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

[Hot Chocolate]

City Hunter - slapstick action comedy based on the manga of the same name and starring Jackie Chan, with Richard Norton as the bad guy.

Not really to my taste, although I'm sure the 10 year-old me would have thought it was a riot. However, the choreography is excellent, and the Street Fighter II themed fight between Chan and Gary Daniels is pretty amusing.

If you've ever wanted to see Jackie Chan dressed as Chun Li, then this is the film for you.

A terrible adaptation that people only seek out because of Jackie Chan and the Street Fighter reference, there are people who will also lie to you and say this is the best adaptation.

On topic:

Jackass: The Best & The Last
-the last Jackass movie and also a "clip show", I guess a fitting end for the finale is stunts that never saw the light of day from the very first filmed stunt to the last hurrah. A childhood's end.

 

[lithy]

Project Hail Mary- Overly cute and schmaltzy for my taste. Also overly long, at least a third of the movie was basically just montages set to super manipulative music. Some interesting ideas but I felt like they were almost completely overshadowed by all the gimmicky stuff.

I guess I'm on the "just a few days behind you on Amazon Prime" schedule.

I admit, this one didn't grab me from the previews when it was in theaters so we skipped it even though my wife read the book and really liked it. The Martian seems destined to be one of those 'always on cable somewhere once a week' movies for 20 years and I think it is a very strong movie. So, since comparisons are inevitable, The Martian just feels all around stronger as a story and this is pretty ho hum.

Hail Mary feels like it is relying on impressive visuals to pull a lot of the weight. He's a super-smart guy but every challenge he faces, he just kinda solves with little effort? No sparks of inspiration, no improvisation, this mission seems to have planned for every contingency. There are several massive obstacles just in terms of making various parts of the plan work but they ultimately rely on physical danger to add tension because they breeze right through them. Rocky conversely has very little to do and becomes just a sidekick with stilted English. This is another interstellar intelligent lifeform and yet he could largely be replaced with a golden retriever since all of the tech except the one that causes the final plot point is just Gosling's. Hell, I felt more for Wilson in Cast Away than when Rocky was in trouble.

Very light hearted, some good comedy beats, and even enjoyable for stretches but overall feels a bit hollow at the end. If it had been closer to 2 hours I could probably forgive it a lot more and say it's a fun watch, certainly nothing that will stand the test of time, but nothing worth griping about too much. As is, it falls in the pretty mediocre camp for me and I doubt I'll spend the time to watch it again.

 

[Tarma]

A terrible adaptation that people only seek out because of Jackie Chan and the Street Fighter reference, there are people who will also lie to you and say this is the best adaptation.

I'm totally indifferent to it. I'm not familiar with the source material, beyond being aware it exists. And, I'm not a massive fan of Jackie Chan's movies... I admire his stunt work and choreography, but not particularly the sum of the results.

I put City Hunter on for Richard Norton and Gary Daniels.... now, there's lots of movies they're in that I'll happily watch.

 

[Hattori Hanzo]

The Iron Claw

I'm not into wrestling but I just rewatched it. There is probably enough tragedy in this family for 2 movies or a series.
Don't force your broken dreams onto your broken sons. Hard to believe that the real story is even worse.

Not a Zac Efron fan but he isn't bad and he took enough steroids for his role. Ending feels uplifting but this family story is pretty tragic.

 

[Tarma]

Iron Man - not watched this for a long time, and it's coming up for 20 years old - how did that happen?!

Anyway, the sfx hold up very well, and Downey Jr is great as Tony Stark, but the movie just feels a bit too long, there's not enough Jeff Bridges, and the final battle feels a bit meh... especially considering some of the bombast that came in later MCU entries.

 

[Burning Fight!!]

Honestly, I don't remember... the dub was pretty bad - sounded like the same guy was dubbing everyone and I sorted of zoned out in places.

I'm aware, but not familiar, of the source material, so couldn't say if it was a faithful adaptation or not, but this is clearly not aimed at my age demographic.

It was ok, but I could care less if I never had to watch it again.

I meant being exaggerated and stupid just like manga in general, I'm not that familiar with the source material either lol.

 

[fake]

The Iron Claw

I'm not into wrestling but I just rewatched it. There is probably enough tragedy in this family for 2 movies or a series.
Don't force your broken dreams onto your broken sons. Hard to believe that the real story is even worse.

Not a Zac Efron fan but he isn't bad and he took enough steroids for his role. Ending feels uplifting but this family story is pretty tragic.

Fami jerks it to this movie.

 

[Hattori Hanzo]

Who?

 

[Taiso]

I haven't seen anyone share this teaser yet, so here you go.

 

[LoneSage]

Hey Good Lookin' - scrolled across this on some video website. It's a Ralph Bakshi film from 1982, but had started production back in '74. Like nearly all his movies, it's smut, offensive, and might make you feel ill just watching it - but there's something about it, that, despite what it is, you're glad it exists. There's a style here that you don't find anywhere else.

I feel there's a lot of similarity to 1977's Saturday Night Fever, down to the main character looking like a more Italian Travolta (his design was already made in 1974, though). Like Saturday Night Fever, it doesn't feel like there's a real story, it just feels like a movie following some guy and his friend for two days. The main character is Vinnie, the leader of a gang of greasers who's more into vanity and getting some then doing anything gang-like - it's his friend, named Crazy, who ends up having the balls to kill. Eventually there's a big showdown between Vinnie's gang and a black gang that starts more like a joke and dance-off but ends up in death thanks to Crazy going full-on crazy. In-between all this is sex and smoking and partying.

It's a degenerate film (imagine being a kid and having your mom buy this for you because she thought it was just a cartoon, that situation had to have happened) but I have a lot of appreciation for the animation and for nothing else like this being out there. It just feels honest and ugly.

On a side note, Vinnie and Crazy's design style, with their normal body frame but overly large hands, reminds me of a similar character style in Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Strikes Again.

 

[Dr. Jigglin]

Backrooms

I didn't watch the tv mini series that it was based on but I enjoyed this film a lot. Does creepy perfectly, doesn't explain very much and is decidedly quirky as well. I'm left with mystery and that makes it all the more creepy. Well worth a watch.

 

[joe8]

 

[Taiso]

Hey Good Lookin' - scrolled across this on some video website. It's a Ralph Bakshi film from 1982, but had started production back in '74. Like nearly all his movies, it's smut, offensive, and might make you feel ill just watching it - but there's something about it, that, despite what it is, you're glad it exists. There's a style here that you don't find anywhere else.

I feel there's a lot of similarity to 1977's Saturday Night Fever, down to the main character looking like a more Italian Travolta (his design was already made in 1974, though). Like Saturday Night Fever, it doesn't feel like there's a real story, it just feels like a movie following some guy and his friend for two days. The main character is Vinnie, the leader of a gang of greasers who's more into vanity and getting some then doing anything gang-like - it's his friend, named Crazy, who ends up having the balls to kill. Eventually there's a big showdown between Vinnie's gang and a black gang that starts more like a joke and dance-off but ends up in death thanks to Crazy going full-on crazy. In-between all this is sex and smoking and partying.

It's a degenerate film (imagine being a kid and having your mom buy this for you because she thought it was just a cartoon, that situation had to have happened) but I have a lot of appreciation for the animation and for nothing else like this being out there. It just feels honest and ugly.

On a side note, Vinnie and Crazy's design style, with their normal body frame but overly large hands, reminds me of a similar character style in Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Strikes Again.

View attachment 98016

I remember liking how gritty it felt. I knew nothing about gang life in the big city (to be honest, I probably still don't) but I felt like I was getting an honest portrayal of this lifestyle, if in caricature. Almost like a really long political cartoon-there was a brutal frankness behind the absurd facade. Given how good Bakshi's other portrayal of life in the urban sprawl, American Pop, is, I have no doubt that he was tapped in to some kind of 'truth' about the way people in these situations actually acted and felt.

Thanks for the review. Reminds me to go and watch it again.

 

[Tarma]

The Expendables - Stallone's star studded homage to 80s and 90s action films.

The action set pieces are solid, although some of the fight scenes are shot too close up and you can't really tell what's going on until someone ends up dead on the floor. I think it could have done without the Jason Statham girlfriend subplot and some of the dialogue is cringeworthy.

Personally, I think the sequel is the better film.

If you've ever wanted to see Jason Statham deflate a basketball with a knife, then this is the film for you.

 

[Hattori Hanzo]

video website

Review request Sage:

超清《怪猫费力德》无删减_哔哩哔哩_bilibili

-, 视频播放量 13913、弹幕量 76、点赞数 448、投硬币枚数 73、收藏人数 1422、转发人数 52, 视频作者 有番有漫, 作者简介 热门神作/冷门黑马/全网下架资源，相关视频：50年前的邪典动画，撕开美国最肮脏的一面。1972年动画《怪猫菲力兹》，（唐力）唯一中文翻译 《大坏猫与低贱虫》我已气笑 （shine bone alleys1970)，菲力兹九命猫 The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat...

www.bilibili.com

It's called Felidae everywhere else.

 

[LoneSage]

Review request Sage:

超清《怪猫费力德》无删减_哔哩哔哩_bilibili

-, 视频播放量 13913、弹幕量 76、点赞数 448、投硬币枚数 73、收藏人数 1422、转发人数 52, 视频作者 有番有漫, 作者简介 热门神作/冷门黑马/全网下架资源，相关视频：50年前的邪典动画，撕开美国最肮脏的一面。1972年动画《怪猫菲力兹》，（唐力）唯一中文翻译 《大坏猫与低贱虫》我已气笑 （shine bone alleys1970)，菲力兹九命猫 The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat...

www.bilibili.com

It's called Felidae everywhere else.

Hey mein freund, thanks, never heard of this before, just finished watching it, it was dubbed in German but I can read the Chinese subtitles so I get it.

Anyways, thanks for recommending this, it was a good way to spend less than 80 minutes. About 15 minutes in I said, I'm watching a damn noir thriller film! Except it's a cartoon! With cats! Growing up with Disney films where the bad guy always just falls and dies off-screen, it's always a bit of a jolt to see a dead character on screen, especially an animal, in such gruesome detail. Nah, I think that jolts just about anyone, growing up with Disney or not. The bad guy at the very end, we see him get defenestrated in the act. Most of the cats deaths just have bloody throats torn open.

The saddest part of the movie is when the blind female cat who appears to be a romantic interest of Francis dies like 5 minutes after being introduced, and it's not shown, it's said like she's already dead, then Francis runs back to her home and, yup, her throat's slashed.

The funniest part of the movie is when the main bad guy said, "Die Fuhrer is a wonderful and (something in German that means working hard in Chinese) leader." It all comes back to Hitler, baby!

Anyways, I enjoyed this. I woulda been bored outta my skull if I was a kid watching this, like I was with Don Bluth films. But yeah, this was a good one. As the main bad guy cat said when he got frustrated at the end, NEIN! NEIN! NEIN!

Watch this if you're hankering for a noir, but it's animated, and also all the characters are cats, and also it all comes back to Mengele and eugenics and the superior ubermensch race, jesus fucking christ. Good on 'em for making this. Americans of the same generation were traumatized by the Brave Little Toaster, now I know what little European children were traumatized by in the same era.

Also fuck you Hattori for making me watch this smut:

 

[Hattori Hanzo]

The author of the book got cancelled because he turned out to be a racist immigrant. What an irony.
Found out that it's been released in 4K in the US. The German DVD is the best version available here.

Was 13 the first time I watched it. Definitely not for kids even though it's been approved for ages 12 and up by the FSK.

 

[prof]

I guess I'm on the "just a few days behind you on Amazon Prime" schedule.

I admit, this one didn't grab me from the previews when it was in theaters so we skipped it even though my wife read the book and really liked it. The Martian seems destined to be one of those 'always on cable somewhere once a week' movies for 20 years and I think it is a very strong movie. So, since comparisons are inevitable, The Martian just feels all around stronger as a story and this is pretty ho hum.

Hail Mary feels like it is relying on impressive visuals to pull a lot of the weight. He's a super-smart guy but every challenge he faces, he just kinda solves with little effort? No sparks of inspiration, no improvisation, this mission seems to have planned for every contingency. There are several massive obstacles just in terms of making various parts of the plan work but they ultimately rely on physical danger to add tension because they breeze right through them. Rocky conversely has very little to do and becomes just a sidekick with stilted English. This is another interstellar intelligent lifeform and yet he could largely be replaced with a golden retriever since all of the tech except the one that causes the final plot point is just Gosling's. Hell, I felt more for Wilson in Cast Away than when Rocky was in trouble.

Very light hearted, some good comedy beats, and even enjoyable for stretches but overall feels a bit hollow at the end. If it had been closer to 2 hours I could probably forgive it a lot more and say it's a fun watch, certainly nothing that will stand the test of time, but nothing worth griping about too much. As is, it falls in the pretty mediocre camp for me and I doubt I'll spend the time to watch it again.

Sounds like they really dumbed things down from the book. Which is not surprising.

 

[Tarma]

Aliens: Expanded - I suppose not strictly a "film", but whatever.

Excellent documentary on the making of James Cameron's Aliens with extensive interviews with all the principle cast and crew. The full doc runs at over 4 hours, but it's pleasantly surprising at how compelling the content is, and that 4 hours flies by.

Although I did not learn anything new of substance, that I have not read elsewhere, I would still say that this is a must for any real Aliens fan, and I look forward to sitting some of the unedited interviews included in the bonus section of the discs.

 

[terry.330]

Aliens: Expanded - I suppose not strictly a "film", but whatever.

Excellent documentary on the making of James Cameron's Aliens with extensive interviews with all the principle cast and crew. The full doc runs at over 4 hours, but it's pleasantly surprising at how compelling the content is, and that 4 hours flies by.

Although I did not learn anything new of substance, that I have not read elsewhere, I would still say that this is a must for any real Aliens fan, and I look forward to sitting some of the unedited interviews included in the bonus section of the discs.

Did you watch Robodoc?

 

[LoneSage]

Oh Christ, thanks a lot Terry. Now I'm going to spend the night watching that just to get to the Oreos story.

edit: good lord they gave Nancy Allen the most incredible lighting in a documentary I have ever seen. Angelic is the word. This has got to be the best documentary of a movie, right? Yah?

edit2: Peter Weller is so flippin' ready to talk, loving it.



"ROBO WANTS AN OREO!"

 

[Tarma]

Did you watch Robodoc?

Not yet... that is definitely still on the watchlist though.

 

[Tarma]

Martial Outlaw - martial arts thriller with Jeff Wincott as a DEA agent trying to take down a Russian drug smuggler who is being helped by his corrupt brother.

Not terribly exciting, but there's some very well done fight scenes, and the acting is pretty good throughout and at least the plot in this one is relatively grounded, and nor does it play on the typical "out for revenge" tropes you tend to see in these films.

If you've ever wanted to see Jeff Wincott kick the shit out of dozens of Russians, then this is the film for you.

 

[fake]

Eddington
Ari Aster's pseudo-western about a small town in New Mexico dealing with COVID. The town's popular mayor is complying with state mandates for masks, social distancing, etc. –– but is also working toward having a resource-intensive AI data center built in the town. The sheriff, meanwhile, is a right-wing nut that thinks masks are for pussies. He lives with his alt-right mother-in-law and his mentally ill wife who claims that the mayor statch-raped her as a teen. After an altercation between the mayor and sheriff, the sheriff decides to run against the mayor for the upcoming election and goes so far as to publicly claim he raped his wife. Tensions escalate until someone snaps.

I thought this was very good, but not great. Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal are fantastic, the rise in tension makes the 2.5 hour runtime feel pretty quick, and what appears to be some both-sidesing on Aster's part –– as well as an off-the-rails third act –– turn out to be a pretty smart and funny prod at the alt-right. Overall, the message is that it can feel like everyday people are pitting themselves against each other and distracting themselves while corporations gobble up as much as they possibly can.

I don't know how this will hold up in the long run, being so firmly set in 2020. But after the wild ride of Beau Is Afraid, I think it was a good move on Aster's part to return to something a little more accessible. Reviews have claimed that the movie is an aimless moral commentary and a lack of Aster taking a firm position, but I don't think these people really watched the movie.

Aster Tier List:
S - Hereditary
A - Midsommar
B - Eddington
C - Beau Is Afraid

 

[Hot Chocolate]

The Odyssey
-what else can be said outright other than that damn Christopher Nolan has done it again and I say this as someone who had to read this for high school and wasn’t that into it. Some people might be upset that Nolan grounded some of it like we get only one physical appearance by a god but we still get a cyclops, the witch and even a trip to hades which looked amazing. Nolan did introduce an idea here with the Trojan horse that I ain’t ever thought about and that includes treating the battle itself as “war is hell”, which is set apart from the drama/suspense of Penelope and the suitors where John Leguizamo/Corey Hawkins/Robert Pattinson/Tom Holland all take the mvp role.

Definitely planning to see this again.