rate the last movie you saw

[mkaroly]

I rewatched TERMINATOR for the first time the other night in a long time. I'm not sure it really holds up as a "classic" film. It's a good, tidy low-budget movie that in some ways is more of a horror movie than a sci-fi thriller...its ideas and its script are interesting, but some of it -- like the love scene -- I found kind of silly, to be honest. And the budget holds it back, also (Not an issue obviously with all the others! lol).

A very influential picture, but perhaps, not a classic per se.

I will admit the love scene made me laugh - I agree it was very silly.

[AndyDursin]

TERMINATOR GENISYS
7/10

No, it's not great, but as a simple summer action movie, it's also not bad. (Was anyone expecting Alan Taylor to morph into James Cameron all of a sudden?)

Certainly the reviews that state this is much worse than the mediocre likes of THE AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON or JURASSIC WORLD are just piling on because it's cool to snark and dump on Arnold and this franchise. Yet in reality, this film is more entertaining than either of them, as it does attempt a story and gleefully rejuggles elements from the prior movies in an enjoyably convoluted manner. Even Jai Courtney isn't horrible, which to my shock.

As far as special effects go, I'll also gladly take this one over anything in the rest of the summer sequel/remake parade...lol.

[Monterey Jack]

LAST AMERICAN VIRGIN
8/10

Still the single most devastating ending of any film, ever, in my opinion...screw "Seven" or the '78 "Body Snatchers." Nothing hits you in the stomach the way this movie's conclusion does!

Watched this for the first time tonight...wow, you're not kidding about that ending. AMAZED that the studio didn't insist on a more upbeat reshoot, especially as far as 80's teen sex comedies go. Good movie, but...damn.

[AndyDursin]

Yeah exactly -- and imagine seeing that in high school too. Wrecked me!

Credit the Cannon Group. They always let directors do their thing. It's why we have miracles like that -- and LIFEFORCE!

[Jedbu]

I remember going with friends to see it expecting another teen sex comedy (the sex scene with the girl who kept saying that she "didn't care" was jaw dropping) and at the end we were both shocked at how it ended and my friends were quite peeved at the way she ended up treating the main character. Have not seen it since.

[Eric Paddon]

Cast Away (2000) 7 of 10

I can't recall if I gave it 6 or 6.5 the last time I reviewed it here in this thread a few years back, which was the last time I watched it but this time I'm willing to up the rating just a little bit I guess in part because there is a little undercurrent I can connect with more this time in light of personal circumstances with this theme of having to preserve and improvise knowledge in effect in the face of a seemingly hopeless situation as the character of Chuck is required to do.

What keeps me from going higher though are a couple points I recall making the last time. Had this film been made in an earlier era when there was a greater sensitivity in Hollywood to how people contemplate the presence of God in the universe, this film would have had Chuck make some kind of musing about how maybe his circumstance means there is some kind of Higher Power looking after him. Nothing too specific, but something I think that would have been more on the minds of people back then. I think it would be impossible for anyone to not stop for a minute to think about that.

I also don't like the ending. It would have been so much easier for Bettina, the lady rancher who we now know has ditched her unfaithful hubby we saw at the beginning of the film, to have just been at home and answered the door and invited Chuck in. We wouldn't have to necessarily assume something would happen between them, but it would have been a far better ending, more traditional and more appropriate to the theme of life perhaps opening new doors where we least expect it, or maybe even finding there is a higher reason for why things happen. Just something I couldn't help ponder as I watched this again.

[AndyDursin]

ROLLER BOOGIE
6.5/10



Skating its way onto Blu-Ray this month as part of Olive Films’ July Blu-Ray slate is none other than ROLLER BOOGIE. A pre-exploitation Linda Blair stars as a good girl who rebukes Juilliard so she can skate-skate-skate her way with roller boogie veteran Jim Bray into certain disco stardom. Unfortunately, some bad guys decide that their local skate park is a good spot for a real estate deal, and promptly threaten the future of all young skating maniacs by wanting to trash their hangout.

Dean Cundey shot this no-brain, feel-good romp, which plays like an episode of “Chips,” minus Ponch, Jon, and the California Highway Patrol. Irwin Yablans, meanwhile, presented the Compass International production (one of the few non-“Halloween” films Compass turned out), which was bought by UA and released to what apparently were solid box-office returns in 1979. Blair is also undeniably cute with her frizzy hair and Wonder Woman-colored spandex outfits, adding to the overall appeal.

It’s silly, good-natured family fun – albeit with drawn out “dancing” sequences that extend the running time by a good 10-15 minutes – that cult fans should gobble up on Blu-Ray. Olive’s 1080p (1.85) transfer sports an attractive presentation without much in the way of obvious noise reduction and just a bit of dirt and grime in its source material. The DTS MA mono audio is robust for a film of this type as well.


KING OF THE GYPSIES
7/10



The compelling Dino DeLaurentiis production – atypical from his usual big-budget outings – “King of the Gypsies” is Frank Pierson’s 1978 embellishment of Peter Maas’ non-fiction book, one that profiled gypsies in the modern world. Eric Roberts stars as a young man who receives the title of King from his grandfather (Sterling Hayden), passing over his frustrated, hot-tempered father (Judd Hirsch) in the process. A marvelous cast – including Susan Sarandon, Brooke Shields (as Roberts’ younger sister), Annette O’Toole, Annie Potts, and Shelley Winters – makes this a taut and fascinating film with superb cinematography from Sven Nykvist and an infectious score by David Grisman featuring the great violinist Stephane Grappelli. Olive’s Blu-Ray does more justice to Nykvist’s work through its 1080p (1.85) transfer than the movie’s prior DVD debut from Legend Films, though the image is still fairly drab and typical of its era; the 2.0 DTS MA mono audio is passable.

[Eric Paddon]

At 13:00 into this Carson anniversary show watch this hilarious clip of Shelley Winters and Annie Potts recalling doing "King of the Gypsies" together (or more accurately one recalling better than the other!).

[AndyDursin]

At 13:00 into this Carson anniversary show watch this hilarious clip of Shelley Winters and Annie Potts recalling doing "King of the Gypsies" together (or more accurately one recalling better than the other!).

LOL! I remember seeing that clip, I must have seen it on that anniversary show!

Hilarious, thanks for posting Eric. The kind of thing we don't see on late night TV interviews these days...needless to say.

[Eric Paddon]

Apparently what made the moment all the more funny was that during her segment, Shelley had been boasting about having perfect recall!

[Eric Paddon]

She (1965) 5.5 of 10

-With a new frugality campaign underway for me it was time to watch some things I've accumulated over the years and never made time to watch or listen to. After years of seeing "One Million Years B.C." I finally know what John Richardson sounds like! As for the film, it frankly was a bit of a let-down for me since IMO Ursula Andress comes off as flat and not convincing in the title role. I remember reading the original Haggard novel about 20 years ago and found it to be one of the most engrossing adventure novels I'd ever read and the charismatic power of the Ayesha character leapt off the page. Andress, even with her voice dubbed by Nikki Van Der Zyl who also dubbed her in "Dr. No", generated none of that. I kept envisioning someone more commanding along the lines of Joan Collins (who also would have been more credible for the ruthless/jealous side of the character too). The idea that the likes of Christopher Lee could be intimidated by her just rang ridiculous. Cushing fared best in the film overall. I don't have and won't be bothering with "Vengeance of She" anytime soon.

[Jedbu]

Over the past few weeks I have watched a bunch of stuff and instead of long reviews thought I would just do some capsule ones:

INDEPENDENCE DAY: 7/10

A film I still enjoy because it never tries to be more than it should, the effects work is still impressive as is David Arnold's score and I still get a kick out of Jeff Goldblum and Will Smith's interaction. Dumb and total chewing gum for the mind but never boring or pretentious.

KINGSMEN-THE SECRET SERVICE: 5/10

Not a bad little spy film with a couple of good action scenes, but once Colin Firth is off screen the film loses interest and why does Samuel Jackson have a lisp? After this I'll bet Mark Hamill was looking forward with great anticipation for the new STAR WARS film.

CHAPPIE: 3/10

"Hey, what do you think of this: let's take a bit of ROBOCOP and A. I.-make the title character a robot cop who gains artificial intelligence but who gets educated by stupid crooks who make him think they are his mother and father, have Sharlto Copley give a great motion capture performance as the title character, make the company that owns him (more ROBOCOP) easily taken over by a jealous meglomaniac bastard with his own weapons system to push (even more ROBOCOP and we will waste Hugh Jackman in the role) and end with both the title character and the naive genius who invented him both inside new robot bodies through artificial intelligence that was never installed in those bodies and have the final shot a ripoff of I, ROBOT? And for a final touch, have the film bomb, get critically blasted and finally have us wonder what happened to Neil Blomkamp?"

WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE: 6/10

Originally purchased by Paramount in the early 30's as a DeMille vehicle, George Pal opened the door to all Science Fiction geeks for generations with this adaptation of Earth's destruction that won an Oscar for Visual Effects and gave him the clout with he front office for an even better epic, THE WAR OF THE WORLDS the following year. The obvious inspiration for DEEP IMPACT over four decades later, this is still interesting but the short running time makes the film even more melodramatic than it needed to be and you would think that Pal would have been able to squeeze another $500 out of the budget to actually show the collision. Oh, well, it is still interesting, even if Barbara Rush is pretty much wasted but it is still a kick to see Frank Cady playing something beside Sam Drucker from "The Beverly Hillbillies." Never noticed before that Stuart Whitman has a bit part as one of the people at the camp building the rocketship.

THE WAR OF THE WORLDS: 7/10

Superior in many ways to George Pal's Sci-Fi/disaster epic from the year before, THE WAR OF THE WORLDS zips along with a great urgency and with an even greater spiritual message than WWC, and it is obvious that Pal had more money to work with here-the Martian machines are still awesome, the Technicolor photography is beautifully done (having former cameramen Rudolph Mate and Byron Haskin as your directors for both films didn't hurt) and Gene Barry is nicely intense, even if he does get some of the dopiest lines in this film towards the end. Ann Robinson runs the gamut of emotions from A to B (she is either stoic or scared witless without much else) and it is always fun to see and hear such great utility actors-both voice and on-camera-as Les Tremayne, Paul Frees and even Jack Kruschen as a Hispanic in the town who gets charbroiled, with Henry Brandon and Alvy Moore for good measure. I hope that when this comes out on Blu-Ray that both films are together, like the 1977 reissue. WOTW is in better shape than WWC, and the stereophonic track on the SE DVD has great oomph (I think it is the one the film was originally released with back in 1953; if not, it should be ported over).

THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY: 7/10

The disaster movies of the 70's owe their existence to the two films I just mentioned and this, one of the biggest hits of the decade. John Wayne and his then-business partner Robert Fellows had had a great success with their adaptation of Ernest Gann's ISLAND IN THE SKY, and they, along with that film's director William Wellman, made one of the most beloved films of both Wayne and Wellman's careers. Pretty much GRAND HOTEL/STAGECOACH in the sky, this is about a passenger plane that runs into mechanical trouble on a flight from Honolulu to San Francisco, with plenty of melodrama thrown in-both in the cockpit and the passenger cabin. Standouts include Wayne (in pretty much a supporting role but never hogging the screen), Robert Stack as the captain of the flight, Jan Sterling as a former beauty dreading meeting her fiancee, Robert Newton as a producer and Doe Avedon as the stewardess. I could have done with a little less Phil Harris and Joy Kim and the story is pure corn, but it is still compelling and I can never get enough of Dimitri Tiomkin's score (I love to play the opening as loud as I can). Hope that this one makes onto Blu-Ray someday (if Paramount can bring out RIO LOBO, it can bring this out).

[Eric Paddon]

The Sam Drucker character was actually on "Petticoat Junction" and "Green Acres" not "Beverly Hillbillies" (but they were all part of that same wacky universe of CBS rural sitcoms). But I get your point because the film also gives us Dr. Bellows (Hayden Roarke) while Larry Keating was later a regular as the next-door neighbor on first "Burns And Allen" and then "Mister Ed" and seeing so many familiar sitcom regulars in a film with these themes takes a moment to get used to. The thing about Barbara Rush that amazes me is how totally unrecognizable to me she is from this early phase of her career compared to her more familiar 60s look. Richard Derr, the lead of the film I have to confess would win first-prize in a Danny Kaye lookalike contest. 15 years later he would be reduced to a bit part in at least one Star Trek episode as a Starfleet admiral.

This film also has an inadvertently funny line with hindsight, "Tony, this is Mr. Randall!"

I need to give "High And The Mighty" a new look sometime.

[AndyDursin]

Not a bad little spy film with a couple of good action scenes, but once Colin Firth is off screen the film loses interest and why does Samuel Jackson have a lisp?

The "church massacre" sequence was the end for me. Totally misjudged, misguided, and should have been in a different movie. I'm a fan of (most of) Vaughan's work but his self-indulgence got the best of him there.

[Edmund Kattak]

Ditto on the "church massacre" sequence. Loved the movie until that poiunt, but once I got past that part the movie went down a few notches. That kind of "black" comedy like sequence with the townsfolk violence worked in HOT FUZZ, but this movie hit too close to home. Maybe he thought this kind of thing might go over well in England and the rest of Europe, but it was distasteful here in the states, where there seems to be this assault on religion in general right now.

Anyway, regarding KING OF THE GYPSIES, Andy. This was my cousin's Joey's first big picture. He had done some TV before then, namely an episode of ALL IN THE FAMILY. My dad and I used to goof on him in this picture. I haven't seen it in a couple of decades, but I seem to remember an outdoor night sequence with Eric Roberts where I recall good ol Joey pacing back and forth with a cigarette in his mounth. My dad laughed saying that he never even smoke in his life. In fact, I don't recall it even being lit in that scene.