What Movies Did You Watch Last Week? (08/05-14/05) (CLOSED)

Hey! Really good week for me for first time viewings.

Yours:

She's Out of My League - saw it several years ago and it had some good laughs. Not sure what I'd rate it.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) - still need to see the original trilogy, but I'm a big fan of this one. Rooney Mara is fantastic, Danie Craig is very good, and everyone else are solid. I love the look of the film and the score is fantastic. 8/10

Die Another Day - far and away the worst Bond film. It starts off strong, but quickly falls apart. Halle Berry is awful, the effects are atrocious, and that Madonna song is like knives to the ears. More than anything it's just too cringeworthy to be fun. 3/10

First Time Viewings:

The World's End (2013, Edgar Wright)
The final film of the Cornetto Trilogy is about a group of five friends that get together after more than 20 years to try and complete a drinking challenge that they failed at before, only to become humanities only hope for survival. Simon Pegg is awesome in this one and the supporting players all chip in nicely as well, making for a fun group of characters. At first the film is entertaining, but felt like it was missing something. Then about 35 minutes in something happens and the film kicks into high gear and becomes an absolute blast the rest of the way. Many people seem to consider this the weakest of the three by far, but I think it's on the same level as the other two.
8/10

A Fistful of Fingers (1995, Edgar Wright)
Edgar Wright's debut had a minuscule budget and it shows. The film is a parody of Spaghetti Western's mostly the ones by Sergio Leone and I found it to be funny and quite enjoyable due to how stupid it all was. Unfortunately the cheapness of it really hurts the film and I can't help but feel like it could have been much better with a bigger budget and a better cast. Still it's fun enough for one viewing and it's very short.
6/10

The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999, Anthony Minghella)
In this one a young man is sent to Italy by the father of a rich and spoiled playboy to bring him home. When things don't go according to plan he takes extreme measures. Matt Damon turns in one of his very best performances here and gets strong support from Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Cate Blanchett, Jack Davenport, and Philip Seymour Hoffman.The film has a very good score and was filmed in some beautiful locations and also features good sets and costumes. The story started off well enough, but it got better and better and really pulled me in more and more as it went along and build some nice tension along the way. I enjoyed this one a lot.
8/10

Out of Sight (1998, Steven Soderbergh)
In this one a bank robber breaks out of jail and experiences a moment of mutual attraction with a US Marshall. The film is full of great characters and strong performances and also some great editing and many great scenes. The story had a lot more to it than I expected and on the whole I had a really good time with this one.
8/10

The Breakfast Club (1985, John Hughes)
This classic is about 5 high school students that meet in detention and discover they're not as different as they thought. The soundtrack is great, the cast is strong, and the characters are all well realized and easy to connect to. The film is nice and short and entertains throughout. It's a lot of fun.
8/10

Beginners (2011, Mike Mills)
A man is rocked when he finds out that his elderly father has terminal cancer and that he's gay. The film is well acted and has some great scenes, but I felt the nonlinear structure didn't really work and that some parts of the story didn't get enough attention.
6.5/10

Planes, Trains, & Automobiles (1987, John Hughes)
This comedy classic is about a man hat is just trying to get home for Thanksgiving, but everything that can go wrong does go wrong when he meets an obnoxious shower curtain ring salesman. Steve Martin is pretty good here and John candy is even better and the two of them share strong chemistry together. The film is nice and short and has some good laughs along the way.
7/10

Suddenly, Last Summer (1959, Joseph L. Mankiewicz)
This one is about a young woman who apparently went insane after witnessing her cousin's death while on vacation the previous summer. Her aunt want her lobotomized so she'll be cured. The story is an interesting one and the film is very much dialogue driven, but it held my attention throughout, building to a strong finale. Montgomery Clift is good and Elizabeth Taylor and Katharine Hepburn are even better. The film also has nice cinematography and a good score.
7.5/10


Repeat Viewings:

Shaun of the Dead (2004, Edgar Wright)
I'd seen this popular Zombie movie once before and it held up really well this time. It has fun characters, terrific editing, lots of laughs, and it's very entertaining throughout.
8/10

Hot Fuzz (2007, Edgar Wright)
I really liked this the first time I saw it, but I enjoyed t even more this time. I love the story, it has good characters, and the last act is ridiculously awesome. It's funny, well made, and tons of fun. Edgar Wright's best film to date.
8/10

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (2010, Edgar Wright)
I remember before this one came out I though it looked pretty stupid based on the trailers, but my brother watched it and said it was good, so I checked it out. I liked it a lot but I hadn't seen it since. It held up really well and is still a blast with fun characters, strong performances, and lots of laughs.
8/10

Wag the Dog (1997, Barry Levinson)
This under seen and underrated political satire is about a spin-doctor and a Hollywood producer that team up to fabricate a war in order to cover up a presidential sex scandal right before the election. Robert De Niro is really good and Dustin Hoffman is fantastic as the eccentric producer. Anne Heche is also really good and the film is funny and clever throughout.
8/10

Sunset Blvd. (1950, Billy Wilder)
This one is about a struggling screenwriter that is hired to rework a fading silent films star's script and developing a dangerous relationship in the process. William Holden leads the way with a great performance and Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim, and Nancy Olson all chip in with strong work of their own. The script is fantastic, featuring a great story, memorable characters, and some terrific dialogue. It also has a really good score and excellent sets and costumes and is full of all the makings of a classic.
9/10


Movie Awards:

BEST FILM - Sunset Blvd.
BEST ACTOR - Dustin Hoffman (Wag the Dog)
BEST ACTRESS - Elizabeth Taylor (Suddenly, Last Summer)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR - Jude Law (The Talented Mr. Ripley)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS - Gloria Swanson (Sunset Blvd.)
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY - John Seale (The Talented Mr. Ripley)
BEST SCORE - Gabriel Yared (The Talented Mr. Ripley)
BEST SCRIPT - Billy Wilder, Charles Brackett, and D.M. Marshman Jr. (Sunset Blvd.)
BEST DIRECTOR - Billy Wilder (Sunset Blvd.)

I knew you'd be happy I finally watched The Talented Mr. Ripley. Damon was very good (I'd say it's the second best performance I've seen from him after Good Will Hunting), but he would've been third for me this week behind Hoffman and Holden.

My Edgar Wright rankings:



1. Hot Fuzz 8/10

2. Shaun of the Dead 8/10

3. The World's End 8/10

4. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World 8/10

5. A Fistful of Fingers 6/10



And John Hughes:



1. The Breakfast Club 8/10

2. Ferris Bueller's Day Off 8/10

3. Sixteen Candles 7.5/10

4. Planes, Trains, and Automobiles 7/10

It's in the Bag! / Richard Wallace (1945). Radio comedy giant Fred Allen only appeared in a half-dozen or so full-length movies. “It’s In The Bag?” is probably his very best, one he was the guiding hand in. The story is based on the 1920s Russian satirical novel, “The Twelve Chairs” (“It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” and Mel Brook’s “The Twelve Chairs” are also based on this novel). Basically, there are a number of identical chairs that have been sold to people all over. The upholstery of one of the chairs contains a hidden fortune. Allen and his writers reduce the number of chairs to five and jettison everything else from their source in favor of a series of wacky and generally hilarious set-pieces. Allen’s writing partners, by the way, included Alma Reville (Mrs. Alfred Hitchcock) and a favorite of Groucho’s, Morrie Ryskind. In 1945 radio was the king of home entertainment. One of the staples of radio comedy was the fake feud, for example W.C. Fields and his encounters with Edgar Bergan’s ventriloquist dummy Charlie McCarthy. Another popular “feud” was that between Fred Allen and his real-life good friend Jack Benny. The two would often tag one another on their radio shows and occasionally the guested on each other’s show to trade insults face to face. (Fred Allen: Jack Benny couldn’t ad lib a belch after a Hungarian dinner.” Jack Benny: “You wouldn’t dare say that if my writers were here.”). In the funniest scene in “It’s In The Bag!” – it approaches comedy greatness – Allen’s character finds out that Jack Benny now owns one of the chairs. The 1945 movie audience would have been entirely In on the joke, knowing all about their “feud” as well as Benny’s persona as a tightwad and skinflint – a persona that gets a workout during Jack’s extended cameo. Other well-know comedy actors and comedians that Allen encounters included Minerva Pious from Allen’s show as Pansy Nussbaum, William Bendix as a nature and poetry loving gangster who is only with the mob because he inherited the business from his mother, Machine Gun Molly; Sidney Toler is a detective who follows Allen around; Don Ameche, Rudy Vallee, and Victor Moore spoof their own images as three has-been film stars reduced to working as singing waiters; Jerry Colonna is a psychiatrist. Comedy gold. In this clip, Fred Allen introduces the movie during the opening credits:



Ixcanul (Volcano) / Jayro Bustamante (2015). My first film from Guatemala and my first in the Mayan language, or to be specific, the Kaqchikel language of the Mayan family. The film focuses on a family who lives something of a feudal existence in the modern world. They live in company housing on a large coffee plantation on the side of a volcano where the father works. Their existence is pretty much day-to-day. The only child, a teenage daughter named Maria, dreams of going to the United States but her parents are arranging a marriage for her with a middle aged widower, a manager of the plantation who lives in a higher social status and can even speak Spanish. Maria is attracted to a young seasonal worker named Pepe who is there for the coffee harvest. She asks him, “What is on the other side of the volcano.” He says, “The United States,” but quickly adds that Mexico is in the way. (When Maria asks her mother the same question, Mama answers, “Cold Weather.”) Pepe says he will take her when he goes if she is “nice” to him, but he disappears without even learning that Maria is pregnant. This is a remarkable film that shows how families like Maria’s are trapped and exploited in ways that keep them impoverished and under the thumb of “the boss.” Yet, between the family members there is a lot of love and laughing and hope for the future while at the same time accepting their helplessness. This is not a feel-good film but in its own way is a testimony to endurance as well as a social document. “Ixcanul” was Guatemala’s entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 88th Academy Awards (the films of 2015), but was not nominated. It also won a prize at the 2015 Berlin Film Festival as a film that "opens new perspectives on cinematic art".

The Magnificent Seven / Antoine Fuqua (2016). One thing you can say for the new “Magnificent 7” is that they didn’t slavishly stick to either the plot of “Seven Samurai” nor the 1960 American western of the same title, yet they carefully referenced the older oater in several places as a tribute. On the other hand, the new film is made up of bit, pieces, and huge slabs of more modern westerns, viz. strong echoes from “Django Unchained” (a faux western from 2012) and “The Salvation” (2014) with its plot of the cruel rich man who controls a town with terror. I might even mention “Mad Max: Fury Road” as an influence because of its portrait of the Old West as almost a post-apocalyptic wasteland ruled by a cruel warlord and his army of unquestioning henchmen. In the 1960, the team leader, Chris (Yul Brynner) is given no definite motivation for helping the villagers. Even though he and the new leader, Chisolm (Denzel Washington), share the same response (“I’ve been offered a lot for my services but never Everything”), Chisolm is given a concrete revenge motive for his actions which robs the remake of a most of its myth-making ability. The finale is, pardon the expression, overkill. To wit, the town defended by the 7 is attacked by an army of 200 mercenaries who are battled endlessly as an impossible body count keeps going up and up. The actors playing the 7 try hard to create colorful characters but only Vincent D'Onofrio’s huge mountain man with an unexpected high-pitched voice succeeds entirely. Ethan Hawke comes in second as a famous and feared gunfighter who is losing his motivation. There is not much here for anyone looking for anything resembling a classic American western. This film will delight fans of the modern “action” film. I can’t find much positive to say.

Maybe. How many are there?

Hey there Dark,

Yours:
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo 2011 8/10

Mine:
1) Once Upon a Time in America 1984 (4/10)
2) The Serpent and the Rainbow 1988 (5/10)
3) Shallow Hal 2001 (7/10)
4) Russell Brand: Doing Life - Live 2007 (6/10)
5) Star Trek: The Motion Picture 1979 (5/10)
6) Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan 1982 (6/10)
7) Star Trek III: The Search for Spock 1984 (5/10)
8) Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home 1986 (6/10)
9) Star Trek V: The Final Frontier 1989 (4/10)