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

terry.330

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Hell Night- A bit of a hidden gem piece of early 80's horror starring Linda Blair. As part of a frat/sorority hazing ritual a group of kids have to stay overnight in a spooky old mansion where the previous owner supposedly went crazy and killed his entire family. The frat bros that make to pledges stay there have rigged the house with traps and scares but little do they know the original occupants are still hiding in the labyrinth like mansion. Of course everyone gets stalked and picked off one by one until we're left with Blair as the final girl. It's pretty by the numbers stuff but a great location, a surprisingly tense ending and Blair's likable performance elevate this a notch or two above most of the forgettable horror junk from the era.
 
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SouthtownKid

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Dune 2 finally hit streaming here. What a mixed bag.

The visuals are striking and unfortunately the best part of the movie.

Like with part 1, you can't help noticing places where Villenueve went out of his way to remain faithful to the novel, contrasted with places (sometimes immediately afterward) where he went wildly off in his own new direction contrary to the novel's intent. Especially in terms of Chani's character and Villenueve's invented secular contingent of Fremen. The Fremen culture itself is recontextualized through the lens of white liberal wishful thinking in a way that muddles Herbert's intended analogy and almost comes off borderline racist. It's really frustrating because some aspects of the Fremen -- casting, costuming, setting -- are handled really well.

The music... the first word that comes to mind is "adequate", but that's not quite fair. There are places where the score does a good job of filling in ambient background atmosphere. But it's never really great. Zimmer has definitely done better.

As its own thing, completely unrelated to any source material, it is undeniably a good movie. As an adaptation of a novel Villenueve claims to have loved, I rank it lower in terms of faithfulness than Peter Jackson's Middle Earth movies. I didn't hate it. It was fine, could have been worse. I wish I liked it more.
 

terry.330

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Death Wish 3- Good old Cannon. Charles Bronson and a bunch of old people taking out cartoonishly over the top 80's street punks in hilarious ways. This one is pretty well known for how ridiculous it is at this point and it's indeed awesome. This got me to read a little bit about Charles Bronson, I realized that even though I've seen him in a ton of stuff and knew he had a very substantial career I didn't really know anything about him. Dude was a certified hard ass, that's for sure. The 11th of 15 children, worked the coal mines from the time he was like 11 until he joined the Air Force and flew 25 missions over Japan as a gunner on a B-29. That's some hardcore shit.
 

fake

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As its own thing, completely unrelated to any source material, it is undeniably a good movie.
I disagree tbh. Without knowing the source material, it’s just a 2.5 hour montage. They pack way too much into the runtime. Dune should’ve been HBO’s next thing.
 

Taiso

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If they kill Chani in the next one, reveal she was a ghola the whole time and they write her properly when the real one returns, I would not complain.
 

Tron

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Bevery Hills Cop Axel F
Even after all this time,eddie murphy just slips right back into role like it's nothing.Sure the movie has a few tropes such as a father having to reconnect with a daughter after being disowned.Then there's the typical villain of a crooked cop but how the story goes,humor and with good action sequences it makes up for how terrible part three was.
 
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SouthtownKid

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If they kill Chani in the next one, reveal she was a ghola the whole time and they write her properly when the real one returns, I would not complain.
I know you're joking, but that wouldn't even cover the problem. Villenueve shifted the entire Fremen culture to be something it's not, in order to be more palatable to modern audience sensibilities. And at the same time they "empowered" Chani to be some secular/minor enlightenment/rebel-against-Paul's-holy-war leader figure (not to mention being jealous of Paul marrying the Emperor's daughter, which is a joke), Part 2 devolved Stilgar into a cartoon. I really don't think it's fixable.

I mean, maybe Villenueve did it because he didn't trust the audience to get the fact Paul isn't a hero and him becoming emperor is not a happy ending. Dumb it down for the unwashed masses.
 

Taiso

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I know you're joking, but that wouldn't even cover the problem. Villenueve shifted the entire Fremen culture to be something it's not, in order to be more palatable to modern audience sensibilities. And at the same time they "empowered" Chani to be some secular/minor enlightenment/rebel-against-Paul's-holy-war leader figure (not to mention being jealous of Paul marrying the Emperor's daughter, which is a joke), Part 2 devolved Stilgar into a cartoon. I really don't think it's fixable.

I mean, maybe Villenueve did it because he didn't trust the audience to get the fact Paul isn't a hero and him becoming emperor is not a happy ending. Dumb it down for the unwashed masses.
Yeah, I agree with all of this.

Chani just acting like a bitch that didn't understand how politics work in that universe despite living on the planet at the center of it and understanding the value Arrakis has was my biggest problem with that particular character. She was the epitome of the annoying girlfriend that gets upset when her BF chooses responsibility over love. Even though he gave everyone every chance to tell him to do otherwise in the film. And then the last scene in the film is her preparing to mount Shai Hulud or something. I didn't understand any of it. Stupid empowerment message in a film that absolutely didn't need it.

The fundamental division between the Fremen was the much bigger issue. It was an absolute betrayal of Herbert's vision, in my opinion.

But since this is the film we got, I'd be perfectly happy with Chani just never coming back at all. Maybe she gets eaten by a sandworm and we never have to deal with it.

But knowing modern sensibilities, she'll probably put on sandworm larva, save the universe and still be able to take it all off at the end without consequences. She'll kick Paul's son in the balls too, since he's a man and deserves it (probably).
 

terry.330

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The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen- Terry Gilliam's live action storybook celebration of imagination, a surreal and manic masterpiece. While it's definitely too ambitious and quite messy it's still a massive achievement. Incredible sets, matte paintings, miniatures and virtually every optical effect and trick in the book are utilized to bring the fantastically ridiculous story to life. When you add the incredible scope and pacing it's a lot to take in. The cast is all excellent and really help elevate the material and keep it engaging no matter how absurd it gets. It's not a perfect movie by any means but it's definitely something special and a bit under rated imo.
 

Tarma

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Beverley Hills Cop: Axel F - very entertaining, and a worthy enough entry into the series, even if there has been a thirty year gap between this and the abysmal third film. It pays a decent homage to the first two films, without becoming a total nostalgia fest, but damn, John Ashton and Judge Reinhold look ooooooolllllddd. Great to see them though, and Paul Reiser. My only complaint is that it appears to have been shot digitally, giving the visuals almost a TV movie look... be interesting to see if Netflix allow a physical release and how that looks.
There's nothing original here, but it's well executed, would have been nice to have seen Ronny Cox even if just a cameo, far superior to the third film, think I prefer the second, and of course it doesn't top the original 1984 classic.
 

Average Joe

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Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey 2

Shockingly kind of fun.

It's basically what the first one should have been. The added budget makes it look like a real movie, have way better practical effects/monsters, and sport some pretty solid kills with improved gore work.

I'm all for the dichotomy of the genre where I'll happily enjoy some top-tier artistry from Robert Eggers and also enjoy peak stupid shit like a Winnie the Pooh Horror movie if it's done in a fun way and this was.
 

Hot Chocolate

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Maxxxine
-this is my fav of the trilogy as I like the sleazy noir of the '80s which this is a throwback too( film twitter sweats its Italian horror ), the fact that Giancarlo isn't just doing Gus from Breaking Bad should be commended.
 
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fake

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Life Is Sweet (1990)

It's a dramedy about a working class family in Enfield. I don't usually like "slice of life" movies, especially if there isn't some central conflict or character growth that's really focused on, but this one was OK. There was a lot of physical comedy, which you usually don't get in stuff like this. It's 100 minutes, so it's not a time sink. I'd recommend it if you need some late '80s / early '90s indie.
 

HornheaDD

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Poor Things


I didn't know much about it and by the looks of it was a sort of retelling of Frankenstein, and I guess in some ways it is. I am a fan of Emma Stone, and when I heard she shows tiddies and kitty, the 15 year old with internet access in me downloaded it. Plenty of Emma nips and a couple scenes of bush. Some funny scenes, Mark Ruffalo in a hate-the-character-but-he-did-it-so-well performance, and from what I can gather it's insinuating that "God" (her father/creator named Godwin) actually was Frankenstien's monster. Could be wrong, but that's how I took it. Also - Willem Dafoe can do no wrong. Fight me.

Couple three things, though.

Music/Score:

Whoever was hired to score it should be shot in the taint and his or her family culled. Some of the Victorian music was fine but there were some extremely high pitched, terribly discordant stringed instruments in there randomly. They seriously scratched my ear bones and it was quite annoying.

Style:

Yarborg or whatever his name is used three different camera views. Randomly. Standard, fish eye, and peephole. Randomly changed. No rhyme or reason to it. Literally in the middle of a scene it would switch from standard to either of the other two, or vice versa and accomplished nothing.

This is definitely trying to be an artsyfartsy film and I guess it sorta does it, but it really felt like something Michel Gondry or Richard Ayoade would direct like Bunny and the Bull, or the Science of Sleep.

Content:

I'm all about nudity in movies, especially if its a cute pale green-eyed redhead. But there's a.. subplot? I guess? I dunno - a scene that prattles on way too long about her discovering the wonders of being a prostitute. I coulda done without the literal 'lets-look-for-actually-deformed-dudes' casting call for these scenes, and it went on for about 20 minutes.

We get it Yarborg, she was discovering her clit and the wonders of selling it. But that went on for like 20-30 minutes in a 2.5 hour movie that could have been a hour and 45 and accomplished the same storytelling.

Should you watch it? Sure. It very much feels like what Shelley did with the Monster, where he starts out as a lumbering dullard and becomes an eloquent member of society. But really only watch it if you're a stuffy headed ninnymuggins that prattles on about the vicissitudes of the way the guy used color to represent how the characters were feeling on the day of shooting.

Or if you wanna see Emma Stone's weird nipples and surprisingly full bush.

3.5 nips out of 5.
 

100proof

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Was a busy weekend. Will start with the revenge movies.

Boy Kills World - An incredibly odd revenge flick produced by Sam Raimi starring Bill Skaarsgaaaaard as a deaf mute on a quest to avenge the death of his family by an evil dictatorship headed up by the sad, porcelain corpse of Famke Janssen. Since he can't speak, the majority of the movie is his inner monologue which is voiced by the announcer of a Mortal Kombat-esque game he loved as a kid (who happens to be H. Jon Benjamin of Archer/Bob's Burgers fame). They use every part of the pig with that gimmick and the movie bounces back and forth effortlessly between being odd, silly, over-the-top violent and somewhat earnest. The villainous family in generall seems like something out of a YA novel turned up to 11 but Brett Gelman and Sharlto Copley in particular are having a lot of fun and Bill Skarsgard is pretty believable as an action star and emotes a lot with just facial expressions and physicality. Dude could definitely be the next big thing with The Crow (ugh) and Eggers' Nosferatu coming later this year. Some absolutely brutal violence and martial arts stuff going on too.

The movie is a little over-stuffed and the twist in the third act seems kind of convoluted and unnecessary but I definitely enjoyed it otherwise. Genre mashups like that seem to be my weakness.

Monkey Man - Dev Patel's Indian revenge flick is a lot more serious business and a lot more thoughtful (he makes a point of incorporating a lot of Hindu mysticism and the movie feels very culturally Indian). It borrows liberally from HK martial arts films (the structure of the story, the spiritual vision quest, the villains being corrupt government officials, etc.) as well as the more modern John Wick-y brand of action movies (a lot of the slick cinematography and fight choreography seem more in line with modern action movies). Dev Patel directs and stars and does pretty well in both spots but the movie definitely drags in the middle and could easily have lost 15-20 minutes (it's about 2 hours). Definitely worth a watch.
 

terry.330

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Godzilla vs. Kong: New Empire- I ended up fast forwarding to the parts with Godzilla. Godzilla 2014 and KOTM were both pretty mediocre but not terrible and even parts of Skull Island but this and the previous GvK are just not enjoyable to me. Yeah I can see how people say that all the dumb science bullshit, garbage time filler human plots and terrible characters in these are on par with the nonsense in some of the old Godzilla stuff but it just doesn't work in a big Hollywood production. It's too big and too stupid. It doesn't come off as fun or charming, just stupid and annoying. Then there's the CG, I think my brain is past the point of caring and it all just registers as synthetic spectacle garbage no matter how well done or action packed it is. Like I can literally feel my brain disengaging whenever there's a big CG scene, which I can probably thank the last 15 or so years of comic movies for. Also the music certainly didn't help any and just made it all the more cringe whenever it kicked in. Oh well, I get that there's an audience for this stuff but I'm not part of it.
 

SouthtownKid

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I am the audience for it, but I've yet to watch it because it looks fucking awful. I think it also suffers from the contrast of being released within months of Godzilla Minus One. Which may not be the best movie ever made or anything, but is actually a legitimate movie. Minus One has structure, it's got characters, an actual plot, everything. Meanwhile, Godzilla x Kong looks like a Transformers movie with no Transformers in it. At least from the trailer, which is all I've seen.

The thing that I do like about Godzilla x Kong is that I have used it as part of a Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) doctrine in regards to choosing movies with the wife to watch. Don't get me wrong, I try to be reasonable and there is some give and take, but if she suggests something that I absolutely do not want to watch under any circumstances, I always say sure, and tomorrow we can watch the Godzilla Kong thing, to which her reply is always never mind. This is kind of a Nixon-esque Madman Theory type thing, because I don't want to actually watch the movie, but it's worked so far. So thank you, Legendary Pictures.
 

Average Joe

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Godzilla vs. Kong: New Empire- I ended up fast forwarding to the parts with Godzilla. Godzilla 2014 and KOTM were both pretty mediocre but not terrible and even parts of Skull Island but this and the previous GvK are just not enjoyable to me. Yeah I can see how people say that all the dumb science bullshit, garbage time filler human plots and terrible characters in these are on par with the nonsense in some of the old Godzilla stuff but it just doesn't work in a big Hollywood production. It's too big and too stupid. It doesn't come off as fun or charming, just stupid and annoying. Then there's the CG, I think my brain is past the point of caring and it all just registers as synthetic spectacle garbage no matter how well done or action packed it is. Like I can literally feel my brain disengaging whenever there's a big CG scene, which I can probably thank the last 15 or so years of comic movies for. Also the music certainly didn't help any and just made it all the more cringe whenever it kicked in. Oh well, I get that there's an audience for this stuff but I'm not part of it.
IMG_5952.jpeg
 

Average Joe

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I Like Killing Flies

2004 Documentary about a family that has been running a hole-in-the-wall neighborhood restaurant for several decades and is about to lose its lease so they need to find some place new to setup shop.

The main appeal of this is a combination of the cook/patriach Kenny who is an absolute character of a NYC Jew and the original restaurant itself which almost feels like a physical manifestation of Kenny's inner psyche as it too is an absolute clusterfuck that somehow manages to function and become endearing.

This is one of those random pieces of documentary work that is intensely engaging due to the main people it is centered around. Kenny along his wife and kids are people you can't help but cheer for and become fascinated with due to the sheer amount of personality they exude and pluck they have to keep their business running despite the odds.

There's a big emphasis as well in the insane amount of loyalty and respect the family earns from their customers as the vibe of them all feeling more like friends/family comes off as genuine despite Kenny being abrasive to a cliched comical degree at times. Kenny also makes legit looking bomb-ass diner food and when you see his kitchen at work you're left wondering how in the fuck he can cook anything out it.

It is up on Youtube and I highly suggest it to anyone:

 

100proof

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Right... so the horror backlog:

Influencer - More of a thriller than a horror movie. Social media influencer goes to Thailand for a working vacation (standing in front of things looking hot and making "content") and comes across a woman who ends up being a con artist who abandons her on a deserted island to die so that she can steal her money and the house she rented. She apparently uses a com-pyu-ter to create deep fakes and an AI voice to make it seem like influencer girl's still alive and travelling around the country. In any case, things get complicated when influencer's boyfriend comes in to town looking for her and con artist lady has to try and wriggle her way out of shit.

It has its moments and the con artist lady is written to be clever (she has a huge birthmark on her face which is apparently real) but it's largely just PG-13 fluff. I don't know... maybe I'd have gotten more out of it if I remotely gave a shit about the lives of influencers but pretty much everyone involved is hateable and/or boring.

No One Will Save You - Amusing little low-budget sci-fi horror movie starring basically one person that has next to no dialogue. Kaitlyn Dever is a young girl with seemingly no family or friends who lives a sad little existence in an old house. One night, her home is invaded by an alien (the stereotypical Roswell gray kind). Through a series of events, she ends up killing it. She comes to realize that hers wasn't the only place invaded and the aliens then come back for her in full force.

I generally find greys to be ridiculous and dumb but this is shot really well and they continuously ratchet up the tension by adding new wrinkles and abilities to the creatures. Kaitlyn Dever also does a great job of being a damsel... never too shrieky and whiny, never too girlbossy. I would absolutely recommend it except for the ending... it's a bummer ending where her whole town (and presumably the world) gets overtaken which I don't mind but the tone of the ending doesn't really fit the rest of the movie. I get what they were going for... it just didn't work for me.

Dr. Giggles - Larry Drake (Durant in Darkman, the slow guy on LA Law IIRC) plays a psychotic genius with a creepy giggle tic who escapes an institution to go home and get revenge on his hometown for killing his father, the town doctor, for also being a psycho. Doctor-themed kills and endless awful doctor puns ensue.

I remember watching this around the time it came out and thinking it sucked. I still think it sucks (the doctor puns are sub-Freddy awful and the early 90s hair and clothes are embarrassing) but I do appreciate Larry Drake's performance a little more these days and the movie's attempt to do meta humor well before Scream popularized and then ground the idea in to the dirt. They were clearly trying to create a new slasher franchise (supposedly Larry Drake was already signed to do two more movies) but this was at the tail end of the genre's relevance and the movie didn't make shit. Shame for Larry... he was always a talented character actor but this just wasn't it.

Totally Killer - This one was a lot of fun. A teenage girl has an overprotective mother because several of her mom's friends were murdered by a serial killer in high school. After the serial killer returns and kills her mom (and then attempts to kill her), the girl is transported back to 1987 in her best friend's photo booth time machine (just go with it) where she attempts to save her mom and her friends and change the future.

This movie definitely falls under the "turn a famous movie in to a slasher film" trend of the last few years (It's a Wonderful Knife, Freaky, Happy Death Day, etc.) but this one works because of strong writing. The movie borrows liberally from Back to the Future (and even references it directly a couple of times) and could've easily just been member berries for 90 minutes but they incorporate the 80s references really well (and cover a lot of ground that most 80s retro movies miss) and lean in to the fact that a teenager from 2023 would be REALLY out of place in 1987, just like Marty McFly was in 1955. She's constantly grossed out by how misogynistic and dangerous the 80s were (compared to now) and the fact that her teenage mom and her friends see her as a killjoy scold is amusing and appropriate. The time travel stuff is goofy and not over-explained (as it should be) and it wraps up pretty cleanly if predictably.

At the end of the day, it's a kind of bog-standard slasher movie with an amusing wrapper but it's legitimately funny for anyone who grew up in the 80s and is much better written than these kinds of movies tend to be.
 
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