Last (x) movies you saw (II)

One Fine Morning (2022) 4/5
Jane B. par Agnes V. (1988) 4/5
Oppenheimer 4.5/5
Masked and Anonymous (2003) 3/5
Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (2023) 4/5. Typing this out made me realize how laboriously they had to avoid using a second colon.
Mission: Impossible (1996) 4/5

Odd Man Out (Reed, 1947) 6/10
*Three Cases of Murder (1955) 8/10 only let down by the forgettable second case
Les demoiselles de Rochefort (Demy, 1967) 9/10 S&S#185
Black Sunday (Frankenheimer, 1977) 4/10
The Piano (Campion, 1993) 8/10 S&S#50
Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One (McQuarrie, 2023) 8/10 despite the plot being about AI and crypto

The Channel (William Kaufman, 2023): violent action trash about two ex-Marines turned bank robbers, one reluctant and the other psychotic. Really good action sequences, serviceable plot and characterization. The main FBI agent chasing them was clearly cast because Chadwick Boseman was a) dead and b) would have been out of their price range anyway. Rented it on Prime. Might see what else Kaufman's directed.

Mission: Impossible (DePalma, 1996)
Interstellar (Nolan, 2014)
Dune (Lynch, 1984)
Asteroid City (Anderson, 2023)
Logan Lucky (Soderbergh, 2017)
Deep Cover (Duke, 1992)
High and Low (Kurosawa, 1963)
Gone Girl (Fincher, 2014)
Reds (Beatty, 1981)
Girls Just Want to Have Fun (Metter, 1985)

Step by Step (Phil Rosen, 1946)
The Gong Show Movie (Chuck Barris, 1980)
The Face Behind the Mask (Robert Florey, 1941)
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (James Mangold, 2023)
A Small Town in Texas (Jack Starrett, 1976)
Black Crab (Adam Berg, 2022)
The Great Texas Dynamite Chase (Michael Pressman, 1976)
Slash/Back (Nyla Innuksuk, 2022)
Crimes of the Future (David Cronenberg, 2022)
China Gate (Samuel Fuller, 1957)
Z.P.G. (Michael Campus, 1972)
Maps to the Stars (David Cronenberg, 2014)
The Rebel (Charlie Nguyen, 2007)
My Night at Maud's (Éric Rohmer, 1969)
It's Quieter in the Twilight (Billy Miossi, 2022)
I Walk Alone (Byron Haskin, 1947)
Kicking and Screaming (Noah Baumbach, 1995)
In the Soup (Alexandre Rockwell, 1992)
Lifeline: Clyfford Still (Dennis Scholl, 2019)
Flickering Ghosts of Loves Gone By (André Bonzel, 2021)
The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (Curtis Hanson, 1992)
Crossroads (Bruce Conner, 1976)
The Covenant (Guy Ritchie, 2023)
The Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion (Luciano Ercoli, 1970)

Asteroid City (Anderson, 2023) Cineworld 5/10
The Monolith Monsters (Sherwood, 1957) Blu-Ray 6/10
When Worlds Collide (Maté, 1951) DVD 8/10
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Fleischer, 1954) YouTube 7/10
Pacification (Serra, 2022) 9/10 MUBI
The Blancheville Monster (De Martino, 1963) Blu-Ray 7/10
Ebirah, Horror of the Deep (Fukuda, 166) DVD 7/10
Ascenseur Pour L'échafaud (Malle, 1958) MUBI 7/10
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (Mangold, 2023) Cineworld 4/10

The Monolith Monsters is irrationally one of my favorite movies of all time ever since imprinting on it via late-night TV when I was a kid. It was my AIM name for years.

It's a very likeable film - the main flaw perhaps being that slowly advancing rock formations are not the most terrifying of monsters. I really like the desolate desert vibe of lots of 50s American SF/Horror - something that Tremors picks up on and runs with, also.

Ron Carter: Finding the Right Notes 2022 Peter Schnall
biographical documentary of most widely recorded jazz bassist.

Meet Me in the Bathroom 2022 Directors Will Lovelace Dylan Southern Andrew Cross
documentary based on Lizzy Goodman's book on the Brooklyn music scene from the turn of the millennium that came out a few years ago. Mainly cobbled together from footage from the time.
I think I only partly read the book cos it disappeared into a pile. May rectify that at some point.

Barbie (Gerwig, 2023)
Past Lives (Song, 2023)
The Peacock Fan (Rosen, 1929)
Million Dollar Ransom (Roth, 1934)
Quick Millions (Brown, 1931)
Wild Elephinks (Fleischer, 1933)
Street of Chance (Cromwell, 1930)
The Winning Ticket (Reisner, 1935)
Clinching a Sale (Cozine, 1930)
Oh! Oh! Cleopatra (Santley, 1931)
High Voltage (Higgin, 1929)
*The Shadow of the Cat (Gilling, 1961)
Miss Bluebeard (Tuttle, 1925)

Basic Instinct (4.0)
Blue Jean (7.0)
A League of Their Own (5.5)
Asteroid City (4.0)
The Wicker Man (7.5)
Bingo Long (6.5)
Field of Dreams (6.0)
The Bad News Bears (7.5)
Blow Out (9.0)
Oppenheimer (7.0)

The originals, obviously, with a coupe of those...I've been watching and re-watching various baseball films for an upcoming Zoomcast. Much to my surprise, I did not totally despise Field of Dreams.

Salvation Hunters (von Sternberg, 1925)
The Heart of Wetona (Franklin, 1919)
The Shock Punch (Sloane, 1925)
*The Maltese Falcon (Huston, 1941)

Capitolfest 20
Featured Star: Mary Astor

The Beggar Maid (Blache, 1921)
The Fighting American (Forman, 1924)
Ladies Must Love (Dupont, 1933)
Caviar (Moser, 1930)
Follow Thru (Corrigan & Schwab, 1930)
*Alibi Bye Bye (Holmes, 1935)
Jennie Gerhardt (Gering, 1933)
*Long Pants (Guiol, 1926)
The Golden Bed (DeMille, 1925)
The Palm Beach Story (Sturges, 1942)
Fashions in Love (Schertzinger, 1929)
The Boy Friend (Roach, 1928)
*The Unknown (the 2022 restoration, incorp'ing addl. footage) (Browning, 1927)
Supper at Six (Shores, 1932)
Almost Married (Menzies, 1932)
Private Jones (Mack, 1932)
Brother of the Bear (Carle, 1924)
Blonde or Brunette (Rosson, 1927)
*Wake Up and Dream (Newmann, 1934)
My Lady o' the Pines (Gordon, 1921)
Second Fiddle (Tuttle, 1923)
Reckless Living (Gardner, 1931)
No Time to Marry (Lachman, 1938)
*Oh, Doctor! (Pollard, 1925)

Twisted Rails (Herman, 1934)
Autumn Crocus (Dean, 1934)
Bella Donna (Milton, 1934)
Swing High (Santley, 1930)
*Konga (Lemont, 1961)

The Goat (Keaton and St. Clair, 1921) short; very monkey island
A Matter of Life and Death (The Archers, 1946) 9/10 best opening scene ever? can't give it a 10 because it insults rock music
Johnny Guitar (Ray, 1954) 8/10 wow. weird mix of joan crawford ego project and action melodrama. still not sure what to make of it.
House of Usher (Corman 1960) 7/10
The Raven (Corman, 1963) 7/10 i wish there were more light horror comedies like this
The Masque of the Red Death (Corman, 1964) 7/10 the "satanism" and the misused wide-angles bring it down at least a point
The Girl Chewing Gum (John Smith, 1976) short
Paddington (King, 2014) 6/10
Mosaic (Soderbergh, 2018) miniseries version 7/10
Full Circle (Soderbergh, 2023) 8/10

Finally watched Tár last night. Enjoyed it. Didn't get the "from this point on it's all a nightmare" feeling at all.

Airport (George Seaton, 1970)
Of Unknown Origin (George P Cosmatos, 1983)
Abby (William Girdler, 1974)
Airport 1975 (Jack Smight, 1974)
Death Line ( Gary Sherman, 1972)
The Liberation of L.B. Jones (William Wyler, 1970)
The Trip to Greece (Michael Winterbottom, 2020)
The Shout (Jerzy Skolimowski, 1978)
Silent Scream (Denny Harris, 1979)
Whip It (Drew Barrymore, 2009)
Airport '77 (Jerry Jameson, 1977)

How do you rate those three Airports?

I liked them all to some, pretty similar, degree.
'77 felt a bit more slow, dull, and humorless than the others despite the larger portion of the running time devoted to the disaster, increased passenger death/injury and more screaming and being thrown around which was good. It also had the least George Kennedy and in general underused the cast imo, apart from maybe Lee Grant.
The second one was a little better at being silly and trashy. It was hardest to watch fresh as it's the one with a nun singing to a sick child and the plane being flown by Karen Black (who was great and a standout across all the movies)
The first one felt the most "serious" with the most non-aviation disaster elements like character development and soap opera type relationship issues.
Unfortunately the 4th movie The Concorde...Airport '79 is not on netflix with the others.
These were all kind of mid-tier for me but I would keep watching if there has been more. The disasters seem to keep getting more outlandish. Some of the members of the large all-star casts do almost nothing, but oh well.

The Concorde… Airport ‘79 is the epitome of an all-star cast doing nothing. Don’t get your hopes up for that one.

I'm just hoping George Kennedy will have a bigger role this time.

I left Sun Valley Serenade (H. Bruce Humberstone, 1941), which I watched in between Silent Scream and Whip It, off my last list. The Nicholas brothers, Dorothy Dandridge, and the Glenn Miller orchestra were all great. The main plot and characters were horrific, especially Sonja Henie's character and performance-really creepy!

I remember '79 being the worst and therefore the most interesting one.

Believe me, Alain Delon, Sylvia Kristel, Charo, Andrea Marcovicci - these are some of my favorite stars but the film is a big POS

Devil's Island (O'Connor, 1926)
Gallant Lady (La Cava, 1933)
Carolina (King, 1934)
Officer Thirteen (Melford, 1932)
The Boys Think They Have One on Foxy Grandpa, But He Fools Them (1902)
War of the Colossal Beast (Gordon, 1958)
The Last Voyage of the Demeter (Øvredal, 2023)

Howl's Moving Castle 2004 Hayao Miyazaki Studio Ghibli
animation based on Diana Wynne Jones' novel which I had finished earlier yesterday. So can see what has changed and there is a lot different. Not sure where the new elements came from but I do think there probably needed to be some change for the different mediujm.
Do think I am beginning to love Wynne Jones' work as well as that of this studio, though they're a bit different.

The Flirty Sleepwalker (Lord, 1932)
I Lived With You (Elvey, 1933)
She Learned About Sailors (Marshall, 1934)
The Nervous Wreck (Sidney, 1926)
*Frankenstein (Whale, 1931)
Father Brown, Detective (Sedgwick, 1934)

The Day Of The Locust 1974 John Schlesinger
Finally got around to watching this after grabbing it a few months ago. Pretty slow but intense look at Holywood would bes at the turn Of the 40s.
I was trying to thinking I had the book somewhere. I do know I have City of Nets which is a non fiction book on Holywood around this time that I still need to read.

Blue Collar (Schrader, 1978)
Barbie (Gerwig, 2023)
Red Eye (Craven, 2005)
A Perfect Murder (Davis, 1998)
Wanda (Loden, 1970)
Oppenheimer (Nolan, 2023)
Rounders (Dahl, 1998)
Weekend (Haigh, 2011)
Mystic Pizza (Petrie, 1988)
Oldboy (Park, 2003)
My Best Friend's Wedding (Hogan, 1997)
12 Angry Men (Lumet, 1957)
Predestination (Spierig, 2014)
How to Blow Up a Pipeline (Goldhaber, 2022)
Six Degrees of Separation (Schepisi, 1993)
Shiva Baby (Seligman, 2020)
Serpico (Lumet, 1973)

Don't splash the pot.

*twists Oreo apart*

The Swimmer (Perry, 1968)
Speed (de Bont, 1994)
The Ladies Man (Lewis, 1961)
Broadcast News (Brooks, 1987)
Signs (Shyamalan, 2002)
Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (Tashlin, 1957)
A.I. Artificial Intelligence (Spielberg, 2001)
RoboCop (Verhoeven, 1987)
Eraserhead (Lynch, 1977)
Bad Day at Black Rock (Sturges, 1955)

*Carnival of Souls (Herk Harvey, 1962) 8/10
Tales of Terror (Corman, 1962) by tale: 4/10, 8/10, 6/10
The Premature Burial (Corman, 1962) 4/10
The Haunted Palace (Corman, 1963) 5/10 dinged it for the coded racism, then read the original story and uh no coding there
Boggy Creek II: And the Legend Continues (Charles B. Pierce, 1984) 2/10 mst3k version
Tanny and the Teenage T-Rex (Stewart Raffill, 1994) uncensored version; no rating but i enjoyed it. both intentionally good and unintentionally good-bad.
Mad God (Tippett, 2021) 9/10
In Search of Darkness III (2022) 5/10
Barbie (Gerwig, 2023) 7/10

no idea why i felt like watching horror movies this week

having seen all of them, i'd rank the corman-matheson-poe movies like this:
1. masque of the red death
2. house of usher
3. the raven
4. tales of terror
5. pit and the pendulum
6. premature burial
7. tomb of ligeia

i might rewatch tomb of ligeia to see if it's as bad as i remember.

4.5 haunted palace

* The Driller Killer (1979) 4/5
Ears, Eyes and Throats: Restored Classic and Lost Punk Films 1976-1981 3.5/5
Demonlover (2002) 3.5/5
Flirt (1995) 3/5
* World on a Wire (1973) 4/5
* Wild Zero (1999) 3/5
Pacifiction (2022) 4/5
Empire of Passion (1978) 3/5
Showing Up (2022) 3.5/5
Sorcerer (1977) 4.5/5
* Pee-Wee's Big Adventure 5/5

Shorts:
Theory of Achievement (1991) 3/5
Opera no. 1 (1994) 3/5
Family Nightmare (2011) 4/5

Bottoms (Seligman, 2023)
Her Bodyguard (Beaudine, 1933)
One Run Elmer (Lamont, 1935)
The Maelstrom of Paris (Duvivier, 1928)
Wild Gold (Marshall, 1934)
Bobby's Day Out(?) (1926?)
Love and Rubbish (Lehrman, 1913)
*Do Detectives Think? (Guiol, 1927)

ugh i love Carnival of Souls so much, one of my favorite films

I love Wild Zero

Okay, America! (Garnett, 1932)
The Madonna of the Sleeping Cars (Gleize, 1928)
Down on the Farm (Kenton & Jones, 1920)
Mr. Sardonicus (Castle, 1961)
I Cover the Waterfront (Cruze, 1933)

To Live and Die in LA (Friedkin, 1985)
Sherlock Jr. (Keaton, 1924)
Stagecoach (Ford, 1939)
Psycho (Hitchcock, 1960)
A Canterbury Tale (Powell & Pressburger, 1944)
Getting Any? (Kitano, 1994)
Miracle Mile (De Jarnatt, 1988)
The Fog (Carpenter, 1980)
Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (Schrader, 1985)
Demolition Man (Brambilla, 1993)

I, Confess (Hitchcock, 1953)
*Punchline (Seltzer, 1988)
Distant Voices, Still Lives (Davies, 1988)
The House of Mirth (Davies, 2000)
The Devil, Probably (Bresson, 1977)
Rotting in the Sun (Silva, 2023)
Crystal Fairy & the Magical Cactus (Silva, 2013)

Experiment Perilous (Jacques Tourneur, 1944) 4/10
Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp (Tim Burton, 1986) tv movie with james earl jones as the genie

early hooptober:
Dario Argento's Dracula (2012) 2/10
Swamp Thing (Wes Craven, 1982) 4/10
Son of Dracula (Robert Siodmak, 1943) 3/10

a bunch of stinkers from good directors

Watched The Equalizer (Prime rental) last night because the third one has people raving about the first two. It was pretty good but not world-changing. The big innovation is how Denzel will set someone up to die, and then stand there and watch them die. Not typical action hero stuff in that regard. Don't know if I'll watch the other two.

Bull Durham (7.0)
Mare of Easttown (6.5)
Have You Got It Yet? The Story of Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd (6.0)
Fatal Attraction (5.0)
Turn Every Page: The Adventures of Robert Caro and Robert Gottlieb (8.0)
Contempt (7.0)
Still of the Night (5.0)
Dreamin' Wild (6.0)
Night Falls on Manhattan (5.0)
The Shock of the Future (6.5)

Alimony Madness (Eason, 1933)
Hello, Sister! (Walsh and/or Von Stroheim, 1933)
Get Along Little Hubby (McCarey, 1934)
The Fuller Gush Man (Boasberg, 1934)
Clancy in Wall Street (Wilde, 1930)
Pollyanna (Powell, 1920)
*The Return of the Vampire (Landers, 1943)
The Heart Punch (Eason, 1932)

Cutter's Way (1981) 3/5. John Heard in this movie: the real model for Heath Ledger's Joker performance?
Empire of the Sun (1987) 3.5/5
* A Summer's Tale (1996) 4.5/5
Benediction (2021) 4.5/5
* Boogie Nights 4/5. 70mm screening
Rumble Fish (1983) 4/5
Jewel Robbery (1932) 3.5/5
Toute une nuit (1983) 4.5/5

also, i believe, the inspiration for that one-armed vet on the early seasons of the simpsons

Talk to Me (RackaRacka, 2022) 8/10
Renfield (Chris McKay, 2023) 7/10 you can tell they tried to improve it in post with the narration and ADRed jokes, neither of which are beneficial.
Virus (Kinji Fukasaku, 1980) 5/10 fewer survivors than either The Stand or Seveneves -- impressive. I watched it for both Hooptober and my continuing investigation into 70s disaster movies.
Well Wishes My Love, Your Love (Gabriel Gabriel Garble, 2022) short; good
Global Pursuit (one of Kai Cenat's friends, 2023) short; very bad

It's the Cats (Ray, 1934)
Perfectly Mismated (Horne, 1934)
*Hasty Marriage (Pratt, 1931)
In the Dog House (Ripley, 1934)
Deliverance (Platt, 1919)
Hold Your Temper (White, 1933)
One Too Many (McGowan, 1934)
Stop Making Sense (Demme, 1984)
Vengeance (Mayo, 1930)
Madame Butterfly (Gering, 1932)

Elemental (Pixar, 2023) 4/10
I feel like I shouldn't be getting a headache while watching a children's movie.

Mad Love (Karl Freund, 1935) 8/10
Freund directed 9 movies, but this and The Mummy are the only ones he's known for -- his next most popular movie on letterboxd has only 69 views counted. Possibly better known as the guy who invented the three-camera, flat lighting, live audience sitcom formula.

Dracula's Daughter (Universal, Lambert Hillyer, 1936) 6/10
Watch the scenes with the title character and skip everything else. a great performance in an otherwise bland movie.

The Deadly Bees (Amicus, Freddie Francis, 1966) 5/10
The Birds knockoff only notable for its unconvincing bee swarm effects. Has an MST3K version that I haven't watched.

Elvira's Haunted Hills (2001) 5/10
The Hole in the Ground (Lee Cronin, 2019) 5/10
My Best Friend's Exorcism (Amazon, Damon Thomas, 2022) 4/10
Jennifer's Body with 80s references instead of humor

The Deadly Bees notable for the appearance of the UK group The Birds - featuring a very young Ronnie Wood.

The Shout (Skolimowski, 1978)
Young America (Borzage, 1932)
The Miracle Man (McLeod, 1932)
Drums o' Voodoo (Hoerl, 1934)
Things Are Looking Up (de Courville, 1935)
Jean Eustache’s Wasted Breath (Díez, 1997)
Hieronymous Bosch’s Garden of Delights (Eustache, 1981)
Alix's Pictures (Eustache, 1980)
Offre d'Emploi (Eustache, 1982)

The Appointment (1981) 4/5. Seems like everyone who has seen this points out it has an impressive, surreal car crash sequence, and I'm happy to go with the flow.
* Flesh for Frankenstein (1973) 3.5/5
The Fire Within: Requiem for Katia and Maurice Krafft (2022) 3.5/5
Death Becomes Her (1992) 3.5/5
Fire of Love (2022). 3/5 Vastly different, more early 2010s-style twee tone than the Werner Herzog doc on the same couple listed above. The main draw of both films is the stunning volcano footage shot by the couple, which Herzog realizes and fully leans into.
Doctor X (1932) 3/5. See if you can spot the Dr. Octagon sample.
Azor (2021) 4/5
Vanishing Point (1971) 4.5/5. Finally caught up with this one and it exceeded my expectations.
* Dangerous Game (1993) 2.5/5. Really hated this when I saw it years ago. Still think it's one of Abel Ferrara's more tedious exorcisms, and that James Russo is unwatchably loathsome as the film-within-a-film's lead actor. Madonna was better than I remembered; probably the best she ever was.

Shorts and short-ish films:
The Rat Catcher (2023) 3.5/5
The Bones (2021) 3.5/5
You Are Not I (1981) 3.5/5
Surviving Desire (1992) 4/5
The Wonderful Story of Harry Sugar (2023) 3.5/5