Discuss and Rate the Last Film You Watched

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Thaluikhain

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that one Goblin who's carrying loads of shit on her back and tries to do the sam to Sarah could well be another sister or parent who made such a wish but failed and this was their fate.
Somewhere it's said that the hoarders were all previous mortals who had been tempted by material possessions like that one was trying to do to Sarah.
 

Casual Shinji

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First Blood (1982), 10/10

I had only seen this movie once ages ago, and I'm not even sure I saw it all the way through back then. So going back to it it turned out to be perhaps the best movie I've seen all year. It's a really brisk watch, but absolutely action packed, expertly paced and full of genuinely engaging subject matter despite all the gunfire and explosions. The movie is as lean and mean as Rambo himself, with the first half being laser focused on him with no subplots or side characters whatsoever. When things start to escalate and broaden in the second half you start to get more of the political and thematic side of the movie. When Rambo enters his kill mode, he's more akin to a robot or a trained animal: he's acting as if programmed. You really get a sense that this man has nothing left, which is driven home when we find out that he'd just found out that the last of his friends had died of cancer when the cops start hassling him.

It feels shockingly relevant to this day, with the power tripping asshole cops making everything worse feeling as timely as ever. It's one of the very rare action movies that not only has a strong, well explored thematic core, but where the action is critical for those themes. Rambo turning into basically a domestic terrorist in the third act feels very purposeful: the machine of unstoppable destruction has turned on its creator, and bringing the chaos with him. The movie's practically screaming "Fuck America!" as Rambo blows up shops, gas stations and police stations. The only person with some understanding of Rambo is the colonel, who's a really interesting character: you feel both a sense of pity but also pride for what Rambo's doing. The colonel's basically watching his favorite pet dog let loose, feeling both accomplishment and sadness for his creation's work. He, and the war machine he represents, are being shown what they truly created: a broken wreck of a man no longer capable of functioning in society, cursed with the burden of his trauma and little else.

The movie looks fantastic. It hasn't aged a day visually, and there's some great cinematography that really drives home the dark loneliness Rambo finds himself in. The stuntwork and effects are fantastic, and in a couple of scenes I genuinely went "wait, how did they do that?" When it goes full "boom kapow" at the end, I honestly couldn't tell if they were blowing up real buildings or just really well-made miniatures.

I could go on but you get the point. This is truly exceptional cinema, and absolutely deserves its place as an all-time classic.
Brain Dennehy is also so fucking good as Teasle. The guy has that James Gandolfini magic, where he can have the most charming demeanor, but then shift on a dime to become this truly reprehensible bastard. Especially that line he gives 'When one of my deputies steps out of line then the prisoner comes to me. And when I find out it's like he says I kick the deputy's ass - Me, the Law! That's the way it's gotta be.'

Speaking of, is it me or were the 80's a lot more critical of the police than movies now? Off the top of my head I can think of First Blood, Highlander, Terminator 1 and 2.
 

Xprimentyl

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its... score
Interstellar is the only movie I didn't particularly like that I paid to see twice in theaters, both times by myself. Why? The first time because it looked like a good film; the second was simply for the fucking score. I see a lot of people critique Hans Zimmer's "walls of sound," but I love his work, and Interstellar floored me. I saw the movie twice in two weeks and couldn't tell you anything about it except how much I loved the music.

Knock at the Cabin

Home invasion. Four doomsayers tie up two dads and their daughter and tell them they have to pick a sacrifice (one of the dads or the daughter) to stop the apocalypse. To prove their point, the doomsayers start sacrificing their own and "unleashing plagues" unto Earth, which they aim to prove by turning on the news. Are they telling the truth, does the family believe them and would they actually go along with a sacrifice if they did? That's the movie for you.

The typical Shyamalan awkwardness actually goes well with characters who may or may not be religious nuts. I'll say that much for the writing and the performances. I don't think it's a great M. Night movie buy I enjoy his 'problem play' phase. This is also better than Old, but probably isn't going to develop into a cult movie like Old.
Did Old become a unique cult hit? It's been my understanding that pretty much anything M. Night makes immediately falls into a niche category of its own. The Sixth Sense pretty much surprised everyone, then every thing since has been "an M. Night Shyamalan joint;" you know to expect the unexpected, and you either love it or you hate it.
 
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Casual Shinji

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I saw Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, and it was fine.

It has the typical 'we're outsiders and no one accepts us, but I guess they actually do in the end', with nothing new to say or a fresh angle to it. Very little really stands out other than the art style and that the Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtles are actually teenagers now. Which results in a lot of teenagers constantly bantering on and on, talking over eachother, on the one hand feeling authentic enough to how real teenaged boys are, but on the other getting rather grating as the movie goes on.

I will give the movie props for looking "ugly". Whether you find the art style visually appealing or not, nearly everything and everyone is designed to look kinda gross and repulsive. April O' Neil is probably the only character with a symetrical face, with every other human looking like clay that's been left in the sun. And in current times where every major western animated movie must adhire to the Disney/Pixar likeability style, making a cartoon that's this "offputting" is a risk. And I applaud them for taking it.
 
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BrawlMan

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Off the top of my head I can think of First Blood, Highlander, Terminator 1 and 2
The '90s had plenty. Terminator 2 counts as the 90s by the way. Boyz n da' Hood, Higher Learning, New Jersey Drive, and Light It Up.


And in current times where every major western animated movie must adhire to the Disney/Pixar likeability style, making a cartoon that's this "offputting" is a risk. And I applaud them for taking it.
You can thank Spider-verse for that again. The movie still does its own unique style, but it's pretty obvious another film is taking influence from the Spider People.
 

Casual Shinji

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The '90s had plenty. Terminator 2 counts as the 90s by the way. Boyz n da' Hood, Higher Learning, New Jersey Drive, and Light It Up.
I should've prefaced by saying 'action movies' - movies that typically have cops as the good guys or the hero support.
 

BrawlMan

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I should've prefaced by saying 'action movies' - movies that typically have cops as the good guys or the hero support.
Above the Law (that one is more so FBI and CIA, but it still counts as it's a remake of a Chuck Norris movie), Hard to Kill, The Last Boy Scout, The Matrix (understandable, because the majority of the cops aren't even aware of it), New York Undercover (that's an action TV show, but I'm counting it anyway), and that one movie where Van Damme was investigating a prison that was having inmates forced to fight each other. The one from the '90s, and not the one from the 2000s.
 

Casual Shinji

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You can thank Spider-verse for that again. The movie still does its own unique style, but it's pretty obvious another film is taking influence from the Spider People.
That's without question, but unlike Spider-Verse TMNT:MM made itself ugly on purpose (as the reactionaries are fond of claiming). Pouring millions of dollars into a project that looks like a Robert Crumb comic is a different risk altogether. I don't think I would ever regard it as a trail blazer, but seeing as studio animation is allergic to not being cute/beautiful/sexy/cool, having a movie go in almost complete opposition of that kinda warms my heart.
 

Thaluikhain

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Above the Law (that one is more so FBI and CIA, but it still counts as it's a remake of a Chuck Norris movie), Hard to Kill, The Last Boy Scout, The Matrix (understandable, because the majority of the cops aren't even aware of it), New York Undercover (that's an action TV show, but I'm counting it anyway), and that one movie where Van Damme was investigating a prison that was having inmates forced to fight each other. The one from the '90s, and not the one from the 2000s.
Die Hard 1 and 2 features one heroic police officer out of his jurisdiction and out of his depth, and lots of other police making things worse.

(Ok, the first had...Powell? Who is helpful.)
 

Casual Shinji

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Above the Law (that one is more so FBI and CIA, but it still counts as it's a remake of a Chuck Norris movie), Hard to Kill, The Last Boy Scout, The Matrix (understandable, because the majority of the cops aren't even aware of it), New York Undercover (that's an action TV show, but I'm counting it anyway), and that one movie where Van Damme was investigating a prison that was having inmates forced to fight each other. The one from the '90s, and not the one from the 2000s.
The Matrix definitely, The Last Boy Scout, hmmm... I feel Hallenbeck has too much of a cool grizzled cop vibe to him. I guess I mentioned those movies because the cops in it are no help to the heroes at all if not a straight-up threat, and we hardly see that in movies of this ilk anymore.
 

BrawlMan

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That's without question, but unlike Spider-Verse TMNT:MM made itself ugly on purpose (as the reactionaries are fond of claiming). Pouring millions of dollars into a project that looks like a Robert Crumb comic is a different risk altogether. I don't think I would ever regard it as a trail blazer, but seeing as studio animation is allergic to not being cute/beautiful/sexy/cool, having a movie go in almost complete opposition of that kinda warms my heart.
I don't deny that, nor have a problem with it, I was just pointing it out. You still had some people complain that it wasn't "their Turtles nor April", but those reactionaries don't count for anything. They still screamed and hollered like bitches when the movie made a success. Mutant Mayhem is a good movie, but I only found it better than Secret of the Ooze, III, TMNT 2007, and TMNT 2014. The writers also could have turned it down on the pop culture references. I usually don't mind them, but they got really stale in this one. This is nothing new for Ninja turtles, but even most other shows and movies know to use it sparingly or not too much.

Die Hard 1 and 2 features one heroic police officer out of his jurisdiction and out of his depth, and lots of other police making things worse.

(Ok, the first had...Powell? Who is helpful.)
He said 80s not 1990s. I know Die Hard 2 came out 1990, so it's in that weird transition but I'm taking dates into accordance. If you noticed, all those action movies I listed take place in the 90s or was made in the 90s. Above the laws is the exception, but that was a remake of another movie that involved corrupt cops instead of the FBI and CIA. As for McClane, he had no choice in the first movie, and in the second movie, it's more or less a similar scenario. The cops are incompetent (not as much as the ones in LA), but a majority of the antagonists are renegade soldiers looking for the next big pay and freeing a dictator. In Die Hard with a Vengeance, racial injustice is discussed (mainly from Zeus), but the NYC in this case is shown to be confident and actually helpful.
 

BrawlMan

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I feel Hallenbeck has too much of a cool grizzled cop vibe to him. I guess I mentioned those movies because the cops in it are no help to the heroes at all if not a straight-up threat, and we hardly see that in movies of this ilk anymore.
Not Hallenback exactly, but a few is so called buddies don't have the greatest morals. They're not in league with the main villain(s), but they definitely don't do much to help. Also, another example with corrupt cops is Drive (1997). They are in a evil corporation's pockets.
 

BrawlMan

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we hardly see that in movies of this ilk anymore.
Speak for yourself on that one. While they're not built on the assembly line like that then, there's still plenty of other action shows or suspense thriller shows that tackle/criticize police or any type of authority corruption.
 

Johnny Novgorod

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Viridiana (1961)

Playing Blasphemous 2 gave me a hankering to rewatch this. It's very much a Gothic story but by no means a horror movie. There's something grotesque and cheerfully miserable about the Spanish ethos that comes up in stuff like this. Goya, Buñuel. People being disturbed by themselves and trying to weather the feeling.

So Viridiana is a young, beautiful woman who's about to lock herself up in a convent for life when she gets an invite from her wealthy uncle (and sponsor) to come stay with him for a few days. The Gothic element comes from her being a sleepwalker as well as a dead ringer for her dead aunt, who passed away suddenly during her wedding night. The uncle makes her wear the wedding dress, drugs her and attempts to rape her with the help of a housemaid. By the following act, Viridiana has inherited the house and, having misplaced her guilt and deciding she's broken goods, foregoes life in a convent and decides to turn her uncle's mansion into a shelter for beggars and lowlifes. This coincides with the arrival of her cousin, who'd rather modernize the mansion for profit.

This is one of the most pessimistic movies I've ever seen. It's filled with nasty mordant symbolism pointing to the futility of good, the pointlessness of faith and the corruption of innocence, not so much as by evil design as is just the nature of things. The heroine is humiliated every step of the way, is defeated through no fault of her own and ultimately succumbs to the epicurean nihilism that's been flirting with her on the side the whole time. We don't get a Barbie-style moment where the heroine snaps and delivers The Movie's Message in an impassioned rant. Viridiana's big defining moment is entirely silent and works on every fucked up level you could possibly imagine.

At this point I'm supposed to go that you couldn't make this movie today, but truth is they nearly couldn't back then either, and the movie was only screened like 17 years after being made in Spain, once Franco was dead. Today it would be merely dismissed with a hashtag.
 
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Johnny Novgorod

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The Marvels

Another ridiculous and forgettable space adventure in the vein of Love and Thunder that features a lot of the same beats as a Guardians of the Galaxy movie but without nailing the emotional part or balancing the dumb with the earnest. Can The Marvels learn to put aside their differences and work as a team? Is it Wednesday already? Throw in one of the lamest villains in recent (un)memory and make sure every character conflict in this movie could be solved -and will be solved, forever - with a simple conversation.

Oh, and that gimmick where characters swap places every time they use their powers (well, not EVERY time, just when the movie feels like it) ends up not going anywhere. As if the action in these movies wasn't already undermined by the fact that characters can do pretty much anything, now they can also be anywhere at anytime.
 
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Thaluikhain

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I couldn't include this in the review, but...just look at the get-up for the villain in the climax. They actually thought this looked good.

View attachment 10047
Yeah, I thought The World is Not Enough was a bad Bond movie, but this one just goes to show how much time and effort and skill went into even the Roger Moore fims.
 

thebobmaster

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Yeah, I thought The World is Not Enough was a bad Bond movie, but this one just goes to show how much time and effort and skill went into even the Roger Moore fims.
As downright goofy as some of the Roger Moore movies could get, there was at least heart to them. Hell, the reason I gave this a lower rating than Moonraker is that while this is possibly technically better as a film, at least Moonraker was trying something different for Bond. It was something dumb, putting Bond in space because Star Wars, but there was something there. This has no such heart. It really is just a Frankenstein of previous Bond movies stitched together.
 
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BrawlMan

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As downright goofy as some of the Roger Moore movies could get, there was at least heart to them. Hell, the reason I gave this a lower rating than Moonraker is that while this is possibly technically better as a film, at least Moonraker was trying something different for Bond. It was something dumb, putting Bond in space because Star Wars, but there was something there. This has no such heart. It really is just a Frankenstein of previous Bond movies stitched together.
Yeah, I thought The World is Not Enough was a bad Bond movie, but this one just goes to show how much time and effort and skill went into even the Roger Moore fims.
The only people I know that love Die Another Day, unironically are my parents and older brother. That's it.