Discuss and Rate the Last Film You Watched

[PsychedelicDiamond]

The A-Team remake was way better. Too bad it never got a sequel.



I disagree with Silent Hill 3's story being bad. It may not be as good as 2's, but it ain't horrible. Plus, I feel the second game gets way too overprated at times and inflated it. But I 100% agree with you on the movie. It makes the first Silent Hill film look Oscar worthy. At least they were trying in the first movie.

You know, my issue with the story of Silent Hill 3 is that it's just Silent Hill 1 again, only with worse pacing and without the sense of mystery. Down to some of the details, even. Heather is Harry, Douglas is Cheryl, Claudia is Dahlia, Vincent is Dr. Kaufmann. The only thing it really adds is a theme about birth and motherhood, and that's in the visuals more than it is in the actual writing.

 

[BrawlMan]

You know, my issue with the story of Silent Hill 3 is that it's just Silent Hill 1 again, only with worse pacing and without the sense of mystery. Down to some of the details, even. Heather is Harry, Douglas is Cheryl, Claudia is Dahlia, Vincent is Dr. Kaufmann. The only thing it really adds is a theme about birth and motherhood, and that's in the visuals more than it is in the actual writing.

While you have a point, I didn't feel the pacing was that bad. Granted, it's been years since I touch any of the Silent Hill games. Though, when I last checked I was not a big fan of the pacing in any of the Silent Hill games either. Especially 4. Well three repeats some stuff beat by beat, I still found it interesting in the cycle of motherhood and revenge.

Devil May Cry 5 was just Devil May Cry 3 except you add Nero into the mix. Well that, Chaos Legion, and the Tree of Might.

 

[Gordon_4]

"What are they doing?"
"They're trying to fly that tank"

I mean, it's a stupid movie but at least it's embracing the hell out of the stupid and having fun with it.

“Excuse me ma’am, which way to Berlin?” Murdoch asks as he drives the tank out of the lake it lands in.

What makes that movie work is it’s chemistry. I know acting is a thing but there’s an undeniable and charming bond between the four of them that makes me believe yes these guys would tolerate all this shit for each other. Also the scene where the CIA guys are trying to kill Pike in the back of the car is amazingly funny.

 

[Dwarvenhobble]

So I watched 2 worth mentioning.

The Guardians - Russian cinema's attempt at a Super hero / Avengers style movie. This is Eurojank video games in film form and varies wildly from cinematic shots of water bouncing off the heroes in a rain storm to shots that look like the camera person was bored and shooting B-roll just in case. The editing and story is spotty at best with a plotline about a character worried they're losing their humanity brought up then ever resolved or mentioned again. Hints about some past of the team with no explanation and a case of amnesia which again never gets explained how it happened. Lots of pushing for emotional backstories for character that feels kinda unearned as they come out of almost no-where with little to no characterisation beforehand for them beyond their powers.

Action looks ok to fairly good for a B-Movie but the ending feels more like a whimper of "Well we don't have any money to actually shoot another big fight scene so just do this as the CGI will be cheaper than the days worth of filming and CGI it would take for another fight". Also ends with a sequel hook which I doubt will happen.

Films a mess and I'd say is below anything Marvel or DC have put out and below the quality of the Spawn movie due to the clear issues with trying to create a consistent set of plot threads or flow to even some of the scenes. This feels like some-one listed all the element of western Super Hero film and then tried to cram them all into one film and an ensemble cast one at that without any idea how to do them just doing them to check boxes

4/10 at best, if you watched Night Watch and weren't put off by the barely explained plot that seemed to lurch around badly this one might be something you can tolerate to watch as an oddity if not exactly good

 

[Dwarvenhobble]

Deep Space / Teleios / Beyond the Trek (2017) - I stumbled upon this one on Prime and thought it looked fairly interesting. Turns out I was right, it's kind of an unofficial Star Trek film / Star Trek fan film except set before even Enterprise. The opening sprawl talks about how human genetic engineering started in 2020 and the year is not something like 2047 where a Genetically modified crew has been sent out to investigate the problems on a space station orbiting Titan. The station was meant to be investigating claims of a new compound that would help save earth from climate disaster. As the crew arrive they find all but 1 of the crew to have died, traps are seemingly about to stop people coming in and the robot on board the station has no memory of event also the stations Black Box is missing.

Spoiler: For those who know their Star Trek, yes it is what you think

It's a film based on the outbreak of the Eugenics Wars as told via the crew investigating a side adventure.

The whole Titan station incident is found to have have happened after the compound they found even in a small trace amount when mixed with water turns lethal and will kill human drink the water, Glen Crest labs have provided the Titan station crew with a water purifier that will eliminate the toxin and they want the compound sent back to earth, the seeming plan being to release it and use Glen Crest Lab water purifiers to allow the people they deem valuable to humanity to survive. However the crew of the station turn one another with half wanting to follow orders even if it means potential mass deaths on earth while the other half wants to get rid of the substance, eventually tempers boil over and the side who want to follow orders wins out. The lone survivor is some-one who refused to choose a side being in his words too much of a coward to take a stand. With all those who oppose sending the toxin back to earth dead however the one guy who refused to take a side goes about killing the rest of the crew with them not seeing him as any threat to them. Only it's then reveal the robot they thought was mostly incapable of harming humans and was almost entirely obedient actually did it with the implication she had started to develop sentience and even feelings for the one crew member who refused to pick a side.

All while the above is playing out all the GC humans (named such after Glen Crest labs who developed the gene editing technology) have been having a variety of issues from memory loss to sever emotional reactions from rage to lust to one of them having her hand start to uncontrollably twitch. Eventually once they get a live transmission link to earth and not just pre-recoded messages they find out the person who sent them on the missing hauled up in a sort of bunker. He reveals that all of them are starting to degrade. Glen Crest labs in their greed of vanity has put a unique genetic marker into all it's GC humans a specific sequence of junk code to mark them all as having been produced by Glen Crest labs. All over the Earth war has broken out as the GC humans suddenly start experiencing emotions that were being somewhat suppressed, experiencing other conditions that the gene editing was meant to remove as they were seen as flaws in humanity things like fear or raw animal lust or other conditions. There is but one way to stave alleviate the impact of the now degrading genes, blood transfusions from normal non genetically modified humans. As such the stronger, smarter CG humans are capturing regular "primitive" humans to get blood transfusions to alleviate the symptoms from the degrading genetic code.

It come to a head when one of the GC humans on the Titan station mission realises the guy who survived isn't some primitive and when the android has killed all but her, the survivor and the captain and the GC human captain still wants to drain the survivors blood to save himself and her, she stabs the captain with a Traq. She reveals she's a failed GC human, an already defective one whose emotions were never suppressed so she had to learn to handle them though she fear she may lose control of them due to the genetic degradation and how she lost control before nearly killing some-one so will be a risk to him. She sends the survivor and the android to head back to earth to be able to carry on living and surviving hoping humanity will have survived the GC humans on earth turning on the "primitive" non GC humans.

With an estimated $1 Million budget the CGI is pretty damn good and while there a few cheesy looking effects and obvious "add glowy LED lights to make it seem more Sci-Fi" moments the sets and costumes hold up pretty well. Acting is a little bit of a mixed bag with some definitely better or at least far more experienced than others. It's really good because if you're not super into Star Trek it really does work as a sort of subversion of expectations. If you are into Star Trek well it's kind of cool to see some-one attempt to do a story about that certain period of Star Trek history and in a creative way with a relatively small budget and having it be a smaller more personal story happening amid the backdrop of that major event.

I'd say a solid 7 out of 10 rising to maybe even an 8 out of 10 if you're a big Star Trek fan

 

[Thaluikhain]

Jupiter Ascending.

Which has all the things, and non of the stuff that make things make sense. But the thing I find most noticeable is when Mila Kunis has to go and talk to lots of people in the space bureaucracy and we are supposed to think this is a big, arduous deal. She's inheriting an entire planet, where I live people have gone through worse to have government debt of a few hundred dollars they didn't owe in the first place cancelled.

 

[Gordon_4]

Jupiter Ascending.

Which has all the things, and non of the stuff that make things make sense. But the thing I find most noticeable is when Mila Kunis has to go and talk to lots of people in the space bureaucracy and we are supposed to think this is a big, arduous deal. She's inheriting an entire planet, where I live people have gone through worse to have government debt of a few hundred dollars they didn't owe in the first place cancelled.

To be utterly fair, when we deal with our own government we have a fair idea of the lay of the land: even if it’s a No-Man’s Land worthy of the Western Front in 1917. For someone who worked as a cleaner to suddenly be facing an intergalactic feudal beaurocracy with the very fate of Earth hanging in the balance and absolutely zero context or experience I can imagine the experience would be harrowing.

I mean the movie does a poor job of explaining or demonstrating this but it’s an easy point to conjecture.

 

[09philj]

Clue (1985)

It's alright. A fine lightly comic old fashioned murder mystery. Plays kind of like a sub-par episode of Inside No. 9.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Scarface

Hadn't seen it in years. I forget De Palma is such a great filmmaker. He's not name-dropped as often as other 70s new wave directors and I don't know why. He's amassed no more clunkers than the rest of them.

 

[Samtemdo8]

Scarface

Hadn't seen it in years. I forget De Palma is such a great filmmaker. He's not name-dropped as often as other 70s new wave directors and I don't know why. He's amassed no more clunkers than the rest of them.

You killed Manny Tony....

 

[Trunkage]

4/10 at best, if you watched Night Watch and weren't put off by the barely explained plot that seemed to lurch around badly this one might be something you can tolerate to watch as an oddity if not exactly good

How did you rate Night Watch?

Did you read the book first? I assume not based on the 'barely explained plot' comment

 

[gorfias]

"Antebellum" is on at no extra charge on Hulu. The term itself typically refers to pre-civil war USA. This has gotten mostly bad reviews at 28% on Rotten Tomatoes as I think people read into it the politics they wanted and think they got, or did not get rather than judging the movie.

I very much liked the movie. I found the characters and situations interesting and involving. The reveal is satisfying and, in the world they create, makes sense.

Briefly, the movie focuses on Janelle Monáe's indoctrination as a very badly abused slave in a Confederate slave plantation. But you should know this is a movie that will have a twist, and I think it is a satisfying one properly wrapped up.

For those that have seen it, spoilers others should not read until they have seen it.

Spoiler

The 1st act again, is the horrific indoctrination of Janelle Monae's character, a slave, to a Confederate slave plantation. You feel for this character's plight. But the 2nd act reveals, this is happening today. Her character was a successful professional that is kidnapped and brought to what is essentially West World with humans taking place in an Antebellum recreation world.

It has similarities in tone and plot to such other movies as "Django Unchained" and 2004's "The Village". But it very much is it's own movie. It reminds us that evil is. Under the right conditions, humanity can can go mad, dehumanize "others" within their own society and break the will of those others. An important issue in these times as the even in the last 100 years, the US interned the Japanese. Jews were murdered by the millions in Nazi Germany and the USSR. Mao is reputed to have murdered some 100 million of his fellow countrymen. Pol Pot: 1/3 of his population torture murdered. As many as 800,000 Rwandan's murdered with machetes because they were Tutsi. I hope I cannot go on but fear I likely could if I looked too closely at current global politics.

I'd post the trailer but I think that itself tells us too much. Don't watch it. If you have Hulu, just watch the movie.

8/10

 

[Xprimentyl]

Our Friend : ... / 10

Film about a war reporter whose wife is diagnosed with terminal cancer, and as his life goes to shambles as he struggles to deal with his fatherly/husbandly responsibilities, his best friend (also a good friend of his wife's) drops everything in his own life to come and help.

Fuck it. It's a drama. One of many a film that exists purely to tug at your heartstrings for a couple of hours then end. Well acted, but I've got drama in my own life; I don't prefer spending my free time watching movies about other people's drama. So then I watched...



I Care A Lot: Jesus Christ / 10

Film about a horrible woman running an elaborate scam wherein she uses the courts to get legal guardianship over elderly people whom she then effectively imprisons in assisted living facilities while she siphons off their assets, sells off their homes and pockets the cash. She unwittingly makes the mistake of picking one particular "client" who is literally too good to be true, and she finds herself tangled up with ostensibly more reprehensible people than herself.

I like when a movie gives me someone to hate; I like wringing my hands for an hour or two, waiting for their inevitable comeuppance. What I don't like is being dicked around. I really can't say too much without spoiling it, but this film dicked me around. It tried to make it up to me in the very end, but it wasn't nearly as satisfying as they intended it to be. Also, it's billed as a "black comedy?" Maybe I don't know what a black comedy is then, because I never felt any semblance of humor in this film.

 

[happyninja42]

Constantine.

It's the first time I've watched it from beginning to end. It was pretty good.

That movie is way better than it gets credit for.

The A-Team remake was way better. Too bad it never got a sequel.

"What are they doing?"
"They're trying to fly that tank"

I mean, it's a stupid movie but at least it's embracing the hell out of the stupid and having fun with it.

Yeah that's my thoughts on it too. It embraced the stupidity of the source material, and just ran with it. The 2 scenes that made me enjoy it, was when they broke Murdoch out of the psych ward, and made a point to give them 3D glasses, as the van goes driving AT the screen. I mean, you SAW it coming, they telegraphed it a mile away, but damn if it wasn't funny as hell to watch. The other scene being the customs confusion. When they got the wrong passports, and Murdoch's actor had to speak Afrikaans. And the rest of the team was surprised that he knew it. I know it was just a bit in there for the actor to speak in a language he actually knows, but damn if it wasn't funny. I also liked it because it was a situation where They Fucked Up. I mean that was just a complete error in the plan (it did Not come together Hannibal, sorry), and you see them trying to plan for damage control. And nah, he just chats the guy up amiably, and they move on.

 

[deleted20220709]

DELETED

 

[Dwarvenhobble]

How did you rate Night Watch?

Did you read the book first? I assume not based on the 'barely explained plot' comment

I'd say I'd rate Nightwatch higher at maybe a 6/10 because you at least get some nice stuff going on and can grasp onto a few plot threads now and again.

Also no I didn't read the book, I'm guessing it explains a lot more about some of the stuff.

 

[Gordon_4]

That movie is way better than it gets credit for.



Yeah that's my thoughts on it too. It embraced the stupidity of the source material, and just ran with it. The 2 scenes that made me enjoy it, was when they broke Murdoch out of the psych ward, and made a point to give them 3D glasses, as the van goes driving AT the screen. I mean, you SAW it coming, they telegraphed it a mile away, but damn if it wasn't funny as hell to watch. The other scene being the customs confusion. When they got the wrong passports, and Murdoch's actor had to speak Afrikaans. And the rest of the team was surprised that he knew it. I know it was just a bit in there for the actor to speak in a language he actually knows, but damn if it wasn't funny. I also liked it because it was a situation where They Fucked Up. I mean that was just a complete error in the plan (it did Not come together Hannibal, sorry), and you see them trying to plan for damage control. And nah, he just chats the guy up amiably, and they move on.

Gotta rate BA for making up what must have been a plausible story of presumably an African born Muslim converting to Judaism to get through his part too.

My favourite scene is still and always will be the utter fiasco was that was the attempted ending of Brock Pike in the car. Brian Bloom is just a treat.

 

[BrawlMan]

"What are they doing?"
"They're trying to fly that tank"

​

 

[Ringo]

I watched Helpless (1996), which is Shinji Aoyama's first film. It's awkward and flimsy in some ways, but it's apparent from the start that it's made by director of great talent and visual intuition. It's about a yakuza thug who gets out of prison in semi-rural Japan and tries to hunt down his boss, who he's told is already dead. He enlists the help of his friend, a drifter type played by Tadanobu Asano, to look after his mentally challenged sister. It's got most of the markers of 90's Japanese films: ennui, beautiful but unfussy visuals, oversized t-shirts, the sound of cicadas, unexpected violence, enigmatic storytelling, etc.

It's still very much a first film though. One of those works that shows promising talent but an inability to pull its compelling aspects together or tell an impactful story. Eureka (2000), the only other Aoyama film I've seen, is much, much better, but seeing this one makes me really curious to see his evolution to that film.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Rewatched Fantastic Mr. Fox. I'd forgotten how much I liked this movie.