Discuss and Rate the Last Film You Watched

[Johnny Novgorod]

Mountainhead

Jesse Armstrong's made-for-Max TV play about four tech bros brainstorming the apocalypse over the weekend at a mountaintop mansion. The Riddler from the Gotham show essentially plays Elon Musk, and he's very funny while playing the decidedly unfunny Musk. Ramy Youseff is an AI bro, Jason Schwartzman got lucky with a meditation app (at half a billion, he's the poorest of the group) and I didn't get who or what Steve Carell was supposed to be, but he's deeply invested in uploading human consciousness ever since the diagnosis. He casually asks Elon what's the timeline on that. "Glitchy? Ten". By the end of the movie three of them are trying to murder the fourth.

Armstrong wrote Four Lions, about four very stupid wannabe terrorists who drown in three inches of water. Now he's written this, about four very stupid rich people who will never quite drown, because money, but seem to live in the act of.

 

[Gordon_4]

I watched Rebuild of Evangelion 1.0 + 3.0 = Whatever, and...

View attachment 13276

Not an unreasonable reaction, and that’s from someone who enjoyed it.

 

[Bartholen]

I am Legend, 6/10

This is a very odd film. It's a Will Smith joint from 2007, and sees him playing Robert Neville, a survivor in post-apocalyptic New York trying to find a cure for a disease that's killed off most of humanity and left the rest as ravenous proto-zombies. It was a huge smash hit at the time (over $500 million at the box office) and has stayed in the public consciousness, but almost nothing about it screams Hollywood blockbuster. I guess people were just that crazy for Will Smith, because the film itself is very somber, slow and bleak. There are almost no huge action setpieces, Smith is the only actor present for most of it, and its first hour is a very deliberate, slow-burn look at his life of scavenging and trying to develop the cure.

There is a lot to like or at least appreciate: Smith's performance is really solid, and he manages to carry the whole movie on his own effortlessly. He has to do a lot of quite subtle non-verbal acting which goes against his entire persona, but he pulls it off. The post-apocalyptic landscapes are really well realized, and there's some surprisingly bold and even adventurous filmmaking on display. The first half hour is really atmospheric and does good worlbuilding through entirely visual storytelling.

Where this movie falls apart is in the final third, where the movie seemingly can't figure out how to actually have a story, so the movie almost starts over after the hour mark and switches gears completely. Interesting hints of psychological exploration are dropped, but never elaborated on. Worldbuilding details are suddenly added and they feel like they come out of nowhere. A lot more action suddenly starts happening as the movie seems to think it needs it because it's a Hollywood blockbuster. As a result of all this sudden switching it feels like the movie is betraying the groundwork it lays out in its first hour, and the final product feels inconsistent and unrefined. There's also the baffling decision to make the infected mutants completely CG, when you could have just had people in suits and makeup, and it would have looked a lot better. The digital effects in this have not held up. The ending is just super weak.

So yeah. An inconsistent, frustrating film that could have gone down a number of infinitely more interesting paths. It feels almost like a low-budget indie movie that somehow got blown up to be a summer blockbuster, and as a result is constrained by its budget and megastar lead. I still enjoyed enough of it that I'm leaning more on the side of positive though.

 

[thebobmaster]

I am Legend, 6/10

This is a very odd film. It's a Will Smith joint from 2007, and sees him playing Robert Neville, a survivor in post-apocalyptic New York trying to find a cure for a disease that's killed off most of humanity and left the rest as ravenous proto-zombies. It was a huge smash hit at the time (over $500 million at the box office) and has stayed in the public consciousness, but almost nothing about it screams Hollywood blockbuster. I guess people were just that crazy for Will Smith, because the film itself is very somber, slow and bleak. There are almost no huge action setpieces, Smith is the only actor present for most of it, and its first hour is a very deliberate, slow-burn look at his life of scavenging and trying to develop the cure.

There is a lot to like or at least appreciate: Smith's performance is really solid, and he manages to carry the whole movie on his own effortlessly. He has to do a lot of quite subtle non-verbal acting which goes against his entire persona, but he pulls it off. The post-apocalyptic landscapes are really well realized, and there's some surprisingly bold and even adventurous filmmaking on display. The first half hour is really atmospheric and does good worlbuilding through entirely visual storytelling.

Where this movie falls apart is in the final third, where the movie seemingly can't figure out how to actually have a story, so the movie almost starts over after the hour mark and switches gears completely. Interesting hints of psychological exploration are dropped, but never elaborated on. Worldbuilding details are suddenly added and they feel like they come out of nowhere. A lot more action suddenly starts happening as the movie seems to think it needs it because it's a Hollywood blockbuster. As a result of all this sudden switching it feels like the movie is betraying the groundwork it lays out in its first hour, and the final product feels inconsistent and unrefined. There's also the baffling decision to make the infected mutants completely CG, when you could have just had people in suits and makeup, and it would have looked a lot better. The digital effects in this have not held up. The ending is just super weak.

So yeah. An inconsistent, frustrating film that could have gone down a number of infinitely more interesting paths. It feels almost like a low-budget indie movie that somehow got blown up to be a summer blockbuster, and as a result is constrained by its budget and megastar lead. I still enjoyed enough of it that I'm leaning more on the side of positive though.

I'm not sure if you've heard this, but they completely changed the ending after the original tested poorly with audiences. I recommend looking up the alternate ending, because it is FAR better and more satisfying than the ending we ended up with, and would probably address many of the issues you had with the theatrical ending in terms of switching to a more action-y style.

 

[Thaluikhain]

I'm not sure if you've heard this, but they completely changed the ending after the original tested poorly with audiences. I recommend looking up the alternate ending, because it is FAR better and more satisfying than the ending we ended up with, and would probably address many of the issues you had with the theatrical ending in terms of switching to a more action-y style.

Or the Vincent Price or Charlton Heston adaptations of the same source material. Not Planet of the Apes, though that is cited as one, The Omega Man.

I watched it with my buddy that remarked how relieved he was that it was only a tight 93 minute rather than the 3 hour behemoths coming out these days. The silliest thing I can write about it is the two leads, very attractive people for their age are old to be acting like horny for each other teens. But that affection, like I wrote, is part of the plot. Reminds me a bit of Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017). The two leads in that, who were relatively young but are very mid, act like Dane DaHaan and Cara Delvinge are 007 and a Bond girl. Other than that, rather then silly, the characters act in a oddly sedate manner.

That film is really good until the film actually starts with the alien planet, all the preamble stuff with the space station visiting new astronauts and stuff was really good.

But then it gets to the OtT beautiful aliens who are in perfect harmony with nature...bleh. And then the main characters turn up...BLEH!

I like some of the worldbuilding and random stuff that comes up, it's a movie I can watch over and over. Just the main characters and the plot and the dialogue and writing are pretty bad.

...

Speaking off which, Vampire Academy, which I saw in an otherwise empty theatre in 2014. Watching it again on DVD...and yeah,, even for YA urban fantasy books that got adapted after Twilight...its not great. I can see why they didn't adapt the next 5 (or 11 if you count the 6 book spin off series) books of the Vampire Academy series. I'd forgotten or not noticed how bad this film is. As an aside, some of the books in the series were banned in Texas schools before they were written.

For YA adaptations that were badly received, I'd recommend Mortal Instruments, or Mortal Engines. Under no circumstances should you read the Mortal Engines book, though.

 

[BrawlMan]

Karate Kid Legends - See the fucking movie.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

A ★★★½ review of Fear Street: 1994 (2021)

“I said it isn’t a tragedy when it happens every week. It’s a joke.” Technically speaking, the idea for a movie based on the Fear Street series by R.L. Stine first materialized in 1997, when Hollywood Pictures purchased the rights with the intent to capitalize on the popularity of Scream...

letterboxd.com

If you are wondering where my reviews have been, it's hard to write reviews in a hospital bed. I'm better now, but that was not a fun three days.

Get well

 

[BrawlMan]

it's hard to write reviews in a hospital bed. I'm better now, but that was not a fun three days.

Take it easy and rest well. I was in much better condition comapred to you, but I got sick bad for a few weeks.

 

[thebobmaster]

Get well

Take it easy and rest well. I was in much better condition comapred to you, but I got sick bad for a few weeks.

I'm back home, mostly recovered now and back on reviewing stuff. It was a leg infection. I get them fairly often because of a co-morbidity with lymphedema, but this one didn't get taken care of with prescription meds, so I needed IV antibiotics.

 

[thebobmaster]

A ★½ review of American Psycho II: All American Girl (2002)

“Think of it this way. I’m killing the few to save the many. Kind of like Robin Hood.” Unsurprisingly, this movie did not start off life as a sequel to American Psycho, but was instead an unrelated script called The Girl Who Wouldn't Die. It was turned into a sequel because...they could, as far...

letterboxd.com

 

[thebobmaster]

A ★½ review of Rat Race (2001)

“You just can’t pick people at random-” “I can do anything I like, Owen! I’m eccentric.” This film, a loose remake of the 1960's comedy "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World", started as a spec script written by Darryl Quarles, which was sold to Hollywood Pictures in February 1999, with Jerry...

letterboxd.com

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Let Them All Talk

I have yet to see a bad Steven Soderbergh movie.

I'm just excited whenever I can tell the actors are really there, acting together, on a real ship, with real lights, and are passionate about what they get to do with each other. Like look at Gemma Chan just acting the hell out of such a small yet well-rounded, rewarding part and compare it to her posing in a Power Rangers suit for 150 minutes in Eternals, sandwiched between a green screen and a big L'oreal fan. We're too used to good actors being wasted on Happy Meals and quarterly reports.

 

[PsychedelicDiamond]

Sinners (2025)

Period Horror Action Musical (Not exactly words you hear in that order a lot.) directed by Ryan Coogler and starring Michael B. Jordan in a double roll.

Jordan plays a pair of twins in 1930's Mississippi. After making some money in the Chicago underworld, they return to their old home down south to open a dance bar with their cousin, blues guitar prodigy Sammie, played by Miles Caton. On their opening night they and their staff find themselves besieged by hostile forces both worldly and supernatural.

This was really quite good. It is, by all means, a Hollywood action flick, but it has plenty of odd quirks, like having the lead actor play two characters, like its musical elements, like a particularly quirky musical sequence in the middle and like an undercurrent of pretty well executed social commentary that elevate it over its kind of Tarantino/Rodriguez like genre pastiche roots. As does the fact that the entire movie just looks, sounds and is acted really good. It really goes for that southern gothic setting and emphasises it with a twangy country score, besides its numerous musical sequences.

It's also just paced very engagingly. Whenever you think you have figured out what the rest of it is going to be like, it comes up with some fresh setpiece or unexpected plot beat that you didn't see coming, all the way up to the post credit scene. Which isn't to say it's an especially plot twist heavy movie, although there are a couple, it's to say that it's a movie that never quite settles into a routine. It's just very well executed crowd pleasing film making, film making that plays to a broad audience, certainly, but does so in ways that don't feel cheap or pandering.

And, you know, there's something to be said about that because there haven't been a whole lot of action movies like that, recently. This used to be the bread and butter of the American film industry in the 90's and 00's but now it feels like a genuine throwback to have this formally mildly experimental that's not adapted from anything, not made to be part of a series, not trying to establish some apocalyptic stakes and utilizes its period setting for clear and natural feeling social commentary. It's just this project that sets up all the plot and characters it needs in a bit over two hours, requires no prior investment, doesn't leave on a cliffhanger, isn't afraid to indulge in some formalist whims, looks and sounds good and leaves you feeling like you've had a pretty good time while also being about something meaningful.

I dunno, it's just a real movie ass movie. I appreciate that. It's got action, it's got romance, it's got friendship and brotherhood and excitement and drama and it's got something to say. It's a textbook example of what populist film making should be like.

I dunno, I have only ever seen Black Panther and I think I was underestimating Ryan Coogler. Where I think Black Panther, suffered from both its ties to a preexisting franchise and from the fact that it was a movie about Africa, made mostly by people whom I don't think have ever actually lived in Africa, much less the region it's loosely meant to be based on, this is a movie very much of and about America and pretty good one.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Watched Rogue One again, as one must after watching Andor.

What a bizarre experience honestly. Visually, the transition was seamless. There are some sloppy shots, probably from reshoots, but the handful of scenes we get such as anything with the Death Star and Yavin make up for it. But the soundtrack? Man, it just screams that the suits were horrified at how different it was from "real" Star Wars. The incessant use of familiar tracks from the original trilogy were so distracting this time around.

By far the weirdest thing was seeing someone run around in Cassian Andor's skin. When I first watched Rogue One, I had absolutely no attachment to any of the cast. I thought watching the show might change that, but it's impossible to see Cassian in the movie as the same person. The first hour or so of the movie rushes through so much character development. The only reason I wasn't more annoyed at how corny the found family trope was is because they all died at the end, so it doesn't really matter.

The Vader scene is as cool as ever though.