Discuss and Rate the Last Film You Watched

[thebobmaster]

I tried to like this movie, but it took itself way too seriously, and was lacking the charm the series is known for. Even while goofy, many of the different TV series did most serious moments well. They expected at least two or three more of these movies.

I wasn't being facetious with what I said. This is definitely one of those movies I mostly vibed with, but I can completely understand turning people off. I did feel like there was enough campiness in the script for me, but I especially felt the Snyder with the visuals.

 

[Chimpzy]

Another one of my bad movie nights, this time themed around John Travolta.

Battlefield Earth, 2/10

This is the infamous sci-fi bomb from 2000 based on the works of L Ron Hubbard. In a post-apocalyptic earth aliens from the planet Psychlos are mining earth for its resources and humanity has regressed basically back into the bronze age. Then one hero starts fighting back and your typical oppressed vs oppressor narrative follows. It's complete nonsense. This movie is infamous for its horrific excess of dutch angles, but even then you have to see it to truly grasp the sheer scale of the madness on display. Literally almost every shot is a dutch angle with zero rhyme or reason. The effects are gloriously dated early 00s CG slop, the dialogue is just bizarrely bad, the acting is all over the goddamn map. The visual design of the aliens is unorthodox in all the wrong ways. The amount of dialogue the aliens blabber about bureaucracy, trade customs and basically office drama is truly hilarious. John Travolta is an absolute blast, he is just on shrooms and coke the whole movie. Just total brainrot the whole movie, and a whole bunch of fan with drunk friends.

Killing Season, 2/10

This was the other one we watched, and instead of fun bad it's just boring bad. It's about a Yugoslav war vet coming to conflict with a serbian man whom he once faced during the war. The only reason this glorified straight to DVD stinker even got into theaters in 2013 is because somehow Robert DeNiro agreed to it. Perhaps he wanted a paycheck for spending some time in a woods lodge. It's just quite not bad enough to be completely worthless, but neither is it ever really interesting. The film's structure is basically yapping -> torture -> running in the woods -> yapping -> torture -> running in the woods in the laziest, most padded out way. It's like an overly serious bad episode of Tom & Jerry, but stretched torturously over 90 minutes. Not even Travolta is any fun sans his magnificently fake chin beard, the dialogue's in one ear, out the other, the filmmaking is just passable enough to not really warrant making fun of. It's just nothing.

Not The Fanatic? Written and directed by Fred Durst. I mean, if you're hankering for peak cinema.

 

[BrawlMan]

but I especially felt the Snyder with the visuals.

That especially is what did it for me. I don't hate Snyder and I love Man of Steel, but aping his visual style was and will always be a bad call for Power Rangers. What's funny, is that the franchise has done dark colors or visuals throughout certain shows' runs and not be overly in slick murky looks.

 

[thebobmaster]

A ★★★½ review of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)

"Listen, dementors are among the foulest creatures to walk this earth. They feed on every good feeling, every happy memory until a person is left with nothing but his worst experiences. The dementors affect you more than others because there are true horrors in your past, horrors your classmates...

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[Bartholen]

Not The Fanatic? Written and directed by Fred Durst. I mean, if you're hankering for peak cinema.

Shit, kinda forgot about that. But I also had Killing Season on DVD, and wanted a reason to justify owning it I suppose.

 

[thebobmaster]

A ★★★★★ review of Fight Club (1999)

"This is Bob. Bob had ***** tits." This film, an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Chuck Palahniuk, had at least one scout from Fox Searchlight Pictures interested before publication, with the scout sending a galley proof to creative executive Kevin McCormick. McCormick then sent the...

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[thebobmaster]

A ★★½ review of Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World (1998)

“I beg your pardon?” “Fine. You have it.” Unsurprisingly, given the throwaway nature of most DisneyToon productions, there isn't a lot to note when it comes to this film's development. The only real interesting thing is that due to schedule conflicts, Mel Gibson was unable to return to voice...

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[Bartholen]

Crash (1996), 6/10

This is David Cronenberg's drama about a bunch of depraved perverts who get their rocks off to car crashes, both watching them and being involved in them. I don't really know if I liked it that much, I found it rather cold and repetitive. The coldness is intentional on the film's part, but I didn't find that the film had enough to offer in place of emotional attachment. The whole film is presented in a deliberately stilted, detached way. You never feel engaged with or like you're amidst the characters, the audience is more of a passive observer. Despite the copious amounts of on-screen sex and nudity, I never found it even slightly titillating. The sex the characters engage in is presented more like a compulsive, uncontrollable urge that's destroying the characters from the inside and dragging them down.

Despite this being firmly rooted in reality, I'd still call it a body horror film of a sort. Due to the aforementioned way sex is presented, I'd call it a different kind of body horror, where the horror is more internal than external: the characters are barely hanging on to control of themselves as their bodies seem to drive them into deeper depravity. There's a very overt focus on injuries and scars, and the great makeup effects make it feel every bit as gross as anything you'd find in Videodrome or The Fly. The film's very minimal with its dialogue, instead letting the characters' actions speak for themselves. I personally didn't think that the film had enough substance to latch onto to sustain my interest for even its brisk runtime of barely 100 minutes. I just found the constant sex and driving scenes rather tedious by the end, and the characters weren't really interesting enough either. They all just blank-facedly drift through this strange world, starting as a bunch of weird pervs and ending as a bunch of weird pervs, some of whom are dead. I'll give it this: it's got some damn bold scenes and dialogue for 1996. There's no taboo this film won't tackle head on.

 

[thebobmaster]

A ★½ review of Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007)

“What do you have against capitalism?” This film didn't have so much a troubled production as an ugly one. For starters, while Doug Jones was cast to play Silver Surfer, they decided to have his voice dubbed in by Laurence Fishburne. Not only is this only one of two times that that's happened in...

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[FakeSympathy]

On my flight back from Japan to US, the plane had a selection of amazing movies, some that I never got to watch. I watched three, which made up 6/8 hours of the flight back home

Alien: Romulus
Finally! The series has gone back ot its roots, without the 99% CGI bullcrap or characters acting like idiots. The survivors actually tries to make smart decisions, and even then they begin to be taken off one by one. I think my favorite scenes were the going through the heated hallway full of facehuggers, and killing off xenomorphs in zero g to avoid their acid bloods from spilling.

I think the MVP actor goes to the guy who played Andy. The dude switching from Rain's Andy to "Weyland's" Andy was incredible.

I also love the ending being really ambiguous, and doesn't have the post-credit jumpscare (at least for the version that I watched)

Super/Man: Christopher Reeve Story
I was crying. The dude truly was the embodiment of man of steel, becoming a beacon of hope and example for people with paralysis. I think he was even more empowered from the people around him; Robin Williams, Wiliam, Matthew, Dana, they all had a hand in helping him continue to fight.

The Last Emperor
Wow, this was amazing. The fact that they filmed it in the actual palace is amazing. The costumes, soundtracks, and near-accurate story of Puyi were all done well.

I kinda felt bad for the main guy. I mean he never was the true ruler, tried desperately to reclaim his kingdom, an in the end he is left without anything or anyone at his side. He died very unceremoniously. The dude is struggling with the rise of new powers, while maintaining what little of his dignity left, was hard to see.

Maybe living out the rest of his life quietly was better for him in the end, though

 

[Worgen]

Just watched 'Dune the second one' or whatever. Yeah, pretty dang good. It felt like they had a lot to cram into one movie and this is one of the few times it really felt like they pulled it off. Its still got the stark visual design that the first movie had and even more, like we get to see the Harkonan homeworld and its nice and as weird as you want it to be. Speaking of weird, I love how alien all the designs are, like they don't look sleek and futuristic, they just look nice and weird. The final big battle did feel a bit anti-climactic, but the final fight was nicely done. I do think I liked the first one a bit more because they spent so much time worldbuilding such an interesting universe, but I certainly enjoyed this one also and am looking forward to the third.

 

[thebobmaster]

On my flight back from Japan to US, the plane at some amazing movies, some that I never got to watch. I watcheed three, which made up 6/8 hours flight back home

Alien: Romulus
Finally! The series has gone back ot its roots, without the 99% CGI bullcrap or characters acting like idiots. The survivors actually tries to make smart decisions, and even then they begin to be taken off one by one. I think my favorite scenes were the going through the heated hallway full of facehuggers, and killing off xenomorphs in zero g to avoid their acid bloods from spilling.

I think the MVP actor goes to the guy who played Andy. The dude switching from Rain's Andy to "Weyland's" Andy was incredible.

I also love the ending being really ambiguous, and doesn't have the post-credit jumpscare (at least for the version that I watched)

I love that the only CGI on the new Alien was the tail and tongue. Everything else was just taking a basketball player and applying cosmetic/practical stuff. And yeah, Andy was quite well done. This is probably the most "horror" film in the series since the first one, and while I knock it a bit for taking a few too many things from other Alien movies, it was also nice to see them step back from Prometheus/Covenant and just make a good solid Alien movie again.

 

[thebobmaster]

A ★★★★½ review of Wall Street (1987)

“The point is, ladies and gentlemen, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of evolutionary spirit.” After his success with Platoon, Oliver Stone at first wanted to make a movie inspired by the quiz...

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[Xprimentyl]

Crash (1996), 6/10

This is David Cronenberg's drama about a bunch of depraved perverts who get their rocks off to car crashes, both watching them and being involved in them. I don't really know if I liked it that much, I found it rather cold and repetitive. The coldness is intentional on the film's part, but I didn't find that the film had enough to offer in place of emotional attachment. The whole film is presented in a deliberately stilted, detached way. You never feel engaged with or like you're amidst the characters, the audience is more of a passive observer. Despite the copious amounts of on-screen sex and nudity, I never found it even slightly titillating. The sex the characters engage in is presented more like a compulsive, uncontrollable urge that's destroying the characters from the inside and dragging them down.

Despite this being firmly rooted in reality, I'd still call it a body horror film of a sort. Due to the aforementioned way sex is presented, I'd call it a different kind of body horror, where the horror is more internal than external: the characters are barely hanging on to control of themselves as their bodies seem to drive them into deeper depravity. There's a very overt focus on injuries and scars, and the great makeup effects make it feel every bit as gross as anything you'd find in Videodrome or The Fly. The film's very minimal with its dialogue, instead letting the characters' actions speak for themselves. I personally didn't think that the film had enough substance to latch onto to sustain my interest for even its brisk runtime of barely 100 minutes. I just found the constant sex and driving scenes rather tedious by the end, and the characters weren't really interesting enough either. They all just blank-facedly drift through this strange world, starting as a bunch of weird pervs and ending as a bunch of weird pervs, some of whom are dead. I'll give it this: it's got some damn bold scenes and dialogue for 1996. There's no taboo this film won't tackle head on.

Yeah, I recall watching this when it came out; a friend had seen it and talked about all the sex shit, and I was a horny 16-year-old who wanted to see the sex, but walked away feeling filthy. Turns out there is a point at which the intrigue of nudity and sex is cancelled out by gratuitous violence and weird fetishism, even for someone walking around with an erection 85% of the day. Haven't thought about that movie in decades, saw your post, and was hoping it was about the 2004 film of the same name which I love, but alas, no, I'm reminded of a very dark and disturbing hour and a half from my teenaged years. Thanks for that.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

G20

A fantasy action B movie that wants you to believe, at least for 110 minutes, that 1) America is ready to vote for a Black, female president, 2) a 60 year old woman with no combat experience and a bad knee can body mercs half her age and twice her size, 3) the global economy is one bad deepfake away from crashing into the Middle Ages and 4) "it doesn't matter how you get there, what matters is what you do when you're there". Uuuuh, sure.

All that aside the movie is a little too grim for its own good. Not that it's particularly bloody or dark, it's just that everything is played out a little too dramatically or emotionally, given how silly the whole thing reads on paper and looks on camera. No jokes, no one-liners, no bravado, nothing too exciting or memorable. The gunfighting is also quite lame. Viola Davis' spider sense tingles, spins around, shoots someone, spins around, shoots somebody else, etc. But for a fight in an elevator the action is usually nondescript like that: shot/reverse shot of Viola spinning around/somebody pretending to get shot.

I did like Viola in the part, and leaves a better impression here than when she played the First Lady, and I liked the dude playing her bodyguard too, but the whole thing kinda just flops on the floor. This isn't the punky, kickass flick the trailer made it out to be.

 

[thebobmaster]

A ★★★ review of Punisher: War Zone (2008)

"See you in hell." "If I see you anywhere near Hell, I'll kick your ass out." Oh, boy, the production on this one. A sequel to the 2004 Punisher movie had been floated around since shortly before its release. However, despite many false starts, including filming dates being set, and Thomas Jane...

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[thebobmaster]

A ★★★ review of Oliver & Company (1988)

“Hey, man, if this is torture, chain me to the wall!” This film had quite a bit of work done to it in the production process. The first animated Disney film to be made under the supervision of Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg, it was pitched in late 1984 or early 1985 during an infamous...

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[Gordon_4]

Watched a few movies this weekend.

Alita Battle Angel - 10/10
-Okay some overdone acting aside, this movie is fucking awesome and I'm not taking questions.

Spider-Man: Far from Home - 7/10
-The weaker of the three Tom Holland films. I still like it and Jake Gyllenhall is great as is the concept behind Mysterio and I like Peter and MJs very corny romance. But the middle of the film does drag like a *****.

Blue Beetle - 10/10
Now this sucker is awesome. Great visuals - that costume they made for Jaime is amazing - with a great synthewave soundtrack and neon aesthetic. In fact its almost like a stealth Cyberpunk movie; hell the main physical villain - Carapax - looks like a 'borg and has a backstory straight out of the Solo's section of the gamebook.

 

[Agema]

The sex the characters engage in is presented more like a compulsive, uncontrollable urge that's destroying the characters from the inside and dragging them down.

One might argue that is precisely the issue with fetishes. They are perhaps akin to drug addictions: things that fetishists crave, without which they cannot really experience (sexual) fulfillment, and which some may do unethical and abusive things to get. In that sense perhaps for many non-fetishists fetishistic sex may also cease to be sexy.

I would also note regarding the stilted, unemotional depictions of sex that this possibly represents the book that the film is based on. Although I've not read it, as far as I am aware as it has a theme of blending pornography with technology, the sex scenes are written in a technical fashion (like a textbook) rather than as typical erotica.

 

[BrawlMan]

Sinners - 10/10. See this fucking movie.