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

[100proof]

Resident Evil (2026) - Other than using a few names and a couple of tropes, has nothing to do with the games and it's all the better for it. The lore and story of Resident Evil, like most video games, is fucking stupid. Umbrella gets name-dropped, there's a typewriter and a handful of first and third-person perspective shots but it's mostly just a 20-something medical transport tech completely in over his head, cursing to himself for 90 minutes about the insane situation he finds himself in travelling to and through Raccoon City during the outbreak of a plague. It's simple, it's effective, it's well-shot and it rarely gets bogged down in trying to loredump (other than a brief 2-minute scene in a car). Just jumpscares, fucked up body horror moments and a dude having a tough day. It might be a little too silly for some which I can appreciate but I'm not remotely precious about Resident Evil and just went in looking to be entertained.

Easily better than all of the Milla Jovovich/Paul W.S. Anderson campy crapfests and well worth a watch during spooky season. Screaming Mad George would be proud.

 

[terry.330]

Poltergeist- I tend to revisit this every couple years even though I don’t really think it’s all that great. It has great moments but it’s never quite the sum of its parts. One thing it does really well though is capture that 80’s suburban household feeling. Which isn’t surprising considering Spielberg was heavily involved. Honestly he probably should’ve just directed this himself. It‘s not bad but it feels uneven and compromised. There’s still a lot of fun stuff in it, I love the end when there just coffins popping up everywhere and it goes full schlock.

 

[terry.330]

Evil Dead Burn- The least Evil Deadish of the three new ones and the least interesting plot wise.

No shotgun, no chainsaw, no car and no Necronomicon.

Then there’s the shitty plot and completely one dimensional characters. There’s so much emphasis on Family nonsense in this it would make Dominic Toretto jealous. Like holy shit, we get it. It’s also pretty slow but once it gets going it gets pretty fucking nuts. The big problem though is that it’s just never really engaging outside of the mayhem and gore.

It really reminded me of Lee Cronin’s The Mummy. Right down to the big ass house and grandma with dentures. Though I would rate this better than that.

I also thought the main bad guy was pretty lame and the guy playing the dad was just doing a Michael Rooker impression.

All that stuff aside it’s really well made. Really well shot and edited with some great camera work. Honestly it was refreshing to actually be able to see what was happening, everything is so fucking dark now. It has some fantastic gore effects and it’s definitely brutal. Which is saying a lot because ED 2013 and Rise set a pretty high bar.

Overall I’d say it’s the least of the modern Deads but it’s still a solid movie. It’s brutal, it’s gory and it’s slick looking. It’s just not very Evil Dead.

 

[LoneSage]

Poltergeist- Spielberg...Honestly he probably should’ve just directed this himself.

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

Road to Perdition I watched this one back when it was new-ish 20 years ago and while I never rewatched it I remember liking it a lot. Would not have remembered anything about a pre-Bond Daniel Craig. Still like this one a lot, the final sequence with the washed out white beach scene as a...

neo-geo.com

 

[100proof]

Evil Dead Burn- The least Evil Deadish of the three new ones and the least interesting plot wise.

No shotgun, no chainsaw, no car and no Necronomicon.

Then there’s the shitty plot and completely one dimensional characters. There’s so much emphasis on Family nonsense in this it would make Dominic Toretto jealous. Like holy shit, we get it. It’s also pretty slow but once it gets going it gets pretty fucking nuts. The big problem though is that it’s just never really engaging outside of the mayhem and gore.

It really reminded me of Lee Cronin’s The Mummy. Right down to the big ass house and grandma with dentures. Though I would rate this better than that.

I also thought the main bad guy was pretty lame and the guy playing the dad was just doing a Michael Rooker impression.

All that stuff aside it’s really well made. Really well shot and edited with some great camera work. Honestly it was refreshing to actually be able to see what was happening, everything is so fucking dark now. It has some fantastic gore effects and it’s definitely brutal. Which is saying a lot because ED 2013 and Rise set a pretty high bar.

Overall I’d say it’s the least of the modern Deads but it’s still a solid movie. It’s brutal, it’s gory and it’s slick looking. It’s just not very Evil Dead.

I'd argue that one of the main things that's always made Evil Dead interesting is that, other than Bruce Campbell's great performance and evolution of his character in the movies/TV show he's in, there are very few defining characteristics to it (beyond inventive filmmaking on a limited budget and demons gleefully murdering people in horrible ways) and I have zero problem with Burn removing some of the more obvious key-jangling. Far too many horror movie franchises become slaves to giving people the same thing over and over again (coughcoughScreamcoughcough) and it's likely not a coincidence that Evil Dead is considered one of the only horror franchises to not have a bad movie in the bunch. I have issues with Burn, to be sure... there's really no one to root for as the female lead/survivor is a wet blanket and the guy who makes it near the end is a useless bitch plus the last 10 minutes is just unnecessary and lowkey sucks (including the dumb post-credits scene). That said, I'd rather we get something like Burn than just another "cabin in the woods" movie that checks all the boxes. Your mileage may vary, of course.

I read somewhere that the guy who played the father is apparently the director's first choice to play Freddy Krueger if he gets picked to helm the currently churning remake. Looks the part, if nothing else, but it's a shame that it has to happen at all.

 

[Burning Fight!!]

Resident Evil (2026) - Other than using a few names and a couple of tropes, has nothing to do with the games and it's all the better for it. The lore and story of Resident Evil, like most video games, is fucking stupid. Umbrella gets name-dropped, there's a typewriter and a handful of first and third-person perspective shots but it's mostly just a 20-something medical transport tech completely in over his head, cursing to himself for 90 minutes about the insane situation he finds himself in travelling to and through Raccoon City during the outbreak of a plague. It's simple, it's effective, it's well-shot and it rarely gets bogged down in trying to loredump (other than a brief 2-minute scene in a car). Just jumpscares, fucked up body horror moments and a dude having a tough day. It might be a little too silly for some which I can appreciate but I'm not remotely precious about Resident Evil and just went in looking to be entertained.

Easily better than all of the Milla Jovovich/Paul W.S. Anderson campy crapfests and well worth a watch during spooky season. Screaming Mad George would be proud.

The padlock gag by itself had more respect for resident evil than all the Paul W. S. Anderson’s movies combined lol. It goes into total schlock territory at the end but it was still great to watch in the theater. A great popcorn movie

 

[nuke sc]

There’s still a lot of fun stuff in it, I love the end when there just coffins popping up everywhere and it goes full schlock.

Kind of fucked to have someone unknowingly spend a week swimming in a pool with real skeletons but man it looks fucking great.

 

[terry.330]

Constantine- I watched this one not too long ago and enjoyed it enough that I picked up the 4k. It looks fantastic and they even added some new special features. The movie itself isn’t perfect or anything but I really like its style and the cast is great. There’s also just a lot of cool stuff in it, sure most of it is pretty goofy if you think about it for a second but whatever.

Also low key one of Keanu’s best roles.

My only real gripe is that it’s so heavily reliant on CG and some of it definitely looks its age. Nothing major considering how fantastical the movie is but it’s still noticeable.

I remember reading that a sequel was finally greenlit a while back but never heard anything else. They better hurry, Keanu ain‘t getting any younger.