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

[DigDog]

I'm scrathcing my head because i watched Brian DePalma's awful The Black Dahlia - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387877/?ref_=tt_urv

How do you take a story by James Ellroy, with Hillary Swank and Scarlett Johansson, directed by the guy who did The Untouchables, and somehow come up with this shit?

Obviously The Black Dahlia is the story of "the black dahlia", a corpse found mangled in 1947 Los Angeles, but is also the story of two police officers, both of which are ..boxers?? , and for some weird reason this is a major plot point. Josh Hartnett is the young cop who clearly is embarrassed by the hotness of Johansson, who plays the wife of other cop, played by Aaron Eckhart. Hartnett is excellent in using subtle body language to show he's repressing his attraction to Johansson, which is another thing that is weird about this film - everyone in it is good. The acting is good across the board, the costumes and sets - despite a few anachronisms - are good, the story should be easy enough to adapt into a workable film, but it's so confused, so long and aimless, i genuinely do not understand what the film is trying to tell me.

Look, you NEED a film to railroad you through a story. That's just how it works. Shrek didn't stop halfway to do his taxes, and there is no hockey championship in Se7en.
The information that makes up the story needs to be sized up or down according to the importance of that character in the plot, and instead here we get people just talking and talking and talking and, because they get the same screen treatment as a protagonist, i genuinely do not know if i'm watching a filler segment, how much of the scene is relevant to the plot, or if i need to remember any of it. I have now tried watching this film 3 times, as the first two i just couldn't understand what was going on.

I don't know, maybe this is one of those masturbatory exercises where a director expects you to memorize a script just to enjoy the film. I was expecting better from DePalma.

my vote: 5.5/10 - what a horrible confusing mess, not even worth it for Scarlett.

 

[DownTheSky]

Army of the dead 6/10.

Better Days 7.5/10. Pretty powerful performances.

Spoiler: don't read if you plan on watching it

Would had been better if it ended sooner aka it didn't drag on to get the good ending

 

[Dr. Detroit]

Those Who Wish Me Dead - 5.5/10
Like 3 genres of movies all came together for this mess of a movie. Not a bad popcorn flick but the plot holes, shit performances, crappy special fx and weak script just led this to be a overall mess.

We were almost airlifted out of the Sierra NF last year over Labor Day and Only The Brave was vastly superior "wildfire" flick and I would advocate watching that over this schlock.

 

[Muse]

To Be or Not to Be (Jack Benny, Carole Lombard - 1942) 8.5/10

A movie buff I have the utmost respect for (a serial poster at Rotten Tomatoes Forums back in the day) called this the funniest movie ever made. I watched the VHS in 2006, kind of disappointing. But I watched the Criterion DVD the other day and the visual was absolutely pristine and stunning. It moves right along, is kind of complex, easy (for me) to miss some gags/lines, and it's chock full of them. Black comedy, featuring Hitler, Gestapo, troops, the invaded Poles. This is one HIGHLY RATED MOVIE! I will watch again. There was a 1983 remake that's nowhere near as highly rated that I have not seen.

 

[Mai72]

Rewatched The Matrix for the hundreth time. 10/10

Such an amazing film.

 

[mikeymikec]

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)

I can't believe this film is 10 years old already. I've said before that whether I'm watching the Alec Guinness series or this film, I'm always yearning for the other, but this time I really did appreciate this version, and I think that if I get in another discussion about a film remaining faithful to the source material, I'd cite this film. It cuts out quite a bit (obvious argument about running time versus book length), but the tone of the film is a dead-on match with the book, and of the few minor details it changes, it actually fits in perfectly with the characters in the book.

This film/story is not at all like your average spy thriller. Its pace is relatively sedate, there's no action in it whatsoever, it's more like a collection of personal characters' stories who happen to be in the spy business.

The book is well worth a read, and the series with Alec Guinness is decent too with plenty of elements that it strikes the tone perfectly for.

 

[sdifox]

Godzilla Vs Kong 4/10 horribad. Like how do you fuck up a movie in a franchise that is campy by default?

 

[Aves]

Stowaway - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9203694/

I had high hopes for this one since the director also made 'Arctic' which I liked. Unfortunately it just never came together.

5/10

 

[ultimatebob]

Yeah... Oxygen on Netflix kinda felt like even more low budget Sci-Fi to me. You could kinda see where the plot was going early on... although I gotta say that the cell phone reception in that cryopod was pretty impressive

I'd give it a 6 out of 10.

I'm also disappointed in the new season of Master Of None... the new season is sooo far away from the original premise of a romantic comedy that it should have been given a different name. I don't even know what to rate it, but it's not worth watching.

 

[Dr. Detroit]

The Road (2009) - 7/10

I wanted to revisit this movie after a decade and Viggo gave a stellar performance as always. The cinematography and lens work really set the mood of dark despair. Great intermix of timelines as well.

The only drawback was the whiny kid who could have been less whiny. This is a kid who grow up only knowing despair, so why so whiny?

 

[DigDog]

i watched Lawless - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1212450/

starring Tom Hardy and the horrible Shia LaBeouf.
Because i like Hardy since i saw the excellent Legend. Here once again he plays a rough, tough moonshiner during prohibitionism. They are making a killing as everyone in the county, law included, is happy to have the whisky flow.
One day evil villain (Guy Pierce) shows up and from that instant you know how the film will end. And without missing a beat the film goes through every predictable step to a long, drawn out conclusion you saw a mile away and about 3x longer than it ought to be.
I'll spare you the scene where the protagonist magically does not die from having his throat slit.
Shia plays the usual weak, useless kid who toughens up at the end.

Would not recommend. Jessica Chastain doesn't even have the decency to get her baps out.

6.5/10 - there's better Tom Hardy films out there. And every film without LaBeouf is better than a film with LaBeouf.

 

[Dr. Detroit]

i watched Lawless - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1212450/

starring Tom Hardy and the horrible Shia LaBeouf.

And every film without LaBeouf is better than a film with LaBeouf.

I wouldn't say I'm a fan of Shia but Honey Boy was excellent and I thoroughly enjoyed PB Falcon. Aside from Fury & Holes I haven't seen much of his other films.

 

[DigDog]

I wouldn't say I'm a fan of Shia but Honey Boy was excellent and I thoroughly enjoyed PB Falcon. Aside from Fury & Holes I haven't seen much of his other films.

i'm gonna be totally honest, PBF was not a bad film. It was ok. Ish.

There were some scenes between Shia and the girl that i quite liked the writing of.
The acting was fine from both Shia and Girl, but ..

The kid's not a good character. And the story isn't great.

By coincidence i watched again Forrest Gump just yesterday, and while i would give FG a 7/10, i would give PBF a 6.5/10.

(i actually gave it a 6.9/10 so i guess it wasn't horrible)

The reason for the difference is .. well, aside from the vastly larger scope of Forrest Gump, the *character* of Gump is a better character. The very moral of the PBF story is that "he's just a regular boy, you need to see past his Down syndrome" but then you do, and he becomes just a regular boy. Good films are made of fantasy, not of mundanity. Blade is cool because he's a half vampire, not an accountant.

Also 6.9 is quite generous. Bearded Shia is better than babyface Shia by a long margin.

As per Forrest Gump - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109830/

i don't know, i hated this film from the moment i first watched it 26 years ago. To me it's very much a Shawshank Redemption thing, but i would rate FG higher. And to be honest, i cannot put my finger on WHY i don't like FG as much as everyone else does. There's even a few interesting scenes, Bubba is a cool character, Lieutenant Dan is a fairly solid character with a decent arc, and - i suspect this was intentional - the device of having the protagonist NOT having an arc, and not even any development, is an interesting trick. I guess the protagonist of FG is not Gump, but the world around him.

Well, in the end FG is full of things that make me like it, and then full of things that make me hate it.

I guess i'll have a proper review ready in another 26 years. My vote: 7/10

 

[deustroop]

Wrath of Man (2021)

Director Guy Ritchie
Stars Jason Statham

What's not to like eh ?
Let me see:

1) Based on a French film ==points lost 3

2) Revenge saga we have seen 10000 times before==points lost 2

3) Imagine the whole plot laid out in a continuous tale, that you cut the narrative into 10 pieces and shuffle them like a deck of cards and then film the plot according to the sequence you have from the shuffle, so the plot beginning is filmed third, etc.resulting in a complete confusion of the plot ==loss of points 6.

4) Unrelenting machismo on steroids==loss of points 1

5) Great sympathy for the Statham family as it appears that, while no one noticed, Jason may have died just before filming began==points awarded 2.

Wrath of Man (2021) - IMDb

Directed by Guy Ritchie. With Jason Statham, Holt McCallany, Josh Hartnett, Rocci Williams. The plot follows H, a cold and mysterious character working at a cash truck company responsible for moving hundreds of millions of dollars around Los Angeles each week.

www.imdb.com

0/10

 

[DigDog]

5) Great sympathy for the Statham family as it appears that, while no one noticed, Jason may have died just before filming began==points awarded 2.

"died" as in, career suicide, or ... ?

 

[deustroop]

"died" as in, career suicide, or ... ?

So empty of emotion the actor might actually have been deceased. Who can tell ?

 

[mikeymikec]

A Fistful of Dollars (1964)

I watched it for the second time. Relative to Sergio Leone's other westerns, I'd rate it pretty low, like more of an action flick than the others. The main reason I'd mark it down is because the protagonist has little reason to be there and take such risks (the story gives a vague ~5 second explanation). I still enjoyed it I guess. In 'Once Upon A Time In the West', 'For A Few Dollars More', 'The Good, The Bad and The Ugly', all the major players have solid reasons to be there and the explanations add to the plots. In 'A Fistful of Dollars', when asked why, it's like "well uh, this lady was in trouble, I saw that happen once before and I didn't help then, so I'll do so now, because... let's get back on with the plot, shall we?". Otherwise, going up against two gangs in a tiny little village with nowhere to hide is just dumb, no matter how good you think you are with the pew-pews. There's also the fact that he kills the "sheriff"'s men and there's literally no consequences, and the graveyard shoot-out made no sense (with regard to the two soldiers).

 

[DownTheSky]

Wrath of Man 4/10. It was pretty bad. Deustroop pretty much nailed it.

A Score to Settle 5/10. Nick Cage B-movie. His acting is pretty good in it. Not that bad. Better than Wrath of Man anyway.

 

[sactoking]

Cruella

Did this movie need to be made? No. Despite that it was OK. Not great, but ok. Emma Stone was pretty good. The soundtrack was good. About 20 minutes too long.

Overall 6/10
Emma Stone 8/10
Soundtrack 9/10

 

[JEDI]

Love death and robots (season2, eps1-7): 5/10

Eps1: VacuuBot... meh.
so far eps 4 (Snow in the Desert) is the only good one.

eps 7 (Life Hutch) is just a scarier and creepier version of eps 1.
if they didnt show eps1, then this would have been a great episode.

edit:
the last eps (eps 8) was also good.
so only 2 good eps.

nothing like season 1

 

[thedarkwolf]

Psycho Goreman 8/10

Just posting a link to the trailer because it is pretty easy to tell if you would be into it or not just from the trailer. It is E.T. only with a world destroying space demon instead of a friendly little alien. Lots of fun practical effects.

 

[DigDog]

Psycho Goreman 8/10

Just posting a link to the trailer because it is pretty easy to tell if you would be into it or not just from the trailer. It is E.T. only with a world destroying space demon instead of a friendly little alien. Lots of fun practical effects.

so, basically Power Rangers?

 

[oxota]

I just watched back to the future on a subscription TV service I cannot recommend highly enough

 

[DownTheSky]

Psycho Goreman 8/10

Just posting a link to the trailer because it is pretty easy to tell if you would be into it or not just from the trailer. It is E.T. only with a world destroying space demon instead of a friendly little alien. Lots of fun practical effects.

I couldn't bare to watch more than 30 mins. The little girl is so annoying it ruins the movie.

 

[deustroop]

American Traitor: The Trial of Axis Sally
(2021)

Staring Al Pacino ( look out for the hair style though) and Meadow Williams ( Anyone have her number ?) .

About the first American woman tried for treason against the United States. She was the voice of Axis Sally the kraut radio propaganda personage created during WWII, encouraging US troops to give up the losing fight against an invincible yet caring German state.

It's part trial for and simultaneous reliving of her participation in the Goebbel's propaganda machine, that threw out plays and holiday celebrations all designed to weaken the US war effort.Sally was captured and escorted to the US for prosecution.

The film critics hate this movie and can't dis it hard enough, as will several members here who will likely find it "too dull"/"slow"/"did it end yet" ? See such comments in reaction to Clooney's "Midnight Sky".

But not moi. I found it appropriately slow paced for the issues addressed. I like unusual court dramas and this case presents one, with very interesting and unexpected facts uncovered about the world in Germany for a beautiful American singer actress forced to make hard choices . As Hamlet famously expressed it, To blow or not to blow, that is the question .
7.1