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Lupe Velez made 8 "Mexican Spitfire" B-movies between 1940 and 1943.
I had never seen anything with Velez so I decided to give this one a shot. She's essentially Charo with more aggression and less guitar playing (to be fair: Velez came first).
The movie is a basic farce, with lots of running around and characters pretending to be other characters, but the cast shines. Florence Bates as the wealthy social climber and Zasu Pitts as the dotty wannabe playwright are fun, but the movie belongs to Leon Errol as Uncle Matt, Lord Epping and Uncle Matt pretending to be Lord Epping. I had never heard of Leon Errol before but his portrayal of an upper class British twit is excellent, and the bizarro walk that he assumes for that character never failed to make me laugh.

This review may contain spoilers.

Whoo boy....
This plot is so ludicrous I'm not sure whether to be delighted or insulted.
With incredibly awful scenes like General: "You gave him an aircraft carrier?" CUT President: "I gave him an aircraft carrier." CUT General: "You can't do that!!" CUT President: "I did!" CUT General: "Why?!" CUT President: "Because I'm the President!!" [or something to that effect, I may have blacked out there for a moment].
The villain guy is terrible (not terribly bad but terribly bad)(if he needs Cruise's doohickey so he can plug in his whatsiz AND Cruise wants to give it to him... why is he trying to crash Cruise's plane???)

And yet...it is fun to see Cruise flopping around on the wing of a plane or flailing around the torpedo room as the submarine rolls off an underwater cliff.

For a film titled the Final Reckoning, the ending didn't seem very final
(if you had a world ending AI trapped in a little glass thingamajig, wouldn't you just smash it and be done?)

complicated mix of feelings after this one....

Joy at how much fun and creativity he brought into the works. That the everyday can be magical.

Nostalgia, both for those old Pee Wee times, my younger self, and the googie world of toys, designs and whatnot he refracted through his work.

Something akin to regret or shame in realizing that I've been mostly been living half awake in comparison.

Grief at the idea that he's gone. Even forgetting all his work, I'd give almost anything just for more hours of Paul sitting there talking into the camera. Though the heart felt audio of him a day before he died is harrowing. We're all here for a time and then we're gone.

Satisfaction that in some sense, through this film he got to write his own eulogy.

Matt Wolf did fine assembling this, but I do wish Paul had been able to direct his own more abstract version.

Sook-Hee goes through not one but two different La Femme Nikita type assassin training programs (no wonder she's so good at it!)
She's very competent in ordinary murdering situations, but when you add a layer of grief and revenge she becomes an unstoppable killing machine.
The opening and closing action set pieces are truly bonkers.

A documentary on Jerry Lewis's unfinished film "The Day the Clown Cried" is loaded with potential. Is the remaining footage as terrible as has been often depicted? Mostly yes, you can see the ideas that he was going for but it practice it doesn't work at all. Then again judging unfinished work is unfair. The talking heads both pump it up and tear it it down. The practical problems of the production (non-English speaking cast/crew being directed by Lewis, producer running off with the money, and, most astoundingly, letting the rights to the story lapse during production) are also fascinating and compelling.
But the film (this one not that one) is frustrating in its execution. You can really feel that they had a lot more audio than video available, as we see repeated (and I mean REPEATED) shots of leader, or dials, or reels slowly turning.
Coulda/shoulda been better?

Western somewhere in-between an A and a B, with an interesting cast:

Shirley MacLaine ,as usual, is singularly endearing.

Leslie Nielsen leaves no impression as the villain, adding another brick towards his late career resurgence as a deadpan comedian (playing off all the blank characters he'd played earlier).

Edgar Buchanan is wonderful, as always (I'd listen to him reciting the phonebook).

Pernell Roberts is fine as an oily villain (see also: "Comanche Station")

Slim Pickens is wonderful, but his screen time is far too short.

All of this is negated by Glenn Ford's playing one of the most insufferable characters I've ever seen.

As a movie about Black history, or blues history, it is quite good.

As a vampire movie, the rules are somewhat unclear and seemingly not all that consistent.

I saw this back when it came out, and I not liking that much (it felt too one note depressing). Watching it again, I think Cage's performance overshadowed the film; he IS very good, especially once he meets Elizabeth Shue (the early scenes have a bit more "Vampire's Kiss" in them than I think he intended). One of my favorite moments is when they first meet and Shue asks him if he's sorry (for almost running her over), the way he says "yes" really cracked me up.
But what really struck me this time was the style of the film, Mike Figgis directed the hell out of it (the camera work, the editing, the sound, the production design are great).

This is one of the most visually inventive and pleasurable films I've seen in quite some time (reminds me of "King of Jazz" in this respect). Twiggy looks like a 1920's drawing come to life, and Tommy Tune is like an animated string of spaghetti (any time he's on screen I can't look away).

The narrative is pretty slight, and doesn't maintain interest for the whole two plus hours length of the film.

Is Malkovich's accent incredibly awful or awfully incredible??

Good film.

While ittedly this one had some laughs, it should've been better/funnier given the stacked cast. Maybe the fact that the cast is so well known played a part? Jared Hess had better command of tone on "Napoleon Dynamite".

A cross between a soap opera and a noir. Robert Young is surprisingly effective as the philandering husband of a controlling wife (he's too beholden to the cushy lifestyle she provides to leave her)(she eventually moves him to a rancho in the middle of the desert to keep him from temptation). Susan Hayward is vivacious as a quick-witted gold digger. It's all pretty solid at first but as the film goes on, the contrivances of the plot get more far-fetched. Also Hayward's flinty character is inexplicably turned into a believer in true love (over Young's character, who's done next to nothing to earn it).

Two moments stuck out for their oddity: 1. the wife (Rita Johnson), recalling fond memories, includes "that train ride to Quito where you bought that mummified head".
2. the way the windshield clearly shatters before before the impact with the truck.

Pretty decent B-Movie starring Humphrey Bogart in one of his first starring roles. He's a relatively uncomplicated decent guy with a potentially disreputable past (and a definitely disreputable Clark Gable mustache!).Margaret Lindsay ably plays one of her good girl types, but Donald Woods is a bit stiff as the third leg in this love triangle.
The budget doesn't feel that constrained except for the octopus special effect, and I have a real weakness for black and white movies set in the tropics (there's something so evocative of dreams, especially in the night time scenes)(see also Bing Crosby's "Waikiki Wedding" among many others).

This review may contain spoilers.

A powerful film. The first half is a good guerrilla fight for independence, with occasional pastoral "Thin Red Line" vibes. But the film really soars in the second half when Ireland 'kinda' gets it's independence, and the Half-a-Loaf treaty tears the Irish rebels into two parties for and against the treaty; leading to a civil war pitting former comrades (and even brothers) against each other. How much is good enough? The high price that has already been paid hardens the resolve of both sides. This being Ken Loach, there is also a strong undercurrent of the fight for economic justice.
The film also really conveys the way that power (and guns) tends to dehumanize the behavior of the strong towards the weak.

A gritty and tough-minded 1970's crime drama about Robert Duvall as a recently released from prison bank robber who's out for payback against the mob who killed his brother (and tried to kill him). John Flynn provides meat and potatoes direction, but the real attraction is the stacked cast.
You have old Hollywood types late in their careers like Robert Ryan, Jane Greer, Marie Windsor and Elisha Cook Jr; New Hollywood types Like Duvall, Karen Black, Jo Don Baker, and Sheree North; and character types like Richard Jaeckel (Sgt Bowren in "The Dirty Dozen"), Emile Meyer (Lt Kello in "Sweet Smell of Success")("C'mere Sidney, I want to chastise you"), and Bill McKinney (the rapist in "Deliverance"). Plus you get Timothy Carey! (however on the Timothy Carey scale, he's relatively tame here). Duvall is strong, but Best of Show probably goes to Baker.
A good exploration of the professional rules and mores of a business that exists outside of normal rules and mores.

Based on a book be Donald Westlake (as Richard Stark).

My one quibble is the title,. You would think that a movie called "The Outfit" would be more about the inner workings of the mob.

Tilman Singer as a directer: 3.5 stars
Tilman Singer as a writer: 2 stars

He becomes a super-spy surprisingly fast (yes, he is a genius, and a background as an analyst)(not to mention his time spent as Mr Robot!)
It WAS an entertaining ride, and he's more emotional than most spies.

Kind of wanted more Jon Bernthal. (I liked their energy together more than RM & LF)

What I found interesting this time (first viewing was when it came out) is how Douglas knows The Game is going on but still can't figure out what is real and what is The Game.
I doubt I'd be as sanguine about the whole thing as Douglas is at the end.

Falls into the gap between sketch world and movie world. Michael Myers is not convincing as an actual person (and the montage of his butcher gags is cringe inducing). The writing and filming also fall short of 'suspension of disbelief'.
That said, there are some pleasures, namely fine extended cameos by Phil Hartman, Steven Wright and Charles Grodin (who create more credible characters in a couple min. of screen time than Myers does in the whole movie.

[I do often like Myers in sketch comedy, but he's kind of addicted to mugging]

Was this the Inspiration for "The Love Boat"? Loaded cast includes Oskar Werner, Simone Signoret, Jose Ferrer, Vivian Leigh, Werner Klemperer, Lee Marvin, and maybe best of all Michael Dunn (Dr Lovelace in "Wild Wild West", I would watch him in anything). Set in 1933, the coming Nazi apocalypse provides backdrop for various soapy subplots between the engers and crew (my favorite was probably the Push-Me-Pull-you 'romance' of young George Segal and Elizabeth Ashley). It's too bad this was Vivian Leigh's last role before retiring, as she still provides a fiery, brittle performance (on the other hand, this might be Lee Marvin's worst [or at least broadest] performance as the drunken racist lout). Actually now that I think about it, he was also this broad in "Cat Ballou", but that was meant to be a comedy, here he's meant to be delivering a serious 'message' about American boorishness.
The 3rd star is for the chance to see Michael Dunn, in a significant role.

This movie has a fine cast (Edward Everett Horton, Jimmie McHugh, Warren William, Claire Dodd) and I love Joan Blondell, but this movie is awful. Blondell bounces between husbands WW and EEH, always tormenting the one she has while chasing the one she hasn't. She thinks a man doesn't love her unless he's ionate enough to hit her and mean it. Obviously this is a pretty dubious philosophy, but if anyone deserves a beating it's her, as she's completely insufferable.

A 156M$ winning lottery ticket gets a lot of people killed. This isn't a world-beater, but it is a taut and nasty low budget crime thriller.
Came for Angus Cloud, stayed for Jessica Garza.

That is a totally committed performance by Amy Adams.

An entertaining and jaunty spy film with a really good score by David Holmes. It's too tidy and obsessed with surfaces to be more than a pleasant diversion.

The truth is messy and complex, so the lawyers for the prosecution (and defense) make up a simplified cartoon version that they try to sell to the jury. Has our addiction to story making/consuming made it impossible to see the chaos of reality? That said, Sandra Hutter plays a convincingly full and ambiguous character.

This is one of those films where you definitely feel the director's specific and individual choices. The narrative and motivational links from scene to scene are tenuous at best, but it's OK because the film relies on the charm of Parker's posing, and she delivers the goods.

I know I'm in the minority here, but I think this is PTA's best film, considerably better than than his overly controlled chilly 'masterpieces' "The Master" or "There Will Be Blood". It pulls you close but maintains as air of mystery as well. The production is so immersive, the sound, the score, the music selections. The visuals (by Robert Elswit)have an almost chewy tactileness (just the texture of Joaquin Phoenix's skin and hair [facial and otherwise] in those close ups). The feel of locations like Gordita Beach streets at twilight or The Chick Planet Massage trailer in the mid-day sun (wind briskly flapping the plastic flags).
The plot, while shambolic, has an internal logic and keeps moving forward. The 'theme' is the waning of the American Dream; or rather, since the actual American Dream has always been about the brutal levers of Capitalism and Imperialism, more of a Dream of the American Dream, that we could be be freer, kinder, better than we were. This Dream crested somewhere between Woodstock and Altamont, and the subsequent undertow wiped out countless dreamers. PTA effectively captures Pynchon's vibe of paranoia and defeat as the monied Conservative elite reestablish primacy (if they had ever ceded it), and the weirdness of a time when Hippies, Nazi bikers, New Age cults and Real Estate moguls were all bumping into each other.
Phoenix's performance as Doc Sportello is one of his best, he maintains a current of intelligence that bubbles just below the stoned surface. The obvious comparison is to Jeff Bridges in "The Big Lebowski", but it's darker, with a greater sense of bitterness amid the resignation. A closer comparison might be to Elliott Gould's Marlowe in "The Long Goodbye", but closer still to Raymond Chandler's original Marlowe, a knight errant who knows the game is rigged but is still willing to stand for his principles (without expectations of success).
Also, Doc's complicated (to say the least) relationship with cop Big Foot Bjornson (and Josh Brolin's unhinged performance) is a wonder to behold.
I might enjoy "Boogie Nights" more (because Mark Wahlberg and John C. Reilly are so funny), but I think this is his best.

An interesting failure of a movie that sinks under its increasingly ludicrous plot twists. The outlandishness becomes comedic, which may or may not be intentional but I suspect not, partly because Joffe is such a self serious director and the bits that are clearly intended to be comedic (like Ellen DeGeneres' cynical wisecracks) mostly land like lead balloons.

While it may not be that good of a movie, it works great as a Time Machine back to an earlier type of Hollywood film(90's Erotic Thriller).
The production design, the camera work, the surprisingly stacked cast: Patricia Arquette, Don Johnson, Dermot Mulroney, Mary Louise Parker, Ellen DeGeneres, Vincent Gallo.

Goofy movie with a charming cast. It's nice to see a film about how people live (scrambling to pay rent) rather than fighting aliens or vengeful wraiths.

Cool premise with some interesting ideas about labor exploitation and identity. But the class warfare angle is weakened by having Mickey be the only expendable on board, and the Characters played by Ruffalo and Colette are so underwritten that they are left cartoonishly flailing.
The whole thing veers off course in the final third.

This sloppy piece is a letdown after the precision of Bong Joon-Ho's "Parasite"

I'll still give it three stars for Robert Pattinson's immensely charming performance and physical comedy.

I didn't have any emotional connection to the movie as it made almost no sense from moment to moment, but it kept my interest waiting for the next gonzo turn. [I guess having the fine cast turn up as different characters in each story imposed a certain structure to the chaos].