Discuss and Rate the Last Film You Watched

[BrawlMan]

Disney movies are no longer making money though...

Doesn't matter, money is still the end goal. The only difference is now this time they actually have to think about what they're putting out instead of just throwing everything on the assembly line. Cuz once their bottom line is hit, then Disney will start caring about putting out quality products. Money is money. If you can't figure that out, then you're nowhere sharp as you like to believe you are.

It's funny how to cycle keep going. Now DreamWorks is living the life like it's golden, and Disney's going through troubles. They'll swing back around at some point, but for now, go DreamWorks! Then again, I never had a problem with most of their outputs begin with.

 

[Piscian]

Who’s holding a gun to your head to watch them?

I'm not sure I really understand your point. I was more commenting on the fact that we used to have this big expectation like OMG new PIXAR cause you knew it was gonna amazing whatever it was. I remember seeing the trailer for Monsters Inc, and there being that audible gasp across the world like "What craziness are they gonna do now!!!??", but these days its like "meh another Pixar movie to babysit my kids."

Movies like Inside Out and UP make me believe they can still say something, but I think I'm 3 movies behind now because after Lightyear I'd rather wash dishes than watch another one.

 

[Phoenixmgs]

Commando - 6 / 10

For some reason, this movie popped into my head as something to rewatch because I remember loving it as a kid but haven't seen it in a long ass time. The movie is just a decently fun 80s action movie that knows exactly what it is and even makes fun of itself a bit. It's pretty funny how Arnold (John fucking Matrix and people just call him Matrix, so weird) just invades the leading lady's life and rips the seat out of her car and shit. Then, she's like I have Karate class at 7:30 and he's like "you're not going to make it" just so nonchalant. I really can't believe the karate class line wasn't forshadowing for her having a scene where she takes out at least one baddie with aforementioned karate. The action for the most part isn't good, they really just cut to a shot of Arnie shooting, then cut to the enemies he hit so there's really no choreography at all. It's just like the director told Arnie to run to these different spots and shoot the gun and we'll figure out the rest in editing (in the ending climatic action scene). Also, Arnie is like the least convincing military soldier ever, his shooting technique isn't any better than a kid. Also, I spent like the whole movie trying to figure out if the main baddie is wearing chainmail or just a shirt that looks like chainmail. The movie feels like a 90s FPS set to easy where you can run around with a decent health pool just spraying and praying your way through the level basically, or more aptly the Commando arcade game.

---

Extraction - 8/10

This is basically the exact opposite of Commando in almost every sense. It's akin to a video game as well, but this one is a multiplayer shooter where you're on your most perfect kill streak (perfect aiming, checking your corners, knowing exactly when to move from place to place) and everything is just perfectly lining up for you to feel like the greatest player ever. The action scenes are choreographed amazingly well, basically military soldier John Wick. There's one action scene that goes for ~12 minutes with no cuts (I'm sure there's hidden cuts obviously) where you go from a car chase scene to a foot chase scene where the main character military Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and the kid he's protecting are going from building to building, room to room, and balcony to balcony fighting baddies constantly (whether shooting or hand-to-hand), then the main baddie of the scene and Thor fall off the balcony and start getting hit buy cars and shit, then this 12 minute full-on action scene with no cuts ends with another car chase scene. It's fucking ridiculous and looks great. The movie has just enough emotional through-line with Thor and the kid (and Thor's actual kid) to be invested enough in all the action and everything that's going on, along with another character (and their family) that's basically a 3rd-party that's both a baddie and a friendly.

 

[Piscian]

Depends on what we consider a failure. Commercially yes. Other more recent Pixar films, but by no means all of them, have done incredibly well in that regard. Incredibles 2, Finding Dory and Toy Story 4 are all in the top 10 highest grossing animated films of all time. But if we're talking in terms of the standard of quality Pixar established in the 2000s, the overwhelming impression to me is that they've been struggling to hit the high notes of Wall-E, Up or Finding Nemo for over a decade. Right after Toy Story 3 there were Cars 2, Brave, and Monsters University, all of which got a resoundingly mediocre response. Inside Out was widely lauded, but what came after? The Good Dinosaur, Finding Dory, and Cars 3, none of which were considered masterpieces. After that there's plenty of duds:

• Onward, which no one remembers even being a Pixar movie and didn't even make its budget back
• Soul, which was well received, but released straight to streaming
• Lightyear was a full on flop, barely making back its $200 million budget
• Luca only grossed 49 million, which is shockingly low for a Pixar film (though again, released on streaming)
• Elemental, obviously, but IMO it's a bit too early to tell for that one

Encanto flopped as well, though thats box office,

Budget	$120–150 million[2][3]
Box office	$256.8 million[4][5]

"Encanto was estimated to need to gross at least $300 million worldwide to break-even.[72] Nevertheless, the film went viral over the 2021 holiday season and achieved wider commercial success after its digital release to Disney+ on December 24, 2021.[73][74][75]"

it was successful on streaming, how the money works on that no one knows.

 

[Phoenixmgs]

Doesn't matter, money is still the end goal. The only difference is now this time they actually have to think about what they're putting out instead of just throwing everything on the assembly line. Cuz once their bottom line is hit, then Disney will start caring about putting out quality products. Money is money. If you can't figure that out, then you're nowhere sharp as you like to believe you are.

It's funny how to cycle keep going. Now DreamWorks is living the life like it's golden, and Disney's going through troubles. They'll swing back around at some point, but for now, go DreamWorks! Then again, I never had a problem with most of their outputs begin with.

Every company exists to make money. Disney's standard operating procedure has over the last few years stopped being able to make money, it's pretty sad when such massive IPs are losing money, you really got to fuck up that shit for that to happen.

Dreamworks is the animation studio that makes a surprising great movie here and there (Kung Fu Panda, How to Train Your Dragon, Puss n Boots 2) and they still are that. I don't think anyone thinks "ooh, a new Dreamworks movie, can't wait to see that!!!" Hell, I fucking love cats and word of mouth had to get around to me to see Puss n Boots 2 for example. Also, Dreamworks literally just released a massive flop with Teenage Kraken.

 

[BrawlMan]

Phoenix, I'm pretty much ignoring you right now and I'm not even bothering listening to most of what you talking about, that's obvious information already. By the way, that's DreamWorks only flop is with the Kraken. By the way, you quoted me, so our conversations already over.

 

[Absent]

Who’s holding a gun to your head to watch them?

Oh, that's where the gun was ? I was looking for it everywhere.

Please bring it back when you're done, the bob still refuses to watch a view to a kill.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Disney movies are no longer making money though...

Right, that's why they're leading the global box office in 2023... and 2022.

 

[Bartholen]

L.A Confidential, 8/10, maybe even 9/10

This is the 90s classic film noir about... well it's sort of a Greatest Hits album of film noir tropes: mob dealings, crooked cops, labyrinthine plots, seediness behind glamour, the works. It's about three different cops tangled in a web of intrigue and conspiracy that end up converging on the same leads.

This is the definition of an easy watch. It's excellently paced, really well acted, engaging, the period detail is spot on, has good, character-focused storytelling and is overall just a breeze. It's never slow and it packs a couple of pretty effective twists into its complex, but not incomprehensible, plot. The three leads (Guy Pierce, Kevin Spacey and Russell Crowe) are all on top form, and all of them are very engaging to watch in their own ways. Crowe plays the misled but ultimately well-meaning brute, Spacey is full of that slick but also slightly sleazy charm he was so well known for, and Pierce, while not as showy in his acting, gets some of the most interesting character writing. One of my favorite moments is when Crowe's character asks him "You wanna tear it all down?" and he answers "With a wrecking ball" in a heartbeat. A lot of movies end up making the steely-eyed straight-edge cop with an unshakeable conscience boring, but here the contrast between Pierce's character's almost robotic straight-edgeness, and the dark moral ambiguity of the story makes him one of the most interesting characters to me.

It's ultimately not very substantial, and the plot is pretty typical film noir fare. The cinematography's really nothing to write home about, but that's about the best I can do in terms of any serious criticism. There's nothing wrong with typical entertainment when it's done this well.

 

[thebobmaster]

Oh, that's where the gun was ? I was looking for it everywhere.

Please bring it back when you're done, the bob still refuses to watch a view to a kill.

I'LL GET TO IT WHEN I GET TO IT!

Can you blame me for putting it off?

 

[Absent]

I'LL GET TO IT WHEN I GET TO IT!

Can you blame me for putting it off?

The more you postpone it, the older Roger Moore gets !!

(While Fiona Fullerton stays at the same age. )

 

[Thaluikhain]

Is A View to a Kill really that much worse than the previous films?

 

[Phoenixmgs]

Phoenix, I'm pretty much ignoring you right now and I'm not even bothering listening to most of what you talking about, that's obvious information already. By the way, that's DreamWorks only flop is with the Kraken. By the way, you quoted me, so our conversations already over.

Per your own style, I already stopped caring about this conversation. Funny how you don't care about anything but have to put your 2 cents into everything...

Right, that's why they're leading the global box office in 2023... and 2022.

But are they turning a profit? Little Mermaid lost money, Elemental lost money, Indy 5 lost money, Ant Man 3 lost money.

L.A Confidential, 8/10, maybe even 9/10

This is the 90s classic film noir about... well it's sort of a Greatest Hits album of film noir tropes: mob dealings, crooked cops, labyrinthine plots, seediness behind glamour, the works. It's about three different cops tangled in a web of intrigue and conspiracy that end up converging on the same leads.

This is the definition of an easy watch. It's excellently paced, really well acted, engaging, the period detail is spot on, has good, character-focused storytelling and is overall just a breeze. It's never slow and it packs a couple of pretty effective twists into its complex, but not incomprehensible, plot. The three leads (Guy Pierce, Kevin Spacey and Russell Crowe) are all on top form, and all of them are very engaging to watch in their own ways. Crowe plays the misled but ultimately well-meaning brute, Spacey is full of that slick but also slightly sleazy charm he was so well known for, and Pierce, while not as showy in his acting, gets some of the most interesting character writing. One of my favorite moments is when Crowe's character asks him "You wanna tear it all down?" and he answers "With a wrecking ball" in a heartbeat. A lot of movies end up making the steely-eyed straight-edge cop with an unshakeable conscience boring, but here the contrast between Pierce's character's almost robotic straight-edgeness, and the dark moral ambiguity of the story makes him one of the most interesting characters to me.

It's ultimately not very substantial, and the plot is pretty typical film noir fare. The cinematography's really nothing to write home about, but that's about the best I can do in terms of any serious criticism. There's nothing wrong with typical entertainment when it's done this well.

Ah, I might give this a rewatch if I remember shortly in the future. I'm sure I probably saw it long ago but have no real memory of it.

 

[Absent]

Is A View to a Kill really that much worse than the previous films?

Opinion spoiler :

Spoiler

I like it very much.

 

[thebobmaster]

The more you postpone it, the older Roger Moore gets !!

(While Fiona Fullerton stays at the same age. )

Roger Moore's dead, he's not getting any older.

 

[Casual Shinji]

But are they turning a profit? Little Mermaid lost money, Elemental lost money, Indy 5 lost money, Ant Man 3 lost money.

With a 3.4 billion in box office so far, I'd say yes.

 

[Absent]

Roger Moore's dead, he's not getting any older.

He keeps ageing in that movie. I'm not even sure how he manages that.

 

[Xprimentyl]

Roger Moore's dead, he's not getting any older.

You don't cease getting older simply because you cease to live. Age, technically, is the number of years since one's birth. Fanatic pro-lifers might argue our birthdays should be 9-months prior to what our birth certificates say....

... Holy shit, I just calculated 9 months prior to my birthday, and it's my hire date at my job of 14 years, AND the release date of INSIDE, my favorite videogame. What the actual fuck, universe?

 

[BrawlMan]

With a 3.4 billion in box office so far, I'd say yes.

You know he always likes to extend the goal post, make things up, and project. It's all he ever does. It's why I have him on ignore.

 

[Phoenixmgs]

With a 3.4 billion in box office so far, I'd say yes.

Again, that doesn't tell me if they turned a profit. Avatar is like their only big recent hit and that didn't make nearly as much as you'd think, according to Cameron the movie needed to do $2 billion to turn a profit.

You know he always likes to extend the goal post, make things up, and project. It's all he ever does. It's why I have him on ignore.

How am I extending the goal post when I'm asking if these movies made a profit after saying they aren't making money? Every movie pulls in revenue, that doesn't mean a movie made money.