Last (x) movies you saw

Kind of, see it as a continuation-furthering of a style that began in parts of SE Asia in the 80s.

Haven't seen his new one..

The Divide (2011)-yuk!
Our Idiot Brother (2011)

Times Square and Eating Raoul were two films I watched pretty close together when I was in this 80's film phase for a month. Foxes(1980) was what I watched right after Times Square as a double feature.

requiem for a vampire (rollin '71)
late marriage (kosashvili '01)
30 minutes or less (fleischer '11)
same time, next year (mulligan '78)
friends with benefits (gluck '11)
the crazy family (ishii '84)
nights of cabiria (fellini '57)
la ronde (ophuls '50)

<3 la ronde

Old School (Todd Philips, 2002) 2/5
The Shootist (Monte Hellman, 1966) 3/5
The Awakening (Nick Murphy, 2011) 3.5/5
Wuthering Heights (Andrea Arnold, 2011) 3.5/5
Best Laid Plans (David Blair, 2012) 4/5
Repulsion (Roman Polanski, 1965) 4.5/5
The Artist (Michel Hazanavicius, 2011) 3.5/5
Naked (Mike Leigh, 1993) 4.5/5
Chop Shop (Ramin Bahrani, 2007) 3.5/5
They Might Be Giants (Anthony Harvey, 1971) 4/5

Not Reconciled (Straub-Huillet, 1965) - hilariously imcomprehensible.
Offside (Jafar Panahi, 2006) - best film about football - hardly much competition on that front tho'.
This is not a Film (Jafar Panahi, 2011) - much funnier than I thought it was going to be. And goes w/out saying, its a superlative film.
Fire in Babylon (Stevan Riley, 2010) - doc about the 15 year period of West Indian dominance. Not sure about some of the claims of the team's significance outside the cricket - wanted more on that, and maybe a chunk of an update post-dominance too and for the claims to be examined in relation to that.

As a Windies fan, i enjoyed Fire In Babylon but it didn't really do enough to convey their sporting brilliance or provide much meat on the broader political significance.

Rather glad they didn't provide a post-dominance update though :(

Bored at home with the kids this week and we have watched

Matilda (1996) - funny & cute & weird Dahl adaptation with a truly unnerving scary woman.
Catwoman (2004) - I think we're the only people in the world who quite liked this.
The Dark Knight (2008) - Awesome fun but over-long imo.
Stuart Little 2 (2002) - meh, but my daughter liked it.
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant (2009) - entertaining and quirky Vampire/freak thing based on books my son loved.

then 'Enter The Dragon' tonight <3

john carter 1/5
beyond atlantis 2/5
the kid with a bike 4/5
four flies on grey velvet 4/5 (lovely new blu-ray, watched on a massive screen mmm)
the house of laughing windows 3/5
scream 4 3/5
cold prey 2: resurrection 3/5

Dracula - Prince of Darkness (Terence Fisher, 1966. Blu-ray) 4/5
Lolita (Stanley Kubrick, 1962. Blu-ray) 4/5
Wrath of the Titans (Jonathan Liebsman, 2012. Cinema) 2/5
Clash of the Titans (Desmond Davis, 1981. TV) 3.5/5
In Time (Andrew Nicol, 2011. DVD) 2/5
Real Steel (Shawn Levy, 2011. Blu-ray) 3/5
Sid & Nancy (Alex Cox, 1986. TV) 2.5/5
Repo Man (Alex Cox, 1984. Blu-ray) 4.5/5
The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! (Peter Lord, 2012. Cinema) 4/5

Love Repo Man. How is the blu compared to dvd, if you're able to say? Am tempted to double-dip (again).

I did watch the DVD a couple of years ago and had no problems with how it looked, but the Blu-ray upgrade is impressive. It's gorgeous, it really is; the colours pop but it hasn't been over sharpened. It's a great looking film though - surprising for the type of film it is.
Good extras on the Masters of Cinema Blu-ray too - it even includes Alex Cox's TV cut, with its "melonfarmer" dialogue replacement, which is good for a laugh. And the interview with Harry Dean Stanton is, er, interesting.

Cheers - it's now on the wishlist!

MGM: When The Lion Roars (Martin, 1992) 3/4
War Horse (Spielberg, 2011) 2.5/4
The Producers (Brooks, 1968) 3/4
The Tree of Life (Malick, 2011) 3/4
The Big One (Moore, 1997) 2.5/4
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (Alfredson, 2011) 2/4
Drive (Refn, 2011) 4/4
Top Secret! (Zucker, Abrahams, Zucker, 1984) 3/4
Spellbound (Hitchcock, 1945) 2/4
Kind Hearts and Coronets (Hamer, 1949) 4/4

a pure formality (tornatore '94)
the elementary particles (roehler '06)
kelly' heroes (hutton '70)
this is spinal tap (reiner '84)
running hot (griffiths '84)
another year (leigh '10)
fellini's casanova (fellini '76)
the appointment (vickers '81)
my son, my son what have ye done (herzog '09)
littlerock (ott '11)

For Those Who Think Young (1964) Awesome " Ho-Daddy" scene
It's a Bikini World (1967) The Animals, The Toys, The Gentrys and The Castaways

the earrings of madame de.. (ophuls '53)
moneyball (miller '11)
cabin in the woods (goddard '12)
horrible bosses (gordon '11)
around a small mountain (rivette '09)
midnight in paris (allen '11)
singapore sling (nikolaidis '90)
pretty poison (black '68)
the girl from monday (hartley '05)
long weekend (eggleston '78)

Christine (Alan Clarke, 1988) 4/5
Tenacious D in The Pick Of Destiny (Liam Lynch, 2006) 3/5
Invictus (Clint Eastwood, 2009) 3.5/5
Who'll Stop The Rain (Karel Reisz, 1978) 2/5
Gregory's Girl (Bill Forsyth, 1981) 4/5
Upside Down: The Story of Creation Records (Danny O'Connor) 3/5
Slither (James Gunn, 2006) 3/5
Made In Britain (Alan Clarke, 1981) 4/5
A Matter Of Life And Death (Powell/Pressburger, 1946) 5/5
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (Milos Forman, 1975) 5/5
Young Adult (Jason Reitman, 2011) 4/5

logan's run (michael anderson '76)
mouchette (bresson '67)
S.O.B. (edwards '81)
grapes of death (rollin '78)
darling (schlesinger '65)
a horrible way to die (wingard '10)
the evil dead (raimi '81)
the unfaithful wife (chabrol '69)
damsels in distress ('11)

Le Mépris (Jean-Luc Goddard, 1963) DVD. 3.5/5
The Kentucky Fried Movie (John Landis, 1977) streamed. 3/5
Corman's World - Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel (Alex Stapleton, 2011) Blu-ray. 3.5/5
Whoops Apocalypse (Tom Bussmann, 1986) streamed. 3/5
The Cabin in the Woods (Drew Goddard, 2012) cinema. 4/5
Moneyball (Bennet Miller, 2011) Blu-ray. 3.5/5
The Avengers (Jeremiah S. Chechik, 1998) streamed. 0.5/5
Marvel Avengers Assemble (Joss Whedon, 2012) cinema. 3.5/5
Blood Simple (Coen Brothers, 1984) streamed. 4/5
Amer (Hélène Cattet, Bruno Forzani, 2009) Blu-ray. 3/5

Praise (1998, John Curran) 4/5
The Organizer (1963, Mario Monicelli) 4/5
Metropolitan (1990, Whit Stillman) 4/5
Alambrista! (1977, Robert M. Young) 4/5
Keep the Lights On (2012, Ira Sachs) 4/5
The Gang's All Here (1943, Busby Berkeley) 3/5
Payback (2012, Jennifer Baichwal) 3/5
Bernie (2011, Richard Linklater) 2/5
Henry & June (1990, Philip Kaufman) 2/5
Police Story (1985, Jackie Chan) 4/5

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (Bird, 2011) 3.5/4
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (Wise, 1979) 2/4
Star Trek 3: The Search for Spock (Nimoy, 1984) 3/4
Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Kahn (Meyer, 1982) 3/4
Strange Days (Bigelow, 1995) 4/4
Shame (McQueen, 2011) 2/4
I Saw The Devil (Kim, 2010) 1.5/4
Hesher (Susser, 2011) 2.5/4
The Last Waltz (Scorsese, 1978) 3.5/4
The Iron Lady (Lloyd, 2011) 1.5/4
Trust (Schwimmer, 2010) 4/4 (!!!)

Strange Days, really?

oh, I forgot

L'Argent (1983, Bresson) 5/5

enter the void
collateral
clean (assayas)
once upon a time in anatolia
king of new york

I absolutely fucking love Strange Days. Admittedly might have something to do with first having seen at at 16 years old, but really, even watching it again now I don't get why anyone wouldn't like it (feel free to prove me wrong). Holds up completely.

Strange Days is brilliant

Lymelife (Derrick Martini, 2008) 4/5
Big Fan (Robert D. Siegel, 2009) 3.5/5
Paul (Greg Motolla, 2011) 3/5
Drive (Refn, 2011) 3.5/5
Pendas Fen (Clarke, 1974) 4.5/5
Nuts In May (Leigh, 1976) 4/5

Strange Days is probably underrated, and certainly one of the more successful cyberpunk/tech-noir movies of the '90s, but it's still pretty messy. iirc, it's been a while.

Who's That Knocking at my Door? (Scorsese, 1967) streamed. 3/5
Mean Streets (Scorsese, 1973) TV. 3/5
The Sugarland Express (Spielberg, 1971) DVD. 3/5
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Fran Rubel Kuzui, 1992)TV. 1.5/5
La Grande Illusion (Renoir, 1937) Blu-ray. 2.5/5

strange days is great

little tony (van warmerdam '98) 2/5
the double hour (capotondi '09) 4/5
ladies and gentlemen the fabulous stains (joe adler '81) 3.5/5
anton chekhov's the duel (kosashvili '10) 2/5
paris is burning (jennie livingston '90) 3/5
everyone else (maren ade '09) 3/5
eyes without a face (franju '60) 3/5

3/5 for Mean Streets? 2.5/5 for Grand Illusion?! Neither of these are exactly unfuckwithable classics in my eyes but still, harsh!

yeah, I like The Sugarland Express, but it's not better than LaGI on any planet.

Yeah those ratings are nuts.

and anyway 1.5 for Buffy wtf

The Grand Illusion rating is pretty harsh I suppose, but it's a film I admired more than liked. Had it had more of Captain von Rauffenstein in it I may have bumped it up a notch.

The Buffy movie is pretty hopeless though. Almost endearingly so at times. It's closer to being a Saved by the Bell movie than anything else, and everyone is so bad in it, save Paul Reubens. His comically over-egging of his death scene is the best bit of the entire movie.

i saw LGI for the first time recently. the tonal turn it takes from prison-sitcom to affecting-journey is really something.

oasis (lee chang-dong '02) 4.5/5
aguirre, the wrath of god (herzog '72) 3/5
nanami, the inferno of first love (susumi hani '68) 3/5
a man escaped (bresson '56) 3.5/5
hardcore (dennis iliadis '04) 2.5/5

The Rules Of The Game (Blu ray) - <heart> x 1000
Avengers - a fun center surrounded by tedious bs
Puss In Boots - fun and charming

Bottle Rocket (Wes Anderson, 1996) - Breezier and less suffocatingly ornate than his later films. 3.5/5
Wisconsin Death Trip (James Marsh, 1999) - Darkly humorous documentary on tales of American gothic found in archive news stories. 3/5
Ronin (John Frankenheimer, 1998) - Nobody on set had the balls to correct DeNiro's pronunciation of Hereford. 3.5/5
Strangers on a Train (Hitchcock, 1951) - Robert Walker's flamboyant Bruno is one of Hitchcock's best crazies. 3.5/5
Hugo (Scorsese, 2011) - No-one's idea of a kids film. 2/5
The Old Dark House (James Whale, 1932) - the Cabin in the Woods of its day. 3/5
The Silent House (Gustavo Hernández, 2011) - Decent minimalist horror, let down by lame ending. 3/5
Curse of the Crimson Alter (Vernon Sewell, 1968) - Anticipates The Wicker Man, otherwise creaky nonsense, partially saved by Boris Karloff in his last English film. 2/5
Fatal Attraction (Adrian Lyne, 1987) - 1987:sex=death. Sexist, brash, and total trash. Glen Close is a great movie villainess tho. 3/5
Cop Land (James Mangold, 1998) - Seeing Sly Stallone struggling to be heard, be patronised, a big man made small, is still something to behold. 4/5
The Raid (Gareth Edwards, 2012) - An oppressive blue-grey gloom occasionally enlivened by some thrilling violence. 3/5

McKenna's Gold, late 60s ultra-b western with dodgy premise, dodgy effects. A lot of minor characters receiving rather too convenient grisly deaths.
I think I had seen this as an early teen and not since, so i was intrigued by it.
Some oddly high profile names in it though, Gregory Peck and Omar Sharif as the 2 leads. Eli Wallach, Telly Savalas, Anthony Quayle, Keenan Wynn, Lee. J. Cobb, Burgess Meredith, Edward G Robinson as some of those minor characters. & Julie Newmar as an Indian old flame of Peck. thought I recognised her but only just realising who it was on checking the castlist at IMDB.
Castlist makes it look like the equivalent of one of Sinatra's Rat Pack movies so I wonder if there was a more complex production story or if all of these people just needed money at the same time.

I've never seen that, even tho it was on TV a ton in my youth. All-star casts were all the rage in that period... and they were expecting a lot, as the writer was Carl Foreman of High Noon, The Guns of Navarone (also w/ Peck and same director).

iMdB trivia:

One of George Lucas's projects while a student in film school was documenting the making of this film. While he was on set, he actually made suggestions (which were used) on how to rehearse and shoot some scenes.

The film was originally planned to be shown in single lens Cinerama with reserved seat roadshow engagements, but Columbia execs changed their minds and pulled the plug on that idea. The film was drastically cut down from nearly three hours plus an intermission to just over two hours. Although most of the film was photographed on 65mm stock, to save a buck, a handful of scenes were filmed in 35mm anamorphic and then optically blown up with disastrous results. The blown-up scenes are exceedingly grainy and have bad color.

Putney Swope (1969, Robert Downey) 3/5
The Family Jewels (1965, Jerry Lewis) 3/5
No More Excuses (1968, Robert Downey) 3/5
Chafed Elbows (1966, Robert Downey) 4/5
Babo 73 (1964, Robert Downey) 3/5
A River Runs Through It (1992, Robert Redford) 3/5
The Death of Maria Malibran (1971, Werner Schroeter) 3/5
The Kid with a Bike (2011, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne) 4/5
The Vortex (1928, Adrian Brunel) 2/5
Dark Shadows (2012, Tim Burton) 2/5
The Observers (2011, Jacqueline Goss) 3/5
Une Femme Douce (1969, Robert Bresson) 4/5

Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call New Orleans (Werner Herzog, 2009) 4/5
Shame (Steve McQueen, 2011) 3.5/5
The Damned United (Tom Hooper, 2009) 3.5/5
Beowulf (Robert Zemeckis, 2007) 3/5
Kevin and Perry Go Large (Ed Bye, 2000) 3/5

la dolce vita ('60, fellini) 3.5/5
love in the afternoon ('72 rohmer) 4/5
hour of the wolf ('68 bergman) 2.5/5
the passion of anna ('69 bergman) 3/5
phase iv ('74 saul bass) 2/5
10 ('79 edwards) 2.5/5
bad teacher ('11 kasdan) 2.5/5
hiroshima mon amour ('59 resnais) 3/5

psycho ('60 hitchcock) 5/5
mauvais sang ('86 carax) 2/5
the lovers on the bridge ('91 carax) 2.5/5
autumn sonata ('78 bergman) 4/5
art history ('11 swanberg) 2.5/5
take this waltz ('11 polley) 0.5/5
toy story 3 ('10 lee unkrich) 3/5
out of the blue ('80 hopper) 2.5/5

The Wicker Man 3.5/5
Inception 2/5

Man, Inception was way whinier than I expected. Was hoping for dumb fun, instead got a bunch of dull moping about a dead wife. Christopher Nolan remains my favorite Hollywood example of the difference between clever and smart.

Also I'm probably being a half-star generous with Wicker Man, but it was fun. (the original, obv)

i dont think id want to see Inception again, i enjoyed it in the cinema but i bet it would suck if i saw it again

The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (Cassavetes, 1976) 4/5

An odd movie but brilliant. sloppy yet so naturalistic. what was up with that strip joint? who would pay money to go to a place like that? i wasnt even dissapointed by the unresolved ending.

Chronicle (Trank, 2012) 2/5

This had its moments but the whole found footage thing became annoying and overly contrived after a while.

A History of Violence (Cronenberg, 2005) 3.5/5

This is my second time watching this and the comic book style in which he dispatches people is like something from a different movie. Neverthless, the rest of the movie is well done and its a great story.

One Upon a Time in Anatolia (Nuri Ceylan, 2011) - 3/5
Le Quai Des Brunes (Marcel Carne, 1939) - 442399777201/5.*
Pepe Le Moko (julien Duvivier, 1937) - ((332937010-1)/83759275020)/5
Alice in the Cities (Wim Wenders, 1974) - 83649142421-489-14-1248-124-24-12-124-1248-248-184-184/////5
Wings of Desire (Wim Wenders, 1987) - hfahejwgqoje83-2-1u/5**
Xala - (Sembene, 1975) - 6746293419/78
While the City Sleeps (Fritz Lang, 1956) - xxxxxxx/5
Ashes of Time (Wong Kar-wai, 1994)***

* = the Gabin retrospective was a good opportunity to make my way through French film in the 40s, really liking it so far. They are great date films, despite the somewhat tragic endings, but who cares about endings?
** = This was a Wenders dbl bill and I guess you can map what happened to Euro art cinema from this.
*** = possibly Kar-wai's best film.

aw it's his prettiest film, visually, but far from his best i think. i found it pretty trying, though'd concede some of that's my tastes; i prefer all of hou's modern stuff to his historical epics