Discuss and Rate the Last Film You Watched

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Bob_McMillan

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Yeah, but what else could they do though? Green Goblin is a bit of a weird character; He wears a mask because he needs to hide Norman's identity, but the mask (in the comics and cartoons) can apparently emote like a normal face for some inexplicable reason. Translating that to live-action was going to run into problems regardless. Either they would've fully used Dafoe's face, which would've ruined the secret identity angle, or they could've gone for a rubbery animatronic Goblin mask, which in the context of the movie, why?

For No Way Home they could opt to just get rid of the helmet altogether since Norman I assume is legally dead just like he was at the end of Raimi's Spider-Man, or maybe they could damage the helmet enough to give it a creepy pumpkin vibe.
I know it wasn't an easy look to adapt, but cmon, I'm sure they could have done better better than the motorcycle helmet. If they had just not covered up Dafoe's mouth, I think it would have been fine. That seems to have been their first thought too, looking at the concept art.

This got me interested though in why Green Goblin is a goblin at all. If the wiki can be trusted, he had nightmares of a goblin like creature and decided to do a Bruce Wayne. I can see why they didn't want to bother with that in his origin stories, especially considering it was the first Spider-man movie. I wonder what they'll do for Goblin in the Spider-man games. They did a pretty good job of adapting most characters. Norman has had more time to be a character and his transition to Goblin could be less jarring.
 
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BrawlMan

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Candyman 4 (2021) - Love the movie. It's nice seeing slow burn horror movies making a come back. I found this movie just as good as the original, but even better. A bigger focus on the social and racial injustice compared to the past movies. I am not spoiling anything else, and recommend it, if you are in to horror or the franchise itself.
 
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lostinreality

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I've just watched a movie called The Swarm because it was on Netflix... it was pretty terrible. The build-up was going quite nicely, the premise was creepy and unsettling, and it sort of gave like indie-vibe with the film. In the end, it was a bloody waste of time. 10/10 would not recommend.
 

Xprimentyl

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Watched Labyrinth for the first time. It's probably one of the most plotless movies I've ever seen. Awesome puppetry and set design though.
I could edit my first post on this issue, but I wanted to make sure you saw my question:

What exactly do you mean by "plotless?" In typical '80s fashion, reason is thrown out the window as a teenage girl wishes her baby brother taken away after which a fantasy goblin king obliges, and guilt sends her on a quest to retrieve her brother over the course of which she meets fantastical characters and faces puzzles and challenges. Insipid and corny? Absolutely. It was meant for children, but the plot is there.

Now "plotless." I recall you liking Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, a truly plotless mess that does little more than meander in nostalgia with typical Tarantino disparate tales, each of which amounts to "things that happened, but nothing of substance." The movie ends with the "reveal" that the myriad characters are intertwined in cursory ways, but nothing happens. It's implied that things happened after the end (insofar as the Manson murders,) but everything prior to the end was just random filler. That is a better plot than Labyrinth?

DISCLAIMER: You are of course allowed to feel however you like, just honestly curious how at least these two films fall on unintuitive opposite ends of the spectrum of excellence by your standards.
 

Hawki

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WHAAAAT?!? Who hasn't seen Labyrinth by now??
I've seen some of Labyrinth. No idea what was going on. Something about goblins stealing a baby, and baby's sister entering a labyrinth to get baby back (said sister apparently being passe about the whole fantasy thing), and someone singing about loving a baby, and...sorry, no idea what was happening.
 

Agema

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Kate (2021, Netflix)

This is a clichetastic but fun enough actioner staring Mary Elizabeth Winstead as an assassin shooting and cutting her way through Osaka because reasons. It's so incredibly derivative that you'll feel you have seen all elements of the film done by someone else, and in some cases better; the plot's not important, the characters are basic. But it's as slick and competent as it needs to be, and the action scenes have enough brio, to pass muster.
 

Terminal Blue

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Suspiria (2018)

I've been holding off watching this one because I wanted to watch it with a particular friend who I haven't been able to see over lockdown, and oh boy was it worth the wait.

So, this seems to be a controversial opinion. But 1977 Suspiria is an incredibly overrated film. Like, I know that horror as a genre is a bit weird and attracts a diverse group of people looking for very different things, but I feel like a certain group of those people have spent so long telling themselves Dario Argento is a genius (despite him shitting out films like Dracula 3D and Mother of Tears) that they've just fallen for their own hype. Suspiria is a fundamentally interesting concept, but the original film is bad on every level except the lighting and the soundtrack, and even then neither is used particularly intelligently.

Suspiria 2018 takes the fundamental premise (a dance school/company in 70s Germany that is secretly run by witches) and three-mothers mythology of the original, but then uses it to make an actually good film. It's still surreal and weird and goes places, but unlike Dario's version it's all in the interest of making an actual point. The script sits wonderfully in that point between being genuinely creepy and camp. There's some genuinely uncomfortable horror moments but also some cathartic, over the top excess. The performances are also universally good. Tilda Swinton is just flexing by playing 3 roles. Dakota Johnson turns out to be wonderful when you take her out of a 50 shades movie. Her physical performance is particularly impressive considering she's not a dancer. Even most of the minor characters are clearly characterized and recognizable (often with help of an amazing costume department).

I really, really don't get why so few people liked this one. It's one of the few times I've found myself reading professional reviews and going beyond simple disagreement to the point of just wondering if these people are just incompetent, because I don't think this is a difficult film to understand. It's no more subtle than something like Pan's Labyrinth.

Anyway. Really, really good. If you enjoy modern prestige horror you'll probably like this. Watching the original first helps (and yes, I've just said it's a bad movie but it's an entertaining bad movie to watch) but isn't really necessary. Go in blind and expect a few what the fuck moments, but it'll probably be a good time if you're into this sort of thing.
 
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Samtemdo8

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Commando 1985 movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger

This movie is two things:

1. Every single parody of the cheesy 1980s Action Heroes and Movies? This movie is the reason, all the cliches and one liners of macho one man armies. This movie was the OG that began it. And the action star's name was Arnold Schwarznegger. And I love it.

2. This movie is practically a sequel or prequel to Predator because Predator is literally the same movie just with the alien.
 

Piscian

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I watched Kate (2021) today on netflix.

I can confirm its not another shitshow being shoveled onto to netflix like Gunpower Milkshake. It's actually really great.

It was clearly filmed for the big screen as its a 21:9 aspect ratio, but its still works on the small screen. It's a fairly straight forward revenge flick where an assassin played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead has been poisoned and only has a day to live in order to get revenge on the person responsible. Superficially its easy to ignore this one as its a plot that been done numerous times before, but I can not do the film justice in describing just how well this film was put together. It looks so good I've been trying to dig up who the fight co-ordinator was because I could swear it was the Guy from Raid Redemption. Its that good.

The movie rolls along as a frantic clip similar to Crank, but the film takes place in a neo strobe lighted Tokyo against the Yakuza with all the fixings, thumping music, The tint of the film changes by the mood, hot pink to ocean blue. It's extremely visceral, you are going to see people get stabbed through the chin. Instead of Mary Elizabeth seeming like a superhero shes falling apart through the film looking pretty horrific by the end, but I can't elaborate without spoilers.

It reminded me a lot of PUSH aesthetically with Fighting similar to Raid Redemption where its not choreographed action fights so much as people beating the fuck out of each other whatevers nearby, forks, spoons, emptied clips, fridge doors and clearly feeling every hit. One of the Stunt Co-ordinators is the Ong-bak guy, but this had a big team of 100 or so stunt and fight co-ordinators.

Surprisingly, for such a derivative premise, the dialog is above average with some real genuine moments even among the Yukaza guys. Kinda reminded me of "Outrage" if you ever saw that one.

I'd say go in with slightly lower than John Wick expectations. It's not perfect but its a blast start to finish.
 
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XsjadoBlayde

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Faults (prime?)
A somewhat ok to interesting film about a disgraced TV cult deprogrammer being asked by parents to rescue a missing daughter from a cult. Main issue I got with it is the twist is fairly obvious due to the quality of an element in this film appearing slightly off, and therefore appearing a lower quality to the other elements throughout...which could be alleviated if they revealed the twist much earlier and went on to explore from there. Except it doesn't, so most the time there's this mildly frustrating feeling of "just spill the beans already! You're blatantly hiding the beans in your pocket, we can bloody well see them!" Yet the film wants to play coy with them till the very end, dragging out their increasingly distracting bulge you can't quite stop frowning at.

Good to see Lance Reddick once more though, even if he does stick to the same mysterious stoic character as usual. He is my PSN profile picture cause Horizon Zero Dawn, so I'm always like this when he appears elsewhere...



Prospect (prime?)
Aesthetically Retro Space Hijinks involving father and daughter going onto, a getting stuck on a planet in search of meat trees they can cut open to extract giant sperm harbouring fancy space diamonds within. I'd like to leave it just there, and I think I will. Though Pedro Pascal was so reminiscent of a charismatic friend from a long while ago, actually had to double check.
 
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Dalisclock

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I've seen some of Labyrinth. No idea what was going on. Something about goblins stealing a baby, and baby's sister entering a labyrinth to get baby back (said sister apparently being passe about the whole fantasy thing), and someone singing about loving a baby, and...sorry, no idea what was happening.
There's not really a plot worth speaking of. Mostly it's the sister traversing the titular labyrinth and David Bowie being David Bowie but more Goblin Kingy. Even seeing the beginning doesn't make it make more sense.

Watched Labyrinth for the first time. It's probably one of the most plotless movies I've ever seen. Awesome puppetry and set design though.
You're not wrong. I'm pretty sure it exists to show off the puppetry and sets, and of course, letting David Bowie chew the scenery.
 
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Piscian

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Rewatched "The Matrix" this morning, just didn't feel like getting out of bed and I didn't mind a refresher with the new one coming out.

imminently rewatchable as always. It's up there with films like Independence Day and Jurassic Park or John wick where it's like "oh hey thats on" and you can just sit down and enjoy it because something is always happening. The exposition is interwoven into the action, you're not sitting around waiting while someone explains the Matrix, "It must be shown". Its a very compact story with a compact ending. Gives you lots to ponder and wanting more, but also not needing it. I'm a software/hardware/internet engineer it's surprising to say the way things are laid out "works" for me.

The technology is left opaque to where it's not contradicting, I may not know how the exits and things work, but as someone who understands what a socket is, how the OSI model works and Layer 5-7 firewalls function I can go "I don't know how that works, but its also not showing me enough that I could debate it. In theory it could work" and I think thats how to successfully "suspend disbelief" in scifi and allow an audience to feel connected to a film and its characters. Things like "along with a type of fusion reaction" work because Fusion reaction is not along enough that I can argue and I probably would have argued that maintaining a comatose human might end up making the cost differential kind of weak. I like when films do that. I don't need things explained to me, just small little windows for logic to function. I think as far as "The One" and the commentary on predestination goes, I can guess what my boss is doing at home right now today with a 75% accuracy based on established patterns and repetitive predictable outcomes. I like that the science in the scifi allows for the likelyhood that a Neo would occur, someone with enough of an understanding of the underlying architecture of the matrix to allow them a plethora of backdoors, visualized as super powers, and the people looking for him are the one who are most likely to find him.

It'll be interesting to see if they reflect on the 2&3rd movies or just kind of gloss over them for the 4rth movie. I'm hoping its the latter. This kind of scifi always works better when you keep the exposition to a minimum. It could be argued, all you need to know is that Neo forced a truce of sorts, and he and trinity maybe died. You could just ignore reloaded and revolutions altogether while keeping them canon.

Prospect (prime?)
Aesthetically Retro Space Hijinks involving father and daughter going onto, a getting stuck on a planet in search of meat trees they can cut open to extract giant sperm harbouring fancy space diamonds within. I'd like to leave it just there, and I think I will. Though Pedro Pascal was so reminiscent of a charismatic friend from a long while ago, actually had to double check.
I have a big crush on Prospect. I'm really into set design and Prospect kinda blew me away with its attention to detail. I think every movie goer is different and people care about different things, but I loved that nothing looked fancy in Prospect. These are impoverish miners who can barely afford space travel so the design of their hodge podge technology was just perfect to provide that sense of realism. I think thats a big part of what made Star Wars great, Ralph McQuaries "lived in universe". Space travel would never look flashy or shiny as much as we might dream it does. It would look cheap and dingy. I liked how they were able to use film effects to make generic fields look alien. I think so far I'm the only person the planet that noticed that, similar to Star Wars, they made a unique written language for Prospect. You only really notice it on consoles and when she writing in her journal thing. I also thought Pedro Pascal as Space Mark Twain was Magnificent. Again to each his own I know to some people it just looked like low-budget scifi, but I loved it. I actually got to talk to the set designer on Reddit and he/she confirmed all my thoughts and talked about putting some of the guns and things together. I'd kill to get the film makers to autograph a poster or something.
 
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XsjadoBlayde

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I have a big crush on Prospect. I'm really into set design and Prospect kinda blew me away with its attention to detail. I think every movie goer is different and people care about different things, but I loved that nothing looked fancy in Prospect. These are impoverish miners who can barely afford space travel so the design of their hodge podge technology was just perfect to provide that sense of realism. I think thats a big part of what made Star Wars great, Ralph McQuaries "lived in universe". Space travel would never look flashy or shiny as much as we might dream it does. It would look cheap and dingy. I liked how they were able to use film effects to make generic fields look alien. I think so far I'm the only person the planet that noticed that, similar to Star Wars, they made a unique written language for Prospect. You only really notice it on consoles and when she writing in her journal thing. I also thought Pedro Pascal as Space Mark Twain was Magnificent. Again to each his own I know to some people it just looked like low-budget scifi, but I loved it. I actually got to talk to the set designer on Reddit and he/she confirmed all my thoughts and talked about putting some of the guns and things together. I'd kill to get the film makers to autograph a poster or something.
Yeah, definitely agreed, the reliance on practical effects and precise shots did a lot to help make the world feel that little more real and touchable alongside the care put into to the nuggets of world creation, it's on the upper scale of quality for low-budget sci-fi for sure. The flaws often associated with low budget are mostly sufficiently compensated for, aside from the overly familiar plant life and odd moment of marginally unconvincing stage effects. Great to hear you got to talk and learn off an insider too. The guns were certainly neat looking!
 
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Piscian

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Went and saw shang-chi and the legend of the ten rings after work today. It's going to be a long time before it hits streaming, I heard it was good and when I checked my local theater was empty.

It was filmed 21:9 which makes me a tad disappointed that I saw it in Standard rather Than Dolby or Imax. Definitely recommend watching in Ultra wide if you can. As for the movie itself *shrug*. It was decent. The story is solid and very unique for a Marvel film. I liked the protagonist. I liked the martial arts in the beginning. Very much an homage to Jackie Chan and rumble in the bronx. Awkwafina is toned down to the point of being non-existent. Shes not irritating, but not particularly funny or compelling. I think they shouldn't have bought into the hype and gone with someone more talented. Mandarin and the rings are a minor let down. They remind me of a couple different super heroes, but the only one that comes to mind immediately is "Mister Terrific" from Dc comics, you know basically the Rings can kind of become an extension of your will, but still be rings. Kind of a shield, kind of weapon etc, not particularly fantastical.

I have to admit I don't particularly like modern chinese operatic kungfu films. I don't care for all the swinging and spinning around on wires. It just feels weightless and more. I like meaningful impact stuff. If you have to do Chinese stuff gimme like "man of Tai Chi". In that context the fighting for the second half of the film switches to that CG flipping around on wires stuff and I just find it kind of uninteresting. The movie totally lost me in the final act, its just a typical Chinese CGI boss battle whatever. I couldn't even tell what was going on half the time.

I'm kind of deflated. I heard more than one critic call it one of the best Marvel films. I think they based that largely on the fact that it's very different from any other marvel film. Critics do that, like they loved the TLJ because it was different. To it's credit atmospherically its quite different. It's one of those classical chinese opera kung-fu movies with a marvel logo wrapped around it so you get all the references and dad jokes.

It's ok, just didn't blow my mind. I think if Marvel doesn't want diminishing returns to really start to accumulate they need to start taking some risks.
 

Samtemdo8

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I've been marathoning what they call The DC Animated Movie Universe, And these are the movies relevant to the continuity.

Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox
Justice League: War
Son of Batman
Justice League: Throne of Atlantis
Batman vs. Robin
Batman: Bad Blood
Justice League vs. Teen Titans
Justice League Dark
Teen Titans: The Judas Contract
Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay
Constantine: City of Demons – The Movie
The Death of Superman
Reign of the Supermen
Batman: Hush
Wonder Woman: Bloodlines
And Justice League Dark: Apokolips War


I'm at Death of Superman at the moment. And so far I think Justice League: Throne of Atlantis was the best one. Followed by two Teen Titans movies.

Weakest one so far for me was Batman: Bad Blood
 

Gordon_4

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I've been marathoning what they call The DC Animated Movie Universe, And these are the movies relevant to the continuity.

Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox
Justice League: War
Son of Batman
Justice League: Throne of Atlantis
Batman vs. Robin
Batman: Bad Blood
Justice League vs. Teen Titans
Justice League Dark
Teen Titans: The Judas Contract
Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay
Constantine: City of Demons – The Movie
The Death of Superman
Reign of the Supermen
Batman: Hush
Wonder Woman: Bloodlines
And Justice League Dark: Apokolips War


I'm at Death of Superman at the moment. And so far I think Justice League: Throne of Atlantis was the best one. Followed by two Teen Titans movies.

Weakest one so far for me was Batman: Bad Blood
If you're okay with the out of continuity ones, check out Batman: Soul of the Dragon.