Rate The Last Movie You Watched
Mar 4, 2017 at 12:24 AM Post #20,326 of 24,800
The 24 Hour War (2016) Documentary     5/10
 
 
Whereby revisionist history comes to LeMans in a Trumptopian view of Fords battle to wrest the race from the evil hands of Enzo Ferrari. If you have an interest this is not a bad introduction to the story of how Ford tried to buy out Ferrari and when Henry got dissed by Enzo he decided to do it all on his own.
 
 Motorsports enthusiasts will be disappointed in the portrayal of Henry as some kind of saint who was rebuffed by the Machiavellian Italian carmaker. In truth, from all accounts they were both tyrants and the deal had no chance of ever happening.
 
 The film goes on to show how Ford built the GT40 and would have one believe little Dearborn elves hand carved the vehicle out of pure American iron mountains while supervised by Carrol Shelby.
 
 Well that would make a great story sort of the automotive Lord o de Rings. Except. Ford hired Eric Broadley and Lola cars to build the damn thing for them and contributed the engines. The first GT40's were run by John Wyer and Shelby did not come into the picture on that program until some time later. It was not up until the J car and its subsequent evolution into the Mark IV that it was built and designed in the States and that was quite a few years later. There are a lot of details left out of this one in order to make it a resounding Ford success story and that really saddens me as there were a huge amount of folk who contributed to that program who never even get mentioned.  The quick change brakes that made the car a viable proposition owe more than a little to the input of Mark Donohue and he is not even mentioned in passing.Bruce McLaren is and often and Donohue was his co driver, go figure. The ever present Henry III in this one leads me to believe that the filmakers got their budget covered by FoMoCo and it might, just might have tarnished their research efforts
 
 If you want a Cliffs Notes overview of the era and are none to keen on factual accuracy this might be for you.
 
Mar 4, 2017 at 4:25 PM Post #20,329 of 24,800

 
The Park Is Mine - 6/10
 
The kind of film that could only really have been made in the 80s - it's a curious mix of seriousness and farcical OTT action. Tommy Lee Jones is a disaffected Vietnam vet who takes Central Park by force 72 hours before Veterans Day in order to make a point about returning veterans getting a raw deal from the state and society at large, whilst simultaneously sticking it to the man. TLJ portrays Mitch as a fundamentally good guy who's been failed by the system and decides to take a stand. The trouble is, it's fundamentally preposterous. As much as I'm all for anti-establishment actions, Mitch's hold-out in Central Park feels as much like him bringing a little bit of Vietnam to New York for his own perverse pleasure as it does about him making a serious political statement. The film doesn't really go much for subtlety either: just in case you might have missed the inherent irony in the New York police commissioner hiring a former Viet Cong mercenary to go after Mitch on a search and destroy mission, it's made explicit in the script and has TLJ actually saying "oh the irony" etc.
 
The level of acting is generally OK, but all the stereotypes are present and correct and never deviated far from - TLJ himself as the no nonsense vet, Helen Shaver as the naive but intrepid reporter, Yaphet Kotto as the voice of reason, the decent cop to Peter Dvorsky's cowardly and unprincipled deputy mayor. I quite enjoyed some of the action set pieces and they didn't do a bad job of convincing you that Central Park was really evacuated; presumably just small sections were closed off at a time during filming. The best thing about the movie though is undoubtedly Tangerine Dream's soundtrack - an old favourite of mine and one of the finest they recorded IMO. I'll certainly be revisiting the OST, but probably not the film.
 
Mar 5, 2017 at 2:10 AM Post #20,330 of 24,800
Bottle Rocket - 8.75/10
 
Really enjoyed this one and I usually hate Wes Anderson films.
Thought "Moonrise Kingdom" was one of his best films, but "The Life Aquatic.." and "The Grand Budapest Hotel" were horrible.
Liked this one's characters and most of the comedy. I've seen it before and don't remember it being this funny.
It's not "LOL" funny, but still funny.
 
My local theater in a smaller city played this and I was bored so I went to see it on the big screen.
There was only one showing and it was at a discounted rate. I was the only one there.
This is probably why my local theater will never play classic, Independent or Foreign films..people will rarely go see them.
Maybe having only one showing at 11pm is why this one was empty.
They did replay "JAWS" and it was packed!
 
I guess they DID play "Lion" but they would only play it for a few days and just before the Oscars.
Our last foreign language film playing in my city was "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon". Oh wait, there was "The Great Wall", or was that in all english?
 
 
JAWS - 9.5/10
 
I forgot to rate this one and I saw it just a few weeks ago at the theater for the first time.
I'm not a huge fan of Spielberg movies but this is one of his best. My second favorite might be "Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind".
I can no longer stand watching "ET" for some reason. "Catch me if you can" is another favorite.
 
BTW if it wasn't for the cast in Jaws i'd like it a lot less. Richard Dreyfuss is one of my favorite actors.
 
 
The Living Daylights - 5/10
 
This was just painful to sit through, especially during the last half hour when it really drags on and on.
I've never been liked James Bond movies though. I actually hated "Skyfall" but really liked "Spectre". I think I gave it a 9/10.
 
Mar 6, 2017 at 10:20 AM Post #20,332 of 24,800
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Mar 6, 2017 at 10:22 AM Post #20,333 of 24,800
My cat saying hello. Then she started scratching my monitor and chewing my headphone cables...
 
I think she gave me a dead pixel :frowning2:
 
Rams 7/10. Nice icelandish views the story telling is a bit abrupt particularly the ending but enjoyable.
 
Mar 7, 2017 at 6:31 AM Post #20,336 of 24,800
  Bottle Rocket - 8.75/10
 
Really enjoyed this one and I usually hate Wes Anderson films.
Thought "Moonrise Kingdom" was one of his best films, but "The Life Aquatic.." and "The Grand Budapest Hotel" were horrible.
Liked this one's characters and most of the comedy. I've seen it before and don't remember it being this funny.
It's not "LOL" funny, but still funny.
 
My local theater in a smaller city played this and I was bored so I went to see it on the big screen.
There was only one showing and it was at a discounted rate. I was the only one there.
This is probably why my local theater will never play classic, Independent or Foreign films..people will rarely go see them.
Maybe having only one showing at 11pm is why this one was empty.
They did replay "JAWS" and it was packed!
 
I guess they DID play "Lion" but they would only play it for a few days and just before the Oscars.
Our last foreign language film playing in my city was "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon". Oh wait, there was "The Great Wall", or was that in all english?
 
 
JAWS - 9.5/10
 
I forgot to rate this one and I saw it just a few weeks ago at the theater for the first time.
I'm not a huge fan of Spielberg movies but this is one of his best. My second favorite might be "Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind".
I can no longer stand watching "ET" for some reason. "Catch me if you can" is another favorite.
 
BTW if it wasn't for the cast in Jaws i'd like it a lot less. Richard Dreyfuss is one of my favorite actors.
 
 
The Living Daylights - 5/10
 
This was just painful to sit through, especially during the last half hour when it really drags on and on.
I've never been liked James Bond movies though. I actually hated "Skyfall" but really liked "Spectre". I think I gave it a 9/10.

 
 
You usually don't like Spielberg, Bond films, or Wes Anderson? Might be easier to just say what you DO like...the list would be a lot shorter, methinks lol
 
Mar 8, 2017 at 7:45 PM Post #20,339 of 24,800

 
The Spiral Staircase - 6/10
 
Not one of Siodmak's best. The cinematography is excellent - the trademark use of light and shadow creating a suitably ominous atmosphere - but that's about where it ends. It's not so much a film noir as a traditional murder mystery, set mainly in a big old house. The identity of the murderer is obvious from the start, so comes as absolutely no surprise and mitigates any tension that might have been built. The script is pretty sterile too, with some hackneyed lines, and there's far too much cringe-worthy melodrama; particularly the marriage dream scene. It's weakest point though is the lead role: Dorothy McGuire's mute maid. She's passive and self-pitying throughout and her recovery from her affliction is as implausible as its onset. Only really worth digging out for the quality of the visuals. In fact, it might be worth taking a leaf out of Helen's book and watching it on mute.
 
Mar 9, 2017 at 1:51 AM Post #20,340 of 24,800
Gruppe B Der Ritt auf dem Feuerball (Riding the Fireball)   Documentary (2016)   8.5/10
 
 
Surprisingly well done effort chronicling the rise and eventual banning of the Group B Rally series. Well cut selection of archival footage with interviews with the key players of the time. Covers one of the most fascinating periods in auto racing history where limits were pushed to almost insane levels. If this film has a flaw it is in its neglect of Michelle Mouton, the most successful woman ever in motorsport. The time allotted I gather just did not allow for a deeper look at her story I suppose, and that is a shame. Probably the most ferocious cars ever built spawning a female driver of that calibre would be a film unto itself.
 
 As it stands, the film is a very good introduction into the era (80's) when performance ruled and safety was a pretty distant tertiary concern at best. The things that went into those cars are still finding their way into production vehicles today. Before "Extreme" sports were even invented this series went so far beyond any reasonable limits that it's eventual shutdown by the governing body seems inevitable from the perspective of hindsight.
 
 If you have any interest in the genesis of SuperCars this film will show you where it all got started.
 

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