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 A Record of Sweet Murder (2014) Directed by Koji Shiraishi A found footage movie done in one long single take. Whether it was real or not, it looked impressive regardless. A journalist is contacted by a serial killer to meet him and discuss what is happening on camera. We learn that he is witnessing miracles by a voice of God. I'm not that familiar with most of Shiraishi's movies yet, but this follows up with his other movie I just watched called Occult. In fact, some of the same things exist in both films. The actual story of this movie is pretty interesting, and overall, it's a very well done found footage flick with one exception. And it's a big one. For some reason there is a pretty disturbing rape and sex scene that I found nearly ruined what would have been an amazing movie. It just seemed way out of place. Beyond that, I was completely engrossed from start to finish and his endings so far have always been pretty well done as well. 3/5 Philthy fucked around with this message at 08:45 on Feb 4, 2024 |
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Feb 4, 2024 05:46
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 The Blair Witch Project (1999) Directed by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez A group of friends are documenting the legend of the Blair Witch. They go exploring into the woods and expect to camp only a few days, but soon get lost. Weird stuff happens and the movie ramps up the terror to 11. Blair Witch still holds up after multiple viewings. I saw this in the theater with friends. Back then we went camping quite a bit, and this freaked us out so much. Even to this day there isn't a moment camping when you're looking at the inside of your tent and you're remembering that particular scene from the movie. Even hearing raccoons and other wildlife as you're dozing off there is probably a point where your mind goes to this movie for a brief moment. A classic. 5/5
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Feb 4, 2024 08:44
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I love horror films, but Blair Witch is pretty much the only horror film I know of that actually keeps my attention to the end, and I love it for that.
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Feb 4, 2024 12:20
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Upsidads posted:Man this is what bums me out about live action Japan stuff. They don't put real money into it. Sweet Home has a bit of a legacy, it's from 1989 and only been on VHS and laserdisc Yeah, it's wild. Feels like if THE THING had only ever come out on VHS and was just known through reputation.
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Feb 4, 2024 16:42
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I remember people in the theatre audibly freaking out at the last shot. Such a fun movie to watch with a big group of people.
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Feb 4, 2024 22:49
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Philthy posted:
I saw this in the theater when it came out. I watched it again recently and what hit me wasn’t the supernatural stuff but the desperation about being lost, cold, hungry, scared, and turning on each other.
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Feb 5, 2024 08:11
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Roger Ebert made the same observation in his review in 1999:quote:As fear and desperation grow, the personalities of the characters emerge. "We agreed to a scouted-out project!" one guy complains, and the other says, "Heather, this is so not cool!" Heather keeps up an optimistic front; the woods are not large enough to get lost in, she argues, because "This is America. We've destroyed most of our national resources." Eventually her brave attitude disintegrates into a remarkable shot in which she films her own apology (I was reminded of explorer Robert Scott's notebook entries as he froze to death in Antarctica). Despite the movie's success, I think most people are still hung up on the witch never being revealed and Heather's snot.
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Feb 5, 2024 15:08
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Star Man posted:Roger Ebert made the same observation in his review in 1999: If the fact you dont get to see the witch or the film ends with a 'gently caress you you're in the dark as much as Heather' ruins the film for you then I unironically feel bad for you. Cat Hassler posted:I saw this in the theater when it came out. I watched it again recently and what hit me wasn’t the supernatural stuff but the desperation about being lost, cold, hungry, scared, and turning on each other.
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Feb 5, 2024 18:47
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Blackbird (2022) A 100% earnest film written, produced, financed and directed by Michael Flatley, the Irish tap dancer, also starring himself as what he imagines the coolest secret agent in the world would look like, like a real-life, unironic Decker. It's got Flatley in tilted Panama hats, tilted fedoras, tilted ivy caps, the obligatory 'dress shirt with undone bow tie'. It's got Flatley being the ultimate Gentleman, turning down sexual advances from women 1/4 his age, Flatley killing enormous bouncer dudes two foot taller than him with a single one-two combo, delivering lines like 'forgive me father for I have sinned...and I'm about to sin again' with such a swollen, red face and strained voice it's like he's admitting he's about to poo poo himself (this bit's even in the trailer). It's also got the legendary Eric Roberts being legendary in it, and lots of background characters visibly corpsing during serious scenes, so it's not all bad. 1/5 or 5/5 depending on what you're looking for
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Feb 5, 2024 19:00
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toiletbrush posted:Literally nothing supernatural happens in the whole film (IIRC?) Everything can be explained by the them all becoming increasingly disoriented and angry with each other while a group of teenagers gently caress with them. Yeah, this was a good part of the misdirection that the movie had. The audience all knew they were in trouble because of being worn down, and even rewatching it I kept finding myself hoping they'd find a way out despite knowing how it ends. They do such a good job with that here. It's only when they get the bloody teeth package and the goop covered clothes that the reality begins to sink in that they're likely not getting out of this alive. That hope you had of maybe their room mate calling the cops and sending a helicopter out for them is gone. The witch has control of the surroundings, no one is going to find them. Philthy fucked around with this message at 20:48 on Feb 5, 2024 |
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Feb 5, 2024 20:37
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I so desperately wish Heather had captured the guy in the white hood in the middle of the night, but the camera wasn't turned on during their sprint.
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Feb 5, 2024 22:13
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 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016) Directed by Dan Trachtenberg Okay, this movie kicks all kinds of rear end. I hadn't seen this since it came out and beyond knowing that I enjoyed it, I forgot most everything about it. That usually means I didn't care for it, but in this case it worked in my favor because it was god drat cool. The story begins with our main character Michelle leaving her boyfriend. She is distracted while driving and suddenly gets into an accident. She wakes up in what looks to be a compound run by John Goodman. Needless to say, they don't hit things off very well and there is unease and tension throughout. The movie is just pure dread, with multiple sources of frustration and anxiety. It eventually ramps up and becomes absolutely brutal with people fighting for their lives while you're trying to piece together what is real and what isn't. John Goodman gives such a good performance here. Just incredible. 4.5/5
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Feb 5, 2024 23:25
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Star Wars: Somehow, Palpatine Returned (2019): D As the convoluted plot of Star Wars IX wends its way through the two hour runtime, a strange sense of deja vu starts to set in: "Hey, I've seen that! This too!" That's because you have; much like its Star Trek counterpart, Into Darkness, this movie is a blatant retread of elements from older and better movies, often with lines of dialogue lifted directly from the older source material. Almost every bit of this movie is something we've seen before in Star Wars. The result is a dumbed down insult to your intelligence that doesn't really go anywhere; characters fall rear end backwards into revelations (Exogol being a planet nobody knows how to locate but Rey just happening to have a star map is like something from The Naked Gun) and chase after magic macguffins that end up not mattering at all. Characters look to be on the brink of the Dark Side/despair/etc, receive a Good Talking To, and are instantly set right because the plot demands it. Right when things look the darkest for the Good Guys, suddenly there's a totes unexpected turnaround and the Good Guys are winning again. Stupid. Utterly stupid. That being said, not all of this movie is a total loss. There are a couple of scenes that I thought were pretty cool: the communication-through-the-Force scenes that are reminiscent of visits with the Prophets of Bajor; even Kylo being taken aback when Rey accidentally shoots Force Lightning from the fingertips. But these isolated scenes alone aren't enough to save this mess of a trilogy. None of this makes sense or has much of a logical sequence, and there is at least one scene that is a blatant "corrective" for certain scenes from The Last Jedi. I'll stick with the Original Trilogy, thanks. F_Shit_Fitzgerald fucked around with this message at 02:03 on Feb 6, 2024 |
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Feb 6, 2024 02:01
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I'll never get over the direct rip off of not just the one, but BOTH of the climactic moments of Avengers Endgame. The lone soldier staring down the overwhelming enemy forces when the good guy reinforcements show up behind him and triumphant music swells, then the "I am inevitable" "and I am Ironman" - "I am all the sith" "and I am all the Jedi". I was groaning through the entire lovely ending.
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Feb 6, 2024 03:10
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Bottom Liner posted:I'll never get over the direct rip off of not just the one, but BOTH of the climactic moments of Avengers Endgame. The lone soldier staring down the overwhelming enemy forces when the good guy reinforcements show up behind him and triumphant music swells, then the "I am inevitable" "and I am Ironman" - "I am all the sith" "and I am all the Jedi". I was groaning through the entire lovely ending. Hmm. You know how they say when AI models start copying each other, it becomes a model collapse? Maybe something similar happens when movies keep copy too many moments from each other
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Feb 6, 2024 03:31
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The Player (1992) I'd heard of Robert Altman before but never watched any of his films. This one is great! A take-no-prisoners satire of Hollywood where everyone looks bad. The executives are smarmy and backstabbing, the writers are pretentious or psychotic. Directors and producers may start with some integrity towards their projects, but their ideas are bad anyway, and they cave when the test audiences want a happy ending and recognizable faces. Its a world bereft of morality where as long as you can convince yourself of your own story, you can get away with murder. It's the kind of cynical movie I like because it feels so true to Altman's experiences so it has so much specificity in all the conversations between all the players. The line where one particularly hack executive comes up with a plan to get rid of writers altogether reminded me a lot of the current debate over AI and how frothing at the mouth film executives are to deploy that as much as they can. Ccs fucked around with this message at 16:07 on Feb 6, 2024 |
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Feb 6, 2024 16:05
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Police Story (1985) My experience with Jackie Chan's filmography is woefully lacking outside of like...Jackie Chan Adventures, so I figured the best place to start would be his commonly considered best movie. And man, it's so fuckin' good. Jackie Chan's main reputation is of course in his martial arts and stunt skills which are on full display here in a fashion that is only possible in mid-80s Hong Kong, but the man is also goddamn hilarious about it. It's so obvious that Jackie was a fan of Buster Keaton and decided to put that stuff up to 11. The opening raid on the drug den and the final battle in the mall are both just unparalleled feats of action cinema, with a finale so nice of course they had to show it thrice. 4/5
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Feb 6, 2024 22:44
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Waffleman_ posted:Police Story (1985) That’s not how you spell Police Story 3 or Drunken Master 2
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Feb 6, 2024 22:52
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Waffleman_ posted:Police Story (1985) it's wild to see a scene of multiple stuntmen being sent to the hospital, followed immediately by a goofball scene of Jackie juggling 5 corded phones. movies so great
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Feb 6, 2024 22:57
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Steve Yun posted:That’s not how you spell Police Story 3 or Drunken Master 2
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Feb 6, 2024 23:11
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The Exorcist (1973): A A slow burn of a film. The demon possession stuff doesn't even start happening until approximately a third to halfway through the film, after the main characters - Chris, Regan and Father Karras, are well established. I would not necessarily characterize this movie as "scary"; more tense as you wonder how the plot will wind up as there are at least two intersecting story lines happening at once (the murder investigation and, obviously, the Exorcism). Also, I did not quite get the line of dialogue at the end of Star Wars 9 between Calrissian and the woman from Endor; was he supposed to be hitting on her? Because....gross. e: It's bizarre to me that religious people - among them, of all people, Catholics - were so against this film (The Exorcist) upon its release. You'd think they would be thrilled about a film depicting an Exorcism and beating it back with the Power Of God. Whatever you think of demon possession (I don't particularly believe in it), I thought it was a really interesting film and you don't have to be religious to appreciate and enjoy it. Catholics gonna Catholic, I guess. F_Shit_Fitzgerald fucked around with this message at 20:21 on Feb 7, 2024 |
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Feb 7, 2024 02:17
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 Deadly Friend (1985) Directed by Wes Craven Yikes. So, this started off well enough, if not a little cheesy. A high school college kid is a leading roboticist who makes a robot that sounds like a gremlin. The neighborhood has some issues, and it all goes downhill from there. A shotgun toting Mama Fratelli makes an appearance, and aside from a pretty hilarious kill scene, there wasn't much that was worthwhile here. 2/5
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Feb 7, 2024 04:55
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Famethrowa posted:it's wild to see a scene of multiple stuntmen being sent to the hospital, followed immediately by a goofball scene of Jackie juggling 5 corded phones. And then eating an eraser while using two pencils as chopsticks
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Feb 7, 2024 05:05
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Philthy posted:
check out the production history on this one, studio interference basically changed it into an entirely different movie. Craven was originally aiming to do a sci fi romance in the style of Starman
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Feb 7, 2024 16:50
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Transatlantic flight today meant watching films the way they were meant to be, on the back of a seat and low res enough to see the pixels. Cinema! No Hard Feelings *** 2023 felt like a return for comedy, and I kept seeing this one cited amongst things like Bottoms, but I don’t see it. It’s just not particularly funny, nor does it seem to be really trying to be? It’s an amusing tale, it kinda ends where you expect it to (except for the potential relationship brought up in the middle kinda just fizzling out). It’s not Mark Wahlberg adopts kids levels of so called comedy, but it’s not that far away either. Past Lives ****.5 Oh gently caress yeah now we’re talking. Just photographic, dialog that keeps you engaged, and a desire to know where things are heading the whole time. Feels simple on the surface, but there’s definitely stuff brewing. I really dug this and the concept just hits. Reality ***.5 Sydney Sweeney kills in what’s essentially a dramatization of a JCS YouTube video. I’m guessing this went to HBO and not theaters so isn’t eligible for best actress? I’m not sure it needs to exist when I guess you could just read the transcripts, but I’m kinda glad it does just for her performance. Priscilla *** Feels weird giving a low score to a well made, written, and performed movie but it just spins its wheels for most of the time. I guess having seen Baz’s Elvis might make me appreciate it more? Or caring about that man in one direction or the other. In the end it just seemed ‘90 minutes of reasons to find Elvis gross’ and then an ending. I like the concept, it just needed more - but if the source material doesn’t have that, what are you supposed to do?
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Feb 8, 2024 03:42
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 The Innkeepers (2011) Directed by Ti West A pair of innkeepers split shifts during the last days before the hotel's final closing. During that time, they goof off and joke with each other and the few remaining guests. One of the innkeepers happens to run a web site about how the hotel is haunted, and they decide to track down more solid proof before it closes. It begins light hearted enough, with some great interactions between the characters. It's a slow burn, but it's kept interesting throughout with some spooky scenes. The filming is done incredibly well, with some nice tense music at times. A pretty great haunted "house" flick. I really enjoyed it. 3.5/5
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Feb 8, 2024 04:55
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 Trance (2013) Directed by Danny Boyle A painting heist goes sideways with one of their members losing his memory in the process. They employ the services of a hypnotherapist to try and regain memories to learn what happened. The movie gets incredibly weird and somewhat violent. It was a unique tale, with a pretty decent soundtrack. In the end the story was just middle of the road. 3/5
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Feb 9, 2024 06:10
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Philthy posted:She wakes up in what looks to be a compound run by John Goodman. John Goodman gives such a good performance here. Just incredible. John Goodman's character having an SD CRT TV in 2016. That's a deal-breaker. I'd be looking for a new bunker. F_Shit_Fitzgerald posted:e: It's bizarre to me that religious people - among them, of all people, Catholics - were so against this film (The Exorcist) upon its release. You'd think they would be thrilled about a film depicting an Exorcism and beating it back with the Power Of God. Whatever you think of demon possession (I don't particularly believe in it), I thought it was a really interesting film and you don't have to be religious to appreciate and enjoy it. Catholics gonna Catholic, I guess. There's definitely a disconnect within religions between what is acceptable in the written text and what's acceptable to be shown through TV/radio/movies et al. Within the Bible there are all kinds of things that are highly taboo. But AFAIK there aren't any adherents who want all that stuff depicted. It'd be rated NC-17 and highly controversial. Zogo fucked around with this message at 06:39 on Feb 9, 2024 |
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Feb 9, 2024 06:36
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The Catholic Church actually did ultimately give The Exorcist an OK because the powers of good win out in the end (as opposed to Rosemary’s Baby).
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Feb 9, 2024 20:27
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F_Shit_Fitzgerald posted:(Exogol being a planet nobody knows how to locate but Rey just happening to have a star map is like something from The Naked Gun) No, see, they had to get the magic dagger, and then get the runes translated, and then go stand in the right spot on that other planet where the edge of the knife lined up with the death star wreckage, and then go to the room in the wreckage that the knife indicated was the correct one, and then get the Sith wayfinder. And *that's* how Rey had a star map to the Palpy Planet.
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Feb 9, 2024 22:05
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Rise of Skywalker was such a huge bummer. Just a pants on head stupid movie with mind boggling bad pacing. The first sequel film built some goodwill by being an incredibly safe retread of A New Hope but Last Jedi for its flaws at least had some interesting elements to it. 9 just kinda shits all over the whole thing. That’s the one where you can REALLY tell this whole thing was not thought out ahead of time. What a waste. Adam Driver carried that trilogy.
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Feb 9, 2024 23:37
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man nurse posted:
I think all of the actors gave performances far above the quality of the writing in 7 and 9. I agree that 8 was doing interesting things with both the big picture and characters and gave them the most to work with.
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Feb 9, 2024 23:39
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Bottom Liner posted:I think all of the actors gave performances far above the quality of the writing in 7 and 9. I agree that 8 was doing interesting things with both the big picture and characters and gave them the most to work with. I agree, I don't think any of the cast was a weak link, moreso how their characters were handled. I think what I meant to say was Kylo Ren was the most interesting thing the sequels had going for them, and he did the part well.
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Feb 9, 2024 23:41
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I always felt Adam Driver was miscast for his role. He never sold it for me, and just didn't look the part. That said, all those movies were pretty bad. I don't plan on seeing any of them more than the one time I saw them. I kept getting excited for each one and thought they had cool parts, but walked out feeling like I got conned. I'm incredibly nostalgic, so I've got a lot of dumb opinions.
Philthy fucked around with this message at 01:26 on Feb 10, 2024 |
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Feb 10, 2024 01:21
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 Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant Directed by Paul Weitz Two high school friends attend a freakshow and get caught up with vampires and a whole assortment of creature castings. Two rival vampire factions are being manipulated into going to war against each other. This was the first of a series of movies based on a 13-book series, but they all got canceled when this movie didn't make back its budget. It's kind of surprising because it was better than I expected. Besides John C. Reilly feeling way out of place, everyone else was decently cast and were fun to watch. The story wasn't half bad, but it was only the beginning. Overall, it felt like a movie made by Disney. I had fun watching it. 3/5
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Feb 10, 2024 02:02
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man nurse posted:I agree, I don't think any of the cast was a weak link, moreso how their characters were handled. I think what I meant to say was Kylo Ren was the most interesting thing the sequels had going for them, and he did the part well. They were all pretty good but if I'm honest, I thought Ridley was a tad unconvincing in a few spots in 9. But yeah, Driver was better than his role. The 'sad emo kid Sith' thing never gelled with me, but that's not Driver's fault.
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Feb 10, 2024 02:37
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For some reason I think alot about the scene in Marriage Story when Adam Driver's character cracks while yelling horrible poo poo. Man isn't subtle but he's just so drat good at being raw.
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Feb 10, 2024 08:45
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Adam Driver is great because he plays every character like he's in a comedy movie.
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Feb 10, 2024 19:05
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Ghouls.
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Feb 10, 2024 19:15
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 It Follows (2014) Directed by David Robert Mitchell An unrelenting demon picks a victim and will chase them until they're dead, and then move on to another. The way it chooses its victims is both amusing and genius. You immediately start thinking how the victims can try and shake this thing throughout the entire movie, and well after it's done. The camera work is fantastic, and the synthwave soundtrack is just awesome. It's the full package. If I were to have any complaints, it's that the characters didn't figure out what you would be thinking of doing if it was after you. I'm not so sure that would make for an interesting movie, though. How is this movie 10 years old already? 4/5
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Feb 10, 2024 20:38
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