rate the last movie you saw

[Paul MacLean]

I had forgotten the scene of Mayor Vaughan's abstention (as well as the parking ticket scene) were only in the TV cut, and I was a little surprised when they didn't show-up! It's too bad -- they added a little more dimension (and didn't slow-down the film).

There's so many wonderful moments in Jaws 2 -- like when the chubby kid (I forget his name) who has previously been such a wise guy, reveals a caring side, as he pulls Sean to safety and holds him close, and the scared girl who prays "God, please save us" (that wouldn't even be permitted today!), and the beautiful end credits sequence with that slow tilt to the sunset (accompanied by Williams' glorious music).

And except for a few of the hair styles, the film doesn't even seem that dated. It's also a movie that, for me, gets better as it goes along.

And Andy, maybe it isn't one of the "greatest films ever made"...but it's a lot better than most of the overrated "hits" I've sat through in the past 15 years!

[AndyDursin]

That goes without saying!

[Monterey Jack]

Elysium (2013): 7/10

Probably the most ham-handed use of a simple genre exercise to disguise political "subtext" I've seen since Killing Them Softly. Elysium works as a well-crafted bit of speculative sci-fi, but it's more than mildly insulting to have a movie with a supposedly Hispanic lead character...played by Matt Damon. Had Neill Blomkampp dialed down on the Haves vs. Have Nots finger-wagging, I would have enjoyed this more. Yeah, District 9 wasn't exactly a model of subtlety, but it worked better as an action piece than this did, and at a quarter of the price. Plus, WTF is up with Jodie Foster's accent? And I always laugh whenever a movie depict a character as being ridiculously affluent...by flooding the soundtrack with lite classical music. What, do rich people NEVER listen to pop, country or rock music?

[Eric Paddon]

The Seven Per-Cent Solution (1976) 8 of 10
-Finally for the first time on the Blu-Ray release, I get to see this film in its original aspect ratio! And it improves the viewing experience immensely with the location filming, and I may be wrong but I don't think I ever remembered the punchline in the end credits in which we saw the caption under the Holmes drawing, "For a long time he remained there" (I remember the drawing but not the caption).

-The one flaw is that I think it's a bit forced from a narrative perspective to withhold the secret of the beginning of Holmes' addiction until the end (Freud would surely have put him under to learn this at the beginning!), and the film pretty much telegraphs what Moriarty's real role was from the beginning so that we could have handled this revelation earlier on (though the novel I would note did not cast Moriarty in the role of the lover, only that he broke the news of the tragedy to young Sherlock who didn't witness it)

-As far as Holmes' pastiches go, this one remains a nice entertaining romp, delivering more fun than "Private Life Of Sherlock Holmes" did (though of course Addison's serviceable score isn't anywhere in the same league as Rozsa's).

[AndyDursin]

The Disappearance
3/10

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ....Donald Sutherland goes looking for his missing wife in this icy cold, and interminably dull, '70s misfire shot by John Alcott up in Montreal. Twilight Time's Blu-Ray goes full throttle in including a 91-minute recut (in HD) that mysteriously appeared a couple of years ago, plus the original 101 min. Director's cut (in standard def) and an interview with director Stuart Cooper.

There's also 15 minutes from the horrendous U.S. theatrical release which made everything worse, starting with a UNBEARABLY bad Craig Hundley (yes, the blaster beam guy from ST-TMP) re-score that dumps Robert Farnon's restrained classical soundtrack in favor of a wocka-wocka '70s "thriller" outing.

No matter what version you watch, though, this is one item where the biggest disappearance of all is entertainment.

[Paul MacLean]

Unbreakable

I have to confess, I have never seen an M Night Shyamalan movie until now (I only watched this because I've been loaning some of my classic films to a friend, and he wanted to return the favor by loaning me something I'd never seen).

Oh man, this movie sucked. In fairness, it is well-acted, and Bruce Willis and Samuel Jackson give excellent performances. The very fanciful premise of the film -- that Willis is an ordinary guy that discovers he a "superhero" -- could have worked in the right context, but Unbreakable is so devoid of humor, so self-importantly serious, that the whole thing collapses in its own pretentiousness. It actually treats the subject as if it's "socially relevant". And what really pushes it over the edge is that the only reason Jackson realizes Willis has superpowers is because Jackson reads comics.

I actually started laughing in the final scene with its "big twist" and more especially when a title appears to explain what happens to Jackson's character after the story is over -- as if this was a true story or something.

I can't say I'm in a hurry to watch another Shyamalan film.

[AndyDursin]

UNBREAKABLE is a movie that I felt was highly overpraised by its fans -- pretentious, clunky, slow-moving and dreary. It presaged stuff like "Heroes" and "Chronicle" but both of those were a lot more fun by comparison. It's pretty awful and in fact I think it's one of his worst films (though there are those who will tell you it's one of his best!).

Should've watched THE SIXTH SENSE first -- or SIGNS. Even THE VILLAGE was more entertaining (and at least THE HAPPENING was unintentionally uproarious!).

[mkaroly]

You should have watched SIGNS Paul! Seriously, don't let UNBREAKABLE steer you away from SIGNS. If you have a chance to see it, check it out.

[Paul MacLean]

Ok guys, I'll give Signs a chance...as soon as I've recovered from Unbreakable!

[Monterey Jack]

Signs is pretty terrible if you give the plot even the most cursory Logic Police examination. Probably James Newton Howard's best Shyamalan score, though.

[AndyDursin]

I liked SIGNS a lot...even if it's just a 2-hour Twilight Zone episode I enjoyed it. JNH's score is definitely one of his best.

[mkaroly]

As I've said before, I think that SIGNS, despite its faults (and yes, it has faults), is MNS's best movie because it has the most emotional impact of any film he has ever made. Gibson makes the movie worth watching by his performance.

[Monterey Jack]

Kick-Ass 2: 7.5/10

Kind of surprised at the critical drubbing this has received (28% on Rotten Tomatoes )...this is a perfectly fine follow-up to the original, smartly building upon the "real-world" consequences of spandex heroism while allowing Chloe Grace Moretz's Mindy to dip her toe into the high school experience (in several sharply-written satirical barbs right out of Mean Girls) while still pining for her Hit Girl days. Despite his attention-whoring dismissal of the film due to the Sandy Hook shootings (which comes across as more than a little hypocritical, as filming of this sequel commenced months after the Dark Knight Rises massacre), Jim Carrey delivers one of his best performances in a long time as Colonel Stars n' Stripes. Like the original, the film isn't perfect, but it's spry and funny and the action sequences are, if anything, filmed and choreographed a lot smoother than they were in the original. All the film lacks, really, is what most sequels do (particularly to cult favorites)...the shock of seeing something so subversive for the first time.

[TomServo]

Kick-Ass 2: 7.5/10

Kind of surprised at the critical drubbing this has received (28% on Rotten Tomatoes )...this is a perfectly fine follow-up to the original, smartly building upon the "real-world" consequences of spandex heroism while allowing Chloe Grace Moretz's Mindy to dip her toe into the high school experience (in several sharply-written satirical barbs right out of Mean Girls) while still pining for her Hit Girl days. Despite his attention-whoring dismissal of the film due to the Sandy Hook shootings (which comes across as more than a little hypocritical, as filming of this sequel commenced months after the Dark Knight Rises massacre), Jim Carrey delivers one of his best performances in a long time as Colonel Stars n' Stripes. Like the original, the film isn't perfect, but it's spry and funny and the action sequences are, if anything, filmed and choreographed a lot smoother than they were in the original. All the film lacks, really, is what most sequels do (particularly to cult favorites)...the shock of seeing something so subversive for the first time.

All I have read about this is that it contains some of the most vile, awful, mean-spirited violence onscreen and rape scenes that are inexplicably trying to be funny in one sequence and then later recalled as traumatic. Attempted rape presented as comedy is just really thoughtless, inconsiderate, careless and plain wrong in my book.

[Monterey Jack]

All I have read about this is that it contains some of the most vile, awful, mean-spirited violence onscreen and rape scenes that are inexplicably trying to be funny in one sequence and then later recalled as traumatic. Attempted rape presented as comedy is just really thoughtless, inconsiderate, careless and plain wrong in my book.

I could have done without this bit, but supposedly it was a LOT worse in the original comic, so at least the filmmakers were being somewhat conscious of this (as conscious as a film this deliberately juvenile can be).