Discuss and Rate the Last Film You Watched

[Xprimentyl]

Subservience: Meh / Great

While his wife is in hospital awaiting a heart transplant, a man employs (well, "buys," I guess) artificially intelligent housekeeper/nanny "Alice" to help take care of the house and children. Because A.I., it's soon made evident he's bitten off a bit more than he can chew as Alice takes the term "workaholic" and ratchets it up to 11.

It's the on-rails "A.I. gets out of hand" cautionary tale; literally nothing new here. And it's a slow boil to boot; stakes don't really get addressed until the latter third of the film where implications get multiplied by a factor of 1,000, but there's not enough film left to sink your teeth into. All I took away from it was that if I had an A.I. housekeeper that looked like Megan Fox, and all it wanted to do was clean, cook, babysit, and fuck me to keep my stress levels down... Well, let's just say it'd have been a much shorter movie with me in the lead. Hell, I watched the whole thing, and I'd probably still buy one; I didn't learn a damn thing!

 

[thebobmaster]

A ★★★★½ review of Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (2024)

“The light shines, even though the star is gone.” While this film had a fairly smooth production, there are a few things to note. First off, when Jim Carrey floated around the possibility of retiring from acting, the studio confirmed that if he did decide to retire, the role of Robotnik would...

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[Thaluikhain]

A ★★★★★ review of Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)

"Dabbling in watercolors, Eddie?" This film definitely has an interesting production process. The rights to the book Who Censored Roger Rabbit? were purchased by then-President at Walt Disney Studios Ron Miller in 1981, shortly after it was published, seeing it as prime blockbuster material. Two...

letterboxd.com

A quibble, but "It's some of the best work on either side of the division between live action and animation, and combined?"...should that be "Is it some of the best work on either side of the division between live action and animation, and combined?"

Also, Alan Silvestri also did the music for Predator the year before this, and some of the music is rather similar. But it works, because this film plays bits very seriously. Valiant psyching himself up to go into toontown, to hunt for the murderer (who totally isn't what they seem), who he's got a score to settle with...replace him with Danny Glover and you could stick that scene into Predator 2.

 

[thebobmaster]

A ★ review of The Final Destination (2009)

“Would it kill you to be sensitive?” “I don’t know. Never tried it.” After the success of Final Destination 3, a script was written and pitched for a follow-up by Eric Bress. Because the third film's director James Wong was unavailable to return, as he was working on Dragonball Evolution, the...

letterboxd.com

A quibble, but "It's some of the best work on either side of the division between live action and animation, and combined?"...should that be "Is it some of the best work on either side of the division between live action and animation, and combined?"

Also, Alan Silvestri also did the music for Predator the year before this, and some of the music is rather similar. But it works, because this film plays bits very seriously. Valiant psyching himself up to go into toontown, to hunt for the murderer (who totally isn't what they seem), who he's got a score to settle with...replace him with Danny Glover and you could stick that scene into Predator 2.

Pretty sure the way I wrote it is still grammatically correct, but I should probably break it into two sentences to be clearer.

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

The Gorge

….

Guess I’ve never seen a movie metaphor itself quite like this. It was fairly promising until it went further than T.S. Elliot probably ever imagined was possible. Also I guess that really was Sigourney. C’mon Jim; either pay her more or release the next Avatar faster. Props to both the leads making the most of it and good scenery though, even if AI had a hand here and there.

 

[BrawlMan]

The Protector (Tom-Yum-Goong) - Tony Jaa film where is elephants get captured and he has to rescue them! This movie still awesome and one of the greatest martial arts films of all time! It's the right kind of silly and over-the-top that works. I have no complaints about this film, other than being a slightly slow start. When it picks up, it picks up. Don't ever bother watching the American Theatrical Cut. Just stick with the Thai/International Cut with subtitles. Thankfully it's available in most places. The Thai Cut is an S-Rank, 11/10!

 

[thebobmaster]

A ★★★½ review of Late Night with the Devil (2023)

“I wouldn’t worry about your TV show. I have a feeling you’re going to be very famous soon.” This review was written without any AI assistance. This film takes place in the 70's and follows a talk show host named Jack Delroy (David Dastmalchian), who is desperately trying to beat out Johnny...

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[Johnny Novgorod]

Rewatched The Conversation (RIP Gene) and only now I pick up that Severance absolutely cribbed its theme song from the score, of course on top of incurring on a lot of similar themes of paranoia and compartmentalization.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

The Protector (Tom-Yum-Goong) - Tony Jaa film where is elephants get captured and he has to rescue them! This movie still awesome and one of the greatest martial arts films of all time! It's the right kind of silly and over-the-top that works. I have no complaints about this film, other than being a slightly slow start. When it picks up, it picks up. Don't ever bother watching the American Theatrical Cut. Just stick with the Thai/International Cut with subtitles. Thankfully it's available in most places. The Thai Cut is an S-Rank, 11/10!

I could swear I watched this movie but it was called Ong Bok 2 or 3. So either it's one of those things where a movie has alternative titles based on the market or language or he made two movies about elephants.

 

[BrawlMan]

I could swear I watched this movie but it was called Ong Bok 2 or 3. So either it's one of those things where a movie has alternative titles based on the market or language or he made two movies about elephants.

Ong-Bak 2 & 3 do feature elephants as a theme or part of the environment, but none of them are captured nor seriously harmed.

The Protector is really known for these of its signature scenes:

​

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I watched the Oscars.

It was an Anora sweep: industry plant Mikey Madison got Best Actress over Demi Moore's comeback narrative, while Sean Baker became the first person ever to win 4 awards in one night for Original Screenplay, Editing, Director and Best Picture.

The Brutalist came in second with an expected Best Actor for Adrien Brody, taking way too fucking long, as well as Score and Cinematography, which I think was well deserved but not over stuff like Dune 2. Which got awards for Sound and FX, by the way, and both times the winners were cut short and played out in favor of stuffing in more ads and unfunny tripe.

Wicked got a couple of awards for Production Design and Costumes, I think.

The other movie to get two awards was Emilia Pérez: Best Supporting Actress went to the movie's actual lead Zoe Saldaña, who started crying and shouting mami, mami on stage, and then Best Original Song went to a Spanish song written by three French individuals who openly detest the language. Fuck Emilia Pérez, fuck Jacques Audiard. I hope their 2/13 makes them the biggest losers in Oscar history.

Conclave won Adapted Screenplay, The Substance got Hair and Makeup.

Kieran Culkin won Best Supporting Actor for essentially playing up his Roman Roy persona in A Real Pain. I get it, we're all sick of Trump and people like Roy Cohn. But Jeremy Strong absolutely deserved it.

The cat movie won Best Animated movie, because of course.

The dictatorship movie won Best International movie, because of course. It's Latin America's trusty version of Oscar Bait. Argentina already has a couple - La historia oficial (1985) and El secreto de sus ojos (2009). Congrats Brazil.

I think that's it. I'm off to watch The White Lotus, night everyone.

 

[thebobmaster]

A ★★ review of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)

“Each of us hides a secret pain. Share yours, and gain strength from the sharing.” While the last two movies had fairly smooth productions overall, this one was not nearly as fortunate. The film began as the brainchild of William Shatner, who had a clause in his contract that Leonard Nimoy was...

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[Casual Shinji]

It was an Anora sweep: industry plant Mikey Madison got Best Actress over Demi Moore's comeback narrative,

Aw dude, how meta.

 

[Thaluikhain]

A ★★ review of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)

“Each of us hides a secret pain. Share yours, and gain strength from the sharing.” While the last two movies had fairly smooth productions overall, this one was not nearly as fortunate. The film began as the brainchild of William Shatner, who had a clause in his contract that Leonard Nimoy was...

letterboxd.com

Ah, a rushed production et al certainly explains a lot. There was some potential buried in this film, but a long way down.

 

[Gordon_4]

I watched the Oscars.

It was an Anora sweep: industry plant Mikey Madison got Best Actress over Demi Moore's comeback narrative, while Sean Baker became the first person ever to win 4 awards in one night for Original Screenplay, Editing, Director and Best Picture.

The Brutalist came in second with an expected Best Actor for Adrien Brody, taking way too fucking long, as well as Score and Cinematography, which I think was well deserved but not over stuff like Dune 2. Which got awards for Sound and FX, by the way, and both times the winners were cut short and played out in favor of stuffing in more ads and unfunny tripe.

Wicked got a couple of awards for Production Design and Costumes, I think.

The other movie to get two awards was Emilia Pérez: Best Supporting Actress went to the movie's actual lead Zoe Saldaña, who started crying and shouting mami, mami on stage, and then Best Original Song went to a Spanish song written by three French individuals who openly detest the language. Fuck Emilia Pérez, fuck Jacques Audiard. I hope their 2/13 makes them the biggest losers in Oscar history.

Conclave won Adapted Screenplay, The Substance got Hair and Makeup.

Kieran Culkin won Best Supporting Actor for essentially playing up his Roman Roy persona in A Real Pain. I get it, we're all sick of Trump and people like Roy Cohn. But Jeremy Strong absolutely deserved it.

The cat movie won Best Animated movie, because of course.

The dictatorship movie won Best International movie, because of course. It's Latin America's trusty version of Oscar Bait. Argentina already has a couple - La historia oficial (1985) and El secreto de sus ojos (2009). Congrats Brazil.

I think that's it. I'm off to watch The White Lotus, night everyone.

Assuming you’re talking about Flow, I thought consensus on both sides of the aisle was that it was a great movie. It’s not like they have it to Moana 2 or anything. I’d have preferred Wild Robot or (in my wildest dreams) Transformers One to take the gong personally though.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

The funny thing about this year's Oscars Best Picture is that there is no winner that would have made sense to everyone.
Here we get the "industry plant" take... lol, ok dude.
The Brutalist, like Emelia Perez, was met with great love and then push back. At least for Brutalist that push back was completely on the film's merits- mostly around the pacing and ending (the stuff about AI was a flash in the news cycle pan that went away and I don't think mattered). But by the time we got to Oscars night there was no reason to think the Brutalist "deserved" it or whatever.

People see an award called "Best Picture" like "Game of the Year" or "Rock and Roll Hall of Fame" and cannot wrap their heads around it being subjective.

Mikey Madison winning makes perfect sense to me- she IS Anora. Demi Moore was great but she is a co-lead in that film. Anora is a good movie that is about characters, under 3 hours, and it has an energy that completely wraps any interested viewer in its world and people. It's as reasonable a Best Picture as any of the others (I did not watch Nickel Boys and I'm Still Here, two films that look really interesting). They're so different that to get mad at one winning over another would be silly.
But Madison's win just makes so much sense- no other lead actress was THE actress. Erivo did a phenomenal job but that film is really driven by the production of it all so I get why she didn't win even though she displayed a truly brilliant performance.

The funniest thing to me was how A Complete Unknown didn't win any awards? Man, folks LOVED that movie. I kinda liked it more than I expected but I'm one of those Dewey Cox-pilled music fans that can't ever take a music biopic seriously again.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

Assuming you’re talking about Flow, I thought consensus on both sides of the aisle was that it was a great movie. It’s not like they have it to Moana 2 or anything. I’d have preferred Wild Robot or (in my wildest dreams) Transformers One to take the gong personally though.

Flow is great. It's one of those things where I would suspect anyone of hating on it to being contrarian.
The other day my sister asked me what is my favorite of the Oscar-nominated Best Picture films and I said "Flow but that feels like cheating 'cause it's about cartoon animals becoming friends."

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Assuming you’re talking about Flow, I thought consensus on both sides of the aisle was that it was a great movie. It’s not like they have it to Moana 2 or anything. I’d have preferred Wild Robot or (in my wildest dreams) Transformers One to take the gong personally though.

I haven't seen any of the animated movies this year, I just assumed Flow was a banger for the same reason Stray was a banger - cats and cats going on a journey/being in danger is always treated as peak fiction.

Here we get the "industry plant" take... lol, ok dude.

By now Tarantino has discovered and/or revitalized so many actors and their careers (Baker thanked him directly last night), I don't have any qualms about Madison being a plant. She's also fantastic in Anora.

The Brutalist, like Emelia Perez, was met with great love and then push back. At least for Brutalist that push back was completely on the film's merits- mostly around the pacing and ending (the stuff about AI was a flash in the news cycle pan that went away and I don't think mattered). But by the time we got to Oscars night there was no reason to think the Brutalist "deserved" it or whatever.

The AI thing with The Brutalist was essentially clickbait. Most movies use AI in some capacity - such as musicals like Wicked and A Complete Unknown - much like every cigarette company toasts their tobacco, but as Don Draper figures out it's all about who makes a big deal out of it. I'm trying to remember if Brody even speaks Hungarian on camera, I think most of it happens in voiceover.

People see an award called "Best Picture" like "Game of the Year" or "Rock and Roll Hall of Fame" and cannot wrap their heads around it being subjective.

It's somehow more subjective and less subjective than that. Every year stories break about voters not even watching the stuff they're voting for. Many voters kinda just wing it on vibes. There was that story circulating about voters giving it to Brody instead of Fiennes "because Fiennes already won one for Schindler's List". No he didn't, but Brody did for The Pianist.

Mikey Madison winning makes perfect sense to me- she IS Anora. Demi Moore was great but she is a co-lead in that film.

I posit the same could be said of Zoe Saldaña and Kieran Culkin, who won Best Supporting awards despite essentially being co-leads in their respective movies.

Anora is a good movie that is about characters, under 3 hours, and it has an energy that completely wraps any interested viewer in its world and people. It's as reasonable a Best Picture as any of the others (I did not watch Nickel Boys and I'm Still Here, two films that look really interesting). They're so different that to get mad at one winning over another would be silly.

I don't know where you get that I'm mad about Anora's win. I freaking loved that movie and everyone in it, both Sean Baker and Mikey absolutely deserved every award. But much like GOTY, who actually deserves it is a nice bonus. What really matters to the voters is pointing the industry in the "right" direction forward. And more often than not new blood is more important than comeback narratives and career awards, such as Demi's campaign (or Michael Keaton or Mickey Rourke before her).

So I'm not saying Mikey is undeserving - every nominee is deserving - but her win is useful to the industry in a way that Demi's isn't, much as I personally wanted her to get it.

But Madison's win just makes so much sense- no other lead actress was THE actress.

Haven't seen it but Fernanda Torres supposedly had a similar claim with I'm Still Here.

The funniest thing to me was how A Complete Unknown didn't win any awards? Man, folks LOVED that movie. I kinda liked it more than I expected but I'm one of those Dewey Cox-pilled music fans that can't ever take a music biopic seriously again.

It's a great movie that simply didn't excel against any other nominee in any other category. Timmy wants it too bad and he'll get it some day, same as Leo, for some buzzy tour de force that never again shows up in his Top 10 performances.

 

[Phoenixmgs]

It was an Anora sweep: industry plant Mikey Madison got Best Actress over Demi Moore's comeback narrative, while Sean Baker became the first person ever to win 4 awards in one night for Original Screenplay, Editing, Director and Best Picture.

I didn't get why Anora is considered so good. It was a fine enough and entertaining movie (like 7/10 territory). I didn't think the performance was anything special or really that difficult from an acting standpoint. I thought editing was rather lacking in that it felt like 20 minutes or so too long and the movie also stalls at points during what is supposed to be a frantic night because of the editing. I just rewatched Unstoppable (the Denzel train movie) the other day, that is way fucking better than it has any right to be, and that is a masterclass on how to edit a movie like that to keep it feeling frantic and constantly moving.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

I didn't get why Anora is considered so good. It was a fine enough and entertaining movie (like 7/10 territory). I didn't think the performance was anything special or really that difficult from an acting standpoint. I thought editing was rather lacking in that it felt like 20 minutes or so too long and the movie also stalls at points during what is supposed to be a frantic night because of the editing. I just rewatched Unstoppable (the Denzel train movie) the other day, that is way fucking better than it has any right to be, and that is a masterclass on how to edit a movie like that to keep it feeling frantic and constantly moving.

Your description of Anora can also work for The Brutalist, A Complete Unknown, and Conclave.
So that's kind of my point about this year- there's really no "reason" for one movie to win or lose, other than Emelia Perez that had to lose.