Which Films have you seen lately? 19 - Get Your Film's Name Outta Your Mouth

[Sommerswerd]

wHAT!!! You've never seen Predator??!!

Nope.

LOLs @Birdjaguar basically responds... "I ain't got time to bleed"

 

[Fippy]

That's true. I always tend to forget ‘Unforgiven’ for some reason, though.

Maybe cos everyone thinks about Clint first, and Morgan second.

 

[Sommerswerd]

Maybe cos everyone thinks about Clint first, and Morgan second.

I'd say its more likely Clint first, then Gene, then Morgan...

 

[Synobun]

I was due for a rewatch of Beverly Hills Cop. It's been over a year since my last watch. I love this movie.

I decided to watch it with my girlfriend, who had never seen it before, and doesn't have a sense of humour (self-described, I swear!). I was worried she'd hate it. But she ended with an 8/10 rating, which is positively amazing for her. It's about time someone in my life appreciate the genius of this series.

Second movie done. Rating is 9/10.

Now to disappoint her with the third movie, which is perfectly alright, I guess, but definitely lost the magic of the prior two films.

 

[Takhisis]

Maybe cos everyone thinks about Clint first, and Morgan second.

Or maybe just because it's not part of the usual rerun cycle on foreign-owned TV here.

 

[EgonSpengler]

A Quiet Place (2018) and A Quiet Place, Part II (2021). Excellent and very good, respectively. Both hold up. The first one was my 'Film of the Year' in 2018, and the second was the first movie I saw in a theater after ~15 months of the pandemic. Rewatching these kind of makes me want to see more of Emily Blunt's movies. I've seen 10 of hers, and most of the ones I've seen I would watch again.

The Taking of Pelham 123 (1974). This one is less acclaimed than some of the other '70s stuff I've been watching the last couple of years, but maybe that's a good thing. I saw the 2009 remake first, 10-12 years ago, and hardly remember anything about it. I think the original was better.

Dune (2021). Outstanding visuals, the set design, the costuming, and the tech were all amazing. It was like looking at a moving painting, at least for a while. The first hour or hour-and-a-half was some of the most impressive visual filmmaking I've ever seen. I think this was probably a great example of a movie that should be seen in a theater. The cast is great. The score may have been the 'MVP', probably Zimmer's best work. I listened to it again this morning while I was out for a walk in the park.

---

On a related aside, I really need movie reviews to start including whether a film or not needs to be seen on the big screen, or whether it's fine to see it at home. Anyone who says 'every film is better on the big screen' can't make the distinction I'm looking for (or they don't want to, if they're just opposed to living in the 21st-Century - which I can kind of understand ). Dune is a movie I saw at home, and I could tell, even as I was watching it, that I should have seen it in the theater. I know there have been others in the last ~10 years, but I can't think of them right now. The Batman, maybe, I saw that one at home. Conversely, I did see Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness in the theater, and I think that would have been fine to see at home. I'm thinking maybe anything Villeneuve does should be seen in a theater. I saw Sicario and Arrival in the theater, but not Blade Runner 2049. Dune, Part 2 is obviously his next one, and I think I'll probably go see that in the theater. (IMDb says he's also in early stages of adapting Rendezvous With Rama, which is much too far away to be excited about yet - it doesn't even have a year of release on it yet - but I'm a little excited anyway.)

 

[El_Machinae]

I've enjoyed the Michael Bay Transformers movies on the smaller screen much more than the big screen. I often feel like he edits on a small screen. Everything is much more visually available.

I found that Arrival and Everything Everywhere All at Once needed the deep immersion of the theater.

My next theater movie will be re-watching Avatar and then Avatar 2.

 

[EgonSpengler]

The Pelican Brief (1993). Technically a rewatch, although I didn't have a great memory of it. Great cast. Washington & Roberts are stars, of course, but the supporting cast were all very good. Stanley Tucci plays one of the stalking assassins. I'd forgotten there were two of them in this movie. Also, funny coincidence, John Lithgow was in this, and he played the stalking assassin character in Blow-Out, which I watched the other week, and was also in The Old Man with Jeff Bridges. I can't get away from this guy lately. It was a bit longer than I remembered. I was starting to drift a little, towards the end, and the John Grisham plot kinda got away from me. I don't know if that's because the movie couldn't keep it straight, or just because Grisham's plots are labyrinthine. I didn't really understand the ending, but that didn't bother me. I imagine adapting a Grisham novel to a film is only slightly easier than adapting a Le Carre novel to a film (can anyone who watched The Russia House without reading the book say what it was about? me neither). I didn't remember that this was directed by '70s thriller maestro Alan Pakula (Klute; All the President's Men; The Parallax View). The clanging score was kind of annoying. There were scenes with diagetic music playing in the scene with the jarring, thriller score playing over it. otoh, I liked young Roberts more than I remembered liking her. I do remember liking Conspiracy Theory (1997) and Erin Brockovich (2000), but not Pretty Woman (1990).

Arctic (2018). Mads Mikkelsen doing the one-man survival thing, like Tom Hanks in Castaway, in middle-of-nowhere Iceland. Cold, snow, ice, ice, cold, snow

Spoiler :

BEAR!

snow, cold, ice. Good solo performance. Something for your next heatwave.

 

[Sommerswerd]

On a related aside, I really need movie reviews to start including whether a film or not needs to be seen on the big screen, or whether it's fine to see it at home. Anyone who says 'every film is better on the big screen' can't make the distinction I'm looking for (or they don't want to, if they're just opposed to living in the 21st-Century - which I can kind of understand ). Dune is a movie I saw at home, and I could tell, even as I was watching it, that I should have seen it in the theater. I know there have been others in the last ~10 years, but I can't think of them right now. The Batman, maybe, I saw that one at home. Conversely, I did see Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness in the theater, and I think that would have been fine to see at home. I'm thinking maybe anything Villeneuve does should be seen in a theater. I saw Sicario and Arrival in the theater, but not Blade Runner 2049. Dune, Part 2 is obviously his next one, and I think I'll probably go see that in the theater. (IMDb says he's also in early stages of adapting Rendezvous With Rama, which is much too far away to be excited about yet - it doesn't even have a year of release on it yet - but I'm a little excited anyway.)

I would go even further than that... Star Wars:TFA and Avatar are perfect examples of movies that should not only be seen in a theatre, they really should be seen in 3D or else you're really missing out on the full experience. Contrast that with Thor: Love and Thunder, which I recently saw in a theatre in 3D, which was totally unnecessary. Putting aside the fact that it just wasn't a great film overall, there was really no point in the movie being 3D. As I think back on it, I can't remember anything about the film that warranted it being in 3D.

 

[EgonSpengler]

I would go even further than that... Star Wars:TFA and Avatar are perfect examples of movies that should not only be seen in a theatre, they really should be seen in 3D or else you're really missing out on the full experience. Contrast that with Thor: Love and Thunder, which I recently saw in a theatre in 3D, which was totally unnecessary. Putting aside the fact that it just wasn't a great film overall, there was really no point in the movie being 3D. As I think back on it, I can't remember anything about the film that warranted it being in 3D.

Yeah, I normally avoid seeing things in 3D, because it's so pointless most of the time. I find that once my eyes/brain adjust, I stop seeing the 3D effect at all. At that point, it's just a more expensive ticket. One movie I can think of that might have benefited from 3D was Cuaron's Gravity (2013).

 

[Thorgalaeg]

The one with Tom Hanks driving a destroyer. Neither fish nor fowl.

 

[EgonSpengler]

Movies I can't find streaming anywhere:

To Live and Die in L.A. (1985) - Willem Defoe and William Peterson play a counterfeiter and a Secret Service agent, respectively. Directed by William Friedkin.
New Dragon Gate Inn aka Dragon Inn (1992) - Brigitte Lin carves her name in people's [butts] in the desert of Ming China. With Maggie Cheung, Donnie Yen & Tony Leung. Directed by Raymond Lee & Tsui Hark.
Moon Warriors (1992) - Andy Lau, Anita Mui, Maggie Cheung, dir. Sammo Hung. Bamboo forest fight.

 

[EvaDK]

The Taking of Pelham 123 (1974). This one is less acclaimed than some of the other '70s stuff I've been watching the last couple of years, but maybe that's a good thing. I saw the 2009 remake first, 10-12 years ago, and hardly remember anything about it. I think the original was better.

The original is also the film a young Tarantino watched and 'borrowed' the idea of a band of criminals using color-coded aliases for his Reservoir Dogs from. The psychotic and violent Mr. Blonde is likely inspired by Mr. Grey from that film.

 

[EgonSpengler]

The original is also the film a young Tarantino watched and 'borrowed' the idea of a band of criminals using color-coded aliases for his Reservoir Dogs from. The psychotic and violent Mr. Blonde is likely inspired by Mr. Grey from that film.

I was pleasantly surprised to see the young Hector Elizondo. I always think of him as an older guy, but I guess everybody had to be young once.

 

[Kyriakos]

I made the mistake of watching the remake of the Pelham 123.
It was trash

Maybe the original is also forgettable, but it can't have been as bad. At least Mr. Gray seems cool there.

 

[BenitoChavez]

I made the mistake of watching the remake of the Pelham 123.
It was trash

The one with Denzel and Travolta? Yeah I agree. Not good at all

 

[EgonSpengler]

The weekend's viewing:

Prey (2022) rewatch. Definitely stands the test of time, all these hours later. I wish this had been available in theaters, but truthfully, if it had been, I would have probably waited for it to come to streaming, because I didn't expect this to be any good. As it turns out, it's my favorite action movie of the year.

The Way Back (2010). Not the Ben Affleck movie from a couple years ago (which I liked, fwiw) but the Ed Harris & Colin Farrell movie about some guys who escape a Russian work-camp in Siberia and walk to India. It took me a minute to realize the tall guy was Floki in Vikings. Peter Weir's last movie, if you're a completist. Probably his least work, though. If you're unfamiliar with Weir's movies, don't start with this one, but a mediocre Peter Weir movie is still okay.

Watcher (2022). I hadn't even heard of this one before, just stumbled onto it while browsing. Hitchcockian. I thought it sagged in the middle, so if you start it, commit to finishing it. I see that Maika Monroe has a done a lot the last handful of years, but this was the first time I'd seen her. Not bad, exactly, but I feel like I wouldn't be able to pick her out of a lineup of similar actresses. But maybe that was okay for this? She's supposed to be playing an ordinary woman, so maybe the fact that she's so nondescript fed into that.

How I Live Now (2013). An accidental Saoirse Ronan double-feature. I kind of liked that it left so many obvious questions unanswered, just kind of leaves you going 'wtf?' Sometimes I like that, sometimes I don't. (I should clarify. This isn't a mind-bender like a David Lynch movie. But it puts you in the shoes of a protagonist who doesn't know what's going on, or why it's happening, so the viewer doesn't know either. A lot happens off-screen, too. I know that makes some people crazy.)

Closed Circuit (2013). Good cast, and I was in the mood for some kind of political or legal thriller, and this looked like both. I struggled to pay attention, though. I will say, however, that the cinematographer of this movie also did Andor, the upcoming Star Wars spinoff series, which now makes me want to see that even more. I'd give the guy some kind of award just for the way he filmed Rebecca Hall.

 

[Takhisis]

Closed Circuit (2013). Good cast, and I was in the mood for some kind of political or legal thriller, and this looked like both. I struggled to pay attention, though. I will say, however, that the cinematographer of this movie also did Andor, the upcoming Star Wars spinoff series, which now makes me want to see that even more. I'd give the guy some kind of award just for the way he filmed Rebecca Hall.

So, tl;dr: Rebecca Hall?

 

[EgonSpengler]

So, tl;dr: Rebecca Hall?

Jim Broadbent playing a villain was fun, too. But if you watched it just for the closeups on Hall, I wouldn't call you crazy.

 

[Takhisis]

Tried to watch Rough Night (2017), which is, uhm, a waste of footage.

Jim Broadbent playing a villain was fun, too. But if you watched it just for the closeups on Hall, I wouldn't call you crazy.

You have a thing for dark-haired women, I see. Stana Katić, Rebecca Hall…