Discuss and Rate the Last Film You Watched

[Xprimentyl]

Under Paris: S'aight / Great

Big shark swims up the River Seine, and a shark expert is tasked with convincing authorities that the threat is real, and that the much-anticipated (and expensive) Triathlon must be cancelled until they can move the shark back out to sea.

I dunno. Was decent, but easily the least scary "shark" movie I've seen. Basically, it came down to a lot of stupid people making stupid decisions that gets them eaten. It doesn't scare me when you give all agency to the creature to do what it does best; what it does do is reaffirm my waning faith in humanity and our collective intelligence. Also, they somehow managed to gloss over a fairly important plot point that gets revealed about two-thirds into the movie. I mean, it's basically the reason behind the whole film; they mention it in passing, then just get along with the spectacle. Doesn't mater much though; the movie had already decided what it wanted to be by that point, so whatever.

 

[thebobmaster]

A ★★★★½ review of Never Cry Wolf (1983)

“Boredom. That’s what’s wrong, Tyler. Boredom. How do you beat boredom? Adventure. Adventure, Tyler.” Based on the "subjective non-fiction" novel by Farley Mowat of the same name, this film follows a biologist named Tyler (Charles Martin Smith), who is tasked with going to the Alaskan wilderness...

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[Johnny Novgorod]

The Dirt

The biopic of Mötley Crüe bandmembers Nikki Sixx, Mick Mars, Tommy Lee and Vince Neil, following the expected rise-to-rock-bottom structure of rock 'n roll but mostly concerned with the sex and drugs part. I'm only vaguely aware of the band and after watching the movie couldn't tell you much about anything other than list off probably famous moments in the lore of their hard-partying, like Ozzy Osbourne snorting a row of live ants and then licking his own piss off the floor.

What I didn't get is what made the band so special. The movie treats it as par for the course that Mötley Crüe would make it big simply by existing at the right place, at the right time, and the movie pays very little importance to the music in contrast to their scandalous posturing and hotel room antics. And then it hit me: this was directed by the dude that made all the Jackass movies. Ok, now I get it.

 

[thebobmaster]

A ★★★★★ review of The Sixth Sense (1999)

“I was thinking you’re nice, but you can’t help me.” As some casting trivia, both Marisa Tomei and Claire Forlani turned down the role of Anna Crowe, while this was the first film that Michael Cera ever auditioned for, but he was turned down for the role of Cole Sear due to not realizing the...

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Say what you will about M. Night's later films, this still hits.

 

[Gordon_4]

A ★★★★★ review of The Sixth Sense (1999)

“I was thinking you’re nice, but you can’t help me.” As some casting trivia, both Marisa Tomei and Claire Forlani turned down the role of Anna Crowe, while this was the first film that Michael Cera ever auditioned for, but he was turned down for the role of Cole Sear due to not realizing the...

letterboxd.com

Say what you will about M. Night's later films, this still hits.

I still prefer Unbreakable on a personal level, but damn was Sixth Sense a hell of a thing.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Batman: Hush

It was entertaining. I don't know how it compares to the comic, but this is less about Hush - who barely factors and doesn't make much of an impression - and more about Batman finally developing a relationship with Catwoman, going from partners in crime-fighting to steamy lovers. The plot around them is sketchy and thin but the characters are strong enough to carry it. Unfortunately the movie touches on the two things I don't like to see in Batman media: Superman (or any extraneous characters to Gotham, for that matter) and the Bat-Family - Nightwing I can tolerate, but I never cared for Bruce having a son or making him into Robin. Here he Skypes with dad in order to call Selina a "trollop" and remind him to wear a condom - take it easy, Stewie Griffin.

 

[thebobmaster]

I still prefer Unbreakable on a personal level, but damn was Sixth Sense a hell of a thing.

I haven't seen Unbreakable in years, but one of the categories on my review list is M. Night's filmography starting with Sixth Sense, so if that number gets rolled, that's up next.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Batman: Hush

It was entertaining. I don't know how it compares to the comic, but this is less about Hush - who barely factors and doesn't make much of an impression - and more about Batman finally developing a relationship with Catwoman, going from partners in crime-fighting to steamy lovers. The plot around them is sketchy and thin but the characters are strong enough to carry it. Unfortunately the movie touches on the two things I don't like to see in Batman media: Superman (or any extraneous characters to Gotham, for that matter) and the Bat-Family - Nightwing I can tolerate, but I never cared for Bruce having a son or making him into Robin. Here he Skypes with dad in order to call Selina a "trollop" and remind him to wear a condom - take it easy, Stewie Griffin.

I never understood why they made Damian's Robin the poster child for the whole goddamn cinematic universe. He's incredibly unlikeable, and remains that way unlike in the comics.

 

[Casual Shinji]

A ★★★★★ review of The Sixth Sense (1999)

“I was thinking you’re nice, but you can’t help me.” As some casting trivia, both Marisa Tomei and Claire Forlani turned down the role of Anna Crowe, while this was the first film that Michael Cera ever auditioned for, but he was turned down for the role of Cole Sear due to not realizing the...

letterboxd.com

Say what you will about M. Night's later films, this still hits.

Yeah, but from some of the dialoge you could already tell. At the time we all saw it as a charming quirk, because the rest of the movie was so good, but looking back the signs were already there.

 

[Thaluikhain]

A ★★★★★ review of The Sixth Sense (1999)

“I was thinking you’re nice, but you can’t help me.” As some casting trivia, both Marisa Tomei and Claire Forlani turned down the role of Anna Crowe, while this was the first film that Michael Cera ever auditioned for, but he was turned down for the role of Cole Sear due to not realizing the...

letterboxd.com

Say what you will about M. Night's later films, this still hits.

Random bit of trivia, this film's twist ending was spoiled for me by someone who hadn't seen it, but who just heard the vague premise and guessed the ending from that.

 

[Gordon_4]

Yeah, but from some of the dialoge you could already tell. At the time we all saw it as a charming quirk, because the rest of the movie was so good, but looking back the signs were already there.

This stinks of revisionist viewing history by film critics and cinephiles who are embarrassed that back in ‘99 a filmmaker they’ve largely come to despise as a hack got one over on them.

 

[Xprimentyl]

This stinks of revisionist viewing history by film critics and cinephiles who are embarrassed that back in ‘99 a filmmaker they’ve largely come to despise as a hack got one over on them.

 

[Phoenixmgs]

I still prefer Unbreakable on a personal level, but damn was Sixth Sense a hell of a thing.

Yeah, M Night was really good for like 2.5 movies (6th Sense, Unbreakable, 1st half of Signs). I haven't seen 6th Sense or Unbreakable in awhile but I recall liking Unbreakable more. I still remember how the dinner scene in Unbreakable was filmed, it was a single handheld cam just swinging back and forth between the characters.

 

[Kyrian007]

This stinks of revisionist viewing history by film critics and cinephiles who are embarrassed that back in ‘99 a filmmaker they’ve largely come to despise as a hack got one over on them.

It has been one that I pondered for a long time now. I did not have the twist spoiled... but I did hear that there was a "big twist." So, when I correctly guessed the twist about 6 minutes into the movie... I can't really say I would have, going in completely blind. Because I don't know if I would have or not. But what I can say is this. If you do correctly guess the twist... this movie has nothing. There's no other string to its bow.

So I can say, "I hated M. Night movies before it was cool." It directly led me to correctly guessing the "twist" in Unbreakable, and ruining that for myself too. So I've never liked one of his movies. Another strike against Sixth Sense for me was it overshadowed a movie that shared some similarities to 6th sense, that I found superior to it in almost every way. Coming out within a month of 6th sense was Stir of Echoes. Based on a Richard Matheson story, it had superior script pedigree than being penned by a hack director. Now visually, Shyamalan does better storyboarding and way more money was thrown at 6th sense. And Stir of Echoes suffered from the script not being nearly as good as the short story it was based on. But I found it genuinely creepy, something that Sixth Sense never was.

 

[Casual Shinji]

This stinks of revisionist viewing history by film critics and cinephiles who are embarrassed that back in ‘99 a filmmaker they’ve largely come to despise as a hack got one over on them.

Not really. I don't think the Wachowski's have made anything good since The Matrix, but I don't look back on it or Bound as 'some of the bad was already there'. Both in The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable there are some awkward moments in the dialoge, and it showed M. Night had some of what would eventually negatively define his later movies already there. Note that I never said The Sixth Sense was bad, I actually called it good, eventhough I never cared too much for it. I never felt M. Night got one over on me since I never felt too strongly about the guy either way.

Zack Snyder also had habits that he would eventually indulge in to an obnoxious degree in his later movies in movies like Dawn of the Dead, 300, and Watchmen, which are considered his good work.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

The good ole Guy Ritchie School of The First 2.5 Movies Were Actually Good.

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

Yeah, but from some of the dialoge you could already tell. At the time we all saw it as a charming quirk, because the rest of the movie was so good, but looking back the signs were already there.

 

[thebobmaster]

A ★★★★½ review of The Lost Boys (1987)

“Initiation’s over, Michael. Time to join the club.” For some casting trivia, both Keenan Wynn and John Carradine were considered for the role of Grandpa, but the former died right before filming, while the latter was too ill. In addition, Jim Carrey was considered for the role of David, while...

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[thebobmaster]

A ★★★½ review of The Cat Returns (2002)

“Always believe in yourself. Do this and no matter where you are, you will have nothing to fear.” A spin-off of "Whisper of the Heart", this film follows a girl named Haru (Anne Hathaway). One day, she rescues a cat from being run over by a truck. She soon learns this cat is none other than...

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[Johnny Novgorod]

Watched these two for the first time ever:

Child's Play (1988)

Finally! The movie all my classmates were hyping when I was in primary school. Brad Dourif mumbles some voodoo, gets struck by 1980s blue lightning (cf. Highlander) and boom, into the body of a creepy doll he goes. Little Andy gets it for his birthday and nobody believes him when he tells on the murder doll as the bodies pile up. There's a version of this where we're not privy to the voodoo intro and we're left to wonder if this isn't just a movie about a disturbed kid, but frankly I prefer it this way. It works well enough as a horror movie for a while but ultimately the whole story is so ridiculous and Dourif's shtick is so funny that it becomes a comedy (without ever quite acknowledging it). And that's a great child actor, by the way.

Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure

Bill and Ted have a history presentation coming up. If Ted fails, that's it - he's getting sent to military school. This threatens the future, since it was - or will be - built on the success of Bill and Ted's musical career (they get better). The obvious answer to this is to send George Carlin back in time so he can give them a time-travelling phone booth and let them figure out how to pass the test. They fall back on "bagging" historical personages like Napoleon and So-crates. Things get out of hand back in the present, etc.

Why Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure is Excellent:

1) I laughed, like, the whole movie.

2) Quite unexpectedly, this scene moved me in ways most dramas wish they could.

3) Bill & Ted themselves are adorable, well-meaning and incessantly optimistic. I wanna be friends with them. They're not very smart but they're incredibly resourceful, in a Merrie Melodies kind of way.

4) The historical characters are, for the most part, played 100% straight, down to their corresponding behavior and languages. I guess Napoleon is the one cartoon, which I think works because it's an exaggeration of his character rather than an ironic modernization.

5) There's some cleverness to the time travel itself. Actually the whole movie is very cleverly stupid. I like that Ted ends up working around time travel by merely committing to memory the things he will *eventually* do by having a time travel machine at his disposal, effecively changing the present by telling himself he'll do something in the future.

6) I like how Bill & Ted speak in a mixture of Orwellian Newspeak and teen jargon ("Bogus. Heinous. Most non-triumphant!") with a Shakesperean twist here and there ("Whoa, strange things are afoot at the Circle-K"). I like how the writers clearly had fun writing them, and the actors clearly had fun saying them.

7) George Carlin <3

8) Be excellent to each other and party on!