rate the last movie you saw

[AndyDursin]

SPOTLIGHT
7/10

The reigning Best Picture winner – albeit one that joined the company of “The Greatest Show on Earth” as having garnered just one other Oscar in addition to its major win – is a well-acted chronicle of how the Boston Globe’s investigative unit, dubbed “Spotlight,” mounted their major 2001-02 article uncovering the abuse of children – at the hands of parish priests – in the Catholic Church.

Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams and Brian d'Arcy James play the quartet of Globe reporters who work their way through red tape, church corruption and tight-lipped lawyers in order to disclose the truth. Though published articles had run about a pair of local priests who were “reassigned” after molesting children, the fact the corruption extended up to Boston Archbishop Cardinal Law – and even worse, comprised dozens upon dozens of cases – was the major component uncovered by the team, working under the guidance of a new editor (Liev Schrieber), recently arrived from the Globe’s new publisher the New York Times.

Director Tom McCarthy’s film is absorbing and believably acted, most especially by Ruffalo, who convincingly conveys the various idiosyncracies of a streetwise, dogged reporter. However, the script by Josh Singer and McCarthy comes up a little short in tapping into the real horror of what the multitude of victims experienced, not to mention the shocking fact so many of these vile creatures hopped from one parish to another, just to molest a whole new group of children. Yes, there are some victims shown and the facts inherent in these situations raised, yet this is a movie less about them – or the individual cases – than it is about the Globe and its team, and while it is still a worthy film, there’s only so much suspense generated by scenes of reporters running down corridors, opening up files and talking on the telephone.

“Spotlight” is most certainly a good film, but it was not the Best Picture of 2015.

Universal’s Blu-Ray combo pack is mostly lightweight on extras, including three featurettes including conversations with the real-life Globe reporters, a digital HD copy, 1080p (1.85) transfer, and 5.1 DTS MA sound, the latter featuring a mundane Howard Shore score that could have easily worked for any PBS documentary on the subject (which was possibly its intent).

[mkaroly]

Quick hits:

X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE - 6/10. Like the first X-Men movie, I felt this one was a bit too short and moved too fast through the story; there is one continuity error that really bugs me - the scene where Logan confronts his lover and decides not to have his memory erased only to magically appear out of nowhere when his lover is getting strangled - though the deleted scenes for that sequence show how he could have gotten there that fast. It's entertaining but I wanted the film to take a bit more time to tell the story.

X-MEN: FIRST CLASS - 9/10. I really enjoyed this film and feel that it is the strongest entry into the series. The acting in it is fantastic - McAvoy, Fassbender, and Bacon all just knock it out of the park. This film was the most successful, IMO, in developing the relationships between the characters and infusing a sense of tragedy in them - Xavier and Eric, Xavier and Mystique, etc. Very entertaining and very well done.

THE BIG SLEEP - 10/10. This movie continues to be entertaining and fascinating; in watching both the 1945 and 1946 versions, it is clear that the studio made the right decisions in making the changes they did (that veil over Bacall's face was just...ugly!). Steiner's love theme for the film is really strong; I think my favorite sequence in the whole movie is the stuff with the bespectacled store clerk after Marlowe visited Geiger's shop - it's humorous, sensual, and tender all at once. I feel like the film showcased Bogart's range - he could play it tough or sensitive and everything in between. I never tire of watching it.

KEY LARGO - 9.5/10. Another solid Bogart and Bacall pairing with the added bonus of Edward G. Robinson who I think steals the film. Man that dude was a good actor - I would put him in the category of having the type of on-screen charisma along the lines of a Charlton Heston or Toshiro Mifune which makes your gaze go directly towards him no matter what is going on. In some ways I think Bogart tried a little too hard at times to show his character's transformation in the film, but it is still a decent performance. I really like the boat sequence towards the end.

[Paul MacLean]

I really enjoyed X-Men: First Class too. The new cast fit into their roles perfectly, offering interpretations equal to that of their more-seasoned predecessors (except for Jennifer Lawrence, who was actually superior to Rebecca Romijn). Hugh Jackman's cameo is also a hoot!

Hard for me to say which is the best film. I like them all (tho I have yet to see Wolverine). I always felt #2 had some of the strongest moments, but the two most recent films have their share as well. #3 was perhaps not on the same level, but better than is generally supposed.

[Monterey Jack]

I really enjoyed X-Men: First Class too. The new cast fit into their roles perfectly, offering interpretations equal to that of their more-seasoned predecessors (except for Jennifer Lawrence, who was actually superior to Rebecca Romijn).

Like that's difficult.

Hugh Jackman's cameo is also a hoot!

Still the best use of an F-Bomb in a PG-13 movie I can think of...the whole audience was convulsing at that bit at my screening (and there's a hilarious callback to it in Days Of Future Past).

Hard for me to say which is the best film. I like them all (tho I have yet to see Wolverine). I always felt #2 had some of the strongest moments, but the two most recent films have their share as well. #3 was perhaps not on the same level, but better than is generally supposed.

I'd rank the X-Men movies thusly:

-X-Men: 7.5/10

-X2: 8.5/10

-X-Men: The Last Stand: 6.5/10

-Origins: Wolverine: 5/10

-First Class (aptly-titled!): 9/10

-The Wolverine: 8/10 (the director's cut is superior)

-Days Of Future Past: 8.5/10

Of all the currently-running superhero franchises, I've always enjoys how the X-Men films have pushed ideas as much as action...granted, a lot of the subtext is pretty clunky and obvious (Bobby Drake's "coming out" scene in X2 comes immediately to mind), but at least these films give you something to thematically chew on as opposed to simply having everyone fighting over some glowing doodad while an endless array of swooping enemies descend from the top of the screen, Galaga-style. I especially liked how, in DOFP, the fate of the apocalyptic future is decided by a character deciding not to pull a trigger and take a less self-destructive path. You don't see that kind of thing in summer movies very much. And this is one of the few superhero franchises that has cleverly managed to "reboot" (with a younger, less-expensive cast playing the same characters) while still retaining the same basic continuity. With so many would-be franchises self-destructing after one or two movies and re-setting the origin story over and over (we're up to, what, the third iterations of Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four by now, right? ), I like that the X-Men series has taken us on a genuine journey, narratively speaking, with only two mediocre entries to date (Origins: Wolverine was just plain lousy and the clumsy, artless Last Stand bit off way more than it could chew with a 95-minute running time). Bring on Apocalypse, says I...bonus points for being set in my childhood stomping grounds, the 80's (cute girls with big hair! ).

[AndyDursin]

I felt FIRST CLASS was good but missing something. Can't remember a thing about the last third. Kevin Bacon's villainy was lame. It was good -- but it was kind of lacking, very much like the first X-MEN. The pacing was too rushed, and I felt the movie lacked the presence of someone like Hugh Jackman to "ground" the material and provide the audience with a central, identifying figure.

Going forward, I think that's a potential problem for these new films with the "young cast." Lawrence is out after this film, which is going to leave a major hole in terms of star power. McAvoy and Fassbender might be fine actors but neither of them, frankly, have the charisma of Patrick Stewart or Ian McKellen. They're not box office draws, nobody is going to care if either of them are replaced.

They have a lot of perfectly capable actors in that cast -- but they're not stars. Certainly you see what Ryan Reynolds did for DEADPOOL and the breakout success that film has enjoyed -- that's what star power does. That's what Jackman brought to the earlier X-films too.

IMO, that component was missing from FIRST CLASS and it's going to be interesting to see what Singer does going forward now that they're "on their own" again, so to speak. There's no Jackman appearance, no cameos by the original cast to goose the grosses...and FIRST CLASS did not do, commercially, nearly as well as the other films in the series.

It's going to be critical for them to find a central performance the audience likes there and latch onto it, because I think they may have overlooked just how pertinent Jackman was to the success of all of those pictures. Minus him, and they may be looking at receipts closer to the first two FANTASTIC FOUR movies than the other X-MEN pictures.

[Eric Paddon]

Risen (2016) 8 of 10

-My second trip to a movie theater in ten years because I needed to find something to do with my father and this was a good opportunity after I'd heard a positive recommendation from some members of my church. I have found in recent years that some of the older Biblical movies of the 1950s rooted in fictional narratives/conceits have grown weaker to me over the years because they lack too much in authenticity overall. "The Robe" is for me the worst example of this, giving us a character who becomes a Christian with a totally wrong understanding of Jesus' purpose (I wince completely when I hear Burton's Marcellus declare before Caligula the "mistake" made in putting Jesus to death) and also giving us a totally inaccurate picture of early Christianity in relation to the Roman and Jewish worlds of the time. It's only when a cinematic masterpiece is being made like "Ben Hur" can such deficiencies in authenticity be overcome.

"Risen" is no "Ben Hur" but it at least is not "The Robe" (in the areas I object to that is. Obviously "The Robe" will always have a lot going for it in terms of score etc. that today's movies can never come close to) and that to me is what made it a very good film to sit through. Joseph Fiennes' Clavius gives us a picture of a Roman tribune's ultimate journey to faith much as "The Robe" did and it starts from a far more fascinating premise grounded in authenticity that has never been tackled before. Clavius is shown as someone forced by Pilate to investigate the disappearance of Jesus' body from the Tomb with the approach like a police detective would have to bring to such a task, and along the way we get one of the most fascinating moments I've ever seen in any Biblical movie, where he interrogates the Roman guard who was on duty that night. No one else to my knowledge has ever bothered to speculate on how the moment of Resurrection could well have been witnessed by the Roman guards, and for two men not of faith or without understanding of the moment, it would have been a trauma the mind could scarcely consider. The scene of Clavius confronting the guard, all drunk from his trauma in a tavern is very good cinema, giving us an understanding of how the Resurrection could have been seen by those who did not understand and believe. And it is a reminder, much as we see later of why does a risen Christ simply not appear triumphant before all? Because even those who would be able to see for themselves, would likely still doubt and not understand. Even Clavius, in his journey to faith, is still haunted by this self-doubt.

The film does not give us perfect history. We have Pilate anxiously wanting action because we are told the Emperor Tiberius is going to visit soon. Tiberius in fact was in self-exile by this point and no Roman emperor would ever have wanted to visit a backwater region. But this is a fictionalization/inaccuracy that bothers me a lot less than what I saw in "The Robe" or the conceit of Pilate's wife in "King of Kings" being Tiberius's daughter. In addition, the influence of setting, costume authenticity established by "Passion of the Christ" still holds sway enough so that ultimately I see a story taking place that I can believe even with its fictional conceit. And this film also has the first ever dramatization of the scene where Christ appears to His Disciples on the Sea of Galilee and illustrates why they would not have recognized Him immediately as John tells us.

Ultimately, I would put "Risen" just outside the area of greatest Biblical movies, but on par with those I give a solid upper tier rating to like "Barabbas". Well worth another visit in the future for me IMO.

[Eric Paddon]

King Of Kings (1961) 6.8 of 10

-Three years I think since the last viewing so I felt this season it had earned a "turn" as it were. One new thing I've picked up on is that I've listened to quite a few radio drama programs of the 50s-70s in the intervening years and as a result I'm beginning to recognize distinctively some voices used in the dubbing that was needed for many of the European actors. I'm pretty sure I heard Vic Perrin's voice more than once, especially for Maurice Marsac as Nicodemus. And the voice of the Roman soldier who orders Simon of Cyrene to carry the cross sounds a lot like John Stephenson! (Mr. Slate from the Flintstones)

Barabbas (1962) 9 of 10

-Keeps asserting itself as a must-view every year. There is a great deal of depth in the telling that isn't appreciated enough. I'd still like to know though if a longer cut for a roadshow presentation was first envisioned because the fade at the point after Barabbas and Sahak escape from the sulfur mines clearly indicates an intermission was going to be inserted here.

[AndyDursin]

Thanks for the Easter reviews, Eric! (and happy birthday as well

Some quick takes:

HUNGER GAMES - MOCKINGJAY PART 2
5/10

The Hunger Games” franchise comes to a tedious end in the second half of “Mockingjay,” Suzanne Collins’ concluding chapter in her young-adult literary trilogy – extended into a pair of films by Lionsgate, as is the norm these days thanks to the success of the final films in the “Harry Potter” and “Twilight” series.

Following a dreary first half, “Mockingjay Part 2" barely ratchets up the excitement level, despite settling the score between Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and the President of Panem (Donald Sutherland), as well as concluding the triangle between Katniss and her two suitors, played again by Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth. Sadly, you really need to be a die-hard fan of the franchise to mine much entertainment out of this tiresome, talky and downbeat conclusion, which is surprisingly short on action and long on drawn-out dialogue exchanges, capped by a tone that’s more unrelentingly sad than triumphant.




THE SICILIAN
5/10

One of the many high-profile failures that sank the career of director Michael Cimino, his unintentionally comic 1987 adaptation of Mario Puzo’s quasi-“Godfather” sequel THE SICILIAN comes to Blu-Ray this month from Shout Factory. If watching Christopher Lambert – a French actor mumbling English as an Italian bandit – play a Sicilian Robin Hood sounds like it’s up your alley, this gorgeously shot but embarrassingly executed epic should offer ample amusement for Golden Turkey fans everywhere.

Cimino’s film, scripted by Steve Shagan with an apparently extensive rewrite from Gore Vidal (who sued to receive a credit on the film – most would’ve sued to have it removed!), features Lambert as Salvatore Guiliano, a real-life bandit who stole from the rich and provided goods for Sicily’s poor following WWII. As Salvatore’s reputation grows from local to national fame, so too does his visibility, which doesn’t sit well with the country’s ruling classes – the Church, the government and the mob – looking to squash the rise of Communism and Guliano’s own stature as a hero.

“The Sicilian” starts poorly with Cimino doing an especially terrible job establishing Guiliano’s character, who he was, and why any of us should care about him. The opening scenes following highly credited – but barely-seen – leading lady Barbara Sukowa taking off her clothes in her family’s mansion while Salvatore and his cousin (an early performance from John Turturro) gun down a local authority figure are senselessly assembled, and following on that note, Shagan’s script is convoluted and downright inaccessible at times, with much of the film’s dialogue being incomprehensibly delivered by a series of dubbed-over actors. Only Tuturro delivers a credible performance with Lambert looking utterly out of his element from start to end (Cimino apparently championed the actor while studio executives, understandably, lamented Lambert’s casting). Meanwhile, even the usually reliable Joss Ackland – playing a mafia don – is forced to dance with Sukowa in one of the movie’s most uproariously befuddling moments, and there’s also a scene where Salvatore and his bride groove out to the sweet sounds of his wedding party humming “In the Mood” – and they’re all in perfect harmony!

Executives at Gladden Entertainment and 20th Century Fox were reportedly, and unsurprisingly, horrified by Cimino’s original 146-minute Director’s Cut. They forced Cimino to trim 30 minutes, which he reluctantly did, turning in an embarrassing version that wouldn’t be viable enough to release. The studio, eventually, did produce their own cut without his involvement: a 115-minute version that several have claimed is actually superior to Cimino’s, as it removes some of Sukowa’s work and tries – as best it could – to make sense of the movie’s disjointed narrative.

However, the Cimino version has become the preferred cut of the film over time, and is the one captured here in Shout’s high-definition Blu-Ray package (the theatrical version was previously released in a cropped DVD by Artisan). The 1080p AVC (2.35) encoded transfer is a bit varied with some print damage and other issues in the source material cropping up at times. The film was “photographed and operated” by Alex Thomson but is likely not representative of his best work, with a dearth of attractive sets and locations – surprising given the movie’s Italian shooting locales. The DTS MA 5.1 audio is much more robust than a 2.0 stereo mix also included here, though David Mansfield’s sappy, overly melodramatic score occasionally adds to the inadvertent comedy.

One of the most curious aspects of “The Sicilian” is that the character of Michael Corleone was a major component in Puzo’s original novel. It’s unclear if Gladden was or wasn’t aware that they couldn’t actually use the “Godfather” character in their film version (as Corleone was the property of Paramount) when they bought the film rights, but it’s hard to imagine the material being as attractive without its connection to Puzo’s earlier classic.

As it is, “The Sicilian” isn’t only largely fictitious, but it’s a big, helping heap of cinematic mozzarella and provolone that remains one of the bigger-budgeted failures of its time. Recommended for those who enjoy cinematic rubbernecking of the most entertaining kind.

[Eric Paddon]

Thanks for the Easter reviews, Eric! (and happy birthday as well

Thank you!

Took my father out again to another faith-themed release today, "Young Messiah." Have to give this only a 7 at best. Nothing wrong I saw theologically from my standpoint, but I felt the film was weakened by giving us a "jeopardy" through-line of Herod Antipas wanting to find and having the child Jesus killed. I could forgive the historical error (Herod Antipas was never ruler over all his father's lands. After Herod the Great died, Rome took direct administrative control of Judea leaving the rest of Herod's kingdom divided among his sons with Antipas controlling only Gailiee which encompassed Nazareth) but the film's narrative would have been strengthened I felt by showing some scenes of "normality" in the life of Jesus as a child living in Nazareth while Joseph re-established himself in his carpentry trade. Zeffirelli gave us more of those kind of moments in just a couple minutes than this film did in its entire running time! That said, the film's final scene of Mary explaining things is beautifully done. It can walk a fine line to try and envision Jesus in these terms, but the film I felt respectfully pulled it off despite its flaws.

The influence of POTC was heavy with John Debney's score echoing that film a good deal and I believe I recognized the actor who was Simon of Cyrene in POTC in another role here looking almost the same. Plus, the demon figure is clearly modeled on the one in POTC as well (and this came off a bit heavy-handed in spots). And Herod Antipas gets the same foppish characterization that he got in POTC.

Ultimately not as good as "Risen" IMO but certainly a step above the worst of the 50s epics (the "Salomes" and "Prodigals")

[AndyDursin]

THE HATEFUL EIGHT
5/10

On the opposite end of the genre spectrum from the Kiefer Sutherland western "Forsaken" (check out the thread I just added) is the “8th Film From Quentin Tarantino,” so designated on all print advertising and the on-screen credits of THE HATEFUL EIGHT itself. You’d wonder if The Weinstein Company thought this film was going to become one of the 8th Wonders of the Cinematic World from that kind of proclamation, but in reality, this leaden, endlessly talky affair is one of Tarantino’s most pretentious and least satisfying cinematic sojourns to date.

Tarantino’s plot, apparently set – like “Forsaken” – after the Civil War, finds a bounty hunter (Kurt Russell) dragging his female prey (Jennifer Jason Leigh) across the snowy mountains of Wyoming. En route to the town of Red Rock, the duo come across a handful of suspicious types: a former Union soldier (Samuel L. Jackson) carrying a letter from Abraham Lincoln; a southern scavenger (Walton Giggins) supposedly the new sheriff in town; and, eventually, a quartet of strangers (Bruce Dern, Michael Madsen, Tim Roth, Damien Bichir) at “Minnie’s Haberdashery,” a stop-over along the path that literally means a stop-over in entertainment for the viewer once the film settles in and stays there, literally, for its entire second half.

Anyone who reads me regularly knows I am not a Tarantino devotee. I appreciate his fondness for cinema and have enjoyed some of his work (“Kill Bill” in particular) but have found other films of his overpraised and bloated. “The Hateful Eight” certainly falls into a category that’s recommended for his fans only – claustrophobic and dull, the film establishes a handful of unappealing characters who talk, talk, and then talk some more across a running time unbearably extended to nearly three hours. It plays fast and loose with any semblance of the real Old West or historical background, its anti-heroes spouting the filmmaker’s patented dialogue, and after a splendidly shot opening, settles into a confined one-set affair that non-fans will want to escape from as much as its characters. What’s just as damning is the messy plot and what Tarantino is trying to say here – as a mystery, “The Hateful Eight” is uninvolving and dull, and the second half’s off-putting violence (which crops up whenever the dialogue decides to take a brief break) further compounds a picture that’s as unsatisfying as any the director has made.

Anchor Bay’s Blu-Ray looks superb, but Robert Richardson’s widescreen (2.40) photography only gets an opportunity to shine during the movie’s early outdoor sequences, which are, admittedly, beautifully shot. The 5.1 DTS MA audio houses a traditional Tarantino mismash of external score fragments and anachronistic songs, with Ennio Morricone represented by both original material (which earned him an Oscar, albeit seemingly more for his lifetime body of work than this score itself) and past efforts (including quotes from his celebrated “Exorcist II” and “The Thing” scores). Two featurettes and a digital copy are also included.

[jkholm]

MIDNIGHT SPECIAL

Thanks to my membership in the Alamo Drafthouse rewards program I got free tickets to see Midnight Special, Jeff Nichols’ critically acclaimed sci-fi drama. I reserved two seats and my wife asked one of our friends to watch our kids. We got to the theater 15 minutes before the movie was scheduled to start but I was embarrassed to learn the movie was playing at the other Alamo theater in Dallas and not the one close to my house. We drove 15 miles in about 20 minutes to get to the correct theater. Of course the movie had already started and it took a while to adjust. Then I couldn’t concentrate because I was hungry and the pizza I ordered didn’t come until about an hour into the movie.

Circumstances aside, the movie was pretty good, a solid three-star effort. It’s kind of like Close Encounters of the Third Kind but done more as a family drama. The story concerns a father trying to protect his eight year old son from various bad guys who know the kid has special powers. The exact nature of the kid’s abilities is revealed very slowly. I liked the way the story unfolded although I can see how some viewers will either be put off by the sci-fi element altogether, or else they will demand more answers than the movie is willing to give. But Midnight Special isn’t trying to answer those questions. It’s more about the bond between the father and his son and about the nature of belief and how someone might react if they found out something extraordinary was true.

[AndyDursin]

Is it better than SUPER 8? A movie that was so overhyped and really under-delivered IMO given the hoopla about it.

[jkholm]

Yeah, the hype could be a problem with this one. It will not appeal to everybody.

I liked both SUPER 8 and MIDNIGHT SPECIAL but they are completely different movies. Early Spielberg is clearly an influence on both but whereas Abrams paid homage to Spielberg by making a movie that looks and sounds exactly like a Spielberg film (just like he imitated STAR WARS with THE FORCE AWAKENS), Nichols' movie is similar mainly in theme. Both CLOSE ENCOUNTERS and MS have characters who find themselves drawn into events they cannot explain and who do whatever it takes to get to a specific location on time. There's a sense of wonder in MS but it is muted by the desperate nature of the father's journey with his son.

[Eric Paddon]

The rest of this year's Easter viewing.

Give Us Barabbas (1961)

-An obscure TV production of the Hallmark Hall Of Fame that I found on YT (it had a VHS release back in the 80s) with James Daly, Kim Hunter and Keir Dullea. This is a rare chance to see a 50s style of "live" drama that still exists in original broadcast format and despite the interesting subject matter I have to admit I have a lot of trouble warming up to these kinds of productions, whether here or in shows like "Studio One" etc. They are *very* stagey in nature and I suspect they would have played much better if I were attending the theater than watching it on TV. Also, they really don't develop a credible fictional story to center on Barabbas IMO. It is worth a look for the kind of show it is, and Kim Hunter as Barabbas's girlfriend of loose background looks a lot more attractive here than in anything else I've ever seen her in.

The Gospel of John (2005)

-Full length verse by verse depiction of the Fourth Gospel with Christopher Plummer narrating. The DVD release also has a separate streamlined version that runs 45 minutes shorter that I watched a couple years ago and that one admittedly moves better. I do like the staging of the sequence where Jesus heals the blind man better than how Zeffirelli treated in. There is a similar visual Bible production for Matthew and Acts respectively that I need to revisit in the future as well.

Ben Hur (1925) 6.5 of 10

-I hadn't seen the silent version in a while and I had no time to revisit the classic version this year (even though I think that is the greatest work of cinema ever) so I decided to give this a chance. The galley battle sequence is admittedly the one area where they really topped the remake since the remake had to do everything in the tank with miniatures there. But overall, I found this far less engaging and that's probably more a comment on my inability to have a deep appreciation for the silent film medium, much in the same way live TV dramas like "Give Us Barabbas!" don't generate the same effect in me either. Even so, some elements of the adaptation done here show just how much the remake improved things considerably by giving us a deeper reason to feel Judah's sense of betrayal and sorrow over Messala becoming a hard-edged Roman. Here, it's hard to believe Judah and Messala ever were friends at one time. The two-strip technicolor scenes for this film are fascinating to see.

Passion Of The Christ (2004) 10 of 10

-Traditional Good Friday evening viewing. I did on Saturday night do a second viewing to see the "footnote" special feature but that proved to be a dud admittedly with spartan notes and most of them generic production info. I haven't listened to the commentaries on the film in about ten years so maybe next year I should revisit them.

The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965) 8.5 of 10

-Today's choice of viewing to close the season.

[John Johnson]