Which movies have you watched? IE': NO CAPES!

[yung.carl.jung]

Spooktober so far: The Gift (amazing, a must watch of 2000s horror imo), It Follows (good premise and well executed), Halloween 2018 (kinda entertaining but not all that).

 

[Sommerswerd]

Snowpiercer on NETFLIX, starring Chris "Captain America" Evans. OK so, right upfront, you have to acknowledge, accept, and plan to fully hand-wave the completely preposterous, and utterly absurd-in-every-way premise. It doesn't make an iota of sense, is totally ridiculous, and not worth one firing a single neuron to try to explain or figure out. Its just a stupid, stupid premise and that's all there is to it. You just have to mentally muscle past that, dismiss it and move on.

That said... once you get past that... it was a really enjoyable film. It was a delightfully absurd and eccentric mystery box story that takes place quite literally inside an actual physical mystery box. It starts out as a pretty on-the-nose dystopian steam-punk story, what with it being a train and all... and it just gets weirder and weirder with every step, descending into a seemingly never-ending downward spiral of madness and absurdity adding three new questions for every one that gets answered until finally at the end

Spoiler Spoiler for those who haven't seen it :

rather than answer the questions or resolve the mess of mysteries they've created... it all just blows up in their collective faces... and that's it...

which... I felt was probably the most appropriate ending for the story TBH. Anyway I liked it. It was reminiscent of a Willy Wonka movie, the first (best) one with Gene Wilder in particular... just darker and with more horror and violence... if you can believe that.

 

[EgonSpengler]

Adrift (2018) and Doctor Sleep (2019). I watched both of these on a whim, and was pleasantly surprised.

 

[yung.carl.jung]

Its just a stupid, stupid premise and that's all there is to it. You just have to mentally muscle past that, dismiss it and move on.

That said... once you get past that... it was a really enjoyable film. It was a delightfully absurd and eccentric mystery box story that takes place quite literally inside an actual physical mystery box. It starts out as a pretty on-the-nose dystopian steam-punk story, what with it being a train and all... and it just gets weirder and weirder with every step, descending into a seemingly never-ending downward spiral of madness and absurdity adding three new questions for every one that gets answered until finally at the end

Spoiler Spoiler for those who haven't seen it :

rather than answer the questions or resolve the mess of mysteries they've created... it all just blows up in their collective faces... and that's it...

which... I felt was probably the most appropriate ending for the story TBH. Anyway I liked it. It was reminiscent of a Willy Wonka movie, the first (best) one with Gene Wilder in particular... just darker and with more horror and violence... if you can believe that.

I 100% agree on that one! loved Snowpiercer in all its absurdity

Personally I believe Snowpiercer is purposefully stupid: It's a commentary on our fossil fuel usage and the fact that people think we can just carry on and everything will be totally fine. It was done by the same man who did Parasite after all

 

[Takhisis]

Been watching through all the Pirates of the Caribbean movies with the family. I'd already seen all of them, except for PotC: On Stranger Tides for some reason... but the kids had never seen any of them.

We watched through the others and ended up skipping On Stranger Tides because it wasn't on Disney plus for some damn reason

Spoiler :

its cause Disney wants to milk more money out of you for some additional premium content, that's why :rolleye:

We finally just ended up watching it on Amazon Prime. Overall, the movies were better than I remember them being, and also much more family friendly than Marvel movies. I mean they aren't deep-thinking movies obviously, but pretty fun for what they are... silly, lighthearted romps.

It's amazing how Disney managed to turn cold-blooded murder, and rape, and theft, and black magic, and the end of the world into ‘more family-friendly than Marvel movies’.

They also own Marvel, don't they?

 

[Sommerswerd]

Yes it is... and yes they do.

 

[Sommerswerd]

I 100% agree on that one! loved Snowpiercer in all its absurdity

Personally I believe Snowpiercer is purposefully stupid: It's a commentary on our fossil fuel usage and the fact that people think we can just carry on and everything will be totally fine. It was done by the same man who did Parasite after all

Parasite was excellent. I saw it on a plane to Florida right at the beginning of the pandemic.

 

[Narz]

Black Box : On Amazon Prime : Was surprised it wasn't reviewed more highly, creepy & decently engrossing, 4stars, way better than the last thriller/horror movie I saw - Invisible Man

 

[Cutlass]

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. The premise and promos looked interesting enough so that I eventually overlooked the fact that this was a Tarantino film. Which turned out to be a mistake, because this actually was a Tarantino film. And I don't really care for DiCaprio either. So that's 2... no 3... no an eternity of my life that I'll never get back. I should have stuck to my instincts and just never looked at another Tarantino film.


On the bright side, Pitt kind of carried the movie. Which was the best available choice. And DiCaprio was a lot less DiCaprio than he usually is, so it's probably his best performance to date.

 

[Cutlass]

I've read the title a million times over and I have finally had to say this..... CAPES are cool ! Thank You !

 

[Takhisis]

I should have stuck to my instincts and just never looked at another Tarantino film.

His filmography consists of Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs and possibly Jackie Brown but I've never watched any part of the last one. The rest are like the spoon in The Matrix.

That's how I stay sane.

 

[tjs282]

and possibly Jackie Brown but I've never watched any part of the last one.

You should try and change that. It's one of my favourite QT movies, likely mainly because he didn't originate it (Elmore Leonard did). Sam Jackson still gets to use his favourite word, though.

Friday night's family movie was Lara Croft Tomb Raider (i.e. Angelina Jolie not Alicia Vikander, and Daniel-Craig-before-he-was-Bond). Utterly preposterous (also Craig's accent), but still fun. Son No. 2 managed to fall asleep just before the end, but in his defence — and the movie's, I guess! — he'd done a lot of sport that day, and it was late.

I'd completely forgotten that Chris "Arnold J. Rimmer" Barrie was in this as well. And it was also a little weird seeing Ian Glen 20 years younger, when the most recent thing I saw him in was Titans, as Bruce Wayne.

 

[Synobun]

Pitch Black and Chronicles of Riddick. I had forgotten just how generic Riddick is as a series and universe. 6.5, I guess.

 

[EgonSpengler]

Jackie Brown is Tarantino's best film, imo. In fact, it might be the only one I genuinely liked. I mean, I enjoyed Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill well enough while I was watching them, but they haven't held up well in my memory over the years, and I've never felt like rewatching them. I haven't been moved to see his last four movies, so I can't compare those.

 

[Takhisis]

It's amazing how Disney managed to turn cold-blooded murder, and rape, and theft, and black magic, and the end of the world into ‘more family-friendly than Marvel movies’.

I watched the first Pirates of the Caribbean film yesterday and (remember today as the day you almost caught) Jack Sparrow actually uses the words ‘rape and plunder’ to describe his purpose as a pirate captain.

 

[Zkribbler]

Hancock is an amnestic, alcoholic superhero, who breaks stuff. Because he'll e.g. save a motorist by derailing a freight train, people hate him. A P.R. guy takes Hancock under his wing to reform him.

 

[yung.carl.jung]

Pitch Black and Chronicles of Riddick. I had forgotten just how generic Riddick is as a series and universe. 6.5, I guess.

You, like me, are a very generous rater. From your description I would have guessed a 4 at best, maybe even a 3. a 6.5 is above average. one of my favorite reviewers has a 6.5 as a "buying recommendation."

whenever I watch a movie with my gf we rate it to keep track. she pretty much always rates at least 1 lower than me. the result is that my curve looks totally bland: barely any 1-5, decent amount of 5-6, lots of 7-8 and some 9-10s, while hers is really nice and balanced, barely any 9-10s.

 

[The_J]

Hancock is an amnestic, alcoholic superhero, who breaks stuff. Because he'll e.g. save a motorist by derailing a freight train, people hate him. A P.G. guy takes Hancock under his wing to reform him.

I also recently watched it, and somehow found the story to... I don't know... not be extensive enough. I'd have liked to see him mess up a few more times. And that at the end the background isn't too much explained.
I had expected more .

I watched a bunch of stuff at the weekend, most surprised by Avatar: The Last Airbender.
I never watched the anime, and didn't have any connection to the franchise at all. Very good fantasy movie, although it apparently compresses the first whole season into the movie. It didn't feel rushed for most of the time. Was good, would watch again, would also watch a second part.

I also watched Sahara, which is a more modern version of Indiana Jones with Matthew McConaughey and Penelope Cruz. No clue why I hadn't seen it before. Wiki says it was a commerical disappointment and got medium ratings by reviewers, but I really liked it. Like Indy, there's a famous archaeologist, hunting for hidden treasures. In this case a CSA gold treasure, which ended up with an iron clad in Africa. On the same time, Penelope Cruz as a WHO doctor is trying to find the source of an epidemic in the middle of war ridden Mali. This for sure will not win an Oscar, but was good evening entertainment IMHO.

 

[EgonSpengler]

Hancock is an amnestic, alcoholic superhero, who breaks stuff. Because he'll e.g. save a motorist by derailing a freight train, people hate him. A P.G. guy takes Hancock under his wing to reform him.

I also recently watched it, and somehow found the story to... I don't know... not be extensive enough. I'd have liked to see him mess up a few more times. And that at the end the background isn't too much explained.
I had expected more .

I liked it well enough, but I know what you mean. When I saw the trailers, it looked like it was being pitched as "What if Superman were Black?", which was an intriguing idea, but they didn't really take it in that direction. Or, like, they started to and then lost their nerve? I'm not really sure. Also, my memory of the trailer is that it seemed to cast Charlize Theron in the General Zod role, which I thought was a stroke of genius. Good cast, though. I'd certainly watch those 3 do something else together.

 

[Synobun]

You, like me, are a very generous rater. From your description I would have guessed a 4 at best, maybe even a 3. a 6.5 is above average. one of my favorite reviewers has a 6.5 as a "buying recommendation."

whenever I watch a movie with my gf we rate it to keep track. she pretty much always rates at least 1 lower than me. the result is that my curve looks totally bland: barely any 1-5, decent amount of 5-6, lots of 7-8 and some 9-10s, while hers is really nice and balanced, barely any 9-10s.

For me, 5 to 6.5 is "If I found myself watching this, I might not turn it off, but it's not great. I'll probably multitask during it." and 7 and above is "I liked it and it held my attention." 9.5 and 10 are rarities for me; not sure I've ever actually given a movie a 10.

I'm probably a harsh rater.

Spoiler :

Those are my ratings for 2020.