|
Civil War (2024): That was intense. Music was sometimes out of place. Held me breath a lot. Last 20 minutes is some of the best war movie footage done. A $50 million movie that looks like $150 million. Worth seeing. Comstar fucked around with this message at 13:47 on Apr 11, 2024 |
#
?
Apr 11, 2024 13:34
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 6, 2024 01:38 |
|
|
Comstar posted:Civil War (2024): That was intense. Music was sometimes out of place. Held me breath a lot. Last 20 minutes is some of the best war movie footage done. A $50 million movie that looks like $150 million. my friend who i went with called out the music choices, too. i think they were intentionally dissonant with what was going on on screen and found the choices interesting but def can see why they'd be jarring.
|
|
#
?
Apr 11, 2024 18:40
|
|
|
Pulp Fiction is still a lot of fun and every line feels iconic, but Tarantino's character is easily the worst and most unnecessary part. All the n-words being the thing that has aged least well about it feels like a weird thing since it was supposed to be so transgressive at the time, but the Jimmy character just feels like a highly questionable indulgence as much as all the foot massage stuff. There's no reason for this suburban tangential associate of Jules and Vincent to be like that or talk like that, and Tarantino is not that good an actor, he stumbles around over his own lines and he doesn't sell whatever pseudo-badass angle he comes in with, especially once he gets all simpering toward the Wolf the moment that first scene is over. I don't get what he thought he was trying to pull off. I'm not sure why I always had trouble understanding the narrative sequencing on past viewings. I think I was always confused by stuff like not understanding how different kinds of powder drugs worked and thus what was going on with the Mia scene at all, and also probably attempted to take "why'd you try to gently caress him like a bitch" too literally as though what happens later is something that just seems to happen to Marsellus on a recurring basis, which also made me think the opening apartment scene was supposed to be the consequence of the Zed scene somehow. I don't know, sometimes I feel like past me was too stupid to have lived to $current_age without external equipment
|
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2024 05:04
|
|
|
Jade William Friedkin There are some films that are good not because they're good in themselves but because they're so poor that they make you appreciate the art of good and great films even more; Jade is one of those films. I couldn't help but think of Chinatown, one of my favorite films, and how it always manages to keep the viewer just in step with Nicholson and just behind the villains the whole way through without ever losing anyone or pulling something out of it's rear end to trick the viewer. The way it focuses on just a few main characters, drills their character into your head while continually revealing more about them while repeating phrases and stealthily enough that you are cognizant of them while keeping the realization that you are mishearing or understanding them just outside your grasp. Jade instead has a charisma less Caruso sleepwalking his way through a case that is somehow both confusing and obvious, you aren't surprised in the end about the reveals because you didn't see it coming, you're taken aback on the realization that so much of what you watched was pure blind alleys and contrivance to distract you from the obvious. In a better movie such sleight of hand might be admirable but you do need something behind that sleight for it to make any impact at all, and there Jade falls flat on it's face. Somehow we get a dull as dishwater Caruso demonstrating why he was relegated to TV, a more interesting rival in Palmenteri who is at least fun to watch as he struggles his way through each scene with what seems to be a complete lack of direction, a sea of interchangeable clean cut white guys, and two interesting female characters one of which is left as a smear on a fender and the other who is trying her damndest to elevate material stuck in the earth's mantle. The man who got such incredible chase scenes on film in To Live and Die in LA and French Connection manages to flub this films chases', plural, with the dollar store Bullitt. In the rest of the film he makes up for his lack of direction to his actors with way too much cinematography. The bizarre sex scene looks like it came out of a truly terrible music video while the final home invasion looks like someone trapped in Disney's Haunted House ride, and interspersed between all this is a cornucopia of unnecessary and jarring cuts and pans just to make sure you're constantly annoyed at the visuals on the screen. I do think Fiorentino is noticeably good in some of her scenes where you can see how differently she reacts when she's in control and when the power balance is shifted. And it's not like the themes it examines aren't interesting, but being a movie that is easy to write a paper on themes doesn't imply quality.
|
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2024 05:13
|
|
|
Civil War - As I was exiting the theater, I caught an older woman pretty loudly saying "Irresponsible. Absolutely irresponsible" and shaking her head all the way out the door. Masterpiece.
|
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2024 14:50
|
|
|
American Graffiti - Based on the dialogue in Star Wars, I hadn't expected George Lucas to write such believable, genuine characters; from the very first scene the movie is willing to leave lines unsaid, to let implications hang in the air or be suggested with just some physical acting. If a character says something that seems forced or rings untrue, it's because it was written to be that way; when the characters are genuine, they're believable. Maybe his imagination and ability to realize a world becomes more grounded when he's evoking his own past instead of a fantasy, maybe it's just the differing genres of American Graffiti and Star Wars, or maybe George Lucas just gets worse as writer as his ages and his career changes. Notably, Wikipedia suggests it was editors that gave the film's narratives their intertwined nature, whereas George had originally intended to go through them all linearly, which doesn't sound like it would have been nearly as good. Regardless, relative to his later work it's such an effective, subtle, and cheaply made movie that it makes me wonder what else we might have gotten out of George Lucas if the increasing spectacle of Star Wars hadn't consumed essentially the rest of his film making career.
Jack B Nimble fucked around with this message at 22:20 on Apr 13, 2024 |
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2024 17:51
|
|
|
Jack B Nimble posted:American Graffiti - Based on the dialogue in Star Wars, I hadn't expected George Lucas to write such believable, genuine characters; from the very first scene the movie is willing to leave lines unsaid, to let implications hang in the air or be suggested with just some physical acting. If a character says something that seems forced or rings untrue, it's because it written to be that way; when the characters are genuine, they're believable. Maybe his imagination and ability to realize a world becomes more grounded when he's evoking his own past instead of a fantasy, maybe it's just the differing genres of American Graffiti and Star Wars, or maybe George Lucas just gets worse as writer as his ages and his career changes. Notably, Wikipedia suggests it was editors that gave the film's narratives their intertwined nature, whereas George had originally intended to go through them all linearly, which doesn't sound like it would have been nearly as good. Regardless, relative to his later work it's such an effective, subtle, and cheaply made movie that it makes me wonder what else we might have gotten out of George Lucas if the increasing spectacle of Star Wars hadn't consumed essentially the rest of his film making career. Yeah his sci Fi movie THX1138 is Logan's Run, Soylent Green and 1984 with the serial numbers filed off but it's a much more coherent movie than the Star Wars Prequels. Makes you wonder what could have been for sure
|
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2024 21:16
|
|
|
Joker: It's genuinely well made and the tension is great, but it is so clearly a pastiche of other films. It makes me feel weird that a character study like this would only get made by a major studio if it was based on comic books. Also the inclusion of the Waynes felt so corny. Like franchise bait.
|
|
#
?
Apr 14, 2024 04:14
|
|
|
Watching The Score with deniro and ed Norton. Can’t believe this dude did another handiman performance after Primal Fear. Movie has a crazy good cast. The opening sequence is as good as Thief’s imo.
|
|
#
?
Apr 14, 2024 22:58
|
|
|
M: 1931 and it still hits so hard. It is so amazing. What else can a movie say? It's out of this world. The I just can't get over how tense the chase feels, but then the last 20 minute court scene investigates so much about society and what we owe to each other. I can't believe I hadn't seen this before, and that despite how well regarded it is there's not more hype about it. Its amazing.
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2024 04:57
|
|
|
Out!(2023): Decent adaption of a deliquent manga that unfortunately does suffer from the usual manga-adapted-to-the-big-screen problems. Feels way too long, a lot of time is spent on characters just standing and talking and not doing much. But when they're not doing that, the movie has a nice flow to it. The characters and actors are charming and have very good chemistry, the action scenes are messy and chaotic but not so much that you don't know what's happening. Also the actor playing Tanzawa Atsushi nails his personality of being a fun little goofball and a violence obsessed psycho. Also some of the dialogue is hilariously stupid.
Archer666 fucked around with this message at 07:38 on Apr 15, 2024 |
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2024 07:36
|
|
|
Night Raiders (2021) on Netflix - decent near-future dystopian sci-fi that has some very clear allegory for the Canadian Native school atrocity thing. Some good effects and world building. Not sure I like the magical child ending. Might have worked better if she summoned a bunch of hawks to take down the drones, or if we saw that the drones were manually controlled by other kids who spoke Cree.
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2024 14:28
|
|
|
The Vourdalak (2023) - what an odd little vampire movie. A French nobleman travels through Eastern Europe in the 1700s and due to unfortunate circumstances ends up lodging with a very strange family, the patriarch of which has been missing for 6 days. Before he left, he told his children not to allow him back into the home if he returns even a second after 6PM on the 6th day, or else he will be a vourdalak, a Slavic vampire that feeds on family members. Well, the father shows back up at the stroke of 6. The movie has a very hazy, dreamlike quality to it and feels very much like a lost 70's European horror flick. The "special effects" choices are quite interesting and actually work for what the movie is going for imo. Such an odd little film. Worth checking out.
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2024 14:56
|
|
|
Die Hard: With a Vengeance: I think this is the first time I've watched it as a whole film. Usually I just watched parts of it on cable growing up. This film has some crazy pacing. Within 2 minutes there's a bomb and within 10 we have met both Bruce Willis and Samuel L Jackson. There's really no wasted time ever in this movie. There's some 90s racism views with Bruce getting to call Sam Jackson a racist, and Sam Jackson mentioning the fear of angry cops in Harlem, but mostly nothing more seems to be made of that then everyone is simply an rear end in a top hat. Overall lots of fun action, riddles, and a cool use of an old song in the score. The last 20 minutes or so on the boat/hotel is a bit weaker, but there's a big explosion and Jeremy Irons making speeches at least.
|
|
#
?
Apr 15, 2024 23:00
|
|
|
Spider-Man Sam Raimi Incredible, proves superhero movies can work when they're done without self mockery and winking. Best JJonah, Green Goblin, Peter, May, MJ and Ben put to film. Somehow feels light on its feet despite covering a ton of time, a full intro arc and first boss arc, a father son triangle and a love quadrilateral. The only bad part is Raimi proved he could do even better in 2
|
|
#
?
Apr 16, 2024 04:44
|
|
|
Gaius Marius posted:Spider-Man Sam Raimi What's your take on the third one?
|
|
#
?
Apr 16, 2024 04:51
|
|
|
It's not nearly as bad as people say. It's quite good honestly but it's held back by the venom stuff that Raimi didn't want. Still better than any other live action Spiderman after it except maybe Amazing 1
|
|
#
?
Apr 16, 2024 05:41
|
|
|
I like Andrew Garfield’s hair.
|
|
#
?
Apr 16, 2024 05:43
|
|
|
spiderman 3 is a very very bad movie tom holland spiderman 1 is a really great spiderman movie
|
|
#
?
Apr 16, 2024 06:14
|
|
|
ShoogaSlim posted:spiderman 3 is a very very bad movie Really hard disagree on that one lol but that's fascinating. I feel like all the Holland Spider Mans are the MCU at its most boring, which is saying something!
|
|
#
?
Apr 16, 2024 10:35
|
|
|
Gaius Marius posted:Spider-Man Sam Raimi It's wild remembering how groundbreaking this seemed (or was) at the time, enough so to warrant a whole Weird Al song showcasing all its omnipresent memes, when so much has happened to the property since then that this iteration is almost forgotten.
|
|
#
?
Apr 16, 2024 10:41
|
|
|
I'm surprised Disney never tried to throw a bunch of money at Raimi to do some stuff with their b properties BC his Spiderman films kind of cemented "super hero movie" in my mind. Like the X-Men movies had some great bits but always seemed a bit stilted and bereft of life whereas the Spiderman trilogy, even the bad one kind of ooze dynamic shots and feel like a comic brought to life a
|
|
#
?
Apr 16, 2024 11:12
|
|
|
chibi luda posted:Really hard disagree on that one lol but that's fascinating. I feel like all the Holland Spider Mans are the MCU at its most boring, which is saying something! They're saved by the villains. Data Graham posted:It's wild remembering how groundbreaking this seemed (or was) at the time, enough so to warrant a whole Weird Al song showcasing all its omnipresent memes, when so much has happened to the property since then that this iteration is almost forgotten. The last Iron Man Jr. film was built solely on the promise of the return of Tobey Jezza of OZPOS posted:I'm surprised Disney never tried to throw a bunch of money at Raimi to do some stuff with their b properties BC his Spiderman films kind of cemented "super hero movie" in my mind. Like the X-Men movies had some great bits but always seemed a bit stilted and bereft of life whereas the Spiderman trilogy, even the bad one kind of ooze dynamic shots and feel like a comic brought to life a They did, he directed multiverse of madness
|
|
#
?
Apr 16, 2024 11:50
|
|
|
Drop Dead Gorgeous Very talented up and comers working with a great premise and a bad script that didn't know how to end. Would be a solid 3.5 if they'd just ended it with Kirsten going to nationals. Licorice Pizza Probably the best chillout movie of the decade. Even my buddy who isn't all that discerning when it comes to actors was astonished by how good Cooper and especially Alana were. I sold it to him on it being chill as hell after he almost vetoed it after drat near having a panic attack during Punch Drunk Love; I've seen it more than a dozen times so it doesn't really bother me anymore, but seeing him watch it reminded me of how tense some of the film is for a first time viewer. Like a lot of PTA I think it's also a lot funnier on rewatch when you know that poo poo isn't about to fully go to poo poo and allow yourself to laugh at Alana falling on her rear end and breaking her sister's guitar or every second John Peters is on screen.
|
|
#
?
Apr 16, 2024 12:00
|
|
|
Maniac Cop - went into this blind only knowing the actors and production team by reputation. It's an entertaining movie, nothing particularly special for the genre but it has Bruce Campbell and Tom Atkins being great, those significantly less Bruce than expected With him being the "hero" - I kind of thought Atkins was until his demise And of course Robert Z'dar is always a treat. Kept noting the silver in his hair here, which stood out, I'd never noticed before (or maybe never seen him at this age?). The plot is meh and it clearly just exists to keep me kills going, none of which are particularly unique. It's more a sum of its parts, as it were. I would not go out of my way to watch this again but for an Alamo screening on my pass and a chance to watch New York City in the 80s for an hour and a half? Absolutely worth it McGann fucked around with this message at 14:12 on Apr 16, 2024 |
|
#
?
Apr 16, 2024 14:10
|
|
|
It's difficult to decide if it's better than Maniac Cop 2, as the second one had a bigger budget and crazier stunts. You can ignore the third.
|
|
#
?
Apr 16, 2024 14:17
|
|
|
The best poster tagline in history. "You have the right to remain silent... forever."
|
|
#
?
Apr 16, 2024 14:26
|
|
|
Pope Corky the IX posted:It's difficult to decide if it's better than Maniac Cop 2, as the second one had a bigger budget and crazier stunts. You can ignore the third. Maniac Cop 2 is way cooler
|
|
#
?
Apr 16, 2024 14:46
|
|
|
But Maniac Cop has Tom Atkins.
|
|
#
?
Apr 16, 2024 15:02
|
|
|
Pearl (2022) A great companion piece to X and Mia Goth really goes to town with this one. She's off from the start and you can see her getting more manic and disturbed. There's a goddamn 8 minute monologue during the finale. Everything is vibrant as hell too. Apparently it was originally going to be filmed in black and white, but that was shot down so they went this route instead. Really enjoyed this one and I'm looking forward to Maxxxine in just a few months. After watching the movie I saw it referred to as "Joker for girls" 
|
|
#
?
Apr 16, 2024 15:21
|
|
|
Monkey Man is the best kung fu movie since The Raid.
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2024 03:40
|
|
|
Immaculate (2024) - Rosemary's Nunnery. Absolute crap. A perfect example of the problem with most horror movies simply going down a list of spoopy tropes and checking them off. Seriously, don't waste your time.
|
|
#
?
Apr 18, 2024 16:26
|
|
|
Long live Tubi, love watching free movies on Tubi. The Wickerman (1973): Good movie! Not really scary but strange and eerie and consistently interesting. Did not expect the Willow’s Song sequence and it made me laugh. I’d love more movies to break out into horny/seductive musical scenes, please. Mr. Arkadin (1955): Not totally sure where I land on this. Maybe too much style (SO many dutch angles. It was fun at first but felt old by the end) and not enough substance. A lot of broadly drawn ex-con characters without much depth? There’s interesting things in there but it didn’t really gel together. I quickly skimmed over the history and saw there’s multiple cuts of the film and Welles was not satisfied with the edit. Who knows if there’s really a version of the film that would have been great though. Overall I’d say it’s interesting and not a bad way to spend 90ish minutes.
|
|
#
?
Apr 18, 2024 18:02
|
|
|
Monster (2023): The first hour of this is the darkest Koreeda film I have seen (seen like 4 others). Usually there's some joy of living mixed in with all the challenges, but that doesn't come until we get the boys perspective in the last 30 minutes. The whole Rashomon/Last Duel perspective shift is an interesting change for Koreeda and plays well with the theme of how we all perceive monsters in the world. There's a truth to the events that play out as shown from the boys, but ignorance and monsters (like the one father) prevent anyone but us from seeing it. As for the ending: I am mixed on off the kids died or not. The mudslide jacket shot, the final lighting, talk of rebirth, and removal of the gate blocking their next path implies some sort of happy afterlife. But I do feel their death would work against one of the themes of the film. The principle states to Mahito that "it's nonsense he can't be happy. Happiness is not happiness if everyone can't have it." So to have the kids tragically die after accepting each other feels off. Plus the whole film has been about how our adult perspectives keep warping the truth. So in that case, the missing gate is more metaphorical. Their resistance to their feelings and happiness is gone. I guess it's meant to be up to us how it ends. Finally a great final score by Ryuichi Sakamoto. The last song, Aqua, is just full of emotions.
|
|
#
?
Apr 18, 2024 18:33
|
|
|
Fast and Furious 9, aka F9 (2021) - I still don't understand how the FnF series does it; each movie in the franchise is the worst movie of the franchise. It doesn't matter what movie you compare. F5 is worse than F3, yet F3 is somehow worse than F5. F9 continues with that truism by being the worst movie in the franchise. I wish my wife would stop making me watch this god-forsaken series, but she likes watching car wrecks.
|
|
#
?
Apr 19, 2024 04:21
|
|
|
Yeah just can't agree with that fast and the furious opinion. If you can't appreciate shifting a rocket car in space into gear to ram a satellite, then what are the movies even for.
|
|
#
?
Apr 19, 2024 05:33
|
|
|
Abigail - Fun little B-movie that's almost entirely spoiled by its trailer. I definitely think I like Ready Or Not more, but Melissa Barrera is scream queen, Kathryn Newton's my future ex-wife, it's delightfully stupid and gory... I enjoyed it! Zero King Diamond though (which brings me nothing but rage).
|
|
#
?
Apr 19, 2024 16:18
|
|
|
What Jennifer Did: Like most streaming true crime, it feels stretched and poorly constructed with lots of taking head interviews and cheap recreations. It's only 2 hours but still felt too long.
|
|
#
?
Apr 20, 2024 01:38
|
|
|
checkplease posted:What Jennifer Did: Like most streaming true crime, it feels stretched and poorly constructed with lots of taking head interviews and cheap recreations. It's only 2 hours but still felt too long. What did she do? Goodbye, Dragon Inn Tsing Ming-Liang The two characters walking around the theatre reminded me of running around the back areas and off limit parts of the church when I was a kid. Other than that and the beauty of seeing such an old building I wasn't all that taken with the film. Striving and Yearning are interelated emotions but the gulf between them is vast indeed, I myself am a striver and so seeing an entire film about people failing to connect and awkwardly pining does not do it for me. That bun was huge though
|
|
#
?
Apr 20, 2024 01:50
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 6, 2024 01:38 |
|
|
Jack B Nimble posted:Monkey Man is the best kung fu movie since The Raid. Yeah, Monkey Man rules. I especially loved the first act pacing.
|
|
#
?
Apr 20, 2024 18:18
|
|
