Discuss and Rate the Last Film You Watched

[hanselthecaretaker2]

A couple of rough and tumbles. First,

The Bricklayer.

Mixed bag that simultaneously earns and doesn’t betray its 5.1 IMDb rating. The action hits hard (like a brick, perhaps? Zing!) in between a throwaway plot of revenge and, well, betrayal. Speaking of, the soundtrack also falls flat and does little-to-nothing for the scenes it accompanies. It did leave me believing the titular character was sincere about his work at least.


The Beekeeper.

It’s tough to compete with the sheer ferocity of Statham’s vigilance here, even at 56 years of age. There is a fairly clever and unique angle to this one involving the special relationship between human beings and bees, even if it is marred rather heavily by some of the most cliched bunch of dbag antagonists since Polar. It worked better there though, because at least they knew who or what they were. The Beekeeper makes an example out of them, but the point of making a point of it all is lost almost as quickly as their lives.

 

[thebobmaster]

A ★★★★½ review of My Neighbor Totoro (1988)

"Try laughing. Then whatever scares you will go away." I watched this in the original Japanese. I tried to watch the dub and...I just couldn't. The Fanning sisters may be fine actors, but at least at the point of the dub, they were not very good voice actors. This film follows two sisters, ten...

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[Casual Shinji]

A ★★★★½ review of My Neighbor Totoro (1988)

"Try laughing. Then whatever scares you will go away." I watched this in the original Japanese. I tried to watch the dub and...I just couldn't. The Fanning sisters may be fine actors, but at least at the point of the dub, they were not very good voice actors. This film follows two sisters, ten...

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The final conflict actually works very well with this movie, due to the previous two (three) instances where the movie hints at a negative turn. The first instance is where Satsuki comes home from school and finds Mei missing, only to be quickly found sleeping in the bushes. The second one is when Satsuki and Mei are waiting for their father at the bus stop, he's late and it's getting dark, but then Totoro shows up to make the waiting more bearable until dad finally arrives. The possible third one is right after Satsuki gets the letter from the hospital and is running to get to a phone, which has Mei following her but getting lost, though eventually finding her way back to her sister. All of these moments have the slightest whiff of bad news, but then end with a whimper, never letting the tension get high enough to truly get the audience worried. Until the final conflict where it lets the tension actually reach effective levels. High enough that when Totoro comes in to help (after minutes long of Satsuki desperately trying to find Mei) there's this immense sense of relief.

 

[thebobmaster]

A ★★★★ review of Iron Man (2008)

“Iron Man. That's kind of catchy. It's got a nice ring to it. I mean it's not technically accurate. The suit's a gold titanium alloy, but it's kind of provocative, the imagery anyway.” This film had a fairly interesting production. The casting of Iron Man himself had a few options. The first...

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[Piscian]

I've been trying to catch up on indie horror here and there so last night I watched a recent one
You'll Never Find Me 2023

An older man named Patrick listens to the radio alone in his trailer late at night. A flashback of a woman outside his car on a rainy day plays out, accompanied by the same music on the radio, the song "Sleepwalk". He stares at a vial containing a substance and puts it away.

This is an australian cat and mouse supernatural thriller/horror. Everything is pretty solid as far as the creepy atmosphere and acting. Essentially in a beachside trailer park an old man sits drinking while waiting on an intense storm to pass when a girl knocks on his door at 2am looking for a phone. While the parts are good the whole falls flat. There's imbalance between the two leads as far as presenting the audience with "whos the villain" so the necessary tension doesn't escalate in the right direction for the big twist conclusion. More problematically the big twist is only in the last 20 minutes or so. You spend the majority of the film with two tense people staring at each for well over an hour before anything really interesting kicks in. It's a shame I would have enjoyed this more if it had been cut down by about 20-30 minutes. As it stands I was just getting increasingly antsy and bored as the film went on and the ending was like "Ok neat". Sadly at best 5/10 for me. Really only for the most tolerant of slowburn enjoyers.

 

[Phoenixmgs]

Dune: Part 1 & 2 - 5/10

I rewatched Part 1 so I could watch Part 2 because I really didn't remember much of what happened. Both movies as a complete whole feel like a very overlong version of The Matrix in a sense because they are both about a prophecy about "the one" and have religious themes. I feel like The Matrix accomplished what Dune did in just over 2 hours while it took Dune over 5 hours to do the very same thing and also just not as good. Dune is a lot more Game of Throne-like than The Matrix with all the factions and power struggles. The movie just feels overall "cold" to me, I just couldn't get emotionally wrapped up in the plight of any of the characters/factions really. I didn't care for the lead actor and felt his acting was bad as he randomly will deliver lines yelling where he's not using "the voice" and just seems out of character. I felt like the Bene Gesserits were like the only interesting faction. The action was never anything too great or creative, it was kinda like the rest of the movie, not bad but I also just didn't care about it. The final fight was also shot where you didn't even see the key blow. And for how long the movie is, you're still left scratching your head at points as they fast-forward over what seems to be important things and then you're shown something, and you're just like "how?" or "that doesn't make much sense".

 

[thebobmaster]

A ★★★ review of Madman (1981)

“Losing, winning, what's the difference? Play the game with a fair heart, and you'll always be able to look yourself in the mirror. Play too hard to win, and you might not like what you become.” This film was inspired by the Cropsey urban legend when filmmakers Joe Giannone and Gary Sales were...

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[thebobmaster]

A ★★★★★ review of The House of the Devil (2009)

“You’re a godsend.” “It’s nothing.” “Not to us, it’s not.” The plot of this film follows a college "sophomore" named Samantha (Jocelin Donahue). Desperate for money to pay the first month's rent for an apartment to get away from sharing a dorm room with her friend Heather (Greta Gerwig)...

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[Johnny Novgorod]

Civil War

This was pretty good, I liked it a lot. Watched the trailer afterwards and it really sells a very different kind of movie. This has more in common with Children of Men and that vein of post-apocalyptic road trip drama, including Garland's own 28 Days Later (he recycles that particular mom-dad-teen-gramps family dynamic). The whole thing is a Twilight Zone-y what if that's been clearly inspired by the January 6 riots, although it has more to do with journalism than any kind of politics. You could probably fact check the realism and likelihood of any of this happening, including California and Texas banding together to march on DC, but that really isn't the point. This is not Adam McKay's Civil War: A Cautionary Tale.

 

[Chimpzy]

Snyder's directors cut for Rebel Moon pt1+2 was released on youtube. Weirdly enough, it's less than half the lenght and uploaded years before making them.

Definitely the same movie tho, but better

 

[Xprimentyl]

Civil War
California and Texas banding together....

That statement alone makes me want to see this movie now; how in the hell do they spin THAT fantasy??

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

That statement alone makes me want to see this movie now; how in the hell do they spin THAT fantasy??

 

[thebobmaster]

A ★★★½ review of Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)

“I have crossed oceans of time to find you.” Before I get into the review, a bit of trivia on the production that I found pretty interesting. Firstly, this film actually was initially conceived by the studio as a made-for-TV adaptation. However, upon reading the script, Winona Ryder was...

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[thebobmaster]

A ★½ review of Dumbo (2019)

“Pink elephants!” “So?” The plot of this film follows Holt Farrier (Colin Farrell with a solid American accent), returning from World War One mostly armless, to the sadness of his children Milly (Nico Parker) and Joe (Finley Hobbins), as they are now down a mother and a father's limb. What's...

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[thebobmaster]

A ★★★★ review of The Incredible Hulk (2008)

"It wasn't even weapons application, he thought he was working on radiation resistance. I would never have told him what it was really for, but he was so sure about what he was doing he tested it on himself. And something went very wrong... or it went very right." This film was initially...

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[thebobmaster]

A ★★★★★ review of Mission: Impossible (1996)

“Ethan, I know you’re upset.” “Kittridge, You’ve never seen me upset.” The first of an enduring action franchise, this film has its share of fans. Not among those are the members of the cast of the original show. In particular, Peter Graves was asked to return as Jim Phelps, but declined after...

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[thebobmaster]

A ★★★★ review of Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)

“Time is an abyss, profound as a thousand nights. Centuries come and go. To be unable to grow old is terrible. That is not the worst. There are things worse than death.” As a bit of trivia on this movie, Dutch model/actress Sylvia Kristel, best known for playing the title role in many of the...

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[Xprimentyl]

The Double: Meh / Great

Two FBI agents (Richard Gere and Topher Grace) think they are hot on the heels of notorious Soviet operative "Cassius" as a string of violent incidents point to his known style of assassination and ruthlessness. One problem: Cassius is a lot closer to them than they are to him...

Not bad. Not great. The double twist it goes for falls pretty flat. Also Topher Grace felt like a miscast; between That '70s Show and his portrayal of himself as an inept poker student in Ocean's 11, I find him hard to take in a serious role. The movie DID make me want a wristwatch with a built-in garrote, though, for those moments when I feel the need to abruptly end an insufferable conversation.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

The Double: Meh / Great

Two FBI agents (Richard Gere and Topher Grace) think they are hot on the heels of notorious Soviet operative "Cassius" as a string of violent incidents point to his known style of assassination and ruthlessness. One problem: Cassius is a lot closer to them than they are to him...

Not bad. Not great. The double twist it goes for falls pretty flat. Also Topher Grace felt like a miscast; between That '70s Show and his portrayal of himself as an inept poker student in Ocean's 11, I find him hard to take in a serious role. The movie DID make me want a wristwatch with a built-in garrote, though, for those moments when I feel the need to abruptly end an insufferable conversation.

Oh wow, somebody else watched this.

 

[Piscian]

A ★★★★ review of Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)

“Time is an abyss, profound as a thousand nights. Centuries come and go. To be unable to grow old is terrible. That is not the worst. There are things worse than death.” As a bit of trivia on this movie, Dutch model/actress Sylvia Kristel, best known for playing the title role in many of the...

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Fun fact I saw this as a little kid in Theaters. I was one of those rare kids that could sit quietly throughout a movie so my dad would take to whatever suited his fancy. I liked it so much he got me a special edition VHS copy on my birthday, but thats been long lost to time. My favorite scene is when the boat arrives and the rats flood the city.