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

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

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Scream (Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett, 2022) 7/10

The killer in ghost mask is back and the murders are ever more so gruesome. Also back are Neve Campbell, Skeet Ulrich, David Keith and sadly Courtenay Cox whose mouth, courtesy of cosmetic surgey, is almost as wide as the killer's masked mouth. The film takes place 25-years after "Ghostface" first appeared and is a direct sequel to Scream 4 (2011). The premise of the film remains the same as the camera plays tricks with the audience as to when a victim will be slashed to bits as he or she goes about doing their business. A new bunch of kids fall victim to the glistening knife when the original killer's daughter, her step-sister and their friends are confronted by the masked and robed killer. The film puts Hitchcock's "Psycho" to shame with it's stab quotient taken to deliriously extreme moments. In a weird sort of way the film is great fun. Dedicated to Wes Craven.

Dog (Channing Tatum & Reid Carolin, 2022) 5/10

Two Army Rangers - a soldier (Channing Tatum), suffering from PTSD, and a Belgian Shepherd with aggressive behavior - take a road trip and after a disastrous start both bond with each other. The soldier is asked to transport the dog to Arizona to attend the funeral of her master who was his army buddy after which the dog is to be euthanased. In return he hopes to get a transfer to an overseas military tour in Pakistan. The film is fun to watch when Tatum interacts with the dog but less interesting when Tatum tries to pick up chicks in bars, fakes being blind to get a free hotel room or makes contact with other human beings. Ok film but not quite one that gives you a fuzzy-doggy feeling.

The Contractor (Tarek Saleh, 2022) 6/10

When a decorated serviceman (Chris Pine) is involuntarily discharged his former service mate (Ben Foster) introduces him to his current boss (Kiefer Sutherland) who offers him a job with a fat paycheck. The Company deals in clandestine operations and his first assignment is to go rub out a scientist who is making a destructive bio-germ. After the hit is made his team is wiped out by the local police and he finds that his own Company is out to kill him. So he goes on the run trying to evade constant attempts on his life while trying to make it back home to his family. Action packed thriller has nothing new to offer, is competently made with an appropriately tense performance by Pine who goes through some gruelling action sequences.

Silent Night (Camille Grifin, 2021) 5/10

The film deceptively starts almost like a remake of "The Big Chill" - a married couple (Matthew Goode & Keira Knightley) invite their close college chums to come spend the Christmas weekend at their huge house in the countryside. There are the usual jealousies, past recriminations, plus precocious kids making a nuisance of themselves. Midway through the film's mood changes when it is revealed that a poisonous gas in the earth's atmosphere is moving towards them and they will all soon be dead. To avoid a painful death the plan is to take a poisonous pill that will cause a painless death. Dreary and unfunny black comedy does not survive it's sudden change in tone and the cast flail about trying to either act funny, sad or angry. And then there is a twist ending.
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Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings

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gunnar wrote:Swades (2004) - 7.5/10 - Mohan is a non-resident Indian who works for NASA and has lived in the U.S. for 12 years. His parents died long ago, but he decides to take a break and return to India to find the woman who helped raise him and acted as a second mother to him when he was young and bring her back with him. He eventually finds her in a rural village with a woman who was a childhood friend and is now the local schoolteacher. He finds himself falling in love with her and with India, though he has some issues with their traditions. The movie can be kind of preachy at times and throws in a bunch of somewhat random music videos (it is a Bollywood film after all), but I enjoyed it and think it is a good film. Shah Rukh Khan and Gayatri Joshi each did a nice job in their lead roles. I certainly liked Khan a lot more here than in Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge.
Shah Rukh Khan won India's equivalent of the Oscars - the Filmfare Award - for both the films you mention. In fact the film you did not like him in has been playing in a single theater in Mumbai since 1995.
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Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings

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Swades (2004) - 7.5/10 - Mohan is a non-resident Indian who works for NASA and has lived in the U.S. for 12 years. His parents died long ago, but he decides to take a break and return to India to find the woman who helped raise him and acted as a second mother to him when he was young and bring her back with him. He eventually finds her in a rural village with a woman who was a childhood friend and is now the local schoolteacher. He finds himself falling in love with her and with India, though he has some issues with their traditions. The movie can be kind of preachy at times and throws in a bunch of somewhat random music videos (it is a Bollywood film after all), but I enjoyed it and think it is a good film. Shah Rukh Khan and Gayatri Joshi each did a nice job in their lead roles. I certainly liked Khan a lot more here than in Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge.
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Hustle (Robert Aldrich, 1975) 6/10

A high class whore (Catherine Deneuve) is in a live-in relationship with an L.A. cop (Burt Reynolds) but also has sex with her rich clients on the side for a fat fee. They like to watch movies and are inspired by the romantic french film "A Man and a Woman". Their supposedly hip relationship turns conventional when he begins to rough her up insisting she give up her profession. Meanwhile the cop and his partner (Paul Winfield) are upto their ears in a suicide case with the dead girl's parents (Ben Johnson & Eileen Brennan) insisting it was a murder. A probe reveals the girl was working as a whore for the same rich man (Eddie Albert) who is the high class whore's prime client. Neo-noir is a slow mood piece with the characters engaged in long conversations with barely any action on the side. For a film about whores there is barely any sex. Deneuve looks lovely and bored while Reynolds, minus his trademark moustache, gives off a boyish and detached aura. Johnson, as the tightly coiled Korean vet braying for his dead daughter, is a standout. Keeping in vogue with the decade's moody angst Aldrich paints a bleak picture of 1970s America where the average people are weak and nobodies while the rich are corrupt. The ending is appropriately noir-tinged but the film does not hold a candle to the previous year's "Chinatown".

The Amateur (Charles Jarrott, 1981) 2/10

Canadian revenge thriller was nominated for 10 Genie awards. But why? An extremely slow pace and a bland leading man are this film's death knell. CIA computer analyst (John Savage) blackmails his superiors at the Agency to reveal the whereabouts of a group of terrorists who assassinated his wife - a journalist who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Convoluted plot, with the CIA involved upto their necks in the killing, has a few tepid action sequences, Christopher Plummer as a snarky Russian cop and Marthe Keller who may or not be an ally. Vienna and Toronto stand in for the Czech Republic where the action unfolds. An absolute bore.

The April Fools (Stuart Margolin, 1969) 3/10

A wisp of a story - nebbish man (Jack Lemmon), stuck with a wife (Sally Kellerman) he does not love, picks up an unhappily married woman (Catherine Deneuve) at the swinging party of his boss (Peter Lawford). He walks around Manhattan with her, in Central Park, and inspired by the love of an old couple (Charles Boyer & Myrna Loy) decides to give up his recent promotion, dump his awful wife and run off with the lady to Paris. The only problem is she is the wife of his boss and he is unaware of this fact. Slow moving film has the two stars staring at each other through endless scenes with glistening eyes as Dionne Warwick warbles the title tune. Deneuve, a last minute replacement for Shirley MacLaine, is an etherial but mannequin-like presence. One of her very few films in the english language she is luminous but in a dull way. Lemmon looks star struck opposite her and their chemistry is strictly asexual. Easily stealing the film from the big-name cast are Kenneth Mars, Melinda Dillon, Jack Weston and Harvey Korman in brief but very vivid and funny parts as the lead couple's friends. Contrived story is a serious waste of all the talent on display.
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Resistance (Todd Komarnicki, 2003) 5/10

Old fashioned WWII action adventure set in Nazi occupied Belgium. The lone American survivor (Bill Paxton) of a crashed reconnaissance mission bomber is discovered by a young boy and provided shelter by members of the resistance - a farmer (Philippe Volter) and his wife (Julia Ormond). So while the husband is away bombing tunnels and bridges the pilot has an affair with his wife. The screenplay takes this cliché and forgets to run with it. Instead we get endless sappy scenes of the two in bed, bathing and parenting the young boy who has witnessed Nazi reprisals where many town folk are hanged. Paxton is stuck in a thankless role where his static character has nothing much to do. With very little action and some very weird decisions taken by the two leads the film quickly begins to unravel. Ormond, speaking mostly in french, is a lovely etherial presence throughout while Paxton's American (bordering on hick) persona quickly begins to grate. Many lovely Dutch countryside locations where the film was shot.

Last Call (Henry Bromell, 2002 5/10

Dreary account of the last year in the life of F. Scott Fitzgerald (Jeremy Irons). Ensconsed in an alcoholic stupor he is attempting to write a novel - which proved to be his last - the unfinished "The Last Tycoon" based on the character of MGM producer Irving Thalberg. He is in the midst of a volatile relationship with gossip columnist Sheila Graham while his wife Zelda, diagnosed with
schizophrenia, has been tucked away in an institution. A ravaged Sissy Spacek plays Zelda Fitzgerald who seemingly appears to her husband while he is in an alcoholic haze as she mocks, taunts and berates him. Into this overcharged atmosphere he hires a young woman (Neve Campbell) to act as his secretary and "Man Friday". She tries to get him to kick his alcohol habit, deflect his paranoia and try and get him to write again. The screenplay is based on the memoir by Frances Kroll Ring who tried to help Fitzgerald as much as she could during his difficult last year. Heavy going with Campbell a sublime presence and Irons and his mellifluous voice mesmerizing as always.
Spacek was nominated for an Emmy for her harrowing performance.

Willie and Phil (Paul Mazursky, 1980) 2/10

Hollywood remake (or a re-imagining) of François Truffaut's 1962 classic "Jules et Jim" is transplanted from Paris to the New York of the late sixties and seventies. Willie (Michael Ontkean), a high school English teacher who plays jazz piano, and Phil (Ray Sharkey), a fashion photographer, befriend each other after watching a screening of the Truffaut film. Through the course of the film the men find their friendship challenged when they meet an enigmatic freespirit, Jeanette (Margot Kidder), whom they both desire. The decade and its well-run clichés swing by - as the boys dodge the Vietnam draft, the trio drop acid, discover yoga and the joys of a sexual threesome - as Willie and Jeanette get married and have a child. When Willie leaves the country to find himself his wife moves in with Phil who has relocated to California. Both Ontkean and Sharkey are terribly bland - the original bizzare casting was Al Pacino and Woody Allen which, at least on paper, sounds much more interesting. Kidder, with her wide sunny smile, comes off better than her two co-stars but this is pretty shoddy material and comes off as a third rate homage to the french classic. Vividly standing out in this messy film is a teenage Laurence Fishburne in a brief bit as a student who recites the "To Be or Not to Be" soliloquy from Shakespeare's "Hamlet. He simply jumps off the screen and its an electric moment which is sadly lacking throughout this overlong and very boring film.
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Reza wrote:Anatomy of a Scandal (S.J. Clarkson, 2022) 7/10

Fast paced, six-part, courtroom drama which also works as a psychological thriller. An MP (Rupert Friend), with a posh background - Eton, Oxford - a stunning wife (Sienna Miller) (he met at Oxford) and two cute kids is also a very close friend of the PM - they were together at Oxford too. Their perfect seemingly sunny life comes crashing down when he confesses to his wife about an affair he had with his parlimentary aide (Naomi Scott) which is about to be leaked by the press the following morning. His important government position demands that the situation be immediately handled by admitting to the affair and rally around the family and his constituents with an apology. After the initial shock his wife grits her teeth and forgives him for his "mistake", he apologises to the public and matters regain some sort of semblance when suddenly he is accused of rape by his ex-mistress. A prolific prosecutor (Michele Dockery) takes this high level case and as it progresses many secrets are revealed that will change the lives of everyone involved. Flashbacks flesh out the character's motivations by exploring their past when they were at University at Oxford and the screenplay gradually starts putting the pieces of the puzzle together. Based on the book by Sarah Vaughn the story explicitly deals with themes of sexual abuse and sexual harrassment and culminates in a plot twist. The film's outstanding performance is by Sienna Miller as the shocked wife who sees her life crumbling around her but manages to steer herself right up as she makes important adjustments to correct the wrongs done to her. Art imitating life in Miller's case as in 2005 her then-partner, Jude Law, confessed to her that he was having an affair with the children's nanny which led to their parting.
One of the worst wastes of time of recent streaming binges for me.

Good acting from the series' three stars, Miller, Dockery, and Friend is ultimately defeated by the absurdity of the plot.

The first three episodes are intriguing despite this being a standard "he said she said" drama. It starts to go downhill with the fourth episode, reaches bottom with the fifth and ends in total absurdity in the sixth.

There is no way outside of a soap opera that the "big reveal" would pass scrutiny in today's world. It's like something out of a 1920s Fannie Hurst novel.

The ending in which the guilty are punished not for the central theme crime but for something else is also beyond credulity. The only way British and other first world politicians are punished these days is at the ballot box. Otherwise, they literally get away with murder.

On a side note, the nanny with whom Jude Law was having an affair in 2005 was the nanny of his children from his marriage to Sadie Frost from whom he was divorced in 2003. He and Miller did not have any children together. Her children are from a later relationship or relationships.
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Wild Target (Jonathan Lynn, 2010) 7/10

A fast paced, very droll British black comedy. When a con woman (Emily Blunt) sells a fake Rembrandt to a crook (Rupert Everett) he puts a hit on her. The prim and proper hitman (Bill Nighy) can't bring himself to kill her and they end up going on the run along with an innocent teenage bystander (Rupert Gint). Things get nasty when the crook hires another hitman (Martin Freeman) to go after the trio. Dame Eileen Atkins is hilarious as Nighy's unhinged, knife & shotgun-wielding, wheelchair-bound, domineering mother who conjures up memories of "Psycho". The cast, playing it completely straight, seem to be having the time of their lives with their twisted characters. Remake of the 1993 french film "Cible émouvante" with Jean Rochefort, Marie Trintignant and Guillaume Depardieu.

The Time of Their Lives (Roger Goldby, 2017) 7/10

A road trip. Two old ladies. New friendships forged. Life changes occur. Nothing new here but it does allow Joan Collins and Pauline Collins a couple of interesting lead roles to play at their advanced age. Selfish, egocentric and manipulative, has-been actress (Joan Collins), living in an old person's home in London, decides to take a trip to France to attend the funeral of her ex-lover and favorite director and hopes to rekindle her dead career. On the way she bumps into a timid and very downtrodden housewife (Pauline Collins) who gets coerced into the trip as well. Both ladies harbor sad secrets from their past lives as they embark on the adventure of their lives which also includes a bit of romance with a reclusive artist (Franco Nero) who comes to their rescue when their car runs out of petrol on a backroad. Old fashioned gentle film has laughs and tears, a great cast headed by the two delightful stars and with charming Nero even managing a hilarious nude scene at age 76. In brief roles are Ronald Pickup as the stubborn husband of Pauline and Joely Richardson as the dead director's daughter who gets to hear a shocking truth by Joan. Lovely location work as the two old birds make their journey across the Channel via assorted stolen cars. Unbelievable but fun.
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The Last Metro (1980) - 8/10 - In occupied Paris in 1942, a small theater is barely hanging on. The Jewish theater owner/director has signed over the theater to his gentile wife (Catherine Deneuve) and is thought to have fled France. Instead, his wife is helping him hide in the cellar of the theater. Bernard Granger (Gerard Depardieu) is hired as the lead actor for the theater's new play and also secretly works for the resistance. Truffaut directed this film and I thought it was very good.

The Twilight Samurai (2002) - 9/10 - Set a few years before the Meiji era in Japan, a poor low ranked samurai looks after his aging, senile mother and two young daughters after the death of his wife from tuberculosis. He works in castle stores and has many debts, but is happy with his life and the time with his girls. His life begins to change when Tomoe, a childhood friend, is divorced from her abusive husband and returns home to live with her elder brother. This leads to a duel and eventually the attention of his superiors. This is an excellent film.
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Anatomy of a Scandal (S.J. Clarkson, 2022) 7/10

Fast paced, six-part, courtroom drama which also works as a psychological thriller. An MP (Rupert Friend), with a posh background - Eton, Oxford - a stunning wife (Sienna Miller) (he met at Oxford) and two cute kids is also a very close friend of the PM - they were together at Oxford too. Their perfect seemingly sunny life comes crashing down when he confesses to his wife about an affair he had with his parlimentary aide (Naomi Scott) which is about to be leaked by the press the following morning. His important government position demands that the situation be immediately handled by admitting to the affair and rally around the family and his constituents with an apology. After the initial shock his wife grits her teeth and forgives him for his "mistake", he apologises to the public and matters regain some sort of semblance when suddenly he is accused of rape by his ex-mistress. A prolific prosecutor (Michele Dockery) takes this high level case and as it progresses many secrets are revealed that will change the lives of everyone involved. Flashbacks flesh out the character's motivations by exploring their past when they were at University at Oxford and the screenplay gradually starts putting the pieces of the puzzle together. Based on the book by Sarah Vaughn the story explicitly deals with themes of sexual abuse and sexual harrassment and culminates in a plot twist. The film's outstanding performance is by Sienna Miller as the shocked wife who sees her life crumbling around her but manages to steer herself right up as she makes important adjustments to correct the wrongs done to her. Art imitating life in Miller's case as in 2005 her then-partner, Jude Law, confessed to her that he was having an affair with the children's nanny which led to their parting.

The Awful Truth (Leo McCarey, 1937) 10/10

Classic screwball farce with Grant divorcing Dunne, fighting for custody of their dog and then followed by both realising they still love each other. So they slyly try to ruin each others' romances - Dunne with a rich mother-pecked Oklahoma hayseed (Ralph Bellamy) and Grant with posh blueblood heiress (Molly Lamont). McCarey deftly directs the cast (and the delightful dog) with the actors improvising most of the dialogue and scenes. The film finally propelled Grant into the A-list and for which he was shockingly overlooked for an Oscar nomination. The film, Dunne (who should have won the Oscar), Bellamy, the screenplay and editing were all nominated for the Oscar with McCarey the lone winner for his direction. Hilarious film still holds up with superbly timed comic performances by Cecil Cunningham as Dunne's sardonic aunt and Esther Dale as Bellamy's disapproving mother. A must-see.

Warpath (Byron Haskin, 1951) 7/10

A mystery-thriller aspect added to the screenplay mixed with historical characters makes this an interesting B Western. Man (Edmond O'Brien), searching for the three killers of his fiancé, enlists in General Custer's 7th Cavalry where he suspects two to be in hiding after he finds one and kills him. Lots of Indian action - although the Little Big Horn massacre takes place off screen - as he circles the two suspects - a fellow officer (Forrest Tucker) and a store owner (Dean Jagger) - and falls in love with the latter's daughter (Polly Bergen). Lovely color production shot by the great Ray Rennahan who photographed Gone With the Wind.

The Dark Avenger / The Warriors (Henry Levin, 1955) 7/10

Robust historical adventure film was star Flynn's last swashbuckler which he only agreed to do because he was bankrupt. Set during the Hundred Years' War between the French and English in the French province of Aquitaine captured by King Edward III of England (Michael Hordern) and now ruled peacefully by Edward, Prince of Wales (Errol Flynn), his son and heir. The screenplay involves his conflict with Comte de Ville (Peter Finch), a french nobleman who refuses to bow to the English Lord - lots of sword fights ensue to allow Flynn to do what he did best on screen. There is romance with an English widow (Joanne Dru) - who would later become Edward's wife and queen - who gets captured by the French and naturally needs to be rescued. Colorful film has Finch hamming it up as a dastardly villain, Guy Green's lush color cinematography, beautiful costumes and a dashing but subdued Flynn - slightly overweight and apparently constantly drunk on set. Not top-tier Flynn but worth a watch.

They Met in Bombay (Clarence Brown, 1941) 8/10

Breezy fluff allows Clark Gable to reunite with a tried and tested leading lady - Rosalind Russell, in the third and last of their outings together. They both play rival jewel thieves out to get the "Star of Asia" from around the neck of a Duchess (Jessie Ralph). The film's exotic locations include India and China but by way of California where it was shot in Hollywood. The film shifts tones from a light crime comedy to a ludicrous action war adventure in China where Gable battles it out with the invading Japanese winning himself the Victoria Cross no less. It's great fun with both leads very amusing as they banter it out and there is a typically slimy turn by Peter Lorre. MGM goes all out with the team behind the camera - William Daniels on camera, sets by Cedric Gibbons and Roz dressed to her teeth in Adrian gowns.

The Ledge (Howard J. Ford, 2022) 5/10

Psychotic man and his three friends kill a girl which is secretly filmed by her friend. They then go after her up a mountain which she climbs to get away from them. Stuck on a tiny ledge just below the men she tries to survive their onslaught as they try to retreive the video camera from her. Campy cat-and-mouse thriller, â la "Cliffhanger", has an over-the-top villain but not quite like the deliciously evil John Lithgow in that Sly Stallone "classic".
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White House Down (Roland Emmerich, 2013) 7/10

While a cop (Channing Tatum) and his daughter (Joey King) are taking a tour of the White House a bomb is detonated inside the United States Capitol. The attack is led by a group of mercenaries headed by the disgruntled Head of the Secret Service (James Woods) and an ex-Delta Force and CIA operative (Jason Clarke). Their mission is to get the President (Jamie Foxx) who ends up on the run with the cop in the corridors of the White House. Action packed nonsense is a full-on popcorn roller coaster ride and a guilty pleasure to boot. The action is not only confined to inside the White House but also on its rooftop, in the gardens surrounding it, inside the Pentagon where the Speaker (Richard Jenkins) and a Special Agent (Maggie Gyllenhaal) hold fort, and on Air Force One where the VP (Michael Murphy) is immediately taken up when danger threatens the President. Unbelievable and deliciously prepostrous film is great fun with Tatum at his most wooden.

The Bridges at Toko-Ri (Mark Robson, 1954) 5/10

Slow and boring Korean War heroics about a pilot (William Holden) and his interactions with his colleagues (Mickey Rooney, Earl Holliman), the Admiral (Fredric March), his worried wife (Grace Kelly) and the deadly mission of destroying a series of bridges in North Korea. Based on the book by James Michener the film was partly shot on location in Japan. Kelly has three brief scenes and is added onto the film for glamour and she gets to do a rather tame nude swimming sequence. A lot of the film involves the landing and take offs of planes from an aircraft carrier. The scenes of the bombings won the film an Academy Award for visual effects as well as a nomination for its editing.

Man in the Shadow (Jack Arnold, 1957) 6/10

Sweltering southern town gets all hot and bothered when the upright sheriff (Jeff Chandler) goes against the rich and corrupt man (Orson Welles) who runs the town. When his senior ranch hand beats to death a young Mexican labourer and the only witness to the crime is also killed the cop starts to investigate with a little help from the rich man's daughter (Colleen Miller). Taut little thriller has the excellent Chandler go up against a slumming Welles, chewing the scenery, who did the film strictly for the paycheck although he did help to rewrite the screenplay as a favor. Rugged Chandler - a poor man's Gregory Peck but a better actor than him - is very good in the lead. The plot takes the route of superior social justice melodramas from the likes of Kazan, Brooks and Kramer.

The Plunderers (Joseph Pevney, 1960) 6/10

Four unruly young cowboys ride into a town and terrorize the townfolk. The town's shell-shocked one-armed Civil War hero (Jeff Chandler) refuses to help. When the elderly sheriff is gunned down the crippled man decides to spring into action especially when urged on by his former lover (Marsha Hunt) and the store owner"s young daughter (Dolores Hart) who is in love with him. Chandler simmers and glowers and is far too old to be romancing Hart - although she gets to act opposite John Saxon who plays one of the hoodlums, a Mexican, who nearly rapes her. The film is a slowburn and builds suspense. Ray Stricklyn, as the brash but cowardly leader of the gang, was nominated for a Golden Globe.

Why Didn't They Ask Evans? (Hugh Laurie, 2022) 7/10

A three-part tv adaptation of Agatha Christie's mystery novel but with no Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple in sight. Instead we get childhood friends turned amateur sleuths - Bobby Jones (Will Poulter), the vicar's son, and Lady Frankie (Lucy Boynton), the posh daughter of Earl (Jim Broadbent) and Lady Marchington (Emma Thompson). Bobby discovers a fallen man at the bottom of a cliff who, before dying, whispers to him "Why didn't they ask Evans". And so begins the mystery of the dead man who is suspected of having been murdered after a number of suspicious people enter the fray - the stranger who stays back with the corpse, the dead man's sister, a couple who live in a large mansion next to a sanatorium and the pretty blonde woman whose photo was in the pocket of the corpse. When Bobby is poisoned and his golf partner commits suicide the two sleuths decide to investigate. Atmospheric mystery is well cast and shot on lovely locations in Wales. Laurie shifts the plot slightly but mainly follows the original novel unlike the ridiculous woke adaptations of Kenneth Branagh. Old chum Emma Thompson puts in an amusing cameo along with Jim Broadbent.

Man of the World (Richard Wallace, 1931)

Disgraced American reporter (William Powell), hiding in Paris, runs a successful blackmailing scheme with his partner - his former lover (the ascerbic Wynne Gibson) - where they con money out of people who are in sexually compromusing positions. He decides to go straight when he falls in love with the vivacious niece (a pre-stardom Carole Lombard) of a rich victim (Guy Kibbee). Powell is fine as the debonair crook. Screenplay by "Mank" - Herman J. Mankiewicz.
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Satantango (1994) - 7/10 - The film has great cinematography and is interesting, but I think 7 hours is pretty excessive and it would have been just as effective in the 3-4 hour range. I liked seeing a few of the scenes from different perspectives and in a different context. Did we really need 8 minutes or so of cows? It's pretty bleak much of the time, but there is humor to be found here and there.

12 Monkeys (1995) - 8.5/10 - Bruce Willis is sent back in time from 2035 to gather information on the origins of a virus that destroyed 99% of the population in 1996. Things don't go exactly as planned. The film still holds up very well and having seen La Jetée, I now see the connection there. Willis was good and Brad Pitt was pretty convincing as a mental patient.

Princess Mononoke (1997) - 8.5/10 - Ashitaka is cursed when he kills a boar god that has been possessed by a demon. He leaves his village in search of a way to find a cure and becomes involved in a battle between a town with people who have developed guns and the forest creatures who are trying to protect themselves and the land. Among the wolves of the forest is a young woman who was raised by them after her parents died. I saw the film in the theater and again when I bought the dvd upon its release, but it's been 20+ years and I still enjoyed it a lot.
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A Brighter Summer Day (1991) - 9/10 - Zhang Zhen is a 14 year old boy from a good family in Taiwan in 1960. He is attending night school and is falling into juvenile delinquency, hanging out with members from two rival street gangs, though belonging to neither. There is romance and music, but also violence, including murder in this four hour film which I enjoyed quite a bit. It may be a long film, but it doesn't drag.
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Post by Reza »

Bond Street (Gordon Parry, 1948) 5/10

Portmanteau drama revolving around the wedding dress, pearl necklace, veil and flowers of a bride (Hazel Court). Four stories behind those objects found on Bond Street. In the first story the seamstress (Kathleen Harrison) of the wedding dress, worried for her pregnant daughter, deliberately tears the dress of a difficult customer (Adrianne Allen) but matters right themselves when the two ladies make peace. The pearl necklace figures in the second story which, in noir fashion, involves a murderer and thief (Derek Farr) who holes up with a floozie (Jean Kent) who makes the mistake of falling in love with him. The third story has a meek seamstress (Patricia Plunkett) fixing a tear in the wedding veil and getting involved with a man (Ronald Howard) who ends up threatening her blackmailing husband (Kenneth Griffith) and falling in love with her. The silly last story has the former flame (Paula Valenska) of the groom (Robert Flemyng) arrive on the eve of his wedding to stay with him for good. His father-in-law (the droll Roland Young) saves the day just before walking his daughter (Hazel Court) down the aisle. Terence Rattigan had a hand in the screenplay and together with producer Anatole de Grunwald would go on to make even more elaborate portmanteau films during the 1960s - The VIPs (1963) and The Yellow Rolls Royce (1965).

Miss Robin Hood (John Guillermin, 1952) 3/10

A comic strip writer (Richard Hearne) is persuaded by Miss Honey (Margaret Rutherford), a fan, to join her in a game of crime where she acts like Robin Hood using orphan girls to steal money from safes and distribute to the needy. Farce rests on the familiar personality of Rutherford but is rather silly to make much of a dent. Many familiar faces - Dora Bryan, Sidney James, James Robertson Justice, Ian Carmichael, Michael Medwin, Reg Varney, Eunice Gayson - pop up in bit roles.

The Happiest Days of Your Lives (Frank Launder, 1950) 9/10

Due to a government clerical error the staff and children from a girl's school are evacuated to move into a boy's school. Pandemonium ensues. The lead for the comic situations are jointly taken by the heads of both schools - the horrified stuffy headmaster (Alastair Sim) and the formidable tweedy headmistress (Margaret Rutherford). The screenplay relies on stylised English humour and stock characters played by the cream of British talent whose presence in the roles instantly signaled the type of character each was playing. The two brilliant leads are surrounded by the eccentric Joyce Grenfell as "Gossage" the gym teacher ("just call me sausage") who bangs the school gong (an amusing reference to the gong at the start of each Rank Organization picture) and Guy Middleton as the sleazy and supercilious sports teacher. The two antagonistic leads are forced to join hands when they have to pretend to the kids' parents and visiting inspectors that all is well. Hilarious farce is adapted by Launder from the play by John Dighton. Classic British post-war film manages to squeeze out every laugh helped in great part by the superb comic timing of the entire cast.

Espionage (Kurt Neumann, 1937) 7/10

This B-film from the MGM stable is almost like a precursor to Hitchcock's "The Lady Vanishes" - set on a train with a gently squabling couple (Edmund Lowe & Madge Evans), both reporters from rival publications who end up posing as husband and wife while they pursue a munitions magnate (Paul Lukas) through war-torn Europe. Often silly but also quite amusing with screwball situations between the two leads. Lowe and Evans swiftly sail through coasting on their great chemistry. A small gem.

Destination Gobi (Robert Wise, 1953) 6/10

True story set during WWII at a United States weather station in Inner Mongolia run by a reluctant Naval officer (Richard Widmark). When the Japanese attack the camp the officers seek help from nomad Mongolians in exchange for sixty horse saddles. Standard war film with a slight twist otherwise its the usual plot - officers trudging through the Gobi desert (shot in Nevada) towards the sea coast in China helped and abetted by the local nomad tribe. When the group is betrayed to the Japanese it appears they will have to spend time as POWs in an internment camp. Wise's first color film blends sarcastic humor, action sequences, and double crosses to create an unusual war film. Widmark, as always, is very good as the leader of the motley group.

The Virginian (Stuart Gilmore, 1946) 5/10

Oft filmed story, based on Owen Wister's 1902 novel and 1904 play, is the first colour production after the versions with Dustin Farnum in 1914 and Gary Cooper in 1929. A New England school teacher (Barbara Britton) arrives in Wyoming and meets two cowpokes - the irresponsible Steve (Sonny Tufts) whom she takes a shine to and the "Virginian" (Joel McCrea) with whom she clashes. It's only a matter of time before love blossoms, tragedy follows one of the men and a cattle rustler (Brian Donlevy) meets his comeuppance. Corny film with its banal plotline has nothing new to offer though the lovely colour cinematography and McCrea's charming presence are both a plus. Donlevy doesn't hold a candle to the performance by Walter Huston as the despicable villain in the first sound version in 1929.

The Bounty Hunter (André De Toth, 1954) 6/10

Scott plays a bounty hunter who goes looking for three bank robbers and creates suspicion and consternation in a small town. Shot in 3-D but released in standard format the film has many moments where objects are flung at the camera. Typical low budget 50s Scott western with nothing new to offer yet through sheer star power he makes it interesting going through the genre's usual tropes. Bland Dolores Dorn is the much too young love interest for Scot who was 36 years older than the actress while Marie Windsor and Ernest Borgnine play a couple of flashy characters.

Two Thousand Women (Frank Launder, 1944) 6/10

In Nazi occupied France a group of Brirish women are interned at a hotel in the countryside. When three RAF airmen bail out of a plane and find refuge at the hotel it becomes a cat-and-mouse game for the women to first hide them and then during a staged concert help them to escape as they defiantly sing "There'll Always Be an England". Typical WWII patriotic propaganda entwined in a mixture of suspense (a Nazi spy amongst the women) and artificiality - the women are all dressed impeccably with immaculate hairdos and faces fully madeup even though there is a shortage of water for baths. The women play an assortment of types allowing most of the top leading ladies and character actors of British cinema to make an impact - a journalist (Phyllis Calvert), a novice nun (Patricia Roc), a stripper (Jean Kent), a posh lesbian (Flora Robson) and her "companion" (Muriel Aked) and Dulcie Gray, Thora Hird, Anne Crawford and Renée Houston rounding out the lot of stars playing characters representing regional Britain. Good film could have been much better if there were less comic interludes stopping the main drama in its tracks.

The Undercover Man (Joseph H. Lewis, 1949) 7/10

Gritty noir follows a group of Treasury agents out to get a powerful mob boss on charges of tax evasion. The fictionalized story of Al Capone - the "big fellow" is never shown - is presented like a documentary with a Federal agent (Glenn Ford) risking his life to get past frightened witnesses and corrupt cops to get to the top man. The timeframe is changed from the Prohibition era to the postwar era. Ford gets good support from James Whitmore as a fellow agent and Nina Foch as his wife. Hardhitting crime-busting story is tautly put together with Burnett Guffey's gritty monochrome camerawork a major asset.
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Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings

Post by gunnar »

Eat Drink Man Woman (1994) - 9/10 - An aging chef lives in a big house in Taiwan with his three adult daughters, having raised them alone since their mother died 16 years before. Time is moving on, though, and the daughters each have new men in their lives and their relationships or work opportunities may take them away from home. We get to see plenty of Chinese cooking and meals shared by the family as they struggle to communicate with each other. It's a very nice film with romance, humor, and lots of food.
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Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings

Post by Big Magilla »

Reza wrote:Deep Water (Adrian Lyne, 2022) 4/10

Director Lyne ("9 1/2 Weeks", "Fatal Attraction", "Indecent Proposal", "Lolita", "Unfaithful") returns to the screen after 20 long years and tries hard to maintain his lurid reputation. If there's any flaw here its that he is a tad too slow to get to the juicy stuff which unfortunately turns out not to be all that lurid after all. The premise is very promising though. The story, based on the novel by Patricia Highsmith, was first adapted in 1981 as the French film, "Eaux profondes" with Jean-Louis Trintignant and Isabelle Huppert. Here Ben Affleck plays the cuckold, desperately in love with his sexy European wife (Ana de Armas), who likes to walk around topless at home and openly indulges in affairs with young men. This listless marriage is tolerated by the husband just as long as the word "divorce" is never mentioned for the sake of their cute precocious daughter. When he decides to start murdering his wife's lovers the dynamic of their relationship shifts but in a surprising direction. The problem with Hollywood has always been to depict sex in a certain squeamish manner, almost as if calling out to the hijab to come and cover up. Lyne, especially during the 1980s, was pretty much no-holds barred when it came to sex and sleaze on the screen. Rip roaring kinky sex was unabashedly on display which made a couple of his films into guilty pleasures. While de Armas bares her body - she's Spanish so nudity is no big deal - the violent aspect of the plot is too softly presented. We want blood, sex and gore. Instead we literally get Disney, which is the studio at the helm, making its first erotic film in a very long while. The studio obviously has no clue about the meaning of the word "erotic". It's no wonder the film's best performance comes from the little tot - Grace Jenkins - who plays the all knowing little daughter. One eagerly awaits Bond girl de Armas' next project - the NC-17 rated film based on Joyce Carol Oates' novel "Blonde" about Marilyn Monroe.
What a horrible piece of crap this one was. I disagree only with your take on the little brat who, like her mother, shows her true colors at the end. Was that kid aware of what she playing? Ben Affleck's worst performance ever, matched by just everyone else in the film.

P.S. Ana de Armis may be of Spanish heritage, but she was born in Cuba. Her character is supposed to be Italian.
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