Last Movie You Saw, Name & Review Movie • Page 82

I definitely didn't love it this much, but talk about a unique movie. Nothing else very much like it, is there?

 

That's high praise. Imitation of Life is probably my favorite, or All that Heaven Allows. The autumn scenery in that movie is unreal. The B&W film was The Tarnished Angels.

Like nothing else I've seen. I'm not generally high on the average western, but the ones that connect I typically end up loving a lot.

 

My nieces and nephews are in town and expressed interest in seeing Despicable Me 3 so I took them this morning. God, what a garbage movie. All of them looked so bored throughout. It's like the movie knows it has nothing substantial to offer so it overcompensates by being extra flashy and incredibly loud. Kids are so much smarter than these studios give them credit. I was just talking to my 7 year old niece the other day and she was telling me how her favorite movie is Ponyo, which also happens to be a favorite movie of mine. I just love how it has so much breathing room and allows for space to occur. It's almost meditative.

 

I think All That Heaven Allows might be last of the 4 (Magnificent Obsession was a nice surprise) but that may be that I saw it and Far from Heaven really close together and they're hard to separate for me at times. I do hate how much people pat themselves on the back for how ironic they are in liking Sirk. "The trashy story is actually a satire of how empty and destructive the lives of the rich are." Like...that's not really the subtext of the movie so much as the text, guys...

I personally am kinda shocked for a film fan to not be into westerns mostly because they're so broad. All the great westerns seem to be mostly allegorical. Nobody makes a western just to make a western. They usually do it because the characters types are staple enough and the genre is simple enough that you can really run any theme through it. It may be the most varied genre in that way.

But yeah, a lesbian western from Nicholas Ray, even by western standards, is gonna stand apart. Haha

 

Huh. I saw the first one last week for the first time after avoiding them for so long and thought it was decent. It was just on while I was working on Magic decks. I didn't think it was garbage. Benign, I guess, but yeah, there are so many better alternatives out there.

 

I think the first one is decent as well but this was a pretty sharp decline in quality imo.

Edit: also, I work at a theatre so it was free for all of us but the whole time I was thinking of all the parents who probably spent close to $60 to see it and how much that sucks

 

I really want to see the big sick

 

It's a little Apatow-overlong and a little rom-com formulaic for the insane praise it's been getting...but it's also really damn good.

 

Baby Driver - slick and rhythmic as you would expect from Edgar Wright. decently funny but not as hilarious as his other films. very intelligently choreographed and good sense of irony. but good lord the story was bad, and I'm not 100% sure why more people don't seem to think so - i think the NYT said it "transcended cliche" and like... no. character motivations ranged from sloppy to nonsensical, it struggled with the common heist flick of never knowing when to fucking end, to call the romance (and female characters) paper thin is an insult to paper, and the dialogue in said romantic scenes was so unbelievable that it was almost offensive.

good movie, i mean, but solely against its enormous narrative faults.

 

Coming to a Belle de Jour-reinforced conclusion that I may just not be much of a Bunuel fan.

 

This is one of your most offensive opinions, especially coming off that film! It's among my top 20-30 or so.

I recommend you check out his little seen Death in the Garden. It's unlike his more surreal works, more of an adventure/survival film. I just saw it this past week and it was a blast.

 

I will say I'm not an expert in him by any means. And I like Los Olvidados and (to a lesser degree) Viridiana. But Tristana and this didn't do much for me and while I get the impressiveness of Un Chien Andalou in context, avant garde stuff does very little for me.

I do still have to see The Young One, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoise and The Exterminating Angel before I'm finished with this 1001 list though, so my opinion could change.

 

To be fair, Tristana is very easily among the bottom three of his I've seen (which is quite a few). I doubt Discreet Charm will sway you, though I unfortunately haven't seen the other two yet.

Which list are you going through? I've been working through the They Shoot Pitcures lists on and off for a few years now. Just getting back to it the last few days after taking a break for some other stuff. I've still got about 400/1000 left lol.

 

goddamn that's a shame, Bunuel is incredible. so provocative and unique

 

That's part of my problem. Some of his stuff seems to only care about being provocative. It also rubs me the wrong way that he tries to have it both ways a lot. "Look at the depravity of the human condition....jk lol life's a big joke". I certainly get why people like him. Bold filmmakers have their own pull. But it rarely connects with me.

I'm actually holding out some hope for Discreet Charm. I know a little about the premise and it's interesting.

I've been working on the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die for...a long ass time now. Probably a decade. I go in fits and spurts. There are multiple editions so it's something like 1199 movies total in all the editions and I've got a little over 900.

 

yeah, i think his total disrespect for institutions is largely informed by his proximity to dadaism and anarchist uprisings in Spain at the time. so, to me it's very "justified" that his work can be in some regards reduced to controversial for its own sake, but i think there's more going on.

 

I feel similar to how I feel about stuff like Salo, where the controversy was definitely important for its time and pushed film forward and so I appreciate it for that, but in the modern environment it elicits more of a shrug. Some of Preminger's work, to a lesser degree, too.

 

Of all the random film mini-genres I love, live-action Disney movies starring Hayley Mills may be one of the most specific.

 

Morgan (2016) - 4.5/10
Train to Busan - 8/10
Shaun of the Dead* - 10/10
Hot Fuzz* - 9/10
The World's End* - 9.5/10
RoboCop (2014) - 3.5/10
Bullitt* - 10/10
The Italian Job* - 9.5/10
The French Connection* - 10/10
Vanishing Point (1971)* - 9/10
Dirty Mary Crazy Larry - 6/10
Smokey and the Bandit* - 6.5/10
The Driver* - 10/10

* = Rewatch

A heavy rewatch week but that is purely down to Baby Driver from the previous week and me wanting to revisit not just my favorite previous Edgar Wright films but also watch the films that he himself said influenced his latest film. Firstly though I will deal with the three films I watched that have nothing to do with Wright.

Morgan had a good premise and a solid cast to back it up unfortunately pretty much everything else let the film down be it how it divulged into senseless violence or the laughable ending that I saw a mile off.

Train to Busan was a surprisingly effective apocalyptic horror film that manages to balance the horror elements and the emotional side to the characters extremely well while also featuring solid action and plenty of tense scenes.

Then we have the remake of RoboCop and oh dear, once again a remake pretty much fails to acknowledge what people liked about the original and instead of improving upon that film the people behind it completely sanitized and washed away any of the grit, violence, social satire and humor that made the original so great. It is though ever so slightly better than the Total Recall remake but that is primarily down to the fact I prefer Gary Oldman and Michael Keaton to the cast in that film but quite frankly both are dire and both made the same mistakes.

Now onto the Edgar Wright side of things and I started with the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy which is practically perfect all round. Watched them all for the first time back to back and the day I did that on was all the better for it as I laughed plenty, enjoyed the great soundtracks within each film and was thoroughly entertained from start to finish.

Moving onto the films that influenced his latest release with Bullitt being the first of seven that I watched. It has always been a favorite of mine and not just because of the highly influential and expertly done car chase. Steve McQueen is excellent, I like the rest of the cast, the editing is great, I like the score along with the fact they knew when to use it (cutting it as the car chase begins was a wise move) and I love all the detail that is put into the plot as it feels like a real police investigation.

The Italian Job is another all time favorite that is the complete opposite to the likes of Bullitt with it being centered around criminals and a lot less serious in tone but it nonetheless has plenty going for it be it the opening scene with Matt Monro offering a great song in the form of "On Days Like These", seeing the plans for the heist plans come together and the heist being enacted are all great plus then you have Michael Caine and a fantastic score by Quincy Jones.

The French Connection has two fantastic leads in the form of Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider, has a realism and grit you just don't get anymore tonally and visually, an engrossing plot and then there is that car chase which yes was clearly influenced by Bullitt with how it was filmed but the editing, the acting of Hackman and the tense scenes that unfold on the street with Hackman chasing in the Pontiac LeMans he requisitions along with what is happening on the train he is chasing are all perfectly executed.

Vanishing Point has a lot more going for it than some give it credit for and yes it is sparsely scripted and only two of the cast make an impression but the landscapes, that Dodge Challenger, the action scenes, the underlying themes and the soundtrack all work perfectly together.

Surprised I haven't seen Dirty Mary Crazy Larry before considering it was released around the same time as other favorites and though it pales in comparison to most it still has its plus points. Great action scenes, solid choice of vehicles, I like the cast and it was entertaining enough though that ending was really abrupt.

Smokey and the Bandit has its problems but it is hard to hate thanks to the cast, the action and the overall silly tone it has going on.

Finally The Driver shows off how great Walter Hill truly was and how daring he chose to be going for a slimmed down, minimalist action film that doesn't have much to say granted but it is a thoroughly enjoyable ride along the way with Ryan O'Neal and Bruce Dern being a joy to watch battle it out despite never really being confrontational with one another as it is a game of wits over brawn between the two of them. I think of all the films I watched this week that were notable for their car chases only Bullitt is more influential than The Driver but the latter is my favorite of them all.

Easily the biggest week I have had so far this year in terms of quantity and easily my favorite week so far though that is purely down to the rewatches. This week also now has me hooked on watching other seventies films (be they favorites or first time watches) plus I have all five Planet of the Apes films that I have never seen (got them all cheap) which I most likely will watch this week before I see War for the Planet of the Apes at the end of this month.

 

@secretsociety92

Is that the 1966 Morgan with Vanessa Redgrave?

 

Haha, didn't know there was another film under that name. Edited.

 

Ah okay. I didn't know there was a newer film and with you being a Brit (I think?) and all. Haha

 

Yeah I'm from the UK (not exactly something to proud of right now though) but yeah can't say I have ever heard of that film with Redgrave haha.

 

It's not super well-known anymore, I don't think. I saw it because Regrave won best actress and Cannes and got a best actress nom at the Oscars for it. Nominated for an assload of BAFTAs too, as I look.

Doesn't hold up great. Too quirky swingin' 60s.

 

Ah ok, well if I run out of films on my minimum of one film a day marathon over the course of this year I will look it up.