Discuss and Rate the Last Film You Watched
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I think what happened is that the movie was the most available part of G1 Transformers in a home environment what with it getting a VHS release. That didn’t really happen much for kids TV shows bar the odd tape with like, three episodes on it. So the movie getting all its repeat home video viewings coloured the TV show’s memories. Like the show did produce some legitimately great for the day episodes, usually it’s multi part ones, but the movie was G1’s high point.
A ★★½ review of Make Mine Music (1946)
This review may contain spoilers. Visit the page to bypass this warning and read the review.
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Run: Decent / Great
A young, wheelchair-bound girl living with her overly attentive mother begins to suspect the relationship between them might not be what it seems...
A good film if, at times, a bit grating on the nerves. It leans heavily on the trope of a person trying to accomplish something that takes a substantial amount of time whilst "looking over their shoulder" because there is a watchful villain that could be anywhere at any time. I say "grating" because my girlfriend and I are both *that* person who talks to the screen when a character is doing something we wouldn't, so take that for what it's worth. Recommended.
Mary: Alright / Great
Gary Oldman (of all people) portrays a middle-aged man who, on impulse, buys a rundown boat, much to the chagrin of his wife and two daughters. They come to agreeable terms, patch the boat up, and set sail on a journey to Bermuda. Along the way, individuals aboard start behaving erratically, and it's discovered the boat itself has very sketchy, potentially paranormal past...
Oldman is the most befuddling casting here. He is a huge name for a film that feels like it could have been knocked out in a weekend; it's not even an hour and a half long. Other than that, it's serviceable enough, though it spends most of its runtime building the suspension it doesn't satisfactorily resolve. Watch if you want to; if you don't, you're not missing much.
A young, wheelchair-bound girl living with her overly attentive mother begins to suspect the relationship between them might not be what it seems...
A good film if, at times, a bit grating on the nerves. It leans heavily on the trope of a person trying to accomplish something that takes a substantial amount of time whilst "looking over their shoulder" because there is a watchful villain that could be anywhere at any time. I say "grating" because my girlfriend and I are both *that* person who talks to the screen when a character is doing something we wouldn't, so take that for what it's worth. Recommended.
Mary: Alright / Great
Gary Oldman (of all people) portrays a middle-aged man who, on impulse, buys a rundown boat, much to the chagrin of his wife and two daughters. They come to agreeable terms, patch the boat up, and set sail on a journey to Bermuda. Along the way, individuals aboard start behaving erratically, and it's discovered the boat itself has very sketchy, potentially paranormal past...
Oldman is the most befuddling casting here. He is a huge name for a film that feels like it could have been knocked out in a weekend; it's not even an hour and a half long. Other than that, it's serviceable enough, though it spends most of its runtime building the suspension it doesn't satisfactorily resolve. Watch if you want to; if you don't, you're not missing much.
A ★★★½ review of Fun and Fancy Free (1947)
This review may contain spoilers. Visit the page to bypass this warning and read the review.
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Smile: Creepy / Great
Rose, a psychologist working long hours in a trauma ward has a very frantic and distressed young woman suddenly thrust upon her. This young woman claims she's being haunted by a mysterious entity that assumes other people's identities to torment her, and has threatened to kill her. She says this entity is identifiable by a menacing smile. Of course, Rose believes this to be some form of psychosis, and tries to take the clinical course in the conversation when the young woman suddenly leaps from her chair to the floor claiming the being is in the room and is about to kill her. Rose goes to an emergency phone to call for help, and when she turns around, the young woman is standing and staring at her... smiling.
Good movie. Scared the hell out of me several times, but that was probably mostly because I was in D-Box, so the jump scares were intensified. Still, the premise that unravels throughout is an interesting and gruesome one. Unfortunately, it felt like the kind of film that's going to fall victim to sequel culture whereas I think it's perfect on it's own two feet as a "one and done" and doesn't deserve to have its impact diluted.
Rose, a psychologist working long hours in a trauma ward has a very frantic and distressed young woman suddenly thrust upon her. This young woman claims she's being haunted by a mysterious entity that assumes other people's identities to torment her, and has threatened to kill her. She says this entity is identifiable by a menacing smile. Of course, Rose believes this to be some form of psychosis, and tries to take the clinical course in the conversation when the young woman suddenly leaps from her chair to the floor claiming the being is in the room and is about to kill her. Rose goes to an emergency phone to call for help, and when she turns around, the young woman is standing and staring at her... smiling.
Good movie. Scared the hell out of me several times, but that was probably mostly because I was in D-Box, so the jump scares were intensified. Still, the premise that unravels throughout is an interesting and gruesome one. Unfortunately, it felt like the kind of film that's going to fall victim to sequel culture whereas I think it's perfect on it's own two feet as a "one and done" and doesn't deserve to have its impact diluted.
A ★★★½ review of Melody Time (1948)
Once again, this is a package film, this time with 7 shorts. As such, I'll be reviewing each short individually, since there is no wrap-around segment. The first short is "Once Upon a Wintertime". Backed by a song of the same title sung by Frances Langford and a chorus that I'm pretty sure...
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Two-fer tonight. The first one is continuing my Disney journey by finishing off the "package film" era.
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Secondly, to begin my October horror movie marathon, my brother and I watched the original Halloween. First time for him, one of several for me. Honestly, Halloween OG was never my favorite of the Halloween films, and rewatching it made it slip down a notch on my list.
Don't get me wrong, it's still a fine film. I could tell watching my brother that if you are watching it for the first time and don't know the scenes that are coming, the suspense really works, and there are a lot of quite striking images. In addition, Jamie Lee Curtis and Donald Pleasance are both really good here, even if buying JLC as a high schooler is...a stretch. My problem with the film is that a fair bit of the climax only really happens because Laurie, JLC's character, temporarily shuts off her brain because the script said so. Dropping the knife once, shame on you. Drop the knife twice, shame on me. Decisions like that made a fair bit of the climax fall flat for me because...well, we could have avoided all this!
Other than that, it still holds up quite well, especially with how limited the budget was, but I just can't agree with people who say it did it first and best. First in the franchise, yes, but not first in general, and not the best in the franchise.
A ★★★ review of The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949)
The last of the package films era, and the last 1940's Disney movie, this film features two shorts. Despite the order in the title (you had ONE JOB, Title Guy), the first of the shorts is "The Wind in the Willows". Narrated by Basil Rathbone, this story follows the misadventures of one J...
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Secondly, to begin my October horror movie marathon, my brother and I watched the original Halloween. First time for him, one of several for me. Honestly, Halloween OG was never my favorite of the Halloween films, and rewatching it made it slip down a notch on my list.
Don't get me wrong, it's still a fine film. I could tell watching my brother that if you are watching it for the first time and don't know the scenes that are coming, the suspense really works, and there are a lot of quite striking images. In addition, Jamie Lee Curtis and Donald Pleasance are both really good here, even if buying JLC as a high schooler is...a stretch. My problem with the film is that a fair bit of the climax only really happens because Laurie, JLC's character, temporarily shuts off her brain because the script said so. Dropping the knife once, shame on you. Drop the knife twice, shame on me. Decisions like that made a fair bit of the climax fall flat for me because...well, we could have avoided all this!
Other than that, it still holds up quite well, especially with how limited the budget was, but I just can't agree with people who say it did it first and best. First in the franchise, yes, but not first in general, and not the best in the franchise.
Conan the Barbarian (1982), 6/10
One of Arnie's seminal roles, I was surprised by this movie. It's definitely not what you'd expect from a swords and sorcery movie from the 80s, and it actually got me interested in the Conan mythos. Because looking at it now this movie feels well ahead of its time in its style of fantasy. This is not a whimsical, fantastical adventure, it's a brutal, nasty and gruesome tale in a grim and dangerous world that's much closer to Game of Thrones than Lord of the Rings in atmosphere. To my surprise I was reminded of The Northman and The Green Knight more than any other fantasy films while watching this.
The thing I enjoyed most about this film is the worldbuilding. There's a ton of information conveyed through environmental storytelling and dialogue, and close to zero exposition. It also helps that the world feels quite distinct from your typical fantasy settings: it's part viking, part mongolian, part iron age, part sort of ancient middle east, and it feels wonderfully realized and lived in. Visually the film holds up very well: there's a proper sense of dirt and grit to every set and costume, and it's actually pretty well shot. The score is really good, and complements the atmosphere well (for the most part). Arnie himself, for this being one of his first leading roles, is actually surprisingly good. He's not "good" per say, but he fits the role perfectly and absolutely sells the image of this almost caveman-level barbarian. It definitely helps that the movie is surprisingly sparse with dialogue, so you can get immersed in the world more, and Arnie doesn't need to deliver some lengthy soliloquy. He also had Max von Sydow and James Earl Jones to coach him. Arnie doesn't even say a word until 20 minutes in, how many films like that do we even see nowadays?
It shows its age though. For one, it's pretty slow paced, which helps in some regards but hinders in others. While the movie never feels rushed and you can properly get immersed in the atmosphere, some scenes definitely drag on for too long. This movie could be 10-15 minutes shorter and much better for it. The fight choreography is as laughably stiff and stilted as you'd expect and while it's kind of charming on occasion, it definitely detracts from the tension of the action scenes. Speaking of the action scenes, they're definitely not well shot or coordinated, consisting mostly of disjointed shots of people swinging swords, shooting bows and falling over.
But the worst thing about this movie is the sound. While the score is very good for the most part, in some scenes it's just bafflingly unfitting. Like when the characters are sneaking into the bad guy's lair, the music in the background is like something from the whimsical parts of Harry Potter. There's constant, aggressive ADR throughout the whole movie, and the sound effects are just plain weak, even laughable at times. There's also a bewildering lack of background ambience in a lot of scenes, which only detracts from the sense of time and place the movie otherwise establishes really well visually. I don't know how much of these were from the technical limitations of the time, but it definitely hinders the movie.
One of Arnie's seminal roles, I was surprised by this movie. It's definitely not what you'd expect from a swords and sorcery movie from the 80s, and it actually got me interested in the Conan mythos. Because looking at it now this movie feels well ahead of its time in its style of fantasy. This is not a whimsical, fantastical adventure, it's a brutal, nasty and gruesome tale in a grim and dangerous world that's much closer to Game of Thrones than Lord of the Rings in atmosphere. To my surprise I was reminded of The Northman and The Green Knight more than any other fantasy films while watching this.
The thing I enjoyed most about this film is the worldbuilding. There's a ton of information conveyed through environmental storytelling and dialogue, and close to zero exposition. It also helps that the world feels quite distinct from your typical fantasy settings: it's part viking, part mongolian, part iron age, part sort of ancient middle east, and it feels wonderfully realized and lived in. Visually the film holds up very well: there's a proper sense of dirt and grit to every set and costume, and it's actually pretty well shot. The score is really good, and complements the atmosphere well (for the most part). Arnie himself, for this being one of his first leading roles, is actually surprisingly good. He's not "good" per say, but he fits the role perfectly and absolutely sells the image of this almost caveman-level barbarian. It definitely helps that the movie is surprisingly sparse with dialogue, so you can get immersed in the world more, and Arnie doesn't need to deliver some lengthy soliloquy. He also had Max von Sydow and James Earl Jones to coach him. Arnie doesn't even say a word until 20 minutes in, how many films like that do we even see nowadays?
It shows its age though. For one, it's pretty slow paced, which helps in some regards but hinders in others. While the movie never feels rushed and you can properly get immersed in the atmosphere, some scenes definitely drag on for too long. This movie could be 10-15 minutes shorter and much better for it. The fight choreography is as laughably stiff and stilted as you'd expect and while it's kind of charming on occasion, it definitely detracts from the tension of the action scenes. Speaking of the action scenes, they're definitely not well shot or coordinated, consisting mostly of disjointed shots of people swinging swords, shooting bows and falling over.
But the worst thing about this movie is the sound. While the score is very good for the most part, in some scenes it's just bafflingly unfitting. Like when the characters are sneaking into the bad guy's lair, the music in the background is like something from the whimsical parts of Harry Potter. There's constant, aggressive ADR throughout the whole movie, and the sound effects are just plain weak, even laughable at times. There's also a bewildering lack of background ambience in a lot of scenes, which only detracts from the sense of time and place the movie otherwise establishes really well visually. I don't know how much of these were from the technical limitations of the time, but it definitely hinders the movie.
Also, Conan isn't necessarily the biggest baddest dude who does all the cool shit - both his companions add a lot to both the fighting and the emotional core of the story. They actually feel like a team, as opposed to just side characters. Conan as a character has the image of this brooding loner, but in this movie he's quite amicable as soon as he meets Subotai. And both him and the love interest (they never mention her name in the movie which is weird) actually save his life. With that scene of Conan being crucified and Subotai coming over the horizon while sweet uplifting music playing, the movie might as well be called Conan: Friendship is Magic.
I watched Entergalactic, a new adult animated movie on Netflix. And it is rather adult, what with all the swearing, sex, drug use, and masturbation (all the good stuff) going on. It's a very simple love story that is completely carried by the presentation - very Into the Spiderverse but with less frames. Which initially put me off a bit, but I got used to it quickly enough.
Yeah, there's not much else to say about this movie. It has that charm that cartoons showing mundane life in the big city can have. It actually reminded me a lot of this animated show that was on MTV back in the late 90's called Downtown, which also shows the life of hipster New Yorkers and equally employs a lot of quirky cut-away bits.
Yeah, there's not much else to say about this movie. It has that charm that cartoons showing mundane life in the big city can have. It actually reminded me a lot of this animated show that was on MTV back in the late 90's called Downtown, which also shows the life of hipster New Yorkers and equally employs a lot of quirky cut-away bits.
Valeria was the love interest, she was awesome.
But when that score hits, it hits HARD. Anvil of Crom, and the Riders of Doom basically tell the story for us at the beginning.
Hahah, he misspelled! Ignore his opinion! Make fun of him!
Repo Man is the weird flick from 1984 and Repo Men is the one with Jude Law.
Still laughing.
Ah man, I wish I had this sort of encyclopaedic knowledge that gets girls. Anyway, you're thinking of Lawnmower Man, so you've got both the date and the title wrong.
Living in my walls is NOT rent free. You need to pack up before I repo a kidney.
To continue on my October watchathon, watched Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master. I think out of all the Nightmare films, it is the most "one of them". It's not bad, by any means, but the way deaths manifest in the real world violate what has been established in the series in both previous and later films, and while the kills are cool, the rest of the movie is just kind of bland. It's not terrible, like I said, and there are certainly worse NOES films to come, but it's not nearly as good as the first 3 or New Nightmare.
I just usually watch the first 3, skip to NN and Freddy vs. Jason, and call it a day. Dream Master is just average and has no new ideas and starts the trend of making Freddy super invincible. Dream Child has neat concepts, but suffers from a butchered cut and things just kinda happen. Freddy's Dead....is entertainingly bad, but I find myself using the skip button some of the time after repeat watches.
I'm still watching both Dream Child and Freddy's Dead because my brother has not seen either of them. We're also going to be watching New Nightmare. I'm leaving the remake out of it, though, because once was enough with that movie.
Confess, Fletch
John Hamm (Mad Men etc) stars as the titular character, based on the book series. This is also a sequel of sorts to the Chevy Chase movies.
But none of that really matters- it's just a fun stupid mystery comedy of the sort that doesn't seem to exist any more and it's a damn shame because it's a good time.
Why I like this movie:
1- It's under 2 hours
2- While it's technically part of a franchise or "cinematic universe," you certainly don't need to have watched or read anything because it's just about a loveable scamp getting involved with mischief.
3- Cast is great
4- Jokes are funny, mostly (this one scene where he fake-interviews a lifestyle expert had me actually lol)
5- Cast is solid, with Hamm but also Kyle McLachlan, a comedian a recognized from The Daily Show, and an Italian lady or at least someone who plays an Italian lady convincingly.
- Unfortunately the weak link was the Countess played by an actress I normally like but her attempt at an over-the-top bougie rich Italian is cringe.
If this would have come out in the 1990's I would have rated it like 6/10 because it's pretty ok with some solid moments and instantly forgettable, but seeing it now it is like a refreshing cool drink in a sweltering season of franchise nonsense, tedious prestige award bait and "controversial" streaming stuff. So 10/10.
John Hamm (Mad Men etc) stars as the titular character, based on the book series. This is also a sequel of sorts to the Chevy Chase movies.
But none of that really matters- it's just a fun stupid mystery comedy of the sort that doesn't seem to exist any more and it's a damn shame because it's a good time.
Why I like this movie:
1- It's under 2 hours
2- While it's technically part of a franchise or "cinematic universe," you certainly don't need to have watched or read anything because it's just about a loveable scamp getting involved with mischief.
3- Cast is great
4- Jokes are funny, mostly (this one scene where he fake-interviews a lifestyle expert had me actually lol)
5- Cast is solid, with Hamm but also Kyle McLachlan, a comedian a recognized from The Daily Show, and an Italian lady or at least someone who plays an Italian lady convincingly.
- Unfortunately the weak link was the Countess played by an actress I normally like but her attempt at an over-the-top bougie rich Italian is cringe.
If this would have come out in the 1990's I would have rated it like 6/10 because it's pretty ok with some solid moments and instantly forgettable, but seeing it now it is like a refreshing cool drink in a sweltering season of franchise nonsense, tedious prestige award bait and "controversial" streaming stuff. So 10/10.