What did you watch this week soldier? (08/09-14/09)

Hello

My ratings of what you watched:
Three Ninjas -it's been too long, so don't remember it well enough to rate it
Deadpool 5/10
La pazza Gioia -haven't' seen it, but it sounds interesting
The Lobster 2/10
The rocketeer 7/10
Dark City 8/10

My ratings of what I watched:
Falling Inn Love (2019) 7/10
True Stories (1986) 8/10
The Seduction of Mimi (1972) 6/10
To Joy (1950) 7/10
Knife in the Water (1962) 8/10
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986) 7/10
Fear of Fear (1975) 7/10
It Chapter Two (2019) 8/10
The Girl on a Motorcycle (1968) 7/10
Police Story (1985) 7/10
Rendez-vous (1985) 6/10
Leningrad Cowboys Go America (1989) 7/10
The Face of Another (1966) 8/10
The Baby Formula (2008) 8/10
Attenberg (2010) 7/10
Blade: Trinity (2004) 6/10
Road to Zanzibar (1941) 6/10
Nancy (2018) 8/10
Booksmart (2019) 8/10
The Dead Don’t Die (2019) 7/10
Ma (2019) 7/10
Hustlers (2019) 7/10
Tigers Are Not Afraid (2017) 8/10
Personal Velocity (2002) 7/10
Exhibition (2013) 6/10

To recap: I watched films from US, Italy, Sweden, Poland, Germany, France, Hong Kong, Finland, Japan, Canada, Greece, Mexico, and the UK and from the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 2000s, and from this year. At least 9 of the films I watched were directed by women.

Jacknife (1989) - A conflict develops between a troubled Vietnam veteran and the sister, with whom he lives, when she becomes romantically involved with the Army buddy who reminds him of the tragic battle. Had a TV movie feel about it. De Niro in a very subdued role. sort of fizzles out. 6.5/10

Bugsy (1991) - The story of how Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel started Las Vegas. From what I read about Bugsy he was a psychotic. I don't think his essence was captured in this movie. I was never a Beatty fan. Keitel was great as Mickey Cohen.
6/10

Ordinary People (1980) - The accidental death of the older son of an affluent family deeply strains the relationships among the bitter mother, the good-natured father, and the guilt-ridden younger son. First time view for this and it is an acting tour de force by the three main players - MTM, Sutherland and Timothy Hutton. Hutton deserved his Oscar win. 7.5/10

Raging Bull (1980) - The life of boxer , whose violence and temper that led him to the top in the ring destroyed his life outside of it. Always worth the rewatch. This is a masterpiece. I always forget how funny De Niro was as the older washed up La Motta. I will never forget the blood sponge. 9/10

The Vanishing (1988) - Rex and Saskia, a young couple in love, are on vacation. They stop at a busy service station and Saskia is abducted. After three years and no sign of Saskia, Rex begins receiving letters from the abductor. A French-Dutch movie. One of the better abduction movie you will ever see and then there's the ending. 8.5/10

I think I'll enjoy following weekly posts like this. Here's what I watched over the same dates:

Minority Report (2002)
Blast From The Past (1999)
The General (1998)
Blue Steel (1990)
9/11: Inside the Pentagon (2016)
United 93 (2006)
World Trade Center (2006)
Crocodile Dundee 1 and 2 (1986, 1988)
The Verdict (1982)

TV Episodes with my wife:
Murder, She Wrote
Wings
Midsomer Murders
MacGyver

Movies:

-Friday the 13th (1980)
Saw this one in the theater. Of course, it's a bit silly, but still a very effective and entertaining slasher classic.

TV Shows:

-Relic Hunter - marathon

-The Bold and the Beautiful - marathon of very old episodes

-Twilight Zone (1959) - marathon

-BH 90210 - Episode 6
Final episode. I really enjoyed this show and I wouldn't actually mind another season.

Legally Blonde (2001) - I don't know why. Maybe to convince myself it wasn't quite as cliched and vacuous as I remember. It is. Love ya Reese but you were, and are, better than this. 4/10

The Beguiled (2017) - The original Eastwood film is a gritty, nasty little pleasure of mine, so I was skeptical about a remake, especially one starring "The Irish Eyebrows" himself Colin Farrell. Turns out it isn't half bad. A completely different beast to the original and sleepy to the point of comatose at times, but enjoyable if you have the stamina. Kidman and Dunst are stand-outs. 7/10

Aquaman (2018) - 2nd watch for this one. Which isn't to say I was awestruck the first time, it was an in-flight movie on my way to Bali, so I thought I'd give it the widescreen viewing these types of cinematic behemoth's call for. I think this was more than a little overrated. Momoa was well cast and engaging, but everyone else seemed at least a little out of place in their roles and the Bro Vs Bro storyline felt way too familiar and Thor-ish. Competent but not good enough to cure me from superhero-film fatigue. 6/10

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1966) - because it's been a few years. Perfect. In every way. 10/10

dark city is one of my favourite sci-fi films. i really like the lobster as well, though not as much as killing of a sacred deer, the favourite, or dogtooth, which is one of my favourite alltime films.

my week:
burden of dreams (1982) 4.5 a perfeoct companion to fitzcaraldo, and like that film it's a loving tribute to ambition, however misguided it might seem at times.

the last 15 minutes also features herzog at his most quotable.

the 39 steps (1935) 3.5 there's a lot of plot and twists and turns here, certainly a lot for a 90 minute film.

maybe i'm too old & tired to follow along properly, but i did get a bit lost here & there, & found myself going to wikipedia to get caught up on the plot.

but it's fun & pacey & chock full of charm. very much worth a watch.

death wish 3 (1985) 3.5 they just don't make them like this anymore.

scarlet diva (2000) 3.5 asia argento's semi-autobiographical film. the 'joe coleman' who plays the sleazy producer here is THE joe coleman, the maniac performance artist that bit the heads off of mice in mondo new york. memories...

i kinda loved this, truth be told. it is incoherent & i really had no idea how asia got where she was at any given moment, but it has the tone of a trashier cassavetes film, & it also has a ring of authenticity, the feel of someone telling stories out of her journal. i don't know if argento has directed more films (there's clearly no possible way for me to find out), but if she has i'd definitely be interested in seeing them.

drive-in massacre (1976) 2 absolutely lifeless slasher.
some of the gore shots were pretty well done, though.

stalag 17 (1953) 3.5 part comedy, & it didn't make me laugh, so by that measure, for myself it's a bit of a failure.

but it's perfectly watchable if a bit long for my tastes.

cut throat (2002) 0.5 boring horror with annoying characters.

arrival (2016) 4 prompted to give this a re-watch after reading ted chiang's (brilliant, i'd say) short story.
i wish they'd followed through on chiang's deterministic theme.
& there are things in this movie that still bother me. it moves just a bit too slowly at times, it hand-waves over some of the language stuff, and there are some plot points at the end that i think make no sense.

but i still think it's a hell of a movie.

apocalypse now (1979) 4.5 the second all time classic film i've watched for the first time in the past few days that i didn't expect to like. unlike goodfellas, which bored me as much as i expected it to, i thought this was terrific. weird & hypnotic & appropriately brutal at times. would be a perfect film to me if it wasn't so drawn out at the end.

yella (2007) 3.5 highly odd german thing (wiki calls it 'psychological horror') that confused me mightily at times but kept me interested all the way through with its spare, dry tone. it feels like it adds up to less than the sum of the parts immediately after watching it, & i'm glad it's not one minute longer than its 90m running time, but it's weird enough to make me glad i watched it.

paris, texas (1983) 4.5 harry dean stanton & dead stockwell & wim wenders & sam sheppard & ry cooder adds up to some kind of movie magic, & this would absolutely be one of my favourite movies of all time if it was just a bit shorter.

reel nightmare (2017) not worth the effort of trying to explain how terrible this is.

attractive actresses. nothing else.

tigers are not afraid (2019) 4.5 i absolutely loved this.
the only reason this is not a 5 is because there were a few parts that i felt ought to have been really emotional that didn't quite land.

but this is really a fantastic film, truly great. will probably remind you of del toro at times, but is also its own unique, very powerful creation. my favourite film released this year so far.

the purge: anarchy (2014) 3 frank grillo makes everything he's in about 19% more enjoyable.
plays it a bit too straight for my tastes. would have like a bit more satire & comedy.
but it moves along nicely, has some fun action, and is not 8 hours long. it's fine.

american commune (2013) 3.5 doc on a (suprise) failed commune. i'm very much of a split mind on this, though it's not a 50/50 split. it's more like i 90% think these people were idealistic fools doomed to failure, with 10% of my mind given to a bit of admiration for their devotion & spirit & determination to follow their own path.

finale (2009) 2 this is not a film without redemption. it's got some good characterization of mental instability, & some weird, nightmarish imagery. & at times a pretty effective score, as well.
but jeez it drove me nuts with the constant quick cuts & choppy editing. it really was too much for me to take at times.

i'd certainly be willing to give this director another try, as i think there are things to enjoy here. but i really hope he cools it down a little in the future.

I'm sure this is blasphemy(I can't believe I spelled that right on the first try, what a weird word), but I haven't watched any good movies in a long time.

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