Discuss and Rate the Last Film You Watched

[thebobmaster]

So, what's the opposite of a glow up?

A ★½ review of Tremors: A Cold Day in Hell (2018)

“Came into the wrong goddanged hangar, didn’t you, you bastard?!” Once again, this film follows Burt Gummer (Michael Gross). No longer making survivalist videos due to creative differences with his director and son Travis (Jamie Kennedy), Burt is now running the general store in Perfection after...

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[thebobmaster]

A ★★★★ review of Alien³ (1992)

“You want us to put our asses on the line for you?” “Your ass is already on the line. The question is, what are you going to do about it?” Oh, boy...you want to talk about films with a troubled production? I'm leaving out a fair details here just to give the Cliff Notes version, but this is...

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[Gordon_4]

A ★★★★ review of Alien³ (1992)

“You want us to put our asses on the line for you?” “Your ass is already on the line. The question is, what are you going to do about it?” Oh, boy...you want to talk about films with a troubled production? I'm leaving out a fair details here just to give the Cliff Notes version, but this is...

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They had a perfectly good idea in treatment for a third Alien film that didn't involve killing Hicks and Newt but retained the ticking time-bomb of Ripley being impregnated in flight. While there are many things to recommend Alien 3; excellent cast, good ideas, a genuine desire to not retread the previous films and its nice to see where the guy who would go on to make Seven, Fight Club and more than a few other really good movies started, I kind of wished we'd gotten the other one.

 

[BrawlMan]

What’s next? You gonna say you never saw The Goonies either/couldn’t see what the appeal was?

I vaguely watched it twice as a kid, and thought it was whatever. When you see Big Trouble in Little China first, The Goonies comes off as underwhelming by comparison.

 

[Casual Shinji]

So, I bit the bullet and actually sat down and watched the Barbie movie. Kinda hard to go into this thing unclouded considering this thing was everywhere, like watching Titanic when it first came out.

It's definitely an interesting movie, though maybe not for the reasons the filmmakers intended. In a nutshell it's really just every other mainstream movie that deals with existentialism, but with the Barbie brand. Atleast it would be were it not for Ken. I mean, it still is, but Ken, or should I say Ryan Gosling's Ken, changes things in an interesting way. Again though, maybe not as was intended. The movie is about feminism, the patriarchy, and self actualisation with Barbie and Ken as the vehicles. And here is where it gets interesting from a gendered perspective.

See, Ryan Gosling pretty much steals this movie right out from under Margot Robbie. It's not just that Gosling is incredibly entertaining in this role, his character has a far more solid want then Barbie does. And it's telling that this movie meant to show how women are stuck between needing to be perfect and needing to be realistic has our main heroine's plight presented in this uncontroversial way. Not wanting Barbie to come off as anything too strange and crazy. Whereas Ken's character gets to swing from the fences and be highly entertaining while doing so. Ken's story is funny and this makes his arc feel much more satisfying then Barbie's, who gets reheated 2010 forum posts.

The movie is fun enough though, but little of it feels like I could attribute it to Barbie herself.

 

[thebobmaster]

A ★★★★½ review of Kong: Skull Island (2017)

“Kong's a pretty good king. Keeps to himself, mostly. This is his home, we're just guests. But you don't go into someone's house and start dropping bombs, unless you're picking a fight.” The plot of this film involves an expedition to a mysterious island known as Skull Island at the tail end of...

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[BrawlMan]

A ★★★★½ review of Kong: Skull Island (2017)

“Kong's a pretty good king. Keeps to himself, mostly. This is his home, we're just guests. But you don't go into someone's house and start dropping bombs, unless you're picking a fight.” The plot of this film involves an expedition to a mysterious island known as Skull Island at the tail end of...

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This and Rampage are my favorite giant ape movies! Skull Island and KOTM is where the Monsterverse truly hit their stride.

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

I vaguely watched it twice as a kid, and thought it was whatever. When you see Big Trouble in Little China first, The Goonies comes off as underwhelming by comparison.

Very different types of movies though. They share a vaguely similar overtone but The Goonies is more often a somewhat schlocky feeling yet totally heartfelt childhood coming of age adventure movie. There is apparently a hidden theme of lost virginity but more-so I think what makes it special is how it blends serious real life circumstances (like kids losing their home due to impending foreclosure) with fantasy elements of improbable heroism to change their misfortunes. The setting with its grounded overworld and labyrinthine-like underworld act as the glue that melds them together.

 

[thebobmaster]

A ½ review of Tremors: Shrieker Island (2020)

“Who needs guns when you’ve got Pennsylvania steel?” In this movie, a corporate dude named Bill (Richard Brake) decides it would be a brilliant idea to breed Graboids to have good game to hunt, something that a woman named Anna (Cassie Clare) happens to agree with, at least in terms of the...

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[BrawlMan]

Very different types of movies though. They share a vaguely similar overtone but The Goonies is more often a somewhat schlocky feeling yet totally heartfelt childhood coming of age adventure movie. There is apparently a hidden theme of lost virginity but more-so I think what makes it special is how it blends serious real life circumstances (like kids losing their home due to impending foreclosure) with fantasy elements of improbable heroism to change their misfortunes. The setting with its grounded overworld and labyrinthine-like underworld act as the glue that melds them together.

You remember more than me.

A ½ review of Tremors: Shrieker Island (2020)

“Who needs guns when you’ve got Pennsylvania steel?” In this movie, a corporate dude named Bill (Richard Brake) decides it would be a brilliant idea to breed Graboids to have good game to hunt, something that a woman named Anna (Cassie Clare) happens to agree with, at least in terms of the...

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I stopped watching after the Tremors in Africa. That was the last decent to good one. I didn't even know they made one in 2020! People, let it end already. You've done everything.

 

[thebobmaster]

Not to spoil matters unless you really want to know, but I can almost guarantee that this is the last one. The ending kills off Burt Gummer. Without him, there is no Tremors series, so...

 

[BrawlMan]

Not to spoil matters unless you really want to know, but I can almost guarantee that this is the last one. The ending kills off Burt Gummer. Without him, there is no Tremors series, so...

​

They should've just ended at 5. I didn't even see 6.

 

[Ag3ma]

They had a perfectly good idea in treatment for a third Alien film that didn't involve killing Hicks and Newt but retained the ticking time-bomb of Ripley being impregnated in flight. While there are many things to recommend Alien 3; excellent cast, good ideas, a genuine desire to not retread the previous films and its nice to see where the guy who would go on to make Seven, Fight Club and more than a few other really good movies started, I kind of wished we'd gotten the other one.

I think a lot of the problem for Alien 3 was the production woes. They'd spent a very substantial proportion of the budget before they even started filming on re-writes, missteps, false starts leaving it somewhat limited. But at least it was a lot better than the slapdash mess that was Alien 4.

Nevertheless, it perhaps sums up for me a problem with staleness. Alien in some ways feels like it cannot progress, eternally trapped like its protagonists in claustrophic, lonely, dimly-lit ships/bases with at best barren, stormy outsides (in any medium). One might argue that with Prometheus, at least Ridley Scott tried to shake it out of that box a little.

 

[BrawlMan]

. But at least it was a lot better than the slapdash mess that was Alien 4.

I'll take Alien Resurrection any day of the week over 3. At least AR is self-aware of what type of movie it's being. There' unique weirdness I somewhat intriguing.

ne might argue that with Prometheus, at least Ridley Scott tried to shake it out of that box a little.

Yet Scott somehow fucked up even more answered question no asked or should have been left alone.

I just got back from the Godzilla X Kong: New Empire. If this is the last film of the Monsterverse, then it's an awesome note to go out on! New Empire is basically in my #1 spot now. This movie gets an S-Rank from me! Every one nailed everything in this film perfectly! The run time, the action and fight scenes! The lightning and special effects are on point! The CG studio who did all that CGI work better have gotten paid extra for all this! See this movie!

​

 

[Bedinsis]

I just watched the Indonesian superhero film Gundala.

They called it a superhero film, but given how they staged their battles I think it is a lot more accurate to call it an martial arts film that halfway through realizes that it wants to be a superhero film, and at they use that as an excuse to throw in some supernatural elements but still stage every battle as one of martial arts.

The staging and choreography of these fighting scenes were top notch. These aspects worked and worked well.

They had so much of it that I found it a bit unrelenting. There is never a scene of levity, neither a scene of drama, nor a scene of romance, it was mostly fighting scenes and scenes that I'd describe as transitional to get to the fighting.

The plot starts off with a kid watching his father die while leading a company protest and later her mother disappearing, leaving him a street orphan in Jakarta. He trains martial arts under a fellow street orphan that imparts the words of "Never trust anyone" upon him, words that accurately describes the tone of the movie since if there's one thing you can be sure of is that there is always a bad guy lurking around the corner ready to destroy anything you hold dear.

The overall plot involves a leader of street orphans poisoning pregnant women, and the multiple factions present made me lose track of who knows who and how, and in particular I failed to see why the titular hero was so central to the overarching plot. He didn't seem to interact with that plot other than defending people from said group of thugs, only finding out about it after a politician revealed it to him, yet at the climax the villain was very interested in the hero all of a sudden despite little interaction. I also found his superpowers unimpressive. First he fought like a perfectly choreographed martial artist and then his powers activated and he... continued to fight like a perfectly choreographed martial artist, only they added some effects to indicate that he threw his combatants further away.

I was maybe too tired when I watched it and it might make more sense if I rewatch it, but as of right now I found it confusing.

 

[BrawlMan]

I just watched the Indonesian superhero film Gundala.

They called it a superhero film, but given how they staged their battles I think it is a lot more accurate to call it an martial arts film that halfway through realizes that it wants to be a superhero film, and at they use that as an excuse to throw in some supernatural elements but still stage every battle as one of martial arts.

The staging and choreography of these fighting scenes were top notch. These aspects worked and worked well.

They had so much of it that I found it a bit unrelenting. There is never a scene of levity, neither a scene of drama, nor a scene of romance, it was mostly fighting scenes and scenes that I'd describe as transitional to get to the fighting.

The plot starts off with a kid watching his father die while leading a company protest and later her mother disappearing, leaving him a street orphan in Jakarta. He trains martial arts under a fellow street orphan that imparts the words of "Never trust anyone" upon him, words that accurately describes the tone of the movie since if there's one thing you can be sure of is that there is always a bad guy lurking around the corner ready to destroy anything you hold dear.

The overall plot involves a leader of street orphans poisoning pregnant women, and the multiple factions present made me lose track of who knows who and how, and in particular I failed to see why the titular hero was so central to the overarching plot. He didn't seem to interact with that plot other than defending people from said group of thugs, only finding out about it after a politician revealed it to him, yet at the climax the villain was very interested in the hero all of a sudden despite little interaction. I also found his superpowers unimpressive. First he fought like a perfectly choreographed martial artist and then his powers activated and he... continued to fight like a perfectly choreographed martial artist, only they added some effects to indicate that he threw his combatants further away.

I was maybe too tired when I watched it and it might make more sense if I rewatch it, but as of right now I found it confusing.

I saw that movie back in 2021. I still have the Blu-ray. The movie is good in what I remember, it's based off of Indonesian comic books hero going all the way back to the 1950s. I do admit that as much as I like to film, it is driving a few places, and there are very few scenes of levity. I didn't have much of an issue of it, but I considered it good I personally give it a 7 out of 10. It's movie that you pop in once in awhile, but you'll forget some things or remember some things after not seeing it in a long time.

 

[thebobmaster]

A ★½ review of Wishmaster 3: Beyond the Gates of Hell (2001)

“As you wish.” “Please don’t say that word.” After opening on a dream/memory of a car crash that killed her parents (a fitting metaphor for this movie), the film follows our main character Diana (A.J. Cook) as she goes about her life as a college student doing museum things with Professor Barash...

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[Ag3ma]

Yet Scott somehow fucked up even more answered question no asked or should have been left alone.

Maybe.

I think Prometheus is better seen as a reboot rather than a straight prequel. It's inviting us to throw out everything we think we know and revisit from a different perspective. The story isn't really about aliens, as per the name (from the titan of Greek myth) but knowledge and religion. In Greek myth, the gods intended to keep mankind ignorant, lest they be able to usurp the gods: Prometheus stole the knowledge of fire and gave it to humans, for which he was sentenced to eternal punishment. And thus the crew, who likewise seek forbidden knowledge, finding out the perils of that knowledge and what their "gods" think about it. Prometheus thus doesn't particularly seek to answer any questions about the Alien universe, it instead creates a new scenario and asks a completely different set of questions.

However, and this is what I meant earlier when I say films can be shackled by earlier movies in the series, it was inevitably going to face an audience which tended to have different expectations for what it was doing and why. Mostly, however, it's just not as good as Alien or Aliens, although I'd probably rate it above all the others.

 

[BrawlMan]

Maybe.

No.

I think Prometheus is better seen as a reboot rather than a straight prequel. It's inviting us to throw out everything we think we know and revisit from a different perspective. The story isn't really about aliens, as per the name (from the titan of Greek myth) but knowledge and religion. In Greek myth, the gods intended to keep mankind ignorant, lest they be able to usurp the gods: Prometheus stole the knowledge of fire and gave it to humans, for which he was sentenced to eternal punishment. And thus the crew, who likewise seek forbidden knowledge, finding out the perils of that knowledge and what their "gods" think about it. Prometheus thus doesn't particularly seek to answer any questions about the Alien universe, it instead creates a new scenario and asks a completely different set of questions.

And it failed on all levels other than visuals. Even if you take it as a "reboot", Prometheus still fails and is just another bad reboot no one asked for.

 

[thebobmaster]

A ★★★ review of Wishmaster: The Prophecy Fulfilled (2002)

“Goddamn it.” “Not quite.” “What the hell?” “That's closer.” This film follows the main character Lisa (Tara Spencer-Nairn). After an accident that left her boyfriend Sam (Jason Thompson) paralyzed from the waist down, she is working with her lawyer Steven (Michael Trucco) to sue the...

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