Discuss and Rate the Last Film You Watched

[Johnny Novgorod]

On the Rocks

A young woman bored out of her mind hangs out with Bill Murray while mulling over her marriage to a workaholic who may or may not be cheating on her - what is this, Lost in Translation? I wish. I like Rashida Jones in The Office and uh that one romcom but boy she's a zero as a lead. Brings absolutely nothing to the movie. Her character would rather be somewhere else doing something else in every scene she's in, and that's the kind of low-level nothingburger you get from her performance. At one point she asks her husband if he finds her boring and he says yes, a bit. Okay, so the movie at least knows. And I'm supposed to hate her womanizer dad, played by Bill Murray, but honestly he's the most fun thing the movie has to offer. Yes, in real life the blowhard dad that makes it all about himself would be a pain in the ass. But I'm watching a movie and it's been so long since I've seen Bill Murray play a charming self-centered asshat, it's nice to get a break from his sadsack shtick in all those Wes Anderson/Jim Jarmusch movies.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

What struck me about Seven Samurai is how modern its characters feel despite being one of the cornerstones of modern cinema, and establishing a lot of plot elements that would later become tired tropes. The best example of this is Kikuchiyo, the former peasant turned ronin who's basically the face of this film. One of the posters for the movie is of him clad in armor, seemingly screaming. You'd expect that frame to come from an intense battle sequence, but no, it's from a scene where he goes on a long rant about peasants and how they're always more cunning and devious than people think, and it's borderline a mental breakdown. That, and how his boisterous, larger than life persona is clearly a front for unprocessed trauma, makes this film feel like it's deconstructing a character trope which I'm not sure even was a character trope when the movie originally came out.

yep

Kurusawa was inspired by westerns, and in turn inspired the next generation of westerns (not just Magnificent Seven but also the first spaghetti western as A Fistful of Dollars is based on Yojimbo)

 

[PsychedelicDiamond]

Gal Gadot just doesn’t seem like a particularly good actor? I mean sure I’ve only see her as Wonderwims

I think she is very good at playing tall, skinny women with weird accents.

 

[BrawlMan]

Gal Gadot just doesn’t seem like a particularly good actor? I mean sure I’ve only see her as Wonderwims

She can act fine. Red Notice shows Gadot does have range, and different from her usual heroic roles.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

She can act fine. Red Notice shows Gadot does have range, and different from her usual heroic roles.

Yeah I didn't mean for that sentence to remain in the post- I started to type up a more thorough thing about that and related subjects but then realized I didn't have a complete thought or anything to contribute. That's why it's on top of another subject and misspelled.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Yeah I didn't mean for that sentence to remain in the post- I started to type up a more thorough thing about that and related subjects but then realized I didn't have a complete thought or anything to contribute. That's why it's on top of another subject and misspelled.

I've done that, but usually I also include an out of place opening quote tag to really muck things up.

 

[bluegate]

Saw that new Turtles movie last week and it was pretty fun.

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

River Wild (pseudo remake of 1994’s The River Wild).

I have a certain fondness of the original with Kevin Bacon and Meryl Streep, considering I had just taken a white water rafting trip down the same river the year before. It was a fun “suburbanites in peril outdoors” type of flick made better by the setting itself and how well KB plays a villain toying with this family.

This new one has a somewhat darker tone but little-to-none of the heart, chemistry or prolonged tension of what it’s based on. It’s made crystal clear who the big pos antag. is within the first five or so minutes (“HO-LEE SHIT! HO-LEE SHIT!! Did you hear me the first time, or the second? If not, then HO-LEE SH…”), and the paper thin plot is kept together with rusty chicken wire that’s as bad for the brain as that would be for the skin. All details are kept minimal for the better, so kudos for that. Somehow shit goes sideways and it’s all downriver (and I think back up for a smidge?) from there.

If you’ve seen the original just know about the only thing this has going for it is…well, it’s about twenty minutes shorter.

 

[PsychedelicDiamond]

Dungeons and Dragon's: Honour Among Thieves

New adaptation of the Dungeons and Dragons tabletop RPG. I have only very rudimentary experience with tabletop gaming, but I never felt the movie required any. Honour Among Thieves is a light hearted fantasy action comedy about a party consisting of a lovable thief, his Barbarian partner, a clumsy wizard and young druid seeking to rescue the thief's daughter from his former partner in crime who has managed to become lord of a city after collaborating with an evil sorceress.

Maybe it's because other recent fantasy productions like Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power have left a bad taste in my mouth but honestly, this was pretty alright. Honestly, it mostly stands out for what it doesn't do. It doesn't awkwardly deflate its emotional beats with poor attempts at humour (though make no mistake, its comedy is pretty hit or miss), it doesn't prioritize franchise baiting over delivering a story with a clear beginning, middle and end and perhaps most importantly, it recognizes that not every recognizable trope must be met with a sarcastic comment or a clumsy attempt at subversion if it has a reason to be there.

It's by no means a great movie but it fundamentally works, which is more than I can say for... well, a whole bunch of stuff I've seen recently. It didn't aggressively self sabotage the way high budget genre movies so often do. The absence of most of these common shortcomings make its qualities a lot easier to appreciate. Chris Pine sure levelled up his charisma stat for the lead role, but there's really no outright weak link in the entire party. Michelle Rodriguez as a warrior is probably the most straight forward embodiment of her character type, but she plays it well. IT's Sophia Lillis and Detective Pikachu's Justice Smith make up the younger half of the party, and while particularly the former could have used a bit more to do, they fill their role fine. Stealing the show, and probably getting the most genuine laughs, is Hugh Grant as the delightfully oily main villain. A foppish ruler right out of a 90's Disney flick.

It's not exactly a tremendously good looking movie, and between it's very common consensus fantasy iconograhy and utilitarian cinematography it's not exactly a treasure trove of creative imagery but I genuinely will give it credit for its occasional use of actual puppets and real sets. It's the sort of thing that... well, I don't get to say nearly as often as I wish I did. Additional props for a handful of genuinely well put together action setpieces. Most of the time the movie doesn't look like much but when it puts its mind to it, it really pulls that swashbuckling, energetic action choreography off.

I liked this a good bit more than I expected it to. It's hardly a critical success but most of its rolls hit their requirement and its misses are few and rarely critical. For both your and my own sake I'm not gonna try to keep this bit going, my point is: DnD: Honour Among Thieves is an an absolutely fine movie, even a rather likeable one. It's no Lord of the Rings, but it's certainly no Warcraft either.

 

[BrawlMan]

It's no Lord of the Rings

Not that there is much competition, even amongst its own prequel movies and TV series.

but it's certainly no Warcraft either.

Warcraft is actually pretty good, all things considered. I know the movie is based off the back story for the first game, and not WoW itself. I say this, and I'm not a fan of franchise.

 

[Ag3ma]

Gal Gadot just doesn’t seem like a particularly good actor? I mean sure I’ve only see her as Wonderwims

She's not a good actor. But she's very good looking, and as far as Hollywood is concerned, that's close enough.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I think she is very good at playing tall, skinny women with weird accents.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Warcraft is actually pretty good, all things considered. I know the movie is based off the back story for the first game, and not WoW itself. I say this, and I'm not a fan of franchise.

Well, backstory for the first game, taking into consideration things that weren't included in the lore until later.

But yeah, not a classic by any means, but decent enough. Which, ok, faint praise, but a solid pass is a lot higher than I'd give lots of other films these days.

 

[BrawlMan]

Well, backstory for the first game, taking into consideration things that weren't included in the lore until later.

But yeah, not a classic by any means, but decent enough. Which, ok, faint praise, but a solid pass is a lot higher than I'd give lots of other films these days.

I find the movie above decent. I give it an A Rank. Duncan Jones and his crew truly cared about what they were making with the overall quality of the film. It is sad that the movie never got a sequel, yet works well enough as a stand alone movie. So it works either way, if you're a fan of the games or not. I admit that I didn't go see the movie in theaters in 2016, due to lack of interests at the time. I saw the movie for the first time on Blu Ray in 2019, which I got for $5. Warcraft I put up their with Sonic 2, MK (1995), Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, and Super Mario Bros (2023). Warcraft is so much better than what most came before, or was dragging its heels in further mediocre. *cough* live-action Resident Evil *cough*!

 

[Gordon_4]

Well, backstory for the first game, taking into consideration things that weren't included in the lore until later.

But yeah, not a classic by any means, but decent enough. Which, ok, faint praise, but a solid pass is a lot higher than I'd give lots of other films these days.

Man, I fuckin’ LOVED Warcraft. I loved its sense of confidence in itself and visually all the armour and stuff looked so awesome.

 

[PsychedelicDiamond]

Warcraft is actually pretty good, all things considered. I know the movie is based off the back story for the first game, and not WoW itself. I say this, and I'm not a fan of franchise.

I haven't seen it since it came out, but I mainly remember being very confused by it. I'm not familiar with the Warcraft games, but the movie seemed to expect me to be. I got the basic premise of Orks invading because their world is becoming uninhabitable and that causing the war, but all the details... like, the leader of the Orks is drawing from a power called Fel that's never elaborated on. There's a wizard living in a tower who everyone calls "Guardian" and the movie never says a single word about what it is that guy is supposedly guarding. The romance between the Ork girl and the human knight guy had, like, zero build up before it just sorta happens and we're supposed to accept it.

It's the sort of fantasy movie that just bombards you with a bunch of exotic sounding names and concepts and places and doesn't elaborate enough about most of them. There is this anecdote about the 80's Dune movie. They handed little pamphlets to the audience because they (correctly) assumed that people who hadn't read the book would have trouble following what is happening and honestly, that's how I felt about the Warcraft movie. There was clearly a rich setting there, but the movie didn't establish it well enough to make the story clear, much less give a sense of what's going on beyond it.

 

[BrawlMan]

I haven't seen it since it came out, but I mainly remember being very confused by it. I'm not familiar with the Warcraft games, but the movie seemed to expect me to be. I got the basic premise of Orks invading because their world is becoming uninhabitable and that causing the war, but all the details... like, the leader of the Orks is drawing from a power called Fel that's never elaborated on. There's a wizard living in a tower who everyone calls "Guardian" and the movie never says a single word about what it is that guy is supposedly guarding. The romance between the Ork girl and the human knight guy had, like, zero build up before it just sorta happens and we're supposed to accept it.

I will say you're not the only ones with these complaints, but it didn't bother me much. This is part where they faltered a little, and assumed the people watching are fans of the games. As for the romance, there was chemistry build up, but it has been a minute since I've seen it. Never bothered me much any way.

It's the sort of fantasy movie that just bombards you with a bunch of exotic sounding names and concepts and places and doesn't elaborate enough about most of them. There is this anecdote about the 80's Dune movie. They handed little pamphlets to the audience because they (correctly) assumed that people who hadn't read the book would have trouble following what is happening and honestly, that's how I felt about the Warcraft movie. There was clearly a rich setting there, but the movie didn't establish it well enough to make the story clear, much less give a sense of what's going on beyond it.

Never cared much for Dune, nor don't have the nostalgia for, yet I still understood more what was going on in Warcraft, than the former. Outside a few slip ups here and there, I never had much trouble following what was going on, nor got lost. Everyone is different, but most people who saw the movie, but never played the games, never had much problem following what was going on. Give or take.

 

[Thaluikhain]

I haven't seen it since it came out, but I mainly remember being very confused by it. I'm not familiar with the Warcraft games, but the movie seemed to expect me to be. I got the basic premise of Orks invading because their world is becoming uninhabitable and that causing the war, but all the details... like, the leader of the Orks is drawing from a power called Fel that's never elaborated on. There's a wizard living in a tower who everyone calls "Guardian" and the movie never says a single word about what it is that guy is supposedly guarding. The romance between the Ork girl and the human knight guy had, like, zero build up before it just sorta happens and we're supposed to accept it.

It's the sort of fantasy movie that just bombards you with a bunch of exotic sounding names and concepts and places and doesn't elaborate enough about most of them. There is this anecdote about the 80's Dune movie. They handed little pamphlets to the audience because they (correctly) assumed that people who hadn't read the book would have trouble following what is happening and honestly, that's how I felt about the Warcraft movie. There was clearly a rich setting there, but the movie didn't establish it well enough to make the story clear, much less give a sense of what's going on beyond it.

Disagree somewhat there. I've played Warcraft 1-3, and I don't think the Fell was mentioned. But, from the film, it's some extra nasty magic people have heard of but shouldn't be playing with, and it turns out that maybe they were playing with it. Maybe there's some lore that goes into it from WoW or something, but I don't think I need to know to get it's importance in the movie.

Ok, the Guardian is mentioned in the games, but in the film it's just a title given to a wizard who's super important, again, seems all that's necessary. Wasn't seeing the connection between the half-orc woman (Garona) and the Knight (Lothar) as a romance, just they'd started trusting each other and maybe were becoming friends.

 

[Gordon_4]

I haven't seen it since it came out, but I mainly remember being very confused by it. I'm not familiar with the Warcraft games, but the movie seemed to expect me to be. I got the basic premise of Orks invading because their world is becoming uninhabitable and that causing the war, but all the details... like, the leader of the Orks is drawing from a power called Fel that's never elaborated on. There's a wizard living in a tower who everyone calls "Guardian" and the movie never says a single word about what it is that guy is supposedly guarding. The romance between the Ork girl and the human knight guy had, like, zero build up before it just sorta happens and we're supposed to accept it.

It's the sort of fantasy movie that just bombards you with a bunch of exotic sounding names and concepts and places and doesn't elaborate enough about most of them. There is this anecdote about the 80's Dune movie. They handed little pamphlets to the audience because they (correctly) assumed that people who hadn't read the book would have trouble following what is happening and honestly, that's how I felt about the Warcraft movie. There was clearly a rich setting there, but the movie didn't establish it well enough to make the story clear, much less give a sense of what's going on beyond it.

I feel most of this stuff can be easily inferred by what’s presented on screen contextually. Fel magic drains life to power its constructs, ergo it’s a dark/forbidden school of magic. Medivh’s role as Guardian is clearly one of importance and his responsibility is vast as he is summoned by the king of Stormwind giving his highest ranked military officer a royal seal and instructs him to go and get him to help them against what is an obvious existential magical threat as confirmed by another wizard.

Sure there’s loads of nuances left unaddressed like the other kingdoms (Gilneas, Alterac, Lordaeron, the High Elves of Silvermoon), or the exact nature and origin of the Fel and how Gul’dan came to wield it but all of these could be addressed in the hypothetical sequel(s).

 

[Hawki]

Disagree somewhat there. I've played Warcraft 1-3, and I don't think the Fell was mentioned. But, from the film, it's some extra nasty magic people have heard of but shouldn't be playing with, and it turns out that maybe they were playing with it. Maybe there's some lore that goes into it from WoW or something, but I don't think I need to know to get it's importance in the movie.

Fel

“Wielding fel magic is like fixing a machine - you have to break a few things to get it to work.”

wowpedia.fandom.com

Fel's been in Warcraft since day 1, but I'm not sure when the term actually started to be used.