FilmNight: Movies you watched recently

[Bastet]

15 minutes ago, jah1986 said:

Just watched Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris on Prime and I loved it.

Same here.  As I said in the film's thread, it's a sweet (but not saccharine), feel-good movie largely populated by women, so it's not exactly a surprise I enjoyed it, but I am not remotely into high fashion (and, indeed, didn't even like her second choice dress), so it wasn't at the top of my watch list.

The performances are wonderful, and I think the changes from the book are for the better.  I recommend it as a charming little film.

[Shannon L.]

Tonight we watched One Cut Of the Dead. It's a Japense zombie comedy available for $3.99 on Amazon Prime. Don't research anything about it and just keep watching.  We weren't disappointed.  🤣

[andromeda331]

On 3/27/2023 at 8:00 AM, Shannon L. said:

I watched Puss in Boots: The Last Wish last night and oh my goodness, Perrito is one of the best cartoon side kicks I've ever seen. 

I agree. That was such an awesome movie but I love Perrito so much. He's just so happy, positive and supportive no matter what and in spite everything he's gone through.

[Shannon L.]

I watched Aliens for the first time last night and was thinking about how, with the way the Oscar nominations have trended over the last decade or two, Sigourney Weaver probably wouldn't even have been taken seriously as a possible nominee.  That's more of a comment on the Oscars than Sigourney's performance.

[Shannon L.]

I watched Confess, Fletch last night and it was utterly delightful.  As a fan of the original, I kind of side eyed a remake and automatically wasn't interested.  But, then I saw bits and pieces of it on tv that I found them amusing so I thought I'd give it a shot.  John Hamm has good comedic timing and story was fun-- I even laughed out loud a several times.  I find myself hoping there'll be a second one (but not holding my breath).

[kiddo82]

On 3/28/2023 at 10:35 PM, Shannon L. said:

Tonight we watched One Cut Of the Dead. It's a Japense zombie comedy available for $3.99 on Amazon Prime. Don't research anything about it and just keep watching.  We weren't disappointed.  🤣

Just finished this and it was such a cool movie.  Thanks for the recommendation.

Spoiler

I had no idea what was coming and after the first twenty minutes or so I thought "this is a neat but I don't know how long they can hold my attention."  I laughed out loud when they all but referenced that very thing during the final act.  

 

[Shannon L.]

3 hours ago, kiddo82 said:

Just finished this and it was such a cool movie.  Thanks for the recommendation.

  Reveal spoiler

I had no idea what was coming and after the first twenty minutes or so I thought "this is a neat but I don't know how long they can hold my attention."  I laughed out loud when they all but referenced that very thing during the final act.  

 

I'm so glad you enjoyed it. Our son had already seen it and convinced us to watch it.  I was so glad we stuck with it.

[kiddo82]

Pinball:  The Man Who Saved the Game (available for rent on Amazon):  This is based on a true story about a guy in the 70s who has to convince the NYC council to legalize pinball machines.  Very breezy and enjoyable and I love learning random ish that I never knew I needed to know.  One of the movie's biggest strengths is that it never tries to sell to us that these events are among the most pivotal in human history.  It was smart for everyone involved to realize that they were making a movie essentially about a quirky anecdote as opposed to the next Dunkirk.  Another strength is Mike Faist in the lead role and I hope his stock continues to rise.  I could see him as someone who keeps crossing over from stage to screen and back if he wants.  I don't know that I *needed* to spend the money to rent this but I'm also not mad about it.   

Edited April 24, 2023 by kiddo82

[BlueSkies]

Austin Powers 2 on Netflix.  Hadn't seen it came out.  Thought it was still pretty funny overall 

[Bastet]

I watched Flight - well, part of it - last night on Netflix, and am stunned it got an Oscar nomination for its screenplay (an acting nom for Denzel Washington, that I always understand).  I turned it off an hour in, which was already 55 minutes after I first hated it (and 59 minutes after I suspected I might, since it literally opens on a completely gratuitous tit shot).  I wanted to keep going to see just how bad it could get, but couldn't hang.  Maybe I'll try to finish it some day because I like several of the cast members, but unless it undergoes a tremendous turn-around in the second half, I do not remotely understand its accolades. 

I also recently watched A Man Called Otto (and the Swedish film it's an adaptation of), but I posted about it in its own thread so I won't repeat myself here other than to say both are good.  (The original is on Prime, and the adaptation on Netflix.)

Ticket to Paradise had looked from its trailer like it might be an exception to my general dislike of romantic comedies, so once it came to Prime I gave it a look, but it wasn't.  The storyline between the younger characters is somehow even worse than it looked in the trailer, and the one between the older characters isn't as good as it looked.  Still worth a watch once, though, due to the beautiful scenery and some great moments between Julia Roberts and George Clooney.  This was my first time seeing Billie Lourd (Carrie Fisher's daughter) in anything, and she has a nice presence in a highly stereotypical role.

[Danny Franks]

I finally watched The Batman, after being put off for ages by the runtime. I know it's a polarising movie, but I honestly think it might be the best Batman movie that's been made.

It's seedy and dark and gritty. Batman is a weirdo who is genuinely unsettling and Pattinson nails the role. Zoe Kravitz is fantastic as Selina Kyle, and the strong supporting cast round out the movie well.

What's even better, the villain is genuinely weird and unsettling as well, and there's no glorification of him, like in certain other Batman movies. They don't try to make him cool or charismatic. He's an awkward creep.

Even though it's not an adaptation of The Long Halloween, it captures the feel of that story amazingly well.

My only complaint is that there was a bit too much going on at the end. The copycat Riddlers were unnecessary. If it were up to me, I'd have changed the bomb plan to be Riddler's victory - destroying key landmarks in Gotham, targeting influential people, and actually succeeding, but Batman manages to save key people like the mayoral candidate.

Edited May 12, 2023 by Danny Franks

[Anela]

I'm all over the place with what I'm watching. 

I started Disenchanted, the other night, and it wasn't bad, but I didn't finish it, because I was in the mood for something else. I'm trying to watch more things on Disney, because I've had it since New Year's Eve 2020, and haven't watched much. I keep forgetting we have it.

I made the mistake of putting Paranormal Activity on last night, when I was trying and failing to fall asleep. It didn't scare me at all, but the screaming. What a mistake. I ended up thinking of a sitcom from the 80s, that I liked in England, and found it on youtube. A full dose of zzzquil, and something quiet and amusing, and I was off in thirty minutes. 

We started Inside, the other night, but didn't last long. Dad went to sleep, and I forgot to finish it. 

[Shannon L.]

Something made me think of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy the other day (it probably came up on Amazon Prime as a new moving on their service), so I read the description and thought it sounded really good. I remember it being nominated for some awards, including Oscars, as well.  I like the genre--spy movies and trying to find a mole inside of a government organization and it has a great cast.

What a slog to get through it.  It was so slow.  I don't mind slow movies, but something about this one just wasn't doing it for me.  I didn't feel a sense of intrigue and the reveal was anticlimactic.  The characters weren't introduced in a way that made me care about any of them and Gary Oldman, whom I love, wasn't given much to work with-his character was so flat and even, with almost no emotion, that probably almost anyone could have played the role.  Tom Hardy was the stand out, imo.  There were also time jumps-some of which were easy to figure out, but there was another one where my husband and I couldn't figure out if we were watching present day or something from the past, until they made it obvious (which took a while).

But, it was nominated for dozens of awards, including Gary Oldman for Best Actor, and it won a few, so what do I know? 🤷‍♀️

[Anduin]

36 minutes ago, Shannon L. said:

Something made me think of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy the other day (it probably came up on Amazon Prime as a new moving on their service), so I read the description and thought it sounded really good. I remember it being nominated for some awards, including Oscars, as well.  I like the genre--spy movies and trying to find a mole inside of a government organization and it has a great cast.

What a slog to get through it.  It was so slow.  I don't mind slow movies, but something about this one just wasn't doing it for me.  I didn't feel a sense of intrigue and the reveal was anticlimactic.  The characters weren't introduced in a way that made me care about any of them and Gary Oldman, whom I love, wasn't given much to work with-his character was so flat and even, with almost no emotion, that probably almost anyone could have played the role.  Tom Hardy was the stand out, imo.  There were also time jumps-some of which were easy to figure out, but there was another one where my husband and I couldn't figure out if we were watching present day or something from the past, until they made it obvious (which took a while).

But, it was nominated for dozens of awards, including Gary Oldman for Best Actor, and it won a few, so what do I know? 🤷‍♀️

I watched the miniseries. God that was boring. And there was a making of at the end, where le Carre said that he wished intelligence work was that interesting. Wow.

[BlueSkies]

Cocaine Bear-  I was fully expecting to go in laughing my ass off.  It didnt happen but the movie I thought still had its funny moments.  Kind of silly and gross at times but yeah still a decent watch.  

 

I know some people may not like how Ray Liotta sort of finished his film career but his character kinda made the film solid to me.

 

3 out of 4 stars from me 

[Bastet]

I finally had a chance to watch She Said, and while it leaves out how the NY Times squashed Harvey Weinstein stories for years, only letting this one go forward because they were trying to scoop Ronan Farrow's piece in The New Yorker, within the vacuum of the time frame it chooses to cover, it is engrossing. 

It's in the tradition of All the President's Men and Spotlight in its storytelling - a chronological recap of investigative journalism - and that it was nowhere near as well received as either of those films is incredibly disheartening.  It has some flaws, of course, but I have no doubt that what was being investigated here is the epidemic of gender-based harassment and violence is why audiences were less interested in and less receptive to retracing how one particular big story of such abuse came to be exposed.

The more I typed about this, the more angry I got, so I decided to create a thread for the film in the main Movies section since it only came out about six months ago and is now streaming, but figured I'd still recommend it here.

[Spartan Girl]

Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid: This 1975 anime is pretty much the movie that the Disney version might have been if Disney had followed the original fairy tale. It’s lovely but of course it’s a heartbreaker.

I don’t know how to feel about this version of the Prince. On one hand, he does love Marina and he even might have if his parents and their evil cat hadn’t gotten in the way and tricked into meeting his betrothed. But when he sees it’s the covent princess he thinks saved his life, he’s all for the marriage and even tells Marina to her face, forgetting that he told her he wanted to marry her and unwittingly breaking her heart. So yeah, dick move on his part.

To be fair, after he tries to stop her from jumping off the wedding ship, he finally remembers she was the one who saved him and grieves for her. 

I’m honestly glad Disney did its own thing. Not only because they would have been accused of ripping off the anime, but also because I cannot begin to imagine a version of the Disney movie that ends with Ariel turning into seafoam and floating up to heaven while Flounder cries after her. That would have hurt more than the Fun and Fancy Free short about the poor whale that sang opera….

Edited May 29, 2023 by Spartan Girl

[Anduin]

The original Wicker Man. Christopher Lee said it was his favourite of his movies, and rightfully so. Now, while my sympathies lie very much with the islanders, I have qualms about their plans. Even assuming their plan works, Howie dies and the next harvest is successful, won't the Scottish police miss him? Surely they'd investigate a disappearance of one of their own. And if they drag their heels, won't his family and friends talk to the press? Maybe if the islanders disappear the seaplane. "Maybe it crashed on the way back. Anyway, we don't know who sent that letter about Rowan. She's right here, safe and well."

Outside that, it really is good. Lure a dogmatic and bullheaded cop away from civilisation, isolate, confuse, and frustrate him. Stop him from thinking rationally. Let him use up all his energy running around. Then nab him once he can't run away. If he'd been thinking more rationally, he might have realised sooner they were messing him about, and escaped.

The music! Not only was it really good, most of it was diegetic. Except maybe the chase through the cave. I didn't notice any musicians in pursuit. And it's a funny thing, I watched the movie the first time many years ago. I didn't remember that cave at all. Maybe I saw a trimmed version. But at 93 minutes, I don't see how you can trim anything if you want to keep the pacing good. Still, some people will take the shears to bloody anything.

FInally, it was interesting watching the dancers at the end. Some people were into it a whole lot more than others. Diane Cilento, the schoolteacher, was really going for it. Most of the crowd, not so much. Always good to see a fellow Aussie in a cool role.

[Bastet]

I just re-watched Troop Zero, and liked it every bit as much as I did the first time.  When it comes to stories of misfit kids joining together to achieve a common goal, I loathe the ones that are bad and irrationally love the ones that are good.  This is one of the good ones, and the fact it's written and directed by women is undeniably a factor.  Plus, it has Viola Davis (who is also a producer) and Allison Janney as key members of the adult cast, which is quite the bonus. 

It's set in small-town Georgia in the '70s, and completely ignores race relations between its black and white characters, which is somehow simultaneously infuriating and charming.  A NASA rep comes to town to announce that the winner of the Birdie Scouts talent show will get to record a message on the Golden Record that will be launched into space via Voyager (a time capsule of Earth, for any extraterrestrial beings who hears it; it's real and still out there).  A young girl being raised by her widowed father is obsessed with outer space and the idea her dead mom could be among the stars, so she is all over this, but the local Birdie troop won't have anything to do with her.  So she makes her own, a collection of fellow misfits.

It's utterly charming with great performances.  It's cute and funny, but also moving; I wound up in tears both viewings.  I won't spoil what happens at the competition, just say I love it and what happens after.

It's on Prime, or available to watch with ads on FreeVee.  I recommend it to anyone who likes cute (but not cutesy) little films about people being who they are, and finding an unlikely community.  Here's the trailer:

 

[Scarlett45]

I finally sat down and watched The Whale, it was as good as everyone said it was. (I didn’t see a thread for it in the individual movie forum section)

 

I saw this analysis and it was so brilliant I just wanted to share it, I cut out the screen name for privacy.

 

Brendan Fraser is so talented and I long to see him have a big come back after this. The makeup design team deserved their Oscar for Charlie’s body design, it wasn’t comedic or anything like we saw in The Nutty Professor films for example. 

[kiddo82]

For the first time in a long time I watched Who Framed Roger Rabbit yesterday.  I've always liked this movie but it's only now with some perspective that I really dig it.  First of all, it's a good noir.  It would have been so easy for the screenplay to rest on all the gimmicks and not be particularly interesting, but they tell a tight, efficient story with each subsequent moment feeling earned.  Regarding those gimmicks, they feel very organic and nothing sticks out as particularly shoe horned in.  My personal favorite is Donald and Daffy on the dueling pianos at the club but there are so many fun moments to choose from.  As a child, it never occurred to me how wild it is to have all these characters from different studios under one banner.  For the humans, Bob Hoskins deserves all the flowers.  He plays it so straight you can't help but feel these cartoon characters are living, breathing, beings.  And he never dumbs it down once.  It reminds of me how great Michael Cain was in Muppet Christmas Carol.  And last but not least, the effects stand up.  I love the touches of how the cartoons can interact with their environments and with the humans as if they were corporeal beings.  I always loved the little moment of the weasel splashing the laundry water on Eddie and I just this time noticed how Roger leaves a handprint in the dust on Eddie's brother's chair.  It's such an impressive movie overall and I don't know that there is a single thing I would change about it.

[kiddo82]

Another oldie but goodie.  I went to see the re-release of Pirates of the Caribbean Curse of the Black Pearl today.  (This movie is 20 years old, you guys!)  I forgot how much fun it is.  What's really impressive is how the entire production nails this tone where they take themselves just seriously enough so things never feel truly cartoonish but they also know they're not going for Mutiny on the Bounty.  The less said about Depp as a person the better, but credit where it's due, his Jack Sparrow is letter perfect.  A character without ever being a caricature.  Geoffrey Rush also totally gets this assignment.  Everyone does.  And there are so many great lines that I completely forgot I loved.  ("Why is the rum gone?" and "We are all men of our words.  Except for Elizabeth who is, in fact, a woman." to name two.)  My only main problem is I do think things get bogged down in the middle.  There's a lot of back and forth between Jack's crew and Barbosa's crew that I think could be truncated.  That said, the overall enjoyment of the rest of the movie more than makes up for it, especially in the finale where Jack and Barbosa are sword fighting and their figures are going in and out of the moonlight.  And the score of course is epic.  I've been bopping to it all day.

ETA:  I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say this is also the movie that taught me the word "acquiesce" when I first saw it.

Edited July 10, 2023 by kiddo82

[Spartan Girl]

I didn’t see a thread for The Blackening so I’ll just post my thoughts here. It was hysterical. Horror comedies are growing on me—good ones, not that Scary Movie crap.

[andromeda331]

I went though a mini celebrity bio marathon watching Respect, Judy and Dreamgirls. I'm waiting for Rocketman to be free to watch it.

Respect-I didn't know Aretha had a baby at twelve and fourteen. Damn I hope it wasn't rape but it's hard to imagine it being consentual especially at twelve and she apparently never revealed who the father or fathers were. Her father was a piece of work. If he hadn't been so awful I wonder if she still would have ran off with Ted who abused her. No wonder she was so messed up later. All the cast did a great job. I'm glad her dad didn't mean it when she finally left Ted. I liked seeing how her career developed and her relationship with her sisters. No one can sing like her. 

Judy-Renee Zellweger did a good job but I found it mostly boring. I was surprised they showed her and Liza so close when they weren't at that point.

Dreamgirls-It was good although Effie annoyed me to no end with it all about her and I didn't like Curtis going from one sister to another. But both are pretty realistic. 

[GHScorpiosRule]

It's well known that a good number of Bollywood movies (from the 70s on, I think) are ripped off from Hollywood movies. It's very rare when the ripped off is so very blatant. Bollywood usually picks and chooses and adds its own twist.

And it's very rare when the Bollywood version/twist is better. Karz is one such film (1981) and starred the wonderful late Rishi Kapoor, Tina Munim, Simi Garewal, and Pran. It was directed by Subhash Ghai, who on the dvd featurette, that had the making of Karz, explained he had seen The Reincarnation of Peter Proud (1975), that gave him the idea. And Karz was so much better. I watched The Reincarnation of Peter Proud on YouTube just today, and UGH. The only good thing about it is, I SERIOUSLY have to get my butt to Massachusetts and do some serious touristy things!

Peter Proud had the wife, Marcia (played by Margot Kidder) kill her adulterous, raping asshole of a husband, Jeff Curtis, but everyone thought he'd drowned. And it happened in 1946. Peter discovers he's Jeff, 30 odd years later as he relives his previous life. As he's in California, and never ever been to Massachusetts. It's slow. But typical 70s B-Horrory-like. I HATE the ending. Makes the whole movie pointless. And it's based on a book, and the author wrote the screenplay.

I much prefer the Bollywood version. The cast is great, the music FANTASTIC. And I love the twist and changes Ghai made. {Shrugs}.

Ask anyone who knows me-I'm always ripping into the Bollywood movies that rip off from Hollywood. And when I can see which movie they've stolen from (trust me, it's pretty blatant), it pisses me off even more because they can mine from so much more original material or even formulaic. What pisses me off even more is when Bollywood rips off from Bollywood! Specifically, using a Classic like Deewar, starring the AWESOME Amitabh Bachchan, and making a movie, which was a rip off from A Kiss Before Dying, (Bollywood movie is Baazigar)for the most of the plot, then using the ending scene that is SUCH A CLASSIC from Deewar, down to the dialogue! Starring Shah Rukh Khan, who EVERYONE loves. Except me. He's mediocre at best. I've posted in the streaming thread, they might as well just call the Bollywood movies on Netflix The Shah Rukh Khan movies, because 90% of the movies available, star him. If I want to watch Deewar, I will watch the original, which is in the TOP FIVE of my favorites of his. Something that was really difficult to list, as I love most of his movies, not some poor second class version.

[Spartan Girl]

Contagion: I thought I was emotionally ready to watch this. I wasn’t. People learned the wrong damn lessons from this. Also Jude Law’s character was absolutely loathsome.

[Shannon L.]

3 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

Contagion: I thought I was emotionally ready to watch this. I wasn’t. People learned the wrong damn lessons from this. Also Jude Law’s character was absolutely loathsome.

I don't think I can watch another movie like this again after living through Covid.

[Spartan Girl]

16 hours ago, Shannon L. said:

I don't think I can watch another movie like this again after living through Covid.

Especially not this one. It's like watching every bad choice made in Covid over and over again.

[Scarlett45]

On 7/19/2023 at 2:04 PM, andromeda331 said:

Respect-I didn't know Aretha had a baby at twelve and fourteen. Damn I hope it wasn't rape but it's hard to imagine it being consentual especially at twelve and she apparently never revealed who the father or fathers were. Her father was a piece of work. If he hadn't been so awful I wonder if she still would have ran off with Ted who abused her. No wonder she was so messed up later. All the cast did a great job. I'm glad her dad didn't mean it when she finally left Ted. I liked seeing how her career developed and her relationship with her sisters. No one can sing like her. 

I’m 99.999999% sure she was assaulted by an adult man in the church. Probably someone in a position of power (like an elder or minister) It wasn’t consensual at all, poor Aretha, she probably never named the man for the sake of her children.

After 47yrs of Ob/Gyn my Mom always said “if a girl refuses to name the father of her baby, look towards her teachers, family members, other adult men in her life. Even if it was teenage love gone wrong, she would not be afraid or ashamed to name a peer. If an adult woman refuses to identify the father of her baby it’s likely she doesn’t know or he’s married, but a girl? You need to look out for her.”  
 

Unrelated- last night I saw You are SO not Invited to my Bat Mitzvah, it was really cute and precious. They had kids playing kids (not 25yrs olds playing teens) which made the coming of age believable. Adam Sandler’s daughters have talent!

[Browncoat]

I recently watched Theater Camp.  It was awesome.  Of course, I may be a bit biased, having been involved in community theater, and having gone to a week-long theater camp back in the day.  It's a little bit Waiting For Guffman mixed with a dash of Meatballs, but there's a fair amount of originality, too.

[EtheltoTillie]

On 2/12/2023 at 12:18 AM, Bastet said:

When it popped up as a Netflix recommendation, I watched The Founder, about how McDonald's became a nationwide and then worldwide franchise.  It boggles my mind, fundamentally, as only twice in my life have I found a cheeseburger (one of my favorite things) so bad it was inedible and tossed in the trash uneaten -- once was hospital food, and once was McDonald's (I don't know which specific burger, as this was back in high school). 

Beyond personal taste and feelings on how fast food transformed American dining, Ray Kroc was an asshole.  Which this film seems to sort of acknowledge yet tries to wave away as an inevitable aspect of success, ultimately admiring his "persistence".  The whitewash failed on me; I'm all the more glad not to eat there.  Yet I'm simultaneously appalled by the McDonald brothers' stupidity in accepting the terms of the buyout, when they knew damn well - by word and deed - by then who Kroc was, so I can't feel sorry for them being put out of business.

Shady shitheads and pious prats is what this boiled down to, when presumably they were all more nuanced than that.  Good performances can't save this celebration of ambition at its worst.

How ironic I'm catching up on this thread this morning.  I had to fast for a medical test since last night, and when it was over at 10 AM I got an Egg McMuffin for breakfast, and boy was it delicious.  Chacun a son gout, as they say. 

[EtheltoTillie]

On 3/7/2023 at 7:26 PM, kiddo82 said:

This is from a while back...I think my main issue was how miscast John Malkovich was.  I bought him as scheming and manipulative but in no way did I see Pfeiffer's character ever falling for him.  And it's entirely possible that I'm brining in my 2023 prejudices.  I love Malkovich as an actor but it's almost impossibe for me not to see him as (and I mean this as a compliment) creepy, weirdo character actor guy.  I'm too young to know what people thought about him as a leading man in 1988 so maybe it was a get at the time.

I'll always have a soft spot for Cruel Intentions, so again, I might just be showing my biases but Phillippe and Witherspoon had chemistry for daaaaaaays.  (and the Joey Tribbianni theory where heat onscreen does not equal heat offscreen was apparently disproven here.)  And I think he's just better suited to play both sides.  I buy him both as smarmy, manipulative, entitled asshole AND someone who Annette would ultimately let her guard down around.  

I saw Les Liaisons Dangereuses on the London stage in the 80s. Don't remember the cast, as Alan Rickman was no longer in that role.  He must have been great. I've seen the movie too.  Have not watched Cruel Intentions.  As a woman of a certain age, I can comment that as you suggest, John Malkovich has always been a character actor guy, not a leading man type.  The story itself if so disturbing I do not like to repeat watch.  Phillippe and Withspoon did indeed have a relationship and got married when she was pregnant, I have always assumed.  

On 4/23/2023 at 8:28 PM, kiddo82 said:

Pinball:  The Man Who Saved the Game (available for rent on Amazon):  This is based on a true story about a guy in the 70s who has to convince the NYC council to legalize pinball machines.  Very breezy and enjoyable and I love learning random ish that I never knew I needed to know.  One of the movie's biggest strengths is that it never tries to sell to us that these events are among the most pivotal in human history.  It was smart for everyone involved to realize that they were making a movie essentially about a quirky anecdote as opposed to the next Dunkirk.  Another strength is Mike Faist in the lead role and I hope his stock continues to rise.  I could see him as someone who keeps crossing over from stage to screen and back if he wants.  I don't know that I *needed* to spend the money to rent this but I'm also not mad about it.   

This was a funny little movie.  I liked it a lot.  I also remember when you would go to arcades in Times Square and they did not have pinball, and there were no video games yet, so they had dull weird games.  We had illegal pinball machines in our NYC college dorm lounge area.  I don't know how they got away with that. 

Edited August 29, 2023 by EtheltoTillie

[EtheltoTillie]

On 8/27/2023 at 6:30 PM, Browncoat said:

I recently watched Theater Camp.  It was awesome.  Of course, I may be a bit biased, having been involved in community theater, and having gone to a week-long theater camp back in the day.  It's a little bit Waiting For Guffman mixed with a dash of Meatballs, but there's a fair amount of originality, too.

I am looking forward to this.  I love Guffman, and I also like that other theater camp movie from 20 years ago, Camp.   Anna Kendrick singing "Ladies Who Lunch" is a hoot. 

On 7/1/2023 at 11:24 PM, Scarlett45 said:

I finally sat down and watched The Whale, it was as good as everyone said it was. (I didn’t see a thread for it in the individual movie forum section)

 

I saw this analysis and it was so brilliant I just wanted to share it, I cut out the screen name for privacy.

 

Brendan Fraser is so talented and I long to see him have a big come back after this. The makeup design team deserved their Oscar for Charlie’s body design, it wasn’t comedic or anything like we saw in The Nutty Professor films for example. 

If you ever want to you can make your own thread--it's easy.   I actually ended up making a thread for this one a few weeks ago, as I was surprised there wasn't one from months earlier.  Sorry, but I didn't like it. 

Edited August 29, 2023 by EtheltoTillie

[andromeda331]

I finally got to see Rocketman. It was a really good movie. Poor Elton almost everyone in his life sucked. Especially John and his parents. When his mom is saying she shouldn't have had kids I agree with her on that. She's such a terrible mother, no she shouldn't have had kids. She's barely a mother. She claims one thing she did for him was leave his father. Ah, no he left you not the other way around. You cheated on him because you wanted too. His father of course is an asshole. While I like Elton at the end saying he wasn't going to let them put him down anymore. I wish they had gotten told off.

I liked his relationship with Bernie. I liked Bernie realizing he needed a change and went home. I wish Elton had too. 

John was an asshole.

I forgot how crazy his costumes were.  I agree with Fred that Elton was probably both introvert and extrovert. I liked the end of the movie when he finally worked through his issues and looked and felt better. He was terrible at times but I can't imagine how hard it was to not be able to be gay. I loved when he gave his younger self a hug.

He had so many great songs. 

 

[kiddo82]

Pleasantville (1998): ahead of its time and eerily prophetic in parts but also disjointed and meandering. (I kept rewinding to see if I missed important connective tissue moments.)  Given the themes of political repression, censorship, and scare tactic propaganda, I wanted to like this more than I did but I almost couldn't wait for it to be over.  

The cinematography was pretty kick ass though.

Edited September 6, 2023 by kiddo82

[Spartan Girl]

So my mom recently watched the Branagh versions of Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile movies, and she got so into them that we’re probably going to see the new movie coming up…but we decided to see the 70s versions to see how different they were. We didn’t think much of Albert Finney’s Poirot—was he channeling Clouseau?— but Peter Ustinov was quite good. Mom still likes Branagh though, and I do too, even if it’s a vanity project.

Death on the Nile had great costumes and what a cast! Angela Lansbury was serving it! And Mia Farrow was great masquerading as the crazy ex girlfriend.

Olivia Hussey said they were filming in the same studio as Superman, which led to her running into Christopher Reeve for lunch. She had nothing but lovely things to say about him.

Edited September 7, 2023 by Spartan Girl

[proserpina65]

So I finally watched High Life with Robert Pattinson and Juliette Binoche last weekend.  It's a dark, disturbing, dreary piece of dystopian science fiction with the most god-awful monotonous narration.  I only watched it for Ewan Mitchell and very quickly decided to fast-forward to his scenes.  Which is the only way, shape or form I'd ever recommend this movie.

Edited to note that Mr. Mitchell's very fine ass made it worth it.  But it's too bad he'll never know what I'll suffer for his sake.

Edited September 8, 2023 by proserpina65

[kiddo82]

I started my Halloween watching a little early this year.  I had never seen any of these titles before:

The Dead Zone (1983):  (supernatural)  After an accident Christopher Walken acquires the power of foresight.  It's not my favorite Stephen King adaptation but I'd say it's high second tier.  The second half makes up for a slow and episodic first one and I did not see the ultimate twist coming.  I always go back to Aristotle saying that the best endings are surprising yet inevitable and I think this fits the bill.

The Last House on the Left (1972):  (horror realism)  Parents seek revenge after their teenaged daughter is tortured by convicted felons. Wes Craven's first film and he makes...some choices.  Not even talking about the violence or tonal shifts as much as the music cues.  Wowee.  And for as controversial as the scenes in the woods are--I get why there was so much hand wringing at the time--the best part of the movie is the suspense elements in the last twenty minutes.  This is where the real conversation starts for me

Spoiler

and how easily the mild mannered parents become violent killers themselves.  And bonus points for dad not killing in self defense or the cop shooting the criminal in order to keep dad's hands clean.  A lesser movie would have done that.  This is the Home Alone we need.

I understand that it's an influential movie but the pacing will probably prevent me from ever wanting to watch it again.  Though, I am curious about the remake.

The Faculty (1998):  (teens/aliens) Teens discover their high school is being overrun by aliens.  It's not a bad premise as high school is the perfect place for a commentary on pod people/conformity, however, it never lives up to its much better influences.  It's also not entirely without its moments. (the homemade drug snorting scene being a personal favorite).  As an Oregon Trail Millennial, I'm a little softer on this movie than it probably deserves because it's a perfect time capsule of my people that makes me as happy as it does embarrassed.  The teen cast has a lot of names you would recognize both then and now (Elijah Wood, Josh Hartnett, Clea DuVall, Usher) but the ADULTS!  The best and most random assortment of names for a middling teen horror movie ever assembled.  Piper Lauire.  Bebe Neuwirth (and her legs!).  John Stewart.  Salma Freaking Hayek.  Every scene for the first 20 or so minutes I was like, "And another one!"

Slice (2018):  (horror/monster comedy)  Someone is murdering pizza delivery people.  Perfectly fine and okay for what it is.  To be honest, not funny enough or hokey enough to keep me from wandering even though it's only 80 minutes long.  Fun cast that is kind of wasted.  I watched it on Sunday I've already forgotten a great deal of it.

Edited September 15, 2023 by kiddo82

[andromeda331]

Rear Window-The murder mystery was good and it was fun and so was the investigating. I love Stella. She was great and had so many great lines. Lisa was good but way too good for Jeff who really was a jerk to her. Assuming Lisa wouldn't want to travel around the world without even asking her and dismissing her when she said she could. Yeah, she had a great life but she chose to spend her nights hanging out with him. Why I don't know. She could do better. I also don't like that he didn't do anything when Lisa was caught by the killer. He was upset but stayed quiet. Dude, say something. I also didn't like the thing about all wives become nags even the newlywed couple. Hey maybe their husbands aren't that great? I know it was the 50s. Although Lisa staying at Jeff's apartment every night was pretty modern. I just wish she found someone better or Jeff did something to deserve her. I also hate the murderer for killing the dog. 

[kiddo82]

There is something about James Stewart that's a little too hammy for me and it takes me put of just about every movie I see him in.

[Anduin]

I rewatched Dredd, because a podcast is going to cover it this week. I've seen it a couple of times before, including opening day in the cinema, but this is my first watch since 2020. Wow. It aged pretty badly. The police are pretty bad, big fan of interrogating people through violence and field executions, but still presented as on the right side. How do you manage that? Make the villains even worse. Unrepentant drug dealers, torturers, and murderers. And the violence itself was gorier than I remember. Have I gone soft? Did I misremember?

The whole thing is well done, everyone involved gave it their all, but time hasn't been at all kind. Five years ago, I would have recommended this to all action fans. Now, probably not.

[Bastet]

On 9/14/2023 at 9:29 PM, kiddo82 said:

The Last House on the Left (1972):  (horror realism)  Parents seek revenge after their teenaged daughter is tortured by convicted felons. Wes Craven's first film and he makes...some choices. 

Indeed.  Not a movie I will ever re-watch.  But I can at least appreciate his stance, that he felt movies glorified violence by sanitizing it, and he wanted to show the brutal realism.  (It's a sad commentary that, when this came out, the violence notoriously had audiences puking, fainting, walking out of the theatre, etc. - if they got to see it, that is, since it was banned in some countries - and now it's not remotely an outlier.)  It being made during the Vietnam War is a context that must be considered.  I get it.  He just didn't fully succeed in eliminating the exploitative feel, especially as it relates to sexual violence. 

On 9/14/2023 at 9:29 PM, kiddo82 said:

Though, I am curious about the remake.

From what I've read, it's terrible:

Spoiler

This time, the daughter survives (but is still raped, of course) - her friend still gets killed - but she's never a character in her own right, and the revenge plot is almost entirely about the father.  The mom is panicked into attacking one of the fugitives, but the dad finishes him off and he's the one who methodically kills the others.  There's no examination of any of that, it's just a bunch of pointless gore.

 

18 hours ago, andromeda331 said:

Rear Window-The murder mystery was good and it was fun and so was the investigating. I love Stella. She was great and had so many great lines.

Best thing about the movie!

18 hours ago, andromeda331 said:

I know it was the 50s.

It's probably less sexist than many of Hitchcock's other films, but it's still Hitchcock in the '50s, yeah.

[kiddo82]

1 hour ago, Bastet said:

It being made during the Vietnam War is a context that must be considered.  I get it.  He just didn't fully succeed in eliminating the exploitative feel, especially as it relates to sexual violence. 

Yeah I struggled with that.  I hear what he was trying to say but it still felt exploitative especially juxtaposed against the tonal shifts and wackedy schmackedy police officer bits.  But maybe that's because I'm looking at it through a 2023 lens.

That's a shame about the remake because the bones were there to turn this into something really impactful.  

Spoiler

And the turning of the parents in the first one --especially the mom --was my favorite piece of commentary in the '72 version.

 

Edited September 17, 2023 by kiddo82

[GHScorpiosRule]

20 hours ago, andromeda331 said:

I also hate the murderer for killing the dog.

I can never rewatch this because of this and because it’s Perry Mason Raymond Burr! Of course Perry Mason premiered a year later, but STILL.

[proserpina65]

I watched the third Night at the Museum movie last weekend.  I'd seen the other two and enjoyed them but managed to miss the third one.  It was nothing brilliant or particularly insightful but it was entertaining as hell.  The bit with the Escher painting was especially fun, as was the appearance of 

Spoiler

Huge Ackman

 

And I actually kind of teared up when the characters were leaving London.

[andromeda331]

On 9/18/2023 at 11:13 AM, proserpina65 said:

I watched the third Night at the Museum movie last weekend.  I'd seen the other two and enjoyed them but managed to miss the third one.  It was nothing brilliant or particularly insightful but it was entertaining as hell.  The bit with the Escher painting was especially fun, as was the appearance of 

  Reveal spoiler

Huge Ackman

 

And I actually kind of teared up when the characters were leaving London.

There's a third one? Off to find the movie.

[proserpina65]

9 hours ago, andromeda331 said:

There's a third one? Off to find the movie.

Yep, it's subtitled "Secret of the Tomb".

[andromeda331]

16 hours ago, proserpina65 said:

Yep, it's subtitled "Secret of the Tomb".

I just finished watching it. That was hilarious. It was great to see Teddy, Sacagawea, and the rest of the gang. My favorites are still the Monkey, Jed and Octavius. The reunion of Akh and his parents was really good and wanting to stay with his parents.  I liked Laa and laughed at him doing everything that Larry. Teddy's words of wisdom while Larry was trying to fight the Xiangliu. Garuda was adorable. Octavius mispronouncing Pompeii was hilarious and Monkey finding them and then peeing on them. Of course he did. I liked the arc between Larry and his son. I'm kind of surprised Nick wanted to blow off the plan since his father had and lost so many jobs before the museum job. Larry's was easy to see he wants Nick to avoid the many mistakes he made. Nick made sense too. He's still just graduating from high school and taking a year off isn't a big deal. 

I don't know how I feel about the ending. On one hand it was great learning Larry went back to school and became a teacher and the goodbyes was really good but still made me tear up. But I don't like the group breaking up. It's why I prefer Toy Story 3 instead of 4. I like seeing the group stay together. Other then that it was a great movie.

[proserpina65]

On 9/21/2023 at 4:55 AM, andromeda331 said:

I just finished watching it. That was hilarious.

So glad you enjoyed it. 🙂

[kiddo82]

Spoiler

This time, the daughter survives (but is still raped, of course) - her friend still gets killed - but she's never a character in her own right, and the revenge plot is almost entirely about the father.  The mom is panicked into attacking one of the fugitives, but the dad finishes him off and he's the one who methodically kills the others.  There's no examination of any of that, it's just a bunch of pointless gore.

Re:  2009 Last House on the Left.  I went ahead and watched this and the above is a pretty fair description.  It's not a baaaaad movie--for all intents and purposes it's more professionally made, and frankly, more watchable, than its predecessor.  However, while I don't think the original completely succeeds in its mission statement this one feels like it exists solely for gore and exploitation.  I almost wish I could combine what was good about both of them:  the commentary, flawed as it was, of the original, with the production values (and some of the changes) of the remake. 

Spoiler

2009 did seem like it tried to have something to say.  The flimsy, post 2008 Eat the Rich references. The cop in the very beginning telling an exploitative story about a brothel showing how he was not that far off from being like Krug.  However, like most things in the movie, it never gets much deeper than that.  I do like that Mari survives.  And the scene where Tony Goldwyn has to do his doctor shit on her on the living room coffee table is probably the best of the movie.  Love the contrast between how Mari is a trouper during her makeshift treatments vs Francis...who is not.  But I also agree she's really never more than a device for Tony Goldwyn which is a shame because the opportunity was there for more.  I also have to give a shout out to Sara Paxton.  Initially, she seemed like pretty but bland horror movie girl but I think she ultimately makes the most of what she's given. This also makes it all the more frustrating that Mari is never truly her own character.

It's also too bad they really took the bite out of mom.  I'll see myself out.

  

Edited September 23, 2023 by kiddo82