Discuss and Rate the Last Film You Watched

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McElroy

Elite Member
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Apr 3, 2013
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Also, kudos to Herzog, apparently Treadwell's footage includes his and his girlfriend's death (audio, at least): Herzog destroyed that part.
Nah. It's been leaked online. I have it as my ringtone in fact. edit. Dubious authenticity, of course. But the fact is that Herzog was never the only person to have access to that audio. edit2: I guess it's been proven fake and based on a transcript. Really annoying to remember things about half-correctly and then googling shit at the same time I'm writing the reply.
 
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happyninja42

Elite Member
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May 13, 2010
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American Ultra.

Given how much I remembered I enjoyed Mr. Right, and how much my wife loved it too, we decided to watch Max Landis' other wacky action film American Ultra.

I dunno, I just really enjoy his sense of humor, and tone, and fun he has with these 2 films.

So, overall plot, if The Bourne Identity and Pineapple Express had a kid, that would be this film. Jessie Eisenburg plays a washed out stoner, just getting by in a hole in wall little town, in the middle of Nowheresburg, USA. He's got an equally stoned girlfriend in the form of Kristen Stewart, but *dramatic music* things are not as simple as they seem!

Due to a series of crazy circumstances, Howell (Jessie), learns that he is actually a secret CIA operative, part of a government project to build a sleeper agent. Things didn't go exactly as planned, and shit escalates from there. He's suddenly finding himself with a Certain Set of Skills, that he has no fucking clue how he got, a ton of angry people all trying to kill him, and happy to kill anyone else in their way, and a fuckton of questions.

And it's just great. The entire cast is great. The various supporting cast all have significant development, all actually contribute to the movement of the plot, and feel real, to varying degrees real.

I'm not going to go into too much detail, but, this is a really good film. In particular, I think Max does a fantastic job of balancing drugged out insanity, genuine action awesomeness, and a lot of heartfelt emotion and drama, in particular between Eisenburg and Stewart.

Seriously, Kristen Stewart gets a bad fucking wrap. If anyone wants to see Kristen acting, and acting WELL, with a character that has some depth and nuance to her, watch American Ultra. I personally think she's done several good films, especially when she was just starting out, but American Ultra just really makes me fall in love with her. She's allowed to be a real person, express her emotions like a real person, and it's fantastic. Her chemistry with Jessie is really great. They are equal parts funny as hell with their banter, and touching and loving. She conveys a ton of emotion in her voice in various scenes, where you can just feel her anguish about what's going on.

But yeah, really good film, underrated and underappreciated in my book. Check it out
 

Bob_McMillan

Elite Member
Aug 28, 2014
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Philippines
My family watched Black Panther last night. Good fun, we really did lose a lot when Chadwick Boseman passed. I still don't think the movie is the greatest MCU movie ever, or Oscar worthy (whatever the fuck that means), but it's still an enjoyable movie with a great soundtrack and villain.

It is weird though that now when there's talk of who will be the next Black Panther, it's always M'Baku or Shuri or Okoye. Damn guys, are we really all just going to forget about Nakia? You know, Nakia, likely T'Challa's queen? The person who nobody listened to even though she was saying the exact same thing as Killmonger (except she wasn't a murderer)? Fought a Black Panther in a vibranium suit and survived? Is royalty in her tribe? She's literally the perfect choice to take the mantle.
 

thebobmaster

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Apr 5, 2020
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United States
Just watched Kong: Skull Island. Pretty much every complaint I had about Godzilla 2014 is void here. It was focused mostly on the humans still, but the writers remembered to actually make the characters likeable, to the point where I was honestly concerned about whether some of them would survive or not. In addition, the scenes with Kong and the Skullcrawlers, while still somewhat limited, felt so much more impactful than they did in Godzilla 2014. While I don't see myself ever feeling like watching Godzilla 2014 again, I would not be surprised if I felt the urge to rewatch Kong: Skull Island.
 

McElroy

Elite Member
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Apr 3, 2013
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Finland
The Piano
Jane Campion's darling about a mute Scottish woman Ada (Holly Hunter) who gets shipped off to New Zealand in the mid 1800s with her daughter (Anna Paquin) and a nice piano that she plays like it's the voice she's lost. Her arranged marriage to Alisdair (Sam Neill) doesn't get to go anywhere before another lost soul George (Harvey Keitel) is drawn to Ada. The viewer's mind wanders and ponders just how these people work, what they think about, why they do what they do and how they ended up there, but the film is grounded in ways that makes you sympathize with (almost) all of them. Subtlety of the surroundings is as important as the words that come out of the characters' mouths, even more so, for what people say is mostly rubbish anyway. I'm also glad that Campion changed her mind about the ending: she originally wanted Ada to drown. 10/10
 
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Agema

You have no authority here, Jackie Weaver
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Mar 3, 2009
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The Dig (2021)

Quintessiential British-style drama: which is to say period piece, well scripted and acted, that rambles gently along to conclusion like an extended TV play.

Stars Ralph Fiennes as amateur archaeologist Billy Brown who uncovered the famous Sutton Hoo find around the start of WW2, with Carey Mulligan as Edith Pretty (about 20 years too young for the role: what's that about over-casting of younger actresses?), owner of the land who asked him to excavate. Based on a true story, has other people in, albeit with lashings of artistic licence. All boo and hiss when the pompous Oxford professor sweeps in takes over once the importance of the site becomes clear - and of couse caused Brown's contribution to be overlooked for decades (although this has more recently been corrected and he is properly credited nowadays). Except as with these things, he's not really a bad guy as such, just stuffy and self-important.

It's nice, in a relaxing, mid-afternoon tea break sort of way.
 

XsjadoBlayde

~it ends here~
Apr 29, 2020
3,216
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Violation. (On Shudder, but not the shudder through Amazon Prime because that is a flimsy imposter I wasted time and money on to find out)
A revenge horror-ish - though the genre label will no doubt frustrate the more uncultured bloodthirsty swine among us - low-budget indie drama film about protagonist woman Madeline Sims-Fewer enacting a plan against a family friend with history between them. Atmosphere and cinematography are on top form, visual metaphors too if you're into that. The humans are all realistically messy, cringy and complicated: no clean movie-like script to comfort those groomed by hollywood expectations. Stubbornly maintains a focused simplicity and a short run time regardless. It's still percolating through my consciousness as I type. Recommended for cineophiles I spose more than the average movie goer, but am hoping to be surprised.
 
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stroopwafel

Elite Member
Jul 16, 2013
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Unhinged. Russell Crowe was amazing in this movie. He definitely gained a few pounds for the role which made him look a bit like Alex Jones(wonder if that was intentional). The premise is about people being so on edge and stressed out in modern society that the smallest incident can light their fuse. The movie really plays with the idea of what would happen if you pissed off the wrong person. Great acting and just a really well paced story.
 
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stroopwafel

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Jul 16, 2013
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During the filming of Aguirre an extra allegedly offered to kill Klaus Kinski for Herzog, and although he declined Herzog also threatened to shoot Kinski and then kill himself to prevent Kinski from walking out of the project. Kinski and Herzog hated each other but ended up making five films together because Herzog thought Kinski was a great actor and Kinski needed the work because nobody except Herzog could tolerate him.
Herzog is a genuine artist with great understanding of the human condition and Klaus Kinski was the most intense actor that ever lived. A pair made in heaven even if they wanted to kill eachother on occasion. My favorite movie of them is still Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht. I re-watch it like every year or so. One of the most atmospheric masterpieces ever made and if vampires were real they would be like Kinski in Nosferatu.
 

Thaluikhain

Elite Member
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Jan 16, 2010
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They're taking the Hobbits to Leningrad! Ok, that line doesn't appear in the 1991 Soviet version of Fellowship of the Ring, but it really should.



Yeah, this is just...bad. Ok, wasn't expecting much from a low budget Soviet LotR. And I'm only using youtube's automated translated subtitles, which are mostly useless (but occasionally seeming gets all of a section of dialogue correct). And maybe you have to be Soviet and in the 90s to appreciate it. But...

The acting in this is often really bad. And the special effects are woeful, which is excusable, and used badly, which is not. If you can only afford terrible special effects, fine, work with what you've got and do something clever. Old Dr Who did this all the time.

They kept it true to the book...mostly. You've got Tom Bombadil and people dancing (often badly) every now and then, you don't have the Balrog or the Watcher in the Dark or the Nazgul getting hit by a flood, presumably due to budget reasons. They didn't take the opportunity to turn it into communist propaganda with working classes hobbits having to fight the evil capitalist Sauron. Though, maybe Saruman comes across as a corrupt politician rather than a scary wizard, I think that he might just be failing at scary wizarding.

Not watching this again in a hurry.

EDIT: Oh, and for some reason they keep cutting to the narrator, who is smoking a pipe, but then cut away from him before he narrates anything.
 
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Johnny Novgorod

Bebop Man
Legacy
Feb 9, 2012
18,467
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Force of Nature

Bin movie "starring" Mel Gibson and a bunch of other people actually participating in the plot. Mel is out before you realize he sat down for the majority of the performance and probably walked away with the lion's share of the 20 million budget. Actually stars Emil Hirsch and Kate Bosworth. I don't know where they pulled Emil out of, but Kate is married to the director.

The plot is Die Hard in a Puerto Rican tenement building, in the middle of a hurricane, also in the middle of a heist. Neither the storm nor the heist are impressive. Nor is Emil's boilerplate disgraced cop routine. Everything looks cheap, feels abrupt and nothing pays off properly. It's bad enough that so much happens off screen, but also crucial plot points are resolved off screen.
 

XsjadoBlayde

~it ends here~
Apr 29, 2020
3,216
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The signal.
A bit of an oddity of a sci-fi thriller. Earnest, smart and dumb, restrained yet uninhibited: it fels a bit like it's written by a teen who has these rugs they really spent a fair bit of effort to pull away from under you, but the description, poster and genre labels kinda show you the pile of rugs beforehand so you naturally go in with your metaphorical arse clenched in anticipation for any and all rug pulls at every moment. However, unlike The Disappearance of Alice Creed, where the rugs are so grounded in recogniseable reality that minimal explanation is required, this film is decidedly less bothered about questions you might have towards the very abnormal environment and situation, because it has more rugs looming on the horizon of your quivering buttocks. Especially towards the end, where it goes "fuck it! The rugs are all mine now! Hahaha!" And you're left sat on your lonely cold-yet-veteran-clenched- rump asking "but why tho?" Laurence Fishburne is in it, which is good enough I suppose. The main characters are pretty average all round, but is filmed, acted and scored pleasantly. The earnestnest may well be the main hook to see it through to the tonal shift ending with jarring music transistion as if Mary Poppins finished on a Cradle of Filth piece.

The Lighthouse.
Yup, that was a claustrophobic, disorienting and haunting experience. Wonder how many blood vessels Pattinson burst acting out all that raging madness.
 
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McElroy

Elite Member
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Apr 3, 2013
4,574
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Godzilla vs. Kong
Because most of our theaters will stay closed during April, they are actually not going to release this movie at all, and thus I had no problem watching an unlicensed version.

It brings the two big guys together and they monster mash around ships and downtown. Kong gets to be some sort of a character while Godzilla not so much. The special effects showdown is alright, laws of physics be damned but the hits are hard. Half of the human-side (if we forget about the Dad from the previous movie who looks totally lost) play a part that makes for a decent blockbuster adventure -- I even warmed up to the kid as the movie went on -- while the other half is a trio of bumbling idiots trying to sabotage an otherwise decent movie. Hilariously cliché at times, but I imagine it's on purpose. I think I noticed a few hints of creativity but still far from enough. 5/10
 
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Johnny Novgorod

Bebop Man
Legacy
Feb 9, 2012
18,467
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Rambo III

Hell of an action movie, with great aerial camerawork and stunts to rival Mission Impossible. But the story is a repeat of the rescue mission from Rambo II, complete with similar torture scenes and a botched first attempt, and the character is already played out. We get a cliché child sidekick I think around the time Rocky V was getting one as well, and a forgettable villain who barely interacts with Rambo - they don't even have any scenes together - and does little other than stand in the way. There's also the dicey politics that make guerrilla jihadists into the heroes of the story, but hey, the movie was dumb fun.
 

Dwarvenhobble

Is on the Gin
May 26, 2020
5,912
646
118
Oblivion

Tom Cruise action Sci-Fi film where after a war with some aliens known as the scavengers earth is ruined after they aliens blow up the moon and people are supposed to be shipping to Titan. Tom Cruise and female co star are a team watching over the efforts to turn Earths water into fusion fuel to power the space craft taking humanity to titan also they've had all memory of the war wiped from their minds along with the rest of humanity so they don't have to remember the horrors of what went on. The problem being the remains of the alien scavengers are still on earth and are attacking the drones protecting the facilities and it's up to our hero to repair the drones. Only........ he starts to doubt what he's being told when scavengers try to capture him and then an old Earth probe is brought back down to earth by the Scavengers where upon trying to rescue survivors of the crash the drones he's supposed to be maintaining to keep scavengers at bay start shooting survivors. Our hero Jack end up going back to pick up a black box from the downed ship with the woman he saved only to be captured by scavengers and It turns out they're not aliens but humans who wish to take down the ship it's claimed is taking humanity to Titan using a modified drone, they then suggest Jack go out into the radiation wastelands and see for himself alongside the woman he rescued and after signalling to his partner the woman from the crash reveals she's actually his wife but how can she be the war was 60 years ago before Jack was born and while she was in suspended animation ok she wouldn't age why hasn't Jack? After going home and having his partner report him to mission control as no longer effective at his job and a drone he had in the repair bay powers up and kills his partner (Victoria) and he flees with the women he rescued (Julia) after mission control tells him to bring her in to the ship in orbit. They flee to the radiation contaminated area only to find it's fine but they crash and find another Jack working to repair drones this Jack being repairman 52 while Jack our protagonist is repairman 49. After getting into a fight Julia gets injured or maybe already was from the crash so Jack 49 pretends to be Jack 52 and flies back to Jack 52s repair base where he finds another Victoria alive and well. Taking the medical supplies he goes back and patches up Julia and goes back to the human resistance to do what they want and reprogram the drone. except he's tracked back by some drones. The human resistance leader reveals the no-one has seen the scavengers ever and the invasion force was clones of jack followed by the caretakers and repair people all also Jack but now with Victoria at the bases co-ordinating their actions. The drones then attack the human base destroying the drone bomb and fatally wounding their leader with Jack deciding with Julia that to take down the ship they'll go together with him pretending to bring her in and the bomb set up in her crypo pod with her so they die together Jack does up to the ship with the cryo pod and replace the flight recorder on route where it's revealed him and Victoria were the part of a crewed mission to Titan and encountered the alien Scavengers ship. He and Victoria stayed on the main flight module as it was sucked in and ejected the sleeping compartment where Julia was along wth the rest of the crew. The Alien ship sucks Jack in Victoria as they talk on open coms with it revealing everything that went on was the aliens using recordings they'd picked up and things Jack and Victoria had said along with a photo that made them look like a couple. it's revealed the supposed human ship in orbit is the alien ship. Going inside and claiming that Julia will be a more effective partner for him and he passes rows of pods all containing either a clone of him or a clone of Victoria. Once at the core it's revealed there is a giant AI thing controlling the ship and Jack opens the pod to reveal inside in the not dead yet but dying leader of the human resistance and they detonate the bombs. Julia has instead been left at a little idling cabin in a patch of surviving woodland where after a few years and raising a daughter (no it doesn't reveal when she got pregnant) she sees people approach and it's the rest of the human resistance and Jack 52 whose come to find her after seeing her before being knocked out. Very good effects. The story kinda really depends on you not knowing a lot to work hence the multiple in line spoilers so people can choose how much more they wish to know. Overall a pretty solid movie and kind a crowd pleaser more than anything else mostly about the power of human memories.
 

Gordon_4

The Big Engine
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Apr 3, 2020
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Australia
Rambo III

Hell of an action movie, with great aerial camerawork and stunts to rival Mission Impossible. But the story is a repeat of the rescue mission from Rambo II, complete with similar torture scenes and a botched first attempt, and the character is already played out. We get a cliché child sidekick I think around the time Rocky V was getting one as well, and a forgettable villain who barely interacts with Rambo - they don't even have any scenes together - and does little other than stand in the way. There's also the dicey politics that make guerrilla jihadists into the heroes of the story, but hey, the movie was dumb fun.
At time of writing they were 'freedom fighters'. Man, hindsight is really 20/20 isn't it?
 
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Gordon_4

The Big Engine
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Apr 3, 2020
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Australia
What I really want is Rambo VI: Second Last Blood, in which he's called in to sort out a plane hijacking and recognizes the lead terrorist as the boy he befriended in Rambo III by the jade necklace he gave him at the end.
You know you say it in jest, but if you had to put jumper cables on Rambo for a sixth sequel, that is not a half bad idea.
 
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09philj

Elite Member
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Mar 31, 2015
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Blue Velvet
I first saw Blue Velvet at a revival screening at my local independent cinema, for the film's 30th anniversary in 2016. I sat on the front row, very close to a very large screen. The experience had quite a profound effect on me. The question is, does that "blimey!" factor hold up years later on a small screen in my bedroom? Yes, it basically does. Blue Velvet is a properly full on and nasty bit of neo-noir directed by David Lynch. It's about a college student played by Kyle MacLachlan who finds a severed ear and decides to find out where it came from. The cast are all very good, but Dennis Hopper absolutely steals the show with his terrifyingly intense performance as Frank. It's an electrifying bit of cinema that gets under your skin and sticks with you long after it's over.