Official Rate the last movie you watched thread

[palitoy]

The Creeping Terror (1964). Considered one of the worst movies ever made. Worse than Plan 9. It is terrible as its legend claims and I highly recommend it.

Really fun story behind the making of it, I'm shocked that someone hasn't made a movie about it. Well, a good movie, there is a documentary but it's a hard watch.

[Brue]

Downsizing/ Started rough. Great movie overall.

Ocean's 12. I took 16 years to finally see it. I thought 11 was a decent film. 12 was unwatchable. How did they squander that much credit? I made almost half way through before I cut my losses. Spoilers please.

[Nostalgiabuff]

Hunt for the WilderPeople. It's a film by Taika Waititi. I had never heard of it but yesterday was my daughters birthday and so she chose that. it was a funny, quirky little movie. 9/10. typical of his films there is a moral behind the humor and quirkiness. the kid from Deadpool 2 was in it and also Sam Neil.

[Hector]

Been renting tons of newer movies.

Underwater...surprisingly good. A nice homage to Alien. Not a fan of Kristen Stewart, but she was decent here. I’m claustrophobic and felt the massive enclosure and enormous water pressure above the research/drilling facility.

[Apositive]

RED SONJA (1985)

It's not a good movie, no where near as good as either Conan film, but I like it. A fun, entertaining adventure flick.

[Wee67]

Come Drink With Me (1966)

I've fallen deep into the Kung Fu rabbit hole but I thought this film is worth mentioning. It really is a beautifully shot, wonderfully choreographed movie. This comes back from a time when martial arts films still relied more heavily on weapons battle than punches and kicks. Not a better or worse time, mind you, just a bit different. I think this may be one of the first movies to introduce the archetype of the drunken tramp who is really a martial arts master. Definitely worth a view if like Hong Kong films. A-

[MRP]

I watched another of the Kurosawa/Tifune movies I recorded from TCM for the celebration of Tifune's 100th birthday.

Stray Dogs (1949)



Noirish crime story of a rookie cop who has his gun pickpocketed on a bus and his efforts to track down the gun with the aid of a veteran cop before the trail of carnage becomes too great. It's another strong Kurosawa film. Some great characters, poignant moments, and beautifully filmed. If you like other Kurosawa films, or are a fan of noir of crime stories, you will definitely enjoy this, but worth checking out even if you are not a fan of any of those.

-M

[Werewolf]

The Creeping Terror (1964). Considered one of the worst movies ever made. Worse than Plan 9. It is terrible as its legend claims and I highly recommend it.

[Wee67]

… watching Return of the One-Armed Swordsman (1969) on El Rey (Kung Fu weekends are forever fun!), the opening credits with weapon montage is awesome!

I miss El Rey.

[Mongoose1983]

Now with the lockdown I had the chance to watch a couple of movies, and many classic tennis and football (soccer) matches.

I saw BOBBY DEERFIELD (Al Pacino, 1977) again, now with the Sydney Pollack (director) commentary. I got to learn incredible bits about the production, and location, and also about Al Pacino himself, like he had to learn to drive because of the movie. Not only that, he fell in love with Marthe Keller and lived together for five years since then. This movie is absolutely amazing, I don't know why Americans never seem to get it. Perhaps because it was shot in Europe? But seriously, this is Al Pacino at his VERY best. His acting skills are truly one of a kind on this one. Isn't him the greatest movie actor from the XXth century by now?

I also saw SKIN DEEP (John Ritter, 1989), too. Directed by Blake Edwards, this movie is fantastic in the way it deals with a pretty complex problem but in a mega hilarious way. I laughed so hard I had pains a day after, and yet come to think about life. It's a great movie. Most people remember this one because of the condoms' scene, but for sure is much more than that. And John Ritter (R.I.P). was a much better actor and comedian than most people think, or used to think about back then.

[Confessional]

… watching Return of the One-Armed Swordsman (1969) on El Rey (Kung Fu weekends are forever fun!), the opening credits with weapon montage is awesome!

[shaunaconda]

Forbidden Planet. Never had seen it before. Great movie! Especially for when it was made...1956

[Nostalgiabuff]

just watched Badland on Netflix. not a bad western. I actually went to high school with the star - Kevin Makely. has a good cast, some of whom are well known. Bruce Dern, Mira Sorvino, Jeff Fahey, Wes Studi
a little slow moving at times but still not a bad movie, 6/10. good afternoon viewing material

[Nostalgiabuff]

Good Boys. typical juvenile humor, but I needed a good laugh. It is also a sweet coming of age story for boys going into Jr High

[MRP]

On the 1st, TCM ran a marathon of Toshiro Mifune pictures to celebrate what would have been his 100th birthday. I set the DVR to record them all, but have only gotten through the first so far...

Drunken Angel, 1948, co-written and directed by Akira Kurosawa.



Mifune plays Matsunaga, a member of the Yakuza who has tuberculosis, but is resistant to treatment form the local doctor, and things get complicated when an old mentor returns as arrival for his territory. Mifune is at best co-lead in this as the doctor, played by Takashi Shimura is the actual central character around which this film's story revolves. I have only seen a handful of Kurosawa films (started with Seven Samurai, then Yojimbo and a few others) and this was a bit unlike any of the ones I had seen. I wasn't expecting a jazz-based musical number in the middle of it that is for certain, and the dream sequence when Matsunaga smashes open a coffin to discover himself inside who then rises to chase him was a bit more surreal than I was expecting based on previous Kurosawa films I had experienced, and it put me more in the mind of a film like Bergman's Seventh Seal than what I had experienced from Kurosawa before.

The film itself is gorgeous, especially the cinematography. There were shots I just wanted to pause and let the image sink in, in particular some of the establishing shots of the town where the town buildings are reflected in the cesspool of a swamp at its center. It's a technique I have seen used quite well in comics before, but this film predates many of those comics, so my mind wanders to wonder whether it is simple parallel development along similar lines, whether one influenced the other, or whether they both owe a debt of influence to an even earlier work.

I also find when I watch a subtitled film, I pay a lot more attention to the tone, timber, and inflection of the dialogue, garnering meaning and emotional weight from that since the words themselves are incomprehensible to me outside of the subtitles. The rhythm of delivery is also interesting, but since I am not very familiar with the everyday rhythms of spoken Japanese, it's harder to interpret any clues that the rhythm would normally give form a language you are familiar with, so you start looking for delivery of dialogue that breaks the rhythm so as to stand out, to take cues when the emotional thrust of the dialogue is changing-when the pattern is harshly broken either from the words feeling sharper or the volume and pitch increasing clues you to a change in the emotional state of the character delivering it for example, but if the rhythm gets slower or softer it also signals a change of some sort. But it draws the focus on the actual vocal performance into sharper focus despite the language barrier. Sometimes we get passive or even lazy as the viewer when we understand the words that we miss a lot of the nuances of the vocal performance that provide cues to another level of the story, theme or character.

Overall I quite liked this. It felt very noirish, and fit well with a lot of the crime fiction I have been consuming lately. Matsunaga is very much the "doomed to come to a bad end" kind of character common in noir thrillers, his shortcomings preventing him from pulling himself out from the hole fate digs for him.

This film is part of the Criterion Collection, and the version TCM showed was the Criterion cut, which I need to track down at some point to add to my library (I currently only own the Criterion cut of Yojimbo).

-M