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

[LoneSage]

, and the rest of the world but completely collapsed in China.

I swear to god going to the cinema just isn't what it used to be. And I've asked you guys this before, but really it's like there's something in the water over here and we collectively don't care about watching movies anymore.

There was a time when we'd go to the movies once or twice a month. Now it's like no one gives a fuck. The May Day holiday came and went and only now am I realizing there wasn't any news about box office records, compared to years ago with Warcraft which did gangbusters.

 

[SouthtownKid]

I swear to god going to the cinema just isn't what it used to be. And I've asked you guys this before, but really it's like there's something in the water over here and we collectively don't care about watching movies anymore.

Subliminally being conditioned for the coming war.

 

[famicommander]

A lot of Hollywood movies are artificially throttled over there. The CCP intentionally limits how many theaters are allowed to play them, what locations they're allowed to play in, and how long they're allowed to run. They don't want the competition with their domestic film industry.

Legendary Pictures has mostly Chinese ownership so they get away with more, which explains why Godzilla x Kong and Dune held up pretty well there.

 

[SouthtownKid]

booooo boycott Legendary. Stop funding their future invasion. boooooo

 

[famicommander]

booooo boycott Legendary. Stop funding their future invasion. boooooo

It's not as bad as it was. From 2016-2021 the decision making for the entire studio was 100% China-based. In 2022 an American company became a big minority investor and took over the creative decision making, at least, and handed it back to the people that were in charge prior to 2016.

 

[lithy]

At the risk of sounding like uncultured swine, I want to see if any of you have thoughts on how you feel when you watch 'old' movies. Specifically, I watched Shane and Seven Samurai in the last couple weeks. I had never seen them before and while I was happy enough to have watched them, I wasn't exactly immersed or enthralled.

Is it fair to view some movies as simply 'important' rather than still being great entertainment?

Have Citizen Kane and Chinatown on a shortlist to watch as well. Will I be similarly let down?

 

[SouthtownKid]

At the risk of sounding like uncultured swine, I want to see if any of you have thoughts on how you feel when you watch 'old' movies. Specifically, I watched Shane and Seven Samurai in the last couple weeks. I had never seen them before and while I was happy enough to have watched them, I wasn't exactly immersed or enthralled.

Is it fair to view some movies as simply 'important' rather than still being great entertainment?

Have Citizen Kane and Chinatown on a shortlist to watch as well. Will I be similarly let down?

Chinatown is possibly modern enough to escape falling into that category for you. Although it's noticeably slow paced compared to movies now (until suddenly it isn't). But it's also maybe the greatest example of the neo noir genre, it has what is widely considered to be one of the greatest screenplays ever written, and the ending is a fucking gut punch.

But Citizen Kane falls into the "important" category. If you are into the craft of filmmaking, or if you are into design or art in general and want to see a masterclass in composition within the frame, you will get a lot more enjoyment out of it than if you're here for the life story of some guy.

Anyway, old movies... There are some I love, but I still kind of have to be in the mood for a lot of them.

 

[100proof]

You'll definitely be let down by Citizen Kane. That's definitely an "important" movie and not one that holds up particularly well for a modern audience. It's a fucking technical achievement that's absolutely unparalleled for the time it came out, particularly in the realm of cinematography... but as a movie-going experience, it's not going to knock your socks off. It's a movie that should be taught at every film school the way "the classics" are read in every literature class.

Generally, it depends entirely on what you mean by old. There are very few movies pre-Godfather that I can watch simply for the joy of the viewing experience. The Dollars Trilogy. Some Like It Hot. Abbott + Costello movies (though I enjoy vaudeville-era slapstick). French Connection. Some Hitchcock movies like Vertigo, Psycho and maybe Rope. That's about all I can think of. Anything else it's because it's either important, unintentionally funny or some combination of the two.

 

[HornheaDD]

Watched the Fall Guy tonite. It was very entertaining.

Pros: Emily "my hallpass like it'll ever happen" Blunt and Hanna "that one too" Waddingham just looked stupid great the entire way through. Even with those god awful glasses Waddingham was wearing. Still would, even with the glasses.

Ryan Gosling is definitely channeling his inner idiot in this and having fun with it.

Cons - they didnt play the original theme, it was a damn cover You have Majors in a cameo, and you dont use his version of the tune? Boo.

 

[terry.330]

Is it fair to view some movies as simply 'important' rather than still being great entertainment?

Sure.

It completely depends on the movie and the viewer. Sometimes you can be surprised and they are just as engaging as anything modern and sometimes not so much. I've watched tons of shit that was important and I could appreciate for the art or story but didn't really enjoy in the usual sense. Plus sometimes when you aren't as engaged it lets you appreciate things you otherwise wouldn't.

I think Chinatown is honestly pretty timeless.

Citizen Kane is incredibly dated and the subject of the movie isn't engaging or relatable at all but as said it's an incredibly well crafted and groundbreaking piece that anyone with an interest in movies can appreciate regardless. Even just as a piece of american culture it's kind of a must see. Like it's referenced so many times over the last 90 years it's crazy. Shit, you can write an entire book on The Simpson's references alone.

 

[fake]

Wow wow surprised by the Citizen Kane takes. My lady and I watched it a few years ago and we both loved it. (Previously, I had only seen certain scenes in college classes.) She usually falls asleep on Criterion Night, but she was paying attention the whole time. Plus, for older stuff she'll often say, "That was slow as fuck but it was pretty good." For this she was just like "damn."

Also, I think Chinatown is modern enough. The only drag (no pun intended) from Polanski, of what I've seen, is The Tenant. (And I like Repulsion and love Rosemary's Baby FWIW.) Sorry, Fami.

 

[wataru330]

I never could get into John Wayne movies, other than kind of liking The Shootist. I was brought up to think motherfuck him and Elvis.

None of our heroes appeared on no stamp.

 

[Taiso]

I'll be seeing Furiosa this weekend. Fury Road was an incredibly entertaining flick and I am hoping for more of the same.

 

[terry.330]

Furiosa will be the first movie to get me to go to the theater in years. I think the last time was Licorice Pizza.

 

[Tarma]

Ghostwatch
Felt like making it a double feature after watching Late Night... If you haven't seen it, it's a BBC special from '92. It was a paranormal spinoff of their Crimewatch show, using the same format, hosts, etc. It was a proto-Blair Witch undisclosed found footage show, and people lost their minds. The ways they fuck with the audience are pretty genius.

Proper freaked me out back in the day, I tells ya.... I don't even remember being able to sit through the whole thing!!

 

[Average Joe]

Probably doing a solo trip to see Furiosa on Thursday.

Would normally go with the wife on the weekend, but she is busy and fuck going to the movies when there are other patrons there.

 

[Lagduf]

Solid plan. I saw it Thursday night at a 9:30pm showing.

There was one other person in the theater with me.

 

[Average Joe]

That's the only way to do it.

I think the last movie I saw in a packed theater was the DBS Broly movie, but that was a limited showing on a weekend night and the crowd was actually awesome so I didn't mind at all even if a fire alarm went off in the middle of it during a cold-ass winter day.

Godzilla Minus One had a bunch of people there, but far from packed.

 

[HornheaDD]

Wife and I watched that Millie Bobbie Brown movie "Damsel." I knew it was gonna be shit because my sister said she was "on the edge of her seat the whole time" and that I'd "love it because it has a dragon in it."

Yeah it was about as expected. Though, I was a bit surprised to see that MBB has some thick ass legs. I dont mean "thicc." I mean tree-trunk thick. They arent horribly misshapen, they just don't really fit her upper body. Nice legs, but weird on her frame.

The dragon design was kinda cool, voiced by the rad voiced Shohreh Aghdashloo. Shes like the Iranian version of Kathleen Turner. Only still good looking in her older age. Ray Winstone was pretty much wasted, as was Robin Wright and Angela Bassett. (Seriously? You got AB for this and didnt give her a larger part? fuck off). It was your typical Netflix movie waste of time but eh, had a decent design for the dragon.

Skip it, but google the dragon.

Shits cool yo.

 

[Hot Chocolate]

Furiosa
-saw it middle of the day on Thursday to an almost packed theater. Not as frantic as Fury Road was but still moves at a pace that doesn't have any dragging spots in its two hour plus run time for a revenge story, Hemsworth steals every scene he's in and the first meeting of his Lord Dementus & Immortal Joe was c i n e m a.

 

[terry.330]

MacGruber- I don't know why I watched this, I'm not a fan of that era of SNL and find Will Forte annoying and too immature when he has too much freedom. For me this doesn't really work as either a parody of MacGyver or an action comedy. I think I maybe laughed once the entire movie and it wasn't at an actual joke just something random.

 

[HornheaDD]

MacGruber- I don't know why I watched this, I'm not a fan of that era of SNL and find Will Forte annoying and too immature when he has too much freedom. For me this doesn't really work as either a parody of MacGyver or an action comedy. I think I maybe laughed once the entire movie and it wasn't at an actual joke just something random.

Whaaat? And you didn't find Ryan Philippe just *hilarious*?!?!

I like some of Wills stuff (mainly bit parts and Tim & Eric appearances) but yeah that sketch and movie were horrendous.

 

[LoneSage]

Braveheart - when was the last time any of us watched this? The only thing crazier than Mel Gibson looking about 50 but being only 38 during filming with his haggard, weathered face and stone cold blue eyes (no homo but holy fucking SHIT his eyes are blue as ice), is how much of this film doesn't hold up and how much of this film is still really, really fucking good. And how many of you are thinking about South Park right now? Because those guys were right, Mel can direct the hell out of a movie. Not bad for a guy who was just an actor.

 

[fake]

Playtime
I really loved the set design and the visual and physical gags were anywhere from amusing to very funny. There's essentially no narrative, which I think is fine for what this movie is. My main complaint is that there's a lot of space between the gags for a movie that is exclusively devoted to gags and nice visuals. Worth a watch if you like Chaplin / Keaton type stuff.

Braveheart - when was the last time any of us watched this? The only thing crazier than Mel Gibson looking about 50 but being only 38 during filming with his haggard, weathered face and stone cold blue eyes (no homo but holy fucking SHIT his eyes are blue as ice), is how much of this film doesn't hold up and how much of this film is still really, really fucking good. And how many of you are thinking about South Park right now? Because those guys were right, Mel can direct the hell out of a movie. Not bad for a guy who was just an actor.

Never seen it TBH.

 

[Average Joe]

Braveheart - when was the last time any of us watched this? The only thing crazier than Mel Gibson looking about 50 but being only 38 during filming with his haggard, weathered face and stone cold blue eyes (no homo but holy fucking SHIT his eyes are blue as ice), is how much of this film doesn't hold up and how much of this film is still really, really fucking good. And how many of you are thinking about South Park right now? Because those guys were right, Mel can direct the hell out of a movie. Not bad for a guy who was just an actor.

Still one their best gags to date: