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

Reza
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Charle Countryman (Fredrik Bond, 2013) 6/10

Weird and very wonky road film finds hangdog Charlie (Shia LaBeouf) taking advice from his dead mom (Melissa Leo) and flying to Bucharest. Enroute he gets saddled with another dead body on the plane who advises him to deliver a hat to his daughter (Evan Rachel Wood) whose ex-husband (Mads Mikklesen) happens to be a psychotic killer. Harry Potter's buddy "Ron Weasley" (Rupert Grint) is around popping ecstacy pills, a mouthful of viagra leading to an erection that explodes at the wrong moment resulting in another psychotic hood (Til Schweiger) chasing them all. It's like a bad acid trip with the mean streets of Bucharest adding colour. Charlie falls hard for the kohl-eyed Romanian beauty but will her vicious ex allow them to procreate? Loud and very whacky violent thriller has some interesting moments.
Reza
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Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings

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Trouble With the Curve (Robert Lorenz, 2012) 5/10

An about to retire baseball scout (Clint Eastwood) goes on one last recruitment trip along with his estranged daughter (Amy Adams). Father and daughter bond and find peace on the road trip. Rather obvious drama which Eastwood easily aces with his irascible wit while Adams manages to stay two steps ahead as both battle it out and create sparks. But it's all pretty stale deja vu.
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Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings

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The Score (Frank Oz, 2001) 7/10

Slick heist film has nothing new to say. However, it's the only film around which has both Brando and De Niro interacting - even Godfather Part II cannot claim that. Add to the mix a wily Edward Norton who basically got on board so he could see his name next to Brando's on the film's poster. The plot is in line with better films like "Riffifi" and "Topkapi" but the casting here rocks - Brando looks grotesque but has fun with the part which has shades of Sydney Greenstreet written all over it courtesy of "The Maltese Falcon".
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Home Before Dark (Mervyn LeRoy, 1958) 8/10

Perceptive drama charting the return home of a wealthy young woman (Jean Simmons) after spending a year in a mental institution. She gradually comes out of her fragile state after realising that it was the conditions at home that resulted in her acute nervous breakdown. Shattering account of a failed marriage - her priggish professor husband (Dan O'Herlihy) never loved her and has instead always been in love with her step-sister (Rhonda Fleming). Gradually she manages to overcome her fragile state with the help of her husband's colleague (Efrem Zimbalist Jr) and starts to take charge of her life. Since it's the 1950s it takes over two hours for the word "divorce" to crop up and when it finally does everything falls into place for her. This plot could have worked even better with Douglas Sirk at the helm. The stark chilly Massachusetts locations compliment Jean Simmon's magnificent performance wavering on the brink of insanity.
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The Echo of Thunder (Simon Wincer, 1998) 5/10

A family in the Australian outback has to contend with the arrival of a young girl - the farmer's (Jamey Sheridan) daughter from a previous marriage. She faces resentment from her dad's second wife (Judy Davis), older daughter and a bully at school. Typical Hallmark tv film about the importance of family and how challenges and hardships are overcome leading to happiness and forgiveness. Davis is very good as the uncompromisingly tough woman who has a hard time accepting her husband's daughter from a previous marriage. Filmed on stunning New South Wales locations.
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One Against the Wind (Larry Elikann, 1991) 7/10

True story of Countess Mary Lindell (Judy Davis) who worked for the French Red Cross during WWII in Paris and helped many Allied soldiers escape from the Nazis. Episodic film deals with her heroics which involve her help of a downed British pilot (Sam Neill), her daughter's (Kate Beckinsale) involvement with a German soldier, her pursuit by an SS officer (Anthony Higgins) and help by a priest (Denholm Elliott). Davis gives a strong performance bringing to life the woman who was later proved to have actually been a double agent for the Germans. Good old fashioned war film.
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Georgia (Ben Lewin, 1988) 7/10

Rare film has a typically tough performance by the great Judy Davis. A hotshot lawyer is manipulated into attending a photo exhibition where she discovers that her real mother was the photographer who died under mysterious circumstances at a party. Was her drowning an accident, a suicide or murder? Davis also plays the free spirited mother in flashback sequences and tries to get at the truth by talking to various people at that party - her adopted mother, a business tycoon and a cop - all of whom have a different version (shades of "Rashomon") of the events that fateful night. Meanwhile there is a masked intruder wielding a razor and who wants to kill to stop the truth from coming out. Australian production that never got a release abroad thus depriving fans from witnessing an energetic and intelligent performance by Davis in one of her best roles.
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A Cooler Climate (Susan Seidelman, 1999) 6/10

Old fashioned "women's picture" with two great stars facing off each other. A down-and-out divorcée (Sally Field) gets employment as a housekeeper at the house of an affluent but neurotic matron (Judy Davis). Their tense relationship eventually thaws after various hysterical events involving their angry daughters, the matron's philandering husband and life's assorted disappointments. Both Field and Davis were deservedly nominated for the Emmy. Beautifully shot film in scenic Vancouver which subs for New Haven.
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Red Light (Roy Del Ruth, 1949) 6/10

George Raft is typically intense seeking his brother's killer by looking for a missing bible that holds a clue to the murder. Virginia Mayo provides attractive decoration as the lady friend who helps while Raymond Burr and Harry Morgan provide the sinister sleaze. Interesting little B-noir with Raft pretty much a Cagney clone.
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The Caller (Matthew Parkhill, 2011) 1/10

Boring horror film has a woman receiving ominous crank calls after she moves into an apartment. Is it her stalker ex-husband? Is it a voice from her past? Is the apartment full of ghosts? Is it all in her imagination? Why doesn't she just disconnect the phone and save herself the bother of later being attacked by a weird woman wielding a huge kitchen knife. Trashy horror film that just goes on and on and on.
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Our Very Own (David Miller, 1950) 5/10

The film is a time capsule catching America at mid-20th century in a story dealing with the daily life of teenagers, the introduction of television in households - the film was shot in 1948 - and handles the subject of adoption in a rather archaic manner treating it as a stigma. A young girl's (Ann Blyth) life gets a jolt when in an angry exchange with her younger sister (Joan Evans) discovers she was adopted by her loving parents (Martin Milner & Jane Wyatt). Her family, boy friend (Farley Granger) and best friend (Phyllis Kirk) are all very supportive but she insists on meeting her birth mother (Ann Dvorak in a flashy bit) causing a crisis in the household. It all works out in typical 1950s fashion with Blyth discovering the worth of the parents who actually brought her up. There are interesting bits throughout - the young teens interacting at a birthday party, the family getting a television installed with the annoying kid sister - little Natalie Wood - who gets the entire opening 20 minutes of the film as she makes a nuisance of herself with the visiting mechanic. Wood carries off the part with ease and was still seven years away from adult stardom.
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The Greatest Showman (Michael Gracey, 2017) 7/10

Corny but exhilarating musical based on the rags to riches life story of P.T. Barnum with more than a few liberties taken with his actual life. With the musical genre sadly dwindling on the big screen this dazzling, energetic feel-good attempt is a breath of fresh air even if it uses all the stale clichés in the book to achieve something that is akin to a glittering Broadway show which so many around the world can never hope to view. It does it with the help of the marvelous Hugh Jackman who plays the title role with a joi de vivre that is infectious in it's charming capacity to enthral an audience. The film's underlying message is a plea for diversity and a stress for humanity to accept each other and live in harmony. Of course it IS a fantasy and never more so than in the country Barnum found his immense fame. His circus consists of a midget, a bearded lady, the world's tallest and fattest man, a couple of black trapeze artists, a tattooed man - all of whom are treated as freaks by the white folk, never to be accepted as part of society except as a freak show to be seen at the circus. The impressario uses them to climb the ladder of success and provides his wife (Michelle Williams) and two daughters an enriched lifestyle even though "polite" New York society does not accept them as equals. The film's many songs are tuneful but instantly forgettable - the Oscar nominated "This is Me", an anthem which the circus performers sing in defiance wanting acceptance and the catchy "A Million Dreams" which the young Barnum sings with his childhood sweetheart before he makes it big. The musical's spectacular showpiece is the soaring ballad "Never Enough" sung by the "Swedish Nightingale" (Rebecca Ferguson) who is being promoted on the New York stage by the showman and who also comes between him and his wife causing a dent in their happy marriage. The plot moves like a Bollywood film with scenes extracting equal measures of laughs and tears interspersed with songs. Fast paced film is nothing but schmaltzy fluff which does what it starts out to do which is to entertain just like the Greatest Showman himself.
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Carrie's War (Coky Giedroyć, 2004) 7/10

Charming and atmospheric adaptation of Nina Bawden's novel. Children's story about the adventures of a young girl and her little brother when they are evacuated from London during the Blitz and go up North to rural Wales and live with a family - a strict pastor and his sister - who take them in. Touching film with eccentric characters - an old aunt (Geraldine McEwan) is a highlight - and the lovely Welsh countryside make this a most pleasant viewing.
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Annihilation (Alex Garland, 2018) 7/10

Psychological science-fiction story that steam rolls glimpses of various films from the past - "Stalker", "Jurassic Park", Close Encounters of the Third Kind", "Return to Oz" and "Alien" with it's basic structure resembling the old haunted house films of yore with either spooks or a deranged killer out to get the stupid folks who venture in. It is all presented in a cerebral manner and comes off eerie and horrific with moments of suspense, awe and an ending that is like a drug induced mind-trip. A meteor hits a lighthouse on the Florida coast and a strange shimmering light envelops the surrounding area which gradually starts to grow. A number of Government based expeditions are sent into "the shimmer" all of whom never return until one man (Oscar Issac) comes back in a catatonic state and goes into a coma. His wife (Natalie Portman) - a biologist and former soldier - accompanies a group of four women - a psychologist (Jennifer Jason Leigh), a surveyor (Tessa Thompson), a paramedic (Gina Rodriguez) and a linguist (Tuva Novotny) - into "the shimmer" which is a wonderland of flora and fauna that has started genetically mutating. The plant life has begun taking on a human shape while the wild animals are not only ferocious but can make guttaral sounds like the humans they kill. The expedition becomes a harrowing game of survival with a finalé involving cheesy CGI psychedelic effects, alien forms and colorful tumor-like mutations. The ambiguous ending caps what is an interesting entry in the genre.
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American Crime Story: The People V. O.J. Simpson (Ryan Murphy, Anthony Hemingway, Gwyneth Horder-Payton, Daniel Minahan, John Singleton, Matt Bomer & Nelson Cragg, 2016) 9/10

Fascinating 10 part tv series which recreates the sensational O.J. Simpson trial when he was accused of brutally murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her lover Ron Goldman. The film perfectly captures the media frenzy surrounding the case with most of the drama centering not only on the accused, O. J. Simpson (Cuba Gooding Jr.), but mainly on the flamboyant characters in court - the defence team led by Johnnie Cochran (Courtney B. Vance), Robert Shapiro (John Travolta), F. Lee Bailey (Nathan Lane) and the prosecuting team led by Marcia Clark (Sarah Paulson) and Christopher Darden (Sterling K. Brown). Other prominent characters who play a role in the drama are the D.A. Gil Garcetti (Bruce Greenwood), Simpson's close friend, Robert Kardashian (David Schwimmer) and Al Cowlings (Malcolm Jamal Warner) who drove the vehicle down the L.A. freeway with Simpson in the back seat holding a gun to his head as the police gave chase. All of the drama - the freeway chase and the court trial - was caught on live tv. The film won Emmy awards for Outstanding Limited Series, Best Actor for Courtney B. Vance, Best Actress for Sarah Paulson and Supporting Actor for Sterling K. Brown. Additional nominations went to Ryan Murphy, John Singleton and Anthony Hemingway for directing individual episodes, to Cuba Gooding Jr. for Best Actor and both John Travolta and David Schwimmer for Supporting Actor. A riveting film.
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