Rate the last movie you saw

[Phoenix]

Diabolique (1955) (originally titled "Les diaboliques") French, with English subtitles


Wow. The original of this film, what a mystery / thriller for its time. Loved the closing credits urging viewers who enjoyed the film to not ruin the ending to others... The trivia on this film reports it was very nearly an Alfred Hitchcock film but that he got beat on bidding rights to the book by a matter of hours. I have not seen the remake of this film so I had no idea what it was about.

I can't say a whole lot without ruining the film for any who haven't seen it. Pretty well done for being a mid-50s foreign film, but the acting was okay, not spectacular. Of course, it's the two women, the wife and the mistress, who have to pretty much carry the entire film. The "wife" turns out to be the real-life wife of the guy who directed the film, and in fact, looking her up, she only ever appeared in his films, in a very short career. Never heard of any of the actors in this film though.

A lot of the scenes are so fast that reading the subtitles was a real distraction and in I had to keep rewinding to read everything, but that's a minor complaint. I'd rather have the subtitles than English overdubbing, really.

The Big Reveal turned out to be fairly predictable, I mean what else could it have been, right? I guess at the time of the mid-50s, this might have been an "original" shocker.

Solid effort though. I'm glad I decided to catch up on this oldie.

8 out of 10

 

[LittleBoyBlue]

Jack Reacher 8/10

Those having Netflix will notice this flick was recently added to the streaming lineup.

Watched it with no expectations and came away very entertained. As much as we all can't stand Cruise, he's very charismatic and his Jack Reacher character was one of his best.

I enjoyed the opening scene the most. Sparse dialogue. Very intense.

I highly recommend it.

Speak for yourself.

I am Cruise fan.
The guy makes some of the biggest movies.
The guy is super confident and that had transcended him.

A fan. Not a fanboy or homer.

 

[LittleBoyBlue]

I like how Tom puts this guy in his place, funny scene in a dark movie:

More than a few masterful scenes by Cruise in that movie.

1. Jazz / Miles execution with Q & A
2. Hey, is that my briefcase scene
3. Calm and cool with Jamie's mom and yet he might have to whack her


Psycho hitman helps Jamie get the girl and finally step up to the plate to finally start his limo business lol

 

[BrAinPaiNt]

The Colony with Laurence Fishburn and Bill Paxton.

Not really original.
Nothing that stands out above other movies.
The characters not developed as much as they should be so you don't feel much connection to them.
Screw ups in some of the plot lines and so on.

With all of that said. It kept me entertained and it was better than I thought for a Movie I don't recall seeing advertised.

 

[pjtoadie]

I just saw This is 40 a week or so ago. I really liked it and I know a lot of people were disappointed thinking it was going to be just as funny as Knocked Up. I am glad that it didn't go that route completely and it had some drama to it as well. I really like Judd Apatow movies and movies that he is involved with in some way. I recommend it and give it an 8/10.

 

[Kristen82]

"Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones" = 7/10. I've seen all the other ones and this one is just ok compared to them. Scary in parts, boring in others.

Want to see "Banshee Chapter". That looks scary.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

The Colony with Laurence Fishburn and Bill Paxton.

Not really original.
Nothing that stands out above other movies.
The characters not developed as much as they should be so you don't feel much connection to them.
Screw ups in some of the plot lines and so on.

With all of that said. It kept me entertained and it was better than I thought for a Movie I don't recall seeing advertised.

I just watched that myself.

My thoughts pretty much echo yours.

It was a decent flick but could have been a whole lot better without much effort.

6/10.

 

[FloridaRob]

saw Lone Survivor this weekend. Very Intense. One of those movies that told a story of what happened. Felt the same way walking out of that one I did when I walked out of the movie of the passengers that tried to take over the fourth plane involved in 9/11. Not a movie that I can say I enjoyed but one I guess I appreciated.

 

[JohnnyHopkins]

The Internship - 4 out of 10. This was a serious rinse and repeat formula of a movie. A few funny moments, but nothing memorable outside of my now insane urge to want to work for Google

 

[Phoenix]

The New World (2006) (Colin Farrell, Q'orianka Kilcher, Christian Bale, Christopher Plummer)

Story about Capt Smith, the new world, Pocahontas.... mostly kind of a factual accounting with artistic license taken. Interesting movie in several respects, including using mostly natural lighting throughout, etc. All due to the director and his idiosyncrasies. One of the trivias is that Plummer was so furious at the final edit of the film that he swore never to work with the director again.

The music is just too much at times, overpowering the dialog. Or maybe again that's just me. It was probably that droning on and on thing that was re-used at several times in the film, and may well have been the piece written & performed by "Q" Kilcher, the Pocahontas of the film.

And what is it with these Kilcher's anyway? I mean, Alaska the Last Frontier, the Kilcher homesteaders...okay...then I find out it's Atz Kilcher singing with his DAUGHTER "Jewel" Kilcher on the intro. And guess what? I look into "Q" here, and find out, sure enough, she is the first cousin, once removed from Jewel. Jewel's mom is Q's first cousin. They're taking over the world I'm tellin' ya...

And what is it with Q here? She was "found" at AGE FOURTEEN for this role (wow!) out of more than 2,000 candidates, and she already had her own recording company that supplied one of the tunes I referred to...( http://ringostrack.com/artist/qorianka-kilcher/70111 ) Man.

So the story didn't flow all that well for me. I kept getting pretty bored and distracted away from the film. Thought about re-watching it, but naaaaaaaah. Once was enough.

6.5 out of 10

 

[Phoenix]

A Thousand Words (2012, Eddie Murphy)

I had never even heard of this film somehow. I'm not really much into comedies, maybe that's why. But this film has some seriously funny classic Eddie Murphy spots in it that had me really rolling with laughter, and one or two with his "assistant" Aaron. In the end it is a story of discovery that is a bit hokey, and the tree really never is explained...it just is, I guess.

7.5 out of 10

 

[Lodeus]

Hunger Games: Catching Fire
Started off a little slow but the second half made up for it. 8.5/10

Ride Along
I got what I expected even though I've never seen anything Kevin Hart has done in the past. 6/10

 

[Phoenix]

Vehicle 19 (Paul Walker)

Pretty bad film overall. 1 hr 35 minutes I will never get back.

2.5 out of 10

 

[CowboyGil]

Silverado-STILL one of my favorite all time movies. 9.0/10.
And one of the best lines ever:
"I don't want to kill you and you don't want to be dead."

 

[Aikmaniac]

Vehicle 19 (Paul Walker)

Pretty bad film overall. 1 hr 35 minutes I will never get back.

2.5 out of 10

Was that his last movie?

_____________________

Wolf of Wall Street - 7.5 out of 10

Pretty eye opening flick about the life of a greedy stock broker.

Wish it was a little shorter. Scorcese (sp?) didn't have to beat into our heads how much of an addict the main character was.

Not a family movie by any stretch. Very good overall.

 

[Phoenix]

Was that his last movie?

Beats me. I think it's the first one of his I've ever seen.

 

[Nova]

Hunger Games: Catching Fire
Started off a little slow but the second half made up for it. 8.5/10

Ride Along
I got what I expected even though I've never seen anything Kevin Hart has done in the past. 6/10

That's how the book was, too. Still haven't seen the movie, but halfway through the book I nearly quit reading when it was revealed they would be going back into the arena. But the 2nd half made up for it. Much better than the first in my opinion.

 

[Phoenix]

Zodiac (2007) Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, Robert Downey Jr


Ultra-long movie based on the book written by the cartoonist at the SF newspaper who became obsessed with the unsolved case of the Zodiac killer in the late 60s, early 70s in California. Centered almost entirely around real world facts of the case. They cut some stuff, and of course made up some stuff for the film. What amazed me was to learn that this case apparently had been closed when this film released, and this film caused them to reopen the case. How does that happen? Favorite line in the movie was when the character played by Gyllenhaal is trying to talk to a police detective and says he is from the newspaper, and the detective says that he can't talk to writers from the paper about an open case, he replies "I'm NOT a writer. I'm a cartoonist." And the detective just stares at him like he's crazy, then is like, oh okay. Ha!

Very well done film, especially for being (1) real-world based, (2) really, really long, and (3) mostly dialog-driven, not action. On a side note, the DVD I saw was the blue-ray extended Director's Cut that was longer than the theatrical release. Solid acting performances all around. And I never really was bored during the film. Recommended viewing!

8.5 out of 10

 

[Kevinicus]

That's how the book was, too. Still haven't seen the movie, but halfway through the book I nearly quit reading when it was revealed they would be going back into the arena. But the 2nd half made up for it. Much better than the first in my opinion.

I can't remember what I thought about the various halves of the book, but I do know it was my favorite of the 3. As far as the movie goes, I thought the first half was much better and felt the ending was very rushed.

 

[Nova]

I can't remember what I thought about the various halves of the book, but I do know it was my favorite of the 3. As far as the movie goes, I thought the first half was much better and felt the ending was very rushed.

Honestly I felt like that's pretty true to the first two books. Like the end of the 1st book was kind of rushed, and the the 2nd was kind of confusing and rushed. But yeah, the 2nd book was probably my favorite too.