The Last Movie You Saw?

[Redgrave]

I felt like watching more sci-fi.

 

 

I mainly knew of this movie from the RedLetterMedia review and after seeing it I can see where they came from despite not being a Star Trek fan like Mike (but then again I don't think it's possible for anyone else to). I know less about TNG than I do the Kirk stuff but I could definitely feel like something was off with this and the characters were pretty different from the show for some reason. Picard got Last Jedi'd long before Luke Skywalker did in which in the TNG show he's more of a diplomat and tries to resolve everything as peacefully as possible with resorting to violence as a last result whereas in First Contact he's angry and has a bloodlust against the Borg to the point where he just kills a crewmate that gets infected with their nanoprobes and gets irrationally angry at times or will break things on a moments notice. Again this is coming from someone who never got deep into Star Trek and I could tell there's something off with the portrayal here and I guess it's because of a different writer from the show and they wanted to create some kind of tension for movie audiences.

 

That said I can at least say I found it to be entertaining enough in its own way to stick with it which is more than I can say for the JJ Abrams version where the breakneck pacing just takes me out of it. The special effects are pretty good for 1996 too. However there is no scene where someone does a cut-off scream while getting disintegrated by a phaser so on principle I feel like I should give it a bad rating for that but there is a scene where Picard blasts two drones with a holographic tommy gun which was funny enough to make up for it.

 

 

I've seen some episodes of the show which I don't remember very much of but it was another sci-fi show I tried to get into but I wasn't able to consistently watch it. I also never saw the movie on its own and after seeing it I feel like I would have really liked it a lot had I watched it as a kid. It's got a nice cast of characters that mesh well and have some funny moments once in a while that make it a pretty good adventure kind of thing. I assume it's because of the Egyptian like setting along with the funny moments but I often thought of The Mummy movies throughout it and that's also what makes me think I would have liked this a lot since I would watch The Mummy and The Mummy Returns a ton so to me this probably would have just been The Mummy but with commandos and laser guns. Accompanying it is a really great theme that despite not really hearing it much outside of the show still felt really familiar.

 

But yeah I very much enjoyed this and I think I can appreciate the idea of the movie and the show more.

[LastMinuteSavior]

[Aluminium_Sirius]

????

[ukiukimidnite]

[zulqarmessi]

19 hours ago, Aluminium_Sirius said:

??

Wednesday ?

[MrGarland]

Jackie Chan's Police Story 1 & 2

 

 

Overall enjoyment: 10/10

 

Yup, they were great. While both movies had amazing stunts, I especially enjoyed the climax of the first movie which was epic as ever. I might watch the sequels someday.

 

 

[LastMinuteSavior]

 

9/10 ⭐️

Great movie. Extremely well written, acted and directed. Loved everything about it, from the comedic exchanges to the dramatic and violent moments.

 

[richardas_alex]

[LastMinuteSavior]

Recently watched these:

[LastMinuteSavior]

[richardas_alex]

[Eevee_Everfree]

Rewatched Creepshow 1 and 2 on Shudda.

[Crzy Minus]

[Caquis_1]

[YaManSmevz]

 

My wife wanted to watch this one, and was positively dazzled by it - she hadn't seen any of its (very obvious) influences, so I can totally see why she liked it so much. The film looks gorgeous, it is beautifully shot and vibrantly colorful. The whole 50s idyllic setting is wonderfully realized too, and the performances are solid, particularly Florence Pugh.

 

But it's not really that good (I'm sorry, honey).

 

The set-up is great, but it's one of those where the writers clearly don't know what to do with it, with the eventual reveal feeling slapped on and creating more questions than anything else. The tense mood is great, but it's just drawn out too long, and there's a few compelling threads that don't end up going anywhere.

 

And capping it off with a lackluster ending makes it all the more frustrating! This had the potential to stand up to its 70s sci-fi inspirations, but never really got going. It's worth watching for how beautiful it looks and I appreciated what Olivia Wilde was going for as far as feminist themes are concerned, but it fell flat for me.

 

TLDR: Beautiful cinematography, strong performances, and a great concept are ultimately squandered due to derivative and sub-par storytelling.

[LastMinuteSavior]

59 minutes ago, YaManSmevz said:

But it's not really that good (I'm sorry, honey).

 

"Don't worry, darling" - Mrs.YaManSmevz

 

Have you guys watched Pleasantville?

It's not a thriller, but it's a much better movie with a 1950's backdrop.

 

[alexandra-jane09]

The Raven.

 

John Cusack stars as the infamous poet, Edgar Allen Poe whom becomes involved in helping the Baltimore police with their enquires when a series of murders bare all the hallmarks of his novels in the way the victims were killed.  

 

 

[YaManSmevz]

2 hours ago, LastMinuteSavior said:

 

"Don't worry, darling" - Mrs.YaManSmevz

 

Hahaha nice?

 

2 hours ago, LastMinuteSavior said:

Have you guys watched Pleasantville?

It's not a thriller, but it's a much better movie with a 1950's backdrop.

 

 

YES!! Agreed hard on that, it was one of the movies I found myself wishing we were watching instead?

[richardas_alex]

[EDGES]

 

The Guardians Of The Galaxy Holiday Special

finally got to this and it was decent, but I'm a fan of Guardians so it might not be worth wathing for someone who isn't a fan

[Redgrave]

 

After seeing people post clips of this I figured I would give it a watch. I wound up liking it more than I thought I would and I wish I saw it sooner but better late than never. The intro is pretty cool where it introduces Nicolas Cages character, Yuri Orlov, standing in a street with a sea of bullets and you get the perspective of a bullet being made in a factory all the way to it being fired at something I won't spoil because I think it's worth seeing on its own. So it was something that definitely hooked me in right away and the rest of the movie kept me feeling that way. I feel like this movie would make a TV show up there with Breaking Bad if it were put in the right hands.

 

Anyway the rest of the movie is based on an actual story that I don't really know much about so I wouldn't know what all the liberties are but it does a pretty good story of someone starting off selling an uzi to gangsters in a motel to becoming an international arms dealer. I also like that there's some actual history in it ranging from the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (briefly shown though) to the end of the Cold War and then the wars in Africa. All throughout it, the narration makes it clear Yuri knows what he's doing just results in people getting killed no matter what he does but he knows not to take sides in conflicts and keep things strictly business. I'm sure for actual gun traffickers this is common sense but it kind of made me think of The Jackal in Far Cry 2 when you listen to his audio recordings.

 

I know Nicolas Cage even when this came out was considered kind of a meme actor but he doesn't really do anything over the top like he does in other movies. There's only like one scene I think I could say he does but it's nothing really crazy. I was surprised to see Jared Leto was in it too and it's kind of funny seeing how he looked back then. He plays Yuri's brother that has a drug problem and knowing Jared Leto now I can't help but suspect that wasn't prop cocaine he was snorting in his scenes. It also has Ian Holm play a character and I didn't realize it until I thought "That guy looks like Bilbo Baggins" ? But yeah, overall it's a really good movie and I recommend it.

 

 

I am fairly sure I watched this at least once before years ago but I figured I would watch it again since I hadn't seen it in a long while. I actually remember my first experience with this was when my mother was watching it and I walked in on the scene where Anton Chiguhr was using the suppressed shotgun to kill the cartel members in the motel and I thought to myself how odd that was but I later found out through Call of Duty and other games it can be done ? Anyway, I put this in the category of movies like with Lord of War above that kept me hooked in from the start because of how it's directed and such. The slow and quiet scenes are engaging or tense in their own way. The scenes with Anton are cool to watch because if he's not talking he's either doing stuff that shows he's very thorough and methodical in his approach to his targets and when he's talking to someone he's freaking them out by turning even the most innocent questions against them. Along with that, he uses a coin toss to determine if he will kill someone or not so even someone that isn't a direct target isn't really safe.

 

The main character Llewelyn Moss is the cool country man character who doesn't say very much and you don't really learn much about him other than he was a welder and he served in Vietnam. The scene where he's in the hotel trying to escape from Anton is one of those scenes that is also tense because of how quiet it is and probably my favorite scene with him in it. I also get a laugh in the scene where he's being told about Anton and he asks "What's this guy supposed to be, the ultimate badass?" since his delivery on it is really good ? He's also married to the chick I mainly recognize now as the girl from the show Boardwalk Empire and even though she doesn't have much screentime in this I thought she was cute.

 

And finally there's Tommy Lee Jones who plays the old Sheriff that seems to have a hard time adapting to the modern world of 80's Texas. Or more accurately how crime seems to be different from what he's used to. In other words, it's kind of him experiencing a new generation of crime since he's used to stories from his father about how at most he would have to deal with a town drunk. But I have a soft spot for Tommy Lee Jones since his role in this as well as Agent K in Men in Black are probably my favorite ones since he plays the straight man authority figure very well.

 

Anyway I feel like it's difficult to really summarize this movie without saying too much but I think it's definitely worth a watch especially if you like something where there isn't a lot of dialogue but every moment feels like something is going to happen.

[ukiukimidnite]

[LastMinuteSavior]

12 hours ago, Redgrave said:

After seeing people post clips of this (...) The intro is pretty cool

 

 

Glad you liked Lord of War. It's a solid movie, but I believe it flew under the radar even when it came out.

 

Nic Cage has always been known as an excentric and for a few over-the-top performances, but he's a very talented actor and was a HUGE movie star in the 90s and 2000s.

He only started taking roles in crappy direct-to-video movies after Lord of War to pay his debts after burning through the fortune he had made.

And yeah, Jared Leto used to be in big movies like American Psycho, Fight Club and Panic Room and keep his shit together. Unfortunately he's the reverse-Cage. He has very little charisma and range, so the louder he acts, the shittier it becomes.

 

No Country is excellent. It's one of those rare films that keeps getting better every time you watch it. The little things are always the most interesting ones to discover in the Coen Brothers movies.

 

Last time I watched No Country I kept thinking about how "Thanos" got dusted off camera and without ceremony. Seems weird at first because it doesn't meet your expectations, but then it turns out to be brilliant when your mind and your heart catch up to the subtext.

 

[LastMinuteSavior]

Saw people online talking about Hidden, decided to give it a watch.

 

Turns out it's a movie the Duffer Brothers wrote and directed before their Stranger Things fame. It's quite fun and has a cool third act twist.

 

 

It's on Amazon Prime Video. Avoid spoilers, don't google it if you're gonna watch it.

 

[JRPGChris]

Good Time with Robert Pattinson.  He really is a great actor when he is given good material to work with.