Discuss and Rate the Last Film You Watched

[Dwarvenhobble]

The Golden Compass

(Prime)

Verdict: Oh, so yeh, ok I guess but it's been far surpassed

Thoughts:
So having watched the first 2 seasons of His Dark Materials I figured I'd go back and check out the film version of it that was intended to be a film series but never got past the first part. I'm not familiar with the books but wow did they have to change stuff round a fair but to cram it in and it works well enough but it very much feels like it should have been a longer film but the studio was worried kids wouldn't sit through it and that's who it's aimed at. The material has been very sanitised down with almost no mention of how dust is basically seen as the manifestation of sin in the world and heavily cutting down showing the magisterium as much more than just something in the background. It also ends on a sort of implied "to be continued" moment but not a cliff hanger. Honestly you're better off watching the BBC / HBO series which I'd say does most stuff better if slower.


American Pie Presents Beta House

(Own copy)

Verdict: Holds up well as a decent to verging on good film and may be the peak of the American Pie franchise actually achieving close to the promise of the franchise.

Thoughts:
I've not seen all the American Pie films but I have seen 1, 2, Band Camp and The Naked Mile. Beta House follows on directly from The Naked Mile and while The Naked Mile felt like it hit a lot of the kind of ideas and beats of the first two films (guy realises who he actually has feelings for and forgoes shot with another girl to in the end be with the one he loves) Beta House very much feels like it veers off in a far more cynical direction with Erik Stifler, cousin of the original Stifler going to college and revealing that his girlfriend dumped him before the break before they both were due to head off to different colleges. Thus a newly single Erik becomes a pledge at Beta House where his other cousin Dwight is already a frat member. The film is sort of two bits with the initial one being Erik and the other pledges activities to gain admission to the Beta house along with the rising tensions with the GEEK fraternity and culmination the the Greek Olympiad contest between the two fraternities with the winner taking the other's charter and building. Oddly it's a sort of response to the idea of Revenge of the Nerds with the film going "Ok so if the nerds end up on top how could social power and their brain power corrupt them like how Revenge of the nerds showed jocks corrupted by their social standing and physical power".

The GEEK fraternity is thus highly elitist, petty, using money to their advantage with their leader being shown to be kind of an ass to his girlfriend whom seems extremely loyal and accommodating to him. Think more the reason Activision Blizzard has been making the news Geeks who have power and influence abusing it. With Beta house not being presented as some Alpha jocks but a varied group of kinda ordinary guys who like alcohol and women.

The films main mis-step come in the form of a few gross out moments that don't land very well and come off as cheap and distract from the impact of some of the more implicitly gross ideas. Like did we seriously need a multiple vomiting scenes and a vomiting war scene almost? Like could no-one think to do something where instead there somehow ends up being an unofficial pissing content round the back of the frat house as a joke about the metaphorical pissing contest that is the Greek Olympiad.

The other issue with the film being it's kinda tied to The Naked Mile which isn't terrible but you do have to watch that to understand who the hell most of the characters are.

If American Pie were living up to it's marketing as some coming of age generational films the kind of thing which each generation has sort of had some kind of version of a sort of the coming of age sex comedy. Beta House is probably the best American Pie as a Franchise has ever got to making that kind of film like Kevin and Perry Go Large or The Inbetweeners movie this is that movie in the American Pie franchise the movie each film has been sort of promising to be but kinda never getting there. A film that isn't really about some deeper meanings or moral lessons so much as young adults getting into trouble and being young adults trying to get through the trials and tribulations of that part of their lives.

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

She Dies Tomorrow (Netflix)
Ok, look, yes this is the third film in a row I've seen with a death obsessed title, but I swear it wasn't intentional! These things...just happen, you know? An unhappy coincidence and all that. Now put down that phone, we don't need to call those pesky authorities to section anyone under the mental health act here, you're perfectly safe with me. I can be trusted with the steak knives, pinky promise!
Now that's settled, this is a weird shorter-than-average film, I haven't checked the genre but it feels like a stealth comedy for depressed people. Something to do with a young woman under the belief that she, without any evidence, will just die the next day. And everyone she comes into contact with somehow catches this... infection? It's got a very dry sense of humour to it that I'm not sure everyone would catch on to, though have considered it could be my own brain deformities imagining the humour.
Acting, casting and direction is solid, soundtrack has a bit of an obsession with K. 626 Lacrimosa but then again what moodily depressed fatalistic person wouldn't? Ends rather suddenly, should go back and catch the last few minutes as was mildly distracted by other creatures in my vicinity at that point. Not for everyone (aka 'most ppl') but I liked the quirky mournful vibes it was going for.

Hush (Netflix)
Hmm, an interesting idea does not a good film make. I wanted to like it more, but there felt too many off-putting moments of bad logic and occasional omnipotence from antagonist. Deaf woman living alone in the middle of nowhere has to fend off midnight attacker, is the basic elevator pitch. It's Blumhouse, so I was hoping for the rare case of it falling onto the good side of their output like Get Out. Unfortunately it falls short in too many moments, despite the initial promise and it not being offensively bad. Passable perhaps for some if they need a cheap thriller on a drunk night as background noise.

 

[Xprimentyl]

Moonlight: Decent / Great

Movie about a young man (Chiron) growing up in the projects in a very troubled life, crackhead mother, bullying at school, confusion with his sexuality, etc. The movie chronicles his life in 3 phases: childhood, teenaged years and adulthood, and follows how the trauma of his youth made him the man we see in the final scenes.

While very poignant, and extremely well acted, the movie just doesn't do much. I've made this criticism before about other films, it feels like it's a scrape off the top of the deepest points of the story as it tries to cram it all into the film's sub 2-hour runtime. It ends pretty abruptly leaving the viewer to infer what comes next, but the final 20 minutes are so "British drama" (it's not a British drama, btw) with telling looks and bloated silences, you can't infer enough to appreciate the movie's ending. Watch it if you want to.

Bonus fact: my girlfriend is good friends with the mother of the actor who plays the adult Chiron.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

House of Gucci

One of those movies where the trailer makes them seem more fun than they actually end up being (see American Hustle, Vice). Not much going on beneath a flashy cast and the performances. Story feels all over the place and I couldn't keep up with the changing motivations of the characters.

 

[BrawlMan]

I saw Red Notice. Pretty good heist film. Everyone is awesome and does their thing. Gal Gaddot is great and it's different seeing her take on a villain role. The movie has some pretty good twists I won't spoil. As far Ryan Reynolds post Deadpool 1 & 2 one offs, Red Notice is better than 6 Underground, Free Guy, and both Htiman's Bodyguard movies. The film makes a better Uncharted movie than the official version that comes out next year. Castle in the Sky is still the best Uncharted movie ever made.

 

[Mister Mumbler]

Castle in the Sky is still the best Uncharted movie ever made.

No, obviously the best Uncharted movie is the first Indiana Jones movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark. Castle in the Sky is still great though.

 

[BrawlMan]

No, obviously the best Uncharted movie is the first Indiana Jones movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Not that Indie isn't athletic, but he lacks a lot of the hardcore parkour climbing Pazu can pull off. Plus, Castle definitely has the more Uncharted feel, minus the whole the ancient civilization growing proud and destroying themselves. More like they all abandoned it before things got worse. They all take from the serials of old any way, sssssoooooo...yeeeaaahhhh.......

I'll still give it to Castle in the Sky. If it makes you feel any better, the Uncharted games are the best Indiana Jones games ever made. Uncharted: Lost Legacy is the best modern Tomb Raider game ever made.

 

[BrawlMan]

The Villainess. It's basically Nikita with its own South Korean spin on it. This movie has been adapted 3 times total for movies now, and twice for TV. How many times are people gonna adapt this story? The actions scenes are good, but the overall story and characters are just average and there. The movie drags and definitely did not need to be 124 minutes. And people say Atomic Blonde went on for too long. I will give credit for the beginning for having that Hardcore Henry feel, but the movie does kinda deflate towards the end. It's a 6/10 movie for me.

 

[Agema]

One thing I find IMDB good for is searching for 1-2/10 reviews of my favorite movies and wondering how those people got there. Thank you for your contribution.

In some cases, they're people who probably thought it was ~5/10 but saw other people gave it ~9/10, and think it's some weird form of public service to take it down a peg to the average score that fits their personal view.

In some cases, they're just sort of trolls or spoilt wankers. Like the restaurant reviews where the food, atmosphere and everything was fine, but the waiters left them to refill their own wine glasses from the bottle which enraged someone into a tantrum and so they went home and wrote a furious, screeching 0/10 review.

 

[CriticalGaming]

Saw the new Resident Evil film.

1/10, dont ever waste your time with it. Trust me.

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

1922 (Netflix)
Stephen King adaptation. It does have those recognisable Stephen King vibes for sure. Though, while I've never fully understood what "grit" meant when it comes to westerns, I never once considered it just referred to talking through literally gritted teeth like what the main character does for this whole film. It's a fairly solid time however. About a man doing bad thing then having to live with the worsening repercussions of said bad thing. It ends satisfyingly, or as satisfying as one could expect from a story about self-imposed increasing misery I guess.

The Platform (Netflix)
Ooh, wonder what this film is about, let's give it a gander. Within seconds of starting...

Spoiler: *Slap*

"This"

Spoiler: *Slap*

"Is"

Spoiler: *Slap*

"A"

Spoiler: *Slap*

"Class"

Spoiler: *Slap*

"And"

Spoiler: *Slap*

"Capitalism"

Spoiler: *Slap*

"Metaphor"

Spoiler: *Slap*

"You"

Spoiler: *Slap*

"Hopeless"

Spoiler: *Slap*

"Fucking"

Spoiler: *Double Slap*

"IMBECILE!"

...

Alright! Settle down! Though I do understand the frustration at people not getting the messages over the few decades of warnings and cyberpunk dystopias, and still voting for absolute fuckwits, cause the thought of their own country makes their dick and vag's swell up with patriotic ecstasy as they confuse all the achievements earned by total strangers for their own failed existence just cause they happen to be born on the same rock, yet somehow conveniently ignoring the horrific history of genocidal crimes and corruption that propped up the same rock. I do get it. What use are warnings consistently unheeded in favour of more averice and hoarding?

That said, it was a pretty effective and well made film for the most part. Until near the end where internal logic appeared to be thrown out the window for some baffling reason. I don't mind certain types of unanswered questions like how any of the technology is supposed to function, what year it is, how the hell anyone gets moved about in their sleep, how many holes in these people's brains are there by now, and how smelly are those sheets, goddamn? Those enquires can be excused in such enclosed fable-like storytelling. What can't are those that defy logic already established within the world earlier. It got quite close to the end before falling into a singularity of "whatevs, lol!" too. I dunno, seemed like the metaphor got thown out somewhat for a more clichéd take on sentimentality, ultimately leaving with a less fulfilling conclusion than it looked to promise.

Moonlight: Decent / Great

Movie about a young man (Chiron) growing up in the projects in a very troubled life, crackhead mother, bullying at school, confusion with his sexuality, etc. The movie chronicles his life in 3 phases: childhood, teenaged years and adulthood, and follows how the trauma of his youth made him the man we see in the final scenes.

While very poignant, and extremely well acted, the movie just doesn't do much. I've made this criticism before about other films, it feels like it's a scrape off the top of the deepest points of the story as it tries to cram it all into the film's sub 2-hour runtime. It ends pretty abruptly leaving the viewer to infer what comes next, but the final 20 minutes are so "British drama" (it's not a British drama, btw) with telling looks and bloated silences, you can't infer enough to appreciate the movie's ending. Watch it if you want to.

Bonus fact: my girlfriend is good friends with the mother of the actor who plays the adult Chiron.

The director, Barry Jenkins, has another acclaimed film called If Beale Street Could Talk too that I been hoping to see, though been waiting for it to drop on streaming first as visual quality is usually much higher. Waiting too long already!

 

[Fallen Soldier]

I saw Raya and The Last Dragon on Disney Plus. I thought it was pretty well done.

 

[09philj]

Saw Seven, nice tightly directed mystery thriller with some light horror elements. Kevin Spacey very good in his small role.

 

[Mister Mumbler]

Not that Indie isn't athletic, but he lacks a lot of the hardcore parkour climbing Pazu can pull off. Plus, Castle definitely has the more Uncharted feel, minus the whole the ancient civilization growing proud and destroying themselves. More like they all abandoned it before things got worse. They all take from the serials of old any way, sssssoooooo...yeeeaaahhhh.......

I'll still give it to Castle in the Sky. If it makes you feel any better, the Uncharted games are the best Indiana Jones games ever made. Uncharted: Lost Legacy is the best modern Tomb Raider game ever made.

Now, when I say "it's obviously Indiana Jones", I mean that it's kind of obvious someone was copying someone else's homework; a plucky, wisecracking archeologist/treasure hunter/general adventurer goes on mission to exotic location to find mythological item which will both be real and have supernatural properties (usually of the 'make you not alive anymore' school of artifacts). There will be bad guys also in pursuit of said object, our hero has a female companion with whom he develops feelings, with later entries using this to have villain twists as well (I haven't played the games past Drake's Fortune, but I think Nadine? fills this role). For an added bonus, the first game even has Nazis in it, albeit zombie/monster Nazis but still. I also feel like you are underestimating Indy's general 'parkour-ness', as he gets several moments in each film where he is climbing/swinging on and off of things (getting out of the tomb and the truck chase in Raiders, as well as more general rock climbing and such in Temple and Crusade too). There are gun and fist fights abound, ancient booby traps, our hero gets kicked around a bit but will ultimately prevail, sealing away said evil artifact to hopefully not have this happen again.

Plus, I just don't get that same feeling of romping adventure in Castle that I get from Uncharted. Castle feels like an adventure more along the lines of Treasure Island actually, especially the whole pirate angle they both have going on, though it is a lot looser than Uncharted/Indiana Jones. That being said, I love Castle in the Sky, and is one of a few of Miyazaki films that I own (the others being Porco Rosso and that Lupin III: Cagliostro movie).

 

[BrawlMan]

(I haven't played the games past Drake's Fortune, but I think Nadine? fills this role).

Nadine does not factor in the series until 4 and Lost Legacy. She barely counts as one of the "good" guys and is more so an ambiguous love interest for Chloe. Elena is Nathan's love interest, and they're actually married by the fourth game.

I also feel like you are underestimating Indy's general 'parkour-ness', as he gets several moments in each film where he is climbing/swinging on and off of things (getting out of the tomb and the truck chase in Raiders, as well as more general rock climbing and such in Temple and Crusade too).

I more than remember all of Indie's parkour. It's not that his is bad nor sloppy, but there are certain climbing techniques even Indie couldn't do compared to Pazu once he reached Lapita. If Indie was there, he would be asking "How the hell you pulling this off, kid?!".

Plus, I just don't get that same feeling of romping adventure in Castle that I get from Uncharted. Castle feels like an adventure more along the lines of Treasure Island actually, especially the whole pirate angle they both have going on, though it is a lot looser than Uncharted/Indiana Jones. That being said, I love Castle in the Sky, and is one of a few of Miyazaki films that I own (the others being Porco Rosso and that Lupin III: Cagliostro movie).

Fair enough. The only reason I don't call Indiana Jones the best Uncharted movies, is because the former has been around for 37 years now and is its own thing. Not trying to be negative or anything, but calling Indiana Jones the best Uncharted movies feels almost like an insult or redundant. While Castle does have a more adventurous feel, I still see elements that are taken from Indie, and the serials from the 40s and 50s. Hell, you can make a case for the CGI Adventures of Tin Tin (2011), and call it a Indiana Jones movie or Uncharted movie. When I see Tin Tin, it'll probably be second or first place for best Uncharted movie. There are many that consider Tin Tin a better Indiana Jones movie than Crystal Skull, for those that hated it. I still consider Crystal Skull average. A 3/5, if you will.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

My family has been marathoning the Pirates of the Caribbean for some reason. The first movie has noticeably worse action scenes than the sequels. I now also have an itch to play Black Flag.

Oh, and fuck Amber Heard with rusty cutlass.

 

[Ezekiel]

La Pointe Courte (1955, Agnes Varda)

The juxtaposition of artsy relationship talk between the lead couple and the documentary-like stories of the people in this poor southern French fishing village didn't really enthuse me. When they started talking like Last Year at Marienbad again, I just wanted to get back to the villagers. I did enjoy more the few later movies of hers that I've seen so far. Glad she found her own style quickly.

3/5


RoboCop (1987)

Rewatch. Last year's Arrow disc, part of my Black Friday orders. Really entertaining action movie with a nice emotional core. Knows exactly what it wants to be.

5/5

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

No, obviously the best Uncharted movie is the first Indiana Jones movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark. Castle in the Sky is still great though.

Honestly I was getting Shadow of the Colossus vibes from that movie last time I saw it. Mononoke too.

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

Calibre (Netflix)
Two friendos in Scotland go for an intimate one-off hunting trip out by an isolated delapidated village for reasons. Things don't quite go to plan, and when the moment that it becomes clear big oofs are here, the film does not let go of the tension till the credits roll. Quite possibly be the most tense I've felt from a movie in a long time, which is a noticeable achievement considering there's almost no soundtrack along with the fairly restrained direction and budget. I am impressed, but also in need of opioids to calm the nerves.

Doctor Sleep - Director's Cut (Prime)
*Breathes in* Confession time: I ain't seen The Shining. But, it doesn't feel like I have to by this point, due to most elements seeping in to the consciousness through intense cultural osmosis. This sequel turned out better than expected, but not necessarily scary. Dark moments, for sure, but fear was not to be found. Some interesting direction in a few scenes, and Ewan McGregor is always a bonus. Lovely cat too btw. And great young actor in the other lead role. I been noticing the director Mike Flanagan does have a few favourite actors he spreads across his work now...why hello Mr drunkums from Midnight Mass! Wouldn't mind if the X-Men went this dark too, or if this just replaced the X-Men franchise. Am sure that wouldn't annoy any adult fans at all. Not. At. All! Digging the lady with the top hat look a lot though, hopefully is not a newfound fetish. Have managed this long in life being entirely fetish free, it can't take hold of me now! I have calcified!

 

[Bartholen]

Enemy (2013), 8/10

An odd one out in Denis Villeneuve's catalogue, this is a very small scale, abstract and up to interpretation film about a man who finds out he has a perfect doppelganger living in the same city. That's basically it, because the rest of the movie is very, very strange and abstract, and the best part is trying to find an interpretation that makes sense of everything it depicts. To me it was about adultery, self-destructive cycles and patterns and denial of them

I'd comment on the acting, but this film is basically the Jake Gyllenhaal show, and he's just as great as ever. The way he differentiates between his two roles with physicality is so well done, because it's not obvious, and very subdued: slight differences in posture, cadence, physical mannerisms, it all feels completely natural.

On the technical side of things this is one of the tightest scripts I've ever seen, and like 90% of the story is conveyed entirely visually. I had a friend call this a "filmmaker's movie", and that is a damn apt description. Everything is relayed through framing, expression, editing, angles and lighting. Masterful stuff. Pretty much the only criticism I can think of is the color grading, which makes a lot of the movie just aggressively piss yellow, which wasn't a very pleasant look for 90 minutes.