Discuss and Rate the Last Film You Watched

[BrawlMan]

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022) - This movie is better and improved, but there are some pacing issues. Let me get the bad out of the way right now. Most of the wedding scenes could have been cut down, and we would lose 15 minutes of nothing total. It leads to a twist/punchline that could have been done without it. For those not into Sonic lore from the games: the wedding is a sting operation from the black ops section of the government, G.U.N. The organization from Sonic Adventure 2. The wedding scenes don't go on for that long, but it's still a black mark of nothingness. They go a little overboard with the pop culture references in the first part of the film, and they could have used more music from the games. I don't want to hear "modern" pop songs from the 2010s, nor do I need to hear good rap songs from the 90s (as much as I love the selection they play). The orchestral tracks do their job, but work some songs from the games. They had a perfect chance to do a snippet or remix of Ice Cap Zone!

Now for the good. I am glad they were able to get Tails' current voice actor (Colleen O'Shaughnessey) from the games (Sonic Unleashed to right now). When Sonic and Tails interact with each other, it's some of my favorite parts of the movie. There are plenty of funny and heartwarming moments. It makes me wish they could have built up their partnership a little more, but the finale when they all team up with Knuckles makes up for it. Speaking of which, Idris fucking nails it! His early characterization of Knuckles is spot on, while mixing in some moments of SA1&2 and modern Knuckles. Please bring him back!

The action is more elaborate and gets better. S2 got really creative with the how the characters fight and interact with their environment. The finale is practically Sonic Heroes. In fact, this movie is a combination of Sonic 2, Sonic 3 & Knuckles, Sonic Adventure, and Sonic Adventure 2 (Shadow is teased for Sonic 3). The finale is awesome, and some the best 40 minutes left in a live-action video game adaption! I have no idea how they're gonna top that, nor will I blame them not trying. I do hope Amy and Rouge show up in 3. If only one, then let it be Amy.

Sonic 2 (2022) is definitely an improved sequel, but I will give the first movie for having better pacing. If the first movie is a C+, then this movie sits at a B+. I would give S2 higher, if they took out the wedding scenes. Hopefully with the 3rd movie coming out in 2024, they'll learn from their mistakes, and hopefully have Sonic and the gang be in their world for most of the movie. At the very least tone down the pop-culture references and not focusing on a sub-plot for a side character no one cares about! On the movie adaption scale, S2 sits a little above Rampage (2018), and halfway between it and MK'95.

A quick ramble: I don't what it was with the critics at the time, but I do not know why they keep comparing this movie to Marvel films (usually in a positive light). These movies are nothing like them and do their own thing (outside of Sonic making a Winter Soldier reference). When I last checked, an action-adventure film leading to an ancient temple with magical jewels was something not invented by Marvel, nor the MCU. That's a tale as old as time itself! I admit this version of Sonic comes off as super-lite Deadpoolish, but that was more so the first movie. Even then, only barely. Get your head out of your ass film critics. Not everything should be compared, nor make an analogy to the MCU. Let films be their own thing and stop making comparison that makes no sense. Thank you.

 

[thebobmaster]

Next step on my October watchathon was was Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter. It's still one of the best in the series for me. Great final pair, and some really creative kills against characters that actually get enough development so you care when they die.

 

[SilentPony]

Smile

Normally horror movies don't do anything for me. I grant they can be gory and that makes me queasy, but in general Im aware they're not real and no matter how disturbing whatever is going on screen is, I know it didn't really happen. Ghosts aren't real, daemons and monsters aren't real, aliens aren't going to small towns and poking people in the ass and scaring dogs.
Smile is one of the rare horror movies that has even lower stakes by making it clear very early on everything is a dream. No kidding, all the jump scare horror scenes end with our clueless main character, Rose, just waking up. That scene in the trailers where the woman is outside the car and swoops her head down? Yeah, Rose is asleep in her car.
The titular Smile? Is it a curse? A daemon? Ghosts? Lovecraftian monsters or space AI? Or all in Rose's mind? Who the fuck knows, the movie kinda forgot to have a story. Don't get me wrong, there is some lame looking teeth monster, which the movie doesn't call the Tooth Fairy in a shocking display of writing incompetence, but still it can all be in her head. This movie has zero stakes and undermines its own horror at every turn. Like the whole thing can easily be interpreted as the struggles of PTSD and the smile affliction being the pain of having to force a smile because society expects you to. Or it can be a a monster that hunts shocking low emotional bandwidth people. Who knows?! The movie sure as shit didn't bother to have an opinion on its own plot.

Stupid as fuck/10, you saw all the worthwhile scenes in the trailer.

 

[Samtemdo8]

JFK with Kevin Costner, directed by Oliver Stone.

Its the movie made for people that already think there's a conspiracy alright.

As for me, I feel this could have been a FAR better movie if it was just about Lee Harvey Oswald. Because so far the Oswald parts of the movie was the only interesting thing. Like they could have went with a Taxi Driver kind of movie based on the life of Lee Harvey Oswald.

 

[BrawlMan]

The Woman King - This movie is awesome, and I consider it my movie of the year! I have nothing else to say....other than....

Go fucking see it!

 

[Gordon_4]

Oscar - 10/10

This is probably one of m family’s favourite movies. Sylvester Stallone plays Angelo “Snaps” Provolone, prohibition era gangster kingpin, who swears to his father - a deathbed scene stealing Kirk Douglas - he’ll go straight. The rest of the film rather neatly compresses a three hour period into 90 minutes where Snaps proceeds to have the most frustrating day of his goddamn life, all kicked off by his accountant Little Anthony showing up to ask for a raise……..

Assisting with the whole tone of farce is all the other members of Snaps’ outfit seemingly uncomplaining transition to new jobs. Right hand man and consigliere Aldo seems unbothered about becoming a butler; main heavy man Connie (who is less a gangland bruiser than he is a loyal but doofy and heavily armed Labrador that walks like a man) as a bodyguard, wheelman Johnny Elbows as a chauffeur etc.

Explaining the plot much further would ruin it but I’ve often felt this is a forgotten comedy gem in Stallone’s filmography and well worth a look.

 

[thebobmaster]

Watched Friday the 13th Part V tonight. It's stupid, cheesy fun. Nothing more, one of the weaker entries for sure, but not unenjoyable. Fun fact, immediately after finishing the movie, I asked my brother to name as many characters as he could. He got two or three before he started mis-remembering names.

 

[Xprimentyl]

Winchester: Meh / Great

Helen Mirren plays an eccentric, majority shareholder of a repeater rifle company who's mansion is constantly under construction as she adds more and more rooms. The board of the company sends a psychiatrist to have her declared unfit to manage the company any further, but what he finds is not only is she not crazy, there's a method to her madness...

A worse version of 13 ghost by orders of magnitude.

 

[Piscian]

Clerks III - last 40 minutes

I finished watching Clerks III, but in full disclosure I watched it while doing daily quests on mtga. That said I didn't miss anything, but it has a vibe similar to Twilight and its impossibly.."dull" and difficult to sit through without knitting or something to take my mind off how bored I am.

If I could summarize my thoughts both on Clerks II and Clerks III I'd say it's just a "waste". I like Randle, I like Dante, I like the settings. Theres a grain of a good story that runs throughout both films, but it's ruined by Kevin Smiths in ability to get over himself. I'm surprised at what a long list of Kevin Smith films I can say I enjoyed - Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma, Tusk, Red State. All films that were pretty compelling if not good. I think there's a similarly compelling story here about GenXs getting older, but its smothered by Kevin trying to sanctify his original series.

Clerks III is about the two clerks being at the tail end of their lives, still working at the quickstop and a brush with death drives them to make a movie about the quickstop, literally filming "clerks". Maybe not totally original, but in context I was here for it.

Clerks III fails for a couple different reasons, assuming you like Kevin Smith in the first place. First being the most egregious is his absolute obsession with this moronic born again Christian character Elias played by Trevor Fehrman. I get it, Christians are by and large insufferable, the whole religion is a farce, but Elias is not funny as either a strawman or as a central character and boy is he central to the story in Clerks III. He probably gets more screen time than Dante and its just on and on drab puns about how dumb Christians are. The second, that I realized during the credits, is that Kevin Smith is obsessed with John Hughes and he is desperate to make his characters dialog deep and meaningful, but its just so bland and saccharine. He even plays this awful 90s top40 pop music over every scene that amps up over the dialog right as you can almost hear Kevin Smith being like "hush hush this is the serious moment.". Kevin wants so bad for Clerks to be the The Breakfast Club, but he has no idea how to write people or comedic timing. Its a shame because I think I did chuckle twice so he knows "what" is funny, he just doesn't know how to film it. It's not even about crass humor, its just timing it and he's lost all sense of how to do that. The film has to pause for every joke when it should be organically happening as a part of the scene.

Its you dont want to watch it, but just want to know how it ends

Randle and Dante fight throughout the whole movie with the same song and dance about how Randle is ruining Dantes life. Dante eventually has a heart attack and before he dies Randle shows him that hes the main character in clerks and he dies peacefully knowing his life had some value. It's actually a good ending to the story, sadly the rest of the film is an absolute slog. I would rather pull out one of my fingernails than watch it again.

I would rather pull out one of my fingernails than watch it again/10

 

[Xprimentyl]

The 355: Decent / Great

Doomsday device goes missing, and 4 women from various branches of their respective countries' government agencies band together to keep it from falling into the wrong hands.

That's a shitty synopsis, I know, but it's the best I could do with that convoluted mess of a film. It was fun. Would like to have seen it in the theater.

Cold Creek Manor: Meh / Great

Dennis Quaid moves his family from the hustle and bustle of city life to a remote manor in dire need of repair. The home is filled with the belongings and memories of the previous owners, and while fixing things up, the previous owner creepily shows up and offers his services in fixing the house up. It's soon made apparent that the previous owner isn't on the up and up, and Quaid struggles to untangle the mystery and history surrounding their new home and ex-owner.

Fine. Whatever. It's a movie that happened.

 

[thebobmaster]

Tonight was Friday the 13th: Part VI. Remains my favorite of the Friday the 13th film. Likeable characters, creative kills, and some rather solid writing all make for a fun movie to watch. Thom Mathews is especially good as Tommy Jarvis, and even the minor characters get some great lines (one of my favorites being one camper to another as the kids are hiding, sure that their death is just a matter of time: "So, what were you going to be when you grew up?")

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

JFK with Kevin Costner, directed by Oliver Stone.

Its the movie made for people that already think there's a conspiracy alright.

As for me, I feel this could have been a FAR better movie if it was just about Lee Harvey Oswald. Because so far the Oswald parts of the movie was the only interesting thing. Like they could have went with a Taxi Driver kind of movie based on the life of Lee Harvey Oswald.

Oh man was I obsessed with this movie a long time ago.
It's my favorite kind of entertainment because it's fascinating, rewatcheable, insanely awesome cinema, that is so full of logical leaps and omissions but also explores interesting ideas. It's a glorious mess, I love it.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Tonight was Friday the 13th: Part VI. Remains my favorite of the Friday the 13th film. Likeable characters, creative kills, and some rather solid writing all make for a fun movie to watch. Thom Mathews is especially good as Tommy Jarvis, and even the minor characters get some great lines (one of my favorites being one camper to another as the kids are hiding, sure that their death is just a matter of time: "So, what were you going to be when you grew up?")

I’d have to agree, if not mostly because it also holds a special place in my heart of horror for being my first Friday movie.

Best quote to sum it up:

Tommy: I went to go cremate Jason but I fucked up!
Deputy Rick: You got that right.

Best kill for me was the paintballer with the machete getting his arm torn off…with it still in hand.

 

[thebobmaster]

Watched The Omen tonight. Original, not remake. Yeah, that's still an amazing horror movie. Fantastic acting all around, and some freaking gnarly scares that still hold up on a rewatch.

 

[Xprimentyl]

Mother!: Fantastic / Great

Javier Bardem and his much younger wife Jennifer Lawrence are enjoying their lives alone in their remote country home when a mysterious man (Ed Harris) shows up at the front door under. He says he was mistakenly told that their home was a bed and breakfast, and was prepared to leave when Bardem insists he stay the night as it was late; reluctantly, Lawrence agrees. The next morning, the man's wife (Michelle Pfeiffer) shows up, and things go from uncomfortable to brutally chaotic.

VERY intense film. Once it gets going, it simply does not stop. My mind was abuzz the whole time trying to figure out just what in the hell was going on. It wasn't until the final minutes that I was able to piece it together, and my jaw dropped. It was written and directed by Darren Aronofsky, a guy I realize now has a host of films I've enjoyed over the years like Pi, The Fountain and Black Swan, and Mother! is no less cerebral. I highly recommend this movie, but insist you don't read the spoiler I'm going to drop below.

EDIT: I removed the spoiler. I'd rather not tempt anyone and ruin it for them.

 

[Piscian]

Mother!: Fantastic / Great

Javier Bardem and his much younger wife Jennifer Lawrence are enjoying their lives alone in their remote country home when a mysterious man (Ed Harris) shows up at the front door under. He says he was mistakenly told that their home was a bed and breakfast, and was prepared to leave when Bardem insists he stay the night as it was late; reluctantly, Lawrence agrees. The next morning, the man's wife (Michelle Pfeiffer) shows up, and things go from uncomfortable to brutally chaotic.

VERY intense film. Once it gets going, it simply does not stop. My mind was abuzz the whole time trying to figure out just what in the hell was going on. It wasn't until the final minutes that I was able to piece it together, and my jaw dropped. It was written and directed by Darren Aronofsky, a guy I realize now has a host of films I've enjoyed over the years like Pi, The Fountain and Black Swan, and Mother! is no less cerebral. I highly recommend this movie, but insist you don't read the spoiler I'm going to drop below.

The entire film is a visceral and violent Biblical allegory, and once I realized that, I ran through it again in my head and and it was all so obvious. Aronofsky does such a terrific job of keep you so off pace, you don't have time to catch the obvious hints until near the end.

Me watching Mother!: "man this sure has a lot in common with the bible stuff"
Me driving home: ".......ooooh"

I really enjoyed Mother! I'm surprised so many people shat on it on release. Critics were pretty visceral, audiences hated it, either for philosophical reasons or they just "didn't get it". Not intoning they're dumb, just that it simply did not resonate with people or it was simply too abstract.

I think there's an individual line that can't be crossed for viewers as to whats inspired and whats hipster garbage. I think its unique to everyone as it should be noted critics were heavily divided. They either loved or hated Mother!

I honestly don't think I would have liked Mother! if I had known it was an allegory going. I enjoyed not really knowing where it was going, but trying to pick apart the dialog and constantly being surprised. That said I dig stuff thats takes some energy to untangle as you're watching it. I thoroughly enjoyed some of the recent Shakespearean adaptations like "Titus" and "Coriolanus" both of which equally divided critics.

 

[Xprimentyl]

I honestly don't think I would have liked Mother! if I had known it was an allegory going.

Exactly why I encourage anyone interested not to read my spoiler. It really is shocking how on the nose a lot of it is, and if you're looking for it, it takes away from the impact it ultimately has. I'm going to remove my spoiler.

 

[09philj]

Today at the behest of one of my good friends I went with him to see the French psychedelic experimental sci fi western film After Blue, directed by Bertrand Mandico.

On the upside, the production design is fantastic, artificial and stagy yet grubby and tactile and deeply strange, which perfectly suits the tone of the film, and there are moments with real imagination and striking visuals, like the lesbian carcass bathtub scene. The cast at least all seem to be into it, with Vimala Pons as Sternberg probably being the standout performance in my book.

On the downside, it's absolutey incomprehensible bobbins and much too long at two hours and nine minutes, and has what I consider to be rather too much gratuitous frontal nudity and sex. If both the length and the proportion of time spent watching people get their jollies off had been reduced to sensible levels I'd be more positively inclined to the film, but as is I think it's a lot more of a curate's egg. 4/10

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Exactly why I encourage anyone interested not to read my spoiler. It really is shocking how on the nose a lot of it is, and if you're looking for it, it takes away from the impact it ultimately has. I'm going to remove my spoiler.

I mean, you can't really go wrong with Bardem or Harris, and J-Law knocks it out of the park, especially in the finale. So, even after discovering what it's all about it's still fun to sit back and watch it all play out.

 

[gorfias]

The Northman on Amazon Prime

A number of people in this thread seemed dismissive of this movie and I think that unfortunate.

Yes, it has a few major plot points that are also in Hamlet but this is its own story built in its own, very real feeling world.

Viking prince sees his father murdered by his uncle. He escapes and enters a life that would make Conan blush, planning on returning one day to avenge his father and save his mother. The morality of the times completely does not work in the modern world. I wonder if the modern person would be able to even speak to these people. You'd probably get run thru before you got 2 words in.

The views are unbelievably gorgeous.

And like "The Witch" this feels so authentic. Was this what it really was like to be a viking? Heck if I know, but it felt like it was.

It is directed and co-written by Robert Eggers, the same guy that did "The Witch" and "The Lighthouse" which are both amazing IMHO. He and Jordan Peele are becoming standout directors for me in this generation but very unlike Spielberg and Cameron, their movies are on a much smaller scale and make much less. This one made about $70 million world wide. I hope we can keep them around.

9/10