Discuss and Rate the Last Film You Watched

[thebobmaster]

A ★★★★ review of Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015)

“She tried to shoot me!” “That doesn’t make her a bad person.” This film follows Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise). Partially due to the events of the last movie, and also the events of the prologue/cold open in this movie that result in a plane crash, and at the urging of CIA Director Alan Hunley (Alec...

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[thebobmaster]

A ★★★½ review of Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

“Cut off a head, two more shall-” “Let’s go find two more.” Plans for a Captain America film can be traced back to 1997, when Marvel Studios began negotiations for such with Mark Gordon and Gary Levinsohn to produce, and Larry Wilson and Leslie Bohem writing the script. By 2000, Marvel teamed up...

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[gorfias]

A ★★★½ review of Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

“Cut off a head, two more shall-” “Let’s go find two more.” Plans for a Captain America film can be traced back to 1997, when Marvel Studios began negotiations for such with Mark Gordon and Gary Levinsohn to produce, and Larry Wilson and Leslie Bohem writing the script. By 2000, Marvel teamed up...

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I rewatched this recently. When it first came out I thought it good. Climax against the Skull a disappointment. What if the cube were plutonium. If it fell to the ground, would you pick it up and gaze at it in awe? I was acutely aware, after all these movies with supernatural heroes that shrug off or avoid damage like no other, how human cap is. One well placed land mine would really ruin his day. But compared to the drek we get today from Marvel? Rewatching this was a breath of fresh air!

 

[thebobmaster]

A ★★★★★ review of The Iron Claw (2023)

“Ever since I was a child, people said my family was cursed. Mom tried to protect us with God. Dad tried to protect us with wrestling. He said if we were the toughest, the strongest, nothing could ever hurt us. I believed him. We all did.” As a preface to this review, I did not know anything...

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[Gordon_4]

A ★★★½ review of Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

“Cut off a head, two more shall-” “Let’s go find two more.” Plans for a Captain America film can be traced back to 1997, when Marvel Studios began negotiations for such with Mark Gordon and Gary Levinsohn to produce, and Larry Wilson and Leslie Bohem writing the script. By 2000, Marvel teamed up...

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I supremely regret missing this one at the cinema. It is literally one of two films I missed. I saw it on blu ray later and I was like "Fuck! I'd have loved this on the big screen"

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Aquaman and the Fate of Atlantis

Starts with Amber Heard psychically directing a stream of piss into Jason Momoa's mouth and ends with Patrick Wilson eating a cockroach burger. In between we get 2 hours of what feels like a speedrun of a bunch of story beats, set-pieces and locations from other movies. Coruscant. Jabba's Palace. Skull Island. Minas Morgul. The back half of Uncharted 4. Momoa and Wilson are fine doing their buddy schtick (while Heard is non too suspiciously put in time out, sometimes as bluntly as half-cropping her from the shot) but it's hard to care when you don't have the time and it all looks so fake and not-there anyway.

 

[Agema]

Daaaaaali! (2023)

Absurd and surreal French comedy about a journalist attemping to interview the artist Salvador Dali, starring the rather winsome Anais Demoustier. It is directed by Quentin Dupieux, probably most famous for "Rubber", some ~15 years back. I'd previously seen "Fumer Fait Tousser" ("Smoking Causes Coughing") which was amusing and moderately diverting, but also tended to drift aimlessly a bit. Daaaaaali! is much tighter, and significantly funnier. The fact it takes on a few very old gags and makes them work is perhaps a measure of its quality. Dali himself (played, sort of to some degree, by six actors) is portrayed as a hugely, if relatively benignly, self-centred, pompous and capricious character - not too far from the truth as I understand - and is well used for comic effect. I guess there's a plot of sorts, but it's not really what you'd watch it for, although it's well scripted and has some lovely touches. Well worth a look.

 

[thebobmaster]

A ★★★★½ review of The Avengers (2012)

“I recognize that the Council has made a decision, but given that it’s a stupid-ass decision, I’ve elected to ignore it.” Despite the huge amount of build-up to this movie and how many moving parts were involved, the actual production of The Avengers was pretty smooth. The only real shake-up was...

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[gorfias]

Aquaman and the Fate of Atlantis

Starts with Amber Heard psychically directing a stream of piss into Jason Momoa's mouth and ends with Patrick Wilson eating a cockroach burger. In between we get 2 hours of what feels like a speedrun of a bunch of story beats, set-pieces and locations from other movies. Coruscant. Jabba's Palace. Skull Island. Minas Morgul. The back half of Uncharted 4. Momoa and Wilson are fine doing their buddy schtick (while Heard is non too suspiciously put in time out, sometimes as bluntly as half-cropping her from the shot) but it's hard to care when you don't have the time and it all looks so fake and not-there anyway.

I'll still check it out on MAX. You and others have forewarned me, thank you.
I was forewarned about Blue Beetle but watched anyway on MAX.
I really like Xolo Maridueña. Love him in Cobra Kai on Netflix now. Dang. That is in its last season launching soon (Season 6). And I bought my house before he was born! He is terrific in this movie. The movie itself is drek. It has a reverence for human life unless it doesn't. Faceless gunmen are riddled with bullets from Grandma but the main heavy? They look into his mind to see his life forming traumas and spare him so he can self delete and take the real bad with him. Blue Beetle is a hero... when he or his immediate family are in danger. They have NOT set him up to be a hero who would use his powers to aid humanity in general. The villains get what they want in the last act but then pursue him still for no credible reason. And were I Latino/Hispanic? I might find the stereotypes offensive. Maybe. I am a Jew and can laugh at fun stereo types in films such as those offered by Woody Allen. But, as they fail to make BB someone that we can believe wants to help the world in general, they haven't set us up to want a Blue Beetle 2. Fun to watch as background sound which is sad as it could have been much more. C-

 

[BrawlMan]

Aquaman and the Fate of Atlantis

Starts with Amber Heard psychically directing a stream of piss into Jason Momoa's mouth and ends with Patrick Wilson eating a cockroach burger. In between we get 2 hours of what feels like a speedrun of a bunch of story beats, set-pieces and locations from other movies. Coruscant. Jabba's Palace. Skull Island. Minas Morgul. The back half of Uncharted 4. Momoa and Wilson are fine doing their buddy schtick (while Heard is non too suspiciously put in time out, sometimes as bluntly as half-cropping her from the shot) but it's hard to care when you don't have the time and it all looks so fake and not-there anyway.

It's a good movie and nice finale. Heard I don't give a damn about and she's barely in the film any way.

I'll still check it out on MAX. You and others have forewarned me, thank you.

It's an A Rank movie for me.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

It's a good movie and nice finale. Heard I don't give a damn about and she's barely in the film any way.

The best I can say for Aquaman 2 is I didn't hate it and I wasn't bored and some of the brother shtick landed. But I was also never really engaged by the movie and it didn't get anything from me.

I did like the upbeat tone and how characters and families and couples are allowed to be happy, which is usually a no-no for supes.

I'll still check it out on MAX. You and others have forewarned me, thank you.
I was forewarned about Blue Beetle but watched anyway on MAX.
I really like Xolo Maridueña. Love him in Cobra Kai on Netflix now. Dang. That is in its last season launching soon (Season 6). And I bought my house before he was born! He is terrific in this movie. The movie itself is drek. It has a reverence for human life unless it doesn't. Faceless gunmen and riddled with bullets from Grandma but the main heavy? They look into his mind to see his life forming traumas and spare him so he can self delete and take the real bad with him. Blue Beetle is a hero... when he or his immediate family are in danger. They have NOT set him up to be a hero who would use his powers to aid humanity in general. The villains get what they want in the last act but then pursue him still for no credible reason. And were I Latino/Hispanic? I might find the stereotypes offensive. Maybe. I am a Jew and can laugh at fun stereo types in films such as those offered by Woody Allen. But, as they fail to make BB someone that we can believe wants to help the world in general, they haven't set us up to want a Blue Beetle 2. Fun to watch as background sound which is sad as it could have been much more. C-

Aquaman 2 is way better than Blue Beetle. BB is bland and uneventful in a very corporate way. Aquaman 2 at least has some excitement to itself (and great chemistry between the two leads, which is more I can say for any 2 people in BB). It's just that it's structured as a "Yup, that's me" montage of set-pieces and there isn't a character or a location or a story moment that is allowed to breathe or doesn't feel rushed. And while the CG doesn't look bad it's so ubiquitous that it became like visual white noise.

I'm Latino/Hispanic and can't say I was offended by Blue Beetle, it takes after a million other productions of wacky lovable Latino families. It always has to be about la familia y la abuelita. Like I said, too corporate minded to be offensive. I noted they dug a little deeper than usual in pop culture and brought up Chapulín Colorado and Gustavo Cerati for the brownie points but that's just what they are to the movie.

I'm more offended by Hollywood poising people who can't speak 3 words of Spanish as "Hispanic". Xolo Maridueña was born in LA and doesn't speak the language, he's neither Latino or Hispanic, he's a gringo. And that to me is emblematic of the movie's phony identity. Anya Taylor Joy spent he first 6 years of her life in Argentina and speaks the language with a flawless native accent, she's more Latina/Hispanic than he'll ever be.

 

[BrawlMan]

The best I can say for Aquaman 2 is I didn't hate it and I wasn't bored and some of the brother shtick landed. But I was also never really engaged by the movie and it didn't get anything from me.

I don't know what you were expecting from A2. The brother dynamic worked for me, and Arthur and Orm have this cool Dante and Vergil dynamic. I like it about as much as the Thor/Loki dynamic. They both work.

I did like the upbeat tone and how characters and families and couples are allowed to be happy, which is usually a no-no for supes.

Agreed. Exactly why I like the finale especially. At least it's a good and decent note to out on. No thanks to the fucker higher ups at WBD.

 

[thebobmaster]

A ★★★★★ review of The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)

“You are a strange man.” “Strange? Because I can feel for helpless, beaten people?” “No, you’re strange because you want to do something about it.” This film follows the exploits of one Robin of Locksley (Errol Flynn), as he gathers a band of misfits including Will Scarlet (Patric Knowles)...

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[Gordon_4]

A ★★★★★ review of The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)

“You are a strange man.” “Strange? Because I can feel for helpless, beaten people?” “No, you’re strange because you want to do something about it.” This film follows the exploits of one Robin of Locksley (Errol Flynn), as he gathers a band of misfits including Will Scarlet (Patric Knowles)...

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“You speak treason!”

“Fluently”

One word and a shit eating grin like few that have come after him and Errol Flynn’s Robin Hood went down in film legend as an absolute sass blaster.

 

[thebobmaster]

A ★½ review of Fatal Games (1984)

"I'm going to have to disqualify you..." This film follows a group of high school athletes that have names, but they are like points in Whose Line Is It Anyway? and don't matter. They have qualified for the Nationals, and in between them training their asses off to become harder, better, faster...

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[Johnny Novgorod]

Watching Furiosa on Monday so I'm rewatching all the Mad Max movies.

The first one is a bit of an ugly duckling and doesn't much look like the punk rock post-apocalyptic wasteland codified by Road Warrior. A few years from now society is barely holding but seems mostly comprised of roving bikers and their would-be victims, with only a handful of cops still putting in the work. That includes Max though he kinda wants to call it quits. And for such a thin plot, this is probably the most development Max gets in any of the movies: he's worried he's becoming like the criminals he can't stop so he wants to quit, and it takes a series of tragedies for him to finally rouse back to action and uphold justice (while sacrificing the part of himself he always feared he'd lose). In every other movie he's kinda just passing by.

Most of this happens either in the background or the last 15 minutes of the movie. For the first half his partner Goose feels like the protagonist of the story, and then his wife Jessie takes the spotlight in the second half; both characters feel more conflicted than Max and the movie will rather follow them and make them the center of attention. For most of the movie Max is far away from any action and is always late on the scene.

Oh and the villain Toecutter doesn't have much going for him but the actor kills every line and steals every scene. No small roles, eh.

 

[Agema]

“You speak treason!”

“Fluently”

One word and a shit eating grin like few that have come after him and Errol Flynn’s Robin Hood went down in film legend as an absolute sass blaster.

I can't help but feel older films had scripts that tended to be rather smarter and wittier. With the increasing power of spectacle and special effects, I'm not sure it was so important any more in much of Hollywood's output.

 

[BrawlMan]

I can't help but feel older films had scripts that tended to be rather smarter and wittier. With the increasing power of spectacle and special effects, I'm not sure it was so important any more in much of Hollywood's output.

There are plenty of older films from that time which hide shit lines or shittier lines. There was just as many as there were back then, as there is today. There is no illusion.

 

[Gordon_4]

I can't help but feel older films had scripts that tended to be rather smarter and wittier. With the increasing power of spectacle and special effects, I'm not sure it was so important any more in much of Hollywood's output.

Survivorship bias to a degree. And the Adventures of Robin Hood was itself produced to BE a spectacle to show off technicolour to the movie viewing public. Don't forget that patterns of speech and writing all change over 90 years. And to sort of prove the point, that is the only piece of dialogue from the film - which is one I grew up on - that I remember with absolute clarity and certainty.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Rewatched Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior. The Australian Outback is the de facto post-apocalyptic wasteland. Not that the apocalypse, whatever it was, had anything specifically to do with the environment (the big commodity is gasoline, not water like Fury Road). And just like Night of the Living Dead, 99% of all the genre tropes are more or less suddenly sprung and codified from one timely, low budget work of genius that also resulted more or less from the limitations of the production. It also ends on the definitive convoy chase, which was redone in Beyond Thunderdome but never quite topped until Fury Road.

Max supposedly only has 16 lines of dialogue (half of which are spoken in like the first 15 minutes) but they're closer to 36 by my count.