Movie opinions thread (what have you seen, what did you think?)

[terry.330]

I'm just imagining Seth McFarlane drunk in a white wig trying to deliver deadpan lines to himself in a mirror and thinking he's the funniest guy alive. Texting his agent POLCIE SQUUAD REMAK! at 4 am and having no recollection of it the following day.

He's out of his mind if he actually thinks he can pull it off.

 

[LoneSage]

Speaking of Naked Gun and Airplane!, I recently watched Conan O'Brien's interview with Leslie Nielsen from the early 90s. Such a bad interview, with Conan trying to play a cool guy. Leslie really came across as such a cool grandpa.

 

[terry.330]

Altered States- Continuing the Ken Russel run. I think I may have seen this on cable years ago and been disappointed that it wasn't a more straight forward "drug" movie as I vaguely remember parts of it. William Hurt is some sort of psychologist/researcher who is experimenting with psychedelics and isolation to induce a sort of regressive religious experience to meet god and become one with I dunno the universe, energy... whatever, some abstract concept of humanities purpose/origin. He gets a hold of some type of mushroom based potion that South American indians use in religious ceremonies. Of course he abuses it and things go horribly wrong. He ends up tripping so hard he regresses into essentially a literal caveman. A bit silly especially if you have any real experience with psychedelics but it's still a fairly interesting concept.

William Hurt is pretty good in what I believe is his first starring role. The effects are all over the place quality wise, there's a lot of composite shots, lasers, fog etc. They get the job done and are effectively jarring and a times quite disorienting. Recommended, has a kind of a Jacob's Ladder meets 2001 vibe.

 

[HornheaDD]

Mentioning Airplane, that reminds me: there's talk of a Naked Gun/Police Squad reboot. By Seth McFarlane, for those of you who don't hate him as much as I.

Its been done. It's called Angie Tribeca.

 

[100proof]

I had today off so I stayed up late watching garbage movies last night that I'd never seen.

Howard the Duck - I've always been morbidly curious cuz it's a legendary trainwreck but was never was bored enough to watch it. And it's definitely a trainwreck... but I was mostly just baffled that it got made at all. Obviously Hollywood wasn't as risk averse then as it is now and I get that George Lucas was behind it in the early 80s but the fact that he used his pull to get this off the ground is just... I guess it explains the remainder of his career to a certain extent. The movie just makes weird choices at every turn and it can't figure out whether it wants to be Fritz the Cat or ET. The duck outfit is creepy and off-putting from frame one (the fact that they give us duck tits multiple times in the first five minutes made me want to bathe my eyes in bleach) and essentially giving him a Woody Allen voice is... bold? Weird? The movie can't seem to make up its mind whether people think he's a midget in a costume or this freaky alien and the middle 60 minutes where it becomes a boring road movie... god and the awful fucking one-liners. I understand that that's at least somewhat in line with the character but it's completely off from the rest of the movie.

Leah Thompson is as adorable as ever and it's got some pretty good effects in places but man... what a mess.

Dracula Dead and Loving It - Oof. I always loved Mel Brooks but Men in Tights was where I checked out and I had always heard this was even worse. Parodying a movie barely anyone remembers (Coppola's Dracula movie) with weirdly specific callbacks to that mixed with more standard Dracula story beats. This at least had some impressive cleavage (Mel always did like a good boob joke) and Leslie Neilsen was game back then to be a goofball but most of the movie is just hacky in kind of a sad way. It's still 5 steps above those later Scary Movie/Epic Movie/Shit Movies that would come later but it has none of the class and very little of the cleverness of Mel's old movies.

 

[NeoSneth]

I haven't seen Howard the Duck since it was released. Now I have a morbid curiosity to give it a retrospective...
This is also the same guy that thought Jar Jar Binks was going to be a massive hit. I guess it all start to makes sense when you think about it....
" I'll try spinning - that's a good trick"

 

[DevilRedeemed]

I rewatched Howard the Duck recently and thought it was excellently bad. I was definetly entertained

 

[SouthtownKid]

a movie barely anyone remembers (Coppola's Dracula movie)

wtf are you on about?

 

[DevilRedeemed]

Haha

 

[Catoblepa]

I had today off so I stayed up late watching garbage movies last night that I'd never seen.

Howard the Duck - I've always been morbidly curious cuz it's a legendary trainwreck but was never was bored enough to watch it. And it's definitely a trainwreck... but I was mostly just baffled that it got made at all.

I remember watching Howard the Duck in the theater when I was something like eight, or nine. The father of a girfliend of mine always had free tickets, and he'd bring us to lots of new kid-friendly releases and re-releases: most of the times it was great, and I've experienced movies such as E.T., the Goonies, Short Circuit, the Adventures of Baron Munchausen, D.A.R.Y.L and many more in glorious 35 mm, just at the right age.
I never knew what we were goin' to see next, I went in completely blind, and Howard the Duck was a confusing experience. It was mildly scary in some points, but that was fine (children of the Eighties who endured Atreju's horse drowning in the swamp knew how to deal with strong stuff): the sexual undertones/overtones were much more confusing. I distinctly remember watching Lea Thompson undress and seduce Howard in bed and thinking "wow... I don't think I'm old enough to watch this", while bein' quite aroused by Lea's underwer - and at the same time, almost horrified by the weird interspieces attraction. That's the part that stuck with me when I saw it But overall, as a kid I found it quite entertaining.

 

[LoneSage]

Men in Tights and Dracula Dead and Loving It were both movies I watched repeatedly when I was ten years old. I'm afraid I may not like them anymore.

Wonder how the actress that played Mina Harker holds up.

 

[SouthtownKid]

Minamata. This was good. About a Life Magazine photographer documenting a small town suffering long term mercury poisoning from factory runoff. I'm starting to come around to the thinking that maybe Amber Heard inadvertently did the world a favor by gaslighting Johnny Depp and getting him fired from Disney, if it means he's going to make real movies again.

 

[100proof]

wtf are you on about?

That's fair. People here are more film savvy than the general populace but I guess my point was more that it's not exactly the cultural touchstone it would've been in 1995 so a lot of the jokes specific to that movie are going to completely go over the head of anyone under 30 and those for whom cinema isn't a second language. It's not like Spaceballs which ages fine because Star Wars is always going to be part of the zeitgeist, for better or worse.

Men in Tights and Dracula Dead and Loving It were both movies I watched repeatedly when I was ten years old. I'm afraid I may not like them anymore.

Wonder how the actress that played Mina Harker holds up.

Men in Tights has its moments (though I certainly wouldn't put it in the same zip code as most of his 70s movies... or probably even Spaceballs) but yeah, Dracula's pretty bad.

 

[DevilRedeemed]

I think older versions of Dracula hold up better nowadays than the 90s iteration. In all respects. That said it is a pretty great film

 

[terry.330]

BS Dracula has it's fair share of problems but the optical effects, lighting and cinematography are all amazing.

Watched The Booksellers, a Netflix doc about rare book sellers and collectors. Not something I really have any interest in per se but gave it a shot anyway, glad I did because I learned about the Walker Library which is amazing.

 

[famicommander]

This absolutely holds up.

 

[SouthtownKid]

The new Mortal Kombat came to netflix, so we watched it. What an unbelievable snoozefest. Nothing remotely interesting or engaging in the entire thing. It's incredible they couldn't have made a better movie than this even if only by accident.

 

[100proof]

BS Dracula has it's fair share of problems but the optical effects, lighting and cinematography are all amazing.

Agreed on all accounts. It's completely ridiculous in places and the accents are laughably bad but it's technically stunning. And Gary Oldman just goes whole hog to the point that he's practically in a different movie.

 

[NeoSneth]

ok. I couldnt help myself and i watched Howard the Duck. It was entertaining as a curiosity. I am similarly confused by all the sexual content. Wtf was that hottub brothel scene? I see the similarities to Fritz the cat, but at the same time it tries to be a family movie. I feel like this movie would have worked better with an Alf character or something more loveable than a duck. Like a dog or cat planet would have worked better....or just Alf. Also Lea Thompson is a hottie. forgot all about that.

 

[terry.330]

The Haunting(1963)- Robert Wises' follow up to West Side Story, not to be confused with the awful 90's remake starring Catherine Zeta Jones and Owen Wilson. Very much of the period so it's a bit dated in multiple ways but it's an exceptional looking movie, the camera work and shot composition are stellar. Though I almost wish it was in color because the sets are so elaborate. Not too hokey but some of the narration is pretty trite and the female characters are handled well... like it's 1963 lol. Still overall an enjoyable old school classic.

 

[DevilRedeemed]

Got tickets for The Batman for sunday. Looking forward to it. Some excellent talent amongst the main roles. Paul Dano is boss

 

[LoneSage]

I'm surprised they're releasing a superhero movie in March.

 

[Lagduf]

I'm surprised they're releasing a superhero movie in March.

And next month we get Morbius.

Two bat movies in a row.

 

[SouthtownKid]

And next month we get Morbius.

Two bat movies in a row.

The difference is that I'm hearing the Batman movie is actually good, whereas I expect Morbius to be on about the level of Venom.

 

[Lagduf]

I’ll take another Venom but not Venom 2.

Batman good? I plan to see it this weekend but damn did the trailers I saw for it didn’t look like a dumpster fire.