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

[terry.330]

Men- Wow, that was a lot. I didn't enjoy it but I'm glad I watched it. It was beautifully shot, the two leads were fantastic and I loved the sound design. That said I cannot believe this got a wide theatrical release. The whole movie is fucked up but that last 20 or so minutes is something I'll never un-see. There are a lot of layers to it and a whole lot of symbolism but at the same time it's a surprisingly direct film once you get on it's wavelength. Even then it's still intentionally ambiguous or at least feels sort of incomplete and that may well be the point but it just didn't work for me. I imagine I'm not alone on that. I'll certainly never forget it that's for sure.

Edit:

Bodies Bodies Bodies- Well I thought this was going to be a comedy slasher taking the piss out of gen Zers. It's not. It's more like Clue for 20 somethings without any of the fun, a great cast or wit. It's literally just bunch of narcissists fumbling around in the dark arguing and making awful decisions. I think they thought they were being self aware to a degree but it just doesn't work. It mainly just reinforced the idea that gen Z are bunch of useless self absorbed fuckwits and even more so if this is what they find entertaining. I guess the ending was cute but aside from that it was mostly just aggravating and a chore to sit through. I should have known better since it stars Pete Davidson.

 

[Fuzzytaco]

It was one of the weirder movies I couldn't stop watching.

 

[wataru330]

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.

I try to watch this one every Thanksgiving Eve. Still holds up.

Candy and Martin have rock-solid chemistry in this, and John Hughes proves he isn’t a one-trick pony by casting stars that aren’t teens.

 

[rarehero]

Men- Wow, that was a lot.
...

I don't plan on watching it, but wanted to say that Rory Kinnear is a gem. The first time I saw him was Penny dreadful as Frankenstein's monster and he was great in the role. His dad was Roy Kinnear who played veruca salt's father in Willy Wonka and the chocolate factory.

 

[terry.330]

I don't plan on watching it, but wanted to say that Rory Kinnear is a gem. The first time I saw him was Penny dreadful as Frankenstein's monster and he was great in the role.

Hell yeah. That is one of my favorite portrayals of the character and he was incredible in the the role.

 

[Ralfakick]

The Killer - The new Fincher one. Honestly that will be my only watch of this one. I was hyped for it too Fassbender/ Fincher, plot sounded good. It had a slow build and the plot was meh to me. I’d rather actually of have had the film be darker and gory in tone. Fassbender was good but I’d rather watch him in Haywire, which had some similar vibes, it needed some American Psycho type juice.

 

[SouthtownKid]

The Killer - The new Fincher one. Honestly that will be my only watch of this one. I was hyped for it too Fassbender/ Fincher, plot sounded good. It had a slow build and the plot was meh to me. I’d rather actually of have had the film be darker and gory in tone. Fassbender was good but I’d rather watch him in Haywire, which had some similar vibes, it needed some American Psycho type juice.

Yeah, we talked about this a couple pages ago. I tried to warn people off from watching this, or at least to mitigate their expectations. Fincher turned his brain off for this one, and it was clearly just a paycheck for him. It's definitely in the running for lowest effort, least inspired thing he's ever done.

 

[100proof]

I did my yearly watch of Planes Trains at the Alamo this year to get my wife's family out of her hair while she was cooking. They thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm sure I've waxed poetic about it here before but it's my favorite John Hughes movie (the early teen movies don't hold up IMO and as much as I like Ferris Bueller, an obnoxious teenager who never gets his comeuppance is something you relate to a lot more when you're 20 than when you're in your 40s). The jokes aren't all necessarily laugh out loud funny but much of what happens to Steve Martin throughout the movie are ridiculous exaggerations of life's little grievances that we can all relate to (useless work meetings, overly chatty strangers, awkward interactions, air travel frustrations, customer service experiences). It's those universal life moments that John Hughes was always so good at capturing on the page and on the screen.

It's also proof of how good an actor John Candy was. Obviously a gifted physical comedian but so good at the pathos as well.

 

[terry.330]

It's also proof of how good an actor John Candy was. Obviously a gifted physical comedian but so good at the pathos as well.

Yeah even in a lot of the crappier movies he was in he was always really good at conveying a really genuine quality.

 

[fake]

The Player
Solid crime comedy about a Hollywood exec who is being harassed by one of the writers whose scripts he turned down. I think I was more entertained by the (literally) 50+ cameos than the actual story. I expected the story to be a lot tighter coming from Altman, but it could've been 20 minutes shorter and it never really felt like the walls were closing in or the main character was losing his mind. Still really good though.

Sneakers
A motley crew of codebreakers and phreakers fall into a scheme of international espioage. I fell asleep as the third act got underway. I'm not going to bother finishing it.

 

[Ralfakick]

Yeah, we talked about this a couple pages ago. I tried to warn people off from watching this, or at least to mitigate their expectations. Fincher turned his brain off for this one, and it was clearly just a paycheck for him. It's definitely in the running for lowest effort, least inspired thing he's ever done.

I feel that way about a lot of Netflix movies/TV Shows being uninspired.

 

[SouthtownKid]

I feel that way about a lot of Netflix movies/TV Shows being uninspired.

Sure, but it hurts when it's someone like Fincher.

I look at directors I enjoy, like David Lynch or John Carpenter. In both cases, I know I've watched the last movie either of them will ever direct. They're done. So when I see someone like Fincher wasting a year of his remaining time on garbage like this, it makes me feel actual anger. I understand now how finite this shit is.

 

[Average Joe]

I've been going down an avenue of watching a film series with a lot of entries that I have little experience with. Having just finished the Saw series with the final X entry (which was actually great compared to the average rating of the rest which are not so great), I am going to move onto the Resident Evil series. I've only ever seen the first one and I hated it, but I know of the general vibe of the rest by internet osmosis. I'll probably add those CGI shit-fest movies as well since if I'm going to self-flagellate then I'm going to tear on the skin on my back off.

 

[terry.330]

Oh man adding the CG movies to the mix might break you.

Edit:

Godzilla 2000- A nice mix of old and new, well for the time. Still hokey as can be and retains a lot of the classic feel. It was funny reading about it as apparently Toho had killed off Godzilla and were going to take a break as there was going to be a US trilogy but after the Emmerich Godzilla came out despite doing well financially the Japanese were so disgusted (rightfully so) they needed to get back in the game and set things right. Which I think they were right to do.

 

[Average Joe]

Oh man adding the CG movies to the mix might break you.

Edit:

Godzilla 2000- A nice mix of old and new, well for the time. Still hokey as can be and retains a lot of the classic feel. It was funny reading about it as apparently Toho had killed off Godzilla and were going to take a break as there was going to be a US trilogy but after the Emmerich Godzilla came out despite doing well financially the Japanese were so disgusted (rightfully so) they needed to get back in the game and set things right. Which I think they were right to do.

The Japanese Godzilla Producers at the time legit said the polite version of "we can't let this shit stand" and fucking rushed out 2000. It's a solid one for sure, but they really did make it as soon as possible to get the taste of Emmerich's trash out of their mouths.

 

[SouthtownKid]

The Japanese Godzilla Producers at the time legit said the polite version of "we can't let this shit stand" and fucking rushed out 2000. It's a solid one for sure, but they really did make it as soon as possible to get the taste of Emmerich's trash out of their mouths.

Then they doubled down in GMK, where they had a character talk about how the Americans thought they fought Godzilla in New York a few years ago, and the other character say it wasn't Godzilla.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing Godzilla -1.0. It's been getting great reviews and apparently been nominated for best picture 2023 here. There are showings in Tokyo and Osaka with english subtitles... I guess there's enough of an english-speaking audience in those cities to warrant it. Not in my city, though.

 

[Average Joe]

Then they doubled down in GMK, where they had a character talk about how the Americans thought they fought Godzilla in New York a few years ago, and the other character say it wasn't Godzilla.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing Godzilla -1.0. It's been getting great reviews and apparently been nominated for best picture 2023 here. There are showings in Tokyo and Osaka with english subtitles... I guess there's enough of an english-speaking audience in those cities to warrant it. Not in my city, though.

GMK is one of the few Godzilla films I don't own and have only seen once, so I need to add that to my purchasing short-list. The wife and I got tickets a while ago for Minus One and everything I've seen has looked really great to me. We both love Shin, so I'm totally for another 'zilla version that is a bit more grounded in reality (bit more = no hyper-intelligent space cockroaches.)

 

[Average Joe]

Resident Evil

What a bafflingly bad movie in all the wrong ways--it doesn't even have the benefit of being so bad it's fun as it is just plain bad. It's crazy to me that the man who made Event Horizon, which is a film I love for its setting and atmosphere made something so sterile and boring to look at here. I'd love to have been at that meeting where they opted to make whatever this is instead of just making the first game (I know they did this later and I have seen that film so I know it's also ass.) They could have salvaged it a bit with decent gore, practical work, and make-up, but none of that is here and most of the zombies have lazy-ass make-up on.

Things I actually liked:

1) Brief CGI shot of a Licker looked cool.
2) Laser trap straight out of Cube is fun.
3) Milla does a wall bounce to spinning kick in the air to a Cerberus' face.
4) End fight scene on the train isn't all that fun, but at least it sort of looks like something from the games.
5) A nearly naked Milla at the end.

Resident Evil: Apocalypse

Early 2000s slow-mo and quick edits are my biggest movie pet peeves and holy fuck did this have those things by the dozens. Thankfully, this is the absolutely stupid-ass and over-the-top shit I was looking for in these movies. It is still a terrible movie by most standards, but I wasn't miserable watching it like the first. I actually really dug how Nemesis looked/moved and he was always a treat when on screen. None of the characters except for Alice and Jill are memorable, but even then Jill was just overshadowed by Alice the whole time and felt wasted. I'd actually say I enjoyed it, but if I saw this when it first came out and didn't know what to expect then I probably would have hated it.

 

[pixeljunkie]

Suicide Squad 2021
This was on Prime and I was sick today, so why not? Really start to notice James Gunn's formula here...not in a good way. I was along for the ride and found myself enjoying quite a few parts and the scope of the whole thing. But the overt sentimental bits combined with every single time I was having a good time, they'd suck all the joy out with some character's death or something. Meh.

Still WAAAAAY better than the other Suicide Squad though - jesus.

 

[famicommander]

Suicide Squad 2021
This was on Prime and I was sick today, so why not? Really start to notice James Gunn's formula here...not in a good way. I was along for the ride and found myself enjoying quite a few parts and the scope of the whole thing. But the overt sentimental bits combined with every single time I was having a good time, they'd suck all the joy out with some character's death or something. Meh.

Still WAAAAAY better than the other Suicide Squad though - jesus.

Check out Peacemaker. It's by far the best comic book thing Gunn has ever done and it's way, way better than his Suicide Squad.

 

[terry.330]

Pee Wee's Big Adventure- Hadn't seen this in decades and it was a completely different experience watching it as an adult. It holds up really well, there aren't any dated references and the pacing in damn near perfect. Tim Burton kept his style in check which allowed Paul Reubens to really shine. Plus the character is just so unique that it's kind of timeless. So many scenes are burned into my brain from watching it as a kid and it was nice to see them with an adult perspective. Definitely glad I revisited it.

 

[Lagduf]

I saw Napoleon on Friday. I didn't hate it, I didn't love it. Wasn't sure what, exactly, they were trying to tell in terms of a story. I mean, I know it's a biopic, but I'm not sure what (if any) the themes or whatever were. It's like watching a series of scenes of pivotal moments in the life of Napoleon but that's it - there is nothing more. It seems like it attempts to be about Napoleon and Josephine but doesn't fully commit to that and instead sometimes is about other things, like we get quite a long battle scene about Waterloo but relatively short battle scenes elsewhere though they do try to show Napoleon's tactical genius. Then there are scenes of Napoleon being an awkward human being in the presence of others and some of the dialog is just bizarre. There's also some bad CGI and while you can tell the budget was high some of the stuff just doesn't look that great. If you have Apple's streaming just wait for it to hit that.

I think the next movie I see in the theaters will be The Iron Claw.

 

[SouthtownKid]

Check out Peacemaker. It's by far the best comic book thing Gunn has ever done and it's way, way better than his Suicide Squad.

I got bored within 3 episodes. If that was his best, that would be concerning for WB going forward. But unless it drastically improved in the later episodes, I'd say the first Guardians movie was better anyway.

At least, I agree his Suicide Squad movie wasn't much of anything. It was inoffensively average at best.

 

[100proof]

Hellraiser: Bloodline - Has always been a guilty pleasure of mine. It's cheap looking (though not as cheap as the later direct-to-video trash that came after it), it has some truly cringey lines in it and it's rushed beyond all measure but there's an inkling of something interesting there. A French toymaker in the 19th century makes a puzzle box for an aristocrat who turns out to be a warlock/occulty guy of some kind who had the box built to specifications that will allow him to open a portal to hell and summon a demon to be his pet. Shit goes sideways and now there's a demon living on earth and the toymaker's family is cursed to see visions of how to build iterations of the box that will open a wider gate to hell or create a device that will destroy the portal and kill(?) the demon(s). The movie moves to the modern day as well as to a future time where the descendant has built a space station that doubles as the device.

It's the only Hellraiser sequel beyond the second one that attempts to do anything interesting with the lore (it includes the LeMarchand piece from Barker's original story and Barker himself had some input in the early stages of the script) and there's some good stuff lying between the cracks: the idea of hell having evolved or perhaps having had a change in "management style" during Angelique's time on earth, the light vs. darkness motif, the idea of LeMarchand's family being master architects because they're basically born with the configuration in their heads and the general character of Angelique harkens back to a lot of the themes that made the original story and movies so... alluring. Plus a significant portion of the crew of this movie went on to do Event Horizon less than a year later so if you're wondering why that movie basically looks and feels like a Hellraiser knockoff, voila.

All that said, the Weinsteins completely ratfucked it. They scared off Stuart Gordon after initially offering it to him, then slashed the budget and cut the director they hired's knees out from under him in post. Cut out 30 minutes of footage (leaving it at barely 80 minutes) and demanded a bunch of reshoots (to put Pinhead more front and center and basically rearrange the order of the movie) so the whole thing is unbelievably rushed and incoherent. The director told them to get fucked and got his name successfully removed from it (the good old Alan Smithee rule). There's some bad early CG, the Chatterer dog is a rough looking puppet (and kind of a dumb idea in general),, Pinhead is saddled with several embarrassing lines (a staple of all the later Hellraiser movies, really) and there's some B-movie level acting throughout. It's not a great or even a good movie but it's the closest the Hellraiser movies ever got to sniffing its original core concepts (save for maybe bits of Hellseeker) and I watched it a lot in college.

 

[LoneSage]

The twins being turned into a cenobite lived in my head rent free for a long time. I think I was 9 or 10 when I watched it.