Movies: Last Movie You Watched and Rate It

[Nalens Oga]

Should I watch Solo at the $5 theatre or Ant-Man & The Wasp at the regular theatre for $13?

Anyways

The Post (2017) - 7/10

Usual mediocre execution by Spielberg. It feels fairly cheap considering Spotlight was the much better film of similar ilk from 2 years earlier.

 

[Mario Lemieux fan 66]

The greatest showman: 7.5/10

Jurrasic park fallen kingdom: 5/10

 

[Arizonan God]

A Quiet Place (2018, dir. John Krasinski)

A competently made horror-thriller, with some great tense set pieces , is let down by some rather poor writing decisions. I am interested in what John Krasinski does next, he clearly has talent behind the camera, but this left me a bit disappointed

6A

 

[kihei]

Buffalo '66 (1998) Directed by Vincent Gallo 3B

Billy (Vincent Gallo) goes to prison for a crime that he didn't commit to pay off a gambling debt. Without having money to cover the big bet, he wagered on Buffalo on the fateful day when their fieldgoal kicker, here called Scott Wood (for what will be obvious reasons) missed a long but readily makeable kick that would have won the Super Bowl for the Bills. Billy's only wish in life is to kill Wood in revenge for messing up his already messed up life. Having just been released from prison and looking for some place to pee, he meets Layla (Christina Ricci). Actually he kidnaps her so he can have a girl to take to visit his annoying, though not especially psychotic, parents. Which she has no trouble going along with despite the fact that Billy is an obvious loser with no patience and a very unappealing mean streak. In the end, in a move that is A) totally unbelievable and B) somehow incredibly self-aggrandizing on the part of director Vincent Gallo, love would appear to conquer all. Well, the movie is definitely off-the-wall, and in another direcor's hands it might have worked better...nah, I don't really believe that. Buffalo '66 is basically a Gallo creation about an asshole of a guy and the girl that will love him despite anything he does. Ricci is good but her character never seems anything more than a sadass male fantasy. Plus Billy's personality more or less turns on a dime from a nasty piece of business to a sentimental softy. The transformation is superficial as hell, and I can't imagine anyone buying it. As a director, Gallo does a lot of annoying things as well, like repeat lines over and over again in scene after scene. There are several moments of funny black humour such as when newly released Billy, freezing his butt off, immediately tries to return to prison because he is cold, but even with the humour Gallo is hit-and-miss. Taken as a whole, the movie has the odd spontaneous moment, but that central relationship really ruffled my feathers. Gallo is reinforcing a long-discredited stereotype (even in 1998) about a certain kind of destructive male/female relationship and doing so for no particular reason other than to prop up his ego. Love to know what Scott Norwood thought of this project.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

Buffalo '66 (1998) Directed by Vincent Gallo 3B

Billy (Vincent Gallo) goes to prison for a crime that he didn't commit to pay off a gambling debt. Without having money to cover the big bet, he wagered on Buffalo on the fateful day when their fieldgoal kicker, here called Scott Wood (for what will be obvious reasons) missed a long but readily makeable kick that would have won the Super Bowl for the Bills. Billy's only wish in life is to kill Wood in revenge for messing up his already messed up life. Having just been released from prison and looking for some place to pee, he meets Layla (Christina Ricci). Actually he kidnaps her so he can have a girl to take to visit his annoying, though not especially psychotic, parents. Which she has no trouble going along with despite the fact that Billy is an obvious loser with no patience and a very unappealing mean streak. In the end, in a move that is A) totally unbelievable and B) somehow incredibly self-aggrandizing on the part of director Vincent Gallo, love would appear to conquer all. Well, the movie is definitely off-the-wall, and in another direcor's hands it might have worked better...nah, I don't really believe that. Buffalo '66 is basically a Gallo creation about an ******* of a guy and the girl that will love him despite anything he does. Ricci is good but her character never seems anything more than a sadass male fantasy. Plus Billy's personality more or less turns on a dime from a nasty piece of business to a sentimental softy. The transformation is superficial as hell, and I can't imagine anyone buying it. As a director, Gallo does a lot of annoying things as well, like repeat lines over and over again in scene after scene. There are several moments of funny black humour such as when newly released Billy, freezing his butt off, immediately tries to return to prison because he is cold, but even with the humour Gallo is hit-and-miss. Taken as a whole, the movie has the odd spontaneous moment, but that central relationship really ruffled my feathers. Gallo is reinforcing a long-discredited stereotype (even in 1998) about a certain kind of destructive male/female relationship and doing so for no particular reason other than to prop up his ego. Love to know what Scott Norwood thought of this project.

Damn!

Well, in a sense, I'm proud to have a spectacular failure with you in a reference. Personally, I've always thought the look and texture of the film to be out of this world beautiful and the some of the Ozu-inspired shots during the family dinner to tell more of a story than the actual (hilarious) dialogue.

 

[Rodgerwilco]

The greatest showman: 7.5/10

Jackman dazzled me again in this film, man this guy is versatile, and what a hell of a singer!

Quite an impressive debut film for the director, I think

 

[kihei]

Socario: Day of the Soldado (2018) Directed by Stefano Sollima 2A

Comparing the origiinal Sicario, directed by Denis Villeneuve with cinematography by Richard Deaken and creepy music by Johann Johannson, none of whom have anything to do with this lame follow-up, with Socario: Day of the Soldado is to confront the difference between artistry and expedient commercialism. This sequel starts out looking like it will pick up pretty much where the first one left off. This time Mexican cartels are sneaking suicide bombers across the border and blowing up things, so now all limitations on the force used to respond to such provocation are off. With Emily Blunt's principled but outdated Kate Macer out of the loop entirely, it is left to Matt (Jeff Brolin) and Alejandro (Benicio del Toro) to really take the gloves off this time. Except they don't. A kidnapping plot pops up and the movie follows that angle as mindlessly as a barracuda chases a shiny object. The cartel plot gets watered down entirely; things get confusing, then aimless; an outrageous coincidence that would make Charles Dickens blush plays large in the proceedings; finally, with utterly nowhere to go, the movie spirals into complete stupidity. The ending is so egregiously preposterous, so brazenly manipulative, so thoroughly dishonest, that if I had rotten tomatoes in my possession, I would have thrown them at the screen. Nothing of the original Sicario's trademark queasy tension remains. The notion that evil has triumphed over good with law itself a victim is nowhere in evidence. The idea that good people must abandon their values and just get out of the way has disappeared into the ether as well. This movie is even brazen enough to leave plot holes all over the place while it ends by setting up its own sequel. I hope this movie dies at the box office, and I am pretty sure it will. Socario: Day of the Soldado is an early candidate for worst movie of the year.

 

[NyQuil]

Socario: Day of the Soldado is an early candidate for worst movie of the year.

I'm actually impressed that you saw this. I pretty much assumed Sicario was going from politically-driven thriller to action film series.

Since it was announced I was thinking Jaws II and have avoided it accordingly. With Jaws you had that awkward transition from character-driven thriller film to horror film.

Alien to Aliens is one of the only film series I can think of where the genre of the film changed from one to the next and yet they were both eminently watchable.

 

[kihei]

I'm actually impressed that you saw this. I pretty much assumed it was going from politically-driven thriller to action film series.

Since it was announced I was thinking Jaws II and have avoided it accordingly.

Which is exactly what it is trying to do. I assumed that likelihood, too. But I'm a sucker for anything with Benicio del Toro and that's what got me into the theatre.

 

[NyQuil]

Which is exactly what it is trying to do. I assumed that likelihood, too. But I'm a sucker for anything with Benicio del Toro and that's what got me into the theatre.

I also like Benicio del Toro.

As actors age, they seem to get more and more bombastic in their performances and somehow he's avoided that trap.

 

[OzzyFan]

Sicario: Day of the Soldado
2.4 out of 4stars

Good solid enjoyable dark look at the grand and subparts of government vs cartels(among a few other connections) and their influences on people and communities. Nothing spectacular, and it honestly feels like they toned back Benicio's character a bit to fit the storyline along with a few other story undercuts, but effective.

Ha. Of course I write this after Kihei destorys the movie. I don't know, I enjoyed it, even if it had it's faults and the end was more an emotional overtaking than logic driven happenings.

 

[NyQuil]

Ha. Of course I write this after Kihei destorys the movie. I don't know, I enjoyed it, even if it had it's faults and the end was more an emotional overtaking than logic driven happenings.

Don't apologize for your opinion.

That's why @kihei is such a great critic - he doesn't stomp on other people's opinions.

 

[kihei]

The Catcher Was a Spy (2018) Directed by Ben Lewin 5B

In the "truth-is-much-stranger-than-fiction" category, The Catcher Was a Spy has a little place of its own. Based on a true story, the movie is about Moe Berg, a catcher in the Major Leagues for 15 seasons, who, upon retirement, became a spy for the Allies and had a chance to assassinate renowned nuclear physicist Werner Heisenberg in 1944. The movie is about what he made of that opportunity. This terrific story should have been a thriller of the first order. Berg is a very interesting guy, sort of the Dougie Hamilton of his time. His teammates considered him an enigma. In Berg's case, he had degrees from Princeton, Columbia and The Sorbonne; he allegedly spoke fifteen languages, most of them fluently, and he liked keeping secrets, including the likelihood that he was bi-sexual. The movie, which mentions all these things but doesn't really explore any of them, is akin to being in a room listening to someone who can't tell stories worth a damn try to tell a story. If the movie were a recording, it would completely lack dynamic range. The notes are mostly in the right place, but the emotional needle neither rises nor falls within any given sequence. A movie that should be full of suspense lacks any semblance of tension. By the end we know little about Berg (Paul Rudd), other than he had a wildly improbable career path; we learn even less about Heisenberg (Mark Strong). Although this story of two enigmas confronting one another retains part of its fascination, the direction does the material almost no justice.

Note: Not counting animated works and a couple of meaningless bit parts, The Catcher Was a Spy is very likely my first Paul Rudd movie. That seems odd in the extreme, but his work--Hollywood guy comedies and Sundance-y dramas--are the sort of things I almost always ignore. He seems vanilla.

 

[kihei]

Upgrade (2018) Directed by Leigh Whannell 7A

A grindhouse/science fiction hybrid, Upgrade is a super fun "B" movie. Set in the relatively near future, Grey (Logan Marshall-Green--I don't know who he is but he's terrific) has just watched his wife being murdered by a gang of thugs, a confrontation that has left him a quadriplegic. Filled with bitterness and despair, he has no life to look forward to at all. Then, a rich, eccentric billionaire inventor, someone he has worked for before, offers him a possible solution, a little chip implanted in his back that can restore brain stem function. With no alternative other than suicide, Grey agrees to the operation and is willing to keep it secret, meaning he still has to masquerade as a quadriplegic. Soon after the operation, he starts to hear a voice inside his head who no one else can hear. Its name is "Stem" and it is part of the little gadget that has been implanted in Grey's back. "Stem," who with his flat intonation sounds like he might be 2001: A Space Odyssey HAL's grandson, offers to help Grey take revenge on his wife's killers by taking over his body on certain key occasions. Works like a charm....most of the time. I found this movie a complete delight: an inventive story with all the loose ends worked out; a measure of very graphic and imaginative violence, but not so much as to derail the story; moments of humour; and an overview that suggests that advanced digital technology may indeed be a two-edged sword. Treat yourself to a genuine popcorn movie, one that delivers on all counts.

Best of ’18 so far

Foxtrot, Maoz, Israel
You Were Never Really Here, Ramsay, US
On the Beach at Night Alone, Hong, South Korea
Upgrade, Whannell, Australia
First Reformed, Schrader, US
Annihilation, Garland, US

 

[Nalens Oga]

Watched an hour of Hidden Figures, too slow and basic and cheesy. But let me emphasize on the basic, holy shit.

 

[Better Call Sal]

Tag - way better than I ever would have expected, extremely good comedy. - 7/10

 

[ProstheticConscience]

The Girl with all the Gifts

with British people, including the chick in The Expanse with the fro-hawk. Also a very old and androgynous Glenn Close.

Opening scene: kiddie prison. Stark concrete cells and wheelchairs bristling with restraints for hands, feet and head. Terrified trigger-happy soldier guards with machine guns. Our subject is Melanie: black girl, maybe 7, 8 years old. She knows the routine. She greets the guards by name when they open her cell and strap her down at gunpoint. She smiles pleasantly as they wheel her to class in the concrete basement of somewhere horrible and lock her down in her own numbered spot with the other children similarly restrained. Orwellian nightmare with stiff British resolve...but the teacher likes her. Melanie's clearly bright, precocious and looking for some attachment within this awful place. But then the teacher shows a bit too much empathy...and the lead sergeant jailor gives a little reminder of what these "special children" really are: he rolls up his sleeve, spits on his arm, and the class suddenly flies into bloodthirsty jaw-chattering mania. Yes, these kids are in fact zombies. Some ugly fungal infection has ravaged Britain, and this little prison houses a very special brood that might hold the answer to infection. Bright, friendly Melanie would just love to help her friends...but they've got a different idea of help than she does. It's not long before the gates fall and they're on the run, but to where? How do you handle a zombie kid/thing who's clearly sentient and sympathetic but can eat you? Is the London zombie apocalypse going to be fun like Shawn of the Dead or horrible like 28 Days Later? Spoiler alert: horrible.

Some familiar zombie tropes, but does keep you guessing. Melanie's so sweet...until she's not. Sergeant's a dick...until he's not and you understand where he's coming from. Glenn Close is old and androgynous...because duh. Of course she is.

It does carve out its own creepy little niche in the overpopulated zombie horror genre and makes you feel for the characters involved. Manages to be original in the end while maintaining its European hopelessness.

On Netflix now.

 

[Newsworthy]

I didn't get a good vibe at the start of the film ,
Game Night but it gains plenty of momentum and turns into a smart film with many twists and turns.
7/10 mostly for laughs

 

[Mario Lemieux fan 66]

Molly's Game : 7.5/10

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle: 7.3/10 surprisingly good.

Murder on the Orient Express (2017) : 7/10

the commuter: 6.8/10 decent action WTF plot and text with massive lol factor

the post: 6.5/10 not engaging enough.

 

[kihei]

John Tavares (2018) Directed by Kyle Dubas and Brendan Shanahan 10A

Probably broke the budget of the studio, but great suspense and a surprise ending.

 

[silkyjohnson50]

John Tavares (2018) Directed by Kyle Dubas and Brendan Shanahan 10A

Probably broke the budget of the studio, but great suspense and a surprise ending.

Lol.

 

[silkyjohnson50]

^ I'm curious to see how well this one ages for you.

 

[kihei]

^ I'm curious to see how well this one ages for you.

I doubt it does well at the box office in most locales. It's not even going to open in New York.

 

[GlassesJacketShirt]

John Tavares (2018) Directed by Kyle Dubas and Brendan Shanahan 10A

Probably broke the budget of the studio, but great suspense and a surprise ending.

Meh, I felt the ending was too on the nose. Using that picture of him sleeping in his Maple Leafs bed covers was some of the most heavy handed imagery I've seen since the upside down flag from In the Valley of Elah.

 

[kihei]

Meh, I felt the ending was too on the nose. Using that picture of him sleeping in his Maple Leafs bed covers was some of the most heavy handed imagery I've seen since the upside down flag from In the Valley of Elah.

Personally I thought the cup falling on the floor and shattering in the final scene was a little too obvious, too.