Man, I'm falling behind.
The God Of Cookery - One of a number of older Stephen Chow films that has popped up on Netflix recently. Chow plays a superstar chef who gets brought low because he treats everyone like ****. Jobless and despondent, he meets a street vendor making cheap food who shows him the real value of cooking and treating people with dignity. It's a pretty funny movie, with the same themes as a lot of Chow's films (there's nothing wrong with being poor, beauty is on the inside, etc). I enjoyed it, but wouldn't count it as one of his best.
Day Of Wrath - Really great 1940's movie about religious villagers who don't seem to care much for people they think are witches. Nowhere near as good as some of Dreyer's older, silent stuff (
Passion Of Joan Of Arc is still ****ing me up), but still pretty great. The witch-burning scene in particular is intense and memorable. Recommended.
The Ipcress File - I finally got to ****ing watch this. I've heard lots of people say it's their favorite Michael Caine movie, but it's not readily available in the US. But for Caine's birthday, Turner Classics showed it (and a bunch of others). It's the kind of espionage flick you've already seen a dozen times by now (probably fewer at the time of release), but it's really well done and Michael Caine is charming as ****, so I liked it a lot.
The World Of Kanako - The newest movie from Tetsuya Nakashima, director of one of my favorites movies of the last 5 years or so,
Confessions. The story of an ******* alcoholic police detective whose daughter, Kanako, goes missing. In his search for her, he finds out that she was not the girl he thought he knew. Not even close. It's a pretty ****ed up, depressing movie, which is what I wanted, but it didn't have anywhere near the impact of Confessions or Nakashima's movie before that, Memories Of Matsuko (also ****ed up and fantastic). I liked it a lot, will upgrade to Blu-ray when it gets released out here (by Alamo Drafthouse later this year/early next), but was a little disappointed that it wasn't anywhere near as good as Confessions.
Man From U.N.C.L.E. - Fun, stylish in the way you would expect. Ultimately kind of empty calories, but I enjoyed it and would be pleased if they do a sequel.
Cleopatra Jones - Pam Grier-lite. It had it's moments (pulling the parts of an uzi out of the side panel of her car was awesome), but ultimately all this movie really made me want to do was watch Coffy again. I still haven't seen all that many blaxploitation movies, but it seems like a lot of them have a formula to them. So when I see a movie that's pretty similar to a movie I genuinely love, like Coffy, it's hard not to compare the two. And this one comes up way short there.
Dracula Has Risen From The Grave - Oh, look, another Christopher Lee Dracula movie that DOESN'T HAVE ENOUGH GODDAMN CHRISTOPHER LEE IN IT. Still enjoyable, although the male protagonist was a pretty terrible actor.
Zero Focus - Hitchcockian is right. A newly wed bride is forced to search for her husband who goes missing on a business trip. It doesn't end well for anyone involved. Super Hitchcock-ish, and worthy of the comparison. Not as good as his best, but holds it's own for sure. Wouldn't be surprised if Criterion gives this a new release at some point.
Wet Hot American Summer - Had never seen this before. Enjoyed it. Lot of actors I like in it, but Chris Meloni stands out as being the best supporting character. Started watching the new Netflix series, but haven't finished it. Enjoying it so far, but not as much as this movie.
Overlord - WWII movie that follows a British soldier from his first day at boot camp through D-Day, with some actual WWII footage interspersed throughout. I enjoyed it pretty thoroughly, although I honestly think the actual WWII stuff was my favorite part.
The Lord Of The Rings - Despite having seen Wizards about 100 times during my youth, I had never seen Ralph Bkashi's LOTR animated movie. There was a lot of stuff I liked about it, the ring wraiths were super creepy, and all the roto-scoping was kind of cool, I thought, but parts of it dragged. It was interesting to see how Peter Jackson lifted entire sequences, cinematography-wise, from this. Worth a watch if you're a fan, but if you've never seen it, you're not missing a whole hell of a lot.
Seven Psychopaths - I thought this was ****ing funny and fun. Would watch again.
Flame & Citron - Based on the real life story of two resistance fighters during the Nazi occupation of Denmark. Excellent ****ing movie. Loved it. Available on Netflix streaming, so hop to it.
Z - A based-on-real-events political thriller about 1963 assassination of Greek left-wing activist Gregoris Lambrakis and the government's attempts to cover it up. Enjoyed it, but probably would have liked it even more if I had been at least a little familiar with the events and time. Really well done, though.
Sin City: A Dame To Kill For - I don't know what happened here. I still enjoy the first Sin City movie and catch parts of it on TV every once in a while, but this one did absolutely NOTHING for me. I didn't manage to care at any point about any of it. I don't know why. There's nothing on the surface about this that's different from the first movie. The only thing I can think of is that the story is weaker (and it is), but not by that much. It sticks to the comics well enough and the comics were good (not as good as the ones the first was based on, but again... not by that much). It has some great performances, especially Powers Boothe (as usual) and Eva Green who seems like she was practically born for this sort of noir femme fatale role. Like, she's ****ing fantastic, chewing scenery and working that **** like she does that kind of **** every day of her life. And everyone else was fine. But for some reason, the movie just did nothing for me at all.
St. Vincent - Hey, do you like Bill Murray? Great, then this is for you because Bill Murray does his thing for the entire length of the film and it's exactly what you want and exactly what you expect. The emotional arc of all the characters involved is pretty predictable, but Murray makes it work. Liked it, would watch again.
R100 - This movie is just ****ing bizarre. A lonely father, whose wife has been in a coma for the last couple of years, signs up to have dominatrixes come beat the **** out of him at random times, unexpectedly. And he loves it until they start coming to him at work and into his home while his son is sleeping. And then he must fight back. I can't really say that I liked this movie, though it did make me laugh and I definitely appreciated the ****ing wacko-craziness of it. I can honestly say it never really did anything I expected at any point. And that's cool. But that was really all it had going for it. It wasn't as... uh... "visually appealing" as I had hoped, which is kind of plus in one sense (congrats on not going down the easy softcore/sex route that probably would have gotten this a lot more fans), but a negative in another (I probably would have been a bigger fan of it had taken the low road). It's hard to recommend this to anyone, but if you watch it (it's on Amazon Prime right now), I don't think you'll regret it, I just don't know that you'll enjoy it. If that makes sense.