Discuss and Rate the Last Film You Watched

[gorfias]

Deadpool and Wolverine: 9/10. Loses a point in that there were just a very few moments where it bogged. It was a little over-long. There were time I felt like it had the, "Oh yeah, we're supposed to be telling a story here... best complete it." vibe.

That written, I laughed my butt off. I thought it the funniest by far of the three. The plot, if you know the Loki Disney + show, you'll understand it well enough. There are a ton of very fun cameos, some of which were crazy unexpected.

Spoiler

The actual Pyro actor? And Gambit!?!?

The dialogue was fantastic. For now.

Spoiler

When Aladdin the cartoon came out with the genie voiced by Robin Williams some warned that much of the humor was current topical and might not play in the future. A buddy told me of how the 3 stooges often have humor that does the same (is of the time). We see handsome Deadpool say, "The Proposal" to the 4th wall. DP notes masked Wolverine, which was gorgeous and I been waiting decades for, is like Batman, but he can move his neck. Will audiences 30 years from now understand this humor?

Even so, I think this movie will be a $1.5 billion hit. It cost $200 million plus another 100 for marketing so at weekend 1 around $450 million, it is at what Hollywood calls a break even point. It's all cheddar from here! As Deadpool threatens to Wolverine,

Spoiler

Disney will force you to do this role till you are 90!

I will buy this 4K.

 

[Thaluikhain]

A ★★★★½ review of Die Hard With a Vengeance (1995)

“You interfered with a well-laid plan.” “Yeah, well you can stick your well-laid plan up your well-laid ass.” This film, like Die Hard 2, did not initially start production as a Die Hard movie. Instead, an unrelated script for a movie called Simon Says was reworked into a Die Hard movie. In...

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Quibble, it's not "The Saints Go Marching In" , it's "The Ants Go Marching".

 

[thebobmaster]

Quibble, it's not "The Saints Go Marching In" , it's "The Ants Go Marching".

They're the same song, I thought.

A ★★★★½ review of Fright Night (1985)

“Of course, now that I've been invited, I'll probably be dropping by quite a bit. In fact, any time I feel like it.” As some casting trivia, the role of Peter Vincent was offered up, fittingly enough, to half of his namesake, Vincent Price. Due to being done with horror movies, Price turned down...

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[Thaluikhain]

They're the same song, I thought.

Not so:

 

[thebobmaster]

Not so:

I stand corrected, and will accordingly fix my review.

 

[Casual Shinji]

A ★★★★½ review of Die Hard With a Vengeance (1995)

“You interfered with a well-laid plan.” “Yeah, well you can stick your well-laid plan up your well-laid ass.” This film, like Die Hard 2, did not initially start production as a Die Hard movie. Instead, an unrelated script for a movie called Simon Says was reworked into a Die Hard movie. In...

letterboxd.com

There's also no characters who are obstinate for the sake of obstinance, which is something that will always drag Die Hard 1 down a tad for me. There's no deputy chief Dwayne, no Thornburg, no Ellis, and no dickhead FBI agents that feel solely written to make John McClane more root-able. Everyone in Die Hard 3 (who is on the right side) is actually pulling their weight and helping out however they can. It helps to make the situations feel more real and tense, and it demystifies John McClane as an unstoppable hero who does everything alone, because he's NOT doing everything alone.

Still, you could tell they didn't know how the fuck to end this movie. They wanted to create a story concept that expanded beyond its action movie trappings, but then at the end got too scared and just opted for a very traditional action movie ending.

 

[Thaluikhain]

There's also no characters who are obstinate for the sake of obstinance, which is something that will always drag Die Hard 1 down a tad for me. There's no deputy chief Dwayne, no Thornburg, no Ellis, and no dickhead FBI agents that feel solely written to make John McClane more root-able.

They even lampshade this a bit, the police ask the agents if they are going to be a problem, and the agents say no, they've got kids themselves, and they can have 100 agents in a hour, or something.

 

[thebobmaster]

There's also no characters who are obstinate for the sake of obstinance, which is something that will always drag Die Hard 1 down a tad for me. There's no deputy chief Dwayne, no Thornburg, no Ellis, and no dickhead FBI agents that feel solely written to make John McClane more root-able. Everyone in Die Hard 3 (who is on the right side) is actually pulling their weight and helping out however they can. It helps to make the situations feel more real and tense, and it demystifies John McClane as an unstoppable hero who does everything alone, because he's NOT doing everything alone.

Still, you could tell they didn't know how the fuck to end this movie. They wanted to create a story concept that expanded beyond its action movie trappings, but then at the end got too scared and just opted for a very traditional action movie ending.

What we got was at least the third ending that was considered, with one other actually being filmed. For one of the endings that was considered, but not filmed, Simon manages to make his escape on the helicopter, but he hears a beeping. Looking around, he finds...the bomb from the park, with the jug riddle. The final shot of the movie would have been a close-up on his face calmly asking "Does anyone have a 4 gallon jug"?

The other alternate ending was this.

 

[Casual Shinji]

What we got was at least the third ending that was considered, with one other actually being filmed. For one of the endings that was considered, but not filmed, Simon manages to make his escape on the helicopter, but he hears a beeping. Looking around, he finds...the bomb from the park, with the jug riddle. The final shot of the movie would have been a close-up on his face calmly asking "Does anyone have a 4 gallon jug"?

The other alternate ending was this.

Yeah, I don't know if either ending would've been good enough. Die Hard 3 makes an exceptional attempt at being epic and grand with its concept, but at the end of the day its main appeal is that of an action movie. So giving it an action movie ending makes the entire grand set-up lose some of its weight, but giving it a darker ending more befitting of its concept sours the action movie vibe. I usually stop the movie once McClane and Zeus jump off the exploding ship.

 

[thebobmaster]

A ★ review of Saw 3D (2010)

This review may contain spoilers. Visit the page to bypass this warning and read the review.

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[thebobmaster]

A ★★★ review of Deep Blue Sea (1999)

“No, what you've done is taken God's oldest killing machine and given it will and desire. What you've done is knocked us all the way to the bottom of the goddamn food chain. It's not a great leap forward in my book.” As a bit of casting trivia, Samuel L. Jackson was originally cast in the role...

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[BrawlMan]

A ★★★ review of Deep Blue Sea (1999)

“No, what you've done is taken God's oldest killing machine and given it will and desire. What you've done is knocked us all the way to the bottom of the goddamn food chain. It's not a great leap forward in my book.” As a bit of casting trivia, Samuel L. Jackson was originally cast in the role...

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This hands down my favorite shark movie of all time. With Shark Night right behind it.

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

This hands down my favorite shark movie of all time. With Shark Night right behind it.

Have you seen Under Paris? Not expecting it to be even if you did, but wondering what you thought. If anything it had one of the better finales of shark movies IMO.

 

[BrawlMan]

Have you seen Under Paris? Not expecting it to be even if you did, but wondering what you thought. If anything it had one of the better finales of shark movies IMO.

It's the first time I have ever heard of this movies existence. I admit that I don't watch that many shark movies for a reason.

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

It's the first time I have ever heard of this movies existence. I admit that I don't watch that many shark movies for a reason.

Might be because it’s a French flick, but was big on Netflix shortly before the Olympics. My only advice if is you start, to just keep watching no matter what you think early on.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

I surprisingly enjoyed Beverly Hills Cop Axel F. I know I've watched one of the previous ones, but it was so long ago that I really remember nothing.

Despite that, I was still somehow able to appreciate that they brought back so many of the original characters. And they're what made this movie work.

I will say Jospeh Gordon Levitt was woefully miscast in this movie, I spent all of his scenes feeling bad for him.

 

[thebobmaster]

A ★★★★½ review of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021)

“You are a product of all that came before you. The good, and the bad. Stop hiding from it, nephew. It only prolongs the pain.” As some casting trivia, actors considered for the title role included MCU alumni Lewis Tan and Mike Moh, as well as Ludi Lin, which is kind of funny since both Lewis...

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[BrawlMan]

A ★★★★½ review of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021)

“You are a product of all that came before you. The good, and the bad. Stop hiding from it, nephew. It only prolongs the pain.” As some casting trivia, actors considered for the title role included MCU alumni Lewis Tan and Mike Moh, as well as Ludi Lin, which is kind of funny since both Lewis...

letterboxd.com

I am so hyped for whenever the trailer for the sequel comes out. Still my favorite, along with Wakanda Forever, of phase 4.

 

[PsychedelicDiamond]

The People's Joker (2022)

Strap in, we're getting conceptual. So, The People's Joker is an abstract mixed media autobiographical comedy about the life and career of transgender comedian Vera Drew framed by a weirdly specific parody of the Batman series and its various cinematic adaptations.

TPJ follows Vera Drew's fictionalized self as a closeted trans kid in... Smallville, Kansas, put on prescription medicine by her hysterical mother before moving to Gotham City, where comedy has been outlawed by presidential candidate Bruce Wayne, which is how she ends up opening an anti comedy club with her friend The Penguin and embracing her true self as Joker the Harlequin and dating trans man Mister J as they try to stay out of the repressive reach of Bruce Wayne and his alter ego Batman. All done in a style that blends different types of animation with live action. Like I said. Conceptual.

This took about 2 years to get an official release, because, as you might figure, it's not exactly copyright friendly. And, I mean, it's cool that it exists. When I was reviewing Barbie and Everything, Everywhere all at Once I was complaining about the way these big, mainstream american comedy movies were appropriating the tropes of early 00's style experimental humour for its twee, sentimental and at their core deeply conventional productions. TPJ is very decidedly not that. If nothing else, it does feel genuinely experimental and transgressive, where pioneers like Tim Heidecker and Bob Odenkirk, not to mention oddball puppeteer David Liebe-Hart, mainstay on the Tim and Eric show, actually show up.

Honestly, though, I couldn't really get into it. If you have to, I think you can boil down TPJ to three underlying themes: The experience of being a trans person, the experience of being a comedian and the experience of being really, really into Batman. I can't particularly relate to any of these experiences and only occasionally did it's efforts to squeeze humor out of them connect with me. When Roger Ebert, patron saint of all modern film critics, reviewed Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie, the cinematic debut of experimental comedians Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim, back in 2012, he famously wrote:

"I feel I've failed Tim and Eric. They've gathered a cult following by doing comedy sketches that were deliberately bad, and now they've made a movie that is more of the same for 92 minutes, and it must have taken them a great deal of work to maintain their low standard. By not finding even one moment of "Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie" to be slightly funny, have I let down the side?

There is a scene in this film where a character is defecated on by several people at the same time, and I dunno … I didn't enjoy it."

A sentiment that I never shared because, as far as I am concerned, Tim and Eric are hilarious and Billion Dollar Movie was hilarious. People's Joker left me wondering if I'm in Ebert's place now, because while I don't think anyone ever gets defecated on in it... I dunno... I didn't enjoy it. I certainly respected it a good deal. It's mixed media approach makes it feel a bit like the unruly, camp sibling to Hundreds of Beavers earlier this year, it certainly doesn't pull any punches in committing to its visual style. Hell, it starts off with a dedication to Joel Schumacher and if that isn't a statement, I don't know what is.

Long story short, I think People's Joker is pretty cool conceptually, but it's not for me. It left me feeling vaguely the way Flying Lotus's bold, but borderline unwatchable, gross-out comedy Kuso did, although it goes down a lot easier than that. It's a unique little piece of film making and I'm excited to see how Vera Drew is going to follow it up but this is made for a cult audience that I'm just not part of. Clearly it's an extremely personal project and I'm happy movies like these get made but honestly? Didn't do much for me.

 

[CriticalGaming]

Honestly, though, I couldn't really get into it. If you have to, I think you can boil down TPJ to three underlying themes: The experience of being a trans person, the experience of being a comedian and the experience of being really, really into Batman. I can't particularly relate to any of these experiences and only occasionally did it's efforts to squeeze humor out of them connect with me. When Roger Ebert, patron saint of all modern film critics, reviewed Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie, the cinematic debut of experimental comedians Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim, back in 2012, he famously wrote:

I feel like that speaks volumes to the desperate attempts of Hollywood to push very specific character types into movies and TV, and games to a lesser extent. When a story is so hyper focused on a very specific experience, you loose a big chunk of potential audience because it's way to niche. In this case it's a movie about the trans experience set in the world of Batman and that's too conflicting of a cross up.

Part of the reason why entertainment tends to lack a hyper specific story or experience, (trans, racial, whatever) is you alienate audiences that way. Those stories work great in the small budget indie film or Sundance style filming making and a lot of those films can be really fantastic.

In big budget films the experiences that the people face are specifically more generalized. You as the audience member are suppose to take the situation in the film and relate it back to your own personal experiences in your own way. A big example of this is the stereotype of the nerdy kid being bullied in school, people can relate to that because bullying happens to most people for different reasons. So you relate to the nerd even if you are not a nerd because bullying is a sort of cross over experience. And you can equate this to any number of experiences that are fairly generic in the big Hollywood space. The typical "save the wife/girlfriend/daughter" thing is something we can all understand because regardless of who your partner is, you can relate to wanting to save someone you love who is in trouble. Alternatively you can relate to the dream of being a hero, or dream of going on an adventure.

Bravo for a film trying to portray the trans experience, but it's such a niche and limiting thing that it will be very hard for the general audience to relate to or even understand. Maybe it'll pay off thanks to the batman branding, but I feel like most people who know nothing about the movie will come away with a confused disconnected feeling about it much like you describe and when word gets out about the plot and characters I don't think it'll bring in box office numbers the way they hope.