The Movies I Watched in August

Boat 2003  7/10

 

After Hours 1985  8/10

 

The Assessment 2024  7/10

 

Bruiser 2000  6/10 

Bug Crawls 2004  6/10 

Cannibal ferox 1981  4/10 

Cheers. Season 1 1982  8/10

 

Chugyeokja 2008  6/10 

The Dentist 1932  6/10 

The End of the Tour 2015  7/10

 

Fantasmi a Roma 1961 5/10 

Frasier. Season 2 2024  6/10 

Ghislaine Maxwell: Filthy Rich 2022  6/10 

GoodFellas 1990  10/10

 

Les innocents aux mains sales 1975  7/10

 

Intervalometer Experiments 2004  6/10 

Into the Fire: The Lost Daughter 2024  6/10 

Lamp 2003  5/10 

Lisa Frankenstein 2024  5/10 

Lonely Are the Brave 1962  7/10

 

Mado 1976  6/10 

The Misfits: Scream! 2000  6/10 

Monk in Pieces 2025  7/10

 

The Outrun 2024  7/10

 

Un prophète 2009  7/10

 

Stolen: Heist of the Century 2025  6/10 

The Thirteenth Floor 1999  6/10

The Time Travelers 1964  7/10

 

Rosanna Arquette

 

Asthma (2014)

A young rock n roller picks up a stunning tattoo artist in a stolen classic.

Likable, but otherwise quite unremarkable outsider romance drama; good performances, though. 

Pulp Fiction (1994)

The lives of two mob hit men, a boxer, a gangster's wife, and a pair of diner bandits intertwine in four tales of violence and redemption.

Arguably Quentin Tarantino's best movie, a stroke of genius concerning several intertwined plots swinging back and forth in time, a treasure trove of cinematic allusions, tongue-in-cheek humour and a very carefully and accurately selected cast; all his subsequent movies have been more or less variations of what you can find here. 

Halliwell***: "Clever, witty, violent celebration of junk culture, drawing rather too heavily on past thrillers but blessed with some excellent performances which crackle with menace."

Maltin***1/2: "Audacious, outrageous look at honors among lowlifes, told in a soemwhat radical style overlapping a handful of separate stories. Jackson and Travolta are magnetic as a pair of  hit men who have philosophical debates on a regular basis; Willis is compelling as a crooked boxer whose plan to take it on the lam hits a few detours. (In fact, there are no slackersin this cast.) This voluble, violent, pumped-up movie isn't for every taste - certainly not for the squeamish - but it's got morevitality than almost any other film of 1994."

The Divide (2011)

Survivors of a nuclear attack are grouped together for days in the basement of their apartment building, where fear and dwindling supplies wear away at their dynamic.

Intense closed-room drama with some nasty scenes and a lot of over-the-top performances.

Inhale (2010)

A couple goes to dangerous lengths to find a lung donor for their daughter.

Intense and in the end harrowing thriller with a complex sociocritical message.

Peace, Love, & Misunderstanding (2011)

An uptight NYC lawyer takes her two teenagers to her hippie mother's farmhouse upstate for a family vacation.

Despite some good performances this lowbrow and only slightly humorous dramedy never misses a cliche; with hippies and squares like these, no wonder punk was a necessity.

Maltin**!/2: "Amiable fluff...Superficial and predictable, to be sure, but pleasant enough to watch given the cast and the lovely setting."

The Whole Nine Yards (2000)

A struggling dentist in Canada finds out that the new neighbor is a well-known mafia killer.

Star-spangled black comedy that for most parts works entertainingly well.

On second view: still OK as mildly amusing entertainment.

Halliwell (no star): "Crude farce, in which Willis does his familiar togh-guy act, Arquette and Pollak use the oddest accents ever heard, and Perry provides the physical comedy; it somehow misses its target."

Maltin**1/2: "Farcical black comedy has enough twists, turns, and laughs to overcome its basic silliness."

Rosanna Arquette

Le Grand bleu (1988)

Two friends grow up together by the sea, their wholes lives a sporting rivalry in free diving.

Visually stunning movie that gained a cult following, in great parts quite moving, but with some bothersome superfluous side characters and a dubious message.

The Whole Nine Yards (2000)

A struggling dentist in Canada finds out that the new neighbor is a well-known mafia killer.

Star-spangled black comedy that for most parts works entertainingly well.

From my vaults: Rosanna Arquette

Bio:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosanna_Arquette