Discuss and Rate the Last Film You Watched

[Johnny Novgorod]

Wait they don't actually reveal who did it?

Seriously?

Not only does the movie never reveal who did it, it doesn't even acknowledge that they're not revealing who did it. Weirdly Barry doesn't even care to find out so long as he can exonerate his dad (which made me think dad had done it, since we never get any other guesses).

 

[McElroy]

Girl Picture
A Finnish critically acclaimed (at least in all local reviews) drama about three I'm guessing high school senior -age women. One is a ho who doesn't like sex, but still goes for the fly first and asks questions later. Then we have her bestie, a typical jaded teenager queer who just doesn't care that much and also gets around while having freakouts or whatever. They work at a smoothie stand in the mall (the smoothies are all called some sort of innuendo in English, which is pretty funny but the two languages don't flow together) and the second girl decides to hit on a customer (girl number three) who immediately falls for her, but she doesn't really care, of course...

...or does she? This indecision is shown through long stares and borderline behavior.

Shot handheld with lots of narrow focus, shown in 4:3 that de-emphasizes most of the wide shots. Sound editing is clear, but so clear that it's obviously studio recorded with little environmental or foley sound.

It's a teen drama with pretty much all of the clichés, but I can give it credit for showing a point of view that's clearly centered on the three girls (the only properly named male character is a 4-yo kid and none of the lads get more than a few lines). But c'mon, critical acclaim? The first girl doesn't even have dialogue with the third, she's just trying to hook up with guys and then awkwardly dumping them. Like, the lesson she learns during the movie (in a timespan of two weeks, btw) is that she can say she's not DTF on the day she meets someone. Cool that she learns it on her own, but lmao. All in all, the theme of the movie escapes me. It has rather unique struggles presented through a certain point of view. No reflection on it. It just kinda happens. 5/10

 

[SilentPony]

Just got back from the new Spiderverse movie, and I have some thoughts. Spoilers below, fair warning, don't click 'cause literally the first line is a spoiler. Last chance. 3...2...1...

Okay so Miles is a glitch in the Matrix - he's not supposed to be Spiderman. His spider was from an alternate dimension. Sure, good great. Except this Spiderman TVA thing is self aware. They know about Spiderman lore as a comic thing. They even call is Canon when someone Spiderman loves dies, like Gwen or Uncle Ben. There is even a major plot point of Miles changing fate. So how do they NOT know about the Miles Morales canon? And if he is a glitch and isn't supposed to be Spiderman, then how does he have a canon at all? Why is he part of the Canon algorithm if he's not even supposed to exist? Also they pass PS4 Spiderman from the video game, with the same voice actor. A video game that literally ends with Miles Morales joining. And an entire DLC about him, and he's going to be in the next Spiderman game too. You're literally showing other Spidermen who are aware Miles is a canon character!

Also evil Spiderman at the beginning references that mess with Doctor Strange in the MCU. Big ol' crossover event. And they mention they "fixed" it. Which the it being Strange's spell that erased everyone memory of Spiderman being Peter Parker across the entire Multiverse. So is that why Strange and Wong knew about Spiderman in Dr. Strange 2? Also also in the clip show of the "Canon" events of someone dying, they show Tom Holland's Spiderman with Aunt May. Who died because of Green Goblin during the crossover event. So was that a mistake or was that canon movie? You're sending mixed signals here!

And evil Spiderman literally says Miles is the first glitch, and everything is basically his fault. Sure, but he's only been Spiderman like a year. Are you telling me this entire Spiderman TVA time cop thing is only a year old? Got some pretty smug people for only being a year into this.

and just to put the final nail in my coffin, the art style. It was too much. Too much flash and color and change to the point it gave me a headache and I couldn't tell what was going on. Like I get it does look pretty, but you're still trying to tell a story here.

Spider Gwen, although the will they/won't they is being dragged out too much. We get it, kiss already, jeez!
Punk rock Spiderman stole the show though. Totally amazing the way he just fucking quits when evil Spiderman tells Miles his father has to die. Just like nope, not going there.

Its still a very good movie, but it felt like they were trying to juggle too many plates and some of them dropped and broke on the floor.

End of rant.

 

[BrawlMan]

And evil Spiderman literally says Miles is the first glitch, and everything is basically his fault. Sure, but he's only been Spiderman like a year. Are you telling me this entire Spiderman TVA time cop thing is only a year old? Got some pretty smug people for only being a year into this.

It's pretty clear that The Spot is the cause of all the dimensional tearing shenanigans. Him bringing the spider from the alternate universe in the first place, and him fucking around with time and space is really the cause of everything fucking up. I see it as Miguel, and nearly all of the other Spiders, too wrapped up in their trauma, guilt, and self-righteous to realize this. The answer is right front of them, yet to they're too focused on having Miles "canon event" happen to him. When it already happened to Miles with his Uncle Aaron back in Spider-Verse.

 

[BrawlMan]

Extraction 2 - The Bourne sequels wishes they were this good! I know the first movie was compared to a Call of Duty game, but that in itself is an insult to Extraction and its sequel. I'd rather be watching those than playing any COD game. These films have the right amount of shooting and military martial arts mixed in with the action sequences. They managed to outdo themselves here, and have some incredible "one take" shots. Seriously, these movies are as close as we're going to get to Raid sequels, aside from Headshot. Surprisingly, there's a good story here compared to the first film, and on its own, that is much more personal. I don't want to spoil anything, but just see the movie, if you already seen the first movie.

​

 

[PsychedelicDiamond]

Beau is Afraid (2023)

Horror auteur Ari Aster's recent contribution to the popular "bluntly allegorical tribulations of repressed balding middle aged men" genre. Beau is Afraid is a movie that invites descriptors like "personal", "bold" and "idiosyncratic" and it certainly does feel like the type of movie most directors would make three decades into their career, not three movies.

Following up Hereditary and Midsommar, two of the cleverest and most stylishly directed horror movies of the past decade , comes a surrealist and pitch black comedy about... well, a guy having a really shit time. Beau is a middle aged sad sack living in what Europeans think all American cities are like, on a journey to visit his mother. This journey turns out a parade of absurd humiliations towards a nightmarish conclusion.

BiA is a movie full of anxiety, embarassments and cruelty. A lot of the time it's also genuinely hilarious. Joaquin Phoenix as the title character manages to stay on that thin Franz Kafka line of playing him as a character who is pitiable but never quite sympathetic. Beau is a bumbling, stammering wreck of a person living in the shadow of his overbearing mother. On his way to her house he gets stabbed, kidnapped, drugged, gaslighted, pursued by a violent crazy person and... well, let's not even get into his sex life. He lives in a world that has conspired to make him miserable, often in the most cartoonish ways possible.

What the movie eventually hones in on as the centerpiece of his misery is his relationship with his mother, which is slightly disappointing, considering it worked a bit better for me when that was just one of many things simmering in the background. At some point Beau is Afraid starts to feel like a therapeutic exercise, which is slightly uncomfortable in a way I don't think Aster intended. It never stops being funny and especially the last act has some absolutely wild sequences but it's underwhelmingly literal and I my relationship to my parents is too good for it to be emotionally relatable to me.

It's the point where a lot of surrealist movies collapse, that "Oh, so this is what we're doing." moment where ambiguity gives way to a rather heavy handed exploration of personal hangups that should just have been left up in the air. Under The Silver Lake had it, I'm Thinking of Ending Things had it, just about everything Darren Aronofsky ever directed had it... it's a pandemic.

This leaves Beau is Afraid a movie that's quite entertaining for its length, and very good at making anxiety and discomfort both funny and disturbing at the same time. It certainly goes some places you wouldn't expect a movie to go, at least not one with those kinds of production values. And overall I will say I liked it quite a bit. It just falls into the trap of being a bit too personal and consequentially, a bit too specific for it to really resonate.

 

[Absent]

Watched Red River. Either the film is boring or I was way way too tired and bothered by other matters to concentrate enough and get into it.

Or too distressed by the brutal realization that My rifle my pony and me had just been Tiomkin recycling himself, Morricone/Horner-like.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

It's the point where a lot of surrealist movies collapse, that "Oh, so this is what we're doing." moment where ambiguity gives way to a rather heavy handed exploration of personal hangups that should just have been left up in the air. Under The Silver Lake had it, I'm Thinking of Ending Things had it, just about everything Darren Aronofsky ever directed had it... it's a pandemic.

Well, these are all American horror/psychological thrillers with disposable high concept premises and a sense of humor. Hardly Bergman/Tarkovsky territory.

 

[Phoenixmgs]

The Flash - 5/10

It's about as good as a movie that's had so much turbulence during production can be really. I don't hate Ezra Miller as Flash but he's ok, I guess. I didn't care for having 2 of him for good chunks of the movie though. The last battle just felt so bland in setting, why are they fighting there? Cuz the CGI is cheaper I guess. I felt it could of been edited a lot better for what they were going for, which I was down for, but the execution was not so good. And the final reveal at the end just might be the biggest troll (by a movie studio) in movie history.

---

Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse - 7/10

There's some issues with the multiverse story I have similar to what SilentPony mentioned. There was quite a bit of padding as it seems like they had a plot for 2.5-3 hours and felt that was too long but then 2 movies would be too short so they had to add more. I really didn't like where they cut it off as I forgot it was 2 parts (but then kinda remembered because it was going on for quite awhile) and then I'm like 'they're gonna end it here, right?' but the movie kept going and then I'm thinking 'I guess this isn't 2 parts because it's still going' and then it kinda just stops. Lastly it's kinda hard to rate half a movie in essence.

 

[PsychedelicDiamond]

Well, these are all American horror/psychological thrillers with disposable high concept premises and a sense of humor. Hardly Bergman/Tarkovsky territory.

Yeah. Don't get me wrong. I find most of them pretty enjoyable for what they are.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Yeah. Don't get me wrong. I find most of them pretty enjoyable for what they are.

I'm assuming you watched The Lighthouse? That one doesn't really get to the point where it goes "ok, here's what the movie has been about all along".

 

[laggyteabag]

Something that's been bothering me ever since I saw The Flash and couldn't quite elaborate... it has maybe the most unsatisfying ending I've ever seen for a superhero movie.


3. The movie doesn't even answer the big mystery about Barry's mom's death, who one day is found lying on the middle of her kitchen floor with a knife in her heart so randomly it's almost comical. Who's running around sunny suburbia in the middle of the day, sneaking into houses, sticking moms with knives and running away without stealing anything? The crime is so random and inexplicable the dad gets blamed and for the longest time I believed it because the movie never even offered an explanation. So who actually did it? Nobody cares by the end.

Yeah, this struck me as being very odd. I can tell you that it was probably the Reverse Flash, and the director of the movie hints as much in an interview, yet this is something that is never shown, mentioned, or even hinted at in the film. If they weren't going to cast him, I would have at least expected to see some red lightning or something enter/leave the house. It was just a weird choice in the moment, and even weirder that literally no one asks "well who was it, then?" even after his Dad gets acquitted at the end.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I watched the first two Friday the 13th movies. I never actually sat down and to watch them, so I bought the blu-ray collection to check 'm out.

They're not terribly good. This franchise always gets mentioned in the same breath as Halloween and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but it pales in comparison. The first Friday is just a straight-up bad movie. Dialoge, beyond being typically silly, is badly structured with the actors undercutting eachother constantly, and not in any organic way that makes it feel like natural conversation, but very amateuristic, like the actors were just told to say whatever. There's also multiple instances where a character leaving or entering a scene is pointlessly drawn out. One scene shows Crazy Ralph, the harbinger, prepare to leave the scene by getting on a bike, and then we get like a 20 second static shot of him cycling off without any music or follow-up to warrent its length. Things get slightly better when Betsy Palmer shows up toward the end and starts slapping the shit out of the final girl, but it's not worth sitting through this entire thing. Oh, and they also just kill a real life snake in this movie, which was kinda reprehensible.

The second movie fares a bit better, but not by much. It's shot better, with better dialoge, and the main girl actually has some screen presence. The running issue with this franchise so far though is that I just don't care about these characters getting killed. And I know that's the usual complaint about slashers in general, and Friday the 13th in particular, but the problem isn't necessarily that these characters are unlikeable (yet), it's that (1) these movies have zero ability to build tension and (2) the movies show no interest in having the characters try and stave off their own death. When a character gets killed they just get grabbed and stabbed - there's no chase, no building dread, no 'if they can just stay quiet/get to this safe spot'. It has none of the things that made something like Halloween and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre effective, despite knowing all those characters are going to die as well.

I will be watching the rest since they are relatively entertaining enough to rag on.

 

[gorfias]

Wait they don't actually reveal who did it?

Seriously?

Then again maybe they're hoping people saw the CW do it already so will know the villain is none other than Professor Zoom

Spoiler: It was me Barry it was all me all along

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Lets just say it's a comic meme at this point how much said villain fucks with timelines etc.

I have to think this is due to Flash and the entire DCEU being sorta fake if it was all created by someone from the future messing with the timeline. CW Flash was a lot of fun for me in the 1st couple of Seasons but right off the bat, it was a mess for so many reasons.

Spoiler

really old spoiler but Iris is Barry's foster sister and he wants to marry her anyway? Um, eww.

I watched the first two Friday the 13th movies. I never actually sat down and to watch them, so I bought the blu-ray collection to check 'm out.

They're not terribly good. This franchise always gets mentioned in the same breath as Halloween and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but it pales in comparison. The first Friday is just a straight-up bad movie. Dialoge, beyond being typically silly, is badly structured with the actors undercutting eachother constantly, and not in any organic way that makes it feel like natural conversation, but very amateuristic, like the actors were just told to say whatever. There's also multiple instances where a character leaving or entering a scene is pointlessly drawn out. One scene shows Crazy Ralph, the harbinger, prepare to leave the scene by getting on a bike, and then we get like a 20 second static shot of him cycling off without any music or follow-up to warrent its length. Things get slightly better when Betsy Palmer shows up toward the end and starts slapping the shit out of the final girl, but it's not worth sitting through this entire thing. Oh, and they also just kill a real life snake in this movie, which was kinda reprehensible.

The second movie fares a bit better, but not by much. It's shot better, with better dialoge, and the main girl actually has some screen presence. The running issue with this franchise so far though is that I just don't care about these characters getting killed. And I know that's the usual complaint about slashers in general, and Friday the 13th in particular, but the problem isn't necessarily that these characters are unlikeable (yet), it's that (1) these movies have zero ability to build tension and (2) the movies show no interest in having the characters try and stave off their own death. When a character gets killed they just get grabbed and stabbed - there's no chase, no building dread, no 'if they can just stay quiet/get to this safe spot'. It has none of the things that made something like Halloween and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre effective, despite knowing all those characters are going to die as well.

I will be watching the rest since they are relatively entertaining enough to rag on.

Seemed almost existential to me. Kevin Bacon for instance gets stabbed and killed so fast that if there is an after life, he is there asking himself what the heck just happened.

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

A lot of it has to do with rising standards for horror. Like, Jaws used to be terrifying. Friday the 13th was always in the "fun, successful, campy" camp and not the "terrifying" camp. A fun splatterfest

 

[Casual Shinji]

A lot of it has to do with rising standards for horror. Like, Jaws used to be terrifying. Friday the 13th was always in the "fun, successful, campy" camp and not the "terrifying" camp. A fun splatterfest

Eh... can't say I agree too much. Three movies down and the overall quality is just bad, and campy fun wise it's been pretty meager so far. I'd never call Halloween that scary, but Jesus if actual care and skill doesn't come across in it, even some of the tepid sequels.

 

[Ag3ma]

Friday the 13th was always in the "fun, successful, campy" camp and not the "terrifying" camp.

I'm not sure I would call it campy, except for the fact it is set in a camp.

I think know what you mean and I agree in terms of the sequels, I just don't think that's quite the right adjective, nor that it applies to the first in the series. I guess horror had to move on somehow from the late 70s-early 80s stalker-slasher flicks, and that move was in large part towards comedy and self-parody.

 

[BrawlMan]

Eh... can't say I agree too much. Three movies down and the overall quality is just bad, and campy fun wise it's been pretty meager so far. I'd never call Halloween that scary, but Jesus if actual care and skill doesn't come across in it, even some of the tepid sequels.

John Carpenter regrets Halloween II. The Halloween sequels are way worse than a majority of the Friday the 13th films. The only films in F13 I only hate are V and Jason Goes to Hell. The only sequel to Halloween I genuinely like is Halloween III. It wasn't perfect, it tried something different and interesting, and so I would have preferred the anthology approach Carpenter wanted. But noooooo, too many MM fan boys and fan girls got sticks up their asses, crying "We want Michael! We want Michael!". Even though in HII, Loomis clearly blew himself up along with Michael. With Michael clearly dead and not getting back up! The sibling reveal is stupid too!

Halloween I is better F13, but I like both movies for the same and different reason. The first movie holds up well all things considered. Most of the sequels are much better than the original, but the movie has its place in history and at least has some cool kills to look at, and has a nice little mystery to it. Even if the murder reveal is kind of an ass pull.

 

[Piscian]

FLASH

*siiigh* Fuck. The short answer is no. Just watch it when its free, or honestly don't. Its not really even worth sitting through for free.

Long answer -

The first 30 minutes are so bad I seriously considered just calling it a mulligan and watching it on TV when I can multitask.

In the first 30 minutes Ezra Miller is just awful. The twitchy, whiny, not funny shit from justice league is cranked up to 11. They for some reason think ezra Miller big bang theory irritating nerd persona is so funny that they double down, and make ezra 2 even worse. Its like listening to two screeching birds fuck..and not out of love, like hate fucking. Listening to the two of them meme at each other hurt my ears.

The CGI, while rough, is intensely bad in the first 30. Ive heard people throw around "ps3 cutscene", but It dawned on me it looks like that scene from matrix reloaded. Where everything looks like shiny rubber.


Then you finally get to the batman act of the film and everything settles down and its fine. Ezra and ezra get into a fight and realize how fucking annoying they are and start mostly talking like normal people. Im serious that actually happens.

The Batman and Supergirl act is great honestly, but sets a weird pace for the film, almost like they knew this part of the film functions so they padded it out. Still I quite like that "section".

The final act is just *shrug*. Lots of CGI multiverse cameos then it ends with very weird logic.

Generally the movie feels less thrown together and more like 2-3 scripts mashed together and reshot. Its very very tightly filmed as though they had a lot more that just didn't work. Its a complete product, but its just not good.


Most baffling however is that if you're going into this expecting a peek into James Gunns stuff don't bother. Not even a hint or an Easter egg. It ends like this was supposed to be the jumping off of a second snyderverse flash movie. There's no closure. I suspect Gunn must have literally wanted no part of it.

I can't really give a score. I just left in a daze. You know how when you leave a super hero movie you have "thoughts", like stuff to debate at the pub? I have literally nothing. It was a nothing movie, that nobody asked for. I mean everybody wants a flash movie, but the contents here were just an empty amazon box.


If you asked me like "well what were your thoughts on this?". Nothing. I don't care. I will never watch this movie again.

 

[Casual Shinji]

John Carpenter regrets Halloween II. The Halloween sequels way worse than a majority of the Friday the 13th films. The only films in F13 I only hate are V and Jason Goes to Hell. The only sequel to Halloween I genuinely like is Halloween III. It wasn't perfect, it tried something different and interesting, and so I would have preferred the anthology approach Carpenter wanted. But noooooo, too many MM fan boys and fan girls got sticks up their asses, crying "We want Michael! We want Michael!". Even though in HII, Loomis clearly blew himself up along with Michael. With Michael clearly dead and not getting back up! The sibling reveal is stupid too!

Halloween I is better F13, but I like both movies for the same and different reason. The first movie holds up well all things considered. Most of the sequels are much better than the original, but the movie has its place in history and at least has some cool kills to look at, and has a nice little mystery to it. Even if the murder reveal is kind of an ass pull.

It really comes down to the directing for me. Halloween 1 through 3 have a decent/great director at the hell, and Halloween 2 still had Dean Cundey as director of photography. The Friday movies (so far) just lack a director's hand; the feeling of someone who knows what they're doing being at the helm. I mean, all these movies, certainly as franchises, make no real fucking sense, but to me in a world where Halloween, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Nightmare on Elm Street, Child's Play, and hell even Fright Night exist, Friday really is the runt of the litter.

Bare in mind though my opinion might slightly improve after watching more of the series - having just watched Friday the 13th part III, it's at an all-time low. God, that one was fucking terrible.