NOW CLOSED ; List some movies you've watched recently. Theatre, rental, TV... and give a */10

[zinfamous]

I have to watch Miller's Crossing again. I thought that was great but it's been a while. 'Ethics!'

One of the best! I also need to watch it again. It's been maybe 8 years now. I think I've seen it about 5? times.

 

[DigDog]

5 minute review

The Marksman - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6902332/

is not actually that bad, i got a bad first impression expecting it to be another Liam Neeson revenge movie, while instead it's a .. eh.. it's a Liam Neeson revenge movie.
Neeson is Jim, an aging rancher on the AZ - Mex border. He shoots coyote, raises cows, and occasionally reports illegal immigrants to his buddies in the Border Patrol. A real american.
One day he gets notified that the bank is foreclosing on his ranch so he's in a uppity mood. He finds a family of maxicans trying to cross the border while a bunch of evil cartel guys are chasing them to kill them for unexplained cartel reasons. Most of the film is Jim driving around the kid trying to escape the thugs.

Different from other Liam Neeson Revenge Films (R) this one has less superhuman sleuthing and less killing, instead trying to be a bit more realistic as to how this one particular scenario would play out. Aside form a couple of fortuitous Plot Device situations (the guy's truck really likes to break down at the least opportune situations) the film plays rather straightforward.

Decent afternoon film, i would say .. 6.9/10

 

[Homerboy]

Watched What We Do In The Shadows again for the second time in a year. One of the funniest movies I've seen. So good. I can't wait to see more stuff Taiki Waikiki does as JoJo Rabbit was also so good and he has a lot of stuff on his agenda, acting, producing and directing

Pretty much everything Waititi touches is fantastic. WWDITS is just phenomenally great show (and movie).

 

[Denly]

Tenet 5/10 - It lost me 1/4 way in, the whole forward/backward concept are too much for my pea size brain. I even turned on CC and is not helping much. Oh that lego weapon thingy at the end.... it is a joke right.

 

[TheVrolok]

Greenland 7/10. I love popcorn disaster flicks, and I guess this was sorta that? It tried to be deeper than say Deep Impact, 2012, or Armageddon and probably succeeded on a number of levels - although not all of them. Gerald Butler showed a smidge of extra range. Movie definitely provoked some emotions in me as a family man. I will say,

Spoiler

I wish it simply ended when it faded to black as the shockwave it. Butler had just said something along the lines of "It doesn't matter what happens, because we're here together" and it's that depth the movie seems like it was trying to get to.. just let the movie end there, because, well, it really doesn't matter what happens - right? Seems like that ending would have fit the movie better thematically instead of the typical "2012-esque" opening the doors on a new sky ending.

 

[DigDog]

im not gonna review Cosmic Sin - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11762434/

because i didn't watch it. I was stopped dead in my tracks by the IMDb score: 2.5/10
wow. Do you know how bad your film has to be to get 2.5/10? (obviously you need to also count the 300 paid reviews to gave it 10*)

My question for you all is .. when exactly did Bruce Willis go from iconic, charismatic cinema hero, to human diarrhea? And why?
Is this another case of Nicolascageitis?
You know, forget Die Hard, this man was in Bonfire Of Vanities, he was in 12 Monkeys, Pulp Fiction, Sin City.
look: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Willis_filmography#Films
The guy obviously loved acting his role, and now he's acting in films for Video On Demand.

 

[deustroop]

Robert de Niro opined on that cinema puzzle. When asked how he selected a film in which to appear, he said ( perhaps quoting Nicholas Cage ) If they pay my fee I'm there.

 

[DigDog]

ok but what if i told you, i don't believe that ?

An "actor" as a business is more than just reciting a script. It's a major part of a modern actor to choose which roles, which scripts to appear in. Robert DeNiro has always been a methodical actor, extremely dedicated in every role (not always successful, but hey). I'm not buying that he'll just take anything they give him.
If instead Harrison Ford said that, i would 100% believe it. Nik Cage - same thing. Bruce Willis - the proof is before your very eyes.

 

[deustroop]

You are a lucky man then. You have
Killers of the Flower Moon and Wash Me in the River to look forward to.

 

[sdifox]

Documental 8/10 It's a comedian showdown where ten contestants each pay into the pot and the last one standing wins it all. They have to make each othe laugh. I had tears in my eyes. Prime has the first three seasons so I watched it all.

Mortal Kombat 7/10 Not bad for a video game movie.

 

[BarkingGhostar]

im not gonna review Cosmic Sin - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11762434/

because i didn't watch it. I was stopped dead in my tracks by the IMDb score: 2.5/10
wow. Do you know how bad your film has to be to get 2.5/10? (obviously you need to also count the 300 paid reviews to gave it 10*)

My question for you all is .. when exactly did Bruce Willis go from iconic, charismatic cinema hero, to human diarrhea? And why?
Is this another case of Nicolascageitis?
You know, forget Die Hard, this man was in Bonfire Of Vanities, he was in 12 Monkeys, Pulp Fiction, Sin City.
look: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Willis_filmography#Films
The guy obviously loved acting his role, and now he's acting in films for Video On Demand.

I think it has to do with bringing home a paycheck. Actors acting is a human in a job. And its gotta be better than picking up other peoples trash every day.

 

[RearAdmiral]

Irresistible(2020) - Political satire movie from Jon Stewart w/ Steve Carell and Rose Byrne about helping to elect a small town democrat for mayor in a conservative town. We get some chuckles from OUT OF TOUCH LIBERAL ELITES....Trying to FARM?! Some low hanging comedic fruit which did make me laugh a couple of times honestly. Vibes of "For Richer or Poorer" from my youth in those moments. While it is mostly on the nose with it's commentary, some of the characters did still make me laugh, like the cafe owner.

I thought it was better than the Rotten Tomatoes score reflected. 7/10

 

[DigDog]

I think it has to do with bringing home a paycheck. Actors acting is a human in a job. And its gotta be better than picking up other peoples trash every day.

As someone who has picked up trash, i agree on that one point.

I watched a youtube review - take that as dubious - that states that BW works on these films for ONE DAY and gets paid

They shoot all his scenes in one go and use a body double for most back shots.

I can totally see why this would be profitable today, but where there is an immediate profit, there is also a quantifiable loss of face. In turn this means less money for "serious" roles.
Let's just say that, i don't think it's a savvy business move.
Probably linked to the Die Hard franchise being made of suck the last 3 films, but he was still a respectable, hirable actor who could easily command 10+ million per film. He was paid $25M !! for that pile of shit A Good Day To Die Hard.

 

[SMOGZINN]

I can totally see why this would be profitable today, but where there is an immediate profit, there is also a quantifiable loss of face. In turn this means less money for "serious" roles.
Let's just say that, i don't think it's a savvy business move.

I don't know about that. He is 66 years old. His popularity and fame is long past it's peak and he is on that slow decline to obscurity. He is type cast as an action star and no longer really capable of playing that role. There might come along one more 'Old man must show them youngsters how it is done' movie he can star in, but he has already done like 2 of those and, well, they kind of sucked. I think he (or perhaps his agent) has accepted that his time is past. There is no point in worrying about advancing his career, that is over. Now it is just about getting paid. This is what retirement looks like for Bruce Willis.

 

[DownTheSky]

The Paper Tigers - 6/10 - not bad martial arts movie. Not great either.

 

[DigDog]

i watched several very forgettable films.

Seksmisija - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088083/

a 1980s Polish cult film where two "scientists" (but archetypally "dumb guys") are frozen accidentally for 500 years and wake in a world where only women survive. No nudity, and despite the name, it's not a sexploitation film. It's a sarcastic comedy with - allegedly - hidden socio-political commentary that is completely lost to me who has never lived in 1980s poland.

My vote: meh/10


The Devil's Backbone - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0256009/

Early Benicio DelToro film, where a young boy is left in a orphanage during the Spanish Civil War (because Spaniards are required by law to set their films during the spanish civil war).
There is a ghost involved except that the ghost is pretty much irrelevant to the story.
The tone is all over the place, the photography etc are adequate, the acting is mostly good but lost to the uneven pacing, uneven tone, it's a film that does not know what it wants to be.
It will vaguely remind you of Pan's Labyrinth, (set during the Spanish Civil War) which also contains many supernatural events, none of which are (either) real, or relevant to story.

My vote: bah/10


The Blues Brothers - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080455/

This would have been my 159th viewing but i actually turned it off when i realized, in horror, that it was the extended edition.



Yokohama BJ Blues - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083351/


This one was weird, and in some way interesting - but in some ways not interesting.

Set in - take a guess - Yokohama, 1980s, the protagonist is an ex-cop who has left the force and now he survives singing with his rock/blues band, and the occasional side-gig as a private investigator.
BJ is a weird character. He's sometimes mean, sometimes meek. He scares easily or he can beat the shit out of 4 people. He's smart and then he's dumb. In a way, i found him relatable.
During one investigation he has to track down a 20yo who has left home without news. He finds him being the bitch of a nasty old gay yakuza.
The very same gang quickly go from friendly to deadly enemies when they kill one of his ex-cop buddies, and he sets out on a quest for revenge. OR alterantively he sets out to hide and not get killed.

The two main problems are that the protagonist is all over the place. In some scenes he's a stone-cold killer, in other's he's an incompetent wuss. Second problem is that the film's means are poor and the photography is pretty much horrible.

My vote: only watchable if you absolutely love early japanese film style, and even then just barely passable/10

 

[DigDog]

The Blues Brothers - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080455/

Original theatrical release.

That's one-hundred fifty-nine times now. One of the greatest films ever made.

10/10

 

[snoopy7548]

The Room - 2/10. Not terrible, but not great either.

 

[Muse]

I have two rhetorical questions. #1 Muse has kept notes of every movie he's watched dating back... how long?
#2 He says The Big Lebowski sucks, and he watched it three times in two years?

How long have I been keeping records of watching movies? I figure 20 years or so. I sometimes know I've seen a movie before, and I enter data estimating when. For instance, Lawrence of Arabia... I saw that when it came out so I just input a date from around that time.

Watched TB Lebowski:

07/23/2009
08/31/2006
02/08/2006
10/09/2004

Why? My comments after what I think is the 3rd viewing, i.e. Aug. 2006:

Saw again today. OK, maybe it's really good. Lots and lots of people have this at the top of their list of most watched movies. I just had to watch it again today. I guess I liked it better, and maybe it just grows on you. I already have a problem, I figure, with being unprofessional. One of my biggest projects in the last 10-12 years has been to try to launch a highly successful career as a PROFESSIONAL computer programmer. That's sort of the antithesis of what The Dude is about. The Big Lebowski, it would seem, is the old man who's mistaken for The Dude at the beginning of the picture, certainly not a main character. The plot is kind of complicated, there's no English subtitles (I think), just Spanish and French, and in my present HT I'm having problems with dialog a lot of the time. That doesn't help.
- - -
So, I watched it the 2nd time in less than a year trying to figure out why so many people have it on top of their list of their favorite movies to rewatch, not because I particularly dig it.
- - - -
The Rotten Tomato ratings around, I think, 2005 for TBL:

Reviews counted: 46
Fresh: 39 Rotten: 7
Average Rating: 7.2/10

Good, not great ratings by any means.

Fargo's RT ratings OTOH (not now, but about 25 years ago):

Reviews counted: 51
Fresh: 47 Rotten: 4
Average Rating: 8.2/10

 

[DigDog]

Let me make you an example of what RT is.

The Blues Brothers - 73% fresh. Randomly picked reviewer who said the film is rotten, Desmon Ryan of the Philli Inquirer.
Films he has critiqued as "rotten": The Godfather p. 2, My Cousin Vinnie, They Live, Lost Boys, Short Circuit ..
Films he has praised as fresh: Superman IV The Quest For Peace.

You cannot help when a serial idiot sneaks in to rotten tomatoes. He, veritably, is one of the rotten tomatoes that RT tries to warn you about.

 

[pmv]

Pretty much everything Waititi touches is fantastic. WWDITS is just phenomenally great show (and movie).

Yeah, only thing is the difficulty in deciding which is better (TV series or movie). He did the best MCU movie as well, in my opinion.

I'm still undecided about that "Jojo rabbit" movie. Mainly I went into it expecting the worst, and what I mostly remember is anxiety that I was going to hate it, followed by relief that it wasn't as bad as I feared it would be. But still not sure if it was actually _good_. It feels more like it was a tribute to Waititi's talent that it wasn't seriously offensive, but it was like a bullet dodged, rather than a triumph.

 

[deustroop]

Generation War

A German World War II TV miniseries in three parts, commissioned by a German public broadcasting organization ZDF.
Berlin, 1941. Five friends are eager to experience the adventure that will change the face of Europe .They go out to war and promise each other to be back for Christmas.

This is an historical and social story not a war film per se. The three men are comprised of two brothers from a typically male dominated German family who are off to fight for the Fatherland, well one is anyway. The third male friend is a "Judin". There are two woman in the group, one develops as a nurse and the second has theatrical ambitions.

I'm not accustomed to watch and root for the German Wehrmacht, ie, the two brothers: it was difficult but not impossible.The Iron Cross does come to mind but then who couldn't be drawn in by a Sam Peckinpah's down your throat adventure.

This project is very well acted and produced. German culture, Soviet uniforms and all armaments are perfectly detailed as you'd expect. I haven't even finished the third episode yet here I am writing down my pleasure at this drama.

It unusually portrays a society from the inside.The irony is that for all the exposure of realistic wartime life next to nothing addresses what these common folk, next-door-neighbor types, actually thought about invading the rest of the European world.

Only one comment is offered, an omen perhaps. Preparing for battle somewhere in Russia one soldier wonders why they are there . Another says, quoting The Fuehrer, we are defending our borders. A third finished the thought revealing the shallowness of the entire war. " The Russians can say the same thing ".

8.5

Generation War (TV Mini-Series 2013) - IMDb

With Volker Bruch, Tom Schilling, Katharina Schüttler, Miriam Stein. Five friends go out to war and promise each other to be back for Christmas.

www.imdb.com

 

[DigDog]

5 minute review

Equinox - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10973800/

a Danish TV series on Netflix. 6 1-h episodes.
A mother makes a pact with the devil. The devil then takes her daughter. The younger sister tries to find out what happened.

Which is fine .. but it's six hours to tell a story that you could do in 90 minutes AND with Nicolas Cage yelling "THE BEES NOT THE BEES".


7/10 if you have a lot of time to waste. Some truly gorgeous Danish girls to ogle as a plus.

 

[DigDog]

The King's Case Note - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6817202/

A South Korean version of Robert Downing Jr's Sherlock Holmes. Not just the same character, but the same film tone as well.
Set in medieval Korea, the emperor is is the Sherlock Holmes, and his personal scribe is the Dr Watson, down to being very smart but also bumbling and awkward (late Watson, then).
The film is well made, if not for an overly-intrusive soundtrack. It's also a bit too long winded, as most Korean films tend to be. There is just a little bit of wuxia, and much physical humor. All in all a nice mystery-period-comedy heavily influenced by the Hound Of The Baskerville story, and mixed with your more typical "intrigue in the court" plot.
I mean, considering the shit i've watched these days, this is a welcome break.

7/10

 

[mikeymikec]

Payback (1999)

I saw this at the cinema originally and watched it again yesterday. Apart from a cliche the film suffers from that South Park took the piss out of (being how Mel Gibson seemingly likes to get himself tortured), I've always enjoyed it, but noticed my DVD copy suffers a bit quality-wise and potentially could do with a remaster. I did the rounds to find out about a remastered BR version and came across this review which mentions alternate cuts I've never heard of:

At least some minor spoilers in review, warning:

Amazon.co.uk

What I've seen sounds like a fairly standard theatrical cut, but there are loads of bits mentioned in that review that I wasn't even vaguely aware of.