rate the last movie you saw

[AndyDursin]

If only we could get a restoration of the equally-compromised Snake Eyes with the insane "tidal wave" ending...

Yeah, hopefully one day...

[Monterey Jack]

If only we could get a restoration of the equally-compromised Snake Eyes with the insane "tidal wave" ending...

Yeah, hopefully one day...

The recent documentary De Palma actually had footage from the scene, albeit in horrendous VHS workprint quality, so it'd take some money and restoration to make it up to the quality of the rest of the picture. Talk about a movie that effectively builds, and builds, and then sputters out into a weaksauce "That's IT?!" anticlimax.

[Monterey Jack]

-Don't Breathe (2016): 9/10



Incredibly tense follow-up to director Fede Alvarez's smashing Evil Dead remake about a trio of young burglars (Daniel Zovatto, Dylan Minnette and Dead alumnus Jane Levy) who invade the domicile of a blinded Iraq war vet (Stephen Lang) in search of a sizable cash settlement he received from the recent hit & run death of his daughter, only to find out that the blind man is far less helpless -- and sane -- then they were expecting. Clocking in at a perfectly-paced 88 minutes, Don't Breathe is relentlessly suspenseful and directed with great skill and technical expertise by Alvarez (including a honey of a De Palma-style "oner" during the initial exploration of the house), and is surprisingly lighter on the gore than you might expect from the director's previous film...while the movie is certainly violent enough to earn its "R" rating, it doesn't wallow in unpleasant excesses, and even the language is surprisingly bereft of the usual endless F-Bombs you usually get in these types of disreputable genre efforts. The movie's rating is more or less based on the film's intensity, and it's well-deserved for a real white-knuckle screw-twister done with flair. In a summer rife with overproduced "product", this is the kind of expertly-crafted B-movie that we need more of.

[Eric Paddon]

The Naked Spur (1951) 6.8 of 10

-Another title I rented and watched so I can now "connect" with a score I have on CD but haven't listened to (the FSM MGM Westerns set). This film has great location photography that would have looked more stunning had it been made a few years later when widescreen debuted. But truthfully I got a reminder of why as someone who grew up not a fan of westerns to begin with, I found over time that for me a western story was more easy for me to connect with in television, and more specifically the tightly compact scripts of the half-hour "Gunsmoke" and "Have Gun Will Travel". "The Naked Spur" does have an intelligent script going for it, but even at 91 minutes it seems bloated in the sense that it tells a story that for me TV would do much better and more tautly a few years later (though without the great cinematography and spectacle sweep). That's just how westerns are with me on a subjective basis and I just chalk that up to my own experiences with the genre.

-There is however one bit of unintentional humor in the piece that could not have been foreseen at the time since in 1951, no one remembered "It's A Wonderful Life" as anything but a flop that few people had been reintroduced to. But when you have a scene where Jimmy Stewart in a delusion about a lost a love named "Mary" is crying out, all sorts of other visions that have nothing to do with an 1860s western starts going through one's head and the mood is suddenly broken!

[AndyDursin]

The recent documentary De Palma actually had footage from the scene, albeit in horrendous VHS workprint quality, so it'd take some money and restoration to make it up to the quality of the rest of the picture. |

Except they DID spend a TON of money on that sequence (ILM people are credited even in the finished film), and by all accounts it was fully completed. I'm not sure what you see in that workprint clip, it might be a mock-up or just sourced from lousy elements -- but it's highly unlikely that it's indicative of what test audiences saw before it was taken out at the last minute. It must have been finished or close to it.

[Monterey Jack]

-Hell Or High Water (2016): 9.5/10

A "new classic" (to quote my Dad), and one of the year's best films. A truly excellent experience, tersely funny and acted to perfection (finally, a movie that makes good on the initial promise of Chris Pine). Definitely check this one out.

[Monterey Jack]

-13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers Of Benghazi (2016): 8/10

Michael Bay...made a good movie.

[AndyDursin]

RAISING CAIN
5/10

Brian DePalma’s “Psycho”-ized misfire is, at least, intriguingly recut in this two-disc Scream Factory Blu-Ray, coming September 13th.

John Lithgow has fun as a fractured psychiatrist sporting multiple personalities, all of which manage to manifest themselves once his wife (Lolita Davidovich, at the height of her career) rekindles the spark with an old flame (DePalma’s “Scarface” alum Steven Bauer). DePalma’s “original” script bears a heavy “Psycho” influence, something that’s even more pronounced in a “Director’s Cut” that takes the lead from a fan-edit that re-sequenced the entire film to what the director had originally intended all along. This, alone, makes “Raising Cain” much easier to follow than the dramatically pointless released version, which plunged the viewer into Cain’s insanity right out of the gate and then tried (and failed) to fill in the gaps chronologically. Even with a flashback-laden format, the movie at least dramatically is much easier to follow now, though even here, the film’s weaknesses – an off-putting story that’s hard to penetrate unless you’re a devotee of the director – are in evidence, and the movie, as a whole, still comes off as “odd” instead of being suspenseful or scary.

Shout Factory’s Blu-Ray presents the theatrical cut of “Raising Cain” on one disc and the “Director’s Cut” on the other, with a featurette on the latter discussing the alterations and the Dutch fan who first re-edited the movie to DePalma’s initial conception. A half-hour interview with John Lithgow is the chief draw to the extras, with the star discussing his three films with DePalma and the strengths – and also weaknesses – of “Raising Cain,” which he admits was something of a “challenge” to the viewer (he also admits he hasn’t seen the film since 1992). Steven Bauer and fellow co-stars Gregg Henry, Mel Harris, Tom Bower and editor Paul Hirsch are also present and accounted for, plus the trailer, a good if somewhat oldish-looking 1080p (1.85) AVC encoded transfer and both 2.0 and punchier 5.1 DTS MA audio options.

See Monterey Jack's review above for a DePalma Fan take!

[Paul MacLean]

[/quote]

I'm just going to sit here and watch this all day.

Thanks MJ!

[AndyDursin]

How did they do that??

[Monterey Jack]

How did they do that??

Shotgun taped to the back of the dummy, aimed directly at the head.

Love how the glasses break perfectly in half and go flying past the camera. Imagine this scene in modern-day 3D!

[Paul MacLean]

It's always a bit weird for me to look at Loius del Grande's head exploding -- -- I know him better from his 80s thriller/sitcom "Seeing Things", where he played a psychic reporter...

[Paul MacLean]

The Jungle Book

An uneven but overall likable movie, and one that taps into the kinds of fantasies I had when I was a kid. Although like many children I fantasized about being Captain Kirk or Luke Skywalker, most of my fantasies were really more about being someone like Mowgli -- living half-naked in the forest among the animals, climbing trees and foraging for food. (Hey, I was a weird kid!).

So I have an intrinsic soft spot for The Jungle Book and the way it nostalgically evokes those childhood fantasies -- but at the same time, this picture falls short for me. Rendering 95% of the film in CGI may have made for a logistically easier shoot, but the movie doesn't always look -- or feel -- particularly believable. GGI has unquestionably hit a wall, and I don't think it's ever going to look more convincing than it does. Still, for something so heavily reliant on CGI, this movie is impressively detailed, and watchable. (And I will say the character of Baloo is very convincingly rendered -- I can attest to this because I came face-to-face with an adult bear which ran out in front of me when I was driving on a country road two weeks ago.)

The film's greatest strength is its lead, Neel Sethi, who completely carries the movie, and proves a wonderfully intuitive child actor, with not a single missed note in his performance. (I also appreciate that they cast an actor who is actually ethnically Indian.) I'm generally not a fan of musicals, but I thought the retention of two songs from the 1967 animated version ("Bear Necessities" and "I Wanna Be Like You") worked extremely well (particularly the former)...



John Debney's score is epic and brimming with beautiful orchestrations. I still prefer Rozsa's original, but it's great to hear a score in a major Hollywood blockbuster written by someone who is classically-trained for a change. (A sign that things might be turning for quality film music?)

On the other hand, the movie's energy ebbs a bit in a number of sequences. It's hard to point to why -- there are plenty of action scenes, with fast tracking (and even zoom!) shots -- but a lot of sequences just don't feel as thrilling as they ought to. The "monkey city" sequence in particular drags a bit.

And I have to admit, I'm tired of these animal characters in Disney movies being played by American comedians and yakking in American slang. It is also a little more irritating in this film, when juxtaposed against the more classical vocal performances (and dialog style) of Baghira (Ben Kingsley) and Shere Khan (Idris Elba).

I didn't really care for the ending of this film either, having much preferred the conclusion of the 1967 version, where Mowgli is hesitant to rejoin mankind -- until he lays eyes on a girl, and immediately turns his back on the jungle for good. That ending was funny, touching, and rang completely true (every lad swears fealty to his best mates -- until he starts noticing girls)...



In this version we don't see Mowgli returning to humanity at all; we just have a concluding scene where he returns to visit his wolf family. Ho-hum. (Of course Disney seems to have been working overtime to downplay romance in their films over the past few years, so this isn't too surprising.)

All said an done though, this Jungle Book adaptation is solid and essentially likable, but probably better suited for kids than "adults of all ages". I liked it, but really more for reasons of nostalgia than any intrinsic entertainment or artistic merits. Despite some genuine moments of wonder (and a fabulous lead actor), it mostly falls back on the modern "Disney formula" and there's not much that is especially fresh and inventive in it.

[Eric Paddon]

A pair of 60s Goldsmith movies.

A Gathering Of Eagles (1963) 7.5 of 10

-An early 60s look at the peacetime USAF of the Cold War and their need to be in a maximum state of readiness. It's kind of sad to think that within a few years after this film the sight of someone in a US military uniform in a movie would usually be a signal that we were seeing a crazed warmongering lunatic or some dangerous embodiment of the sinister goings-on in government etc. Rock Hudson is okay as the lead though I think his role called for someone with a bit more gravitas like say, Charlton Heston (I should recheck his journal to see if this was a project he got offered). I really don't understand the casting of English actress Mary Peach as his wife though, because there wasn't any real reason for making his wife British (it seems more like something done to accommodate her casting) and it tends to undermine the overall attempt at authenticity. But the story I felt still held together well and IMO those who have seen "Dr. Strangelove" and "Fail Safe" too many times should give a film like this a chance to see a more fair-minded portrayal of the US military in the Cold War era (I would likewise also recommend Gene Roddenberry's TV series "The Lieutenant" for the same reason).


Morituri (1965) 7 of 10

-I saw this about 15 years ago when the FSM CD came out and hadn't revisited it since. The story starts out seemingly simple enough and then gets more and more complex and nuanced as it goes along that it can seem muddled on first viewing but on second viewing for me as this was, it came off much better. I'm sure Janet Margolin's demise wasn't something audiences were expecting. What is annoying though is the unnecessary presence of Brando's best buddy Wally Cox as the drunken/drug addicted ship's doctor. Either Marlon was trying to shoehorn his friend into a role or else Wally had a bigger part that was cut down because he only pops in for a couple extraneous moments and then inexplicably appears at the climactic explosive scene. We could have done without him altogether.

[Monterey Jack]

-Morgan (2016): 5.5/10

Directing debut of Ridley Scott's son, Luke, is a slick yet shallow assemblage of well-worn genre bits and pieces from Frankenstein, Hanna, Hollow Man, Stranger Things, Jason Bourne movies and last year's awfully similar Ex Machina (which already ripped off most of those sources to begin with). An impressive cast is essentially squandered (why sign on fine performers like Michelle Yeoh, Paul Giamatti and Jennifer Jason Leigh and give them a combined screentime of less than twelve minutes?). How many times have we seen the genetic experiment (in this case Anya Taylor-Joy, seen earlier this year in The VVitch, acting with her ominous hoodie and little else), kept under lock and key by dour, heartless scientists in a sterile underground bunker eventually break loose from captivity to wreak havoc? And in this case "havoc" must be put in parenthesis because the film's miniscule budget means that the whole damn thing takes place in an anonymous Irish forest that look like the same one used in every other episode of The X-Files. Scott Jr. shows off some of his old man's visual acuity...this is a handsome, sleek production that's like the kind of genre movies that Peter Hyams used to churn out in the 80's. It's a solid "calling card" to prove that he knows what he's doing behind the camera, but here's hoping he'll have an actual screenplay to work off of next time.