What Films did You Watch Last Week (01/08 - 07/08) CLOSED

I actually really liked this one. Admittedly I've been watching a lot more kid movies having a 5 year old, and so many of them are absolutely that the good ones seem an oasis in the desert, which may make me like more.  I found it a fun mix of kid movie with heist film and enjoyed it quite a bit. 8/10

Hello again!

Yours:

Drive (2011, Nicolas Winding Refn) - Love it. One of the best modern noirs, with a wonderful soundtrack and some scenes that are genuinely shocking. Love it. 9/10

Mine:

Unfriended: Dark Web (Stephen Susco, 2018)

The film is told entirely through essentially a screen share of a laptop computer. After a teenager steals a computer, he discovers that the previous owner had connections to a website on the dark web that sold snuff videos. He keeps receiving messages from the previous owner who seems to know where he's at, demanding the return of the laptop. I wished I liked this more than I did because it's kind of a great concept, but I just couldn't really get into it. The screen share idea is kind of cool, but it's hard to make a full 90 minute feature out of it and honestly I didn't care much for the ending and felt like that could have been a bit more creative. 4/10

Hubie Halloween (Steven Brill, 2020)

A friend of mine occasionally hosts bad movie nights and this is the film we all went to her house to see. The only two positive things about this experience was mocking it with friends and the fact that Steve Buscemi gets one genuinely chuckle worthy scene. Other than that the movie is so awful as to be a painful viewing experience that I can recommend to no one. 1/10

Le Samouraï (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1967)

Another wonderful crime film from Melville. Wonderfully shot and acted, while being a very suspenseful film. Can't recommend this one enough. 9/10

In the Realm of the Senses (Nagisa Ôshima, 1976)

Yes, the film is beautifully shot, the acting is quite good, and there's several ways one could interpret the actions… but frankly the film feels too much like it's being shocking for the sake of being shocking. I get it, Oshima wanted to break the norms and taboos of Japanese film, but frankly the film just feels too much like it’s a stylized porno. 4/10

Don't Torture a Duckling (Lucio Fulci, 1972)

Pretty solid crime/horror film, that doesn't feel like a traditional Giallo in many ways. I'm apparently in the minority of horror fans though as I do not think it's one of Fulci's better films, and I significantly prefer his zombie work. 6/10

Sadako vs. Kayako (Kôji Shiraishi, 2016)

Crossover films, good or bad, should feel like an event. This match up of Ringu vs. the Grudge should at least have been a fun/spooky little film whereas it mostly is just boring. It really feels like someone was making a new Ringu film (one where they decided to change the rules to keep people on their toes but honestly makes it just feel like a ripoff), realized how bad it was and threw elements of the Grudge in to try to liven it up. Honestly I'm not even a big fan of the Grudge series but the Grudge aspects of the film work better than the Ringu ones… and the hyped confrontation between the two spirits is a let down to say the very least. 3/10

Inside Out (Pete Docter and Ronnie Del Carmen, 2015)

Missed out on this when it first came out and never bothered with it. Only reason I checked it out now is because of my daughter. I'm not an overly big Pixar fan, but this was pretty solid. Honestly better than I expected. She really liked it though. 8/10

Mad God (Phil Tippett, 2021)

I don't think I've ever seen a movie so obsessed with eyes. Seriously, it's the highlighted detail on a lot of characters and even most inanimate objects have human eyes. It's an obsession. If I was rating from a pure technical standpoint, this would easily be a 10/10, but I do not. Frankly the movie is too weird for weirdness sake. I'm sure I could interpret it, but some of it just didn't work for me. It's stunning, but a bit repetitive and the plot is pure metaphor which is hard to pull off and only succeeds at times. Love the designs, the skill involved, and am glad I watched it, but I can't make myself love it. 6/10

Flesh for Frankenstein (Paul Morrissey, 1973)

Kind of fun. Weird combination of over the top and yet trying to be serious. Aspects work, other times falls flat. I'm sure it was very shocking when it came out, but it just doesn't hold up for me. I'll still likely give its companion film Blood for Dracula a shot at some point (likely in October) but not particularly a fan. 4/10

First Time Viewing

Don't Breathe (2016; Fede Alvarez) - 3 thieves decide to rob a blind Vietnam veteran (Stephen Lang) but get more than they bargained for. After a gripping first act this horror-thriller became a bit too ludicrous and illogical for my taste as it went on.
6/10

Just Visiting (2001; Jean-Marie Poiré) - US remake of a French comedy-hit featuring the stars from the original, Jean Reno and Christian Clavier. Perhaps even sillier and dumber than the original movie.
4/10

Knife In The Water (1962; Roman Polanski) - Decent debut from Polanski already showing a lot of talent, just not as complex or fascinating as some of his later work.
6/10

Nightmare (1964; Freddie Francis) - Psychological horror from the Hammer studios. Entertaining, but a better cast and less hysteria (there's a lot of screaming and overly melodramatic music) might've improved it.
6/10

Repeat Viewing:

The Long Good Friday (1980; John Mackenzie) - Stunning British crime classic, like a gangster version of a Shakespeare tragedy. Gripping, powerful stuff.
8.5/10

Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark (2019; André Øvredal) - Disliked this on my first watch, and still found it pretty clichéd and dull on this second try.
4.5/10

The Troops of St. Tropez (1964; Jean Girault) - First in a series of comedy films about the gendarmes of Saint Tropez which made Louis De Funés a huge star. Old-fashioned but very charming.
7/10

The Troops in New York (1965; Jean Girault) - This sequel takes the French policemen to a conference in New York. This time the concept seemed a bit forced, and the culture-clash aspect didn't work as well as it could have.
6/10

It is an alright animated movie. It is inconsistent in it's entertainment value and besides the wolf, the characters aren't particularly interesting to me.

The most recent animated movie I liked a lot is Belle. I like Encanto, Luca and The Mitchell's vs. the Machines too. All 4 are quite a bit better than The Bad Guys imo. Also Richard Linklater's Apollo 10 1/2.

I watch animated movies on a somewhat regular basis. I have seen hundreds of animated movies.

Repeat Viewings:

Only Angels Have Wings (1939) 9.5/10

The Tartars (1961) 4.5/10

First Viewings:

Stander (2003) 6/10

Mayday (2021) 3/10

Barricade (1950) 4/10

Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) 7/10

The World to Come (2020) 5/10

Megalodon (2018) 1/10

The Spiral Staircase (1946) 6.5/10

unusually small viewing week for you, not seen any of them.