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

[nameless1]

The Captain (2019) - 4/10 (Disliked it)

Based on a real life incident, a Sichuan Airlines flight is thrown into chaos when the plane loses cabin pressure. This hit Chinese film is kind of like China's Sully, though Sully was a much better film. It features somewhat good suspense and visual effects, but is also overly dramatic and sentimental. The first half hour feels like an airline commercial or those self promotion videos that they show you before takeoff. It gets better once the chaos starts and is a decent disaster flick until it loses steam in the final third and then drags on too sentimentally at the end. It tries really hard to make you feel good about flying, despite the subject matter, and putting your faith in authority figures (hmm). In fact, the movie includes a lot of scenes of China's civil aviation agency and credits them as one of the heroes in the postscripts (despite not really doing anything but saying "Sichuan 8633, do you copy?" a thousand times), including touting their accident rate as being 1/11th the global average. I had to laugh at that. I bet that their reported research laboratory accident rate is 1/11th the global average, as well. Also, the main reason why I checked this movie out is that RT reports a 96% audience score. I should've looked more carefully because I would've then realized that it was surely inflated by fake ratings and reviews, most of which were submitted over only a few days last Fall. I should've figured and been more careful. Oh well.

The Chinese mainstream film industry is in the "bigger is better" phase right now. The movies feel spectacular, but there is absolutely no polish, in the script, to even the special effects. I pretty much disliked everything I have seen from it the last 2 years.

 

[Osprey]

The Chinese mainstream film industry is in the "bigger is better" phase right now. The movies feels spectacular, but there is absolutely no polish, in the script, to even the special effects. I pretty much disliked everything I have seen from it the last 2 years.

I've gotten a similar impression. Last year's The Wandering Earth reminded me of Hollywood blockbusters from the late 90s, like Independence Day and Armageddon, in that it's big and ambitious, with loads of CGI, but with a ridiculous concept and loads of lame humor and sentimentality. The Captain is much more realistic, but also "big" and sentimental. Not to get political, but there's speculation that China was trying to prove that they could research coronaviruses as well as the U.S., and it feels like they're similarly trying to prove that they can make blockbuster movies as well as the U.S. It feels different from the approach of just about every other film industry around the world (ex. South Korea, Canada), which just does what it's good at without seeming to copy or compete with another.

 

[aufheben]

The Piano Teacher (2001, Haneke) - 3/5
Antichrist (2009, von Trier) - 2.5/5 — I legit almost vomited during this movie and I have a fairly high tolerance for the disturbing.
Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (2020, Yan) - 2.5 — Surprisingly adequate.
The House That Jack Built (2018, von Trier) - 1.5/5 — Garbage.

The Invitation (2015) - Okay, but ultimately forgettable. Not great acting but I thought the approach was a little bit more realistic with the characters fate/how fast things shake out.

Mulholland Drive (2001) - I had disliked it many, many years ago. I frankly can't remember why. Maybe I struggled a little more with unconventional plots as a teenager but I had always been interesting in art films and literature so I like to think I still should have been better equipped to watch it. Now, I watched it twice in the past 3 days. Once alone and once with my wife. It's a masterpiece and the best thing Lynch has ever done. I use to think it was Blue Velvet, but I think Mulholland Drive is a much, much stronger film. His best mystery work intertwined with a passionate love story that leaves the viewer with more questions than answers, which is how I like transgressive movies. Filled with graceful trails of breadcrumbs and potential non sequiturs that play particularly well on the idea of dreams or parallel universes (and for all the theories about the film, I've never perceived Lynch as such a philosopher/intellectual/overly concerned with complex plot that the story itself is complicated, it's the presentation of its development and collapse that is highly creative, beautiful and rewarding). All actors give perfect performances besides the odd weak moment by Justin Theroux in his first appearance. Naomi Watts and Laura Elena Harring are the natural standouts, with the former switching gears completely effortlessly whenever a change in demeanor is required of her, whether it's in the first 80% of the film or the last 20%. I could spend hours looking at the constructed sets and Lynch makes it work visually at all moments with a relatively small budget of 4 millions. Makes you wonder what studios see in hacks who can't even come close to doing what he does with ten, twenty times that budget. He puts other visual artists to shame. I was hooked by the first frame. Mpst of the oddball stuff is presented rather demurely and never feels like a crutch, which I think something like Twin Peaks is sometimes guilty of. The pinnacle of David Lynch's career. An A+ film.

Favorite films by US directors, off the top of my head, not in order:

Buffalo '66 by Vincent Gallo (1998)
Mulholland Drive by David Lynch (2001)
Lolita by Stanley Kubrick (1962)
The Killing of a Chinese Bookie by John Cassavetes (1976)
The King of Comedy by Martin Scorcese (1982)
Before Sunset by Richard Linklater (2004)
The Lighthouse by Robert Eggers (2019)
Bad Lieutenant by Abel Ferrara (1992)
12 Angry Men by Sidney Lumet (1957)
Miller's Crossing by The Coen Brothers (1990)
Somewhere by Sofia Coppola (2010)
Killer of Sheep by Charles Burnett (1978)
Zelig by Woody Allen (1983)


I kept it at one film per director for no particular reason. I guess I simply didn't want to see the same name twice. I could also be forgetting stuff. I struggled with a couple of different Coen Brothers films. No Country for Old Men, The Big Lebowski, The Man Who Wasn't There and Blood Simple were also considered. 2001 and Full Metal Jacket for Kubrick. A Woman Under the Influence for Cassavetes and Raging Bull for Scorcese.

^ one of the best films of all time (Mulholland Drive)

Mulholland Drive is my favorite movie since 2000. Just a legendary performance by Naomi Watts.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

The Piano Teacher (2001, Haneke) - 3/5
Antichrist (2009, von Trier) - 2.5/5 — I legit almost vomited during this movie and I have a fairly high tolerance for the disturbing.
Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (2020, Yan) - 2.5 — Surprisingly adequate.
The House That Jack Built (2018, von Trier) - 1.5/5 — Garbage.



Mulholland Drive is my favorite movie since 2000. Just a legendary performance by Naomi Watts.

Post-1999, I probably have Loveless, Love Exposure, In the Mood for Love, Irreversible and Before Sunset above it.

 

[Osprey]

Extraction (2020) - 7/10 (Really liked it)

A mercenary (Chris Hemsworth) is hired to rescue the abducted son of a Bangladeshi drug lord. This Netflix original movie (made available today) was written and produced by the directors of Avengers: Endgame and directed by that film's stunt coordinator. The result is a very visceral action movie with a lot of well-choreographed hand-to-hand combat and gunfights, one pretty good car chase and a grand finale on a crowded bridge. It's also very violent, with a huge body count, like a John Wick movie. It does make use of CGI, but I was pleased that it's mostly to stitch the action together and to simulate things like characters being hit by cars. For the most part, the movie looks believable and gritty (i.e. not like a Marvel movie, if you're worried about that) and the action is quite satisfying. Beyond that, there are some quieter moments in which Hemsworth's character and the boy get to know each other and the movie does exhibit a tiny bit of depth and feeling. Plot and character aren't the film's strong suits, though--the action is--so don't expect too much. David Harbour (of Stranger Things; this is a Netflix movie, after all) has a small role as an old buddy who helps out. Anyways, I found it to be a pretty satisfying no-nonsense action movie similar to Netflix's Triple Frontier and 6 Underground, but trading in ambitiousness and humor for simplicity and seriousness. If you liked those, you may like Extraction (perhaps even a little more, as I did).

 

[ProstheticConscience]

Dune

with people who have big 80's hair.

David Lynch turned down the opportunity to direct Return of the Jedi to devote more than three years to filming Frank Herbert's legendary doorstop of a sci-fi novel and...yeah. It's still bizarre today. It's the year 10,041 or something. There's a lot of Great Houses feuding and battling for dominance in the universe, like heroic House Atreides with heroic Jurgen Prochnow and heroic Kyle McLaughlin...and evil House Harkonnen, with evil Jack Nance, evil Sting, and evil...fat floaty guy with horrible facial diseases. They're the designated evil red-headed step-children of the universe here, and they're angling to take over ruling Arakkis. Dune. Desert Planet. *cue 80's visual F/X* It's where the Spice Melange is mined...which is the phlebotonium that makes space travel possible in the year 10,041-ish era. What follows is obviously something that barely scrapes the surface of an epic sci-fi tales that spans thousands upon thousands of pages, and the story is clearly underserved here. Looks cool, though.

There's obviously an epic tale in the Dune books...but you'll never know what it is by watching this. Apparently the universe is ruled by Great Houses like Harkonnen and Atreides, lorded over by Emperor Shaddam IV, whose daughter does the voice-over intro and promptly disappears for the rest of the movie. Everyone spends more time whispering their expository thoughts to the audience than they do talking...but it does actually look cool considering the time period. Ornate and vaguely steampunk-ish, with the bad guys all wearing black leather/hefty bag costumes. Great cast with nothing to do. Toto does the soundtrack. Yeah! Toto! Whoo! Toto!

On Netflix now.

Can you see the real me...can you? CAN YOU?!

 

[nameless1]

I've gotten a similar impression. Last year's The Wandering Earth reminded me of Hollywood blockbusters from the late 90s, like Independence Day and Armageddon, in that it's big and ambitious, with loads of CGI, but with a ridiculous concept and loads of lame humor and sentimentality. The Captain is much more realistic, but also "big" and sentimental. Not to get political, but there's speculation that China was trying to prove that they could research coronaviruses as well as the U.S., and it feels like they're similarly trying to prove that they can make blockbuster movies as well as the U.S. It feels different from the approach of just about every other film industry around the world (ex. South Korea, Canada), which just does what it's good at without seeming to copy or compete with another.

Canada definitely has an interesting film industry. There are definitely some talented folks, but the American influence is very strong, especially in English Canada. Most of the movies I have seen outside of Quebec tries to replicate American movies, and they even hide the location to make it a generic North American city. That is to be expected, when the Hollywood studios treat Canada as part of its backyard, as the box office numbers are included as part of the overall tally, and there is very few theaters that dedicates itself to show Canadian content.

Quebec constantly churns out unique work, but it helps that people there highly values the arts, and it always has an unique place in Canada. That said, in the last two years, Quebec has slowed down, and I have been more impressed by English Canada, than anything out of Quebec. Even the wunderkind Xavier Dolan has largely bombed, and ventured more into acting.

 

[kihei]

Journey to the Shore (2015) Directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa 7B

Journey to the Shore is a ghost story, not in the horror sense, though. Mizuki has been a widow for three years when one day she comes home to find Yusuke, her husband, waiting for her. He is pretty matter-of-fact about it, telling her he drowned at sea. So he really is dead. But death is a journey, he tells her, and neither he nor she have quite reached their respective destinations about his death. He takes her on a journey to meet the people who have helped him so far along the way. This journey takes place in a sort of shadow reality where the living and the dead intermingle. Yusuke casually points out the people who know they are dead. the people who are still among the living, and the people who believe they are living but who are actually already dead. These various interactions that Mizuki and Yusuke have with others all underscore the many feeling of loss and regret that need to be resolved or at least acknowledged if both the dead and the living are to move on. The film sails into some deep emotional waters in an original way. But then it just goes on forever, and the final couple of set pieces really don't further the story or its complex themes. To make matters worse, the score is saccharine in the extreme. This shouldn't be a big deal, but it is because the movie otherwise has such a delicate and assured touch that the emotions on display do not require hyping in any way, shape or form. No music whatsoever would have been far preferable. Still I am giving this movie a "7" because I think it strengths are so worthy of praise that I don't want its faults to overwhelm what it achieves. Ultimately, like Anthony Minghella's Truly, Madly, Deeply (1991), Journey to the Shore is less a ghost story than an observant and insightful examination of grief.

subtitles

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Zombieland (Fleischer, 2009) - Hadn't seen it since its theater run. It's kind of a fun film, that unavoidably runs a little too long for its charms. Tough film to rate as it has some clever reflexivity, some good comedy, but also doesn't ever feel that original... 5/10

Zombieland: Double Tap (Fleischer, 2019) - The charms that didn't make it through the first one don't get resurrected here. Nothing clever, and not much of any working comedy either. 3/10

 

[x Tame Impala]

“Far and Away” is the better Cruise-Kidman movie over “Eyes Wide Shut”

 

[x Tame Impala]

So dumb, but the presentation is borderline flawless.

The simplest and best description of “Midsommar” I’ve seen.

 

[JaegerDice]

Extraction.

7/10

Chris Hemsworth elevates it beyond the script with his presence and charisma. Otherwise nothing special. Enjoyable way to waste an evening.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

“Far and Away” is the better Cruise-Kidman movie over “Eyes Wide Shut”

You just can't argue with good taste.

 

[x Tame Impala]

You just can't argue with good taste.

Watching it right now. Joseph just agreed to fight the Italian

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Watching it right now. Joseph just agreed to fight the Italian

 

[kihei]

Extraction (2020) Directed by Sam Hargrave 4A

While Extraction is a bad movie, it is harmless and often fun in the moment. Chris Hemsworth plays Tyler, a semi-alcoholic mercenary, who is hired to rescue, i.e., extract, a young teenage boy from the clutches of some bad guys who have kidnapped him in order to take revenge against his father, an even worse bad guy. To be honest, exactly what all the bad guys are doing and why they are doing it is a muddle in this movie--just ignore it. Tyler turns out to be a mercenary with a heart of gold and decides to protect the kid even though it is against his best interests. The kid knows a father-figure when he sees one and latches on to this opportunity for his dear life, which, coincidentally, is definitely being threatened. There are more plot twists along the way, almost all of which don't make a gnat's ass worth of sense either. But just ignore that, too. So what does this dumb movie have going for it? Three things basically. In Mumbai and Dhaka, the film has exotic locations that beat most action movies set in prosaic places like Los Angeles or London. While one might mull over the ethics of shooting action movies in crowded slums, the locales made for some interesting visuals. Secondly, Chris Hemsworth was fine, though he has only one scene where he actually has to act which he indeed dispatches nicely. The rest of the time all he has to do is shoot people, about five thousand of them. Thirdly, the thing that counts most in this sort of movie, the action, is unbelievable in the extreme but damn enjoyable to watch. Especially memorable is a long chase scene along a dirt road that is a study in creative mayhem and seems to be shot in one single, lengthy take, something that seems all the rage with action movies these days (or did). The rest of the way is filled with violence of one form or another, pretty much non-stop, except for the big emotional scene alluded to above that Hemsworth and the kid nail. The ending is ridiculous, but by then I had at least been distracted from the idiocies of the world for an hour and a half. That's nothing to sniff at these days. I'll probably go back and watch that long chase scene a couple more times.

--on Netflix

 

[ProstheticConscience]

The rest of the time all he has to do is shoot people, about five thousand of them.

 

[Osprey]

Extraction (2020) Directed by Sam Hargrave 4A

While Extraction is a bad movie, it is harmless and often fun in the moment. Chris Hemsworth plays Tyler, a semi-alcoholic mercenary, who is hired to rescue, i.e., extract, a young teenage boy from the clutches of some bad guys who have kidnapped him in order to take revenge against his father, an even worse bad guy. To be honest, exactly what all the bad guys are doing and why they are doing it is a muddle in this movie--just ignore it. Tyler turns out to be a mercenary with a heart of gold and decides to protect the kid even though it is against his best interests. The kid knows a father-figure when he sees one and latches on to this opportunity for his dear life, which, coincidentally, is definitely being threatened. There are more plot twists along the way, almost all of which don't make a gnat's ass worth of sense either. But just ignore that, too. So what does this dumb movie have going for it? Three things basically. In Mumbai and Dhaka, the film has exotic locations that beat most action movies set in prosaic places like Los Angeles or London. While one might mull over the ethics of shooting action movies in crowded slums, the locales made for some interesting visuals. Secondly, Chris Hemsworth was fine, though he has only one scene where he actually has to act which he indeed dispatches nicely. The rest of the time all he has to do is shoot people, about five thousand of them. Thirdly, the thing that counts most in this sort of movie, the action, is unbelievable in the extreme but damn enjoyable to watch. Especially memorable is a long chase scene along a dirt road that is a study in creative mayhem and seems to be shot in one single, lengthy take, something that seems all the rage with action movies these days (or did). The rest of the way is filled with violence of one form or another, pretty much non-stop, except for the big emotional scene alluded to above that Hemsworth and the kid nail. The ending is ridiculous, but by then I had at least been distracted from the idiocies of the world for an hour and a half. That's nothing to sniff at these days. I'll probably go back and watch that long chase scene a couple more times.

--on Netflix

Did you catch that our hero, whose last name is Rake, fights and then impales a bad guy with an actual rake (that was just laying around a 3rd-story, inner-city apartment)?

And you call it a "bad movie"!

(Watch more people decide to queue it up from that alone than both of our reviews combined)

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Petites Coupures (Pascal Bonitzer, 2003) - I absolutely love Pascal Bonitzer. As a screenwriter, he is the main contributor to Jacques Rivette and André Téchiné, but he also wrote a few films for Raul Ruiz, Anne Fontaine and Raoul Peck, even one for Barbet Schroeder. He is also a very interesting film theorist. As a director, he has signed a little less than 10 films, going from a mediocre Agatha Christie adaptation (Le grand alibi) to one of my absolute favorite films ever (Rien sur Robert). The films he writes for others are all very different from one another, but the ones he directs have a simple recurring motor: it's the reverse of the common comedy trope of putting an ordinary banal character into extreme situations - in Bonitzer's films, the situations are trivial, but the characters are extreme (it ends up just as implausible, even if more realistic). The result is not exactly comedy nor drama, but it deploys very funny moments and Bonitzer is probably the master of the malaise, of everything awkward. Petites coupures isn't one of his best efforts, but it's still a very enjoyable film - if you enjoy dead ends and weirdos. 7/10

 

[kihei]

Did you catch that our hero, whose last name is Rake, fights and then impales a bad guy with an actual rake (that was just laying around a 3rd-story, inner-city apartment)?

And you call it a "bad movie"!

(Watch more people decide to queue it up from that alone than both of our reviews combined)

Thanks for the tip. But I wasn't sharp enough to get those points.

 

[OzzyFan]

Coherence
2.70 out of 4stars

Twilight Zone-esque sci-fi drama movie about people at a dinner party having their evening get weird after a meteor passes over their city. Very short tight low budget film ($50k) that is story centric. It's pretty fun and interesting, albeit also imperfect and a bit too messy and half of the cast feels very amateurish. Worth a watch if you like suspenseful mind testing sci-fi stuff and have 90mins to burn.

(Having gotten my 30day free Hulu trial because I needed to see Devs upon recommendation, it appears there are some fun movies on Hulu I should also watch before the time runs out. This movie was one that caught my eye. )

 

[ProstheticConscience]

I Lost My Body

with animated French people

We open with a severed hand escaping from a refrigerator in a hospital. It crawls, then walks, then climbs along ledges to eventually get to the window, avoiding the guy buffing the floor in the process. How does it see the guy?? How does it hear the floor buffer?? Dunno. The hand then begins a journey through the Paris suburbs to reunite with its owner, a slight, emotionally restricted young man named Naofel. We see his life in flashbacks, from his happy early years with his parents in Morocco to the tragic accident that brought him to Paris to his recent infatuation with a girl he briefly stalks. We also follow his hand navigating the various dangers of the Paris streets and metro, often concealing itself in a ravioli can and scuttling around like a hermit crab.

Meditation on loss, grieving and recovery (sorta). We feel for Naofel and occasionally chuckle as his hand wends its way through the uncaring city. Quiet, profound and real.

On Netflix.

Let your fingers do the walking...

 

[Osprey]

I finally watched a couple of highly regarded Korean films over the weekend.

The Wailing (2016) - 7/10 (Really liked it)

A lazy country policeman investigates a series of grisly murders around his village. This Korean supernatural horror starts out almost as a horror comedy, with our spineless "hero" being about as fit for his duties and what's coming as Shaggy from Scooby-Doo. It lulls you into a sense that it'll be a fun movie, but eventually turns really dark and heavy. I wouldn't call it a "scary" movie as much as a creepy one. It employs a whole bevy of horror tropes (ghosts, demonic possession, satanic rituals, zombies), but balances them and never really feels cliched. At 2.5 hours, it's pretty long and could've been made shorter, IMO, but it's not the kind of movie that feels slow or long. I did have time to think, though, and felt for most of the film that I knew what the "big" twist was going to be and that I was too smart for the writing. It's like the film counted on that and played me so that I'd be surprised by the actual twist (which I was). It's refreshing when a film treats the viewer as intelligent and even uses that against him. It leads here to an ending that I'm not sure how I feel about, because it's both unsatisfying and satisfyingly different, but it's definitely not a cliched ending. Anyways, I didn't love it like I was hoping to after reading all of the critical praise, but I did like a lot of things about it.

Burning (2018) - 5/10 (Didn't like or dislike it)

A lonely young man meets and falls for a lonely young woman before a rich playboy comes between them. This Korean "mystery" is so mysterious that it was a mystery to me what the mystery even was a whole hour and a half into it. I kid you not. It takes that long for this 2.5-hour super slow burn (pun intended) to get going, and the final hour isn't the most thrilling, either. The whole thing is just very slow. That said, it was engaging enough that I kept with it and was never "bored," per se, and it's well acted and just beautifully filmed. For those reasons, I don't "dislike" it or regret seeing it, and I see where a lot of the critical praise comes from. I'd be on board with it, myself, if the film were simply 45-60 minutes shorter. It's just way too long for the short story that it was based on, IMO. It can be hard enough to stretch a short story out to 90 minutes without it feeling thin. Imagine 150 minutes. For that reason, I can't recommend it unless you appreciate films that are slow and overly long for the sake of art.

 

[OzzyFan]

Mom and Dad (2018)
2.65 out of 4stars

Completely over the top "shock" dark comedy violent horror movie about some TV signal that turns parents into zombies intent on murdering their own children at all costs. Headlined by Nicholas Cage and Selma Blair, it's short mostly mindless fun that fully delivers on it's premise. It does give a few touches here and there on the whole "Pro vs Anti" children debate, what parents sacrifice in the process, how "kids are kids", and the loss/escape of one's youth's events and dreams due to the circumstances of raising children. At only 83minutes long, it was well worth my time.

 

[kihei]

The Wandering Earth (2019) Directed by Frawt Gwo 5A

So this is what Chinese people do when they want to just turn off their brains and go to their local multiplex to see a big budget, escapist movie with an emphasis on gargantuan special effects and a fast pace. The Wandering Earth, which has grossed just under $700 million, making it the third most financially successful Chinese movie in history (and about the 40th biggest box office hit of all time), has a premise that is ridiculous but an awful lot of fun, too. The sun is about to expand into a red giant, so Earth must be moved out of our solar system to find its home in the orbit of a neighbouring star a few light years away. The journey will take about 2500 years to complete (oh, the sequels!), with what remain of Earth's depleted population living in vast cities deep beneath the frozen ground where high above some people still necessarily toil. The Wandering Earth focuses mainly on the problem of escaping Jupiter's immense gravitational pull. It is left up to a group of young characters, and a father figure or two, to find the way to save the day when a host of unexpected and spectacularly difficult crises come up. The Wandering Earth is special effects driven with a vengeance. At first I found the CGI cheesy, but it grew on me. By the end of the movie, I was totally converted, though. There are absolutely outrageous sequences (and a lot of them) that are more imaginative than most anything that you will see in Roland Emmerich or Michael Bay movies, films whose DNA this movie definitely shares (think Armageddon on a broader science fiction scale). For sure, the characters are uncomplicated and one-dimensional but more in an innocent sort of way than in a cynical sort of way. However, how its creators cope with the enormous scope of the thing was enough to keep me reasonably entertained and willing to overlook the many flaws that this flick possesses. Not everybody will feel so inclined, I suspect. Netflix quietly dropped this recently without any advance fanfare, and it is worth a look for its curiosity value alone. For those who break out in hives or worse at the sight of a subtitle, The Wandering Earth is dubbed. Contentedly straigtforward, this isn't a movie that suffers any harm from that, either.