Discuss and Rate the Last Film You Watched

[Casual Shinji]

Honestly Ive already forgotten the majority of the film. This happens and this happens and then this happens /end. I cant think if a single compelling character or line of dialog.

Its funny how the only reason this movie exists is because the studio owns the IP and paid for it to happen. Sony is by far the strangest studio in my opinion because they seem to have zero emotional investment in any of their franchises and the films are 100% managed by a product team. All the nostalgia stuff you mentioned. Im confident none of that is in the script. Its all just product meetings where they run test studies and algorithms to determine what "things" need to be in the movies. The rave scene in Venom 2? an email leak showed that was put in there because it would appeal to millennials. "we got plans for you parker" scene - product guy said put it in.

What ends up happening is they just film around whatever the product demands are and you end up with this kinda harmless, but souless trash.

The sad part is that the movie likely didnt make its money back. it made 200mil total on 75mil budget, plus whatever the marketing cost was. It turns out, nobody gives a fuck about the Ghostbusters franchise. They would have been better served to give Guillermo or Rogen 40 million and let them do whatever they want. Even if they fucked it up at least it would have been memorable.

I'm gonna say this entire movie was a reaction to the fall-out to Ghostbusters '16. And the weird thing is that the movie making itself isn't even bad; it's competently shot and directed. It's the naked nostalgia plastering through this frame of complete and utter reverence that is so vile. It has like a Spielbergian level of awe for anything Ghostbusters related. And Ghostbusters was a damn 80's comedy, and I say that when it's probably my favorite movie ever, but get fucking over it. This is like if they made a sequel to The Three Amigos, but they treat Lucky Day, Ned Nederlander, and Dusty Bottoms as grizzled gunslingers without a hint of irony.

 

[Agema]

I'm trying to figure out how we had such divergent views of this movie.

I can see that the directors have talent, the cast is good, etc. and the colour use is appropriately dramatic and cartoonish. But there's only so much smashing up cars, apartments and cities I can take in a movie before it becomes a bit desensitising. I think they need quiet spaces between the action set-pieces for pacing. I want to care about the characters a bit, and hardly anyone can have character developed if they're doing nothing but fighting. After that, the betrayed death machine agent schtick is really, really, old.

I had my buddies over and I guess I had no choice but to pay attention and stay with it. We all had a blast.

I became more engrossed with playing "Fights In Tight Spaces" on my laptop when I was watching this, which appropriately is a deckbuilder strategy game where you beat up groups of gangsters with a secret agent.

 

[Agema]

Its funny how the only reason this movie exists is because the studio owns the IP and paid for it to happen. Sony is by far the strangest studio in my opinion because they seem to have zero emotional investment in any of their franchises and the films are 100% managed by a product team.

I think this describes Hollywood quite neatly.

I vaguely recall Kevin Smith's essay when he detailed being attached to a Superman movie. It was in the hands of a producer (once Barbara Streisand's hairdresser) who seemingly could not give a shit: did not understand anything about Superman. You can also watch Barton Fink, for an idea of what the Coen brothers thought about studio bosses and movie producers.

And why not? All those execs at the top and a lot of the senior producers: they aren't artists or creators, they are businessmen and managers. Sure, they've probably got some idea what sells because they should have some experience from working in the industry, but they don't really care beyond their films selling. The movies we love are just a pile of dollar signs to them. Their only commitment to quality is trying to not too outrageously trash the brand they're selling in order to ensure it's good to earn more money. Even then I think there's an acceptance of diminishing returns - squeezing out more money despite loss of quality - and eventually they'll run anything into the ground. The only way to stop them is for a creator who holds the rights to withhold permission to make new material.

This also explains product teams. Lots of directors have done Marvel films, and yet (with the possible exception of Taika Waititi) you'd barely notice the difference between any of them. The formula works, and it's too important a business decision to let an auteur-like director do crazy things like put a personal stamp on it that might not gel with the audience.

 

[McElroy]

I vaguely remember a blur of lots of colours, and that's about it.

And they dare call it Gray Man????? False advertising!

 

[Hawki]

The Purge (7/10)

I'm reluctant to call this movie "good" per se, even if by my ranking system, it could be called that per its ranking of a 7. If I did decimals, I'd feel more comfortable giving it a 6.5, but as I don't, I rounded up in this case.

Anyway, chances are you're already familiar with the premise of the movie, taking place in the grimdark alternate future of, um, 2022. Y'know, I'd make a joke, but these days, the premise of the film doesn't seem as farfetched as it might have when it was first released.

Anyway, assuming that everyone's familiar with the film, random thoughts:

-So, I'm not sure if this could be called an error per se, but if my timeline's right, this is about the 7th or 8th Purge that's occurred in-universe, which means that in the span of less than a decade, ritualized murder has become tolerated, even celebrated by a significant swathe of the populace. The thing is, given what's happened in the US for the last six years, that no longer seems as farfetched as I might have thought.

Part of the reason I bring this up is because of Henry, who gets it into his head that if he kills Zoey's dad, she'll be totally cool with that. In isolation, that's outright idiotic. However, if the Purge has been going on for eight years, that means he would have been around ten when it started, so he's had close to a decade of this stuff being propagandized, so...yeah. I'm probably overthinking this, but the alternative is that Henry is just an idiot.

 

[Hawki]

-It's reasonable to call this a "dumb home invasion film," but I'll give credit for the social commentary stuff...sort of. On one hand, the film's making a point about social inequality, how the rich can ride out the poor while the poor and homeless are cannon fodder, but on the other, it does this with the subtlety of a jackahmmer. A better writer might have let the theme seep in (the wealthy Sandins taking in a homeless man, the disparities becoming clear over time), but no, this theme is established right from the outset, and done over and over via radio conversations. So, props for the theme, minuses for how basically it's conveyed.

-So if this is a gated community, how did homeless guy (I checked the credits, he has no name) get in? And how did the college kids get in?

-The movie really has a problem with pacing, and it's made all the more apparent given just how short it is (around 90 minutes). There's a lot of time of just sitting around at home, and after the guy is let into the house, a lot of time searching for him. I could call it a slow burn, but it's arguably burning too slowly.

-Credits to blonde college kid - he does terrific acting with his facial expressions and other mannerisms. His lines (e.g. "send out he [homeless guy] or you [the family] shall be thee [guy I've just shot]) by all rights should fall apart, but he manages to deliver them with such conviction that they work. Though on the other hand, their plan makes little sense. "We'll give you time to find the guy and send him out to us. In the meantime, we're going to cut the power to your house, which I'm sure isn't going to make things more difficult for you").

-So, the whole "what have we become" scene is well done. Within the family, I think Lena Heady does a lot of the heavy carrying, or at least, is easily one of the best actors in the film.

-Okay, so, you've decided to defend yourselves against an army of college students, and you're breaking out the heavy guns. Great! You're going to give a gun to the homeless guy, right? I mean, sure, he's put a gun to your daughter's head, but given the scenario, it's practically guaranteed he'll be fighting in your corner and...um...you've left him tied up...

...idiots.

-What follows is a mixed bag. The pool room brawl/gunfight is well done, but other stuff? Meh.

-So again, when Lena Heady's character begs for her children's lives, or at least to hold them while their psychotic neighbours hold them hostage...damn, it's some great acting.

-So, homeless guy is going out into the world, and Mary asks is he going to be alright. Well, he might be if you, I dunno, gave him some money? FFS, this guy saved your lives (granted, you saved his as well), and you were discussing buying a yacht earlier in the evening, I think you could spare a few thousand.

-Come to think of it, if someone is killed on Purge Night, does the family get to claim life insurance? I mean, the film's making a point (however unsubtly) about the Purge driving up gun sales and security systems installations, so, just wondering.

Anyway, yeah. Film's stupid, but has some intelligence, and just manages to scrape into "good" territory.

 

[Xprimentyl]

Wild Card: A'ight / Great

Jason Statham plays a guy rutted in Las Vegas doing "I don't know what." An ostensible ex-girlfriend gets him tangled up in a revenge plot that finds him in danger from some ostensibly powerful people. Oh, and there's a wimp who wants to be like him that pops up a few times.

They really just should have called this movie "Jason Statham." Seriously, if I ever met him in real life, and he wasn't exactly the guy he is in EVERY movie he's in, like, if he actually smiled or didn't sound like he'd just smoked a carton of cigarettes through a bottle of whiskey, I'd be shocked. I'm starting to think he might be in a Bowfinger situation; people from Hollywood just follow Jason Statham around and film him surreptitiously while he just goes about his daily life, then they Frankenstein the footage together to make the next Jason Statham movie.

 

[Gordon_4]

Wild Card: A'ight / Great

Jason Statham plays a guy rutted in Las Vegas doing "I don't know what." An ostensible ex-girlfriend gets him tangled up in a revenge plot that finds him in danger from some ostensibly powerful people. Oh, and there's a wimp who wants to be like him that pops up a few times.

They really just should have called this movie "Jason Statham." Seriously, if I ever met him in real life, and he wasn't exactly the guy he is in EVERY movie he's in, like, if he actually smiled or didn't sound like he'd just smoked a carton of cigarettes through a bottle of whiskey, I'd be shocked. I'm starting to think he might be in a Bowfinger situation; people from Hollywood just follow Jason Statham around and film him surreptitiously while he just goes about his daily life, then they Frankenstein the footage together to make the next Jason Statham movie.

And yet the first time most of us would have seen him, was him doing this:

 

[Piscian]

-It's reasonable to call this a "dumb home invasion film," but I'll give credit for the social commentary stuff...sort of. On one hand, the film's making a point about social inequality, how the rich can ride out the poor while the poor and homeless are cannon fodder, but on the other, it does this with the subtlety of a jackahmmer. A better writer might have let the theme seep in (the wealthy Sandins taking in a homeless man, the disparities becoming clear over time), but no, this theme is established right from the outset, and done over and over via radio conversations. So, props for the theme, minuses for how basically it's conveyed.

-So if this is a gated community, how did homeless guy (I checked the credits, he has no name) get in? And how did the college kids get in?

-The movie really has a problem with pacing, and it's made all the more apparent given just how short it is (around 90 minutes). There's a lot of time of just sitting around at home, and after the guy is let into the house, a lot of time searching for him. I could call it a slow burn, but it's arguably burning too slowly.

-Credits to blonde college kid - he does terrific acting with his facial expressions and other mannerisms. His lines (e.g. "send out he [homeless guy] or you [the family] shall be thee [guy I've just shot]) by all rights should fall apart, but he manages to deliver them with such conviction that they work. Though on the other hand, their plan makes little sense. "We'll give you time to find the guy and send him out to us. In the meantime, we're going to cut the power to your house, which I'm sure isn't going to make things more difficult for you").

-So, the whole "what have we become" scene is well done. Within the family, I think Lena Heady does a lot of the heavy carrying, or at least, is easily one of the best actors in the film.

-Okay, so, you've decided to defend yourselves against an army of college students, and you're breaking out the heavy guns. Great! You're going to give a gun to the homeless guy, right? I mean, sure, he's put a gun to your daughter's head, but given the scenario, it's practically guaranteed he'll be fighting in your corner and...um...you've left him tied up...

...idiots.

-What follows is a mixed bag. The pool room brawl/gunfight is well done, but other stuff? Meh.

-So again, when Lena Heady's character begs for her children's lives, or at least to hold them while their psychotic neighbours hold them hostage...damn, it's some great acting.

-So, homeless guy is going out into the world, and Mary asks is he going to be alright. Well, he might be if you, I dunno, gave him some money? FFS, this guy saved your lives (granted, you saved his as well), and you were discussing buying a yacht earlier in the evening, I think you could spare a few thousand.

-Come to think of it, if someone is killed on Purge Night, does the family get to claim life insurance? I mean, the film's making a point (however unsubtly) about the Purge driving up gun sales and security systems installations, so, just wondering.

Anyway, yeah. Film's stupid, but has some intelligence, and just manages to scrape into "good" territory.

Theres a whole crazy fandom around this that answers a lot of those questions. I think you can buy insurance, but it's crazy expensive and theres probably rules around it. Its only something rich people could afford like how Taylor swifts legs are insured for 50 million.

The Purge has problems, but personally I think it's more "I have questions" and less "Thats not how any of this works". Unfortunately you talked about how the writing is blunt instrument, the sequels are so much dumber. I like a good subtle political reference, but when they're like "HAHA ITS TRUMP BUT NAMED TODD", its just lazy. Looking at you "The Boys".

 

[BrawlMan]

The Purge (7/10)

I'm reluctant to call this movie "good" per se, even if by my ranking system, it could be called that per its ranking of a 7. If I did decimals, I'd feel more comfortable giving it a 6.5, but as I don't, I rounded up in this case.

Anyway, chances are you're already familiar with the premise of the movie, taking place in the grimdark alternate future of, um, 2022. Y'know, I'd make a joke, but these days, the premise of the film doesn't seem as farfetched as it might have when it was first released.

Anyway, assuming that everyone's familiar with the film, random thoughts:

-So, I'm not sure if this could be called an error per se, but if my timeline's right, this is about the 7th or 8th Purge that's occurred in-universe, which means that in the span of less than a decade, ritualized murder has become tolerated, even celebrated by a significant swathe of the populace. The thing is, given what's happened in the US for the last six years, that no longer seems as farfetched as I might have thought.

Part of the reason I bring this up is because of Henry, who gets it into his head that if he kills Zoey's dad, she'll be totally cool with that. In isolation, that's outright idiotic. However, if the Purge has been going on for eight years, that means he would have been around ten when it started, so he's had close to a decade of this stuff being propagandized, so...yeah. I'm probably overthinking this, but the alternative is that Henry is just an idiot.

Henry is still an idiot no matter how you look at it. I wouldn't call the original movie good, but just averaging mediocre and a wasted premise. The sequels do so much better in this regard.

Theres a whole crazy fandom around this that answers a lot of those questions. I think you can buy insurance, but it's crazy expensive and theres probably rules around it. Its only something rich people could afford like how Taylor swifts legs are insured for 50 million.

The Purge has problems, but personally I think it's more "I have questions" and less "Thats not how any of this works". Unfortunately you talked about how the writing is blunt instrument, the sequels are so much dumber. I like a good subtle political reference, but when they're like "HAHA ITS TRUMP BUT NAMED TODD", its just lazy. Looking at you "The Boys".

You got to give the sequels credit, they were way ahead of the curb. I know some people like to mock this franchise, but you got to give credit where credit is due. I know some people don't want to get credit, cuz they're afraid of making the purge right about something, or just don't like the franchise. I'm not saying you are of course. Anarchy was definitely a big step up in a movie's only get further and better each time. Though I do feel the fourth movie was a slight step back, and the fact that it's a prequel. My only problem with Anarchy, is how some action scenes are done. It does some of that shaky cam-quick cut thing, I do not like. Election Year this is that issue, and by Purge 4, it's completely eliminated. Forever Purge is awesome as well, and I can't wait for next year when Purge 6 comes out. They're bringing back Leo again for that one.

@Hawki, let me know when you get to the rest. Call me up and we'll talk later. The TV series I don't care much for though. So you're on your own with that one.

 

[BrawlMan]

And yet the first time most of us would have seen him, was him doing this:

The first time I ever saw Jason Statham, was in Jet Li's The One.

​

 

[Piscian]

Henry is still an idiot no matter how you look at it. I wouldn't call the original movie good, but just averaging mediocre and a wasted premise. The sequels do so much better in this regard.


You got to give the sequels credit, they were way ahead of the curb. I know some people like to mock this franchise, but you got to give credit where credit is due. I know some people don't want to get credit, cuz they're afraid of making the purge right about something, or just don't like the franchise. I'm not saying you are of course. Anarchy was definitely a big step up in a movie's only get further and better each time. Though I do feel the fourth movie was a slight step back, and the fact that it's a prequel. My only problem with Anarchy, is how some action scenes are done. It does some of that shaky cam-quick cut thing, I do not like. Election Year this is that issue, and by Purge 4, it's completely eliminated. Forever Purge is awesome as well, and I can't wait for next year when Purge 6 comes out. They're bringing back Leo again for that one.

@Hawki, let me know when you get to the rest. Call me up and we'll talk later. The TV series I don't care much for though. So you're on your own with that one.

For what its worth I think Purge 3 is the only one I genuinely thought sucked, I recall seeing the prequel recently, but for whatever reason it didn't leave a mark on me. I think overall Purge forever was good, but I'm struggling to remember my exact thoughts on it. Probably worth a rewatch. I think considering this kind of low-budget horror they've done an admirable job of keeping up the quality of filming and storytelling. 99% of the time when something like this gets into a 4-5th sequel its some trash streaming dumpster like Jeepers Creepers: Reborn. Yeah they made another one of those.

 

[BrawlMan]

For what its worth I think Purge 3 is the only one I genuinely thought sucked, I recall seeing the prequel recently, but for whatever reason it didn't leave a mark on me. I think overall Purge forever was good, but I'm struggling to remember my exact thoughts on it. Probably worth a rewatch. I think considering this kind of low-budget horror they've done an admirable job of keeping up the quality of filming and storytelling.

Election Year I love just about almost the same as Anarchy. It was the second movie, but slightly more and better action direction.

99% of the time when something like this gets into a 4-5th sequel its some trash streaming dumpster like Jeepers Creepers: Reborn. Yeah they made another one of those

I know I stopped caring about the franchise after the second movie. The behind the scenes production on all those movies is creepy when you realize the guy playing the monster is a sex offender. I was aware of the fourth movie, but I didn't know when it came out, but I didn't care. I was not interested in the slightest. As we mentioned, the people behind The Purge movies actually care and take criticism to heart. Something rare you see in an action-horror franchise by the fifth iteration.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Spiderhead

Chris Hemsworth tests mood altering drugs on prisoners in some island. Miles Teller is his pet project, although I don't believe either in the role. If anything Teller should be playing the vacuous tech bro and Hemsworth the hero. Actually I don't quite believe any of it - especially how everything wraps up quickly and oh so conveniently.

The Gray Man

Bourne knock-off starring Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans. It's a very Netflix movie: too long, too expensive, stars a couple of A-listers that are probably on the take and the plot isn't worth a damn. It's dull, bloated bargain bin action coated in Hollywood veneer.

 

[thebobmaster]

For what its worth I think Purge 3 is the only one I genuinely thought sucked, I recall seeing the prequel recently, but for whatever reason it didn't leave a mark on me. I think overall Purge forever was good, but I'm struggling to remember my exact thoughts on it. Probably worth a rewatch. I think considering this kind of low-budget horror they've done an admirable job of keeping up the quality of filming and storytelling. 99% of the time when something like this gets into a 4-5th sequel its some trash streaming dumpster like Jeepers Creepers: Reborn. Yeah they made another one of those.

At least this Jeepers Creepers wasn't made by a literal sex predator.

 

[gorfias]

Ive heard the subtext of the film revolves around the chimp and Ive heard a couple theories on what its all supposed to be a larger allegory for, but unlike his previous two movies nobody online seems to have "solved it". You know like, what in society is it commenting on, if anything?

In the film, OJ doesnt like looking people in the eyes, and it makes him anxious like Gordy. He immediately catches on that the monster feels threatened and attacks when people look at it so he figures out how to kill it by treating it like an animal. So the gordy stuff is kinda necessary for that twist to work, but not crazy important. Everybody online seems to think its commenting on show business in someways. Maybe its commenting Hollywood actors, directors etc being taking advantage of and freaking out idk.

NGE reference? peele came out and said it. NGE is a kaiju show and one of the monsters looks like this one. He based it on anime, obliquely NGE, jellyfish and squids. If you go on YouTube Im sure somebody has already done a side-by-side comparison.

I'm thinking it was an illustration of human hubris thinking they can just tame any animal and use it for their own purposes. The Chimp wasn't tamed, so this message should have hit sole survivor Ricky yet he goes and tries to make the critter a live show.

 

[Dansen]

It was OK but I never thought of Ghostbusters as a franchise property. I did not care for #2. #1 had some laughs and fun and they really should have just left it there.

I loved this though I wrote earlier, I had to work on keeping the chimp subplot as part of this movie. I get it. It was unnecessary. But it did add fun and tension to the movie. But Signs rocks as one of my favorites.
I will think of this movie far into the future over Us. Very interesting movie in so many ways.

I do have to look up your genesis reference. My bad I'm sure but I don't know of what you are writing.
EDIT: Reviewing https://www.polygon.com/23277377/jordan-peele-nope-movie-creature-design-inspirations

I don't think the chimp scene was pointless outside of a literal plot progression sense. It real fleshes out the Jupe (Steven Yuen), and turns what could have been just bland horror fodder into a character with enough depth almost be a main character. His story would have made for an excellent short film.

 

[Piscian]

I don't think the chimp scene was pointless outside of a literal plot progression sense. It real fleshes out the Jupe (Steven Yuen), and turns what could have been just bland horror fodder into a character with enough depth almost be a main character. His story would have made for an excellent short film.

The point with gordy being we didnt prepare for consequences of having a wild animal on set. They repeat the same mistake when the saucer shows up. I do think its integral to the film. Its definitely in the DNA.



Just caught Peeles full interview on it. Hes still being coy about direct societal references, but that our obsession with spectacle overwhelms over natural sense of self-preservation.
I gotta churn on it a bit.

 

[Hawki]

@Hawki, let me know when you get to the rest. Call me up and we'll talk later. The TV series I don't care much for though. So you're on your own with that one.

You'll be waiting a long time, as I currently don't have plans to do so.

 

[BrawlMan]

You'll be waiting a long time, as I currently don't have plans to do so.

Take all the time you need. Do whenever you feel like it. I got other movies too.