Discuss and Rate the Last Film You Watched

[hanselthecaretaker2]

A couple new trending Netflix comedies -

No Hard Feelings
It’s fine. Some truly belly-laugh worthy scenes here and there. J-Law is really, um…putting herself out here in several ways. She’s brave, and solid as always. The movies falls into several predictable cliches but that’s not surprising. It’s both risqué and safe, but that’s also why it never really rises above average overall.

Old Dads
So Bill Burr directed a movie. If you’re familiar with him as a comedian, you’ll have a good idea where this is going. It’s dressed up as a parent buddy flick like Grown Ups, Hall Pass, etc. but also has some honest if exaggerated social commentary on the dissonance between pre and post woke eras of thinking. There is a silver lining that ultimately links the two, and it’s here where the movie shows some actual heart. Well, more than I expected for this type of flick, as it’s still heavily laced with some very crude comedy that milage will vary on. I did however enjoy it slightly more overall than No Hard Feelings, as an old dad myself.

 

[BrawlMan]

I still have not seen Eternals at all. Nor will I ever bother to watch it.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

Last week I watched or re-watched a couple of old movies because they were referenced in a book I was reading.

Stagecoach

This is one of those old movies that is Really Important because of its effect on the industry- coming out in 1962 it basically revitalized the Western as a respectable genre and established the John Ford directing John Wayne-in-a-cowboy-hat that would be iconic for a generation and a part of classic Hollywood. The premise is your classic let's throw a bunch of different people together in a tight circumstance and see what happens. A stage coach transporting the delicate wife of a military office, a hooker with a heart of gold, a pleasant but comically pushover whiskey salesman, an alcoholic doctor, a southern gambler, and Wayne's bad-boy seeking revenge.

I love these movies for their cinematography and the comfort of the character types and the romance of American frontierism. The gender politics with the women is quite something (like the gentewoman won't even eat next to the hooker even though they never call her a prostitute or anything it's just IMPLIED) and of course the Apache are oh so scary but that is the way of these stories. Great fun.

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
Another Ford film and maybe the quintessential one as you have both Wayne and Jimmy Steward effectively playing their most Wayne and Stewart character types. This is the movie where Wayne swaggers around calling Stewart "pilgrim" and wearing a very tall hat, and is therefore the basis of every impression of him. The film is about the conflicting and complimentary forces for American expansionism- the rough independent frontierism of Wayne's rancher and the civilizing institutionalism of Stewart's idealistic lawyer. They unite to take down a criminal in cahoots with nefarious land ownders played by Lee Marvin. It's a really fun fascinating window into America's self-mythologizing vis-a-vis Hollywood.

Point Blank
More Lee Marvin, this time as a revenge seeking thief anti-hero in a late-60's gritty flick that was part of the trend of film-making to push back against the crowd-pleasing optimism of Ford's type of movies. The movie's depiction of crime and vice almost seems quaint but one reason I enjoy old movies sometimes is that what by today's standards is modesty can more intriguing than the explicit stuff we get so much of so easily. The terms "seedy" and "grimy" holds more meaning that way. The movie is kind of dumb actually but John Wick fans would recognize the stoic man of action type, the dude that almost never speaks and lets others act and feel around him and then just explodes into violence when needed/desired.

 

[Piscian]

Eternals

I have mixed feelings about this. I like the concept but man is the execution all over the fucking place. Chole Zoe is apparently a good director, so I hear anyway, but it feels like she was handed this and didn't really know what to do with it. To be fair, Marvel also can't make up it's mind how to treat the whole "God/s" thing in their movies and this does nothing to help at all.

It also doesn't help that these 10 maybe influenced a lot of earth mythology but it's really hard to tell beyond the names, a lot of which are pulled from Greek mythology(Athena, Icarus, Circe, Hephestus) but then you get Kingo and Drigu who I don't fucking know what/who they're supposed to be. Hell, I don't even know what Kingo's thing IS, other then Bollywood musicals. Mercury is Roman and Gilgamesh is Sumerian. Sprite is basically a Fairy, I guess. But Circe, Ajax and Icarus aren't even gods in greek mythos, they're basically kinda normal people who have a story about them(Circe was a minor character in the odyessy, Ajax is one of the Greek heros of the Odyssey and Icarus is basically a dude who had wax wings). And the fact we don't know who else they supposedly influenced in mythology kinda irks me. The fact apparently these 10 apparently did a lot of that but then THOR and ODIN and LOKI are real no shit gods and not just immortals who have godlike powers. But then you get Arishem is a Legit creator God, and implied to be the Big G God in more ways then one, and Tiamet who is basically a Primordial avatar of the Watery Chaos the universe is made from in Sumerian Mythology and yeah, I'm just fucking confused now.

I'm sorry, I honestly don't know what to make of half the shit going on in Eternals. It feels like Zoe really likes interpersonal relationship in the film(which isn't a bad thing) but when the overall rest of the movie comes into play the whole thing feels held together by Duct tape.

Eternals might honestly be one of the worst movies I've ever seen and I think MAC & Me is imminently watchable.

It's a movie that supposed to be about developing these characters, but at no point did I feel like anything was being developed. It was all show & not tell, but in a bad way. They showed a ton of a events but never spent any time exploring the characters. There's an extended love scene between two eternals, showing them "being in love", but theres no nuance to it, no character pivot or catalyst. That guy decides to be a village god, but no real explanation. Theres arguments between the eternals, but its vague and shallow. In addition to that, the pacing is just "STUFF HAPPENING", kept making me think of that South Park writing class Trey Parker and Matt stone gave


"If your story is this happens and then this happens, you're fucked"

By the end of it I was like a cat on roadtrip, I just wanted out of the fucking car.

There's something to be found in the fact that since, Marvel has 100% just pretended the movie doesn't exist, period.

 

[Dalisclock]

I still have not seen Eternals at all. Nor will I ever bother to watch it.

You're not missing anything.

It's one of the most aggressively meh movies I've seen in a long time.

Thor: Love and Thunder is a lot more fun to watch and actually kind of tackles the whole "MCU Gods" thing better despite being all over the place tonewise. Plus Love and Thunder you get some rocking Led Zepplin songs to listen to.

 

[gorfias]

The Covenant on Amazon Prime

True story of US soldier badly injured and almost kidnapped by the Taliban is saved by his anti-Taliban Afghan national colleague and goes on to return the favor getting the guy out of there before the disastrous US withdrawal.

Some tense scenes. I confess I skipped forward as the soldier went through predictable hassles to get Visas for the guy. Jake Gyllanhaal only holds one's interest screaming into a phone for a very brief time. I got the picture.

I've never seen a military action quite like the one at the end of this film.

Worth a watch. 7.5/10

 

[Piscian]

You're not missing anything.

It's one of the most aggressively meh movies I've seen in a long time.

Thor: Love and Thunder is a lot more fun to watch and actually kind of tackles the whole "MCU Gods" thing better despite being all over the place tonewise. Plus Love and Thunder you get some rocking Led Zepplin songs to listen to.

There's something in that. I also fucking hated Thor Love & Thunder buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut there is a lot of good stuff in it. Its one of those movies where a year later you remember a couple funny bits, the score, Russell Rowe being a racist caricature (its literally a joke you to be Australian to get?) and you think "wait was that a bad movie?".

At some point I will inevitably talk myself into giving TL&T a re:review. Eternals? Fuck no, I'd rather watch paint dry.

 

[Piscian]

The Covenant on Amazon Prime

True story of US soldier badly injured and almost kidnapped by the Taliban is saved by his anti-Taliban Afghan national colleague and goes on to return the favor getting the guy out of there before the disastrous US withdrawal.

Some tense scenes. I confess I skipped forward as the soldier went through predictable hassles to get Visas for the guy. Jake Gyllanhaal only holds one's interest screaming into a phone for a very brief time. I got the picture.

I've never seen a military action quite like the one at the end of this film.

Worth a watch. 7.5/10

eh eh eeh


Is The Covenant 2023 based on a true story?

The events in the movie The Covenant are not based on a true story, but they could have happened in a similar way. The performances of the cast and the direction by Guy Ritchie make the story feel real and convincing.Sep 28, 2023

I thought it was True Story the way the trailers play it, but it sounded a little MURICA so I looked it up and supposedly the deal is that "similar" things have happened so it's in this murky place where this story is fictional, but theres been pieces of it that have happened.

I haven't watched it yet. I want to, just haven't gotten myself into a modern war drama mood.

 

[gorfias]

eh eh eeh


Is The Covenant 2023 based on a true story?

The events in the movie The Covenant are not based on a true story, but they could have happened in a similar way. The performances of the cast and the direction by Guy Ritchie make the story feel real and convincing.Sep 28, 2023

I thought it was True Story the way the trailers play it, but it sounded a little MURICA so I looked it up and supposedly the deal is that "similar" things have happened so it's in this murky place where this story is fictional, but theres been pieces of it that have happened.

I haven't watched it yet. I want to, just haven't gotten myself into a modern war drama mood.

They show photos during the credits that are supposed to be the main characters but the real ones. While watching it, even if based on something realish, I can watch something based upon a true story and know they spiced it up to make it a more compelling watch.
One of my all time favorites right now is 1917. This is NOT a true story. But it is based upon the types of things that did occur. So, we got that to cling to.

 

[Gordon_4]

There's something in that. I also fucking hated Thor Love & Thunder buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut there is a lot of good stuff in it. Its one of those movies where a year later you remember a couple funny bits, the score, Russell Rowe being a racist caricature (its literally a joke you to be Australian to get?)

Yeah, Russell Crowe’s take on Zeus kind of has its origins in comedy characters like Con the Fruiterer, and the entire career of comedian/actor Nick Giannopoulos who is mostly known for Acropolis Now and The Wog Boy.

 

[thebobmaster]

You're not missing anything.

It's one of the most aggressively meh movies I've seen in a long time.

Thor: Love and Thunder is a lot more fun to watch and actually kind of tackles the whole "MCU Gods" thing better despite being all over the place tonewise. Plus Love and Thunder you get some rocking Led Zepplin songs to listen to.

You don't get any Led Zeppelin with Love and Thunder, you need Ragnarok for that. Love and Thunder is all about Guns N Roses.

 

[Piscian]

They show photos during the credits that are supposed to be the main characters but the real ones. While watching it, even if based on something realish, I can watch something based upon a true story and know they spiced it up to make it a more compelling watch.
One of my all time favorites right now is 1917. This is NOT a true story. But it is based upon the types of things that did occur. So, we got that to cling to.

Thats my understanding of it. Id wager 90% of 1917 happened just to different people during different parts of the war. It just makes it incredibly cinematic watching the one guy run the worst of it all at once.

Id wager the same to a lesser extent is true of covenant lot of translators went through hell over there.

 

[Gordon_4]

Thats my understanding of it. Id wager 90% of 1917 happened just to different people during different parts of the war. It just makes it incredibly cinematic watching the one guy run the worst of it all at once.

Id wager the same to a lesser extent is true of covenant lot of translators went through hell over there.

I feel the same way about Fury. Not in and of itself a true story as presented but I’d believe each individual piece of the film happened somewhere to someone.

 

[thebobmaster]

A ★★★½ review of Curtains (1983)

This isn't the most well made film, but it has a certain charm to its very amateurishness that makes it work more than it should at a glance. The plot of the film involves auditions for the lead role in a play directed by one Jonathan Stryker (John Vernon) and written by Samantha Sherwood...

letterboxd.com

 

[Dalisclock]

You don't get any Led Zeppelin with Love and Thunder, you need Ragnarok for that. Love and Thunder is all about Guns N Roses.

My bad. I was confusing the two somehow.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Tetris

A dramatization of how an avid entrepreneur went to Moscow in 1988 and managed to secure the license for Nintendo to distribute Tetris worldwide. One of them product biopics. Like the Blackberry biopic or the Nike shoe biopic. Not a great movie but a fun watch, considering it's 90% Taron Egerton getting jerked around by bureaucrats. Like Bridge of Spies, the gringo-in-Soviet Russia culture clash makes for an entertaining Kafkaesque isekai (I am patenting "Kafkaesque isekai" by the way). Could've done without the car chase. The pixelated animations kinda cheapened the look of the movie. Those work for YouTuber vanity intros but look really cheap in an actual movie.

The Pigeon Tunnel

Documentary about John Le Carré by Errol Morris (THE Errol Morris). Essentially a 90 minute interview with Le Carré, who really comes across as the most interesting, eloquent man in the world. He's such an inherently talented narrator I wouldn't have missed the usual documentary dramatization asides and other such color bubbles. He's fascinating enough.

 

[Xprimentyl]

Old Dads: Okay / Great

Comedian Bill Burr and his two friends, Bobby Cannavale and Bokeem Woodbine, are cynical middle-aged husbands and fathers who find themselves trying to navigate modern woke/hypersensitive culture and the tenuous relationships they have with those who've embraced it.

Not bad, but far from great. I'm pretty familiar with Burr's schtick, and the film starts off pretty much where any fan of Burr's might expect it to go, but there's a slight tonal shift about a third-to-midway through where the comedy kinda takes a backseat so the lesson that as ridiculous as all the pearl-clutching justice warriors are, there are better ways to deal with them than sarcasm and vitriol. The laughs were few and far between to remind you you're suppose to be having fun, but you ultimately see 3 really broken men who, for all they shoulder and suffer silently, learn to shoulder and suffer it silently, but smile while they're doing it for everyone else's benefit. It tries to wrap it up with some comical jabs at modern culture at the end, but it felt like too little too late, especially for me, the guy rooting for the cynical, middle-aged guys, their sarcasm, and the vitriol.

 

[McElroy]

Stagecoach

This is one of those old movies that is Really Important because of its effect on the industry- coming out in 1962 it basically revitalized the Western as a respectable genre

Where did you get this year from? It's weirdly specific to be a typo (the movie is from 1939, and yeah, it has vintage all over it).

 

[thebobmaster]

A ★★★★★ review of Makr (2019)

First Muslim horror I've seen, and it was quite the good one. On point acting, a lot of psychological horror, and from what I've seen in other comments, quite accurate to the lore and religion. Well worth a watch.

letterboxd.com

 

[Gordon_4]

The Rocky Horror Picture Show (interactive cinema showing) - 10/10

RHPS is a film that should be on the shelf of any self-respecting fan of musicals or Tim Curry, but it isn't really a movie that you just 'sit and watch'. Because outside of its banger musical numbers, which is most of them, the movie is at times rather a little dull. Its the middle bit mainly, it drags if you'll excuse the pun.

But if you see it you wish, then see it you must in a cinema full of like minded souls with your rice, piece of toast, toilet paper, noise maker, rubber gloves and playing cards at the ready. Because there are few experiences quite like the electric energy that ripples through a good crowd at this movie. At our showing, when Frank-N-Furter is gearing up for his by now iconic entrance, half the cinema was stamping their feet to the rhythm and there was indeed much cheering when the legendary Transsexual from Transylvania makes his grand appearance.

There's really nothing else like it, so lets do the Time Warp again!