves out to a hostel and takes up a job with a paid dating app as a phone sex provider to lonely men under the name of "Kitty". She starts an affair with a phone client (Vikrant Massey), loses her virginity to him, falls in love but discovers he is married. Meanwhile Dolly, who fears she is frigid, finds sexual satisfaction with a delivery boy. Bittersweet slice of life is explored through this insightful screenplay as it delves into the areas of sex and desire, its effect on women and how they cope with it through their relationship with men. Both women are flawed - and hence real - as they navigate through life's problems and gradually open up to each other as they frankly discuss their issues which allow them to grow and reach a state of independence.
Jab We Met (Imtiaz Ali, 2007) 8/10
Imtiaz Ali brings a fresh perspective to the proverbial Bollywood romance. Nobody here dances around trees to express their love. The director applies what would become his trademark filmmaking style, which includes conversational romance and travel. Suicidal businessman Aditya (Shahid Kapoor) runs into feisty chatterbox Geet (Kareena Kapoor) on a train. She soon has him out of his depressed stupor while chattering nine to the dozen as they go on a road trip that has her twice missing the train connection, being chased by lecherous men, taking a wild taxi ride and escaping the police from a sleazy hotel where she is mistaken for a call girl. She is returning home to her family who have arranged her marriage. However, she is planning to elope with her boyfriend, who is not liked by her family due to religious differences, and in true madcap style wants Aditya to marry her cousin. As her wedding draws closer she pretends to elope with Aditya in order to fool her family. As he drops her off at her destination he realizes he loves her but returns to his family business not knowing that in the meantime her boyfriend has jilted her leaving her devastated. Will they both meet again and resolve their complicated relationship? The perceptive screenplay, Pritam's lovely song score and Kareena Kapoor's spectacular performance (for which she won the Filmfare award) created boxoffice magic. The two stars, who were in a long term relationship at the time but which broke down in the midst of the shoot, have sizzling chemistry on screen. Shahid Kapoor is equally good even though his character mainly reacts to the madcap shenanigans of Geet which Kareena Kapoor superbly enacts with nary a moment of over-acting. It is obvious Imtiaz Ali reigns her in and she creates a lovable loud, often annoying, character which is now considered to be iconic.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
The Exorcist: Believer (David Gordon Green, 2023) 6/10
This is really not a sequel to "The Exorcist" even though certain images are repeated - the opening shot of two dogs fighting in Haiti is a replica of a scene set in Iraq in the original film with similar dogs. Also during certain intense moments subliminal shots of the demon get flashed. Otherwise the first half of the film is a fairly gripping story about the demonic possession of two teenage girls - one from an agnostic black household and the other from an ultra religious white household. The film's leisurely opening moments set in Haiti are the best as a pregnant couple enjoy their holiday only to fall prey to a devastating earthquake. The two girls disappear after school one day and are found three days later in a catatonic state. The parents, doctors and cops are at first baffled, and then horrified when both girls show signs of a violent possession. Ellen Burstyn gets trotted out at age 91 playing Chris MacNeil again - the mother of the young girl who was possessed in the original film - as an actress turned writer and expert on devil possession. The actress is not served well by the devil as this time she does not get away with a black eye like before but gets her eyeball savagely gouged out by a crucifix which in turn thankfully does not enter into the nether regions of either of the young girls. Once the exorcism begins - Ann Dowd as a neighbour and former nun (now nurse) who had renounced her vows (and had an abortion to boot) does the honours of what killed Max von Sydow and Jason Miller in the first film. A priest who attempts the exorcism finds his neck snapped and twisted (like Jack MacGowran in the original). The usual hysterical shenanigans - vomit, blood, vicious attacks, levitation and a stream of expletives - is the order of the day once the exorcism begins. The film ends with a surprise cameo appearance. The problem with the franchise is that there have been far too many similar films since the classic original with nothing new to add as they regurgitate the same shock elements over and over again. Burstyn's return does not really add anything to the film except a weak attempt to link it to the original. The actress only did the film for a huge paycheck which she donated as a scholarship for acting students. Stick to the original as that still packs a punch.
The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial (William Friedkin, 2023) 7/10
Herman Wouk's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1952 novel, "The Caine Mutiny", was made into an Oscar nominated film in 1954 with Humphrey Bogart. In 1953 Wouk re-wrote the story as a two-act play which was filmed for tv in 1955 with Lloyd Nolan and in 1988 by Robert Altman with Brad Davis. This version, Friedkin's last film, sticks to the two-act formula concentrating strictly inside the courtroom where you hear the characters speak about a mutiny that took place on a ship. The accused is the first officer (Jake Lacy) who took over the ship when he found the Captain (Keifer Sutherland) unable to respond coherently while the ship was being badly tossed during a storm. The skeptical lawyer for the defense (Jason Clarke) reluctantly takes on the case which the defendent vehemently denies on the stand. The play's two flamboyant characters are superbly played by a dogged Clarke and in an unusual tone by Sutherland who plays his two scenes very stiffly, at first with arrogance and indignation while scoffing at all the accusations thrown at him, and then with a snarl of outrage as the interrogation begins to close in. The mutiny's setting here has been shifted from the Pacific War of the original to the Gulf War, while a couple of the original all-male characters of the play are here played by two black actresses in order to tick off the diversity angle. This tightly paced court-room drama is a return to Friedkin's roots where he started his career directing live television during the medium's golden era.
The Equalizer 3 (Antoine Fuqua, 2023) 7/10
Denzel and Fuqua here collaborate on their fifth film and third in this franchise, which apparently concludes the vigilante actions of retired U.S. Marine and DIA officer Robert McCall. The setting of this film - Naples and a small village on the Amalfi coast - makes this episode seem fresh as the protagonist goes through his usual trope of coming to the rescue of the weak, scared and downtrodden. McCall (Denzel Washington), after getting shot in the back in Sicily while recouping money stolen in a cyber-heist, finds himself recuperating at the home of a village doctor on the Amalfi coast. While getting his strength back he notices members of the Camorra manhandling the local inhabitants and police. He tips off a rookie CIA agent (Dakota Fanning) who arrives to investigate dead bodies in Sicily, the local drug trade and a series of bombings blamed on terrorists. Meanwhile McCall goes into violent action as he stalks and kills off the Camorra hoods while aiming to reach their head. Denzel is as usual a kick-ass killing machine as he uses increasingly violent means to clean the town of its undesirable elements. Dakota Fanning is underused but the film ends on a note where it seems McCall is passing his baton onto the young agent. The formulaic story is offset by well staged action sequences, an exotic location, the continuing charisma of Denzel, who at 69 hasn't lost an iota of charm, and an eerie musical score by Marcelo Zarvos.
Night Editor (Henry Levin, 1946) 7/10
A cop (William Gargan) and his married socialite mistress (Janis Carter) witness a man murdering a young woman but decide not to report it in order to hide their own relationship since both are married. When the cop is assigned to investigate the murder his relationship with his mistress begins to unravel and guilt begins to eat at him whenever he is around his imploring wife and son. Striking B-noir has an outstanding performance by Janis Carter as the bitchy, twisted mistress who is quite willing to start an affair with the murderer. In true noir fashion sex and violence proves to be the downfall for the sap who falls for the femme fatale. Superbly shot by Burnett Guffey & Philip Tannura.
This is really not a sequel to "The Exorcist" even though certain images are repeated - the opening shot of two dogs fighting in Haiti is a replica of a scene set in Iraq in the original film with similar dogs. Also during certain intense moments subliminal shots of the demon get flashed. Otherwise the first half of the film is a fairly gripping story about the demonic possession of two teenage girls - one from an agnostic black household and the other from an ultra religious white household. The film's leisurely opening moments set in Haiti are the best as a pregnant couple enjoy their holiday only to fall prey to a devastating earthquake. The two girls disappear after school one day and are found three days later in a catatonic state. The parents, doctors and cops are at first baffled, and then horrified when both girls show signs of a violent possession. Ellen Burstyn gets trotted out at age 91 playing Chris MacNeil again - the mother of the young girl who was possessed in the original film - as an actress turned writer and expert on devil possession. The actress is not served well by the devil as this time she does not get away with a black eye like before but gets her eyeball savagely gouged out by a crucifix which in turn thankfully does not enter into the nether regions of either of the young girls. Once the exorcism begins - Ann Dowd as a neighbour and former nun (now nurse) who had renounced her vows (and had an abortion to boot) does the honours of what killed Max von Sydow and Jason Miller in the first film. A priest who attempts the exorcism finds his neck snapped and twisted (like Jack MacGowran in the original). The usual hysterical shenanigans - vomit, blood, vicious attacks, levitation and a stream of expletives - is the order of the day once the exorcism begins. The film ends with a surprise cameo appearance. The problem with the franchise is that there have been far too many similar films since the classic original with nothing new to add as they regurgitate the same shock elements over and over again. Burstyn's return does not really add anything to the film except a weak attempt to link it to the original. The actress only did the film for a huge paycheck which she donated as a scholarship for acting students. Stick to the original as that still packs a punch.
The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial (William Friedkin, 2023) 7/10
Herman Wouk's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1952 novel, "The Caine Mutiny", was made into an Oscar nominated film in 1954 with Humphrey Bogart. In 1953 Wouk re-wrote the story as a two-act play which was filmed for tv in 1955 with Lloyd Nolan and in 1988 by Robert Altman with Brad Davis. This version, Friedkin's last film, sticks to the two-act formula concentrating strictly inside the courtroom where you hear the characters speak about a mutiny that took place on a ship. The accused is the first officer (Jake Lacy) who took over the ship when he found the Captain (Keifer Sutherland) unable to respond coherently while the ship was being badly tossed during a storm. The skeptical lawyer for the defense (Jason Clarke) reluctantly takes on the case which the defendent vehemently denies on the stand. The play's two flamboyant characters are superbly played by a dogged Clarke and in an unusual tone by Sutherland who plays his two scenes very stiffly, at first with arrogance and indignation while scoffing at all the accusations thrown at him, and then with a snarl of outrage as the interrogation begins to close in. The mutiny's setting here has been shifted from the Pacific War of the original to the Gulf War, while a couple of the original all-male characters of the play are here played by two black actresses in order to tick off the diversity angle. This tightly paced court-room drama is a return to Friedkin's roots where he started his career directing live television during the medium's golden era.
The Equalizer 3 (Antoine Fuqua, 2023) 7/10
Denzel and Fuqua here collaborate on their fifth film and third in this franchise, which apparently concludes the vigilante actions of retired U.S. Marine and DIA officer Robert McCall. The setting of this film - Naples and a small village on the Amalfi coast - makes this episode seem fresh as the protagonist goes through his usual trope of coming to the rescue of the weak, scared and downtrodden. McCall (Denzel Washington), after getting shot in the back in Sicily while recouping money stolen in a cyber-heist, finds himself recuperating at the home of a village doctor on the Amalfi coast. While getting his strength back he notices members of the Camorra manhandling the local inhabitants and police. He tips off a rookie CIA agent (Dakota Fanning) who arrives to investigate dead bodies in Sicily, the local drug trade and a series of bombings blamed on terrorists. Meanwhile McCall goes into violent action as he stalks and kills off the Camorra hoods while aiming to reach their head. Denzel is as usual a kick-ass killing machine as he uses increasingly violent means to clean the town of its undesirable elements. Dakota Fanning is underused but the film ends on a note where it seems McCall is passing his baton onto the young agent. The formulaic story is offset by well staged action sequences, an exotic location, the continuing charisma of Denzel, who at 69 hasn't lost an iota of charm, and an eerie musical score by Marcelo Zarvos.
Night Editor (Henry Levin, 1946) 7/10
A cop (William Gargan) and his married socialite mistress (Janis Carter) witness a man murdering a young woman but decide not to report it in order to hide their own relationship since both are married. When the cop is assigned to investigate the murder his relationship with his mistress begins to unravel and guilt begins to eat at him whenever he is around his imploring wife and son. Striking B-noir has an outstanding performance by Janis Carter as the bitchy, twisted mistress who is quite willing to start an affair with the murderer. In true noir fashion sex and violence proves to be the downfall for the sap who falls for the femme fatale. Superbly shot by Burnett Guffey & Philip Tannura.
-
Big Magilla
- Site Admin
- Posts: 19336
- Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 3:22 pm
- Location: Jersey Shore
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
It's not really about hedge funds. It could have been about any office in which a romantically involved couple is torn apart by the advancement of one over the other. In this case, the couple is secretly engaged with all indications that the guy will be promoted but instead the woman is.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
In typical movie fashion where you listen to them talking numbers excitedly or angrily and you wait instead for the sex to beginGreg wrote: ↑Wed Oct 11, 2023 3:20 pmHow does it portray hedge funds in general?Reza wrote: ↑Mon Oct 09, 2023 12:23 pm Fair Play (Chloe Domont, 2023) 8/10
This riveting film has a very strong whiff of all those psychosexual thrillers of the 1980s - "Fatal Attraction", Disclosure" - but instead it treads through a different path manoeuvring its way through corporate corridors. Oozing sex are a couple of Wall Street hotshots (Phoebe Dynevor & Alden Ehrenreich) - both in love & lust, both working for the same high-powered Wall Street hedge fund, but keeping their relationship under wraps so as not to violate company policy. . .
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
How does it portray hedge funds in general?Reza wrote: ↑Mon Oct 09, 2023 12:23 pm Fair Play (Chloe Domont, 2023) 8/10
This riveting film has a very strong whiff of all those psychosexual thrillers of the 1980s - "Fatal Attraction", Disclosure" - but instead it treads through a different path manoeuvring its way through corporate corridors. Oozing sex are a couple of Wall Street hotshots (Phoebe Dynevor & Alden Ehrenreich) - both in love & lust, both working for the same high-powered Wall Street hedge fund, but keeping their relationship under wraps so as not to violate company policy. . .
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Fair Play (Chloe Domont, 2023) 8/10
This riveting film has a very strong whiff of all those psychosexual thrillers of the 1980s - "Fatal Attraction", Disclosure" - but instead it treads through a different path manoeuvring its way through corporate corridors. Oozing sex are a couple of Wall Street hotshots (Phoebe Dynevor & Alden Ehrenreich) - both in love & lust, both working for the same high-powered Wall Street hedge fund, but keeping their relationship under wraps so as not to violate company policy. When she hears an office whisper that her boyfriend is going to land a promotion she tells him and they both celebrate with a wild session of sex followed by getting engaged. However, it is she who ends up with the promotion which gradually changes the dynamics of their relationship. The screenplay sharply dissects gender and power dynamics in the workplace and then goes a step further by looking at how wild consensual sex can turn into rape in the blink of an eye. The film's biggest strength is the sharp script and the dynamic performances of the two leads - both of whom tread a perverse but thrilling dance that begins with desire but ends with intense hatred.
La sfida / The Challenge (Francesco Rosi, 1958) 9/10
José Suárez - tall, dashing, immaculately dressed - is a gang leader and small time smuggler of cigarettes in Naples. Ambition makes him try to muscle into the vegetable and fruit business which is considered more profitable. He comes into conflict with the local Camorra boss whom he challenges for supremacy. The film also covers his romance with a nubile young woman (Rosanna Schiaffino) who lives in his tenement. She pursues him from afar although he is unaware of her. Their first meeting takes place on the roof tops of the tenement as he gives chase barefoot and she coyly allows herself to be caught and he kisses her amongst fluttering laundry hung out to dry. The sequence is stunningly shot with cinematographer Gianni Di Venanzo's tracking shot following the two characters up and down stairs and across the vast rooftop. Coming to an arrangement with the mafia his business flourishes and he moves into a huge seaside apartment and plans his marriage to the alluring woman. The film's explosive finalé is set in the Piazza del Mercato, the busy market place of Naples. The two main characters were based on Pasquale Simonetti - an Italian criminal of the Camorra - and his wife, Pupetta Maresca - an Italian criminal who was also a well-known figure in the Camorra who made international newspaper headlines in the mid-1950s when she killed the murderer of her husband in revenge. This was Rosi's first solo film as a director and he imbues it with a realist nature causing a major stir for alluding directly to the mafia control of the government. The star quality exuded by both Suárez and Schiaffino greatly helps the romantic moments in the film. There is a sense of desperate edginess between them which throughout signals what is to come and when the climax finally arrives it allows Schiaffino, who is till then shown in a very passive light with minimum dialogue, to finally show what she is capable of as an actress.
Poirot: Triangle at Rhodes (Renny Rye, 1989) 5/10
This story was part of Agatha Christie's short story collection "Murder in the Mews" and bears more than a passing resemblance to another of her murder mysteries "Evil Under the Sun". Only the setting has been changed - to the Greek island of Rhodes - while the main crime is more or less the same give or take a few tweaks. Flighty wife of a jealous husband appears to be having an affair with the husband of a mousey wife. They are all on holiday staying at a hotel on the island of Rhodes. Also staying there is famous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot (David Suchet) who is informed by a busy body guest about the love triangle. However, when the flighty wife chokes to death after drinking pink gin which was meant for her jealous husband it appears the love triangle was in fact between a separate group of guests which Poirot ofcourse deduces using his little grey cells. The rather weak plot is thankfully over compensated by a travelogue through Rhodes as the magical medieval town and its surroundings gets a good look-in as the characters wander about the island taking in the sights.
Khufiya (Vishal Bhardwaj, 2023) 6/10
Bhardwaj creates a spy world - RAW, ISI, CIA - that is far from glamorous â la James Bond. He instead takes the essence from the John le Carré school of spydom which here is based on Amar Bhushan's espionage novel "Escape to Nowhere". The plot is set during the post-Kargil period as the Indian spy agency discovers there is a mole (Ali Fazal) amongst their agents who is passing on secret information to the CIA. A savvy operative (Tabu) has the man's house bugged and has him followed. She is a workaholic, estranged from her son and nursing wounds from an affair with a fellow spy (Azmeri Haque Badhon) who turned out to be a double agent working for the ISI. The plot moves smoothly during the tense first half as the shadowy characters navigate through the alleyways of Delhi and Dhaka in pursuit of the mole and his accomplices. The second half begins to wobble when the mole's wife (Wamiqa Gabbi) is recruited to go to the United States to join and spy on her rogue husband and mother-in-law - the latter is as vicious a mother as Angela Lansbury in "The Manchurian Candidate". There are far too many moments in the plot near the end that don't quite gell and seem hurried. As always Tabu is the star attraction and creates a true to life character, a dejected, tired spy, who is upto her neck in personal problems yet manages to diligently do full justice towards her career. She gets good support from Ashish Vidyarthi as her boss and Atul Kulkarni as her supportive ex-husband.
1883 (Ben Richardson, Christina Alexandra Voros & Taylor Sheridan, 2021-22) 9/10
Prequel to the prequel (1923) of the 5 season tv series Yellowstone. This one covers the very early days of the Dutton family as they (played by real-life couple and Country Music superstars, Tim McGraw & Faith Hill) travel on a wagon train from Texas to Oregon before settling in Montana on a ranch that would eventually take the name of Yellowstone. This 10 part series is a rehash of the 1923 silent film classic "The Covered Wagon" as it charts a wagon train consisting mainly of German and Slavic immigrants, along with the Dutton family, and led by a tough old cowpoke (Sam Elliott). The hazardous journey involves river crossings, encounters with bandits and Indians, a deadly tornado, and rattlesnakes causing death and destruction. The Dutton's fiery teenage daughter (Isabel May) comes of age on the journey discovering love, heartache and adventure. Superbly shot on location this is an action-packed series well worth watching if you are a fan of the genre. Tom Hanks, Billy Bob Thornton, Rita Wilson and Graham Greene appear in brief roles as guest stars.
1923 (Ben Richardson & Guy Ferland, 2022-23) 9/10
Excellent 8-part prequel to television's Yellowstone series which charts the Dutton family of Montana through the early part of the twentieth century. The 5 seasons of Yellowstone has Kevin Costner as star but here we also have a bonafide movie star leading the cast - 78 year old Harrison Ford. As his wife Dame Helen Mirren kicks ass - the opening episode has her tracking a man crawling on all fours whom she shoots point-blank with a shotgun. The main plot of the series deals with an attempt on the lives of the Dutton family and dealing with a land-grabber (Timothy Dalton). A sub-plot involves the Dutton heir in Africa, his romance with a British girl and their adventurous journey back to America. The second very brutal sub-plot is a native Indian escaping the vicious clutches of nuns and a priest at a school and her pursuit across the praire leading to further violence. Exciting series with the two lead actors adding a distinct touch of class. Season 2 is to follow.
Apache Drums (Hugo Fregonese, 1951) 6/10
A notorious gambler (Stephen McNally) is thrown out of a small town but returns to help the townfolk when Apaches go on the warpath. This B-film has two action set pieces - one out in the wilds with the attacking Indians and a tense sequence at the end with the surviving townfolk holed up inside a church without food or water and beseiged by the Indians. The plot also throws in a love triangle between the gambler, blacksmith/mayor (Willard Parker) and the local boarding house-bar owner (Coleen Gray). The screenplay turns talky but there are enough tense action sequences to make this a good film in the genre. This was horror-film producer Val Lewton's last film.
Gumraah (Vardhan Ketkar, 2023) 6/10
A man is viciously murdered by someone wearing a yellow hooded raincoat. However, the murderer is photographed on the balcony by a neighbour and the police arrest a prominent construction engineer (Aditya Roy Kapoor) and charge him with the crime. Soon after a drunken petty criminal is arrested and he turns out to be the spitting image of the accused. It turns out both men are identical twins and it becomes impossible to deduce which of these men is the murderer as no evidence is found that can be checked through fingerprints and the DNA found at the crime sight matches both brothers. The Sub Inspector (Mrunal Thakur) is convinced the crime was committed by the petty crook while the ACP, who has a personal vendetta against the engineer, tries his best to put the blame on him. Both cops fiddle with evidence to prove their suspect is the murderer. Cat-and-mouse thriller has an engaging plot with two or three unnecessary song and dance sequences. Kapoor, in a dual role, plays the two brothers with subtle changes using his voice and body. Thakur plays it grim throughout.
Reptile (Grant Singer, 2023) 6/10
Film noir detective murder mystery goes through the usual tropes. Not in a bad way but the screenplay has a "been there-done that" vibe to it. A young realtor is found viciously murdered. The suspects are her boyfriend (Justin Timberlake), her ex-husband with whom she was still having sex, and a crazed man (Michael Pitt) who insists the victim's boyfriend is involved. A hardened detective (Benicio del Toro), with a dark past, relentlessly pursues the case despite all the red herrings he encounters. Drugs and dirty real estate deals are some of the issues that are revealed. Good to see Alicia Silverstone, as the cop's wife, return to the screen in a mainstream project.
Devi / Goddess (Satyajit Ray, 1960) 10/10
Ray's lacerating film takes a look at religious obsession and the destructive nature of fanaticism and also makes strong points about blind tradition versus modernist reasoning. A rich Bengali landowner (Chhabi Biswas), a fanatical devotee of the goddess Durga (a warrior goddess who represents the destruction of evil), one night has a dream that his young daughter-in-law (Sharmila Tagore) is Durga reincarnated and starts worshiping her. His other family members are horrified when he insists they also worship her. She is placed in a room and treated like a deity. The woman is terrified but submissive and goes along with it. When neighbors also start visiting and praying to her for miracles the situation reaches a fever pitch when a peasant's sick child is cured which proves to them all that she truly is a goddess. Her husband (Soumitra Chatterjee), who was away at college, returns and is shocked by the drama in the house and tries to reason with his father and young wife who gradually starts losing her sense of identity and actually starts believing she is a deity. The father's sudden illness proves to be the catalyst that finally shatters the illusion with devastating results for the young woman. Ray's masterful direction, the superb performances, Subrata Mitra's subtle camera movements, the sound design and score combine to create an eerie expressionistic masterpiece.
Ghare-Baire / The Home and the World (Satyajit Ray, 1984) 10/10
Ray looks at nationalism and the emancipation of women at a time when great political changes were taking place in Bengal - Lord Curzon's notorious Partition of Bengal which divided the Hindu-Muslim population under Britain's "divide and rule" policy which in turn gave rise to the Swadeshi movement which eventually formed the struggle to oust the ruling Colonial Power. Based on the novel by Rabindranath Tagore the poetic story revolves around a ménage à trois - an influential Western-educated Bengali noble (Victor Banerjee), his cloistered wife (Swatilekha Sengupta) and his charismatic revolutionary friend (Soumitra Chatterjee). The nobleman insists on educating his wife - he hires an English governess (Jennifer Kendall) to educate and transform her - and encourages her to come out of purdah which was a controversial stance in 1916 when the novel was written. When the two are introduced his friend is smitten by his wife and insists they meet alone. The husband is mature and grants his wife the freedom to mingle and get to know another man as their marriage was arranged and she had no experience of being around other men. The blossoming friendship - she finds him passionate and thinks her husband is passive - has far reaching effects as the revolutionary, who is also a fraud, uses the woman to obtain funds for his cause to which his friend is against. His actions create a divide between Hindus and Muslims and riots break out in the city. The wife realizes too late the reality of her relationship with the two men - trust and love from her husband and self-interest by her lover. Contemplative film moves along gently with the camera observing the characters in conflict and allowing the audience to look straight into their hearts. The three actors are superb playing characters who shift and change along with the conflicts they are surrounded by - both political and in matters of the heart - with the woman finding her life changed the most as she treads from her home into a world that was once forbidden to her sex and discovers poverty, upheaval and violence from which she had been sheltered from. Banerjee, as the quietly enlightened husband, won a richly deserved National award for his performance. It was - pun intended - a banner year for him as he also played the lead role that same year in David Lean's "A Passage to India" - another film about the conflict between Indians and the British in colonial India.
Silver City (Byron Haskin, 1951) 5/10
Crook (Edmond O'Brien) turns straight, moves to another town but his past in the form of his former boss (Richard Arlen) and former girlfriend (Gladys George) - both now married to each other - catch up with him. While working as a mining assayer he gets involved with a mine leaser (Edgar Buchanan) and his feisty daughter (Yvonne De Carlo) who take on the greedy mine owner (Barry Fitzgerald) who tries to sabotage their attempts to mine discovered silver ore. Slow moving film tries to cover the screenplay's shortcomings through shootouts and other action packed sequences.
Cabaret (Bob Fosse, 1972) 10/10
Reticent academic and writer (Michael York) arrives in pre-War Berlin, rooms in a boarding house with daffy American, Sally Bowles (Liza Minnelli), who works on stage at the seedy Kit Kat Club. While falling in and out of bed - with Sally and also with a rich married Baron (Helmut Griem) - he witnesses the rise of facism as the Nazis come to power. Superb film adaptation of the Kander and Ebb Broadway musical is imaginatively directed by Bob Fosse who not only recreates the Germany of that era (in essence) but also brings an exciting electric vibe to the musical numbers - "Willkommen", "Mein Herr", "Maybe This Time", "Money Money", "If You Could See Her", "Cabaret" - all performed on stage at the cabaret. The only song not sung on stage is "Tomorrow Belongs to Me", which is used as a glaring look at the rise of Nazism. It begins as a nostalgic German folk song but deceptively turns into a military march revealing the singer - an angelic young boy - to be wearing a Hitler Youth uniform who vigorously gives the Nazi salute. Liza Minnelli, already a famous name, instantly became a huge film star and won an Oscar. Joel Grey - the only member of the cast to reprise his stage role as the sleazy MC at the club - also won. The film still holds the record for winning the most Oscars (8) without getting the prize for best film - in addition to the wins for Minnelli and Grey it won for director-choreographer Fosse, Geoffrey Unsworth's dazzling cinematography, the production design, sound, score and editing. The awards for Best Picture and screenplay went to The Godfather that year.
The Nevadan (Gordon Douglas, 1950) 5/10
Mysterious stranger (Randolph Scott) tangles with a stagecoach robber (Forrest Tucker) and a greedy ranch boss (George Macready) while they are all on a hunt for a map describing where a shipment of gold is hidden. Slow moving Western has Scott as stoic as ever while he dodges bullets and gets beaten up while falling in love with the rancher's feisty daughter (Dorothy Malone).
The Dive (Maximillian Erlenwein, 2023) 6/10
Two sisters go diving at a remote location under a huge cliff. An avalanche of rocks traps one sister at 28 meters and it becomes a race against time for the other sister to get help. The suspense is related to the free sister rushing back and forth between dry land to try and get more air tanks and a car jack to try and lift the boulder and returning underwater to provide oxygen which is fast depleting. Everything goes wrong as an oxygen tank sinks, the car's boot will not open, a quick run to a nearby church comes up empty plus a desperate flagging at a nearby boat goes unseen. Thankfully the screenplay ignores the cliché of approaching sharks or other predators. Instead the tension is created realistically through the frantic rescue operation which involves both sisters helping each other through the crises. Brief flashbacks explain their love of diving plus their drifting apart as adults. Tense nail-biter goes through familiar beats but manages to hold attention. The underwater photography is creepy or stunning. Take your pick depending on how enamored you are by the ocean.
Retribution (Nimród Antal, 2023) 6/10
By now its a given that Liam Neeson's new movie will be strictly from the B school of movie-making, not that it's something to turn one's nose up at. Such movies can be excellent popcorn fodder and most of Neeson's output certainly is - brainless but fun. This one is a remake of the 2015 Spanish film "El desconocido" although the premise was undertaken very successfully way back in 1994 when Sandra Bullock drove a bus with a bomb on board in the film "Speed" where a terrorist threatened to detonate if she stopped the vehicle. Here a bank executive (Liam Neeson) in Berlin gets into his car and is informed on a cell phone that his seat is rigged with a bomb and he needs to transfer a huge amount of money belonging to his clients to an offshore account in Dubai. The entire film is shot with Neeson sitting in a car and driving around Berlin as the voice controls him and blows up other cars and people he knows to show that he means business. Making matters worse for him is that he has both his children on board with him. At a certain point during the film the villain's identity becomes quite obvious after which it remains to be seen how Neeson gets out of his predicament. In brief roles are Matthew Modine as his boss and Embeth Davidtz as his anguished wife who is on the verge of divorcing him. Davidtz and Neeson reunite on screen after 30 years when they were both in "Schindler's List" - a film that allowed Neeson to play in the A league until the death of his wife, Natasha Richardson, proved to be the catalyst that changed the direction of his career towards the B league. Not withstanding the hackneyed premise and the often inane dialogue this film still manages to create suspense and thrills......of the B variety ofcourse.
Jaane Jaan (Sujoy Ghosh, 2023) 8/10
Gripping mystery-thriller is an adaptation of the 2005 Japanese novel "The Devotion of Suspect X" by Keigo Higashino. The story moves into the realm of a ménage à trois - but minus sex - between three characters who come together when a murder occurs. A single mother (Kareena Kapoor) is suddenly confronted after 14 years by her divorced husband who is a sleazy cop and a suspected human trafficker. He threatens to take away his teenage daughter but she offers him money to leave them alone. During a skirmish where he gets rough with his ex-wife both mother and daughter strangle the man with a wire and to their horror find themselves with a dead man in their apartment. Their next door neighbour (Jaideep Ahlawat), a brilliant but introverted mathematics teacher who has a silent crush on her, comes to their rescue by disposing the dead body and creating perfect alibis for them. When a police Inspector (Vijay Varma) suddenly turns up, discovers the body, and finds out that he was her husband his suspicions fall on her. A cat and mouse game ensues between the three characters as the cop, after suspecting her, shifts his suspicion onto him. This superbly paced film's moody ambience is enhanced by the film's stunning location - the hill station town of Kalimpong in West Bengal - with its winding roads, overcast skies, hidden alleys, and swirling clouds. All three actors are at the top of their game with the anguished Kareena Kapoor suddenly coming into her own during a sequence set in a karaoke bar where she reluctantly starts singing "Jaane Jaan" - with Bollywood entertainer Helen dancing in the background - and as the song progresses lets down her hair, forgets all her problems and gets totally in the groove enjoying the sexy lyrics. The film's wrap up is a bit abrupt as it takes a rather uphill way to sum up the complicated plot but ignore all that because sometimes the improbable can be also satisfying. All in all this is an exciting Bollywood addition to the thriller genre and stands confidently aside (albeit at a tad lower step) to the director's own classic film - Kahaani (2012).
The Last Hurrah (John Ford, 1958) 8/10
A political satire, based on the best-selling novel by Edwin O'Connor, has at its center a resourceful old-time politician (Spencer Tracy) who runs for yet another political campaign. Although the man and the New England city are not named in the story its clearly based in part on the career of former Boston mayor James Michael Curley. He is an iron-fisted but sentimental Irish-American immigrant who raised himself out of the gutter by joining politics. With Ford at the helm of the story it has a heavy dose of sentiment helped along with his usual stable of character actors in tow - Pat O'Brien, Donald Crisp, John Carradine, Basil Rathbone, James Gleason, Anna Lee, Jane Darwell, Ricardo Cortez, Wallace Ford, Frank McHugh - playing the mayor's friends and foes. This is one of Tracy's great performances and he gets wonderful support from Jeffrey Hunter as his nephew. One of the film's many old-fashioned Hollywood moments is Tracy's death scene at the end as he lies in bed while his friends and foes visit him one last time to say goodbye - everyone in tears including me - a continous 15 minute uncontrollable crying jag which I give full credit to the old fashioned direction of the great John Ford.
Poirot: Hallowe'en Party (Charles Palmer, 2010) 8/10
Christie's 1969 book was first adapted for the Poirot tv series and it was much later in 2023 that it came to the big screen as "A Haunting in Venice". This version was quite altered from the original story. The screenplay sets the story in 1947 Venice and while retaining some character names and incidents the screenwriter basically reimagines it as a ghost story involving a number of murders. This tv version follows the book closely but takes the plot from the 1960s and shifts it to a small English village during the 1930s. During a Halloween party for kids a little girl, known for telling tall fibs, announces that she saw a murder and knows who the killer is. Everyone ignores the remark but a little later the child is found drowned in a tub of water meant for apple bobbing. Crime novelist Ariadne Oliver (Zoë Wanamaker) who is at the party sends for her friend Hercule Poirot (David Suchet) to come investigate the grisly murder. He discovers that at least three suspicious deaths had already occurred before the recent one and soon there will be three more dead bodies before the culprit is finally apprehended. Another in a long line of excellent episodes in this memorable tv series with Suchet most memorable as the famous Belgian detective.
This riveting film has a very strong whiff of all those psychosexual thrillers of the 1980s - "Fatal Attraction", Disclosure" - but instead it treads through a different path manoeuvring its way through corporate corridors. Oozing sex are a couple of Wall Street hotshots (Phoebe Dynevor & Alden Ehrenreich) - both in love & lust, both working for the same high-powered Wall Street hedge fund, but keeping their relationship under wraps so as not to violate company policy. When she hears an office whisper that her boyfriend is going to land a promotion she tells him and they both celebrate with a wild session of sex followed by getting engaged. However, it is she who ends up with the promotion which gradually changes the dynamics of their relationship. The screenplay sharply dissects gender and power dynamics in the workplace and then goes a step further by looking at how wild consensual sex can turn into rape in the blink of an eye. The film's biggest strength is the sharp script and the dynamic performances of the two leads - both of whom tread a perverse but thrilling dance that begins with desire but ends with intense hatred.
La sfida / The Challenge (Francesco Rosi, 1958) 9/10
José Suárez - tall, dashing, immaculately dressed - is a gang leader and small time smuggler of cigarettes in Naples. Ambition makes him try to muscle into the vegetable and fruit business which is considered more profitable. He comes into conflict with the local Camorra boss whom he challenges for supremacy. The film also covers his romance with a nubile young woman (Rosanna Schiaffino) who lives in his tenement. She pursues him from afar although he is unaware of her. Their first meeting takes place on the roof tops of the tenement as he gives chase barefoot and she coyly allows herself to be caught and he kisses her amongst fluttering laundry hung out to dry. The sequence is stunningly shot with cinematographer Gianni Di Venanzo's tracking shot following the two characters up and down stairs and across the vast rooftop. Coming to an arrangement with the mafia his business flourishes and he moves into a huge seaside apartment and plans his marriage to the alluring woman. The film's explosive finalé is set in the Piazza del Mercato, the busy market place of Naples. The two main characters were based on Pasquale Simonetti - an Italian criminal of the Camorra - and his wife, Pupetta Maresca - an Italian criminal who was also a well-known figure in the Camorra who made international newspaper headlines in the mid-1950s when she killed the murderer of her husband in revenge. This was Rosi's first solo film as a director and he imbues it with a realist nature causing a major stir for alluding directly to the mafia control of the government. The star quality exuded by both Suárez and Schiaffino greatly helps the romantic moments in the film. There is a sense of desperate edginess between them which throughout signals what is to come and when the climax finally arrives it allows Schiaffino, who is till then shown in a very passive light with minimum dialogue, to finally show what she is capable of as an actress.
Poirot: Triangle at Rhodes (Renny Rye, 1989) 5/10
This story was part of Agatha Christie's short story collection "Murder in the Mews" and bears more than a passing resemblance to another of her murder mysteries "Evil Under the Sun". Only the setting has been changed - to the Greek island of Rhodes - while the main crime is more or less the same give or take a few tweaks. Flighty wife of a jealous husband appears to be having an affair with the husband of a mousey wife. They are all on holiday staying at a hotel on the island of Rhodes. Also staying there is famous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot (David Suchet) who is informed by a busy body guest about the love triangle. However, when the flighty wife chokes to death after drinking pink gin which was meant for her jealous husband it appears the love triangle was in fact between a separate group of guests which Poirot ofcourse deduces using his little grey cells. The rather weak plot is thankfully over compensated by a travelogue through Rhodes as the magical medieval town and its surroundings gets a good look-in as the characters wander about the island taking in the sights.
Khufiya (Vishal Bhardwaj, 2023) 6/10
Bhardwaj creates a spy world - RAW, ISI, CIA - that is far from glamorous â la James Bond. He instead takes the essence from the John le Carré school of spydom which here is based on Amar Bhushan's espionage novel "Escape to Nowhere". The plot is set during the post-Kargil period as the Indian spy agency discovers there is a mole (Ali Fazal) amongst their agents who is passing on secret information to the CIA. A savvy operative (Tabu) has the man's house bugged and has him followed. She is a workaholic, estranged from her son and nursing wounds from an affair with a fellow spy (Azmeri Haque Badhon) who turned out to be a double agent working for the ISI. The plot moves smoothly during the tense first half as the shadowy characters navigate through the alleyways of Delhi and Dhaka in pursuit of the mole and his accomplices. The second half begins to wobble when the mole's wife (Wamiqa Gabbi) is recruited to go to the United States to join and spy on her rogue husband and mother-in-law - the latter is as vicious a mother as Angela Lansbury in "The Manchurian Candidate". There are far too many moments in the plot near the end that don't quite gell and seem hurried. As always Tabu is the star attraction and creates a true to life character, a dejected, tired spy, who is upto her neck in personal problems yet manages to diligently do full justice towards her career. She gets good support from Ashish Vidyarthi as her boss and Atul Kulkarni as her supportive ex-husband.
1883 (Ben Richardson, Christina Alexandra Voros & Taylor Sheridan, 2021-22) 9/10
Prequel to the prequel (1923) of the 5 season tv series Yellowstone. This one covers the very early days of the Dutton family as they (played by real-life couple and Country Music superstars, Tim McGraw & Faith Hill) travel on a wagon train from Texas to Oregon before settling in Montana on a ranch that would eventually take the name of Yellowstone. This 10 part series is a rehash of the 1923 silent film classic "The Covered Wagon" as it charts a wagon train consisting mainly of German and Slavic immigrants, along with the Dutton family, and led by a tough old cowpoke (Sam Elliott). The hazardous journey involves river crossings, encounters with bandits and Indians, a deadly tornado, and rattlesnakes causing death and destruction. The Dutton's fiery teenage daughter (Isabel May) comes of age on the journey discovering love, heartache and adventure. Superbly shot on location this is an action-packed series well worth watching if you are a fan of the genre. Tom Hanks, Billy Bob Thornton, Rita Wilson and Graham Greene appear in brief roles as guest stars.
1923 (Ben Richardson & Guy Ferland, 2022-23) 9/10
Excellent 8-part prequel to television's Yellowstone series which charts the Dutton family of Montana through the early part of the twentieth century. The 5 seasons of Yellowstone has Kevin Costner as star but here we also have a bonafide movie star leading the cast - 78 year old Harrison Ford. As his wife Dame Helen Mirren kicks ass - the opening episode has her tracking a man crawling on all fours whom she shoots point-blank with a shotgun. The main plot of the series deals with an attempt on the lives of the Dutton family and dealing with a land-grabber (Timothy Dalton). A sub-plot involves the Dutton heir in Africa, his romance with a British girl and their adventurous journey back to America. The second very brutal sub-plot is a native Indian escaping the vicious clutches of nuns and a priest at a school and her pursuit across the praire leading to further violence. Exciting series with the two lead actors adding a distinct touch of class. Season 2 is to follow.
Apache Drums (Hugo Fregonese, 1951) 6/10
A notorious gambler (Stephen McNally) is thrown out of a small town but returns to help the townfolk when Apaches go on the warpath. This B-film has two action set pieces - one out in the wilds with the attacking Indians and a tense sequence at the end with the surviving townfolk holed up inside a church without food or water and beseiged by the Indians. The plot also throws in a love triangle between the gambler, blacksmith/mayor (Willard Parker) and the local boarding house-bar owner (Coleen Gray). The screenplay turns talky but there are enough tense action sequences to make this a good film in the genre. This was horror-film producer Val Lewton's last film.
Gumraah (Vardhan Ketkar, 2023) 6/10
A man is viciously murdered by someone wearing a yellow hooded raincoat. However, the murderer is photographed on the balcony by a neighbour and the police arrest a prominent construction engineer (Aditya Roy Kapoor) and charge him with the crime. Soon after a drunken petty criminal is arrested and he turns out to be the spitting image of the accused. It turns out both men are identical twins and it becomes impossible to deduce which of these men is the murderer as no evidence is found that can be checked through fingerprints and the DNA found at the crime sight matches both brothers. The Sub Inspector (Mrunal Thakur) is convinced the crime was committed by the petty crook while the ACP, who has a personal vendetta against the engineer, tries his best to put the blame on him. Both cops fiddle with evidence to prove their suspect is the murderer. Cat-and-mouse thriller has an engaging plot with two or three unnecessary song and dance sequences. Kapoor, in a dual role, plays the two brothers with subtle changes using his voice and body. Thakur plays it grim throughout.
Reptile (Grant Singer, 2023) 6/10
Film noir detective murder mystery goes through the usual tropes. Not in a bad way but the screenplay has a "been there-done that" vibe to it. A young realtor is found viciously murdered. The suspects are her boyfriend (Justin Timberlake), her ex-husband with whom she was still having sex, and a crazed man (Michael Pitt) who insists the victim's boyfriend is involved. A hardened detective (Benicio del Toro), with a dark past, relentlessly pursues the case despite all the red herrings he encounters. Drugs and dirty real estate deals are some of the issues that are revealed. Good to see Alicia Silverstone, as the cop's wife, return to the screen in a mainstream project.
Devi / Goddess (Satyajit Ray, 1960) 10/10
Ray's lacerating film takes a look at religious obsession and the destructive nature of fanaticism and also makes strong points about blind tradition versus modernist reasoning. A rich Bengali landowner (Chhabi Biswas), a fanatical devotee of the goddess Durga (a warrior goddess who represents the destruction of evil), one night has a dream that his young daughter-in-law (Sharmila Tagore) is Durga reincarnated and starts worshiping her. His other family members are horrified when he insists they also worship her. She is placed in a room and treated like a deity. The woman is terrified but submissive and goes along with it. When neighbors also start visiting and praying to her for miracles the situation reaches a fever pitch when a peasant's sick child is cured which proves to them all that she truly is a goddess. Her husband (Soumitra Chatterjee), who was away at college, returns and is shocked by the drama in the house and tries to reason with his father and young wife who gradually starts losing her sense of identity and actually starts believing she is a deity. The father's sudden illness proves to be the catalyst that finally shatters the illusion with devastating results for the young woman. Ray's masterful direction, the superb performances, Subrata Mitra's subtle camera movements, the sound design and score combine to create an eerie expressionistic masterpiece.
Ghare-Baire / The Home and the World (Satyajit Ray, 1984) 10/10
Ray looks at nationalism and the emancipation of women at a time when great political changes were taking place in Bengal - Lord Curzon's notorious Partition of Bengal which divided the Hindu-Muslim population under Britain's "divide and rule" policy which in turn gave rise to the Swadeshi movement which eventually formed the struggle to oust the ruling Colonial Power. Based on the novel by Rabindranath Tagore the poetic story revolves around a ménage à trois - an influential Western-educated Bengali noble (Victor Banerjee), his cloistered wife (Swatilekha Sengupta) and his charismatic revolutionary friend (Soumitra Chatterjee). The nobleman insists on educating his wife - he hires an English governess (Jennifer Kendall) to educate and transform her - and encourages her to come out of purdah which was a controversial stance in 1916 when the novel was written. When the two are introduced his friend is smitten by his wife and insists they meet alone. The husband is mature and grants his wife the freedom to mingle and get to know another man as their marriage was arranged and she had no experience of being around other men. The blossoming friendship - she finds him passionate and thinks her husband is passive - has far reaching effects as the revolutionary, who is also a fraud, uses the woman to obtain funds for his cause to which his friend is against. His actions create a divide between Hindus and Muslims and riots break out in the city. The wife realizes too late the reality of her relationship with the two men - trust and love from her husband and self-interest by her lover. Contemplative film moves along gently with the camera observing the characters in conflict and allowing the audience to look straight into their hearts. The three actors are superb playing characters who shift and change along with the conflicts they are surrounded by - both political and in matters of the heart - with the woman finding her life changed the most as she treads from her home into a world that was once forbidden to her sex and discovers poverty, upheaval and violence from which she had been sheltered from. Banerjee, as the quietly enlightened husband, won a richly deserved National award for his performance. It was - pun intended - a banner year for him as he also played the lead role that same year in David Lean's "A Passage to India" - another film about the conflict between Indians and the British in colonial India.
Silver City (Byron Haskin, 1951) 5/10
Crook (Edmond O'Brien) turns straight, moves to another town but his past in the form of his former boss (Richard Arlen) and former girlfriend (Gladys George) - both now married to each other - catch up with him. While working as a mining assayer he gets involved with a mine leaser (Edgar Buchanan) and his feisty daughter (Yvonne De Carlo) who take on the greedy mine owner (Barry Fitzgerald) who tries to sabotage their attempts to mine discovered silver ore. Slow moving film tries to cover the screenplay's shortcomings through shootouts and other action packed sequences.
Cabaret (Bob Fosse, 1972) 10/10
Reticent academic and writer (Michael York) arrives in pre-War Berlin, rooms in a boarding house with daffy American, Sally Bowles (Liza Minnelli), who works on stage at the seedy Kit Kat Club. While falling in and out of bed - with Sally and also with a rich married Baron (Helmut Griem) - he witnesses the rise of facism as the Nazis come to power. Superb film adaptation of the Kander and Ebb Broadway musical is imaginatively directed by Bob Fosse who not only recreates the Germany of that era (in essence) but also brings an exciting electric vibe to the musical numbers - "Willkommen", "Mein Herr", "Maybe This Time", "Money Money", "If You Could See Her", "Cabaret" - all performed on stage at the cabaret. The only song not sung on stage is "Tomorrow Belongs to Me", which is used as a glaring look at the rise of Nazism. It begins as a nostalgic German folk song but deceptively turns into a military march revealing the singer - an angelic young boy - to be wearing a Hitler Youth uniform who vigorously gives the Nazi salute. Liza Minnelli, already a famous name, instantly became a huge film star and won an Oscar. Joel Grey - the only member of the cast to reprise his stage role as the sleazy MC at the club - also won. The film still holds the record for winning the most Oscars (8) without getting the prize for best film - in addition to the wins for Minnelli and Grey it won for director-choreographer Fosse, Geoffrey Unsworth's dazzling cinematography, the production design, sound, score and editing. The awards for Best Picture and screenplay went to The Godfather that year.
The Nevadan (Gordon Douglas, 1950) 5/10
Mysterious stranger (Randolph Scott) tangles with a stagecoach robber (Forrest Tucker) and a greedy ranch boss (George Macready) while they are all on a hunt for a map describing where a shipment of gold is hidden. Slow moving Western has Scott as stoic as ever while he dodges bullets and gets beaten up while falling in love with the rancher's feisty daughter (Dorothy Malone).
The Dive (Maximillian Erlenwein, 2023) 6/10
Two sisters go diving at a remote location under a huge cliff. An avalanche of rocks traps one sister at 28 meters and it becomes a race against time for the other sister to get help. The suspense is related to the free sister rushing back and forth between dry land to try and get more air tanks and a car jack to try and lift the boulder and returning underwater to provide oxygen which is fast depleting. Everything goes wrong as an oxygen tank sinks, the car's boot will not open, a quick run to a nearby church comes up empty plus a desperate flagging at a nearby boat goes unseen. Thankfully the screenplay ignores the cliché of approaching sharks or other predators. Instead the tension is created realistically through the frantic rescue operation which involves both sisters helping each other through the crises. Brief flashbacks explain their love of diving plus their drifting apart as adults. Tense nail-biter goes through familiar beats but manages to hold attention. The underwater photography is creepy or stunning. Take your pick depending on how enamored you are by the ocean.
Retribution (Nimród Antal, 2023) 6/10
By now its a given that Liam Neeson's new movie will be strictly from the B school of movie-making, not that it's something to turn one's nose up at. Such movies can be excellent popcorn fodder and most of Neeson's output certainly is - brainless but fun. This one is a remake of the 2015 Spanish film "El desconocido" although the premise was undertaken very successfully way back in 1994 when Sandra Bullock drove a bus with a bomb on board in the film "Speed" where a terrorist threatened to detonate if she stopped the vehicle. Here a bank executive (Liam Neeson) in Berlin gets into his car and is informed on a cell phone that his seat is rigged with a bomb and he needs to transfer a huge amount of money belonging to his clients to an offshore account in Dubai. The entire film is shot with Neeson sitting in a car and driving around Berlin as the voice controls him and blows up other cars and people he knows to show that he means business. Making matters worse for him is that he has both his children on board with him. At a certain point during the film the villain's identity becomes quite obvious after which it remains to be seen how Neeson gets out of his predicament. In brief roles are Matthew Modine as his boss and Embeth Davidtz as his anguished wife who is on the verge of divorcing him. Davidtz and Neeson reunite on screen after 30 years when they were both in "Schindler's List" - a film that allowed Neeson to play in the A league until the death of his wife, Natasha Richardson, proved to be the catalyst that changed the direction of his career towards the B league. Not withstanding the hackneyed premise and the often inane dialogue this film still manages to create suspense and thrills......of the B variety ofcourse.
Jaane Jaan (Sujoy Ghosh, 2023) 8/10
Gripping mystery-thriller is an adaptation of the 2005 Japanese novel "The Devotion of Suspect X" by Keigo Higashino. The story moves into the realm of a ménage à trois - but minus sex - between three characters who come together when a murder occurs. A single mother (Kareena Kapoor) is suddenly confronted after 14 years by her divorced husband who is a sleazy cop and a suspected human trafficker. He threatens to take away his teenage daughter but she offers him money to leave them alone. During a skirmish where he gets rough with his ex-wife both mother and daughter strangle the man with a wire and to their horror find themselves with a dead man in their apartment. Their next door neighbour (Jaideep Ahlawat), a brilliant but introverted mathematics teacher who has a silent crush on her, comes to their rescue by disposing the dead body and creating perfect alibis for them. When a police Inspector (Vijay Varma) suddenly turns up, discovers the body, and finds out that he was her husband his suspicions fall on her. A cat and mouse game ensues between the three characters as the cop, after suspecting her, shifts his suspicion onto him. This superbly paced film's moody ambience is enhanced by the film's stunning location - the hill station town of Kalimpong in West Bengal - with its winding roads, overcast skies, hidden alleys, and swirling clouds. All three actors are at the top of their game with the anguished Kareena Kapoor suddenly coming into her own during a sequence set in a karaoke bar where she reluctantly starts singing "Jaane Jaan" - with Bollywood entertainer Helen dancing in the background - and as the song progresses lets down her hair, forgets all her problems and gets totally in the groove enjoying the sexy lyrics. The film's wrap up is a bit abrupt as it takes a rather uphill way to sum up the complicated plot but ignore all that because sometimes the improbable can be also satisfying. All in all this is an exciting Bollywood addition to the thriller genre and stands confidently aside (albeit at a tad lower step) to the director's own classic film - Kahaani (2012).
The Last Hurrah (John Ford, 1958) 8/10
A political satire, based on the best-selling novel by Edwin O'Connor, has at its center a resourceful old-time politician (Spencer Tracy) who runs for yet another political campaign. Although the man and the New England city are not named in the story its clearly based in part on the career of former Boston mayor James Michael Curley. He is an iron-fisted but sentimental Irish-American immigrant who raised himself out of the gutter by joining politics. With Ford at the helm of the story it has a heavy dose of sentiment helped along with his usual stable of character actors in tow - Pat O'Brien, Donald Crisp, John Carradine, Basil Rathbone, James Gleason, Anna Lee, Jane Darwell, Ricardo Cortez, Wallace Ford, Frank McHugh - playing the mayor's friends and foes. This is one of Tracy's great performances and he gets wonderful support from Jeffrey Hunter as his nephew. One of the film's many old-fashioned Hollywood moments is Tracy's death scene at the end as he lies in bed while his friends and foes visit him one last time to say goodbye - everyone in tears including me - a continous 15 minute uncontrollable crying jag which I give full credit to the old fashioned direction of the great John Ford.
Poirot: Hallowe'en Party (Charles Palmer, 2010) 8/10
Christie's 1969 book was first adapted for the Poirot tv series and it was much later in 2023 that it came to the big screen as "A Haunting in Venice". This version was quite altered from the original story. The screenplay sets the story in 1947 Venice and while retaining some character names and incidents the screenwriter basically reimagines it as a ghost story involving a number of murders. This tv version follows the book closely but takes the plot from the 1960s and shifts it to a small English village during the 1930s. During a Halloween party for kids a little girl, known for telling tall fibs, announces that she saw a murder and knows who the killer is. Everyone ignores the remark but a little later the child is found drowned in a tub of water meant for apple bobbing. Crime novelist Ariadne Oliver (Zoë Wanamaker) who is at the party sends for her friend Hercule Poirot (David Suchet) to come investigate the grisly murder. He discovers that at least three suspicious deaths had already occurred before the recent one and soon there will be three more dead bodies before the culprit is finally apprehended. Another in a long line of excellent episodes in this memorable tv series with Suchet most memorable as the famous Belgian detective.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Another couple of weeks worth of films:
Duel (1971) - 8.5/10 - A businessman is driving on a highway through the California desert when a mysterious trucker in a rusty old tanker starts messing with him and trying to kill him. I'd never seen this early Spielberg film before, but it is very well done with plenty of action and suspense.
Suzume (2022) - 8/10 - A 17 year old girl teams up with a three legged chair to save the Earth from destruction. This was on par with the other Shinkai features that I've seen, though I liked a couple of the other ones slightly more.
Aurora's Sunrise (2022) - 8/10 - Aurora Mardiganian was a teenage girl who survived the Armenia Genocide and escaped the subsequent slavery to eventually make her way to the United States hoping to reunite with her brother. She made a film about her story which was used to raise awareness and money for survivors. Unfortunately, most of that film is now lost. The film uses animated reenactments along with surviving excerpts from the film and an interview that Aurora made before she died in 1994.
Paperhouse (1988) - 8/10 - A young girl becomes ill and has fainting spells. When she in unconscious, she finds herself in a dreamland with a house and boy who seem to come from her drawings, except that the boy exists in the real world as well. I enjoyed this quite a bit and think the girl playing the lead did a great job. I liked the earlier Escape Into Night series which adapted the same book, but I liked this version more.
The Desert of the Tartars (1976) - 8/10 - A young lieutenant is assigned to a remote border garrison in a desert. The troops there maintain their guard against an enemy that is rarely if ever seen. The isolation of their situation wears on people mentally. The film has excellent cinematography and is very good.
Night of the Demon (1957) - 8/10 - An American professor flies to London for a conference and gets mixed up in the affairs of a cult who may have killed the colleague he was supposed to meet. The professor is a skeptic at first, but it's hard to discount the things that he sees while investigating. Dana Andrews is good in the lead role and there is a fair amount of suspense.
Time Stood Still / Il tempo si è fermato (1959) - 8/10 - Two middle aged men are caretakers at a dam project in the Alps. One of them heads home due to his wife having a baby and he is temporarily replaced by a very young man. The older caretaker and the younger one have very different ways, but get to know each other better after an avalanche cuts off their electricity. There are a number of stretches with minimal dialogue. I enjoyed it quite a bit.
Four Steps in the Clouds / 4 passi fra le nuvole (1942) - 8/10 - Paolo is a traveling salesman for a candy company. He is married with kids and his brother-in-law lives in their apartment as well. His home life isn't great, but he works hard and has a stable job. He takes pity on a young woman he meets on the train to his next sales destination. She is pregnant, but abandoned by her boyfriend, and is afraid that her father will not allow her to stay when she arrives home at the family farm. Gino Cervi is very good as Paolo.
The Stolen Children (1992) - 8/10 - A young police officer is assigned to accompany an 11 year old girl and her younger brother to a distant orphanage. The mother of the children was arrested for prostituting the daughter from their apartment. The trip runs into a snag when the orphanage refuses to take the girl and the police officer tries to find another place that will accept the pair. The kids are reluctant to open themselves up to more pain, but slowly bond with their temporary guardian.
Juan of the Dead (2011) - 7.5/10 - Juan lives in an apartment block in Havana and doesn't seem to do much apart from hanging out with his friends and neighbors. The film starts with him on a raft out in the sea when the first indication of the upcoming zombie infestation shows up. There is plenty of humor, though some of it is hit or miss. It still makes for a pretty entertaining film with a fair amount of action.
Ginger Snaps (2000) - 7.5/10 - Ginger and Brigitte are teenage sisters who make fake death videos and seem to be pretty morbid. Meanwhile, a number of dogs in the area are getting torn apart by an unknown beast. Ginger's life changes dramatically after she gets her first period and is attacked by the creature that is roaming the area. This was pretty good with a fair amount of dark humor.
It Follows (2014) - 7.5/10 - Jay is a college student who goes on a date with her new boyfriend. It isn't long before she discovers that he has passed a deadly supernatural virus onto her through sex. It takes the form of people that only she can see. It moves at a slow pace, but if it reaches her, it will probably kill her. It was pretty good.
Treno popolare (1933) - 7.5/10 - A large group of tourists head out from Rome for a quick day trip. Giovanni and Lina are friends who may be destined to be more than friends, except that a man named Carlo inserts himself into their group. It's a fun movie with plenty of humor.
The Stepfather (1987) - 7.5/10 - A man murders his family and sets up a life in another town, looking for that dream of the perfect family. He marries a woman with a teenage daughter, but the daughter doesn't like him and acts out as a result. Is he going to have to start all over again? This was formulaic, but fun nonetheless. Terry O'Quinn was good as the stepfather and so was Jill Schoelen as the daughter.
An Average Little Man (1977) - 7.5/10 - A civil servant who is nearing retirement wants nothing more than to get his son a job at his workplace so that the son can have a secure living. The son works hard, but is not too bright and has some trouble with the tests for employment. The first half of the film is filled with the father's efforts to help his son and it is of less interest than the second half of the film where circumstances dictate a change in direction.
What Scoundrels Men Are! (1932) - 7/10 - This romantic comedy has a mechanic falling for a young woman who works at a perfume store. He borrows his boss's cars to impress her and take her on a date, but things happen to make a mess of it. He continues his efforts, but maybe fate is against him. Vittorio De Sica and Lia Franca are each pretty good here.
The Burning (1981) - 7/10 - A mean camp counselor gets burned very badly in a prank that goes wrong. He returns five years later terrorize the kids and staff of a summer camp located near the one where he was burned. It's not great, but it was fairly entertaining. It was also interesting to see Jason Alexander and Holly Hunter in their first film roles.
The Lair of the White Worm (1988) - 7/10 - An ancient snake skull is unearthed in the East Midlands of England. It is subsequently stolen by a priestess to a local ancient snake god. A local lord (Hugh Grant) begins investigating a possible giant snake roaming nearby caverns. Meanwhile the snake priestess is fairly active. This is a decent film and a bit offbeat at times.
Ghostwatch (1992) - 6.5/10 - This pseudo-documentary aired on BBC1 on Halloween. It purports to investigate the paranormal with one house and family in particular. Apparently some people at the time thought it was real. It's decent enough for what it is and the acting isn't bad. It was interesting to see Craig Charles as one of the reporters interviewing people.
The Mummy (1959) - 6.5/10 - The Hammer version of The Mummy stars Peter Cushing and features Christopher Lee in mummy costume. The film looks great except for Lee's Mummy costume, but the film itself is a bit lackluster. It's not bad, just kind of sluggish.
Animali pazzi (1939) - 6/10 - A baron must marry his cousin on short notice if he is to get his inheritance from a relative who has recently died. However, the baron already has a fiancée so he enlists a double to substitute for himself. The last 20 minutes or so were fun, but the part before that was less interesting. Totò was already 41 when this came out, though this was just the second of nearly 100 films that he made.
Berberian Sound Studio (2012) - 5.5/10 - A British sound engineer is brought to Italy to work on a horror film, though he thought that it was going to be about horses. He slowly starts to lose his grip on reality. The sound engineering stuff was kind of neat for a while and I liked a couple of other bits here and there, but it wasn't really all that interesting overall.
Kill List (2011) - 5/10 - A former soldier needs money to support his family. He teams up with a friend to take on a few jobs as hit men. It takes an odd turn when some of the people they kill thank them before dying. It starts out pretty slow and then gets pretty dark and gory at times.
City of the Living Dead (1980) - 5/10 - A priest's suicide opens up the gates of hell and it must be sealed by All Saints Day or all hell will literally break loose. The soundtrack was decent. The acting and story were not very good.
Pieces (1982) - 4/10 - A little boy kills his mother and continues to play. Forty years later, he's all grown up and starts chopping up female college students with a chainsaw. The police and others investigate while girls continue to get murdered. The acting was pretty bad and so was the story.
The Reflecting Skin (1990) - 4/10 - A boy living in a rural area in the 1950s becomes convinced that a woman who lives down the road is a vampire. I didn't really like the pacing, the acting, the music, or the story all that much, unfortunately.
Surviving Life (2010) - 3/10 - I can see why some might like this, but it really wasn't my thing. Did we really need a thousand closeups of mouths talking.
Mandy (2018) - 2/10 - This was not my kind of movie, that's for sure.
Duel (1971) - 8.5/10 - A businessman is driving on a highway through the California desert when a mysterious trucker in a rusty old tanker starts messing with him and trying to kill him. I'd never seen this early Spielberg film before, but it is very well done with plenty of action and suspense.
Suzume (2022) - 8/10 - A 17 year old girl teams up with a three legged chair to save the Earth from destruction. This was on par with the other Shinkai features that I've seen, though I liked a couple of the other ones slightly more.
Aurora's Sunrise (2022) - 8/10 - Aurora Mardiganian was a teenage girl who survived the Armenia Genocide and escaped the subsequent slavery to eventually make her way to the United States hoping to reunite with her brother. She made a film about her story which was used to raise awareness and money for survivors. Unfortunately, most of that film is now lost. The film uses animated reenactments along with surviving excerpts from the film and an interview that Aurora made before she died in 1994.
Paperhouse (1988) - 8/10 - A young girl becomes ill and has fainting spells. When she in unconscious, she finds herself in a dreamland with a house and boy who seem to come from her drawings, except that the boy exists in the real world as well. I enjoyed this quite a bit and think the girl playing the lead did a great job. I liked the earlier Escape Into Night series which adapted the same book, but I liked this version more.
The Desert of the Tartars (1976) - 8/10 - A young lieutenant is assigned to a remote border garrison in a desert. The troops there maintain their guard against an enemy that is rarely if ever seen. The isolation of their situation wears on people mentally. The film has excellent cinematography and is very good.
Night of the Demon (1957) - 8/10 - An American professor flies to London for a conference and gets mixed up in the affairs of a cult who may have killed the colleague he was supposed to meet. The professor is a skeptic at first, but it's hard to discount the things that he sees while investigating. Dana Andrews is good in the lead role and there is a fair amount of suspense.
Time Stood Still / Il tempo si è fermato (1959) - 8/10 - Two middle aged men are caretakers at a dam project in the Alps. One of them heads home due to his wife having a baby and he is temporarily replaced by a very young man. The older caretaker and the younger one have very different ways, but get to know each other better after an avalanche cuts off their electricity. There are a number of stretches with minimal dialogue. I enjoyed it quite a bit.
Four Steps in the Clouds / 4 passi fra le nuvole (1942) - 8/10 - Paolo is a traveling salesman for a candy company. He is married with kids and his brother-in-law lives in their apartment as well. His home life isn't great, but he works hard and has a stable job. He takes pity on a young woman he meets on the train to his next sales destination. She is pregnant, but abandoned by her boyfriend, and is afraid that her father will not allow her to stay when she arrives home at the family farm. Gino Cervi is very good as Paolo.
The Stolen Children (1992) - 8/10 - A young police officer is assigned to accompany an 11 year old girl and her younger brother to a distant orphanage. The mother of the children was arrested for prostituting the daughter from their apartment. The trip runs into a snag when the orphanage refuses to take the girl and the police officer tries to find another place that will accept the pair. The kids are reluctant to open themselves up to more pain, but slowly bond with their temporary guardian.
Juan of the Dead (2011) - 7.5/10 - Juan lives in an apartment block in Havana and doesn't seem to do much apart from hanging out with his friends and neighbors. The film starts with him on a raft out in the sea when the first indication of the upcoming zombie infestation shows up. There is plenty of humor, though some of it is hit or miss. It still makes for a pretty entertaining film with a fair amount of action.
Ginger Snaps (2000) - 7.5/10 - Ginger and Brigitte are teenage sisters who make fake death videos and seem to be pretty morbid. Meanwhile, a number of dogs in the area are getting torn apart by an unknown beast. Ginger's life changes dramatically after she gets her first period and is attacked by the creature that is roaming the area. This was pretty good with a fair amount of dark humor.
It Follows (2014) - 7.5/10 - Jay is a college student who goes on a date with her new boyfriend. It isn't long before she discovers that he has passed a deadly supernatural virus onto her through sex. It takes the form of people that only she can see. It moves at a slow pace, but if it reaches her, it will probably kill her. It was pretty good.
Treno popolare (1933) - 7.5/10 - A large group of tourists head out from Rome for a quick day trip. Giovanni and Lina are friends who may be destined to be more than friends, except that a man named Carlo inserts himself into their group. It's a fun movie with plenty of humor.
The Stepfather (1987) - 7.5/10 - A man murders his family and sets up a life in another town, looking for that dream of the perfect family. He marries a woman with a teenage daughter, but the daughter doesn't like him and acts out as a result. Is he going to have to start all over again? This was formulaic, but fun nonetheless. Terry O'Quinn was good as the stepfather and so was Jill Schoelen as the daughter.
An Average Little Man (1977) - 7.5/10 - A civil servant who is nearing retirement wants nothing more than to get his son a job at his workplace so that the son can have a secure living. The son works hard, but is not too bright and has some trouble with the tests for employment. The first half of the film is filled with the father's efforts to help his son and it is of less interest than the second half of the film where circumstances dictate a change in direction.
What Scoundrels Men Are! (1932) - 7/10 - This romantic comedy has a mechanic falling for a young woman who works at a perfume store. He borrows his boss's cars to impress her and take her on a date, but things happen to make a mess of it. He continues his efforts, but maybe fate is against him. Vittorio De Sica and Lia Franca are each pretty good here.
The Burning (1981) - 7/10 - A mean camp counselor gets burned very badly in a prank that goes wrong. He returns five years later terrorize the kids and staff of a summer camp located near the one where he was burned. It's not great, but it was fairly entertaining. It was also interesting to see Jason Alexander and Holly Hunter in their first film roles.
The Lair of the White Worm (1988) - 7/10 - An ancient snake skull is unearthed in the East Midlands of England. It is subsequently stolen by a priestess to a local ancient snake god. A local lord (Hugh Grant) begins investigating a possible giant snake roaming nearby caverns. Meanwhile the snake priestess is fairly active. This is a decent film and a bit offbeat at times.
Ghostwatch (1992) - 6.5/10 - This pseudo-documentary aired on BBC1 on Halloween. It purports to investigate the paranormal with one house and family in particular. Apparently some people at the time thought it was real. It's decent enough for what it is and the acting isn't bad. It was interesting to see Craig Charles as one of the reporters interviewing people.
The Mummy (1959) - 6.5/10 - The Hammer version of The Mummy stars Peter Cushing and features Christopher Lee in mummy costume. The film looks great except for Lee's Mummy costume, but the film itself is a bit lackluster. It's not bad, just kind of sluggish.
Animali pazzi (1939) - 6/10 - A baron must marry his cousin on short notice if he is to get his inheritance from a relative who has recently died. However, the baron already has a fiancée so he enlists a double to substitute for himself. The last 20 minutes or so were fun, but the part before that was less interesting. Totò was already 41 when this came out, though this was just the second of nearly 100 films that he made.
Berberian Sound Studio (2012) - 5.5/10 - A British sound engineer is brought to Italy to work on a horror film, though he thought that it was going to be about horses. He slowly starts to lose his grip on reality. The sound engineering stuff was kind of neat for a while and I liked a couple of other bits here and there, but it wasn't really all that interesting overall.
Kill List (2011) - 5/10 - A former soldier needs money to support his family. He teams up with a friend to take on a few jobs as hit men. It takes an odd turn when some of the people they kill thank them before dying. It starts out pretty slow and then gets pretty dark and gory at times.
City of the Living Dead (1980) - 5/10 - A priest's suicide opens up the gates of hell and it must be sealed by All Saints Day or all hell will literally break loose. The soundtrack was decent. The acting and story were not very good.
Pieces (1982) - 4/10 - A little boy kills his mother and continues to play. Forty years later, he's all grown up and starts chopping up female college students with a chainsaw. The police and others investigate while girls continue to get murdered. The acting was pretty bad and so was the story.
The Reflecting Skin (1990) - 4/10 - A boy living in a rural area in the 1950s becomes convinced that a woman who lives down the road is a vampire. I didn't really like the pacing, the acting, the music, or the story all that much, unfortunately.
Surviving Life (2010) - 3/10 - I can see why some might like this, but it really wasn't my thing. Did we really need a thousand closeups of mouths talking.
Mandy (2018) - 2/10 - This was not my kind of movie, that's for sure.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Here are a number of the films that I've seen over the past couple of weeks:
Visages d'enfants (1925) - 8.5/10 - Ten year old Jean is devastated when his mother dies. His father seems to have no skill at talking or dealing with Jean or his younger sister. Eventually, the father comes up with the bright idea to marry a recently widowed woman with a daughter about Jean's age so that she can take care of the house and children while he works and doesn't have to deal with it himself. The father also decides to send the son away on a trip with a family friend without telling him of the marriage that will take place while he is away. Jean's relationship with his new step-sister and step-mother gets off to a rocky start and goes downhill from there. The child actors did a very nice job and I enjoyed the film quite a bit.
Spione / Spies (1928) - 8.5/10 - Fritz Lang's followup to Metropolis doesn't approach that movie's level of entertainment, but it is still fun, looks great, and has nice acting performances. The film revolves around a romance between a Russian agent for an international spy ring and a government agent. There is a fair amount of intrigue and action with the last half hour of the film being my favorite part.
The Patsy (1928) - 8/10 - Marion Davies stars as Pat, a young woman whose overbearing mother and selfish sister Grace force her into the background. Her father is on her side, but is often bullied into submission himself. Pat is in love with her sister's boyfriend, Tony. Grace keeps Tony on a string, but also likes to see other men. Pat finally sets out to make a few changes to try and win Tony over and in the process makes her mother and sister think that she has gone crazy. Davies is very good here and is pretty funny with some of her antics after deciding to be more forward.
Brighton Rock (1948) - 8/10 - Pinkie is a violent sociopath who leads a small gang in Brighton. He sets his sights on a reporter who had gotten on his bad side in the past and later starts courting a young woman whose witness testimony could contradict his alibi. It's a nice crime film with a young Richard Attenborough in the lead.
City Girl (1930) - 8/10 - A Minnesota farmer sends his son to Chicago for the first time to sell the family's wheat crop. He insists on not selling below a minimum price per bushel and is real ass when the son returns with a lower price due to a bad market and a wife. It's a nice film, but the son turns really wishy washy when he is back under his father's thumb.
Elemental (2023) - 8/10 - A fire family emigrates the Fire Lands to Element City where members of the various elemental races all live. Years later, they have built a home and shop for themselves with the father looking forward to the daughter taking over the shop. Then fate takes a hand in things. I enjoyed this one quite a bit. It has a good romance and very nice animation.
Beggars of Life (1928) - 8/10 - A drifter stops at a house in hope of a meal and discovers that the man of the house has been shot and killed by his adopted daughter. The drifter (Richard Arlen) and the young woman (Louise Brooks) set out on the rails with the aim of making it to Canada, but a group of hobos and the police stand in their way. This was pretty good with nice performances from Arlen and Brooks plus Wallace Beery as the lead hobo.
La Roue / The Wheel (1923) - 7.5/10 - Sisif is a railroad worker who rescues a small girl after a train accident and raises her as his daughter when he discovers that she is now an orphan. He also has a son of a similar age and the two children grow up to be best friends. Sisif never tells the girl her true parentage and this causes a number of problems when she is an adult. It's a pretty good movie, though definitely on the long side. I don't think that I will try seek out the 7 hour version.
Home (2015) - 7.5/10 - Earth is taken over pretty quickly and easily by the Boov and the humans are relocated to towns in Australia. The Boov are on the run from other aliens who have been chasing them across the galaxy. One Boov who doesn't fit in meets a girl who managed to avoid being captured and the two become friends. The film was more fun and entertaining than I was expecting.
The Scarlet Letter (1926) - 7.5/10 - In Puritan Boston, Hester Prynne is punished for having a child out of wedlock. I read the book back in high school and thought it was okay, though I liked Hawthorne's The House of the Seven Gables quite a bit more. This adaptation seems to leave a number of things out from what I can recall and has a different tone. Still, Lillian Gish is pretty good and I did enjoy the film.
A Taste of Honey (1961) - 7.5/10 - A 16 year old schoolgirl gets pregnant through a brief affair with a sailor and then has to mostly fend for herself as her single mother goes off with her latest boyfriend. She gets some help from a young gay friend. Rita Tushingham gives an excellent performance in the lead role and the supporting cast is also very good.
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960) - 7.5/10 - Albert Finney plays Arthur, an angry young man who works in a factory and doesn't want to end up like his parents. He goes out drinking and womanizing on weekends. One of the women that he is seeing is a bit older and the wife of a coworker. Another is about his own age and is more resistant to his advances. Finney does a nice job and the film is pretty good.
.
From Beyond the Grave (1974) - 7.5/10 - Four customers of an antiques shop find that if they cheat the proprietor (Peter Cushing) in some way, they will have to face the consequences of that later. This is a pretty nice anthology.
My Name is Joe (1998) - 7/10 - Joe is a recovering alcoholic in Glasgow who is out of work and on the dole. He runs an amateur football team with his friends and becomes romantically involved with a health care worker named Sarah. Problems arise which center around Joe's friend Liam and his junkie girlfriend Sabine. It's a decent film, but thank goodness for subtitles.
Nuts in May (1976) - 7/10 - A couple go camping in Dorset, hoping for some peace and quiet plus day trips to various tourist sites. The husband is pretty controlling and officious, not letting his wife hold the guidebook at sites and speaking for his wife on a number of occasions. They end up having some problems with other campers who are a bit more carefree with the campsite rules.
A Canterbury Tale (1944) - 7/10 - A British sergeant, an American sergeant, and a young woman are on their way to Canterbury and get off at a small village along the way. Somebody dumps glue on the woman's head and runs off leading the three to try and solve the mystery. This is a pleasant and entertaining film, even if there isn't any real conflict and the mystery doesn't amount to much.
The Blood on Satan's Claw (1971) - 7/10 - A fur covered skeleton is found buried in a field in an early 1700s village. Soon after, the youth of the village come under Satan's spell and start performing rituals in the woods. While not on the level of the Wicker Man, I thought this was good and the use of music was very good.
Brassed Off (1996) - 6.5/10 - A coal mine is facing closure, but at least some of the miners have their talented brass band and a national competition to take their minds off of things. I did enjoy the film, but it seemed kind of shallow,
The Italian Job (1969) - 6.5/10 - Charlie (Michael Caine) gets out of prison and sets out to meet an old partner about a job. He discovers that the partner was killed by the mafia, but left behind plans for a gold heist. He gathers a team and sets the plan in motion. The first hour of the film meanders about and didn't really hold my interest. However, the last 30-40 minutes was fun with the escape and the chase, etc.
The Belles of St. Trinian’s (1954) - 6/10 - The girls at St. Trinian's can pretty much do whatever they like. A scheme is hatched among some of the girls to abduct a talented racehorse while another group of girls plot to rescue the horse. There are all sorts of antics and the movie is occasionally amusing.
The Offence (1973) - 6/10 - Sean Connery stars as a Detective Sergeant who helps locate a missing girl who was abducted and raped. He then has a violent confrontation with the suspect in the interview room and has to deal with the fallout from that. Connery is okay, but the film isn't that great.
Carry On Up the Khyber (1968) - 5.5/10 - In the 1890s British Raj, the Indian fighters are scared to fight the British soldiers because of the stories that they don't wear anything under their 'skirts' when they fight. When evidence arises that this may not be true, a rebellion may be in the works. This is the 16th in a long series of Carry On films and if this is the best of them as some say, then I'm not very eager to watch any of the others,
Under the Skin (1997) - 5.5/10 - When their mother dies, two sisters deal with her death in different ways. Rose is pregnant and married and on the surface seems to be dealing with the death fairly well. Her younger sister, Rose (Samantha Morton), descends into a series of one night stands, drinking, and bad decisions. Morton gives a pretty good performance, but the film itself did little for me.
The Souvenir (2019) - 5.5/10 - A film student is trying to get her first feature film made, but starts dating a heroin addict who proves to be a drain on her finances. A lot of the technical aspects of the film are pretty good - music, cinematography, etc. - but the story and characters are pretty tedious much of the time
Dr. Phibes Rises Again (1972) - 5.5/10 - This was much less interesting than the first film. The revenge motive from the first film is absent and Phibes kind of seemed to be going through the motions.
Radio On (1979) - 5/10 - A man drives from London to Bristol after his brother dies. The film drew me in at the beginning with the David Bowie song, but that soon dissipated since the film was pretty boring and features long stretches with no dialogue. That in itself isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it just wasn't that interesting nor were the people in it. I don't think the use of black and white added anything here and it might have even been a bit better if it had been shot in color.
Scream and Scream Again (1970) - 5/10 - A serial killer is loose in London who rapes and drains the blood of his young female victims. There are a number of other mysterious things occurring in different locations. . It's all kind of a mess, though it does come together and get a bit better at the end. Vincent Price, Peter Cushing, and Christopher Lee each receive prominent billing despite having relatively small roles in the film.
Caravaggio (1986) - 4/10 - A dying Caravaggio looks back on his life. Caravaggio lived a fairly interesting life for what time he had, but I thought the movie was pretty dull and uninteresting.
Bad Timing (1980) - 4/10 - A woman overdoses and is taken to the hospital. Detectives interview her 'friend' and try to piece together what happened. The relationship between the two is slowly revealed through flashbacks. The directing and soundtrack weren't bad. I couldn't get into the story at all, though.
Visages d'enfants (1925) - 8.5/10 - Ten year old Jean is devastated when his mother dies. His father seems to have no skill at talking or dealing with Jean or his younger sister. Eventually, the father comes up with the bright idea to marry a recently widowed woman with a daughter about Jean's age so that she can take care of the house and children while he works and doesn't have to deal with it himself. The father also decides to send the son away on a trip with a family friend without telling him of the marriage that will take place while he is away. Jean's relationship with his new step-sister and step-mother gets off to a rocky start and goes downhill from there. The child actors did a very nice job and I enjoyed the film quite a bit.
Spione / Spies (1928) - 8.5/10 - Fritz Lang's followup to Metropolis doesn't approach that movie's level of entertainment, but it is still fun, looks great, and has nice acting performances. The film revolves around a romance between a Russian agent for an international spy ring and a government agent. There is a fair amount of intrigue and action with the last half hour of the film being my favorite part.
The Patsy (1928) - 8/10 - Marion Davies stars as Pat, a young woman whose overbearing mother and selfish sister Grace force her into the background. Her father is on her side, but is often bullied into submission himself. Pat is in love with her sister's boyfriend, Tony. Grace keeps Tony on a string, but also likes to see other men. Pat finally sets out to make a few changes to try and win Tony over and in the process makes her mother and sister think that she has gone crazy. Davies is very good here and is pretty funny with some of her antics after deciding to be more forward.
Brighton Rock (1948) - 8/10 - Pinkie is a violent sociopath who leads a small gang in Brighton. He sets his sights on a reporter who had gotten on his bad side in the past and later starts courting a young woman whose witness testimony could contradict his alibi. It's a nice crime film with a young Richard Attenborough in the lead.
City Girl (1930) - 8/10 - A Minnesota farmer sends his son to Chicago for the first time to sell the family's wheat crop. He insists on not selling below a minimum price per bushel and is real ass when the son returns with a lower price due to a bad market and a wife. It's a nice film, but the son turns really wishy washy when he is back under his father's thumb.
Elemental (2023) - 8/10 - A fire family emigrates the Fire Lands to Element City where members of the various elemental races all live. Years later, they have built a home and shop for themselves with the father looking forward to the daughter taking over the shop. Then fate takes a hand in things. I enjoyed this one quite a bit. It has a good romance and very nice animation.
Beggars of Life (1928) - 8/10 - A drifter stops at a house in hope of a meal and discovers that the man of the house has been shot and killed by his adopted daughter. The drifter (Richard Arlen) and the young woman (Louise Brooks) set out on the rails with the aim of making it to Canada, but a group of hobos and the police stand in their way. This was pretty good with nice performances from Arlen and Brooks plus Wallace Beery as the lead hobo.
La Roue / The Wheel (1923) - 7.5/10 - Sisif is a railroad worker who rescues a small girl after a train accident and raises her as his daughter when he discovers that she is now an orphan. He also has a son of a similar age and the two children grow up to be best friends. Sisif never tells the girl her true parentage and this causes a number of problems when she is an adult. It's a pretty good movie, though definitely on the long side. I don't think that I will try seek out the 7 hour version.
Home (2015) - 7.5/10 - Earth is taken over pretty quickly and easily by the Boov and the humans are relocated to towns in Australia. The Boov are on the run from other aliens who have been chasing them across the galaxy. One Boov who doesn't fit in meets a girl who managed to avoid being captured and the two become friends. The film was more fun and entertaining than I was expecting.
The Scarlet Letter (1926) - 7.5/10 - In Puritan Boston, Hester Prynne is punished for having a child out of wedlock. I read the book back in high school and thought it was okay, though I liked Hawthorne's The House of the Seven Gables quite a bit more. This adaptation seems to leave a number of things out from what I can recall and has a different tone. Still, Lillian Gish is pretty good and I did enjoy the film.
A Taste of Honey (1961) - 7.5/10 - A 16 year old schoolgirl gets pregnant through a brief affair with a sailor and then has to mostly fend for herself as her single mother goes off with her latest boyfriend. She gets some help from a young gay friend. Rita Tushingham gives an excellent performance in the lead role and the supporting cast is also very good.
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960) - 7.5/10 - Albert Finney plays Arthur, an angry young man who works in a factory and doesn't want to end up like his parents. He goes out drinking and womanizing on weekends. One of the women that he is seeing is a bit older and the wife of a coworker. Another is about his own age and is more resistant to his advances. Finney does a nice job and the film is pretty good.
.
From Beyond the Grave (1974) - 7.5/10 - Four customers of an antiques shop find that if they cheat the proprietor (Peter Cushing) in some way, they will have to face the consequences of that later. This is a pretty nice anthology.
My Name is Joe (1998) - 7/10 - Joe is a recovering alcoholic in Glasgow who is out of work and on the dole. He runs an amateur football team with his friends and becomes romantically involved with a health care worker named Sarah. Problems arise which center around Joe's friend Liam and his junkie girlfriend Sabine. It's a decent film, but thank goodness for subtitles.
Nuts in May (1976) - 7/10 - A couple go camping in Dorset, hoping for some peace and quiet plus day trips to various tourist sites. The husband is pretty controlling and officious, not letting his wife hold the guidebook at sites and speaking for his wife on a number of occasions. They end up having some problems with other campers who are a bit more carefree with the campsite rules.
A Canterbury Tale (1944) - 7/10 - A British sergeant, an American sergeant, and a young woman are on their way to Canterbury and get off at a small village along the way. Somebody dumps glue on the woman's head and runs off leading the three to try and solve the mystery. This is a pleasant and entertaining film, even if there isn't any real conflict and the mystery doesn't amount to much.
The Blood on Satan's Claw (1971) - 7/10 - A fur covered skeleton is found buried in a field in an early 1700s village. Soon after, the youth of the village come under Satan's spell and start performing rituals in the woods. While not on the level of the Wicker Man, I thought this was good and the use of music was very good.
Brassed Off (1996) - 6.5/10 - A coal mine is facing closure, but at least some of the miners have their talented brass band and a national competition to take their minds off of things. I did enjoy the film, but it seemed kind of shallow,
The Italian Job (1969) - 6.5/10 - Charlie (Michael Caine) gets out of prison and sets out to meet an old partner about a job. He discovers that the partner was killed by the mafia, but left behind plans for a gold heist. He gathers a team and sets the plan in motion. The first hour of the film meanders about and didn't really hold my interest. However, the last 30-40 minutes was fun with the escape and the chase, etc.
The Belles of St. Trinian’s (1954) - 6/10 - The girls at St. Trinian's can pretty much do whatever they like. A scheme is hatched among some of the girls to abduct a talented racehorse while another group of girls plot to rescue the horse. There are all sorts of antics and the movie is occasionally amusing.
The Offence (1973) - 6/10 - Sean Connery stars as a Detective Sergeant who helps locate a missing girl who was abducted and raped. He then has a violent confrontation with the suspect in the interview room and has to deal with the fallout from that. Connery is okay, but the film isn't that great.
Carry On Up the Khyber (1968) - 5.5/10 - In the 1890s British Raj, the Indian fighters are scared to fight the British soldiers because of the stories that they don't wear anything under their 'skirts' when they fight. When evidence arises that this may not be true, a rebellion may be in the works. This is the 16th in a long series of Carry On films and if this is the best of them as some say, then I'm not very eager to watch any of the others,
Under the Skin (1997) - 5.5/10 - When their mother dies, two sisters deal with her death in different ways. Rose is pregnant and married and on the surface seems to be dealing with the death fairly well. Her younger sister, Rose (Samantha Morton), descends into a series of one night stands, drinking, and bad decisions. Morton gives a pretty good performance, but the film itself did little for me.
The Souvenir (2019) - 5.5/10 - A film student is trying to get her first feature film made, but starts dating a heroin addict who proves to be a drain on her finances. A lot of the technical aspects of the film are pretty good - music, cinematography, etc. - but the story and characters are pretty tedious much of the time
Dr. Phibes Rises Again (1972) - 5.5/10 - This was much less interesting than the first film. The revenge motive from the first film is absent and Phibes kind of seemed to be going through the motions.
Radio On (1979) - 5/10 - A man drives from London to Bristol after his brother dies. The film drew me in at the beginning with the David Bowie song, but that soon dissipated since the film was pretty boring and features long stretches with no dialogue. That in itself isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it just wasn't that interesting nor were the people in it. I don't think the use of black and white added anything here and it might have even been a bit better if it had been shot in color.
Scream and Scream Again (1970) - 5/10 - A serial killer is loose in London who rapes and drains the blood of his young female victims. There are a number of other mysterious things occurring in different locations. . It's all kind of a mess, though it does come together and get a bit better at the end. Vincent Price, Peter Cushing, and Christopher Lee each receive prominent billing despite having relatively small roles in the film.
Caravaggio (1986) - 4/10 - A dying Caravaggio looks back on his life. Caravaggio lived a fairly interesting life for what time he had, but I thought the movie was pretty dull and uninteresting.
Bad Timing (1980) - 4/10 - A woman overdoses and is taken to the hospital. Detectives interview her 'friend' and try to piece together what happened. The relationship between the two is slowly revealed through flashbacks. The directing and soundtrack weren't bad. I couldn't get into the story at all, though.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
A Haunting in Venice (Kenneth Branagh, 2023) 7/10
This time its more cerebral - had to closely follow all the dialogue to understand what was happening. Certainly Venice is the star here - found it terribly overrated in real life - at least in pictures and moving images which the film begins and ends with. The picturesque canals, the imposing palazzi, the tiny squares in every nook and corner, the silently moving gondolas and the grand Piazza San Marco. The rest of the film, based on Agatha Christie's mystery novel, "Hallowe'en Party", is set inside a very dark haunted palazzo where the inevitable murders take place. Its 1947 and famous Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh), is enjoying retired life. Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey), his crime novelist friend, arrives and forcibly invites him to a halloween party which is to be followed by a séance at the home of a retired opera star (Kelly Reilly). The latter's beloved daughter drowned some time before and she wants to talk to her with the help of a medium (Michelle Yeoh). During the session the seemingly possessed medium is proved to be a fake but not before, while in a trance, she speaks in the dead girl's voice and says she was murdered and accuses someone in the room of the crime. There is an attempt on Poirot's life followed by the medium getting impaled to death. The disbelieving Poirot decides to solve the mystery and since a storm is blowing outside all guests are trapped inside the scary old house for the night with the killer amongst them. As in all Poirot mysteries there is an eclectic list of suspects - Ariadne Oliver, the opera star, her secretary companion, a traumatized doctor (Jamie Dornan), his precocious son, the dead girl's former fiancé, and Poirot's bodyguard. After Venice the second star of the film is the creepy house with its dark, dank rooms and strange noises and apparitions of the ghosts of dead children who were left to die in the basement years before. Helping to create the ominous sounds, look and tone of the story is the striking cinematography by Haris Zambarloukos along with the score by Hildur Guðnadóttir which go a long way to also invoke the horrors of WWII which had recently ended and was still fresh in the mind of some of the characters. The screenplay uses certain plot points from Christie's novel, retains some of the character names but completely changes the look, tone and location to visually dramatic Venice. It is a welcome addition to the series of Branagh directed Poirot stories which deviate from Christie's original interpretation where certain modern sensibilities are inserted to make it palatable for today's audiences. The actors here are fine but are completely overshadowed by the film's sumptuous production values.
The Dance of Death (David Giles, 1969) 8/10
Before Edward Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" there was Swedish playwright August Strindberg's lacerating account of a failed marriage in this adaptation of his play. Albee's play is clearly influenced by Strindberg. This filmed version of the play, first presented by the National Theatre Company, keeps the material totally stagebound as it revolves around - Alice (Getaldine McEwan), a former stage actress who gave up her career after getting married to seedy and egocentric artillery Captain (Laurence Olivier) who suffers from schizophrenia. Their marriage has been extremely difficult and on their 25th anniversary both finally lash out at each other. The catalyst is her divorced cousin (Robert Lang), a quarantine officer, who arrives for a visit and his relationship - as would-be lover - to the wife causes friction between the couple. Matters come to a final head when the cousin's son falls in love with the officer's outspoken daughter. As the young couple observe the power dynamics between their fathers the girl confronts her own which makes it clear that venom very much runs in the entire family and is here to stay. The film remains an important record of Olivier's acclaimed stage performance where he uses all the tricks of his trade to create this egocentric, nasty character who refuses to acknowledge that he has a serious illness. While Olivier is all bluster his co-star, Geraldine McEwan, who was also on stage with him, plays her part with a sly vicious calmness as she digs deep into her husband and proves to be an equal match in spewing venom. Fascinating look at two great actors going full throttle at each other.
Warpath (Byron Haskin, 1951) 7/10
A man (Edmond O'Brien) finds one of three men who killed his fiancé and before a shootout discovers the other two enlisted in the army. Joining the cavalry he immediately clashes with a sergeant (Forrest Tucker) whom he later suspects to be one of the killers. The third killer turns out to be the father (Dean Jagger) of the young woman (Polly Bergen) he is now in love with. Before he can do anything all of them find themselves captured by the Sioux who are planning to go up against General Custer at Little Big Horn. Action packed Western has a simmering hard-bitten O'Brien hell bent on revenge while falling in love with lovely Bergen. The lovely wide-spread Montana locations are superbly photographed by Ray Rennahan in Technicolor.
Candles at Nine (John Harlow, 1944) 6/10
An old dark house. A rich miser who mysteriosly dies with hints of murder. The reading of his will which disturbs all his greedy relatives as nothing goes to them. The beneficiary is a distant relative and in order to inherit his fortune she has to move into the spooky house and stay there for one month. She is a showgirl (Jessie Matthews) who isn't aware that someone is plotting to kill her. The plot - based on the 1943 novel "The Mouse Who Wouldn't Play Ball" by Anthony Gilbert - has been repeated countless times since, and here allows the delightfully buck-toothed charms of Matthews to shine in what was a sort of comeback to the big screen and her last lead role. Her comedic talents are utilized during a very funny drunk scene while her musical talents are on show during an elaborate song and dance number - "I'd Like to Share With You". The rest of the plot has her wide-eyed and screaming as the house takes over with its shadows and creaking floors. Adding to the sinister goings on are a butler and a housekeeper (Beatrix Lehmann in full-on "Mrs Danvers" mode). Adding a touch of romance is John Stuart - silent British star who appeared in three of Alfred Hitchcock's early films. The movie comes to life during the second half as the plot throws Matthews into a series of jump scares.
The Redhead and the Cowboy (Leslie Fenton, 1951) 4/10
It defeats the purpose for this to be in black and white when the film's title mentions the leading lady's redhead. Rather silly Civil War spy thriller where a cowpoke (Glenn Ford) is framed for murder and he gives chase to the glamorous lady (Rhonda Fleming) who was his alibi. She is a Confederate spy who has to deliver a message about a gold shipment. With the Civil War ending both sides are ripe with desperados and guerrilla fighters who end up chasing the two cross country. Also giving chase is a Union officer (Edmond O'Brien) who is pretending to be a cattleman. Low key film ambles along without any excitement whatsoever.
Shield For Murder (Edmond O'Brien & Howard W. Koch, 1954) 8/10
Superb B-noir - crooked cop (Edmond O'Brien) shoots a bookmaker in cold blood and steals a wad of dough from his pocket. He makes the murder look like a case of resisting arrest. The bookies send two thugs after him and harras his girlfriend. When a deaf-mute witness also turns up dead the cop's partner (John Agar) becomes suspicious. Action-packed film has an intense O'Brien showing noir attitude and resorting to cruel violence - the actor won his Oscar the same year but for a different film. A highlight is Carolyn Jones as a boozy blonde barfly who comes onto O'Brien.
Dragoon Wells Massacre (Harold D. Schuster, 1957) 7/10
A group of disparate individuals - an army Captain (Dennis O'Keefe), his former lover (Mona Freeman), two convicts (Barry Sullivan & Jack Elam), a renegade gun-and-whisky runner (Sebastian Cabot), an entertainer (Katy Jurado), and an orphan child - find themselves pursued across the Arizona desert by marauding Apaches. Stock Western situation has suspense, is superbly staged and magnificently shot in colour by William Clothier. For a B-film the characterizations are very well shaded in the inventive screenplay.
Doctor Zhivago (David Lean, 1965) 10/10
After decades a review of this classic film after my recent visit to Mother Russia. This is an extraordinary collaboration between Italian producer Carlo Ponti and British director David Lean as they bring the classic Russian novel by Boris Pasternak to the big screen. A tender love story set during the vast expanse of the turbulent Russian Revolution. I love how Robert Bolt's screenplay keeps creating coincidences that connect doctor-poet Yuri Zhivago (Omar Sharif) and Lara (Julie Christie) throughout the first half of the film until they finally meet as doctor and nurse out in the countryside during WWI. And the significance of the tram car on the Moscow street which is where they first inadvertently touch each other and at the end where he sees her for the last time. Both are married - he to an aristocratic family friend (Geraldine Chaplin) and she to an idealistic revolutionary (Tom Courtenay). The two star-crossed lovers fall deeply in love while the world comes crashing down around them. Lean's epic film - shot in Spain and Finland - is remembered for its iconic music score by Maurice Jarre - especially the now instantly recognizable "Lara's theme", the sumptuous cinematography of Freddie Young where he uses lighting in highly inventive ways, the huge sets depicting Moscow, and the swooningly romantic moments between Sharif and Christie. A topnotch supporting cast - Sir Ralph Richardson, Siobhan McKenna, a memorable Rod Steiger, Alec Guinness, Rita Tushingham, Klaus Kinski - play important characters surrounding the two leads. The film won Oscars for Bolt's screenplay, the production design, music score, costumes, and cinematography. The film, Lean, Tom Courtenay, the film's editing and sound design were nominated.
The Old Man and the Sea (Aleksandr Petrov, 1999) 10/10
Extraordinary Russian animated short film (just 20 minutes) is based on the classic Pulitzer and Nobel prize-winning novella by Ernest Hemingway. A poor aging Cuban fisherman battles the elements at sea as he hooks a huge marlin only to be beaten by deadly sharks that feast on the caught fish. It is a story of survival, hope and perseverance. Russian animator Petrov's superb images in the film were created using the technique of pastel oil paintings on glass. Many images were created using his fingertips in addition to various paintbrushes after which each frame was photographed. The stunning result has each frame of the film looking like an oil painting in motion. This was the first animated film shot in IMAX and deservedly won an Academy Award in the animated short-film category.
This time its more cerebral - had to closely follow all the dialogue to understand what was happening. Certainly Venice is the star here - found it terribly overrated in real life - at least in pictures and moving images which the film begins and ends with. The picturesque canals, the imposing palazzi, the tiny squares in every nook and corner, the silently moving gondolas and the grand Piazza San Marco. The rest of the film, based on Agatha Christie's mystery novel, "Hallowe'en Party", is set inside a very dark haunted palazzo where the inevitable murders take place. Its 1947 and famous Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh), is enjoying retired life. Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey), his crime novelist friend, arrives and forcibly invites him to a halloween party which is to be followed by a séance at the home of a retired opera star (Kelly Reilly). The latter's beloved daughter drowned some time before and she wants to talk to her with the help of a medium (Michelle Yeoh). During the session the seemingly possessed medium is proved to be a fake but not before, while in a trance, she speaks in the dead girl's voice and says she was murdered and accuses someone in the room of the crime. There is an attempt on Poirot's life followed by the medium getting impaled to death. The disbelieving Poirot decides to solve the mystery and since a storm is blowing outside all guests are trapped inside the scary old house for the night with the killer amongst them. As in all Poirot mysteries there is an eclectic list of suspects - Ariadne Oliver, the opera star, her secretary companion, a traumatized doctor (Jamie Dornan), his precocious son, the dead girl's former fiancé, and Poirot's bodyguard. After Venice the second star of the film is the creepy house with its dark, dank rooms and strange noises and apparitions of the ghosts of dead children who were left to die in the basement years before. Helping to create the ominous sounds, look and tone of the story is the striking cinematography by Haris Zambarloukos along with the score by Hildur Guðnadóttir which go a long way to also invoke the horrors of WWII which had recently ended and was still fresh in the mind of some of the characters. The screenplay uses certain plot points from Christie's novel, retains some of the character names but completely changes the look, tone and location to visually dramatic Venice. It is a welcome addition to the series of Branagh directed Poirot stories which deviate from Christie's original interpretation where certain modern sensibilities are inserted to make it palatable for today's audiences. The actors here are fine but are completely overshadowed by the film's sumptuous production values.
The Dance of Death (David Giles, 1969) 8/10
Before Edward Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" there was Swedish playwright August Strindberg's lacerating account of a failed marriage in this adaptation of his play. Albee's play is clearly influenced by Strindberg. This filmed version of the play, first presented by the National Theatre Company, keeps the material totally stagebound as it revolves around - Alice (Getaldine McEwan), a former stage actress who gave up her career after getting married to seedy and egocentric artillery Captain (Laurence Olivier) who suffers from schizophrenia. Their marriage has been extremely difficult and on their 25th anniversary both finally lash out at each other. The catalyst is her divorced cousin (Robert Lang), a quarantine officer, who arrives for a visit and his relationship - as would-be lover - to the wife causes friction between the couple. Matters come to a final head when the cousin's son falls in love with the officer's outspoken daughter. As the young couple observe the power dynamics between their fathers the girl confronts her own which makes it clear that venom very much runs in the entire family and is here to stay. The film remains an important record of Olivier's acclaimed stage performance where he uses all the tricks of his trade to create this egocentric, nasty character who refuses to acknowledge that he has a serious illness. While Olivier is all bluster his co-star, Geraldine McEwan, who was also on stage with him, plays her part with a sly vicious calmness as she digs deep into her husband and proves to be an equal match in spewing venom. Fascinating look at two great actors going full throttle at each other.
Warpath (Byron Haskin, 1951) 7/10
A man (Edmond O'Brien) finds one of three men who killed his fiancé and before a shootout discovers the other two enlisted in the army. Joining the cavalry he immediately clashes with a sergeant (Forrest Tucker) whom he later suspects to be one of the killers. The third killer turns out to be the father (Dean Jagger) of the young woman (Polly Bergen) he is now in love with. Before he can do anything all of them find themselves captured by the Sioux who are planning to go up against General Custer at Little Big Horn. Action packed Western has a simmering hard-bitten O'Brien hell bent on revenge while falling in love with lovely Bergen. The lovely wide-spread Montana locations are superbly photographed by Ray Rennahan in Technicolor.
Candles at Nine (John Harlow, 1944) 6/10
An old dark house. A rich miser who mysteriosly dies with hints of murder. The reading of his will which disturbs all his greedy relatives as nothing goes to them. The beneficiary is a distant relative and in order to inherit his fortune she has to move into the spooky house and stay there for one month. She is a showgirl (Jessie Matthews) who isn't aware that someone is plotting to kill her. The plot - based on the 1943 novel "The Mouse Who Wouldn't Play Ball" by Anthony Gilbert - has been repeated countless times since, and here allows the delightfully buck-toothed charms of Matthews to shine in what was a sort of comeback to the big screen and her last lead role. Her comedic talents are utilized during a very funny drunk scene while her musical talents are on show during an elaborate song and dance number - "I'd Like to Share With You". The rest of the plot has her wide-eyed and screaming as the house takes over with its shadows and creaking floors. Adding to the sinister goings on are a butler and a housekeeper (Beatrix Lehmann in full-on "Mrs Danvers" mode). Adding a touch of romance is John Stuart - silent British star who appeared in three of Alfred Hitchcock's early films. The movie comes to life during the second half as the plot throws Matthews into a series of jump scares.
The Redhead and the Cowboy (Leslie Fenton, 1951) 4/10
It defeats the purpose for this to be in black and white when the film's title mentions the leading lady's redhead. Rather silly Civil War spy thriller where a cowpoke (Glenn Ford) is framed for murder and he gives chase to the glamorous lady (Rhonda Fleming) who was his alibi. She is a Confederate spy who has to deliver a message about a gold shipment. With the Civil War ending both sides are ripe with desperados and guerrilla fighters who end up chasing the two cross country. Also giving chase is a Union officer (Edmond O'Brien) who is pretending to be a cattleman. Low key film ambles along without any excitement whatsoever.
Shield For Murder (Edmond O'Brien & Howard W. Koch, 1954) 8/10
Superb B-noir - crooked cop (Edmond O'Brien) shoots a bookmaker in cold blood and steals a wad of dough from his pocket. He makes the murder look like a case of resisting arrest. The bookies send two thugs after him and harras his girlfriend. When a deaf-mute witness also turns up dead the cop's partner (John Agar) becomes suspicious. Action-packed film has an intense O'Brien showing noir attitude and resorting to cruel violence - the actor won his Oscar the same year but for a different film. A highlight is Carolyn Jones as a boozy blonde barfly who comes onto O'Brien.
Dragoon Wells Massacre (Harold D. Schuster, 1957) 7/10
A group of disparate individuals - an army Captain (Dennis O'Keefe), his former lover (Mona Freeman), two convicts (Barry Sullivan & Jack Elam), a renegade gun-and-whisky runner (Sebastian Cabot), an entertainer (Katy Jurado), and an orphan child - find themselves pursued across the Arizona desert by marauding Apaches. Stock Western situation has suspense, is superbly staged and magnificently shot in colour by William Clothier. For a B-film the characterizations are very well shaded in the inventive screenplay.
Doctor Zhivago (David Lean, 1965) 10/10
After decades a review of this classic film after my recent visit to Mother Russia. This is an extraordinary collaboration between Italian producer Carlo Ponti and British director David Lean as they bring the classic Russian novel by Boris Pasternak to the big screen. A tender love story set during the vast expanse of the turbulent Russian Revolution. I love how Robert Bolt's screenplay keeps creating coincidences that connect doctor-poet Yuri Zhivago (Omar Sharif) and Lara (Julie Christie) throughout the first half of the film until they finally meet as doctor and nurse out in the countryside during WWI. And the significance of the tram car on the Moscow street which is where they first inadvertently touch each other and at the end where he sees her for the last time. Both are married - he to an aristocratic family friend (Geraldine Chaplin) and she to an idealistic revolutionary (Tom Courtenay). The two star-crossed lovers fall deeply in love while the world comes crashing down around them. Lean's epic film - shot in Spain and Finland - is remembered for its iconic music score by Maurice Jarre - especially the now instantly recognizable "Lara's theme", the sumptuous cinematography of Freddie Young where he uses lighting in highly inventive ways, the huge sets depicting Moscow, and the swooningly romantic moments between Sharif and Christie. A topnotch supporting cast - Sir Ralph Richardson, Siobhan McKenna, a memorable Rod Steiger, Alec Guinness, Rita Tushingham, Klaus Kinski - play important characters surrounding the two leads. The film won Oscars for Bolt's screenplay, the production design, music score, costumes, and cinematography. The film, Lean, Tom Courtenay, the film's editing and sound design were nominated.
The Old Man and the Sea (Aleksandr Petrov, 1999) 10/10
Extraordinary Russian animated short film (just 20 minutes) is based on the classic Pulitzer and Nobel prize-winning novella by Ernest Hemingway. A poor aging Cuban fisherman battles the elements at sea as he hooks a huge marlin only to be beaten by deadly sharks that feast on the caught fish. It is a story of survival, hope and perseverance. Russian animator Petrov's superb images in the film were created using the technique of pastel oil paintings on glass. Many images were created using his fingertips in addition to various paintbrushes after which each frame was photographed. The stunning result has each frame of the film looking like an oil painting in motion. This was the first animated film shot in IMAX and deservedly won an Academy Award in the animated short-film category.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
La donna della domenica / The Sunday Woman (Luigi Comencini, 1975) 7/10
Comencini, one of the masters of the "commedia all'italiana" genre, comes up with this murder-mystery - a satire of Turin's upper classes - which has faint echoes of a giallo although the screenplay moves more in the direction of a sunny comedy of very dry manners. A slimy architect is found bludgeoned to death with a giant wooden penis sculpture. Chief amongst the suspects is a wealthy married lady (Jacqueline Bisset) who, in a letter to her gay friend (Jean-Louis Trintignant), discusses eliminating him. The letter is given to the police inspector (Marcello Mastroianni) by her two servants who were both fired from their jobs recently. The detective finds his investigation constantly interrupted by the lady who takes a perverse delight in the case despite being a suspect - a visit to the factory that manufactures the outrageous murder weapon is quite hilarious as the detective has to not only put up with her prying questions but can't quite tell if she is trying to seduce him as well. Meanwhile her friend's lover starts acting like a sleuth on his own which does not end well. Breezy, laid back scenario is greatly helped by the three stars (all dubbed) who seem to be having a great time with their parts - the chemistry between Mastroianni and Bisset sizzles. The film, which tackles themes of adultery and prostitition, is also ahead of its time in its matter-of-fact portrayal of the gay couple who are presented without the exaggerated affectations attributed then to such characters in films where they were presented merely to provoke laughter. The drama is played out to an excellent score by Ennio Morricone.
Cover Up (Alfred E. Green, 1949) 7/10
Sharply written B-noir (courtesy of the leading man) mixes suspense and folksy charm. An insurance detective (Dennis O'Keefe) arrives in a small Mid-Western town to investigate the suicide of an old man. Beneficiary of his insurance policy is his niece. However, no gun was found near the body and nor does the town sheriff (William Bendix) provide any information when questioned. In fact most of the town folk are hostile towards him as he begins to suspect that a murder is being covered up. The screenplay sets the plot during Christmas with a romance thrown in with a young girl (the stunningly beautiful Barbara Britton) whose father becomes his chief murder suspect. Charming little film, with doses of wry humour, keeps you guessing to the very end.
Passage West (Lewis R. Foster, 1951) 6/10
Offbeat Western mixes a dose of religiosity with the genre's usual tropes. A gang of six convicts intercept a California-bound wagon train and forcibly attach themselves in order to escape detention by the law. The head crook (John Payne) clashes with the preacher (Dennis O'Keefe) leading the wagon train but has an epiphany at the end of the trail leading to a sacrifice when a gold mine is discovered and the convicts go on a rampage. Arleen Whelan is a feisty mourner in black who can use a whip, changes from her black outfit to something frilly and comes between the two virile men. Slow moving but interesting film is shot in gorgeous colour by Loyal Griggs. A surprise hit at the boxoffice.
The Fake (Godfrey Grayson, 1953) 6/10
Leonardo da Vinci's "Madonna and Child" painting arrives at the Tate gallery in London for exhibition. However, it turns out to be a fake and an American investigator (Dennis O'Keefe) is assigned to discover its whereabouts. Already in search of two other stolen masterpieces he falls in love with an employee (Coleen Gray) at the Gallery whose father is an expert at drawing duplicates of famous paintings. Interesting B-film keeps up the suspense right till the end. An appealing cast of Brutish character actors - Guy Middleton, John Laurie, Hugh Williams - appear in support. Many scenes are actually filmed inside the Tate Gallery.
Night of the Fox (Charles Jarrott, 1990) 5/10
A US Army colonel (David Birney), who knows details about the planned D-Day landings, is washed up on the island of Nazi-occupied Jersey. A former academic and now a covert operator and ruthless killer (George Peppard) is recruited along with a nurse (Deborah Raffin) to go in and get the colonel out. However, their plans are thwarted when Field Marshall Rommel (Michael York) arrives on the island on an inspection visit. Based on the espionage thriller novel by Jack Higgins this tv miniseries goes through the paces with a cast of familiar actors now slumming on television - a pudgy Peppard at the tail end of his career, York who still had the bloom of youth which would later turn ugly courtesy of a series of relentless face lifts, and a typecast Sir John Mills as a Military senior. Pretty Deborah Raffin, who was in a lot of familiar films during the 1970s but never managed to break out as a star, provides the obligatory romantic angle in the film.
Russian Ark (Alexander Sokurov, 2002) 10/10
An unnamed narrator and a European (both often rather annoying) wander through the Winter Palace (The Hermitage) encountering three centuries of Russian history but not in chronological order. This ambitious film was shot in one take (?) in its entirety as the camera eavesdrops on events among royalty and the aristocricy in different rooms of the huge palace. And in doing so the film explores the famous Hermitage Museum room-by-room with its glorious treasures. Dream-like film looks in on Peter the Great, the stunning operas and plays shown during the era of Catherine the Great, an audience with Tsar Nicholas I, a close-up view of the family life of Tsar Nicholas II, people touring the museum, a peep during the Stalin era when the palace needed repairs, followed by the period when Leningrad was under the 900-day siege during World War II. Sumptuous production has eye-popping sets and costumes with a grand orchestra playing during a ball followed by guests exiting the palace via the spectacular main staircase of the palace. Mesmerizing film goes beyond its technical brilliance to present a time and era in all its flamboyant glory.
I Was an Adventuress (Gregory Ratoff, 1940) 6/10
A ballerina (Vera Zorina), turned jewel thief, cons unsuspecting rich men of their jewels with the help of two accomplices (Erich von Stroheim & Peter Lorre). When she falls in love with their next target (Richard Greene) she decides to give up her career as a thief but finds resistance from her two partners. Solid little B-film somewhat steals the plot of "The Last of Mrs Cheyney" and has the delightful bantering between von Stroheim and Lorre which the latter would enhance in his films during the decade with Sydney Greenstreet. Greene is a serviceable leading man but his co-star Vera Zorina is quite stiff throughout. However, she comes alive during the film's climax in an excerpt from Tchaikovski's ballet "Swan Lake" where she dances the role of the Black Swan choreographed by her then husband the great George Balanchine who also dances with her. Ratoff's feather-light direction is a chip off the Lubitsch block. Or at least he tries in that direction.
Pick Up (Marion Gering, 1933) 5/10
A woman's "scarlet past" - she (Sylvia Sidney) is innocent but gets convicted with her crooked husband - catches up with her after she is released from prison. Given shelter by a cab driver (George Raft) she falls in love with him but matters turn deadly when her husband busts out of jail and involves her in further dirty activities. Pre-code crime drama has nothing original plotwise but the two leads sparkle as they gently fall in love and look after each other. In fact the noisy violent sequence with the convict husband and an encounter Raft has with a loud-mouthed golddigger becomes an ugly intrusion into the easy going plot involving the two leads.
La grande strada azzurra / The Wide Blue Road (Gillo Pontecorvo, 1957) 8/10
Renegade fisherman (Yves Montand) uses illegal tactics to provide a comfortable life for his family. While the rest of the village fisherman use nets he uses dynamite. While his friends don't resent him the coast guard suspects but cannot catch him in the act. Capitalist ingenuity pitting against communist collectivism is the underlying theme in Pontecorvo's screenplay. The scenes set on the ocean have an extraordinary beauty with the magnetic Montand at his brooding best - equivalent to both Brando and Dean in star charsima. Apparently the star could not swim yet he bravely attempts all the scenes set in the water. As his wife the lovely Alida Valli appears totally deglamorized while future star Terence Hill has a small part as his daughter's suitor.
Comencini, one of the masters of the "commedia all'italiana" genre, comes up with this murder-mystery - a satire of Turin's upper classes - which has faint echoes of a giallo although the screenplay moves more in the direction of a sunny comedy of very dry manners. A slimy architect is found bludgeoned to death with a giant wooden penis sculpture. Chief amongst the suspects is a wealthy married lady (Jacqueline Bisset) who, in a letter to her gay friend (Jean-Louis Trintignant), discusses eliminating him. The letter is given to the police inspector (Marcello Mastroianni) by her two servants who were both fired from their jobs recently. The detective finds his investigation constantly interrupted by the lady who takes a perverse delight in the case despite being a suspect - a visit to the factory that manufactures the outrageous murder weapon is quite hilarious as the detective has to not only put up with her prying questions but can't quite tell if she is trying to seduce him as well. Meanwhile her friend's lover starts acting like a sleuth on his own which does not end well. Breezy, laid back scenario is greatly helped by the three stars (all dubbed) who seem to be having a great time with their parts - the chemistry between Mastroianni and Bisset sizzles. The film, which tackles themes of adultery and prostitition, is also ahead of its time in its matter-of-fact portrayal of the gay couple who are presented without the exaggerated affectations attributed then to such characters in films where they were presented merely to provoke laughter. The drama is played out to an excellent score by Ennio Morricone.
Cover Up (Alfred E. Green, 1949) 7/10
Sharply written B-noir (courtesy of the leading man) mixes suspense and folksy charm. An insurance detective (Dennis O'Keefe) arrives in a small Mid-Western town to investigate the suicide of an old man. Beneficiary of his insurance policy is his niece. However, no gun was found near the body and nor does the town sheriff (William Bendix) provide any information when questioned. In fact most of the town folk are hostile towards him as he begins to suspect that a murder is being covered up. The screenplay sets the plot during Christmas with a romance thrown in with a young girl (the stunningly beautiful Barbara Britton) whose father becomes his chief murder suspect. Charming little film, with doses of wry humour, keeps you guessing to the very end.
Passage West (Lewis R. Foster, 1951) 6/10
Offbeat Western mixes a dose of religiosity with the genre's usual tropes. A gang of six convicts intercept a California-bound wagon train and forcibly attach themselves in order to escape detention by the law. The head crook (John Payne) clashes with the preacher (Dennis O'Keefe) leading the wagon train but has an epiphany at the end of the trail leading to a sacrifice when a gold mine is discovered and the convicts go on a rampage. Arleen Whelan is a feisty mourner in black who can use a whip, changes from her black outfit to something frilly and comes between the two virile men. Slow moving but interesting film is shot in gorgeous colour by Loyal Griggs. A surprise hit at the boxoffice.
The Fake (Godfrey Grayson, 1953) 6/10
Leonardo da Vinci's "Madonna and Child" painting arrives at the Tate gallery in London for exhibition. However, it turns out to be a fake and an American investigator (Dennis O'Keefe) is assigned to discover its whereabouts. Already in search of two other stolen masterpieces he falls in love with an employee (Coleen Gray) at the Gallery whose father is an expert at drawing duplicates of famous paintings. Interesting B-film keeps up the suspense right till the end. An appealing cast of Brutish character actors - Guy Middleton, John Laurie, Hugh Williams - appear in support. Many scenes are actually filmed inside the Tate Gallery.
Night of the Fox (Charles Jarrott, 1990) 5/10
A US Army colonel (David Birney), who knows details about the planned D-Day landings, is washed up on the island of Nazi-occupied Jersey. A former academic and now a covert operator and ruthless killer (George Peppard) is recruited along with a nurse (Deborah Raffin) to go in and get the colonel out. However, their plans are thwarted when Field Marshall Rommel (Michael York) arrives on the island on an inspection visit. Based on the espionage thriller novel by Jack Higgins this tv miniseries goes through the paces with a cast of familiar actors now slumming on television - a pudgy Peppard at the tail end of his career, York who still had the bloom of youth which would later turn ugly courtesy of a series of relentless face lifts, and a typecast Sir John Mills as a Military senior. Pretty Deborah Raffin, who was in a lot of familiar films during the 1970s but never managed to break out as a star, provides the obligatory romantic angle in the film.
Russian Ark (Alexander Sokurov, 2002) 10/10
An unnamed narrator and a European (both often rather annoying) wander through the Winter Palace (The Hermitage) encountering three centuries of Russian history but not in chronological order. This ambitious film was shot in one take (?) in its entirety as the camera eavesdrops on events among royalty and the aristocricy in different rooms of the huge palace. And in doing so the film explores the famous Hermitage Museum room-by-room with its glorious treasures. Dream-like film looks in on Peter the Great, the stunning operas and plays shown during the era of Catherine the Great, an audience with Tsar Nicholas I, a close-up view of the family life of Tsar Nicholas II, people touring the museum, a peep during the Stalin era when the palace needed repairs, followed by the period when Leningrad was under the 900-day siege during World War II. Sumptuous production has eye-popping sets and costumes with a grand orchestra playing during a ball followed by guests exiting the palace via the spectacular main staircase of the palace. Mesmerizing film goes beyond its technical brilliance to present a time and era in all its flamboyant glory.
I Was an Adventuress (Gregory Ratoff, 1940) 6/10
A ballerina (Vera Zorina), turned jewel thief, cons unsuspecting rich men of their jewels with the help of two accomplices (Erich von Stroheim & Peter Lorre). When she falls in love with their next target (Richard Greene) she decides to give up her career as a thief but finds resistance from her two partners. Solid little B-film somewhat steals the plot of "The Last of Mrs Cheyney" and has the delightful bantering between von Stroheim and Lorre which the latter would enhance in his films during the decade with Sydney Greenstreet. Greene is a serviceable leading man but his co-star Vera Zorina is quite stiff throughout. However, she comes alive during the film's climax in an excerpt from Tchaikovski's ballet "Swan Lake" where she dances the role of the Black Swan choreographed by her then husband the great George Balanchine who also dances with her. Ratoff's feather-light direction is a chip off the Lubitsch block. Or at least he tries in that direction.
Pick Up (Marion Gering, 1933) 5/10
A woman's "scarlet past" - she (Sylvia Sidney) is innocent but gets convicted with her crooked husband - catches up with her after she is released from prison. Given shelter by a cab driver (George Raft) she falls in love with him but matters turn deadly when her husband busts out of jail and involves her in further dirty activities. Pre-code crime drama has nothing original plotwise but the two leads sparkle as they gently fall in love and look after each other. In fact the noisy violent sequence with the convict husband and an encounter Raft has with a loud-mouthed golddigger becomes an ugly intrusion into the easy going plot involving the two leads.
La grande strada azzurra / The Wide Blue Road (Gillo Pontecorvo, 1957) 8/10
Renegade fisherman (Yves Montand) uses illegal tactics to provide a comfortable life for his family. While the rest of the village fisherman use nets he uses dynamite. While his friends don't resent him the coast guard suspects but cannot catch him in the act. Capitalist ingenuity pitting against communist collectivism is the underlying theme in Pontecorvo's screenplay. The scenes set on the ocean have an extraordinary beauty with the magnetic Montand at his brooding best - equivalent to both Brando and Dean in star charsima. Apparently the star could not swim yet he bravely attempts all the scenes set in the water. As his wife the lovely Alida Valli appears totally deglamorized while future star Terence Hill has a small part as his daughter's suitor.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Underground (1928) - 8.5/10 - Nell sells scarves in a department store. One day, she meets Bill, a porter in the Underground and the two fall for each other. Bert is a rougher type who works in the powerhouse and he sets his sights on Nell also and will stoop to dirty tricks to get what he wants. This is a very nice film.
It (1927) - 8.5/10 - Clara Bow is very good as sales girl Betty Lou Spence. She works at a department store and falls for the boss. He becomes enchanted with her as well when he sees her at dinner one night, not knowing that she is one of his employees. There's a fair amount of comedy here along with romance and misunderstandings. The plot isn't necessarily the most extraordinary, but Clara Bow really makes it work. She's got 'it'.
Filibus (1915) - 8/10 - Filibus is a female thief who flies around with her crew in a zeppelin, lowering herself down to the scenes of her crimes and then escaping back up to the ship. A detective starts his pursuit of her, but she often appears to be several steps ahead of him, even going so far as to disguise herself as a man in order to woo the detective's sister. It's a pretty entertaining film.
Germinal (1913) - 8/10 - Etienne Lantier is fired from his job for standing up to a supervisor. It isn't long before he gets another job as a miner, but there are problems there as well. This leads to the workers going on strike and protesting conditions there. I read and loved the novel back in high school, though it's been nearly 40 years now since I read the book. I enjoyed the film and it seems modern in a number of ways, not just in the 2.5 hour runtime.
The Devil Rides Out (1968) - 8/10 - Terence Fisher - Christopher Lee and friends battle a group of Satanists. I liked this one a lot.
A Town Called Panic (2009) - 8/10 - Cowboy, Indian, and Horse live together in a rural area. It's Horse's birthday, but Cowboy and Indian forgot so they scramble to get him a birthday present. They screw up an online order which leads to all sorts of mayhem and destruction. This is filled with many crazy scenarios and I thought it was a lot of fun.
Oliver Twist (1948) - 8/10 - This was a nice adaptation of the Dickens classic.
Hobson's Choice (1954) - 8/10 - Charles Laughton portrays a bootmaker during Victorian times. He is a widower who has used his three adult daughters as unpaid workers in his shop for much of their life. The daughters want to get married, but he doesn't want to pay the customary marriage settlement and he also doesn't want to lose the help, especially that of the eldest daughter. Laughton is good in this comedy/drama as is Brenda De Banzie as his eldest daughter, Maggie.
3 Bad Men (1926) - 8/10 - Three outlaws end up helping a young woman whose wagon was attacked by other outlaws. Since her father was killed, they look after her as sort of adopted uncles and protect her from an unscrupulous sheriff. It's a nice western.
Train Birds / Zugvögel – einmal nach Inari (1998) - 7.5/10 - Hannes is a beer truck driver in Germany who is planning to head to Inari in Finland over his upcoming holiday so that he can participate in a competition using his expertise in train schedules. When his new boss tells him that if he goes, he shouldn't bother to come back, he gets mad and leaves anyway. He meets some interesting people along the way. I enjoyed this one quite a bit. It was pretty entertaining. I also laughed at the randomness of seeing a guy in a Detroit Lions jacket (my hometown football team) during the journey.
Monsters (2010) - 7.5/10 - Large tentacled alien creatures started appearing in Mexico six years before the film takes place after a NASA probe crash landed there. A large part of Mexico is now quarantined as a result. A journalist is sent by his boss to find the boss's daughter in Mexico and get her clear of the infected area and back to the United States. This is easier said than done, but they start out on their journey. This was a nice low budget sf film.
The End of the World (1916) - 7.5/10 - A mine owner elopes with the daughter of one of the families in the town where his mine is situated. Years later, a comet is sighted approaching Earth and predictions are that it will cause a lot of destruction in that part of Europe. The mine owner uses this to try and make a fortune while also having a plan to ride out the devastation underground in his mine. The effects are pretty good here and while some of the acting is definitely old fashioned, the story remains interesting and human nature seems to have remained mostly unchanged in the century since the film was released.
Victory (1919) - 7.5/10 - Heyst likes to keep to himself for the most part. He lives on an otherwise deserted island in the South Seas. He visits a neighboring island and on impulse, helps a young woman escape and takes her back to his island. The woman's employer sends three thugs after them with talk of treasure.
The Blue Lamp (1950) - 7.5/10 - Basil Dearden - This police procedural involves a police officer who is murdered and the search for his killer. It was pretty well done.
Barrabas (1919) - 7/10 - A banker named Strélitz is a criminal mastermind who uses lies, blackmail, and intimidation to get what he wants. A lawyer and several others set out to bring him down, but it isn't easy. This is a good crime thriller. It meanders quite a bit early on, but becomes much better and more interesting in the second half. I would put it about on par with Judex, but well below Tih Minh.
Vampire Circus (1972) - 7/10 - Villagers kill a vampire count who had been killing residents, including children. Fifteen years later, his relatives arrive in the form of a circus to take their revenge and to terrorize the villagers anew. They also want to bring the count back. This was more entertaining than I expected.
Shallow Grave (1994) - 7/10 - Danny Boyle - Three flatmates interview potential candidates for a fourth person to join them. They finally rent out the extra room only to have the person die on their first night, leaving behind a suitcase full of money that leads to a number of problems.
Whisky Galore! (1949) - 6.5/10 - A freighter carrying 50,000 cases of whisky hits a reef and sinks off the coast of a Scottish island. Before it sinks, though, the islanders salvage many of the cases and hide the bottles from the excise men. There are some funny bits, mostly revolving around the various places and ways that the islanders hide the whisky, but overall the film was fairly mediocre.
Gandahar (1987) - 6.5/10 - On the planet Gandahar, people live a peaceful life. One day, invaders arrive and start turning people into stone. Sylvain is sent to investigate and find the cause of the problem. The character designs are interesting and we get time travel, mutants, and more. However, the story itself was a bit convoluted and was less interesting. I didn't like this anywhere near as much as Fantastic Planet.
Gozu (2003) - 6/10 - Minami is a yakuza who is ordered to drive his friend and associate to his death since the colleague has become paranoid and a detriment to the organization. The colleague accidentally dies en route, but then body disappears and things get weird. The movie had some strange stuff, but wasn't really as weird as I was given to expect, though the bit with the ladle was definitely out there and what followed was even stranger. I found much of the film to be kind of boring, though.
Theatre of Blood (1973) - 6/10 - Vincent Price stars as a Shakespearean actor who is thought to be dead. He uses a number of disguises to get back at critics that he thinks wrongfully denied him a major award. The humor didn't totally work for me and the film ended up being only mildly interesting.
24 Hour Party People (2002) - 6/10 - The film follows the life of music promoter Tony Wilson starting in the mid-70s. He was part owner of a record label and popular nightclub. The film was okay, but surprisingly boring given the subject matter. I think Steve Coogan as Tony Wilson was a big part of that.
Chicken Little (2005) - 5.5/10 - It was dumb, but I kind of enjoyed it.
Song at Midnight (1935) - 5/10 - This Chinese version of Phantom of the Opera has plenty of music at times, but the story and acting just weren't all that interesting.
Blue (1993) - 5/10 - The audio is well done and the idea is kind of interesting, but this really wasn't my thing.
Urotsukidoji: Legend of the Overfiend (1989) - 3/10 - This was pretty bad.
It (1927) - 8.5/10 - Clara Bow is very good as sales girl Betty Lou Spence. She works at a department store and falls for the boss. He becomes enchanted with her as well when he sees her at dinner one night, not knowing that she is one of his employees. There's a fair amount of comedy here along with romance and misunderstandings. The plot isn't necessarily the most extraordinary, but Clara Bow really makes it work. She's got 'it'.
Filibus (1915) - 8/10 - Filibus is a female thief who flies around with her crew in a zeppelin, lowering herself down to the scenes of her crimes and then escaping back up to the ship. A detective starts his pursuit of her, but she often appears to be several steps ahead of him, even going so far as to disguise herself as a man in order to woo the detective's sister. It's a pretty entertaining film.
Germinal (1913) - 8/10 - Etienne Lantier is fired from his job for standing up to a supervisor. It isn't long before he gets another job as a miner, but there are problems there as well. This leads to the workers going on strike and protesting conditions there. I read and loved the novel back in high school, though it's been nearly 40 years now since I read the book. I enjoyed the film and it seems modern in a number of ways, not just in the 2.5 hour runtime.
The Devil Rides Out (1968) - 8/10 - Terence Fisher - Christopher Lee and friends battle a group of Satanists. I liked this one a lot.
A Town Called Panic (2009) - 8/10 - Cowboy, Indian, and Horse live together in a rural area. It's Horse's birthday, but Cowboy and Indian forgot so they scramble to get him a birthday present. They screw up an online order which leads to all sorts of mayhem and destruction. This is filled with many crazy scenarios and I thought it was a lot of fun.
Oliver Twist (1948) - 8/10 - This was a nice adaptation of the Dickens classic.
Hobson's Choice (1954) - 8/10 - Charles Laughton portrays a bootmaker during Victorian times. He is a widower who has used his three adult daughters as unpaid workers in his shop for much of their life. The daughters want to get married, but he doesn't want to pay the customary marriage settlement and he also doesn't want to lose the help, especially that of the eldest daughter. Laughton is good in this comedy/drama as is Brenda De Banzie as his eldest daughter, Maggie.
3 Bad Men (1926) - 8/10 - Three outlaws end up helping a young woman whose wagon was attacked by other outlaws. Since her father was killed, they look after her as sort of adopted uncles and protect her from an unscrupulous sheriff. It's a nice western.
Train Birds / Zugvögel – einmal nach Inari (1998) - 7.5/10 - Hannes is a beer truck driver in Germany who is planning to head to Inari in Finland over his upcoming holiday so that he can participate in a competition using his expertise in train schedules. When his new boss tells him that if he goes, he shouldn't bother to come back, he gets mad and leaves anyway. He meets some interesting people along the way. I enjoyed this one quite a bit. It was pretty entertaining. I also laughed at the randomness of seeing a guy in a Detroit Lions jacket (my hometown football team) during the journey.
Monsters (2010) - 7.5/10 - Large tentacled alien creatures started appearing in Mexico six years before the film takes place after a NASA probe crash landed there. A large part of Mexico is now quarantined as a result. A journalist is sent by his boss to find the boss's daughter in Mexico and get her clear of the infected area and back to the United States. This is easier said than done, but they start out on their journey. This was a nice low budget sf film.
The End of the World (1916) - 7.5/10 - A mine owner elopes with the daughter of one of the families in the town where his mine is situated. Years later, a comet is sighted approaching Earth and predictions are that it will cause a lot of destruction in that part of Europe. The mine owner uses this to try and make a fortune while also having a plan to ride out the devastation underground in his mine. The effects are pretty good here and while some of the acting is definitely old fashioned, the story remains interesting and human nature seems to have remained mostly unchanged in the century since the film was released.
Victory (1919) - 7.5/10 - Heyst likes to keep to himself for the most part. He lives on an otherwise deserted island in the South Seas. He visits a neighboring island and on impulse, helps a young woman escape and takes her back to his island. The woman's employer sends three thugs after them with talk of treasure.
The Blue Lamp (1950) - 7.5/10 - Basil Dearden - This police procedural involves a police officer who is murdered and the search for his killer. It was pretty well done.
Barrabas (1919) - 7/10 - A banker named Strélitz is a criminal mastermind who uses lies, blackmail, and intimidation to get what he wants. A lawyer and several others set out to bring him down, but it isn't easy. This is a good crime thriller. It meanders quite a bit early on, but becomes much better and more interesting in the second half. I would put it about on par with Judex, but well below Tih Minh.
Vampire Circus (1972) - 7/10 - Villagers kill a vampire count who had been killing residents, including children. Fifteen years later, his relatives arrive in the form of a circus to take their revenge and to terrorize the villagers anew. They also want to bring the count back. This was more entertaining than I expected.
Shallow Grave (1994) - 7/10 - Danny Boyle - Three flatmates interview potential candidates for a fourth person to join them. They finally rent out the extra room only to have the person die on their first night, leaving behind a suitcase full of money that leads to a number of problems.
Whisky Galore! (1949) - 6.5/10 - A freighter carrying 50,000 cases of whisky hits a reef and sinks off the coast of a Scottish island. Before it sinks, though, the islanders salvage many of the cases and hide the bottles from the excise men. There are some funny bits, mostly revolving around the various places and ways that the islanders hide the whisky, but overall the film was fairly mediocre.
Gandahar (1987) - 6.5/10 - On the planet Gandahar, people live a peaceful life. One day, invaders arrive and start turning people into stone. Sylvain is sent to investigate and find the cause of the problem. The character designs are interesting and we get time travel, mutants, and more. However, the story itself was a bit convoluted and was less interesting. I didn't like this anywhere near as much as Fantastic Planet.
Gozu (2003) - 6/10 - Minami is a yakuza who is ordered to drive his friend and associate to his death since the colleague has become paranoid and a detriment to the organization. The colleague accidentally dies en route, but then body disappears and things get weird. The movie had some strange stuff, but wasn't really as weird as I was given to expect, though the bit with the ladle was definitely out there and what followed was even stranger. I found much of the film to be kind of boring, though.
Theatre of Blood (1973) - 6/10 - Vincent Price stars as a Shakespearean actor who is thought to be dead. He uses a number of disguises to get back at critics that he thinks wrongfully denied him a major award. The humor didn't totally work for me and the film ended up being only mildly interesting.
24 Hour Party People (2002) - 6/10 - The film follows the life of music promoter Tony Wilson starting in the mid-70s. He was part owner of a record label and popular nightclub. The film was okay, but surprisingly boring given the subject matter. I think Steve Coogan as Tony Wilson was a big part of that.
Chicken Little (2005) - 5.5/10 - It was dumb, but I kind of enjoyed it.
Song at Midnight (1935) - 5/10 - This Chinese version of Phantom of the Opera has plenty of music at times, but the story and acting just weren't all that interesting.
Blue (1993) - 5/10 - The audio is well done and the idea is kind of interesting, but this really wasn't my thing.
Urotsukidoji: Legend of the Overfiend (1989) - 3/10 - This was pretty bad.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
A Lady Mislaid (David MacDonald, 1958) 5/10
Silly black comedy about a body buried in a country house occupied by two spinsters. The police dig up the garden, the basement and the chicken coop where they discover human bones. They suspect the previous owner (Thorley Walters) of murdering his wife who disappeared sometime ago. Screwball situation arises when the police detective, the murder suspect and the spinster (Phyllis Calvert) all spend the night together in the cottage whereby both men develop romantic feelings for her. A surprise ending puts a spanner in the investigation. Obscure British programner, based on a play, runs just one hour and has the delightful Phyllis Calvert around to make it watchable although its all quite forgettable.
River Wild (Ben Ketai, 2023) 7/10
A "re-imagining" of the Meryl Streep-Kevin Bacon thriller - "The River Wild" - from 1994. Siblings (Taran Killam & Leighton Meester) meet up for a whitewater rafting trip along with two female tourists and their childhood buddy (Adam Brody) who has just been released from prison. There is tension between the siblings over something in their past while both are wary of their friend as well. When one of the tourists cracks her skull and she accuses the ex-convict of sexually assaulting her all hell breaks loose with all of them held hostage as they go down the rapids. The body count rises - the injured girl, a sheriff and a hiker - and it becomes a race against time for the three survivors to try and overcome their captor who holds a loaded gun. Effective B-film has suspense and many twists and turns in the plot along with the stunning but eerie location (shot in Slovakia although its supposed to be the USA) of the gorge through which runs the river they are on. A tense ride.
About My Father (Laura Terruso, 2023) 6/10
What started off as a big screen leading role for American stand-up comedian Sebastian Maniscalco sweetly turns into a comedic romp for Robert De Niro. It's De Niro in his, by now very familiar and done to death, curmudgeon persona which he perfected through assorted films - "Midnight Run", the "Anaylyze This" twosome, the "Fockers" threesome and many others. An Italian-American widower and hairstylist (Robert De Niro) decides to crash his son's plans of visiting the house of his WASP girlfriend (Lesley Bibb) by tagging along. The result, predictably, is a culture clash where the disgruntled old man comes up against the girl's parents (David Rasche & Kim Cattrall). Maniscalco (who also co-wrote the screenplay) is fine as the young man in love who has also been raised to respect his often irate father as he has been brought up with the mantra that "family is everything". It's De Niro who unabashadly steals the film using that familiar scowl and upturned lip to wring laughs. Cute comedy has nothing new to say but still manages it in a pleasant way that brings on grins if not outright laughs.
À plein temps / Full Time (Éric Gravel, 2022) 8/10
A harried single mother (Laure Calamy) of two daily commutes from her home in the suburbs to Paris where she works as the head chambermaid of a swanky four-star hotel. During a massive transport strike her life takes on a nail-biting endevour as she struggles to drop off her kids at the babysitter's at the crack of dawn and tries to get to work on time via trains, buses and hitchhiking rides with strangers and then faces many issues at work with co-workers, her boss and hotel guests. Adding further tension is an interview for a better job for which she has to find time from work and sneak out to attend to it. The screenplay takes this woman's mundane life and treats it like a riveting thriller as she goes from one crisis to the next. Helping to create the pulse pounding tension is the film's sharp editing and Irène Drésel's score - both of which won César awards. For her gripping performance Laure Calamy and the film's screenplay received nominations.
I corpi presentano tracce di violenza carnale / Torso (Sergio Martino, 1973) 7/10
The Italian title of this film literally translates to "The Bodies Bear Traces of Carnal Violence". Who is the masked man using a red and black foulard to strangle, stab and then fondle the naked breasts of a bunch of female students at the University of Perugia? A rich student (Tina Aumont), who has vaguely noticed a man wearing a similar scarf as the murderer, invites her fellow student, an American (Suzy Kendall) - who is sexually interested in her professor (John Richardson) - and two other girls (a lesbian couple) to stay with her at a remote country villa built on a cliffside. A stalker (who also wears a similar scarf) and a peeping tom also turn up at the villa. The killer, who has murdered the street vendor who sold him the scarves, comes in pursuit of the girls and there is soon a bloodbath. Fairly riveting gialo has all the hallmarks of the genre - soft core sex scenes with couples making out, a loud music score punctuating every victim's pursuit, followed by the attack and gruesome murder which is topped by the killer unclothing and fondling the victim's bare nipples. The plot has red herrings galore with every man acting suspiciously thus becoming a suspect. The film's last third involving a cat and mouse game at the villa between the killer and one of the surviving girls has led to this film being retrospectively recognised as a "proto-slasher film" championed many years later by director Quentin Tarantino.
Spasmo (Umberto Lenzie, 1974) 5/10
Confused, convoluted gialo doesn't make much sense through most of its running time is followed by a pat explanation at the end which suddenly wraps up the plot. Utterly bizzare film has a charming businessman (Robert Hoffman) in pursuit of a woman (Suzy Kendall) while dead bodies appear that either turn out to be life-like mannequins or not dead at all. Somebody is following and trying to kill him. Random characters appear mouthing inane dialogue, corpses are glimpsed as the lead goes through various disorienting incidents. The mystery comes to its conclusion involving his brother and flashbacks to their childhood. For a gialo the sex and gore quotient is surprisingly rather low with only a couple of female nipples on display and the violence is mostly offscreen. Extremely offbeat psychological thriller.
Love to Love You, Donna Summer (Roger Ross Williams & Brooklyn Sudano, 2023) 7/10
Nostagic lookback at the disco era, the fashions, the hairdos and especially the music and life of disco diva Donna Summer. Documentary on the singer's life is co-directed by her daughter covers her rise as the first lady of disco and goes on to reveal the person behind that great voice. Familiar tropes which most celebrities have endured but the film shines when she takes to the stage and sings the classic songs most of us grew up with. I feel love indeed!!
The Black Demon (Adrian Grünberg, 2023) 4/10
The Meg franchise gets ripped off in this low budget entry. The giant Megalodon shark, hovering around an oil rig, is taken on by a stranded family and two rig workers as they fight to survive. Nothing new here although with such films there is always an element of suspense as one waits to see which human gets eaten before the shark is decimated.
Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 (Anees Bazmee, 2022) 6/10
Quirky film is a mixture of slapstick comedy and horror. A con-man (Kartik Aryan) meets and hopes to woo a girl (Kiara Advani) from a rich thakur family. He discovers her family lives in dread of a vicious ghost whom they keep locked up in their derelict haveli. Through convoluted plot points the young man pretends to be a psychic informing the family and townfolk that he is able to see and speak to ghosts. Tabu, in a double role, plays both the vengeful ghost and her sweet sister - the classic good 'n evil twin sisters played by many stars (Bette Davis & Olivia de Havilland) in the past. This section of the plot was inspired by the Agatha Christie novel "Elephants Can Remember". Comic relief is provided by Rajpal Yadav, Sanjay Mishra - as two conniving pandits - Govind Namdev as a spirit hunter and Rajesh Sharma as a drunk family member. Tabu runs off with the film playing the contrasting sisters and won a Filmfare award. Also nominated were the film, Kartik Aryan, Anees Bazmee, the screenplay, visual effects, production design, editing, and the choreography of the title song.
Thalaivii (A. L. Vijay, 2022) 6/10
Screen biography of J. Jayalalithaa (Kangana Ranaut) - iconic screen star of Tamil cinema and eventual Chief Minister of the state for more than fourteen years over six terms between 1991 and 2016. By the numbers and often ridiculously melodramatic screen biography is nevertheless a facinating look at the star who quickly rose during the 1960s as a film star and dancer at the urging of her mother (Bhagyashree). Her iconic screen pairing with superstar M. G. Ramachandran (Arvind Swamy who absolutely nails the actor-politician's look) resulted in massive hits at the boxoffice, a longtime alleged love affair, and at his urging an entry into politics. He served as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu from 1977 until his death in 1987. Her entry into a political career, at the behest of her mentor but against the wishes of most of the party's male members, is fraught with problems. However she perserveres and ruthlessly climbs to the top creating an alliance with Indira Gandhi and the Congress party and eventually becomes Chief Minister. The film superbly evokes the past via striking production and costume design and along with the performances of the two leads and especially the outstanding supporting turn by Raj Arjun as R. N. Veerappan who was a movie producer and screenwriter turned right hand party advisor to MGR who strongly opposes J. Jayalalithaa. Both Kangana Ranaut and Raj Arjun received richly deserved Filmfare Award nominations although hers was rescinded by the awards committee when she got into a heated and very public altercation with them. Also nominated were the film's costume design and visual effects.
How to Steal a Million (William Wyler, 1966) 8/10
Charming fluff which Wyler directs with a very light hand although it is a tad overlong. A detective (Peter O'Toole) is assigned by his boss (Charles Boyer) to investigate an art forger (a delightfully wicked Hugh Griffith) but falls prey to a plan to steal a sculpture on display in a museum. Urging him onto this plan is the forger's chic daughter (Audrey Hepburn) who wants him to lift the statue because she does not want her father to face a jail sentence after the insurance company examines the fake piece of art. The flimsy plot is just an excuse to watch the two stars do their thing which they do with incredible panache. Elegant Hepburn is dressed to her teeth in hip 1960s mod attire by Givenchy - check out her dramatic veil and those white eye glasses. The charismatic O'Toole - tall, sleek, blue-eyed - is a perfect match for her and their incredible chemistry keeps the frothy plot afloat. Like many caper films of the 1960s this too has a dramatic set-piece involving the robbery - a sequence that begins inside a closet where the two stars are amusingly confined in the tight space together. Witty, sophisticated film is utterly predictable but it makes for a delightful time at the movies.
Mashaal (Yash Chopra, 1984) 7/10
Chopra more or less dispenses with romance here and presents a highly melodramatic story - based on a Marathi play by Vasant Kanetkar and adapted by Javed Akhtar (but minus Salim Khan) - about freedom of press. A highly principled reporter (Dilip Kumar) wishes to expose a corrupt politician (Amrish Puri) but finds himself fired from his job and forced to move out of his house. With his ever supportive wife (Waheeda Rehman) he finds shelter in a slum dwelling courtesy of a friend (Saeed Jaffrey). The neighborhood goon (Anil Kapoor) tries to intimidate him but gets won over by his kindness. No Bollywood large scale film would be complete without a Holi song - "O Holi Aayee", lyrics by Javed Akhtar and music by Hridaynath Mangeshkar - with the lead cast dancing in joyous mode. Rati Agnihotri, as Kumar's fellow reporter, plays the improbable love interest to Anil Kapoor - rich, educated and sophisticated pretty lady hobnobbing with an uncouth street smart small town crook. Only in Bollywood. As with all films starring Dilip Kumar we get to see him intone with dramatic dialogue as he goes through the plot's light or amusing moments and ofcourse all the intense and tragic moments which was the actor's forte. This was Kumar and Waheeda Rehman's fourth and last film together and their playful chemistry is evident throughout as a loving couple. Every Bollywood film has stock big moments in the plot - a wedding scene, the Holi dance, an intense moment involving rape or a tragic death scene. The latter is represented here with full dramatic force involving the star couple as through a twist of fate one character emotes a death scene that goes on and on and on while the partner gets to helplessly watch. Dilip Kumar's character arc goes from an honest reporter to vengeful smuggler who eventually becomes a fearful Don, although it suspends belief to see the overweight and ageing (he was 62) actor take on goons in fight scenes. Chopra has assembled a superb cast of character actors - Madan Puri, Gulshan Grover, Mohan Agashe, Iftekhar, Alok Nath - in brief but vivid roles. The role propelled Anil Kapoor to stardom and won for him his first Filmfare award in the supporting category. Dilip Kumar was nominated as lead as was Javed Akhtar for the film's story.
Kaala Patthar (Yash Chopra, 1979) 8/10
Chopra's intense film - with fleeting romantic interludes between three couples - is a multi-star drama based on the Chasnala mining disaster. Critically acclaimed film performed average at the boxoffice despite it's highly touted pedigree - an A-list cast, beloved director, the angry-man script by Salim-Javed, a score by Salil Chowdhury, music by Rajesh Roshan, lyrics by Javed Akhtar, and songs sung by Kishore Kumar, Lata & Usha Mangeshkar, Mohammad Rafi and Mahendra Kapoor. Vijay (Amitabh Bachchan), a disgraced Merchant Navy captain is branded a coward after abandoning his ship, and becomes a coal miner to atone for his past. He, along with an engineer (Shashi Kapoor), takes on the corrupt mine owner (Prem Chopra) who provides less than sufficient facilities to his workers. Vijay finds romance with a doctor (Raakhee) who wants him to forget the past and move on with life. He makes an enemy of a co-worker (Shatrughan Sinha) whose life he ends up saving. Adding the glamour and romance quotient are Parveen Babi as Shashi Kapoor's reporter friend and Neetu Singh as a gypsy in love with Shatrughan Sinha. The film's action packed climax is set inside the mine which is hit by a flood. All the scenes between Bachchan and Sinha - off-screen rivals - are superbly played by both stars with limited dialogue and mostly silence which instead speaks volumes. Cult film was nominated for 8 Filmfare awards - Best Picture, director Yash Chopra, Bachchan, Sinha, Neetu Singh, Rajesh Roshan's music, Kishore Kumar's playback singing for the song "Ek Raasta Hai Zindagi" and for the Salim-Javed story.
Past Lives (Celine Song, 2023) 9/10
This film in many ways reminded me of David Lean's "Brief Encounter", although the couple here are not meeting for the first time. They met as 12-year old kids in South Korea when they were school friends who develop a crush on each other. She immigrates to Canada with her parents and the kids lose touch with each other. Twelve years later - she (Greta Lee) is living in New York while he (Teo Yoo) has finished military school. By chance they reconnect via Facebook and start chatting on Skype although after sometime she feels her focus on becoming a writer is waning so suggests they move on with their lives and stop speaking. Time goes by and she is now a playwright married to a Jewish-American writer (John Magaro) while he is in China learning Mandarin and with a girlfriend. He visits New York on the pretext of a vacation but in reality to meet her. They connect, go on a sight-seeing jaunt, she introduces him to her husband and they all go out for drinks and dinner. During a conversation the three characters each discovers what the universe planned for them and what plans it has for their future - the Korean belief of "in-yeon" comes into play which says if you meet someone, even briefly, it means you also met in a past life, and lovers are people who have met over and over in their past lives. Deeply felt, humane film has deep currents running through each layer which first-time director Celine Song presents in a very simple matter-of-fact manner. The perceptive screenplay also says a lot about how culture plays such a huge role in a person's psyche. Superbly shot film has many gorgeous moments captured during the outdoors in New York as well as the superbly lit scenes set in the restaurant at the end where the camera placement captures the three characters in both isolation as well as with a syrong sense of intimacy. All three actors are sublime.
The Year of Living Dangerously (Peter Weir, 1982) 9/10
Gritty, highly atmospheric film superbly captures a time and place - 1960s Indonesia under the despotic rule of President Sukarno. Neophyte Australian journalist (Mel Gibson - a shock to see him looking so young here) arrives in Jakarta to cover the chaotic political regime in the country. The screenplay follows his often abrasive association with other foreign journalists, his friendship with a wise, informative and politically connected Chinese-Australian dwarf (Linda Hunt), and his romance with a British embassy official (Sigourney Weaver). Weir's direction gives the film a sense of dangerous urgency while the two stars use their tremendous screen chemistry to create romantic sparks. Hunt walks away with the film as the all-knowing mysterious male photographer and won a well deserved Oscar for her performance. The film was instrumental in propelling Gibson towards screen stardom on the international front.
Silly black comedy about a body buried in a country house occupied by two spinsters. The police dig up the garden, the basement and the chicken coop where they discover human bones. They suspect the previous owner (Thorley Walters) of murdering his wife who disappeared sometime ago. Screwball situation arises when the police detective, the murder suspect and the spinster (Phyllis Calvert) all spend the night together in the cottage whereby both men develop romantic feelings for her. A surprise ending puts a spanner in the investigation. Obscure British programner, based on a play, runs just one hour and has the delightful Phyllis Calvert around to make it watchable although its all quite forgettable.
River Wild (Ben Ketai, 2023) 7/10
A "re-imagining" of the Meryl Streep-Kevin Bacon thriller - "The River Wild" - from 1994. Siblings (Taran Killam & Leighton Meester) meet up for a whitewater rafting trip along with two female tourists and their childhood buddy (Adam Brody) who has just been released from prison. There is tension between the siblings over something in their past while both are wary of their friend as well. When one of the tourists cracks her skull and she accuses the ex-convict of sexually assaulting her all hell breaks loose with all of them held hostage as they go down the rapids. The body count rises - the injured girl, a sheriff and a hiker - and it becomes a race against time for the three survivors to try and overcome their captor who holds a loaded gun. Effective B-film has suspense and many twists and turns in the plot along with the stunning but eerie location (shot in Slovakia although its supposed to be the USA) of the gorge through which runs the river they are on. A tense ride.
About My Father (Laura Terruso, 2023) 6/10
What started off as a big screen leading role for American stand-up comedian Sebastian Maniscalco sweetly turns into a comedic romp for Robert De Niro. It's De Niro in his, by now very familiar and done to death, curmudgeon persona which he perfected through assorted films - "Midnight Run", the "Anaylyze This" twosome, the "Fockers" threesome and many others. An Italian-American widower and hairstylist (Robert De Niro) decides to crash his son's plans of visiting the house of his WASP girlfriend (Lesley Bibb) by tagging along. The result, predictably, is a culture clash where the disgruntled old man comes up against the girl's parents (David Rasche & Kim Cattrall). Maniscalco (who also co-wrote the screenplay) is fine as the young man in love who has also been raised to respect his often irate father as he has been brought up with the mantra that "family is everything". It's De Niro who unabashadly steals the film using that familiar scowl and upturned lip to wring laughs. Cute comedy has nothing new to say but still manages it in a pleasant way that brings on grins if not outright laughs.
À plein temps / Full Time (Éric Gravel, 2022) 8/10
A harried single mother (Laure Calamy) of two daily commutes from her home in the suburbs to Paris where she works as the head chambermaid of a swanky four-star hotel. During a massive transport strike her life takes on a nail-biting endevour as she struggles to drop off her kids at the babysitter's at the crack of dawn and tries to get to work on time via trains, buses and hitchhiking rides with strangers and then faces many issues at work with co-workers, her boss and hotel guests. Adding further tension is an interview for a better job for which she has to find time from work and sneak out to attend to it. The screenplay takes this woman's mundane life and treats it like a riveting thriller as she goes from one crisis to the next. Helping to create the pulse pounding tension is the film's sharp editing and Irène Drésel's score - both of which won César awards. For her gripping performance Laure Calamy and the film's screenplay received nominations.
I corpi presentano tracce di violenza carnale / Torso (Sergio Martino, 1973) 7/10
The Italian title of this film literally translates to "The Bodies Bear Traces of Carnal Violence". Who is the masked man using a red and black foulard to strangle, stab and then fondle the naked breasts of a bunch of female students at the University of Perugia? A rich student (Tina Aumont), who has vaguely noticed a man wearing a similar scarf as the murderer, invites her fellow student, an American (Suzy Kendall) - who is sexually interested in her professor (John Richardson) - and two other girls (a lesbian couple) to stay with her at a remote country villa built on a cliffside. A stalker (who also wears a similar scarf) and a peeping tom also turn up at the villa. The killer, who has murdered the street vendor who sold him the scarves, comes in pursuit of the girls and there is soon a bloodbath. Fairly riveting gialo has all the hallmarks of the genre - soft core sex scenes with couples making out, a loud music score punctuating every victim's pursuit, followed by the attack and gruesome murder which is topped by the killer unclothing and fondling the victim's bare nipples. The plot has red herrings galore with every man acting suspiciously thus becoming a suspect. The film's last third involving a cat and mouse game at the villa between the killer and one of the surviving girls has led to this film being retrospectively recognised as a "proto-slasher film" championed many years later by director Quentin Tarantino.
Spasmo (Umberto Lenzie, 1974) 5/10
Confused, convoluted gialo doesn't make much sense through most of its running time is followed by a pat explanation at the end which suddenly wraps up the plot. Utterly bizzare film has a charming businessman (Robert Hoffman) in pursuit of a woman (Suzy Kendall) while dead bodies appear that either turn out to be life-like mannequins or not dead at all. Somebody is following and trying to kill him. Random characters appear mouthing inane dialogue, corpses are glimpsed as the lead goes through various disorienting incidents. The mystery comes to its conclusion involving his brother and flashbacks to their childhood. For a gialo the sex and gore quotient is surprisingly rather low with only a couple of female nipples on display and the violence is mostly offscreen. Extremely offbeat psychological thriller.
Love to Love You, Donna Summer (Roger Ross Williams & Brooklyn Sudano, 2023) 7/10
Nostagic lookback at the disco era, the fashions, the hairdos and especially the music and life of disco diva Donna Summer. Documentary on the singer's life is co-directed by her daughter covers her rise as the first lady of disco and goes on to reveal the person behind that great voice. Familiar tropes which most celebrities have endured but the film shines when she takes to the stage and sings the classic songs most of us grew up with. I feel love indeed!!
The Black Demon (Adrian Grünberg, 2023) 4/10
The Meg franchise gets ripped off in this low budget entry. The giant Megalodon shark, hovering around an oil rig, is taken on by a stranded family and two rig workers as they fight to survive. Nothing new here although with such films there is always an element of suspense as one waits to see which human gets eaten before the shark is decimated.
Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 (Anees Bazmee, 2022) 6/10
Quirky film is a mixture of slapstick comedy and horror. A con-man (Kartik Aryan) meets and hopes to woo a girl (Kiara Advani) from a rich thakur family. He discovers her family lives in dread of a vicious ghost whom they keep locked up in their derelict haveli. Through convoluted plot points the young man pretends to be a psychic informing the family and townfolk that he is able to see and speak to ghosts. Tabu, in a double role, plays both the vengeful ghost and her sweet sister - the classic good 'n evil twin sisters played by many stars (Bette Davis & Olivia de Havilland) in the past. This section of the plot was inspired by the Agatha Christie novel "Elephants Can Remember". Comic relief is provided by Rajpal Yadav, Sanjay Mishra - as two conniving pandits - Govind Namdev as a spirit hunter and Rajesh Sharma as a drunk family member. Tabu runs off with the film playing the contrasting sisters and won a Filmfare award. Also nominated were the film, Kartik Aryan, Anees Bazmee, the screenplay, visual effects, production design, editing, and the choreography of the title song.
Thalaivii (A. L. Vijay, 2022) 6/10
Screen biography of J. Jayalalithaa (Kangana Ranaut) - iconic screen star of Tamil cinema and eventual Chief Minister of the state for more than fourteen years over six terms between 1991 and 2016. By the numbers and often ridiculously melodramatic screen biography is nevertheless a facinating look at the star who quickly rose during the 1960s as a film star and dancer at the urging of her mother (Bhagyashree). Her iconic screen pairing with superstar M. G. Ramachandran (Arvind Swamy who absolutely nails the actor-politician's look) resulted in massive hits at the boxoffice, a longtime alleged love affair, and at his urging an entry into politics. He served as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu from 1977 until his death in 1987. Her entry into a political career, at the behest of her mentor but against the wishes of most of the party's male members, is fraught with problems. However she perserveres and ruthlessly climbs to the top creating an alliance with Indira Gandhi and the Congress party and eventually becomes Chief Minister. The film superbly evokes the past via striking production and costume design and along with the performances of the two leads and especially the outstanding supporting turn by Raj Arjun as R. N. Veerappan who was a movie producer and screenwriter turned right hand party advisor to MGR who strongly opposes J. Jayalalithaa. Both Kangana Ranaut and Raj Arjun received richly deserved Filmfare Award nominations although hers was rescinded by the awards committee when she got into a heated and very public altercation with them. Also nominated were the film's costume design and visual effects.
How to Steal a Million (William Wyler, 1966) 8/10
Charming fluff which Wyler directs with a very light hand although it is a tad overlong. A detective (Peter O'Toole) is assigned by his boss (Charles Boyer) to investigate an art forger (a delightfully wicked Hugh Griffith) but falls prey to a plan to steal a sculpture on display in a museum. Urging him onto this plan is the forger's chic daughter (Audrey Hepburn) who wants him to lift the statue because she does not want her father to face a jail sentence after the insurance company examines the fake piece of art. The flimsy plot is just an excuse to watch the two stars do their thing which they do with incredible panache. Elegant Hepburn is dressed to her teeth in hip 1960s mod attire by Givenchy - check out her dramatic veil and those white eye glasses. The charismatic O'Toole - tall, sleek, blue-eyed - is a perfect match for her and their incredible chemistry keeps the frothy plot afloat. Like many caper films of the 1960s this too has a dramatic set-piece involving the robbery - a sequence that begins inside a closet where the two stars are amusingly confined in the tight space together. Witty, sophisticated film is utterly predictable but it makes for a delightful time at the movies.
Mashaal (Yash Chopra, 1984) 7/10
Chopra more or less dispenses with romance here and presents a highly melodramatic story - based on a Marathi play by Vasant Kanetkar and adapted by Javed Akhtar (but minus Salim Khan) - about freedom of press. A highly principled reporter (Dilip Kumar) wishes to expose a corrupt politician (Amrish Puri) but finds himself fired from his job and forced to move out of his house. With his ever supportive wife (Waheeda Rehman) he finds shelter in a slum dwelling courtesy of a friend (Saeed Jaffrey). The neighborhood goon (Anil Kapoor) tries to intimidate him but gets won over by his kindness. No Bollywood large scale film would be complete without a Holi song - "O Holi Aayee", lyrics by Javed Akhtar and music by Hridaynath Mangeshkar - with the lead cast dancing in joyous mode. Rati Agnihotri, as Kumar's fellow reporter, plays the improbable love interest to Anil Kapoor - rich, educated and sophisticated pretty lady hobnobbing with an uncouth street smart small town crook. Only in Bollywood. As with all films starring Dilip Kumar we get to see him intone with dramatic dialogue as he goes through the plot's light or amusing moments and ofcourse all the intense and tragic moments which was the actor's forte. This was Kumar and Waheeda Rehman's fourth and last film together and their playful chemistry is evident throughout as a loving couple. Every Bollywood film has stock big moments in the plot - a wedding scene, the Holi dance, an intense moment involving rape or a tragic death scene. The latter is represented here with full dramatic force involving the star couple as through a twist of fate one character emotes a death scene that goes on and on and on while the partner gets to helplessly watch. Dilip Kumar's character arc goes from an honest reporter to vengeful smuggler who eventually becomes a fearful Don, although it suspends belief to see the overweight and ageing (he was 62) actor take on goons in fight scenes. Chopra has assembled a superb cast of character actors - Madan Puri, Gulshan Grover, Mohan Agashe, Iftekhar, Alok Nath - in brief but vivid roles. The role propelled Anil Kapoor to stardom and won for him his first Filmfare award in the supporting category. Dilip Kumar was nominated as lead as was Javed Akhtar for the film's story.
Kaala Patthar (Yash Chopra, 1979) 8/10
Chopra's intense film - with fleeting romantic interludes between three couples - is a multi-star drama based on the Chasnala mining disaster. Critically acclaimed film performed average at the boxoffice despite it's highly touted pedigree - an A-list cast, beloved director, the angry-man script by Salim-Javed, a score by Salil Chowdhury, music by Rajesh Roshan, lyrics by Javed Akhtar, and songs sung by Kishore Kumar, Lata & Usha Mangeshkar, Mohammad Rafi and Mahendra Kapoor. Vijay (Amitabh Bachchan), a disgraced Merchant Navy captain is branded a coward after abandoning his ship, and becomes a coal miner to atone for his past. He, along with an engineer (Shashi Kapoor), takes on the corrupt mine owner (Prem Chopra) who provides less than sufficient facilities to his workers. Vijay finds romance with a doctor (Raakhee) who wants him to forget the past and move on with life. He makes an enemy of a co-worker (Shatrughan Sinha) whose life he ends up saving. Adding the glamour and romance quotient are Parveen Babi as Shashi Kapoor's reporter friend and Neetu Singh as a gypsy in love with Shatrughan Sinha. The film's action packed climax is set inside the mine which is hit by a flood. All the scenes between Bachchan and Sinha - off-screen rivals - are superbly played by both stars with limited dialogue and mostly silence which instead speaks volumes. Cult film was nominated for 8 Filmfare awards - Best Picture, director Yash Chopra, Bachchan, Sinha, Neetu Singh, Rajesh Roshan's music, Kishore Kumar's playback singing for the song "Ek Raasta Hai Zindagi" and for the Salim-Javed story.
Past Lives (Celine Song, 2023) 9/10
This film in many ways reminded me of David Lean's "Brief Encounter", although the couple here are not meeting for the first time. They met as 12-year old kids in South Korea when they were school friends who develop a crush on each other. She immigrates to Canada with her parents and the kids lose touch with each other. Twelve years later - she (Greta Lee) is living in New York while he (Teo Yoo) has finished military school. By chance they reconnect via Facebook and start chatting on Skype although after sometime she feels her focus on becoming a writer is waning so suggests they move on with their lives and stop speaking. Time goes by and she is now a playwright married to a Jewish-American writer (John Magaro) while he is in China learning Mandarin and with a girlfriend. He visits New York on the pretext of a vacation but in reality to meet her. They connect, go on a sight-seeing jaunt, she introduces him to her husband and they all go out for drinks and dinner. During a conversation the three characters each discovers what the universe planned for them and what plans it has for their future - the Korean belief of "in-yeon" comes into play which says if you meet someone, even briefly, it means you also met in a past life, and lovers are people who have met over and over in their past lives. Deeply felt, humane film has deep currents running through each layer which first-time director Celine Song presents in a very simple matter-of-fact manner. The perceptive screenplay also says a lot about how culture plays such a huge role in a person's psyche. Superbly shot film has many gorgeous moments captured during the outdoors in New York as well as the superbly lit scenes set in the restaurant at the end where the camera placement captures the three characters in both isolation as well as with a syrong sense of intimacy. All three actors are sublime.
The Year of Living Dangerously (Peter Weir, 1982) 9/10
Gritty, highly atmospheric film superbly captures a time and place - 1960s Indonesia under the despotic rule of President Sukarno. Neophyte Australian journalist (Mel Gibson - a shock to see him looking so young here) arrives in Jakarta to cover the chaotic political regime in the country. The screenplay follows his often abrasive association with other foreign journalists, his friendship with a wise, informative and politically connected Chinese-Australian dwarf (Linda Hunt), and his romance with a British embassy official (Sigourney Weaver). Weir's direction gives the film a sense of dangerous urgency while the two stars use their tremendous screen chemistry to create romantic sparks. Hunt walks away with the film as the all-knowing mysterious male photographer and won a well deserved Oscar for her performance. The film was instrumental in propelling Gibson towards screen stardom on the international front.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
The Naked Island (1960) - 9/10 - A small family with two young boys live on an island and work hard every day to prepare soil for crops, get water to the crops they have planted, and so on. There are also occasional commutes to the mainland with the boys attending school there. The soundtrack and cinematography are great. There is no dialogue, though we do get a few songs during the film. I enjoyed this quite a bit more than I was expecting.
The Happiness of the Katakuris (2001) - 8.5/10 - This is very whacky, but also lots of fun. It got better as it went along. I loved the music and the impromptu 'music videos'. Very cool.
Kikujiro (1999) - 8/10 - Masao is being raised by his grandmother. He's never met his mother and she lives far away. During summer vacation, Masao sets off to find her, accompanied by Kikujiro, a loudmouth gambler. They have a number of adventures along the way and meet some interesting people. It wasn't really laugh out loud funny most of the time, but there is a lot of offbeat humor.
Tampopo (1985) - 8/10 - Goro and Gun are truck drivers who visit many ramen noodle shops during their trips. At one such stop, the woman running the shop begs for their help to improve her cooking since she is running the shop in place of her late husband. They visit other shops to steal ideas. There are a number of other food related scenes involving other characters and plenty of humor throughout the film. Some things work better than others, but overall I enjoyed it.
Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny & Girly - 8/10 - Four people (Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny & Girly) form a family who arranges for people to join them on their estate and then they play games with them. These games can be fairly harmless or deadly with the people being killed off if they try to escape or break the rules too often. One new friend learns his lesson and starts using the game to his own advantage. This is a pretty strange film, but is well acted and fun to watch.
Face / Kao (2000) - 8/10 - Masako works upstairs doing alterations at her mother's dry cleaning shop. She doesn't get along with her abusive younger sister Yukari who only visits when she needs something. When their mother dies, Masako snaps and kills Yukari. She then goes on the run and has a number of jobs and identities along the way. These experiences eventually bring her out of her shell and help her grow as a person, though she still worries about being caught. Naomi Fujiyama is very good as Masako.
Pacchigi! (2005) - 7.5/10 - In Kyoto in 1968, there is a lot of violence between North Korean and Japanese youth. There are constant fights and lots of antagonism. Amidst this, though, one music loving and peaceful Japanese teen falls for the sister of one of the most violent North Korean teens. The movie has a lot of humor and some romance amidst the fighting. I enjoyed it quite a bit.
Floating Weeds (1959) - 7.5/10 - This isn't really all that different from the 1934 version, except for the excellent use of color. It's pretty well acted, but isn't quite as compelling as some of Ozu's other films.
The Family Game (1983) - 7.5/10 - This is an odd film and a few parts were kind of annoying with the sound effects, but overall it's a decent film. A family has two sons. The older one studies and does well in school while the younger one ranks near the bottom of the class and slacks off a lot. The parents hire a tutor to get him to start improving his rank, even though other tutors in the past have failed. This tutor is more unorthodox and starts making progress. The dinner scene near the end is pretty funny.
Altered (2006) - 7.5/10 - Five men were kidnapped by aliens with one of them not making it back. Years later, three of the survivors have captured on of the aliens and have some plans for revenge. The acting here is pretty good and while there are a number of things that are only implied or are left unexplained, it works.
The Brotherhood of Satan (1971) - 7.5/10 - A family on vacation sees the site of a bad accident on the side of the side of the road. When they go to the nearest town to report the accident, they are accosted by the local residents. They escape from the town, but are later forced by circumstances to return. There is a lot more going on there that they soon discover. This was a lot better than I expected with a decent story and acting.
Suicide Club (2001) - 7.5/10 - 54 high school girls hold hands and jump in front of a moving train. There are a rash of suicides that seem to be expanding throughout Japan. The police investigate, but have trouble finding any legitimate leads. Does it have anything to do with a popular girl group called Dessert? It's kind of gory, but I thought it was good.
Uzumaki (2000) - 7/10 - One man in town has become obsessed with spirals, but the obsession starts to spread and becomes dangerous. This is a decent adaptation of the Junji Ito manga of the same name, though it's been 20+ years since I read the series. I've read plenty of Ito's other horror works since then and the manga is far superior, but this was a good effort.
Horrors of the Black Museum (1959) - 7/10 - A murderer is loose in London and the killer uses a variety of methods to commit the murders. A writer takes a very strong interest in the case and seems to enjoy delving into the cases and writing about them. The writer maintains a macabre museum that he keeps private, except for his assistant. It's old fashioned, but I enjoyed it.
The Deadly Spawn (1983) - 6.5/10 - Alien slugs invade New Jersey. This is a decent low budget horror film. The acting is a bit uneven at times, but the film itself isn't bad.
Blind Beast (1969) - 6.5/10 - A blind artist kidnaps a model and keeps her captive while he works on a sculpture of her. The artist's mother helps him keep her prisoner. The studio is pretty odd with giant size sculptures of body parts and a giant female nude. The movie is uneven - interesting at times and kind of dull at others.
Horrors of Malformed Men (1969) - 6/10 - A sane man in an insane asylum escapes. He later assumes the identity of his dead doppelganger. This is a weird movie and I enjoyed the visual spectacle of it more than the actual story.
A Horrible Way to Die (2010) - 5/10 - An escaped serial killer tracks down his ex-girlfriend, a recovering alchoholic who is trying to start a new life for herself. Unfortunately, the film is pretty boring and I am not a fan of shaky cam.
Madman (1981) - 5/10 - Camp counselors invoke the name of a murderer named Madman Marz and he comes back to start claiming new victims in this slasher film. The story and acting aren't all that good.
Zigeunerweisen (1980) - 4/10 - This is a pretty strange movie. It seems to be well made, but is not one that I could get into and I didn't enjoy the film.
The Rape of the Vampire (1968) - 3/10 - This was pretty bad. Bad acting and a dull story.
Burial Ground: The Nights of Terror (1981) - 3/10 - This was pretty bad. Lots of zombies and gore, but very little story.
The Happiness of the Katakuris (2001) - 8.5/10 - This is very whacky, but also lots of fun. It got better as it went along. I loved the music and the impromptu 'music videos'. Very cool.
Kikujiro (1999) - 8/10 - Masao is being raised by his grandmother. He's never met his mother and she lives far away. During summer vacation, Masao sets off to find her, accompanied by Kikujiro, a loudmouth gambler. They have a number of adventures along the way and meet some interesting people. It wasn't really laugh out loud funny most of the time, but there is a lot of offbeat humor.
Tampopo (1985) - 8/10 - Goro and Gun are truck drivers who visit many ramen noodle shops during their trips. At one such stop, the woman running the shop begs for their help to improve her cooking since she is running the shop in place of her late husband. They visit other shops to steal ideas. There are a number of other food related scenes involving other characters and plenty of humor throughout the film. Some things work better than others, but overall I enjoyed it.
Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny & Girly - 8/10 - Four people (Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny & Girly) form a family who arranges for people to join them on their estate and then they play games with them. These games can be fairly harmless or deadly with the people being killed off if they try to escape or break the rules too often. One new friend learns his lesson and starts using the game to his own advantage. This is a pretty strange film, but is well acted and fun to watch.
Face / Kao (2000) - 8/10 - Masako works upstairs doing alterations at her mother's dry cleaning shop. She doesn't get along with her abusive younger sister Yukari who only visits when she needs something. When their mother dies, Masako snaps and kills Yukari. She then goes on the run and has a number of jobs and identities along the way. These experiences eventually bring her out of her shell and help her grow as a person, though she still worries about being caught. Naomi Fujiyama is very good as Masako.
Pacchigi! (2005) - 7.5/10 - In Kyoto in 1968, there is a lot of violence between North Korean and Japanese youth. There are constant fights and lots of antagonism. Amidst this, though, one music loving and peaceful Japanese teen falls for the sister of one of the most violent North Korean teens. The movie has a lot of humor and some romance amidst the fighting. I enjoyed it quite a bit.
Floating Weeds (1959) - 7.5/10 - This isn't really all that different from the 1934 version, except for the excellent use of color. It's pretty well acted, but isn't quite as compelling as some of Ozu's other films.
The Family Game (1983) - 7.5/10 - This is an odd film and a few parts were kind of annoying with the sound effects, but overall it's a decent film. A family has two sons. The older one studies and does well in school while the younger one ranks near the bottom of the class and slacks off a lot. The parents hire a tutor to get him to start improving his rank, even though other tutors in the past have failed. This tutor is more unorthodox and starts making progress. The dinner scene near the end is pretty funny.
Altered (2006) - 7.5/10 - Five men were kidnapped by aliens with one of them not making it back. Years later, three of the survivors have captured on of the aliens and have some plans for revenge. The acting here is pretty good and while there are a number of things that are only implied or are left unexplained, it works.
The Brotherhood of Satan (1971) - 7.5/10 - A family on vacation sees the site of a bad accident on the side of the side of the road. When they go to the nearest town to report the accident, they are accosted by the local residents. They escape from the town, but are later forced by circumstances to return. There is a lot more going on there that they soon discover. This was a lot better than I expected with a decent story and acting.
Suicide Club (2001) - 7.5/10 - 54 high school girls hold hands and jump in front of a moving train. There are a rash of suicides that seem to be expanding throughout Japan. The police investigate, but have trouble finding any legitimate leads. Does it have anything to do with a popular girl group called Dessert? It's kind of gory, but I thought it was good.
Uzumaki (2000) - 7/10 - One man in town has become obsessed with spirals, but the obsession starts to spread and becomes dangerous. This is a decent adaptation of the Junji Ito manga of the same name, though it's been 20+ years since I read the series. I've read plenty of Ito's other horror works since then and the manga is far superior, but this was a good effort.
Horrors of the Black Museum (1959) - 7/10 - A murderer is loose in London and the killer uses a variety of methods to commit the murders. A writer takes a very strong interest in the case and seems to enjoy delving into the cases and writing about them. The writer maintains a macabre museum that he keeps private, except for his assistant. It's old fashioned, but I enjoyed it.
The Deadly Spawn (1983) - 6.5/10 - Alien slugs invade New Jersey. This is a decent low budget horror film. The acting is a bit uneven at times, but the film itself isn't bad.
Blind Beast (1969) - 6.5/10 - A blind artist kidnaps a model and keeps her captive while he works on a sculpture of her. The artist's mother helps him keep her prisoner. The studio is pretty odd with giant size sculptures of body parts and a giant female nude. The movie is uneven - interesting at times and kind of dull at others.
Horrors of Malformed Men (1969) - 6/10 - A sane man in an insane asylum escapes. He later assumes the identity of his dead doppelganger. This is a weird movie and I enjoyed the visual spectacle of it more than the actual story.
A Horrible Way to Die (2010) - 5/10 - An escaped serial killer tracks down his ex-girlfriend, a recovering alchoholic who is trying to start a new life for herself. Unfortunately, the film is pretty boring and I am not a fan of shaky cam.
Madman (1981) - 5/10 - Camp counselors invoke the name of a murderer named Madman Marz and he comes back to start claiming new victims in this slasher film. The story and acting aren't all that good.
Zigeunerweisen (1980) - 4/10 - This is a pretty strange movie. It seems to be well made, but is not one that I could get into and I didn't enjoy the film.
The Rape of the Vampire (1968) - 3/10 - This was pretty bad. Bad acting and a dull story.
Burial Ground: The Nights of Terror (1981) - 3/10 - This was pretty bad. Lots of zombies and gore, but very little story.