Last Movie You Watched and Rate It | Spring 2021 Edition

[ItsFineImFine]

Did everyone decide to just watch and rate bad films in the last page of this thread?

Anyways

Pieces of A Woman (202) - 5/10

 

[OzzyFan]

Nobody (2021)
2.90 out of 4stars

If the John Wick movies are a ballet, then Nobody is a bar fight, and one hell of a fun one at that (same screenwriter for both fyi). Plot is a long retired ex government assassin, who looks like the average skinny 5'9'' dad, has his off switch flipped back on after a burglary at his house. At only 92minutes, it's a very tight R rated action movie that delivers on it's premise with a visual smorgasbord of creative violence. Odenkirk was great and 82yr old Christopher Lloyd was a ball of laughs.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

The Dark and the Wicked (Bertino, 2020) - I'm a fan of Bertino's first film, The Strangers. It's not totally effective, but it does everything right and is kind of a seminar in horror cinema scare tactics. I haven't kept in touch with the few films he did since, but I was quite happy to see his name on this - enough to give a try to my first "Shudder exclusive", even though I was told to stay away from them. It's a weird film. Like The Strangers, it's beautifully shot and has a very good pace and strong performances. Like The Strangers, it does (almost) everything right - except for a few important misteps at the end. First, even though the film's paced very thightly, there's a huge jump cut at some point in the ending - the kind of stuff that's jarring, which I could normally enjoy a lot since it has important distanciatory effects, but here it's just clumsy editing. Second, the film ends on a jump scare that is structured the exact same way as another that came earlier in the film, making it totally ineffective. The whole ending seems botched. Too bad because there was decent work in building atmosphere in the first half. 4.5/10

 

[Mr Jiggyfly]

Not a fan of Slap Shot?

I used to actually hate it when I was younger, but it has grown on me over the years. However it’s more or less showing hockey as the stereotypical goon factory.

I prefer Youngblood and Goon when we are talking about hockey films of this genre.

 

[ProstheticConscience]

Am now about halfway through the new cut of Justice League. Mrs. PC and I are taking a break. Thoughts so far:

• Why is the screen so dark? Is that my setting on the tv or...?
• The Amazons should really have invested in some scouting outside their island once in a while over the last however many thousands of years.
• Speaking of which, how do Amazons reproduce and replenish their numbers? They're all women, right? Is there some dark side of Thermiscrya where they troll the Mediterranean in rowboats kidnapping random men for stud duty?
• Earth could really use better security. Here's an alien ship...no, why would we need a roof over it? Oh, did some parademon crash through the roof? Don't worry, I'm sure the janitor will definitely take care of that as the first responder.
• Totally sure the head scientist would know the janitor's name.
• Metropolis, Gotham City, Central City...DC universe needs better city names.
• My wife just turned on a random episode of the Harley Quinn show. The last five minutes have been more entertaining than two hours of Justice League: Slow Motion Exposition Edition.
• I *did* wonder why Steppenwolf was destroying Earth in the first version; disappointed this one gave him the standard "Daddy didn't love me!" horseshit excuse.
• Okay, Cyborg's getting an origin story. Whatever.
• The tiny bit of humor between Bruce Wayne and Wonder Woman in so out of place. She does kick a sizable amount of ass, though.

More to come.

 

[nameless1]

Updated Oscar Best Picture ratings:

Nomadland: 8/10
Judas and the Black Messiah: 7.5/10
The Father: 7.5/10
Sound of Metal: 7.5/10
The Trial of the Chicago 7: 6.75/10
Promising Young Women: 6.5/10
Mank: 6/10
Minari: 5.5/10

I am very impressed with The Father. A very intimate look at dementia from the view of the patient, it is clear that the movie is adapted from a play, but the techniques do not look too out of place. Anthony Hopkins also delivered quite possibly my favourite performance of the year, but Best Actor is still Boseman's to lose.

I gave 3 movies the same mark, but Judas leads just by a hair. It has the higher impact, and it reflects more of current events.

 

[nameless1]

Dawn of the Dead (2004) Directed by Zack Snyder 3A

First time for this one, and I haven't seen the original yet because I thought this was the original. *sigh* What can I say? The North American side of the pond wasn't a strong suit of mine in this period, not that it is now though I am a mite less oblivious. Anyway, Dawn of the Dead is amiable but lame. Could the original possibly have been this cuddly? The plot--let's hide in the mall because there are zombies about--is unchallenging in the extreme, the whole movie seemingly put together by a focus group trying to come up with the most innocuous horror movie ever that will attract a large aidoemce. What does one call this? Corporate horror? Horror-lite? The zombies have no personality and a shorter and dumber life expectancy than Orcs. God forbid that Dawn of the Dead 2.0 should scare anybody. Horror is replaces by frequent non-threatening jolts of cheap thrills along the way, mostly consisting of an extended shoot-the-zombies-in-the-face routine. There is even one of those annoying pop song interludes where everybody is having a jolly time while the worst song imaginable is imposed on the audience's collective eardrums. This could be a date movie. The superficial characters are superficially likeable, but, damn, Dawn of the Dead is about as far removed from genuine horror as you are going to get.

I remember that I had fun with it, because it was fast paced, and it was the first time I saw fast running zombies, which scared the crap out of me.


That was long ago though, so I probably have to see it again just to give it a fair shake.

 

[ProstheticConscience]

Okay, done the Zack Snyder cut of Justice League.

Why did I do that.

I mean...the original cut wasn't exactly Shakespeare...but really. I've seen a whole lot of fanboy jeans ing since this got out and it's all just a bunch of fanboy jeans ing. The extra two hours really didn't add much. Honestly...I just think this whole thing is just a bunch of internet fanboys getting themselves all worked up over not a hell of a lot. There's all this anticipation but it's all just a self-indulgent orgy of too-dark CGI image mishmash.

• I still have no idea what a parademon looks like.
• Jared Leto still made the worst Joker ever. Wayyyyyyy too much Jim Carrey in the laugh. At least here he only shows up at the very end.
• Can totally see Zack Snyder did 300. The imagery and slo-mo still haunts everything he does.
• Honestly didn't miss Superman through 90% of the movie.
• Love the team going into battle: 4 guys armored from head to toe and one half-naked chick. It's like the World of Warcraft guys did the costumes.
• Steppenwolf *did* look better in this one; at least his armor did. He still didn't have a face.

You see the sacrifices I make for you people?

 

[Pink Mist]

The Poor Little Rich Girl (1917) directed by Maurice Tourneur

Silent film in which a rich child is ignored by her parents who are more concerned with making money on Wall Street or mingling with high society than caring for their child. One day, one of their servants accidently gives the child too many sleeping pills before bed and the child overdoses and falls into a delirious coma and only then do her parents realize how important she is to them and give up their materialism. The child is played by early Hollywood and Canadian film star Mary Pickford, who was 24 at the time playing an 11-year-old in the film, which would be a role that would typecast Pickford for much of her career as an ingénue character. In order to solve the logistical problem of an adult actress playing a young child the film utilized much taller actors to play alongside her as adults and oversized furniture. Despite the dark premise to the film, the movie is a comedy in which we watch little vignettes of the child’s life as she gets into trouble while being ignored by her parents, which includes a mud fight with a gang of neighborhood poor kids, and some slapstick comedy as she sabotages her bathroom and her maid tries to fix it. The second half of the film, wherein the child has overdosed, transitions into trippy hallucinations and sort of an early version of The Wizard of Oz. All in all it is a relatively minor film, mostly interesting due to Pickford’s performance, but it is still fun and doesn’t overstay its welcome as it is just over an hour long.


Full film here:

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Warlock: The Armageddon (Hickox, 1993) - Hickox... There's traces of Waxwork's cool here and there, but very little of its humor. The film is more ambitious than the first entry, with the devil making an appearance in video effects (the little gore is ok, but the SFX are even worst than in the first entry, absolute trash), but overall the film is a mess, and the plot is even dumber than in the original (apart from Julian Sands playing a "witch", there's no narrative link between the two films, it's only a sequel by title). I'm tempted to give it a 3, because I might have slightly enjoyed it more than the other one, but it's not worth it. 2.5/10

Oh, and don't you love stuff like this... The Warlock is "pushing" a big weird stone on the girl, and as it moves it reveals the crew behind it... ahaha, these zero effort productions...

Spoiler

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

This is not the worst example of trash SFX, but it was the funniest. With the pixels, it's amazing.

Spoiler

 

[ItsFineImFine]

The Last of The Mohicans (1992) - 6.5/10

I didn't realize Michael Mann directed this so I watched it as soon as I learned but unfortunately it's not like a Michael Mann film at all. It's quite a brutal film but also feels somehow Oscar-baity rather than the more natural crime type of stuff he does (with kickass lighting rather than boring outdoor scenery). Daniel Day Lewis is fairly good in this but the rest just feels like generic acting.

However unlike a true oscar bait film, it at least is never boring.

 

[The Crypto Guy]

Somehow I never watched this before, saw it yesterday and really enjoyed it.

8.5/10

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Somehow I never watched this before, saw it yesterday and really enjoyed it.

8.5/10

The opening sequence is some of the best zombie-related material I've seen. I think it was directed by Danny Boyle.

 

[OzzyFan]

Color Out of Space
2.75 out of 4stars

An atmospheric and overly visual satisfying horror flick, based on the Lovecraft short story. Plot for those unaware, a vibrantly psychedelic meteorite falls in a woodsy desolate location, directly on the property where a family of 5 lives, and whom are going through a few hardships. As expected in the horror genre, their lives are continuously complicated from this event. Some interesting horror ideas and events are occurring here, albeit I don't believe completely realized. That said, it's still entertaining and mostly different from anything I've seen (sans Annihilation, which share a few concepts). Cage is solid aside from his back and forth between 2 different vocal tones, which is slightly annoying and confusing.

 

[ProstheticConscience]

The opening sequence is some of the best zombie-related material I've seen. I think it was directed by Danny Boyle.

Nah. 28 Days Later was, but not the sequel.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Nah. 28 Days Later was, but not the sequel.

I know but:

"Danny Boyle, who directed the first film and the prologue to the second film [...]"
Writer/director Alex Garland says a third '28 Days' zombie film is in the works

 

[ProstheticConscience]

I know but:

"Danny Boyle, who directed the first film and the prologue to the second film [...]"
Writer/director Alex Garland says a third '28 Days' zombie film is in the works

Oh, cool. Moderately interested in that. Hope they finish it.

Also, posted this in the Snyderleague thread, but should also be in here:

If 'Zack Snyder's Justice League' Was 10 Times Shorter And 100 Times More Honest | Cracked.com

Much more entertaining than the movie itself.

EUROVISION SONG CONTEST ALTERNATIVE FOLK GROUP
NAE NAE, this is the extended version we're not done yet!
We claim Momoa's discarded garments for our collection
as we solemnly sing the Soggy Sweater Song!
(singing)
AAAiiiiiEEAAAiiiiiAAAAAiieeeeeee
BEN AFFLECK
(blinks)
EUROVISION FOLK SINGER
eeeAAAIIIiiii iiaaEEEEEEooaaaiii
(snorting Momoa's sweater)
SNRRRRKKKK AWWW YEAH THAT'S THE GOOD SHIT

 

[ItsFineImFine]

eXistenZ (1999) - 6.5/10

I actually liked it better than some of Cronenberg's 80s stuff but it gets too stupid by the end. One unfortunate aspect of course of his directing is that he's far more focused on the gorey little props rather than actual story and it becomes a facade for a weak film when you remove the atmosphere and the sets. The whole game vs reality theme is also a bit outdated but must have been right at the forefront I guess back in '99.

 

[Osprey]

I felt like watching an 80s Tom Selleck movie that I hadn't seen, but one led to another.

High Road to China (1983) - 6/10 (Liked it)

In 1920s Istanbul, an alcoholic pilot (Tom Selleck) is hired by a rich socialite (Bess Armstrong) to fly her across the Middle East to find her father. As most people know, Selleck was originally chosen by Lucas and Spielberg to play Indiana Jones, but had to back out because of his commitment to Magnum, PI. A few years later, he got to star in one of the many imitators of the film that he had to turn down. This was his first big screen starring role. There's action, adventure, a little comedy, a little romance and exotic locations. Selleck and Armstrong have good chemistry and Brian Blessed and Wilford Brimley have entertaining supporting roles. I think that the real stars of the film are the twin biplanes and all of the good aerial camerawork, though. It pales compared to Raiders of the Lost Ark, but I still found it to be an enjoyable action/adventure.

Lassiter (1984) - 6/10 (Liked it)

In pre-WWII London, an American thief (Tom Selleck) is blackmailed by Scotland Yard into breaking into the German Embassy and stealing $10M in jewels. It has a nice period look and feel and relies on it because, like a lot of heist films, there isn't much action until the actual heist near the end. Until it gets to that point, Selleck's character juggles two women, his wife (Jane Seymour) and a German socialite (Lauren Hutton) who is his key to finding the location of the jewels. He also flirts with not doing the job, but eventually does, of course, thanks to repeated threats from a Scotland Yard inspector, played by Bob Hoskins. It's a little slow and uneventful for the middle hour, but the final 20 minutes, when he finally performs the heist, are better. Overall, it has a whimsical tone, sort of like The Sting and probably not coincidentally. You also get to see Seymour's and Selleck's butts. I found it mildly entertaining... the movie, that is.

Runaway (1984) - 6/10 (Liked it)

In a near future in which robots are common, a police robotics expert (guess who) tracks down a sociopathic genius (Gene Simmons; yes, that Gene Simmons) who has programmed them to kill. Writer/director Michael Crichton once again imagines future technology running amok, though less effectively than in Westworld (also about killer robots) and Jurassic Park. Here, the technology is a bit more realistic, like robots keeping house and working alongside humans on the job. He gets a few predictions right, like a flying surveillance robot that's exactly like today's drones, but most of the robots look rather silly today and elicit more laughs than awe. What do you expect from a 37-year-old movie, though? I also found it amusing that the police department's so-called robotics expert never uses technology to fight technology (like sending a robot to deal with a robot). Instead, at one point, his plan involves sneaking up on a rogue robot, throwing his coat over it and repeatedly bashing it with an office chair. I also liked how Simmons barely acts. He just sneers and stares menacingly through the whole movie. Anyways, you'd probably call this a bad movie, but I just found something entertaining about it. It's amusingly (but charmingly) dated. After all, it stars Tom Selleck, the villain is the lead singer from KISS, Kirstie Alley is thin and the hero comes home to his robot housekeeper "Lois" in the kitchen preparing his dinner. How much more 80s can you get? It's on Prime Video.

So, there we have it... three films that I found all mildly entertaining, though not exceptional in any way. I guess that that's Selleck for you. While the first was a box office success and got his big screen career off to a good start, the next two lost money and seemed to temporarily end the experiment of him as a big screen leading man (until the success of Three Men and a Baby years later convinced studios to try it again).

 

[kihei]

Night of the Kings (2020) Directed by Philippe Lacote 6B

In the worst maximum security prison in the Ivory Coast, where the warden has no power, a young prisoner is picked to tell a story. What he will soon find out is that if he doesn't continue his story until dawn he will be part of a ritual sacrifice. The prisoners meet in a grotty common room and they are the toughest of audiences. They are also something of a Greek chorus embellishing the story as its being told. Night of the Kings, combining prison drama, folk lore and suspense, is certainly a very fresh approach to narrative, beautifully filmed and choreographed. Although I truly wish I could give it a higher score, the movie has a third act that is underwhelming considering the gravity of the situation. While director Philippe Lacote gets an awful lot right, he allows the natural tension to dissipate with frequent breaks in the story telling. The movie needs to build to a crescendo and it does not do so. Still if you are looking for a movie off the beaten path, Night of the Kings is definitely worth considering.

subtitles

 

[Rabid Ranger]

Watched (re-watched) a couple of DeNiro flicks yesterday:

* Heat. One of my favorite movies. Just an excellent cat & mouse battle of wits between DeNiro and Pacino's characters. 10/10
* The Score. More of a guilty pleasure. DeNiro is playing one of his stock characters, Brando is phoning it in, and Norton is politically incorrect. Still, entertaining. 7/10

 

[Chili]

Watched (re-watched) a couple of DeNiro flicks yesterday:

* Heat. One of my favorite movies. Just an excellent cat & mouse battle of wits between DeNiro and Pacino's characters. 10/10

I like the scene of them meeting in the restaurant. They both brought it.

 

[KallioWeHardlyKnewYe]

48 Hours. As far as big, popular movies that I'd never seen go ... this was right up there. I'm of an age group where this is beloved thanks largely to Eddie Murphy and despite being a fan of Walter Hill, I'd never sat down to watch this in full. I did. And it was fine. I was entertained. Nick Nolte is appropriately gristly and Murphy is every bit the charming riot I'd always been led to believe. It felt like people shoot their guns in weird ways in this.

Promising Young Woman. The script is shooting fish in a barrel. I think it'd be fair to say it sets up easy targets and then lets you enjoy a vengeful Carey Mulligan mowing them down. It isn't quite an exploitation flick, but it isn't far off. That said, the Minnesota Supreme Court just upheld the state's stance that one cannot be considered mentally incapacitated if you're serving yourself. So perhaps even a very obvious message about consent/rape/sexual assault is still very needed. Clever casting to fill all the bad people roles in this with actors and actresses that generally have played likable and charming characters. Stunned this is up for a bunch of Oscars, Mulligan included ... not because I disagree. I liked it quite a bit, but man this is definitely not typical Oscar fare and a clear beneficiary from a weird year.

As Tears Go By. Purchased Criterion's absolutely lovely new Wong Kar-Wai box set and have decided to watch them chronologically. I hadn't seen this one, which I'm tempted to rebrand as Hong Kong Mean Streets: Oooops All DeNiros Edition! Interesting to see Kar-Wai balancing a fairly traditional gangster story with a story of doomed romance and longing more akin to what he'd become famous for in later films. Also interesting to see how many of his little touches and tricks are all here in his first movie. Slow-mo, choppy editing, good ear for a great needle drop (a Cantonese version of Take My Breath Away). It feels equal parts not him and yet undeniably him.

 

[KallioWeHardlyKnewYe]

Watched (re-watched) a couple of DeNiro flicks yesterday:

* Heat. One of my favorite movies. Just an excellent cat & mouse battle of wits between DeNiro and Pacino's characters. 10/10
* The Score. More of a guilty pleasure. DeNiro is playing one of his stock characters, Brando is phoning it in, and Norton is politically incorrect. Still, entertaining. 7/10

I listened to The Blank Check podcast's episode on Heat over the weekend and man I am a sucker for not only any and all discussions of that movie, but especially any discussions where half the talk is just Pacino impersonations. (The Rewatchables did this too ... twice. I'm sure there are others. Very hard to NOT have a good laugh about Pacino).