rate the last movie you saw

[Monterey Jack]

Carlito's Way, Mission: Impossible and Femme Fatale disagree.

[AndyDursin]

Carlito's Way, Mission: Impossible and Femme Fatale disagree.

I like Carlito's...don't think it's a great movie though. Kind of like a cliched "gangster's greatest hits" album, but nicely shot. The original MI is pretty meh for me. Didn't like Femme Fatale.

Then again I kind of liked MISSION TO MARS though mainly for the score.

[Monterey Jack]

-Prisoners (2013): 10/10

Probably the best film I've seen this year, with a cast full of superb performances. Hard to watch at times, but engrossing and thought-provoking.

-The Cassandra Crossing (1977): 3/10

Lousy disaster flick with a quintisentially 70's cast (including O.J. Simpson, Sophia Loren, Richard Harris and a well-coiffed Martin Sheen) is one of about a hundred bad films elevated by the gifts of Jerry Goldsmith...one pines away for the days when unremarkable B-movie fodder like this got such thrilling music on a consistent basis. The film itself it just sort of tedious, with a climax featuring some laughably bad miniature F/X. Not even really good for laughs, and not helped by the hideous-looking pan & scan DVD that Netflix sent me.

[Paul MacLean]

Lousy disaster flick with a quintisentially 70's cast (including O.J. Simpson, Sophia Loren, Richard Harris and a well-coiffed Martin Sheen) is one of about a hundred bad films elevated by the gifts of Jerry Goldsmith...one pines away for the days when unremarkable B-movie fodder like this got such thrilling music on a consistent basis.

Man, that movie was terrible -- Carlo Ponti's attempt to cash-in on the disaster movie genre. I used to like Goldsmith's score but when I finally saw the film it left such a bad taste in my mouth I could never really enjoy the music again!

[Monterey Jack]

I used to like Goldsmith's score but when I finally saw the film it left such a bad taste in my mouth I could never really enjoy the music again!

If seeing the bad movies they were written for made me not want to listen to the scores again, my Goldsmith collection would probably shrink by at least half.

[jkholm]

-The Cassandra Crossing (1977): 3/10

Lousy disaster flick with a quintisentially 70's cast (including O.J. Simpson, Sophia Loren, Richard Harris and a well-coiffed Martin Sheen) is one of about a hundred bad films elevated by the gifts of Jerry Goldsmith...one pines away for the days when unremarkable B-movie fodder like this got such thrilling music on a consistent basis. The film itself it just sort of tedious, with a climax featuring some laughably bad miniature F/X. Not even really good for laughs, and not helped by the hideous-looking pan & scan DVD that Netflix sent me.

I watched the same pan and scan DVD from Netflix a few months ago. The climactic train crash was terrible, especially since I had just seen Buster Keaton's THE GENERAL in which he crashed a real train off a real bridge.

[AndyDursin]

I used to like Goldsmith's score but when I finally saw the film it left such a bad taste in my mouth I could never really enjoy the music again!

If seeing the bad movies they were written for made me not want to listen to the scores again, my Goldsmith collection would probably shrink by at least half.

I think the only time a movie soured me so much on the music was A.I. After seeing that movie I never listened to the album again and actually got rid of it.

But THE CASSANDRA CROSSING is a pretty awful movie. It's faintly unpleasant, and certainly isn't "fun." Has that odd '70s "European" feel which in this instance isn't a good thing either. Jerry's music didn't engage me much, to be honest...certainly not compared to other scores he was writing at that time.

[Monterey Jack]

But THE CASSANDRA CROSSING is a pretty awful movie. It's faintly unpleasant, and certainly isn't "fun."

The mean-spirited train crash climax is what really sunk the movie for me...yeah, 70's disaster movies kind of have to kill off a certain number of people (that's what you paid to see, right?), but seeing the "heroes" basically disconnecting their train cars from the rest so they can save themselves while the rest of the train goes flying off the bridge (with shockingly graphic footage of the doomed passengers getting crushed, impaled, burned and drowned) left a bad taste in my mouth. This isn't The Poseidon Adventure or The Towering Inferno, where the lead characters try to save as many people as they can. The kind of needlessly "downer" ending that was all the rage in the 70's (with Goldsmith's morose music keening over it all). Even a movie as bad as The Swarm had enough unintentional yuks to keep the proceedings lively.

[Paul MacLean]

I am a bigger fan of Goldsmith's music for Ransom (another 70s European film) which has some stylistic similarities to Cassandra Crossing, but to my mind is a much better score -- and has that gorgeous "Sky Chaser" cue...



Some trivia about Goldsmith's Cassandra Crossing score -- this is one of the few he actually orchestrated himself. I'm guessing he had more time than usual. Not one of his best scores, but as well-orchestrated (and in the same style) as anything Arthur Morton worked on (and proof Goldsmith didn't need Morton to write for orchestra).

[John Johnson]

I remember having the Italian CD of The Cassandra Crossing. All I can remember is how bad the sound quality was, although I could be wrong. I never seemed to play it that much and ended up selling mine.

[Eric Paddon]

I know I've actually got a widescreen TCM recording of "Cassandra Crossing" somewhere. Only saw it once so my memory's vague on much of it, but the way it fits into that whole 70s mentality of showing the good guys as the real bad guys ultimately is annoying to say the least (and Lancaster of course would one-up this even more in the despicable "Twilights Last Gleaming"). Still, I think I'll give it one more revisit just for the heck of it at some point.

Meantime.....

Seven Faces Of Dr. Lao (1964) 6.5 of 10
-Interesting George Pal fluff that I'd never seen before. I will say that for someone like me who has always found it impossible to disconnect Tony Randall from Felix Unger in ANYTHING else I've ever seen him in, this was the perfect vehicle to show that he did have an acting career before that part and he does make all of the characters he plays distinctive which sells the whole fantasy of the piece (even if his faux Chinese accent would never pass muster with today's overly PC audiences). Consulting the FSM CD notes, I saw how Barbara Rush had been originally planned for the role that Barbara Eden did and knowing that I have to say that she would have been much better in the part of the repressed librarian who learns to loosen up. The makeup Oscar was well-deserved.

[AndyDursin]

CURSE OF CHUCKY
3/10

Feeble, cheapjack attempt at carrying on the Child's Play series from the original writer, Don Mancini, who ought to be handing the reigns to someone else at this point. Playing down the humor of the series' better entries and minus any of the visceral energy Ronny Yu brought to "Bride of Chucky" (by far this series' most satisfying entry), "Curse" plays like the by-the-numbers, low-budget, direct-to-video entry you'd anticipate, with a group of wholly unappealing characters getting knocked off by Chucky before the "big reveal" flashback tells us what the point of the story is. Mancini's attempts at playing this straight and giving fan-service cameos to Brad Dourif and others is, I guess, the only way he could've gone after the godawful "Seed of Chucky," but why Universal keeps giving Mancini chances to rectify his own glaring issues as a writer/director is baffling. The movie's not fun -- it's lethargic and lifeless.

If you DO watch the movie, only the Unrated version has a post-credits tag that's at least faintly amusing, and would've made for a more satisfying story that the one Mancini concocted.

[Paul MacLean]

Shane

I'm aware of this film's "classic" and influential status, but I didn't really care for it. The essential idea idea is terrific -- a benevolent stranger with a violent past is drawn into violence once again to protect those who can't protect themselves. But this premise was-better executed in other films (Seven Samurai, Pale Rider to name just two). Shane also goes overboard with all the "he man" fist fights, and the young actor playing the kid who idolizes Shane (a important role in the film) is not a very good actor. I also just found the whole thing rather boring. It is slow-moving and it is clear early on how things are going to unfold (which makes the slow story progression even more tedious). Not a bad film, but a clunky and dated one.


A Walk In the Clouds

I saw this film back in the 90s and liked it well enough. Seeing it again, I find it has aged extremely well, and I'd honestly have to place it in my top-fifteen favorite films of all time. Keannu Reeves has been criticized for his "awkward" performance, but the character himself is written as a somewhat awkward person (who is placed in a very awkward position).

Alfonso Arau tells the story with wonderful passion and visual poetry, depicting Napa as a kind of heavenly dream-world, aided in no small measure by Emmanuel Lubezki's luscious photography. The film abounds with beautiful, indelible images, like the "butterfly" scene, and the grape crushing dance (which manages the elusive feat of being at once sensual and wholesome). The film even has Anthony Quinn as a kindly, eccentric grandfather. What's not to love?

On top of that, Maurice Jarre's score is one of his best, drenched in beautiful melodies and alluring Latin flavorings (his music for the harvest scene in particular is one of the best cues he ever wrote). This is one those rare movies that left me on a real high after it was over, which continued into the next day. It is touching, bittersweet and infectiously romantic. The Blu-ray transfer is also superb, and brings-out the gorgeous imagery which bursts from every frame.

[Paul MacLean]

We Were Soldiers

Gosh, I don't know where to begin...except to say this is one of the most profoundly affecting, gut-wrenching, terrifying, emotionally-pummeling films I've ever seen, and certainly one of the best war films ever made. I was also impressed that it succeeded in being an anti-war film without depicting the US military as monsters (which is probably the reason it didn't get more recognition from critics or Oscar voters).

Performances are phenomenal, Mel Gibson delivering some of his best work (which is saying a lot), while Sam Elliot is equally memorable as the calloused Sergeant-Major. My only casting misgiving is Madeleine Stowe, who does a fine job of acting, but who obviously had work done to her lips (which don't look very natural).

This film possesses a true greatness -- a greatness missing from better-recognized (but frankly inferior) movies like Platoon and Saving Private Ryan. Moreover, We Were Soldiers is a true story (whereas Spielberg's film was not, nor Stone's film, and despite Stone's experience as a soldier, Platoon mostly fell back on recycled Samuel Fuller cliches). This film also impressed me for being sympathetic to both the US and North Vietnamese forces (again, something Platoon failed to do).

An extraordinary film, which deserves greater recognition.

[mkaroly]

Manhattan Murder Mystery - Still love this film. There is a free-spiritedness about the movie and a joviality that I thoroughly enjoy. I have seen this film over 20 times and I never tire of watching the performances. It does have a couple of hiccups - I am not a big fan of some of the moments between Carol and Ted (Keaton and Alda); they seem a bit underdeveloped and awkward (but maybe that was the point). Anjelica Houston is so charismatic and steals the movie in her supporting role in the scenes she is in. Otherwise, Allen and Keaton's chemistry is fantastic and this is Woody Allen's last great movie to me (though I have yet to see Blue Jasmine). It still makes me laugh (the tape recorder scene is brilliant).