Last film you saw

I've seen a lot since I last posted so I'll quickly recap:

- [REC] was the best found footage horror I saw, it's genuinally scary.

- I liked Don't Look Now quite a bit but I think its a movie that I'll like a lot more whenever I see it again.

- Rosemary's Baby is fantastic

- Blinded by the Light was cheesy and all that but otherwise enjoyable.

I had been going on a Martin Scorsese marathon of sorts in the lead up to The Irishman

- Who's that Knocking at My Door is not great but it showed a lot of talent from Scorsese's direction even back then and the leads are really good.

- Mean Streets (rewatch) is Scorsese's big break, and is really rough but full of energy.

- Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore is an emotional yet raw family drama, with Ellen Burstyn giving a fantastic performance.

- Taxi Driver - 3rd viewing and this is one of his all time best movies, still holds up today.

- New York, New York - An ambitious experiment from Scorsese that didn't entirely work. I liked the musical sections and Liza Minnelli but the deconstruction of the genre didn't work so well with the rest of the movie tonally, it's way too long and De Niro's character (although he's good playing the character) is so unlikable that it's actually really hard to watch the whole movie.

I watched The Hustler since I knew that The Color of Money was a sequel to it and it was decent enough and I liked the acting but I wasn't really into it. I lost interest in it over time.

I started my Star Wars revists with The Phantom Menace, and although I liked it more than the last time I saw it (before The Force Awakens) I'm still very mixed about it. For every good aspect (or at least aspect that I appreciate), there's another weird, random and generally bad choice that doesn't work. I don't dislike it, I'm just rather disappointed in it. I know a lot of people consider Attack of the Clones to be the worst but I like it more than Phantom Menace.

I also continued my Martin Scorsese marathon.

- Raging Bull was a tough watch and it was a second time viewing but it's undeniably fantastic, from the direction to the acting, particularly De Niro who gives one of his all time best performances.

- I quite enjoyed The Color of Money, I liked the script and the acting was pretty good, but the direction and editing were the real stars of the show.

- I had no idea how I was going to find The Last Temptation of Christ but having seen it I consider it to be among Scorsese's best films.

- Goodfellas is still a classic for a reason, I forgot how fast paced and incredible it was.

- However I do still like Casino more than Goodfellas. Casino was the movie that got me really into film, and so it'll always have a special place in my heart. Watching it much now that I'm much older now though, I understand a lot more about what's going on and I appreciate it more. This and Taxi Driver at the moment are tied for my fave Scorsese movies.

- Didn't know what to expect from Kundun. I don't know really anything about the Dalai Lamah so it was definitely an interesting experience learening about him. However it's the technical side that I loved most of all, from Scorsese's direction (this has to be his most 'different' film), Thelma Schoonmaker's editing, Roger Deakins's cinematography and Phillip Glass's score, all of it was fantastic.

Probably will be rewatching the rest of Scorsese's filmography, though I'll skip The Departed and The Wolf of Wall Street since I'm already pretty familiar with them. I also skipped rewatching After Hours and Cape Fear so I might take a look at them at some point.

So I've seen a lot since I last posted here.

I saw The Thin Red Line for the first time, really solid movie and is on a technical level fantastic, albeit quite long. I'll need to rewatch it at some point.

I also watched a few more Star Wars movies in prep for The Rise of Skywalker

- Attack of the Clones is still the second worst of the series. It's still got some merit, and I like a lot of the ideas, it's mainly just the execution of its ideas that's the problem.

- I always really liked Revenge of the Sith but I liked it even more on a rewatch. Once again there are some great ideas, but here they succeed a lot more than with the past two movies. The second half in particular is great. There's just a few things that frustrated me, but its especially because of how good the rest of everything is.

- Solo: A Star Wars Story is fine. It's a fun movie for sure but it's not much more than that. I looked the different settings but I would've liked for the movie to have leaned in more heavier with that. It also feels incredibly safe.

I also finished my Scorsese marathon:

- After Hours is still pretty good, and is solid darkly comedy but I feel like the movie is missing something. I feel like the movie is trying to say something, but I don't know what it is.

- Scorsese really made the Cape Fear remake even better than the material, elevating it from a standard stalker thriller and also adding some family drama, more complexity to the character, and it's really good overall.

- Bringing Out the Dead is another underrated Scorsese film and I think it's really fantastic. A great character study that's both dark and surprisingly funny, and Nicolas Cage gives one of his best performance.

- Gangs of New York is one of Scorsese's most ambitious films and sadly its one of his weakest movies. The script is rather weak but a big problem is no doubt a certain infamous producer who shall not be named, who no doubt interfered with the film in many way, you can feel it throughout. Nonetheless it's still got some good stuff to it, parts of Scorsese's direction is good, I liked aspects of the story, and some of the acting is good, the highlight being Daniel Day-Lewis.

- I appreciated The Aviator a lot more on a second viewing, it's a large scale and ambitious movie, and as a biopic it really worked, Leo is phenomenal too.

- The Departed is still among my favourite Scorsese movies.

- Shutter Island is a completely different film on a rewatch, really fantastic psychological thriller with Leo giving one of his best performances.

- Hugo is a kids film but its also such a great tribute to cinema, stunning movie. Only problem was some annoying comic relief, the rest of it was good.

- Silence is among Scorsese's best work, though it's not one that I want to watch for a third time.

I also saw Ready or Not, Knives Out and The Irishman, reviews are coming for them but I'm comfortable in saying that the latter two are among my favourite films of the year.