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Post by therealcomicman117 on Jun 13, 2021 15:38:23 GMT
Totally clicked on the wrong thread for some reason when I first posted this. My friend sometimes gets free passes to early screenings, and this past Thursday she got tickets for The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard. So this was the first time I’ve been to the movies in more than a year. I was very easy on it because I didn’t pay anything for it. I never saw the first one, but I don’t think you have to because the story is pretty straightforward. It’s pretty dumb all around, and it felt like most of the actors knew that too and just showed up for the paycheck. Still I laughed a lot at how dumb it was, and there were a few moments that were totally predictable that I still laughed at. I’m not sure I’d recommend it unless someone has something like AMC’s Stubs or something, but it was fun. God help me because I’ll probably go see Free Guy even though it looks like another really stupid comedy, but I hope that Ryan Reynolds did actually stumble into a good comedy outside of Deadpool because I think he totally carries the film, and I think the idea of Free Guy has potential even though the trailer doesn’t make it look all that great. This probably deserves its own thread, but it's also a review, and thus is fitting for this thread as well. Anyway I saw the first Hitman's Bodyguard, and actually thought it was okay for what it was, but you're not the only person I've followed who says that they enjoyed the sequel even more. Reynolds unfortunately has a poor track record when it comes to comedies in general, so it’s nice to see he's done well in something that isn't Deadpool.
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Post by ingmarhepburn on Jun 13, 2021 21:20:53 GMT
Split (2016). First watch. It started very interesting and, for a moment, I really thought that this would turn out to be good, but it all fell apart for me in the last 20 minutes or so, when it went from psychological thriller/character-study to supernatural nonsense. It's a shame, because James McAvoy and Anya Taylor-Joy were really good. They deserved a better film.
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Post by jakesully on Jun 13, 2021 23:39:06 GMT
Kindergarten Cop (re watch)- Caught this earlier today on a lazy Sunday and still love it (haven't seen it in over a decade but I remember it being a childhood favorite of mine) Arnold is hilarious and flat out awesome in this. The kids were all great, funny and adorable as well. Just a fun feel good film all around 7.5/10 Oh and fuck all those overly sensitive pussies in Portland, Oregon that had this innocent film banned from a film festival there (because of all the "defund the police" BS ). I really wish I was making this shit up but no its real. www.newsweek.com/why-arnold-schwarzenegger-hit-kindergarten-cop-being-banned-1523050
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Post by jakesully on Jun 14, 2021 16:09:02 GMT
The Mechanic (2011) Finally got around to watching this (blind bought it and found it to be pretty entertaining featuring a slick ending. Jason Statham was his usual badass self (flat out cold blooded assassin in this) and Ben Foster was also quite good as his tortured/angry apprentice. A lot of intense/entertaining action sequences featured in this as well (also I honestly wasn't aware that it was a remake of a Charles Bronson film under the same title. Good to know, will need to see that one as well) 7/10
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Post by pacinoyes on Jun 14, 2021 16:26:27 GMT
Apples (2020 / 2021) - 8 / 10 Post-Lanthimos-type Greek film with a plot right up his alley too - identity seeking humans in a world where you can create yours from scratch - themoviesinner may have seen this (?) - quite funny (to me anyway) and wise but also quite intricate and dense and can be frustrating too - not unlike Charlie Kaufman actually. I dug this - maybe more than anything I've come across in 2021 - this played festivals in 2020 afaik - will be interesting to see if this catches on and what this director does next (this is a debut)
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Post by themoviesinner on Jun 14, 2021 16:37:33 GMT
Apples (2020 / 2021) - 8 / 10 Post-Lanthimos-tpe Greek film with a plot right up his alley too - identity seeking humans in a world where you can create yours from scratch - themoviesinner may have seen this (?) - quite funny (to me anyway) and wise bit also quite intricate and dense and can be frustrating too - not unlike Charlie Kaufman actually. I dug this - maybe more than anything I've in 2021 - this played festival in 2020 afaik - will be interesting to see if this catches on and what this director does next (this is a debut) No, I haven't seen it, but I know it was my country's submission for the foreign language Oscar. I think it was shown on Greek tv quite recently too. I'm just not a fan of this Greek "weird wave" movement (that includes Lanthimos' Dogtooth and Alps as well, as I disliked both), so I've been avoiding the Greek films that fit into that mold and this feels to me as such. But, I might check it out now, since you know that I hold your opinion in high regard (although we don't always see eye to eye).
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Post by Johnny_Hellzapoppin on Jun 14, 2021 20:06:29 GMT
Waiting for the Barbarians (2020)
Pretty disappointed by this. It was quite dry and just sorta limped from one moment to the next, without much in the way of life or inspiration. I can appreciate it from the technical side, as it was solidly shot and the production itself was nicely done, but from a storytelling standpoint, I wouldn't say it had too much to say outside of the obvious. Colonialism is bad and sometimes power corrupts...quelle surprise. This was exacerbated by the fact that the villains of Depp and Pattinson, were rather cartoonish for such a po-faced film. In fact, every time Depp came on screen I half expected someone to open the ark and melt his face off. Mark Rylance was rather good, but he could only do so much.
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Post by Mattsby on Jun 15, 2021 0:34:32 GMT
Contagion (2011) 7/10 or more, rewatch.... "In 72 hours we'll know what it is - if we're lucky." "Clearly we're not lucky." Soderbergh's casino scene goes from riches to itches.... An eerily on movie to our recent times, well-acted, and efficiently made by one of our most efficient filmmakers. I forget who but someone on the board said this needed to be a miniseries, and I half agree... I think with such a talented cast and characters that interest us, we want more from them, but I also don't know how much longer I'd wanna watch a gutting pandemic drama. That Winslet coat cut Pleasantville (1998) 6/10 or so, rewatch.... Gary Ross often script consults on Soderbergh's movies bc they're good friends, so in his helming debut he hired Sod as producer to sort of return the favor and guide his directing. Sod also did uncredited 2nd unit work, he said: "Basically we just ran our asses off and shot a ton of stuff for Gary to play with." Interesting.... As for the movie, a fun gimmick idea that wants a comedy, not a cringeworthy message-movie. This dwindled for me a lot. Poor Reese Witherspoon, if only someone told her there were books in the real world too... Last Action Hero (1993) for another fan-enters-their-beloved-fiction movie. 6.5/10 but entertaining and kinda hilarious ("You wanna be a farmer?! Here's a couple of acres!"). Never seen this, even during my childhood Arnie phase (s/o to my Commando VHS). I'm sorry but this not only references but dedicates scenes to Laurence Olivier and Ingmar Bergman! Interesting meta-superstar experiment even if it falters as it goes, but I had fun. And Charles Dance gives a surprisingly slick perf. Carriage to Vienna (1966) Almost 8/10. From the director of The Ear, only 75m. This is like a hostage/survival/revenge movie - a Czech woman is forced to transport two fleeing soldiers across Russian territory. It's fascinating, intense, flawlessly made until a kinda rushed character reversal and an extremely brutal ending...
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Post by theycallmemrfish on Jun 15, 2021 6:02:49 GMT
I still have a lot to fill in the blanks on (I have a full page notepad doc with my recent watches that I haven't updated here)... but I just had to do this one because... did I just like a cult movie?!?!
Rebirth (Netflix) - I liked a cult movie. There. I said it. The film isn't great by any means but I was thoroughly engrossed the entire time without rolling my eyes except when the film WANTED ME TO. It actually delves deeper into it than most do where you can see why and where X character is coming from and how they get into the cult rather than "blah blah we're a cult and we like Christ/white people/this strange object no one actually explains/etc" and I appreciated that. Loads of tense scenes to boot... biggest drawback is the godawful score, which was way too upbeat for a film like this.
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Post by theycallmemrfish on Jun 15, 2021 6:10:57 GMT
Contagion (2011) 7/10 or more, rewatch.... "In 72 hours we'll know what it is - if we're lucky." "Clearly we're not lucky." Soderbergh's casino scene goes from riches to itches.... An eerily on movie to our recent times, well-acted, and efficiently made by one of our most efficient filmmakers. I forget who but someone on the board said this needed to be a miniseries, and I half agree... I think with such a talented cast and characters that interest us, we want more from them, but I also don't know how much longer I'd wanna watch a gutting pandemic drama. That Winslet coat cut That was Stephen... and while it would be kick-ass, I think the film is perfect as is. Also love how a CDC official called it incredibly realistic... and this was before Covid.
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Post by Pavan on Jun 15, 2021 13:18:55 GMT
Minari (2020)-
A beautiful and poignant film. Takes its sweet time and kind of drags in the middle but neatly wraps it up with a remarkable scene at the end that tells a lot without uttering a word. Good performances all around- 7.5/10
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Post by jakesully on Jun 15, 2021 16:04:47 GMT
Lockout - I thought this was a quite fun/entertaining sci fi film starring Guy Pearce (he was funny in this as the wise cracking /smart ass agent that agrees to a suicide mission to save the President's daughter that is being held hostage on an outer space prison. ) Yeah I know the plot sounds a bit ridiculous and far fetched but its a sci fi film after all. IMO the critics were too harsh on this film. It holds only a 37% rating on Rotten Tomatoes (geez lighten up for once film critics!) solid 7/10
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Post by Mattsby on Jun 16, 2021 1:34:04 GMT
Lingering (2020) South Korean hotel horror - Hard to rate bc I was kinda confused by it all and idk if that's on me or not, but it's definitely better than the 4.8 IMDb rating. As a writing debut, it's a choppy, generic script (or at best like Tale of Two Sisters meets an all-female The Shining and maybe a drop of Argento).... but as a directing debut I'd say not bad, pretty smooth visuals, and it actually scared me a few times even tho there's lotta jumpscares too.
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Post by Mattsby on Jun 16, 2021 21:06:05 GMT
Silver Bullet (1985) 7/10. QT once made a list, Top 80 'Coolest Movies of All Time' with a lot of expected choices but this was maybe the most huh addition. That is, until you see the movie with its eye-patched villain and sort of spaghetti Western touch of style. Still idk if I'd call the movie cool. Ebert said, "I laughed longer and louder during this film than any other comedy since Broadway Danny Rose." What the hell is going on here? And I don't usually like werewolf movies but I enjoyed this despite Stephen King's self-adapted script ignoring a bunch of questions. Great cast of faces, too.... Gary Busey's let-loose perf is something to see. Sole feature film from Dan Attias - he had been an assistant to Coppola, Spielberg (ET), Sam Fuller (White Dog), and went on to a long career in tv (lotta Always Sunny, some Sopranos). Also... look up his son for a real-life horror story. Werewolf in a Girls' Dormitory (1961) 6/10. Like another Italian-produced campus mystery, The Young The Evil and the Savage (1968), there's a black-gloved killer going around, anticipating giallo (the screenwriter went on to write Case of the Bloody Iris, Your Vice is a Locked Room, All the Colors of the Dark, Torso, etc). Not enough of the titular dormitory, and at 82m it shouldn't be so stagnant between the solidly freaky wolf scenes. It stars Barbara Lass, Polanski's then wife - he was shooting Knife in the Water at the time when she called him from Rome and broke up with him. Willy's Wonderland (2021) 3/10. No. Between Worlds (2018) Yes. Defies a rating...it defies numbers, really..... Sort of like Cage starring in a supernatural porno. It's a campy wonder full of hilarious line readings and ridiculously bizarre moments, really upped and grooved by the editing and the (Lynch squeeze) Angelo Badalamenti score. IMDb 4.0, gimme a break - it's a gift among his VOD dump and Cage is giving. Who else has self-immolated to The Shangri-La's Leader of the Pack? Who else has had sex with his psychic lover's daughter who happens to inhabit the soul of his psychotic ex-wife....while reading a book written by Nicolas Cage?? ...I had fun.
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Post by Pittsnogle_Goggins on Jun 16, 2021 21:35:39 GMT
A Time to Kill. Always enjoyed this, which ties back to junior high when I’d read ever Grisham book and loved all the movies based on them. Still like it tbh, perspective is a bit different now, but definitely on the side it should be ok to murder a couple of scumbags that raped your daughter. Also, what a hella cast this has.
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Post by Johnny_Hellzapoppin on Jun 18, 2021 8:09:45 GMT
Five Elements Ninjas (1982)
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Post by stephen on Jun 18, 2021 14:40:52 GMT
Five Elements Ninjas (1982)
Ooooh.
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Post by ingmarhepburn on Jun 18, 2021 16:43:40 GMT
Love Story (1970). First watch. 8/10. Better than I expected, to be honest. Loved the witty dialogue, the performances, and of course, the music. The ending was still sad, even if I already knew what was going to happen. Not sure why this is rated below seven on IMDb...
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Post by theycallmemrfish on Jun 18, 2021 17:59:31 GMT
I've been slacking...
Dead Man Down - Okay action film that is mostly held together by Farrell and Rapace. A bit too long and gets redundant, but I overlooked it being it was a WWE movie.
3022 - Sunshine-lite that has its moments but also has moments where you think "hmm, even me as a person who hasn't trained for years to be in space would know not to do that thing in space"... and then the character does that exact thing in space.
The Strangers 2 - Better than the first, but it was a little disheartening when one of the killers turns into Jason/Myers/Freddy and is surviving a car fire and still wielding an ax... not really going with the motif of just regular people killing other regular people.
Intruders - Liked the premise, hated all the reveals. It's no wonder she's agoraphobic if she literally lives in a murder house.
Countdown - To quote Forgetting Sarah Marshall, "what if your mobile phone killed you?". Well, enough said. That's the premise of this... a throwaway joke from a comedy... this isn't funny either.
Detachment - My sister is a teacher and I hear shit like what happens in the movie all the time but the problem with this movie is that once something remotely interesting happens we go right into Adrien Brody's personal life, which is tedious. You have an all-star cast and rather than delve deeper into their lives, we get more of Brody sleeping on the floor of his apartment as a hooker he met on the streets is sleeping in his sheets and making breakfast. It gets old quick.
Paranomal Activity 6 - Oof. This film telegraphs its scares so badly that it doesn't even make for something remotely horror but instead is more of a front door Ring commercial.
The Titan - This was an aggravating piece of shit movie where they turn humans into mermen/maids. Yeah. I'm not joking, this isn't a joke... this is honestly the direction the movie heads.
No Escape Room - I actually liked this more than I thought I would. Killer ending, too.
Awake - New on Netflix and I was looking forward to a good tense thriller/horror... what I got was something about as tense as a soft boiled egg. Made even worse because the big reveal is done by the 8 year old kid while in a massive research station headed by the top doctors in the nation. Yeah. Watch Little Fish instead.
Doctor Sleep - Good movie, not a good horror. It was more action than I was expecting from a sequel to The Shining.
The Nun - Certainly the worst of The Conjuring universe by a long shot. Not so bad I want to make fun of it, but not good enough for me to make me think of something I liked about it.
The Devil Below - This was on the top 10 on Netflix... why???
(okay now I'm on my lunchbreak and gonna speed this up)
Timetrap - It's a trap!
Calibre - Fucking good!
Prospect - Mediocre, bloodbag!
Welcome Home - Terrible, bitch!
Elizabeth Harvest - Literally without knowing much about it, I said after the first interaction between Elizabeth and the husband I said "she is either a clone or a sex robot"... she was one of those things.
Jack Goes Home - Bad. Bad acting. Bad script. Bad everything.
Mercy - Was okay until the big reveal... then everything just turned to poop.
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Post by Miles Morales on Jun 18, 2021 18:27:46 GMT
Luca - 9.5/10. Fuck Disney to hell for dumping this to streaming.
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Post by stephen on Jun 18, 2021 18:28:37 GMT
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Post by Mattsby on Jun 18, 2021 20:47:13 GMT
Simon of the Desert (1965)As holy as a darned sock and wry to a t. At 46m, it was supposed to be part of a triptych film, but like the character here, it was left stranded. Oddly enough, Pierre Étaix came to mind in its gags and have-all futility…. Buñuel might’ve liked him, they had Carrière in common. I actually didn’t know this was a comedy so that was a good surprise and there’re many great lines… “I’m beginning to realize I don’t know what I’m saying.” Or my favorite, “Look what innocent legs I have,” the woman teases. Buñuel certainly has his trademarks, and it’s a feat how often he brought in legs. Los Olvidados (1950) “You’ll either heal or your leg will fall off.” Buñuel sees no druthers in the lumpenproletariat, his neorealist pic starts with a kid acting as bull, another as matador, and by the end of the movie the courted danger is no longer pretend. “It’s not about losing” one says, yet that’s all we see. Even dreams lose to nightmares, and there is no team support - a bum says “I don’t support bums.” Not quite Shoeshine but then maybe it is. It’s harrowingly done and Buñuel sneaks in his surreal side, how the kids often walk thru the camera, an autonomous step, into the next location. The Young One (1960) “Give me your leg.” See what I mean?? This might be my new fav Buñuel… and it’s nothing like his work yet his trademarks are here, like crushed animals, and a subversion of his own religious subversions by the end. Jonathan Rosenbaum called it a neglected masterpiece - “One of the most pungent films about the American South ever made…though it was shot entirely in Mexico.” With taboo kinda uncomfortable themes yet handled with great restraint, without diluting the complexity. It’s sort of like a Faulknerian kammerspiel about morals on the floor, lawless difference, and a land of traps… a black man wrongly accused of rape flees to a gamekeeping island operated by a racist pedophile. It’s a miracle this movie isn’t exploitative. Buñuel’s only solely English-language pic, it’s been largely ignored… It’s very topically daring for its time and to now, it’s like but less structural than Intruder in the Dust or To Kill a Mockingbird. It reminded me of Rapture (1965) a bit or, better, The Fool Killer (1965). It also works for Buñuel as a biographical comment on his own exile.
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Post by pacinoyes on Jun 18, 2021 21:35:20 GMT
The White Reindeer (1952) - 7++ / 10A kind of classic Finnish movie - but dated and also very short - about a woman dealing with loneliness who assumes the form of a vampire after consulting a local shaman. It's very gentle and almost like a fairy-tale but the shots are great - and haunting and if you think back on what it's about it isn't so gentle either. Extremely influenced by Dreyer - very much a visual experience.....this would be a fine movie to show a young kid actually....
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Post by stephen on Jun 18, 2021 22:01:42 GMT
Simon of the Desert (1965)As holy as a darned sock and wry to a t. At 46m, it was supposed to be part of a triptych film, but like the character here, it was left stranded. Oddly enough, Pierre Étaix came to mind in its gags and have-all futility…. Buñuel might’ve liked him, they had Carrière in common. I actually didn’t know this was a comedy so that was a good surprise and there’re many great lines… “I’m beginning to realize I don’t know what I’m saying.” Or my favorite, “Look what innocent legs I have,” the woman teases. Buñuel certainly has his trademarks, and it’s a feat how often he brought in legs. This, to me, is Buñuel's best film. It packs so much into such a short runtime that on retrospect, you'd think it was four hours long.
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Post by Pittsnogle_Goggins on Jun 18, 2021 23:13:06 GMT
Heat. Still a god damn masterpiece.
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