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I thought The Grand Budapest Hotel was quite good and fun. I've seen it a couple of times. Check it out if you haven't seen it. Can never go wrong with Fiennes. I think it is on Tubi at the moment.
Which films have you seen lately? Vol. 21: Now in CinemaScope!
- Thread starter EgonSpengler
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warpus
In pork I trust
The interesting thing is that I watched it a while ago and remember enjoying it. But I recently re-watched it and didn't seem to enjoy it as much. It actually got me to digging around to see if I confused it with another movie.. The second re-watch wasn't bad, it was just kind of a bit better than average. I remember really enjoying it initially, so maybe something happened in my head between then and now, or it just didn't age well. I remember also really enjoying Life Aquatic.. but am too afraid to rewatch it. But I do want to seek out other movies of his I haven't seen. He's got a unique style that I find it interesting.
Smellincoffee
Trekkie At Large
Deerskin, 2019. A French film in which a man who is having issues with his wife spends a ridiculous sum on a deerskin jacket and then becomes obsessed by it, resulting in a series of murders. Described as "comedy/horror".
Smellincoffee
Trekkie At Large
Walk the Line, 2005. Joaqin Phoenix is Johnny Carter in a movie that's about Cash's rise from a struggling farm in Arkansas to becoming one of the biggest names in country music, struggling with his love for one woman -- June Carter -- and substance abuse. Solid acting all the way around, and the music is good. I haven't heard June Carter by herself enough to judge Reese Witherspoon's performance.
Smellincoffee
Trekkie At Large
The Last King of Scotland, 2006. Young British doctor goes to Africa to help the poor. Becomes personal physician to a genocidal dictator. Well, these things happen.
My favorite moment of utter confusion was hearing Ugandans sing "Bonnie Banks O'Loch Lomond".
My favorite moment of utter confusion was hearing Ugandans sing "Bonnie Banks O'Loch Lomond".
BenitoChavez
Elderly Tortoise
Civil War - It's not big on politics or explanations. It doesn't really tell us how the war started or why Texas and California decided to team up but there are some hints in the movie. Instead it aims to deliver a message which is 'War is hell' and it does that successfully. There are a couple harrowing scenes that have stayed with me after the movie ended. Overall it's good but it's a tough watch.
It's a nice movie, and easy to enjoy. But the US civil war there is just the collection of letters in the phrase "US civil war", no life or thought, no realism behind it.
The marketing had to be intentionally misleading; you can't hype up just the message "war is hell", but you can certainly hype a new US civil war.
Scoop on Netflix. A docudrama based the book about how Prince Andrew's TV interview happened after Epstein died in jail. It made pretty clear how a good interview hurried Andrew's fall from grace.
Wyatt Earp - Starring Kevin Costner. OK. Basically a longer, more drawn out version of the classic, Tombstone, with all the backstory included... you have to watch about 1 hour and 44 minutes until they get to the Tombstone half of the film... you do get to see the legend of Wyatt Earp being created, why he is such a sourpuss, why everyone in the family sticks together and travels together, and also the roots of Wyatt's resentment of his wife. You also get to see that famous "one shooting" Wyatt talks about in Tombstone, where "a man lost his life and I (Wyatt) took it."
Fun bit of trivia... the song at the very end of the credits is the same as the heroic theme from Independence Day.
Fun bit of trivia... the song at the very end of the credits is the same as the heroic theme from Independence Day.
Synobun
Deity
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- Nov 19, 2006
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Been a while since I did a movie dump, mostly because I fell off the wagon with watching solo and I've been showing a friend old action flicks that they missed out on somehow, and that didn't really feel worth sharing at the end of March.
Commando. Rewatch, still holds up. 9/10! Probably my favourite performance from Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Con Air. Rewatch, still holds up. 9.5/10! Probably my favourite performance from Nicolas Cage.
Boyhood. I found out about this movie due to a music event I'm running, and someone submitted a song from this. Really interesting concept where they follow the characters growing up over the course of a decade. I mean that in a literal sense. They could have handled the time skips better, but overall it's an enjoyable movie. It does not really follow a standard beginning-middle-end system. The pleasure is in the journey. Worth a watch, I think. 9/10.
True Lies. Rewatch, still holds up. 9.5/10! Probably my favourite performance from Jamie Lee Curtis.
Barbie. 1/10. I think I talked about this movie here already, so I won't rehash.
Trolls. A friend made me watch this because they told me I'm like Branch. Okay! 9/10. Actually a pretty great movie, and it has enough nostalgic music and innuendo to keep an adult audience interested.
The Day the Earth Stood Still. This had potential but it loses steam pretty quickly and ends up mediocre. 6/10, at best.
Saltburn. This sure is a movie. 7/10. That may be generous, but it was weird enough to leave an impression.
The Menu. I thought this would be a fairly boilerplate horror movie that involved cooking. First thought is something cannibal related. Not so. This was a fantastically pleasant surprise, and Anya Taylor-Joy was great in this. 10/10.
En Man Som Heter Ove. I watched the English version of this last year and liked it a lot. Per that music event I mentioned above, someone else sent in a song from this movie, so I decided it was time to watch the original Swedish version. It was fine. I prefer the English depiction of Ove, but I prefer the Swedish depiction of Sonja. 8/10.
Commando. Rewatch, still holds up. 9/10! Probably my favourite performance from Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Con Air. Rewatch, still holds up. 9.5/10! Probably my favourite performance from Nicolas Cage.
Boyhood. I found out about this movie due to a music event I'm running, and someone submitted a song from this. Really interesting concept where they follow the characters growing up over the course of a decade. I mean that in a literal sense. They could have handled the time skips better, but overall it's an enjoyable movie. It does not really follow a standard beginning-middle-end system. The pleasure is in the journey. Worth a watch, I think. 9/10.
True Lies. Rewatch, still holds up. 9.5/10! Probably my favourite performance from Jamie Lee Curtis.
Barbie. 1/10. I think I talked about this movie here already, so I won't rehash.
Trolls. A friend made me watch this because they told me I'm like Branch. Okay! 9/10. Actually a pretty great movie, and it has enough nostalgic music and innuendo to keep an adult audience interested.
The Day the Earth Stood Still. This had potential but it loses steam pretty quickly and ends up mediocre. 6/10, at best.
Saltburn. This sure is a movie. 7/10. That may be generous, but it was weird enough to leave an impression.
The Menu. I thought this would be a fairly boilerplate horror movie that involved cooking. First thought is something cannibal related. Not so. This was a fantastically pleasant surprise, and Anya Taylor-Joy was great in this. 10/10.
En Man Som Heter Ove. I watched the English version of this last year and liked it a lot. Per that music event I mentioned above, someone else sent in a song from this movie, so I decided it was time to watch the original Swedish version. It was fine. I prefer the English depiction of Ove, but I prefer the Swedish depiction of Sonja. 8/10.
I do love the classic action movies
. 1/10 seems harsh for Barbie... my impression/review back when I saw it was that I was glad I saw it, but I wouldn't necessarily call it "good"... I read your original review, all fair points... FTR your original 1/5 seems slightly more fair than 1/10, although still harsh.Anyway, I'm just glad to see you liking things
EgonSpengler
Deity
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I really liked Civil War (2024). There aren't a lot of war movies that take the pov of noncombatants on the scene, and of course having them be journalists & photographers allows the characters - and thus, the movie - to follow the violence instead of trying to escape it. The Year of Living Dangerously (1982) is one of my favorite movies, but that one focused on the characters. I don't remember too many scenes of the violence they were there to document. I remember liking Welcome to Sarajevo (1997), but I haven't seen it since it came out. I think technically Matthew Modine was a journalist-photographer in Full Metal Jacket (1987). Of course the most memorable part of that movie is the Marine Corps Basic Training sequence at the beginning, but the scenes that take place in-country, up to and including the Battle of Hue, are closer to Civil War. I've never seen Under Fire (1983) or The Killing Fields (1985). I've heard they're both good, but I don't know if the main characters in those movies put themselves right in the middle of the mayhem.
I see a lot of criticisms that Civil War movie doesn't make a stronger point about our contemporary politics, but I think those criticisms are misplaced. It's a war movie. War movies aren't typically about the politics, about what caused the war or who's who. Saving Private Ryan; Black Hawk Down; Master & Commander: Far Side of the World. Would a viewer understand the conflicts portrayed in those movies from watching those movies? No. These movies are never about that stuff, they're about the people trying to complete their mission and survive it. At the time, I thought Black Hawk Down could've maybe done more to educate its audience about the background of the events it was portraying, but otoh, there wouldn't really have been time. On a podcast I listened to today, the folks kept bringing up 20 Days in Mariupol was a better movie of its type. I haven't seen that movie, but I don't think that's an accurate comparison. Civil War isn't a documentary about contemporary political divisions in the United States. The war in Ukraine is real. Get over yourselves. (Not you guys, the podcasters, who I think were all American.)
So, okay, I've made my case that it's a war movie. It's a pretty [flipping] good war movie. The sound and visuals and mayhem of combat seemed to be portrayed with an eye towards realism. I'm not a veteran, so I can't vouch for its authenticity, but the combat scenes in this movie reminded me of those in Black Hawk Down. The difference here is that the pov characters are noncombatants. In that sense, Civil War reminded me of another movie that was also a parable about unthinkable violence in the United States: Cloverfield (2008). There's a scene in Cloverfield where the protagonists are just trying to get across a street, right in the middle of a company of US Army soldiers counter-attacking against the creature. A couple of scenes in Civil War reminded me of that scene.
Civil War is also a high-anxiety road movie, a journey through a land that's gone insane. (This is a recurring theme for Alex Garland: Annihilation and 28 Days Later were about the same thing.) The sniper scene was good, if a bit predictable. Jesse Plemons is rightfully getting a lot of praise for his performance, in a scene so brief one has to wonder if it even qualifies for a Best Supporting Actor nomination. (Someone on the same podcast said something like, "Do we need to talk about the fact that Jesse Plemons might be too good at playing psychos?"
)
I will say that part of me wanted just a little more of and from the characters (though maybe not too much more about the characters - I like that we didn't know them too well). But I liked what we got, and I love it when movies treat the audience like we can put 2 and 2 together and they don't have to cut our food into pieces for us:
EDIT: Forgot to mention, [flipping] awesome soundtrack.
I see a lot of criticisms that Civil War movie doesn't make a stronger point about our contemporary politics, but I think those criticisms are misplaced. It's a war movie. War movies aren't typically about the politics, about what caused the war or who's who. Saving Private Ryan; Black Hawk Down; Master & Commander: Far Side of the World. Would a viewer understand the conflicts portrayed in those movies from watching those movies? No. These movies are never about that stuff, they're about the people trying to complete their mission and survive it. At the time, I thought Black Hawk Down could've maybe done more to educate its audience about the background of the events it was portraying, but otoh, there wouldn't really have been time. On a podcast I listened to today, the folks kept bringing up 20 Days in Mariupol was a better movie of its type. I haven't seen that movie, but I don't think that's an accurate comparison. Civil War isn't a documentary about contemporary political divisions in the United States. The war in Ukraine is real. Get over yourselves. (Not you guys, the podcasters, who I think were all American.)
So, okay, I've made my case that it's a war movie. It's a pretty [flipping] good war movie. The sound and visuals and mayhem of combat seemed to be portrayed with an eye towards realism. I'm not a veteran, so I can't vouch for its authenticity, but the combat scenes in this movie reminded me of those in Black Hawk Down. The difference here is that the pov characters are noncombatants. In that sense, Civil War reminded me of another movie that was also a parable about unthinkable violence in the United States: Cloverfield (2008). There's a scene in Cloverfield where the protagonists are just trying to get across a street, right in the middle of a company of US Army soldiers counter-attacking against the creature. A couple of scenes in Civil War reminded me of that scene.
Civil War is also a high-anxiety road movie, a journey through a land that's gone insane. (This is a recurring theme for Alex Garland: Annihilation and 28 Days Later were about the same thing.) The sniper scene was good, if a bit predictable. Jesse Plemons is rightfully getting a lot of praise for his performance, in a scene so brief one has to wonder if it even qualifies for a Best Supporting Actor nomination. (Someone on the same podcast said something like, "Do we need to talk about the fact that Jesse Plemons might be too good at playing psychos?"
)I will say that part of me wanted just a little more of and from the characters (though maybe not too much more about the characters - I like that we didn't know them too well). But I liked what we got, and I love it when movies treat the audience like we can put 2 and 2 together and they don't have to cut our food into pieces for us:
Spoiler :
EDIT: Forgot to mention, [flipping] awesome soundtrack.
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Clubber Lang
Prince
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Rejected -
Revived -
Remake -
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Transformer's One -
Revived -
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Transformer's One -
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Smellincoffee
Trekkie At Large
Buckaroo Bonzai, 1972. Um. Peter Weller is a physicist/test pilot/singer who suddenly becomes privy to the fact that Earth is being invaded by little green men (or normal-sized brown men). A campy SF comedy.
Fried Green Tomatoes, 1991. A story about the bond between two women forged after a man who they both loved (one as a sister, one as a potential wife) dies. One of my favorites, and a re-watch. I visted the filming location in Juliette just yesterday, which inspired my re-watch.
Fried Green Tomatoes, 1991. A story about the bond between two women forged after a man who they both loved (one as a sister, one as a potential wife) dies. One of my favorites, and a re-watch. I visted the filming location in Juliette just yesterday, which inspired my re-watch.
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BB is an eighties’ movie. FGT is very good.
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I saw "Sasquatch Sunset" yesterday. Frankly, I really am wondering if the folks who made that movie did it as a troll to critics, because you just know there's going to be some dude in a little bow tie and tweed suit talking about how profound and moving it is, but it was just objectively awful. There were only five of us in the tiniest room in the establishment and no one laughed once the entire movie. It did try to be touching and I guess in a place or two it was OK, but honestly the reason I stayed in that seat was the same reason I stay in the pool until all my laps are done.
Farm Boy
run boy run
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The Lion in Winter '68. Old favorite, but scenes of it stick with me. I particularly like how the names your remember from history will scuffle and nameless men will die on screen only to be forgotten within the scene. Like in the jail.
"Do you think there is any chance of it?"
"Do you think there is any chance of it?"
Smellincoffee
Trekkie At Large
Whoops! Yeah, '84.
Smellincoffee
Trekkie At Large
The Time Bandits, 1984. Um...not sure what to say about this. Done by Michael Palin, featuring John Cleese and and Sean O'Connery. The story is...god, just watch the trailer.
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