What was the last movie you saw?

[TwilightFan87]

The Emperor's New Groove..one of my favorites!

[Jestak]

Tonight I watched a contemporary noir called The Missing Person. John Rosow (Michael Shannon) is a hard-luck PI who is hired to follow a passenger on the California Zephyr (Amtrak line from Chicago to San Francisco); he eventually learns he's been hired to bring the man, missing for several years, back to his wife. Despite the presence of a pair of recent Oscar nominees in the cast (Shannon and Amy Ryan), this one simply doesn't catch fire at all. The story is muddled and the performances are too low-key to engage the viewer.

[Jestak]

About a decade after he made Gunfight at the OK Corral, director John Sturges returned to the same subject in Hour of the Gun, which I watched tonight. This one opens with the famous shootout, and concentrates on the aftermath, with Wyatt Earp (James Garner) and Doc Holliday (Jason Robards) trying to uphold the law and deal with the animosity of Ike Clanton (Robert Ryan) and his criminal allies. The opening credits to the film claim "this is the way it happened." That is a considerable exaggeration; however, the antiheroic portrayal of Earp and the rather dark overall tone are quite bracing. Garner and Robards are a very good pairing as Earp and Holliday and there's a nice supporting cast which features a young Jon Voight, and Jerry Goldsmith contributed a solid score.

[Jestak]

A description or plot summary of Sukeban Deka: Kodu Nemu = Asamiya Saki/Yo-Yo Girl Cop would make the film sound very nearly as ludicrous as the title, but it turns out to be fairly watchable. The story of how Saki (Aya Matsuura), a delinquent teen deported from New York to Japan, is coerced into becoming an undercover cop at an elite high school, starts out seeming pretty far-fetched and never really gains ground in the plausibility department. However, there is some believable human sentiment at the core of this one, thanks largely to a solid performance from Aya Matsuura, a Japanese pop star turned actress.

[Jestak]

Tonight I watched The Sea Wolves, a rather ordinary World War II film. During 1942, German U-boats are sinking an enormous number of British ships in the Indian Ocean. British Intelligence officers Col. Lewis Pugh (Gregory Peck) and Captain James Bond, er, Gavin Stewart (Roger Moore) discover that the U-boats are having target information radioed to them from a German ship anchored in the harbor of Goa, a colony on the Indian coast which belongs to neutral Portugal. As they can't send military personnel in, they recruit a band of retired soldiers from a unit called the Calcutta Light Horse, led by Bill Grice (David Niven), to infiltrate the harbor in the guise of tourists (!?) and blow the transmitter ship up. Although this was based in an actual escapade during the war, the film comes across as artificial and contrived. Andrew McLaglen's direction is sluggish for most of the film and none of the main characters--the cast also included Trevor Howard and Patrick Macnee--really comes to life.

[Tornado]

I saw War Horse the other night. In spite of my love for both Spielberg and horses, I didn't think it was one of Spielberg's best movies. I also felt it didn't quite pack the emotional punch his movies usually have. It was still enjoyable, though, but was a little long at the start and the colours seemed extraordinarily bright. The war staging was brilliant, though.

[clpviolet]

I saw the avengers a couple weeks ago. I liked it. Very action packed and funny at times. Robert Downey Jr was hilarious. I think the whole movie was well written. I don't know a whole lot about comic book characters, so I was a little lost when it came to Captain America and Mr Incredible? and Scarlett's character. I know slightly more about the Hulk and Ironman because of the other movies that came out so it's probably not much that I know at all, lol . Overall great movie and I wonder if they will make more....

[Violet Sunlight]

Just recently saw Gone With The Wind from start to finish and I loved it. I didn’t even notice it was 3 hours and 45 minutes long. (Yeah I know, crazy). Scarlett is the protagonist and antagonist all in one and with a dose of crazy all mixed in. Before watching the whole thing I’ve seen a few scenes here and there but never was interested enough to see the whole thing. Vivien Leigh’s performance as Scarlett was brilliant. This film is so deserving of all the many Academy Awards it won. What a great movie.

[Jestak]

The Crimson Kimono is an interesting blend of mystery/thriller and romance. LAPD detectives Charlie Bancroft (Glenn Corbett) and Joe Kojaku (James Shigeta) are trying to get to the bottom of the murder of a stripper. Their task is complicated when both of them begin falling in love with young artist Christine (Victoria Shaw), a key witness who they also have to protect. Director Samuel Fuller, as he did in his earlier film House of Bamboo, handles the interracial romance with a finesse which was highly unusual, if not unheard-of, for the 1950s, while not letting the crime story slack. This was a good one.

[Jestak]

Sarah Polley, as many of you hopefully know, is a wonderful actress who is starting to develop an equally impressive filmography as a director and writer. If you saw the trailer for her film Take This Waltz, you might take it for a fairly conventional romantic comedy, perhaps just a little off the beaten track. Needless to say, though, Polley eschews the cliched approach; this film is, in fact, more of a romantic drama, and a very bittersweet one at that. Margot (Michelle Williams) meets Daniel (Luke Kirby) on a business trip and they share a flight home, during which an attraction clearly develops between them, followed by a cab ride--at the end of which Margot learns that Daniel lives across the street from her, and Daniel learns that Margot is married to Lou (Seth Rogen). Polley lets things develop in a rather slow and dreamy way, sort of in the manner of many European films. I was impressed with her direction and even more so with Michelle Williams' performance--clearly she's worthy of all the acting awards and nominations she's been snagging the past few years. Seth Rogen, cast strongly against type, also gives an impressive performance.