Discuss and Rate the Last Film You Watched

[Xprimentyl]

The Upside: Excellence/Goodness

Bryan Cranston plays a quadriplegic millionaire who has become disaffected with his life of dependency, and after reiterating a strict “do not resuscitate” order with his primary assistant (Nicole Kidman,) seeks to employ a new personal caregiver. Kevin Hart, an ex-con who’s under a mandate to get three signatures as proof of employment search by his parole officer, unwittingly applies for the aforementioned job, and Cranston, in what’s a clear attempt at suicide by neglect, chooses Hart over several, more qualified and experienced candidates. Cultures and statuses clash, bonds are formed.

In my humblest of opinions, this film was absolutely fantastic, the perfect blend of drama and comedy. And when I say “blend,” I’m talking a puree; you can laugh and cry within the same moment. there’s a moment when Cranston and Hart are having an argument, and Cranston (confined to his wheelchair) has a moment of catharsis wherein Hart smashes various things around the room for him. As funny as the moment is, it's also heart-wrenching in that you come to understand how little control Cranston actually has in his life, how he really feels, and also Hart's frustration at trying desperately to drag Cranston out of his depression. I’ve always pegged Kevin Hart as a one-trick pony: diminutive, wannabe tough guy, but he pulls off a genuinely dramatic performance here alongside his tried and true comedic abilities. Cranston is always excellent and, despite moving nothing save his head the whole time, this is no exception.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Kiki's Delivery Service

Rewatched it last night. Fairly realistic depiction of moving out of your parents' to make a life for yourself in a different city (except for being 13, because anime). Kiki is a witch insofar as she can fly a broom and talk to her cat (or maybe she can't, and just projects her insecurities on her pet as far as her immaturity will allow) but the whole movie is a pretty chill, low-key slice of life/coming of age story about someone trying to figure out their place in life or at the very least in society. The plot is "just" a series of scenes where Kiki comes across a mundane problem and realizes that every solution is a form of physical, spiritual or emotional compromise; at the same time every small victory is followed by quiet, crippling "Is that it?" self-doubt. It's a Miyazaki movie so there're no villains, just circumstantial antagonists who're either just doing their job or simply aren't as sensitive as Kiki. The closest thing to a serious threat is the possibility that she might lose her flying power, I think as a comment on her "going native" or becoming complacent in her lifestyle.

The American remake would probably kill off either of Kiki's parents, turn her emancipation into an act of rebellion, dial up the romantic interest (throw in some end-of-second-act fight over a misunderstanding), come up with some bullies to yell sexist things at her and then narrow down the story to some dumb competition that she either wins against all odds or loses unfairly but wins the popular vote. I love how unassuming and un-cliché the whole story is. It's definitely up there for me with Totoro and Porco Rosso among his most moving, intimate, honest movies.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Kiki's Delivery Service

Rewatched it last night. Fairly realistic depiction of moving out of your parents' to make a life for yourself in a different city (except for being 13, because anime). Kiki is a witch insofar as she can fly a broom and talk to her cat (or maybe she can't, and just projects her insecurities on her pet as far as her immaturity will allow) but the whole movie is a pretty chill, low-key slice of life/coming of age story about someone trying to figure out their place in life or at the very least in society. The plot is "just" a series of scenes where Kiki comes across a mundane problem and realizes that every solution is a form of physical, spiritual or emotional compromise; at the same time every small victory is followed by quiet, crippling "Is that it?" self-doubt. It's a Miyazaki movie so there're no villains, just circumstantial antagonists who're either just doing their job or simply aren't as sensitive as Kiki. The closest thing to a serious threat is the possibility that she might lose her flying power, I think as a comment on her "going native" or becoming complacent in her lifestyle.

I think it's more about coming of age and losing ones childlike ease of processing the world. Everything becomes more complicated when you become a teenager and so it does for Kiki. It's pretty symbolic that she goes from a small town to a big city. And her losing her power is how her entering into adulthood manifests. She needs to rediscover herself and what her flight means to her, just as any kid has to when they grow up (minus the flight). And though the way she dresses could be seen as just Ghibli wholesomeness, it also functions to show how Kiki - already thirteen - still clings on to or hides behind that childlike simplicity. And her not being able to hear Jiji afterward is the loss of that simple, comforting childhood.

 

[gorfias]

6/10... not bad. A fun change with lots of stuff for geeks to get a kick out of but ... morally confused as all get out.

 

[Xprimentyl]

Due Date: Very funny/10

Robert Downey, Jr. is an architect away on business in Atlanta with a expecting wife at home in Los Angeles. As he arrives at the airport to travel back home for the birth of his child, fate drops Zach Galifinakis in his path. Several… “mix ups” get the men ousted from their shared flight, put on a no-fly list, and Downey, with no money or ID, is forced to pair up with Galifinakis and his French bulldog Sunny in a rented car for a 2,000 mile road trip to LA. If you’ve seen The Hangover, then you know who Galifinakis is here: an incompetent man-child who lives on bad decision making, often putting himself and everyone around him in highly dangerous situations. Downey plays the perfect straight man, and his mounting frustration with Galifinakis’ inanity is palpable. Not quite as outrageous as The Hangover, but still damned hilarious.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Due Date: Very funny/10

Robert Downey, Jr. is an architect away on business in Atlanta with a expecting wife at home in Los Angeles. As he arrives at the airport to travel back home for the birth of his child, fate drops Zach Galifinakis in his path. Several… “mix ups” get the men ousted from their shared flight, put on a no-fly list, and Downey, with no money or ID, is forced to pair up with Galifinakis and his French bulldog Sunny in a rented car for a 2,000 mile road trip to LA. If you’ve seen The Hangover, then you know who Galifinakis is here: an incompetent man-child who lives on bad decision making, often putting himself and everyone around him in highly dangerous situations. Downey plays the perfect straight man, and his mounting frustration with Galifinakis’ inanity is palpable. Not quite as outrageous as The Hangover, but still damned hilarious.

Always thought of this as an unofficial remake of Planes, Trains and Automobiles only with less likeable characters and no believable bonding between the two of them. But I think American comedies in general this side of Adam McKay/Todd Phillips/Judd Apatow focus more on annoying, immature characters than flawed yet endearing ones.

 

[Ezekiel]

Dropped Dances with Wolves after 47 minutes because of a bad Blu-ray. Waiting for the replacement. I was interested for that first hour. Although I'm saving a lot of money with Netflix DVD for usually the best available quality, part of me is gonna be glad when the service is gone and I'm no longer subject to people's abuse.

I wonder if most of the Native Americans who fought back didn't already know their demise was imminent. I mean, when you see people with technology and fabrics so much more advanced and fine, you have to know there are a lot more behind them, because only a big civilization could produce such tech and clothing cheaply. Seems like a pointless struggle.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Dark Waters

Enviromentalist lawyer takes on chemical company. Real events, they're poisoning the water, wife back home nags about missing dance recital, etc. Mark Ruffalo pouts and grovels like he did in Spotlight; he comes across as too weak for someone who would dedicate (to this day) 20+ years of his life to anything this arduous. More to the point I wouldn't buy the character as someone who would write a bestselling memoir or cameo in a movie about his struggle. Nice to see Tim Robbins and Bill Pullman in anything though. PS fuck DuPont Inc.

 

[Xprimentyl]

Always thought of this as an unofficial remake of Planes, Trains and Automobiles only with less likeable characters and no believable bonding between the two of them. But I think American comedies in general this side of Adam McKay/Todd Phillips/Judd Apatow focus more on annoying, immature characters than flawed yet endearing ones.

Is that a criticism of the film (and "American comedies" in general,) or just a statement of fact? Because there's high and low brow humor, and gradients within each. Due Date is definitely low brow humor; you can't watch a guy masturbate to fall asleep or another guy spit in a lap dog's face and wonder at the "lack" of credulousness or depth. For every Dennis Miller or George Carlin, there's a Carrot Top or Gallagher.

 

[Ezekiel]

I imported the Eric Rohmer 100 - Comedies and Proverbs collection, after seeing Pauline at the Beach and My Girlfriend's Boyfriend (Relationship movies. Preferred the second) on DVD a month ago, and am really impressed by how huge an upgrade it is. Not just clarity, but also how vivid the colors are and how deep the blacks.

Arrow does such fine work. Better encodes than that other boutique label Criterion, who so frequently cram four to five HD hours on one disc. Better prices and packaging too. I wish the company were bigger.

Anyway, looking forward to delving into these six movies. I've seen two or maybe three of Criterion's Eric Rohmer movies, DVD rentals, but those were apparently from a different period in his career. I wouldn't even guess it was the same director if I hadn't read it. Don't remember them being very similar to Pauline and MGB. I guess I'll watch them all in order of year and hope I'm not disappointed. Although, even if half of them are letdowns, I didn't pay much for them.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Big Trouble in Little China

Good bad movie, surprised it was a flop at the time. Not ever going to be a classic, but they don't make cheesy action films like that anymore.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Hellbound: Hellraiser II

The Halloween II of Hellraiser: original director was still attached as writer/producer, story picks up a few hours after the first one ended and the heroine spends the whole movie in a hospital. It's also gorier, if not particularly believable in the FX department (the skinless suits still look great though). The story itself is a mess and boils down to a bunch of nonsense scenes of characters running around not achieving anything but also not really trying to do anything in the first place. But I never though the first Hellraiser was very good, or the series as big of a deal as the fans make it out to be. The Cenobites are great in their design and that's about it.

 

[PsychedelicDiamond]

I'm Thinking of Ending Things

Charlie Kaufman's new film, released on Netflix. Starring Jesse Plemons and Jessie Buckley as a young couple visiting Plemon's parents, I'm Thinking of Ending Things is a surrealist psychological thriller that covers some ground people familiar with Kaufman's Magnum Opus "Synecdoche, New York" will find familiar, yet stands as a contemplative and unrelentingly bleak work of fatalistic existentialism all on its own. It's a movie that's hard to talk about without giving too much of it away, but what starts off as a seemingly straight forward, if excentric, relationship drama about a visit with the parents soon turns into a nightmarish journey through all of Charlie Kaufman's favourite neuroses. The inevitability of death. The fear of living a wasted life. The certainty that everyone you love will abandon you. The destructive nature of loneliness and social isolation. Thinking of Ending Things is anything but a feel good movie, while ich never quite reaches the level of pure hopelessness that, say the scenes of Synecdoche dealing with Cotard's daughter did, it's still the type of movie that will leave you staring at a wall, thinking about your life once it ends.

It's carried by a pair of stellar lead performances, performances that ask quite a lot of the two actors playing the lead couple. The characters with the most screentime after Bucky and Plemons would be Toni Collette and David Thewlis, playing Plemon's parents, and doing a fantastic job as well. Their interactions are terrifyingly awkward colored by a rather lynchian artificiality that lends a feeling of nightmarish unreality to what would otherwise be very mundane scenes of family life. Thinking of Ending Things is, when it comes down to it, a road movie, though a lot of time is spent in the parent's house. Even more time, though, is spent in a car with the couple having various interesting, if hardly any less awkward, conversations about all types of matters, though most of them relating to art in one way or another. Thinking of Ending Things is a very cold movie. Literally, of course, being set during a road trip through a cold winters night. But also emotionally. The characters never quite become relatable and the experiences they go through start off absurd and become absurder the longer the movie goes on. It certainly flirts with the horror genre, going out of its way to create a feeling of creeping dread that only grow more intense, once you figure out what the movie is actually about. It's a realization that will hit you like a bullet right through the heart, yet it never hides any puzzle pieces from you. Visually it is quite compelling, moreso than Kaufmann's directorial debut Synecdoche, less so than his collaborations with Spike Jones, but between its square aspect ratio and the melancholy wintery wasteland the protagonists spend most of their time driving through it sure manages to create a certain atmosphere.

I'm Thinking of Ending Things is, quite easily, my favourite movie of 2020 so far. In a year that didn't exactly offer much to film enthusiasts, it is an absolute blessing. Kaufman shows, once again, that he has an insight into the human condition, into the traumas, the repressed desires, the deep loneliness of the modern man, that makes him one of the most important directors in modern American cinema. It's a finely crafted emotional drama that I found both relatable and deeply saddening. It's a movie one absolutely needs to experience.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Terminator: Dark Fate

MacKenzie Davis is pretty badass and wears a white tanktop. That's about the most positive thing I can say about this movie. But then if you put a muscle toned chick in a white tanktop on screen I usually won't complain too much.

The movie is pointless, but inoffensive. It was nice to see Linda Hamilton again eventhough her line delivery wasn't always too great. The main girl protectee was pretty terrible. Arnold was actually quite entertaining in the earlier part of the movie. And Mackenzie Davis had a nice screen presence and I feel could really hold her own as an action lead.

The story? What story?

 

[Xprimentyl]

Settle The Score: Meh/Meh

Nicholas Cage plays a mobster who takes the fall for a murder his boss committed expecting a 5-6 year sentence, but it unexpectedly nets him life. A terminal illness sees him free after 19 years, and he attempts to mend his relationship with his son while "settling the score" with his mob friends. Takes a fairly unexpected twist, but glosses over it in the end in lieu of a formulaic redemption finale. Boooor-ring.

Killer Joe: What the hell/What the fuck

Rednecks plot to kill one of their own for profit using the expertise of cop/hitman Matthew McConaughey. Can be genuinely intriguing from moment to moment, but loses cohesion at times despite the thin premise. Also, I'm not accustom to seeing McConaughey play the bad guy; I'm REALLY not accustom to seeing him play one this dark. Pretty disgusting, gratuitous for gratuitousness' sake, then it ends jarringly.

 

[Xprimentyl]

Project Power: Bad/Bland

A drug that temporarily grants super powers is all the rage in New Orleans, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (a cop) and Jamie Foxx (concerned parent) attack the issue from their unique perspectives.

Not a good movie. I wouldn't call it a "movie" so much as it is a highlight reel of every action movie from the past decade; it's a thin slice of everything which makes for a very unsatisfying watch. The drug is introduced early on, and he next two hours is just people popping the pill in dramatic fashion during shootouts or brawls as a queue that the audience is supposed to go "oooh, I wonder what his/her power is going to be!" Nothing interesting happens; even the action sequences are uninspired, so the spectacle isn't even there. Biggest surprise here is that they got the likes of Gordon-Levitt and Foxx to sign up for such a shit film. Pass.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers

Every Halloween sequel does something new to annoy me. In the first movie Michael Myers is just a random murderous crazy who may or may not have survived a few gunshot wounds and a second-story fall, fair enough. Halloween 2 turns him into Laurie's brother, obsessed like a dumb crusader with killing her, but Laurie survives again and Michael appears to burn to death. Dumb retcon but fair enough. Halloween 4 makes it so 1) Laurie died anyway and 2) Michael is alive but comatose. In his coma he overhears Laurie had a daughter so he springs from 10 years of vegetation, murders 4 people in less than a minute goes on an even bloodier killing spree in order to kill his last of kin (just because). This time around he's blasted away by a possee of I don't know how many cops armed with rifles and shotguns, falls down a mine shaft and is entombed by the ground. 1-2 were more or less believable, 4 eschews any kind of believability. 5 gives up and simply turns Michael into a supernatural entity by having him magically resurrected, I think (haven't seen that one). 6 ups the dumb ante by explaining how there's this druidic cult that's been controlling Michael... and so on.

 

[Gordon_4]

Bumblebee - 9/10

You know what, fuck it, even if the middle plot meanders with fairly typical E.T. lite stuff, Charlie is ten times more tolerable as a person than Sam ever was. The two Decepticons here, Shatter and Dropkick are a thousand times above basically any of the previous film series efforts by virtue of, well, deceiving. And while its light on the action scenes, when they happen, they matter. Plus those climactic fights that Bumblebee has with Shatter and Dropkick are awesome. And I'd pay twice normal theatre prices to watch a whole movie in the style of the first fifteen minutes.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers

So Michael Myers has been shot six times and thrown off a second story (H1), blown away by nitrous oxide explosion and burned alive (H2), put into a coma for ten years, thrown off a truck (which then runs him over), shot dozens of times by a police squad armed with rifles and shotguns, which causes him to fall into a mine shaft that subsequently caves in and is further dynamited by the cops (H4) only to remain comatose another year before being bludgeoned some more, shot some more, chained and then bludgeoned some more (H5) and I forget what kind of punishment he takes in H6 but it's probably nothing he hasn't experienced by then. I think it's finally in H6 where an explanation is given for his immortality, which is somehow more idiotic than simply going along with the punishment. After all I think Michael's the only major slasher villain never to be confirmed dead. Even when he does appear to die like in H20 it gets retconned by a sequel so, no, that wasn't him Laurie decapitated.

4 & 5 work as a duet, just like 1 & 2: practically shot back to back, most of the cast and crew are back, and the second movie picks up right where the cliffhanger left off. I don't think either is a good movie. 5 in particular feels incomplete, like it went overbudget or ran out of time or suffered reshoots/rewrites or maybe just all of it. The movie keeps swinging from one possible protagonist to another and never settles for anyone. Jamie Lloyd is the lead supposedly but sits out most of the movie much like Laurie did in H2. Set pieces drag on unbearably - it shouldn't take Michael 20 minutes of runtime to kill a couple of no-names in the most protracted sequence of the movie. And I'm sick of Loomis by now. All he does is run around and panic and warn people about Michael yet he never achieves anything and is so ineffectual that he's impossible to root for. Same with Michael, who can decimate I don't know how many police precincts and militia possees in a blink yet can't wrangle a frightened 9 year old. Everyone's just so bad at everything. Jamie too. Her one merit is briefly stopping Michael from killing her by reminding him that they're related... even though the fact that they're related at all is the reason why Michael is trying to kill her.

 

[BrawlMan]

Bumblebee - 9/10

You know what, fuck it, even if the middle plot meanders with fairly typical E.T. lite stuff, Charlie is ten times more tolerable as a person than Sam ever was. The two Decepticons here, Shatter and Dropkick are a thousand times above basically any of the previous film series efforts by virtue of, well, deceiving. And while its light on the action scenes, when they happen, they matter. Plus those climactic fights that Bumblebee has with Shatter and Dropkick are awesome. And I'd pay twice normal theatre prices to watch a whole movie in the style of the first fifteen minutes.

Still the best live-action transformers ever made. The Michael Bay films age worse every single year. I can tolerate the first movie enough, but good luck getting me to watch any of the other sequels. I might watch parts of transformers 4 on a good day, but that's about it.

Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers

So Michael Myers has been shot six times and thrown off a second story (H1), blown away by nitrous oxide explosion and burned alive (H2), put into a coma for ten years, thrown off a truck (which then runs him over), shot dozens of times by a police squad armed with rifles and shotguns, which causes him to fall into a mine shaft that subsequently caves in and is further dynamited by the cops (H4) only to remain comatose another year before being bludgeoned some more, shot some more, chained and then bludgeoned some more (H5) and I forget what kind of punishment he takes in H6 but it's probably nothing he hasn't experienced by then. I think it's finally in H6 where an explanation is given for his immortality, which is somehow more idiotic than simply going along with the punishment. After all I think Michael's the only major slasher villain never to be confirmed dead. Even when he does appear to die like in H20 it gets retconned by a sequel so, no, that wasn't him Laurie decapitated.

4 & 5 work as a duet, just like 1 & 2: practically shot back to back, most of the cast and crew are back, and the second movie picks up right where the cliffhanger left off. I don't think either is a good movie. 5 in particular feels incomplete, like it went overbudget or ran out of time or suffered reshoots/rewrites or maybe just all of it. The movie keeps swinging from one possible protagonist to another and never settles for anyone. Jamie Lloyd is the lead supposedly but sits out most of the movie much like Laurie did in H2. Set pieces drag on unbearably - it shouldn't take Michael 20 minutes of runtime to kill a couple of no-names in the most protracted sequence of the movie. And I'm sick of Loomis by now. All he does is run around and panic and warn people about Michael yet he never achieves anything and is so ineffectual that he's impossible to root for. Same with Michael, who can decimate I don't know how many police precincts and militia possees in a blink yet can't wrangle a frightened 9 year old. Everyone's just so bad at everything. Jamie too. Her one merit is briefly stopping Michael from killing her by reminding him that they're related... even though the fact that they're related at all is the reason why Michael is trying to kill her.

Honestly dude, I recommend you just watch Halloween's one and three. Skip 2, because even John Carpenter hates it, and then jump straight to the 2018 Halloween movie. The Rob zombie remakes you can take or leave. The remake and the sequel to the remake aren't perfect, but at least there are rated R and have something tangible related to halloween. If you want a true vision of what Carpenter originally wanted for his anthology series, just watch Trick r Treat.