What is the last movie you saw? and rate it.

Zero Dark Thirty
Score 10/10

It amazed me how capturing Bin Laden hinged on perhaps one person who persisted with the right intuition.


Margaret
Score 9/10

The main character's name is Lisa, but the Margaret refers to Hopkin's poem that starts "Margaret, are you grieving over golden groves unleaving?" I don't think the poem fits the contents of the movie, but the portrayal of the teenager Lisa who carelessly caused a traffic accident resulting in a death, and careless did a lot of other self-destructive things was very good. The self-righteousness way she went about punishing others and the responses of the adults around her may make me want to watch this one again.

Haven't seen the movie, but wondered, does Zero Dark Thirty make reference to torture of prisoners at Guantanamo ... or elswhere?

Directed by Lewis Gilbert, this vehicle for Dirk Bogarde concerns a fortune hunter who marries an older woman and murders her for her money but then discovers that she has left it to her wealthy sister. He gets away with the murder, scouts around for a replacement and lands up with Margaret Leighton's well-off widow of a publican. Leighton's a really common woman who gets very nasty when another elderly woman takes a shine to Dirk, but what neither of them know is that she is really the sister of the murdered wife, suspicious of how her sister died. Needless to say, the villain is uncovered and justice is done when, in attempting to escape, he drives over a cliff in the sister's car in which he has doctored the brakes. Atmospheric lighting and clever camerawork save the film from being tiresome and Margaret Leighton gives a performance of exactly the kind of woman who would embarrass a sailor on shore leave.

Saw Dancer Upstairs last night on Sundance channel. Did not see that it was previously reviewed here. Directed by John Malkovich and starring Javier Bardem. Almost 'nough said. I liked it a lot. 8.5, out of possible 10, for me. The theme song Who Knows Where Time Goes is mesmerizing. A movie about different passions in life, and which, if any, are worthy of forsaking all others. A note, sums it up, written to Bardem from his lover held in prison for treason "I am dead; I live only for the revolution."



http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=hyHE9O60cQE

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Hawg Horse

Haven't seen the movie, but wondered, does Zero Dark Thirty make reference to torture of prisoners at Guantanamo ... or elswhere?

---

They called them "black sites". Maya gained some initial insight about Bin Laden's messenger from them, but it appeared from the movie, the information could have been obtained without such practices. Once the information was obtained, the hard part was making sense out of it. Maya was the only one who was 100% sure Bin Laden was at the location prior to the final operation.

Was dragged by wife to see Les Miserables last night. I absolutely loved it. Didn't know any of the songs, but was totally drawn in. Anne Hathaway was unbelievably good. I had read that Russel Crowe couldn't sing - that turned out to be the usual journalistic bollocks- everyone carried a tune and better. Hugh Jackmann made mrs P cry at the end (in a good way).

A young English woman and her brother visit the Paris exhibition of 1896 and book into separate rooms
at a hotel within sight of the Eiffel tower. The following morning, the hotel staff deny all knowledge of the
brother, and the room that he occupied doesn't exist. Refusing to go back to England, the girl enlists
the help of an English artist who met with her brother immediately before his disappearance, and
between them they discover that the missing room has been concealed behind a false wall, The reason
for this and the strange behaviour of the hotel staff is revealed in an ending that I don't think anyone
could possibly have guessed. Dirk Bogarde and Jean Simmons give charming performances in this Victorian thriller
that captures the Parisian atmosphere as well as the sinister undertones of the mystery.

Pitch Perfect
Score 8/10

Delightfully stupid, but nonetheless stupid. I enjoyed it.

Django Unchained! Loved it. 9/10 if I must rate it.

Nashville (1975; Robert Altman) - 8/10

Often described as Altman's "sprawling masterpiece," Nashville is a rather ingenious mix of political satire and country music with an orgy of characters and plotlines. The film is full of dead-ends and red herrings; every time you think it's finally going to settle down and focus on something, it turns its attention elsewhere, and with Altman's constantly overlapping dialogue, the overall impression is of a never-ending symphony of images and sounds. A fascinating film, undoubtedly, but, for my money, it doesn't better Altman's elegiac McCabe and Mrs. Miller.

Naked (1993; Mike Leigh) - 9/10

Imagine the intellectual, dialogue-driven films of Eric Rohmer combined with noir visuals, a driving cello score, and a cast of hapless, disillusioned, Manchester youths and you may have a rough idea of what this film is like. It's utterly proactive throughout its runtime with its mix of laugh-out-loud humor, intellectual substance, and relentless bleakness (even brutality). Like Rohmer, there's no reason that the film should be as engaging and stimulating as it is, yet even in distended, talky scenes, like Johnny with the security guard that has them discussing everything from Nostradamus to The Book of Revelation, evolution to the apocalypse, it's utterly riveting. It probably helps the cast is pitch-perfect, especially David Thewlis' messianic masochist, Johnny, and Katrin Cartlidge's dynamic Sophie.

The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938; Michael Curtiz) - 8/10

Just as charming as I remember it, and may I say that blu-ray was made for these technicolor films.

Straight Time -- 1978, Dustin Hoffman. Very good.

Charlie Bartlett -- 2007, dunno the kid's name, had Robert Downey Jr. Also good.

Dredd (2012; Pete Travis) - 6/10

Well, it's better than the Stallone film, though that's not saying much since a polished turd would be better than that film. It still misses the humor and satirical edge of the comics, and mostly just turns the character into a violent superhero throughout the length of the film. It's clear the film was shot with 3D in mind, and like most films that have done such, it probably loses something in 2D. The super slow-mo effects were quite striking, though. Shame they have so little do with the character.

Il Bidone (1955; Federico Fellini) - 7.5/10

A really solid, early film of Fellini that's strangely underrated. It certainly lacks his later surrealistic visual imagination, instead trading it for a more traditional, neo-realism story about con men and their growing sense of morality and disillusionment with their profession. Broderick Crawford is wonderful in the lead role, and he really rings some real emotion out of his character, even if Fellini seems straining towards melodrama at certain points. The film is still strangely touching, with some wonderful sequences like the party, with its symphony of sounds, movement, characters, and mini-plotlines. It's strangely reminiscent of the party scene in Renoir's The Rules of the Game, but if it was combined with Fellini's sense of bursting-at-the-seams fun.

Runaway Bride. Roberts and Gere in one of their best.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Emil Miller

A young English woman and her brother visit the Paris exhibition of 1896 and book into separate rooms
at a hotel within sight of the Eiffel tower. The following morning, the hotel staff deny all knowledge of the
brother, and the room that he occupied doesn't exist. Refusing to go back to England, the girl enlists
the help of an English artist who met with her brother immediately before his disappearance, and
between them they discover that the missing room has been concealed behind a false wall, The reason
for this and the strange behaviour of the hotel staff is revealed in an ending that I don't think anyone
could possibly have guessed. Dirk Bogarde and Jean Simmons give charming performances in this Victorian thriller
that captures the Parisian atmosphere as well as the sinister undertones of the mystery.

---

I do love a good mystery. Sounds good, Emil, I'll check it out. Jean Simmons is a pretty good actress, I think, isn't she? I don't really know much about Dirk Bogarde.

"A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III", directed by Roman Coppola, starring Charlie Sheen. This movie is a send-up of Charlie Sheen's life. At least that's what it appears to be. All I can say is that it is delightfully goof;, it revels in it, in fact. I think my favorite scene (after one near the beginning, anyway) is one where Sheen and his best friend, played by Jason Schwartzman, appear to be riding horses. You can just see the horses necks and rumps as it is a close up of the two men; and the necks and rumps of the horses are bobbing up and down, but on second look, the scenery is not moving by. I think this must be a tip of the hat to those old cowboy shows in the 50's and 60' like the lone ranger. At the end I just happened to see a credit for horse puppets. :lol: Let me just say they are not the only puppets in the movie. 7/10

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by qimissung

I do love a good mystery. Sounds good, Emil, I'll check it out. Jean Simmons is a pretty good actress, I think, isn't she? I don't really know much about Dirk Bogarde.

---

Bogarde was one of the most famous British actors, noted for his matinee idol looks, who made a host of films during the 1950's and '60s.
He was born Derek Jules Gaspard Ulric Niven van den Bogaerde, so I imagine he changed his name to Dirk for convenience. Jean Simmons was certainly his female match in the film but, unlike Dirk Bogarde, I never saw her in a bad film and So Long at the Fair is one of her best.
Anyhow, here's the theme music from the film: http://youtu.be/mUEzU8G-FCU


If you do decide to watch it, I would bet that you won't be able to guess the ending without looking it up beforehand.