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Post by Martin Stett on Jun 17, 2024 14:23:20 GMT
Addams Family Values (1993) - Top-notch sitcom. The movie uses roughly five seconds to set down each new plot development, and fills the rest of the running time with random gags. The first movie was much more focuses on telling a story, and suffered for it (the best bits were random jokes that came out of nowhere). Values couldn't care less, opting instead for humor in every frame. 8/10
River (2023) - Delightful and charming time loop movie with a constant forward momentum (supplied by the real-time "two minute loop" structure the characters are stuck in). Often funny, very often touching, and a total blast to spend 85 minutes experiencing. 8/10
Zatoichi's Revenge (1965) - The one in which Zatoichi just straight up murders people. Which would be cool if there was anything here to develop this change, but the setup isn't really any different from any other film in the franchise. It comes off like the writer and director just didn't care about the character's history and lore. Could Zatoichi become consumed by revenge? 100%, he's done it before! My favorite film in the franchise - Zatoichi's Flashing Sword - has him doing just that! But in ZFS, he still kept his code of honor, and I need more backstory on what his mentor meant to him if I'm going to believe that he'll just kill unarmed bad guys. It isn't a bad movie - forgettable, but a decent enough film following the Zatoichi formula until the shocking and out of character end - but the ending just doesn't quite have the emotional power I think it was meant to, because it is too by-the-numbers for the majority of the film's runtime. 6/10
Haider (2014 rewatch) - Taking a solidly written skeleton of a story - Shakespeare's Hamlet in this case - and filling it up with culturally specific history is something that more writers need to consider. Tackling powerful general themes - the power of cinema as propaganda, the desire for "rebellion" in youths that have nothing to strive for - and putting them inside of a very specific setting - the turbulent waters of a territory that is being oppressed by the government - this instills that skeleton with new meanings and new life. The only failure of this movie is Arshoo/Ophelia, who seems like she was shipped in just to dial the tragedy meter up. 9/10
A Haunting in Venice (2023) - Mediocre as a murder mystery, but Kenneth Branagh and Michael Green aren't interested in that this time around. This movie is much more of a drama about guilt and the struggle to live with it, and I found it quite effective as such. The cinematography is really cool too - the constant slight tilt of the camera is unsettling, and the foreground/background setup of many shots creates a vertigo-inducing focus as your eyes split two ways. I dig this movie. 7/10
Green Snake (1993) - A folkloric fantasy beamed in from a culture alien to my own - yeah, I was gonna love it. But more important than the window dressing of its setting is the core story and questions it raises about religion and the meaning of human life. I dig it. 8/10
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Post by Pittsnogle_Goggins on Jun 17, 2024 14:27:36 GMT
Eden Lake (2008)
Captain Ron (1992)
Under Paris (2024)
Inside Out 2 (2024)
Ultraman: Rising (2024)
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bigmilko
New Member
Posts: 219
Likes: 62
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Post by bigmilko on Jun 17, 2024 15:03:06 GMT
Roswell (1994) - 6/10: Made for TV movie starring Kyle MacLachlan and Martin Sheen. Ends up playing out exactly like JFK, but half the runtime. pretty ok (especially by TV standards) but as an enthusiast for this kind of subject matter, I had a pretty enjoyable time
The Red Squirrel (1993) - 7/10: Spanish movie thats damn near impossible to find with good English subtitles (version I was able to find was on Youtube, with subtitles that, 40 minutes in, fell about 2 minutes behind, and made me have to use YTs awful auto generated captions). Anyway solid movie with its nuggets of surrealism wrapped in a story about a guy who pretends to be an amnesiac woman's boyfriend.
Hellraiser: Hellseeker (2002) - 2/10: Just fucking hot garbage. Tries to do Memento and can barely function at that, let alone get away with shoving Pinhead into the movie. Quite possibly the worst
Hellraiser: Deader (2005) - 5/10: Its still pretty sloppy, but the actual plotline was interesting because it wasnt just crazy murder scene and a weird box, now we got a weird freak cult to worry about, and it felt like an actually solid ending for a Hellraiser movie. The bar was also lowered so much by the last one, I think im just easily impressed now
Hellraiser: Hellworld (2005) - 6/10: This one was just really really funny, and it plays itself entirely straight, while trying to talk about Internet Gamers and Gaming addiction (Henry Cavill is one of the gamers too)
M (1931) - 9/10: Loved hearing my friend complain how the movie made the wrong choice, with the murderer, for the ending, when thats the point. And while it felt odd how there was no score whatsoever leading to a few extended scenes of just silence, it made the few scenes of whistling feel more sinister
RW The Devils (1971) - 10/10: Followed up M by making my film club watch this (I cant stop thinking about this one or thinking about watching it) and to say it was a hit would be a very simple way of putting it. Sitting in stunned silence throughout just an unrelenting maximalist, especially during the Uncut 'Rape of Christ' scene, got exactly what I wanted out of showing this one to other people
The Adventures of Tintin (2011) - 7/10: Super engaging and enjoyable, all while keeping that sense of pure adventure and mystery solving that I love in the Indiana Jones movies
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Post by mhynson27 on Jun 17, 2024 15:46:21 GMT
The Outrun
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Post by Tommen_Saperstein on Jun 17, 2024 16:00:44 GMT
Return of the King extended in theaters, and seeing it with a crowd gave me a new appreciation especially compared to the much sloggier Two Towers. It's extremely focused and you're dropped right into the lead-up to Mordor's assault with the invasion constantly looming on the horizon. So glad I caught the re-release. Every bit of that $60 was worth it.
also rewatched The Longest Day (1962) yesterday and it's a rock-solid D-Day docudrama. Grew up with it and have seen it loads of times, but it never gets old. A pure epic movie.
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hilderic
Junior Member
Posts: 332
Likes: 140
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Post by hilderic on Jun 17, 2024 20:20:44 GMT
Police Story
Cyrano de Bergerac
Deadly Circuit
Late-Flowering Lust
You, the Living
The Long Absence
The Class
Traitor
Rowing Across the Atlantic
It comes as no surprise to me to find out that Henri Colpi worked on such stunning movies as Last Year at Marienbad and The Swallow and the Titmouse, as The Long Absence (his directorial debut) shows a clear eye for beauty throughout. It's a pity that it seems to be fairly underseen (especially as the restoration looks excellent to me).
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tylosaur
Junior Member
Posts: 280 
Likes: 144
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Post by tylosaur on Jun 17, 2024 20:44:49 GMT
Addams Family Values (1993) - Top-notch sitcom. The movie uses roughly five seconds to set down each new plot development, and fills the rest of the running time with random gags. The first movie was much more focuses on telling a story, and suffered for it (the best bits were random jokes that came out of nowhere). Values couldn't care less, opting instead for humor in every frame. 8/10River (2023) - Delightful and charming time loop movie with a constant forward momentum (supplied by the real-time "two minute loop" structure the characters are stuck in). Often funny, very often touching, and a total blast to spend 85 minutes experiencing. 8/10Zatoichi's Revenge (1965) - The one in which Zatoichi just straight up murders people. Which would be cool if there was anything here to develop this change, but the setup isn't really any different from any other film in the franchise. It comes off like the writer and director just didn't care about the character's history and lore. Could Zatoichi become consumed by revenge? 100%, he's done it before! My favorite film in the franchise - Zatoichi's Flashing Sword - has him doing just that! But in ZFS, he still kept his code of honor, and I need more backstory on what his mentor meant to him if I'm going to believe that he'll just kill unarmed bad guys. It isn't a bad movie - forgettable, but a decent enough film following the Zatoichi formula until the shocking and out of character end - but the ending just doesn't quite have the emotional power I think it was meant to, because it is too by-the-numbers for the majority of the film's runtime. 6/10Haider (2014 rewatch) - Taking a solidly written skeleton of a story - Shakespeare's Hamlet in this case - and filling it up with culturally specific history is something that more writers need to consider. Tackling powerful general themes - the power of cinema as propaganda, the desire for "rebellion" in youths that have nothing to strive for - and putting them inside of a very specific setting - the turbulent waters of a territory that is being oppressed by the government - this instills that skeleton with new meanings and new life. The only failure of this movie is Arshoo/Ophelia, who seems like she was shipped in just to dial the tragedy meter up. 9/10A Haunting in Venice (2023) - Mediocre as a murder mystery, but Kenneth Branagh and Michael Green aren't interested in that this time around. This movie is much more of a drama about guilt and the struggle to live with it, and I found it quite effective as such. The cinematography is really cool too - the constant slight tilt of the camera is unsettling, and the foreground/background setup of many shots creates a vertigo-inducing focus as your eyes split two ways. I dig this movie. 7/10Green Snake (1993) - A folkloric fantasy beamed in from a culture alien to my own - yeah, I was gonna love it. But more important than the window dressing of its setting is the core story and questions it raises about religion and the meaning of human life. I dig it. 8/10 I think this is the most positive I've seen you on a week of movie watching. So used to reading the barrage of 5-or-lower ratings. Are you OK? |
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Post by Martin Stett on Jun 17, 2024 21:03:46 GMT
I think this is the most positive I've seen you on a week of movie watching. So used to reading the barrage of 5-or-lower ratings. Are you OK? I was thinking the same thing. I actually haven't even had a good week in general - this isn't a good mood helping these out - I just got good movies |
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Post by Lord_Buscemi on Jun 17, 2024 21:39:49 GMT
Hit Man - 5/10
The Killer - 8/10
Mute Witness - 8/10 (thought this was going to be an all-time horror favourite for the first hour, but it both loses steam near the end and yet should have been longer - still highly recommend tho, especially for fans of Giallo, De Palma, and Schumacher's 8mm)
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tylosaur
Junior Member
Posts: 280
Likes: 144
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Post by tylosaur on Jun 17, 2024 23:26:11 GMT
Cabin Fever - One of the most brazen beat-to-beat tonal shifting from a film I've seen in awhile. Either take yourself seriously or don't. I think this was at it's best in how absurdly brash and stupid the characters talked/behaved early on. It felt like the film was being set up to mock the teenage horror junk of previous decades. Needed more Pancakes energy throughout the film. 5/10
Daniel & Ana - Horrific subject matter that was not served well in any noteworthy way. Relies too much on the title cards at the end to do the heavy lifting to a nothing 2nd/3rd act. The only moments where it barely shined was when the film focused on Ana and her character's journey to recover. I think 65% Daniel & 35% Ana would've been a more appropriate title. I see what Franco was trying to get at with the violence that happens late in the film but it just seemed so jarring, unnecessary and unearned based on what we were being (non)served with Daniel leading up to it. 5/10
Monkey Man - Needed to be told more straightforward, have the childhood trauma scene in the first couple of minutes of the film and go from there. The 1st half of this film is bogged down with this slow-roll revealing of Dev Patel's character's tramatic backstory. It makes his character far less compelling when the only character development that he gives the audience is having us slowly learning bit-by-bit of his trauma that drives his motivations. Feed us this story about him at the jump and open up this character to be more interesting beyond it. The supporting characters here are underutilized but the action and overall journey does just enough to keep me from disliking this. 6/10
Rose's War...or is it Baltimore? - Poorly made to the extreme. Poots hard-carried. Like Monkey Man, this film needed to be told more linearly. The weaving between the mansion robbery, safehouse hiding, and her years outside this time period was so choppy. It was clear that they were worried that the safehouse portions would be so boring that they drew out the intercutting of the robbery scenes to "keep interest". But because we already know everything that happens during the robbery based on the early safehouse scenes, the supposedly tense scenes end up being some of the most inert moments of the film. Embarrassing ending, embarrassing film. 4/10
The House of the Devil - A barebones version of satanic horror. Looked great, acting was solid. On one hand it felt disappointing that it did too little with the story but they kept the journey clean and the running time short enough for it all to be fine. There was such a startling kill midway through that I just wasn't expecting to be done like that so kudos there. 6/10
I Saw the Devil - Choi Min-sik deserves all the flowers. What an all-time villain performance. So much has been made about Anton Chigurh, Hans Landa and Ledger's Joker being the top antagonists around that period of time. Jang Kyung-chul stands right there with them. This film was a rollercoaster ride. 8/10
Hit Man - Had a fun time. Wonder what Tilda Swinton thinks about that one particular Powell disguise? 8/10
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Post by therealcomicman117 on Jun 17, 2024 23:38:26 GMT
Was working on my video, so I didn't watch much.
Beverly Hills Cop - 7.5 / 10
Remembering Gene Wilder - 5 / 10
Take Shelter - 7.5 / 10
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Post by urbanpatrician on Jun 18, 2024 0:45:09 GMT
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York - Better than Home Alone, but overstays its welcome by 20-25 minutes. The pigeon lady and some of the minor sillyness at the hotel is what I would take out. 7/10
Air Bud - Another childhood favorite. Does the job. I wonder about the sequels, the one where Buddy catches the football with his teeth/mouth - which I never saw. I was aging fast by 1998...like 3 years per 1 year. 7/10
In America - I saw it a few times since 2003, but i dont remember thinking this highly of it. I like the first half more than the 2nd. It goes into "everybody is sick or dying" mode in the 2nd half, and the sentimentality wore a bit heavy. Than the first half which were the struggles of immigration that I responded to better. That said, I still think overall it's a really good movie.7.5/10
Home Alone 3 - I think its my favorite of the first 3, the only ones i saw. It's the coolest. First 2 are stuck a bit in early 90s cheese, even tho Home Alone 2 is still a good movie and better than the original. 7.5/10
Star Wars: The Last Jedi - Ok changed my mind. Last time I saw it I was bored, but this is definitely an improvement over the Force Awakens. The Palpatine overtones in Skywalker is the lasting effect and why some may not like Skywalker. The ending was not that good, the Rey and Kyle lightsaber battle was when it started to degrade.
But the Last Jedi had probably a worse decline. By the time Rey left the planet it was going into another set of Star Wars merry go rounds. The rebellion finds some way to infiltrate the Death Star from inside, blows it up from the inside while outside starships take care of the peripheral armies all while the main character has already made a spiritual conquest and is on the way back home from her journey. It's just way too similar to the original and prequels. Still, the fact that it's a pretty fun adventure makes this the 6th or 7th Star Wars movie to be at least good. 7/10
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Post by JangoB on Jun 18, 2024 6:48:24 GMT
Samurai Rebellion - I think this is just as good as Harakiri (although full disclosure is needed: I consider Harakiri to be a great film but not quite a masterpiece). Masaki Kobayashi's precision in constructing scenes and shots and cuts is striking.
Hit Man - It's perfectly fine but I'm not sure what I'm supposed to fawn over here. All right, maybe Glen Powell who's really quite awesome. And Adria Arjona who's really quite hot. I mean, at one point Link Later does a sort of an upskirt shot of her walking up some stairs and it's... yeah. Now, why is he allowed to do that while Michael Bay gets shit for doing the same with Rosie Huntington-Whiteley in Transformers 3? Is it just because the latter movie is meant to be for kids? Well, sure, but so what? An auteur is an auteur, no matter the target audience.
Get Low - I never really gave him that kind of attention but Lonesome Dove made me realize just how great of an actor Robert Duvall can be so of course I felt compelled to check out some of his other acclaimed work. He did not disappoint. Decent little movie too.
Wind - Beautiful but barely comprehensible yachting scenes (good job, John Toll). Quirky but somewhat dull stuff in between. I expected much more.
White Hunter, Black Heart - REWATCH. Screw anyone who says Clintus is not a good actor, he did a great John Huston here. And made an excellent movie too.
True Crime - Perhaps the most leisurely paced race-against-the-clock thriller in history. Which I don't mean as a dig... but can't turn into too big of a compliment either. Frankly, I enjoyed the hangout aspect of it more than the suspenseful stuff so when the latter overtook the third act, I felt the movie switched to autopilot. But I did enjoy the details of Eastwood just sort of going about his business. And his scenes with James Woods are fucking hilarious. Easily the best part of the flick.
Mother of the Bride - Sometimes you gotta pop in some Netflix garbage to remind yourself how good you have it with your other watches. How could this man have made Mean Girls back in the day? What a stroke of luck for him.
Mothers’ Instinct - Dull. Kept alive only by Anne Hathaway overacting and Jessica Chastain looking great.
The Fanatic - You know... yes, it's stupid and all that, but - and it's a big but - John Travolta is either doing the most ridiculous or the most incredible performance ever here. And he totally makes the experience. I've always found him a bit weird so to see him use that as character fuel was kind of glorious. You can say a lot of things about him in this but you simply cannot accuse him of not being committed. He had me glued to the screen in disbelief/amusement/embarrassment/etc. No one knows what it's like to be the crazy man behind blue eyes. No one except John.
Cat Person - Very annoying but at least it appears not to completely side with its stupid-ass protagonist so... yay?
Beautiful Wedding - Roger Kumble. That's it, that's the review.
Lisa Frankenstein - Tim Burton light. A bit too light, actually. To the point of instantly evaporating from one's mind.
Father of the Year - I have a soft spot for Happy Madison movies so I didn't find this completely horrible. Although I probably should've.
Perfect Addiction - Oh hey, the young lady who made those horrendous After movies shows that she can do something that's just poor, not grotesquely so. You go, girl.
Fall - Watchable but sort of clumsy. With an unnecessary twist that feels like cheating. And with a very jumbled ending. Apparently there's gonna be a sequel. And then a #3. WTF?
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bigmilko
New Member
Posts: 219
Likes: 62
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Post by bigmilko on Jun 18, 2024 14:26:23 GMT
The Fanatic - You know... yes, it's stupid and all that, but - and it's a big but - John Travolta is either doing the most ridiculous or the most incredible performance ever here. And he totally makes the experience. I've always found him a bit weird so to see him use that as character fuel was kind of glorious. You can say a lot of things about him in this but you simply cannot accuse him of not being committed. He had me glued to the screen in disbelief/amusement/embarrassment/etc. No one knows what it's like to be the crazy man behind blue eyes. No one except John. I remember renting The Fanatic from a RedBox station at a Walmart cuz that was the only way to see the movie for a while, and then watching the movie just too stunned to know for sure if this was actually really good or Travolta full sending into unhinged lunacy. I outta give it a rewatch. |
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Post by JangoB on Jun 18, 2024 15:30:39 GMT
The Fanatic - You know... yes, it's stupid and all that, but - and it's a big but - John Travolta is either doing the most ridiculous or the most incredible performance ever here. And he totally makes the experience. I've always found him a bit weird so to see him use that as character fuel was kind of glorious. You can say a lot of things about him in this but you simply cannot accuse him of not being committed. He had me glued to the screen in disbelief/amusement/embarrassment/etc. No one knows what it's like to be the crazy man behind blue eyes. No one except John. I remember renting The Fanatic from a RedBox station at a Walmart cuz that was the only way to see the movie for a while, and then watching the movie just too stunned to know for sure if this was actually really good or Travolta full sending into unhinged lunacy. I outta give it a rewatch. I was fully expecting to sort of hate-watch this (I thought it was one of those so-bad-it's-hilarious movies) but quickly found myself genuinely mesmerized by Travolta which turned the viewing upside down for me. I don't see performances like that too often but I honestly believe he's somehow both laughable and great in it. |
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Post by Pittsnogle_Goggins on Jun 18, 2024 17:19:04 GMT
I remember renting The Fanatic from a RedBox station at a Walmart cuz that was the only way to see the movie for a while, and then watching the movie just too stunned to know for sure if this was actually really good or Travolta full sending into unhinged lunacy. I outta give it a rewatch. I was fully expecting to sort of hate-watch this (I thought it was one of those so-bad-it's-hilarious movies) but quickly found myself genuinely mesmerized by Travolta which turned the viewing upside down for me. I don't see performances like that too often but I honestly believe he's somehow both laughable and great in it. I’ve never been able to bring myself to pull the trigger on watching this. You may have convinced me to give it a go |
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Post by thomasjerome on Jun 18, 2024 17:26:21 GMT
Travolta, even in his worst films, is always committed and when the film requires him to give an over-the-top performance, it's usually delicious to watch. He usually doesn't get enough credit for that.
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Pasquale
Full Member
Posts: 671
Likes: 318
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Post by Pasquale on Jun 18, 2024 20:15:15 GMT
Travolta, even in his worst films, is always committed and when the film requires him to give an over-the-top performance, it's usually delicious to watch. He usually doesn't get enough credit for that. The Gotti movie is fine and he is good in it. |
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Post by mikediastavrone96 on Jun 19, 2024 2:52:33 GMT
Hit Man - It's perfectly fine but I'm not sure what I'm supposed to fawn over here. All right, maybe Glen Powell who's really quite awesome. And Adria Arjona who's really quite hot. I mean, at one point Link Later does a sort of an upskirt shot of her walking up some stairs and it's... yeah. Now, why is he allowed to do that while Michael Bay gets shit for doing the same with Rosie Huntington-Whiteley in Transformers 3? Is it just because the latter movie is meant to be for kids? Well, sure, but so what? An auteur is an auteur, no matter the target audience. I think it has to do with Linklater doing that shot after Arjorna's character has been established and that shot being in a scene where she is seducing our perspective character while Bay did it as literally the first time we see Huntington-Whiteley. |
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Post by JangoB on Jun 19, 2024 7:50:25 GMT
Hit Man - It's perfectly fine but I'm not sure what I'm supposed to fawn over here. All right, maybe Glen Powell who's really quite awesome. And Adria Arjona who's really quite hot. I mean, at one point Link Later does a sort of an upskirt shot of her walking up some stairs and it's... yeah. Now, why is he allowed to do that while Michael Bay gets shit for doing the same with Rosie Huntington-Whiteley in Transformers 3? Is it just because the latter movie is meant to be for kids? Well, sure, but so what? An auteur is an auteur, no matter the target audience. I think it has to do with Linklater doing that shot after Arjorna's character has been established and that shot being in a scene where she is seducing our perspective character while Bay did it as literally the first time we see Huntington-Whiteley. I agree. Also, I was being facetious  |
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Post by taranofprydain on Jun 23, 2024 4:30:41 GMT
I watched other more modest things, but call it my week on the wild side: The Devils, The Damned, A Dirty Shame, Lust Caution, Wide Sargasso Sea, The Last of the Mobile Hot Shots, Performance. That's 7 films that were either NC-17 or X on their first release. (I'll admit, I was taken aback by the violent unsimulated sex scenes in Lust, Caution)
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Post by Tommen_Saperstein on Jun 26, 2024 18:05:45 GMT
no movies, lots of Skyrim and Silicon Valley.
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