Discuss and Rate the Last Film You Watched

[Gordon_4]

As a massive fan of Anne Rice (I met her twice and have several books signed by her,) I am intrigued by that comparison. I've not read Servant Of The Bones in YEARS, but I recall enjoying it quite a bit. (And for the record, I've never bothered with her "trashier" stuff; I stick to her vampires, witches, etc.)

She writes shit trashier than the Vampires series? Fuck me that stuff must be something else.


The Batman (33 minutes anyway)

Okay, the insufferable shits who made this movie had made it impossible to enjoy in a normal setting because the sound mixing on this for anything other than a semi-professional theatre setup is fucking abysmal. Dialogue is just above whisper quiet at max volume, and everything else is obnoxiously loud.

But, some impressions so far. The good: atmosphere is top notch, Penguin is great, and so is Gordon. Batman and Bruce are not my cup of tea but they're well realised. Alfred is probably the best, and I liked his subtle way of telling the audience he used to work for SIS.

The bad: that fucking narration is abysmal and reeks of trying too hard AND makes our Batman here come off more like Rorschach in a Batman suit. Yes I know the trope has its roots in the noire fiction of old but I've heard it done better on episodes of Peter Gunn. The Riddler; or rather this 4channer/edgelord redditor asshole standing in for Edward Nygma, is a waste of time. There was no reason they couldn't have just filed the serial numbers off the Zodiac killer, or even given an existing ACTUAL psychopathic killer character like Victor Zsaz an intelligence boost, or even just made him a smarter than average serial killer. Something nice and basic that we all understand to get a few miles under Batman's utility belt.

 

[Thaluikhain]

She writes shit trashier than the Vampires series? Fuck me that stuff must be something else.

IIRC, Yahtzee did a review of some of them some years back, which were all gratuitous sex slavery and rape and torture.

 

[Piscian]

Gone in The Night

This randomly showed up in my feed. It stars Wynona Ryder and just came out recently. I'm normally really stubborn about checking reviews, but I'm glad I just said
"fuck it" this time because I ended up enjoying it. It's a minimal budget, although it looks like they used real film for this one, mystery thriller. Its not a genre I know that well so I can only compare it to something like low-key Alfred Hitchcock, I wouldn't give it that high appraise just thinking tone.

Wynona Ryder plays a college professor who rents a cabin with her student boyfriend. When they get out there they find two twenty-somethings already there laying claim to the cabin. They end up staying just the night sharing the cabin because its 2 hour drive to a hotel. She wakes up and the male twenty-something, distraught tells her that her boyfriend and his girlfriend eloped and ran off. The rest of the film flips back and forth between her dealing with her boyfriends disappearance and flashbacks to what actually happened.

This is a real relax with a glass of bourbon kind of movie. I recommend just putting it on and soaking in the performances. Even if you figure out the twist all the acting is pretty good and it's worth sitting through the end. It's not something I'll ever watch again, I did feel the urge to write something positive about it. Wynona was great 7/10

*skip the trailer, its a little spoilery

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

As a massive fan of Anne Rice (I met her twice and have several books signed by her,) I am intrigued by that comparison. I've not read Servant Of The Bones in YEARS, but I recall enjoying it quite a bit. (And for the record, I've never bothered with her "trashier" stuff; I stick to her vampires, witches, etc.)

Speaking of Anne Rice’s witches -

“Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches” Trailer – Alexandra Daddario Discovers Her Legacy This January

Up next from AMC’s Anne Rice Universe is the series “Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches,” which comes in the wake of the network’s “Interview with the Vampire” television series. The upcoming series is an adaptation of Anne Rice’s novels in the “Mayfair Witches” saga, and it premieres January 8 on AMC...

bloody-disgusting.com

I’ve never heard of this project until now but kinda intrigued about seeing Daddario as a witch. With those eyes of hers it seems like it could be the role she was born to play. Hopefully it fairs better than the last show she played as an heiress, to a family of murdering cannibals.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Speaking of Anne Rice’s witches -

“Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches” Trailer – Alexandra Daddario Discovers Her Legacy This January

Up next from AMC’s Anne Rice Universe is the series “Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches,” which comes in the wake of the network’s “Interview with the Vampire” television series. The upcoming series is an adaptation of Anne Rice’s novels in the “Mayfair Witches” saga, and it premieres January 8 on AMC...

bloody-disgusting.com

I’ve never heard of this project until now but kinda intrigued about seeing Daddario as a witch. With those eyes of hers it seems like it could be the role she was born to play. Hopefully it fairs better than the last show she played as an heiress, to a family of murdering cannibals.

I remember her from the Percy Jackson films, and from having a brother in the Shadowhunters TV show. Bad YA adaptions must run in the family.

 

[Xprimentyl]

Speaking of Anne Rice’s witches -

“Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches” Trailer – Alexandra Daddario Discovers Her Legacy This January

Up next from AMC’s Anne Rice Universe is the series “Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches,” which comes in the wake of the network’s “Interview with the Vampire” television series. The upcoming series is an adaptation of Anne Rice’s novels in the “Mayfair Witches” saga, and it premieres January 8 on AMC...

bloody-disgusting.com

I’ve never heard of this project until now but kinda intrigued about seeing Daddario as a witch. With those eyes of hers it seems like it could be the role she was born to play. Hopefully it fairs better than the last show she played as an heiress, to a family of murdering cannibals.

I don't expect much. The Witches series is very beautiful, tragic, and painstakingly detailed; not sure how easily that's going to translate to a television series. To anyone interested, I suggest the books first, at least The Witching Hour if you've +1,000 pages to spare.

 

[XsjadoBlaydette]

Flux Gourmet - (Prime, purchase)
At first glance, this looked like some chef/food competition type film. But the genre tags are intriguing. And the director being Peter Strickland usually means it's going to be some weird hard-to-define shit, to say the least. Which turns out to be the case, as we are first introduced to the narrator, a quiet journalist (with gas troubles who is too afraid to fart in front of others so tries to disguise them by flushing the toilet every time) covering a group of isolated, bickering, pretentious artists in a dilapidated country mansion as they go through various art exhibitions, which initially look like cooking, however is soon established they are "cooking sound" and refer to themselves as "sonic culinaries" or something. Lots of incredibly dry, off-kilter humour and many odd hijinks later, am still not entirely sure what it's about, though the journey's a unique one, probably worth another watch in a better prepared state of mind to untangle what's there. Certain faces return from the director's previous work, In Fabric, also. These auteurs do love to have their favourites. Anyway, this likely won't be for anyone looking for a clear and obvious narrative or loud comedy. Nevertheless, the craft, intrigue, dry humour and oddness will certainly appeal to a niché demographic who know who they are.

 

[thebobmaster]

A ★★★★★ review of Aladdin (1992)

Two in a row? They didn't call this the Renaissance for nothing. The plot of this film follows an orphaned street beggar in Agrabah named Aladdin (voiced by Scott Weinger, with singing provided by Brad Kane) and his monkey Abu (Frank Welker). While living his life, he meets Princess Jasmine...

letterboxd.com

 

[McElroy]

Terrifier 2
Slasher flick with a scary clown and lots of gore. Gore-ific. Too long though (2 hours 18 mins)!! The main character Sienna is pretty good and so is her lil bro, though maybe he tries a bit too hard to be a 12-yo as the actor is clearly at least 14. Some of the gore is really lovely. 7 slashes out of 10.

 

[thebobmaster]

A ★★★★★ review of The Lion King (1994)

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

letterboxd.com

 

[Hawki]

Black Adam (4/10)

It's shit.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (8/10)

It's pretty neat.

OPINIONZ

So, yeah, I saw these films back to back as the movie times aligned with them, and I had an excuse to get out of the house. I won't delve into either of these films, as chances are most people here have seen at least one of them, but it was kind of striking how BA feels like a relic of the 2000s (CGI-fest, terrible editing, paper-thin characters, spectacle over substance), whereas BP is easily one of the most mature films the MCU has done (far fewer quips, tackles themes of loss, grief, cycles of vengeance, etc.) What's ironic is that you can play a game of spot the difference (Kandahaq/Wakanda is the only place on Earth where you can find eternium/vibranium which draws in outsiders, both nations protected by the Champion/the Black Panther, with Adam/Shuri dealing with the loss of a son/brother, it's just that BA is struggling to tell a story for whatever reason (editing? Pacing? Budget?), whereas BP is able to actually take the time it needs to tell the story it wants to. When you pit the two together, Black Adam is frankly embarassing. But even if you're not doing that, BA is still shit, while BP is pretty good.

RANKINGS

In case you were wondering:

DCEU

Spoiler

11) Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

10) Black Adam

9) Suicide Squad

8) Wonder Woman 1984

7) The Suicide Squad

6) Birds of Prey

5) Justice League

4) Aquaman

3) Man of Steel

2) Wonder Woman

1) Shazam!

MCU

Spoiler

25) The Avengers: Endgame

24) Iron Man 2

23) Thor

22) Thor: The Dark World

21) Captain America: The First Avenger

20) Ant-Man

19) The Incredible Hulk

18) The Avengers: Age of Ultron

17) The Avengers

16) The Avengers: Infinity War

15) Thor: Love and Thunder

14) Captain Marvel

13) Captain America: Civil War

12) Guardians of the Galaxy

11) Thor: Ragnarok

10) Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 2

9) Iron Man

8) Iron Man 3

7) Doctor Strange

6) Black Panther

5) Captain America: The Winter Soldier

4) Ant-Man and the Wasp

3) Spider-Man: Homecoming

2) Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

1) Spider-Man: Far From Home

 

[Bartholen]

Jaws, 8/10

Spielberg's seminal 70's classic that changed cinema itself still holds up damn well nearly half a century later. It's a very simple setup that manages to touch on a lot of topics and themes, but never feels like it's underlining any point. The characters are well written and engaging and visually it hasn't aged a day. I appreciated this movie a lot more than on my first watch: on the surface (heh) it's just about dealing with and ultimately hunting down a shark, but underneath (heh x2) you can pick up on themes of class difference, trauma, masculinity dynamics, generational gap, capitalism and greed. The only character that maybe feels a bit tropey and simplistic is the dumb mayor, but even his perspective feels understandable as he wants to convince himself that there is no problem. And after he witnesses the chaos of a shark attack firsthand you definitely see how he's just human as well. I like how the film narrows down its focus as it progresses, and by the end it's just one guy in a sinking boat and a shark. It's also masterful in its tone: it varies wildly in the movie, but never feels inconsistent or dissonant, and even more impressively can change at the drop of a hat with a single glimpse of the shark.

This is a point that's made about this movie more than any other film in history, but it still bears repeating just how well this movie uses limited visibility and editing to create tension. Anytime there's a scene near water you have the feeling that the shark could pop up anywhere, any time, and you could never know where. And when the shark is shown, it's always at the right angles and cut away from fairly quickly so your eyes don't start to pick up on unnatural movements or other technical faults.

It's maybe a bit slow at points (though I don't know what I'd take out of the film), and while the score is really great, it's also got a bit of the same problem than Conan the Barbarian did: a lot of the time it feels way too whimsical and adventurous. This partly helps with the execution of tone I mentioned earlier, but at times it just feels wrong for the scene.

 

[Bartholen]

True Romance, 9/10

This is a 1993 action comedy(ish) directed by Tony Scott and written by a pre-megafame Quentin Tarantino. It's about a young couple who accidentally stumble upon a suitcase full of cocaine and head out to Hollywood to sell it. The cast is absolutely stuffed with megastars of both then and now: Patricia Arquette, Christian Slater, Dennis Hopper, Samuel L Jackson, Gary Oldman, Val Kilmer, Christoper Walken and James Gandolfini to name a few.

I massively enjoyed this movie. It's very energetic, fast paced, fun and entertaining. It really helped that I knew basically nothing of this movie other than the title, because I always confused it with True Lies in my mind. From the opening minutes I could tell it was Tarantino's writing as the protagonist started going on about martial arts movies. I've often slagged that kind of indulgence off but here it's actually integrated into the plot in a way and isn't just a nonsequitur (looking at you, Kill Bill). In the first ten minutes I went "Oh no, is this going to be a romantic comedy written by Quentin Tarantino?" and after another ten minutes I went "Oh, so it's a romantic comedy, but written by Quentin Tarantino". That is to say the plot is driven by a romance - which is sold very well by Arquette and Slater by the way - but it's an incredibly violent, sleazy and sweary story full of mobsters, coke and guns.

It's got a sort of manic, almost comic book energy to it, since almost every character feels like a slightly (or not so slightly) exaggerated cartoon, but that makes every character memorable. For example I really enjoyed how Brad Pitt's (oh yeah, he's in here too) character is bonged out of his mind in every scene, but always remembers information perfectly, even when giving driving instructions to people pointing guns at him. Fittingly enough for a movie called True Romance, I'd even say the movie captures the feeling of being in love: even when things are going wrong and everything is awful, things just seem bright and cheery and you can't dwell on them for too long because there's just an enveloping sense of warmth around you. This is greatly helped by the upbeat, xylophone-driven score and bright color palette. Even though the characters were for the most part complete dipshits, it was still really wholesome to see them get away with it in the end and get a proper happy ending.

I wouldn't say there are major criticisms I'd level at it. Tarantino's indulgent movie nerd rambling rears its ugly head on a few occasions, but for the most part it actually (somewhat) makes sense in context. There's one scene that's a perhaps poorly aged example of his fondness for using the n-word in dialogue, and it's a bit weird. The movie also starts out even more outlandish than it is for most of its runtime, which made me expect an even crazier movie. By the time Elvis started talking to the main character in his head I had a feeling that anything could happen in the movie.

 

[XsjadoBlaydette]

Tyrannosaur - (Studio Canal Presents)
What if God of war reboot arc but set in bleak working class Britain. Directed by Paddy Considine - the guy who plays the King in that new Game of Thrones show. Starts off by breaking the main rule of cinema to present the main character's uncontrollable rage. And the narrative reference to the film's title is fucking brutal. Olivia Colman and Peter Mullan are not pulling any punches with their acting. Is very sobering. But somewhere there's a tiny glimmer of hope pulling you through the horror, somehow.

Ending song is suitable send off too.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Jaws, 8/10

Spielberg's seminal 70's classic that changed cinema itself still holds up damn well nearly half a century later. It's a very simple setup that manages to touch on a lot of topics and themes, but never feels like it's underlining any point. The characters are well written and engaging and visually it hasn't aged a day. I appreciated this movie a lot more than on my first watch: on the surface (heh) it's just about dealing with and ultimately hunting down a shark, but underneath (heh x2) you can pick up on themes of class difference, trauma, masculinity dynamics, generational gap, capitalism and greed. The only character that maybe feels a bit tropey and simplistic is the dumb mayor, but even his perspective feels understandable as he wants to convince himself that there is no problem. And after he witnesses the chaos of a shark attack firsthand you definitely see how he's just human as well. I like how the film narrows down its focus as it progresses, and by the end it's just one guy in a sinking boat and a shark. It's also masterful in its tone: it varies wildly in the movie, but never feels inconsistent or dissonant, and even more impressively can change at the drop of a hat with a single glimpse of the shark.

This is a point that's made about this movie more than any other film in history, but it still bears repeating just how well this movie uses limited visibility and editing to create tension. Anytime there's a scene near water you have the feeling that the shark could pop up anywhere, any time, and you could never know where. And when the shark is shown, it's always at the right angles and cut away from fairly quickly so your eyes don't start to pick up on unnatural movements or other technical faults.

It's maybe a bit slow at points (though I don't know what I'd take out of the film), and while the score is really great, it's also got a bit of the same problem than Conan the Barbarian did: a lot of the time it feels way too whimsical and adventurous. This partly helps with the execution of tone I mentioned earlier, but at times it just feels wrong for the scene.

And ever since that was made, people have been ripping it off. "We can't cancel the Event because some people say a monster/s will attack, because money"

 

[Gordon_4]

And ever since that was made, people have been ripping it off. "We can't cancel the Event because some people say a monster/s will attack, because money"

In the book he was being leaned on by the mafia, making the consequences of the lack of money a bit more immediate for him.

 

[Bartholen]

Johnny Mnemonic, 5/10

This is a delightfully dated piece of mid-90s cyberpunk nonsense. Keanu Reeves plays Johnny, a sort of human USB stick who stores data in his brain like a hard drive, and one of his jobs goes tits up and he has to go on the run while his brain is slowly being destroyed from inside. I went in expecting a hilariously dumb and dated movie, and in a lot of ways I got it, but in some ways it's actually not that bad. Time might have been kind to this movie, since cyberpunk is way less common nowadays than back then, so its fairly bog-standard dystopian visuals are kind of refreshing in a way since they're still done with sets and props. Incidentally: Keanu Reeves playing a character named Johnny in a cyberpunk story, and he wields a katana at one point? Have I heard this before?

The best parts of this movie are when it gets weird. Like Dolph Lundgren's character, who's a cybernetically augmented street preacher who also acts as an enforcer for corporations and he constantly rambles about how Jesus saves. Or how the underground resistance's most important weapon against the corporations is a cyber-augmented dolphin. The soundtrack is incredibly 90s and would fit perfectly in System Shock 2. Then there are obviously the hilariously dated parts when characters go on the internet, and you can tell the production team were super proud of their mid 90s CGI effects, because they're made as wooshy and as "wow radical" as possible. It's awesome.

Honestly whatever negatives I can come up with from this movie - and there are plenty, don't get me wrong - I'm kind of leaning towards being forgiving about them because the whole movie is so damn corny and kitschy it kind of becomes endearing. The acting is pretty hokey across the board, the script is dumb as rocks, the depiction of the future is hilariously dated (yeah, fax machines and VCRs are still totally ubiquitous, for real guys), but it all somehow comes together for some probably unintentional camp. The movie's never boring and even the multiple scenes of technobabble gobbledygook are quite entertaining because of the aforementioned kitschiness. I think this would be a pretty good movie for bad movie night, because it manages to hit about the same note as Dead or Alive does: enjoyable both ironically and unironically.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Watched Charlie's Angels (2019) again (I bought the DVD because it was cheap before seeing it elsewhere).

Yeah, lots of it are boring, and there's a few times where they are deeply incompetent to try to be quirky or whatever, but it more or less holds together. Especially after watching a few other rar-rar-girl-power stuff like Batwoman or Supergirl or Ocean's 8 which were significantly worse, especially Ocean's 8, for which I can't remember a single redeeming feature and so was massively successful.

 

[Piscian]

The Eternal Daughter

I feel like I must be living in some kind of alternate reality because it's got a 95% from critics and I thought it was awful. The premise here is that Tilda Swinton takes her elderly mother to a rural historic hotel in the countryside for her birthday, as it was a hotel she hadn't been to since she was a child and supposedly had happy memories off. The hook is that Tilda Swinton plays both characters. The movie has them go through the most impossibly drab daily motions of breakfast, dog walks and dinner all while having menial conversations about nothing, often with the daughter breaking down in tears anytime they have even the slightest brush with an argument. Throughout the film it constantly prods at you with bumps in the night, ghosts in the windows, but without it ever escalating. Tilda Swinton is more perturbed than disturbed by any of it. It never escalates or feels like it's going anywhere until it reveals the twist you saw coming about 5 minutes into the film and then the movie ends.

I feel obligated to note, I have no issue with twists being surface level as long as the writing and dialog are compelling. Thats where this movie really fails. I like tilda swinton. I watched this movie for Tilde Swinton. The dialog she is given never raises above ordering coffee at wafflehouse and the pointless attempts at tricking the viewer into thinking the twist was anything else than what it obviously was at the start of the film are beyond tiresome. I kept pondering why I'm watching this film, constantly waiting for an intriguing discussion or some fascinating character reveal. I was desperately bored despite literally coming for this. I did not cut out my day to see ghosts banging pots and pans or see Tilda Swinton turn into a monster. I came for a slowburn horror mystery. The only thing this film burned was my patience.

0/10 pretentious nonsense.

 

[Bartholen]

Well I continued Blonde up to the 90-minute mark on Netflix since that's the length of a feature film, and I really recommend it! If you have trouble getting to sleep that is. I was hoping it would get more interesting, either by getting sleazier or more lurid, or just introducing some new element to get me invested, but no. Just the same meandering, artsy-fartsy misery porn that's downright amateurish in certain respects: scenes just sort of happen regardless of one another, nothing builds to anything, the cinematography is completely incoherent... and it's just so. bloody. boring. Scenes drag on like a snail overdosing on sleeping pills. And pretty damn insulting too: to the audience, to Marilyn Monroe, to history, and to Ana de Armas. Marilyn in this movie feels infantilized to the point of fetishism and spends the whole movie weeping, pining after daddy and just being run over by the runaway truck of life.

Awful. Don't watch it even out of morbid curiosity.