Blood Simple (1984)
American independent neo-noir crime film. It’s about a Texas bar owner who hires a private detective to murder his wife and her lover, leading to a series of misunderstandings and violent consequences. It's the Coen brothers' first movie (and Frances McDormand's first movie as well, so they've been working together since the very beginning) and I think it's a great one. The great character actor M. Emmet Walsh (who just passed away the other day) was also brillaint in this! Overall I can definitely recommend this movie!
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It seems the further back I go into their filmography, the more I like their movies. Unfortunately that also means the further along I go, the less I like their new ones but at least there are gems to treasure.
The great character actor M. Emmet Walsh (who just passed away the other day) was also brillaint in this!
Another great loss from the old guard who had a long life and career full of "oh it's that guy from" but never enough recognition... and who lived to a ripe old age. I don't know what it is with theatre actors but it looks like the stage preserves them or something. Well, not all of them, sadly.
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I saw The Iron Claw. The trailer looked like a Lifetime movie and unfortunately the movie also did. So much melodrama, sub par acting, terrible direction. I'll forget that one quick.
The critics who raved about it must be hardcore wrestling fans...
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Only the Lonely (1991)
American romantic comedy-drama film. It's about a bachelor police officer who is looking to settle down and start a family with a mortuary beautician, while coping with his controlling mother who wants him all to herself. Great cast (John Candy, Maureen O’Hara, Ally Sheedy, James Belushi, Macaulay Culkin, Kieran Culkin, Anthony Quinn, Kevin Dunn and many more) delivering very good performances. The premise is very similar to Marty (1955) but that was a very good movie and this is a very good movie, too. So overall I can definitely recommend it!
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Ghostbusters Frozen Empire
Just got home from seeing it.
Movie was actually, really good. Lots of nostalgia and callbacks.
but a more serious overtone in a lot of places.
Was it as good as Afterlife? Yes. Was it better? I'm undecided.
A good 7/10 for me.
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Winchester '73 (1950)
American Western action drama film. It's about a very special rifle (a One-of-a-Thousand Winchester Model 1873) and it's journey from one ill-fated owner to another, as well as a cowboy's search for a murderous fugitive. Great cast (Jimmy Stewart, Rock Hudson, Shelley Winters, Tony Curtis and more). I'm not that big of a Western fan but Jimmy Stewart (one of my favourite actors) being in this definitely convinced me. And it's actually a rather good movie. (It's also an early one for Tony Curtis, considering he just started acting the year before, as well as Rock Hudson, who started acting two years before, which means it also gives us an interesting insight into these two guys before they became so very famous.) Another fun fact about this movie is, that it's the first movie where an actor (in this case Jimmy Stewart) decided to take a percentage of the profits instead of a straight salary. Overall I can say that this is a good Western and if you like any of the people involved, you should definitely check it out. Can recommend.
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Knives Out
Typical who-dun-it mystery with a modern setting with some retro touches. In fact, it could have been a bad point of the movie if not done correctly, but that part was really well done. Characters are mostly a family with typical but fun hidden stuff. There are stereotypical and not so stereotypical characters, all well played by a great casting. The mystery unfolds nicely and funnily, heirs and policemen and a detective hired anonymously. In the end it's quite original for being your typical who-dun-it, and it has memorable moments and lines.
Not great, but certainly good.
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The problem with whodunits usually is that they are very easily solvable by elimination. This one does manage to obfuscate the mystery by focusing on the characters, and what a cast it has to give life to these characters!
The follow up movie was a huge disappointment though. I wouldn't say don't watch it but certainly go in with lowered expectations and make your own opinion.
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I thought as an entertaining movie the first one was better, but as a whodunnit the second one was. Let me get into detail a bit more.
The first one has a great cast, an awesome story and everything but it's clear pretty early on who's "it". Usually with this kind of movie they make you expect it's the unlikeable character but then, a plot twist, and another one and in the end "it" is the person you didn't expect, written off early or probably even forgot about. Here the signs point to the unlikeable one almost immediately and in the end that's exactly who was responsible. The second one has a weaker plot overall (and it's missing some great talent like Christopher Plummer in the first one) but it has more of those juicy twists. So I'd actually recommend them both because they're both enjoyable, but if I wanted to watch a good whodunnit I'd watch something else.
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The first one has a great cast, an awesome story and everything but it's clear pretty early on who's "it"
I usually clock these whodunits about 5 mn in so yeah I can agree this one didn't make it especially hard but I think most people will be distracted by the rest and at least unlike the other whodunits, you're not just sitting there waiting for the investigator to catch on, there's lots to keep you entertained.
My problem with the second movie was that the entertainment factor was low and the reveal was by far too implausible (especially as a twin, the whole twin switcharoo thing just doesn't fly)
So I'd actually recommend them both because they're both enjoyable, but if I wanted to watch a good whodunnit I'd watch something else.
If you have one to recommend, I'd like that. In my experience of whodunits, they're all by far too predictable and just not entertaining enough once you guess what happened.
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The most recent ones were Murder Mystery (2019) (which sadly flew under the radar because of Knives Out) and Murder Mystery 2 (2023), but I'd usually recommend older ones like Clue (1985), Murder by Death (1976), And Then There Were None (1945), Murder on the Orient Express (1974) and Death on the Nile (1978) (and also the modern adaptations, but the ones in the 70s were just absolutely stacked full off legends), The Last of Sheila (1973), The Fallen Idol (1948), Murder by Decree (1979), but above all Sleuth (1972), which has the added bonus of being mostly a single-location movie, which is another one of my favourite subgenres. It also has more plot twist than you'd be able to predict and is very entertaining even on later rewatches.
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I've seen all the Agatha Christie movies (not a fan of her but my gf is a big fan of the books so there's no way I can escape the movies XD) and even though they are easily worked out, the cast always makes it worth the watch.
I watched The Fallen Idol a long long time ago. Best ever "the butler did it" plot. Also a great cast obviously.
Now I will very definitely watch Sleuth (I mean... from an award winning play and that cast! plus Mankiewicz and Schaffer, the other one) and since we're on the subject of the theatre... definitely watching The Last of Sheila as soon as I get my hands on it. The only movie script Sondheim wrote and with... Anthony Perkins? Talk about an unlikely writing pair.
which has the added bonus of being mostly a single-location movie, which is another one of my favourite subgenres.
Heh not a lot of those in movies, especially nowadays. A lot more when plays used to be made into movies and even those were usually mutli locations by the time they hit the screen.
Edit: Watched The Last of Sheila already. Terribly clever script. You go halfway through the movie thinking you're watching somebody play a game to flush a murderer out only to find out that the game was on you. The way all the tropes of the genre were subverted (like the "investigator" role being played by someone who is in fact for once not above suspicion, and for good reasons, and then the reversal with someone else taking on the role. The cast was also brilliant. And then there was Raquel Welsh XD (gotta have a black sheep in every great cast)
The direction was a bit shoddy here and there but the movie has aged well. I wouldn't exactly call it timeless as there are some things that would definitely not fly now (the part where nobody bats an eye at their big stage director friend being revealed as a child molester cracked me up... the 70ies) but the bones of the story, the characters, the dialog... timeless.
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The follow up movie was a huge disappointment though.
Agreed. I enjoyed the first one immensely and thought that the same would surely be true for the second, ending up very disappointed. I wouldn't say I hated it, but it was just... "meh." I'm still fully open to seeing a third one, but if/when it would happen I would certainly be better prepared for possible disappointment.
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film Goya's Ghosts, 2006. It's just a wonderful experience that I, I don't know why, learned only recently. It has everything: great actors, excellent script, picture. Milos Forman, and this director's last film, was certainly a genius. And since we have a gaming community here, I’ll make a small reference. Anyone who likes the game Blasphemous will definitely appreciate this film. Medieval Spain, the Inquisition and the mood of that era - it’s better not to miss this.
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Mosquito Squadron 1969 on Tubi 8/10. Good movie, reasonably high quality. I loved the red car. tension, drama, "air show" snippets of those rare WW2 planes.
Lots of shots of the DeHavilland Mosquito, the only WW2 fighter-bomber to be made mostly of wood!
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Within the Woods (1978)
American horror short film. It's about a group of friends who spend a weekend at a remote cabin, where one of them accidentally desecrates an Indian burial ground, which causes him to turn into a zombie and kill off his friends. And for today's "early short film by a great director" I went with Sam Raimi, who at this point had already made 10 short films and one feature, but this was the earliest short I could find on a whim. It has Bruce Campbell in it and is pretty much a proto-Evil Dead, so as a huge fan of that franchise watching this was a fascinating experience. Sure, the video quality is pretty bad considering it was filmed on Super 8 about 46 years ago, but I can still recommend this very much.
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Lick the Star (1998)
American drama short film. It's about a group of 7th grade mean girls who devise a bizarre plan to "make the boys weak" with arsenic. Today's "early short film by a great director" is Sofia Coppola's first ever directorial effort. And it's good. Nothing outstanding and definitely not my favourite of these early shorts I've seen, but it's definitely interesting to watch and feels very slice-of-life. Can recommend.
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I watched Promising Young Woman today and wow, the movie blew me away.
It's been a while since I saw a script of that calibre in a movie.
I had vaguely heard the title around Oscar season back in 2020 but it was not exactly advertised and barely played here and I had no idea what it was about so I went in blind. I wasn't expecting the movie to hit that hard.
Great performance by Mulligan and a movie that packs a punch, for sure. I think I'm going to check a few more movies that might have escaped me over the past few years in the Best Original Screenplay category...
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That's a great pick, i loved it too. I watched evil dead rise and and honestly promising young woman made me squirm and feel uncomfortable so much more, and through most of the movie. My hot take is that this is the only good carrie mulligan performance.
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Heh yeah reality can be scarier than horror movies. I was honestly a bit worried at the beginning of the movie (even though I liked Hard Candy, it went off the rails real quick) about what she was doing but it turned out to be more of a character study, as well of course as a movie about rape culture, and damn I wish she'd won that Oscar.
I loved McDormand in Nomadland but I feel like Mulligan really gave her all and the movie would not have worked as well with someone else (I'm assuming Margot Robbie was going to be in the lead when she bought the rights and I don't think that would have done the movie any favors)
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The movie was on my radar before I even knew about the existence of such a genre as giallo, then it was consistently recommended to me by my friend and colleague, then the remake came out, and the original was brought up even more often, articles were written about it and it was included in all kinds of top lists. And now, finally, I've watched it and, I must say, the movie met all my expectations! The plot is not bad and mysterious, the intrigue, what the hell is going on there, holds almost to the end. The heroine is charming. I can't say she is my type, but the character, the movements and the big frightened eyes bribes me. The acting in general is on a very decent level. But the most important thing is the stunning visuals, especially for its age! Selection of colours, lighting, decorations, choice of locations for filming - everything is at the highest level. And the Goblin soundtrack is traditionally superb (a combination of beautiful, but ominous music, whispers, moans, sighs and different noises - the result is devilishly attractive and tense!) Just a 1,5+ hours long audio-visual feast. The only thing that disappointed me a little was the finale — the conclusion seemed a bit rushed. All in all, this is an extremely original and enchanting piece of art, a solid 9/10 from me.
Since I didn't want to divert my attention from visuals to subtitles, I've tried to watch it with Russian dubbings. And they were pretty bad, so I switched to English voiceover instead. And I can officially state that the English dubbing is very good, the voice of the main heroine is very soft and nice, I liked it even more than the voice of the original actress.
P.S.: You can argue that the movie industry is not degrading, declining to take "it was better in the past" as an argument of old and nostalgic. But I can't imagine such a movie being made today.
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I think there's always a tendency to see things as declining but the jury is out on the movie industry: it is going down the drain.
There are multiple factors of course, participating in the downfall but the fact remains. And no, movies like Suspiria would not be made today, at least not like that one.
The 2018 remake is evidence of that, even though it was not as commercial as a movie made in 2018 could have been.
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Yeah, I've checked trailers and OST of the remake, and they are really bland and uninspiring :/
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This is a masterpiece. Check out his other movies: Profondo Rosso and Inferno. I also liked the colors in these films.
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Thanks for the recommendation! I've seen Profondo Rosso already and it's pretty good. Inferno is on the list)
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Oscar (1991)
American comedy crime film. It's about a mob boss who has to leave the world of crime after promising his father to do so on his death bed. This is what you call a hidden gem! Great cast (Sylvester Stallone, Marisa Tomei, Tim Curry, Chazz Palminteri, Don Ameche, Kirk Douglas, Kurtwood Smith, Art LaFleur, Harry Shearer, Richard Romanus and more). Really makes me want to see Stallone in more straight up comedies. It's just a delightful movie and I can highly recommend it.
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Landscape with Invisible Hand (2023)
American science fiction comedy drama film. It's about humans struggling in a future economy after aliens come to Earth and become the de facto ruling class, but one teenage boy continues painting regardless of world events. This is a weird one. Definitely entertaining, but also definitely on the weird side of sci-fi. I don't know if I can recommend it to everyone, but I liked it.
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Behind Green Lights (1946)
American crime film. It's about a Police lieutenant investigating a political murder after the victim is dumped at the door of police headquarters. Honestly, this isn't all that good. With a lot of older movies I wonder why they're not more well known (of course it's because a lot of people just don't watch older movies) but with this one I'm not surprised. It's kind of a dud. It's all over the place, not that well written for what it's trying to be... Even though it's only a crisp hour long I can't say that hour went by fast. Nothing wrong with B-movies, but this one just isn't very good. Can't recommend.
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I saw Dune Part 2 and Ricky Stanicky (both 2024) in the same day.
I gotta say, I expected Dune Part 2 to drag for hours, but it was honestly very nicely done. Can't wait for part 3!
Ricky Stanicky was also pretty good at first, and it was a fun ride, but the ending was stupid and farfetched and just ruined the whole movie for me. That said, it's the journey, not the destination, right? ...Right?
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The Comic (1969)
American comedy-drama film. It's about the life of a silent-era film comedian. Great cast with Dick Van Dyke as the main character and Mickey Rooney as his best friend. Directed by Carl Reiner, so lots of old talent (well, not that old when this came out.) As a big fan of the silent era this movie was right up my alley. Definitely one I can recommend.
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Corridors of Blood (1958)
British-American crime thriller period drama film. It's about a surgeon who fights for the use of anesthetic in surgery and uses himself as a guinea pig, but soon finds himself addicted. Boris Karloff, Christopher Lee and
Betta St. John delivering very good performances in this movie, that's surprisingly not as horror as the title might suggest (and as I might have expected). Still, I can definitely recommend it.
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Bullet Train (2022)
American action comedy film. It's about a former assassin who must battle fellow killers while riding a bullet train. Rewatched this yesterday and it was still a ton of fun.
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Curtains (1983)
Canadian slasher film. It's about a group of ambitious female performers who are targeted by a masked killer while auditioning for a film role at a prestigious director's mansion. Not a great slasher, but still entertaining. John Vernon and Samantha Eggar play the lead roles. Can recommend.
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The Black Hole (1979)
American science fiction film. It's about a research vessel finding a missing ship on the edge of a black hole. Great cast (Maximilian Schell, Anthony Perkins, Robert Forster, Ernest Borgnine, Roddy McDowall, Slim Pickens and more) delivering very good performances. It's pretty much Disney jumping on the Star Wars bandwagon in the late 70s. But nevertheless it's a good sci-fi movie that's probably even better with a sprinkle of nostalgia (if you've seen it back in the day as a child). Overall I can recommend it.
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Limbo (2023)
Decent enough detective noir movie I guess. The storytelling ain't the best but the mood created is very strong.
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So, this is not gonna be a new review of some movie. I know a lot of you have seen them daily, some of you might have even enjoyed them. But I have decided to stop watching movies altogether. I've just seen enough to realize that I don't really like the whole concept of movies anymore. Old movies suck because people didn't know how to act back then and nowadays people forgot how to act again. The sweet spot where people actually knew how to act must've been some time in the late 90s, early 2000s. So yeah, movies are just no fun. And they're also so long. In 90+ minutes I could do so much other stuff. So I've decided to focus my time and energy on YouTube Shorts. In those 90 minutes I can watch so many of them and that's just great. I've also started a YouTube channel where I talk about those Shorts I've watched and the first episode is up now. It's about a Short about wether I would be considered attractive in Ancient Greece. Episode 1 - A YouTube Short About Ancient Greek Beauty Standards. Thanks for all your comments on my movie reviews here, but now I'm on to greener pastures. I hope some of you will support me with that as well.
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About to watch the fall guy (2024), so I have review for that yet.
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Here we go, I'll start.
Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark (2010) - This movie is a joke. At first it's interesting, then it's boring and then it's just funny/pathetic. And they put it in a "horror" genre. Words are not sufficient. Nosferatu is turning in his grave. 3/10
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