Well yeah Ghostbusters 2 isn’t as good Ghostbusters 1 but all things considered it’s still pretty good. And Predator 2 is as good as Predator 1, come at me Internet!
Discuss and Rate the Last Film You Watched
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A majority of them don't even care at this point. They're too busy hating on The Predator to care, or the really dumb part fandom whining about female lead in Prey.
- Feb 7, 2011
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I rewatched Predator 2 on a plane last month and it's legitimately great.
A ★★ review of Mother's Day (1980)
“Punk sucks!” “Disco is stupid.” This film follows a trio of ladies, Abbey (Nancy Hendrickson), Jackie (Deborah Luce), and Trina (Tiana Pierce). While camping out in the woods as a sort of reunion that they do something for each year, they are kidnapped by two brothers named Ike (Gary Pollard)...
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You're... praising Predator 2... You won't like me when I hear Predator 2 praise...
Because it's not like the first one, or " It
's too cynical and over the top". Whatever the hell that means? Over the top? In a few spots. Too cynical? No.
Overall, there's just this unbearable obnoxiousness to it. This is what makes it impossible for me to sit through it for more than 5 minutes at best before I have to change the channel.
Beyond that I find the idea of the Predator in the city to just be stupid. Also, the Predator himself in this movie is just an idiot; just a monster that kills indiscriminately out in the open, as opposed to the stealthy hunter that lurks from the shadows. He bursts into a subway train and just starts murdering everyone, because...
There's no intimidation or cool factor to him. The voice mimicking that was used sparcely and punctually in the first movie, is in the sequel just used willy nilly in an attempt I guess to be creepy but again just makes this Predator come across as an idiot. He feels like the Predator equivalent of someone going on a bender and randomly babbling to passersby.And Danny Glover just beating him with very little effort makes this Predator feel even more lame than he already was. It was memorable watching Arnie at the height of his 80's action movie stardom get the absolute snot kicked out of him, seeing him reduced to a whimpering child trying to crawl away bloody and bruised. Danny Glover's character has no such struggle or dynamic with the Predator.
Then there's the fact that the first movie kinda extracted all it really needed to from the concept, and any sequel would just feel like retreading old ground and trying to add lore to a creature that frankly isn't that interesting outside of the initial concept. I liked Prey well enough, certainly better than any of the other sequels, but it still felt rather tepid in comparison to the original.
Overall, there's just this unbearable obnoxiousness to it. This is what makes it impossible for me to sit through it for more than 5 minutes at best before I have to change the channel.
Beyond that I find the idea of the Predator in the city to just be stupid. Also, the Predator himself in this movie is just an idiot; just a monster that kills indiscriminately out in the open, as opposed to the stealthy hunter that lurks from the shadows. He bursts into a subway train and just starts murdering everyone, because...
And Danny Glover just beating him with very little effort makes this Predator feel even more lame than he already was. It was memorable watching Arnie at the height of his 80's action movie stardom get the absolute snot kicked out of him, seeing him reduced to a whimpering child trying to crawl away bloody and bruised. Danny Glover's character has no such struggle or dynamic with the Predator.
Then there's the fact that the first movie kinda extracted all it really needed to from the concept, and any sequel would just feel like retreading old ground and trying to add lore to a creature that frankly isn't that interesting outside of the initial concept. I liked Prey well enough, certainly better than any of the other sequels, but it still felt rather tepid in comparison to the original.
- Different predator. Younger and cocky, With some obvious and intentional recklessness thrown in. I know we already been through this but, I'm just pointing it out now.
- Danny Glover'scharacter went through more than enough effort to take that guy down. Sure, he had it easier by comparison, but it still wasn't easy. He was knocking at Death's door at least three different times.
- While the movie is more over the top, It's not "obnoxious". I really don't get what the naysayers mean nor are talking about.You don't like it; ok, but I find these shallow and nothing excuses From whenever a person says this. They never elaborate or bringing something that has nothing to do with anything. You at leas elaborated enough.
There's certain styles of filmmaking that can really hit (personally) when a particular director is at the helm, but completely fall apart when it's almost anyone else directing. Predator 2 feels kinda Verhoeven-esque in its depictions, but lacking the talent of Verhoeven to make it entertaining (for me), and as a result comes across rather repellent. Similar reason as to why Robocop 2 is such a dud for me.
I actually recently watched The Warriors again for the first time in probably 30 years, and it feels like a John Carperter film but directed by someone who just isn't John Carpenter enough.
Yeah you mentioned that stuff beforehand. It barely feels like a Verhoven movie, and is way better than Robocop 2. As for the Warriors, that came out before Escape from NY. So anything, Carpenter was taking from Hill.
A ★★★½ review of Porco Rosso (1992)
"If you make money from war, you're scum. If you can't make money from bounty hunting, you're an idiot!" This film takes place in World War II era Italy, and follows the titular character (Michael Keaton), a bounty hunter who got cursed with the face of a pig. While facing off against some...
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Godzilla X Kong and Godzilla Minus One came out on streaming this week. It's weird juxtaposition in that Minus One is patently a better film, but I'm in no hurry to see it again while I'm getting Godzilla X Kong right now. It's just that Godzilla X Kong is a cathartic breezy smashie smashie thrill ride where as Godzilla Minus One is emotionally taxing. It's like A Beautiful Life or Schindlers List. You saw it once, it was very good, very depressing, not excited to run out and see it again. I'm glad it at least has a happy ending. I've heard a lot of people say it undercuts the drama, but I'm not angling to be depressed.
Oh wow that is great to hear! I really like Sidney Sweeney but the recent on-line culture-war bullshit around her obscured my attention to the movie. I will check it out when I get a chance and ideally if/when my wife is wanting to watch it 'cause she digs horror more than me.
Both movies get my S-Rank seal of approval. I will be seeing GxK more often, but I want both on physical media. Minus One I can see myself watching three or four more times. It's way less depressing than Joker.
A ★★★ review of Thor (2011)
"Do you want me to take him down, or would you rather send in more guys for him to beat up?" This film had quite a protracted production, if you consider the earliest attempts to make a Thor movie began around 1990, although after Stan Lee and Sam Raimi's pitch after the making of Darkman failed...
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The Great Silence (1969)
Spaghetti Western by Sergio Corbucci, director of the original Django. A mute gunslinger played by Jean Louis Trintignant faces off against pychopathic bounty killer (a term the movie really insists on) El Tigrere, played by actual psychopath Klaus Kinski, in the snowy mountains of Utah, played by the Alps. Hired by the widow of a man unjustly killed after a a wealthy local businessman put out bounties on some local vagrants unfairly declared outlaws, the mute, simply called "Silence" tries to take justice into his own hands.
After watching a couple of classic american westerns we're now getting to the revisionist phase of the genre, spearheaded by the Italians. Which means the violence is more explicit, the morals are more ambiguous and god know, the endings are a lot bleaker. And not to give anything away, it's difficult to think of a bleaker ending to a western, especially one with as classical a setup as this one. Where Leone's westerns still hold up that a lone man with a gun can make a difference for the better, Corbucci rejects any such notions.
Inspired by a number of then current political assassinations, Corbucci delivers a story about the way law and justice are conflicting, rather than complementary forces. As El Tigrere and his posse arrive in the isolated mountain town of Snow Hill, they resolve to cash in every single bounty in the region, with as much disregard for the difference between innocent or guilty as they have for that between dead or alive, knowing fully well that they have the backing of the richest man in town. And knowing that despite his best intentions, there's little the local sheriff can do about it.
Kinski, perhaps unusually for him, plays a villain whose primary mode is not so much enraged as it is smug and condescending while maintaining his unique sense of psychotic intensity. And there is a point to be made that he's a much more important part of the story than the actual protagonist, whose quest takes on sort of a quixotic character once it becomes clear that there's not much single man, even one who's really good with a gun, can do against an entire band of murderers who are, of course, perfectly within the confines of the law.
The Great Silence is about as straight forwardly subversive a western as you can make. It trades the blistering heat and the red deserts of the southwest with the cold, snowy mountains of Utah, the myth of the heroic nameless pistolero with the reality of a man struggling against impossible odds, the dream of justice against the crushing realization that the law will always be on the side of whoever has the most guns. Even the romantic subplot, between a white man and an African American widow probably still read as somewhat provocative back then. It reads as almost an archetype of a revisionist western but I think it still hasn't lost its impact.
Spaghetti Western by Sergio Corbucci, director of the original Django. A mute gunslinger played by Jean Louis Trintignant faces off against pychopathic bounty killer (a term the movie really insists on) El Tigrere, played by actual psychopath Klaus Kinski, in the snowy mountains of Utah, played by the Alps. Hired by the widow of a man unjustly killed after a a wealthy local businessman put out bounties on some local vagrants unfairly declared outlaws, the mute, simply called "Silence" tries to take justice into his own hands.
After watching a couple of classic american westerns we're now getting to the revisionist phase of the genre, spearheaded by the Italians. Which means the violence is more explicit, the morals are more ambiguous and god know, the endings are a lot bleaker. And not to give anything away, it's difficult to think of a bleaker ending to a western, especially one with as classical a setup as this one. Where Leone's westerns still hold up that a lone man with a gun can make a difference for the better, Corbucci rejects any such notions.
Inspired by a number of then current political assassinations, Corbucci delivers a story about the way law and justice are conflicting, rather than complementary forces. As El Tigrere and his posse arrive in the isolated mountain town of Snow Hill, they resolve to cash in every single bounty in the region, with as much disregard for the difference between innocent or guilty as they have for that between dead or alive, knowing fully well that they have the backing of the richest man in town. And knowing that despite his best intentions, there's little the local sheriff can do about it.
Kinski, perhaps unusually for him, plays a villain whose primary mode is not so much enraged as it is smug and condescending while maintaining his unique sense of psychotic intensity. And there is a point to be made that he's a much more important part of the story than the actual protagonist, whose quest takes on sort of a quixotic character once it becomes clear that there's not much single man, even one who's really good with a gun, can do against an entire band of murderers who are, of course, perfectly within the confines of the law.
The Great Silence is about as straight forwardly subversive a western as you can make. It trades the blistering heat and the red deserts of the southwest with the cold, snowy mountains of Utah, the myth of the heroic nameless pistolero with the reality of a man struggling against impossible odds, the dream of justice against the crushing realization that the law will always be on the side of whoever has the most guns. Even the romantic subplot, between a white man and an African American widow probably still read as somewhat provocative back then. It reads as almost an archetype of a revisionist western but I think it still hasn't lost its impact.