Movies: Last Movie You Watched and Rate It | Cinema at the End of the World Edition
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Osprey
Registered User
- Feb 18, 2005
- 28,056
- 11,012
House on Haunted Hill (1959) - 6/10
An eccentric millionaire (Vincent Price) offers $10,000 each to half a dozen guests to spend the night in his haunted house. This horror/mystery combo is not so scary nowadays and has more holes than a skeleton, but makes up for much of it with campiness. Nothing makes sense, but I doubt that the filmmakers minded. For example, there's a vat of acid in the basement that's still there after someone died in it 25 years and multiple owners ago. Also, the house is clearly post modern on the outside, but Victorian and lacking in electricity on the inside, and the owner is a drunk who's afraid of the house and needs the money, while the one renting it from him is a millionaire (so why doesn't he just sell it to him?). Finally, the plot is needlessly complicated and impractical. These things probably make it a bad movie, but an amusing and somewhat entertaining one. The campiness was likely intentional, since director William Castle promoted his horror films with corny gimmicks, the one here being that select showings in 1959 featured a plastic skeleton that "flew" out from the screen and over the audience at a key point in the movie. An interesting bit of trivia is that Alfred Hitchcock was reportedly inspired by the box office success of this cheaply made horror film to make his own the following year, a little film called Psycho.
This film is in the public domain and can be watched on YouTube:
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House on Haunted Hill (1999) - 3/10
This remake reminded me of Halloween: Resurrection, which isn't a good thing. The guests who must spend the night in the house are mostly young people who are pretty, pretty annoying or both. Geoffrey Rush plays the millionaire and is the one thing that I was looking forward to, but, as soon as I saw his smarmy character, I knew that it was going to be a long movie. He should've fired his agent after his. Because the idea of a haunted house isn't spooky or cliched enough, the writers made it an old mental hospital where lobotomies were performed in the 1930s. After a fire tragically killed a bunch of people, the building was turned into a house, but with all of the operating rooms and equipment left as they were for 60 years. For equally inexplicable reasons, our pretty young people now wander around this abandoned hospital/asylum as if it's the most interesting museum rather than, I dunno, being unnerved and staying in the renovated part of the building. It's occasionally creepy and tries to be fun, like the original, but I just found it to be dumb and cliched. Also, the ending features a vomiting of bad CGI. Like the original, the movie is very dated, but, unlike the original, the datedness wasn't any fun.
This film is not in the public domain and I wouldn't link to it even if it were.
An eccentric millionaire (Vincent Price) offers $10,000 each to half a dozen guests to spend the night in his haunted house. This horror/mystery combo is not so scary nowadays and has more holes than a skeleton, but makes up for much of it with campiness. Nothing makes sense, but I doubt that the filmmakers minded. For example, there's a vat of acid in the basement that's still there after someone died in it 25 years and multiple owners ago. Also, the house is clearly post modern on the outside, but Victorian and lacking in electricity on the inside, and the owner is a drunk who's afraid of the house and needs the money, while the one renting it from him is a millionaire (so why doesn't he just sell it to him?). Finally, the plot is needlessly complicated and impractical. These things probably make it a bad movie, but an amusing and somewhat entertaining one. The campiness was likely intentional, since director William Castle promoted his horror films with corny gimmicks, the one here being that select showings in 1959 featured a plastic skeleton that "flew" out from the screen and over the audience at a key point in the movie. An interesting bit of trivia is that Alfred Hitchcock was reportedly inspired by the box office success of this cheaply made horror film to make his own the following year, a little film called Psycho.
This film is in the public domain and can be watched on YouTube:
House on Haunted Hill (1999) - 3/10
This remake reminded me of Halloween: Resurrection, which isn't a good thing. The guests who must spend the night in the house are mostly young people who are pretty, pretty annoying or both. Geoffrey Rush plays the millionaire and is the one thing that I was looking forward to, but, as soon as I saw his smarmy character, I knew that it was going to be a long movie. He should've fired his agent after his. Because the idea of a haunted house isn't spooky or cliched enough, the writers made it an old mental hospital where lobotomies were performed in the 1930s. After a fire tragically killed a bunch of people, the building was turned into a house, but with all of the operating rooms and equipment left as they were for 60 years. For equally inexplicable reasons, our pretty young people now wander around this abandoned hospital/asylum as if it's the most interesting museum rather than, I dunno, being unnerved and staying in the renovated part of the building. It's occasionally creepy and tries to be fun, like the original, but I just found it to be dumb and cliched. Also, the ending features a vomiting of bad CGI. Like the original, the movie is very dated, but, unlike the original, the datedness wasn't any fun.
This film is not in the public domain and I wouldn't link to it even if it were.
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Pranzo Oltranzista
Registered User
- Oct 18, 2017
- 4,025
- 2,939
Postmodern architecture in the 50s? That would be way ahead of its time! I don't remember the house (and don't know much about architecture, but I did teach a class about modernity/postmodernity so I brushed over the demolition of the St-Louis housing projects in the 70s - which would be the earliest birth of architectural postmodernity), but that's not what you meant.
Edit: Well... "a Mayan-temple influenced structure", reading that I thought you could have been right that it'd be an ancestor to postmodern buildings, but it seems that it would be part of the "Mayan Revival [...] a modern architectural style popular in the Americas during the 1920s and 1930s" (!).
Edit: Oh, and it looks like it's been in a few other things too, including Karate Kid 3 (!).
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Pranzo Oltranzista
Registered User
- Oct 18, 2017
- 4,025
- 2,939
Footprints on the Moon (Le orme, Bazzoni, 1975) – Oh that good feeling when you catch an unexpected little gem that went straight under your nose. While re-watching The Fifth Cord, one of the best gialli I'd seen, I realized I had never seen anything else by Bazzoni. This one was listed as another giallo, so I thought I'd make it part of my rundown of the genre. Though it's undoubtedly aesthetically close (it's a very nice film), this is not a giallo. It has Florinda Bolkan from the Fulci gialli, Nicoletta Elmi, the little girl from Who Saw Her Die? and Deep Red (and appearing in other gialli like there was no other young girl in Italy at the time), and it's directed by Bazzoni and cinematographed by Storaro who filmed not only The Fifth Cord, but also The Bird With the Crystal Plumage, but it is not, positively not, a giallo. What it is, I couldn't say, probably more of an art film than anything else – even reminded me at times of Last Year at Marienbad and certainly has a few thematic affinities with early Robbe-Grillet (others have linked it to some of Polanski's best films). A woman wakes up one morning not realizing she blanked the last three days from her memory, with dreams of an astronaut left behind on the moon (or was it an old movie she'd seen?), tales of doubles, childhood reminiscence and imaginary countries, the narrative lands somewhere between complexity and confusion. The black and white dreams / sci-fi movie scenes are weaker in execution (Kinski is by far the weakest link in an otherwise pretty good cast), and the conclusion tying them in suffers a little from it, but it's a very interesting and unique film. 8/10
johnjm22
Pseudo Intellectual
- Aug 2, 2005
- 21,372
- 18,728
The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988)
In an attempt to find something interesting, I'll sometimes pick out a random year to start looking up movies from.
In this case, I landed on the year 1988 and subsequently a film called 'The Unbearable Lightness of Being'. A pretentious title I thought, but the premise was intriguing.
It's a great movie.
The story progresses somewhat oddly at first. It lightly breezes through major events in our character's lives as if nothing is a big deal. Sex happens frequently and with not much effort put in to get it. Characters fall in love in just a few scenes. It's all very casual and leaves the viewer feeling detached, but ultimately ties into one of the films themes (the lightness).
Just as the movie's lightweight romcom-ish tone starts to wear thin, it shifts gears, keeping you intrigued the whole time.
This is one of those films where you're in the last quarter or so of it, and you really feel like you've been on a journey with the characters; they're in such a different place compared to where they were in the beginning of the story.
The acting is great. The character of Tereza (Juliette Binoche) could have easily come off as over-the-top and ridiculous had she been portrayed by a lesser actress.
The Unbearable Lightness of Being is based on a book of the same name by Milan Kundera. It's a response to Nietzsche's concept of Eternal Recurrence. This philosophical underpinning adds depth to the movie leaving you with something to think about afterwards.
8/10
In an attempt to find something interesting, I'll sometimes pick out a random year to start looking up movies from.
In this case, I landed on the year 1988 and subsequently a film called 'The Unbearable Lightness of Being'. A pretentious title I thought, but the premise was intriguing.
It's a great movie.
The story progresses somewhat oddly at first. It lightly breezes through major events in our character's lives as if nothing is a big deal. Sex happens frequently and with not much effort put in to get it. Characters fall in love in just a few scenes. It's all very casual and leaves the viewer feeling detached, but ultimately ties into one of the films themes (the lightness).
Just as the movie's lightweight romcom-ish tone starts to wear thin, it shifts gears, keeping you intrigued the whole time.
This is one of those films where you're in the last quarter or so of it, and you really feel like you've been on a journey with the characters; they're in such a different place compared to where they were in the beginning of the story.
The acting is great. The character of Tereza (Juliette Binoche) could have easily come off as over-the-top and ridiculous had she been portrayed by a lesser actress.
The Unbearable Lightness of Being is based on a book of the same name by Milan Kundera. It's a response to Nietzsche's concept of Eternal Recurrence. This philosophical underpinning adds depth to the movie leaving you with something to think about afterwards.
8/10
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Pranzo Oltranzista
Registered User
- Oct 18, 2017
- 4,025
- 2,939
Indeed a very good film (that I should watch again), and an even better novel - with an amazing (and right on point) title.
Venice
French Abortion Drama L’Événement Wins Top Prize at Venice Film Festival
and also on Vulture, a list of top films for 2021 (so far)
The Best Movies of 2021 (So Far)
French Abortion Drama L’Événement Wins Top Prize at Venice Film Festival
and also on Vulture, a list of top films for 2021 (so far)
The Best Movies of 2021 (So Far)
Apur Sansar [The World of Apu/ অপুর সংসার] (1959) directed by Satyajit Ray
The final film in the Apu series by Satyajit Ray, follows Apu (Soumitra Chatterjee in his film debut), now an unemployed graduate from university as he aimlessly struggles to find meaningful work in the city. A friend of his ropes Apu into attending a wedding. When the groom is found to have gone mad, Apu has to step in and marry the bride, Aparna (Sharmila Tagore, also in her film debut). A beautiful conclusion to Ray’s trilogy on the life of Apu which focuses on young adulthood of Apu in which Apu is weighed down by the imposed limits of his self-expression and feelings of grief and practicality. Both Chatterjee and Tagore are magnetic in their film debuts and are naturals in their role, it’s easy to see why they would become staples in Bengali cinema following this film. I prefer Pather Panchali the most in the series, but this is a great conclusion to the series and the character found in the film feels real to how Apu was as a child and as a teen from the prior films. Like Pather Panchali it is very good as a standalone film but is obviously enhanced by watching the other films in the series (Aparajito, on the other hand, as the middle film I think requires to have seen at least Pather Panchali, or at least to help make sense of the story). The Apu Trilogy by Satyajit Ray is one of the best trilogies I have ever watched and Apur Sansar is a beautiful end note for the story. Highly recommend watching this series of films.
Extra point given for daring to use the word 'pretentious' in the text.The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988)
8/10
As the potpourri 'catch-all' thread, I just wanted to send a note to those who might be interested about this engaging series "Nine Perfect Strangers" currently playing on Amazon Prime and Hulu and available in 'some other places'. (and thanks to Pink Mist for providing the Just Watch website)
Nine Perfect Strangers - streaming tv show online
There are several other new series of note, but the one above is the one I found the most interesting. (but your own mileage may vary).
Another little series streaming in September is Only Murders in the Building on Disney+ and Hulu. I don't find it as good as 'Strangers' but I always liked Steve Martin and Martin Short. Worth a look.
Only Murders in the Building - streaming online
Also an honourable mention to The Chair on Netflix
The Chair - watch tv show streaming online
Nine Perfect Strangers - streaming tv show online
There are several other new series of note, but the one above is the one I found the most interesting. (but your own mileage may vary).
Another little series streaming in September is Only Murders in the Building on Disney+ and Hulu. I don't find it as good as 'Strangers' but I always liked Steve Martin and Martin Short. Worth a look.
Only Murders in the Building - streaming online
Also an honourable mention to The Chair on Netflix
The Chair - watch tv show streaming online
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Climax (2018) (French Subtitles)
2.85 out of 4stars
"French dancers gather in a remote, empty school building to rehearse on a wintry night. The all-night celebration morphs into a hallucinatory nightmare when they learn their sangria is laced with LSD."
A non-stop horror/drama that is best viewed as an artistic experience. It's a visual and emotional treat. The vast majority of the film is improvised and the vast majority of 'actors' are non-actor dancers. That said it, it works. You get the feeling of being in an improvisational dance practice alongside it's 20something aged members having personal and gossip conversations and events over the course of the 'drug fueled' 'soap opera-esque' night that throws you for a loop in mostly the best way possible. The long shots and first hand following camera work/angles of characters and events occurring to them work very well. Only real quip being the last 25minutes or so of the film being headache inducing for me, mostly from a long period of literally 180degrees upside down camera shooting view.
Gremlins (1984)
2.85 out of 4stars
"A young man inadvertently breaks three important rules concerning his new pet and unleashes a horde of malevolently mischievous monsters on a small town."
It's fun rambunctious critter hijinks, nothing truly more, with a target audience issue of sorts. If you haven't see the movie and are an adult, read no further. If you have young children, then use the following as discretionary information for their viewing. There are gleefully childish elements at hand like a cute/cuddly little protagonist named Gizmo that enjoys singings, watching TV, and shouts "bright light" when it bright light's presence. Even the evil gremlins get their day care to elementary school aged 'freak on' with words of "yum yum", mimicking, tricycle riding, dangling from fans/antennas, and even watching/singing along to Snow White and the 7 Dwarves. But then there are the parts I would call "PG-13 worthy"(especially 40 years ago or so, when PG-13 was first introduced), including a 1minute 'shocking' sequence early on that involved decapitation, slightly graphic intentional blendering, explosion by microwave, stabbings, and a strangling. Slasher-esque for sure. Getting past that pre-teen nightmare fuel, you have more things that you might not want your 8-10year old exposed to like gun-use/murder, cross-bows, chainsaws, smoking, drinking, and a sequence that involved melted flesh and a newly dead skeleton. Ultimately, probably a film best suited for the 13year old+ crowd with an inner child still alive in them. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
The Card Counter (2021)
2.80 out of 4stars
"A revenge thriller that tells the story of an ex-military interrogator turned gambler haunted by the ghosts of his past."
Isaac is great, arguably under-utilized, in his portrayal of a man who's penally paid for his past sins, yet has mental scars that may forever haunt his soul. Daily life becomes escapism for him, and a structured low-risk/low-reward nomadic casino to casino card counting lifestyle is his preferred choice (maybe optimal choice given his non-hirable prison background) to live out his time. The fateful meeting of a vengeful 20 something and the face of high stakes poker backers gives him hope for penance or at least the prevention of another soul destroyed by his past military sect's actions. A great dialogue centric slow burn drama ensues, yet is let down by a rushed and underwritten 3rd act that takes place of the course of roughly 4 scenes. There was opportunity for a powerful finale that was undercut by a lack of writer imagination or wrongful directorial/writer choice (or even possibly producer limitations?). All I know is in layman's terms, it's a finale that's gonna piss a lot of people off, not necessarily from the sequence of events that occur, but how they are portrayed. I also would have liked a vaster example of the flashback scenes and evidential crimes that Isaac did to further hammer home the messages and story we were seeing.
Malignant (2021)
2.35 out of 4stars
"Madison is paralyzed by shocking visions of grisly murders, and her torment worsens as she discovers that these waking dreams are in fact terrifying realities."
A stylized, yet cliche ridden and mostly predictable horror murder mystery. Probably the weakest non-sequel horror movie Wan has been "direct-ly" tied too since Dead Silence. That said, it has a twist that you think you might kind of know, but you couldn't possibly guess because it's more odd than you would imagine, in a good way alongside a great finale.
2.85 out of 4stars
"French dancers gather in a remote, empty school building to rehearse on a wintry night. The all-night celebration morphs into a hallucinatory nightmare when they learn their sangria is laced with LSD."
A non-stop horror/drama that is best viewed as an artistic experience. It's a visual and emotional treat. The vast majority of the film is improvised and the vast majority of 'actors' are non-actor dancers. That said it, it works. You get the feeling of being in an improvisational dance practice alongside it's 20something aged members having personal and gossip conversations and events over the course of the 'drug fueled' 'soap opera-esque' night that throws you for a loop in mostly the best way possible. The long shots and first hand following camera work/angles of characters and events occurring to them work very well. Only real quip being the last 25minutes or so of the film being headache inducing for me, mostly from a long period of literally 180degrees upside down camera shooting view.
Gremlins (1984)
2.85 out of 4stars
"A young man inadvertently breaks three important rules concerning his new pet and unleashes a horde of malevolently mischievous monsters on a small town."
It's fun rambunctious critter hijinks, nothing truly more, with a target audience issue of sorts. If you haven't see the movie and are an adult, read no further. If you have young children, then use the following as discretionary information for their viewing. There are gleefully childish elements at hand like a cute/cuddly little protagonist named Gizmo that enjoys singings, watching TV, and shouts "bright light" when it bright light's presence. Even the evil gremlins get their day care to elementary school aged 'freak on' with words of "yum yum", mimicking, tricycle riding, dangling from fans/antennas, and even watching/singing along to Snow White and the 7 Dwarves. But then there are the parts I would call "PG-13 worthy"(especially 40 years ago or so, when PG-13 was first introduced), including a 1minute 'shocking' sequence early on that involved decapitation, slightly graphic intentional blendering, explosion by microwave, stabbings, and a strangling. Slasher-esque for sure. Getting past that pre-teen nightmare fuel, you have more things that you might not want your 8-10year old exposed to like gun-use/murder, cross-bows, chainsaws, smoking, drinking, and a sequence that involved melted flesh and a newly dead skeleton. Ultimately, probably a film best suited for the 13year old+ crowd with an inner child still alive in them. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
The Card Counter (2021)
2.80 out of 4stars
"A revenge thriller that tells the story of an ex-military interrogator turned gambler haunted by the ghosts of his past."
Isaac is great, arguably under-utilized, in his portrayal of a man who's penally paid for his past sins, yet has mental scars that may forever haunt his soul. Daily life becomes escapism for him, and a structured low-risk/low-reward nomadic casino to casino card counting lifestyle is his preferred choice (maybe optimal choice given his non-hirable prison background) to live out his time. The fateful meeting of a vengeful 20 something and the face of high stakes poker backers gives him hope for penance or at least the prevention of another soul destroyed by his past military sect's actions. A great dialogue centric slow burn drama ensues, yet is let down by a rushed and underwritten 3rd act that takes place of the course of roughly 4 scenes. There was opportunity for a powerful finale that was undercut by a lack of writer imagination or wrongful directorial/writer choice (or even possibly producer limitations?). All I know is in layman's terms, it's a finale that's gonna piss a lot of people off, not necessarily from the sequence of events that occur, but how they are portrayed. I also would have liked a vaster example of the flashback scenes and evidential crimes that Isaac did to further hammer home the messages and story we were seeing.
Malignant (2021)
2.35 out of 4stars
"Madison is paralyzed by shocking visions of grisly murders, and her torment worsens as she discovers that these waking dreams are in fact terrifying realities."
A stylized, yet cliche ridden and mostly predictable horror murder mystery. Probably the weakest non-sequel horror movie Wan has been "direct-ly" tied too since Dead Silence. That said, it has a twist that you think you might kind of know, but you couldn't possibly guess because it's more odd than you would imagine, in a good way alongside a great finale.
ItsFineImFine
Registered User
- Aug 11, 2019
- 3,756
- 2,404
Wonder Boys (2000) - 7/10
Tobey Maguire is SO f***ing weird. He's like a disturbed Michael Cera, how the hell did they end up casting HIM as Spider-Man? Anyways, his character is a choice here, everyone else is basically themselves and it plays out as a chaotic story which now has a layer of added turn-of-the-century nostalgia making it hold up well. The entire final 30-45 minutes feel like an ending of something big and inevitable that has to happen which films of this era liked to do and then it just kinda...ends on a feel good note.
Interestingly by the same director who did LA Confidential and 8 Mile. And really not much else of note in the decade before or since.
Tobey Maguire is SO f***ing weird. He's like a disturbed Michael Cera, how the hell did they end up casting HIM as Spider-Man? Anyways, his character is a choice here, everyone else is basically themselves and it plays out as a chaotic story which now has a layer of added turn-of-the-century nostalgia making it hold up well. The entire final 30-45 minutes feel like an ending of something big and inevitable that has to happen which films of this era liked to do and then it just kinda...ends on a feel good note.
Interestingly by the same director who did LA Confidential and 8 Mile. And really not much else of note in the decade before or since.
Osprey
Registered User
- Feb 18, 2005
- 28,056
- 11,012
I don't know. I was in that 8-10yo age range when I first saw it and look at how well I turned out...
OK, you might have a point.
Chili
Ramble On!
- Jun 10, 2004
- 8,887
- 5,097
The Search-1948
Story of a boy's odyssey in post WWII. He is one of many children who has been separated from his family. Film does a nice job of giving an idea of what that meant and how hard it was to trust anyone afterwards. Meanwhile his mother searches in vain across Europe. Montgomery Clift is very good as the soldier who finds the boy and takes care of him. The boy himself won a special academy award (Ivan Jandl).
Can't begin to imagine what many of those kids went through. Great, moving film.
I don't know if it was mentioned previously but it is available to everyone on YouTube.
Apur Sansar [The World of Apu/ অপুর সংসার] (1959) directed by Satyajit Ray
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Osprey
Registered User
- Feb 18, 2005
- 28,056
- 11,012
Kate (2021) - 5/10 (Didn't like or dislike it)
An assassin (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) has 24 hours before she dies to find and kill the person who poisoned her. Wait, didn't I see this movie just last week? Oh, right, that was Crank, which I watched because Jolt was similar to its sequel. Is this a trend... take a popular action movie, swap the lead's gender and the setting and... profit? Whatever. It's on Netflix and didn't cost me anything. Anyways, it's darker and more serious of an action movie than those others, which was welcome. It's also set in the neon streets, suburban homes and corporate offices of modern Japan, giving it a strong Japanese flavor that I found appealing. Despite the fact that she's slowly dying, Kate must take on an entire Yakuza syndicate, but she doesn't do it alone. She has the help of a 14-year-old Japanese girl with braces and inexplicably perfect English. It's not the most sensible plot, but not as silly as it sounds, either. The kid (who, fortunately, doesn't get too annoying) gives a little balance to the super seriousness of Kate, who's really not in a good mood for most of the film, possibly on account of dying and all. Their relationship gives the film much of its drama, but it seemed a little awkward to me. Thankfully, the choreographed action is fairly satisfying and ultra violent, with round after round of fights with guns, knives and other sharp objects. Kate seems particularly fond of grabbing whatever's nearby and pointy and plunging it into the nearest neck (a welcome change from the targeting of the crotch that a lot of recent female action movies have leaned on). The film also looks stylish without being overly stylized. It could be the closest thing yet to a female John Wick, though it's not as fun. I found it a little bland, derivative and predictable, but better than Jolt and Netflix's own Gunpowder Milkshake and it gave me a satisfactory action fix for a satisfactory price, so I won't complain.
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That’s a movie I wish more people saw. One of my favourites from 2000.
Pranzo Oltranzista
Registered User
- Oct 18, 2017
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Watched that too last night... Had to stop it twice because I was falling asleep. Grade A factory writing and predictable plotting, but it does have quite a few pretty moments, and the violence saves it from being a total bore. 3/10
Pig (2021) Directed by Michael Sarnoski 6A
Rob, an anti-social near hermit, has his prized truffle-hunting pig stolen, and he is out to chase down whoever has done this evil deed and retrieve his pig. Pig sounds like it is going to be another one of Cage's peculiar choices, a revenge movie full of violence and off-beat humour. But the movie is nothing like that at all. Rather, Pig takes an unusual approach to telling a rather, quiet story about the nature of loss and what it does to people. The story is an interesting one that focuses on Portland, Oregon's culinary scene with deceptively casual attention paid to the various links in the chain that bring local produce, like much-valued truffles, to the fine dining table. There is a subtle statement here about class, success and inauthenticity that allows the movie to punch comfortably above its weight. A triangle of interesting characters--Rob, Amir (Alex Wolff), who sells the truffles Rob collects to fine restaurants, and Darius (Adam Arkin), Amir's embittered father and pretty much the power behind Portland's fine dining success--interact in ways that almost always feel emotionally honest. Wolf finds surprising depth in a not-quite-sidekick role, and Cage and Arkin communicate debilitating loss with real authority. Pig finds quite a fresh way to tell what is a deeply melancholy story.
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You might be right. It's odd, but maybe manageable, especially for today's youth. I just can easily see kindergarten aged kids plus and minus a year or 2 getting nightmares from some of the stuff going on in Gremlins. That said, how much darker is it than Looney Tunes? Probably another notch or 2 darker. That said, comparative to Animaniacs, Gremlins might be passable. There are definitely more questionable things out there for children viewing.
Osprey
Registered User
- Feb 18, 2005
- 28,056
- 11,012
Jojo Rabbit-8/10
My biggest concern really is that while it's a fun movie from start to finish and is more than competent at hitting on the dark themes and emotional weight, I feel like the film only dips its toe in these deeper waters. To put it another way, the film plays it a little too safe with the reality of the Holocaust and its effect on the characters. I don't think the film would be tonally served by being a bummer from start to finish but if you're going to toy with the reality of a real life horror, you have to give more than just a morsel.
That said, the sheer audacity of a coming of age story about a Hitler youth who is fully brainwashed to pure prejudice and hatred done as a whimsical dramedy, I gotta respect it in this age of cinematic universes and remakes. And the way it handles overcoming intolerance to reach acceptance and understanding is handled really quite well. And as a side note, I don't think I've liked a character played by Scarlett Johansson quite as much as her role in this one. Jojo's mother is far and away the standout of the film.
Shang-Chi 8/10 (relative only to other Marvel Movies)
Gonna post in its thread some more. For me one of the upper level Marvel movies. I appreciated when the focus was on martial arts but the action throughout was fantastic. The villain was pretty solid. Overall it was just a good time at the movies.
My biggest concern really is that while it's a fun movie from start to finish and is more than competent at hitting on the dark themes and emotional weight, I feel like the film only dips its toe in these deeper waters. To put it another way, the film plays it a little too safe with the reality of the Holocaust and its effect on the characters. I don't think the film would be tonally served by being a bummer from start to finish but if you're going to toy with the reality of a real life horror, you have to give more than just a morsel.
That said, the sheer audacity of a coming of age story about a Hitler youth who is fully brainwashed to pure prejudice and hatred done as a whimsical dramedy, I gotta respect it in this age of cinematic universes and remakes. And the way it handles overcoming intolerance to reach acceptance and understanding is handled really quite well. And as a side note, I don't think I've liked a character played by Scarlett Johansson quite as much as her role in this one. Jojo's mother is far and away the standout of the film.
Shang-Chi 8/10 (relative only to other Marvel Movies)
Gonna post in its thread some more. For me one of the upper level Marvel movies. I appreciated when the focus was on martial arts but the action throughout was fantastic. The villain was pretty solid. Overall it was just a good time at the movies.
Bounces R Way
Registered User
The Green Knight - 4/10
Little too abstract for me. Saw it in theaters and didn't really shine on the big screen. Very pretty though. Costumes and sets get an A
Suicide Squad(the new one?) - 6/10
Inane consumable garbage delivered as promised. Margot Robbie really floats my goat.
Redline - 8.5/10
Not a massive anime fan but do have some old favourites. This was on Prime and a buddy and I smoked up and settled in. Fantastic movie; tongue in cheek humor, terrific world building, and stimulating visuals the whole way through. Fell hopeless teenager in love with the female lead.
Drag race in the future set on a hostile planet. Very very fun
Little too abstract for me. Saw it in theaters and didn't really shine on the big screen. Very pretty though. Costumes and sets get an A
Suicide Squad(the new one?) - 6/10
Inane consumable garbage delivered as promised. Margot Robbie really floats my goat.
Redline - 8.5/10
Not a massive anime fan but do have some old favourites. This was on Prime and a buddy and I smoked up and settled in. Fantastic movie; tongue in cheek humor, terrific world building, and stimulating visuals the whole way through. Fell hopeless teenager in love with the female lead.
Drag race in the future set on a hostile planet. Very very fun
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