Discuss and Rate the Last Film You Watched

[Chimpzy]

Super Mario Bros Movie

As someone who's enjoyed many Nintendo games over the years, I enjoyed the cavalcade of audiovisual easter eggs, but aside from that it's merely a passable animated kids movie light on plot and characterization. Not bad. Not great. Just adequate. Also, apparently the usual dumbasses are championing it as some anti-woke victory, and I have no idea why.

 

[BrawlMan]

Also, apparently the usual dumbasses are championing it as some anti-woke victory, and I have no idea why.

They're emotional parasites piggybacking on this movie, because it's about an white "old-school" Italian guy and his brother, that don't appear or act "foolish/stupid". Even though both Mario and Luigi are not perfect, and can make mistakes. Besides, this movie made Princess Peach have a more proactive role, have her more skilled than Mario, and gave her elements of Princess Daisy. She's a capable fighter, but not a overpowered "Mary Sue" these douchebags like to complain about most female characters or protagonists. Not to mention, the person voicing Toad is black. Then you have Bowser, who is shown the negatives consequences of toxic masculinity, "entitled to have you" behavior towards a woman, and how being an envious biatch makes you your own worst enemy. These idiots are that dumb or hoping for their audience to be as dumb as them, or worse.

 

[Kyrian007]

There is no "cringe", that moment is awesome and hilarious. Plus, that's actually taking something from the games. Bowser did have a crush on Peach in some of the main line games, and some of the spin-off games. The only difference is that it was played for 100% complete laughs in the games. Everyone in the theater was laughing their ass off at that scene.


My mom don't have much nostalgia (any of it is transplanted, because she's the one that bought us our Game Boys as kids) for Nintendo, but she likes Mario. The negative reviews don't mean crap. You literally have people who don't play video games, or look down upon them. I don't expect these critics to know everything, but do some basic Google research.

I have been kind of surprised at seeing the reaction to the Peach song elsewhere. That song DIED at my theater. I definitely felt "cringe" anytime Bowser went on about his feelings for Peach, and the reaction at the theater I was at made me feel fairly justified. Lots of folks picked that musical number to check their phones, and I didn't hear anyone complaining about it. Although the murmur of conversation did pick up, as if many people were picking that moment to whisper to people sitting next to them. Looking around, kids seemed a little more antsy, looking around instead of rapt attention on the screen. I don't remember jokes around Bowser's infatuation getting any laughter. And that was from a crowd who was openly really digging Donkey Kong, cart racing, and literally laughing out loud for the little lumas in the cage.

The negative reviews are valid. For anyone watching them who is an adult with no love for Mario or Nintendo. I'm not butthurt at their very existence, they just didn't really apply to me, and never would have nor were intended to persuade anyone who was already going to see that movie to change their mind. They were honest assessments from people who clearly were not the target audience of the film.

And actually, I find those kind of assessments very useful. They are likely to help me recognize a flaw I might overlook because of an attachment I have to the franchise or characters or setting. I'm not immune to being fan or nostalgia blind to a movie or tv show's shortcomings. And an outsider's perspective can help someone overcome those blind spots. Its not like they are going to change my level of enjoyment, I'll just have a better understanding of the movie than others. And what else is watching a movie critic for, than helping me feel intellectually superior to the plebes.

 

[BrawlMan]

I have been kind of surprised at seeing the reaction to the Peach song elsewhere. That song DIED at my theater. I definitely felt "cringe" anytime Bowser went on about his feelings for Peach, and the reaction at the theater I was at made me feel fairly justified. Lots of folks picked that musical number to check their phones, and I didn't hear anyone complaining about it. Although the murmur of conversation did pick up, as if many people were picking that moment to whisper to people sitting next to them. Looking around, kids seemed a little more antsy, looking around instead of rapt attention on the screen. I don't remember jokes around Bowser's infatuation getting any laughter. And that was from a crowd who was openly really digging Donkey Kong, cart racing, and literally laughing out loud for the little lumas in the cage.

Nobody got antsy, or bother looking at their phones once at my showing. The online reaction is between this song is awesome and hilarious, or showcases Jack Black's musical talents. All of which I agree.

The negative reviews are valid. For anyone watching them who is an adult with no love for Mario or Nintendo. I'm not butthurt at their very existence, they just didn't really apply to me, and never would have nor were intended to persuade anyone who was already going to see that movie to change their mind. They were honest assessments from people who clearly were not the target audience of the film.

I don't mind an honest assessment, but it still wouldn't have killed them to do some minor research. With that said, I 've been at odds with most film critics for years with a very good reason. Now there are some film critics I do enjoy, but they usually know what they're talking about, or at the very least try to keep an open mind. I've disagreed with them several times, but they at least don't act like snooty assholes about it.

And actually, I find those kind of assessments very useful. They are likely to help me recognize a flaw I might overlook because of an attachment I have to the franchise or characters or setting. I'm not immune to being fan or nostalgia blind to a movie or tv show's shortcomings. And an outsider's perspective can help someone overcome those blind spots. Its not like they are going to change my level of enjoyment, I'll just have a better understanding of the movie than others. And what else is watching a movie critic for, than helping me feel intellectually superior to the plebes.

I don't mind an outsiders perspective, but I reached that point when I know something is good, works for me, or doesn't always work for someone else (nothing inherently wrong with that at all). Besides, most of the critics that dislike the film don't matter much to audiences, the fans, nor Illumination and Nintendo in the long run.

 

[gorfias]

Creed 3: $25 on Amazon Early Access
Solid B.

Creed 1 is good. So far, Creed 2 is the best of the 3 but 3 has some charms. Should be the last one unless Michael Jordon pulls a Stallone (who isn't in this one) and wants his character still boxing into his mid 60s.

I made the boy watch with me and he was rolling his eyes as I think he thought this would be like Rocky 3-5 (I liked 6). When it was done, he was surprised at how good it was. Worth watching for fans of the property. He also told me he got texted in the middle of it by someone who also felt Creed 2 better than 3 but 3 is good.

 

[BrawlMan]

Creed 1 is good. So far, Creed 2 is the best of the 3 but 3 has some charms. Should be the last one unless Michael Jordon pulls a Stallone (who isn't in this one) and wants his character still boxing into his mid 60s.

I made the boy watch with me and he was rolling his eyes as I think he thought this would be like Rocky 3-5 (I liked 6). When it was done, he was surprised at how good it was. Worth watching for fans of the property. He also told me he got texted in the middle of it by someone who also felt Creed 2 better than 3 but 3 is good.

I'm the opposite. I consider Creed 3 better than Creed 2. Creed 2 is fine, but it made the mistake of making Adonis too arrogant, for no reason I add, thus making him less sympathetic.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I made the boy watch

 

[gorfias]

I'm the opposite. I consider Creed 3 better than Creed 2. Creed is fine, but it made the mistake of making Adonis too arrogant, for no reason I add, thus making him less sympathetic.

Spoiler

The hero's journey arc in 2 works really well. Adonis has the ever living heck beat out of him. He's hospitalized and must rise from that defeat. Great story arc. 3s is there, but much more subtle. He has to overcome having been played (the extent of how badly he'd been played did shock me) but maybe I just need less subtle. I did love that they gave Drago jr. a presence in this movie. The guy wasn't a bad guy in 2: he was very sympathetic with his own demon's to slay and it was nice to see him continuing on.

 

[Xprimentyl]

Tetris: Confusing, but Good / Great

The true story surrounding the trials and tribulations getting the rights to the iconic videogame Tetris out of Soviet Russia.

I don't know how much of this is dramatized for the screen, but it's all really crazy. Backhanded deals, broken contracts, empty promises, billionaires playing with house money they don't actually have, the fucking KGB manipulating everything and threatening livelihoods and actual lives, etc. The hell and actual danger some people went through for such a simple game is really astounding. It got hard to follow and know who exactly promised what to whom and when they "supposedly" did so, so I won't pretend to say I followed it all, but the intrigue outweighed the confusion. Recommended, especially if you're a gamer with any respect for the place Tetris holds in gaming's history; you should know people almost DIED to get that game literally into your hands.

 

[Gordon_4]

The Last Starfighter - 9/10

Watched this old cult classic for some of that beautiful nostalgia dopamine. One of the many Star Wars knock offs that cropped up during the 80s but also one with a lot of heart to it, an excellent early example of CGI - rendered on the Cray Supercomputers if memory serves - and if I'm honest one of the best non-Star Wars space fighter designs:

The Gunstar. The Starfury's bigger, meaner brother that never skipped leg day.

The film is not without other cool selling points to set it just a bit apart: for one, protagonist Alex Rogan is recruited because he's awesome at a video game - albeit one designed to develop and hone the needed skills - and he's not brought on as an ace pilot, but rather a gunner. The piloting is being done by Dan 'OCP's Old Man' O'Herlihy as Grig, an alien who actually knows what the fuck he's doing. Also Alex and by extension, planet Earth, have no clue this shit is going down so culture shock ahoy. Long story short, scrappy heroes win the day, romance occurs and our intrepid youngster from a trailer park becomes a galactic hero.

Last Starfighter also has probably the most, pleasant presentation of a trailer park I've seen in American media. Its just full of colourful folks living the best life they can and being friends. Its even weirdly sweet that when Alex is gonna break the record on the Starfighter video game, which is what sets off the alert for his alien recruitment agent to come and have a chat, everyone seems genuinely excited for him. Like sure this is a small and arguably meaningless thing to most of them but it means something to Alex and since he helps them out they go and barrack for him.

Also man this movie's theme fuckin' hits. It even sounds like a military anthem for a corps of space faring badasses.

 

[gorfias]

The Last Starfighter - 9/10

Watched this old cult classic for some of that beautiful nostalgia dopamine. One of the many Star Wars knock offs that cropped up during the 80s but also one with a lot of heart to it, an excellent early example of CGI - rendered on the Cray Supercomputers if memory serves - and if I'm honest one of the best non-Star Wars space fighter designs:

The Gunstar. The Starfury's bigger, meaner brother that never skipped leg day.

The film is not without other cool selling points to set it just a bit apart: for one, protagonist Alex Rogan is recruited because he's awesome at a video game - albeit one designed to develop and hone the needed skills - and he's not brought on as an ace pilot, but rather a gunner. The piloting is being done by Dan 'OCP's Old Man' O'Herlihy as Grig, an alien who actually knows what the fuck he's doing. Also Alex and by extension, planet Earth, have no clue this shit is going down so culture shock ahoy. Long story short, scrappy heroes win the day, romance occurs and our intrepid youngster from a trailer park becomes a galactic hero.

Last Starfighter also has probably the most, pleasant presentation of a trailer park I've seen in American media. Its just full of colourful folks living the best life they can and being friends. Its even weirdly sweet that when Alex is gonna break the record on the Starfighter video game, which is what sets off the alert for his alien recruitment agent to come and have a chat, everyone seems genuinely excited for him. Like sure this is a small and arguably meaningless thing to most of them but it means something to Alex and since he helps them out they go and barrack for him.

Also man this movie's theme fuckin' hits. It even sounds like a military anthem for a corps of space faring badasses.

Made me wonder what happened to some of the crew from this movie. Director Nick Castle wrote a 1 hour 16 min. movie called Plissken in 2021!?!?!

Plissken (2021) | Action, Sci-Fi

1h 16m

www.imdb.com

 

[meiam]

Made me wonder what happened to some of the crew from this movie. Director Nick Castle wrote a 1 hour 16 min. movie called Plissken in 2021!?!?!

Plissken (2021) | Action, Sci-Fi

1h 16m

www.imdb.com

Da fuck? Is that an unothorized escape from new york sequel or something?

 

[Gordon_4]

Da fuck? Is that an unothorized escape from new york sequel or something?

Yes it is, also I speak Italian as well as Aldo Raines but I'm guessing 'Un fan film di' at the top of the poster translates to 'A fan film by'. Also the trivia tab mentions that the guy who actually provide's Snake Plissken's voice in this venture is the same dude who dubbed over Kurt Russell himself back in the day for the real deal.

 

[gorfias]

Yes it is, also I speak Italian as well as Aldo Raines but I'm guessing 'Un fan film di' at the top of the poster translates to 'A fan film by'. Also the trivia tab mentions that the guy who actually provide's Snake Plissken's voice in this venture is the same dude who dubbed over Kurt Russell himself back in the day for the real deal.

Pretty amazing that they got an established guy like Nick Castle (writing cred in Escape from New York too) to write it.

EDIT: Gives no one else writer cred, but reads, "Characters" next to his name. OK, total fan film where they took his characters.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Tetris: Confusing, but Good / Great

The true story surrounding the trials and tribulations getting the rights to the iconic videogame Tetris out of Soviet Russia.

I don't know how much of this is dramatized for the screen, but it's all really crazy. Backhanded deals, broken contracts, empty promises, billionaires playing with house money they don't actually have, the fucking KGB manipulating everything and threatening livelihoods and actual lives, etc. The hell and actual danger some people went through for such a simple game is really astounding. It got hard to follow and know who exactly promised what to whom and when they "supposedly" did so, so I won't pretend to say I followed it all, but the intrigue outweighed the confusion. Recommended, especially if you're a gamer with any respect for the place Tetris holds in gaming's history; you should know people almost DIED to get that game literally into your hands.

“In Soviet Russia, bloc game plays you.”

 

[Xprimentyl]

The Pope's Exorcist: Meh / Great

The titular character is having a disconnect with the younger authorities within the Vatican who effectively dismiss the idea of Satan as just that, an idea. The titular character finds himself faced with hard proof of the actual devil and his minions when an American child is possessed in Spain who basically proves all of his firmly held beliefs that evil is real and tangible.

I'm really tired of "possession" films. No one wants to try anything new. It wasn't scary, rather it went the route of trying to be disturbing. I always wonder, for all the power "demons" possess, is their not one articulate enough to go beyond crude sex-fueled language? What's scary about a pre-teen saying "i'M goINg tO FUCK yOu!" in a distorted voice? Maybe it's because I grew up in a black household, because demonic possession or not, my mamma would have slapped the devil out of me if I said even a fraction of the shit these possessed white kids say.

Anyway, watch if you want to. The Exorcist did the exact same shit in 1973. You're welcome for the paycheck, Russel Crowe.

 

[Absent]

I always wonder, for all the power "demons" possess, is their not one articulate enough to go beyond crude sex-fueled language? What's scary about a pre-teen saying "i'M goINg tO FUCK yOu!" in a distorted voice? Maybe it's because I grew up in a black household, because demonic possession or not, my mamma would have slapped the devil out of me if I said even a fraction of the shit these possessed white kids say.

Possession movies (and most often ghost movies, as far as the ghost behaviors go) make absolutely no sense in-universe. They are just shows of freak misbehavior, transgressions driven by Oh No The Spirit Of Misbehaving, they're bourgeois nightmares. There would be nothing to gain for, say, the devil (itself a nonsensical concept) in possessing an individual and making them hover above their bed saying naughty words, it's a hilariously petty display of supernatural powers which, if real, would be treated like a bad fever. It's a spectacle by the sole virtue of not being possible. If anything it would just turn atheists into believers (the interesting thing in Friedkin's movie and Blatty's novel isn't the incursion of evil in innocence but the incursion of religiosity in a modern, rational, materialist setting).

But also it's beautiful as a concept - as possession movies allow for ultimate excuses and forgiveness : "I wasn't myself", "you weren't yourself", an intuitive idea that would make life much more comfortable. It proposes the dream of disowning bad actions, and, well, "exorcising" the bad out of a person who was and would be as innocent as desired without it. It's a lovely fairytale to be told, beyond the rollercoaster. It's certainly an underlying cause of the genre's success.

It's a tale of clean crisis and clean resolution that people love being told again and again. It doesn't need to make sense in-universe. Just likes ghosts don't need reasons to behave the most gratuitously jumpscary way (jump scares have to occure and that's all). The sense of it is entirely out-universe. And valid enough.

 

[CriticalGaming]

Just saw the Dungeons and Dragons Honnor Among Thieves movie and i can honestly say that it was a great time. The movie wont blow anyway away with awesomeness, but it's funny, lighthearted, and absolutely enjoyable start to finish. I enjoyed every minute of the movie and was really surprised consider these kinds of films dont have a great track record. But it's really awesome and I would easily recommend it to anyone and it's a must watch if you play DnD.

 

[thebobmaster]

To be fair to The Exorcist, while the whole "swearing demonically possessed child" thing seems old hat now, it was actually pretty revolutionary at the time to juxtapose the innocence of a child with a foul-mouthed, evil entity. It's not exactly a coincidence that both the film adaptation of The Exorcist and The Omen came out when they did.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Nope

On the one hand this is probably Peele's creepiest movie. On the other I never really got into it. I dunno. I would note and appreciate the weirdness, the precision, the creepiness, the visuals. But I never felt engaged with the story or the characters. I felt like they were going for Jaws but instead of working a fear for the sea it's the sky, which is fucking inescapable, and yet it never really got to me. Characters just want to take a picture of the monster, for one thing (who cares?). And the monster makes no sense. Horses can't outrun it, unless the protag is on one. It kills anything it stares at it, unless the protag stares at it. "Don't look at it" is all anybody should be doing, and that's easier than say Don't fall asleep or Freddy will get you, and yet they keep looking at it long after this becomes vox populi.


I'm also not sure if it was the attempts at comedy deflating the tension - every new Peele movie seems to be leaning a bit more on humor - or the grab bag of THEMES and MESSAGES that were vying for attention. I take this weird scifi horror western over say Scream 6 or Saw 9 but I dunno, wasn't completely sold.