off topic alert 
Probably, but then again: can current affairs, our daily life so to speak, ever be off-topic? It’s virtually impossible to escape from rumours about impending world wars these days. Thanks to social media, every local conflict has become of global importance. We’ll have to deal with it.
Not disputing that amigo, but this is the last movie watched thread
The Batman (2022) - 7/10.
Relatively solid film I think. Started very well, I loved the opening hour, maybe even 90 minutes, but I didn’t particularly like the last hour or 90 minutes. The “finale” I thought was below average.
Don’t think I’d rewatch it.
I also saw ‘The Dam Busters’ on re-release around that same time. It was on a double-bill with ‘Reach For The Sky’ and they were, I believe, the first two films I ever saw on a big screen. My Dad took me as a treat.
I’ve seen both films many times since and despite now knowing they were highly inaccurate and fictionalised they hold a nostalgic place in my heart.
1 Like
Some more from 1955
Love Me or Leave Me (Vidor / 7/10)
A Kid for Two Farthings (Reed / 6/10)
The Seven Year Itch (Wilder / 4/10)
Marty (Mann / 7/10)
Oklahoma! (Zinneman / 5/10)
To Be or Not to Be (Ernst Lubitsch - 1942) - 9/10
A truly brilliant black-and-white comedy of the finest kind and a classic without equal.
1 Like
The Trip. That was… trippy
2 Likes
Last 10
- Fukui: Picocchio 964 8/10
- Larraz: Whirlpool 5/10
- Wajda: The Birch Wood (cinema) 7/10
- Cronenberg: Crash (cinema) 8/10
- Lanthimos: Poor Things 6/10
- von Sternberg: The Last Command 7/10
- Pabst: The Love of Jeanne Ney 5/10
- Perry: The Swimmer 9/10
- Brooks: Young Frankenstein 10/10
- Sjöström: The Wind 8/10
1 Like
Black Zoo (1963, Robert Gordon)
What an odd movie. A British immigrant has a private zoo in Los Angeles, during the day his zoo is open to the public, at night he invites his lions, tigers and panthers in his parlour and plays the organ for them (!). He’s also a controle freak: if someone gets in his way, he sends his big cats after him…
As said a very odd movie: People are being torn apart by large predators, but the police never gives this oddball and his collection of big cats a second thought. But never mind, this movie may be stupid but it’s quite funny and entertaining. Apparently the animals were trained by a then famous animal behaviorist, Ralph Helfer, and he did a marvelous job, the attacks look quite spectacular.
*** out of 5
Yojimbo bears a striking resemblance to A Fistful of Dollars—or is it the other way around?
Kurosawa created a masterpiece on a shoestring budget; the only thing missing was an Ennio Morricone!
10/10!
2 Likes
Uhm.. no?
It’s not easy to imitate in 1961 a movie that will be made in 1964
This should have been a joke 
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SHAFT
The original from 1971. One of the first films in the blaxploitation genre. I had not seen it a quite some time. Most people here will know what the genre, and this movie in particular is about: it’s about a black superman kicking white people’s ass.
As a hard-boiled thriller Shaft isn’t that special: the plot is rather transparent, and the finale - set to the sounds of Isaac Hayes’ Oscar-winning score - is beautifully filmed, but also feels drawn-out. The film relies mainly on atmosphere and the portrayal of racial tensions in 1971. Roundtree is okay, but no more than that. It feels a bit artificial today, but it’s easy to understand why it made such an impact back then.
*** out of 5
Note:
I read that the film was based on a novel written by a white guy and that the main character was also white. However, director Gordon Parks contracted the black actor Richard Roundtree, and the studio made the decision to capitalize on the growing awareness of the African American community. For that reason, Drew Bundini Brown was also cast for a small supporting role (as a bodyguard). For those who don’t know: Brown was the assistant trainer of heavyweight boxer Muhammad Ali, at that time the most famous black man in the world. Apparently he was also the man who invented the line “I’ll dance like a butterfly and sting like a bee.”
1 Like
My final bunch from 1955.
The Night of the Hunter (Laughton / 8/10)
The Man with the Golden Arm (Preminger / 8/10)
To Catch a Thief (Hitchcock / 7/10)
The Trouble with Harry (Hitchcock / 7/10)
Top Gun (Nazarro / 3/10)
Man With the Gun (Wilson / 5/10)
Shotgun (Selander / 5/10)
Robbers Roost (Salkow / 4/10)
Les Diaboliques (Clouzot / 9/10)
On to 1956!
Top Gun was remade twice by the same producer (Edward Small) within 10 years, as Noose for a Gunman (1959)and The Quick Gun (1964).
Spiral: From the book of Saw (2021, Darren Lynn Bousman)
A continuation of the Saw franchise, a new start, or whatever: Chris Rock, reportedly a great fan of the series, came up with the idea, co-wrote the script and also co-produced the whole thing. And yes, of course he also starred in it. And so do, among others, Max Minghella and Samuel L. Jackson (as Chris’ dad).
Saw isn’t Shakespeare, but it set a new standard for inventive torture porn. Most critics thought Spiral (etc.) wasn’t completely up to the standard, and they were probably right, the script is a bit too tortuous for its own good, but all in all I thought it was a decent horror ride. If you can stand the guy (he can be a bit of a nuisance) Chris Rock is okay and the traps and killings may not be as inventive as in some previous entries, but they’re appropriately bloody and gruesome. With virtually every actor shouting his lines, this is one of the loudest entries into the franchise.
*** out of 5, okay, not great.