What was the last movie you saw?

Daughter of Shanghai (1937) Lan Ying Lin (Anna May Wong) works in an antique shop Mrs. Mary Hunt (Cecil Cunningham) owns the place, but relies on human trafficking for her wealth. The ones who transport the people by air, dump them in the ocean when confronted by police planes, thus eliminating any evidence. Lin becomes involved in undercover to find evidence. She learns the hard way that her employer is the mastermind behind the crimes.

Supporting characters / actors: Andrew Sleete (Buster Crabbe); Harry Morgan (Anthony Quinn; in yellowface); Kim Lee (Philip Ahn; better known as one of the Masters in Kung Fu TV show); among others.


8/10
 
THE RACETRACK MURDERS - 1965 - Edgar Wallace murder mystery. It was ok

THE NIGHT STALKER- 1972 - I had some time to kill so I rewatched it.
 
Go for Broke! (1951) In WWII, an American unit is composed of soldiers of Japanese ancestry (Nisei), to fight in Europe.

The actual combat record of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team is depicted here, & 6, count 'em, six combat veterans of that regiment are in the cast.

Not only the 1st time I have seen it, but the 1st time I heard of it.

Of course, prominent American actors are here, as they always are.
Lt. Michael Grayson (Van Johnson) as the officer in charge of the unit, while John Banner is cast as an enemy officer.

8/10
 
SERGEANT RYKER - 1968 - Originally a 1963 tv drama--after Lee Marvin became more famous they put it in theaters. Bradford Dillman is a military lawyer who unsuccessfully defends a traitor (Marvin) and due to technicalities and plea from Ryker's wife (Vera Miles), decides to pursue the case. Peter Graves is a fellow lawyer. He and Dillman went on to portray the same characters in a short-lived tv series.
 
The Babadook
On the surface, this slow burning psychological horror appears to be a simple string of cinematic set pieces but, luckily, there’s a little more to it than that. It carries an interesting subtext concerning loss and the damage of denial. A decent movie overall.
 
A DVD with two short documentaries about Spain, one famous and one obscure. I'll start with the latter.

"The Drums of Calanda" (1966; I can find little, if any, other information about it.) The inhabitants of the Spanish village of Calanda spent twenty-four hours beating on drums as part of a religious celebration. Huge numbers of drums, from tiny to gigantic.

"Las Hurdes" known in English as "Land Without Bread" (1933.) Luis Bunuel's infamous film about an extremely remote, extremely poor region of Spain. The English title comes from the claim that the people have just recently learned what bread is. That, and other horrific things about the place are now said to have been exaggerated or, in some cases, faked.
 
Phase IV (1974).
Ants develop a group intelligence and begin a war against humanity.
An unsettling movie that I think could sit somewhere between science fiction and eco-horror. Slow paced and yet compelling with some wonderful footage of ants - all edited in such a way as to add a cold and menacing vibe.

The plot and pacing of this movie reminds me of The Andromeda Strain so if you liked that one, you’ll probably enjoy this one too.
 
Foxbat said:
Phase IV (1974).
Ants develop a group intelligence and begin a war against humanity.
An unsettling movie that I think could sit somewhere between science fiction and eco-horror. Slow paced and yet compelling with some wonderful footage of ants - all edited in such a way as to add a cold and menacing vibe.

The plot and pacing of this movie reminds me of The Andromeda Strain so if you liked that one, you’ll probably enjoy this one too.
Click to expand...


A great film. There's a 2001: A Space Odyssey vibe to it also, particularly the "lost" original ending.

 
Foxbat said:
The Babadook
On the surface, this slow burning psychological horror appears to be a simple string of cinematic set pieces but, luckily, there’s a little more to it than that. It carries an interesting subtext concerning loss and the damage of denial. A decent movie overall.
Click to expand...
Honestly, he didn't make me feel anything except for laughter.
 
Foxbat said:
The Babadook
On the surface, this slow burning psychological horror appears to be a simple string of cinematic set pieces but, luckily, there’s a little more to it than that. It carries an interesting subtext concerning loss and the damage of denial. A decent movie overall.
Click to expand...
Bookworm, the movie is about the mother/son relationship, and the Babadook is a symptom of and/or a metaphor for their fractured bond. If you find their relationship unbelievable, then the movie probably work for you. That said, it's a horror movie, but not one aiming solely for the big "BOO!"
 
Victoria Silverwolf said:
A great film. There's a 2001: A Space Odyssey vibe to it also, particularly the "lost" original ending.
Click to expand...
Yes. It definitely has a 2001 vibe - especially with the lost ending. I do like this particular variant but I think I still prefer the conclusion they went with in the cinematic release. I think it gives a good, tidy sense of closure but also lets the viewer know that what we see as an end is simply just another (evolutionary?) step.

One thing about the lost ending: I think it ties in a bit better with the beginning, generally unexplained, cosmic event.
 
JACKSON COUNTY JAIL - 1976 - Yvette Mimieux is an advertising executive who gets tired of the male chauvinism she encounters in Los Angeles and takes a cross country drive home to New York--but her car is taken by some teens at gunpoint and she is menaced by a yokel taxidermist and then put in jail next to career criminal Tommy Lee Jones. When she is raped by a yokel deputy and kills him, he breaks out, taking her along. A weird mix of comedy and southerner stereotypes grounded by Mimieux's harrowing performance as someone who is gradually ostracized from civilization. The ending is kind of inconclusive (the classic ambiguous freezeframe shot).
 
I Saw The Light (2015), biopic on the career of Hank Williams (Sr.). I have very low expectations of music related biographies, and while this is no masterpiece it is a decently handled and cast affair. My father was a teenaged Hank fan which, dove-tailing with the first rock & roll wave, led him to a part-time career as a local country-rock band leader and singer-rhythm guitarist after solo and other group stints. So I grew up with this music in the background, mostly from old MGM records but also my father singing and strumming. The best music bio I've ever seen would be Control about Ian Curtis of Joy Division, so this isn't a patch on that, but I didn't detect any made-up drama stuff or huge chronology manipulations, and I even learned a couple new things!

Hey, I'm going to look up Jackson County Jail now! (y)
 
Just watched Jackson County Jail; a deep slice of low-budget '70s grime with a pretty cool cast. If you like this kind of thing it's very good at it. Bonus points for Mary Woronov and a small town Bicentennial parade! :cool:
 
Blink Twice (2024). A pair of friends are invited to a vacation on an island owned by a tech tycoon, and things get weird.

It’s Zoe Kravitz’s directorial debut, and she shows a lot of talent. She really knows how to create tension and suspense. The cinematography is also very good. But there are a few things that bothered me.

Firstly, there’s at least an extra 20 minutes in the second act. The first act is perfect: not even fifteen minutes and they’re already on the island, the setting already introduced. But it got lengthy somewhere in the middle. Also, Zoe throws some comedy into the mix out of nowhere, and that was weird because it didn’t quite get along with the movie’s suspense.

The other thing is the “As you know, Bob” dialogue. Two characters talk obvious things to each other, and they’re obviously explaining those things to the viewer. Big mistake.

But I liked it a lot. It’s Midsommar (2019) meets Get Out! (2017) meets Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022), with a pinch of Ready or Not (2019).

Recommended.
 
Foxbat said:
The Babadook
On the surface, this slow burning psychological horror appears to be a simple string of cinematic set pieces but, luckily, there’s a little more to it than that. It carries an interesting subtext concerning loss and the damage of denial. A decent movie overall.
Click to expand...
Arguably the best Australian Horror movie ever made (and that's saying a lot). Sadly, the director, Jennifer Kent, only made one other film, The Nightingale (2018), which can't hold a candle to it.
 
beccabear67 said:
Just watched Jackson County Jail; a deep slice of low-budget '70s grime with a pretty cool cast. If you like this kind of thing it's very good at it. Bonus points for Mary Woronov and a small town Bicentennial parade! :cool:
Click to expand...
Yeah I thought the parade was interesting. There are a few low budget movies that use those 76' parades for scenes. Can't imagine them now--they would be pelted with rocks or something.

Also Betty Thomas as a waitress.

I can see why it isn't well known though--even as a Tommy Lee Jones movie (compared to Rolling Thunder)--because it's not like a regular exploitation car ride story. It's very bleak--negative despite having some goofball characters like the sheriff and deputies. Also notice how the cops in the small town were dressed entirely in black. But I thought Mimieux was very convincing--traumatized for much of the story. Was it about how a character grows or learns from a tragic situation? The ending doesn't tell us.
 
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