Discuss and Rate the Last Film You Watched

[thebobmaster]

A ★★ review of Pocahontas (1995)

All good things come to an end, and that includes the streak of good Disney movies. The plot of the film follows John Smith (voiced by Mel Gibson, with some of the singing dubbed in by Jess Harnell) as he journeys to the New World (aka, Murica) under the governorship of Ratcliffe (David Ogden...

letterboxd.com

 

[Phoenixmgs]

Violent Night - 4/10

This is a bit of an odd movie to rate because most of the movie's individual parts work but they never come together and the movie just feels so disjointed. The movie is trying to do like every single Christmas movie in one. There's the dark Christmas aspects where Santa starts out drinking and the obvious beating up bad guys ultra violence aspects. There's the kiddie Christmas stuff in there about believing and Home Alone type shenanigans. There's the dysfunctional family stuff going on (like The Ref but rich people). There's the Die Hard stuff going on where the main bad guy is super serious Hans-like baddie with a fully thought out plan. There's even some really weird back story stuff with Santa thrown in there. The movie never has any kind of consistent tone throughout and it just feels like you're constantly jumping between Christmas movies every other scene.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

Guillermo del Torro's Pinnochio

Look, man, either the title does it for you or it don't, and it sure do for me.
The master of creepy beautiful weird monster things finally fulfills his passion project of tackling a truly creepy fairy story that Disney managed to sanitize for generations. With claymation, the wooden boy is a truly wooden boy and it's hilarious and weird and off-putting. The scene of his actual creation is my favorite single moment of cinema this year.
There are songs in this movie, and they are terrible, and I don't think that's on purpose but the bad music adds to the heightened sense of unease.

I highly recommend this if you're curious, it truly is.... something, to behold. And it's on Netflix.

 

[gorfias]

Guillermo del Torro's Pinnochio

Look, man, either the title does it for you or it don't, and it sure do for me.
The master of creepy beautiful weird monster things finally fulfills his passion project of tackling a truly creepy fairy story that Disney managed to sanitize for generations. With claymation, the wooden boy is a truly wooden boy and it's hilarious and weird and off-putting. The scene of his actual creation is my favorite single moment of cinema this year.
There are songs in this movie, and they are terrible, and I don't think that's on purpose but the bad music adds to the heightened sense of unease.

I highly recommend this if you're curious, it truly is.... something, to behold. And it's on Netflix.

Thanks, on my radar now!

EDIT: 7.9/10 on IMDB with another version on Disney with Tom Hanks released just this year at 5.1/10. And another just in 2019 with Robert Benigni! 6.1/10. Lotta interest in one property just now!

Worth watching.


Just watched a little film called Them (2021) on Amazon Prime.

Them (2021) ⭐ 3.3 | Sci-Fi, Thriller

1h 24m

www.imdb.com

Gets a 3.3/10 on IMDB. I give it a 7/10. Easy, short (70 min or so) movie.

Imagine the Matrix was created to give humanity the same, pleasant day, over and over again. Kinda like Brave New World.

 

[Dwarvenhobble]

-I didn't really get a sense of girl power. There's nothing that refers to Peach's gender, nor is she outshining everyone else arbitrarily.

-More importantly (to me), what irritates me about Peach is that, as far as I can tell, she started off as a damsel in distress, and as of Odyssey, is still a damsel in distress. Lots of other female characters in games have started off as damsels but developed over time (Zelda, Amy Rose), and in general writing for female characters has gotten better, but Peach has had over 30 years to alleviate her situation, yet hasn't. And I know Mario has never put much emphasis on narrative (least in the main series), nor have I played a mainline Mario game since Sunshine, but even so...

I'm sort of with Shinji on this one.

I'm getting Hollywood girlboss vibes from Peach which this is meant to be the first film right? The brothers go to the Mushroom kingdom for the first time right? If this were a later film it would be more fitting.

I'm personally not throwing the film out entirely yet because it seems to be doing the whole "Fish out of water realises he can be the hero in the new land" staple story and for that to work some-one had to train the person in the rules and be the mentor to them to explain the new world to them initially and well it seems for better or for worse they may have chosen Peach for this role for lack of anyone else to do it.

I do find it a bit suspiciously convenient that it's Luigi who seems to get kidnapped though too....

I suppose I can also now evaluate the MCU's Phase 4, now that everything is out.

WandaVision - Great!
Falcon and the Winter Soldier - Fine
Loki - Boring
Black Widow - Fine
Shang-Chi - Good
What If...? - Didn't watch
Eternals - Great! (Controversial)
Hawkeye - Boring
Spider-Man: No Way Home - Great!
Moon Knight - Boring
Doctor Strange 2 - Fine
Ms Marvel - Boring
Thor Love and Thunder - Poor
I Am Groot - Didn't watch
She-Hulk - Great!
Werewolf by Night - Didn't watch
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever - Great!
Guardians of the Galaxy: Christmas Special - Poor

So out of the 15 Phase 4 projects that I watched, only about 6 really worked for me.

Marvel's quantity > quality approach really hurt them this time around, and I really hope that they fix this going forward.

Am I the only person who really really loved the Loki series?

I know online and in terms of metrics, it was the best recieved Disney+ MCU show, but my entire family found it quite boring as well. I was quite surprised to learn that it's so loved by most. Honestly still don't get what people see in this show. It has lots of individual good stuff in it, but as a whole, it was such a mess of a show.

I think (for me) because it's bordering on the sort of more artsy kind of film making and when you sit through like 2 hour films where 15 mnutes or more are just sweeping shots of beautiful landscape you build up a real tolerance for what I'd call "Fart sniffing films" and Loki doesn't fall into being full on huffing it's own farts but I can see how it really is kinda slow and an ideas / character talking show more than a standard MCU action show. (Note there's is nothing wrong with a good action show to be clear I love Martial Law as a show it's just Loki was something different).

 

[twistedmic]

There's the dysfunctional family stuff going on (like The Ref but rich people)

Isn’t the family in The Ref rich? Or was it just the ***** of a grandmother that was rich and the rest were closet to “comfortable”?

 

[Dwarvenhobble]

Belle

(Bought copy initially Google play but then paid for the Amazon Prime version because Google Play has moving subtitles and Jesus who thought that was a good idea ever?)

Rating: 5.999999 recurring out of 6 stars

Weird thing: The Bluray of this offers a dubbed version with language selection while on demand versions only offer the Japanese language version with subtitles


Plot Tagline: Beauty & the Beast meets the Metaverse but so much more than that sounds and more heart than Disney pretends to still have.

Plot: I basically can't talk about it without spoiling major things

Thoughts in brief / in a Tagline: A film that truly understands the internet both good and bad in a way I don't think I've ever see done before and why are you asking if I'm crying, I'm not crying my eyes just happen to have spontaneously become the source points for 2 rivers it happen.........


Thoughts in full (least spoiler version):

To talk about why this film is one of the few near perfect ratings I've ever given is tough because I don't want to spoil it for people, I looked up the plot before buying it having seen it pop up on Google play and watching the trailer a few times and it just hitting something in me. So do not look up the plot, go in blind and hopefully I will now lay out a convincing set of thoughts to make you want to go in blind.

A bit of background on me that may well add context here. I'm not hugely into anime, I'm not some-one who dunks on it but I've never really been sucked in by anime. I've watched all of Gungrave and I think it was Hellsing Psalm of Darkness (the first segment before the years long break); I've seen the first Vampire Hunter D film and I'll say I really enjoyed Metorpolis (the anime remake of the fairly old Sci-fi film) I also got through Giant Robo. Mostly though I look at anime and I respect it but I leave it in it's space, I've bounced off Full Metal Alchemist in the past along with Elden Lied and a number of other anime series. The last movie I gave a high and near perfect score to was Hardcore Henry because it was a film full and action, violence and boobs, Belle is like the complete opposite of Hardcore Henry and yet I love this fim. I shed a whole 3 tears during Toy Story 3. I maybe shed 1 tear during the film A.I. Belle had me in tears and that was before I'd drunk any Gin.

I'd like to highlight some of the more subtle commentary the film does brilliantly that isn't too much of a spoiler that I feel it ruins anything. The film really does touch on the idea of the corporatisation of the internet (not in a Corporate dystopian Ready Player One way) and firmly plants it's feet in the camp of "ultimately the corporate approach will lose". The film also really does show the power of the internet to bring people together and be used for good sometimes along with planting it's fee firmly in the "Anonymity isn't a bad thing" camp.

The reason it doesn't get that perfect star is at one point in the film there's what I'd call a suspension of disbelief check and it so nearly had me willing to go with it's super hopeful and optimistic event and believe it could be true but I just couldn't. It could have done if it had done a few little extra subtle things I think but I just had the feeling on "This isn't how it would play out in reality and it shows how sad and awful the world is that I'm probably right". (More on this in a spoiler post).

Oh forgot to mention to really cool visuals and way the film shows off certain things like the complex socio-politics in the school among the girls being played out at one point in the style of a paradox grand strategy game complete with game board visuals.

Also cool how it goes into the idea of social media witch hunts but also social media and the impact it can have on people along with how people can impact the world for the better.

Right go watch the film, I'll do a spoiler post but don't read it. Go watch this film

 

[Dwarvenhobble]

Spoiler post for Belle

Please I want to talk about this stuff but I implore you don't open this post, see the film first

Ok you opened it, please consider turning back

So Suzu is in her last year of highschool, she's really pretty shy; her relationship with her father is just about fine but really not good as Suzu is still struggling to come to terms with the death of her mother years ago after her mother swam into a swollen river to rescue a trapped little girl and while her mother got to the girl and gave the girl her lifejacket and the girl made it to shore the river swept her mother away to her death. As a consequence of all this Suzu won't and on some level physically can't indulge in what was her artistic / emotional expression outlet which is songs and music because it was her mother who helped get her into it and helped her learn. Even attempting to sing early in the film causes Suzu to struggle and then be physically sick. At school things as a little complicated, Suzu looks up to and somewhat envies the most popular girl in school who she sees as beautiful and talented. She has a crush on a guy who was her childhood best friend complicated by the fact over the years he's grown into a tall lean sportsman who all the girls see as the hottest guy in school.

Suzu's best friend sends her a link and stuff for U a virtual world system in the style of many an anime where you can sort of shift to existing in the world (think VR chat but without the need for VR kit and motion tracker stuff it just links to the users nervous system or something). In U it's meant to bring out a persons latest talents based on it's body scanning technology. Almost immediately upon getting into U Suzu under her U name of Bell finds she can sing and almost immediately starts singing. Some users are fairly disparaging telling her to shut up or stop showing off while others pay attention. After her song Suzu looks at her U profile (basically twitter) and finds no-one following her so just like in real life she feels no-one notices her really, she then gains 3 followers and one comments how he enjoyed her song. She sees this as something and even if it's only 3 that's not what matters, what matters is she can sing freely in U now and express herself. Suddenly she checks again and has gained 3,000 followers with the number still rising. SUZU discovers her friend who invited her to U has been doing a bit of extra work behind the scenes to make videos of her performance and edit tracks etc and share them round online. Her friend says Suzu could be really big based on projections but knows how Suzu thinks so has set it to donate all the profits to charities.

Bell now renamed to Belle by the users of U become a massive hit, people trying to figure out who she is and it the hottest new star in the world with even her classmates talking about Belle the new singing sensation. Being so popular Belle gets asked to perform at U's concert venue a giant sphere thing. During her performance a beat like creature call "The Dragon" end up rushing into the area pursued by a group of supposed peacekeepers called the Justices. After dispatched them the head Justices turn up including their leader Justin who has (thanks to massive corporate sponsorship) been given the power only the 5 creators of U normally have, the power to reveal the true identity of any user and due to the trouble the Dragon has caused over time in the fighting arena Justin wants to reveal who The Dragon is.

To cut down and going too long with the rest of this (yes that was all set up). Belle and her friend try to find who the Dragon could be finding both bad and good on the internet from lying artists to people with entirely fake social media presences to try and lie to the world to noble people with hidden secrets that are not the shameful things people think initially. Belle finds The Dragon's castle an sees his bruised body with his bruises pulsing and glowing as he seems in more pain. The Justice's catch Belle in one of the lesser used more desolate areas of U near where the Dragon's Castle is located and try to get her to talk but the Dragon shows up and rescues her taking out the Justice soldiers.

Justin eventually detains Belle for interrogation but she refuses to give up the location of The Dragon's castle even under threat of being unveiled for who she really is. The Dragon seeing Belle having been taken jumps in and rescues Belle but a single rose petal is left behind. Using the coding for the Petal Justin manages to track the location of the castle based on the special roses only being present there in U and no-where else. The Justices destroy The Dragon's castle to try and force him to no longer have a place to hide now to make him easier to track down and unmask.

Realising there is something wrong with The Dragon and him having fled to parts unknown in U Suzu and her friend continue to try and find him. Eventually stumbling upon a livestream of a young boy whose father angrily yells at for singing too loud and threats to attack the boy before another boy (his older brother) steps in and acts as a human shield crouching over his little brother while his father deals out a serious beating. The reason the Dragon is sow powerful and near unstoppable in U is revealed to be due to him being the older brother in the video with the number of beatings he had taken IRL with U giving him high endurance and the boys anger at not being able to change things and anger at his father causing him to be able to fight with such ferocity due to his determination. It's also revealed the Younger Brother was Belle's first ever follower and the first person in U to say how much they liked her music.

One problem though, Suzu can't do anything, she doesn't know where they live and they don't trust her enough to contact her after cutting her off a first time thinking she was some-one trolling them on the livestream.

So Belle does one last performance, the Justices plan to use it to trap The Dragon and unmask him but Belle turns the tables and uses Justin's weapon on herself deliberately unveiling her true appearance to the world while singing and calling out for the The Dragon to contact her again, which he does only for his father to see the livestream window and pull the connection. Using her friends knowledge and internet sleuthing that would be close to on par with 4chan's game of capture the flag, Suzu and her friends are able to determine the location of the brother so Suzu takes it upon herself to go there in person to try and save them. Going across the country and running through the rain to find he brother running out with their father coming after them. Suzu then stands between them and protects them with the father trying to pull her away leading to him cutting her face and her turning blood dripping down to face him and him stumbling back and falling over shocked.

It's never fully said only implied Suzu's actions lead to change happening for the brothers but Suzu's actions of sacrificing all that her identity as Belle meant to her to help save the brothers makes her realise why her mother went into that river so long ago and come to terms with her mothers death finally able to better talk to and connect with her father too.

It's just the bit about Suzu stopping the father that lost me. Because he's already beating his two sons so some random girl, why would he not act against her too? There needed to be a bit more on this either show it was being recorded somehow or have some connection to the boys mother (who is implied to be dead) having a passing resemblance to Suzu thus shocking the Dad into stopping. Just something a little more there to make it fully believable.

 

[Phoenixmgs]

Isn’t the family in The Ref rich? Or was it just the ***** of a grandmother that was rich and the rest were closet to “comfortable”?

It's been awhile since I've seen The Ref, I recall them being like upper middle class at most. The family in Violent Night is super rich though that someone like Hans would steal from them.

 

[twistedmic]

It's been awhile since I've seen The Ref, I recall them being like upper middle class at most. The family in Violent Night is super rich though that someone like Hans would steal from them.

Ah. And does the escapist auto censor swearing? Or did I somehow censor my own post?

 

[Thaluikhain]

Ah. And does the escapist auto censor swearing? Or did I somehow censor my own post?

Apparently a certain 5 letter word starting with b and ending with itch is censored, but seemingly nothing else is.

Aaaaaaand now we'll probably get a few posts full of profanities to see if anything else gets censored.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

There's a whole bunch of words that are censored. Like the one that's really popular in Australia, and the one that also means bundle of sticks.

 

[twistedmic]

There's a whole bunch of words that are censored. Like the one that's really popular in Australia, and the one that also means bundle of sticks.

I’m guessing mister Sam Jackson’s favorite word, and its derivatives, would get censored.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I’m guessing mister Sam Jackson’s favorite word, and its derivatives, would get censored.

You can write 'motherfucking', but not -er. Go figure.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Avatar 2

I did not watch the original Avatar in 3D. I watched it in 2D, thought it a good enough popcorn movie and since then haven't seen it in 10 to 13 years. It's not a movie that has had any meaningful impact in the film industry. It didn't launch any stars. It didn't spawn any knockoffs. The novelty of 3D fizzled out. In fact I don't believe it had any impact in pop culture in general, other than the running gag of the sequels taking forever to come out.

The other thing the movie's known for I guess is the not that original observation about the movie not being that original. Yes, it's every invader-turned-savior plot ever. It's Dances With Wolves, Pocahontas, Last Samurai. You don't say. Indiana Jones is superfluous in Raiders, the door in Titanic was big enough and nobody asks for the letters of transit in Casablanca.

Anyway, Avatar 2 is a bit like T2, in that it's about a "found family" on the run (unlikely allies et al) and the villain has been significantly upgraded. There's also a little bit of Titanic during the climax. In general I think I enjoyed it more than the original. It had sharper characterization, more interpersonal conflicts, and the benefit of a slightly more unpredictable plotline. There's a bit more suspense too since we keep cutting between the heroes and the villain, all of whom grow stronger or simply more prepared for a confrontation. And yes, the spectacle is top notch. Cameron is very deft at preparing action as much as he is at delivering it. He clearly has a fascination with learning and mastering and has a very specific, exciting way of showcasing it. Action is transformative too; a set piece can go back and forth between being airborne and underwater or cutting between different characters and the excitement never wavers.

I think the biggest weakness is the dialogue. Worthington narrates the whole thing in platitudes, droning on about family, happiness, light and darkness, whatever you want. Sometimes he explains what we just saw or what we're about to see, and the movie really doesn't need it. Some of the lines spoken are also really bad - like caption this scene bad. No spoilers but most involve a bad guy who keeps prattling about money.

Lastly... There's a dark as fuck moment towards the end that goes completely unacknowledged and unexamined by the characters. Even if they're going to address it in the sequels, I just don't believe that it would go unchecked like this. It's a complete moral aberration. How do the characters just walk away from it? Did I miss something?

 

[Xprimentyl]

Avatar 2

I did not watch the original Avatar in 3D. I watched it in 2D, thought it a good enough popcorn movie and since then haven't seen it in 10 to 13 years. It's not a movie that has had any meaningful impact in the film industry. It didn't launch any stars. It didn't spawn any knockoffs. The novelty of 3D fizzled out. In fact I don't believe it had any impact in pop culture in general, other than the running gag of the sequels taking forever to come out.

The other thing the movie's known for I guess is the not that original observation about the movie not being that original. Yes, it's every invader-turned-savior plot ever. It's Dances With Wolves, Pocahontas, Last Samurai. You don't say. Indiana Jones is superfluous in Raiders, the door in Titanic was big enough and nobody asks for the letters of transit in Casablanca.

Anyway, Avatar 2 is a bit like T2, in that it's about a "found family" on the run (unlikely allies et al) and the villain has been significantly upgraded. There's also a little bit of Titanic during the climax. In general I think I enjoyed it more than the original. It had sharper characterization, more interpersonal conflicts, and the benefit of a slightly more unpredictable plotline. There's a bit more suspense too since we keep cutting between the heroes and the villain, all of whom grow stronger or simply more prepared for a confrontation. And yes, the spectacle is top notch. Cameron is very deft at preparing action as much as he is at delivering it. He clearly has a fascination with learning and mastering and has a very specific, exciting way of showcasing it. Action is transformative too; a set piece can go back and forth between being airborne and underwater or cutting between different characters and the excitement never wavers.

I think the biggest weakness is the dialogue. Worthington narrates the whole thing in platitudes, droning on about family, happiness, light and darkness, whatever you want. Sometimes he explains what we just saw or what we're about to see, and the movie really doesn't need it. Some of the lines spoken are also really bad - like caption this scene bad. No spoilers but most involve a bad guy who keeps prattling about money.

Lastly... There's a dark as fuck moment towards the end that goes completely unacknowledged and unexamined by the characters. Even if they're going to address it in the sequels, I just don't believe that it would go unchecked like this. It's a complete moral aberration. How do the characters just walk away from it? Did I miss something?

As a shameless fan of the first Avatar film (I know it has its detractors,) I'm really happy to read your "not completely negative" review of its sequel. This is not a criticism, but you have not minced words in the past when offering your opinion on several films, and your opinion has often leant towards disaffectedness, i.e.: low expectations met or ambivalent expectations disappointed. Subjectively, you can't be wrong; you know what you like and respect, and any opinions otherwise be damned. And that's not to say I've disagreed with you more often than not; I've not seen most of what you've seen, so I can't even claim such a thing. It was just nice to hear a film I'm highly anticipating (bought tickets to a first-day showing weeks ago) not shredded by someone who's "been there, done that" more times than he'd have liked.

In general I think I enjoyed it more than the original.

This specifically made my day. I don't care what any critics think, but cannot deny a small sense of, I dunno, validation when comments like this defy the trend of simply shitting on what "should" be great given their director's name, insane budgets, A-list cast, or rampant following by the less "cinematically cultured."

 

[Gordon_4]

Prince of Persia - 9/10

I really love this movie. I only ever played Sands of Time once and none of the other games so I can’t comment on it as an adaptation of that or the other games. But as a sword and sandal epic it’s actually pretty good. Sadly much like John Carter of Mars, it’s advertising was badly mismanaged and it ended up a financial disappointment though it didn’t hit failure as hard as John Carter of Mars did.

The movie makes no claim to historical realism - a wise move for a film about dagger powered by magical sand letting you time travel - and sort of squashes together different parts of historical Persia to make for a visually sumptuous movie: the costumes and sets are gorgeous in this bad boy.

Jake Gyllenhaal also gets a shout out for learning Parkour to help with his stunt work. In fact the whole cast have wonderful chemistry with the only disappointment being that Ben Kingsley has the most obvious ‘I am the villain sign’ over his head, by virtue of BEING Ben Kingsley and playing a Vizier who is also the king’s brother. Although the film admirably tries to wrong foot you with the middle brother Garsiv.

 

[Baffle]

The Breakfast Club. The music's okay, but I'm glad I didn't watch it at the cinema (it snowed while I was watching the film).

 

[Gordon_4]

The Breakfast Club. The music's okay, but I'm glad I didn't watch it at the cinema (it snowed while I was watching the film).

While certain aspects of the film are dated, the emotional core of it still rings true. And I don’t know how to feel about that.

Agreed on the baller soundtrack though.

 

[Baffle]

While certain aspects of the film are dated, the emotional core of it still rings true. And I don’t know how to feel about that.

Agreed on the baller soundtrack though.

You're probably the same age as the people playing the youngsters in it, so you're allowed to feel exactly the same. It was going well until Estevez started dancing, then I had to look at the floor for a bit.