Discuss and Rate the Last Film You Watched

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Johnny Novgorod

Bebop Man
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Feb 9, 2012
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That is an unusual premise for people to spend money to make a film about.
It's especially bizarre because the movie makes nothing of Kim Cattrall harking from Ancient Egypt. There's no fish out of water element, like say Wonder Woman. She just springs to life knowing everything there is to know about the world. No clash, no conflict, no comedy. There's no reason why she couldn't have just been an ordinary mannequin come to life.

I also don't see a correlation, even ironically, between wishing to make your own life choices and being reincarnated as some schmuck's manic pixie dream babe, only coming to life for him if nobody else is watching.
 
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Gordon_4

The Big Engine
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Apr 3, 2020
6,409
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Australia
Mannequin

One of the most aggressively unfunny comedies I've ever seen.

Kim Cattrall plays an Egyptian princess around 4,500 BC who prays to the gods to save her from a forced marriage. She's reincarnated as a Philadelphia department store dummy who comes to life whenever Andrew McCarthy is around. Together they put up the most amazing window displays, boosting sales overnight. The evil department store across the street, which was about to buy them out, is furious.

That's it. That's the plot.

View attachment 11911

So what you're saying is, I can just watch the music video for "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" and not only see the whole movie, but the best version of it?
 
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BrawlMan

Lover of beat'em ups.
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Mar 10, 2016
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I just re-watched Let There Be Carnage on blu-ray after getting the Steelbook Edition. I still love the movie, but the set up/crossover with MCU Spider-Man was wasted. And the whole cop getting Shriek's powers came out of nowhere, and will never be followed up on. As we've seen in the trailer for the third movie.
 

thebobmaster

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I so wanted to give this movie full marks, but that ending...
 
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Old_Hunter_77

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Dec 29, 2021
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Rebel Ridge 8/10

A Netflix original that was supposed to star John Boyega but there was some problem there and they got a bigger muscly dude instead, which is fine because this is like a really solid mid-90s era thriller. The plot is basically First Blood (the first Rambo), just with different motivations but the general plot mechanics are similar: a bad-ass vet is harassed by corrupt cops and they go at each other.

It's a no b.s. drama with a couple decent action scenes that focus on keeping things grounded. There's absolutely no romance or sex so that if you've ever felt those parts of 80s/90s action movies were unnecessary this will make you happy.
Only minor complaint is that there are a couple of scenes of monologue exposition that try to dump the plot mechanics at you, but it's worth it to keep the suspense of the rest of the movie at a high level.
 

Johnny Novgorod

Bebop Man
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Feb 9, 2012
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Hit Man

A movie about a "professional" hit man (Glenn Powell) impersonator who works with the cops entrapping the kind of people who would hire a hit man. Sometimes they get convicted, sometimes not. Gary more or less falls into the role, discovers he's a natural and starts taking pleasure in the performance. He gets to research each potential client and basically tailors his persona/costume to entice an arrest. All is good until Adria Arjona shows up wanting to put a hit on a mythologically abusive husband. Gary, as badass Ron, talks her out of it and they start dating. Things get complicated between them, the husband and the bent cop Gary's been filling in for.

This is a basically fun movie. Not funny, but fun. Big distinction. You like the premise, the pacing, the actors, the way the story keeps reinventing itself. It's on that Linklater/Soderbergh/Spike Lee spectrum of a fun watch. It's high concept, low stakes fun in which all of the actors are clearly having a blast (Powell and Linklater co-wrote the script).
 

Piscian

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Apr 28, 2020
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Blink Twice

In case you're wondering which one this is, its the "Get Out on an island" written and directed by Zoe Kravitz and co-starring Channing Tatum as a shady billionaire who invites Naomi Ackie to an island and bad stuff happens.

I wanted to like this more than I did. The acting, directing, script are all aces. I genuinely did not have a clear idea of what was going on until the reveal and theres some solid twists and turns.

Sadly "The big twist" falls flat. Its far more pedestrian than something like You're Next or Get Out, The former being a hilarious surprise and the later being pretty existential.

This just ends with you going "oh its that, yeah thats gross".

Unfortunately I've probably already spoiled it by calling it mundane. Only so many mundane directions you can go with billionaires, islands, and weird stuff.

Still idk 7/10 or so. I can't convey in words how great everyone was. This was a solid foundation for Zoe Kravitz. Very watchable.

I think I may just be spoiled on the all imaginative horror thats come out in the past 10-15 years.
 
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Jun 11, 2023
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Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F

Hell yes, it would seem that Hollywood can still make a fun-ass, no nonsense R-rated action comedy punctuated with some bloody bits of shootout violence. I know it’s not the only thing Murphy’s done recently but it’s single handily worth his return to acting. And he appears to be enjoying it again. Hopefully we’ll see more of this kinda thing.

Also neat, the quick Shrek reference, which is making its own return in a couple years. And if that wasn’t enough, the pseudo Shooter McGavin cameo, considering that’s another property with a surprise sequel in the works.
 
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thebobmaster

Elite Member
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Apr 5, 2020
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Johnny Novgorod

Bebop Man
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Feb 9, 2012
18,885
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Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire

Basically three stories held at arm's length from each other until the movie delivers on the title at the end. It's some of the people from the previous movie going on a Journey to the Center of the Earth adventure, Kong and a smaller Kong going on their own God of War (2018) adventure (this is the best part of the movie), and Godzilla... he shows up now and then, fighting a random titan with ease. He protecc, he attacc, but most important of all, he's held bacc.

Is this just me or is there a weird fish eye distortion going on with the green screen in most background shots?
 
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Johnny Novgorod

Bebop Man
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Feb 9, 2012
18,885
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118
Blink Twice

Sadly "The big twist" falls flat. Its far more pedestrian than something like You're Next or Get Out, The former being a hilarious surprise and the later being pretty existential.

This just ends with you going "oh its that, yeah thats gross".
"You'll never guess what's going on in this disgustingly rich techbro's private island" is somehow not the definitive 2024 brainteaser.
 
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thebobmaster

Elite Member
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Casual Shinji

Should've gone before we left.
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Jul 18, 2009
20,081
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I fucking adore the framing of this movie as the fading memory of a dying man. As he dies he remembers Max, and then you find out it was the feral kid. It highlights the perishable nature of this setting. Everything goes bad so quickly, puncuated by seeing the feral kid still as a young bright-eyed boy in the back of that bus, and then hearing the old narrator's voice linking the two.

Also, that final shot of Max contrasted against that dark setting sun is one of the most gorgeous visuals I've ever seen in a movie.

Fucking love Mad Max 2!
 

gorfias

Unrealistic but happy
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May 13, 2009
7,360
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USA
Mannequin

One of the most aggressively unfunny comedies I've ever seen.

Kim Cattrall plays an Egyptian princess around 4,500 BC who prays to the gods to save her from a forced marriage. She's reincarnated as a Philadelphia department store dummy who comes to life whenever Andrew McCarthy is around. Together they put up the most amazing window displays, boosting sales overnight. The evil department store across the street, which was about to buy them out, is furious.

That's it. That's the plot.

View attachment 11911
Made $42 million on an $8 million budget.

Need another gif to repeat yours on that one.
 

thebobmaster

Elite Member
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Apr 5, 2020
2,536
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United States
 

thebobmaster

Elite Member
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PsychedelicDiamond

Wild at Heart and weird on top
Legacy
Jan 30, 2011
2,055
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118
Megalopolis (2024)


The long production hell-bound passion project of veteran director Francis Ford Coppola of Godfather and Apocalypse Now fame. It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival to very mixed reactions earlier this year and has now finally gotten its theatrical release. Here in Germany, at least.

According to early reviews I expected this to be more or less Ayn Rand's Fountainhead by way of Southland Tales. Which I was catiously excited for, I love me some Southland Tales, I won't hesitate for a second to say that I consider it one of the best movies of the 00's. And there was definitely some of that. What it really felt like, most of the time though, was more off brand Shakespeare by the way of French Magical Realism. A lot of this felt hilariously close to that 90's Baz Luhrman Romeo x Juliet movie with Leonardo DiCaprio.

So, Adam Driver plays Cesar Catilina. Cesar is a visionary inventor and architect in New Rome, as the name implies an anachronistic amalgamation of New York City and Ancient Rome. As corruption and decadence fester in the city, he is developing a bold vision for the future based on rebuilding the city using a magical material called Megalon which puts him at odds with conservative mayor Frank Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito) whose daughter Julia (Nathalie Emmanuel) falls in love with him while Cesar's cousin Claudio (an impish, crossdressing Shia LeBouf) and his ex lover, a media personality who goes by the hilarious stage name Wow Platinum (Aubrey Plaza, vamping it up) plot against him.

The funny thing about Megalopolis is, you can see how the screenplay probably started off as a drama loosely adapting the Catilinarian Conspiracy to contemporary New York (or what passed as such back in the 70's when Coppola began writing it) and then, over the years, accumulated layers upon layers of other stuff the director wanted to to do with it until, once he actually had an opportunity to film it, it ended up as a movie that's pretty much about everything and nothing.

So, what's in Megalopolis? Hallucinatory images. People quoting Shakespeare, a lot. Satire on 9/11. Adam Driver stopping time. Frutiger Aero style futuristic architecture. Dick jokes. Monologues. Satire on the Trump administration. People randomly speaking latin. Metaphors being depicted in the most literal ways imaginable and people then explaining the metaphors out loud. Musical numbers. Implied incest. More monologues.

What it all ended up as is a series of very impressive visual setpieces that the plot is buried under, somewhere. Matter of fact, the movie feels like it's actively rushing through many of its plot beats (pieces of a satellite crashing into the city, sexual assault allegations against Cesar), that feel like they should be significant, basically resolving them right after they come up, just to find more time for its eccentric, elaborately choreographed surreal digressions.

What this means is, that this movie is far and away at its best when it leaves behind any pretensions of following a narrative entirely and descends into pure trippy, formalist music video montage mode. And when it does, which it does at long stretches at a time, it does get very lively and fun. Coppola clearly had no shortage of fun visual ideas that are sprinkled all the way throughout the movie, and densely accumulated at an extended circus (and yes, of course "circus" here refers to the Roman meaning of the word) sequence towards the middle. Please don't take this line out of context, but Megalopolis made me think of Citizen Kane in how almost every single scene is trying to do something visually interesting.

I won't say Megalopolis ever comes together as a great movie but it definitely stands head and shoulders above mediocrity and I think everyone claiming otherwise is being disingenuous. The material is messy but Coppola still directed the hell out of it. A lot of it is actually funny, some of it perhaps not intentionally but a lot of it certainly is. The actors all have the appropriate amount of deadpan or over the top exaggeration that their respective roles require. Adam Driver plays the whole genius eccentric shtick just right and Aubrey Plaza, as one of the few actual specialized comedic actors in this, delivers a hilarious take on that scheming shakesperean villainess archetype.

What Megalopolis just lacks is an actual well thought out message that sticks. It has a lot of rambling about society and empires and humanity and civilization and The Future and utopianism and corruption and art and love and whathaveyou but it never really has much more to say than "love each other and put your faith in bright young people with bold ideas." Which is fair enough, I guess, but for a movie this pompous and verbose it does feel rather simplistic. In one of the movies many monologues, the protagonist proclaims that "Building a utopia is not about providing answers, but asking the right questions." which, at this point, feels a bit like a punchline. Asking questions and leaving them standing seems to be all anyone's doing these days.

All things considered, I do think its heart is in the right place and if nothing else I had a lot of fun watching it. Make no mistake, that extra half star (... if you're reading this on Letterboxd) is mostly out of respect for actually finishing a project almost 50 years in the making. But aside from that I feel like a lot of the backlash against the movie is unwarranted. Yes, it's a vanity project directed by a 85 year old man who's somewhat out of touch with modern culture but it's fun, it's bold, it's full of creative and dynamic direction and it's nothing if not earnest. Compared to something like Civil War, which is about as pretentious and dishonest as this movie is accused of being, it feels like the real deal. It is more of a high camp variety show of colourful and surreal segments than it is the shakesperean urban drama that perhaps it was intended to be at one point but it's still one of the most vibrant and ambitious releases of the year. It deserves some good will.
 
Last edited:

Summerstorm

Elite Member
Sep 19, 2008
1,475
117
68
Megalopolis (2024)

The long production hell-bound passion project of veteran director Francis Ford Coppola of Godfather and Apocalypse Now Fame. It premiered at the Canne Film Festival in Spring to very mixed reactions earlier this year and has now finally gotten its theatrical release. Here in Germany, at least.

According to early reviews I expected this to be more or less Ayn Rand's Fountainhead by way of Southland Tales. Which I was catiously excited for, I love me some Southland Tales, I won't hesitate for a second to say that I consider it one of the best movies of the 00's. And there was definitely some of that. What it really felt like, most of the time though, was more off brand Shakespeare by the way of French Magical Realism. A lot of this felt hilariously close to that 90's Baz Luhrman Romeo x Juliet movie with Leonardo DiCaprio.

So, Adam Driver plays Cesar Catilina. Cesar is a visionary inventor and architect in New Rome as the name implies an anachronistic amalgamation of New York City and Ancient Rome. As corruption and decadence fester in the city, he is developing a bold vision for the future based on rebuilding the city using a magical material called Megalodon which puts him at odds with conservative mayor Frank Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito) whose daughter Julia (Nathalie Emmanuel) falls in love with him while Cesar's cousin Claudia (an impish, crossdressing Shia LeBouf) and his ex lover, a media personality who goes by the hilarious stage name Wow Platinum (Aubrey Plaza, vamping it up) plot against him.

The funny thing about Megalopolis is, you can see how it probably started off as a screenplay adapting a drama loosely based on the Catilinarian Conspiracy to contemporary New York (or what passed as such back when Coppola began writing it in the 70's) and then, over the years, accumulated layers upon layers of other stuff the director wanted to to do with it until, once he actually had an opportunity to film it, it ended up as a movie that's pretty much about everything and nothing.

So, what's in Megalopolis? Hallucinatory images. People quoting Shakespeare, a lot. Satire on 9/11. Adam Driver stopping time. Frutiger Aero style futuristic architecture. Dick jokes. Monologues. Satire on the Trump administration. People randomly speaking latin. Metaphors being depicted in the most literal ways imaginable and people then explaining the metaphors out loud. Musical numbers. Implied incest More monologues.

What it all ended up as is a series of very impressive visual setpieces that the plot is buried under, somewhere. Matter of fact, the movie feels like it's actively rushing through many of its plot beats (pieces of a satellite crashing into the city, sexual assault allegations against Cesar), that feel like they should be significant, basically resolving them right after they come up, just to find more time for its eccentric, elaborately choreographed surreal digressions.

What this means is, that this movie is far and away at its best when it leaves behind any pretensions of following a narrative entirely and descends into pure trippy, formalist music video montage mode. And when it does, which it does at long stretches at a time, it does get very lively and fun. Coppola clearly had no shortage of fun visual ideas that are sprinkled all the way throughout the movie, and densely accumulated at an extended circus (and yes, of course "circus" here refers to the Roman meaning of the word) sequence towards the middle. Please don't take this line out of context, but Megalopolis made me think of Citizen Kane in how almost every single scene is trying to do something visually interesting.

I won't say Megalopolis ever comes together as a great movie but it definitely stands head and shoulders above mediocrity and I think everyone claiming otherwise is being disingenuous. The material is messy but Coppola still directed the hell out of it. A lot of it is actually funny, some of it perhaps not intentionally but a lot of it certainly is. The actors all have the appropriate amount of deadpan or over the top exaggeration that their respective roles require. Adam Driver plays the whole genius eccentric shtick just right and Aubrey Plaza, as one of the few actual specialized comedic actors in this, delivers a hilarious take on that scheming shakesperean villainess archetype.

What Megalopolis just lacks is an actual well thought out message that sticks. It has a lot of rambling about society and empires and humanity and civilization and The Future and utopianism and corruption and art and love and whathaveyou but it never really has much more to say than "love each other and put your faith in bright young people with bold ideas." Which is fair enough, I guess, but for a movie this pompous and verbose it does feel rather simplistic. In one of the movies many monologues, the protagonist proclaims that "Building a utopia is not about providing answers, but asking the right questions." which, at this point, feels a bit like a punchline. Asking questions and leaving them standing seems to be all anyone's doing these days.

All things considered, I do think its heart is in the right place and if nothing else I had a lot of fun watching it. Make no mistake, that extra half star (... if you're reading this on Letterboxd) is mostly out of respect for actually finishing a project almost 50 years in the making. But aside from that I feel like a lot of the backlash against the movie is unwarranted. Yes, it's a vanity project directed by a 85 year old man who's somewhat out of touch with modern culture but it's fun, it's bold, it's full of creative and dynamic direction and it's nothing if not earnest. Compared to something like Civil War, which is about as pretentious and dishonest as this movie is accused of being, it feels like the real deal. It is more of a high camp variety show of colourful and surreal segments than it is the shakesperean urban drama that perhaps it was intended to be at one point but it's still one of the most vibrant and ambitious releases of the year. It deserves some good will.
Ah, i suspected it to be a bit like this. Good to hear that maybe even if it is a bit "simple" that it is at least interesting and good film-making. Think i might watch it, haven't been to the cinema for a bit now.
 
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