What Movies Did You Watch In August 2019?

vamp2syd

Well-known member
As a horror movie junkie, I come across a lot of off beat Horror movies as well as the run in the mill straight to video. I will share my thoughts of the ones that I see this month. So, if you seen a movie new or old and want to share your thoughts go ahead, and if its horror, even better!!!!

I will edit in my horror views here with my rating scale on how I liked it.....

8 = Donnie Darko
7 = Excellent !!!!!
6 = Great
5 = pretty Good
4 = OK/Good
3 = not good
2 = Bad
1 = Unwatchable

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#3927 Malicious (US-2018) ... 3.0/8

#3928
Day Of The Dead: Bloodline (US-2018) ... 2.0/8

#3929
1st Summoning (US-2018) ... 2.5/8
 
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Dukes of Hazzard (2005) 5/8 Always thought this movie wasn't given its due. I like it, plenty of laughs, some action and Jessica Simpson wearing daisy dukes and a bikini throughout the movie. Always find it enjoyable.
 
Rambo: First Blood.

7/8. Solid old time movie. Gotta catch up on all of them to get ready for the Last Blood coming out this fall.
 
The Big Lift (1950) - Decent film about an important story. When the Soviets try to starve West Berlin in order to get the Western Allies (UK, USA & French) to withdraw from West Berlin, the only way to keep that part of the city alive is to fly everything in by air. The film suffers due to the use of actual US Air Force personnel who had participated in the Berlin Airlift to play themselves, so much of the acting is stiff. Montgomery Cliff does a decent job as do the other professional actors.

4/8
 
The Big Lift (1950) - Decent film about an important story. When the Soviets try to starve West Berlin in order to get the Western Allies (UK, USA & French) to withdraw from West Berlin, the only way to keep that part of the city alive is to fly everything in by air. The film suffers due to the use of actual US Air Force personnel who had participated in the Berlin Airlift to play themselves, so much of the acting is stiff. Montgomery Cliff does a decent job as do the other professional actors.

4/8
I had forgotten about this piece of history.

Logan's Run (1976) - Woke up real early one morning and caught this one before work. Started out pretty good and slid down the rest of the way. Ending was especially blah. Not surprisingly, LR was better forty years ago when this type of story seemed more like sci-fi than it does today. 5/8

IMDb: In the year 2274, young residents enjoy an idyllic, hedonistic lifestyle within the protective confines of a domed city. The general belief is that when each person turns 30, they are reincarnated for another blissful life cycle. Those who know the much darker truth become "runners" and flee to a hidden sanctuary. When law enforcement officer Logan (Michael York) goes undercover to locate the refuge, he winds up instead trying to initiate a revolution with runner Jessica (Jenny Agutter).
 
Malicious (2018)

Horror: This one started out all right but then went down hill.... 3.0/8

Day of the Dead: Bloodline (2018)

Horror: I was insulted by the writers of this crap. We are talking about survivors of fast moving zombies for over 5 years repeatedly doing stupid crap over and over again.... 2.0/8

1st Summoning (2018)

Horror: Found Footage.... 4 people explore the rumors of occult rituals taking place on October 6th at an abandoned distribution center.... The biggest problem with this one was way too many camera cuts... this is a first person film keep the damn camera rolling..... 2.5/8
 
Taxi Driver- 8/8. Not much needs to be said, one of the best movies of all time

Mean Streets- 5.5/8. One of Scorcese’s earlier and more forgotten movies. Tough to really identify what the plot of the movie is, other than a character study.
 
The Lords of Salem (2012) 2/8 Rob Zombie directed horror movie starring his wife. I usually love his movies. House of 1000 Corpses and Devil's Rejects are some of my favorites, but this one wasn't good. I'm never big on the devil worshiping/witch movies so that probably didn't help. Definitely not his best work.
 
Comparing movies

Rocketman 6/8 Story telling method that failed miserably for Thatcher, worked great for me in Rocketman. I really have never been an Elton John fan but am more now having watched the movie. Egerton gave a great performance. Bryce Dallas Howard completely disappeared into the role, could have been his real mother. A poster in July had preferred this over Bohemian Rhapsody, I can see why and fully expected to also.

Bohemian Rhapsody 5/8 Even though he died, the generally was a happier story than Rocketman (which left the happy as a mention in the credits). I liked this as much as Rocketman, just something seemed a bit off in the story telling so I gave it one point less. Performances were fine.

GOT performers Madden (Rob Stark) in Rocketman and Gillen (Littlefinger) in Rhapsody playing the same guy, manager John Reid was kind of interesting. Gillen seems to play the same smarmy character but Madden has been completely different in the three roles I’ve seen him play.

I honestly think the attraction to Rhapsody was the AIDs topic. Rocketman was the better performed but also maybe the easier role. All in all, I could see myself watching both again.
 
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The Big Lift (1950) - Decent film about an important story. When the Soviets try to starve West Berlin in order to get the Western Allies (UK, USA & French) to withdraw from West Berlin, the only way to keep that part of the city alive is to fly everything in by air. The film suffers due to the use of actual US Air Force personnel who had participated in the Berlin Airlift to play themselves, so much of the acting is stiff. Montgomery Cliff does a decent job as do the other professional actors.

4/8

I rated higher but I really like Cliff and movies set in post-war recovery, that's my bias.

War movies made during the war. Maybe my imagination but I find these movies to be unexpctedly less rah-rah (not counting comedies) than post war movies. Two movies ranked well but I still consider under-ranked on imdb are Wake Island and Dive Bomber.

Wake Island 7/8, -1 for a bi-plane clip that somehow got inserted, repeatedly. It’s about the defense of Wake Island immediately after Pearl Harbor attack. Battles in the air and on the ground kept the stress levels high and they did not avoid the realities of war. Something I had expected for a movie made during the war. Lead Brian Donlevy was the Major and Macdonald Carey represented the civilian engineers caught on the island. I think typical of the times, a very serious movie will have vignettes of slap-stick. William Bendix (nominated) and Robert Preston do the honors. The Japanese were depicted honestly, not as stereotypes. The acting during battles is very under-stated. No yelling, “let’s get’em boys” kind of thing. The Americans under stress of battle could be very stone faced. It’s not “inspiring” but honestly, it is what I would expect to be “real” and focused but these depictions I speculate as the reason the movie isn’t higher rated.

A small powerful scene showed to ME this movie is being made for and shown to people who are presently experiencing the war as opposed to one made much later. People today, even the 70s asked about WWII would say it was between the US and Germany/Japan. People of the day, were aware the real sequence. The setting is just after word of Pearl Harbor. A pilot asks a mechanic with an accent, where he’s from. The mechanic replies “Poland.” The pilot winces. No big exposition or explanation, that audience doesn’t need it. They know the war in Europe has devastated Poland. They know what has happened to the people there. The mechanic implies the American could not know the effects of war like he does. The pilot says his wife is in Pearl Harbor. 15 seconds and these two understand each other perfectly. Amazing scene and the tension from that point on is intense.

Dive Bomber 8/8. Probably not an 8/8 but it’s about military surgeons tackling the problem of pilot blackouts in their dive turns and upper atmospheres leading into WWII and I really like all those topics so to me, it’s an 8. I don’t know how historically accurate it is but the technology of the times was real. Leads Errol Flynn (surgeon) and Fred Macmurry (pilot). Again vignettes of slap-stick involving a couple male nurses and one of their wives that would seem out of place in a post-Vietnam made WWII movie, but they keep the movie from depressing. I think that is the writers/directors recognizing that war is on and they have a role to play. Even though there’s not a single battle, it’s all stateside, the realities and costs of war are well realized.

Errol Flynn again impressed me. Before Operation Burma my whole opinion of him as foppish was generated by a clip of him in tights swinging on a rope as Robin Hood and I think his depiction in “The Aviator.” He did not chew scenery, shared the screen well. He was a very good actor. A comment in his wiki that he aged fast because of his life style is no joke either though, it can be seen in his movies.
 
Red Sparrow (2018)- Jennifer Lawrence plays a ballerina that breaks her leg then opts to enter Sparrow spy training that turns her into a dangerous Russian spy. It was panned by the critics but I thought it was okay. She's not always convincing as a Russian and her fake accent disappeared on couple of occasions. The plot has a few twists that help keep your interest. It's about a half hour too long. 5/8.
 
No Country For Old Men- 8/8. Again, like my rating for Taxi Driver, no explanation is needed, one of the best movies ever made
 
Errol Flynn again impressed me. Before Operation Burma my whole opinion of him as foppish was generated by a clip of him in tights swinging on a rope as Robin Hood and I think his depiction in “The Aviator.” He did not chew scenery, shared the screen well. He was a very good actor. A comment in his wiki that he aged fast because of his life style is no joke either though, it can be seen in his movies.

From Wikipedia:

Flynn became a naturalised American citizen on 14 August 1942.[36] With the United States fully involved in the Second World War, he attempted to enlist in the armed services, but failed the physical exam due to recurrent malaria (contracted in New Guinea), a heart murmur, various venereal diseases and latent pulmonary tuberculosis.[36]

Flynn was mocked by reporters and critics as a "draft dodger", but the studio refused to admit that their star, promoted for his physical beauty and athleticism, had been disqualified due to health problems.
[37]


Malaria, bad heart, bad lungs and a number of venereal diseases? Yeah, I would say he was not aging well.

By the way, thank you for your well thought out reviews/comments. I have found them very helpful and informative.
 
By the way, thank you for your well thought out reviews/comments. I have found them very helpful and informative.

We have a common interest in these WWII era movies.

Our history lessons tend to start at Pearl Harbor, maybe a bit of a mention of Linbergh's opposition. It misses all the intrigue, a lot of spying and manipulations going on. Even more interesting to me, way before Pearl Harbor, the public knew the "war" was on home ground through orchestrated leaks and other means. I think there is a lot to learn about public attitude and knowledge from the movies created. The shame of it, it's easier to find the movies on some Russian site than the library, any of the streaming services or open domain.

Looking at the sequence of when WWII related movies were made, something surprised me. Previous to 1939, they were almost exclusively made in German, Japan and Italy. Those countries were gearing up their populations, while the West was worried about offending them or of reprisals and governments were telling their movie industry to lay-off. Those in favor of America entering the war in Europe seemed to be losing the propaganda war, the American public had no stomach for war.

Confessions of a Nazi Spy, Hollywood's first and rare real attempt pre-war failed at the box office. It's next on my watch list.
 
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I'm a big WWII fan as well, and I saw a preview last night for a new Midway movie, looks pretty interesting.
 
I'm a big WWII fan as well, and I saw a preview last night for a new Midway movie, looks pretty interesting.
We can hope. Hollywood doesn't need another "Pearl Harbor." That movie was bad. I'd like to see something less focused on the few paragraphs in the high school history books. Monument's Men was a WWII movie I liked.
 
I'm a big WWII fan as well, and I saw a preview last night for a new Midway movie, looks pretty interesting.
I thought the 1976 film was pretty well done showing the complicated details of the battle. I hope the new film does the same. If the give it the Dunkirk treatment, it might be pretty decent.
 
Screwball- 6.25/8. Really well done documentary on NFLX regarding the Biogenesis scandal in Baseball.
 
31 (2016) 5.5/8 Rob Zombie movie about a group of carnival workers kidnapped on Halloween in 1976 and forced to play a game of survival called 31. More gory and shocking than it was scary, but I thought it was good. Great soundtrack too.

Jackie Brown (1997) 6.5/8 Tarantino's adaption of the Elmore Leonard novel Rum Punch. Great cast, great story, great soundtrack, a little slow in the middle, but otherwise another outstanding movie by Tarantino.
 
Summer Rental - 80's Carl Reiner comedy follows a middle class family on vacation to Florida. Had not seen it since it came out in the 80's. John Candy was good as was Rip Torn. Candy was fairly light in this film.

5.5/8
 
Bringing Up Baby, 7/8 - Should have saved this one for date-night. Snappy banter and double entendre's kept my brain buzzing to keep up. An hour and 42 minutes of pure exhaustion the only predictable scene, intentionally the last.

Katherine Hepburn who I recongize is a great actress but was always able to take or leave made me wonder if this role had been Lucille Ball's inspiration. Only Hepburn comes off purposefully intelligent. Terrific performance. Supposedly this movie was also the first reference to someone as being (acting really) "gay." Guest stars: Cary Grant was the perfect victim, "Baby" being a leopard and George the dog completing a Disneyesque quad in scenes they'd only do in CGI today.
 
Keeper of the Flame (1943) - A very unusual Tracy/Hepburn film that has overtone of a gothic tale but is then overtaken by the political story it ultimately tells. I have always steered away from hero worship and were turned off by the adoration laid upon President Obama, just as I am now by that which some people bestow President Trump. Although I will likely support the president in the next election there are no MAGA caps for me. So this story is of a public figure who lets all the adoration go to his head and comes to believe that the people really don't know what is good for them and a strong man needs to make decisions for their own good.

I have problems with the script and the plot but a decent film.

5/8
 
Blinded By the Light - Fine film, especially if you are a Springsteen fan. It has all of the charm of the team's prior effort Bend it Like Beckham (2003) and deals with some of the same issues of assimilation and generational conflict, but this has a quintessentially American flavor in that it is our ideals that inspire this young man "the best things about Britain are even better in America". A bit too hard on one of my heroes, Maggie Thatcher, but, politics aside, this is a very well crafted, fun to watch, moving film, because "tramps like us, baby we were born to run."

7/8
 
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