Discuss and Rate the Last Film You Watched

[Xprimentyl]

Its Hamlet, you realise that right?

Yes, and? Hamlet isn't that interesting a story (also not a fan of Shakespeare,) so for all of the creative licensing they took to make The Northman different, it wasn't very creative, almost lazy. But the visuals and music sucked me in, so was I engaged? No. Was I entertained? Yep.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Raw Deal (1986)

You know, I don't think I've seen a boring Arnold Schwarzenegger film before. Sure, some of his films aren't very good, but at least there's OtT Arnie-isms to keep the most bland film going. This is just flat. Meh.

The Medusa Touch (1978)

Based on the book, this is a very well done British sci-fi horror film, of the genuinely a bit creepy kind, not the lots of fake blood kind. Lots of big names in this, though often in small parts. It became obvious what was going on a bit too early, and the conclusion was a bit too dragged out, but otherwise a solid film.

(Can't describe the plot without spoiling it, as opposed to not describing the plot of Raw Deal because nobody cares)

 

[thebobmaster]

As a personal project, I've decided to watch and review every canon Disney animated movie. Not the live-action stuff, or the DTV sequels, just the Disney Animated Canon. Starting with...

A ★★½ review of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)

The first of the Disney Animated Canon, this film does show its age in some areas, although not nearly to the degree you'd expect for a film closing on 90 years old by this point. The main area the movie really shows its age are the characters, or lack thereof. Snow White is your typical Disney...

letterboxd.com

 

[Xprimentyl]

Candyman (2021): Alright / Great

The ghost of a man killed in the inner city projects haunts and kills anyone who says his name 5 time in a mirror. There's more to it than that, but that's the gist.

I was under the impressions this was a remake, but it's ostensibly a sequel? I think I need to re-watch the original 1992 version; I think I like it better, but haven't seen it in a couple of decades, so my nostalgic lens might be misremembering how good it was. That said, this newer one isn't bad. It kinda convolutes what was pretty straightforward in '92, but almost 30 years later, they had to mix some things up. Oh, and it's produced by Jordan Peele, so there's that...

 

[thebobmaster]

Candyman (2021): Alright / Great

The ghost of a man killed in the inner city projects haunts and kills anyone who says his name 5 time in a mirror. There's more to it than that, but that's the gist.

I was under the impressions this was a remake, but it's ostensibly a sequel? I think I need to re-watch the original 1992 version; I think I like it better, but haven't seen it in a couple of decades, so my nostalgic lens might be misremembering how good it was. That said, this newer one isn't bad. It kinda convolutes what was pretty straightforward in '92, but almost 30 years later, they had to mix some things up. Oh, and it's produced by Jordan Peele, so there's that...

Candyman 2021 is what I've heard be called a requel. Basically, it's technically a sequel to the original (and no other), but it simultaneously serves as a reboot for the series. It's in the same vein as Halloween 2018 and the Netflix Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

 

[Xprimentyl]

Candyman 2021 is what I've heard be called a requel. Basically, it's technically a sequel to the original (and no other), but it simultaneously serves as a reboot for the series. It's in the same vein as Halloween 2018 and the Netflix Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Yeah, that's fairly spot on. I won't spoil anything, but as it's produced by Jordan Peele, the inevitable social commentary (which was firmly established within the lore of the first film) gets pretty ham-fisted towards the end.

 

[gorfias]

RRR (aka Rise Roar Revolt) [Netflix]

First time I've watched an Indian film. Fully watched it I mean, not seen clips on youtube. Man, this shit is wild. It's basically a what-if story about two revolutionaries who historically never met, but what if they did? It's kind of silly at times, and pretty over the top at all times, but I had a great time with. The thing I actually liked best is that this movie has zero chill. The heroes are the most unflappably heroic, capable of the most ludicrous feats. The villains the most mustache-twirlingly evil. The emotions are the biggest feels. The songs the most on the nose. The dance numbers the danciest. And the action scenes are just these extravagant spectacles, and honestly the price of admission by themselves. Maybe a bit too overlong at 3 hours, sometimes felt like they could've trimmed some fat to improve pacing, but not a dealbreaker.

Also, it has this

The action scenes really show that Bollywood has largely caught up with most of what we see from Hollywood and even surpassed them in many ways. My favorite toward the beginning as one hero fights his way through hundreds of rioters chasing someone his commander wants arrested. Best one guy vs many since maybe Oldboy.
My biggest complaint was a song they play. In screen writing, you are to show, not tell. This does both. We see 2 ludicrously powerful and heroic men who will be enemies but for now they are besties. And there is a song playing over their bromance with lyrics basically also telling us what we have just been shown.
The dance numbers are a hoot, unlike what we see in US films.

 

[Specter Von Baren]

Yeah, that's fairly spot on. I won't spoil anything, but as it's produced by Jordan Peele, the inevitable social commentary (which was firmly established within the lore of the first film) gets pretty ham-fisted towards the end.

From a look over the reviews, it seems that even people that came in wanting to like it left rather unsatisfied. One thing I saw brought up a lot is that it's just not a scary movie. I've never seen OG Candyman but I remember being intrigued by snippets I'd heard of it, maybe I'll give the original a try sometime.

 

[Xprimentyl]

From a look over the reviews, it seems that even people that came in wanting to like it left rather unsatisfied. One thing I saw brought up a lot is that it's just not a scary movie. I've never seen OG Candyman but I remember being intrigued by snippets I'd heard of it, maybe I'll give the original a try sometime.

Yeah, it's not scary; it's played more as a thriller. The original wasn't necessarily that scary either in retrospect, just a lot of the imagery was jarring; a murderous ghost with a mouthful of bees impaling people with the hook where his right hand should be? Yeah, Tony Todd haunted my nightmares when I was 12, but at 42, I think I can appreciate it sans fear. Also the theme was done by one of my favorite composers, Philip Glass, and it's really disturbing in that "porcelain doll, disheveled and missing an eye" sort of way. Still gives me chills almost 30 years later...

 

[Specter Von Baren]

Yeah, it's not scary; it's played more as a thriller. The original wasn't necessarily that scary either in retrospect, just a lot of the imagery was jarring; a murderous ghost with a mouthful of bees impaling people with the hook where his right hand should be? Yeah, Tony Todd haunted my nightmares when I was 12, but at 42, I think I can appreciate it sans fear. Also the theme was done by one of my favorite composers, Philip Glass, and it's really disturbing in that "porcelain doll, disheveled and missing an eye" sort of way. Still gives me chills almost 30 years later...

View attachment 6632

It feels like a concept that could be very good but gets muddled by a lot of things. His name is only loosely connected to bees, the hook for a hand and the way he's summoned are hallmarks of already existing real world horror stories and muddle up the more interesting bee theme which should be his signature (They also don't make much sense with his backstory) It's an idea that could have been done very well with another go over but seems the new version doesn't do anything to iron out the problems with the original.

 

[Specter Von Baren]

Like... Just off the top of my head, get rid of the hook, it doesn't even make sense for a mob to do that, keep them chopping his hand off but make it both hands like, "Haha, artist, can't do art now!" Then have it so he has hands any time you see him but he's always wearing gloves. Maybe have a spooky scene where a hand reaches out of the darkness and grabs a victim but they get away and later find the spot where they were grabbed is horribly and grotesquely swollen, like a really bad sting, and then at the end the MC wriggles out of his grip and his hands fall off, but they're just gloves and you see a stream of bees coming out of his arms. Like there ya go, that's emphasizing the part of him that makes him unique.

I don't know if either movie uses the bees for commentary, but if not, make it so he talks about how he was killed by a mass of enraged drones doing their task or that it didn't matter that something bad happened to him or what happens to those he kills, the system, the hive, has to just keep going, keep working, never stop.

Like I said, I see potential in the concept.

 

[BrawlMan]

gets pretty ham-fisted towards the end.

Barely. Even then, everything was on point. It matched my expectations, it was one of the better sequels to long running horror franchises.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Thor Love and Thunder

Didn't much care for it. Much bored. Some things I liked tho, like watching Russell Crowe act Greekh which was amazing in an embarrassing sort of way. Or that Korg's god sat on a throne of broken scissors. Christian Bale gives a good performance considering how little material he was given. The scene at the end of Thor and his adoptive daughter is quite cute if you know the girl is Hemsworth's actual daugher.. That's about it.

It’s just funny that this is directly after Gordon_4’s enthusiastic take. And color me surprised as hell at Christian Bale being in there. Bound to see this at some point especially since wifey loves Thor’s hair.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Born on the Fourth of July, 8/10

This is an Oliver Stone biopic about Ron Kovic, a Vietnam vet turned anti-war activist in the 60s and 70s. Considering it's from 1989 this film feels decades ahead of its time. It's a really raw, unflinching and uncompromising portrayal of Vietnam fervor, PTSD, abandonment of veterans and all the baggage these broken men brought home with them. Cruise is genuinely great in the central role, and I'm frankly astonished that I never see this performance mentioned anywhere. Young Cruise is perfect for the role, since he manages to embody both the bright-eyed, upbeat naivete and the harsh, broken nihilism the character requires. The film also avoids cheesy Hollywood-isms, choosing to just show things in a matter of fact, everyday way, which makes Ron's state really sink in the further it goes on. You really get a sense of how Ron tries to return to his former life, but no matter how hard he tries, something has been broken inside of him. There are no major issues with it, besides maybe the pacing. Since the movie's meat lies in Ron's life after Vietnam the first act can feel kind of rushed as we see him go through high school. A fantastic positive surprise and highly recommended.

I also watched about 20 minutes of Pitch Perfect on TV,

and based on what I saw I don't think this film has aged well at all, despite being less than a decade old. I don't know if it struck a chord with the Glee crowd because that show was big at the time, but man, there just is no way to make acapella singing cool. I legit had trouble parsing what the movie was going for. It wasn't absurd enough to be a parody, not funny enough to be a straight-faced comedy, and definitely not compelling enough for me to be engaged. For the most part it felt like a completely typical american college comedy with all the tropes, except this time it's acapella singing and an almost all-female cast. I previously mentioned how Mean Girls managed to be relatable to me despite being squarely aimed at american audiences, and this film fails at that. I turned it off at the part where it seemed the movie was genuinely expecting me to feel tension about an acapella singing competition. For me to care it would have either needed to be way more ridiculous and absurd, or to feel more relatable to someone outside of the american college experience. Anna Kendrick is super hot though, so points for that I guess.

The male commentator launching deprecating, misogynistic insults was funny though, especially since that shit probably wouldn’t fly anymore.

 

[Piscian]

Barely. Even then, everything was on point. It matched my expectations, it was one of the better sequels to long running horror franchises.

I gotta take Brawls side on this one. I saw it theaters. I recall posting my thoughts https://forums.escapistmagazine.com...te-the-last-film-you-watched.30/post-13167813

While I would say it's not as tightly written has Peeles other stuff, but he only produced it, it definitely left a mark on me. I think it's context. If you're not absorbing the subtext and just looking at it as "This was supposed to be scary" or something, then no this wasn't the ice cream shop you were looking for. Its mostly just horrifying and depressing.
I did a little research afterwards and I guess thats on point with the original. Candyman is not really meant to viewed in the vein of michael myers or Jason or something. It's really just about stigmas, profiling, and systemic racism. The candyman figure is simply a vessel. A construct created by the current state of things.

 

[Gordon_4]

It’s just funny that this is directly after Gordon_4’s enthusiastic take. And color me surprised as hell at Christian Bale being in there. Bound to see this at some point especially since wifey loves Thor’s hair.

No film is great to all people. Chimpzy’s take is as valid and worthy of consideration as mine is. Indeed his may help a more discerning viewer temper expectations.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Sanic the Hedgehog

It was way, way more kiddie than I thought it would be. I don't know if it was intentional or not but it felt like a 90s kiddie movie, except the Marsden character would've been a kid in that. The comedy beats are super cliché, from the "Yup that's me" freeze-frame intro, Marsden opening up to someone who clearly isn't there and we're just waiting for the comedy cut to an inanimate object, "He's behind me, isn't he?" moments... and then the super sappy, phony moments of emotion like Sanic trying to outrun loneliness or getting his 11th hour superpower from hearing Marsden call him his friend. Tying the 90s feel is Jim Carrey clearly doing whatever the fuck he wants. But hey, at least they got Sanic right. Not just because he looks about right, but because they didn't really mess around with the essence of the character. Maybe that's why all (most? This did pretty well right?) the Sanic fans like this.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Sanic the Hedgehog

It was way, way more kiddie than I thought it would be. I don't know if it was intentional or not but it felt like a 90s kiddie movie, except the Marsden character would've been a kid in that. The comedy beats are super cliché, from the "Yup that's me" freeze-frame intro, Marsden opening up to someone who clearly isn't there and we're just waiting for the comedy cut to an inanimate object, "He's behind me, isn't he?" moments... and then the super sappy, phony moments of emotion like Sanic trying to outrun loneliness or getting his 11th hour superpower from hearing Marsden call him his friend. Tying the 90s feel is Jim Carrey clearly doing whatever the fuck he wants. But hey, at least they got Sanic right. Not just because he looks about right, but because they didn't really mess around with the essence of the character. Maybe that's why all (most? This did pretty well right?) the Sanic fans like this.

For anyone else who might’ve been completely unaware of this variant -

Sanic Hegehog

Sanic, a deliberate misspelling of “Sonic”, refers to a series of fan artworks and game modifications featuring a poorly illustrated version of the video g

knowyourmeme.com

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

From a look over the reviews, it seems that even people that came in wanting to like it left rather unsatisfied. One thing I saw brought up a lot is that it's just not a scary movie. I've never seen OG Candyman but I remember being intrigued by snippets I'd heard of it, maybe I'll give the original a try sometime.

From what I recall having not seen it since the nineties is it had a neat kinda modern urban gothic feel to it, though still tinged with an appropriate layer of realistic grime and grit that gives it more weight than other boogiemen horror flicks of the time.

 

[Specter Von Baren]

From what I recall having not seen it since the nineties is it had a neat kinda modern urban gothic feel to it, though still tinged with an appropriate layer of realistic grime and grit that gives it more weight than other boogiemen horror flicks of the time.

Ah, sounds similar to the original Django. While it did indeed have the coffin to make it stand out, apparently at the time the violence of the movie was what made it really stick with them.