Discuss and Rate the Last Film You Watched

[gorfias]

The weird thing to me about this film is how much it tries to undermine the first film. I wonder how much of this project was meant to erase the weird propagandists backlash the first film got, about inciting violence and all that bullshit.

So they spend the whole time sort of trying to undo that film while also trying to play off the origins of these characters. The Joker was a great, unique and compelling origin story for the Joker that I dont think has been done. And they try to do it again this time, not only for Joker again but also Harley Quinn.

While there is an interesting potential in twisting Harley into this demon that sort of pushes the Joker further. Ultimately I don't think it works. Partly because I'm annoyed at the "modern day bulkshit" of it in that they cannot possibly allow a woman to be a victim to a man's manipulation. But also like most attempts at making "Girl bosses", her new role completely undermined everything Arthur was in the first film and continues to undermine his potential agency in this film. It turns the Joker from his own character into a manipulated puppet of her's. It's a role reversal that isn't done well and also doesnt really fit based off the events of the first film.

And again I feel like this whole this was meant to be an apology to the Twitter weirdos who tried to call the first Joker film as some sort of extremism film.

As a result not only is this film bad, but it actively works to ruin the first one.

That's what the youtubers are saying. It's an apology for people regarding those that liked the 1st one when the professional classes did not want us to do so.
I thought the 1st one only OK. It was a mashup of 2 better films, Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy so, no real surprises there for me until I started talking with others regarding how unreliable the narrator was in that film.
Mostly, I'm hearing it was an unbelievable bore that seems to have been made for no one, pleasing no one.

 

[CriticalGaming]

Just saw the first Ip Man for the first time this morning. Just a good little film with a couple fun fights. Simple movie. And China even looses in the film which is rare for a Chinese movie.

Might watch the rest later.

 

[BrawlMan]

Just saw the first Ip Man for the first time this morning. Just a good little film with a couple fun fights. Simple movie. And China even looses in the film which is rare for a Chinese movie.

Might watch the rest later.

Please do!

 

[Piscian]

Just saw the first Ip Man for the first time this morning. Just a good little film with a couple fun fights. Simple movie. And China even looses in the film which is rare for a Chinese movie.

Might watch the rest later.

Fair warning if I recall Ip mans politics get a little cringey as the series goes on, imho the first one is great but the next two go into Rocky sequel territory. I forget what it was specifically but I remember at a certain point thinking "Man...I don't think Im on the same page here", and the third ones pretty goofy. That said I don't recall feeling cheated. It remains "fun" through the series.

I think theres just 3 in this series, then theres a sorta reboot by a different company.

 

[Agema]

Pig (2021)

Sort of a pacifist John Wick, starring Nic Cage.

 

[thebobmaster]

A ★★★★★ review of A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)

“Welcome to prime time, *****!” This film's production wasn't too troubled, but there were a few events that led to some long-term changes. The first is that this was the last film in the series for a while to have any direct influence from Wes Craven, who wrote this movie, as he wasn't keen on...

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[gorfias]

"Am I Racist" in theater.

This is being described as a politically conservative Borat. Matt Walsh, who made the less successful "What is a Woman" has created a pretty funny documentary in which he goes on a DEI journey becoming certified, to doing interviews with some pretty famous personalities, to doing his own hilarious seminar. The artwork he uses in that seminar is worth the price of admission.

I hear some of the interviewees are considering lawsuits

B+




Interestingly, the establishment initially tried to ignore this movie. It was number 4 in its opening week and there weren't enough critics reviewing the number 4 movie in the nation to register on Rotten Tomatoes. Since then, it is up to 77% fresh. It is funny.

Pig (2021)

Sort of a pacifist John Wick, starring Nic Cage.

On Hulu around here. Will check it out.,

 

[thebobmaster]

A ★★ review of Shocker (1989)

“This is screwball beyond belief.” This film follows a high school football player named Jonathan Parker (Peter Berg). One day, he has a psychic vision that teaches him the name and location of a local serial killer who turns out to be a man named Horace Pinker (Mitch Pileggi). After he escapes...

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[PsychedelicDiamond]

The weird thing to me about this film is how much it tries to undermine the first film. I wonder how much of this project was meant to erase the weird propagandists backlash the first film got, about inciting violence and all that bullshit.

So they spend the whole time sort of trying to undo that film while also trying to play off the origins of these characters. The Joker was a great, unique and compelling origin story for the Joker that I dont think has been done. And they try to do it again this time, not only for Joker again but also Harley Quinn.

While there is an interesting potential in twisting Harley into this demon that sort of pushes the Joker further. Ultimately I don't think it works. Partly because I'm annoyed at the "modern day bulkshit" of it in that they cannot possibly allow a woman to be a victim to a man's manipulation. But also like most attempts at making "Girl bosses", her new role completely undermined everything Arthur was in the first film and continues to undermine his potential agency in this film. It turns the Joker from his own character into a manipulated puppet of her's. It's a role reversal that isn't done well and also doesnt really fit based off the events of the first film.

And again I feel like this whole this was meant to be an apology to the Twitter weirdos who tried to call the first Joker film as some sort of extremism film.

As a result not only is this film bad, but it actively works to ruin the first one.

Eh. I think it just calls attention to the fact that the first one wasn't that great either. Like, even at the end of the first one, you couldn't really see Arthur growing into the sort of Joker who makes a name for himself in the criminal underworld, organizes elaborate crimes or terrorist attacks and would be a worthy adversary to Batman.

All this and the general reception of the second movie suggests to me is that these should have never been official Joker movies.

If they had been their own standalone productions people and critics would have been like "Hey, the Hangover guy made those cool, gritty 70's style psychological dramas about a schizophrenic guy who becomes a spree killer, develops a cult of personality and gets shanked in prison." But being attached to a preexisting character in a preexisting setting people will always just be like "The Hangover guy made this kind of cool Joker origin story movie and then shat all over it with a weird pretentious sequel where the Joker gets raped."

All of which just feels to me like Phillips couldn't read the room and insisted on trying to cram a story into a preexisting property that just didn't really fit in there.

If it would have been it's own thing it wouldn't have gotten the publicity it has but it would have been warmly received by critics, probably found a niche audience and the sequel wouldn't have gotten any significant backlash because people wouldn't have perceived it as a popular character being humiliated but just as a bleak end to the bleak story of a guy who had a shitty life and gave into violence and who was pretty obviously doomed from the start

 

[Thaluikhain]

All of which just feels to me like Phillips couldn't read the room and insisted on trying to cram a story into a preexisting property that just didn't really fit in there.

Supposedly this commonly happens when a creator wants to make their own story, and they are told to use an existing IP with brand recognition, and it turns out that half a car and half a horse don't travel very well.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

I decided to dig into the filmography of Satoshi Kon for my occasional toe-dipping into anime. His themes of blending in-universe reality with fiction and fantasy appealed to me.

Perfect Blue (1997)
A pop singer quits music to become an actress and is pressured to do compromising things like pose nude and act in disturbing scenes while an obsessed stalker murders those around her out of some sense of betrayal, during which our starlet and in turn we the audience lose track of what is "real," what is a scene in a movie, and which part of her is doing what.
I really dug this sort-of-horror thriller. I also liked that the mysteries are mostly explained in the end. And it is always quaint to see people at this time grappling with the dawn of the internet (even in its infancy folks were terrified of it).

Millenium Actress (2001)
This time the whole real vs in-movie movie thing is used for a more wistful and celebratory effect. Again we have an actress but this one is also in a documentary but soon her autobiography and movies are the indistinguishable we follow her pursuit of a mysterious noble stranger throughout her life. The story, as it is, is not particularly interesting without the high stakes and cheap thrills of Perfect Blue, so the high points are the exhilarating moments of transition and montage.

Tokyo Godfathers (2003)
A Christmas anime (which I didn't know was even a thing) inspired by the wester 3 Godfathers which also inspired Three Men and a Baby so the gag here is dudes taking care of a baby. This is very broad comedy with homeless people, one of whom is trans, and a series of wacky coincidences and slapstick. I didn't care for this one because the "humor," as it is, was lost on me.

Paprika (2006)
Back to our reality bending visual party movie, here we have a woman who can hop into people's dreams to help their psychological problems but the tech gets hijacked and out of control, giving us an excuse to indulge in all kinds of glorious visual tomfoolery. The recurring centerpiece is a parade of random anthropomorphized objects that get increasingly creepy, making this prime fodder for those that like to rewatch and rewind and revisit.
This would be the crowning achievement for Kon as he tragically died shortly after, as it encompasses his style and finds a nice medium around suspense and action and drama.

Personal ranking: Paprika, Perfect Blue, Millenium Actress, Tokyo Godfathers.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

The Green Inferno

Another mean-spirited horror movie from Eli Roth, now a send up to the z-grade exploitation/cannibal movies from the 80s. It's technically gorier than Hostel (I think, haven't seen it in 20 years) but somehow less disgusting. It has a nasty, very juvenile sense of humor and the characters all more or less have it coming. Virtue-signalling gringos get cannibalized by the Amazonian tribe they were trying to save is morbidly funny to me, sue me.

 

[thebobmaster]

A ★★★★★ review of The Prince of Egypt (1998)

“Oh, my son...they were only slaves.” This film, like Pocahontas, was a bit of a dream project for Jeffrey Katzenberg. While at Disney, he would often pitch the idea to Michael Eisner, only to be shot down because the relationship between Eisner and Katzenberg was already breaking down, and...

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[McElroy]

The Third Man
Holds up well for a 1949 mystery-thriller. Funny how a story can stay mysterious throughout when there are no flashbacks and the main character isn't a master detective or anything. Though to be fair the main plot being as complicated as it is seems to be the result of Lime's plans getting a little mixed - trying to recruit Hollins right when staging his own death and thus fooling Hollins as well.

But I will deduct one point for each Dutch angle used after five. Oh...
-60/10

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Joker: Folie à Deux

Todd Phillips (The Hangover III) tells audiences "You get what you fucking deserve!" before pulling the trigger with his Joker sequel.

I think this is best described as an exercise in frustration. Here's a movie that resents its audience (which is to say itself), wants nothing to do with its protagonist, forces a musical conceit it openly mocks and is in no rush to go anywhere interesting or exciting. The first half is a boring prison drama, the second half is a boring courtroom drama, and peppered throughout we're treated to boring musical interludes of such dullness and banality that you wonder if the joke's on you for watching.

What passes for story would traditionally bedeck Act One: Arthur Fleck gains a groupie in the form of Harley Quinn (she's a big fan of the TV movie spawned from Joker's rampage and is eager to join in on the fun) and is taken to court by Harvey Dent (!) for his crimes. And that's your lot. The movie doesn't escalate dramatically or musically, doesn't shed new light on Arthur's actions or motivations and makes nothing of the Joker-Harley duo beyond a metafictional nod at Joker's misguided popularity. Something happens near the end of the movie (FINALLY) that all four of us agreed would've made for a neat inciting incident, but rest assured it's too little too late, and indeed goes nowhere.

I guess I'm supposed to admire the sheer fucking gall of making a $200 million IP movie that's too long and too miserable with clearly no studio notes, no set-pieces and no checkboxes, a sort of anti crowd-pleaser that exists as a mea culpa for the people who made it and the suckers watching. And I guess I do on some level, that Joaquin Phoenix has pulled this ridiculous hat trick of troll movies between this, Napoleon and Beau is Afraid. He's good.

 

[thebobmaster]

A ★★★ review of Two Evil Eyes (1990)

This is an anthology film, with two segments that are each inspired by a different Edgar Allen Poe story. Initially, there were planned to be four segments, with four different directors. However, John Carpenter was too busy at the time, and after his experience making Maximum Overdrive, Stephen...

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[Phoenixmgs]

I guess I'm supposed to admire the sheer fucking gall of making a $200 million IP movie that's too long and too miserable with clearly no studio notes, no set-pieces and no checkboxes, a sort of anti crowd-pleaser that exists as a mea culpa for the people who made it and the suckers watching. And I guess I do on some level, that Joaquin Phoenix has pulled this ridiculous hat trick of troll movies between this, Napoleon and Beau is Afraid. He's good.

And don't forget I'm Still Here.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

The Third Man
Holds up well for a 1949 mystery-thriller. Funny how a story can stay mysterious throughout when there are no flashbacks and the main character isn't a master detective or anything. Though to be fair the main plot being as complicated as it is seems to be the result of Lime's plans getting a little mixed - trying to recruit Hollins right when staging his own death and thus fooling Hollins as well.

But I will deduct one point for each Dutch angle used after five. Oh...
-60/10

That movie is exactly my kind of stuff.
Some of the best classic film noir's have famously overly convoluted plots, like Double Indemnity and The Maltese Falcon, which has a notable plot hole. But they are so cool looking that most don't mind.

 

[thebobmaster]

A ★★★ review of Piranha (1978)

“But what if he’s gay?” “...Then I’ll distract him, now go!” This film, like many really low budget movies, had its share of production difficulties. The biggest one is that the already low budget of $900,000 was lowered by $200,000 due to executive producer Roger Corman using that money to help...

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[thebobmaster]

A ★★★ review of A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988)

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

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