Rate the movie you just watched

The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans (2009).
Ok, I saw this last night in a pretty crap cinema & I'd had a lot to drink, so I'm not going to comment on the sound at all. Continuing to be fair, I must say that IMO Harvey Keitel's performance in "Bad Lieutenant" is 1 of the most honest & powerful of all time; IMO Nick Cage is vastly overrated & IMO, film, as a medium, is rarely able to shed any useful light on bizarre psychological states, such as those that prolongued drug abuse lead to. Looking back on these preconceptions & the film, I'm pleasantly surprised.
There are faults: it seems as if they have decided to try to make a virtue out of necessity regarding the cinematography. There are many shots which are badly focussed, overexposed (leading to limited colour choices) &/or poorly framed. This style goes on to presage the protagonist's experience, if I'm charitable, but I honestly think they just cocked up & had to make the rest to fit what they already had in the can. Val Kilmer does nothing noteworthy on screen, so I hope he was a worthwhile investment for rehearsal. Similarly, Fairuza Balk seemed an odd inclusion, since she gets so little to work with, but we do get to see her in her underwear, so thats a plus!
Eva Mendes steals the show with a very natural performance, but there are times when the editing of scenes between her & Cage just highlight how wooden he is. I came away feeling like they had invested far too much in Nick Cage's ability to carry us; he could have been better if he'd had to try harder to bounce off his costars.
The film felt long, but somehow that was ok. Its being promoted as drama, but I think its better approached as subtle dark comedy & the duration is necessary to set us up for the ending, which is ironic on several levels, but, I suspect, too subtle for many people.
Overall, I think that they could have got more production value into the film by spending less on actors & more on technical expertise, but its very enjoyable all the same.
7.7/10

Last 3 movies I've seen:

Hard Candy

Enjoyed this one a lot.

8.5/10


Thank You For Smoking

Yay! A comedy that's actually funny.

8/10


Reservation Road

Meh, I liked it.

7/10

The Book of Eli

10/10

Loved it... not gonna go into details... just watch it

The Wolfman - realy great movie!

"I Sell the Dead"



IMDB Entry

Definitely worth a watch.


TheAssoc.

Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (2000)

2/10

Not particuarly scary at all and just a badly made film overall IMHO.

Straw Dogs

Been a long time since I've seen this... watched it the other night and wasn't bad... not as good as I remembered it, but not bad.

6.5/10




Duplicity


Well this film was terrible.
It's not often I don't watch a film all the way through.... but I suffered about 30-40 mins of this I think... and then I just turned it off.
Was boring, totally wooden acting and just really didn't do anything for me.


4/10 although maybe it got better and had a fantastic ending or something?

The Road - 5/10

And that's a kind score.

What a totally depressing, hopeless, bleak look at post apocalyptic America. The movie seemed to have no point other than "life sucks and then you die". I really had high hopes for this movie, especially since it was given such a good viewer rating on IMDB. The kid in this movie was so whiny, I wanted to reach through my TV set and strangle him. Viggo Mortensen's acting wasn't too bad, which allowed me to give the movie the "high" score that I did, but that's about the only good thing I can say about this movie.

I give this movie a big

Doubt (2008)

www.imdb.com...

Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams give brilliant performances in this movie adopted from the play about a principal who believes the new parish priest is abusing a boy. I thought this movie was going to be the usual abusing priest story by the way it was advertised, but was very surprised to see how the subject was handled. The director allows the audience to decide for themselves if anything actually happened.

The time frame is set in 1964, when the old Catholic Church was still going on (Latin Mass, priest with his back to the parish during the Sacraments). Meryl Streep as Sister Aloysius Beauvier is very strict and very convincing as an old school nun. The main part of the movie is more about change (represented by Father Flynn) and the wish to keep things the same (Sister Aloysius). Highly recommended. A

I watched Kick Ass and loved it. Cool soundtrack and odd scenes were tributes to other great cult movies. Some moments were laff out loud, some were big smiles. 9/10

The Book of Eli was similarly enjoyable for poaching scenes from great movies. Sadly, the final reel let it down big time. I won't spoil it for guys who haven't seen it yet. From my pov, if they'd added a sense of humour, satire or even tongue in cheek to the end, it'd be a better than average movie. Thanks to the crummy ending, I'll go for a 6/10.

reply to post by Kandinsky


Kdinks!
Hun, i thought Book of Eli was terrible, Mad Max waaaay better but then I'm an Aussie, and we all wear crocodile leather down here and play in thunder-domes.

[edit on 31-5-2010 by zazzafrazz]

reply to post by zazzafrazz
Hiya Zazz. It was a mix of Mad Max, Blade, Matrix and Spaghetti Western without being as good as any of them. The ending was pitiful...imao

'Where The Wild Things Are'...

One word...

Disturbing

I loved the book but didn't remember it being so dark....but my 9yr old son LOVED IT.. kids!

Clint Eastwood birthday (80th) festival:

Kelly's Heroes (1970)

www.imdb.com...

Clint Eastwood, Telly Savalas, Donald Sutherland are joined by Don Rickles and a host of character actors who go behind enemy lines to steal a fortune in gold in this anti-establishment war comedy. Donald Sutherland is a hippie named Oddball and Carol O'Connor plays a major general in a scene stealing role.

The movie is entertaining but uneven, and there are enough goofs and errors in this movie to keep a nerd busy for a long time. These movies were popular in the 1970s as they were making a statement about the Vietnam War at the Time. C+

Dirty Harry (1971)

www.imdb.com...

Clint Eastwood's first film as the immortal Det Harry Callahan in this film directed by Don Siegel. A lone crazy man is terrorizing the city and it is up to Dirty Harry to stop him. Excellent direction and pacing make this one a good action movie to watch. B

Magnum Force (1973)

www.imdb.com...

The second movie of the Dirty Harry series (out of five) has Det Callahan going after four rogue policemen who are on a vigilante force. Hal Holbrook plays the lieutenant who is about ready to take away Harry's badge. A great chase scene towards the end helps this movie make the grade. B

Quinceanera (2006)

www.imdb.com...

Emily Rios plays 14 year old Magdalena, a teen girl who will be having her quinceanera celebration in a few months. She finds out she is pregnant much to the chagrin of her preacher father and moves in with her Tio Tomas and her cousin Carlos (Jesse Garcia). This movie is a slice of life taken from a different point of view than most movies. It also looks at the effects of gentrification of older poorer neighborhoods (professionals moving into a poor area raising the local rents on everyone else, forcing the original peoples to move out).

Excellent performances by all the cast members makes this low budget movie a must watch for fans of Indie movies. A+

'The Bear' - fantastic film

The story is set around the 1800's and revolves around an orphaned bear cub and its struggle to survive the harsh wilderness of British Columbia following the death of its mother. Alone and with no survival skills, the bear cub must learn the necessities of life the hard way.

link

FIRE IN THE SKY
7/10, not a easy story to make a movie from. Hungis, was it the bakery scene or the cafe that you were telling me about?
zazz

In the Loop



IMDB Entry

Absolutely hilarious.


TheAssoc.

reply to post by TheAssociate




Yeah, In The Loop is a brilliant film....Great satire and really funny too.

La momia azteca contra el robot humano (The Robot Vs the Aztec Mummy 1958)

www.imdb.com...

Ed Wood would be proud of this monstrosity of a bad movie. Made in Mexico and terribly dubbed in English, this one is about a mad scientist named "The Bat" who builds a robot to fight an Aztec mummy guarding a breast plate and a bracelet that hold the keys to a treasure. The robot does not show up until the very end of the movie, and the fight lasts a few seconds. The budget was $1.98 or so, and the only thing good about this movie was its title. Not even funny, but so bad one is compelled to watch it to completion wondering why this was made. D-

I do love TCM for showing these cheese fests on late Friday nights.