Movies: Last Movie You Watched and Rate it | {Insert Appropriate Seasonal Greeting Here}

[PocketNines]

Kimi. I was JUST rambling about the joys of streaming and the access that has created all in the comfort of one's home. Lo and behold I get up this morning, turn on my telly to catch up on Peacemaker and there's a brand new damn Steven Soderbergh movie just sitting there on my HBOMax. I follow the movie industry pretty close and am a total Soderbergh homer and I have to admit I didn't even know this thing existed. But of course it's only been six months since his last movie so the poor guy probably thinks he was slacking.

Forgive a shoddy sports metaphor (and not even the right one for these forums) but Soderbergh almost always gets on base. He hasn't hit a home run in a while (though I'm a big fan of High Flying Bird among his recent work, which might be an inside the park home run) but he can step up and crack doubles all day with consistency. The speed and efficiency with which he works is nuts. This is one of his classic tight, small cast, minimal locations deals. A Rear Window/The Conversation riff set amid Covid and with Alexa (or "Kimi") standing in for Jeff''s binoculars and Harry Caul's bugs. It ain't nearly as great as those predecessors but it does the job just fine, putting our heroine through all the expected steps of just such a wringer. Predictable in many ways, but still plenty enjoyment to be had. Uses modern technology well as both a crutch and aid throughout. I particularly liked the last 15 minutes or so. My one big knock is Zoe Kravitz in the lead role ... she's fine but her agoraphobia at times almost plays like cliched autism spectrum tics. I just feel like awkward standoffish pixie-hair tech girl has been done a bunch. When she's not steering into that though, she's good.

Also, to anyone who watches this ... Andy Daly and David Wain definitely pop up here right? Didn't see them listed in the credits I'm like 98% sure they both have small roles.

Excited to see Kimi streaming. I'm re-appreciating Soderbergh for having made two of the greatest noirs in history. He made the best neo noir of the 1990s, The Limey (1999). He also leads in the current decade for No Sudden Move (2021) which is great on its own plus a reference-stuffed love letter to the entire genre.

 

[kihei]

Green Knight (2021). The worst movie I've seen all year, and it's only February. It tries hard to out-Tarkovsky Tarkovsky but, luckily, we have the fast-forward option. This movie is over two hours long but it took us half an hour to finish it. Stupid, ridiculous, and boring throughout. 2/10

Anyone who comes up with a hooter of a sentence like "The worst movie I have seen all year, and it's only February" should probably tread lightly on another poster's second-language word usage mistake.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Anyone who comes up with a hooter of a sentence like "The worst movie I have seen all year, and it's only February" should probably tread lightly on another posters second-language word usage mistake.

I still can't like posts, so I will send you some love here! Thanks a 1000 for defending my honor and my sometimes doubtful use of the English language!

 

[Sentinel]

Anyone who comes up with a hooter of a sentence like "The worst movie I have seen all year, and it's only February" should probably tread lightly on another posters second-language word usage mistake.

Why? I think a great sentence. At any rate, it's a matter of taste, but the user decided to lecture me on my review, while making a pretty bad English mistake. So I retaliated.

 

[Sentinel]

Rifkin's Festival (2020)

I like it more than its predecessor, a thoroughly boring and completely clueless Rainy Day in New York, but less than the previous one, a thoroughly powerful Wonder Wheel. I like it for two simple reasons: it's funny and it's pretty. Shot in San Sebastian, this film immediately puts this city in northern Spain on my travel list (although it does suspiciously resemble my beloved St. Thomas).

But it's the jokes that are actually good and witty. Lately you can count on 2-3 great punches in an Allen release but Rifkin's Festival has at least half a dozen. I will give away just one, because it's too fabulous not to deserve its own highlight:

"What would you say to God if you met him?"
"God? After all he’s done, he should talk to my lawyer!”
“Who but a Jew would think of suing God?”
“Who but a Jew would have such a slam-dunk case?”

Instant classic.

One big frown goes to the mandatory Allen Avatar: this time it's Wallace Shawn, known to everyone as the hyper talkative Australian villain in Princess Bride. Shawn is a good actor but he is just too much like Allen to create the necessary dissonance, which is essential for enjoyment. Owen Wilson, Kenneth Brennah, Joacim Phoenix, and John Cusack work as Allen Avatars because normally they are nothing at all like Allen. Shawn is even of the same age group of Allen, so there is no audiovisual or cognitive paradox.

There is not much new about this movie. Yes, Shawn is a typical self-eating Jewish hypochondriac intellectual we saw a hundred times, and Gina Gershon is the same annoying cheating wife we saw a hundred times (and Rachel McAdams is simply untouchable in this role in Midnight in Paris). The way Shawn's Rivkin handles his life troubles is by inserting himself into European cinema classics: Citizen Kane, Bunuēl's Exterminating Angel, Begman's The Seventh Seal, and so on. To a real cinephile this must feel like Cinema 101, but I never took that particular college course and only recognized a handful of references. But the Seventh Seal moment is precious because it features none other than Christoph Waltz, which alone makes the scene spectacular and the film worth watching (although you can already see this segment on YouTube).

One new aspect, however, is how the young love interest of Rivkin, a Spanish doctor named Jo, shows absolutely no interest in him. The recurring theme in 90% of Allen's films is a romance between an old man and a young woman. This is the first time it's crystal clear that an old man has no chance in hell, even if the young woman's life is precipitously falling apart (the proverbial "even if you were the last man on earth"). Perhaps Allen is finally coming to grips with his age. That's not to say he doesn't have much to contribute.

Sure, this film will not bump any of Allen's classics from my top 10 (or even top 20) list. But, like I said, it's pretty and it's funny. Which is more than most recent Hollywood releases can say for themselves. 7/10

 

[kihei]

Why? I think a great sentence. At any rate, it's a matter of taste, but the user decided to lecture me on my review, while making a pretty bad English mistake. So I retaliated.

Cheap shot retaliation your thing, bro? Why don't you retaliate next time by writing less troll-like reviews?

 

[OzzyFan]

The Man Who Lived Again (1936)
2.65 out of 4stars

"Dr. Laurience, a brilliant but unstable scientist experimenting with transferring minds, becomes vengeful when his magnate patron withdraws his support."
A good sci-fi film whose best attributes are a surprisingly expressive Karloff and lots of quick dry wit. This film was a little awkward to follow due to the fact that almost everyone but Karloff was speaking at an expedited rate, which seems even more odd when you consider this movie is barely a bit over 60minutes long. As long as you can adjust to that, there's a decent mad scientist story with a lot of dry humor. I think Karloff knocks his role out of the park, bringing just the right amount of charismatic active menace emphasis to the part. Sadly imo, it isn't until the last 3rd of the movie that it really starts to take off, and it's humor and fun and drama kicks up a couple notches and it's "literal premise" actually unfolds on screen. Personality swaps thrown into different situations alongside some twists and turns make the last 3rd a blast and deliver everything promised by it's plot.

The Hitch-Hiker (1953)
2.60 out of 4stars

"Two fishermen pick up a psychopathic escaped convict who tells them that he intends to murder them when the ride is over."
At 71minutes short, a good but slightly monotonous noir film. There's no question that it works more often than not with creating tension and mood, but I felt it to be a bit repetitive. The movie is well acted, smarter than it has to be, and does create a decent amount of turns to keep the story moving along, but I can't forgive some things. I won't tell you scene for scene, but in this already short movie, there are a few scenes/situations that repeat, aside from the already continuous on and off driving. Also on that note, I personally feel there were a few to a handful of situations that would have been ideal for them to escape from their captor earlier on in the movie with no attempt made. Because of that, it's a good movie that does it's job but is not without reservations.

Death on the Nile (2022)
2.50 out of 4stars

"In 1937, while on vacation on the Nile, Hercule Poirot must investigate the murder of a young heiress."
A good Agatha Christie murder mystery film with lots of style and charisma. All of cast seems to be having a ball, especially Branagh in the lead role. The investigation and twists are noteworthy, but unlike Murder on the Orient Express, I guessed the killer of this film correctly right after the murder took place. I don't know if that's a knock on the screenwriting or a knock on the story, but it did hurt the joy of the journey a bit. Some interesting choices made with the film, especially with evolving Poirot's character.

 

[OzzyFan]

Anyone who comes up with a hooter of a sentence like "The worst movie I have seen all year, and it's only February" should probably tread lightly on another poster's second-language word usage mistake.

I'm a little confused by the fast forwarding thing. If you believe a movie you are watching is so bad, why not turn it off? What the heck are you gonna get from fast forwarding through it other than wasting more of your time? A non-linear mish mosh?

 

[Osprey]

I'm a little confused by the fast forwarding thing. If you believe a movie you are watching is so bad, why not turn it off? What the heck are you gonna get from fast forwarding through it other than wasting more of your time? A non-linear mish mosh?

I can't speak for him, but I'll occasionally fast forward and see the ending just so that I can put it behind me and not be tempted to return to it. I'm a bit of a completionist and it tends to bother me when I don't finish something that I started. I also tend to be curious about how things end, even if I didn't like them. For example, does a character that I hate die or is there a bad ending that validates my opinion of the first half? If I do fast forward, though, I won't write a review because that doesn't seem fair to me. Writing scathing reviews is fun, but you should earn the right to it by sitting through the rubbish, IMO.

 

[MakeTheGoalsLarger]

Why? I think a great sentence. At any rate, it's a matter of taste, but the user decided to lecture me on my review, while making a pretty bad English mistake. So I retaliated.

It doesn't make sense to write "and it's only February" because it means there were likely going to be worse movies coming up.

I agree about The Green Knight being incredibly boring though. It took me about 10 minutes to "finish" it.

 

[ProstheticConscience]

Tried to watch the Power of the Dog the other week. Really don't see what the big deal was. Got sick of watching Benedict Cumberbatch be a dick to everyone after about twenty minutes.

 

[guinness]

Is there a thread like this, but for TV shows? I'm watching Night Gallery, and so far, it's way off the mark of what I was hoping for.

Luckily, the complete set cost me less than $20, but Rod Serling made this...he created The Twilight Zone, which is probably my favorite anthology series of all time, but this feels like a brother from another mother.

 

[Nemesis Prime]

Aftermath - 6.5/10

Pretty interesting to see Arnold in a more dramatic, subdued role and not a terrible take of the ol based on a true story. Though it does suffer from pacing issues, the lack of a build up to the climax of the film. Felt like there needed to be some set up scenes between him and his family to make you really feel for him and what happens. But what we did get was not bad, better than expected.

Black Widow - 8/10

This movie just makes me sad that she got killed off in Endgame, we need more Yelena and Natasha in the MCU. The chemistry Scarlett Johansson has with Florence Pugh in this movie is fantastic. David Harbour also kills it as Red Guardian. My biggest issue is how they portray Taskmaster, I liked how they tied her into the MCU but felt like she was thrown in just for fan service and had no real direction otherwise.

 

[Sentinel]

It doesn't make sense to write "and it's only February" because it means there were likely going to be worse movies coming up.

I agree about The Green Knight being incredibly boring though. It took me about 10 minutes to "finish" it.

In case you didn't know, it's a popular idiom.

 

[Sentinel]

Death on the Nile (2022)

Given my love for the original Peter Ustinov film, I am pretty confident I will never see this.

 

[ItsFineImFine]

Death on the Nile (2022)
2.50 out of 4stars

"In 1937, while on vacation on the Nile, Hercule Poirot must investigate the murder of a young heiress."
A good Agatha Christie murder mystery film with lots of style and charisma. All of cast seems to be having a ball, especially Branagh in the lead role. The investigation and twists are noteworthy, but unlike Murder on the Orient Express, I guessed the killer of this film correctly right after the murder took place. I don't know if that's a knock on the screenwriting or a knock on the story, but it did hurt the joy of the journey a bit. Some interesting choices made with the film, especially with evolving Poirot's character.

I don't think it's the story. That's one of the best-written Agatha Christie novels (minus the strange start which is just chapter after chapter of character introduction). Ends up being one of her juiciest mysteries imo. The Suchet TV adaptation was decent, it had a young Emily Blunt play the role which Gadot does in this one.

I think Brannagh's a tiresomely mediocre director and have 0 expectations for this.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

The Next Karate Kid (Cain, 1994) - Some films I watch only to fall asleep on, sometimes I even forget I started watching them, but this one... This one I actually could not wait to get done with the day and get back to it! I just don't know what that is, it's certainly not a serious sequel to the original trilogy, it feels almost as tongue-in-cheek as Cobra Kai, but it's just way more over-the-top (those 25 y/o school bullies were just amazing with Michal Ironside as their colonel leader who incites them to kill a guy, just because, or to finish a girl challenging one of his boys). Hilary Swank makes Larusso look like a karate master, but the most fun were the Miyagi fights, I just can't imagine how they choreographed that. Most definetely so bad it's good. 1/10

 

[kihei]

Tried to watch the Power of the Dog the other week. Really don't see what the big deal was. Got sick of watching Benedict Cumberbatch be a dick to everyone after about twenty minutes.

I've had this conversation with a couple of friends who stopped at various points in the first half because the Cumberbatch character's cruelty seemed excessive. But soldier on and you will see how the hard-to-take first half sets up the brilliant second half. I had trouble with the first half, too, so I know the feeling. Both my friends ended up being very glad that they gave the movie a second chance.

 

[ProstheticConscience]

Is there a thread like this, but for TV shows? I'm watching Night Gallery, and so far, it's way off the mark of what I was hoping for.

Luckily, the complete set cost me less than $20, but Rod Serling made this...he created The Twilight Zone, which is probably my favorite anthology series of all time, but this feels like a brother from another mother.

There is. Kinda died a couple of years ago; it gets bumped once in a while, I post in it, then it dies again.

TV: - Last TV Show Episode You Watched and Rate It (Part I)

I've had this conversation with a couple of friends who stopped at various points in the first half because the Cumberbatch character's cruelty seemed excessive. But soldier on and you will see how the hard-to-take first half sets up the brilliant second half. I had trouble with the first half, too, so I know the feeling. Both my friends ended up being very glad that they gave the movie a second chance.

Maybe it's the mood I was in at the time...I dunno. The Mrs. didn't care much for it either. Maybe we'll give it another shot soon as how highly it's been recommended.

 

[ProstheticConscience]

BigBug

with French people

France 2045. AI and robots have taken over quite a lot of the world, but that doesn't stop middle-aged French guys from trying to score with lonely suburban women who do calligraphy and think they're *artistic*. One even brings his teenage son along for the ride one day, and he dispenses teenage snark while the robot maid serves them crickets and boiled eggs. The woman's ex-husband, their daughter and his new girlfriend join them unexpectedly, along with a neighbour and her sexbot. Throughout, we're seeing news reports of traffic snarls and disturbances, along with jackass-style game show highlights where robots beat and humiliate humans for the lulz. Soon, the house locks itself and won't let anyone out. Hmm. The robocalypse couldn't possibly be nigh, could it?

Aesthetic mixes the 50's with the 90's and beyond. Many messages about the reliance on technology are delivered with the subtlety of a Kid Rock concert. The robots taking over might as well all have EVIL stamped on their foreheads.

Easter egg laugh with the horndog's "sports car" being a Citroen 2CV hovercar.

On Netflix.

I mean you no harm! You believe that, right? RIGHT?!

 

[OzzyFan]

I can't speak for him, but I'll occasionally fast forward and see the ending just so that I can put it behind me and not be tempted to return to it. I'm a bit of a completionist and it tends to bother me when I don't finish something that I started. I also tend to be curious about how things end, even if I didn't like them. For example, does a character that I hate die or is there a bad ending that validates my opinion of the first half? If I do fast forward, though, I won't write a review because that doesn't seem fair to me. Writing scathing reviews is fun, but you should earn the right to it by sitting through the rubbish, IMO.

Lol. Gotcha. I try not to write reviews for movies I don't like, at least anymore, movies I see in theaters aside but even then I try to find some upside to it (take Moonfall, the actors did what they could with the material and some of the visuals were fun to see, not to mention the concept, as looney as it is, had a "good enough" explanation for the audience to sit through). I rarely put myself through a movie that bothers or bores me, especially when I'm in front of a TV/computer screen. I'm a click away from "happier-ness", so to speak. In your case, I say why not read up on the story/spoiler for the end/rest of the movie online? It's quicker, unless you really want to see it play out instead of just purely knowing it?

I don't think it's the story. That's one of the best-written Agatha Christie novels (minus the strange start which is just chapter after chapter of character introduction). Ends up being one of her juiciest mysteries imo. The Suchet TV adaptation was decent, it had a young Emily Blunt play the role which Gadot does in this one.

I think Brannagh's a tiresomely mediocre director and have 0 expectations for this.

Thanks. I was curious if Branagh added that Poirot background introduction. I understand why it's there, but it just takes away from the main story. I've never read the book or seen previous versions, so it could be Branagh/his writer/co-writer's choices for this issue I had. I just felt it was the most obvious and sensical choice from the moment it happened. It's interesting about Branagh. I've seen a few of the films he's directed, and he seems to definitely have an admiration and enthusiasm for the material, but you may be right, I now wonder if he may be a bit weaker in the skills department.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

It doesn't make sense to write "and it's only February" because it means there were likely going to be worse movies coming up.

I agree about The Green Knight being incredibly boring though. It took me about 10 minutes to "finish" it.

Kihei can correct but I think the mistake is more in saying 'all year, and it's only February.' I think the correct use would have been 'this year, and it's only February.'

Could be totally off the mark and you're the one who's right, though.

 

[kihei]

Kihei can correct but I think the mistake is more in saying 'all year, and it's only February.' I think the correct use would have been 'this year, and it's only February.'

Could be totally off the mark and you're the one who's right, though.

Not correcting you, just pitching in on what I think he was struggling to say: "It's only February and already I might have seen the worst movie of 2022." Just my two cents.

 

[kihei]

Oops

 

[kihei]

i am not great participating on a bloody cell phone.