As a frequent and steady contributor to The Large Ass Movie Blog, (The LAMB), I always try to get more people involved with the site.
Every Month, the site runs a poll based on the list of films submitted by LAMB members for the prestigious ability of being named as the Movie of the Month that will be discussed on the LAMBCAST podcast during that given month.
I decided that each month I will watch each of the films chosen and give my rankings of those films in order to decide which film I should vote for and in doing so, maybe help some of you also decide which film to vote for.
The voting is open until Sunday the 7th of March, so make sure to get your vote in soon.
This month, there were 9 Contenders suggested so here they are:
- Once Upon A Time in the West (1968) [James Wilson, Blogging by Cinema-Light]
- The Last Picture Show (1971) [Athanasios Jonacas, Cinematic Revelations
- The Last of Sheila (1973) [Sean Homrig, Sh*t We Watched on Netflix]
- The Blues Brothers (1980) [Todd Liebenow, Forgotten Films]
- Manhunter (1986) [Nick Rehak, French Toast Sunday]
- Devil in a Blue Dress (1995) [Aaron Neuwirth, The Code is Zeek]
- Suicide Kings (1997) [Lisa Leaheey, The Critical Movie Critics]
- The Bad Batch (2016) [Rishabh Vashishtha, Rishabh Vashishtha Reviews]
- Wild Rose (2018) [Latoya, Franglais27 Tales]
Here are my rankings along with brief thoughts on each film (click on the film title if you want to read my full review)
9. The Bad Batch – Very strange and weird film that fails to work at all. The characters are presented in a way that doesn’t make them sympathetic at all and that hurts things because the viewer has no reason to care about anything that happens to them along the way. (3/10)
8. Wild Rose – Fun film that works due to the way that they show how the main character does all she can to try and aspire to fulfill her dreams. The cast is fun to watch and they do a nice job developing the characters in intriguing ways. Jessie Buckley does a wonderful job in the lead role and helps make us care s much about what happens to her as the story unfolds. (7/10)
7. The Last of Sheila – Great idea for a film. The use of the various personas that help make a film work is extremely clever to use here. The cast is superbly chosen and Coburn stands out here as the best of he bunch. Loved the murder mystery style of it all and the twists and turns along the way kept getting more and more intriguing. The various explanations by the characters that sometimes contradicted each other helps make this even more mysterious to watch. Witty dialogue helps keep things very interesting the whole way through. (7/10)
6. Devil in a Blue Dress – Really interesting idea that works really well. Washington is great in the lead and it really is too bad that they never made more films with this character because there is so much more to explore in the world he exists in. Having never read the novels, I can’t attest to the fact that they are all as interesting as this one, but they manage to trow so many great twists and turns at us along the way that they end up taking a seemingly simple story and elevate it to a very enjoyable level. Glad that I finally was encouraged to watch this film. (8/10)
5. Suicide Kings – Such a fun movie that works quite well due to the great cast. The dialogue is very engaging and allows us to get an idea as to who each of these characters are and what their goals are while also keeping things so entertaining to watch as things progress. (8/10)
4. The Last Picture Show – Slow, but very good story that says so much about how youth want to get older and how older people reminisce about their vibrant youthful days. Great script that is portrayed expertly by its cast. Bottoms, Bridges and Shepard made names for themselves here. Johnson, Leachman and Burstyn are great in supporting roles that earned each of them an Oscar nomination with Johnson and Leachman taking home supporting actor gold for this movie. (9/10)
3. Manhunter – Great psychological drama that works really well. The trick to watching the movie now is to take away the fact that this film deals with Hannibal Lector because as great and actor as Brian Cox is, he isn’t able to embody the character as well as Anthony Hopkins did just a few years later and changed the way we all see one of the greatest film villains ever. (9/10)
2. The Blues Brothers – Hilarious film that works so well despite its craziness. Belushi and Aykroyd are perfect as the scheming brothers. The jokes are amazingly done because we get so much physical comedy along with the dialogue. The amount of cars wrecked here is unbelievable and they just wreck more and more in such fascinating ways. The music is perfectly used in the film and it all comes together so well. Landis’ use of cameos helps make the story stay even more interesting because you constantly look to see who will pop up out of nowhere. One of the best films to come from an SNL skit. (9/10)
- Once Upon A Time in the West – Great movie that was done exceptionally well. Deliberately slow at certain points, but if you stay patient, it’s completely worthwhile. Three lead actors are all superb! (9/10)
So who should I vote for? – There are 4 great films IMHO in the running this month, but OUITW is by far the best of even those choices and that the film I think should win!
To vote, click here
Good luck to one and all!!!
MovieRob 