[Movies] Talk about the last movie you saw 2: Electric Threadaloo

figmentPez

Staff member
Anna and the Apocalypse

This is a damn good movie. A musical horror comedy Christmas movie, and it works. The songs are catchy, the characters are great, the acting is fun, and it's got pretty good pacing. I highly recommend it.
 
Skyfall

I'm behind on my Bond, and with No Time To Die right around the corner, it's time to catch up. When your title song evokes classic Shirley Bassey, you're off to a good start.

The worst thing I can say about the movie is it's TOO DAMN DARK. As in literally. You may be fighting a war in the shadows now, but spending most of the movie in it makes it hard to see what the hell is going on.
 
Skyfall

I'm behind on my Bond, and with No Time To Die right around the corner, it's time to catch up. When your title song evokes classic Shirley Bassey, you're off to a good start.

The worst thing I can say about the movie is it's TOO DAMN DARK. As in literally. You may be fighting a war in the shadows now, but spending most of the movie in it makes it hard to see what the hell is going on.
My biggest problem with Skyfall is that it ruined the bond mythos by making "James Bond" the character's actual birth name
 
My biggest problem with Skyfall is that it ruined the bond mythos by making "James Bond" the character's actual birth name
That was just a fan theory. Unless you're going to tell me the 1967 Casino Royale is canon? :rofl:

An ungodly mess of a movie that I walked out of as a teenager because I was expecting the EON Bond. But as I got older, the more I learned to appreciate and enjoy it for what it really is.
 
Joker

It was a pretty good movie, though the way it made him into some kind of martyr is DEFINITELY problematic.

Also, there is zero reason it had to be called Joker. It felt like a wholly separate entity that had DC character and place names shoehorned in just so they could market it as a comicbook movie.
 
Klaus (Netflix)

Go watch this ASAP. This movie is amazing. The animation is among the best of the year, and some of the best hand draw animation in decades. The characters are great, the story is charming, there's very little to criticize about this (I thought the modern pop music didn't quite fit. It wasn't bad, but it could have been better. Original songs would have been more of a gamble, though.) Overall, I was blown away by how good this was.

Why are you still reading this? Go! Experience it for yourself.
We just watched Klaus and do what Pez said. Watch it, obey the Pez!

That was really, really good.
 
Ready or Not

It was exactly what I wanted out of a wacky, class warfare, horror slasher. I laughed, I cringed, I was suspensed!
 
Watched a few movies on my recent flights.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters: The storyline was rather plain, and the writing was high school level at times. The acting was also nothing impressive, with the movie largely wasting Charles Dance. However, there were some rather impressive shots of the monsters, and the fights were generally good. Do these good visuals make up for the movie's other shortcomings? I'd say no, but while overall it's not a good movie, it's not really bad either. Also Vera Farmiga and Zhang Ziyi are hot.

Lion King (2019): You know what? I didn't dislike it. At first the movie felt more like a tech demo for how realistically we can animate African animals now, but later on as I got into it I stopped admiring the realism of the animation and just accepted the animals as characters. The voice acting was also generally good, with the new voice actors bringing their own takes to the characters instead of trying to recreate the original versions. For example, Jeremy Irons's performance as Scar is iconic for its scenery-chewing villainy, so Chiwetel Ejiofor went in a different direction for his Scar, with his voice positively dripping with understated menace at times. Musically, the movie hit the right notes, more or less, though I'm not sure about what they did with Be Prepared, and Beyonce's new song Spirit did nothing for me. All in all, while I definitely agree that this movie was a cash grab that definitely didn't need to exist, I enjoyed it for what it was.

Angry Birds 1 and 2: Speaking of cash grab movies that don't need to exist, these two films were actually fairly watchable. They took the simple premise of the game (launching birds at pigs and knocking down their buildings) and ran with it, building up a whole universe and mythos that was surprisingly interesting. The humor was generally fairly juvenile (there's a lengthy potty humor sequence in both movies) but I'm a kid at heart so I chortled at most of the jokes. The voice acting and animation were good, albeit nothing amazing. The storyline for the first movie was somewhat rudimentary, basically setting up how the birds are going to end up getting launched at the pigs, but the second one takes the story in its own direction. Overall these movies are nothing amazing, but I found them to be entertaining and fun.

The Trip to Italy: British humor: the movie. Overall enjoyable enough, but if you're not a fan of British humor at its utter dryest, you might not enjoy this film very much.
 
Did a rewatch of The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi last night. Planning on seeing The Rise of Skywalker sometime this afternoon. But some thoughts:

The Force Awakens

I never hated this, but I didn't go ga-ga for it like many others did. It's fine. As I expected from anything from JJ Abrams, it retreads a lot of things we're familiar with, using a lot of cheap nostalgia tricks without any real meaning behind it, and just feels like a retread of A New Hope. That's not to say it's a bad movie. It's hard not to be when it does a beat-for-beat paint job of A New Hope. I like the new characters. I liked the action. It's mostly well shot, though I found there was more shaky cam than I care for. It's fine. I wouldn't rank it high on my listings and probably even below all of the prequels. But it's fine.

But it's funny following it immediately with The Last Jedi right after the credits roll on The Force Awakens because it's a complete breath of fresh air. The shooting and framing of shots isn't as frenetic, everything has more of an impact, callbacks mean something (like the old hologram of Leia), and the whole thing feels like it's trying to be something different. And yet, it still has all the same familiarity of Star Wars. After reading and watching many discussions on this film, I appreciated it more now revisiting it. I don't even hate the casino side-story because someone raised a great point about Finn: he didn't care about the Resistance. He was always trying to run away, either from the war or to Rey, and to hell with anyone else. The entire casino sequence was for him to understand that, which is why his facing down Plasma and saying "Rebel scum" is a major highlight of the film.

Of course, saying all that, I'm honestly kind of dreading seeing The Rise of Skywalker now because of how much I loved The Last Jedi. I've seen some of my favourite critics, who adored The Last Jedi, come out of this one feeling not so great about it.
 
The Happytime Murders

I don't know what prompted me to watch this tonight, but I did. And you know what? It's not half bad. It's raunchy to the point of trying too hard sometimes, but it works more often than it doesn't. It's the kind of silly humor I expect from a Muppet work, only this time, it's with dirty jokes. There's some things I wish they explored more, like how the puppets are third-class citizens. And I honestly think it needed MORE puppet shenanigans going on in the background like classic Muppet stuff. Most times, you'd see someone walking down the street and it's mostly just a regular street with the occasional puppet here and there. There's one relatively long sequence with two actresses that didn't involve a single puppet and it bugged more than I expected.

Still, the murders were fun, especially since it was all felt and stuffing. The story, while nothing original, is fun enough and the mystery comes together well.

I don't know if I'd recommend it, though? I don't know how many people would actually like it. I'm a little biased because I enjoy Muppet related stuff, but your mileage may vary.
 
Saw Knives Out, it was very good!

Totally thought Harlin faked his death to teach his family a lesson until the medical center was burned down
 
Jumanji: The Next Level

I rather liked it. It's very similar to the previous film in tone, style, and writing. The humor was right up my alley. Sure, it's clearly a kid's film, so there's not much depth and the jokes can be a bit juvenile, but it's definitely entertaining. However, the best part, for me, was watching all the actors swap between characters. You already know guys like Jack Black, Kevin Hart, Awkwafina etc are great at impressions, but when Dwayne Johnson and Karen Gillan also got the chance to show their chops at imitating other actors, they also did well. It's easy to believe it really was Danny Devito inhabiting Dwayne Johnson's body, and later Awkwafina's body.

Also, Awkwafina is hot, the two real-life girls outside of the game were hot, and Karen Gillan is sooooooooooooooooo hot...
 
KNIVES OUT

I really, really, really enjoyed this movie. Just so much fun. I have nothing bad to say at all. More of Benoit Blanc, please.


FORD V. FERRARI
I haven't looked into the real life events yet, but I'm betting there's some serious tinkering with history in this movie. Even so, it's a good flick. I'm betting if I knew virtually anything about the real life events, it wouldn't have been half as enjoyable though.
 
Welp, didn't think I'd be writing this:

Cats

I've never seen the stage version myself. I went to the movie on a cheap day because of hearing how awful it was. We were hoping for a so bad it's good kind of thing. I don't really like most musicals typically either.

Are there moments when the cgi is sloppy? Does it take 15 to 20 minutes to get used to the cgi and cat faces? Are there issues in general? Yes to all of that and more.

I also left theatre and immediately added many of the songs to my spotify and while talking with everyone I'd gone with, my wife and her parents, we were all won over in the end.

Of the song's I think Rebel Wilson's, Gumby Cat, Ian McKellen's Gus, James Corden's Bustopher Jones, Taylor Swift's Macavity, Judi Dench's Ad-dressing of Cats and to a lesser extent Jason Derulo's Rum Tug Tugger are all meh to bad. The Overture, Jellicle Cats, Mungojerry and Rumpleteaser, Beautiful Ghosts, Skimbleshanks and Mr. Mistofollees were highlights for me. Memory is good and builds throughout into something stronger that finally hits it's peak to be great. The snot dribbles mentioned here often in regards to Jennifer Hudson occur when she is at her very worst. They're gross but I get what they are trying to convey. Also, while it's not in the movie but is on the soundtrack, Taylor Swift's version of Beautiful Ghosts sucks compared to Francesca Hayward's.

I sort of get where people are coming from with the story being light but it honestly seems like they decided they weren't going to like it or pay attention before they arrived because it is there. It's not a huge, over arching plot: once a year all jellicle cats(a portmanteau of dear little cats) come together to compete and have one of them be picked by their leader Old Deuteronomy to be reborn into their ideal life. The mechanism for how this works isn't explained as far as I know. The movie follows a new cat Victoria as she meets and is introduced to many of the jellicle cats as they prepare and perform at the ball. A group of cats tries to sabotage the performers so their ringleader is chosen instead.

For the other main criticisms I've heard pointed at it, I just didn't see them. I think people forget they are watching people pretend to be cats I guess? what I've often seen referred to as gyrating, horny movements comes across as dancers imitating feline movements, behavior and mannerisms. Ian McKellen licks milk from a plate and Rebel Wilson eats cockroaches!

Yes...like cats do...

There are some size inconsistencies I've seen be harped on but in most cases they are done when in fantasy scenes like tap dancing on a train rail.

If you don't buy into the premise and can't reconcile the disconnect from real life, it is a really weird concept and execution, that these aren't people playing cats but actually are cats, don't bother. If you can let yourself be pulled in I'd say give it a shot

Edit: @bhamv3 Francesca Hayward, Taylor Swift and Naoimh Morgan are all hot, even catted up.
 
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I saw Doom: Annihilation on Netflix. I give it a "meh" rating. It certainly has more action than the 2005 film, but it's sorely missing The Rock.
 
GOON: LAST OF THE ENFORCERS

It's fine. Is it as good as the first one? No. But is it the unmitigated disaster of a sequel everyone online warned me of? Not even close. It delivers on some things and kinda whiffs on others, like most sequels. Its a perfectly fine follow up and a good feature film directorial debut from Baruchel. The guy playing Stevenson fails to live up to Ricky Mabe, but it's fun to see so many others from the original cast return.
 
Independence Day: Resurgence.

Now, if you want to talk about a bad sequel? Yeah.
Good CGI, soome nice action sequences, but the whole plot is beyond horrible, most of the old characters are completely shoehorned in, and the science is so bad it makes me cringe even after turning off my brain. I mean, this makes the Michael Bay Transformers movies look like great stories with believable science and a well-thought-out world.
The original ID:4 required you to turn off your brain too, sure, I didn't exactly go in expecting a mastperiece, but....oof. I want those two hours back.
I'm not sure it's worth going into details. Just don't watch this movie.
For the bhamvs amongst us, there's one girl who's cute but way too skinny and not really interesting enough, and one that's actually cute but we get to see...maybe two times out of a flight suit. Even on that front, not worth watching.
 
Independence Day: Resurgence.

Now, if you want to talk about a bad sequel? Yeah.
Good CGI, soome nice action sequences, but the whole plot is beyond horrible, most of the old characters are completely shoehorned in, and the science is so bad it makes me cringe even after turning off my brain. I mean, this makes the Michael Bay Transformers movies look like great stories with believable science and a well-thought-out world.
The original ID:4 required you to turn off your brain too, sure, I didn't exactly go in expecting a mastperiece, but....oof. I want those two hours back.
I'm not sure it's worth going into details. Just don't watch this movie.
For the bhamvs amongst us, there's one girl who's cute but way too skinny and not really interesting enough, and one that's actually cute but we get to see...maybe two times out of a flight suit. Even on that front, not worth watching.
Oh god. This movie. I had high hopes, and then I saw the trailers, and drastically lowered my expectations. Then I heard the reviews, and I lowered the bar even further. I don't know why, but I still felt compelled to see it. And it was complete and utter garbage on a level of never experienced before or since. With my impossibly low expectations, I still felt cheated.
 
I liked Rise of Skywalker except it felt like JJ took a lot of the bold choices The Last Jedi made and walked them back. Then took like 60% of Rose Tico's role and gave those lines to fucking Merry From The Shire, who apparently is only in the movie because he and JJ had a bet on a soccer game. Then took another 20% of her role as Finn's potential LI, and gave them to new character Janna, who I really liked, but still.

Those few quibbles aside, I enjoyed it thoroughly. The Emperor's scheme actually wasn't that dissimilar to the ending of Knights of The Eternal Throne in SWTOR, where Emperor Valkorian, who you killed, plans to take over your body and use it as his vessel to rule once again. Guess it's a Sith tradition.
 
Just got back from seeing FROZEN 2 after meaning to see it for ages.

I liked it. It didn't blow me away like the first one. The songs weren't as memorable and I found Olaf more insufferable than the first one. But it was an entertaining time.
 
Jojo Rabbit

I think this is my favourite movie of the year from 2019. I expected funny but I didn't expect how sweet and, stupidly on my part, how sad it was going to be. So bizarre. I'm glad that Taika's scenes weren't as numerous as the trailers made it out to be. Roman Griffen Davis and Archie Yates were a great combo together and I loved their relationship. Archie's lines were some of the funniest in the movie by far
I picked out the framing of Rosie's shoes matching the hanged woman's a few times, so expected her death but it was still so gut-wrenching when it was shown.
 
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