Movies: Last Movie You Watched and Rate It | Part#: Some High Number +3

[Osprey]

I just made it through the opening 20 minutes of Good Time and really want to simply turn it off. This is everything that I hated about Uncut Gems. I am not a fan of the Safdies at all.

Edit: I persevered to the end, since I don't like quitting on movies and so that I wouldn't wonder if it ever gets better (spoiler: it doesn't) or feel any curiosity to re-visit it. I'd give it the same 2/10 (Hated it) that I gave Uncut Gems. I did not have a good time watching it.

 

[OzzyFan]

Good Time
3.00 out of 4stars

Pretty good and mostly unpredictable stress inducing drama with a great turn by Pattinson. I definitely think Uncut Gems is the better movie and easier to absorb for a few reasons (less "raw", the story's world feels more complete/less obscure, Sandler's "life" and backstory feels more fully written, Sandler's performance, the ending, imo it even feels more realistic, etc). The Safdie brothers look like the newer masters of chaos anxiety thrillers after having seen their last 2 movies. I'm curious where they go from here. Like their movies or not, would it be too far to say that they at least deserve recognition for their "high end" stylish stress inducing writing/directing?

 

[ProstheticConscience]

Captive State

with John Goodman, and a lot of depressed people.

The year is 2026...I think. Earth has been conquered by aliens who look like mannequins covered in porcupine quills and live in bunkers deep beneath the Earth's surface, the surface itself being somewhere you don't want to be. Echoes of Half Life abound in 2026 Chicago; everyone is tracked by implant, most of the place is ruins and slums, and the aliens control everything and everyone. Nevertheless there is an underground resistance movement among the burned-out hulks of warehouses and apartment districts, and John Goodman is out to put a stop to it, being the Tough Cop that he is. Will he in time to save the good folks gathering at Soldier Field for a...tribute to how great it is to be alien slaves? Maybe.

The tomato-meter is buried pretty low with this one, but I dunno. I liked it enough to follow through. I thought it was compelling watching the low-tech human resistance communicating and getting shit done. Does a lot of tell don't show as far as the aliens are concerned, to its diminishment.

Not as bad as the reviews say. I mean, not great, but not bad.

 

[Osprey]

Like their movies or not, would it be too far to say that they at least deserve recognition for their "high end" stylish stress inducing writing/directing?

It's certainly effective, but I'm not sure how much recognition it's worth. All that they're doing is combining grating techno music with handheld camerawork and a lot of close-ups to create discomfort and claustrophobia. Anyone could do those things and duplicate their effect easily, IMO. I think that it's pretty amateurish, personally, though also clever, because it completely hides the fact that there's little story, personal interest or character development underneath it all. I think that, if you stripped out the more stress-inducing gimmicks and replaced them with more traditional filming and editing choices, their movies would feel rather simple, empty and boring. Now, if they eventually write a script that's good enough that it doesn't need the gimmicks and they learn to apply them selectively to enhance important scenes, instead of virtually non-stop, then they might have something special, IMO. Until then, I'm not personally impressed by them.

 

[Osprey]

The Guest (2014) - 6/10 (Liked it)

A serviceman (Dan Stevens) takes advantage of a family's hospitality when he shows up at their door, claiming to be their dead son's Army buddy, but their daughter (Maika Monroe) eventually starts to get suspicious. This film, by the director of You're Next, is familiar and fresh at the same time. It's basically 2/3rds a suspense movie and 1/3rd a slasher horror movie. That latter part sounds a little weird, as it did to me, but that's why it feels fresh. It gets rather bloody in that final third. Until then, the tone is serious, but there's a trace of fun and dark comedy because you know that David, the Army buddy, is up to no good. Stevens is delightfully evil as David. He has the most obnoxious grin on his face for the majority of the film, the kind that makes you want to punch him, but he'll occasionally drop it and get terrifyingly serious. Monroe (who starred in It Follows) is OK as the daughter Anna, but is mostly just your standard female horror heroine. It's a little predictable, isn't clear on motive, gets a little unrealistic when the explanation for it all is briefly mentioned and kind of rips off the very end from a few other movies, but it's entertaining and that's probably more important. It's not anything amazing, but it's worth watching if you enjoy simple premise thrillers or slasher horror movies (not the scary kind, but more of the fun kind).

 

[SouthGeorge]

Parasite - 9/10. Am I understanding it and the ending correctly?...

Spoiler

I'm assuming the rock is the parasite since it started it all? Poor family. Then presumably had it all or what they wanted, jobs and money. Then sister dies and dad trapped in the house. Son left with head damage and now needs to become rich again to free his dad. So basically appreciate what you got.

 

[GlassesJacketShirt]

Parasite - 9/10. Am I understanding it and the ending correctly?...

Spoiler

I'm assuming the rock is the parasite since it started it all? Poor family. Then presumably had it all or what they wanted, jobs and money. Then sister dies and dad trapped in the house. Son left with head damage and now needs to become rich again to free his dad. So basically appreciate what you got.

There's two types of people: those who press their luck, and those who preserve it. The Kims are clearly part of the former.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

Uncut Gems (2019) - Very fun with some good performances all-around including KG. Not something that blew me away, but I enjoy the Sadie brothers (I only recently realized they had directed Heaven Knows What, which I remember liking very much). Certain plot advancement points felt a little contradictory (such as Howard allowing Kevin Garnett to take his rock when he's been waiting for it for so long - even if he's getting his Celtics ring as collateral) but pacing of the film compensates for a bit of that senseless quality. A great, subtle soundtrack to boot.

Get Out (2017) - Awesome outside of the comedy aspect and the Williams girl, both of which fell flat for me. Highly creative set-up, smart, with some beautiful image effects to boot. Especially the sunken place. Probably would have like the original ending better although this is a minor gripe. Despite Chris' rescue at the end of the film, the carnage left at the home likely makes the seemingly happy ending more ambiguous than a direct arrest.

 

[Frankie Blueberries]

Parasite - 9/10. Am I understanding it and the ending correctly?...

Spoiler

I'm assuming the rock is the parasite since it started it all? Poor family. Then presumably had it all or what they wanted, jobs and money. Then sister dies and dad trapped in the house. Son left with head damage and now needs to become rich again to free his dad. So basically appreciate what you got.

Spoiler

I think it's open to interpretation and your explanation might be accurate. I liked this one from Reddit though:

I believe the family (the poor) are representative of the rock. While the rich are represented by water. Like a rock formation in a river, the water flows and speeds past the rock, but the rock stays in the same place, slowly weathering away.

The rich family is never caught in the rain, they remain dry during the camping trip rain scene. The son is dry in his tent. They live comfortably around the rain. When the original housekeeper comes back to the house, she's engulfed in a downpour, and the poor family in the large house now look at her with disgust. The main poor family and their entire neighborhood have their houses destroyed by a flood. Yet the poor are entranced by the water. The water bottles they yearn to drink. The way they stare at the thunderstorm in awe. I took the shot during the ending sequence where the main son leaves the rock in the river to represent his understanding that his situation will never change. He, along with the lower class of South Korea, is resigned to staying sedimentary as the rich quickly rush past without a pause. Its a sad irony as the rock gives the son so much hope of prosperity throughout the movie before the poor housewife's husband throws it at his head as if to show him how stupid he is for having those thoughts.

 

[KallioWeHardlyKnewYe]

Still catching up on a handful of 2019 releases. This duo coincidentally ended up being a unintentionally nice pairing both for what they do well and my chief complaint.

The Farewell. A charming little family dramady about a dying grandmother in China and the family who’d rather fake a wedding ceremony to make her final days happy than share the reality. An interesting moral/ethical quandary at its heart. Nice performances. The ending, however, felt shockingly abrupt and has a coda the REALLY feels it warrants more of an explanation than the 10 seconds it gets given everything that comes before.

Ford v. Ferrari. This movie is so paint-by-numbers, so by-the-book that everyone involved with it should feel embarrassed ... were it not for the fact that it’s so very well done. Great acting. Great directing. Good cinematography. Pulse-pounding editing. Great score. Everything. This is the best, most enjoyable version of what’s ultimately a kinda generic movie with predictable characters and foreseeable beat after foreseeable beat. In its way that’s an impressive and laudable feat. My one complaint is I didn’t care for the last 15 minutes. Without getting into spoilers, everything after the race feels needless and emotionally unearned. Feels like Aaron Sorkin grabbed the script right before it went into production and said you know what this really needs .... Other than that it was pretty delightful.

 

[Osprey]

Ford v. Ferrari. This movie is so paint-by-numbers, so by-the-book that everyone involved with it should feel embarrassed ... were it not for the fact that it’s so very well done. Great acting. Great directing. Good cinematography. Pulse-pounding editing. Great score. Everything. This is the best, most enjoyable version of what’s ultimately a kinda generic movie with predictable characters and foreseeable beat after foreseeable beat. In its way that’s an impressive and laudable feat. My one complaint is I didn’t care for the last 15 minutes. Without getting into spoilers, everything after the race feels needless and emotionally unearned. Feels like Aaron Sorkin grabbed the script right before it went into production and said you know what this really needs .... Other than that it was pretty delightful.

That's a good way to describe the film. I watched it a week ago, but, whereas I've reviewed just about every movie that I've seen in the last month, I didn't review this one. I just didn't feel that motivated to review it, and I think that you nailed the reason: it's so "paint by the numbers" and "by the book." On the other hand, it's so expertly by the numbers and expertly by the book that it's still a pretty entertaining film and I rather enjoyed it. It leaves you with a strange feeling that you've seen it all before, but rarely done better.

 

[Ben Grimm]

Taxi Driver 9/10

Great film, but I don't understand how he murders 3 people and is considered a hero for doing so.

 

[Osprey]

The Aeronauts (2019) - 7/10 (Really liked it)

In 1862, a scientist (Eddie Redmayne) and a pilot (Felicity Jones) attempt to break a balloon altitude record and pioneer weather forecasting, but it's not smooth sailing. This Amazon original is a semi-historical film (an amalgam of many flights and different people) that is part drama and part adventure. It's very visually appealing, particularly with all of the magnificent views from the balloon. It's heavily reliant on CGI, but it's high quality and realistic, so that it doesn't betray too much that the balloon scenes were filmed almost entirely in a studio. The acting performances are strong, as one might expect from a Best Actor winner and Best Actress nominee, and really carry the film. Interesting fact: Redmayne and Jones were cast because they had chemistry working with each other on The Theory of Everything.

The film gets off of the ground very quickly (pun intended) and relies on a lot of flashbacks to give the backstory. Normally, I'm not too much of a fan of excessive flashbacks, but I think that they work here and this structure is preferable to a chronological one which would've made the viewer wait until the halfway point for the characters to finally get airborne. The action sequences are a little unbelievable and sensationalized, but they spice up a film that probably would've seemed a little dull without them. There isn't a whole lot of action and the drama doesn't get too deep, but it's a pleasant balance of the two. It does occasionally feel a little "Disney-like," but it doesn't pander to younger viewers by forcing kids or animals into the story, so it's not so bad and is suitable for nearly any age from 10 to 100. I enjoyed it and recommend it to just about anybody. It's on Amazon Prime Video.

 

[Prarievarg]

The Shape of Water (2017): 4/10

 

[kihei]

For anyone in the area who wants to see the second best movie of last year, Portrait of a Lady on Fire is now playing in a couple of theatres in Toronto (Bell Lightbox and, for probably a longer run, Varsity)

 

[SouthGeorge]

Spoiler

I think it's open to interpretation and your explanation might be accurate. I liked this one from Reddit though:

I believe the family (the poor) are representative of the rock. While the rich are represented by water. Like a rock formation in a river, the water flows and speeds past the rock, but the rock stays in the same place, slowly weathering away.

The rich family is never caught in the rain, they remain dry during the camping trip rain scene. The son is dry in his tent. They live comfortably around the rain. When the original housekeeper comes back to the house, she's engulfed in a downpour, and the poor family in the large house now look at her with disgust. The main poor family and their entire neighborhood have their houses destroyed by a flood. Yet the poor are entranced by the water. The water bottles they yearn to drink. The way they stare at the thunderstorm in awe. I took the shot during the ending sequence where the main son leaves the rock in the river to represent his understanding that his situation will never change. He, along with the lower class of South Korea, is resigned to staying sedimentary as the rich quickly rush past without a pause. Its a sad irony as the rock gives the son so much hope of prosperity throughout the movie before the poor housewife's husband throws it at his head as if to show him how stupid he is for having those thoughts.

That makes more sense with the rock and all the water. That had to be a Bong Joon-Ho alias on Reddit.

 

[Puck]

I thought this was mildly funny and sarcastic. I'll post it here and run away, because I don't remember seeing a standalone Parasite film thread in the Entertainment section, and it won at the Oscars.

Trust your nose: what rich people can learn from Parasite

 

[Osprey]

I thought this was mildly funny and sarcastic. I'll post it here and run away, because I don't remember seeing a standalone Parasite film thread in the Entertainment section, and it won at the Oscars.

Trust your nose: what rich people can learn from Parasite

The author missed one:

Spoiler

Lesson six: Have electrical issues promptly checked out
Are the lights in your house turning on and off by themselves as if they're possessed? Your house might've been built over an Indian burial ground or you might have bad wiring that may eventually burn your whole house down... or you may have poor people hiding in your home and messing with the lights because they have nothing better to do. At the first sign of lights on the fritz, call in an electrician and have him investigate and trace the power. That'll lead him right to the problem... and if he goes missing, keep calling in electricians until one finally reports back. Also, learn Morse Code.

 

[Puck]

The author missed one

Good one. Maybe you should be writing reviews for The Guardian.

 

[nameless1]

I just made it through the opening 20 minutes of Good Time and really want to simply turn it off. This is everything that I hated about Uncut Gems. I am not a fan of the Safdies at all.

Edit: I persevered to the end, since I don't like quitting on movies and so that I wouldn't wonder if it ever gets better (spoiler: it doesn't) or feel any curiosity to re-visit it. I'd give it the same 2/10 (Hated it) that I gave Uncut Gems. I did not have a good time watching it.

Yeah, I am on the same boat as you. The main problem for me is that Pattinson's character is not interesting at all, so by the end, I have become completely apathetic to the story. All the tension in the atmosphere that have been set up just does not matter to me, at all.

I have not checked out Uncut Gems yet, but so far, like you, I am not a fan of the Safdies. They have some skills, but they still have a long way to go.

 

[Babe Ruth]

Awakening the Zodiac (2017)

Decent thriller,.. a couple finds some graphic home movies of the Zodiac killer. Some good tension in their hunt to reveal the killer behind the Zodiac hood. Movie didn't resort to a lot of gore, which I appreciate. Ending was a little goofy & anticlimactic, but..
One petty criticism is have is their recreation of 'present day Virginia'. The male lead drives a truck w/757 area code painted on his door. So it's theoretically set in Virginia Beach-Norfolk area. Which is very flat & urban/suburban. The (actual) film location was very hilly, rural, & they utilized a lot of older cars. It looked like the deepest South of 50 years ago (?) Even if it was set in the less dense areas of the 757, maybe Suffolk etc.. still be too much of generic Southern cliché.. it looked like they put less than 5 minutes in to researching their fictional setting.

I give the movie a 6 (on 10 pt. scale).

 

[Osprey]

Secret Window (2004) - 5/10 (Didn't like or dislike it)

A short story writer (Johnny Depp) working at his secluded lakeside house gets a visit from an upset stranger (John Turturro) who claims that he stole his story. This Stephen King adaptation reminded me a little of Misery, which is also about a writer working in a picturesque location and dealing with a psycho. I liked that and the look of the area and the inside of the house. Depp is watchable even if he plays himself. The film is more humorous than most King adaptations. It's more of an Alfred Hitchcock-inspired dark comedy than a Stephen King horror. In fact, it's not frightening at all. Even Turturro's villain isn't very intimidating, which could've been intentional, since Depp's character certainly isn't intimidated by him and acts more like "who is this weirdo?" The premise (about who stole from whom) isn't the most riveting stuff, either, and had me confused for most of the story over why this stranger is acting like this and personally harassing him instead of going through lawyers, though it makes sense in the end. Speaking of which, the movie features one of the bigger surprise endings that you'll find, but I was disappointed that I felt nothing. Maybe it's because the reveal was botched or I guessed at it earlier, but it's the big "surprise!" moment and I was like "meh." Anyways, I felt that the movie was neither good nor bad, just all right.

Spoiler

I did like that the movie features a "happy" ending in which the guy who murdered all of these good, innocent people in cold blood gets away with it all and couldn't be happier. Haha.

 

[aufheben]

For anyone in the area who wants to see the second best movie of last year, Portrait of a Lady on Fire is now playing in a couple of theatres in Toronto (Bell Lightbox and, for probably a longer run, Varsity)

That movie was a gut-punch. Really good though.

 

[nameless1]

I might the only one bored by Portrait of a Lady on Fire.


It is well-done, but it does nothing for me. I have seen enough of star-crossed lovers.

 

[Supermassive]

The Jesus Rolls - 7/10.
A relaxing road comedy that fleshes out the character of Jesus Quintana from The Big Lebowski, while giving him a modicum of redemption and likability. A must-see for Lebowski fans, but your non-abiding significant other might be bored by it.