rate the last movie you saw

[AndyDursin]

MAGIC
8/10

I'm not a big fan of Richard Attenborough's movies -- finding a lot of them deadly dull and pompous -- but I was really surprised with MAGIC, which is a well-directed and tense little film, in comparison with most of his bloated "epics". Anthony Hopkins is great in this film, Ann-Margret gives a very likeable performance, and Jerry Goldsmith's creepy score is terrific too, with some melodic portions working in with an off-kilter sense of carnival-like dread.

This one is surprisingly on Blu-Ray in a very inexpensive release from MPI/Dark Sky (Fox only released the film and didn't retain the video rights) with a tremendous transfer and a bunch of good extras. I picked it up for $7 from the Gohastings sale last week and was not disappointed!

HOUR OF THE GUN
7.5/10

Another good Goldsmith score in this John Sturges "revisionist" western with James Garner as an appropriately glum Wyatt Earp and Jason Robards as Doc Holliday. Though a bit uneven, this is a quite entertaining picture well shot in scope by Lucien Ballard. It's on Blu-Ray in Australia in an excellent transfer even though the print shows its age at times.

[sprocket]

Logan's Run 8/10

I was surprised how much I enjoyed this movie. I had grown up with it, seeing it on TV every so often, but had never seen it from an adult's perspective.

Yes, the 'world-building' isn't the best. A model is a model, but in pre-Stars Wars days, the expectations were lower and the effects more expensive and much more difficult to do. I must admit, however, the guns the Sandmen use are really neat and unequaled in this age of CGI.

As far as the plot goes, I thought it stood up really well, until Logan and Jessica escaped outside. Then Jessica became all whiny and scared. Until then, she was quite a strong female character. Fortunately, Jenny Agutter's warmth of personality shone through soon after and made you forget that unfortunate mid-section.

I was pleasantly surprised about Farah Fawcett's performance in Doc's office; I thought it had real pathos, although the whole scene of her later talking about it negated the good impression.

Everyone seemed to treat their part with respect and the acting was surprisingly good.

Of course, one of the main reasons I enjoyed it was because of Jerry Goldsmith’s ‘front and center’ film score. That is not wallpaper and I don’t think anyone working today could do as good a job. Maybe that’s just a sign of the times, but I do think the better producers trust their composers to ‘deliver the goods’. It’s a real shame no one working today is up to the challenge. We all woe the lack of good composers - hopefully someone will step up to the plate.

[sprocket]

The Comancheros 7/10

An old-fashioned movie, meaning one where the scenery is a character, the music is 'out front' (and such a great score, too!) and the actors have charisma.

I haven't seen many John Wayne films, a bit before my time, so I don't know his style very well, but his warmth and amiability makes me want to see more of his movies.

I don't think the plot was all that interesting, but it was an enjoyable couple of hours.

I'll have to compare the scenery in this one to a 'modern' western like Dances with Wolves. I have a feeling the more current westerns will come up short.

[AndyDursin]

Though Wayne and most westerns were also before my time, I've found the genre to be one that I've really, really enjoyed "discovering" for the first time in HD. The scenery and music scores are often "out front" as you said Sprocket, and being able to savor the cinematography really makes it the one genre that I think gains the most from a proper HD presentation on Blu-Ray. BIG JAKE is also a good one to track down (in addition to the SEARCHERS, TRUE GRIT and RIO BRAVO if you haven't seen them already), with a great Elmer score. Good old fashioned fun

[mkaroly]

THE SEARCHERS was an incredibly moving film and gorgeous. I agree with Andy that it's one of the Wayne movies that is definitely worth seeing.

[AndyDursin]

BAD GIRLS
1/10

My western kick of late brought me back to this 1994 Fox flop -- which is one of the few movies I've ever walked out of. I was in college at the time and was with a friend of mine, and after 15 minutes, we both agreed it was time to go. The movie we left for? BRAINSCAN with Eddie Furlong and Frank Langella (yep, it was a SLOW weekend).

Turns out we were right: this is an awful, disjointed mess of a film, a "poster in search of a screenplay" as Leonard Maltin put it with Madeline Stowe, Mary Stuart Masterson, Drew Barrymore (really before her second stardom) and Andie McDowell as "renegade women" on the lam from the law.

The director of the film was Tamra Davis who was fired and replaced by Jonathan Kaplan. If you're interested you can see trivia bits about the how and the why on IMDB -- apparently the actresses were in a constant fight over each other's screen time, hair and make-up, and Davis was axed because she couldn't handle a film whose entire budget went to support the stars' salaries. The film is remarkedly threadbare and downright amateurish on a sheer production scale.

Even Jerry Goldsmith's score is one of his weakest from one of his weakest periods. Anchor Bay's Blu-Ray serves up the trailer and a 1080p transfer that's not so stellar either.

If you're been meaning to revisit, or visit, this film -- skip it. It stinks.

[Eric Paddon]

The List Of Adrian Messenger (1962) 7 of 10
-A good and suspenseful story that is sadly undermined by its novelty gimmick that serves no real purpose in the film, and which we now know was largely a fraud. Watching it, it's obvious that of the ballyhooed cameo names, Robert Mitchum was the only actor other than Douglas who appeared in the film proper since that's unmistakably his voice coming out as "Joe/Jim Slattery". Sinatra and Lancaster basically got away with a star's glorified handout for doing no legitimate work.

[AndyDursin]

JOHN CARTER 8/10

Well, turns out I did like it -- a whole lot in fact. Rousing sci-fi fantasy with probably Michael Giacchino's best score (at least it had a theme!), some interesting creatures and nifty action scenes. The problem? Taylor Kitsch. He's just one-note and terrible, and I guess, must have taken lessons from the Christian Bale School of Acting because his monotone delivery is grating.

What a shame too, because the film is just short of being something truly great. As it is, the film is likely to enhance its reputation as time goes on and people discover it, and the talk of its budget decreases (there was no need for the film to be that expensive either).

Overall, well worth seeking out. And the 3-D is just dynamic -- even as a conversion, it's some of the best, demo worthy material I've seen yet on Blu-Ray.

No matter what dimension you watch it, Lynn Collins' Princess is out of this world too.

[AndyDursin]

MEN IN BLACK 3

8/10

As I wrote in the box-office thread, I'm not a big fan of the series but this film, for me, was the best of the lot for its engaging premise and surprisingly heartfelt story that carries a dramatic angle neither of the prior two movies had. It also didn't get hung up on star cameos and repeating the same sorts of effects of the earlier two films.

A real nice surprise.

[sprocket]

The Natural 7/10

The only real tension I felt by watching this movie was from wondering if Robert Redford’s character was an angel sent to save the team from the clutches of an evil co-owner. The story was so focused on Redford’s character and he was able to do so many extraordinary things on the baseball field that I thought he’d die in the last 5 minutes of the film in the arms of his sortof girlfriend. It was very well done, too be sure, especially the fireworks at the end, but lacking any grounding in reality made me scratch my head and say “Is that all?”

Wonderful score by Randy Newman.

Moonstruck 9/10

A pleasure from beginning to end, not only for Cher’s understated, subtle performance. What a shame we don’t get more comedies like this: humorous, insightful, adult.

[Monterey Jack]

Meteor (1979): 3/10

Desperately cheesy (even by 70's standards) disater movie pre-dates the "duelling meteors" epics Armageddon and Deep Impact by nearly two decades, with a cast chock full of Familiar Faces (Sean Connery, Karl Malden, Natalie Wood, Martin Landau, and, of course, "Henry Fonda as the President"), seriously lame special effects (the era in which is was produced being no real excuse...the space stuff in the same year's Moonraker and The Black Hole looked 1,000 times better than this), a dearth of excitement (there's an entire mayhem setpiece that's nothing but stock footage lifted from Avalanche!) and all set to a hysterically rousing Laurence Rosenthal score (with the Blaster Beam used to characterize the titular paper mache meteor). Dumb as a bag of hammers, but for fans of 70's disaster movies, it's an awful lot of laughable fun.

[AndyDursin]

Good review MJ. Rosenthal's score is terrific IMO -- the problem there, though, is that the last time they actually used the stereo tracks, it was on Image's laserdisc release. Even the MGM HD version is in mono and the music deteriorates over the end credits!

[mkaroly]

THE AGONY AND THE ECSTACY - 4/10. I like Heston and enjoy his performances, but I just couldn't get into this movie. I thought the interplay between Heston and Harrison had its moments, but I didn't buy Harrison as the pope. I just felt the movie dragged on and never found its stride. Visually there are some nice moments but otherwise I felt the film didn't hit the mark.

BECKET - 7/10. I found this film to be thoroughly engaging and entertaining, though I was not sure how historically accurate it was. I thought that O'Toole and Burton played off each other extremely well (though O'Toole has his "manic" moments that sometimes get out of control). I liked the long takes and the massive sets...people actually memorized more than one sentence at a time back then, and I enjoyed listening to the dialogue. However, I just don't understand why people have to make the implication that at the heart of deep male friendships there lies homosexual desires...I think that "suggestion" is clearly there, and it's really annoying to me. Anyway, good movie.

HEREAFTER - 5/10. This is a typical Clint Eastwood film: very methodical and purposeful, slow camera movements, very restrained emotions, etc. I thought Matt Damon did well in his reserved and low-key performance. The French actress was a little lifeless though, as was her boyfriend. The subject matter was interesting but I didn't think it delivered dramatically overall as it perhaps could have (though I admit I was a bit moved at the end). I actually kind of liked the score (such that it was), and I liked how the three stories finally intersected. Still, I wish it had been a little less reserved.

HARRY POTTER 7 PART 2 - 6/10. I can't remember what I gave part one; I didn't read the books and while DEATHLY HARROWS made up for how awful films 5 and 6 were, I guess I wasn't into it as much as I probably would have been had I read the books. I was happy to hear that Desplat actually signed the film off with a significant chunk of John Williams' music, but otehrwise I don't remember a single thing about the score, which is a shame. Overall the HP series was fun to watch (except for films 5 and 6) though I still feel I'm out of the loop with everything. Don't know what else to say.

[AndyDursin]

THE ARTIST - 8/10

Overpraised, and probably not "Oscar material" most years, this year's Best Picture winner is still emotionally involving and well acted, yet I found it a bit thin -- with a simplistic story and lots of French despair on hand. Both performers though are marvelous.

The VERTIGO score -- jarringly used at the end of the film -- is still in the Blu-Ray version, so those rumors it was going to be replaced did not turn to be accurate.

[Eric Paddon]

Destry Rides Again (1939) 7 of 10. Fascinating to see Jimmy Stewart in basically a western version of "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington" in the same year, with the difference being that Stewart is playing a less naive person, but ultimately like in Smith, forced to see the limits of how far his sense of idealism can go. Dietrich is terrific, even if her accent doesn't suggest a New Orleans lady named "Frenchie".

Who's Minding The Store? (1962) 4 of 10. Only because I've been on a Jill St. John kick of late did I give this a look, and in the process I get a reminder of why I've never been a fan of Jerry Lewis's work. It's not that I'm anti-slapstick, it's just that I prefer to see slapstick spring organically from a story in a way that seems natural like the pratfalls of Peter Sellers in the Pink Panther movies. Lewis's antics though are nothing more than disjointed set pieces that just go way too overboard.

I will say though, that as one who HATES the character of Endora on "Bewitched" I loved to see Jill telling off her domineering mother Agnes Moorehead in a way that I never saw Liz Montgomery do once in eight years on that sitcom.