The Last Movie You Saw?

[shadaik]

28 minutes ago, Lance_87 said:

 

Wait, what?

A walled-in kingdom built on a legacy of monster hunting that turns out to be a lie about how evil the monster is. Main character comes to befriend a monster and then exposes the self-serving lies of the corrupt ruling class who turn out to cause far more harm trying to sustain their rule than the monsters ever could. They really feel like two attempts at making the same movie.

[ChilledBrandon]

Shaun of the Dead (2004)

 

It never gets old.

 

[Slava]

Avatar

 

 

Obviously not the best film ever, not even top 3 for Cameron. Not with some of these throwaway side characters and silly plot points ("he flew in on a bigger dinosaur, so we forgive him and make him our leader"). Also, even though I'm glad the film doesn't beat you over the head with themes like "industrial machine vs nature" and "corporations vs traditions", I wish it could come close to matching the emotion that "Princess Mononoke" had brought while portraying this stuff.

 

BUT. Pandora remains one of the most immersive movie-original worlds. I watched Avatar for the first time in 2010. And I'd lie if I said I didn't want to be there, fly on a dinosaur among the floating mountains, touch the glowing mushrooms, etc. 13 years later, the middle parts of the film remind me of that feeling. The modern CGI blockbusters lack this level of detail, not to mention that a lot of them look worse. 

 

I enjoyed Stephen Lang as the villain a lot more this time. He carries this 80's unkillable bad guy charisma. Something about him holding his breath in the toxic atmosphere just to take more shots at the protagonist is satisfying to watch.

 

Avatar: The Way of Water

 

 

Cameron loves oceans and underwater exploration as much as he loves cutting edge visual tech. If something can inspire him enough to pull out of another hiatus, it's gonna be one of those. Or in the case of The Way of Water, both.

 

The film has the same strengths and weaknesses as its predecessor. But this time, multiply them by two. Pandora was one of the most beautiful and immersive movie worlds in 2009. It is 2023, and the same is true once again. The underwater shots in particular look better than real life. Despite the flaws, I can easily recommend The Way of Water just for that reason.

 

As for the flaws, the characters are still mostly uninteresting. The most compelling story thread for me was the friendship between the boy and the whale. The rest didn't do much for me. The attempt to add layers to the colonel, whom I liked for being a stereotypical 80's villain in the best sense of the word, felt like a misstep. 

 

I will probably wait for the third one too, but after watching the first two Avatars, I only have one urge, and it's to watch more Ghibli films.

Edited July 16, 2023 by Slava

[serrated-banner9]

watched this in a business class, a cracking flim about the rise of MacDonald but damn, Dick and mack got royally screwed over by Ray

[shadaik]

Ad Astra

At times, it feels like an attempt to make a poem out of a scifi movie. It's a tad fragmentary and some stuff never gets explained, but it makes up for all that by being the most realistic depiction of future space travel I've seen yet. That is the closest to what the actual mid-to-late 21st century might look like I've seen so far. The story is average and honestly just there to get the mc around and showcase stuff, I feel, which is a shame. But I also feel the story is not the point. Ultimately, it doesn't matter why the surge is there or what on Earth (or rather, what on Moon) those space pirates are even trying to accomplish, this one is all about vibes.

[LastMinuteSavior]

 

Probably my least favorite from Wes Anderson, but still enjoyable for the usual reasons: the dry humor, the characters, the quirky mise-en-scène and the beautiful visuals.

 

Not the kind of movie where I would expect to see full-frontal nudity though (Scar Jo's body double).

 

Edited July 22, 2023 by LastMinuteSavior

[ChilledBrandon]

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (2015)

 

Not often I really tear up at movies but this movie did a good job making me care about the characters. Credit to the cast as well because they had amazing chemistry.

 

[LastMinuteSavior]

 

Funny and mysterious. Also, very enjoyable to watch this trio of actors together (Foxx, Boyega, Parris).

 

The runtime needed a little trim though, a few scenes felt superfluous.

 

Hard to believe Netflix released 2 movies I liked in less than a month and a half.

 

[Crzy Minus]

[GUDGER666]

Enjoyed this, came across it browsing Netflix. 

 

Not sure why this got so much hate, some saying it was the worst movie of 2020? I liked it, acting was really good imo. 

 

Worth a watch. 

 

Shite

[PotrikBerger]

The Popes Excorcist 

 

Underwhelming fair - silly accents, formulaic script with too many ‘convenienances’, not enough demons to be truly interesting or scary.... Crowe is watchable though.

 

It is funny having a demon with the same voice as Cid in final fantasy 16 (both voiced by Ralph Ineson) and I couldn’t really stop thinking about that whilst he was going about doing demon-y things like making crucifixes turn upside down and writing words on the young boys skin.

 

overall the film was nowhere near ambitious enough considering the rich source material it had to work with. Also used potentially really interesting story arcs like demons infiltrating the Vatican but never does anything with it. Which was disappointing.

 

Could have been so much more, as it is I’ve had more fun going to church itself

 

 

 

[Redgrave]

 

Goodfellas but basically about a guy that runs a casino. I don't think I quite like it as much as Goodfellas but it's still pretty good and I like the parts where Joe Pesci yells "You muddafukka!"

 

I also like the part where it shows how they catch people trying to cheat so I can learn from it and know how to get away with it see how futile it is to try and game the system that's already rigged against you before you even walk into the establishment. Truly a tale of corruption and how far one can fall, which is similar to Goodfellas with a pretty similar death montage at the end. But if there's one thing the movie doesn't mention it is this one crucial fact:

 

 

 

I've seen the first two Mummy movies dozens of times as a kid and it was great watching them again. They have aged very well as far as I'm concerned and are just very charming adventure movies. I did watch Tomb of the Dragon Emperor for the first time since when it came out I was wary of it and unfortunately I was kind of right to. Granted it's not awful but compared to the other two it's pretty forgettable and it sucks because I feel like there's a better movie buried underneath. I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out this was one of those movies that had script changes early on or some kind of production issue since there were a lot of moments that felt like they tried to be like the first two but missed the mark.

 

In particular most of the humorous parts didn't really feel like they landed and this was really evident early on where they use the same record scratch joke twice within a short timeframe of each other and it felt kind of weird. Probably the one joke I found kind of funny was the part where Rick and Alex were arguing over which guns were better and I thought they had alright chemistry over all but it still felt like it could have been better. Beyond that, it's just okay and the action scenes are fine and it doesn't really live up to the other two. I just think there was a lot more that could have been done with it considering they have a good setup with the Chinese Emperor Mummy.

[blacklight-nero]

 

Thoroughly enjoyed watching these two last night really enjoyed the stories in both very well done, I also thought the art style and animation were fantastic I loved it. ?

Edited July 23, 2023 by blacklight-nero

[Slava]

Raging Bull

 

 

What a film. The Scorsese + De Niro duo shines as bright as ever. De Niro is given a role of a troubled man, to put it lightly, once again. 4th time in a row in Scorsese's filmography. That said, his LaMotta performance is unlike any role he's done prior. Joe Pesci's acting was just as brilliant. Great start to a career.

 

The movie is not just a character study of a famous real life boxer and a horrible person with anger and jealousy issues, to name a few (some of these things were wild to admit in an autobiography). It's also an exploration of how work affects your personal life and vice versa. In some ways, the story becomes relatable. 

 

It shouldn't be understated how good the film looks as well. From the choice to film in black and white to pre-digital era use of slow motion. The use of light and shadow was smart too. Sure, the way blood sprays across the frame looks comical in 2023, but it can be overlooked.

 

Overall, I think I like Raging Bull slightly more than Taxi Driver. At least now. Time will tell.

Edited July 23, 2023 by Slava

[Helyx]

The Venture Bros - Radiant is is the Blood of the Baboon Heart

[Night-Shades13]

Barbie

It was fun!

Oppenheimer

Going from Barbie to this was an insane experience LMFAO! Awesome Movie.

[sillyrobo75]

 

Watched John Wick 4. Most of what I would like to say about it would involve spoilers so I will refrain from doing that. This was pretty much non stop action, while they build a somewhat interesting lore with this series, the story in this was once again very simple, the characters are pretty straight forward, the focus is entirely on the action, and at almost 2 hours and 40 minutes I could say that it kinda got tiring at some points, some scenes definitely felt too long, especially since I don't think there is much variation to the fights. Still enjoyable, but I was not wowed.

[GUDGER666]

One of my favourites. I like to watch movies that are based on or have something similar to the game I'm currently playing, which is AC Origins. Stargate next I think. 

Edited July 25, 2023 by GUDGER666

[GUDGER666]

The only thing that stopped this from being almost perfect is how bad some of the CGI is, but overall I absolutely loved it. Best movie I've seen this year. I'm glad I got nothing spoiled, especially those cameo's!

[ChilledBrandon]

Predestination (2014)

 

Awesome movie, the second full watch through is just as fun.

 

[Jamescush147]

 

The original anime classic from 1995.

[LastMinuteSavior]

2 hours ago, Jamescush147 said:

 

The original anime classic from 1995.

 

Peak performance animation. Love it for the high quality and very detailed hand drawn art, but I am especially impressed how well the cyberpunk style of Ghost and Akira or the futuristic aesthetic and biomechanical mecha in Evangelion have aged. It's incredible how 30 year old designs are still being used as a reference and inspiration for new content on Eastern and Western animation, live action, and videogames.

 

[LastMinuteSavior]

 

The thirstiest comedy I've seen in a while.

 

They really went for the R rating. There are some genuinely outrageous and funny moments in this. Too bad most of the stuff around those moments has been done a million times.

 

Everything Everywhere's Stephanie Hsu is pretty fun here, but it's her co-lead Sherry Cola that steals the show.

 

[djb5f]

 

The lovely Ana De Armas did her best to carry this film.  Started well enough but by the final chapter, I was losing interest.  The premise reminded me some of the TV show Chuck.  6.5/10

 

 

 

First time I watched this since its release and it still absolutely hits its mark.  Loved the storytelling and the stylization.  I don’t think I’ll rewatch the sequel as that didn’t deliver for me.  9.5/10.

 

 

Now, this one was for the lovely Jessica Alba and a movie that somehow I never watched.  I really liked the build-up of the first hour (buddy couples, moral dilemma) but was let down by the silliness of the action (and over-the-top body count) of the last 45 minutes.  I’ll still go ahead and give it a 7/10.  Potentially might watch the (straight to DVD?) sequel, we’ll see.

Edited July 28, 2023 by djb5f

[GUDGER666]

Pretty damn good.