Discuss and Rate the Last Film You Watched

[Kae]

I loved 2049 on so many levels.
I loved how the film so beautifully captured the "retro future" vibe that was established from the original film's idea of The Futuuuure! from 1980. It felt modern, in that it had incorporated our actual advancements in technology, to show the progression, but also still FELT like Bladerunner future.

I loved Joi and how she was portrayed, how they very subtly implied with what she was doing, what the JOI line of products was potentially for.

Spoiler

Namely the scene where Joi hires a prostitute (without K's request or permission, implying a possible level of autonomy and self awareness). Now, first off I just think the scene was beautifully done, as far as visually and musically, and it felt genuinely touching to me. But it also fascinated me on retrospect, in what might've been the point. Multiple times, during the film, Joi requests things, or initiates activities, that force K to interact with the outside world. See the original short story BR was based on, had a very strong plot thread about humanity being isolated, and cut off from each other in their post apocalypse world. And had a program that basically helped reinforce empathy between people. It feels to me like Denis Villenueve read this and tried to incorporate a layer of it.

She first asks him about getting her that portable emitter, so he can take her OUTSIDE, and thus interact with other people. He's still got his security blanket of her being in his pocket, but he is out of the house. While outside, he encounters the prostitutes, and K shows an interest in one of them, but he's too shy and socially awkward to really interact with her. So, what does Joi do? She independently hires that woman to come and have sex with K. She even states to him that she noticed he had an interest in her, which is why Joi picked her. Sure she was also there to just be Joi's body for the lovemaking, but it was still K actually being in intimate contact with another human. Another layer of reinforced human contact and intimacy. And that connection to the woman later on, has a direct impact on the story. I'm pretty sure there are some other examples but those were the 2 that really stood out to me as fascinating bits of storytelling. Either from the standpoint of Joi as an Empathy Support Device and Human Re-integration Facilitator. And also as an actual sentient program. Because she takes a lot of actions that are considered the key signatures of actual intelligence, by the people that debate and try and define that stuff in the scientific/philosophical field.

I loved how I felt the isolation and distancing of everyone in that world, when watching the scenes. I had already been impressed by Denis from his work with Arrival, which I found to be just personally breathtaking, and then he follows it up with BR 2049, which just solidified him in my mind as "one of those directors that I will actually follow just because it's him." Which I've only ever done with Christopher Nolan.

Yeah, loved that damn movie so much.

I think overall the whole issue of programming vs. free will was very well thought out, particularly with Joi, as since the ads indicate she's programmed to say what the user wants to hear it's obvious that they planned out the whole script in a way, that while her actions seem sincere, selfless and human it's always possible to make an argument that every single one of them were made to fulfil that purpose, while my initial reading and the on-screen performance really do sell me on the true love argument, it is fascinating that they managed to ride that line so well as a single line of dialogue could have easily removed all ambiguity, the prostitute scene itself was also really well done, clearly inspired by "Her" in the same way that the original was inspired by classic noire films, and yes I do agree that the purpose of her arc was likely to form thematic connection to that original story, otherwise this sequel would have very little to do with it, but regarding the sentient part, while it does seem pretty obvious that she's sentient and I wouldn't disagree with that, there is a very cynical and uncomfortable reading of slavery to her programming that could be made, after all that does fit in the company's Philosophy and she sticks to what could be argued to be her programming to her death, if perhaps she has no choice but to love Joe because she was programmed for it, does that not make her sacrifice more perturbing than romantic? In both cases it is a tragedy though.

In any case while I did come up with that point of view, it's not my take as I really do see it as true love, perhaps the one freedom they were allowed in a cruel world that grants them no rights, they aren't even acknowledged as people by the society in which they live in after all, and Joe does claim to believe that artificial life has no soul, which likely means he didn't see himself as a person.

I know, right? That just doesn't happen. It's the promise of every long running franchise getting another film, but a sequel that works, that can build on the original while keeping true to the spirit? Apart from Blade Runner, I'm thinking the 3rd Predator film. Maybe Mad Max: Fury Road, though they have the advantage of being primarily action films.

Yep, even movies that don't suck tend to have a lot of problems, like Dr. Sleep for example, while it is a good movie (At least I think so) that tells it's own story and is very well produced and acted, it just inevitably feels like it lives in the Shadow of The Shining and that's mostly because the film just doesn't stop drawing attention to that fact, like seriously the homages are absolutely excessive an probably required a ridiculous amount of work and attention to detail all to add callbacks that didn't happen in the source material, hell the Overlook hotel wasn't in that version, despite this I do like the movie and consider it one of the better decades later revivals (Which to be fair isn't high praise, I just think it's weird and kind off annoying how much it references the original, especially when it's a completely different type of story, like it's not even the same genre, it has more in common with X-Men in that regard.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Extraction

Chris Hemsworth's take on John Wick, complete with dumb hero name ("Tyler Rake") and helmed by yet another stuntman-turned-director who likes wide angles and long shots, MCU's Sam Hargrave. The story is basically a placeholder and definitely didn't need to be 2 hours. The action is pretty good, definitely better than I expected. The gun fu feels pragmatic and just a little less showy than Wick's, with weight and spontaneity to the combat. There's a faux sequential shot that goes on for a little over 10 minutes and is probably the height of the movie. The gunfights drag on towards the end when they start feeling like carny games on rails. I read someone compared it to Sicario, and while it's pretty violent it's nowhere near as cold or gritty.

I like Hemsworth but I don't think he's got the chops or the iconography of a Tom Cruise or Keanu Reeves to actually carry a dumb action movie, let alone elevate it.

 

[happyninja42]

I think overall the whole issue of programming vs. free will was very well thought out, particularly with Joi, as since the ads indicate she's programmed to say what the user wants to hear it's obvious that they planned out the whole script in a way, that while her actions seem sincere, selfless and human it's always possible to make an argument that every single one of them were made to fulfil that purpose, while my initial reading and the on-screen performance really do sell me on the true love argument, it is fascinating that they managed to ride that line so well as a single line of dialogue could have easily removed all ambiguity, the prostitute scene itself was also really well done, clearly inspired by "Her" in the same way that the original was inspired by classic noire films, and yes I do agree that the purpose of her arc was likely to form thematic connection to that original story, otherwise this sequel would have very little to do with it, but regarding the sentient part, while it does seem pretty obvious that she's sentient and I wouldn't disagree with that, there is a very cynical and uncomfortable reading of slavery to her programming that could be made, after all that does fit in the company's Philosophy and she sticks to what could be argued to be her programming to her death, if perhaps she has no choice but to love Joe because she was programmed for it, does that not make her sacrifice more perturbing than romantic? In both cases it is a tragedy though.

In any case while I did come up with that point of view, it's not my take as I really do see it as true love, perhaps the one freedom they were allowed in a cruel world that grants them no rights, they aren't even acknowledged as people by the society in which they live in after all, and Joe does claim to believe that artificial life has no soul, which likely means he didn't see himself as a person.

Oh I agree that the idea of the synthetics/artificials in the BR universe are definitely in a role of servitude to the organics, no doubt there. But that is separate from the question of are they "alive". And given the emotional thread of the original film was about it not mattering if someone is replicant or not, that we are all alive and wanting to live and all that, it seems reasonable from a story angle, to continue that thread, but with Joi instead. Because I don't think anyone at this point questions the idea of the Replicants having sentience and life, not the audience I mean. So the story turns that lens to a different direction, to that of the AI's, namely Joi.

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

Midsommer.
Hmm. Sure I've seen a variation of this film about 20 times now. At least it has some interesting direction at points, though some scenes linger around like a stubborn fart hanging by an open window. Can't say I left feeling any more fulfilled or inspired however. There are dumb moments. Am wondering if the sole thought behind this production was "let's do horror in the sunshine and flowers, figure out the rest as we go!"

 

[McElroy]

Midsommer.
Hmm. Sure I've seen a variation of this film about 20 times now. At least it has some interesting direction at points, though some scenes linger around like a stubborn fart hanging by an open window. Can't say I left feeling any more fulfilled or inspired however. There are dumb moments. Am wondering if the sole thought behind this production was "let's do horror in the sunshine and flowers, figure out the rest as we go!"

Ahem. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Midsommar (film) Not to be confused with the 2003 film Midsommer.

Anyway, the film I watched is a 2019 folk horror film written and directed by Ari Aster. Stars Eyebrow-Will, Pugh, and an actor who looks a bit like Chris Stuckmann... playing a character called Chris, and of course a bunch of Swedes. Filmed in scenic... Budapest, the film teaches us how taking drugs is not usually advised and how it can lead to a break-up instead of a breakthrough. What I wondered while watching it is how food and eating is portrayed in such an off-putting way. A lot of people puke, a lot of it is drugged one way or another, people fiddle with their knives and forks a lot, and Eyebrow-Will even remarks on it early on. The film as a whole is a bit off-putting, however unlike in Aster's previous film Hereditary there are no twists this time. Some of the shots are really nice.

And only nine days before the midsummer of 2020... Let the festivities begin, hehee. 7/10

I read someone compared it to Sicario, and while it's pretty violent it's nowhere near as cold or gritty.

Sicario 2 specifically with the plot being very similar. The last shootout scene of Extraction is more akin to Expendables 3 than Sicario, that's for sure (heroes go against a bribed army unit).

 

[Baffle]

VFW on Neflix. It's basically The Expendables, but everyone is even older and there's a lot more neon.

I was only half watching it, but it seems okay. Strong recommend.

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

Ahem. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Midsommar (film) Not to be confused with the 2003 film Midsommer.

Anyway, the film I watched is a 2019 folk horror film written and directed by Ari Aster. Stars Eyebrow-Will, Pugh, and an actor who looks a bit like Chris Stuckmann... playing a character called Chris, and of course a bunch of Swedes. Filmed in scenic... Budapest, the film teaches us how taking drugs is not usually advised and how it can lead to a break-up instead of a breakthrough. What I wondered while watching it is how food and eating is portrayed in such an off-putting way. A lot of people puke, a lot of it is drugged one way or another, people fiddle with their knives and forks a lot, and Eyebrow-Will even remarks on it early on. The film as a whole is a bit off-putting, however unlike in Aster's previous film Hereditary there are no twists this time. Some of the shots are really nice.

And only nine days before the midsummer of 2020... Let the festivities begin, hehee. 7/10

Sicario 2 specifically with the plot being very similar. The last shootout scene of Extraction is more akin to Expendables 3 than Sicario, that's for sure (heroes go against a bribed army unit).

Ah shite. That snuck past the 2nd security check. All staff will be sent to recycling and re-education for this.
The film does allow a variety of readings into metaphors and such, I probably should've mentioned in first post, as it is a strong point in its favour and I forget to include positives more often than not.

 

[happyninja42]

VFW on Neflix. It's basically The Expendables, but everyone is even older and there's a lot more neon.

I was only half watching it, but it seems okay. Strong recommend.

So there is another action film about older combat people like RED? What is it with using acronyms for movies about old people who kick ass? I'm tempted to make a film called G.A.S. Geriatric Attack Squad.

 

[Baffle]

So there is another action film about older combat people like RED? What is it with using acronyms for movies about old people who kick ass? I'm tempted to make a film called G.A.S. Geriatric Attack Squad.

It's like RED crossed with Dusk til Dawn crossed with the Blood Dragon spinoff of Far Cry.

 

[happyninja42]

It's like RED crossed with Dusk til Dawn crossed with the Blood Dragon spinoff of Far Cry.

.... you have me at Blood Dragon...that sounds delicious, I'll have to check that out.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Da 5 Bloods

Spike Lee's new movie on Netflix, about 4 black vets going back to Vietnam to retrieve buried gold and the remains of their buddy (the fifth 'blood'). The Treasure of Sierra Madre meets one of those "back from 'Nam" movies from the late 70s (complete with references to 'stinking badges'). Lee's movies always feel very passionate yet playful and never bore you. This was hugely entertaining at 150 minutes and feels pretty timely too, although some stylistic choices feel a bit rough around the edges. The drama is unevenly handled: sometimes the acting gets it where it needs to go (Delroy Lindo is the MVP here), sometimes there will be a comedy cut or frame that undermines it. I don't think it's as good as BlackKklansman but Spike's definitely on a roll.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Ringu

I grew up watching the American remake a million times and always assumed the original J-horror movie would be 10 times as scary. Not so. Ringu is slow and boring and doesn't even pretend it's a horror movie except for the beginning and closing scenes. There aren't any jump scares, which is just as well, but the movie doesn't have much in the way of atmosphere either. It goes for cheesy looking freeze frames with negative coloring, cartoony stock sound effects, flashbacks that drag on uneventfully, and all the things I liked about Samara's (or Sadako's) portrayal in the 'murican remake turn out to be absent in the original: no jerky/reversed movement, no jump cuts, not even decent makeup. Everything felt plain and matter of fact. The story is just as nonsensical and a little too enamored with its convoluted lore about dead psyhics and paranormal shenanigans. And I think Ringu does itself a disservice by having the lead lady paired with the lead guy all the time. I liked the Naomi Watts character in Ring, but the Ringu lady was prone to hysterics and throwing herself on the floor, and having her ex husband slapping her around didn't help either.

 

[Palindromemordnilap]

Artemis Fowl: Goddamn even if I hadn't been a fan of the books this would be a dumb stupid bad movie

 

[Wintermute]

Contratiempo

Pretty great movie, lots of twists and shit. This is my professional review. 8/10

 

[PsychedelicDiamond]

Watchmen (Ultimate Cut)

Both as a reaction to the recent announcement of Snyder's Justice League and after watching the Watchmen television series I decided to watch the 3 and a half hour version of Zack Snyder's adaptation of the iconic graphic novel Watchmen. Watchmen, as a story, still has quite a lot to say in out day and age, rooted in the Cold War as it may be, with superheroes having become one of the main pillars of contemporary pop culture, discussions about police violence dominating the news cycle and anti-communism and anti-progressivism having an ever tighter grasp on contemporary politics. Alan Moore's unabashedly anarchist revisionist cape opera may have aged but it has never faded or even threatened to fade into irrelevance. While television's Damon Lindelof may have tried his hands at a sequel earlier this year that, while interesting and occasionally poignant, mostly replaced Moore's angry anti-authoritarianism with sheepish liberalism, what still stands as the novels most defining adaptation is Zack Snyder's epic 2009 movie, starring Patrick Wilson, Carla Cugino and Jackie Earle Haley.

Watchmen is a mostly faithful, if occasionally streamlined, translation of the comic book to the silver screen that owes most of its unique identity to Snyder's recognizable visual style. Indeed Watchmen's intro sequence still stands as what may very well be the thesis statement of Zack Snyder's entire artistic career. A beautiful alternate history montage, set to Bob Dylan's "Times they are a changin'" showing pivotal moments of American history with the impacts Watchmen's masked crusaders had on it. It's the perfect encapsulation of the directors ambitions to mythologize pop culture, a beautiful little piece of post modernist mysticism that blends history, high brow and low brow culture and Snyder's richly textured aesthetics in what is still one of his greatest artistic accomplishments, second only to Batman v Superman's heartbreakingly beautiful "Death and Funeral of Superman" sequence. The rest of the movie, of course, isn't too shabby either, though it's hard to think of a single sequence that lives up to what's, well, one hell of an opener. Alan Moore's story, of course, still hold up very well, even adapted to film and the question it raises still ring true to this day. Does our love for superheroes indicate a subconscious longing für authority? Which price is too high for world peace? How much are principles worth when the stories most principled character is also its most deranged? Does a mask hide or reveal the true character of the person who is wearing it? There is still a lot of Watchmen in the DNA of even more contemporary superhero movies though it cannot be denied how much Zack Snyder is doing to elevate the material, if not through text then through presentation. In a slightly better world Watchmen, not Nolan's tedious Bushist intrumentalization of the Batman series, would have become the model for "grown up" superhero movies. Snyder doesn't downplay but emphasize the operatic grandiosity of the genre, his characters are people when they need to be people and symbols when they need to be symbols. The product is something that is most certainly larger than life, perhaps in a sense that may rub many Alan Moore purists understandably the wrong way, but is also deeply indicative for Snyder's reverence of the source material . Snyder adapts Watchmen as if he were De Mille adapting the bible. He may love the spectacle, and he may be very well aware that his audience loves the spectacle, but he he is just as aware that what draws people to these stories is the universalist nature of their morals. Everything about Watchmen is blown up to titanic proportions. The noire and the futurism, the pulp and the grit, the cynicism and the idealism.

Watchmen, especially at full length, stands as a perfect example of what it is that people like me see in Snyder as a director. As easy as it is to dismiss the mythologizing of popular culture als unwarranted Gen X and Millenial self importance, the is no denying that the figure of the superhero (much like the only slightly less fictional construct of the archetypical Cowboy or Gangster) is both informing and informed by cultural tendencies that are not entirely without deeper meaning. Alan Moore took a well aimed stab at the heart of societie's fascination with that archetypal figure during a time of great political uncertaintly. The Cold War may have been over when Snyder filmed his adaptation but the story persisted as one of comic books most influential works and Snyder wasn't afraid to build a monument to it. While Snyder finally managed to surpass it 7 years later with Batman v Superman, Watchmen still stands as one of the genres most ambitious and most sophisticated movies. Fingers crossed for Justice League.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Rasen

Sequel to Ringu. The studio had such confidence on the popularity of the franchise (it was based on a series of bestselling books and a TV movie had already probed the waters with some acclaim) that it shot and released both Ringu and Rasen at the same time, banking on some kind of grindhouse effect that didn't happen. Rasen was almost immediately replaced a few years later with a more standard, crowd-pleasing sequel titled Ringu 2; meanwhile the forgotten sequel eventually branched out into a different timeline with a vastly different feel & tone, Return of the Living Dead style.

Rasen isn't a horror movie, and I don't say that because any of the scares were lost on me, but because there aren't any. Rasen is a drama that veers into a mystery procedural involving cops and doctors trying to track down and explain the so-called curse of Sadako, whose arthouse video kills people 7 days after watching it. But neither the video nor Sadako herself are ever seen in the sequel (bar some glimpses of stock footage), and the movie doesn't even pretend like it's trying to be a horror movie. You know what this reminded me of? Those cheesy FMV point-and-click adventure games from the 90s that usually had an edgy or porn-y hook to them (ie. Phantasmagoria). Complete with dim lighting, spare locations, B-level overacting, stock sound effects and a corny Cinemax score. To top it off things start getting Resident Evil level of stupid when Sadako's curse is actually a virus that doesn't even depend on the video to spread, and labs, cloning and genetic splicing take over the dumb plot.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Ok, bit behind on these, and had to find 3 movies with the "3 for $40" sticker on before I went to work the other day, so:

The House with the Clock in its Walls: Eli Roth's first non-R Rated film. I don't think Jack Black is particularly funny myself, but here he's playing a character that's not particularly supposed to be that funny, so fair enough. Cate Blanchett was quite good at first, but she was clearly having too much fun in the second half of the film. Not bad, but not at her best. Fairly by the numbers family fantasy film about an orphan who learns magic from his weird uncle and uncle's BFF, but quite decent. Worth re-watching.

Atomic Blonde: starring Charlize Theron in something like an OtT early Bond film, or a gritty later Bond film, or a serious spy drama or something else and the movie couldn't decide which. Do we want her to go twirly girl-fu in stocking and high heels? Or do we want gritty, vicious fight sequences? Or try to do both, and have an overcomplicated mess of a story as well. Don't do the last. Fail.

Charlie's Angels: the 2019 one. How about we have a female led movie, written and directed by a woman, and have lots of girl-power bits and stuff about how women can be as good as men? Ok, fine. Maybe don't make your female characters amazingly stupid and your movie painfully bad. Was the point that women are just as good as men at making really bad movies? Not watchable bad, not guilty pleasure bad, but just bad bad? Epic Fail.

 

[Thaluikhain]

X-Men: Dark Phoenix was going cheap, so I got that.

Siiiiiigh. The everything was bad and lazy and bad. In particular, the bit where Xavier is giving a speech and saying that because mutants aren't hated anymore, no kid has to grow up hated for being different. Cause there apparently wasn't literally any other sort of prejudice in the entire world, and just happens there's very little diversity in the group saying diversity is awesome.

 

[BrawlMan]

Atomic Blonde: starring Charlize Theron in something like an OtT early Bond film, or a gritty later Bond film, or a serious spy drama or something else and the movie couldn't decide which. Do we want her to go twirly girl-fu in stocking and high heels? Or do we want gritty, vicious fight sequences? Or try to do both, and have an overcomplicated mess of a story as well. Don't do the last. Fail.

The movie tone did not feel inconsistent to me. It that right balance of serious and stylish. More consistent than say, Jason Bourne (5th film that ignores Legacy). Where you have a movie that is part of a frahcise that claims "realism", while having worse shaky cam than ever before, and a scene where the villain mowing down cars like bowling pins or something you see in Saints Row 2-4. Atomic Blonde I did not find hard to follow, but I did have some problems. I hate in media res, as it usually spoils what is going to happen or gives you an idea from the aftermath. It rarely works unless there is a case of unreliable narrator or a really good twist. My other problem was that the main character was Spyglass and a triple agent who was duping the British and Russian. She worked for the CIA the entire time. I felt that twist was unecessary. They give hints earlier on, but she should have been MI6 all the way though. It turns in to another America Saves the Day, but they really didn't save anything. Screwing over your own allies for no reason for the sake of dick measuring, and the fact that the East & West German wall fell any way. Sure, bad guys are stopped, but you guys did not make things exactly better. Hell, you even admitted yourself that it was pointless John Goodman, so why fucking bother? I still like the film for its action and no use of shaky cam. Especially the scene in the stair well near the end.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Yeah, wouldn't have said "over complicated mess" if it wasn't for that. It was still unnecessarily complicated, but not too bad until that, and there was no point to it.

The stairwell bit...IMHO, it started off well, they've going for a serious fight, and it was working fairly well, except it just kept going. She's beaten half to death in killing the first two, then she's suddenly mostly ok again to get beaten up again killing the next two, then there's another two, then she's driving around and crashing. And in the debrief 10 days later she's still all bruised but 3 days later she's perfectly fine and offing people in a hotel. Close, but not quite.

EDIT: I should clarify, while I believe the film failed, it was a respectable sort of failure. They made a good attempt at a reasonable idea, rewrite some bits and change the ending (or cut it out) and it'd have been decent enough. Something like Charlie's Angels or X-Men: Dark Phoenix were bad ideas executed poorly, there's no way to have done them well without doing throwing the script away and starting again.